i've been thinking about this a lot today. our realtor has been here, helping us get our house ready for sale and has me boxing books like there is no tomorrow. apparently it is highly irregular that a home has the number of book cases that we have. and for the book cases we are keeping in the house, they are not being used to hold many books. they are more like curio cabinets now, with a few books here and there.
so it gets me to thinking about how many folks don't read any more. and then as i'm boxing i'm thinking about whether or not i'd like for most of the books i have to be in a digital format so that i wouldn't have to do all this heavy work. but i'm pretty sure, if someone offered to instantly digitize my entire library, i'd hold onto most of the actual books. for a variety of reasons. many having nothing to do with the content. i just really, really like books.
that is funny - funny enough that i scrolled down to read each page and then scrolled all the way back up to hit the link for the next page. any chance of a 'next' or something at the bottom-- so i can complain to people who read it after me that they didn't do it the 'hard way'?
If not it is hilarious-- i've never played the game but laughed quite a bit as i read this tale of mischief- and i picked up a new sig.
maybe i should have put the rest of the text, but it's a line from one of my favorite commercials out there right now. so i was shooting more for funny-- but my karma is in good shape, so i'm not too worried. no biggie. thanks for saying something though-- that sure was nice. but i'm not sure what 'the free subscription' is about.
good point. though my last job that I just left a little while ago was still using VB 6 heavily. They can pull the plug on future support, but unless you plan on your stuff being around for more than 10 years, it's not that drastic. They don't take it away, they just stop giving it out.
Now at that job, the management was leary of OSS and I was always pushing it hard. Why? Well, they wanted the backing of a known name. Me, I got tired of just what you bring up, getting locked in. It really annoyed me to be stuck depending on what some company would do. When we started having problem with writing office automation code in vb6 on xp and 2000- the ms answer was to upgrade from office 97. But the company didn't want to spend the money. I was working on getting everything moved to open office before I left. I don't know what they'll end up doing.
I think it depends upon the scale. There are probably many small users out there looking at OSS databases to save money on licensing. And these types will be very happy to jump on board to a 'free' proprietary product. But there are some large companies with the resources and the desire to leverage access to the source code. A good example that comes immediately to my mind is Fujitsu's involvment with PostgreSQL.
it's funny 'cause i got modded down, but sometimes i feel like i need to say something. otherwise i feel like i'm ignoring people. it's silly - but i feel that way sometimes.
So, given all this, can't we just see the good that has been done and leave it at that? Why is it necessary to gauge who is *more* charitable and "better?"
Here is my point- summarized: When people looked at the situation, they saw one thing, God saw another. Often human beings judge a situation incorrectly. So, I think there is ample opportunity here to do the same. To judge the situation incorrectly because we do not know the circumstances or the hearts of these men. Then, since we are not in a position of even knowledge, we are certainly not in a position to judge-- hence my subject.
I'm no Biblical scholar by any stretch (I only have an undergrad degree in theology - nothing higher) but I'm not trying to parse or interpret these specific passages, just use them in a general way. I'm sure you could pull the same ideas from any major religious work. That one should walk a mile in the other's shoes before judging. That motivation is more important than means.
And I'm not endorsing either of these people or their actions. Because I just don't know either of them well enough-- and I'd hazard neither do the people who wrote the linked articles. If more people worried less about what other people did, and more about their own actions, the world would be a drastically better place I imagine.
Your comments in regards to aids are interesting. Especially in the light of some of the events moving forward with folks like Rick Warren. I don't think giving aid to the sick is at all contrary to the will of God for Christians. But here we begin to reach that point of balance between physical and spiritual aid and it is not a simple line to mark (in my mind).
The organization I work for, Campus Crusade for Christ, is first and foremost about spiritual work, but there is a large portion of that effort that is expressed through physical compassion. I find the two are inseperable.
yeah- and that kind of thing could be going on. but my point is that we just don't know about the motives or what is really going on. even in the case of the publicity, the organizations that the Gates help, they want this publicity and may plan it despite what Bill may want. When a charitable organization gets big backing like that, they often want to publicize it.
Or he may be a really horrible guy by many standards. My point would be that there is certainly no way most of us could judge that with any accuracy.
It's really easy for a billionaire to donate a million dollars to charity.
I have a friend who was telling us about an associate who gives away 90% of his income. He told us, "Don't worry about him though, even with giving away 90%, he still built himself a 3 million dollar home."
I work for a charitable organization. My income is provided by people who believe in what I do and give money to support that work. In the time I've been doing this, one thing has been made clear to me over and over again.
It is a huge mistake to make assumptions and judge others when you really don't know anything about what is going on in their life, especially in regards to their finances.
I do admire that the authors of these articles are in favor of investing ones resources in ways that are intended to make the world a better place. I spend a good amount of my time trying to encourage people in the same way. But to criticize someone, even with the caveats about anonymous giving, is not really helpful. What a person does with their money, be it Steve Jobs or the kid grilling burgers at your local Jack in the Box, is their business. And we are in know place to judge them as human beings for what they do with their money, especially since we don't know what is going on in their lives.
