Skreyola's Commonplace Book

Essay Comments Entry

2008-07-22T21:50:31Z

This entry is to allow people to comment on essays at my Web site (those that do not have their own entry here).
You can still comment if you don't have an account with LJ. Just pick Anonymous (It would be nice if you put a name in your comment, but you don't have to).
If you comment, please mention the name of the essay you read. You may leave additional comments for other essays you read on my site.

A long-neglected update

2008-07-11T01:41:53Z

*blows the dust off this journal*
*waves away the airborne particles*
*coughs*
Excuse me.

Well, what has happened since my last update? How long ago was that? It seems like ages. LJ has been one of the things I've neglected lately.
June 11... Hmm...
I went to North Carolina for the UMVIM Connect rally, where I ran the slide decks for the plenary sessions and presented a workshop during one of the breakout times (the topic was: proper slide deck design). That went well, and it was very nice weather up there.
The next week, I went to Destin for a couple of days with my mom.
Since then, I guess I've been working mostly on driving around to visit the more than 50 churches in my town. So far, I think I've made contact at about 15 of them. But I've made a call list and prepared a call log so that I can call the rest.
Oh, and I've been working on that couch I've mentioned to some of you. Here's a picture:

So, I've been doing some software development lately. I had two programs that I needed that I couldn't find anywhere, so I ended up having to write my own applications. I don't want to get into Web development, but I wrote them both as CGI programs. I like CGI. I can write the programs like console programs, yet have a GUI interface through the HTML. I have a hard time wrapping my head around GUI programming, because it's all based on events, and I like to set things up in hierarchical menu structures, like the programs we used to use before we knew of such things as windows, icons, menus, and pointers. One of my favorite games in the BBS era was TradeWars2002. It had that kind of text-menu interface: Sector #486 (#) warp to sector, (p)ort (?) Help [20 turns remaining]: or something like that.
Life was simpler in computer programs back then. :)
Anyway, the status of my goals:
WIFE: I haven't found any likely prospects. I'm trying to get out more among people and make some new friends, to expand the number of people who know me and might possibly know someone who could be her.
CAREER: No bites yet. Just nibbles. I've posted a total of two church Web sites, along with my own business page, and one of those two wants to hire me to update the page. The information won't likely change often, so that won't bring a lot of money in, but it'd be something. I'm going to talk to the pastor this week about the page and see whether she hires me or not. I figure most churches I've given my card to will have to have a board/council meeting before they invite me to talk to them about possibly doing their sites, if they want Web work done, so I'm trying to be patient. I need to find more ways to get my name out there.
NOVEL: Still waiting for someone to return a proofread copy so I can post it on LuLu or Wowio.
DEGREE: Completed. Expensive piece of paper.

I'm feeling pretty good. I need to sleep more than I am.
My lips are clear.

Here's a secret: FVYLGFHDSNDROABEVDHEFGRDQPMH.
(Not really a secret)

Meet Yum-Yum (New Laptop)

2008-06-12T02:41:19Z

I haven't written in a while. I've been keeping busy with various things, like getting stared in business, building a piece of furniture, researching fibercrete, and dreaming about a nautilus-shaped house.
The process of getting started in business is an intense one, involving many time-consuming steps before one can safely begin working. I had to draw up a contract, start a bank account, order many little things, and start keeping track of all sorts of things.
But I think I'm just about to the point where I can really start working.
Incidentally, and just in time, I've gotten my new (to me) laptop working.
I want to keep as many things as possible separated as far as business or personal is concerned. So it's important that I do nearly all of my work-related tasks on a work machine.
I was given this machine by one of the members of the Pensacola LUG, and I'm very grateful for it. The man who gave it to me told me that it worked but needed a new power cord/brick. I ordered one, and it recently arrived. I booted up, and everything worked well. So I shut it down and started installing Debian. It had had Mandrake on it, but I don't know much about Mandrake, and I don't have an install disc for it, so I wouldn't really be able to administrate the system as it was.
The PCMCIA network interface cards (NICs) I have are a bit on the funky side, and Debian wasn't able to use them, so I pulled down an Ubuntu ISO and burned a new install disc for it. Debian is well-known for its handling of unusual hardware, and it read my NIC right away. It's based on Debian, so the system adminstration is familiar to me.
So, now I'm just setting up everything the way I want it and waiting for the other parts I ordered for it (a new battery and CMOS battery), and I'll be good to go. I'm calling the new machine Yum-Yum to match my personal laptop, Koko. Anyone who gets the reference (without the aid of Wikipedia) gets a cookie.
It seems to run a little hot, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any hints on how to get a temperature reading from this? Is it too old to have onboard sensors?
I've been working on setting up various things on it so it'll be just the way I like it (installing software, putting items on the ring menu, making sudo behave nicely (i.e., not ask for my password for things I want to put under menu items), adding a line to the fstab for my new thumb drive, etc.), and I'm pleased with it. It even recognizes when a VGA cable is attached and switches automatically, which will be very nice when I make presentations.
I still need to copy over a lot of files and play with things to get all my settings the way I want them. After all, I recently answered someone's question about what software I use regularly, and it was a long list, so I have quite a few programs to tweak. I'm bad about tweaking things, so I have a lot of tweaking to do yet.
I'm already pretty comfortable with the trackpoint. Don't know yet if I will put a trackball on it. As I was editing this, I reached on my keyboard for where the trackpoint is on my business machine, hehe... I'd say I'm hip with the point. It's better than a touchpad. A lot better.
Well, I guess I'll post this and try to make an update later.
Sorry this has all been geekery, but this is my life right now... getting ready for doing business.
And I keep thinking of more things I need to have on the business machine. Off I go again... And I haven't even gotten to the important bits, like firewall and such.

drool

2008-05-22T16:38:06Z

Ran across this today:
Nokia 810.
*drool*
And its OS is Linux-based.

