First, the facts:
Eid-Al-Adha (The celebration of the Hajj festival) is scheduled for Friday the 27th of November, 2009, Insha Allah. Yes, I'm referring to the DAY AFTER ARAFAH.
Based on the sighting of the new moon (crescent) of Dhul-Hijjah (or the Month of Hajj), the Saudi Arabian government has reported that, today, Wednesday the 18th of November, 2009 is the FIRST day of hajj. And as such, the day of Arafah is fixed for the 26th Thursday.
It is on this day that those who are NOT on hajj (i.e., the pilgrimage) will observe an optional fast. And the people around the world (i.e., those who are NOT on hajj), will celebrate the Eid with a morning prayer on the 27th.
And now to the problem...
It is rather unfortunate that despite all the information about the sighting of the new moon, some people try to look for it in their own locality. As a result of this ignorant act, they miss the correct day of Hajj. It is common in countries like Sri Lanka that people tend to practise the Eid "a day after the actual Eid" and no one seems to notice the issue.
Well, at least some of us are trying to do it the right way, and I hope those of you who read this will also agree with me that Eid should be on one ONE day across the world.
More on the Eid can be found here.
Eid Mubarak!
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Twitter overload?
Strange, but it happened just now (as I write this message)...
As I tried to retweet the news item about pirates in Somalia, the twitter.com site hung up on me. Is this really a genuine overload, or another one of those horrible DDOS attacks? I hope with all sincerity that this is only temporary and that things will return to normal.
It was only in the recent past that I helped a client of mine in the US to recover from their DDOS attack. It was 'an experience' for me and I was shocked at how someone had 'planted' an entire folder that promoted a certain type of drug.
I just don't understand what these fellows get out of this entire horrid exercise!
Let's hope things default to normal soon!
Khalid
PS: For more info on this I'll be making a detailed post either on this blog or on my site www.marhaonline.com. Keep in touch!
As I tried to retweet the news item about pirates in Somalia, the twitter.com site hung up on me. Is this really a genuine overload, or another one of those horrible DDOS attacks? I hope with all sincerity that this is only temporary and that things will return to normal.
It was only in the recent past that I helped a client of mine in the US to recover from their DDOS attack. It was 'an experience' for me and I was shocked at how someone had 'planted' an entire folder that promoted a certain type of drug.
I just don't understand what these fellows get out of this entire horrid exercise!
Let's hope things default to normal soon!
Khalid
PS: For more info on this I'll be making a detailed post either on this blog or on my site www.marhaonline.com. Keep in touch!
Saturday 7 November 2009
Why I like Cambridge (CIE)
At first it was personal, but eventually it became a trend. Let me spill the beans...
First some background. When I started teaching the GCE Advanced Level (A/L) Computing subject in 1993, we called the examining body ULEAC (University of London Examination and Assessment Council). Then the following year I began teaching the GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) as well and its examining group was called ULSEB (...School Examination Board) - I'm playing this off my cuff and I hope I've got these abbreviations right.
Then in the late '90s, BTEC joined hands with the UL folks (at Steward House, Russell Square) and they called themselves 'Edexcel'. This was (possibly), in my own opinion, one of those synergies for survival like we saw with Lotus and IBM, Siemens and Fujitsu, and HP and Compaq in the past. Anyway, the issue was that as the turn of the century approached we (teachers AND students) had quite a few hiccups with the examination boards. At first, we dealt with the Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka, as the intermediary with Edexcel and subsequently, the British Council in Colombo took over the chores.
By this time, I had already taught a few students for both the AQA and Cambridge examinations as a private tutor. I was highly impressed with the standard of the examination, the structure of the paper and most importantly the Attitude of the (CIE) examining board. I've nothing personally against either of these examination bodies, but here's a simple example.
In searching for a solution to the different issues we had back then, I one day emailed the wonderful, (late) Dr. Fred Burke of CIE (Cambridge International Examinations). I hadn't seen him and didn't know anything about him then. And I was truly amazed at his attitude when he replied within a couple of days and requested me for my (institution's) postal address to mail me syllabuses, papers and the works.
Before long, Dr. Fred was in Sri Lanka and addressed us at the British Council in Colombo. I was on a war-footing... I wanted a change. So I (tried to) convince the schools I worked with and everyone at that time had excuses for not making the switch. Finally, it turned out to become a trend, and today, most people (even reluctantly) are switching to CIE.
Once again, please be reminded that I have nothing against other examining boards. In fact, I still tutor some students for Edexcel examinations. Now, here's why I like CIE.
1. Quick response - good admin feedback.
2. The examination style is simply wonderful - at least with my subject - Computing.
3. The cost of sitting examinations is far less, particularly where the A/Ls in one shot is concerned.
4. Edexcel dropped Computing and brought in Applied ICT (which I disregard as an A/L subject).
5. Computing with CIE is available TWICE a year while Edexcel's Computing was only once a year. Of course ICT from Edexcel is also available twice every year now.
End note:
In the recent years Edexcel was 'acquired' by the Pearson Group, which is not connected to the University of London. They are a company known for online testing systems in the past.
