"This causes us to think that we are better then others at whatever we do for a living. 94 percent of Swedes believe that their driving skills put them in the top 50 percent of Swedish drivers; 84 percent of Frenchmen feel that their lovemaking abilities put them In the top half of French lovers.

The other effect of this asymmetry is that we feel a little unique, unlike others, for whom we do not perceive such an asymmetry. Consider how many people who have abruptly lost their job deemed it likely to occur, even a few days before. Or consider how many drug addicts entered the game willing to stay in it so long."

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Excerpt from "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

• Download the workbook from http://sites.google.com/site/hammadbinarif/blog/CostofaKilometer.xls
• Fill in all the Yellow Cells. Most cells ask for fairly basic information. Drop me a comment or email if you have a confusion regarding any cell.
• White Cells are description of cost factors and Orange Cells are auto-calculated values so you don’t need to touch them.
• Your operational cost per kilometer will be calculated in Cell G23. This is the cost which will directly increase by driving additional kilometers.
• Your Total cost per kilometer will be calculated in Cell G24. This will be your operational cost / KM plus time bound costs like Insurance, monthly parking fees etc.
• To calculate cost of a specific trip, use the work sheet named “Trip Cost”. Enter trip name in column A, and distance in Column B. Column C & D will calculate Total Cost (Good for cost of 1 trip) & Operational cost (Good for comparing alternative trips) for you.
• Optionally, if you drive outside UAE, you can mention alternative currencies (e.g. USD & Cents, Rs. & Paisa) in Cell J1 & Cell J2. Use Cell G1 to determine the whether you want results in AED or fils (or your currency)

• To use a Car or a metro. Even if you already own a car, use the “Trip Cost” workbook to calculate costs for specific trips. Check “Operational Cost” column as your annual costs will not be affected by this trip.
• Whether to buy a 2nd car to be used by your spouse or he/she better use public transport.
• To rent a cheap but distant apartment or not.
• To go through shorter route by paying Salik (Road Toll) or longer route without toll. (My answer mostly is to pay Salik and use shorter route)
• How many kilometers should I drive every month if I have a monthly budget of spending 3,000/- Dhms.

• Cost of Time: Time to drive the car can be utilized in some other productive (or non-productive) alternative. Time required to perform car maintenance, care registration, insurance renewals etc will again have an opportunity cost associated. Cost of time is very debatable topic and I haven’t included it for the sake of simplicity.
• Cost of Physical effort to drive, mental stress and fatigue caused by long drives haven’t been considered due to their subjective nature.
• Cost of discomfort when your car unexpectedly breaks down and you keep staring curelessly at your car engine in scorching heat or cold breeze.
• Cost of acquiring a license to drive.
• Benefit of comfort of being not dependent on Cab. No need to wait in queue for public transport, and no need to worry about cab when you have an emergency at 4:00 am. This priceless advantage is not considered precisely because its priceless.
• Benefit of ego boosting of being a car owner
• Benefit of having privacy while driving. You wouldn’t want to kidnap someone in a cab ;)
• Cost of Salik (Toll gate) is not correlated to distance or time. It is related to specific locations only and hence i have not included it in calculations. You can add the Salik cost when comparing two alternative trips. 

• Not every factor is 100% correlated with distance. Cleaning/Enhancement/Accidents are only partially related to the distance you drive the car while Maintenance cost, resell value, fuel cost is highly (but not 100%) correlated.
• Quality of a Kilometer also varies by location. It costs far more (due to fuel consumption and car depreciation) to drive a kilometer in Rolla-Sharjah then to drive a kilometer at Emirates Road. To overcome this, put in your calculations (mileage, maintenance cost) considering your average quality of kilometer in mind.
• Cost of maintenance per kilometer will increase after every kilometer. Again, you can use average maintenance cost to overcome this.

I was little worried when I found out that I would have to install Windows Server 2008 R2 to play with some of the Server based technologies (SharePoint 2010, EPM 2010, etc). I already had installed a Vista Business x64 6 months ago and It was performing good and my concern was that whether my existing installation of Vista will be retained or not? And subsequently will I be able to have choice of booting through either OS or not.
Finally i did installed Windows Server 2008 R2 today & fortunately, the results were very good. Installation was a very smooth procedure, took less then an hour and (I think) less then a dozen clicks. And my Boot Loader was automatically configured to give me option to boot through Vista or Server 2008 :)
Both Operating Systems are working fine.

"Our information is that the BCCI not only set up the deal but retains effective control of the Attock. The Attock Oil share supposedly held by 'Arab investors'  were placed under lock and key by Abedi's henchman Swaleh Naqvi -- together with undated transfer documents signed by all four principles of KIFCO. Thus Abedi, without appearing formally on the record, has Pakistan's nascent oil industry neatly under his thumb.
The BCCI's official spokesmen deny this account, and say that the Attock Oil shares has been registered 'perfectly normally' in the name of yet another company, Finance and Investment International Corporation (FIIC). It perhaps comes as no surprise that this registration took place in the Cayman Islands, where FIIC is domiciled, like too many interesting parts of the BCCI structure."

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Excerpt from "A banker for all seasons" by Tariq Ali.

"Yet it is also true that even in Auschwitz some Jews continued to study the Talmud and observe the traditional festivals, not because they hoped that God would rescue them but because it made sense. There is a story that one day in Auschwitz, a group of Jews put God on trial. They charged him with cruelty and betrayal. Like Job, they found no consolation in the usual answers to the problem of evil and suffering in the midst of this current obscenity. They could find no excuse for God, no extenuating circumstances, so they found him guilty and, presumably, worthy of death. The Rabbi pronounced the verdict. Then he looked up and said that the trial was over: it was time for the evening prayer."

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Excerpt from "A History of God" By Karen Armstrong

Found a very good post on UAE Community regarding usage of Numeric digits in written Arabic. You'll find such writings on Blogs, Face Book or basically any online place where non-formal Arabic is acceptable. Some example words are

al7een, (alHeen)
9ya3a, (Sya'a)
3afana, ('afana)


Original Post
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Numbers are used as a substitute for various Arabic letters that either do not exist in English, or do not have the exact homophony.

2 = The strong accented (A) such as the one in Ahmad

3 = A deep throat sound, such as in (A) Al-Ain; the second (A).