On Hidden Things

In the Beginning Was Consciousness (Lecture by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr)

2012-01-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

Delivered at the Harvard Divinity School last year. Dr. Nasr discusses the epistemological changes that have occurred in recent centuries beginning in Europe, the Scientific Revolution, and the descent of true science to Scientism and the corresponding symptoms of the empty and utterly hopeless understanding of reality so frequent in the time and place in which we live. He shares his belief that, in light of some signs of change in recent decades, we are finally on the cusp of our long trajectory into intellectual darkness and back. A global future of polished hearts and awakened souls may not so distantly await.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbASTsjxE8

Waiting for Dawn

2011-09-20T04:21:00.003-04:00

It is a very curious thing that in the most current chapters within the world narrative of modernity and modern times that among even the most ignorant of laypersons there is a fascination and admittedly quite superficial albeit nonetheless existent attraction to initiatic, or gnostic, traditions. It is particularly interesting, and particularly absurd, given that the initiatic realm and anything that may be considered close to a comprehension of it is and has always been unreachable by the majority since humanity's descent from its truer status, before which period, as metaphysician René Guénon had said, the very word 'initiation' could not have meant anything, all persons having naturally occupied the station which may be said to be the object of all authentic initiatic tradition today.

What is initiation? It may in a nutshell be thought of quite simply as the transmission of a spiritual influence upon a candidate, given the satisfaction of candidature and given the satisfaction of an authentic traditional body (to be explained). Early Christian Gnosticism as well as Sufism, Shi'i Irfan, and the Kabbalah, are among those initiatic or esoteric bodies or schools most obvious and most recognizable to the West. According to Guénon, there are three absolutely necessary "conditions" for initiation which act as qualifications for the passage into authentic esoteric knowledge and status, reworded a bit for mnemonic purposes:

1. An aptitude or "initiability" on the part of the candidate

2. An "attachment to a regular, traditional organization" (on the part of those conferring benefit on the candidate)

3. An actuality wherein the candidate is guided through a systematic realization of his initiatic ascent

(See Fohr's translation of Perspectives on Initiation, pp. 22 - 27.)

It is clear that many contemporary, widespread attractions to the mystical rest on a lack of understanding of these three principles insightful laid out by Guénon, a complete rejection of their necessity altogether, or the replacement of the quality of attachment with a pseudo-traditional authority.

By necessity, only a minority will have the aptitude to discern between the qualified and unqualified forms, or authentic religion or spirituality from inherently misguided pseudo-authority. The greater challenge will be to raise consciousness, or distribute aptitude, with the majority who despite all their good intention and grand intelligence have continued to be unable to launch themselves outside the prisons of the contemporary paradigm.

Three Dollars Per Month = Still Factors Freer than a "Free" Dropbox Account

2011-06-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

Last week, Dropbox proved that it cares nothing for its users' privacy. For several hours, every Dropbox user's account was accessible through the member website without need of a password. The incident gave clear validity to the intuitive suspicion of thousands across the Internet who used Dropbox's service for the sake of convenience, complacent in the "possible" elimination of their freedom, privacy, and personal dignity.

In the hours that followed, the question was posted on slashdot as to what alternatives to the service might already be in development under a free and open license. An answer, which I decided to investigate further, was SparkleShare.

Not only is SparkleShare released under the GPL, but it also has one other very significant distinction from Dropbox. Rather than hosting your files on Dropbox's server, you decide what server your files are hosted on. This is both a radical advantage in terms of freedom, and a disadvantage (for some) in terms of feasibility.

I decided, a few days ago, to purchase a monthly subscription for a cheap, unmanaged VPS. The site sshVM.com currently offers simple virtual Linux machine, accessible by SSH, for only $3.00. All I had to do then was follow the instructions on SparkeShare's website to set up my own SparkleShare server on my VPS. It was surprisingly simple!

I did have some difficulty getting SparkleShare to build on my local machine. I settled for the PPA:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pdffs/sparkleshare/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/pdffs/sparkleshare/ubuntu lucid main

Installing and configuring SparkleShare on my machine went mostly smoothly, except I did notice that it crashed any time I tried to open a folder from the SparkleTray system tray icon. This may have been due to the fact that I am running Awesome Window Manager, rather than the GNOME environment it is designed for. If you encounter stability issues with SparkleShare like I have, simply wrap the execution binary in a container script like I have, so that it will be restarted upon crash.

I am sure there is a better way to do this, but here is the script I wrote to launch Sparkleshare, then sit in the background and relaunch it anytime it crashes:

while [ 1 = 1 ]; do if ps -A | grep sparkleshare > /dev/null; then echo "" > /dev/null ; else `echo "sparkleshare start"` ; fi & sleep 10s; done

Let me know if you have a better way of writing that script, and I'll let you know how my experience with Sparkleshare goes!

Pirate File-Sharing Group Claims Religious Status in Sweden

2011-04-19T13:43:00.000-04:00

The Missionary Church of Kopimism, founded by 19-year-old Isaac Gerson, has filed for status as an official religion in Sweden. Among their principle beliefs:

Reproduction of information is ethically right.
The flow of information is ethically right.
Remix Spirit is a sacred kind of copying.
Copying or remixing information conveyed by another person is an act of respect.

The group has also stated that “to appropriate software (to keep source code hidden from others), is comparable to slavery, and should be banned.” It does not seem they share a philosophy with the Free Software Movement. Not only do they not agree with proprietary licensing, but they also do not appear to recognize its legal existence.

Visit the official website: http://kopimistsamfundet.se/english/

[Read more from the original article.]

Friday Prayers from Kazakhstan

2011-04-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

Egypt

2011-02-02T14:28:00.001-05:00

My heart and soul is with my Muslim and Christian and other brothers and sisters in Egypt, and with all who are rising up together in the spirit of brotherhood against the tyranny throughout the East brought upon you by corrupt powers. May God symbolically cast the pharaoh once again to the seas and let the believers have self rule and peace again. And may such a state of peace be brought about nonviolently, in the spirit of Agape, of Sadaqah, and brotherly love.

Too often Islamic governance, and the mix of religion and state in general, is understood in the West as necessarily and essentially violent. The Muslim Brotherhood of today has done an honorable job of acting to and proving the contrary despite their having been demonized by some corners of the western media, and altogether ignored by others. The Brotherhood must continue to show that the complete separation of Islam from a state ruling over Muslims is unjust, and that a legal and recognized Islamic party with a share in leadership is a part of the medicine to the ailment facing the East and West today alike. But may it only come to power when it is welcomed and may it not be misguided by evildoers that it too becomes oppressive; it can only justify itself in the voice of people.

