It was a wintry morning with much snow falling coupled with the blowing of a strong cold wind. It was not easy to come out in the open air. Yet one could see people rushing to their work and students with books in their hands hastening to their schools.
In one of the mosques in Hamadan - Iran, religious students were assembling in order to attend a morning class. It was an important school of Islamic theology and the tutor was also a very great learned one. His discourses were indeed very thought-provoking and so were his students quite intelligent.
The tutor was none else but the world famous and a great Persian thinker and philosopher 'lbn Sina', popularly known in Europe as Avicenna. His lectures and writings on various science subjects had become the standard text books for hundreds of years in the universities of Europe. Students admired his deep philosophical thinking. They felt honoured to sit in his class and hear his inspiring lectures.
That cold morning, students had already assembled in the mosque and were still anxiously awaiting the arrival of their learned tutor. They were wondering if the intense cold weather that day had delayed his coming.
A few minutes had passed when suddenly the students witnessed the graceful arrival of 'lbn Sina', their great learned tutor. They felt very happy and stood up as a mark of reverence and respect for him. He sat down at his usual place and exchanged greetings with his students. He commenced his discourse in his usual lucid manner that held his students spellbound. He also gave satisfactory answers to their questions.
Among the students was one very young and enthusiastic by name 'Bahman Yar'. He was much more close and attached to 'lbn Sina' the learned tutor. He was also the foremost among the clever and advanced students of the class. Every time he listened to the lectures of his tutor, he became more and more fascinated with his deep philosophy and knowledge on every subject. He would say to his class-mates: "I wonder why our tutor 'lbn Sina' does not claim to be a prophet despite his supreme intelligence and magic personality"
It is said that one day by chance 'lbn Sina' was standing at a baker and loaf-seller shop. His attention was drawn to a very smart young boy who was displaying signs of much intelligence. The boy was saying to the baker: "My mother is requesting for a little fire." The baker responded: "Have you brought any pot to carry the fire?" "No! But I know how to carry it", replied the boy instantly. So saying he applied some ash over his palm and stretched his hand to the baker who placed a piece of burning firewood over his palm. Without any hesitation, the boy took it and went home.
'lbn Sina' was rather amazed to see the intelligence and courage of this boy. He thought of having him for special training and education under his personal care. The proposal was communicated to the parents who agreed and entrusted the boy to his full care. Thus 'Bahman Yar' since then was staying at no other place except at the house of his tutor and care-taker, 'lbn Sina'. They were all the time to be seen together. The boy being highly intelligent derived the best of the knowledge that his tutor could impart.
Years passed and 'Bahman Yar' grew up not only in age but also in knowledge and understanding under the patronage of his tutor. The learned tutor was also very proud of this most capable student.
It was one of the coldest nights of the wintry season. Midnight had passed and the snow-falling was very heavy. Both 'lbn Sina' and 'Bahman Yar' were sleeping in one room under warm thick blankets. The light in the room was already extinguished but the student was still asking intricate questions on some deep subjects. The tutor was replying in his usual impressive manner. Fascinated by the supreme knowledge and deep philosophy of his tutor, he again made the suggestion which he had made before:
"Oh my learned tutor!" he pleaded, "with all this high status of knowledge that you enjoy and being master of all the sciences, why not declare yourself a prophet? Sir! Don't you think that you even excel some of the previous prophets in knowledge and your status today is unparalleled in the world! Should you decide to claim prophethood, no one would dare challenge you. Let me assure you that I shall be the first to offer my allegiance and would serve you with full faith."
Since 'Bahman Yar' was still young and immature, his above proposal to his tutor was rather emotional than logical. 'lbn Sina' smiled but did not give any reply.
That night the cold weather had become extreme and there was heavy snow-falling. Both were already fast asleep. It was past midnight and suddenly 'lbn Sina' woke up and raised his head out of the warm blanket. Incidentally he was very thirsty and the water-mug in the room was empty. So he decided to wake up his student to go out and bring him some water.
