.farshid sedghi’s personal blog.

Came across PureText which as a developer seems very useful. When copying/cutting text from an application into another, where you want only the text and not the formatting…this tool can be configured to do the job.

And here is a cool addin to Outlook. A calendar addin that give you fish-eye view as well as other useful features when looking at your outlook calendar. It’s called DataLens and you can view a demo video so you understand what it does and it works with outlook 2003 as well. Both of them are free.

Here is a good link that I have been looking for. MSDN’s own search is not good enough (unfortunately) and I tried this with a few articles that I looked for using MSDN’s own search without finding it and I found it using this search engine. I came across this link reading this free book called .NET in Samples . This is still in draft version and final one will be release on the end of 2004 focusing on Whidbey features (pdf or doc) [via Iserializable].

Came across this article on the topic of happiness and wealth that I found interesting. Why is that so many of us still will not realize that money is not the answer? Sure, we all say that its just money and its not happiness but our actions for better job that pays more so we can buy this or that says something different. Heck, I realized this before coming to Haifa that the ‘rat race’ is not the way to go and that’s partly why I escaped it. Yet after two years of no income, I have my own battles from time to time missing the ‘good’ life. And still, I know that if I were to go back to that life, after a while it would be the same thing….the grass seems always greener on the other side. I guess realizing this is the first step, and recognizing which side or rather how to keep the balance between the two sides (pursuit for wealth as a mean for happiness vs. pursuit of happiness without a care for wealth) is the trick. One thing I remind myself when in battle with myself regarding this topic is to remind and ask myself what I am going to take with me from this world the day I die. Quotes such as the one below gets me back to earth…and today I am having one of those battles.

“Life in this mortal world will quickly come to an end, and this earthly glory, wealth, comfort and happiness will soon vanish and be no more. Summon ye the people to God and call the souls to the manners and conduct of the Supreme Concourse. To the orphans be ye kind fathers, and to the unfortunate a refuge and shelter. To the poor be a treasure of wealth, and to the sick a remedy and healing. Be a helper of every oppressed one, the protector of every destitute one, be ye ever mindful to serve any soul of mankind. Attach no important to self-seeking, rejection, arrogance, oppression and enmity. Heed them not. Deal in the contrary way. Be kind in truth, not only in appearance and outwardly.”

Abdul-Baha

Surely, most of us have wondered at some point what kind of file extension we are. It made me laugh to see I am .doc based on what the description. Have a go and see who you are…still have the invites…wonder if that’s because no one is reading this blog…

Once in a while I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t come to recognize Bahá’u'lláh as the manifestation and messenger of God for this day. Here I am, in Haifa, doing volunteer work for the administrative and spiritual centre of the Bahá’í world community. It just fills me with such a joy every time to realize how blessed and lucky I am to be able to get a better understanding on why we were created and what the purpose of our lives is and live my life accordingly.

On one hand we (mankind) are advancing so rapidly in so many areas, yet there is not much joy in the world today. The general view seems to be of a negative one and yet I feel so positive of what is in store for mankind based on the Bahá’í teachings, the unity and world peace that is to come. It makes me smile now, since I am having another of these moments of gratitude for being here and having partaken of the message of Bahá’u'lláh, yet I can see someone that reads this can think this guy is way up there in the clouds, an idealist who is not particularly realistic and doesn’t see the problem that has to be dealt with.

The only problem is that the world in large is not ready to admit what the problem is, the fact that a lot of people openly refute the existence of spirituality and us having souls. I could write on and on about this, but the reality is that its all words…so I will end it here and try to go back to putting these words in action…serving mankind in the capacity that I am able and share the message of Bahá’u'lláh with others…

O SON OF DUST!

Verily I say unto thee: Of all men the most negligent is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother. Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning. (Baha’u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words)

I wanted to find out how Google suggests works so I goggled it a little and found out how to make one of your own in .NET as well as other frameworks and so excited to see it work I sat up until 3 fixing one for our person finder on the intranet and I was very pleased to put it to work today and it took only minutes before I heard happy people commenting on it. Sorry, but can’t post a link…

What I can though is to share a couple of tools that I came across and found very useful after giving it a go. ArcSoft’s Panorama Maker is one (thanks to Scott Hanselman). The second one is Virtual Desktop Manager and this is a pretty good one I must say.