On December 9th 2008, I went into surgery to place a Lap Band around my stomach in order to get help in losing weight and regain back my health that I neglected for 18 years by working 15 to 17 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The operation was successful but I could not even drink water for several days as the Lap Band was too tight.  The doctor decided to go back in and fix it surgically.

I went back in on December 13th for a second operation.  It was successful and was completed in less than 45 minutes.  In the recovery room few minutes later, my heart stopped.

They had to bring me back which took 33 seconds.

I was in a coma from the 13th of December to the 25th.  I woke up on Christmas day.  I stayed in the ICU for 3 weeks and a total of 28 days in the hospital.

I got back home on December 31st (My anniversary) and for the last 2 weeks I have been learning to walk again like a baby, but things are getting better every day and I am truly blessed to be alive.

I am sharing this personal experience with you for 2 reasons, the first is because God is great, I had a lot of people world wide praying for me.  It was a really tough month on my family.  The second, is because I want others to enjoy the gift of life and not take it for granted.  Be healthy, or get healthy.  Nothing in the world is worth it.  Your family and friends are the biggest assets you could ever have.

I want to thank all the hundreds of people that came to see me or called me from all over the world and for all the beautiful flowers that flooded our home for the last 30 days.

Thank you all and may God bless

- Lino "with a new life" Tadros

Isn't it weird that Joe the Plumber is what the Republican party is trying to focus on in these final days of the 2008 elections?

I have been a republican since I immigrated to the USA in 1991 and I believe the difference between the parties is very clear and has no middle standing. I never thought the day will come when I will be voting for a Democratic President.

I also thought someone like "Joe The Plumber" would be someone that Democrats would use to show their point about equality for all and bridging the gap between middle class and people that make a lot of money in the USA.  I would have thought that MCCain would go for someone like me "Lino The CEO" to show that he will not raise taxes on myself or my small business.

Anyway, my decision is made and I have to say it was not an easy decision.  I am voting for Obama on Tuesday.

Yes, I know, Obama will cause me to pay more taxes because I am in the higher 5% bracket of the country.  But honestly, taxes can not possibly be the only reason someone would vote for a President.  I am voting for Obama because I am convinced he is a great human being, great father, calm person, shows respect to the people around him, shows respect to other countries (friendly or not). I was also in Europe 2 weeks ago and I was amazed on how many Europeans are wearing Obama shirts in the streets.

I am sick of wars and arrogance and looking forward to being led by a decent President that make me proud and continues to remind me of the gift I have been given to live in the USA.

John MCCain is a decent man and I think he would have been a decent President, unfortunately these times call for more than what he has to offer.

I predict that Obama on Tuesday night (before 10:00 PM PST) will be announced the new elected President of the USA by at least 12 points differential.

May God bless our beautiful country and our next President.

The last few month have been very hectic flying all over the USA and Europe for business and yesterday I finished teaching a TestComplete class in Virginia and I decided to take today off and visit the DC area.  I have been in the USA for 19 years, traveled over 27 states and never been to DC.

I started early this morning and visited the Capitol building, the Lincoln memorial, Jefferson's Memorial, Washington Monument, Washington Cathedral and finally I stopped at the White House and spent some time there looking at the beautiful building and grab the moment.

It was a truly proud moment after 19 years in the US to visit these bigger than life places.  My love for the USA is also bigger than life, so the day was extremely emotional for me and will stay with me for the rest of my life.

God Bless America!

I was honored with the MVP award for the 4th year in a row this month from Microsoft corporation.

The Microsoft MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts representing technology's best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. Worldwide, there are over 100 million participants in technical communities; of these participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.

So last night, I took the plunge and decided to update my IPhone to 2.0

It worked, I let ITunes do the work and 20 minutes later, Voila!

Then I decided to hook my IPhone to my hosted Exchange Server for work. It took less than 2 minutes and Voila!  very cool!

Connected my Exchange Calendar to my IPhone calendar and Voila!

I really like Apple's superiority in User Interface, it is just pretty cool!

I heard a lot of people had problem yesterday (first day for the release) to get hooked up to Apple Store and ITunes, but I tried at 10:00 PM PST last night and it was pretty painless.