May the voice of the men on the streets be heard, and may a new government be formed that reflects their aspirations, manifests that of what they know, and rises above what they know not. May this include all parties, sacred and secular. May the powers that have been realize there is neither ethical nor practical justification in stopping peaceful protests with arms and may they allow their dream to come about nonviolently for the better of Egypt, the Mother of the World.

مصر أم الدنيا

Take A Moment

2011-01-03T17:23:00.005-05:00

Take a moment to put aside every thing you have been taught by this world to worship, to take an objective look at every aspect of our world that you were taught never to criticize. Mind not that you be looked upon thereafter by the masses as the blinded philosopher, unable to walk through the darkness as well as they do, for indeed you are blinded, but blinded by the light of the sun they have never seen.

"This [intellectual] regress has reached such a point that the Westerners of today no longer know what pure intellect is; in fact they do not even suspect that anything of the kind can exist..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aHPPSqhbF4

Creating a Custom Bash Prompt for each GNOME Terminal Profile

2010-12-23T22:06:00.005-05:00

This website does a particularly good and simple job of explaining how to set up your own custom bash prompt style in Linux. One issue that I had been having, however, is that I could not find any way to have more than one co-existing prompt style. That is, to set up each terminal profile to have its own bash prompt design. I managed to find a number of people online looking to set up multiple bash prompt styles for each of their GNOME terminal profiles, but with no answers. Thankfully, I was ultimately able to figure it out by my own trial and error.

First of all, read the instructions on http://www.linuxhelp.net/guides/bashprompt/bashprompt-print.php to learn how to set up a "PS1=..." line for your ~/.bashrc file. As you may already know, if you wish to make changes for all bash sessions, you can add such a line to the bottom of that file, or you may simply type it into a bash prompt to enable the configuration temporarily.

I will use as an example the following format, generated with the help of the website provided above:

PS1="\[\033[0;31m\]Linux\[\033[1;37m\]Box \\w"

Rather than adding this to your ~/.bashrc file and therefore modifying the prompt style of all your terminals, you can simply make a copy of your .bashrc.bashrcalt) and make the changes to that file: file, call it whatever you would like (I call mine

cd ~
cp .bashrc .bashrcalt

Then, in the GNOME Terminal profile settings for the specific profile you would like to work with, go to the "Title and Command" tab, check the box that says "Run a custom command instead of my shell," choose "Exit the terminal when command exits" and, for the command to run, set the following:

bash --rcfile .bashrcalt

Now, load a GNOME Terminal session with your custom profile enabled. e.g.:

gnome-terminal --profile=the_name_of_your_profile_here

You should be viewing the bash prompt with the custom set up you configured.

How to Make Jimmy Go Away (A Personal Appeal)

2010-11-27T02:09:00.005-05:00

Jimmy Wales wants you to donate to Wikipedia. While anyone who uses Wikipedia must surely appreciate the service, we certainly aren't all in a situation to give back, at least financially (Actually, the best way to show your appreciation for the service is to become an at least occasional editor and contribute to the content).

Calling it a "personal appeal" sounds very sentimental, but it doesn't make it any easier for you to donate if you don't have money. Some of us, respectfully, just want the ad to go away.

If you use the Adblock Plus extension for Firefox (and why wouldn't you), go to Tools -- Adblock Plus Preferences and add the following filter:

/w/index.php?title=*:bannercontroller

Apply the new setting, and refresh the page!

Before

After

Special thanks to Michael at Adblock Plus forums!

An Open Letter to Diaspora

2010-09-17T12:50:00.003-04:00

Dear Diaspora founders, investors, and developers,

Allow me first of all to congratulate you on the levels you have already reached, and extend to you my best wishes for a hopeful future and a better, more morally just alternative to the Facebook social networking site. I have a couple of issues to address with you that I think you will find to be of very high importance.

First of all, please consider the benefits, for you and the community at large, of introducing your product as the open-source alternative to Facebook under a free software license. Not only would such a gesture prove your service to be the moral alternative to Facebook, but it would ensure for you a vast and committed community of individuals regularly working to make your service more appealing and best of all, make it run better. I think the benefits of open source licensing apply especially to social networking and there is a very high demand for it today. Moreover, it is an ethical necessity.

Understand, as well, that by competing with Facebook you will be taking on all her moral and philosophical challenges. Facebook's privacy problem is only one issue. The way it decides what material can be posted and what cannot, is another one all together. The appropriate balance between freedom of speech and censorship is a moderately difficult subject for the intelligent, free-thinking people; Facebook has proven that it is, however, next to impossible for corporations. If your social network is to prove a morally just alternative to Facebook, and not merely a competitive clone, you must allow it to become neither a breeding ground for misinformation or the false representation of or discrimination against persons or peoples, nor an environment where intellectual challenges and critiques of modernity as well as religious beliefs and the full spectrum of political opinions are suppressed. Facebook has been guilty of some large degree of both of these extremes; and being guilty of some degree of two extremes does not make one moderate, nor does it make one just. If you decide your ethical issues by bribes and interest groups, as is the business of Facebook, than you will prove no better to the rest of the world, you will fail to bring the needed change to the digital world that we are calling for, and you will fail to gain the support of the masses who otherwise see no reason to step away from the services they are already using. Please consider these warnings, recognize the truthfulness of my intentions, and take them to heart.

I wish you peace and blessings in your endeavors, and I hope you make the right decisions, and I hope you make them for the right reasons.

Former Facebook User

Creating a fixed RAM disk in Ubuntu

2010-06-02T20:50:00.005-04:00

Ciao lume.

A couple weeks ago I began tinkering with an operating system called Icaros, a desktop distribution of AROS, which is in turn a modern operating system designed to imitate and build upon the classic AmigaOS 3.1 environment. AROS comes with a "RAM Disk"--a fixed or dynamic partition of a computer's memory set asside to function as though it were a disk drive--loaded on the machine by default.

A RAM disk offers the benefit of storing and retrieving data more quickly than on an actual hard disk, as well as some security features thanks in part to the fact that any data stored on the disk will be removed on reboot. A RAM disk can be beneficial for numerous purposes, most commonly today to set as the location for browser cache to make visited webpages load faster (ideally on larger RAM disks with proper size limitations noted in one's browser cache settings). The use and benefit of RAM disks (which as far as I know have been around longer than permanent disk drives) will whither away with the replacement of spinning disk drives with static-state drives. For the moment, however, I found it an interesting enough concept that, despite the fact I have little to no apparent use for one, I decided to create a RAM disk that boots at each startup in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid).

