Just as Hazrat Muhammad (saw), and his companions landed from their rides, and laid the loads down, it was decided that they would sacrifice a lamb for dinner.
One of the companions volunteered: "I will sacrifice the lamb."
Another: "I will skin it."
Third: "I will cook it."
Fourth: " I will ..."
Hazrat Muhammad (saw): "I will gather the wood from the desert."
The group: "O Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (saw) it is not becoming of you to discomfort yourself as such. You rest. We will be honored to do all this on our own."
Hazrat Muhammad (saw): "I know that you are eager to do it all, but Allah isn't pleased with the slave who distinguishes between himself and his companions, and considers himself better than others."
Then Hazrat Muhammad (saw) went to the desert, and gathered some wood, and brought it to the group.
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A person shouldn't degrade a person or think of himself as superior just because he thinks he's better, has more money, or is a leader of some group. That person should think of himself as equal to the one beside him and if he so called is the leader of something, he should take charge of the operation like the Prophet (SAWS) did and help thinking of everyone as his equals, nothing more nothing less. =]
One should also not degrade themselves in front of others, it has the same negativity as thinking of yourself as the superior.
http://www.ezsoftech.com/stories/rasool1.asp
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and the Sacrifice of the Lamb
Netflix, Wal-Mart sued for allegedly colluding
Netflix, the Web's No. 1 video rental service, and Wal-Mart are being accused in a class-action lawsuit of unfairly setting prices for their rental services.
According to the Web site of Video Business, the suit was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas. The lead plaintiff, Marci Badgerow, alleges that Wal-Mart agreed in 2005 to exit the online rental business in exchange for Netflix's termination of DVD sales, according to Video Business.
The plaintiffs argue that the agreement promotes unfair trade and is illegal. They assert that the pact harmed customers because it allowed Netflix to raise its monthly subscription price from $14.99 to $17.99, according to the report. Wal-Mart denied any wrongdoing.
"We made our own independent decision to exit the DVD rental business and our subsequent agreement with Netflix is entirely proper," said Michelle Bradford, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "We intend to defend vigorously our decisions regarding the products and services offered to our customers."
A Netflix spokesman declined to comment.
The two companies were accused in a similar suit filed in Northern California earlier this month of conspiring to restrict competition and unfairly control pricing.
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If whatever they are doing is harming me, the customer, then I'm against Wal-mart and Netflix, but if it doesn't affect me, then they can go on doing whatever they want. All i can say is, naught, naughty, Wal-mart and Netflix =]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10153706-93.html?tag=mncol
Yahoo drops its Briefcase
Yahoo plans to discontinue its Briefcase service, which allows people to store files online for free.
The service will be shut down on March 30, the company said Wednesday. Yahoo is warning users to retrieve or delete their documents before that date.
Briefcase, which offered 30MB of online storage, was launched almost 10 years ago. However, "usage has been significantly declining over the years, as users outgrew the need for Yahoo Briefcase and turned to offerings with much more storage and enhanced sharing capabilities," the company said in a statement.
There are now many alternative online storage services to Briefcase. Notable rivals include Microsoft's SkyDrive, a Windows Live service that offers 25GB of free storage.
There are also signs that Google may be preparing a free online storage product called GDrive. Recent reports have pointed to a reference to GDrive in an online, recently updated file associated with its Google Pack bundle of free software, which includes Chrome and Picasa. The file text says that GDrive "provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents [and] allows you to access your files from anywhere, any time and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or mobile phone."
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+*This is the first time I've heard about Yahoo Briefcase
With so many other places to store your stuff, i personally don't think there is a need for Yahoo Briefcase, but if you do use Yahoo Briefcase, i recommend you take your files out of there and put them somewhere else before you desperately need those files and cannot have access to them.
GDrive sounds pretty cool. =]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10153479-2.html?tag=mncol
The myth of width: When wide screens don't work
Before I slam the move to wide-screen computers, I will gladly admit that for entertainment content, wide-screen works. Our eyes are side-by-side, after all, and having a story unfold in a way that more closely respects how we see gives a more engrossing, absorbing experience. Wide-screen plasma and LCD television sets make sense, as do CinemaScope movie theaters.
But when we have work to do, the fact that our eyes are set up to spot a herd of jackals approaching us over the plain becomes irrelevant. For most people, the world of work is in portrait mode, and wide-screen displays offer scant benefits.