Linux adventures: New hardware.

2008-05-15T03:09:18Z

My new hard drive arrived today. Last week, when I tried to upgrade from the repository, my hard drive started clicking, and the upgrade failed from I/O errors. I tried running various programs that I thought might fix the bad places on the hard drive, but to no avail. So, I decided it was better to just give up on the drive and get a new one, which would be more reliable than my who-knows-how-old Maxtor (which, on looking at the case, turns out to have been manufactured on 06-10-96). So, I popped onto Newegg.com and found the cheapest hard drive with a high number of high ratings and ordered it.
It arrived today, and I installed it in the machine. By the time I can post this, the install will be done. Of course, I archived important files before I took the old hard drive out.
It occurs to me at this point that it may seem that I have been replacing my computer hardware at an excessive rate, given all the posts I've made about my various fresh installs. This is not the case. Most of my equipment is legacy. Probably half of you have nothing as old as my newest desktop machine. Well, it may be higher, given the technical factor to which my friends tend to have achieved. *grin* But this hard drive is a good example. It's 12 years old, and I don't think I was the original owner, unless it's the second drive I had in my very first machine, but I don't think so. I think it's one I picked up from someone who no longer wanted it, because it's a fairly big one, and I don't think I had a big hdd until much later.
Anyway, I have a lot of legacy equipment, and from time to time, pieces of it reach their end-of-service points.
Having finished the new install, I realized I'd forgotten to grab a few config files for aliases and profiles. Oh, well... but I also forgot the interfaces file for the network cards. Oops. My lapses in memory are unimportant, though.
After a few madenningly simple mistakes and their solutions, I had my gateway box up and running. I hope it is just as before, hehe. We shall see, I guess. Anyway, I am again proud of how much I've learned, humbled by how quickly I've forgotten the things that make the system work properly, and happy to be online again with expectations of reliable service for the forseeable future.
I love Linux. :)

Expelled, and Beyond

2008-05-09T02:49:48Z

I went to see Ben Stein's movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [Web site], this afternoon. It was well-constructed, and his interviews were well-done, showing respect for the evolutionists he interviewed and asking the hard questions of the intelligent design representatives he interviewed.
You should see this movie.
The movie is not about Creationism. The movie is not about the theory of intelligent design. The movie is about academic freedom.
Students are being oppressed in this country by those who would deny our God-given right to ask questions (partially guaranteed by the First Amendment in the redress of grievances clause). It is not whose idea is right or wrong or valid or invalid. It is that we have the right to ask questions. It should be self-evident that God has given us the right to ask questions about anything and everything. It is most profitable to us if we ask questions in humility and in the search for truth, but we can ask any question.
Except in the classroom. In the classroom, the Right of Inquiry is being denied.
That is why this movie is important. We need to be aware that the Right of Inquiry is being denied, and we need to demand that institutions and governmental bodies respect our rights of inquiry and discourse. We need to demand that theories be taught in the context of discourse and rigorous criticism.
I do not believe Creationism should be taught in a classroom funded by taxpayers. I do not believe that Intelligent Design Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I do not believe that Neo-Darwinian Evolution Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I believe that these theories should both (or in concert with other theories) be honestly discussed as theories put forth by their respective authors, honestly criticized in a discourse of examination and inquiry, and honestly set to rest at the end of the unit or class as exactly what they were at its beginning: theories. And let the students decide for themselves what theory they feel has the best basis in fact, evidence, logic, and their own personal worldview. Anything less is a disservice to science and to the students of our educational institutions. To teach one theory and only one theory in a classroom is to preach a dogma, not to teach an informative course in science or anything else that falls under the heading of education.
Any theory that cannot exist in an environment of discourse, criticism, and inquiry is not a serious theory. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, "Truth is a strong tower and never requires to be buttressed with error."

This evening, there was at OWC's Arts Center a lecture by Nancy Pearcey on the cultural implications of the evolution theory. This was part of the reason I chose to watch the movie today. The newspaper indicated that the movie was the subject of the lecture. It was called "Beyond Expelled"
One of the interesting things she pointed out is that roughly 80% of this country believes that an intelligent designer (either through guided evolution or through direct creation) was involved in the origin of the forms of life we see in the world today. Only 10-20% believe evolution without any supernatural force is the source of today's diverse world of life. And then she said something I thought was noteworthy:
"The public schools have a responsibility to respect the public."
Now, if 80% of the nation believes there was a designer involved, why do the school systems teach as though it were uncontested a theory of naturalistic forces without the input of a designer?

