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| What's This? |
| What's this product about? How might this product be used (or misused)? Get some perspective on the nature of a product that you probably never thought about yourself from someone that has a certain knack for using products in a way that the manufacturer probably never wanted. |
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| OPML Template for Movable Type 4.1 |
| 2008-03-08 07:22:33 |
I'll confess that I haven't found much use for an OPML feed yet for a blog, but some geeks might insist that if it can be done, then it should be done.The following template is an example of how to create an OPML feed for your Movable Type 4.1 blog that traverses through the categories and subcategories, listing the entries within each:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?>
<opml version="1.1">
<head>
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<MTEntries lastn="1">
<ownerName><$MTEntryAuthorDisplayName encode_xml="1"$></ownerName>
<MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryAuthorEmail"> <ownerEmail><$MTEntryAuthorEmail encode_xml="1"$></ownerEmail> </MTIfNonEmpty>
<dateModified><$MTEntryModifiedDate format_name="rfc822"$></dateModified>
</MTEntries></head>
<body>
<MTTopLevelCategories>
<MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCoun...
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| A Tribute to the Devil |
| 2008-02-26 11:26:14 |
Science has a reasonable understanding of matter and how the strong, the weak, and the electromagnetic forces and (at least for practical purposes) gravity affect it. We also have a firm grasp on an large array of other natural laws and principles.But none of the forces or laws indicate that, from a human point of view, there is a constant evolution and change in our universe. They only describe change within so limited scopes that one cannot express connections between cause on the microscopic level and effect on the macroscopic level, or vice versa.The laws of nature do not state anything about the development of life; although we do understand how DNA replicates, how organisms reproduce and mutate, how organisms adapt and survive according to changing environments, and how they in turn ...
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| How to Easily Configure a Microsoft Product |
| 2008-02-25 03:46:18 |
I think now understand how to configure Microsoft's products in such a way that they appeal to me intuitively.Now, in the world of user interfaces, "intuitively" simply means that applications do what you're used to. In that sense, I suppose the only intuitively correct behavior among Microsoft applications would be frequent crashes, mangling of your documents, incorrect calculations in your spreadsheets, file conversion problems after service upgrades, intelligent help systems provided your IQ matches your room temperature, and so on. I suppose that in that sense I don't have to change anything.However, I'm a Linux user at home, and while Linux applications often have their shortcomings that can often be traced to a n...
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| The Art of Lying (Part Three) |
| 2008-02-17 08:40:45 |
"Chirp, chirp," says the little turkey chicken, and its mother reacts by feeding the chicken. And the mother turkey is in fact ready to feed anything—even its sworn enemy, a stuffed polecat, is carefully nurtured if equipped with a tape recorder that plays back the "chirp, chirp" sound. It looks like a mechanism where an innocent sound triggers the playback of a complex series of actions, much like a tape recorder that is turned on and fitted with a tape that plays back a standard behavior.
Robert B. Cialdini,
professor in psychology at Arizona State University, has studied when
similar "tapes" are played back in humans, and what triggers
the playback of these tapes. And in that sense we are no smarter than
the mother turkey, who is easily manipulated into caring for its worst
enemy.
Figure 1. Dr. Robert B. Cialdini.One Foot in the DoorIt has been a significant advantage throughout human evolution to return a service for another service, or to offer a gift after receiving one. W...
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| Why I Won't Buy another iPod |
| 2007-12-06 13:35:17 |
My iPod has one redeeming factor: its storage capacity. At 80 GBytes, I can actually have all of my music on it. But I won't buy another iPod if this one breaks. The reasons are:I don't like iTunes. It doesn't run on Linux, and even if it did, I'd probably want to use something else because of its poor user interface and slowness. (I use Amarok instead, but it won't install firmware updates.)My iPod crashes regularly. I can't just reset it according to Apple's instructions; I actually have to let it sit for a while and try several times until finally I'm lucky enough to reset it.When I turn it on and start playing a song, the controls are rendered useless for about half a minute while the song plays. The song will occasionally pause, too.Apparently even mino...
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| Comparing Scriptures |
| 2007-11-07 02:03:14 |
You can't use a religous text to make predictions about a religious group's behavior, yet atheists often refer to the Christian Bible or the Muslem Quran when they describe how "real" Christians or "real" Muslems are.A Danish scholar, Tina Maagard, who focuses on text analysis and interpretation nonetheless extends her interpretation of the texts to make predictions about existing groups of Muslems. A few years ago she concluded that because the Quran contains more hostile phrases against other people than the Bible, Muslems can therefore be considered more war-like.For obvious reasons this conclusion was welcome among right-wing politicians who now had "proof" that Muslems have higher potential for being terrorists than anyone else.There are just a few devils in the details. Most importan...
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| Seven-Eights of Living |
| 2007-11-01 02:27:03 |
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.And all the birds in the trees,well they'd be singing sohappily, joyfully, playfully watching me.But then they sent me away to teach me how to besensible, logical, responsible, practical.And they showed me a world where I could be sodependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical.(The Logical Song, Supertramp, 1979)
The grandmaster of a martial arts branch once remarked that the head only takes up one eighth of the entire body proper. Anyone that uses only his head to think with is seven-eights paralyzed.
Yet often I hear atheists cry: "rationality!," "logic!," "reason!", etc. when they argue that religious people are separating themselves from the real world. They cling to the intellectual and the abstract. Apparently their real world is restricted to the upper one-eighth of the body.
The last seven-eights of the body does not think in the intellectual sense of the word. However, the body feels and senses. Dr. Antonio Damasio explains in his book, Descartes' Error, that it is not the human brain that controls a human being's rationality. It is instead the body that creates what Damasio named "somatic markers," or bodily points of reference, that direct the brain. Body and brain join in a reciprocal, closed-loop action where the brain is just one of many organs that together spark reason.Damasio experimented with patients suffering from a brain damage that prevented them from applying their somatic markers. To his surprise, Damasio discovered that these people were just as intelligent as other people, only were these people controlled exclusively by their intelligence, that is, by their brain's reasoning alone. Yet it was as if their goal had changed. Deprived of the use of their somatic markers the actions of the patients showed that the patients unconsciously—but apparently very deliberately—attempted to create problems for themselves, financially as well as ...
