Meall Dubh: Race against the machine
John McCreessh of MeallDubh.org writes:
When I compiled the OpenOffice.org Strategic Marketing Plan for the Community back in 2004, I wrote on the back cover:
What do you do if you have a product that’s as good as anything on the market, but you want to give it away?
And what if your major competitor already has a virtual monopoly in the market, and spends between $5,000-$10,000 million per annum on advertising?
With cento milioni downloads this year, OpenOffice.org hasn’t done too badly against Microsoft Office, and with new releases of both products due in 2010 the battle will continue. Microsoft are clearly gearing up for the contest. One of our marketing volunteers spotted an interesting Microsoft job advert – I’ll quote from it below in case they pull the ad:
Job Category: Marketing
Location: United States, WA, Bellevue
Job ID: 700901 9914
Division: Marketing
Linux and Open Office Compete Lead, US Subsidiary (CSI Lead)
If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in “Compete”, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux & Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!
The Commercial Software Initiative (CSI) Lead plays a pivotal role for the Subsidiary GM, the BG leads and the BMO by building a discipline within the US that is focused on competing against. The core mission of CSI is to win share against Linux and OpenOffice.org by designing and driving marketing programs, changing perceptions, engaging with Open Source communities and organizations, and drive internal readiness on how to compete with Commercial Linux and participate with Open Source Communities.
(my emphasis)
If you share our belief that several hundred marketing volunteers around the world can be more than a match for 14 hired hands in the US (and how many more worldwide?) and want to join in the fray, please join the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project and have a great 2010!
Egypt deports British lawmaker Galloway
Cairo has deported British lawmaker George Galloway, following clashes between a Gaza-bound aid convoy he was accompanying and Egyptian police.
The lawmaker was planning to return to Gaza via the Rafah crossing early Friday when several Egyptian plainclothes security forces detained him and bundled him into a plane and flew him to London.
The days of Hajj are beginning
وَلِلَّهِ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ حِجُّ ٱلْبَيْتِ مَنِ ٱسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا ۚ وَمَن كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ عَنِ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
…and pilgrimage to the House is incumbent upon men for the sake of Allah, (upon) every one who is able to undertake the journey to it; and whoever disbelieves, then surely Allah is Self-sufficient, above any need of the worlds.
Hodočastiti Hram dužan je, Allaha radi, svaki onaj koji je u mogućnosti; a onaj koji neće da vjeruje – pa, zaista, Allah nije ovisan ni o kome.
The Holy Qur’an, sura Ali-Imran: 97
لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَيْكَ, لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ لَبَّيْكَ. إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ وَ النِّعْمَتَ لَكَ وَ الْمُلْكَ, لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ.
Proofreading of E. W. Lane’s Arabic-English lexicon
The distributed proofreaders site has restarted the proofreading process of the Edward William Lane’s Arabic-English lexicon (dictionary). The DP site gathers book enthusiasts from around the globe and gives them a nice and intuitive web interface for proofreading out-of-copyright books. 662 books were posted to Project Gutenberg from DP, up until the time of writing this post.
Forum:
http://dp.rastko.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1854
Proofreading page (requires registration):
http://dp.rastko.net/tools/proofers/…fstate=avail_1
Please, consider contributing to the project. It could be of great help to all those interested in the Arabic language, especially Muslims.
Hibernate and suspend (stand-by) now work in Ubuntu on my HP Compaq 8710w
I don’t know what the Ubuntu comunity has done about it, or what have I done with the configuration of my Ubuntu (9.04 Jaunty) system, but hibernate and suspend seem to work now. This in addition to the somewhat tweaked nVidia Quadro FX 1600M (rev a1) graphic card. Alhamdulillah. I have been using Windows XP for a while because of this.
Still, the graphic driver is not that good. Moving of the cursor, as I write this, is quite slow.
Arabic-English lexicon (dictionary) by Edward William Lane
There’s a huge Arabic-English lexicon (dictionary) by Edward William Lane available online for free. The following site has a very useful browsable interface to the individual pages and word roots:
http://www.tyndalearchive.com/TABS/Lane/
via http://www.studyquran.co.uk/ArabicDictionaries.htm
There’s also an stale ongoing project at the Distributed Proofreaders site concerning the lexicon. Go check it out.