There are a few easier ways to do this which you can easily google and bing yourself. I have found, however, that what most people consider today a RAM disk are actually disks that use both physical as well as virtual memory, the latter being stored on the hard drive and thus eliminating the purpose of having a RAM disk to begin with. I also made the decision that I wanted a RAM disk of fixed size, not a dynamic one (e.g. mounting /dev/shm) which can take over up to half the system memory--I only have two gigabytes of RAM on my machine).

To do this, run:

sudo mkfs -t ext3 -q /dev/ram1 65536
sudo mkdir -p /media/ramdisk
sudo mount /dev/ram1 /media/ramdisk -o defaults,rw

(Where 65536 is the size in kilobytes, translating to an example size of 64 megabytes.)

The RAM disk should then be mounted on the desktop. To make this happen at system startup (for all users), run:

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

(Replace gedit with your preferred editor, replacing gksudo with the ordinary sudo command for terminal-based, non-graphical editors.)

Making sure not to add anything after the line reading exit 0, add the following to the file:

mkfs -t ext3 -q /dev/ram1 65536
mount /dev/ram1 /media/ramdisk -o defaults,rw
chmod 777 -R /media/ramdisk

A few additional tweaks: Setting the RAM disk up as an ext3 partition, a folder lost+found is created every time the RAM disk is loaded at boot-up. I personally found this annoying. As you may know, to hide a file or folder (without having to rename it) in Gnome, you must create a file named .hidden whose contents list the names of the file(s) you wish to hide and which must be stored in the same directory. To make this happen each time you log in, you can create a text file containing nothing but lost+found, name it whatever you would like, and then store it somewhere obscure. Then create a basic script which copies that file to /media/ramdisk/.hidden - The contents of the script can be as simple as:

#!/bin/bash

cp /home/user/example/hide_thing /media/ramdisk/.hidden &

Set the script to load when you log in by (System - Preferences - Startup Applications) setting the command to: /the/location/of/your/script/./the_name_of_your_script.sh

The RAM disk I set up is viewable by all users of my system including my guest account. Any files that are stored to the RAM disk can be viewed by others users by logging out and switching sessions (as long as the machine is not rebooted). I decided to create a folder called private on the RAM disk (which is automatically created every time I log in, which is only viewable only by me. To do this, add the following line to the script just shown:

mkdir /media/ramdisk/private && sleep 1s && chown YOU_USER_NAME -R /media/ramdisk/private && sleep 1s && chmod 700 -R /media/ramdisk/private &

Now all I have to do is find a use for this thing. This article will be grossly obsolete in a few months if it isn't already.

For every man his due.

2010-02-25T12:34:00.002-05:00

I have no sympathies for a country whose existence is structured upon the tearing down of places of prayer to build restaurants and night clubs. There is no love of God in this, and any one of faith should be ashamed that any of them claim to follow the same faith or any faith at all. Jews have a covenant with God that should be respected and protected by everyone, but those who have no morals have no covenant. Those who violate their duties lose their rewards. Responsibility precedes right. Those who turn against God must expect no gift from him and moreover no protection from him. In fact, they should expect only its antithesis.

Regarding:

Israel's new war on Islamic sites. Daud Abdullah, Aljazeera.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/02/2010225111933403649.html

In a move that appears to be a celebration of the 16th anniversary of the massacre of 29 worshippers by the terrorist Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli government has proclaimed that the Ibrahimi Mosque in Khalil (Hebron) and Masjid Bilal ibn Rabah (mosque) in Bethlehem are "Jewish Heritage sites". [read more]

Truth and Religious Unity

2009-12-07T22:20:00.005-05:00

From my final paper for my Ethics class.

Few doubt that our world and what we can directly perceive are but one piece of a much greater and mysterious ultimate reality. Throughout the course of human history, certain individuals, gifted in the greatest of spiritual intelligence, have by whatever cultural explanation claimed to have become conscious of this ultimate truth, and in the form of a message that the worldly around them could comprehend, founded what would become the great religions of human history as shamans, prophets, and sages. Preceding our modern world of globalization and multicultural exchange was a time when one single “grand narrative” was generally understood as the ultimate guiding truth by the vast majority of people within any given society. As John Esposito, a scholar on Islamic studies at Georgetown explains, what distinguishes the modern world from that of the past is that we are ever immersed in cultural and religious diversity explained by a new “metanarrative” of pluralism: “No single story,” he writes, “can possibly be all encompassing for all people in a given culture, especially as global culture emerges and the world’s religions are found in everyone’s home town. Diversity relativizes all stories” (Esposito 24-25). The often overwhelming perplexity that is religious diversity may itself be a reason for the modern world’s loss of tradition and even a driving force behind moral relativism. In modern times, the followers of each tradition must ask: does the diversity of the world’s religions necessarily negate their validity, and must the existence of cultural diversity necessitate moral relativism?

In his essay “The Case Against Moral Relativism,” Louis Pojman manages to construct a list of ten non-arbitrary rules of morality:

Do not kill innocent people, do not cause unnecessary pain or suffering, do not cheat or steal, keep your promises and honor your contracts, do not deprive another person of his or her freedom, do justice, treating equals equally and unequals unequally, tell the truth, help other people, at least when the cost to oneself is minimal, show gratitude for services rendered, and obey just laws (Pojman 184).

Our ability to construct a list of universal rights and wrongs matched by traditions across the globe seems in itself, at the very least, to limit the likelihood of moral relativism. However, it seems that there are some societies, such as the Kwakiutl and clans of Melanesia which reputedly embrace violence and murder as virtues and thus violate some of these principles. Perhaps, then, these may not be called universal per se. The existence of exceptions may turn what would otherwise be called universals into general tendencies at best, but it does not in any way mean that the values of differing cultures may not, nonetheless, have a common point of convergence, even a unified origin.

The common origin of world languages is the human brain. Despite the outer diversity of human languages, all languages follow systematic patterns which can be predicted by the presence of other, corresponding patterns. Each of such patterns generally occurs in one of a finite number of forms, abiding by linguistic universals. Knowing much about how nouns work in a certain language, for example, a linguist can predict with a great deal of accuracy, in accordance with documented linguistic universals, how verbs work in that same language. A proportionally small number of universals, however, are almost always violated in the grammar of any given language. Understanding, then, that language is a part of culture, the existence of universal moral principles as manifested in human culture is in fact not refuted by the existence of cultural outliers such as the Kwakiutl.

The great religions of the world, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Chinese religions among others, all can be said to vary extensively. On an esoteric level, however, as in the case of language, there appears to be an innate, transcendent unity from which they all mutually originate. Each tradition calls for adherence to the same principles listed by Pojman, manifested through specific cultural norms. Moreover, each tradition in its orthodox form necessitates rite of tradition as a means of social unity and as a reflection of one’s submission to a higher power through belief in the mystical and unseen. How this higher power is described, as an inactive and impersonal force of “the Buddha nature” (Esposito 25), a fatherly personification, or yet by different explanation, is an understandable cultural variance considering the magnitude and intensity behind the concept of the Divine which in its purity exists arguably quite far beyond the worldly understanding.