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| How I Got a Google PR5 in 90 Days |
| 2007-10-30 03:24:16 |
A Google page rank of 5 isn't impressive, but in the blogging community this seems to be the rank that separates the wheat from the chaff. I obtained a Google PR5 in only about three months after the blog was started, and I believe this success is based on a few deliberate "white hat SEO" choices I had made up front. These choices were, in no particular order:Networking. I've found that especially StumbleUpon, Thoof, Reddit, and Fark have drawn traffic to my blog. There's also Digg, Technorati, and Del.icio.us, of course, and while you may not get traffic from those sites unless you're lucky enough to get dugg, Google will notice the links to your site.Participate on message boards and other people's blogs. (This is also networking, of course.) Make shamel...
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| Practical Implications |
| 2007-10-29 11:25:22 |
If you accept the fact that there are no gods, then you will also have to face the fact that it doesn't matter what a person believes in: the only thing that matters is what this person does (or doesn't) as a result of his or her belief. All that matters are the tangible results, that is, the practical implications of the belief. What matters are actions, results, and effects; but the belief itself—well, who needs to care about that, except the believers?Sure, there are very good reasons to investigate beliefs, which are used to
justify atrocities all over the world. But it's the atrocities, not the
beliefs, that are the cause of concern. If the beliefs implied no harm or good,
would you bother to care?...
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| Diabolical Axioms |
| 2007-10-25 07:30:03 |
Never acquire an enemy you do not need.Study common knowledge, then reject it.Never teach your soldiers everything you know, because one day you may become your own victim.To deceive an enemy, let him think you fear him.Bad luck enters through the door you left open.At sea, we are all brothers. But those with life jackets may be unwilling to share.He that answers for others pays the bill.It you must lie, be brief.Always pull a snake from its hole with another man's hand.Shallow waters may conceal sharks.I you are forced to bow, bow deeply—and remember the bitter feeling when you take revenge.Do not use both legs when you measure the depth of a river.Do not use cat guts to tie a dog.If you are the anvil, be patient. If you are the hammer, hit.Leave a sleeping dog alone unless you have...
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| Thank You, Homo-Christ! |
| 2007-10-23 05:20:10 |
I would like to thank all Christians for loving their neighbor so much that they even extend their love to the abominable homosexuals, wishing to help them.As a former homosexual I would like to express my gratefulness by
telling the world how my membership of my Church and my belief in
Christ as my savior has taught me that homosexuality is an abomination
and a sin, which Jesus my savior has replaced with a love in Christ....
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| The Art of Lying (Part Two) |
| 2007-10-21 04:36:16 |
A liar may want to be exposed if the exposure can lead his victim to believe another, better lie. But usually the liar just wants his victim to believe what he says.In some cases a lie is evident but in some cases you need some tools to reveal it. Fortunately, the liar often provides a number of cues that I'll teach you here. Just remember that the cues do not necessarily prove a lie, and you may also encounter a seasoned liar that can suppress them.Body and Body LanguageMany people believe that loss of eye contact and shifting of the body indicates that a person lies. However, there is no such connection. Touching one's body by wringing one's hands or scratching one's head does not indicate a lie either. (However, if you're the liar, don't expect your victim to be aware of this, so don't ...
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| Ubuntu Pre-Release |
| 2007-10-18 02:00:14 |
Ubuntu is out today, but as of this writing the official Ubuntu site has not yet been updated with a download option for version 7.10, the "Gutsy Gibbon" release.You can get it, however, if you're willing to search a little on the Ubuntu Mirrors. I'm currently downloading the desktop and the server editions of Ubuntu 7.10 from a German mirror while the official Ubuntu site still only makes version 7.04 available for download. Look in the ".pool" directories.You don't need to download a new CD if you're simply upgrading your installation. Instead, if you want to get it while it's fresh from the oven and not yet on the store shelf, you may have to update your distribution source list to point to a mirror that hosts the most recent version of Ubuntu....
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| Items in My Room |
| 2007-10-17 04:17:09 |
I once promised myself that I would never make a stab at poetry, but sometimes you just have to use the means of communication that makes the most sense to you. If it happens to resemble poetry—then so be it.Items in My RoomWhen I met you, my room was empty.As you spoke and acted,as you were quiet and asleep,as you prepared food and entertained me,as you deprived and forgot me,as you taught me, and as you learned from me,you decorated my room.You put paintings on the wall,or left a box with unassembled furniture.Some decoration was expensive, and some was cheap.A few items were curiosities that had value only to me.Other items were essentials to anyone.Sometimes you left garbage I had to clean up.All of the items were h...
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| Scientific Proof of the Power of Mecca |
| 2007-10-15 01:41:06 |
Ingestion of holy water from Mecca can turn people Muslim. This is the amazing conclusion after subjecting holy water from Mecca to scientific tests.A local ethnic store had a specialty for sale: genuine, holy water from Mecca. At a discount price of only $3 for a beautiful plastic amphora filled with the waters from the Holy City, the offer was too good to pass.As sensible skeptics, we suspected that perhaps the amphora might contain nothing but simple tap water, but the store assured us that no-one would buy tap water for $3 a bottle in those quantities, and therefore the water was indeed the real thing.We were still not entirely convinced, but the store owner added that Muslims purchased these bottles to keep in their homes as well, and that they would obviously never cheat their fellow peoples.In addition, the Arab letters clearly described the contents of the container as holy water imported from the holy city in Saudi Arabia. There could be no doubt about its authenticity.Thus the proud and unexpected owners of such a rarity, we began to wonder what to do with this sacriligious item. We are not Muslims, and therefore had no clue what to do with such holy water. Fortunately we don't belong to any other religion either and therefore needed not worry about going to a wrong Hell in case we misapplied the contents.Instead, we decided to perform some experiments to see if holy water from the holy city of Mecca would demonstrate an effect different from that of regular tap water.To begin with, we decided to water one of our plants with the holy water. The plant showed no difference in growth, except that within days the plant started to turn away from the light outside the window. Since the plant thrived, evidently the light did no harm, but it seemed very unusual for a plant to turn away from the light.
On repeating the experiment in different rooms with windows facing in
different directions it became clear that the plants did indeed not turn away from the light...
