Interrogating
When asking your local council what money has been spent on Muslim organisations to Prevent Extremism, be very specific. Ask for which organisations were funded, how much each organisation got, what were the main outputs for the projects, and what are the means of verification on the side of the local authority. Also ask how long the specific funding is for. I learnt this the hard way, afer getting a wishywashy answer, and only after invoking the Freedom of Information act. More info here at bradfordmuslim
Duplicating
2 blogs have disappeared, Godblogger and the Muslim Thinktank (from the excellently named Dal Nun Strong). It could happen to your favourite blog. To ensure one has a local copy, use a website copier to download whole websites before it is too late. I recommend httrack for Windows or Linux, and have been told webgrabber works on OS X.
* Correction… Umm Yasmin informs us in the comments that Godblogger posts have been pulled into Dervish. Hurrah!
Decorating
Regular visitor may have noticed I changed the theme of this blog. The photo is of Loch Lomond three years ago, taken with Mrs Moo. It was edited with GIMP.
On my laptop, I have installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my IBM thinkpad x31. Did not need any configuration whatsoever. Drivers, software and settings all through gui. It is lovely. I have dual booted it.
Open Source is good all round.
Bleah. Gimp. It is not intuitive. At least, not for me.
Yes, consensus is that GIMP is powerful but clumsy. Others swear by gimpshop – the menus rearranged to be like photoshop. I
I use it because I can’t afford a proper copy of photoshop. I can do very basic image resizing, cropping, layers, curves/hue/transparency stuff. One day, when I am rich, and my family are content, I may purchase photoshop. Oh, and I read that there is a free version online, Photoshop express.
that’s why i use it too bro. overall, i rate Gimp, i even managed to create animated fire the other day which looks great.
i haven’t tried photoshop express, didn’t even know it existed, i’ll give it a whirl though!
peace
Ummm… soowweeeee. I’ve pulled the Godblogger posts into Dervish, which I’ve put back up. Did I mention I’m prone to impulsive decisions, which I regret later?
*Banging head on keyboard*, pasted wrong link into Dervish hyperlink. That should be http://www.maryams.net/dervish