Assalam O Alaikum Warahmatullah,
It has been a long while since I have written anything on my blog. This time around I intend to update my blog weekly, about the different happenings, ideas, and thoughts, In sha Allah.
Book Review: Clash of Civilisations By Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
The reason I chose this book was to find out how the Muslims scholars deal with the clash of civilization. Western culture has influenced almost all of the societies including muslims and there is a common dillemma among the youth, where they are in constantly struggling with their own identity. There are lots of questions and misconception which are not thoroughly addressed in a fashion where, as a muslim, one is confident with his own muslim identity and at the same time working towards the progress of the community and the world.
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Experience at Islamic Online University
Alhamdulillah is all that I can say to be studying in Islamic Online University (IOU). It has been 18 months since I joined their BAIS program, and every semester has been amazing. When I enrolled here, I was a little nervous and skeptical about the system of online education. But, Alhamdulillah, my eagerness to learn won!! I will share my experiences through semesters because there are many things attached to each so here goes!!
Gamification Master Class with Gabe Zichermann
At first, I was somewhat skeptic about the master class videos, whether it would be good enough to watch it or would it be that I have made a wrong decision and have to write a review to just get it done. Though, I’m familiar with the apps that use this type of methodology, one way or the other, but the term ‘Gamification’ itself was quite new for me. Well, my first reaction was absolutely wrong and by the end of the videos I was very happy to have taken it.
The first misconception I had about the title (and you must clear this too) is that Gamification is not all about games or gameplay rather it’s using game logic and mechanics to solve problems. In fact many sites/apps/games such as Twitter, Foursquare, Empire Avenue, StackOverflow, CityVille, etc. have some element of Gamification.
Gabe does a very good job at explaining Gamification with real live examples and exercises after each lesson. One of the unique feature I loved about these classes was the audience that kept interacting with Gabe, providing their own product’s goals and objectives, and applying each exercise with them. Furthermore, the master class provides additional free (yes free!) materials to learn more about it.
Apart from all those good things I loved about the master class, however, I wished that he had taken a scenario and applied each element of gamification with every successive class. One more thing that I wanted in this class was the downside of Gamification. He, Gabe, didn’t provide situation where gamification would become a hindrance to a product or business. I even noticed some features of gamification that seemed profitable and even remarked as is but in essence very unethical, e.g. using original cash to buy virtual cash or product that has no original value and the customer can’t even get his money back after he has purchased it.
Overall, the master class is good and I would recommend you to watch them.
More resources:
Lesson from the Seerah: Year of Grief
Its the 10th year of Prophet-hood, just after those 3 extremely hard and long years of muslim boycott that has finally been lifted. A sign of victory, a sigh of relief (better than before) and a hope of the situation getting better. But that was not to be the case. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in that very same year, had to face the death of his beloved wife, Khadijah (Radi Allahu `anha – May Allah be pleased with her) and his uncle, Abu Talib. For Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Khadija R.A was the internal source of support, being there for him at every step, while Abu Talib was the external source of support. Furthermore, the people of Quraish stepped-up their abuse towards muslims.
While listening to the lecture, a minor yet an important point was raised: Why he had to suffer? Why he had to loose both of them while the message of Islam was not even finished?
It is for us to understand that our ultimate reliance must be with Allah, and He is the one to give success. Even, if Abu Talib or Khadijah R.A was alive till Prophet Muhammad ﷺ succeeded in what was given to him, people would surely have said that it was because of Abu Talib’s or Khadijah’s R.A support.
Book Review: Developing Applications for the Cloud on the Microsoft® Windows Azure™ Platform
This book is the second volume in the series about Windows Azure technology. The first one can be found here.
This book shows how one can create a multi-tenant, Software as a Service (SaaS) application, from scratch, using Windows Azure.
This book is mainly for architects, developers (intermediate or advanced) and/or IT professionals who are seeking to create solutions on the cloud.
The scenario is of a company (Tailspin) that plans a to launch a new online service, Surveys. It discusses their strategy, their goals and concerns to develop and deploy their application to the cloud.
I loved the book’s approach, to base it on a scenario, to explain the tools and features of Windows Azure. Each chapter was focused on a certain aspect of development, defining problems and goals at each step, and looking at possible solutions. Authentication and authorization scenarios were well presented. And the cost of transaction versus efficient use of Windows Azure Storage was thoroughly explained.
The book also discusses the pros and cons of Single-Tenant and Multi-Tenant architecture for, both, application and data. I am disappointed to see that more weight was given to Multi-Tenant architecture rather than comparing both of them equally and providing a situation where Single-Tenant architecture would be a better choice. I felt that providing more code was not a good idea because the overall theme of the book was more towards making better decisions. Looking at the code made me more confused and realize that developers that are new to Windows Azure and .NET will find it uneasy. Another concern was that some of the topics were referred to the first volume, so it would be better to have read the first volume in some cases.
A New Beginning
At last, I have decided to start my own blog. It took me more than 6 months to decide whether I should start my own blog or not. But i have started this for good reasons. Insha’Allah (God willing), this is a start of good things to come in the near future.
Topics
I am going for an all-rounder kind of blog where I will be posting about:
- Notes from courses that I’m taking (Islamic Studies)
- Technology (which technology I’m working at and other stuff)
So, that’s it for now.
Peace be on you!
Altered Perspective 