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| On the Author's Mind |
| 2007-10-13 02:16:17 |
Candy Tothill ponders the "law of three" applied to authors and speculates whether this makes it easier to love writers. She inspired me (and I will wonder if I should not have dared to use this word once this text is complete) to add a few thoughts on the transfer of the story from the writer to the reader.As a strict atheist, I would have preferred a less religious approach than that of the "law of three," yet I have no choice but to apply mystical words such
as "soul" or "spirit" and similar symbology because inspiration, creativity, emotion,
and feeling cannot be described by Aristotelian logic. I could perhaps refer to Antonio Damasio's somatic marker model, but since this model is also ontologically incomplete (as Damasio himself recognizes), this detour would eventually be wasted effort. So please bear with me on the mystical language, and try not to imagine metaphysical entities as I use mystical expressions.
Anyone is an author these days; write an incoherent article that
includes a few of your darling phrases and you're an author. Change a few
fonts to the worse in a premanufactured template and you're a web
designer. Submit some video footage of yourself to YouTube and you're an
actor and a producer. There are plenty of options for you to earn your 15 bytes of
fame.Aim higher, and you may become one of those authors that have learned the handicraft of
writing, applying strong language skills, mastering composition and powerful statements, who
can state some profundities and maybe even have stories to tell, yet
somehow leave the reader with a feeling that he or she has just read a
user's manual.Alternatively, become a no-style writer whose specialty is simplicity in every sense of the word. It probably helps if you're a religious person or a conservative, because their views invariably tend toward the simplicity of bifurcations.But some authors charm their readers. Their readers have experienced the captivating feeling that made it impossible to put ...
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| The Power of Symbols |
| 2007-10-12 01:53:10 |
Two years ago, Denmark became the hot topic around the world when the right-wing newspaper Jyllandsposten published twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. More recently a Swedish journalist felt the predictable wrath of offended Muslims after publishing another picture of Muhammad.
Referring to "freedom of expression," Jyllandsposten waived all responsibility for the ensuing protests when it dawned upon the editors that there was a world beyond the Danish borders where Muslims were also offended. Today, hopefully it is only the most naïve individuals that still believe that the cartoons had anything to do with freedom of expression, and nothing to do with the steep increase in xenophobia and racism that Denmark has witnessed over the last thirty years. In fact, Jyllandsposten had published the cartoons in spite of being warned of the effects next to an editorial explaining that Muslims should accept ridicule, and one of the cartoonists included a hidden comment to Jyllandsposten's motivation in his drawing: in Persian, the text on the blackboard says, "The editors at Jyllandsposten are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs." Nonetheless, Jyllandsposten's editor Flemming Rose, a great fan of the intensely anti-Arab Daniel Pipes, decided to print the cartoons. It is hard to believe that Jyllandsposten was caught entirely by surprise.Freedom of expression is only relevant to minority groups. Jyllandsposten in Denmark represents the majority which has the power, and is also a traditional and almost uncritical supporter of the right-wing government. To such a medium, freedom of expression is a moot point. The majority has the power to say what it wants, exactly because it has the power to do so. It does not need any protection or freedom to do this. Freedom of expression is a tool that protects the weak from oppression of the strong when they voice their opinions. The strong do not need this protection, and their opinions are no more covered by freedom of expre...
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| Command-Line Posting to Binary Newsgroups |
| 2007-10-11 01:48:15 |
Assume you a set of files that you wish to post on the binary newsgroups; for example, a CD or a DVD with hundreds of Mbytes or maybe several Gbytes of data. There are a variety of applications that can do that for you, but sometimes it's convenient to use command line tools. (You'll need Linux for this.)Install RAR. Just download the Linux distribution and unpack it. It contains an executable named "rar."Install par2cmdline. I wasn't able to get the binary files to run on my system, and the source code wouldn't compile until I wrote this patch. Apply it to reedsolomon.cpp in the source code directory with "patch < par2cmdline.patch," and it will probably work.Install cksfv.Install newspost.Some of these tools can be installed via apt-get.You'll get three kinds of files to post: RAR archive files, PAR2 parity files, and an SFV checksum file. You should probably decide on a similar file name for each kind of file such as "mypost.rar", "mypost.par2", and "mypost.sfv".The first thing you do is to compress the files and limit their size. You're about to spend a whole lot of bandwidth soon, so compress them tightly. In the following example, rarfilename is the name of the RAR output file (without the ".rar" extension), and the following files are the ones to be added to the archive. The example produces an archive that is split for every 50 Mbytes, includes recovery records, and applies maximum compression:rar a -rr -m5 -v50000 rarfilename file1 file2 file3 ... filenNext, expect errors on the news servers. Create so-called PAR2 recovery files containing at least 10% redundant information as follows. Again, omit the ".par2" extension from the PAR2 file name.
par2create -r10 -s262144 parfilename *.rarAs an optional step, you may want to create an SFV file with CRC-32 checksums for the posted files.
cksfv *.rar *.par2 > sfvfilename.sfv
You now have the compressed and split archive, recovery blocks for when the news servers around the world don't replicate the p...
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| Beyond Atheism |
| 2007-10-09 04:15:29 |
I know that I can't prove a negative, and atheists in general feel caught by a "democratic" need to acknowledge that since you can't fully disprove the chance, however small, that there might be some god somewhere, you must acknowledge that the delusional claims about such entities may at least in principle have some merit.I do not acknowledge that merit, except as a mental exercise that one can do for fun if one feels so inclined, however, because in spite of my disbelief in metaphysical beings, I'm not an atheist.
The non-belief of atheism is easy, and you can get a long way with that. I know that all things
in this vast universe are ultimately connected, but as little as I
consider how it affects the red spot on Jupiter that I mow my lawn, consistently with the aforementioned atheists I don't consider the remote chance of
something even less observable influencing my thoughts either.It is easy to not believe, yet atheists seem stuck at searching for the turning point, where God has diminished enough in life's equation, to feel comfortable stating why they move on without him. I have never had anything to discuss with superstitious people, and have never wanted to debate with them.I am beyond that point. I am beyond atheism: not only do I not believe there is a God, I believe there is no God.Taking this step beyond atheism has important ramifications. Believing there is no Heaven or Hell, I have no doubt, not even at the level of academic agnosticism, that I cannot be forgiven or damned. This belief requires me to be thoughtful of my actions instead. It requires me to understand that how I treat people will reflect back on me within this lifetime. Believing there is no God means believing there is no supernatural purpose of my life, and that this is the only life I have; it is up to me to make the most of it, and now is the only chance I have.Believing that there is no God means that I cannot assume that others will view the world the way I do. I have no god...