The existence of universal, fundamental truths, which exist regardless of change in culture across time and space, is necessary in order to make judgments of what is right and what is wrong. It is debatable as to whether these absolute truths are or are not merely the creation of mankind. Each of the great religious traditions teaches that the origin of these truths is, in fact, not the product of man’s reason, but a revelation of the Divine Truth, God in the Western tradition. Just as different languages may convey the same powerful and emotional concepts using different combinations of simple, arbitrary sounds, many of the different religious traditions of the world may express the same innate and unworldly, underlying sapience, molded in the form of the worldly externalizations and cultures on which we are dependant.

Many believe that the best way to respond to the perplexity of religious diversity is syncretism, not merely accepting truth in multiple traditions but in fact combining them into one, single tradition. This is difficult to defend, however, for two principle reasons. Any polarized distinction between what is religious and what is merely cultural is in itself an artificial construction, and so all the religious traditions in their orthodoxy intertwine faith with law, rites, and dress. It is simply impossible to merge multiple religions in all their complexities into one tradition and still give each its due. Moreover, a consciously and intentionally syncretic faith would be an artificial construction necessitated by belief in the authentic, divine revelation of the traditions before it. Each religion was founded by sages, and each came with its own traditions believed to be authentic according to the founder’s enlightenment. To follow an artificially constructed religion would be to follow a tradition that is not recognized to be authentic by any religion, and the argument that the Divine Truth is lost in so doing is easily made. One cannot fully practice two religions at the same time just as one cannot follow two paths at once, even though the two paths may converge at the end.

A belief in the transcendent unity of religions, collectively housing a single “perennial philosophy,” is one that is held by many scholars of all the major world traditions. The practice of one tradition does not in itself disprove all others, and many of even the most orthodox of each tradition hold dear to this fact. In the Islamic tradition, the Holy Quran teaches that Jews, Sabians, Christians, and anyone who believes in God and does good deeds will have "nothing to fear or regret" (5:69). Moreover, the Quran explains that "for every nation there is a messenger" (10:47), that the Quran is not a new message but merely the confirmation of previous ones (12:111), and that all divinely inspired religious traditions received their scriptures as a part of the same universal message or "Umm Al-Kitab," that is, "the Mother of the Book" (43:4).

As another example, the Hindus have always advocated the common origin and unity of different, often seemingly conflicting, traditions. Jagadguru Chandrashekarendra Saraswati explains the lack of significance of the word Hindu in his essay The Vedic Religion: "Only when there are a number of religions do they have to be identified by different names" (Saraswati 13). However, as the Jagadguru declares, there is only one religion. Similarly to the Islamic concept of the Umm Al-Kitab, he affirms:

"For all the divisions in our religion there is but one scripture—a scripture common to all—and one Godhead which is known by many names. The Vedas are the common scripture and the Godhead common to all is the Brahman. Thus we can say with finality, and without any room for doubt, that all of us belong to the same religion" (19).

Despite the fact that the Hindu vision of a single Godhead is often manifested in multiple forms, this argument mirrors the centerpiece of Islamic monotheism: "La ilaha illa Allah," there is no god but God, which is not only a command to worship none but the One, but in fact a testimonial that there exists none but the only One, and that all the gods that can be said to exist have two possibilities: either they do not truly exist, or they are actually God. What may seem exclusivist on the surface, then, is in fact innately universal and pluralistic.

In Charles Colson’s “The Volunteer at Auschwitz,” Father Kolbe sacrificed his life for the life of another prisoner (Colson 529-534). This was particularly meaningful as, in the concentration camps, no value of human life was recognized. Those deemed useless to the agenda of the state were executed without concern. Those deemed to be useful were kept as long as they were such, often as guinea pigs in degrading and dehumanizing experiments. Father Kolbe’s actions served as a contrast to this environment, to remind humanity that each and every one of us is living due to the same force of life-creation as all others. In contrast to what the military machine in Auschwitz believed, life does and must have a meaning, as human life has a universal, underlying nature that makes it what it is.

All the traditions recognize the sanctity of life and seek to explain its origins. In the Holy Quran, God says that He breathed His Spirit into Adam (15:29). Many traditions discuss the concept of man as created in the form or likeness of God, and mystics all over the world from different places and times have envisioned man as almost nonexistent, merely a this-worldly shadow or reflection of the Divine Reality. While some may have a different answer, and others may suggest there is no answer at all, this, in some form or another, is the basis in all the great traditions for human life. To say that life is aspirated into our bodies by God is to say that while human life flows in our world, its origins are something beyond the dimensions of time and space that we may usually observe. The life-consciousness and self awareness of one person is equally valuable to one’s own because both lives are of the same essence that makes them life, and each originates from a mysterious common source that puzzles the religious and secular alike.

In the same way that taking an introductory course is needed in order to take one of a higher level, a recognition of truth, of an ultimate origin from which the axes are drawn and all things are plotted, is a prerequisite in the belief of universal right and wrong. To judge another’s actions by his own principles alone counts for nothing in the quest of distinguishing rightness and wrongness universally. Culture varies by place and also by time. As the perception of truth appears to change over the course of both, truth itself remains static.

On the surface, the existence of religious pluralism creates a myriad of conflicting truths from which the conclusion of moral relativism may seem reasonable. However, there are universal, underlying similarities shared among each of the great traditions which suggest not only a common message but a common origin, the perennial philosophy. Man’s existence itself is dependent on truth, as nothing can exist without it. It is our duty then, as human beings, to seek and protect it. If we conclude that the Ultimate Truth is God, then we have the responsibility of following Him. If we recognize divine prophecy, then we must attempt to follow one of the many revealed traditions, in all its form, in the most traditional way we can and without syncretism, in order to become fully human. While we seek the big questions as the religious and secular alike, we discover that diversity does not negate truth but is a miracle left as a sign of its existence, the garden of one underlying, transcendent truth from which many traditions flow.

Notes

Colson, Charles. "The Volunteer at Auschwitz," Louis Pojman, ed. The Moral Life. Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 529-34.

Esposito, John L., Fasching, Darrell J. and Lewis, Todd. Religion and Globalization: World Religions in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 24-25.

Pojman, Louis. "The Case Against Moral Relativism", Louis Pojman, ed. The Moral Life. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 166-90.