"Oh 'Bahman Yar'! My son 'Bahman Yar'! Please wake up and bring me some drinking water from outside", he said repeatedly.
"Why is there no water in the water-mug near your goodself, Sir?" asked 'Bahman Yar.'
"No!" replied 'lbn Sina.'
'Bahman Yar' raised his head and saw heavy snowfall outside. The thrilling sound of the strong cold wind also made him nervous to go out. Again 'lbn Sina' grumbled:
"Oh 'Bahman Yar'! Why the delay? Bring me some water, I am too thristy."
'Bahman Yar' dared not come out of the warm blankets to face the cold weather outside the room. He was, therefore, putting forward lame excuses to his tutor.
"Oh my respected tutor! It is harmful for you to drink water now that you have just come out of the warmth of thick blankets. It is better you go to sleep again till the early morning which is not far off", said 'Bahman Yar'.
"My son! Bring me water, I am too thirsty. I myself am a medical expert and know better what is harmful than you do. I am unable to sleep, please bring me some water from outside", again appealed 'Ibn Sina'
In response 'Bahman Yar' again put forward excuses and argued that he would catch cold and fall sick if he were to go out in that extreme cold weather. So saying he went back to sleep.
There was dead silence everywhere and no sound of anything was to be heard. Outside it was still pitch dark except the first light of Subhe Sadiq (true dawn) in the eastern horizon had commenced to appear. Suddenly the silence broke with a melodious voice of a muezzin - caller to prayer from the top of a minaret at the nearby mosque. After reciting some verses of the, Holy Qur'an, the muezzin in a loud voice said, "Allaho Akber" - Allah is the Greatest. "Ash-hado an la ilaha illallah" - I bear witness that there is no god except Allah.
Both the tutor and his student quietly listened to the melodious voice of the muezzin. The call to prayers then proceeded to the words "Ash-hado anna Muhammadan Rasoolullah" - I bear witness that Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah. On hearing this, 'Ibn Sina' thought of taking the opportunity of responding to the repeated proposal made to him by 'Bahman Yar'. He said:
"Listen to me, oh my son 'Bahman Yar'. Now I wish to reply to your repeated suggestion". The student sat up to hear attentively of what his learned tutor abruptly wanted to say. 'Ibn Sina' then proceeded:
"You have been suggesting to me several times to claim prophethood, that people would put full faith in me and that you would be the first one to do so. Now look, you have been my close student for several years and benefited from me a great deal, yet you did not think it prudent to obey me by coming out of your warm bed for a moment and bring me water that I badly needed to quench my thirst. Instead you chose to put forward lame excuses."
"But think of this man who is now calling to prayers at the top of the minaret after coming out in the coldest weather and making ablution with cold water in the early hour of this morning. It is for no other purpose but in obedience to and respect for the command of Allah as conveyed by His apostle Prophet Muhammad Mustafa (s) some four hundred years ago.
"What a great difference there is between me and that Prophet sent by Allah!"
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People who think high of themselves and think they are the best or superior should really read this story. This story teaches something to every kind of person, like you are never going to be perfect or as loyal as the Prophet (saws) and there is always room for improvement in everyone. Knowing you cant be perfect doesn't mean you can just give up, because that just wouldn't be right, instead try to follow in the Prophet(saws)'s footsteps as much as you can and Inshaallah you and us all will at least accomplish some of his(saws) attributes.
http://www.al-islam.org/gallery/kids/Books/istories/index.htm
Saturday, February 21, 2009
CALL TO PRAYERS ON A COLD WINTRY MORNING
Samsung Phones and Cute Animals
Check this out, its pretty funny
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10168950-1.html?tag=mncol;posts
Surround Sound Headset Rattles the Brain
Psyko Audio Labs displayed it's 5.1 channel gaming headphones at CES 2009, hoping to significantly enhance PC gamers' audio experience. The headset features 3 front drivers and 2 rear drivers, as well as subwoofers inside it's cushioned ear cups.
