Howdy, everybody;
For us, this is a unique Thanksgiving; for the first time since we had kids, we (Pop and Grandma) are spending Thanksgiving alone. So it's a new thing for us. I guess it's a bit of a transition, but it will be OK.
On the other hand, yesterday we got to take Granddaughter to the zoo, and that was a treat!
Thanksgiving: Thanks to God (the Christian one, in case you were wondering) for every blessing in our lives.
First, for His undiluted love, from which all other true love flows;
Second, for His amazing gift of His Son, and thereby our salvation.
Third, for the love of each member of our family for each other, which derives ultimately from His love.
Fourth, for the love of our friends and their families.
Fifth, for the general health, safety and well-being of each of us in our family and our friend's families.
Sixth, for the general prosperity we enjoy - not rich by any means, but sufficient to our real needs.
All of these things are gifts of God; and except for His love and our salvation, none of them are guaranteed in this life. We are blessed indeed. Thank You, Lord, and all praise to You!
Enough said!
-Pop
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
My Discworld Character!
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Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Cohen The Barbarian You are Cohen the Barbarian! The greatest hero that ever lived! That is, you were! But you are still alive and kicking! And slashing, and biting, and hitting. You have a lot of experience at not dieing, and are extremely difficult to kill (you've survived this long). So you're old, but still loot and pillage. And you have very nice diamond dentures!
|
Friday, November 2, 2007
Macintosh Leopard Goodness
Howdy;
I've been using the new version of OS/X, version 10.5 (Leopard) all week since it was released October 26. With very minor exceptions, the upgrade was flawless. Of course, after such an upgrade, you spend some time playing with the new features and figuring out what is useful and what isn't. My favorite new features are:
Time Machine: I plugged in my 512 GB USB drive into the laptop and enabled Time Machine. After the initial full backup, which took a while, it is thereafter seamless. So far, no downside to this. Now just the act of plugging in and turning on the drive gets me effortless backups; and the best part is it is so very easy to restore anything that needs it. Very cool.
Spaces: This is virtual window technology. I have experimented with it in the world of Windows, but was never satisfied. After a few days of using it on Leopard, I'm hooked. Right now I have four screens in use - the first is my default, with Email and Finder; the second is web browsing in Safari; the third is a spreadsheet I'm working on; and fourth is currently my blogging software. Switching between the windows is effortless, just a hot-key. Very well implemented, very fast, no downside so far. Saves a lot of time shuffling around to get the window you need to the top. Nice.
Mail: Now has notes, and a nifty feature that recognizes addresses and similar information, offering to add it to your contacts. This is something that should have been invented a long time ago - no more retyping, or cutting and pasting something I can see on the screen to get it into my address book.
Cover Flow: In Finder (and other places) this allows you to 'flip' through documents and files, glancing at the first page of each. This is so much like how you would leaf through a pile of loose papers looking for whatever that it is very natural and intuitive. Fast, too. Well done.
Lots of nifty other things, those are just my favorites so far.
One other new software item that didn't come in Leopard. I found a program named Undercover, by Orbicule. This program, once installed, sits in the background running continuously, and invisibly. If somebody steals my laptop, I contact Orbicule and enter the code for the copy of the software I bought. The next time somebody connects to the internet with my stolen laptop, the computer automatically and silently sends the IP address and other information to Orbicule, who inform the nearest police. Furthermore, it actually uses the built-in camera to take pictures of the thief, emailing them to Orbicule every six minutes. Now that's cool. The elegance of this approach really appeals to me. I hope I don't have to find out how well it works, but I'm about as prepared as I can get for anything to happen to my laptop.
The World of Apple and the Macintosh just keeps getting better and better. I'll never go back to Windows unless something big changes.
-Pop
I've been using the new version of OS/X, version 10.5 (Leopard) all week since it was released October 26. With very minor exceptions, the upgrade was flawless. Of course, after such an upgrade, you spend some time playing with the new features and figuring out what is useful and what isn't. My favorite new features are:
Time Machine: I plugged in my 512 GB USB drive into the laptop and enabled Time Machine. After the initial full backup, which took a while, it is thereafter seamless. So far, no downside to this. Now just the act of plugging in and turning on the drive gets me effortless backups; and the best part is it is so very easy to restore anything that needs it. Very cool.
Spaces: This is virtual window technology. I have experimented with it in the world of Windows, but was never satisfied. After a few days of using it on Leopard, I'm hooked. Right now I have four screens in use - the first is my default, with Email and Finder; the second is web browsing in Safari; the third is a spreadsheet I'm working on; and fourth is currently my blogging software. Switching between the windows is effortless, just a hot-key. Very well implemented, very fast, no downside so far. Saves a lot of time shuffling around to get the window you need to the top. Nice.
Mail: Now has notes, and a nifty feature that recognizes addresses and similar information, offering to add it to your contacts. This is something that should have been invented a long time ago - no more retyping, or cutting and pasting something I can see on the screen to get it into my address book.