Saraswati Swamigal, Jagadguru Chandrashekarendra. “The Vedic Religion: Introductory” Introduction to Hindu Dharma: Illustrated. Online Library, The home page of World Wisdom - Perennial Philosophy and the World's Great Spiritual Traditions. http://www.worldwisdom.com.

My visit to a Catholic Mass

2009-11-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

This entry reflects my most recent religious studies paper, documenting my visit to a Mass at the Immaculate Conception Church, a Catholic church in the small town of Brownville, NY.

From a personal, spiritual perspective, I have often been curious and attracted to the Catholic tradition, the authenticity of which as one of the gateways to truth I believe is confirmed by my own Islamic faith. Catholicism seems to be a religion which still retains a degree of tradition and orthodoxy, and I value its ability to provide for many people of the world a venue through which they can seek the heart of Divine Truth despite the ubiquitous and ever-increasing distractions of modernity. From time to time I have sought and continue to study the wisdom of many Catholic thinkers, but I have never until now taken the opportunity to attend a Catholic Mass.

I attended the Saturday evening service, led by Father Kevin O'Brien, pastor, who greeted church members as they entered before service. There were about one hundred people in the congregation, seated in two wide lines of large, hardwood pews, resembling those of many Protestant churches in my memory, with the exception that installed into them were retractable kneelers connected to the back of each seat for those seated behind them. Behind the pastor was a highly decorated alcove architecturally reminiscent of an enlarged Islamic mihrab, decorated by several paintings showing events in biblical history, particularly depicting Christ in a divine light. At the left and right apex of this alcove read the words, in English, “He was pierced for our offenses, by his stripes we are healed.” These words were yellow on a purple banner, and just below them was a large crucifix hanging from the ceiling, a painted statue of Christ on his cross. On the left and right walls were several stained glass windows that were difficult to examine at night. Between each window was a distorted cross-shaped plank, in the center of each of which was a painting of Christ at some stage during his torture and execution. As I seated myself in the pews, I told the woman to my right that I was not Catholic and was attending primarily for scholarly purposes, and so I somewhat jokingly apologized to her beforehand if I were to do anything silly or out of line. She laughed and said with a wink, “We're not as tough as they say we are.”

Much of the service was strongly resemblant of many protestant services I had attended when I was younger. In fact, I was rather surprised by the similarities. My father, who is a non-practicing, formerly practicing Catholic, was particularly surprised when I stated that I had heard no Latin spoken during the service; even the words printed above the crucifix in the front center were noticeably English. Like many protestant churches, service opened with a hymn. The alien, overly traditional ritualism I had imagined I would witness had been noticeably exaggerated.

What I found particularly interesting was that each of the several times during the service that the congregation was called to prayer, everyone stood up, and after the prayer, sat back down. To me this parallels many traditions, including Islamic tradition where prayer is partially standing, as well as Zoroastrian. To my recollection, in most protestant churches people remain seated for prayer, and rise only for song. I also noticed that were several lines of prayer memorized by the congregation which they recited in unison at appropriate times throughout the service, including the Lord's Prayer as well as the words “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” before the communion ceremony, which was different from the majority of protestant services in that those in attendance left their seats row by row to take communion at the front center of the church, using ritual glassware. Those leaving a pew to take communion returned in the same order, entering the pews from the opposite side they had left, and, as I had remained seated, those who had been sitting next to me had trouble getting around me because the pews were very close together. Collection baskets hung from sticks, and were carried by select people down the isles.

There were several prayers recited during the service, including blessings on the Pope and a prayer for the leaders of all Christian churches, for political leaders, soldiers, and the recently deceased. This prayer was divided in parts, each part followed by the congregation replying in unison “Lord hear our prayer.” There are also printed prayer requests in the bulletin. Among unhealthy individuals listed for whom our prayers are requested, I noticed the names of a relative of a student at Nazareth College two and a half hours away as well as another man who happens to share his first and name with a famous scholar of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University (who also happened to have written the textbook for the very course that sent me here.)

Tonight's service came the day before the first Sunday of Advent. One may infer that I was the only person present who did not know what Advent was, as the pastor did not explain it in great detail. He did, however, explain that it is a particularly important time in which we must do all that we can to better our lives and not to become complacent in our faith, as he explained from readings from Jeremiah, where it was said that the time was coming soon when God's promises would be fulfilled. As more and more time went by without the coming of the end times, however, many grew tired of waiting and came to be weaker in faith. Luke warns not to grow tired, but to remain watchful. The pastor also explained that we ought to bring joy and peace to those around us to ensure that we are ready for the Day of the Lord.

I had an enjoyable experience at the Immaculate Conception Church and would consider attending a service as a guest at a different Catholic church in the future. The beliefs of the church like any other church are subject to debate in regards to the nature and truth of their orthodoxy, but among them, its truths, are neither of an exclusive nature, nor one of universalism. I believe I witnessed tonight one authentic path, a fellow pedal on the great, esoteric flower on which each of the authentic traditions is present. The Catholic Church, in ritual and faith, maintains a community which serves to uphold tradition and thus preserve prophetic revelation and ultimately the Divine Truth. While it is all too often misinterpreted and poorly spoken of by some other Christian communities, it may serve as an example as to how to survive in the modern world and maintain a community that adheres to the human necessity of tradition.

The church's website is detailed and up to date, with appropriate events, services, contacts, and photos.

http://www.immaculateconceptionbrownville.org

The Winter

2009-10-12T00:38:00.003-04:00

The winter is not here yet, but the inevitability of its arrival is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Leaves are falling, and the temperature is dropping. Every year I catch myself speaking out against it and fearing it. And yet, I believe my words are usually harshest only in its absence or anticipation. In fact, there is something quite beautiful and somehow nostalgic about the winter, something perhaps difficult to appreciate when it is not here.

I'm sitting in bed, facing the old style wood-framed window of the old house, imagining the glow of snowfall on the other side. I'm thinking about the family that used to live here so long ago, and imaging the comfort and warmth that this house must have brought them from the cold of every winter.

I'm wearing a hooded coat I bought about a year ago at a Buddhist shop in Rennes, France. It was made in Nepal, and unlike a lot of things one may find today that were manufactured somewhere in East Asia, this coat actually looks like it could have been. And although it is by no means clean or professional looking, I find there is something really attractive about it, something that whispers tradition, something that whispers peace.

This is how I feel about winter as well. While it may not be the most convenient season, it is something that whispers peace.

I'm not sure how to explain it; I'm not sure what there is to explain. I am visited by images of the night, the glow of the moon reflecting off the snow in all its vast surfaces. There's something mystical about the winter. Mysterious, and mystical. Something magical, and curious. A precious enigma. I don't know what it is.

