Daily Morning Prayers

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Oh Creator of all thing; help me. For this day, I go out into the world naked and alone and without Your hand to guide me, I will wander far from the path which leads to success and happiness.

I ask not for gold or garments or even opportunities equal to my ability; instead, guide me so that I may acquire ability equal to my opportunities.

You taught the lion and the eagle how to hunt and prosper with teeth and claws. Teach me how to hunt with words and prosper with love so that I may be a lion amongst men and an eagle in the market place.

Help me to remain humble, through obstacles and failures; yet hide not from mine eyes the prize that will come with victory.

Assign me tasks to which others have failed; yet guide me to pluck the seed of success from their failures. Confront me with fears that will temper spirits, yet endow me with courage to laugh at my misgivings.

Spare me sufficient days to reach my goals; yet help me to live this day as though it may be my last.

Guide me my words that may bear fruit; yet silence me from gossips that none be maligned.

Discipline me in the habit of trying and trying again; yet show me the way to make use of the law of averages. Favor me with alertness to recognize opportunity; yet endow me with patience, which will concentrate on my strength.

Bathe me in good habits that the bad ones may drown; yet grant me compassion for weakness in others. Suffer me to know all things shall pass; yet help me to count my blessings of today.

Expose me to hate so that it not be a stranger; yet fill my cup with love to turn strangers into friends.

But all these things be only if Thy will. I am but a small and lonely grape clutching the vine yet Thou hast made me different from all others. Verily, there must be a special place for me. Guide me. Help me. Show me the way.

Let me become all You planned for me when my seed was planted and selected by You to sprout in the vineyard of the world.

Help this humble slave.

Help me Allah.

Wa sallallahu alaihi wasallam wal hamdu lillahi Rabbil 'alamin

May the blessings and the peace of Allah be upon him (Muhammad) and all praise for Allah, the Sustainer of the worlds.

Photo Credits:

• Photo 1: "Sunrise Paddling on the North Canadian River" by freeWine under a Creative Commons License.
• Photo 2: "IMGP0548 - wine grapes rutherglen" by RaeA under a Creative Commons License.

State of PC

How many of you remembered the 3.5" disk or even the 5 1/4" disk? How about using the cassette tape as a storage media?

I had a so called micro computer way back then. It was the called Oric-1, somewhere back in 1980s. It cost back then about SGD$500. It doesn't come come with a monitor, you plugged it in the TV.

Countless hours were spent on it, writing machine code and assembly language, praying that the power won't trip. Why? A power trip will erase everything in an instant. And I have to re-key in the code again. It was my very first computer and it brings back sweet memories.

It uses the simple cassette tape player to load and save programs and it takes at least 30 minutes. You plug your audio-out from the cassette player into the device. Even after you have saved your work, it still can fail to load up. Hours lost again.

I used a couple of notebooks before and now currently its the LG x120 Netbook cost about SGD$600 or so and its much, much more powerful. Memory storage have shrunk to a thumbnail size chip. Looking at my netbook, the keyboard is about the size of the Oric-1. Its actually very convenient and I can update my blog post from it and read ebooks.

So when Apple launched the iPad, it was very underwhelming for me. As usual Apple is all about hype. To me its like cripple-ware, you can't multitask, no cameras, no usb ports, no Flash support. I just want things that work now. Not somewhere in the future where HTML 5 might become the de-factor standard. Though there are some people who would love it. Hey, its your money.

Fast forward to the 1990s. I bought Microsoft Office and it comes in the 3.5" disk format. There were at least 10 of these disk. The internet back then was simply a dailup. You register with an ISP (it was Pacific Internet Singapore) and 56kb was a big deal. All you need was a phone line and a modem.

Don't laugh, since it was by phone, I thought connecting to an overseas website will cost me an IDD charge. It didn't. And I was worried sick thinking that I may have to pay hefty overseas calls. The connection was so slow.

And now, its broadband and things have evolved tremendously. No longer do I need to buy Microsoft Office because I am using Open Office. A lot of applications are free. I use Picasa for photos, GIMP for my photo editing and Thunderbird for my email client. I do buy some softwares like antivirus, which cost me yearly about SGD$60 a year or so.