Cover Flow: In Finder (and other places) this allows you to 'flip' through documents and files, glancing at the first page of each. This is so much like how you would leaf through a pile of loose papers looking for whatever that it is very natural and intuitive. Fast, too. Well done.
Lots of nifty other things, those are just my favorites so far.
One other new software item that didn't come in Leopard. I found a program named Undercover, by Orbicule. This program, once installed, sits in the background running continuously, and invisibly. If somebody steals my laptop, I contact Orbicule and enter the code for the copy of the software I bought. The next time somebody connects to the internet with my stolen laptop, the computer automatically and silently sends the IP address and other information to Orbicule, who inform the nearest police. Furthermore, it actually uses the built-in camera to take pictures of the thief, emailing them to Orbicule every six minutes. Now that's cool. The elegance of this approach really appeals to me. I hope I don't have to find out how well it works, but I'm about as prepared as I can get for anything to happen to my laptop.
The World of Apple and the Macintosh just keeps getting better and better. I'll never go back to Windows unless something big changes.
-Pop
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Tolerance - Today's Buzz Word
Howdy, everybody;
There's this idea going around the US nowadays that it is wrong to be 'against' most anything. They call it lack of tolerance. The 'politically correct' idea is that being 'intolerant' is a bad thing.
Let's examine that idea.
Tolerance is the idea that if somebody believes or acts differently than you do, you put up with it rather than outright rejecting it. For instance, someone I know smokes. In public, I tolerate it, but I stand upwind.
However, I draw the line if that person were to come to my home and want to smoke indoors. I do not want my house to smell like cigarette smoke; I won't 'tolerate' it. So I ask that person to please not smoke indoors. If they persist, I ask them to leave. If they don't want to leave, I will kick them out.
If your tolerance was unlimited, you would have no say whatever in anything that happens, even in your home. Your dog pees in the floor - what, where's your tolerance?
So, obviously, 'tolerance' has limits. And everybody has a line somewhere in their head that has 'tolerance' on one side of it and 'intolerance' on the other side - and that is true of every conceivable point of contention. This is a life-style choice, and we all make them.
So we're all intolerant about some things. All of us. Get over it.
Is such lack of 'tolerance' wrong? I don't think so.
I think 'intolerance' is evil only if it turns into hate. At that point, it has become prejudice or bigotry.
This idea (that intolerance of any sort is bad) is promoted mainly by liberals. The intent is to paint conservatives in a bad light, because conservatives have standards of acceptable conduct that make it easy to call them intolerant. They ignore the fact that each of us should be allowed to decide what we will and won't tolerate. If we can't do that, then this is no longer a free country. If we can't think what we want, then we are not free.
Next time a liberal complains to me about my lack of tolerance, I'm going to ask him where his tolerance is of me and my belief system. It seems to me the liberals want 'tolerance' only as long as it's everybody else being tolerant of them and their agenda. They have no 'tolerance' at all in the other direction. The really funny thing is that they apparently don't see the built-in contradiction in their thinking.
As for me, I'll be tolerant or intolerant as I see fit. If you don't like it - you are an intolerant hypocrite!
- Pop
There's this idea going around the US nowadays that it is wrong to be 'against' most anything. They call it lack of tolerance. The 'politically correct' idea is that being 'intolerant' is a bad thing.
Let's examine that idea.
Tolerance is the idea that if somebody believes or acts differently than you do, you put up with it rather than outright rejecting it. For instance, someone I know smokes. In public, I tolerate it, but I stand upwind.
However, I draw the line if that person were to come to my home and want to smoke indoors. I do not want my house to smell like cigarette smoke; I won't 'tolerate' it. So I ask that person to please not smoke indoors. If they persist, I ask them to leave. If they don't want to leave, I will kick them out.
If your tolerance was unlimited, you would have no say whatever in anything that happens, even in your home. Your dog pees in the floor - what, where's your tolerance?
So, obviously, 'tolerance' has limits. And everybody has a line somewhere in their head that has 'tolerance' on one side of it and 'intolerance' on the other side - and that is true of every conceivable point of contention. This is a life-style choice, and we all make them.
So we're all intolerant about some things. All of us. Get over it.
Is such lack of 'tolerance' wrong? I don't think so.
I think 'intolerance' is evil only if it turns into hate. At that point, it has become prejudice or bigotry.
This idea (that intolerance of any sort is bad) is promoted mainly by liberals. The intent is to paint conservatives in a bad light, because conservatives have standards of acceptable conduct that make it easy to call them intolerant. They ignore the fact that each of us should be allowed to decide what we will and won't tolerate. If we can't do that, then this is no longer a free country. If we can't think what we want, then we are not free.
Next time a liberal complains to me about my lack of tolerance, I'm going to ask him where his tolerance is of me and my belief system. It seems to me the liberals want 'tolerance' only as long as it's everybody else being tolerant of them and their agenda. They have no 'tolerance' at all in the other direction. The really funny thing is that they apparently don't see the built-in contradiction in their thinking.
As for me, I'll be tolerant or intolerant as I see fit. If you don't like it - you are an intolerant hypocrite!
- Pop
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