Archive for December, 2007

KDE4

Monday, December 31st, 2007

The release of KDE 4.0 is around the corner.  After having tried the previous betas, I must say that the current release candidate is much improved.  However, there are still some serious issues that need to be resolved, mainly with plasma.  Dolphin in this particular RC was also quite unstable.  Konqueror, however, seemed to work quite nicely.

The long awaited 3D effects built into KWIN were also activated in the Kubuntu release. It is very impressive, albeit not as many effects as Beryl/Compiz.

Overall, the visual presentation was so nice that I hated going back to KDE 3.5, but it just simply is not yet stable enough for production.  It is, however, getting very close.  It will be nice to start off the new year with a brand new, beautiful, and lightning fast desktop environment.  Ready or not, here KDE4 comes.

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Posted in Free Software | No Comments »

Reactions to Vick Sentencing

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

This video is worth a look.  Some fans react to the sentencing of Michael Vick to 23 months in prison.

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Posted in Afterthought | No Comments »

Christian parents, Muslim babies

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

I’ve always wondered about the intentions of Christians who mail-order children from places like Afghanistan.  Instead of these children being raised in a Muslim environment, they are brought up in Christian (and often white/European) households completely isolated from the language, religion, and culture.

I’ve heard of Korean children growing up in such an environment and then making the choice to go back to their home country to find out who they really are.  But that is not even why I am questioning the real motivation behind such programs that are financed by large Christian missionary organizations.

Why are they choosing Muslim children?  Do they think that they are somehow “saving” them not only from poverty and orphanhood but also from the pyres of Hell?  Is it not only a humanitarian mission but also a crusade?  After all, there are plenty of countries where Christian children need to be adopted (America included).  Why don’t we hear about more Christian families adopting Palestinian Christian babies?  Oh yeah, maybe it’s because most of the organizations support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  It’s not politically convenient to support Arab Christians.

God knows best what the true intentions of these people are.  Maybe they are just naive political tools or maybe not.  What I do know is that Muslims need to adopt more frequently.  The Prophet did it, the Qur’an highly recommends it, and it seems close to being an obligation for those who can afford to do it.

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Posted in Afterthought | 1 Comment »

Hajj Season

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

Another Hajj (pilgrimage) will soon be upon us, insha`Allah.  I pray that all hajjis will have a safe journey, a blessed Hajj, and a safe return.

This also means that Eid al-adha will soon be upon us.  It will be close to Christmas, and I’m sure that many non-Muslims will confusingly assume that Muslims have a “December” holiday every year like Christians and Jews.  This, of course, is not the case, and we should try to clarify the nature of our lunar calendar for them.

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Posted in al-Islam | No Comments »