I used to have many dreams about the winter. Perhaps I still do; I just haven't recalled them lately. It's a pity we can't recall all of our dreams. Perhaps we could train ourselves to.

My dream is always quiet. There's something about winter that is very, very quiet. Rather than chilling ourselves off with electronic air conditioners and blaring fans, we're warming ourselves up in a blanket, a coat, or by the soft cry of a fire. Everything is covered in snow. I am surrounded by nature, trees and bush, and animals of many kinds.

This is a pleasant dream.

A song I wrote last night.

2009-10-11T23:22:00.004-04:00

I wrote a little song last night that I really liked and planned on sharing with you. But I thought there was something in it that was wrong and out of place. There was one line I deleted, and that made it a little better and more truthful. Then I deleted one more. And with every line I deleted from it, I though it became exponentially better, becoming more and more in tune with its true essence, the true meaning I was hoping to express. I kept doing this, until there was nothing left, and now, I am absolutely in love with it. This is my favorite song.

My Own Fried Egg Story.

2009-09-07T01:16:00.005-04:00

In regards to he who claims to be spiritual but fears religion, or anyone to whom I must actually explain the benefit of ritual and organization, let us compare the spirit to the egg. And let us compare the goal of that spirit, as enlightenment by Divine Truth, to that of being fried for breakfast.

One cannot fry an egg without a pan.

(Well, you can. But it will be an awful mess.)

Cycles

2009-09-07T00:18:00.004-04:00

Reincarnation.

It certainly must occur from time to time, at least accidentally, but I don't believe it is the norm. There are of course some within the Islamic community, particularly of the esoteric schools, who interpret from the Quran that it may be the case, and of course there are the many followers of other authentic religions in which reincarnation plays a fundamental role. Nonetheless, I don't happen at this precise moment in my voyages to believe that is the way life works as a norm.

That being said, if reincarnation is not only real, but the norm, then, considering the fact that there are many more people living today than at any time in the past, there must be many individuals today who are but beginning their cycles, who are here but for their very first time around. New spirits. Or at the very least, those who have never lived as humans before. The celestial equivalent of the incoming freshmen class, if you will.

Indeed, I feel as though I am one of them.

And I'm hoping to skip a few years.

How to upgrade the BIOS on an HP Compaq 6820s

2009-07-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

Ciao, lume.

This is for anyone googling around, or binging around as they may be, for information regarding the HP Compaq 6820s laptop.

I've been using the 6820s for a couple of years now, and one thing that's always irked me is the fact that the keys on the right-hand keypad are, well, broken. If you have such a laptop, you probably have to press the num lock key two or three to get them to work. And then, if you use the caps lock key at any time, it actually turns num lock back off, and then you've got to press the num lock key several times to turn it back on again. (Also, there's no LED indicator, so don't expect to know which way it's set until you need to type something.) I eventually learned that this was not just a problem with my own laptop, but all the 6820s, HP had been aware of the program, and that it could be resolved by means of a BIOS upgrade. Sounded scary to me, but in all actuality BIOS upgrades on most mainstream hardware have become rather easy and automated.

Of course, HP didn't explain the steps involved.

Hoping to upgrade my BIOS from version F.05 (10/23/2007) to version F.0D N (4 Nov 2008), I downloaded the according automatic flash executable from HP's website, sp41876.exe. After following all instructions exactly, and rebooting, I received the error "BIOS failed to complete the update, Please ensure that you follow the correct procedures and try again. This may require two sequential BIOS updates to complete the process." No worries, I could still boot, and actually my system ran fine other than greeting me with this message at every boot up. The num lock keys were even fixed.

In order to resolve this, I had to download the executable (sp40490.exe) for the intermediary version, F.0B 06/20/2008, and install that version of BIOS after which I was able to install the newest version F.0D N (4 Nov 2008) without error. Of course, this was not mentioned on HP's website, or in the readmes accompanying either of the ROM flash executables. Nowhere did it say the BIOS had to be upgraded in two steps, nor that there was a minimum BIOS version to have installed before upgrading to the newest version.

No, instead, I had to find out about this from an error message... from my BIOS. That could have gone a lot worse.

Thanks HP.

Going from Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04

2009-05-13T17:30:00.000-04:00

Ciao, lume.

Well I have finally made the upgrade from Hardy Heron, and I've got to say, so far I'm pleased by Jaunty. After a few days of slowly configuring things back to the way I like them (custom keyboard layout, icon themes, etc.), I'm fairly well nestled into the new operating system.

In general, doing a clean install has erased a lot of the little problems that had slowly accumulated over the course of my previous installation which I hadn't figured out how to resolve, such as the inability to correctly display Arabic text in any web browser, or play certain Flash and Java applets.

Additionally, 9.04 just seems to run better. It also has better support for my video card (ATI driver). Actually, for the first time in an Ubuntu installation, a working driver gave me a perfect display with full resolution automatically from the installation without the need to download or activate other drivers. Support for my Broadcom wireless card has been streamlined into the Restricted Hardware Drivers section (I believe this was a feature of 8.10, which I skipped). Compiz still displays with some minor glitches here and there, but now I can display certain things such as screen savers, and run certain programs such as Livestation, without the intense screen flickering I would have in 8.04 without first deactivating Compiz. Also, for the first time in my Ubuntu experience, I am able to suspend and revive my machine successfully, which is a great surprise.

So far, I've only run into two problems, both about sound. The first one isn't such a big deal; I'm just having some occasional conflicts between two applications in Preferences section of the main menu. The "Sounds" application and the "Login Window" application both seem to have options to enable or disable startup/shutdown sounds, and enabling a startup sound in both seems to play it twice, and if I enable it only in the "Login Window" app, then eventually it discovers it's disabled in the "Sounds" app and stops working until I go in and mess with it again. Or maybe I'm imagining things!

The other problem, I probably should mention, is that Ubuntu 9.04 seemed to install without working sound. ALSA thought it was playing sound, most of the time the system didn't detect any problems with the driver; it simply thought it was playing everything fine, but alas, there was but dead silence. The only sounds I heard were in the login window, but I had no audio after logging in. I would occasionally get this message:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Could not open audio device for playback.

I was finally able to get my audio working by following the instructions in this thread and forcing an ALSA update, running the "AlsaUpgrade-1.0.x-rev-1.17" script with option "-id".

One other little problem I had is that as of Ubuntu 9.04, by default, one can no longer use CTRL+ALT+Backspace to restart the X server and revert to the login screen. Easy fix:

sudo apt-get install dontzap
sudo dontzap -d

Finally, I was unable to create working keyboard shortcuts inside the Gnome Configuration Editor until I went in and enabled them in Compiz first, although the disabling may have been trigged by default after installing the Compiz Settings Manager (compizconfig-settings-manager).