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| Subscriptions Enabled |
| 2007-10-05 02:39:34 |
Another maintenance update: you can now subscribe to this blog. You have two options:Subscribe to the blog: get an email whenever there is a new post on this blog.Subscribe to entry comments: get an email whenever someone posts a comment on an entry that you found interesting.And don't worry—I promise I won't use your email addresses for spam or pass them on to third parties....
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| Movable Type Plugin: Sociotags Updated |
| 2007-10-04 06:17:55 |
The Sociotags plugin for Movable Type has been updated to version 0.2. The update includes three new sociotags: BUMPzip, Sphere, and Thoof.Download the new version here....
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| Your Hardware Pwned by Vista |
| 2007-10-03 02:53:42 |
Like Windows XP and 2000, and the Windows versions of a decade ago, Windows Vista came on the market and seemed strangely beta-like, and keeping tradition, Vista has placed so tall demands on the computer's hardware that your computer would be slowed to a crawl unless it sported an unreasonable amount of RAM and graphics acceleration.Many users have been either too annoyed by Vista's so-called user-friendliness or its poor hardware utilization that they have been tempted to downgrade to Windows XP, even if their newly purchased PC was still state of the art and well above the minimum requirements cited by Microsoft.And were they in for a surprise, especially if they had bought a notebook computer. They would soon realize that no XP compatible drivers wer...
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| Stupid Christians |
| 2007-10-02 08:10:06 |
This article is based on an article by Amina Olander Lap. It explains the common errors of what might be referred to as "American atheism" and
proposes a foundation for sound criticism. The text addresses the common atheist attitude towards the Christian beliefs, but the discussion applies to any religion or belief system.Buzzword CriticismThe atheism that is found in the US is the kind of atheism that can be expected in a country where religion is widespread and deeply ingrained in the population's minds. It's the kind of atheism that considers the religious people stupid, and nonetheless takes the debates onto the religious turf where the believers have the edge. "Celebrity atheist" Richard Dawkins represents this kind of atheism.The critical view on Christianity is one thing that virtually all atheists can agree on, but the criticism is not always well targeted.Part of the reason that the criticism often misses the point is that many atheists copy the slogans of famous atheists and the rhetoric of old philosophers, and this can easily place the criticism out of context. People often misunderstand the original meaning behind the powerful statements.
Another problem with anti-Christian slogans is a confusion between personal opinions and what can be accepted as valid arguments based on factual evidence, valid methods, and logic.It requires no background study or field knowledge to consider Christians stupid, but if you want to propose a generally valid criticism of specific Christian teachings or historical actions, then you must keep your facts straight and your arguments tight. Otherwise you'll soon find yourself being wrong on several accounts, rendering you the ignorant person, which probably isn't what you had in mind.
Modern Christianity without God and Bible
It is Christianity itself that gave birth to the critical view of religion, and it is Christianity that mostly eliminated the concept of a highly present and tangible God by means of philosophy and theology. God was once seen as the architect of plagues and master of miracles but is now mostly viewed as a somewhat nebulous entity with an influence that escapes definition. The Christian God has become a remote God that can no longer be seen and heard.But in so doing, Christianity has also created a refuge for superstition which Christianity today shares with all kinds of religions and spirituality. The distinction between knowledge and faith has not only banned religion from science, it has also sealed the borders of religion from science, and its mythical inhabitants can neither be proven or destroyed by scientific evidence or philosophical arguments. The Christian God may have been weakened, but has found a safe haven in a metaphysical realm beyond the reach of science, logic, arguments, and philosophy.
Once a reference for the framework of society, religion has become one of many contributors to each individual's view of life and ethics, and its relevance is a question of personal choice. The contributions from religion are usually found as segments that require little or no involvement from the individual. The idea of "all or nothing" doesn't suit modern man; if something "feels right," then it is used. Bible study and church attendance is replaced with the daily horoscope, numerology, and magical beliefs in the power of healing and homeopathy, but no one feels any less Christian about that. This is the kind of Christianity that is found in my country.
Atheists are used to the common Christian mistake of portraying atheists as immoral, destructive, and subversive, and have often heard Christians contend that atheism would lead to the horrors of communism or Nazism, referring to their atheistic stances. (It is known that Hitler originally considered himself a Christian and later became critical of Christianity as he began to believe in a "higher being," but this certainly does not make him an atheist!) Yet it is the very same mistake atheists make when they renounce Christianity, believing or claiming that all of Christianity is like that of fundamentalist minorities, or that it is, or should be, like the Christianity of ages long past. Such an approach is ideological or religious, and makes sense only to the "initiates" of the sub-culture that defines this proprietary view.Silly Superstition
Many claims of divine cause have been either refuted or become
irrelevant by the natural sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology.
In addition, since Christians are fully aware why other gods do not
exist, one would think them capable of applying the same rules to their
own belief.Hence,
a Christian must be stupid to believe in the superstitious
nonsense of entities that do not exist, some atheists argue. The
entire religion is patently absurd in its reliance on metaphysics and
miracles. Indeed, if anyone else made similarly outrageous claims, one
would probably be stupid, or at least immensely gullible, to believe in
them.It is tempting to rely on the natural sciences to show better explanations than divine intervention, but since
Christians themselves have debated what their god is and isn't for
centuries and evidently become none the wiser in terms of belief, it will not help to thus further refine the image of their god.
The key is that the existence of the Christian god, the
credibility of the miracles, and the veracity of the myths are entirely
moot points as arguments against Christianity. Christians would
disagree strongly on this issue, of course, but considering the nature
of their other claims, one would hardly be wise to take their word for
that.
One should instead take the word of the fields of science that
study religions and religious people: sociology and psychology. These
sciences teach us that Christianity, like any religion, encompasses a
variety of feelings, morals, ethics, social structures, and paradigms.