Something that occurred to me while she was speaking was the realization that the environmentalist who fights to protect the planet from polluter-humans and the amoral business that pours toxic sludge into the rivers both take their worldview from the same place. Darwinism is the belief behind both the personification of the environment, or less extremely, the dignity of the environment, that the environmental movement holds central and the contextual erasure of the exploitative business or social pragmatist. They both rely on this idea of man as an evolved animal who has no higher spiritual calling than to either fulfill his animalistic passions or to protect nature as an example of all that is pure and natural.
Neither the environmentalist nor the unscrupulous corporate raider has respect for both human freedom and dignity and for stewardship of the earthly realm. In fact, I would suggest that only a worldview based on the Bible (an economic model of Biblical capitalism, which relies on both stewardship and individual self-determination) can respect both humanity and natural stewardship.
In other words: If there is no creator, if we came from non-living matter purely by chance or natural laws, but either way without a creator, then we have no responsibility to each other as humans with dignity, nor do we have anyone to be responsible to in the question of whether to practice good stewardship of the land, because without a creator, we have no one to be stewards for... and since I have already said that without a creator there can be no responsibility to each other, there is likewise no responsibility to hold the land in stewardship for our descendants. This is the logical consequence of a worldview wherein people came from evolutionary processes alone.

By the way, she also mentioned in passing the practice in many schools of telling children that all ideas have equal validity. This is a precept of postmodernist philosophy. I immediately thought of this comic: Hard Onions: Marketplace of Ideas
So, go see the movie, and check out the writings of Nancy Pearcey.

Edited to add:
Freedom of Inquiry means being able to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
There is a false dichotomy between science and religion. I believe honest scientific exploration in search of the truth will always lead to a deeper understanding of the truth of God's word.
Freedom of Inquiry means encouraging questions and seeking of the truth.
Students have the right to know that what they are being taught is accurate. How can they discover that if they can't ask questions about the validity, truth, and accuracy of what is being put forth?
"The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." --Albert Einstein

Environ-mental

2008-05-08T14:42:55Z

One day, we will have to tell our children the truth about the environmental movement.
We will have to say:
When I was younger, we allowed a massive, unlawful cartel to control the world price of oil and damage our economy. Even though the cartel set the world market price for oil by curtailing its production whenever the price got too low for their tastes, we blamed others for the price.
We blamed the SUV owners, saying their excessive consumption drove up demand and created high prices. We blamed BP, Citgo, Shell, and Exxon for making a profit, even though their profits were only about four to eight cents on each gallon of gasoline. We ignored other things that drove up the price, like the many federal, state, and local gasoline taxes, to focus mainly on the corporations that refined and transported our fuel at meager levels of profit, and we taxed the oil companies heavily because we felt they made too much profit.
When the price reached $4.00, it was the realization of the pre-2000 dream of environmentalists, who wanted to see the price of gasoline go so high that people would stop buying it. $4.00 was a common price listed as the "no way" point back when gas was $0.99/gallon.
We refused to do anything about the price of oil and gasoline because we were following a mandate from the environmental movement that we had to eliminate our use of fossil fuels. We didn't drill for the oil we had to force the world market to correct its price, and we didn't pursue non-food crop-based fuels, such as hemp. We drove up the price of corn that could feed people in order to make ethanol, even though growing, refining, and transporting the stuff used more energy than it created, and even though it required high amounts of fertilizer and pesticide.
And because we refused to do anything about the price of oil, we followed the environmental movement's advice to conserve energy by changing our light fixtures from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent tubes, even though the compact tubes brought mercury or similar toxins into our homes and created a massive problem in proper disposal of the spent lamps.
And we gave away our freedom to climate control our homes, letting someone at a remote location control the thermostats in our houses so we wouldn't use as much electricity.
Loss of freedom and damage to the economy are the results of the policies put forth by the environmental movement. Eventually, we're going to have to be honest about this and tell our children that this is what it was doing to us. Why can't we be honest about it now and find a better solution?
Look around. Think through what the policies advocated by the environmental movement will eventually do to our nation. Then look around at the political candidates and see which ones have a record most closely aligned with the environmental movement. You can be sure that they favor policies that will have these effects:
- Higher fuel prices - Burning anything (except an SUV, it seems) is bad in the eyes of the environmental movement.
- Hamstrung economic growth - Taxing the oil companies (which are most likely in your mutual fund) hurts investors, which limits the amount of money available to start businesses, which limits the number of jobs that are created, which hinders the economic growth.
- Higher food prices - One of the environmental movement's sacred cows in this country right now is ethanol made from corn or sugar cane, even though most other nations have abandoned ethanol as more resource-intensive than petroleum. Candidates favoring ethanol from food crops favor higher food prices, which means more hungry poor in the USA.
- Less freedom - The environmental movement wants to tell you that you can't choose to spend your hard-earned money on electricity to cool or heat your home to the temperature that makes you comfortable. Candidates who support the environmental movement don't support your right of self-determination in small things... what makes you think they'll support it in large things? Maybe you've heard of the concept of faithfulness with little being an indication of worthiness to manage much?
- Hare-brained solutions and computer models that don't match facts and logic - Compact fluorescent tubes use less energy than incandescent bulbs, but they contain toxic chemicals: not a sensible solution. Candidates supporting the environmental movement follow the theory of massive man-made global warming, even though the science doesn't back the theory (maybe you read a few news articles about the drop in temperatures over the last year that wiped out a century's temperature rises, to name only one of many problems with the theory)... and even though following the theory requires steps hurtful to our God-given rights.

The environmental movement has failed us, and it is time to abandon it. We need to focus on being good stewards of the resources God has given us and stop blindly following this navel-gazing warm fuzzies movement. Environmentalism is fatally flawed. Stewardship is sound both ecologically and economically, as well as theologically and logically.
We must do a better job of taking care of God's green earth -- but we won't do that by joining the environmental movement in poorly-considered plans based on questionable science.
Consider this when you choose a political candidate this November. Think about what you'll tell your children.

