There are lots of hoaxes floating around on the internet. They are often not propagated by technically savvy people.

However, here is one hoax that comes as a message from Facebook. The sad part is that it was sent to me by a computer engineer.

It claims that Facebook is becoming slow and that the alleged reason is lots of inactive members. If you do not forward it to 15 others, your account will be deleted!

A typical chain letter in the social networking age ...

For the first time in 10 years, I saw today an adult male yellow warbler.

Because of the stunningly bright yellow color, I thought at first that it is an American Goldfinch. But moving closer, it was apparent this is different bird. A bit smaller, lacking the bold black marking of the goldfinch, and having prominent streaks on the breast. It was inside a bush, well hidden, and had it not flew from another tree into the nearby bush, I would not have noticed it.

Encouraging news for wildlife and nature enthusiasts.

Grey whales, once hunted to near extinction have appeared in two new places, far apart.

One was in downtown Vancouver, and the other is in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Hope this is a sign of less pollution and that conservation efforts are working.

This is sad ...

The USA military expenditure, according to 2005 figures is US$ 548,531,000,000 per year.

This is almost 6 times more than the second largest military spender (China).

A simple calculation shows that the US can cut their defense spending by half, and still be at 3 times more than China.

This could balance their budget over the years too, and perhaps cause economic growth as well, while keeping them as the best defended country in the world.

Warren Wershler-Henry, assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, has conducted a study that concluded that intellectual property law does not serve the creators, and stifle cultural exchange. He also observes that companies like Sony, Apple and Amazon want to channel all content via their proprietary "hermetically sealed" platforms, and that this hurts the doctrine of first sale, when books are effectively licensed not sold.

My daughter Suhaila likes to draw and paint.

She wanted to get a tablet that she can draw with, without the awkwardness of using a mouse for a task that is better handled by a pen.

So, when Staples had a $50 off sale ($249.99) on the Wacom Intuos 4 (Small) tablet, there was finally a chance to get it at a lower cost.

Joining the heels of WIND Mobile, a new company, Mobilicity, will start operations in Spring 2010.

I have been a Kubuntu users for many years now.

So, when Kubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) was released, I took the plunge and upgraded my laptop from Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), which I have been running shorty after its release in October 2009. Lucid is an Long Term Support (LTS) release, with security updates for 3 years on the desktop. Hopefully I will be staying with it for at least 2 years and skipping the 6-month releases in between.

This post details what I have found so far on Lucid, whether good or bad.

صعيدى مسكوه مع شبكة إرهابية قالوا له إيه آخر عملية عملتها ؟
قال البواسير‎

سألوه ليه بتاخد الدواء قبل ميعاده ، قال علشان أفاجئ الجراثيم

حشاش سأل صيدلى : عندك شريط بنادول ؟ قاله : عندى قاله : حطه خلينا نسمع

من لم يمت بحد السيف مات بغيره، تعددت اﻷسباب والموت واحد وما طار طير وارتفع اﻻ وكما طار وقع
" كابتن طيار فى الخطوط الصعيدية " يعلن عن اقلاع طائرنه

جماعة صعايدة سمعوا ان امريكا هتضرب أماكن حساسة فى مصر فاشتروا كلاسين حديد

صعيدى قال لأبوه : رخصة السواجة خلصت يابوى ، قاله : من لفك فى الشوارع طول النهار

صعيدى دخل الجيش اسمه ثابت

Another bad day for consumers in Canada.

The Conservative minority government is set to revive yet another attempt at implementing US-like DMCA.

See the Globe and Mail: Pending copyright bill to mimic U.S.: Geist, and CBC: Anti-consumer copyright bill on way: expert.