Re:Christmas isn't about presents, nor Christ
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 1
Drawn into a debate by what sounds like a troll... But anyway.
Christmas is a holiday based on many of the traditions of numerous european pagan religions, many of which go back prior to ancient Greek civilization. Now unless Christ was around prior to 500BCE, there is no way that Christmas was originally about Christ, no matter what the name has to do with it.
Personally, I myself am and agnostic buddhist, but before that I spent a fiarly significant amoutn of time (about 5 years) studying the religions of the world (just to see what every side had to say).
First, if you hold the "shepherds guarding their sheep" part of the Christ's birth story to be true, then you should also realize that the only time shepherds guard their sheep are in the spring. In the middle of the first millennium CE (about the year 500 or so) the still young Catholic Church decided that if they could not stop people from celebrating Saturnalia, they'd incorporate it into a celebration of the birth of Christ. Saturnalia is (essentially, apologies to Pagans for abridging it so much) a holiday about birth, specifically the rebirth of the Sun and ending the winter. This birth theme made a convinient starting point for the co-oping of Christ.
There's a lot more involved, like the Horned God, the tree, and all the other trimmings associated with Christmas that have nothing to do with Christ. For a quick introduction, please read this page to learn at least an introduction to the true meaning of the holiday.
Quality in software is that computer programs are too complicated, well, building a skyscraper is IMHO just as complicated, but if the Empire State Building falls down, you can't just release Empire State Building Service Pack 2, can you ?
(snip)
Actually, you're a little off on that... Perhaps one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in the NY skyline, the Citibank building, has just such a flaw in it. The way it was originally designed, if it had encountered winds over 78mph it was at serious risk of collapes (due to poor design of the steel framework, IIRC). Shortly after it was finished, and a rare hurricane was headed towards NYC a the builder secretly replace and/or modified many beams (bolting them instead of welding them), essentially providing a "service pack".
One of the lessons I remember from an engineering class. More information is available here.
The moon is headed to Earth, not distant space. Some simple laser-aided telemetry shows that the Moon is approaching us at about 1 foot per year. Nothing to be worried about for the next few billion years.
Your correction is actually incorrect. Since the start of the laser telemetry studies which you refer to (they started during the Apollo era), it has been found that the moon has been moving away from the earth at a rate of about 3cm per year. (For a reference, see here). IT won't escape earth's gravity, but it is moving away from the earth.
Well, a number of people forget the basic concepts and use only 3 significant digits for conversion (e.g., 2.54cm = 1 inch).
There isn't any problem with that. 2.54cm = 1 inch. It's an exact conversion, not an estimate like many people think. There are exactly 2.54cm/inch, 30.48cm/foot, 1609.344m/mile. so as a result...
When spread over several square miles, that lack of attention can lead to someone being cheated an acre of land!
... is completely false, unless you have an incompetant surveyor who will round his/her measurements. Then there will still be problems, no matter what units are used.
I just ordered this book about 2 weeks ago (it has yet to arrive) and after reading this review, I can't wait to get it! The <hushed-tone> Red Book </hushed-tone> has been one of the most useful books I've ever read, and with the addition on the new *nix variants to this new volume, it's an improvement on a masterpiece. If there is room for only one (non O'Reilly) book on your book shelf, make it this one.
1) War on drugs Every heart has a promise in it. A promise to keep. Now some say that the war on drugs has been one of the nation's biggest boondonglethingys. TO those critics I say false! We have a promise to protect our childs, and to keep our hearts true.
2) Minority religions There are those among you who feel that the GOP has not been inclusive, but we have opened our hearts. Those whose hearts have been darkened by the following of Satan and Wicker need to feel the thousands points of light that we can carry forward to build a nation of peace and prosperity.
3) Tax cuts To build our future on the peace and prosperity of inclusivnits that our hearts can bring I promis to open our hearts with a tax relief plan for every man, woman, and child. We'll leave no child behind and refund them our money they need.