It is a frame of reference that helps organize one's perception of the
world. The god is merely the "team mascot" of this frame of reference
that is attributed great importance but in reality has very little to
say, even if a team can be rather hysteric about its mascot.It
means that a person can be highly intelligent, as indeed some
Christians are, and yet believe in mythical creatures and divine
miracles, because this belief is the "executive summary" of the way
they perceive the world. The belief in the divinity does not make any
difference to his Weltanschauung; the belief is just an expression of his communication and systematization of his perception of the
world.For example, the concept of a Last Judgment should be recognized as an abstraction that summarizes some set of moral values and the belief that morals are intrinsic to the universe and cannot be escaped. A Christian may honestly believe that the abstraction exists, but since it is not the abstraction itself but rather the concept of moral it encompasses that is important, it makes no difference to this Christian if any number of predicted judgment days have passed unnoticed. The same Christian will be setting aside money for his children's college in spite of the impending doom that he believes in. It seems hypocritical, but it isn't: it is just his "language," and it is his morals that guide him through the day, not the anticipation of the Last Judgment.Often the person can easily acknowledge inconsistencies between
his belief and physical evidence, and yet believe in both, because
religion encompasses an orthogonal set of issues to him which
are in fact not contradicted by any physical evidence. A baseball team will abandon neither the mascot nor their game if you inform them that their team mascot is just a dressed-up actor, and the religious person will not leave his god behind either, because challenging the mascot has nothing to do with the game.It follows that the many failed returns of Christ,
the questions of whether God cares, or other such matters, are also
irrelevant, except to a few fundamentalists.Finally, both atheists and Christians agree that a miracle and supernatural events or beings are defined as impossible events and beings. The Christian can be fully knowledgeable in any field of science, and may happily embrace any natural explanation. To this Christian, miracles are miracles because they are not covered or governed by science and the laws of nature.
Biblical Errors
It is another common criticism of Christianity that the religion cannot be taken seriously because errors and contradictions in their Bible abound. If Christians insist on their faith in the light of glaring errors, then either it must be a result of ignorance or downright stupidity, the argument goes. But like before, stupidity is not the issue.
It is evident that the Bible includes its share of issues that are contradicted by today's science, issues that clash with modern moral, and passages that contradict each other. But, it requires a number of presumptions that one must be aware of to use this fact as reason to reject Christianity as a valid religion.One must presume that Christians really believe that the Bible is of such holy character that it cannot be riddled with errors or omissions. If this were true, the argument would be valid. However, it is only a diminutive minority of Christians that deny the presence of errors in the Bible. Also, many of the biblical problems emphasized by American atheists are moral and ethical issues with the Old Testament laws, which according to Christian teachings were rendered obsolete by the inception of Christianity and thus do not apply to Christianity.
So, when atheists hold Christians accountable for biblical errors, not only do the atheists choose a theological approach that they share only with Christian fundamentalists, they also demonstrate lacking knowledge of the actual Christian use of the Bible.
A better approach to the Bible question is, again, to apply sociology. By recognizing Christianity as a religion, we can categorize it and analyze it using the tools for analyzing any other religion. We know that religion, and hence Christianity, needs no scientific proofs or elaborate philosophical arguments to fulfill its role as Weltanschauung for religious people. We know that, on the contrary, religion exists without these things. We know that religion deals with concepts that cannot be proven or rejected within the scientific framework. We know that it makes no sense to counter religious people with arguments that don't apply to religion.
The Bible is a very old Historical document, and it is not meaningful to discuss such a document by modern scientific and ethical standards. If nonetheless a biblical discussion is desired, then it is relevant to consider the fact that although Christians have used the same scripture for more than a millennium, the text has been interpreted widely different and used for highly different reasons throughout the ages. This means that as a critic, one can reject the statement that the Bible has a univocal message, and one can reject the statement that today's use is any more valid than those of the past.Christians may also be challenged on the fact that they appropriate some sections of the Bible and leave others out according to personal taste; for example, the Bible's condonation of slavery is ignored today. This selective use of passages from the scriptures shows that the Christians themselves decide what is right and wrong rather than relying on their God's supposed authority on those matters: it is evidence that Christianity is only what Christians make of it. Like the wooden idols of long ago, it is the work of human hands.
The Murky Waters of Morals
Another common idiom states that knowledge is better than faith, and that religion therefore should be replaced with science.
It is certainly important to insist on knowledge within the cores of science, but the situation becomes complicated when one debates morals or discusses issues such as scientific ethics. Science can tell us much about our world, but it cannot explain how to live in it or what to think of it. Even if atheists attempt to find support in science, atheism is just as man-made as any other philosophy, religion, and ideology. Science and ideology cover distinct and mostly non-overlapping fields, and the atheist that claims that moral is derived from scientific data proves himself or herself unable to recognize which fields are covered by science and which fields are covered by ideology.
It is also worth noting that the atheists that are the most aggressive proponents of scientific superiority over the stupid spiritualists are often people that react ideologically rather than scholarly. One often finds atheists that on one hand consider themselves superior to those that believe in the Bible, but on the other side have a faith in science that is equally characterized by blind faith in authority, cultural background, and habit. They may be more right than the religious people, but their understanding and insight is not necessarily any greater. These atheists were just plain lucky to have more enlightened teachers.
A proper approach to moral questions must be the denial of objective truths that are independent of human beings, and one must deny religious statements as authoritative, that is, as statements that one should necessarily conform to. This does not imply that religious people are disqualified in social debates or as masters of their own lives, unless one wishes to (and is able to!) deny them their right of personal choice and personal opinion.
Modern CriticismThe above discards much of the present criticism of Christianity as obsolete, as it refers to a form of Christianity that does not exist. Today's Christianity is such a rubbery and vague concept that it is difficult to construct a modern and fitting criticism of the religion itself.That does not mean that criticism per se has become obsolete. It only means that criticism must adapt as Christianity changes. Our most important task is not to denounce Christianity for what it was, or what it is among a few fundamentalists, but to remind people of what Christianity is not.It is not relevant to discuss the veracity of the myths, the authenticity of the gospels, or the existence of God. Christianity must instead be challenged on its effect on society. If
you were discussing Santa Claus, you would know it has no impact to conclude that Santa Claus cannot visit each home in the
world within hours, and that the only issue worth debating and studying is
what the myth of Santa Claus means to, says about, or impacts our culture. This is also the case for the Christian beliefs.
We must prevent Christians from claiming that Christianity and Western culture are synonymous. Christianity has played an important role in our History, but Christianity is neither the only nor an undebatedly positive or constructive contributor to our culture. Christianity itself has been influenced and changed many times since its conception as a Jewish sect. Greek philosophy, Roman schools, humanism, science, philosophy, and art have made significant contributions that have shaped both culture and Christianity itself, more often in spite of Christianity than because of it.We must also remind Christians that although they may preach peace and love, the belief has not prevented Christian nations from declaring wars or performing massacres, not even to victims that were Christians, too. History has ample evidence that Christianity is no guarantee that individuals or states behave sensibly or humanely, and that a meek and humble Christian is a rare sight. Atheists have no need to declare a war on God. The Christians themselves defanged their God long ago. But more than ever, we need watchdogs to keep a watchful eye on Christianity to prevent it from appropriating undeserved credit, and that requires a level of criticism that is founded on skill and knowledge rather than personal feelings....