When I approach people to support what I do, I try very hard to not develop preconceptions based on what I know about them, because I am almost always wrong when I do. People I think will give a lot, don't (often for very good reasons, whether I know those reasons or not) and people I think wont give at all, surprise me with their generosity. But judging one as better than the other without the whole picture would be a grave error.
Finally, when Christ wanted to give an example to his disciples of great giving, he pointed out the poor widow giving two mites. It was not the amount that mattered, but the attitude and the self-sacrafice. And from this distance who can judge those factors about Bill Gates or Steve Jobs?
crushing my dreams. how about instead of throwing this suit away, they do a contest. maybe like one where you write jingles or advertising slogans. a good runner up prize would be a space suit. i know if i won, i'd get it all fixed up and working.... just in case, you know?
I know why a small site would use it. I have it on mine because it gives me a lot of information in some really nice formats. My host gives me access to this information but it is not packaged so nicely and I don't really want to take the time to do anything to get it there.
Now what I haven't even touched yet is the capability to do campaigns and track their effectiveness. I can imagine that this could be very useful for larger sites like the dot.
IBM will gaurantee a transaction level with Oracle on AIX that they say they may gaurantee at some point in the future on Linux. I don't think this is just marketing to keep selling AIX, I really think it is still a better platform for a certain level of service.
If you are a Christian and looking for somewhere to give, I am a part of the I.T. group for the world's largest evangelical mission group. You don't even need to get up from where you are sitting right now if you would like to help us out. You can just go here
that's a positive outlook but i'm just not that optimistic. think about the odds of using the dmca to fight corporations right now. it's not gonna happen. but you may be right. i definitely agree that it warrants further discussion, especially as we don't know how this will turn out.
That is my point. Nuclear bombs are not inherently good or bad, just like the chip.... but the bomb will probably be used in a bad way and so will the chip. Should have just said that I guess, I thought it just came across in what I wrote.
The response immediately after yours to my post and my response to that will shed more light I think and I don't want to type it all up again.
or should have made the subject - 'bombs bad' instead of 'duh'
I bet there are some guys in San Quentin who could get you to reevaluate that statement. maybe not, if there is one thing i've learned in the internet age, it is that there are a lot of freaks out there.
Slashdot Mirror
funny but sad.
i've been thinking about this a lot today. our realtor has been here, helping us get our house ready for sale and has me boxing books like there is no tomorrow. apparently it is highly irregular that a home has the number of book cases that we have. and for the book cases we are keeping in the house, they are not being used to hold many books. they are more like curio cabinets now, with a few books here and there.
so it gets me to thinking about how many folks don't read any more. and then as i'm boxing i'm thinking about whether or not i'd like for most of the books i have to be in a digital format so that i wouldn't have to do all this heavy work. but i'm pretty sure, if someone offered to instantly digitize my entire library, i'd hold onto most of the actual books. for a variety of reasons. many having nothing to do with the content. i just really, really like books.
that is funny - funny enough that i scrolled down to read each page and then scrolled all the way back up to hit the link for the next page. any chance of a 'next' or something at the bottom-- so i can complain to people who read it after me that they didn't do it the 'hard way'?
If not it is hilarious-- i've never played the game but laughed quite a bit as i read this tale of mischief- and i picked up a new sig.
maybe
maybe i should have put the rest of the text, but it's a line from one of my favorite commercials out there right now. so i was shooting more for funny-- but my karma is in good shape, so i'm not too worried. no biggie. thanks for saying something though-- that sure was nice. but i'm not sure what 'the free subscription' is about.
good point. though my last job that I just left a little while ago was still using VB 6 heavily. They can pull the plug on future support, but unless you plan on your stuff being around for more than 10 years, it's not that drastic. They don't take it away, they just stop giving it out.
Now at that job, the management was leary of OSS and I was always pushing it hard. Why? Well, they wanted the backing of a known name. Me, I got tired of just what you bring up, getting locked in. It really annoyed me to be stuck depending on what some company would do. When we started having problem with writing office automation code in vb6 on xp and 2000- the ms answer was to upgrade from office 97. But the company didn't want to spend the money. I was working on getting everything moved to open office before I left. I don't know what they'll end up doing.
n/t
I think it depends upon the scale. There are probably many small users out there looking at OSS databases to save money on licensing. And these types will be very happy to jump on board to a 'free' proprietary product. But there are some large companies with the resources and the desire to leverage access to the source code. A good example that comes immediately to my mind is Fujitsu's involvment with PostgreSQL.
it's funny 'cause i got modded down, but sometimes i feel like i need to say something. otherwise i feel like i'm ignoring people. it's silly - but i feel that way sometimes.
i concur
I couldn't agree with you more.
So, given all this, can't we just see the good that has been done and leave it at that? Why is it necessary to gauge who is *more* charitable and "better?"
exactly.
