OK, by "modern acid-free books" do you mean the glue-bound paperbacks that disintegrate if you look at them crosswise or the glue-bound hardbacks that disintegrate if you look at them crosswise and cost four times as much?
Modern mass-market bookbinding is a fucking disaster.
I might not be a Christian by your definition. I don't much care. I am an active and vital member of my congregation. I love God, and I love Jesus. I don't think you or anybody else on this planet is wise enough to define for me what my faith should be.
So, you're entitled to your opinion. And I vehemently disagree with you. I don't believe you have the monopoloy on what it means to follow Jesus. I also don't think that the Bible has the final say on the subject.
You are a dogmatic Christian. You think you know the Truth. You do not. Neither do I. However, I am wise enough to realize this.
"Trying to follow our own oral code gets us anywhere"
I wouldn't conclude that necessarily. I don't happen to believe that believing in Jesus is the only way to avoid damnation. I'm not even totally convinced that damnation exists.
I was simply pointing out the flaw in your argument from a dogmatic Christian's perspective (which I am not).
I don't really feel I need to be saved from anything. For me, my faith gives me a structure to hang my moral code on. I take some tenets from Christianity, some from other faiths, and yet others I made up myself. When I go to church to worship, I do so because it makes me feel good. I like getting together with people I share something with (a loose allegiance to a set of beliefs) and singing with them. It feeds my soul.
Why do you need a god? Maybe you don't. I'm not going to tell you that mine is the only path. But mine is a path, and it suits me. I'm always looking at other paths, and maybe if one of those suits me better, I'll follow that.
So many atheists and agnostics I talk to are reacting to bad religious experiences they had as children, and they vow never to have anything to do with that mess again. I can validate that; I rebelled hard against the Baptist elementary school I went to (even though I was raised in the Methodist tradition). However, I still feel like talking to God (whatever or whoever God might be) makes me a better person.
I'm not a Christian because I'm soft-headed. I'm a Christian because, in my cost-benefit analysis, I come out ahead.
The threat many people are reacting against is the implicit "Or else...you're going to burn in hell for eternity."
Me, I'm a Christian, and I don't buy that. I don't believe that Christ is the only avenue to God and salvation. I believe that Christ is my avenue, my way of identifying and understanding God, but I don't believe that's an exclusive relationship. I think anybody who says that they are wise enough to say that This Is The Way Everybody Should Be (and, yes, that includes the humans that wrote the Bible and the Koran and the D'ao te Ching (sp?)) should be taken with a grain (or a pillar?) of salt.
You're tarring with a pretty broad brush there, buddy. Believe it or not, there are at least two or three Americans who don't eat Canadian children for breakfast every morning.
So you've identified problems that nobody else seems to have much trouble with, and you think that somebody else should fix them for you.
Okay. I mean, I guess that's constructive criticism. And I guess you might feel better about yourself assuming that the reason other people don't have this problem is because they're mentally defective.
Everybody's entitled to express their opinion, I suppose.
Because if he didn't do anything wrong, it's not very equitable, is it?
My taxes go to pay for investigations of crimes. I consider that money well spent when they discover that the accused didn't in fact do anything wrong.
"I could be an obedient consumer and do things the way Apple dictates -- but it's OK if I make a note of how I'd rather things worked, isn't it?"
It'd be even better if you had actual ideas for improving the system, citing examples of other systems that do a better job. The fact that you conclude that the iPod is the best available mobile music management system does not make your point a strong one.
Anybody can kvetch about things not working well. It takes a real engineer to make things work better. Fortunately, Apple has real engineers. (See the iPod mini's scroll wheel button arrangement, which is extremely clever)
Yeah, they must be brainwashed, because anybody who actually USES an iPod knows it's fragile, slow, and non-intuitive, right?
You understand that going against the herd requires no more thought than going with the herd, right? Be your own herd. Make your own determinations. Use the hardware that suits your needs, and screw what anybody else says.
Having said all that, the iPod is the best portable music player available for my purposes.
We'll see. I'm skeptical of an analog controller that's low-profile enough for me to stick in my pocket. Maybe I'm wrong...that'd be grand. But I'm not spending my money on this thing yet.
So it'd be better if we streamlined the market to only have non-unique offerings? Or should we change "western culture" (which is amusing, considering how many case mod accessories come out of the Far East) so that we all like conforming?
I really don't understand your point. The PT cruiser is a nifty looking car, if you want a tall station wagon. It doesn't offend me because it's taking design cues from hot rods. Trust me, I think the hot rodders will be able to stay well ahead of Chrysler's design boffins.
What's the matter with buying something because of its aesthetics? I just bought a set of Kitchen Aid cookware because it matches my red stand mixer. I was glad to find exactly the functionality I wanted wrapped in shiny red enamel. What's wrong with that?
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Everybody has the tools required for nose-breaking, and you don't see a big stink (heh heh) about it.
The tools are not the problem.
You mean the 60's style heat shields that were good for one and only one re-entry? I'm glad you're so much smarter than those guys at NASA.
Put a tamper-evident inertial reference box onboard. Track it with a telescope and a laser. Use GPS. This is not a difficult problem to solve.
Yeah, I bet Rutan forgot to read the fucking rulebook before dropping millions of dollars on building this aircraft.
OK, by "modern acid-free books" do you mean the glue-bound paperbacks that disintegrate if you look at them crosswise or the glue-bound hardbacks that disintegrate if you look at them crosswise and cost four times as much?