All in all, I'm enjoying 9.04 so far, and definitely recommend the upgrade! I haven't really encountered any insurmountable problems, other than that of getting vmware to work again. But that's another story...

How to run FreeBSD 7.1 in VMware Server

2009-04-12T08:12:00.000-04:00

A rough guide documenting my experience installing FreeBSD 7.1 in VMware Server on Hardy Heron with a working internet connection, working audio, and some working vmware-tools (automatic mouse grab, and proper video display).
Details:

FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE-i386 (Download the torrent from freebsd.org. I recommend grabbing either the -dvd1 option corresponding to your setup, or the -all option and checking only the -dvd1 and maybe documentation; there should be no need to download the other disks.

Emulator: VMware Server 1.0.6 build-91891.
Host OS: Ubuntu Linux 8.04/Hardy Heron

Pre-Installation:

1. I ran out of hard drive space in the VM the first time I tried to do this, and unless you plan on doing a minimal installation, I advise you to allocate at least six gigabytes for FreeBSD; if not, then I advise scrupulous caution during installation not to install extra, unneeded software during installation. You can always do that after installation by running the sysinstall command (as root).

2. Do, however, make sure that when prompted, you install the "ports collection" (section 2.7.2 of freebsd.org's guide.) This will make adding additional software later on much easier however at the expense of about half a gigabyte. FreeBSD without the ports is sort of like having Debian or Ubuntu with the apt-get command removed from the system. Moreover, you will need it in order to install the proper drivers.

3. Set your internet connection type inside VMware as NAT, connected at power on (we will later enable DHCP inside the guest for this to work). Set the DVD iso file as a CD/DVD drive in the VM, also to be connected at power on.

4. Do not forget, of course, when choosing which "distribution" (2.7.1) you would like, to select one that includes the X Window System unless you do not wish to install a graphical user interface. I personally went with option 9, home user plus GUI, but I ended up going back and installing sources afterward.

5. In step 2.6.3, pick any option other than leaving the MBR untouched or the guest will be unable to boot. Might as well go with the standard MBR option, unless you plan on installing multiple operating systems inside the same VM.

6. You may need to hit the escape key and select CD-ROM while the VM is booting in order to boot from the iso. Choose the default option (option 1) on the FreeBSD boot screen, and read and follow the directions carefully, installing a standard installation. Refer to freebsd.org's handbook, Installing FreeBSD, if you are unsure of something along the way.

7. Because we are installing in a virtual machine with the bootable DVD (no floppies necessary), many of the initial, preparatory steps can be skipped. Also, because we are working in a VM you can allocate all the space in the drive to FreeBSD without worry and without getting lost in partition utilities.

Post-Installation:

The first step in configuration after installing FreeBSD is a window reading "Network interface information required." For a working internet connection, select the first option, which for you may appear as ed0 but for me was le0. Take a note of which one it is.

You will be asked "Do you want to try IPv6 configuration of the interface?" You can choose yes here; the first time I installed, I was prompted to enable DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and this gave me a connection automatically. I have since reinstalled four times trying to reproduce this situation but have not been able to. If this does not happen for you, simply type in any host name (such as networkhost) and leave the rest of the information blank; we'll enable DHCP manually.

The first time you have access to the command prompt as root, type ee /etc/rc.conf (ee being FreeBSD's terminal-based text editor) and add the line ifconfig_le0="DHCP" possibly replacing le0 with ed0, whichever appeared in the configuration menu before. Exit by pressing the escape key, and save changes. Reboot by typing shutdown -r now. Your internet connection should be automatically connected on reboot. You should notice the successful IP configuration while the OS is booting; otherwise, you can test it by pinging Google, for example.

To load the X Window Environment (over which you can install your choice among KDE, Gnome, etc.) type at the command prompt, startx. More than likely, the GUI will not load properly at this point. You can type exit from a terminal window to revert to command line interface. On my system, the screen resolution was irregularly large, over 2000 pixels wide and about the same in height, twice the size of my host's resolution. I also received the error message from VMware:

Unable to find an appropriate host video mode. Adding the guest mode to the 'display' subsection of the 'screen' section of your /etc/X11/XF86Config and restarting X is likely to help. Failed to switch to full screen SVGA mode.

Because of this, I had to constantly use the scroll bars to see what I was doing, and could not put the guest into full screen mode. After installing KDE, the problem continued, and KDE's screen resolution drop down menu was empty, not allowing me to change the resolution from there either.

Fortunately, installing VMware Tools solved this problem. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it should be. But it could be worse, and they are somewhat functional. I started by following VMware's guide from the command line (GUI must not be loaded.)

After installation, one is asked to run the vmware-config-tools.pl script. Upon running this script, I received an error saying "This configuration program is to be executed in a virtual machine," even though, of course, it was being executed in a virtual machine! In order to bypass this, I booted back into KDE, because I found it difficult to this from ee, opened up vmware-config-tools.pl in Kate and modified the script. Search the document from the begining for "invm" and the first result will bring you to an if/else script, about one-third the length of the document from the top, starting around line 2,778.

Change:

{
$gSystem{'invm'} = 'yes';
} else {
$gSystem{'invm'} = 'no';
}

To this:

{
$gSystem{'invm'} = 'yes';
} else {
$gSystem{'invm'} = 'yes';
}

I made these changes, saved the script, and quit KDE as again this script must be run outside the X Window System. I again executed the script and this time it ran beautifully. I said yes to everything, keeping default options, and allowed it to create a new xorg.conf file. At this point I tried to load startx, and received an error message because the drivers referred to in xorg.conf were not present. No big deal, they're just not installed by default.

First, I installed the video driver:

cd /usr/ports/x11-drivers/xf86-video-vmware
make install clean

Then the mouse:

cd /usr/ports/x11-drivers/xf86-input-vmmouse
make install clean

Finally, typing startx should properly boot the X Window System. There will be no guest-host shared clipboard feature to which we are accustomed in guest operating systems better supported by VMware, but BSD's GUI will now load with proper video settings, with adjustable screen resolution, the capacity to work in full screen mode, and the always very useful auto-grab capabilities for the mouse.

At this point, from any terminal inside the GUI, we are instructed run vmware-toolbox & to finalize the configuration and adjust any additional settings. I am not sure if this is necessary as it is possible that the toolbox's features do not function at all, but I included this just in case they do succeed to implement some sort of performance enhancement.