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| Christian Nationalist Propaganda after World Trade Center Attack |
| 2007-09-30 10:36:49 |
Art historians can tell us why some pictures have a strong emotional impact on us. In a free booklet (available in PDF format if you can read Danish) issued by the Faculty of Humanities at Aarhus University, Denmark, focusing on the topic "war," art historian Lars Kiel Bertelsen takes a closer look at the powerful and famous pictures taken after the World Trade Center attack and compares them with religious and nationalist pictures, which have a striking resemblance.There are comparatively few pictures available showing situations of horror, fear, and defeat from the World Trade Center attack used in the media coverage of the event. But there are numerous pictures of tired, heroic rescuers or survivors that escaped before the buildings collapsed.One of the most famous pictures is that of the fire fighters carrying the dead body of the fire department's priest, Father Symon Judge. This picture is compared with the painting of Jesus being taken down from his cross to be resurrected from the dead. The picture receives the same symbolic value, presenting the dead priest as a Christ or a saint. It is quite remarkable in this regard that the priest's name was "Judge."
Similarly, the picture of rescuers raising the American flag in the ruins of the Twin Towers is a striking parallel to the famous picture from Iwo Jima during the Second World War where American soldiers erected the flag on the top of the island to symbolize victory.It is unclear whether the images were carefully selected by a skilled propaganda team, or whether they just had a strong emotional appeal to the American people who felt that the pictures communicated national history. Lars Kiel Bertelsen is convinced that in any event the pictures were consciously used to justify the Bush administration's "war on terror."
Regardless of intent, the choice of pictures expresses a cultural background—or a desired cultural background—that one wishes to communicate to others or reinforce in oneself.In the case of the World Trade Center attack, the pictures communicate the Christian resurrection and victory which has been a recurring theme in the American rhetoric in the war against "the axis of evil." According to Lars Kiel Bertelsen:“”The pictures have been displayed again and again. And there is no doubt they have had an effect. The US is expected to be resurrected as some kind of Jesus to pass judgment onto the guilty. And so far this resurrection myth has been used to justify two wars.Lars Kiel Bertelsen
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| Terrorist Tycoon |
| 2007-09-28 17:17:16 |
Terrorist Tycoon from Clandestine Action Games is the latest addition to the huge and growing array of tycoon games on the market. According to Clandestine Action Games:
With Terrorist Tycoon, you design, build, and manage your ultimate terrorist organization. You're in control of everything from politics to combat, always keeping your terrorist army content with your leadership and discontent with your enemy.Spread propaganda through Al Jazeera or Fox News to gain the support of
your patriotic terrorists, and use lies and religion to mislead the world opinion to
support your invasion of a country rich with resources using any excuse necessary.Create trade embargos to "prevent the enemy from using medicine for explosives," or build an economy based on opium to survive. Set up import trade routes
for enriched uranium and weapons, but remember to hide your financial
transactions so that no-one discovers that your chief arms customer might
be your enemy.
Train your combat units in hidden desert camps, experience exciting challenges as your opponents intercept your plans or capture your important leaders, and regroup as former allies become your sworn enemies.Destroy historical buildings such as the Twin Towers of the former World Trade Center to strike fear in your enemy, or torture your political opponents in the Abu Ghraib prison. Immerse yourself in stunning 3-D effects as bodies are thrown to the ground by a
suicide bomber, and watch wounded children drag themselves to safety as your
coalition of the willing bombs their homes in your organization's
"defense" against its "enemies."Become the most powerful nation on Earth through your skilled leadership and the support of your God, and make you the one that can call your opponents the terrorists: Bring them on!...
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| Movable Type Plugin: Sociotags |
| 2007-09-27 05:58:54 |
Sociotags is a plug-in for Movable Type 4 that adds a list of "sociotags" to your entries. Sociotags are the little images you may have seen on various pages that let you add the page to Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Slashdot, etc.The Sociotags plugin includes a huge array of references to page sharing sites, and each of them can be enabled or disabled. With sociotags enabled, you'll get a box that looks like this (not an exhaustive list):RequirementsMovable Type 4Template InstallerInstallationDownload sociotags-0.2.tar.gz for Movable Type, and extract the archive file.Upload the contents of the "mt-static" folder to the "mt-static" folder in your Movable Type installation.Upload the contents of the "plugins" folder to the "plugins" folder in your Mo...
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| Imagine Santa |
| 2007-09-26 08:04:01 |
Imagine that you know someone that believes in Santa Claus. We probably all do: little children often believe in Santa Claus. But imagine that this person you know is an adult person that honestly believes in Santa.Now, I don't want you to think this person is stupid. I want you to imagine that this adult believer in Santa Claus is an intelligent person who is skilled at his job. He may even have attended university and graduated with high honors. He's easy-going and generally a nice person. Sure, he's not perfect, but on the overall you can't really point your finger at him. He's like most, except he believes that Santa Claus lives somewhere on the North Pole with his reindeer and little helpers, delivering your presents at Christmas, and he believes that he must behave nicely because Santa wants him to be a nice person.It is easy to recognize that his good deeds are linked to his belief, because although he
doesn't brag about them, he encourages others to note. It
may be the little badge on his shirt stating that he donated to some
charity, or the occasional mention that he is a board member at the
local chapter of Santa-believers, who do good for the community.In fact, I'd like you to think there's nothing wrong with this person. I think you'll agree with me... except for that Santa part, right?Well, he's skilled and smart all right, and generally a trustworthy and nice person, and apparently his Santa belief makes him do good things, even if it seems a little quaint.Yet, somehow you'd be a little hesitant to believing his judgment skills, wouldn't you? That is, after your initial surprise of learning that he believes in such superstitious drivel has worn off.Perhaps you might secretly wonder if he's genuinely such a nice person, or whether the only thing preventing him from being nasty is his belief that Santa wants him to do good. After all, he would hardly believe that humans would do evil without a belief in Santa if he didn't think that he himself would do evil without this belief. You might also feel slightly offended because it means he views you as an evil person because of your disbelief. You would rightfully suspect him of not liking or trusting you, and you would rightfully suspect him of lying whenever he claimed otherwise.He also maintains that morals and ethics are based on the belief in Santa, so in politics, negotiations, and human relations you'll find him rejecting the values and opinions of other human beings and ignoring human rights because he contributes more importance to opinions that are consistent with those that he believes are given by Santa than opinions differing from his belief voiced by mere humans. He is particularly skeptic against cultures that don't celebrate Christmas. The implication of his assertion that Santa's opinions matter more than
human opinions is that human rights can be overruled by the belief in a
supernatural, non-human entity.All of a sudden, this person may not seem so nice. You should perhaps
begin to seriously worry what might happen if your acquaintance doesn't
get his presents for Christmas.
