I just spent the last half hour being subjected to a group of teachers and aides running their mouths about nonsense, complete with street talk and cursing. Aside from the fact that they are totally unprofessional and should probably not be working in a school at all, it made me realize something about the […]

Has anyone else noticed that Amazon.com isn’t so great at stocking the books you need anymore? On two occasions recently, I’ve gone to Barnes and Noble (and other stores) because they had books that Amazon.com wasn’t carrying (or had significant delays in ordering).
On the other hand, I just bought this wonderful $18 wet/dry cordless […]

I have come to a conclusion: Americans are some of the most intolerant people in the world. Don’t get me wrong. In America, you can do almost anything you want and get away with it. Americans enjoy unprecedented freedom. In many cases, they enjoy freedom even from their own laws. […]

Many teachers grow timid when one suggests to them that they should
engage their students in higher level thinking. I try, as often
as possible, to ask the difficult questions to my students, to
challenge them, and to encourage them to think outside of the
box. So, why do so many adults think that you are […]

There is a blog post on Ihsan this week called The Last Moments of Makkah, detailing the Saudi regime’s plans to demolish most of the historical buildings, including the Prophet’s own house, around Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.
It is well known what they did to the cemetary, Jannatul-Baqi and other significant landmarks in Madinah. Now, […]

Things are looking up for my iBook now. Over the weekend, I learned how to use Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net/) (kids don’t try this at home). It utilizes a combo of Debian (http://www.debian.org)’s apt-get and FreeBSD (http://www.bsd.org/)’s port. Well, kinda, sorta, anyway.Â
I decided to take on the task of installing KDE (http://www.kde.org). […]

In America, we live in a society that prides itself on “free trade” and a capitalist-based economy. It is interesting to see how this interplays with democracy and freedom of speech. Anyone is free to have views and free to express those views. However, those with money can express themselves loudly. […]

My employer has recently entrusted me with an Apple iBook that I wish
use for various student projects. I am typing this in Firefox (http://www.spreadfirefox.com), on
the iBook, right now.
I’m going to spare you my review of the iBook, because there have been
enough of those. Frankly, it works pretty well for most purposes.
Nevertheless, it has […]

I’m trying to manage my time better, insha’Allah. Islam, of course, helps a lot with that, and the whole point of doing so is to focus more of my time towards thikr of Allah and studying the deen.
There should be a reasonable balance between deen and dunya. Too often we get consumed by […]

Until now, I have always reserved my feelings about Mac OS X.Â
After all, I hadn’t used it extensively enough to pass judgement on
it. Well, no more. It is severely deficient for a serious
computer user. I’ve long been told that Macs are meant for the
average joe who doesn’t know a mouse […]