Journal Entries
Microsoft Arrogance
Posted Dec 24, 2006
Today, when I was 100 Mbytes into a 150-Mbyte upload, Microsoft Windows-2000 performed an automatic update to the Operating System and then insisted on rebooting my computer. There was no way I could postpone or cancel the reboot. Normally, I don't use MS Windows, but today, I needed some functionality I can't get elsewhere and thus started my lone machine running Windows. This was another reminder of why I eschew Microsoft and its brain-dead operating system.
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Latest reply: Dec 24, 2006
Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake
Posted Jul 9, 2006
The whole Ubuntu experience is very appealing. Of course, it is built on the Debian distribution of GNU-Linux. It is surprisingly easy to use and I really like the Gnome GUI, especially the warm Ubuntu theme that is a radical departure from the cold, boring blue of other operating systems. Worth of high remark is the test-audio played during log-on; instead of the usual raucous din or annoying tune the user is presented with the sound of sunrise.
One feature that I find most valuable is its ability to hibernate and then completely restore my desktop, enabling me to turn off the machine then return to it later and carry on from where I left off.
The synaptic package manager is another useful tool that makes installation and removal of software very easy.
I give Ubuntu high marks. It has restored my enjoyment of computing. It just works.
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Latest reply: Jul 9, 2006
Truth
Posted Jul 9, 2006
'...[Heinrich] Boll said that truth was so difficult to get at because the documents that we gather together in order to assemble the truth may not in themselves be truthful to begin with. He says that we know that governments and statesmen lie to each other and that these lies sometimes are recorded (as truth, of course) in documents which we then assemble (unaware of their deceit) like so many particles, and with the best of intentions, into a body of "truth" that really is not the truth at all...'
'Body of Truth', Chapter-34,
by David Lindsey, 1992.
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Latest reply: Jul 9, 2006
Imperial Patronage
Posted Jul 7, 2006
'In the nearly four decades that you have shared your kindness with your little brown ... brothers,' he said softly, 'you have not befriended the wisest of us and taught us how to build schools to educate our people; you have not embraced the kindest of us and taught us how to build hospitals to heal our sick.' He shook his head. 'Instead, you have schemed with the worst of us and taught us how to be suspicious and how to hate. You have very strange ideas of what it means to "befriend" a people. I really don't think you understand what it means, or if you do understand, then you have been very perverse in your intentions. After four decades of your "help" we have become numb with our own misery: we assassinate or "disappear" more than one thousand of our fellow[s]...annually; eighty-five percent of us live in poverty; eighty-two percent of our children under five years old are malnourished; eighty percent of us have no access to medicines; seventy percent of us are illiterate...'
'Body of Truth', Chapter-32
by David Lindsey, 1992
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Latest reply: Jul 7, 2006
Integrity and Vocabulary
Posted Jul 4, 2006
'....Let me tell you...the true importance of the relationship between integrity and vocabulary. Words are nothing here...nothing...less than nothing. Here lying is pervasive; we discount language altogether. Because there are so many lies, because words are so cheap, they are considered little more than static in a system that has lost respect for language. people are judged by what they do, not by what they say. Belief in the integrity of language does not figure into the equation of everyday life. The lie has attacked my people like a disease and is destroying them as surely as if it were a pestilence....'
'Body of Truth', Chapter-18,
by David Lindsey, 1992.
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Latest reply: Jul 4, 2006
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