You realize that his nice behavior is motivated by an egoistic desire for the gift of Santa, that is, his actions are based on the assumption that Santa will give him presents for Christmas if he's behaved well. All of his good deeds are based on this egoistic desire. He believes that Santa will also give presents to anyone else that behaves well according to Santa's wishes. In fact, those people that have been struck by misfortune probably had it coming somehow, since they don't acknowledge the gifts that Santa will provide if they believe in him and behave according to his demands. If they need help, your acquaintance would rather have them profess their belief in Santa than take action or provide tangible help. He genuine believes that a letter to Santa Claus is better than real help, and he will be happy to show his "helpfulness" by writing such a letter.Santa is capable of performing miracles, such as bringing your son back safe from Iraq of Afghanistan for Christmas, or in other ways making sure you're reunited with your loved ones. It is the belief in Santa, not personal involvement, that makes the change, according to your acquaintance. Getting your son back safe from the battle field is a matter of belief rather than social responsibility, because your acquaintance wants belief and shuns the thought of responsibility to the responsible. Show your belief in Santa, if you wish to be granted a miracle, and deny the profane methods of the non-believers. That is also how he would prefer that you be treated at the hospital,
because he considers this medicine thing to be disgracefully distrustful of Santa's
abilities.You had better hope there are not too many of his kind.This attitude of his is either a corollary of his belief or symbolized by his belief, but it is in no way caused by, or indicative of, some fundamentalist stance towards Santa. The attitude is the same no matter if he keeps his belief half-heartedly to himself or flaunts it openly. It is that he believes in a supernatural authority that reveals his social responsibility and perception of other human beings, not the intensity of his belief.The belief in Santa that seems a little eccentric at first has major implications that affect the person's life and the person's interaction with other human beings. It indicates how badly this person thinks of other human beings, and how poorly this person treats other people.Now imagine that you believe in the Christian God, the Muslim Allah, or some third metaphysical being. Maybe now you know what I think of you. I don't mind your specific belief, because belief systems come a dime a dozen. I mind you, the way you are, what you
think of me and others, and the way you treat other people, which are revealed by the fact that you believe. You might strike me as skilled and smart, and generally a trustyworthy and nice person... except for that thing about your belief and its implications....
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| Barbie in Wonderland |
| 2007-09-25 08:22:38 |
Swan Lake 2003I have usually just shaken my head at the saccharine-sweet romance that accompanies the lifestyle marketed in the shape of Barbie dolls. In 2003, however, my slight contempt was replaced by indignation when the toy company Mattel introduced "Swan Lake" as a new theme in the Barbie universe: a dream of romance and love in the enchanted wood, where true love conquered the evil sorcerer, according to the commercials.
The original German story of the swan lake did indeed include both romance, love, and enchantment, but it is a tragedy. During his hunt for swans a prince meets the beautiful Odette, and they fall in love. She explains that a sorcerer has cast a spell on her, turning her into a swan and only allowing her human shape by the lake at midnight. The spell can only be broken if a man promises her eternal love. At the wedding when the prince expects Odette as his bride, the sorcerer plays a trick that causes the prince to promise his love to someone else. Odette's curs...
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| The Art of Lying (Part One) |
| 2007-09-24 07:33:35 |
When a person lies, usually it is a conscious attempt to lead a person in another direction than the person would otherwise have taken. Although lies of course share the common feature of deceit, they come in many forms. I've listed some of the more common forms below--not necessarily to suggest any ideas, but to provide an indication of what to beware of:1. Make a false statement. Such statements range from simple "the grass is blue" expressions to more sophisticated statements, such as stating that one's earlier statements were based on testimonies from people that made type 5 lies (see below).
2. Combine two unrelated, true statements to a third, false statement. This is often done by religious fanatics who argue that their teachings are true. They can provide numerous true examples of how their religion has helped people (for example, their religion may talk about helping people in need, and some people belonging to that religion may work in hospitals), but that doesn't mean their ...
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| Atheists Have No Morals |
| 2007-09-22 07:32:51 |
I can follow some religious fundamentalists that claim that atheists have no morals. But only with some interpretation, and only some of the way.Most movements, including Christianity, define themselves according to "positive" and "negative" comparisons. A positive definition is when the movement makes statements about who its followers are, what they believe in, and what their opinions are. A negative definition is when the movement makes statements about what it isn't; for example, Christians will readily state in which areas their religion differs from Islam, and the various Christian groups will gladly explain how they differ from other Christian groups. A positive definition is the religion's "what we are" statement, and a negative definition is the r...
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| How to Ruin Your Business |
| 2007-09-20 16:46:10 |
The primary cause of company failure is sometimes found in the company top.Professor Per Nikolaj Bukh at Aalborg University,
Denmark, has identified eight leadership tendencies that can kill your
company.
The
common denominator behind the eight tendencies is that the entrepreneur who has built a successful
business thinks that he can handle everything himself, believing that
the success of the company is singularly attributable to his superiority in decision-making and
leadership.
This little guide, which is based directly on these eight
tendencies, is so easy to follow that many company owners have already taken it to heart. Here is a tried-and-tested "how to ruin your business," no matter how great your products are or how competent your employees might be.1. Decide EverythingSince you're the owner of your company that built your own business, it's you who can and should decide everything. You made the decisions when you created your company and made it what it is, and that means you...
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| Movable Type Hack: Visitor Stats Detailed View |
| 2007-09-20 08:18:12 |
Mark Carey of MT-Hacks has written a beautiful Visitor Stats plug-in for Movable Type 4, which shows the visitor statistics on the dashboard when you login.