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Having a hefty price tag of $300 dollars, only a serious gamer would actually buy this, but even though im not into gaming that much, i wouldnt mind having that feeling of hearing things from all directions, hearing sounds that "rattle" your brain, i love that feeling. XD
http://www.wired.com/video/events/ces-2009/6310841001/surround-sound-headset-rattles-the-brain/6821028001
The Pulse Smart Pen
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This is a pretty cool pen, i think it'll come in handy for me once i reach college. Actually, it'd be pretty useful right about now too. I recommend this to students because instead of wasting their money on useless stuff, they can buy something cool that's also useful =)
http://www.wired.com/video/latest-videos/latest/1815816633/pulse-smart-pen/13600905001
INQ1 Facebook Phone
This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting.
The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album.
WIRED: Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device.
TIRED: Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.
$112 (estimated)
Google Earth Shows U.S. Drones at Pakistani Base?
The paper ID's the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones -- unlikely, the shape's all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones.
Google Earth no longer shows the planes at the airfield, "built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips," according to the Times of London. But the 2009-edition images do show several new buildings -- including what appears to be a hangar, big enough for several Predators.
Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro, for one, is not at all pleased by what he sees. His latest headline: "Drones parked in our own backyard, to Bomb our own People."
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The all-electric sports car concept is set to debut at the Geneva Motor Show this March alongside the i Mieve Sport Air concept car.
Both are follow-ups to Mitsubishi's i Miev hatchback, which is currently undergoing "feasibility testing" in Europe. The hatchback, which is scheduled to go on sale in Japan sometime this year, can be plugged into any household outlet for recharging.
Though at 7 hours to recharge at 200V outlets and and 14 hours at 100V outlets, owners may opt for a higher-voltage option.
The i Miev hatchback all electric plug-in due out soon in Japan and possibly Europe.(Credit: Mitsubishi)
The i Miev can be charged up to 80 percent in 30 minutes with a quick charge system at a 200V, 50kW 3-phase outlet.
Apple sued over iPhone screen tech
Two related companies are suing Apple over screen rendering technology used in the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to reports.
Picsel Technologies and Picsel Research, based in Glasgow, Scotland, filed a patent-infringement lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Dow Jones reported. The suit alleges that Apple is violating a Picsel technology that accelerates the process of updating a device's display.
According to Macworld, the suit is focused on Picsel technology that people use to zoom and pan documents, sites, and images. Apple's devices wouldn't function as fluidly without the technology, alleges Picsel, which wants compensation for devices already sold.
Picsel's site says its customers include Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Sharp. According to Dow Jones, Apple declined to comment.
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OoOOooH!!! Apple stole something... All i can say is that i cant wait to find out if Apple really did steal or if this is just another plan to get Apple in trouble.=]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10164345-37.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0
'Kindle killer' Shortcovers covers a lot
Hey, Kindle 2! Apparently you have some legitimate competition calling itself the "kindle killer."
OK, enough with the cuteness. So far I've yet to be personally interested in the Kindle 2. That most likely has to do with the price of the unit. I just don't have the time to read enough books to make $360 for an e-reader worth it.
(Credit: CBC News)
Indigo's Shortcovers caught my eye, though. PCWorld is reporting that the service is set to launch later in February as an app for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android OS.
Shortcovers lets you read the first chapter of any book free of charge. It then gives you the option to either buy a chapter at a time, or purchase the whole book. Single chapters are expected to cost around 99 cents each, with full books averaging between $10 and $20. You'll also have the option to have the book shipped to you physically if you prefer.
Shortcovers is owned and operated by Indigo Books & Music, supposedly the largest book retailer in Canada.
While there are e-readers for the iPhone like Stanza and services like Bookworm already available, Shortcovers will be leveraging its close ties to the publishing industry to differentiate this service.
At launch, Shortcovers expects to have about 50,000 full books available, with another 200,000 individual chapters and excerpts in its library. According to PCWorld only a third of the titles will be public domain or copyright-expired works. The rest will be current commercial offerings.
