Do you speak English and you want to learn Arabic the fun way? Then I would recommend to you ArabicPod. With ArabicPod, you can learn basic things like greetings, weather, and ordering food. ArabicPod is creative and attractive way to learn basic Arabic language by listening to conversations between Ehab Saleh (25 from Jordan) & Mohammed Moshaya (26 from Saudi Arabia). Ehab & Mohammed are also the creators and maintainers of ArabicPod. They are currently students at Brighton University (80 miles south London).
Early of 2007 Mohammad has started learning Chinese via podcast & found out that podcasting is a great method to learn languages. Mohammed & Ehab recorded their first podcast lesson in March 2007. You can watch their first lesson below ...
"Everyone who is interested in learning Arabic is our target, we found that people learn Arabic due to heritage where learners wants to learn their fathers language, others learn Arabic for business and work purposes, also people learn Arabic for religious reasons and some people say that they love the sound of the language and that’s why they want to learn it. We have learners from all over the word", said Ehab Saleh, co-creator of ArabicPod.
"We are looking forwards to seeing ArabicPod as a big company teaches Arabic for the entire word, the internet has no borders and we are hoping that this effort that is made totally by two Arabs in their 20s would reach high level and be a source for everyone wants to learn Arabic."
Microsoft Reveals Live Mesh: Connecting Applications,People and Devices Online
Microsoft has begun testing technology that brings together a person's pictures, documents and other data scattered across a growing number of machines with the goal of allowing people to access their information from anywhere and at any time.
Microsoft's "Live Mesh" program, which uses the Internet as a data hub, synchronizes files across computers, phones and other devices so a digital picture frame at home could show a picture minutes after it was taken by a cell phone.
Initially the program will be limited to 10,000 U.S. testers and computers running its Windows operating system, but Microsoft said it plans to extend Live Mesh over the next few months to mobile phones, computers from Apple Inc and other devices connected to the Internet.
The project is the brainchild of Ray Ozzie, who replaced Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as chief software architect, and underscores the company's carefully balanced online strategy, which aims to capitalize on the reach of the Internet without cannibalizing its cash cow software business.
Live Mesh embraces the industry trend toward "cloud computing" in which information is centrally stored on Web sites rather than on local devices, giving users easy access from any computer. Industry analysts said the product may signal a watershed moment within Microsoft to embrace a technology that the company viewed as a threat in the past.
The software will also let friends and colleagues collaborate and share documents more easily. For example, if a shared document is changed on a work computer, those changes will be instantly updated and available on any device or computer that the user has registered with Live Mesh.
Users will have 5GB of personal online storage and unlimited peer-to-peer data, for synchronising information between devices. Microsoft plans to release Live Mesh in a widely-available test, or "beta" version before the end of 2008.
Microsoft made a bid to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion, seeking to join forces against Google in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner- AOL merger.
In its boldest-ever acquisition move, Microsoft sent a letter to Yahoo's board on Thursday night to offer $31 per share in cash and stock, a 62 percent premium over the Internet media company's Nasdaq closing stock price that day.
Yahoo would give Microsoft dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate brand advertisers. It also attracts more than 500 million people monthly to sites devoted to news, finance and sports, and Yahoo Mail is the No. 1 consumer e-mail service.
Yahoo said on Friday its board will evaluate the unsolicited offer. Its shares shot up 47.45 percent to $27.29, while Microsoft shares, which have a market capitalization of about $300 billion, fell 6.38 percent to $30.52.
Hmm ... (US $44.6 billion) is about (4.69 x UAE Federal Budget in 2008)!
BigString: For Self-Destruct, Recallable, & Trackable E-Mails
Bigstring.com allows you to take control of your email. Until now, email messages that you send stay as a permanent record on countless mail servers, inboxes, delete boxes and more. Bigstring.com's patent pending technology allows email users to recall, modify or set an expiration date for emails that have already been sent. These emails can be erased, modified or expired even if the recipient has read them. The email is not "deleted" from the recipient's computer. The message that the email refers to is dynamically generated, and therefore you have full control over it.
And just few days ago, BigString announced the beta release of video email that can be programmed to self-destruct after a specific number of viewings or a set time.
"This self-destructing feature allows individuals and companies to maintain control of their intellectual property,"stated Darin Myman, President and CEO of BigString Corporation. "For individuals it can prevent the forwarding of personal videos that can become embarrassing fodder for the Internet. Entertainment companies and musicians can now send a once-viewable video of a performance or song. Videos that are time sensitive can be set to self-destruct at a specific time or day."