4) Election Reform I have stood before every man, woman, and child and opened my heart, and my administration would be one of inclusiveness. Why our party is even helping our friend Mr. Nader by advertising for him. That's my open heart, and answer of integrity.
5) IP When an artist or writer opens his heart to bring his or her work to every man, woman or child, they deserve tax relief and to be rightfully compensated. Let no child or artist be left behind, and let those whose hearts have been darkened by the internet be force to pay.
6) Encryption We need less power for the bureaucrats in Washington. Every American should open their heart and let us look into see what they have to hide, so we can make sure this nation is never again the vitim of terror. We must protect every man, woman, and child.
7) Protests I cannot answer this one, becuase there are group that do not support me, and for those groups there ought to be limits on freedom. They want to leave people behind.
8) Asteroids ****snort**** Whoa... I remember playing that game. That kicked ass! Dude! Um, yeah, protect the nation from terror and leave no child behind.
9) The future As I have said and i will reiterirritate, we cannot leave any man, woman, or child behind as we build a future of peace and prosperity and protect our children from open hearts.
Hopefully he can prove that he wasn't involved and can get his stuff back pretty quick.
But therein lies the true problem. The burden of proof in any criminal investigation is on the State, not the individual. He should not have to prove that he wasn't involved, but rather the State has to prove that he was. Unfortunately, that often is not how things are carried out...
DARE has not worked, and most of the studies that show it did work were later found to be inaccurat and supported DARE only through the biased information the researchers used.
I'll point you to the well recognized researcher in the field of Criminal Justice, Dr. Ed Day, who is currently an instructor at Penn State in the Department of Crime Law and Justice. Several studies he and other collegues have done have shown that DARE is an ineffective program.
I live in one of the much contended "swing states" (Pennsylvania), and I just voted yesterday (by absentee ballot). I didn't vote for a major party (democrat/republican) candidate, and for a while I was seriously considering not voting at all, but after looking at the Bush & Gore, I knew I had to vote.
What inspired me so much? I looked at both of their platforms and found myself disgusted by the levels of doubletalk and pandering to focus groups. Instead of being discouraged from voting by this, I decided to vote for a third party candidate that I could agree with. Who I voted for doesn't really matter, what does matter that I did vote. My vote is a protest. I'd be thrilled if my candidate got 5% of the popular vote. By casting my vote for a third party candidate (and hoping others do as well) I want to let the government know that I'm not satisfied with the way either of the major parties are running things.
So even if you "throw away" your vote, make sure you do vote. By exercising your right to vote, you can send a message that you are paying attention to what is happening in your country.
The Constitution can be applied to private parties when they seek to use the courts to enforce contracts. Deed restrictions that prohibit the sale of the property to Blacks and Jews are common in certain areas. The courts will not enforce these restrictions.
As far as I'm aware, cases such as these are usually challenged under federal civil rights statutes, rather than facing a Constitutional. The few Constitutional challenges that have occured were involving federally subsidised housing.
This comes up every time any non-profit or corp. tries to block anything, and it is a completely misdirected arguement.
Freedom of speech only applies in cases where a governmental agency (or gov't funded agent) attempts to block speech. Only your government can violate freedom of speech, corporations can use any legal method they want to restrict speech. The US Constitution affects only the US government, not corporations or other non-governmental agencies in the US.
If you take a look at their "Are You At Risk?" page, there's this little blurb...
The second form of piracy affecting the system builder is generally referred to as "hard disk loading". Under this practice a system builder will illegally pre-load a copy of the software onto the computer prior to sale. In this case the system builder makes a deliberate decision to load illegal software onto the computers he sells, usually as an incentive for the end user to purchase from him. In most cases, he doesn't even bother supplying any media, license agreement, a manual or documentation. Hard disk loading is particularly prevalent in less developed markets where there is no end user expectation of such "extras", or indeed a full understanding of software being a separate concept to hardware.
Sounds an awful lot like what MS is requiring now, with their disk-less distrobution practices... So can Microsoft pirate their own software?
