Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Archbishop Rowan Williams

In a suprising (to me anyway) Archbishop Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) has restated his understanding of homosexuality in the church. The Telegraph reported the changes today. Basically, if I understand to situation correctly, the Archbishop is contending that homosexuals are welcome in the church, but a practicing lifestyle is incompatible with the church's doctrine. This makes sense if homosexuality is viewed as a sin, which the Anglican Church (or at least the conservative elements) contends is the truth. The church in its proper role should always welcome sinners (after all, we are all sinners); but try to help people live the life of Christ, to which, unrepentant sin is incompatible. We should not distinguish one sin from another. In this light, all sins are equal; adultery, violence, alcoholism are some things that some of us are tempted with on a regular basis. It is not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to give in to that temptation. Let me know what you think.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Treehugger: Wal-Mart Aims To Sell 100 Million Compact Fluorescents In One Year

I thought this was something to think about. Wal-Mart Aims To Sell 100 Million Compact Fluorescents In One Year. The plan is to reduce energy consumption by turning Americans on to Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs. Treehugger's readers bash Wal-mart for this effort which is why I am including some other address to balance out the vitriol spewing haters. I swear some people are just not happy, you hang 'em with a new rope and all they do is whine, whine, whine. The other sites are http://www.walmartfacts.com/articles/3780.aspx and http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/108/open_lightbulbs.html . I am not sure how those will come out, so I will also list them like this FAST company report and Walmart's own release. What is your opinion?

3D Software - Bryce for FREE

Yeah, I didn't believe this either when I first saw it. But after checking it through a couple of sources, I saw that it was legit. DAZ is out and out giving away Bryce 5! But as with seen-on-tv offers, this is for a limited time only. Hurry hurry hurray! Make something cool and then give it too the world. Later.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Battles of Xerxes I

Dig those crazy Spartans! With a historically documented lack of regard for their own safety they managed to hold off a far numerically superior enemy (a.k.a. the Persians) at Battle of Thermopylae. Most historians agree that regardless of the actual numbers invovled the Spartans (and their lesser known allies) had a pretty good idea of how well they would come out of all this. Interestingly though, had a Greek farmer not sold his countymen out and showed the Persians a way around the Spartan defensive postions, the Greeks could have done a lot more damage. I can't believe that the Persians wouldn't have gotten wise eventually and looked around for something else. I mean really... "Gee Boss, we keep attacking them at that one little spot and getting our collective rears handed to us... maybe we oughta look at some alternatives, whaddaya think?" Who knows, maybe the Persians didn't regularly refer to Xerxes I as "Boss".

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Cprogramming.com - Programming Tutorials: C++ Made Easy and C Made Easy

C++ Made Easy and C Made Easy is what this set of tutorials claims. So far using it with Bloodshed Dev C++ compiler, has been easy and instructive. I will look forward to seeing how it works as I continue my efforts to learn another language (again).

Sunday, August 13, 2006

CAPTCHA

It has just been a free-for-all on new words lately. Have you ever heard of this term? I knew such things were used, but had no idea what they were called. Those kooky folks at Carnegie-Mellon have done it again. I want to visit that place some day. Yeah, I realize how big a goofball that makes me!

Ain't Got Time to Blog

No link this time, just something I read in another blog (titled Ain't Got Time to Blog and hence the name of this post) and thought I would try. Evidently a book meme (I didn't know such things existed, but still trying to get a good handle on the whole "meme" concept and current usage, not that it is all that hard I figure, just haven't set down to look at it. In this context, it seems to be something to pass around and get thoughts moving.)
Anyway, the idea is to:

1. Chose the book closest to you at the moment.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the 3rd sentence
4. Post in your blog (plus the instructions)
5. Don't choose the book, just pick up the one closest to you.

Evidently, this is from some guy named Jonathan Sterne. So here we go...

"Often jurors hear impressive-sounding testimony about what appears to be scientifically valid proof, and they conclude-incorrectly-that it establishes the defendant's guilt."
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith, MI: Zondervan, 2000.

That is the third sentence, unless I am not supposed to count the half sentence that started the page. Either way, it seems like a good one.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

And you thought it was just a pound sign

Octothorp Press has written an explanation and history of that symbol that has become so useful on people's cell phones. Who knew stuff like this had a name? Well, actually I suspected it might, but had no idea what it would be. :)