Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia, is one of the most important websites now. However, the Arabic version of this great project is suffering: the number of available articles in Arabic is very low compared to the number of Arabic speakers in the World. Consider this: Polish Wikipedia contains more than 100,000 articles and there are only 46 million speakers of this language; there are more than 250 million speakers of Arabic worldwide, but the Arabic Wikipedia has more than 10,000 articles only. The other big problem is that even for the existing articles, many of them are incomplete and some of them merely have a few words on them. We, Arab internet users, are the only to blame for this.

In order to enrich the Arabic content on Wikipedia, the Egyptian GNU/Linux User Group (EGLUG), have announced Saturday, August 26, 2006, the first Arabic Wikipedia Day. They are inviting all Arab users to volunteer in the day-long event, and to contribute to this project. I had written and edited several articles in the past, and I encourage you all to participate in this event. I’m working on a new article to add it on Saturday, and you should do something too. Writing and editing pages on Wikipedia is very easy; as easy as blogging and writing in forums if not easier. Give it a try, you won’t regret it, and believe me that such contribution to human knowledge is very rewarding. thx nas

First unofficial EP bloggers meetup tomorrow in Khobar. No registration, no corporate sponsorship, and no press: some bloggers informal chat with no restrictions whatsoever; just make sure to keep your clothes on :-) Starting at 2100 in Dr. Cafe, Khobar Corniche. I’ll be there, and non-bloggers are welcome too. Special thanks to Mashi 97 for the time and effort to put things together.

NY Times: Saudi team grateful for chance to be home.

A Saudi hacker named NullFlag has hacked Al Jazeera Sports Channel (JSC) website this morning. The hacker expressed his anger at the Al Jazeera news channel and their unfair coverage on his country.

I’ve been reading lately, and this book was one of these that I really enjoyed. I wrote about it over at my Arabic blog; check it out if you were interested.

“It’s also getting back at men, God knows how much they get on our nerves so what’s wrong with rattling theirs? We don’t steal but, yes, we manipulate them to get ourselves a good bargain. Sometimes it only takes a bit of smiling, a bit of softening the voice or a bit of leaning over across the counter. It’s harmless,” a 24-year-old girl, who doesn’t mind using her goodies to get something she wants, told Arab News. Way to go, girl! Manipulate us!

In 2002, Silvija Seres was visiting Saudi Arabia and spent a few weeks in Jeddah teaching at Dar Al Hikma College (do you remember Karen Hughes’ visit last year?). Silvija took a lot of photos, and some of them are really good. This one is dedicated to a friend who was craving for mu6abaq last week ;-) via as