Time for an update?

As you guys already know, I'm new to blogging, so I don't really know how often I'm supposed to update my blog... I've decided to make sure to update it no less than once a week, given that I have lot of things on my plate nowadays, I can't afford to blog more often that that.

What's new this week? iPhone4!!!

I've been waiting for this one for a while. I have the 1st generation iPhone. (Got it in 2007). It was working fine...till I installed one of the iPhone OS updates (I guess it's just called iOS now). The update brought some new features along with it, but slowed down the phone!! That might be one of the reasons why they updated the processor in the iPhone 3GS. Besides the slow down, my reception is pretty crappy, not just because of AT&T's terrible service, but my reception is actually worse than the newer iPhones (I believe that's one of the reasons why the newer iPhone don't have metal on the back... ). To add more to that, the new iOS update is not compatible with 1st generation iPhones! (Eventually, they want to "force" you to get the newer product.)

You've probably already heard about the antenna issue with iPhone4. What a major flaw for a company renown for its attention to details!! Oh well, as long as the reception is better than my current iPhone, I'll be happy.

For those of you interested in checking out an iPhone4 teardown.

iFixit partners with the Canadian company Chipworks which takes it even further. They actually dissect the chip package, and figure out the different components inside the chip!! (processor, memory ...). Absolutely crazy! Here is the Apple A4 chip teardown.

World Cup 2010

You gotta love the world cup! This event that only takes place once every 4 years, and that brings people together through the joy of watching soccer. One thing that I like about the World Cup, is how all the countries have (more or less) equal opportunities to be represented, and the best team (more or less... judging from today's referees screw-ups) wins. I wish the whole world would operate this way.

Anyways, team USA is out, Algeria is out. 2 teams that I supported. Ghana is the only African country left so now my full support goes to GHANA!!

The Real Science Gap

Finally, I'd like to leave you guys with this really interesting article I happened to read earlier this week: http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/the-real-science-gap-16191/.
As a person in a scientific field, you always hear about this science gap between young Americans and young pupils from other countries (China and India in particular). This idea is even further reinforced when you see how many international students fill the research labs of the top US universities. This article argues that it's not so much that the American school system doesn't prepare students well enough for a scientific higher education, but it is young American students themselves that choose alternative careers because of the lack of "satisfactory job opportunities". The article also states that the job opportunities in science fields have grown at a lower rate than the number of graduates in the sciences and engineering. Overall, I found it a very interesting article, and I thought you might like it too.

Alright, that's all for today. Please leave me feedback/comments.

Let's blog

Alright, I guess it's my turn now to start blogging. I spend a lot of time online, reading the news, watching talks and, you've guessed it, reading blogs. I've thought before about starting a blog but never got around to do it, too busy. But I realized that I'm always busy (or at least that's what I feel like), and if I were to wait for the "right time" to start a blog, I would never start, so let's make today the day! It's not that I'm not busy today, I think my schedule is seriously packed: I have a phone screen tomorrow with google (I haven't programmed in a while so lots of reviewing for me to do), I have my master's research to finish (by end of July, early August), my master's thesis to start, a job to find etc.... Oh well, at least I've started to blog (note that I actually created this blog more than a month ago but never posted anyting before today).

Ok, now let's answer few questions about my blog:

1. First and foremost: Why?
   
   Simple answer: many reasons. I want to blog about things that interest me and that I'm passionate about: technology, engineering, society, culture (among other things). In addition, I believe it would help me express my ideas better if I write them down, and more importantly, if I know someone is reading them. Lastly, I see it as a way to relieve stress (Paulo, I saw that in your blog and it seems like it could actually work)
   
   
2. What about the name: Head In The Clouds?
   
   I got this name from a famous video-gaming and arcade center in Paris called "La tête dans les nuages" which literally translates to "The head in the clouds". I picked this name because I sometimes feel that I'm disconnect from this world (in the way I think or behave), not in a bad way though, plus the name sounded cool. (I think every blog to ought have a "cool" name)
   
   
3. And how about the url: toz3lik.blogspot.com?
   
   Well, when I created this blog, I wasn't sure when to give the name for the url, so as a test, I wrote "toz3lik", which transliterates in Arabic to "tozz on you", toz being the sound you make when you fart. Sorry, but that's the only name that I could think of on the spot. After I gave this name and realized that it was gonna be the actual url, I tried to change it... I failed.

That was probably the most terrible blog post someone's ever written, but I just wanted to write something to get by blog started. If you're reading this, please stick around. I promise I'll start posting interesting stuff (articles, videos, opinions...)