MBC

Snapshots is a service that can be added to blogs, websites and Internet Browsers.  When you added this service to your website and one of the visitors roll the mouse pointer over a hyperlink he would get a preview of the website.  There are a variety of Snapshots types, snapshots could be normal snapshots, RSS Feed and even maps.

I haven’t  tried this service in my website or blog.  However, I feel uncomfortable whenever  I come across a website or blog that provides this service.  According to Snapshots official website,this technology was created  to upgrade users experience.  Frankly, I was amused when I first saw it some years ago because it could show me a preview of websites without even visiting them!  Anyway, after years of  visiting hundreds of websites I began to hate Snap because it sometimes affects my browsing experience negatively especially when I am not interested in clicking on hyperlinks and the mouse roll over it while I am trying to move the mouse elsewhere. In addition, since my ISP is the beloved Batelco sometimes the Snapshot takes times to appear because of the slow internet connection (A cable have been cut in the sea :P) which again affects my experience badly.

I want to talk about many things :P, but I want to post once only!

1. Better World Books

I came Across this website accidentally.  It is a great online bookshop which offers cheap shipping (almost 3$ (almost 1BD)).  Now I can buy books online without worrying about the price of shipping.  If someone wants to buy a book from Amazon, the shipping can cost more than the price of the book itself!

They claim to support literacy by sending part of their profit to several organizations.  In addition, they use Carbon free packaging which is friendly to nature.  They collect most of the used books from libraries which want to get rid of those books.    

Anyway, after looking at the website, I decided to try their service.  Therefore, I ordered a used book, whom Intrinsic Value I value.

After 2 weeks exactly I received the book, it was in a perfect condition although it appears that someone tried to open it.  

(By the way, the word (Dick) is a nickname for Richard)

Anyway, After receiving the book I ordered two more books.  I guess I will deal with Better World Books from now on. 

2. The English Language Club

I have just finished uploading the pages which contains the stories which was submitted for last year’s Short Story Competition.  I should have published them last semester but due to uncontrollable circumstances I could not done so(IE: laziness).  It took some time to find a suitable design which fulfill the requirements of the competition. I also removed the tracking code from the website of the English Language Club because annoying Pop-ups appear once the page is opened.

By the way you may participate in the Short Story Competition if you are a student at the university of Bahrain.  For more information visit the following link

http://www.english-club.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=1

3. My Website (www.mbsee.info) and other stuff

I haven’t updated my website for a while.  I have localized some Softwares months ago but I have not created pages for them in the localization section.  i just finished localizing Mobaphoto lately.  It is a handy software for digital photographers which contains four tools.  Image resize, editor and batch renaming tool.  Moreover, there is a tool which creates great HTML photo albums.  The Arabic translation would be integrated in the official version very soon.

I have also updated the blog to WordPress 2.5.  it will not change many things because I already use Windows Live Writer to blog.

I tried to update the Guest Book, however, I missed it up and do not feel like fixing it very soon.

That’s it for today, I might blog again next month.

Have a nice day!

Beloved is a novel which was written by Toni Morrison.  I just finished reading it.  I can declare that it is one of silliest that I have read.  The novel tells the story of a mother who escape slavery with her children and when the slave master locate her and go to claim  the family back; she refuses to go with their master and instead she kills her own daughter to prevent her from going through slavery.

The mother goes to jail, then after spending her time there she returns home.  Once she return home she discovers that the house is haunted by the spirit of her daughter.  Anyway, she live with the ghost for a while and then the ghost returns as a girl who demands to have her mother’s love.

What I did not like about the story is repetition, the plot is repeated many time in form of flashbacks.  The author tends to make the characters repeat the story again and again.  Every time  a character tells the story he/she add more information about the story, or tell it from another prospective.  This is nice when it is done a little, but when you have to read a whole novel whose story is repeated more than twenty times it is unlikely that you will like it. 

Slavery plays a major role in the novel, the characters keep narrating their experiences with slavery and how they feel after being free.

The plot of the story is nice.  However, if the novel was sequential I would have liked it.

______________________________________

I began reading The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde, which is basically about two homosexual men in love.  It appears to be an interesting novel.  The relationship between the two men appears to be just like a normal man and woman even in the way they met.