SMS: “Tim Gowers – Computational Complexity and Quantum Compuation”
Computational complexity is the study of what resources, such as time and memory, are needed to carry out given computational tasks, with a particular focus on lower bounds for the amount needed of these resources. Proving any result of this kind is notoriously difficult, and includes the famous problem of whether P = N P . This course will be focused on two major results in the area. The first is a lower bound, due to Razborov, for the number of steps needed to determine whether a graph contains a large clique, if only “monotone” computations are allowed. This is perhaps the strongest result in the direction of showing that P and N P are distinct (though there is unfortunately a very precise sense in which the proof cannot be developed to a proof of the whole conjecture). The second is Peter Shor’s remarkable result that a quantum computer can factorize large integers in
polynomial time. In order to present these two results, it will be necessary to spend some time discussing some of the basic concepts of computational complexity, such as the relationship between Turing machines and the more obviously mathematical notion of circuit complexity, and an introduction to what a quantum computation actually is. For the latter, no knowledge of quantum mechanics will be expected, and scarcely any will be imparted during the course: it is possible to understand quantum computation in a very “pure mathematics” way. The reason this is a graduate course rather than a Part III course is that I intend to give several lectures in an informal style that would be hard to examine. It is not because the material will be more advanced: indeed, my aim will be to make allowances for the fact that people will not be working on it with an exam in mind, and to make the course as easy to follow as I can. Having said that, the main results will be proved in full: the informal discussion will be with a view to making these proofs more comprehensible.
The collection will have 12 graduate level lectures which are currently being given during the Easter term 2009. Many thanks to Adrian Callum-Hinshaw for his help with these video lectures.
via SMS: “Tim Gowers – Computational Complexity and Quantum Compuation”.
The Reality of Truthfulness (Sidq)
via:
http://www.marifah.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2265&pid=9488&mode=threaded&show=&st=&
The Reality of Truthfulness (Sidq)
As for truthfulness (sidq), Allah says:
“O you who believe! Have fear of Allah (taqwa) and be with the truthful.” (9:120)
“Be among the truthful” because the one who sits with someone is influenced for good and evil. Nature is a thief. A man copies the one he mixes with a lot, even if he is not aware of it. Tarafa said,
Do not ask about a man. Ask about his close companions.
Every man imitates his close companions.
This is the best path to travel for someone who wants to discipline himself. It is to mix with the perfect man so that his nature and good habits flow to him. The influence of actions is absolutely stronger than the influence of words.
Al-Qushayri noted, “Truthfulness is the basis of the matter and it is made perfect by it, and it is commanded.” He said, “The least truthfulness is when what is secret and what is public are the same.”
Sahl said, “The scent of truthfulness has not been smelt by any person who flatters wither himself or another person.”
“Truthfulness is the sword of Allah,” said Dhu’n-Nun al-Misri. “It is not applied to anything but that it cuts right through it.”
Al-Harith al-Muhasibi said, “The truthful man is the one who does not care if his entire worth in the hearts of men should vanish away if it is for the sake of putting his heart in harmony. He does not like people to know about his least good actions, and he does not dislike people being aware of his bad actions. If he dislike that, it is proof that he desires to be greater in their eyes. This is not sincerity of the truthful ones.”
It is said that if you seek truthfulness from Allah, He will give you a mirror in which you can see the baseless falsehood of this world and the Next.
The master, Abu’l-Qasim al-Junayd, said, “The truthful man is turned about forty times a day, while the show-off is fixed in the same state for forty years.”
By this, he means that the truthful man changes direction with the truth, no matter what it is. When sees something in the Shari’a which is considered to be excellent, he promptly does it, even if it is at variance with his customary habit. If something arises in the Shari’a which is more important, but he cannot combine the two things, then he moves to the better one. He continues to behave like that. In a single day, he may have a hundred different states, or a thousand or even more, according to his mastery of gnosis, and the manifestation to him of fine points and subtleties.
The show-off, on the other hand, clings to one state alone, and if something arises which the Shari’a considers more important in some states, then he will still not do that important thing. He will hold fast to his state, because he is showing off his worship and his state to creation. He fears that people will stop loving him if he changes. He is very careful to ensure that their love continues. But the truthful one desires only the Face of Allah by his worship. Whenever the Shari’a gives greater weight to a certain state, he goes to that state, and does not turn to creation.
-Imam Abu Zakariyya Muhyi’d-din ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi, The Garden of the Gnostics (Bustan-ul-Arifeen)
Murid’s Log: Moulay Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish
The Shadhili Tariqa is built on the foundations of Shukr and Mahabba, gratitude to Allah, and love for him. Moulay Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish summed up the way of the Tariqa that his greatest student was to found in his famous advice to the brethren:
“Seek four things after four things:
Love for Allah,
Satisfaction with the Decree of Allah,
Indifference of the heart towards worldly things, and
Reliance on Allah.
Attain these four, after these four:
Performing Allah’s commands,
Avoiding Allah’s prohibitions,
Patience and fortitude from everything that does not concern one, and
Abandoning everything that distracts and diverts one.”
Were this admonition the only piece of knowledge we had of the Sheikh, it would be enough to prove the truth of his immense understanding, and his lofty status before Allah.
