Almost all computer users encounter times when they wish they hadn't deleted the file they just did so moments ago. Sometimes files disappear in weird program crashes - something which happened to me tonight. Sometimes it is done accidentally. Sometimes you need to spy on someone. Whatever the occasion, recovering the deleted file can be extremely handy and might save hours of work.

The good news is that deleted files CAN be easily recovered. It is possible to do so even if you deleted the file permanently, even if you emptied up the Recycle Bin and sometimes even if you formatted the disk. This applies for more or less all popular read/write storage systems with the exception of CDs and DVDs. The recovery process requires special software to accomplish the task but fortunately such software is freely available and are quite easy and straightforward to use. Usage typically follows in the form of selecting which disk to try recover files from and then letting the software do a "low level" scan of the disk. After a while, the software will list out the files on the system including any found deleted files. Files can then be selected and saved.

My particular favourite for the task is Handy Recovery 1.0. It is freeware and is available for download from the vendor's website. It has an uncluttered interface, is easy to use and did a good job of helping me recover some (accidentally :p) deleted assignment work tonight!

Candy ranks high among my staple food. Tonight, after a tiring ordeal involving the capture, torture and eventual murder of three "jumbo" flies which had harassed me and my food after managing entry into my apartment, I went out and got myself some candy along with a Red Bull and some chilli.

Eating chilli with "minicable" candy (and a bit of dried fish) reminds me of times long gone when I heartily ate scraped "kaashi" mixed with sugar and "valhoa mas". The mixture was made and eaten inside the "kaashi falhi". It was just so yummy! It's a taste I loved and miss. (Anyone ate it? It's supposed to be a traditional snack!)

"Man" was created in the image of God himself according to Abrahamic religions Christianity. The Quran has it that God made Adam, the first human, "complete" and then breathed life into him with the "Spirit of God". Humans have lived as these complete beings with no further need of improvement on himself for millions of years. But that time is to become history...

Transhumanism is an intellectual movement promoting the next stage in human development - a stage that will lead to the stage called PostHuman. Curiously enough, it is not about the development of man's shelter, food or any fancy modern "necessities" but about the very development of man himself. More interestingly though, the sort of development transhumanist movement is pushing involves advancing and massively augmenting the very nature of humanity, of humans, through the use of logic, reason and technology to transcend fundamental human limitations.

So in a couple of decades(or possibly years?), instead of a Pimp My Ride TV show we might be watching Pimp the Human. 300W surround sound speakers instead of your vocal cords... anyone?

Read up the Frequently Asked Questions page at the World Transhumanist Association for more information. If transhumanism catches your fancy, I recommend reading up the writings by Ray Kurzweil - I've been a fan for years. Mind you it is not fiction but makes for a fascinating read nonetheless.

I was moving the sites we had on our server when I found the tab-delimited file I used to import data into the Online Radheef I launched sometime ago. The data it contains is extracted from the original Radheef software published by the National Centre for Linguistics and Historical Research. There ARE mistakes in it contents - partly a reflection of the mistakes in the texts in the original Radheef and partly errors that had creeped in when I had extracted and formatted the data.

Anyway, I am putting up the data for grabs. It can be used for many a purpose - Dhivehi spelling checks, reverse word lookup by word definition etc. Feel inspired, make something useful and share!

- Download the Dhivehi Radheef in CSV format ( 907Kb, zip )

Have fun.