Like reading a page of text or a book, most Web sites are set up with strong vertical orientation. That works for text-based material, since wide lines of text, longer than about 60 characters, become hard to read (the reader has a hard time finding the beginning of the next line).
The original source of my complaint, but almost all laptops today are wide-screen.(Credit: CBS)
What happens with modern "stretchy" sites or apps that let the user read text in a wide-screen format where line lengths get long? Pages get tiring or hard to read.
One argument given for wide-screen monitors is that they allow users to put two pages or applications side-by-side, for easier comparison. This is true, but in many cases it comes at the expense of usability for single apps. Most popular sizes of wide-screen displays show fewer vertical pixels than the more-square sizes they directly replaced, reducing the amount of text that can be comfortably shown on one screen without scrolling.
People who work with spreadsheets may take exception to this, as do those who use very large monitors that have sufficient vertical resolution. But for most people, more square, or even portrait-mode monitors would actually be easier to read.
HP TouchSmart tx2z
So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential.
First off, the tx2z's touch interface has improved. The marketing jargon for the expanded interface is "capacitive multitouch technology" which translates to sophisticated multifinger gestures like pinching, rotating, flicking, double-tapping and dragging for navigation. The big difference is that these functions aren't buried within a touch-based software suite. Want to zoom/shrink, or scroll within programs like Firefox, MS Office, or even the desktop? All it takes is a little pinching and poking on the tx2z's screen. Although the 12-inch display doesn't provide tons of space for all the hot finger-on-touchscreen action, it's a small quibble given the screen's overall responsiveness.
Converting from notebook to tablet also proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle.
Unfortunately, HP didn't build the otherwise decent tx2z on the strongest foundation. Even with its 2.4-GHz AMD Dual Core processor and 4 GB of RAM, the 64-bit version of Vista it shipped with ran freakishly slow. Granted, a lot of the lag was due to the ridiculous amount of bloatware that launched during startup — but a five-minute boot-up on a spanking new notebook is unforgivable.
Holding down the graphics department was ATI's integrated Radeon 3200 GPU, which produced similarly mixed results. We'll put it this way: Gaming and light photo editing is technically possible, but heavy use of any graphic-intensive app is pretty much out of the question. However, when we weren't trying to eke out a couple dozen extra frames in Crysis, the 3200 sufficed.
So, here's the skinny: As a productivity-driven, convertible tablet, the tx2z is a solid offering. Both the touch and pen-based interfaces were responsive, and proved useful across a number of on-the-go work applications. We would've enjoyed a few more gestures thrown into the mix for a little more, uh, "razzle dazzle" but it's clear that HP focused on core navigation &mdash which is fine.
However, when it comes to non-touch/tablet functionality, the tx2z is largely old hat. If you're looking for a highly portable (and reasonably priced) convertible, it's worth a look. Otherwise, you're better off snagging a more even-keeled rig.
WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader.
TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multi touch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The young girl who isn't an atheist like her teacher~
A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they're atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks. There is, however, one exception. A beautiful girl named Zainab has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different. "Because I'm not an atheist."Then, asks the teacher, "What are you?" "I'm a Muslim." The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asks Zainab why she is a Muslim. "Well, I was brought up knowing and loving God. My mom is a Muslim, and my dad is a Muslim, so I am a Muslim." The teacher is now angry. "That's no reason," she says loudly, "what if your mom was a moron,and your dad was a moron, - what would you be then?" She paused, and smiled. "Then," says Zainab, "I'd be an atheist."
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Ahaha, the title kinda ruins the story. The lesson we should learn from this story is that you should be proud you are a Muslim and you shouldn't be afraid to express that even when when everyone is doing the opposite or they just don't want you to. Don't be a mor**, be a Muslim. =]
http://www.islamcan.com/cgi-bin/increaseiman/htmlfiles/static/99319713072654.shtml
White House Tech More Tired Than Wired
Prior to his inauguration, Barack Obama was, without a doubt, eagerly anticipating taking his seat in the Oval Office. What he likely wasn't looking forward to was time-traveling backward into a workplace riddled with obsolete technology.