Modern mass-market bookbinding is a fucking disaster.
I might not be a Christian by your definition. I don't much care. I am an active and vital member of my congregation. I love God, and I love Jesus. I don't think you or anybody else on this planet is wise enough to define for me what my faith should be.
So, you're entitled to your opinion. And I vehemently disagree with you. I don't believe you have the monopoloy on what it means to follow Jesus. I also don't think that the Bible has the final say on the subject.
You are a dogmatic Christian. You think you know the Truth. You do not. Neither do I. However, I am wise enough to realize this.
"Trying to follow our own oral code gets us anywhere"
What does this sentence mean?
I wouldn't conclude that necessarily. I don't happen to believe that believing in Jesus is the only way to avoid damnation. I'm not even totally convinced that damnation exists.
I was simply pointing out the flaw in your argument from a dogmatic Christian's perspective (which I am not).
I don't really feel I need to be saved from anything. For me, my faith gives me a structure to hang my moral code on. I take some tenets from Christianity, some from other faiths, and yet others I made up myself. When I go to church to worship, I do so because it makes me feel good. I like getting together with people I share something with (a loose allegiance to a set of beliefs) and singing with them. It feeds my soul.
Why do you need a god? Maybe you don't. I'm not going to tell you that mine is the only path. But mine is a path, and it suits me. I'm always looking at other paths, and maybe if one of those suits me better, I'll follow that.
So many atheists and agnostics I talk to are reacting to bad religious experiences they had as children, and they vow never to have anything to do with that mess again. I can validate that; I rebelled hard against the Baptist elementary school I went to (even though I was raised in the Methodist tradition). However, I still feel like talking to God (whatever or whoever God might be) makes me a better person.
I'm not a Christian because I'm soft-headed. I'm a Christian because, in my cost-benefit analysis, I come out ahead.
If you don't understand the difference between saying something, and believing something, you need to go back to Kindergarten.
See? It's not so bad.
The threat many people are reacting against is the implicit "Or else...you're going to burn in hell for eternity."
Me, I'm a Christian, and I don't buy that. I don't believe that Christ is the only avenue to God and salvation. I believe that Christ is my avenue, my way of identifying and understanding God, but I don't believe that's an exclusive relationship. I think anybody who says that they are wise enough to say that This Is The Way Everybody Should Be (and, yes, that includes the humans that wrote the Bible and the Koran and the D'ao te Ching (sp?)) should be taken with a grain (or a pillar?) of salt.
Somebody needs a hug. C'mere, big guy.
Maybe they moved to Canada. Splitters!
You're tarring with a pretty broad brush there, buddy. Believe it or not, there are at least two or three Americans who don't eat Canadian children for breakfast every morning.
So you've identified problems that nobody else seems to have much trouble with, and you think that somebody else should fix them for you.
Okay. I mean, I guess that's constructive criticism. And I guess you might feel better about yourself assuming that the reason other people don't have this problem is because they're mentally defective.
Everybody's entitled to express their opinion, I suppose.
Because if he didn't do anything wrong, it's not very equitable, is it?
My taxes go to pay for investigations of crimes. I consider that money well spent when they discover that the accused didn't in fact do anything wrong.
"I could be an obedient consumer and do things the way Apple dictates -- but it's OK if I make a note of how I'd rather things worked, isn't it?"
It'd be even better if you had actual ideas for improving the system, citing examples of other systems that do a better job. The fact that you conclude that the iPod is the best available mobile music management system does not make your point a strong one.
Anybody can kvetch about things not working well. It takes a real engineer to make things work better. Fortunately, Apple has real engineers. (See the iPod mini's scroll wheel button arrangement, which is extremely clever)
Yeah, they must be brainwashed, because anybody who actually USES an iPod knows it's fragile, slow, and non-intuitive, right?
You understand that going against the herd requires no more thought than going with the herd, right? Be your own herd. Make your own determinations. Use the hardware that suits your needs, and screw what anybody else says.
Having said all that, the iPod is the best portable music player available for my purposes.
We'll see. I'm skeptical of an analog controller that's low-profile enough for me to stick in my pocket. Maybe I'm wrong...that'd be grand. But I'm not spending my money on this thing yet.
You mean "Hold the taco..."
Not without a good analog controller, I'm not. I don't know how they're going to handle this, but I will wager it will not be good enough for me.
You miss the point.
The digital data on the all-black fax will compress well, but their toner bill will NOT compress well.
Although I expect they'll be using computer-based digital fax delivery, which is the only way I'd tolerate faxes anyhow. : )
So it'd be better if we streamlined the market to only have non-unique offerings? Or should we change "western culture" (which is amusing, considering how many case mod accessories come out of the Far East) so that we all like conforming?
I really don't understand your point. The PT cruiser is a nifty looking car, if you want a tall station wagon. It doesn't offend me because it's taking design cues from hot rods. Trust me, I think the hot rodders will be able to stay well ahead of Chrysler's design boffins.
What's the matter with buying something because of its aesthetics? I just bought a set of Kitchen Aid cookware because it matches my red stand mixer. I was glad to find exactly the functionality I wanted wrapped in shiny red enamel. What's wrong with that?
You seem to have lost track of the fact that we are talking about a COMPAQ.
You HAVE to like hardware debugging if you buy a Compaq. Either that, or you have to like staring at a computer that has eaten its own brain.
Hence "impressive cunning".
A bear can figure out how to get food out of a minivan. I don't think a bear could figure out how to drive one, much less build one.