That guy sure has a way of finding the core of an issue and presenting it lucidly and compellingly. Nice find, Gollum.
SNG
seattleniceguy
JoinedPosts by seattleniceguy
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10
Penn Jillette gives a great essay on Atheism
by Gollum innpr has revived an old radio thing from the 50's called "this i believe".
the one yesterday had penn jillette (kind of my hero anyway) getting around there requirement for a positive assertion of faith, by saying he positivily believes there is no god.. anyway, it's now become my favorite essay.
here's the link with the text and a link to the audio.
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Oops! The lens in my eye popped out!
by Elsewhere inabout 12 years ago i developed a cataract in my right-hand eye after an injury.
the surgeon went in and removed my natural lens and implanted an artificial one.
the way they remove the natural lens is they use a little device to chop it up and then they just pluck the bits-n-pieces out.. what has happened is when they did the surgery 12 years ago they missed a piece of the chopped up lens because it was hiding behind my iris.
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seattleniceguy
Whoa. So can you get better than 20-20 vision with the artificial lens? Can you get a zoom feature or UV vision or anything?
SNG
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New Order / True Faith
by seattleniceguy inhey all,.
i'm just kicking it here in japan, sipping some sake and listening to tunes.
right now i am chilling to some new order.
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seattleniceguy
Wow, good find, Blondie!
Nicolau, listening to the song you mention right now. (Yay for subscription music!)
SNG
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New Order / True Faith
by seattleniceguy inhey all,.
i'm just kicking it here in japan, sipping some sake and listening to tunes.
right now i am chilling to some new order.
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seattleniceguy
Hey all,
I'm just kicking it here in Japan, sipping some sake and listening to tunes. Right now I am chilling to some New Order. What's the story on these guys? Are they ex-dubs?
SNG
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New Order
True Faith
I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
I don't care 'cause I'm not there
And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow
Again and again I've taken too much
Of the things that cost you too much(Chorus)
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
When I was a very small boy,
Very small boys talked to me
Now that we've grown up together
They're afraid of what they see
That's the price that we all pay
Our valued destiny comes to nothing
I can't tell you where we're going
I guess there was just no way of knowingI used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
The chances are we've gone too far
You took my time and you took my money
Now I fear you've left me standing
In a world that's so demanding
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun... -
17
"God's Debris" available as a FREE (legal) download! Don't pass this up!
by AlmostAtheist inscott adams, the dilbert comic guy and author of the outstanding book "god's debris" has now made the book available for free as an e-book.
(it's a pdf).
i bought the e-book and have read it 3 or 4 times.
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seattleniceguy
Great book. I read it about six months ago on the advice of one AlmostAtheist. For those of your wondering when you'll get the time to read it, you can honestly knock it out in a couple hours.
For the record, he makes some fundamental errors in his description of evolution, but hey. The purpose of the book is to make you think, and it certainly succeeds in an enjoyable way.
SNG
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seattleniceguy
Oops, yeah, I forgot to mention those guys. Here's my problem with Vonage. They seem to have a good product, but when I'm traveling, I want a softphone, not a piece of hardware that I must connect directly to a hardwired internet connection. Vonage has a softphone, but only as an add-on that costs above and beyond their normal product. They won't sell you just the softphone, and I'm just not willing to pay as much as they want when Skype gives me exactly what I need for a third the price (or less).
Packet8 looked decent, but I couldn't find any mention of a softphone package on their site.
I guess I'm a-holding out for Microsoft's product.
SNG
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A Rant About the Abuse of N-Tier Architecture
by AlmostAtheist inwhen you sit down to write a program, there are tons of different ways you can go about it.
the "best" way doesn't exist.
sometimes it's driven by how many people will be using the program, or how quickly it has to be written, or how much money is supposed to be spent writing it.. but sometimes none of that comes into play because of the standards established by the company you're working for.
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seattleniceguy
I feel your pain, Dave.
Seeing that you probably can't change technologies over there, this may just be rubbing it in your face, but have you had a chance to use .NET technologies like the ones Simon mentioned? Especially when it comes to debugging, these are incredible tools because you can step through the code, across DLLs, even across processes in the case of Web Services. So for example, in debug mode, you can actually step from the client call into the server code and continue debugging. My eyes popped out of my head and rolled around on my desk for several minutes when I first discovered this. Makes development a dream.
Anyway, good luck getting through your project.
SNG
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New $100 laptop could jump start education in developing world
by seattleniceguy inthe idea: create a crank-powered laptop that children can use to learn and communicate even in remote areas, and give one laptop to every child.. a one-minute cranking session powers the laptop for 10 minutes.
the laptops are outfitted with a wi-fi radio transmitted that allows multiple machines to become a communications mesh that can share internet connections of any member who happens to have one.
at $100, and with assistance from donors, real diffusion into poor and developing nations is made possible.
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seattleniceguy
I would say that it's not the technology I'm putting faith in, but rather the ability of people who are empowered by knowledge. How can cultural problems change but from within? How can people want to change but by seeing other possibilities? To me communication is the key, and technology simply enables that.
Obviously, there are no silver bullets in a complex world. I think the manufacturers tried to make the computers less subject to redirection by adults, by making them suited to small hands and by adding the crank and bright colors. Of course, a dedicated thief could probably transform a shipment of them into his own personal supercomputer, but surely there are easier ways to accomplish that.
With regard to spotty internet connections, the laptops could ship with educational software already loaded. That way they would be useful out of the box, with internet connectivity a nice-to-have if available. Some other donor could always come in and provide Wi-Max connectivity later. Who knows? And the laptops don't have to go to the middle of the desert first. They could (and probably will) be deployed in concentric circles out from hubs like major cities, making the leap-frog mesh connection they describe more likely to work for more of the users. Obviously, if you're miles from any other users, you won't be logging onto JWD anytime soon. But at least some of the users will.
Also, these don't necessarily have to be freebies. The article mentions that Brazil ordered a million, which indicates that they had to pay something for them. It should be possible to observe whether they actually go to children or not.
Anytime a communication and information technology reaches more people, it's a good day in my book. Technology empowers people.
SNG
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seattleniceguy
GoogleTalk, etc are all great programs, but does anyone know of another program that can be used to send and receive calls to standard telephone networks? Skype is really the only usable option I've seen so far. I understand that Microsoft is working on an update to its messenger client that will allow this soon. Anyone know of anything else?
SNG
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seattleniceguy
In my apartment in Ajiki, Japan, about an hour outside of Tokyo. I'll be leaving in a few minutes to have dinner with a friend.
Here are a couple shots of my teeny apartment living area!
SNG (of the "I guess I really can live in 250 square feet / 25 square meters" class)