Shortcovers plans to offer news and magazine articles, short stories, and blog posts in addition to the book content.
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I don't think ill get all debate--ish about e-books or regular books until after a couple more years, but for now, I'm fine cuddling up with about 300 pages of words on a sofa .
but its still cool to have an e-book. =]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10161651-1.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0
CNET TOP 5: Most Popular Products.
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Its like Phones and Televisions are taking over the world.... shouldn't it be robots taking over though? At first i thought the iPhone would be #1, but it wasn't anywhere in the top 10, maybe i missed something to think that. To help me out though, there should be names of some laptops up there, maybe they'll show sometime later. I guess ill wait.... and wait.... aaand wait.. =]
Fun, Fun, Fun Till Daddy Takes the X-Bow Away
The tuners at ABT Sportline have taken KTM's wild X-Bow and decided the track-ready racer needs another 60 or so horsepower, bringing it to an even 300 ponies.
To most people, packing that much power into a car that weighs just 1,741 pounds would be enough to have them reaching for a net and that funny jacket with the too-long sleeves. But here at Autopia, it has us asking the guys at ABT to hand over the keys, please.
We’re not saying ABT is crazy in a bad way, we’re saying it's crazy in a fun way. KTM’s X-Bow is sort of like a carbon fiber Ariel Atom and a car we’ve always been keen on and hope to see coming to America soon. It’s a wild ride out of the box, so why is ABT messing with it?
Because it can. ABT has long been one of Europe’s leading tuners, tweaking Audis and Volkswagens and other assorted brands that roll out of the Volkswagen Group. Now that ABT has signed on to be an exclusive outlet for the X-Bow, it's working some magic on it, too.
For the record, a stock X-Bow uses a VW 2.0-liter TFSI mill cranking out 240 horsepower. That's enough to launch the car from zero to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds. Impressive, but ABT thinks it can do better, so its massaging the engine to deliver 300 horsepower.
That’s all the info ABT provided. It promises more details and tech specs once the testing is done, but you don't have to be J. Robert Oppenheimer to figure this one out. A 1,741-pound car with 300 horses should be an absolute hoot to drive.
ABT, you know where to get a hold of us for a test drive.
Photo: KTM
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WOW! There are so many cool futuristic cars coming out now, i don't know which to pick although I'm kinda have my eyes on the Aptera 2e. I like X-Bow because its lightweight but has awesome speed to it. I'm a little worried about crashing into stuff with that speed though.=]
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/abt-ktm-x-bow-3.html
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Indie Game: Tag Demands Hand, Eye, and Color Coordination
Tag: The Power of Paint is a first person platformer, with puzzles centered around spraying your surroundings with paint to navigate around obstacles. Players are armed with a paint gun, and a total of three colors -- red, blue, and green.
Spray a surface or object with green paint, and you'll bounce right off of it, while anything sprayed with red paint will become incredibly slick, granting you a speed boost as you run across. Splatter surfaces with blue paint and they'll become sticky, allowing you to defy gravity and walk across otherwise unreachable surfaces.
'Jeopardy': What Is High-Tech?
'Jeopardy' originally used cardboard and magic markers but now broadcasts in HD with a $4.1 million all-digital production. Alex Trebek talks about how the show has changed over the years
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Ahaha, it looked kinda funny in black and white. It is amazing how over the years, this show has changed its appearance, i love seeing things that show you what something is from something before, like Mac products. =]
http://www.wired.com/video
Babies See Pure Color, but Adults Peer Through Prism of Language
How does that switch take place? And does it affect our subjective experience of color? Such tantalizing questions, their answers still unknown, are raised by this developmental shift in color categorization, described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To test the phenomenon, a team of British and English researchers asked adults and infants to focus on a briefly flashing target circle.
Sometimes the target appeared in the subjects' right visual fields -- roughly speaking, the right half of a person's field of vision, which is transmitted from the eyes to the brain's left hemisphere, where language processing also takes place. Sometimes the targets appeared in the left visual field, which connects to the pre-linguistic right hemisphere.
