“Commander . they’ve not only cut off our reinforcements, they have started bringing in their own . we need you to infiltrate the base, take out the radar, and eliminate their forces . Certain pursuits in life, those associated with a battlefield, are regularly tagged as violent, aggressive, or require conduct unbecoming of a gentleman. …

Why you, at any age, should know about diabetes Rising cases of obesity, unhealthy diets and inactive lifestyles have made diabetes a major public health problem in Egypt and the Middle East. This chronic disease has no cure and is striking at younger people all the time. The World Health Organization estimates that more than …

Cooking with fat doesn’t have to stew your innards From the butter on your bread, to the olive with your fuul, and the samna in your casserole, fat is the cornerstone of a healthy Egyptian menu. But not necessarily a healthy body. In a typical sense, fat is seen as a solid, like butter or …

Going to the cinema, playing DVDs, or just watching television is starting to become a thing of the past. They are each starting to drag their romantic semantics of ‘the big screen’, ‘great picture’, and ‘my favorite soap is on’, in a trail of inconvenience behind them. A healthy broadband connection brings with it many …

Keeping your sleep in rhythm with a 24-hour clock Whether you rise with the sun or are only getting up when the sun sets, life often has people struggling to sleep just when they feel they need it. And living in Egypt just lends itself to a mid-afternoon snooze in (or to get out of) …

The key to long-term good health and sustainable weight loss Ah, the science of nutrition. It often seems more like a pseudo-science by the rate at which we’re told that one food is the superfood, then told the opposite the following year. The low-carbohydrates Atkins-style diets are now behind us. They produced a fast rate …

It’s time to replace the internal combustion engine We’ve been using the internal combustion engine – your car’s engine – for over a century. And though this invention may have served us well initially, and we’ve all benefited in different ways, our collective hands are now around Gaia’s throat. This Mother Earth, Gaia, much as …

The newspaper is hemorrhaging, radio and TV wounded; which victim will it claim next? First it stripped print media of its monopoly on publication. By the time this decade came round, the music industry was feeling the thumbscrews: MP3 files were small and being exuberantly exchanged. Today, instead of watching TV, teenagers graze over amateur …

Trackmania Nations: Electronic Sports World Cup If you bought it in a box it would be labeled “for ages 7 to 70 and “fun for the whole family . It might also carry an advisory sticker that says “Warning: users may incur hours of life-loss or “Sleep will be severely restricted . A new version …

Multi-core processing: Doing more, even if you don’t need to The wonders of technology have brought us many ways to pass and – let’s be honest – exploit our time. And now you can multiply them by four. At least that’s what Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) would have you believe. These manufacturers …

First of all, it’s not technically a smart-phone, some are saying it is a smart-iPod. Not that Apple’s latest gem needed help de-geeking its image; Apple has always been led by design, but this has so often been at the cost of practicality. The iPhone may be no exception. Though its name may already be …

Maybe getting our friends into the same apartment, so that we can each unload a virtual Uzi 9 mm machine pistol into the others’ backs, would be fun. And as if by magic the LAN party was born. Many of you may recall Doom, Duke Nukem, or Descent, as a positive way to eat up …

As the president of Digium, and creator of Asterisk, while on a crusade through Egypt, Mark Spencer talks to the Daily Star about his next steps, taking the tram, and his Egyptian lineage. What Spencer, an Egyptian-American, is most keen to talk about right off the bat is the free software application he created several …

Respect your body, your equipment, and the Red Sea Egypt has been blessed with the Red Sea; you can swim in its warm waters, surf its windy swells, or dive its stunning depths. And in attempting to do the latter in bodies of water the world over, we humans have uncovered a life much less …

The future’s so bright, I gotta get another console Much is made of ‘soccer wives’ during the World Cup. These are the women all but abandoned by their pub-bound husbands for the whole month of football’s top championship. There are now even holidays that cater to women during World Cup season, promising a comparable escape …

Google CEO Eric Schmidt engages with leading Egyptian media CAIRO: Internet search company Google announced this week that open sign-ups to Gmail, Google’s email service, are now possible in Egypt. Generally, people need to be invited to Gmail by someone else who already has an account. Democracy has arrived though, as Egypt has become only …

High-speed internet telephony has never been so accessible As we bid a fond farewell to the 56.6 kb/s dial-up connections of our past and forge forward into the high-speed broadband that lies ahead of us; the once difficult mechanics of using your internet connection to stay in touch are infinitely more usable. Increasingly gone are …

Taking the splutter and cough out of needing nicotine There are three well-trodden paths available to the smoker’s conscience when it comes time to stop. Cold turkey is a jolt and will have you jonesing for a cigarette constantly. Substitution is filling the gap with maybe a double cheeseburger or an extra banana and chocolate …

Photo sharing websites, innovation, and online communities The widening popularity of photography can possibly be credited to the digital revolution. Instead of getting your holiday snaps developed at the local pharmacy, you can just plug your camera, and increasingly your mobile phone or handset, into a computer to view your memories. For years now there …

Biometrics isn’t content with your name, serial number, and social security So once you’ve bought your e-ticket, maybe printed it out, and are on your way to the airport after already having electronically checked in, selected your seat, and picked which starter you’re having with the chicken – via the web, you could be anyone. …

What WiMax is, what it stands for, and what it can do for your country A seasoned taxi driver in Cairo can light his cigarette, change tapes on his cassette player, and adjust his rear-view mirror, all at the same time – while also rolling down the passenger-side window – and still avoid the bus …

Net your travel plans to bypass the travel agent and the guidebook CAIRO: Now that our Eid Al-Fitr travels are behind us, let’s take a moment to recall the parts of the vacation that we really ought to smooth out for next time. You may have encountered, as a few dear friends of mine did, …

What counts and what doesn’t in the local digital camera market CAIRO: Being analogue, film records everything. It records all the gray shades between the 256 computer grayscales and all the colors between your computer’s 32 million-strong palette. People still use film cameras and there might always be a place for them. In order to …

Where do we drop it, and why are we dragging it anyway? CAIRO: Whether you will die for your Macintosh, or can’t wait to get a new dual-core processor for your PC; we must all give a bow to the software that makes trillions of electrons all stand to attention at the stroke of a …

While riveted into home cinema, multimedia just went portable CAIRO: In Egypt these days, as elsewhere in the world, many people are obsessed with buying plasma screens, assuming they’re going to suddenly have an amazing viewing experience. What’s wrong with this assumption is that it’s high-definition television, not plasma, which promises a sharper picture. Yet …

Google are driving Internet adoption through language, price-point and keeping their ear to the ground New media companies aren’t just winning the hearts and minds of the people; they’re also putting the power in your hands, right here in Egypt. Available Internet access is growing in the region, as is awareness and local content. Take …

The re-evolution of the online gaming community and the subsequent rise in electronic games CAIRO: Before there was MSN Messenger, Google Talk or MySpace.com, there was Doom. In less than 20 years, the basic game evolved into a world of interactive visual realties, online board and card games, an array of differently themed online and …

Paying for software has never been as unnecessary but might be just as foolish CAIRO: Not only in Egypt, but wherever you are, finding the right piece of software that does just what you want can be difficult. The challenge is harder still if the stores don’t stock the latest releases or the prices are …

The Motorola V3x is better classified as a transition phase in the Razr line CAIRO: Though the Motorola Razr phone has yet to be mistaken for a credit card, its remarkably sublime design has helped to build its iconic status among cell phone users. But that is no more. Its ubiquity has led the Razr …