Edumacation Compleetid

2008-05-06T05:02:24Z

I graduated on Saturday.
I feel great about being done with the degree.
Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame, if the name doesn't seem familiar) gave the commencement address, and he gave us quite a number of pieces of bad advice. Needless to say, the speech was thoroughly enjoyable. Since commencement speeches tend to be of a certain length, having one that is funny is the best one can hope for, and I greatly enjoyed it.
The university awarded Jones an honorary doctorate. I got an empty folder, a lapel pin, and a few handshakes.
The organizers of the event just had stacks of these folders on stage, and as we each got to the edge, we'd hand our card with our information and our name spelled phonetically to one of the marshals, who read it. To save time, the university will send out the actual sheepskins in six weeks, when they know whether we've passed all our classes this semester.
C'est la Vie. I was pleasantly surprised to open the program and see two asterisks by my name. I hadn't known for sure whether I was getting any honors (having been far too busy earning the degree to figure out such things), but I looked to see what two asterisks meant among all the various notations, ranging from Army/Air Force ROTC to a special services recipient to Pace scholarship recipient, and it turned out that the asterisks were fairly straightforward: one meant cum laude, two meant magna cum laude, and three meant summa cum laude. So, I could have worn honor cords. Ah, well. The simple black cap and gown was fine for me.
I now have a BA in Communication Arts. More importantly, I'm free.
"Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty, I'm free at last!"

I was so happy and proud I wore my mortarboard and tassel to church while I went around and greeted people (I took it off during the service).

Goal Status 080430

2008-05-01T01:26:17Z

Here is the status of my major goals:

WIFE - I'm not sure how things are going here. My friend Ruth introduced me to a young lady with whom I've been messaging back and forth. I'm thinking about going to a singles event tomorrow night. I know a fair number of people, but I don't know anyone who really stands out as definite potential rather than unknown possibility.

DEGREE - I'm done with all my assignments. I walk the stage on Saturday. Assuming all is well, I am done with my degree.

CAREER - I launched my church's Web site this morning. Yesterday, I got my occupational license for this year, and tonight, I'm going to try to get the LLC paperwork squared away. I've made a list of people I need to contact to propose doing their Web sites. I have put together a tentative business plan. I need to put together some more samples and presentations so that I will be prepared to discuss the possibilities with pastors and other church contacts. I need to get contracts put together and find out about sales tax and the like. There are many, many hoops to jump through. I went to the bank today and got information about a business checking account I think I'll use. So, there is much to do. I'm going to spend a few weeks trying to drum up business, and then I'll decide whether I need to take a part-time job to pay the student loan payments until the business takes off. But this is what I've decided to do, and God told me I should decide what to do and He'd help me. If this is His will, He'll open the doors for me. If not, He'll shut the doors and open others. I plan to do Web design for a while and then start branching out into other areas of stewardship consulting. God will take care of all my needs.

NOVEL - I have made no progress on this. I am still waiting for my proofers to finish reading through the PDF versions I sent them. If you are one of the recipients of this file, please get done with it as soon as possible. I am counting on you! :)

I covet your prayers. Thank you. God bless you all.

Reading

2008-04-28T03:26:42Z

I just though I should mention that in the past month or two, even though I've been terribly busy with school and the church Web site, I have managed to do a bit of reading. Here are the books I've finished:
Friday, the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Saturday, the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
A Nickel's Worth of Hope by Andre Vandenburg
and read about half of His Mysterious Ways, a Guideposts book.

The rabbi books are neat little mysteries, keep you guessing until near the end. :) Unfortunately, they contain too much foul language. :(

On Hipocrisy

2008-04-25T16:49:37Z

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding in our society about the meaning of the word hypocrite.
From its misuse in popular reference, I observe that many people think a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another. Certainly, that is a small part of the meaning of this word, but if that were all, there would be no point in having the word, because we already have a word for that: human.
Yes, every human whose father and mother were born on this planet has said things and then done different things. No human alive today has ever been completely consistent in words and actions. And you wouldn't want to meet someone who did, because there are often good reasons for changing our minds and not following through on something we said we should or would do.
No, there is something much more important in the meaning of the word hypocrite.
To understand this, we need to go back to the root of the word. The ways we use and misuse words changes over time, but however we twist the meanings, the words themselves will always convey to some their original meaning, and it is often useful to return a word to its proper meaning, because words have no purpose if they do not clearly and properly convey information.
Now, this word hypocrite comes from a Greek word that means actor. And therein lies its true meaning.
A hypocrite is not someone who says one thing and does another. A hypocrite is someone who does wrong and pretends to be doing right. It is easy to confuse the two, but there is a huge difference. Saying one thing and doing another may in many circumstances (either because the situation has changed or because it is realized that following through would be worse than not doing what was promised) be helpful to all, but pretending to be doing good while behaving wickedly is never helpful.
A hypocrite is a pretender, not someone who strives for a good goal and misses the mark. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. No one can consistently do good and never do anything wrong. The tendency, though, is to expect this of others and to pretend that we are always right. And by judging the foibles of others who are trying to do right, we ourselves become the true hypocrites, pretending and deceiving ourselves that we are better because we don't talk about the good we're trying to do.
The truly righteous people acknowledge that they are no better than anyone else, try to do right, and don't, when they do something wrong, pretend in self-righteousness that they are doing right.