Unfortunately it will not load by default as it relies on two old library files from a previous version of FreeBSD that have since been updated and renamed. To force it to work, we can make symbolic links, using the old names, linking to the new versions. Run the following two commands:

ln -s /lib/libc.so.7 /lib/libc.so.5
ln -s /lib/libm.so.5 /lib/libm.so.3

At this point, you should be able to launch vmware-toolbox. It will at least give you the option of a few additional features, such as clock synchronization with the host. I had thought this was working on my system but unfortunately I was incorrect, the clocks do not synchronize, but it is at least worth the try.

Finally, for audio, make sure you have added an audio device in the VM settings. Likely, you will not be getting any audio and/or are receving the error:

Error while initializing the sound driver: device /dev/dsp can't be opened (NO such file or directory) The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

To fix this, open up in any text editor the file /boot/loader.conf and add the following line:

snd_es137x_load="YES"

Reboot, and you should now have working audio in your BSD guest, giving you the final step in what should be a more or less perfectly running FreeBSD installation.

Please excuse any mistakes or unnecessarily lengthy workarounds as this article, which is basically a diary of the last 40-something hours of my life, is my first experience with FreeBSD.

I hope this was of use to someone. At least let me know if it was, so I know it was worth the time typing it! Good luck!

Technology Idea

2009-04-08T12:28:00.000-04:00

Let's organize a team of white hat computer hackers to design a virus that, when opened, completely unbeknownst to the user, attacks said user's computer by installing a security firewall and anti-virus software. This virus should be distributed via ambiguously named email attachments, using a sender name that is obviously fake and accompanied by a suspiciously titled subject so as to ensure that people will open it.

Life's Question

2009-03-21T18:39:00.001-04:00

How do the liquids survive in all that fire?

Update on Facebook Chat

2009-01-25T14:54:00.000-05:00

Ciao lume!

I finally decided to go ahead and check out the Facebook Chat plugin for Pidgin. I have not tested it in Windows, only in Linux; however I imagine in both cases it would work pretty much the same. It actually seems fairly flawless so far, and actually quite useful. If you don't notice that you receive Facebook Chat messages via Facebook because you're not constantly looking at your web browser, and as a result frequently leave your friends hanging, definitely give it a try. (Oh.. You also have to use Pidgin.) The only complaint I would have is the constant buddy sign on, sign off messages, so you'll probably want to disable them: any time your Facebook friends close Facebook, they sign off. Anytime they reopen Facebook, they sign on. Think about how often you open and close Facebook, and then think about how many friends you actually have on Facebook (probably a few more friends than you're used to having simultaneously signed into AIM or MSN).

Here's the link to give it a try: http://code.google.com/... , for Windows or Linux.

Hacking the Windows Caption Buttons

2008-12-01T05:17:00.000-05:00

Here's a fun way to kill a couple hours of your life! If you're tired of the ordinary minimize, restore, and close boxes in Microsoft Windows and either want to replace them with other glyphs or design glyphs of your own, it's actually not too difficult to do. If you're using XP or Vista in anything other than Windows Classic mode, then this doesn't apply to you. (It's actually even easier in XP and Vista themes, because all you have to do is resource hack the image references in the theme files.)

For anything in between Windows 95 and 2000, and Vista as well as XP in classic mode, the window caption button glyphs are actually stored within a hidden system font called "Marlett.ttf" -- inside your "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\" directory.

With any basic, freeware font editor, you should be able to open up this file (you'll probably have to manually type it into the window when you open it, "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\Marlett.ttf". Then do a save as, save it anywhere you want calling it "Marlett.tff.backup" or something, and then "save as" again, and save it as "Marlett.ttf" on the desktop for example. Then you can search for the caption button glyphs and hack away. Save your work (as "Marlett.ttf" on the Desktop) and then open up your windows font folder (again, probably "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\".)

If you're running Windows 95, 98, or ME, you can probably just click and drag your ttf file on the desktop into the Fonts folder, Windows will prompt you whether you want to replace it, and just say yes and reboot. If you're in XP or 2000, you'll first have to replace the same file in your "dllcache" folder, which is probably located in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache" or "C:\WINDOWS\dllcache" - this folder will be hidden, so copy both paths into your Explorer bar until you get a folder to open up. Copy your hacked font file into this directory first, then go back into the fonts folder and replace it in there as well. Windows may tell you that a system file has been changed, and it will ask you to put in the Windows CD so that it may restore the original file, just click ignore, or keep changed system files, and it shouldn't prompt you again. Reboot and you should be finished.

If you're running Vista, this is actually easier to do. There is no "dllcache" in Vista. Instead there is just a tighter security system regarding overwriting system files. No problem. Right-click on your desktop and create a shortcut to "cmd.exe" (you may have to type "c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe"). After you have created this shortcut, right click it, and "Run as administrator." You may be prompted for your administrator password.

Afterwards, run the following two commands:

takeown /f C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\Marlett.ttf
then...
cacls C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\Marlett.ttf /G your_username:F

(your_username should be replaced with your Windows Login username.)

Afterwards, just copy and drag your hacked ttf into the Fonts folder, reboot, and you should see your changes incorporated into the GUI.

Just a bit of advice–be careful, and definitely back up the original. You definitely cannot and will not render your system useless if you mess up this hack, but you could make it look awfully funny. For hacking system files there is always some amount of risk you must be aware of, so don't blame me for anything. Also, if you're drawing your own glyphs (instead of copying them from another font or from elsewhere within the same font, depending on the features of the font editor you choose), you may find that it takes a couple of tries to get the glyphs to look exactly right when shrunken down to actual size. If you keep struggling to get it right, remember you can also adjust the size of the caption buttons within the Appearance tab in your Display Properties.

Also I should probably add that I made my caption buttons in the screenshot extra wide via a third party application called DisplaySet, which functions exactly as the Appearance tab in Windows (you don't have to keep it running in the background), except that it knows how to customize a few extra features. It's a must have for Windows 95, 98/ME, NT/2K users: check it out here.

Good luck. Go with God, and hack freely!

Remove the ads from Windows Live Messenger

2008-11-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

Although I'm usually running Linux, from time to time I still boot into my Vista partition to install the updates and remind myself on what I'm missing out. And whenever I'm in Windows, the first thing I do is sign into Messenger.

If you're like me, and the ads in Windows Live Messenger drive you crazy, or you just like to hacks things, check out A-Patch. It allows you not only to remove the ads, but you can also remove and customize other parts of Messenger that you don't use either–cleaning up the interface considerably (see: list of features).

There's a few other tools floating around the internet that let you do basically the same thing, and if I recall correctly there are still ways to do it without any additional software at all. But I definitely like A-Patch the best, and it's not like you need to leave A-Patch running. You download it, load it once, and WLM is hacked until reinstall. Good stuff!