Everything is up in the so called "cloud". My list of contacts are in Plaxo and Gmail, that's about 500 contacts that I personally know. Both accounts are sync and also in my laptop. A lot of my files are stored in Google docs, some in Zoho, Box.net and Scribd. Photos everywhere from Picasa to Flickr to Facebook. My online resume is in LinkedIn and my profile is on Google. I have tonnes of passwords for so many services. All these files are backup offline into my PC, netbook and portable HDD. Sounds like a lot of work? At the initial setup it was, now its just a breeze.

What do I get out of all these? 

Simple, as long as there is a PC or connected to the internet, I can easily access all my files. I wonder, when I die, what would happen to all these files and contacts?

I know that some people are paranoid in putting up so much info in the cloud. Well, if you are not comfortable, then don't do it. Nobody is holding a gun and forcing you to do it.

My Gmail account is the nexus. I have set it up to access my Calender, Twitter, Facebook and Google Docs. In any given month, I can receive more than 1000 spam email. It doesn't affect me at all since Gmail have powerful spam filters.

Once an email arrived, it will be filtered to any one of the 117 folders or labels as Gmail calls them, that I have created. Those that is not filtered will appear in the inbox. There I decide to either filter and create a new label, delete it, archive it or Spam it.

I love Gmail Spam function. If I flag an email as spam, the next email from that sender automatically goes into the spam box where it will be deleted automatically after 30 days. I don't even bother to unsubscribe. If the info have outlived its usefulness, I just label it spam, and 'poof' its gone. I did "unsubscribe" before and what happened? 10 more emails from somewhere got in my email.

And now there is this Google Buzz, I got 28 followers and counting. I suspect that some of these followers are not real people. Why? They seemed to repeat the same or more or less similar post. Still have not figured out how useful it can be. I even have a person posting her blog in Vietnamese and another in Chinese?

Can all these services be shut down or go offline? Yes it can. Companies do go bankrupt.

Is the information secured? You never know.

Will they sell your information when you become famous or not? Might.

Can it be used to spy on you? Yes.

Why do we do it?

Its a trade off. We all want the convenience and to a certain degree, we want to be heard. It could be just within your group of friends, or to a wider audience. Its human nature to reach out and connect to someone. We are all a social species, most of us don't live in isolation.

I guess its something to do with wanting to be heard or seen. Nearly everyone needs that claim for significance.

As Andy Warhol, who said in 1968 that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

Photo Credits

• Photo 1: Oric 1 by Lexikon's History of Computing Encyclopedia on CD ROM
• Photo 2: "Wiring Closet: BEFORE" by Cloned Milkmen under a Creative Commons License.
• Photo 3: "Happy Our Birthday :)" by Hamed Saber under a Creative Commons License.

Pulling the trigger

Why are they demonizing Muslims?
"Because the oil happens to be in Muslim Lands"
If those lands are inhabited by Buddhist, they would have demonized Buddhist.

US shipping powerful bunker buster bombs to Diego Garcia for coming attack on Iran

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.

Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth bomber hangers on the island were being equipped to take bunker-buster bombs.

They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran 

Dan Plesch, director, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, University of London

Although the story was not confirmed at the time, the new evidence suggests that it was accurate.

Contract details for the shipment to Diego Garcia were posted on an international tenders’ website by the US navy.

A shipping company based in Florida, Superior Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry many thousands of military items from Concord, California, to Diego Garcia.

Crucially, the cargo includes 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he added.

The preparations were being made by the US military, but it would be up to President Obama to make the final decision. He may decide that it would be better for the US to act instead of Israel, Plesch argued.

“The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely,” he added. “The US ... is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.”

According to Ian Davis, director of the new independent thinktank, Nato Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.

For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the revelation was “extremely worrying”. He stated: “It is clear that the US government continues to beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.”

The British Ministry of Defence has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action. It has already been used for strikes against Iraq during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars.

About 50 British military staff are stationed on the island, with more than 3,200 US personnel. Part of the Chagos Archipelago, it lies about 1,000 miles from the southern coasts of India and Sri Lanka, well placed for missions to Iran.

The US Department of Defence did not respond to a request for a comment.