The free version doesn't include detailed views, such as the statistics for each entry, or which search terms led to your blog. These features are reserved for a "Pro" version, which can be expected to be rather expensive for individual blogs or blogs with low traffic.But, you can get around that with a little hack that I wrote. It queries the Visitor Stats database and compiles the visitor statistics, letting you see the top list of visited pages, the top list of referrers, and the top list of search terms and search words.I don't want to ruin Mark Carey's business, however, so I have deliberately made no efforts trying to integrate this hack with Movable Type. Instead, the hack is a stand-alone web page that connects to your Movable Type database and extracts and displays the statistics.RequirementsMovable Type 4.Visitor Stats f...
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| Applying Habermas in Debates |
| 2007-09-19 07:30:04 |
It is only a few years ago since I learned about Jürgen Habermas' division of statements into constative, normative, and expressive statements, and today I wish this would be mandatory education in school. I often engage in debates, but more often than not, the debate falls apart because people apply normative or expressive values in constative utterances, and one just can't use morals or personal taste in fields that deal with cold facts.To briefly summarize, the statements can be classified as follows:Constative statements—which can be objectively evaluated as true or false. For example, the statements: "the light is on" or "the Moon is made of cheese" can be determined to be right or wrong no matter what people might think of it.Normative statem...
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| Survival Tips: Lessons in Misanthropy |
| 2007-09-18 06:34:35 |
P. T. Barnum once said that no-one has gone bankrupt underestimating the intelligence of the American people. But, even if you are no fool, people will attempt to separate you from your money, time, or indulgences—deliberately or accidentally. The following tips may be an aid in our current civilization.
1. Trust no-one
You may trust yourself, but others would hardly be wise to trust you. It works both ways, which is why you should not trust others. Even someone that prefers to behave trust-worthy is loyal primarily to himself, or at least to his perception of what he is, and you'll come second.
2. Do not assume that someone will do anything to help you, even if they offer to
At best, they are attending their own agenda, but often they have malicious intentions and simply aim to harm you. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and anything that appears free has strings attached.
3. The more people know about you, the more they can use against you
It would be self-destructive to p...
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| Movable Type Hack: Register to Download |
| 2007-09-17 06:58:54 |
Imagine that you've provided some content for download that you'll provide for free, but you want to know where it's going and who is downloading it. Or, you may want to draw traffic to your web site by preventing others from hosting the content and thus gain the attention. You can find out who might have downloaded the content by requiring user registration, which will also indicate to other would-be hosts that they shouldn't host the files.Arvin Satyanarayan provides a privacy plug-in, but unfortunately it seems to work only with dynamically published pages.It doesn't have to be difficult, though. In fact, it took me just about an hour to write a simple "hack" consisting of a file that you upload to your published blog. The "register to download" hack verifies that the user is logged in before providing access to a specified file.Requirements: Movable Type 4.
InstallationDownload download.php for Movable Type.Edit the file so that $blogId is set to the value of your blog ID.Cre...
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| Linux Applications Replacing Windows |
| 2007-09-15 06:59:08 |
My change from Windows to Linux wasn't based on ideological feelings against Microsoft or for Linux: It was a simple question of my getting tired of having to reinstall Windows every half a year because Windows had slown to a crawl. In addition, I've seen what I need to know about Vista by now, and wouldn't dream of upgrading the hardware all of the computers in our home to run an expensive operating system.
At the same time Linux is maturing. My current suite of applications that replace my usual Windows suite of applications include the following applications, most of which are free in my Kubuntu 7.04 installation (that is, Ubuntu with KDE as desktop):
Mail, calendar, contacts, notes kontact (kmail, kalendar, knote, kaddressbook)
DVD and CD burning k3b. Nero for Linux is also excellent, but costs money
DVD ripping and copying dvd::rip and k9copy
Audio CD ripping and ID3 editing grip and kid3
DVD and movie playback kaffeine, xine, mplayer
Music player amarok
Bitmap and vector graphi...
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| Goodwill Account |
| 2007-09-14 07:59:06 |
A colleague of mine once introduced me to a term that I've found very useful in terms of employment and other involvement. My colleague called it a "goodwill account."As empyer and employee you don't owe each other anything over extended periods--after all, that's why employees are paid regularly (although of course one should not forget that if the company profits, then it is because its employees are not paid the full value of their work). It isn't only the salary that influences the choice of work place. It also the nature of the work, the work environment, treatment of the employees, etc. This is where the term "goodwill account" becomes useful.Think of it as a bank account. When you start in a new position, presumably you chose the job for other reas...
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| Time for a Synthesis |
| 2007-09-13 06:48:48 |
What is your position on the clock?A great deal of you have already asked yourself that question upon reading Anton LaVey's The Compleat Witch or the second edition, entitled The Satanic Witch. when LaVey presented his so-called “LaVey Personality Synthesizer work.” It is also fair to assume that most of you were surprised or even offended at first by the observations and techniques presented by Anton LaVey. For most of you, the surprise or offense quickly wore off, however, and the contents of The Satanic Witch were soon accepted as either fact or interesting fiction. The witches (according to the definition in the book) among you who did not just read the book and agreed with it but also realized and applied the suggested principles can acknowledge the profound effects of ut...
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| Creating an Audiobook on Linux |
| 2007-09-12 09:08:10 |
It wasn't until I had already gotten my first iPod about a month ago (in black, of course, because if you're anything like me, you know that black isn't a color but an attitude) that I discovered its audio book support. Audio books can be read aloud via the iPod at normal rate or at a slightly reduced or increased rate without changing the speach pitch. The iPod also remembers where I left off in an audio book, resuming from that position the next time I decide to listen to the audio book.Since we have a number of audio books in tape or CD format for our kids, it only made sense to convert them to audio book format for the iPod to bring along on long rides by car, for example.The creation of an audio book from existing files isn't straightforward, unfortunately, as the iPod audio book form...
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| Single Dad's Burger Treat |
| 2007-09-11 05:39:12 |
Burgers from McDonalds and Burger King are greasy and gross, and any self-respecting mom knows that she can cook a burger that is much healthier and which tastes better... unless you ask for the children's opinion. If nothing beats mom's food, burgers are the exception that proves the rule. Children don't like mom's burgers.Single dads can take advantage of that. Here comes the secret behind making a home-made burger so greasy and unhealthy that moms will hate them and kids will love them. It is the kind of burger that only a single dad would make.The beef recipe is straight-forward. It's simple, because good burgers aren't supposed to be good. Make the burger beef by mixing two pounds of ground meat, a spoonful of flour, ...
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