Saturday, November 22, 2008

MacBook Pro

You can find a cheaper laptop, but not a better one. Every Apple MacBook Pro is carved from a single block of aluminum, making it strong and light (4.5 lb.; 2 kg). A revolutionary pair of graphic chips lets you play Call of Duty 2 until your five-hour battery dies. 
Price:$1,999
More info: apple.com/macbookpro

Dell Inspiron Mini 9


Small enough to fit in a pocketbook, this 2.3-lb. (1 kg) ultraportable comes in two flavors: Windows XP ($399-$449) or, for maximum open-source coolness, Ubuntu Linux ($349). You can stick your camera's SD card right into its media reader, and the bright 8.9-in. (23 cm) screen will show off your family photos (or YouTube faves). Tiny as it is, you don't have to scroll around to see full Web pages as you would on a phone, though the compact keyboard does take a little getting used to.
More info: Dell Inspiron Mini 9

The Tesla Roadster


Electric cars were always environmentally friendly, quiet, clean — but definitely not sexy. The Tesla Roadster has changed all that. A battery-powered sports car that sells for $100,000 and has a top speed of 125 m.p.h. (200 km/h), the Roadster has excited the clean-tech crowd since it was announced in 2003. Celebrities like George Clooney joined a long waiting list for the Roadster; magazines like Wired drooled over it. After years of setbacks and shake-ups, the first Tesla Roadsters were delivered to customers this year. Reviews have been ecstatic, but Tesla Motors has been hit hard by the financial crisis. Plans to develop an affordable electric sedan have been put on hold, and Tesla is laying off employees. But even if the Roadster turns out to be a one-hit wonder, it's been a hell of an (electric) ride.

american cars



Ruling concerning ridiculing a woman who wears the proper hijaab and covers her face


Question: What is the ruling concerning one who ridicules those who wear the proper hijaab and cover their faces and hands?

Response: Whoever ridicules a Muslim woman or man for sticking to and applying the teachings of Islaam is a disbeliever. This is regardless of whether it is concerning woman's hijaab or any other matter of the Sharee'ah. This is based on the following narration from ibn 'Umar: At a gathering during the Battle of Tabuk, one man said, "I have not seen anyone like our Qur.aanic readers who is more desirous of food, more lying in speech and more cowardly when meeting the enemy." A man said, "You have lied and you are a liar. I shall definitely tell the Messenger of Allaah (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) about that." That news was conveyed to the Messenger of Allaah and the Qur.aan was revealed. 'Abdullaah ibn 'Umar added, "I saw the man holding on to the bag of the camel of the Messenger of Allaah and the dust was striking him while he was saying, 'O Messenger of Allaah, we were just joking and playing. The Messenger of Allaah (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) was simply saying the verse of the Qur.aan]:

{Was it Allaah, and His Signs and His Messenger you were mocking? Make no excuse, you have disbelieved after you had believed. If We pardon some of you, We will punish others among you because they were sinners}, [Soorah at-Towbah, Aayahs 65-66].

So ridiculing believers has been equated with ridiculing Allaah, His Signs and His Messenger.
And with Allaah lies all success and may Allaah send prayers and salutations upon our Prophet (sal-Allaahu `alayhe wa sallam) and his family and his companions.

The Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Verdicts
Fataawa al-Mar.ah

...
Published: 6 February 2000

flood in trinidad






Florida boy's suicide live on web



WTF the world comming to

A teenager in the US state of Florida has committed suicide in front of a live internet audience.

Abraham Biggs, 19, from Pembroke Pines, near Miami, killed himself hours after announcing his intention to do so on his blog.

His family have condemned the website viewers and operators for failing to save him. Local police have launched an investigation.

Authorities say Abraham Biggs took an overdose of anti-depressive drugs.

He posted messages online telling people he was going to kill himself and then started streaming live pictures from his home.


They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours

Rosalind Biggs

Reports say that some of viewers who logged in to watch began to encourage the teenager to commit suicide, others tried to dissuade him.

After several hours, when he had not moved some viewers finally notified the site's moderator, who then called the police.

The boy's sister said: "They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours."

It is unclear how many people watched the suicide unfold. Some reports suggest that some viewers thought it was a hoax.

The last transmission from the webcam is of a police officer bursting into Abraham Biggs's room, when he discovers his body and then he places his hand over the camera.

The footage has since been taken down and his father is now calling for more regulation of chatrooms.


Was enough done to prevent the death of Abraham Biggs? Should online communities be at all responsible for their members? What should be done to stop suicide online? Tell us your thoughts by filling in the form below.

Google unveils customised search

Google unveils customised search

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

SearchWiki
Users have to be logged in to their Google account to use SearchWiki

Google has unveiled a tool that will allow users to customise and refine their search queries.

The company's SearchWiki lets users re-order, remove or add specific web search results.

This means the next time they perform the same search, the personalised version will pop up.

"I would call this revolutionary. It's a huge step, not a baby step in the world of search," Google's product manager, Cedric Dupont, told the BBC.

"This is part of an obvious movement of the web to become more participatory, so Google search is adapting to this movement," he said.

"The SearchWiki is about giving users more control over their search results and increasing user happiness," Mr Dupont added.

But industry watchers predict one huge problem with the effort.

"Most people are not going to engage with it and think about where the results should be - if it's above this one or below that one," said Greg Sterling, an editor with SearchEngineLand.com.

"This is really for a motivated or elite core of user who really wants to participate in the process."

"Social search"

As well as ranking results, SearchWiki allows users who have logged in to their Google account to write comments which will have a dialogue balloon next to the result when they return for any further searches.

These will also be public so that others using SearchWiki can view them and get feedback on a website.

Google search page with SearchWiki
It is hoped "people powered" tools like SearchWiki will benefit overall search

Mr Dupont stressed that SearchWiki would not affect the way websites were ranked by Google.

At the bottom of the page, there will be a link to take users to a page showing what search results others have re-ranked, deleted or added.

Mr Sterling said that if Google managed to get a great number of people re-ranking results, it could improve the overall search experience.

"Lots of people have tried so-called 'social search', combining algorithmic search with human editorial input, because the perception is that humans have the ability to craft a better result in any given situation because they can make distinctions machines can't," he said.

"So this could be quite dramatic if they get a lot of people participating because it could improve the algorithms of the process and serve up better search results."

Matthew Humphries of geek.com would like to see the tool available to the public at large and not just to account holders. He said that even among SearchWiki users, search would be improved.

"You always see posts on forums for different subjects asking for the best resources to help with X. With SearchWiki the responses won't be a bunch of links, they will be a single link to an annotated Google search page," he added.