Game Theory

A must watch documentary based on Jeff Gates' Criminal State. A primer to understanding the current situation and the lead up to 9/11 and subsequent future actions. An actual application of game theory, how Israeli war planners are using US military to further their nationalistic expansion in the Middle East and Worldwide and to its ultimate goal.

Watch it and realize that the greatest threat to world peace is not Islam. For every acts of "terrorism" one must ask te question "Cui Bono?" Wars is not only fought physically, it is also fought in the hearts and minds of the people.

Don't even think that Asia is safe and US is an angel.

One of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century never happened in Asia, as the late Harold Pinter put it in his Nobel Prize-winning lecture. The horrific events that occurred in Indonesia in 1965 "never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn‘t matter. It was of no interest"

The deal was that Indonesia under Suharto would offer up what Richard Nixon had called "the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia". With it's 100 million people and its 300-mile arc of islands containing the region's richest hoard of natural resources, Indonesia is the greatest prize of all in South East Asia.

Its always about controlling of resources, of the most basic of human emotion, greed. Religion, ideology is merely used to as a justification to cover-up the systematic and genocide of an entire race or country.

Would you die for someone else to get rich, or would it better to die for a cause?

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

3Ps for success

Bill Cosby once said: "I don't know the keys to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

So what is success? Is success measured by great achievements? Or a bigger bank account? Maybe just getting by without any hiccups along the way? Or simply just reaching home safely to be with loved ones? Success means different things to different people and some have multiple definition of success.

What is your definition of success? Before you can achieve success, you need to define what success means to you. Your vision of what success is, must be crystal clear to you; without that clarity, you cannot work towards it.

It could be in your career, health, money and across a few areas. It has to be for you, not someone else's. Always be true to yourself, if not, you just end up resenting everything.

You need to dig deep within yourself and question your values in life. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the things that are important to you? Answer it on your own terms, not by what you think others think about you. You can then come closer to your own definition of success.

Don't take too long. Like waiting for all the lights to go green before you start your car. Life always throw a curve ball, learn how to hit it. Define your success one at a time.

In every successful person, there are 3 common characteristics. Most, if not all, know what they want (you need to find out what's yours).

All successful people have these 3 traits that are common.

1. Passion.
2. Patience.
3. Perseverance

 
Passion.
All are passionate in what they do, to almost a fault. They can talk about it non-stop. It is always the first thing in their minds and the last before they go to sleep. Their passion is their vision, and its not always about money. Money is just the side product of your vision, it is not the main thing.

I had a good insurance manager years back.

He asked,

"I have a blueprint that's guaranteed to make a success of your life, if you need $1,000,000 or whatever you dream about, it can provide, provided you follow the blueprint. How much are you willing to pay for it?"

Most of us were stumped, since we were new in the business. We thought of giving a dollar amount for it. That's wasn't the right answer.

The correct answer is to give everything that you own currently. Sell everything, including your house until you have only the clothes on your back.

Why? In what you do, you must have that high level of passion to succeed.

Patience.

Most of us aren't patient enough to wait for the fruits of our success,  All want instant gratification. When they start something, most expect it to bring in the money the next day.


How many advertisement that you came across today, promising less work and quick returns?

It doesn't work that way. It's like nature. When you plant a seed, it does not suddenly becomes a tree. It takes time. An olive tree takes 100 years before you can benefit from its fruits. What you need to do is to have lots of ideas. Let it germinate, some will be faster, others slower.


Which comes to the third trait that successful people have in common:


Perseverance.

A common saying that most have would have heard.


Thomas Edison failed more than 1,000 times when trying to create the light bulb. When asked about it, Edison replied, "I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.


Most, if not all, successful people, stick at it. They have the vision and are willing to believe in it. They never give up on themselves, even after everyone else have left.

With that I leave you with a beautiful definition of success by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

To laugh often and much; 

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; 

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; 

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; 

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; 

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Photo credits:

• 1st Photo: "Guest Speaker, Bill Cosby" by macten under a Creative Commons License.
• 2nd Photo: "You almost feel like you could fly without the plane..." by addicted Eyes under a Creative Commons License.
• 3rd Photo: "2000 year old Olive Tree" by austineven under a Creative Commons License.
• 4th Photo: "Warhol's Light Bulbs" by zetson under a Creative Commons License.