Ferdinand F. Liu

Some photos from my recent trip to Philippines (Manila)…

This beautiful song, sung by Rossa, is soundtrack of an Indonesian movie with the same title, “Ayat-ayat Cinta” (The Verses of Love). This movie, being released in January 2008, was adapted from novel (also with same title, “Ayat-ayat Cinta”). You can download the novel in PDF (Portable Document Format) from here, but please note that this book is writen in Bahasa Indonesia.

Below is summary of the story…

Ayat Ayat Cinta (the novel / the movie) is a beautifully portrayed Islamic love story — a tale of a virtuous Muslim protagonist who overcomes all obstacles of life maintaining pure ideals.
Fahri bin Abdillah is a poor, intelligent student who wins a scholarship to complete his graduate degree at Egypt’s esteemed Al Azhar University. Very disciplined and dedicated by nature, Fahri embraces his life in Cairo, completing his studies and translation of religious books with full enthusiasm, exactly according to pre-determined targets.
Only one goal is left unattempted: the pursuit of marriage.
For Fahri is innocent and pure, and doesn’t believe in the concept of relationships prior to marriage. He is inarticulate and shy around women. All his life, only two women have been close to him — his mother and grandmother.
Life changes drastically in Egypt for he suddenly finds himself surrounded by four beautiful, distinctly different women.
Maria Girgis, a shy, open-minded Coptic-Christian neighbor who is attracted to the teachings of the Holy Al Quran, finds herself falling in love with Fahri (a fact she only reveals to her diary).
Nurul, a student at Al Azhar like Fahri, is the Muslim daughter of a renowned Indonesian cleric. Fahri feels unworthy of her and thus ignores his feelings for her, leaving her confused and guessing.
Noura, an abused Egyptian neighbor, develops strong romantic feelings for Fahri, who in turn simply sympathizes with her situation. His romantic rejection destroys her and eventually leads to a false accusation of rape.
Aisha, a German Turkish student in Cairo haunts Fahri with her beautiful eyes. Following an incident on the metro where Fahri defends her against narrow minded bigoted Muslims, both immediately develop feelings for each other.
As the story unravels, the protagonist makes the audience face the daunting decisions he himself faces, and forces us to marvel at his undying loyalty to the true ideals of Islam as he ultimately makes the choice of a lifetime.

Use these links for your PayPal donation button, free of charge. I’ve made it my self, released as public domain. You are free to use, download, hot-linking, copy, distribute, modify, republish, whatever you like. Enjoy!

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More information about how to integrate PayPal Donate feature on your site, read my brief PayPal Donate Integration Guide, a comprehensive step-by-step guide posted in WebMonetizer blog.

DOS AIR All the passengers go out onto the runway, grab hold of the plane, push it until it gets in the air, hop on, jump off when it hits the ground again. Then they grab the plane again, push it back into the air, hop on, etcetera.

WINDOWS AIRLINES The terminal is very neat and clean, the attendants are all very attractive and the pilots very capable. The fleet is immense. After your plane arrives 6 months late, you begin to wonder why it has not arrived yet. Your jet takes off without a hitch, pushing above the clouds, and at 20,000 feet it crashes without warning.

MAC AIRWAYS The cashiers, flight attendants, and pilots all look the same, feel the same and act the same. When asked questions about the flight they reply that you don’t want to know, don’t need to know, and would you please return to your seat and watch the movie.

OS/2 WARP SKYWAYS The terminal is almost empty, with only a few prospective passengers milling about. Airline personnel walk around, apologising profusely to customers in hushed voices, pointing from time to time to the sleek, powerful jets outside the terminal on the field. They tell each passenger how good the real flight will be on these new jets and how much safer it will be than Windows Airlines, but that they will have to wait a little longer for the technicians to finish the flight systems.

FLY WINDOWS NT All the passengers carry their seats out onto the tarmac, placing the chairs in the outline of a plane. They all sit down, flap their arms and make jet swooshing sounds as if they are flying.

WINGS of OS/400 The airline has bought ancient DC-3s, arguably the best and safest planes that ever flew and painted “747″ on their tails to make them look as if they are fast. The flight attendants, of course, attend to your every need, though the drinks cost $15 a pop. Stupid questions cost $230 per hour, unless you have SupportLine, which requires a first class ticket and membership in the frequent flyer club.