Liquid Layout

2008-04-11T17:58:30Z

I've been thinking about Web design a lot, lately. This is probably because I'm going into the field as a career. Anyway, I've run across some pages on the Web discussing the relative value of liquid and fixed-width layouts.
Most of them point out that a liquid layout will become unwieldy on a very wide screen, and that for this reason, designers should put limits on the width of the content.
While the logic that it is the Web designer's job to make sure the layout can't be so wide it is unwieldy or difficult to read the long lines thereof makes sense on the surface, it ignores some important things.
First, not everyone likes the centered-50% content column layout. Personally, I find it annoying, just as I find huge buttons on a browser's toolbar or many banners on a Web site I'm visiting annoying. And the reason is the same: They waste valuable screen real estate.
Second, users can resize their browser windows to have a comfortable column-width. While a kiosk browser may be limited to full-screen, a desktop browser doesn't have to be. I can set my browser window to 640px in width and browse sites that way all day long.
Third, users can also adjust their base text size or zoom factor to make a relative-width layout easy to read. But if the column is fixed-width, zooming or changing the text size may break the layout or the text wrap (i.e., make that fixed-width column stretch outside the viewing window).
Fourth, it is insulting to users to dictate what fluid content, like text, should look like. If your layout depends heavily on images, positioning them rigidly makes sense, but there's no reason in the world for a Web designer to dictate to a user how wide a column of text should be. Yes, I know thin columns are easier to read, but if I'm reading something lengthy, it is more important to me that I get as much text on the screen as possible to limit the number of times I'm required to move the page to access further content.
It is insulting in another way: It implies that the Web designer thinks the user is not smart enough to adjust the window to a comfortable view.

So, Web designers, if your aim is accessibility and readability, don't use fixed-width layouts. Liquid layouts are more accessible and more friendly to users. Don't put your users in an unnecessary box.

End of the XP era, pretty much.

2008-04-05T19:07:02Z

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options.
The new version of Ubuntu offers some great tools to make the switch from MS-Windows(tm) (or dabbling in Linux, if the user has high-end games he or she still wants to run under MS-Win) a whole lot easier than it has been in the past. However, one thing that is not mentioned in the following article is a recommendation for choice of window manager. The default Ubuntu desktop is Gnome, which feels more like MacOS(tm) than like MS-Windows(tm). For users looking to have a familiar desktop, go with Kubuntu/KDE. Read More about Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu installer.
Ubuntu is making great strides in becoming the sort of 'default' Linux for reluctant MS-Win users. I think that's a good thing, because helping Win users switch is a Good Thing in my book, and since Ubuntu is built on the rock-solid Debian distro, I have great confidence in it. Read more about Ubuntu as a societally reckoned default.

I also read an article where the author trashed Linux because, basically, he felt that the install process was exactly like Windows(tm) (put CD in, follow prompts, on first boot, huge security updates, forced reboot, and not everything worked automagically). I'd like to say something about this.
His faulty perceptions come from a huge error in approach. Linux is not MS-Windows(tm). However close the basic user experience may come, they are not the same thing. Expecting a Macintosh computer to act like a Windows XP(tm) machine would never have crossed this guy's mind, so I hardly think it is fair for him to expect a Linux machine to be exactly like the MS-Windows(tm) interface. That said, many, many portions of the UI and the user experience in general are very similar. The author of the article, which I will not link, chose to be nit-picky and focus his whole article on three or four minor (given the proper paradigm) issues.

For one thing, he complained that the security updates required him to reboot his machine. For those of you who don't know, that almost never happens on a Linux machine when updating. There are very few instances when you have to reboot after an update. Even if you replace or update a large portion of your background services (called daemons in the POSIX world (Under DOS, they were called TSRs)), all that is required is to restart those individual services. No reboot is required. The most likely and notable update that requires a reboot is updating the kernel, the very heart of the operating system. Yes, he did need to restart after the first update (going, incidentally, from a CD installer that may be many months old to an up-to-date dynamic repository), but it will probably be many months before he is required to reboot after an update again. Comparing that to the Win32 world's "Oh, I see you installed a program/peripheral/service. You must restart to continue."
An article on why Linux doesn't require a reboot on update
For example, as of this writing, I've upgraded my gateway firewall's software a few times, and it hasn't required a restart. Current uptime: 15 days, 1 hour 53 minutes. That length of time ago is, by the way, the last time the power went out here for more than five minutes, so I shut it down manually.

Another article worth a read: Things the author of the article can do easily in Linux but can't in Windows(tm)

The word is Consequence, Senator.

2008-04-01T20:30:41Z

Barack Obama said recently, "Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information."

Others have covered the angle that he is essentially putting pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the same category. I won't go into that.

My problem is with the word he chose: punishment.

A punishment is pain, discomfort or loss cause to someone for a fault. In other words, it is something an external party inflicts on someone. None of the things he mentioned are inflicted by a third party. A punishment would be that he throws his daughter out of the house. A punishment would be if the government were to put her in jail or fine her for her "mistake". No, what he mentioned were not punishments. They are possible consequences.

A consequence is an event that follows directly from the action. A consequence does not depend on an exterior party inflicting something. It stems from and grows out of the action itself. Touching a piece of hot metal leads to a consequence of burning yourself. It is not a punishment. It is a consequence. No one needs to find out that you did something for a consequence of that action to occur. Someone must find out you did something in order for you to be punished for it.