Biological Lens Intermitent Natural Kovering(tm) consists of a sytems of organic, naturally synthesized thin tissue membranes, which when operated permit natural remoisturization of an organic lens system. The intermitent nature of this system permits extended periods of visibility without extended periods of dryness or irritation. Using the "BLINK" system, a user may view objects at near unlimited resolution without suffering from redraw effects. Biological Lens Intermitent Natural Kovering may also be used to provide short term shielding of biological lens systems from minor irritants and extremes of brightness.
In addition, Ms. Watney said the blacked-out information, including names, phone numbers, and security-clearance information, was not "sensitive law-enforcement information."
So if it wasn't sensative information, then why on earth was it blacked out? I have to agree with the article, that if the FBI cannot be trusted with the privacy of the members of their "independent" review team, then how can they be trusted with the privacy of US citizens? I still can't believe that they haven't buckled under the overwhelming public sentiment against Carnivore yet.
having been educated in the USian public school system (many years ago) and wanting to show that we have some shred of intelligence, here's some more information...
John Hancock was elected to be president of the First Continental Congress in 1775. It was this Congress that asked Thomas Jefferson to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. After many revisions by the congress, it was finally voted on and approved on July 3, 1776, with John Hancock as the first signatory (he was president, after all). The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was on July 4th, and the remamining members of congress continued to sign it until some point in August of 1776. Copies were distributed to each of the memebers for them to take back to their home colonies.
When I first read this article, I XXXumed thaX XX was going to be the usual anXXXhematic bit of tripe, XXX Xhen I read it and found it to be quite amusing. You see, I have used filtering software for quite some time and thaX XX hXX Xometimes failed me has never been the case. I support freedom of sXXXch XX Xomething that is important, XXX Xhen again, as George W. XXXX said, "There ought to be limits to freedom."
Anyway, thaX XX made the front page of Slashdot (the article that is) is just another attempt by the left to pollute the minds of youth everywhere.
Well, ATI is offering a Radeon All-In Wonder. Same Radeon as their strictly 3D card, plus an integrated TV tuner, MPEG decoder, etc. They claim to be on the market now, and should be retailing for about $300. Here's the obligatory link. That being said, I own an AIW Pro, and have been satisfied with its preformance, but 3D card, it's not. Maybe when I do have an extra couple hundred bucks lying around, I can give the Radeon a whirl.
I had the same problem occur when I was working for the Army Corps of Engineers in a field office. I never had a component fail in the 3 years I was there, but I think that had more to do with the short duration of the events and luck.
Someone could write a reference implementation but unfortunately, most users will stick with the Outlook/Netscape/Eudora/AOL/etc software that they're used to.
Actually, the last version of PGP I installed (the free international version 6.5) had an option in it to install a plug-in to Outlook or Eudora to allow you to encrypt with a single mouse click. Not much, but it's a start.
As a follow-up to my earlier post, here's the response I recieved from NIC's customer support... The typos (including the GLP ones) are their's, not mine.
Contents of the letter follow:
These restrictions do NOT apply to the GLP code, but to the software created by NIC and by third parties and licensed to NIC.
I hope this clarifies the issue to your satisfaction. We are strong proponents of the GLP paradigm and have worked closely with our attorneys to ensure our compliance.
Please let us know if you have additional concerns and thank you for your interest.
(end of email)
So it looks quite clear. Hope this clarifies the questions. Cheers.
Rather than over-react as I'm sure is the propensity of many members of the Slashdot community, this is my response. I just sent this letter to them. Thinking like a businessperson, I decided to hit them in the wallet, where it is most likely to matter. Anyway, this is what I wrote.
To whom it may concern; I had recently been considering purchasing several of your devices for the (department name removed) in the (college removed) at the (university name removed). I have the position of network administrator within this department and am responsible for recommending purchases of both hardware and software.
While reviewing information about your product, I came across this very disconcerting clause in your EULA: 2. Software License and Restrictions. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Company grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free non-transferable license to use the Software solely in connection with your use of the NIC. Except as expressly provided herein, you shall not reproduce, make derivative works of, distribute, rent or lease the Software. You shall not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software. You agree to indemnify and hold Company harmless from and against all liabilities, losses, damages, costs and expenses, including attorneys' fees, which Company may incur or otherwise suffer as a result of your breach of any of the provisions or restrictions of this Agreement.