When asked to pick out a target against a similarly-colored background -- a more mentally demanding task than distinguishing between different colors -- infants performed better when the target appeared in their left visual fields. Adults, by contrast, had an easier time with targets in their right visual fields.
Over the course of our lives, it appears that an unfiltered perception of color gives way to one mediated by the constructs of language.
Does this mean that adults and infants see the same colors differently?
"We don't know," said study co-author Paul Kay.
But might adults see colors differently? That seems plausible.
"As an adult, color categorization is influenced by linguistic categories. It differs as the language differs," said Kay, who is renowned for his studies on the ways that different cultures classify colors. He cited recent research on the ability of Russian speakers to detect shades of blue [pdf] that English speakers classify as a single color.
How does the switch to a language-bound perception of color take place?
"That's the $64,000 question," said Kay. "We have every reason to believe that learning a language has a lot to do with it -- but [as for] how that works, it's early."
TED: MIT Students Turn Internet Into a Sixth Human Sense -- Video
Students at MIT created this cool system that lets Internet act as your sixth sense. Check these videos out about the system.
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This is an awesome system, it would change life as we know it. Now i know we can accomplish things we didn't think possible. I don't know what else to say, i just want it!
To get more info on this, go to http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/ted-digital-six.html
Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS
Just when you thought there are no new tricks left in the laptop world ... along comes something previously deemed impossible.
With its ThinkPad W700, Lenovo offered the first notebook with a built-in pen tablet and a color-calibration system. Now it ups the ante again, with this enhanced version of the W700 — the W700ds — the first laptop to offer a secondary screen, built right into the back of the primary display.
I use the term laptop loosely, of course, because they haven't invented a term to describe what this machine really is. Portable computer might be more appropriate: The 11-pound W700ds would crush the femurs of most undernourished geeks, and it's clearly designed to be parked on a desk (and, given the $5,059 price tag, secured with a sizable chain, too).
If you read our review of the W700, you'll grok our thoughts on the tablet and color-correction features of this machine. Here they seem wholly unchanged, and again the gorgeous, incredibly bright 17-inch display is more than ready to collect your average Pixar animator's drool.
If he's a real spitter, why, just reach to the right side and pop out a secondary display for more real estate — here you get a bonus 10.6-inch LCD, not as beautiful as the primary panel, alas, oriented in portrait mode. While jaws drop when this trick is first performed, in real life the secondary display doesn't have as much utility as you'd think. You can park IM windows here and whatever toolbars you use (obviously this was created with Photoshop jockeys in mind), but it's generally too small for dropping web pages or your e-mail client.
Under the hood, the W700ds has been quietly upgraded to a 2.53-GHz Core 2 Extreme and dual 200-GB hard drives. The 4 GB of RAM, 64-bit version of Vista and Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M GPU remain the same as the pitifully mono-screened W700. With its newly enhanced firepower, the W700ds broke all of our general-app laptop performance records (nearly 15 percent faster than the W700), and it rocked our gaming benchmarks too. For the permanent record the scores on PC Mark05 were 8449 and PC Mark Vantage were 5490.
Ask the W700ds to give you all the power in the world, and it complies. All it asks for in return is, like, all your money. And a ruptured disc or two.
WIRED Secondary screen is a novelty of breathtaking proportions. Loaded with ports, including five USB, full-size DVI out and HDMI out. Unmatched performance in a laptop. 94 minutes of battery life isn't bad for a machine this big.
TIRED If you got room for two displays, is it wrong to think you ought to have room for three? Gargantuan size, weight, price. Smells like burning.
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Price: $5,059 (as tested)
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I'm developing a new attachment to Lenovo day by day now because of its Awesome looking laptops. This one looks pretty techie, especially the second screen, it could come in useful. The tablet looks good too. The thing i don't like about this is that its pretty heavy and i wouldn't be able to drag it everywhere with me and why cant it be free? it has to have a price tag?
http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_lenovo_w700DS