Pregnancy and disease are both possible consequences of having sexual intercourse. Neither is a punishment.

I would venture to guess that Barack Obama said these things are punishments because his political philosophy does not include the idea of consequences. After all, Liberalism is all about removing consequences, because consequences of our disparate actions invariably lead to inequality of status.

By the way, what he's talking about his daughters having, if they are to prevent pregnancy and STDs is not information but contraception. Information will not, if you choose to have sex, prevent pregnancy or disease transmission. Information can only prevent these things if it leads one to choose not to have sex. If one is going to have sex, information will not prevent anything. And if Obama thinks that information will not lead to abstaining in the event of an opportunity to "make a mistake", it seems silly to imagine that information will lead to the presence of mind for his daughter and the hypothetical boy with whom she has a mistake to stop and get contraceptive devices. I know that some will think, perhaps they will have the device with them. If that is the case, it is not a mistake but a willful choice. Judging from his remarks, I guess that in Obama's mind, people don't willfully make bad choices, only mistakes.

Words are important. Choose them carefully. The words of a president are even more important, because leaders around the world make decisions based on what the leader of the U.S.A. says. Choose them carefully, too.

Necessity is the mother...

2008-03-28T22:55:00Z

I've been working on stuff today for my church's Web site. And I've been having a problem. In my little toolbar, I have a few frequently used programs, including my IM client. In fact, that program's icon is the closest to the "open programs" area of the taskbar, which leads to my often clicking on it by accident. When the IM client loads, it doesn't check for another instance of itself (because it allows you to have two different accounts loaded on the same machine, as I recall), and when it tries to login, it kicks my existing connections off. This is not my preferred behavior.
So I finally (after hitting it four or five times today) decided to fix it. To do this, I thought I'd write a little shell script to check a lockfile and decide whether or not to load the program. However, lockfiles are a pain, as I discovered in researching them. But eventually, I hit upon an idea that is foolproof and doesn't involve extra files. I merely check to see if the program name is in the process list. If it is, I pop up a message box giving me its process ID. If it's not, I load the IM client. No more errors!
Here's the code:

#! /bin/bash
y=`eval  ps x | grep gaim | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`
if [ -z "$y" ]; then
  /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/gaim" &
else
  echo "Already running!" $y "is the PID." >&2
  xmessage -center -timeout 3 "Already running!" $y "is the PID."
  exit 1
fi

Political invective. Enjoy.

2008-03-24T17:21:46Z

Had a thought a few weeks ago and wrote it down. Just found the paper on which I wrote it:
Liberals are people whose good intentions didn't understand the point of "Harrison Bergeron".

What is it worth? (Reprise)

2008-03-21T18:09:16Z

http://skreyola.livejournal.com/268380.html

I covet your responses to this entry from way back when.
Trust me, I'm not poking anyone or feeling ill toward anyone about this. I totally understand how life can grab you by the collar and whisk away a whole semester. You may have noticed I'm not around LJ much, these days. So I'm not mad at anyone, even if you gave me a time and missed it. I feel you have done me no wrong. Life is like this.
But I'm still eager to learn the answers to my questions, so if any of you reading this have time now, or in the future, please take a look at the earlier entry and leave me a comment.
In short, it basically says this:

Right or wrong, I wonder if there is material value to some (certainly not all) of the entries I've written in my LJ over the past six years.

Writing is work, and it's fair to be paid for work, and someone might benefit from something I've written.

I have the means to produce writing on a fairly consistent basis, provided the motivation to do so (someone cares that I write entries rather than not write entries).

I am considering a collection of my best writings.

I don't know what are the best ones, so please tell me. I don't know if this idea is totally off-base, so if you think it's stupid/conceited/pointless, tell me that.

By the by, does anyone have a suggestion for the best means of publishing something like this?

Virtual Console

2008-03-17T02:18:53Z

I recently sold some of my crochet creations. Mostly it was two commissions. So I had a minute amount of money on hand. I got a classic controller and a Wii points card. So, for the past few days, I've been enjoying the virtual console version of Mario64. It's pretty fun, but I kind of wish I'd had a tiny bit more money so I could have gotten Mario Galaxy.
Playing Mario64 reminds me a good deal of Galaxy, and so does the other game I've been playing recently, which is Mario Sunshine. They're both fun games, and I'm happy to be able to play them, but they remind me of how much better the other game is. It's like when I rented Mario Party 8 for the Wii. Playing it, I felt that it was what all the other Mario Party games were supposed to be. The controls were so superior, so intuitive, and so fitting for the game.
It's the same way with these two. Sunshine and Mario64 are good games, but I think the concepts of them are realized so much better in Galaxy. I rented Galaxy shortly after it came out, and I got a fair way into the game. I don't think it was easier than these other two, but I was able to get through it a lot better. I made smoother progress and didn't hit any levels I was unable to pass, even for a short time. Because of that, I had more fun with it. So I'm looking forward to owning it. And I think I will still play these two. They are, as I have mentioned, both good games.
The other game I got for the virtual console is Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It's as much fun as any of the other Sonic games I've had the chance to try. I haven't beaten the boss by the waterfall yet, though. But I've only played it for about 20 minutes total. I hope I can beat it. It would kind of stink to have to get a youngster to beat it for me so I can go on. ;)

Empty words and promises, dangerous words and promises.