I am also aware that you advertise you product as using the Linux Operating System (built on the 2.2 series kernel). As you are probably aware, the Linux OS is covered under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The clause in your EULA may be in direct violation of the GPL, and I am writing to ask for your clarification on this matter.
Your rapid response is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
(closing of the letter)
So there you go, hopefully a better model to follow. Take care.
Slashdot Mirror
Drawn into a debate by what sounds like a troll... But anyway.
Christmas is a holiday based on many of the traditions of numerous european pagan religions, many of which go back prior to ancient Greek civilization. Now unless Christ was around prior to 500BCE, there is no way that Christmas was originally about Christ, no matter what the name has to do with it.
Personally, I myself am and agnostic buddhist, but before that I spent a fiarly significant amoutn of time (about 5 years) studying the religions of the world (just to see what every side had to say).
First, if you hold the "shepherds guarding their sheep" part of the Christ's birth story to be true, then you should also realize that the only time shepherds guard their sheep are in the spring. In the middle of the first millennium CE (about the year 500 or so) the still young Catholic Church decided that if they could not stop people from celebrating Saturnalia, they'd incorporate it into a celebration of the birth of Christ. Saturnalia is (essentially, apologies to Pagans for abridging it so much) a holiday about birth, specifically the rebirth of the Sun and ending the winter. This birth theme made a convinient starting point for the co-oping of Christ.
There's a lot more involved, like the Horned God, the tree, and all the other trimmings associated with Christmas that have nothing to do with Christ. For a quick introduction, please read this page to learn at least an introduction to the true meaning of the holiday.
The Horned God is the reason for the season...
Happy holidays everyone.
-Jason
(snip)
Actually, you're a little off on that... Perhaps one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in the NY skyline, the Citibank building, has just such a flaw in it. The way it was originally designed, if it had encountered winds over 78mph it was at serious risk of collapes (due to poor design of the steel framework, IIRC). Shortly after it was finished, and a rare hurricane was headed towards NYC a the builder secretly replace and/or modified many beams (bolting them instead of welding them), essentially providing a "service pack".
One of the lessons I remember from an engineering class. More information is available here.
Your correction is actually incorrect. Since the start of the laser telemetry studies which you refer to (they started during the Apollo era), it has been found that the moon has been moving away from the earth at a rate of about 3cm per year. (For a reference, see here). IT won't escape earth's gravity, but it is moving away from the earth.
There isn't any problem with that. 2.54cm = 1 inch. It's an exact conversion, not an estimate like many people think. There are exactly 2.54cm/inch, 30.48cm/foot, 1609.344m/mile. so as a result...
... is completely false, unless you have an incompetant surveyor who will round his/her measurements. Then there will still be problems, no matter what units are used.
I just ordered this book about 2 weeks ago (it has yet to arrive) and after reading this review, I can't wait to get it! The <hushed-tone> Red Book </hushed-tone> has been one of the most useful books I've ever read, and with the addition on the new *nix variants to this new volume, it's an improvement on a masterpiece. If there is room for only one (non O'Reilly) book on your book shelf, make it this one.
-Jason
1) War on drugs
Every heart has a promise in it. A promise to keep. Now some say that the war on drugs has been one of the nation's biggest boondonglethingys. TO those critics I say false! We have a promise to protect our childs, and to keep our hearts true.
2) Minority religions
There are those among you who feel that the GOP has not been inclusive, but we have opened our hearts. Those whose hearts have been darkened by the following of Satan and Wicker need to feel the thousands points of light that we can carry forward to build a nation of peace and prosperity.
3) Tax cuts
To build our future on the peace and prosperity of inclusivnits that our hearts can bring I promis to open our hearts with a tax relief plan for every man, woman, and child. We'll leave no child behind and refund them our money they need.