Here is my point- summarized: When people looked at the situation, they saw one thing, God saw another. Often human beings judge a situation incorrectly. So, I think there is ample opportunity here to do the same. To judge the situation incorrectly because we do not know the circumstances or the hearts of these men. Then, since we are not in a position of even knowledge, we are certainly not in a position to judge-- hence my subject.
I'm no Biblical scholar by any stretch (I only have an undergrad degree in theology - nothing higher) but I'm not trying to parse or interpret these specific passages, just use them in a general way. I'm sure you could pull the same ideas from any major religious work. That one should walk a mile in the other's shoes before judging. That motivation is more important than means.
And I'm not endorsing either of these people or their actions. Because I just don't know either of them well enough-- and I'd hazard neither do the people who wrote the linked articles. If more people worried less about what other people did, and more about their own actions, the world would be a drastically better place I imagine.
Your comments in regards to aids are interesting. Especially in the light of some of the events moving forward with folks like Rick Warren. I don't think giving aid to the sick is at all contrary to the will of God for Christians. But here we begin to reach that point of balance between physical and spiritual aid and it is not a simple line to mark (in my mind).
The organization I work for, Campus Crusade for Christ, is first and foremost about spiritual work, but there is a large portion of that effort that is expressed through physical compassion. I find the two are inseperable.
yeah- and that kind of thing could be going on. but my point is that we just don't know about the motives or what is really going on. even in the case of the publicity, the organizations that the Gates help, they want this publicity and may plan it despite what Bill may want. When a charitable organization gets big backing like that, they often want to publicize it.
Or he may be a really horrible guy by many standards. My point would be that there is certainly no way most of us could judge that with any accuracy.
It's really easy for a billionaire to donate a million dollars to charity.
I have a friend who was telling us about an associate who gives away 90% of his income. He told us, "Don't worry about him though, even with giving away 90%, he still built himself a 3 million dollar home."
You can see a mite made into jewelry here. I think it was like the equivalent of a penny- the smallest monetary unit of the time.
There are many Christians who are like Christ, unfortunately a lot of high profile people like to use Christianity as a means to a very different end.
I work for a charitable organization. My income is provided by people who believe in what I do and give money to support that work. In the time I've been doing this, one thing has been made clear to me over and over again.
It is a huge mistake to make assumptions and judge others when you really don't know anything about what is going on in their life, especially in regards to their finances.
I do admire that the authors of these articles are in favor of investing ones resources in ways that are intended to make the world a better place. I spend a good amount of my time trying to encourage people in the same way. But to criticize someone, even with the caveats about anonymous giving, is not really helpful. What a person does with their money, be it Steve Jobs or the kid grilling burgers at your local Jack in the Box, is their business. And we are in know place to judge them as human beings for what they do with their money, especially since we don't know what is going on in their lives.
When I approach people to support what I do, I try very hard to not develop preconceptions based on what I know about them, because I am almost always wrong when I do. People I think will give a lot, don't (often for very good reasons, whether I know those reasons or not) and people I think wont give at all, surprise me with their generosity. But judging one as better than the other without the whole picture would be a grave error.
Finally, when Christ wanted to give an example to his disciples of great giving, he pointed out the poor widow giving two mites. It was not the amount that mattered, but the attitude and the self-sacrafice. And from this distance who can judge those factors about Bill Gates or Steve Jobs?
crushing my dreams. how about instead of throwing this suit away, they do a contest. maybe like one where you write jingles or advertising slogans. a good runner up prize would be a space suit. i know if i won, i'd get it all fixed up and working.... just in case, you know?
I know why a small site would use it. I have it on mine because it gives me a lot of information in some really nice formats. My host gives me access to this information but it is not packaged so nicely and I don't really want to take the time to do anything to get it there.
Now what I haven't even touched yet is the capability to do campaigns and track their effectiveness. I can imagine that this could be very useful for larger sites like the dot.
IBM will gaurantee a transaction level with Oracle on AIX that they say they may gaurantee at some point in the future on Linux. I don't think this is just marketing to keep selling AIX, I really think it is still a better platform for a certain level of service.
If you are a Christian and looking for somewhere to give, I am a part of the I.T. group for the world's largest evangelical mission group. You don't even need to get up from where you are sitting right now if you would like to help us out. You can just go here
Our web site has more info.
Mine doesn't look as good now that I weigh 50 pounds more than I did in highschool, I'll give you that, but it is still extremely cool.
that's a positive outlook but i'm just not that optimistic. think about the odds of using the dmca to fight corporations right now. it's not gonna happen. but you may be right. i definitely agree that it warrants further discussion, especially as we don't know how this will turn out.
all right- you got me there.
That is my point. Nuclear bombs are not inherently good or bad, just like the chip.... but the bomb will probably be used in a bad way and so will the chip. Should have just said that I guess, I thought it just came across in what I wrote.
The response immediately after yours to my post and my response to that will shed more light I think and I don't want to type it all up again.
or should have made the subject - 'bombs bad' instead of 'duh'
I bet there are some guys in San Quentin who could get you to reevaluate that statement. maybe not, if there is one thing i've learned in the internet age, it is that there are a lot of freaks out there.