I am looking forward to start writing some applications on the IPhone 2.0 SDK

More on that later :)

Well, I have been a Republican since I immigrated to the United States in 1991. It was a simple choice for me really, I just did not believe that people that don't work hard should enjoy the same benefits in life as those that work their butt off.  There has to be a difference between these two categories.  I could never force someone to work extra hours or study very hard to become somebody but I reject the notion that they deserve to be at the same level of standard of life of those that do.

That said, this is the first time I am contemplating voting for a Democratic President, Barak Obama.  I like this guy!

President of the United States of America for me is not really a Job, it is a title.  I expect the President to be surrounded by a lot of very smart people that are expert on the subject matter at hand to advise him.  My expectation is also that the President be smart enough to listen to them and make the correct choice based on their feedback.

For me, the President of the USA has to have "PRESENCE", when he or she speaks, people listen!  it is a gift, not everyone has.  I expect when my President travels abroad, citizens of other countries receive him in awe, respect and admiration.

You have to be able to tell that you are listening to the most powerful man in the world from the most significant country in the world.

Barak Obama gives me that feeling.  Very elegant speaker and a convincing one for sure.

MCCain stands for all that I believe in, I am with him on Iraq (I think I am qualified on this as I spent more than half my life in the middle east and I know how things work there).  I am also with him on the latest economy issues like bailing out consumers on the mortgage crisis.  Why? Why should the US Government bail citizens out that made bad choices in getting ridiculous mortgage deals that they can not afford, why should I be paying for that?  And what about my mortgage and my good choices, I get nothing for that?

So it was hard this year to find an easy answer of how to vote, until I decided to do what I am good at and use numbers:

Capital Gains Tax:

• MCCain -> 15% (no Change)
• Obama -> 28%
• Clinton -> 24%

How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into  a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.

Dividend Tax:

• MCCain -> 15% (no change)
• Obama -> 39.6%
• Clinton -> 39.6%

How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama or Clinton become president. The experts predict that "Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit."

Income Tax:

• MCCain -> No Change
• Obama -> Reversion of pre-Bush tax cuts (Very Significant)
• Clinton -> Reversion of pre-Bush tax cuts (Very significant)

Inheritance Tax:

• MCCain -> 0%
• Obama -> Keep the inheritance tax
• Clinton -> Keep the inheritance tax

How does this affect you? Many families have lost businesses, farms and ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will not only lose them to these taxes.

New Taxes being proposed by both Clinton and Obama:

• New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet
• New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already)
• New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
• New taxes on retirement accounts
• and last but not least....
  New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

So although I like Obama as a person very much, I am afraid I can't afford him!  Go MCCain!

It is midnight here on the 17th of March and I just received a phone call from Egypt notifying me that my Father Captain Adib Tadros has passed away at the age of 79 about 45 minutes ago.

I am in a room in a hotel away from my family waiting to start teaching a class in the morning for 4 days.  I think that is going to be hard to accomplish.

I felt blogging about this experience as it is impossible to sleep.

I am remembering my time with my dad from the time I was a little kid till I left Egypt at the age of 19.

He was a loving father, extremely funny, had a huge presence whenever he is in a room.  I learned so much from him.

Dad, I pray for you.  I am very grateful for so many things you have done for me in my life. You will always be remembered.

May God bless you and have mercy on your Soul.

I feel a bit lost, great sadness and burning in my heart.

For all of you out there away from their parents, give them a call, check on them regularly, you never know when it will be the last time.

Bye Dad

Your son always

Lino

I usually try my luck here on my blogs first when I need help in finding a service that is needed for my company.  So here it goes

I am looking for a phone system for our new offices in Santa Cruz that is not based on regular phones but VOIP.  I looked at Vonage but it was not geared towards business, as you can't have a phone attendant to request pushing a specific extension to reach a department.  I also looked at Packet8, it was a good solution but very expensive as you will have to have a full line for each employee that needs a phone on their desk to make calls, it came out to about $350 per month + $1400 startup fee for 9 phones in the office with a fax line.

They suggested having only 3 phones in the office, one for sales, one in the conference room and one for management, the rest of the team can use the phone in the conference room which sounded lame to me to ask employees to go to the conference room to make a call or use their cell phone. That costs about $185 per month.

Anyone heard of a different company that can make this work for us?

Thanks for your suggestion in advance