Any tech geek recognizes that modern technology is far more than a means to an end: Whether we own iPods, Zunes, MacBooks, iPhones or BlackBerry smartphones, our gadgets have become intimately integrated into our lifestyles. So you have to feel the pain of Obama and his team, who drove the most tech-savvy presidential campaign in history, for having to cope with the White House's bureaucratic IT swamp.
"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of the White House's outdated tech.
Here, we run down a list of what's known about tech in the White House, with our classic "Wired or Tired" rating method. This time, we'll start with the Tired stuff first.
TIRED
Windows XP
The White House's computers are running 6-year-old versions of Microsoft software, reports The Washington Post. Supposedly, the White House's reasoning for stalling on upgrades is to maintain security and preserve documents held under the Presidential Records Act.
Can anyone say "virus infection"? While it's true the White House dodged a widespread internet virus in 2007, there's no guarantee a more vicious virus won't eventually infiltrate the White House. There are at least 3,000 new Windows viruses emerging each day, after all, according to Symantec.
Why not transition to the Mac? The virus "threatscape" is virtually nonexistent on the Mac; security experts agree the Mac operating system is architecturally more secure than Windows out of the box. Run some security software on the Mac and you've easily got a far more secure computer setup in the White House than if they were running Windows.
As for the documents preserved by the President Records Act — how difficult can it be to create backups and transfer everything over? Documents and messages copy over easily to a Mac system.
Besides, Obama and his team were Mac users before they even stepped into office. Give these people their Macs.
No Wi-Fi
The White House has no Wi-Fi, according to FoxNews. That's no surprise, given how easy it is to crack Wi-Fi encryption schemes.
But if the U.S. military gets all the cool tech first, the White House can, too, right? This would be a good opportunity to test out Boston University's Wi-Fi transmitting light bulbs. The tech involves LED bulbs, which flicker at imperceptible speeds to communicate with Wi-Fi enabled devices. This way, a hacker would have to be inside the White House in order to hack into its network, and he or she would be made visible under the light.
No Instant Messaging Allowed
White House staff are banned (.pdf, page 11) from communicating by instant messaging, according to Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of the blog TechPresident. That's for the sake of preventing casual talk from leaking out of the White House and onto the web.
That's understandable, but some chat clients, such as Adium, offer the option to encrypt chats, turning your chat logs into unintelligible characters and numbers if accessed without authorization. Plus, the Obama team has already proven with the president's Twitter account that it's pretty good at handling its own PR, right?
No Screwing Around on Websites, Either
Remember George W. Bush? When he was prez, the White House IT department banned sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, according to Slate. There's no word on whether the new regime will reverse those bans, but for now, it's a fair bet that you won't be able to friend anyone in the West Wing.
WIRED
iPods
Former President Bush is known to have had an iPod. But there were some restrictions on accessing new music. During Bush's tenure, only two people had access to the iTunes Store: The president's personal aide, who downloaded tunes onto George W.'s iPod, and David Almacy, Bush's director for Internet and e-communications, who uploaded the president's speeches to iTunes. (I wonder what was in Bush's Top 25 Most Played? Creed, perhaps?)
Flatscreen Monitors and TVs
Theresa Payton, White House chief information officer from 2006, told FoxNews that big, flat displays are widely used in the White House. Can't see why not — so long as they're not watching Paris Hilton's My New BFF during work hours.
E-Mail
It's widely known that Bill Clinton sent only two e-mails during his presidential term. That's because under the Presidential Records Act, all correspondence must be archived and eventually made public, so Clinton sensibly kept his more ... personal ... communications offline. (Of course, Bush's political advisers demonstrated there are ways to circumvent the policy.)
Regardless of the rules, it was simple enough for the press office, with approval from the White House Counsel, to set up personal Gmail accounts as alternative e-mail addresses, according to The Washington Post.
BlackBerry
The president this week achieved a personal victory when he entered the White House cradling his BlackBerry, which many speculated he would have to give up. How did he pull off keeping it? Protecting it with some sort of supersecure encryption, according to reports. Just what exactly that encryption is, no one will say — for obvious reasons.
White House staffers are entitled to BlackBerry smartphones as well, according to FoxNews.
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Woah! I thought the White House was supposed to be all teched-out and stuff, but people there cant even go on YouTube. Well, at least President Obama got to keep his Blackberry=].
They should really change the running software on their computers though. Possibly, change to Mac from Windows.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/wired-or-tired.html