2008-03-12T15:30:36Z

Politics is a touchy subject with some people. And with many, it is the realm of emotion rather than reason.
With some politicians throwing around words like hope, change, and future without giving any clarification for what they mean by these words, I thought it would be a good idea to examine the possibilities and the mindsets that I've observed in recent months.
I think it fitting to begin with the future. Politicians love the future. After all, if all your promises are about the future, you don't have to actually do anything about them, because the future is always yet to be. The future is nebulous, unclear, and unpredictable. This is appropriate, because political promises tend to be the same things. I don't trust people who talk about the future in vague terms. If you want to talk about the future, put it in firm language so I know what you really mean to do.
Hope is a wonderful thing, but we need to have real hope, not throwaway hope. We need the kind of hope that is mentioned in Jeremiah 29:11, where God says His plans will give us a future with hope, that is, something real to look forward to. We need to avoid making political decisions based on throwaway hope, like when we look at the dark clouds and say, "I hope it doesn't rain." When we say that, we don't expect it to stay dry, and we don't really mind if that throwaway hope is not fulfilled. It's not real hope, and we don't care much whether it comes to pass. In fact, we expect that it will not be realized. This is a terrible way to make important decisions, because we have more at stake than whether we will have our picnic cut short by a rain that does us no more harm than making us wet.
No matter what anyone says, humans don't like change. We often feel there is no guarantee that the change will be for the better. Except when a politician talks about it. This is a good time to be wary. Pin people down. "What changes are you suggesting?" After all, someone who promises change can fulfill that promise by locking every person into an isolation cell. It's change, but do you support it? Change for the sake of change is not good. Changes need to happen as a logical solution to a problem. If the change is not adequately considered, it may do more harm than good. And question assumptions about what needs to change and why. It may be that someone has a vested interest in a change that hurts other people.
Of course, the most disturbing thing I've seen lately is not with the politicians themselves but with the voters. Many voters have been getting excited about candidates who say they will give them things ... things that are not really in their legitimate power to give ... things the Constitution doesn't grant the federal government power to enact.
Be careful, voters.
The road to totalitarian dictatorship is reached often through the side street of 'bread and circuses'. Be wary of anyone who promises to give you things that are not rightly yours. Government is supposed to protect your ability to use your gifts and talents and efforts to make a good life for yourself with what God has provided. Government is not supposed to give to some at the expense of others. It is supposed to protect and give equally to all (roads, etc.).
"In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'" --Dosteovsky's Grand Inquisitor
"The mob is traitor to the people." —Victor Hugo

Yarnwork

2008-03-02T22:11:29Z

I got my pictures developed yesterday.
Wow. I've done a lot of yarnwork I haven't mentioned on here.

To start with, I finished the chevron baby blanket a while back (It was fairly early in the film roll). I mentioned it in Yarnwork, Funny books, Keeping cool., among other entries. I finished that before I finished the hat, I think.
And I had a secret project I can now show you. I had been keeping it a secret because it was a Christmas present, and then I didn't have a Web cam picture of it to post, and since I shipped it away, I couldn't take a new one. But at long last, I have the picture, and I don't need to keep it a secret. It's a granny square afghan made with various shades of blue.

I made a purple drawstring bag for someone to give as a gift.
I have finished the pillow cover, too.

I have actually been working up a storm. Film pictures are now available on the following entries: Comfy slippers, Scarf, money, Case v.3, and Project finished: Green Shawl.
I have also finished another pair of Robin Hood slippers, 11 inches, but they are a commission.
Another commission I have completed is a poncho/shawl in pink and white.

I had a lot of pink left, so I made a scarf. Let me know if you can't see the word on it, and I'll post an image with the word outlines edited in.

Here's what I have left, if you saw something you wanted:
merlot/rose/pink pillow covered pillow
blue baby blanket
9in. Robin Hood slippers
the green shawl
a brown bracelet
a 100-stitch-long multicolor scarf I've fogotten to photograph

My next project, along with a gray beret-like hat I've started, is a green, tan, and black chevron afghan. I've gotten about 12 rows into that, and it's looking nice, so far.

bad design

2008-02-24T21:18:06Z

What is wrong with menu designers?
The first order a waiter or waitress takes is beverages, yet the beverage section is almost always at the end or center of the menu, where it is harder to find. Why isn't the beverage section up front, where you'll see it first?

Comfy slippers

2008-02-17T21:11:45Z

I just finished a set of slippers. I got the pattern from my grandmother, who has made me several pairs of these "Robin Hood" style slippers over the years. They are very comfortable, and with the top folded down (it can be worn with the top up or down), they remind me of the shoes worn by the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.
This pair is 10 inches along the bottom (and up the side is similar), so I think they'll fit shoe sizes from 8-10.

As usual, the image is not color correct. I looked on the Red Heart Web site hoping to show you the actual color, but the color they have for 358 Lavender does not look right on my LCD screen. The actual yarn is more of a medium to dark purple, similar to how swatch 528 looks on my screen.
Also as usual, I have taken film photographs of these, which should have the correct colors when I develop and scan them.

I'm having trouble with putting a price on my crochet work. If I charged based on materials + time, they would be too expensive for anyone to buy them. However, I would like to get a fair price from them, so I'm hesitant to set the price too low.
What do you think? What would you pay for these or any other items I've displayed on here?

[Edit: added film photo]

Heart Desires (probably a reprise)

2008-02-06T05:20:08Z

I got strong applause for this where I posted it originally (forum), so I thought I ought to preserve it here for posterior.