MVS AIRLINES The passengers all gather in the hanger, watching hundreds of technicians check the flight systems on this immense, luxury aircraft. This plane has at least 10 engines and seats over 1,000 passengers. All the passengers scramble aboard, as do the necessary complement of 200 technicians. The pilot takes his place up in the glass cockpit. He guns the engines, only to realise that the plane is too big to get through the hangar doors!

UNIX EXPRESS Each passenger brings a piece of the airplane and a box of tools to the airport. They gather on the tarmac, arguing constantly about what kind of plane they want to build and how to put it together. Eventually, they build several different aircraft, but give them all the same name. Some passengers actually reach their destinations. All passengers believe they got there.
For some strange reason, many teens like to fly Unix Express, but they don’t carry their own box of tools and don’t know what to do during the fly so they keep bothering other passengers.
Yet, they feel top flyers and tease people who fly with other companies. Neverthless, they most likely fly Windows Airlines on the way back.

1. “We come in peace” replaced by “We come to make money.”
2. New slogan: “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” (Oh, I’m sorry, that’s the Borg slogan.)
3. The first 2 or 3 Revisions of all equipment (rocket, space suit, etc.) kills its operators.
4. Apollo 13: “Houston, we have a problem.” Mission Control: “Please hold for Tech Support, and have your credit card number ready.”
5. Hubble Space Telescope flaw described as “a feature, not a bug”; astronomers told to squint.
6. U.S. actually second to land men on the moon; had to wait for somebody else to do it first so we could copy them.
7. General public still believes NASA was first thanks to superior marketing.
8. Mars Pathfinder misses planet due to Pentium FDIV bug.
9. Instead of actually building the International Space Station, NASA just buys the Russian space program and renames Mir.
10. After buying Mir and upgrading its systems with NASAsoft Windows 95, the on-board computer crashes twice as often.

Note: During the last ten years of the XX century, 1700 billion dollars was spend all over the world to fight the “Millennium Bug”, most of them was unnecessary and enriched suddenly self-claimed computer experts… this millennium hysteria is something that will make future generation make fun of us. While we believe we will be fully Y2K compliant by January 1, 2000, and most of our subsidiary units and contractors claim they will also be fully compliant, we obviously need to make some preparations in case unexpected challenges impair our ability to meet the needs of our customers.

Enclosed with this memo is a “Y2K Backup System” device designed to meet short time emergency needs in case of a computer operations failure, or operational delay. This device is the company’s Primary Emergency Network Computer Interface Liaison device (P.E.N.C.I.L.).

This device has been field tested extensively, including certification testing, as well as volume and stress testing. Properly maintained, the device meets all the requirements for coding and data input.

Prior to use, the P.E.N.C.I.L. will require preparation and testing. Tools and supplies required will be: A sharpened knife or grinding device; and a supply of computer paper (with or without holes).

Gripping the device firmly in your hand, proceed to scrape or grind the wooded end until it has a cone-like appearance. The dark core area must be exposed to properly function. (Left-handed employees should read this sentence backwards, and then go to your supervisor for assistance.)

Place a single sheet of computer paper on a smooth, hard surface. Take the backup device, place the sharpened point against the paper, and pull it across the paper. If properly done, this will input a single line.

CAUTION: Excessive force may damage components of the device or damage the data reception device. If either the P.E.N.C.I.L. or the paper are damaged, go back to the preparation instructions above.

Proper use of the device will require data simulation input by the operator. Placing the device against the computer page forming symbols as closely resembling the computer lettering system you normally use.

At the completion of each of the simulated letters, lift the device off the page, move it slightly to the right, replace it against the page, and form the next symbol. This may appear tedious, and somewhat redundant, but, with practice, you should be able to increase your speed and accuracy.

The P.E.N.C.I.L. is equipped with a manual deletion device. The device is located on the reverse end of the P.E.N.C.I.L. Error deletions operate similarly to the “backspace” key on your computer. Simply place the device against the erroneous data, and pull it backwards over the letters. This should remove the error, and enable you to resume data entries.

CAUTION: Excessive force may damage the data reception device. Insufficient force, however, may result in less than acceptable deletion, and may require re-initialization of action as above.

This device is designed with user maintenance in mind. However, if technical support is required, you can still call your local computer desk supervisor at (800)-YOU-DUMMY.