Unfortunately the ruling dictatorship had other ideas. It followed its usual tactics of hiring thugs to scare off the voters. It prevented voters from voting unless they saw that the ballot was marked for the National Democratic Party (which is neither nationalistic nor democratic in case you hadn’t guessed) and arrested anyone who demanded their rights with too loud a voice.

One asks himself; How can change come about while this police state continues to disregard the law and terrorize its populace? And why do western powers (who claim that they promote freedom and democracy) continue to support this corrupt and evil government both financially and politically?

It has been my observation that people rarely are granted freedom. They usually have to wrester it from the hands of their oppressors. They fight and struggle to gain their freedom, not necessarily by coup or war, sometimes just by being willing to die or be beaten or spend years in jail. The price of freedom is great, but freedom is worth it!

When the majority of Egyptians feel and act this way, then we will gain our freedom and Egypt once again will claim the throne of the Arab world. Then shall the world once again be bathed in the light that is Egypt. Then shall the Egyptians once again raise their heads and be proud to be Egyptians.

The data is truly beautiful and I thought It would make a lovely wallpaper. I stitched together various images to create a hi-resolution image which I am now sharing with the world.

Zein’s perfect netbook:

o Linux based (No Windows tax for me!)
o 9″ or 10″ screen.
o Atom 1.6Ghz
o 1GB RAM
o Large track pad (the Acer for example is too small)
o 4GB (at least and 8GB at most) of storage.
o 4 hours (at least) battery life.
o 1.3 MP Webcam
o Wifi
o bluetooth (optional)

And so I got very excited when I saw that the Dell Mini 9 had been released. The Dell is a lot more customizable at purchase time them the EEEPC, Aspire One or the MSI Wind and therefore a lot cheaper since you only pay for what you want. I got a surprise when I discovered that the Linux and Windows XP versions are identical in price!!

Here are screen shots of the 2 systems after configuration. Both are $US 454 (after $40 instant savings on the XP version) and while that is a lot less then an EEEPC 901. I am baffled to as why I am not saving by not paying any windows tax! I would have expected the Linux version to be at least $US 50 less than the windows version.

The Linux version
The XP version

I got in Krakow on the 22nd at about 9:30 AM. The hotel wouldn’t let me check in until 2:00 PM so I had to walk about the city. I found a shopping mall and worked on my presentation. By the time I checked in, had a shower and prayed Duhr and Aser, I was dead tired so I went to bed. I woke up at 11:00 PM. By the time I had finished my presentation, it was 6:00AM on the 23rd. So I got ready, had breakfast and set of for the conference.

The conference

I arrived at 7:30 and picked up my registration material. They gave me a backpack that was 10 times better than the crappy backpack I got at SC07.

Keynote speakers were a mix of brilliant and boring. I was really happy with the talk by Maria E. Orlowska about “Intrinsic Limits in Context Modeling”. She spoke about problems that people are promising to solve yet have been proved to be unsolvable. She states that context modeling is the way forward but we need to understand what the limits are. I like part of her talk that highlighted that when speed and size of our computing abilities have increased, computing itself has remained static in terms of what we can compute.

I was very Nervous about giving my presentation but It went very well. Now that I have got that over with, I can enjoy the conference. Other presentations of interest were by Intel about there 45nm shrink process and some linear algebra work on the cell processor.

I believe that Islam is a practical religion and that its laws reflect that practicality. I also believe that when faced with different opinions from reputable scholars, it is our job to chose the opinion that maximizes benefit for the Muslim Umah.

Faced with my brothers gentle request to accommodate him, I started to research the subject. I immediately aimed my browser at Islam Online where I know there exists a fatwa bank. I found a few articles and several fatwas on the subject.

articles on the subject:
Delivering the Friday Sermon in a Language Other than Arabic
Role of Friday Khutbah
Friday Khutbah in the Language of the Audience
There, I found a multitude of fatwas that permit giving the khutba in a languge other than Arabic.
I also found this link from the Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc. whom I have never heard of.

I think that it is safe to say that there is no problem in giving the khutba in English.