Gurbani Anywhere – Bani on your Windows Mobile Phone

So my buddy Mr. Sikhnet contacted me and pointed me to this intriguing app called Gurbani Anywhere. This App promises to “enable fast and efficient methods to search & display Gurbani, on a truly mobile platform.”

So I registered on the website and waited (not-so)patiently for a several hours to get my membership approved. (Update: they have listened to user requests and enabled email activation rather than manual administrator activation for the website – definetly much easier to get to the download and forums now!)Finally got the download link so let’s have a look!

The app is distributed as a .zip file download from the site containing a terse README and a standard CAB file. Any owner of a windows mobile phone will know what this is and immediately what to do with it. Note: The application and cab file come in at a hefty 66MB so you will definitely want to transfer and install this to a storage card rather than to your phones (or PDA’s) main memory.

So I transferred the cab file over to my phone and installed it to the card. Let’s take a first-look visual tour!

Overall I found this to be a very nifty app, and I’m sure once the developers do some more updates, this will quickly  become the defacto standard in Sikh mobile applications. Personally I’ve allready replaced Sikhi To The Max – Mobile on my phone with this, as it’s much better, more stable, has active developers, has more features, and is generally a better product. The various cool features, and addition of SDGS and Bhai Gurdas Vara make it especially compelling. I would strongly encourage everyone with a windows mobile device to run over to the website, register, download, and give some positive feedback to the developers as soon as you can!

Unlike my usual self, I will not mirror the installer here as the developers have asked that everyone please register on their site/forums

Cool Website: Gurbani Today

Check out this cool website – Gurbani Today that shows you a new shabad every weekday with video,audio, Gurbani, and translation all synced up for your viewing/listening/understanding pleasure. From the about page:

About GurbaniToday.com
Spend 10 to 15 minutes every day listening, enjoying, and most importantly, understanding and embracing Gurbani, one shabad a day!

Every week day you will find a Shabad video along with English translation.

For weekends, you will find one audio-only Shabad.

In addition, other Nitnem banis and Aasa Di Vaar is available alongside English translation.

Pretty cool stuff, I only wish they had one bar for both videos, so scrolling one would appropriatly bring the other one in sync.

Amnesty International: India Government has failed victims of 1984 Sikh massacre

Amnesty International (UK) has put out a press release condemning the actions of the Indian Government in bringing justice to the Sikhs for 1984. While what the Indian government is doing (and has been doing for so long) is not unexpected, it’s always nice to see respected international organizations recognizing that.

All those responsible for the massacre must be brought to justice – whether they are political leaders, police or government officials.

Taliban chasing out Sikh Families in Orakzai

Interesting side story about how the Taliban is basically kicking out impoverished Sikh families from areas of Pakistan. With Pakistani President giving more power and land to the Taliban in recent days it’s only going to get worse. Full story reproduced below:

Sikh families leave Orakzai after Taliban demand jizia

By Abdul Saboor Khan

HANGU: Sikh families living in Orakzai Agency have left the agency after the Taliban demanded Rs 50 million as jizia (tax) from them, official sources and locals said on Tuesday.

Residents of Ferozekhel area in Lower Orakzai Agency told Daily Times on Tuesday that around 10 Sikh families left the agency after the demand by the Taliban, who said they were a minority and liable to pay the tax for living in the area in accordance with sharia.

Locals said the Taliban had notified the Sikh families about the ‘tax’ around a week ago. They said of the 15 Sikh families in Ferozekhel, 10 had shifted while the remaining were preparing to do so.

The locals said the families were impoverished and had left the area to avoid any Taliban action.

About Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

*whoosh* <– What’s that sound you ask? Well that’s the sound of another cool book and worthwhile read flying your way. Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib by Professor Sahib Singh (translation by Sardar Dalip Singh) is a really interesting and quick read about how the Sri Guru Granth as we know it today came to be.

Why the venerated Professor wrote this:

One day we, the members of faculty, were sitting in a verandah opposite to the’ staff room, a Professor told me that he had read first three chapters of my book on Gurbani te Itihas Baare – Gurus’ Compositions and the related History”, and’ the maximum one could say was that Guru Amar Das had with him some of the Compositions of Guru Nanak Dev. It could not, however, be established that Guru Amar Das had with him all the compositions.

Any other person after reading those three chapters could form the same opinion. People could still have the misconcept that it was. Guru Arjan Dev, the 5th Guru, who collected the Compositions of all the preceding Gurus. In order to solve this intricate problem, I undertook to compare all, the Compositions of Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Amar Das and wrote the book “Adi Birh Bare – About Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib” during 1949 A.D.

This really is a very interesting read, and I highly suggest all of you guys check it out

Nine Science words with interesting origins

Check out this really interesting article about some science words that actually originated from science fiction.

This was a pleasant surprise:

1. Robotics. This is probably the most well-known of these, since Isaac Asimov is famous for (among many other things) his three laws of robotics. Even so, I include it because it is one of the only actual sciences to have been first named in a science fiction story (”Liar!”, 1941). Asimov also named the related occupation (roboticist) and the adjective robotic.

After you’re done reading that list, check out Technovelgy for over 1500 other things that are now science facts that once were science fiction.

Dirty Jobs

Check out this cool article about IT’s dirtiest jobs. My favorite’s gotta be “Disconnect/reconnect specialist” Could never imagine this to be a real job!

Don’t forget to check out the original article too!

Look up into the sky

I don’t know about you, but at times I can be very easily amused. That said it’s no surprised that this article on the subject lines of spam emails made me chuckle. My favorite definitely being “The hard friend in your pants will look up into the sky.”

Have you guys seen any funnier ones?

Twitter Updates for 2009-04-05

• Finally back to normal usage patterns, expect more stuff soon! #
• Here’s a good starter – The importance of your avatars http://bit.ly/3AhD #
• cool app from this European startup that gives you recommendations and lets you add personalization to certain sites http://plista.com #

100 oldest registered domains

Check out this cool article on TG Daily showing the 100 oldest .com,org,net, and edu domains

Ever wonder what the oldest registered .com domain is on the Internet? After all, they haven’t always existed. In fact, it was just 24 years ago this month that the oldest domain was registered. It was www.symbolics.com, owned by the Symbolics, Inc. company who, back in the day, was a leading software development firm with software projects designed back in the 1980s which appear very much like modern software designs seen today. For example, they had developed a fully object-oriented operating system called Genera, which today still exists as Open Genera, for Alpha CPUs. Their domain was registered on March 15, 1985 — when the Internet was brand new.

Don’t forget to check out the slideshow too!