In reply to:
"I think I can also serve God better when I am in a relationship because I wouldn't be so distracted. Let's face it, most of us who are single and have a strong desire to be married are quite distracted by this desire."

I said:
I agree, and I don't think that this is (adds qualifier before people jump on him) necessarily and indication that a single person doesn't have a heart devoted to God, isn't looking at God, isn't trusting God to provide a mate, isn't content as Paul says we all should be in whatever our situation is.
I believe God gives us heart desires, things we want and can't simply decide not to want. (I used to talk about a certain video game I wanted so bad I could smell it, and how that was a desire I could simply shrug my shoulders and change my mind about wanting; not a heart desire) And since these desires of the heart are from God, they are not sinful, so I'd like people to stop telling singles that they are. When a heart desire is about doing mission work, we refer to it as a calling, but if that heart desire is to build a healthy family with God at the center and hope for the blessing of children, we don't. Very often, people don't consider there to be any possible connection between "I want to go overseas and improve community healthcare" and "I want to be a good spouse and parent, but I'm single right now".
Let me be clear: Not everyone who wants to get married has a heart desire for it, so I'm not simply excusing every want. I'm saying it is foolish for anyone do dismiss out of hand any movement in the direction of seeking a spouse.

Jane Eyre

2008-01-27T03:46:27Z

I was listening to Jane Eyre tonight on my way home, and I was struck by something Mr. Rochester said of her: "Know, that in the course of your future life you will often find yourself elected the involuntary confidant of your acquaintances' secrets: people will instinctively find out, as I have done, that it is not your forte to tell of yourself, but to listen while others talk of themselves;"
What do you think of it?

Skimbleshanks: exploring XFCE4

2008-01-26T04:39:11Z

Since I set up that xsession chooser, all I have to do to switch from IceWM to XFCE4 is type echo xfce > .wmrc and then run startx.

First impressions

XFCE4 takes about four times as long to load as IceWM, but it's a lot prettier. It reminds me a lot of the Macintosh desktop in the newsroom, except less cluttered with work stuff.
I am presented first with a dialog offering tips and tricks. It appears these are run through the fortune program, as they are shown randomly. Closing this dialog gives me the basic desktop.
There is a bar across the top with a "show desktop" button, workspace selectors, and a task bar region that shows open windows.
Along the side are some icons for frequently used folders: trash, home directory, and root filesystem. The background is pretty and blue and rather Mac-like.
On the bottom is the panel, which is like the old OS/2-Warp Launchpad (or like OSX's dock). It has a clock, icons for various programs (these can be expanded to be drawers with many programs of a similar category (or any sorting you want, really)), a quit button, and the XFCE menu.
The menu is pretty similar to the K menu in KDE, or the Debian menu in Ice, and its layout is reasonable. One item that catches my interest is the settings manager.

Now, let's change things.

Let's see how easy it is to give relief to my tired eyes by increasing all the font sizes.
This item opens to give me a very sensible control panel of settings widgets, also rather like Warp's System Setup folder. I'll open User Interface, because its icon has letters on it. This was a good choice, because I see right away a button with a font name on it. I click it and change the font from Sans 9 to Arial 16. When I click OK, the change is instant, and a little too big. This makes the control panel wider than the screen. So I click the font button again and drop down to a more reasonable 12. I see a checkbox for editable menu accelerators, and that sounds nice, so I check it. I use my keyboard on Koko for all my common programs except the ones in my toolbar quick select. To open the editor where I write entries, for example, I tap Meta,A,E,T. So menu accelerators are my friends, and I might want to edit them.
This done, I explore the list of themes. Might as well have a pretty desktop. I pick one called xfce-stellar because it has dark window backgrounds and is easy oon the eyes. However, I decide I need to learn how to edit the themes, because it doesn't have gradient buttons and the active titlebar color is too red for my tastes. I close that and look at the other controls.
I want to get to Display, but Window Manager catches my eye. I open that and see another font button. This one is for the titlebars, and I change it from Sans Bold 9 to Arial Black 11. Here, I can also make the WM behave like different systems. I leave it at default and move to the focus tab. It's already on click to focus, so I leave it alone. The advanced tab offers me an opportuinity to mess around with snap and workspace wrap. Everything here is as I want it, so I close the widget.
Now the next widget that I see is one that makes me happy. It's called Window Manager Tweaks. As someone who likes to tweak, I like when designers respect that. There are some nice things in there, but nothing really noteworthy.
The next widget, Workspaces and Margins, will probably be a one-time visit for me. I don't really use multiple workspaces, probably because I only have one monitor per machine. So I set the number of workspaces to one.

File management

XFCE comes with a rather nice and shiny file manager called Thunar. It gives the directory tree above the listing window in a nice button format so you can click on any level above you to go directly to it, and it shows image previews in the icon view of the listing window.

Other impressions

XFCE4 has a very nice tab-cycle selector, like OSX's but with more information.
All in all, it's a nice little window manager. It loads faster, in my recollection, than KDE, and it's much more user friendly and less arbitrary in its menus than Gnome. If you like the look and feel of Mac OSX or OS/2-Warp, XFCE is a good choice.
However, if speed and screen real estate are important to you, you might want to try IceWM instead.
For myself, I am undecided. I have been using Ice for so long that I am reluctant to change to something else, and the speed issue is important to me. I'll have to keep looking at both of them. I may eventually change, but it seems unlikely. I hope you have found this exploration useful, or at least interesting.