In the mean time, two weeks back, CIE made a bad move - a really bad one. They 'down-sized' their awarding scheme to only a top few 'world class' students. As a result, almost stubbornly, some have decided to revert back to Edexcel.
Phew! What a world...
First some background. When I started teaching the GCE Advanced Level (A/L) Computing subject in 1993, we called the examining body ULEAC (University of London Examination and Assessment Council). Then the following year I began teaching the GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) as well and its examining group was called ULSEB (...School Examination Board) - I'm playing this off my cuff and I hope I've got these abbreviations right.
Then in the late '90s, BTEC joined hands with the UL folks (at Steward House, Russell Square) and they called themselves 'Edexcel'. This was (possibly), in my own opinion, one of those synergies for survival like we saw with Lotus and IBM, Siemens and Fujitsu, and HP and Compaq in the past. Anyway, the issue was that as the turn of the century approached we (teachers AND students) had quite a few hiccups with the examination boards. At first, we dealt with the Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka, as the intermediary with Edexcel and subsequently, the British Council in Colombo took over the chores.
By this time, I had already taught a few students for both the AQA and Cambridge examinations as a private tutor. I was highly impressed with the standard of the examination, the structure of the paper and most importantly the Attitude of the (CIE) examining board. I've nothing personally against either of these examination bodies, but here's a simple example.
In searching for a solution to the different issues we had back then, I one day emailed the wonderful, (late) Dr. Fred Burke of CIE (Cambridge International Examinations). I hadn't seen him and didn't know anything about him then. And I was truly amazed at his attitude when he replied within a couple of days and requested me for my (institution's) postal address to mail me syllabuses, papers and the works.
Before long, Dr. Fred was in Sri Lanka and addressed us at the British Council in Colombo. I was on a war-footing... I wanted a change. So I (tried to) convince the schools I worked with and everyone at that time had excuses for not making the switch. Finally, it turned out to become a trend, and today, most people (even reluctantly) are switching to CIE.
Once again, please be reminded that I have nothing against other examining boards. In fact, I still tutor some students for Edexcel examinations. Now, here's why I like CIE.
1. Quick response - good admin feedback.
2. The examination style is simply wonderful - at least with my subject - Computing.
3. The cost of sitting examinations is far less, particularly where the A/Ls in one shot is concerned.
4. Edexcel dropped Computing and brought in Applied ICT (which I disregard as an A/L subject).
5. Computing with CIE is available TWICE a year while Edexcel's Computing was only once a year. Of course ICT from Edexcel is also available twice every year now.
End note:
In the recent years Edexcel was 'acquired' by the Pearson Group, which is not connected to the University of London. They are a company known for online testing systems in the past.
In the mean time, two weeks back, CIE made a bad move - a really bad one. They 'down-sized' their awarding scheme to only a top few 'world class' students. As a result, almost stubbornly, some have decided to revert back to Edexcel.
Phew! What a world...
About my blog pages
Hello everyone!
I'd like to start off by outlining the meaning my blog's title... Let's start with the term 'knowledge'.
As you (should) know I'm a teacher of computing at College and High School level (A/L and O/L). So my knowledge is mainly within the computing domain. Naturally, after having used computers since 1985... smiles... And among my little circle of known friends and family, I'm known for teaching elementary Arabic and English.
As for the the 'Windows' part of my blog title, no, this is not (always) referring to the most popular product from Microsoft Corp. Rather, it reflects 'windows of opportunity', 'windows of learning', 'windows of interacting' and obviously 'windows as in the rectangular part that encloses our apps' like on systems from MS-Windows, Ubuntu, MacOS and the like.
Thus my blog - Windows of Knowledge... I sure hope this turns out to be useful to both you and me.
As a teacher, I've mostly worked with Alethea International School (www.aletheaonline.com) and I'm also the founder of Marha Online (Pvt) Ltd (www.marhaonline.com) and my most recent experiment was Bravo Classifieds (www.bravoclassifieds.com). I've worked and continue to work as a freelancer, whenever the need arises.
Happy Computing!
Khalid
I'd like to start off by outlining the meaning my blog's title... Let's start with the term 'knowledge'.
As you (should) know I'm a teacher of computing at College and High School level (A/L and O/L). So my knowledge is mainly within the computing domain. Naturally, after having used computers since 1985... smiles... And among my little circle of known friends and family, I'm known for teaching elementary Arabic and English.
As for the the 'Windows' part of my blog title, no, this is not (always) referring to the most popular product from Microsoft Corp. Rather, it reflects 'windows of opportunity', 'windows of learning', 'windows of interacting' and obviously 'windows as in the rectangular part that encloses our apps' like on systems from MS-Windows, Ubuntu, MacOS and the like.
Thus my blog - Windows of Knowledge... I sure hope this turns out to be useful to both you and me.
As a teacher, I've mostly worked with Alethea International School (www.aletheaonline.com) and I'm also the founder of Marha Online (Pvt) Ltd (www.marhaonline.com) and my most recent experiment was Bravo Classifieds (www.bravoclassifieds.com). I've worked and continue to work as a freelancer, whenever the need arises.
Happy Computing!
Khalid
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