4) Election Reform
I have stood before every man, woman, and child and opened my heart, and my administration would be one of inclusiveness. Why our party is even helping our friend Mr. Nader by advertising for him. That's my open heart, and answer of integrity.
5) IP
When an artist or writer opens his heart to bring his or her work to every man, woman or child, they deserve tax relief and to be rightfully compensated. Let no child or artist be left behind, and let those whose hearts have been darkened by the internet be force to pay.
6) Encryption
We need less power for the bureaucrats in Washington. Every American should open their heart and let us look into see what they have to hide, so we can make sure this nation is never again the vitim of terror. We must protect every man, woman, and child.
7) Protests
I cannot answer this one, becuase there are group that do not support me, and for those groups there ought to be limits on freedom. They want to leave people behind.
8) Asteroids
****snort**** Whoa... I remember playing that game. That kicked ass! Dude! Um, yeah, protect the nation from terror and leave no child behind.
9) The future
As I have said and i will reiterirritate, we cannot leave any man, woman, or child behind as we build a future of peace and prosperity and protect our children from open hearts.
Thank you and God bless.
-George W. Bush
But therein lies the true problem. The burden of proof in any criminal investigation is on the State, not the individual. He should not have to prove that he wasn't involved, but rather the State has to prove that he was. Unfortunately, that often is not how things are carried out...
DARE has not worked, and most of the studies that show it did work were later found to be inaccurat and supported DARE only through the biased information the researchers used.
I'll point you to the well recognized researcher in the field of Criminal Justice, Dr. Ed Day, who is currently an instructor at Penn State in the Department of Crime Law and Justice. Several studies he and other collegues have done have shown that DARE is an ineffective program.
But before I rant and get punished too harshly...
I live in one of the much contended "swing states" (Pennsylvania), and I just voted yesterday (by absentee ballot). I didn't vote for a major party (democrat/republican) candidate, and for a while I was seriously considering not voting at all, but after looking at the Bush & Gore, I knew I had to vote.
What inspired me so much? I looked at both of their platforms and found myself disgusted by the levels of doubletalk and pandering to focus groups. Instead of being discouraged from voting by this, I decided to vote for a third party candidate that I could agree with. Who I voted for doesn't really matter, what does matter that I did vote. My vote is a protest. I'd be thrilled if my candidate got 5% of the popular vote. By casting my vote for a third party candidate (and hoping others do as well) I want to let the government know that I'm not satisfied with the way either of the major parties are running things.
So even if you "throw away" your vote, make sure you do vote. By exercising your right to vote, you can send a message that you are paying attention to what is happening in your country.
As far as I'm aware, cases such as these are usually challenged under federal civil rights statutes, rather than facing a Constitutional. The few Constitutional challenges that have occured were involving federally subsidised housing.
Now that I've gone waaaaaaay off topic...
This comes up every time any non-profit or corp. tries to block anything, and it is a completely misdirected arguement.
Freedom of speech only applies in cases where a governmental agency (or gov't funded agent) attempts to block speech. Only your government can violate freedom of speech, corporations can use any legal method they want to restrict speech. The US Constitution affects only the US government, not corporations or other non-governmental agencies in the US.
Sounds an awful lot like what MS is requiring now, with their disk-less distrobution practices... So can Microsoft pirate their own software?
Biological Lens Intermitent Natural Kovering(tm) consists of a sytems of organic, naturally synthesized thin tissue membranes, which when operated permit natural remoisturization of an organic lens system. The intermitent nature of this system permits extended periods of visibility without extended periods of dryness or irritation. Using the "BLINK" system, a user may view objects at near unlimited resolution without suffering from redraw effects. Biological Lens Intermitent Natural Kovering may also be used to provide short term shielding of biological lens systems from minor irritants and extremes of brightness.
-Jason
So if it wasn't sensative information, then why on earth was it blacked out? I have to agree with the article, that if the FBI cannot be trusted with the privacy of the members of their "independent" review team, then how can they be trusted with the privacy of US citizens? I still can't believe that they haven't buckled under the overwhelming public sentiment against Carnivore yet.
having been educated in the USian public school system (many years ago) and wanting to show that we have some shred of intelligence, here's some more information...
John Hancock was elected to be president of the First Continental Congress in 1775. It was this Congress that asked Thomas Jefferson to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. After many revisions by the congress, it was finally voted on and approved on July 3, 1776, with John Hancock as the first signatory (he was president, after all). The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was on July 4th, and the remamining members of congress continued to sign it until some point in August of 1776. Copies were distributed to each of the memebers for them to take back to their home colonies.
When I first read this article, I XXXumed thaX XX was going to be the usual anXXXhematic bit of tripe, XXX Xhen I read it and found it to be quite amusing. You see, I have used filtering software for quite some time and thaX XX hXX Xometimes failed me has never been the case. I support freedom of sXXXch XX Xomething that is important, XXX Xhen again, as George W. XXXX said, "There ought to be limits to freedom."
Anyway, thaX XX made the front page of Slashdot (the article that is) is just another attempt by the left to pollute the minds of youth everywhere.
XX Xincerely as I can,
Me
</sarcasm>
Well, ATI is offering a Radeon All-In Wonder. Same Radeon as their strictly 3D card, plus an integrated TV tuner, MPEG decoder, etc. They claim to be on the market now, and should be retailing for about $300. Here's the obligatory link. That being said, I own an AIW Pro, and have been satisfied with its preformance, but 3D card, it's not. Maybe when I do have an extra couple hundred bucks lying around, I can give the Radeon a whirl.
I had the same problem occur when I was working for the Army Corps of Engineers in a field office. I never had a component fail in the 3 years I was there, but I think that had more to do with the short duration of the events and luck.
-J
And while you're nitpicking, Orson Wells didn't write 1984, George Orwell did.
Actually, the last version of PGP I installed (the free international version 6.5) had an option in it to install a plug-in to Outlook or Eudora to allow you to encrypt with a single mouse click. Not much, but it's a start.
But the headquarters of Dominos Pizza is in Ann Arbor, Michigan (They have a really neat Christmas light show there every year).
Just a little nit.
Would it be:
Macslash? Nah, too easy...
As a follow-up to my earlier post, here's the response I recieved from NIC's customer support... The typos (including the GLP ones) are their's, not mine.
Contents of the letter follow:
These restrictions do NOT apply to the GLP code, but to the software created by NIC and by third parties and licensed to NIC.
I hope this clarifies the issue to your satisfaction. We are strong proponents of the GLP paradigm and have worked closely with our attorneys to ensure our compliance.
Please let us know if you have additional concerns and thank you for your interest.
(end of email)
So it looks quite clear. Hope this clarifies the questions. Cheers.
-J
Rather than over-react as I'm sure is the propensity of many members of the Slashdot community, this is my response. I just sent this letter to them. Thinking like a businessperson, I decided to hit them in the wallet, where it is most likely to matter. Anyway, this is what I wrote.
To whom it may concern;
I had recently been considering purchasing several of your devices for the (department name removed) in the (college removed) at the (university name removed). I have the position of network administrator within this department and am responsible for recommending purchases of both hardware and software.
While reviewing information about your product, I came across this very disconcerting clause in your EULA:
2. Software License and Restrictions. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Company grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free non-transferable license to use the Software solely in connection with your use of the NIC. Except as expressly provided herein, you shall not reproduce, make derivative works of, distribute, rent or lease the Software. You shall not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software. You agree to indemnify and hold Company harmless from and against all liabilities, losses, damages, costs and expenses, including attorneys' fees, which Company may incur or otherwise suffer as a result of your breach of any of the provisions or restrictions of this Agreement.
I am also aware that you advertise you product as using the Linux Operating System (built on the 2.2 series kernel). As you are probably aware, the Linux OS is covered under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The clause in your EULA may be in direct violation of the GPL, and I am writing to ask for your clarification on this matter.
Your rapid response is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
(closing of the letter)
So there you go, hopefully a better model to follow. Take care.
-J
"In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
-Homer Simpson