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Tuesday, April 30, 2002
I hadn't visited in a long while (and I needed a good laugh), so I decided to surf Segfault.org. But they lost most of their content due to a server being repurposed (and them not having good backups). They're in the process of reconstructing the site. Some of the articles are online already; they're looking for others. There's a list of missing ones, so if you have any printed out or saved, you can help them out.
Thanks to The Wayback Machine, here's a partial glimpse at what my personal site has looked like over the years (the horror, the horror!).
[0 comments]
I hadn't visited in a long while (and I needed a good laugh), so I decided to surf Segfault.org. But they lost most of their content due to a server being repurposed (and them not having good backups). They're in the process of reconstructing the site. Some of the articles are online already; they're looking for others. There's a list of missing ones, so if you have any printed out or saved, you can help them out.
Thanks to The Wayback Machine, here's a partial glimpse at what my personal site has looked like over the years (the horror, the horror!).
[0 comments]
Monday, April 29, 2002
Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia project. Do you know anything about anything? Of course you do, so why not contribute? It's harmless geek fun that produces something truly useful. In these days when copyright and patent laws keep fencing off our common culture, it's nice to see people creating knowledge that can't be owned in any traditional sense (if that smacks of communism to you, move on; nothing to see here). One easy way to contribute is to surf the most wanted pages. These are pages that have already been referenced by other articles but that don't yet exist (is that strange or what?). Wikipedia parses articles for key words that don't already have entries associated with them. So, if you hit the most wanted and see something you know about, you can fix problems in real time. If only the rest of life were so simple.
[0 comments]
Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia project. Do you know anything about anything? Of course you do, so why not contribute? It's harmless geek fun that produces something truly useful. In these days when copyright and patent laws keep fencing off our common culture, it's nice to see people creating knowledge that can't be owned in any traditional sense (if that smacks of communism to you, move on; nothing to see here). One easy way to contribute is to surf the most wanted pages. These are pages that have already been referenced by other articles but that don't yet exist (is that strange or what?). Wikipedia parses articles for key words that don't already have entries associated with them. So, if you hit the most wanted and see something you know about, you can fix problems in real time. If only the rest of life were so simple.
[0 comments]
Sunday, April 28, 2002
My latest freelance project (suemadison.com) went live a few days ago. We had some trouble getting the domain name forwarding to work. But now all is fine. It's still a little slow to load. I'm going to optimize images and preloading when time permits.
Nancy played a great show tonight. I'm beginning to grow nostalgic about that band. Our singer is moving this fall, so the project will be coming to an end sometime in August or September of this year. It's been a good run.
[0 comments]
My latest freelance project (suemadison.com) went live a few days ago. We had some trouble getting the domain name forwarding to work. But now all is fine. It's still a little slow to load. I'm going to optimize images and preloading when time permits.
Nancy played a great show tonight. I'm beginning to grow nostalgic about that band. Our singer is moving this fall, so the project will be coming to an end sometime in August or September of this year. It's been a good run.
[0 comments]
Sunday, April 21, 2002
I was raised a southern baptist. It was at about my thirteenth birthday that I started to think of myself as an agnostic. And it was sometime during my time as a college undergraduate that I began to consider myself an atheist. So, for at least seventeen of my (very soon to be) thirty-two years on this planet, I've been a doubter of one sort or another. I first discovered the words of Bishop John Shelby Spong at the Internet Infidels web site (infidels.org), an atheist/agnostic/doubter/free thinker/whatever-you-want-to-call-it resource on the web and on the usenet newsgroup alt.atheism.moderated. Spong is one of the few religious people you'll often see atheists quote as readily, and with as much favor, as they will Bertrand Russell. And, perhaps, for similar reasons: both are (or in Betrand's case were) uncompromizing, brave people not afraid to eloquently say what they think is true even if it makes them unpopular. In Russell's case, that meant publishing books such as Why I am Not a Christian. In Spong's case, that means publishing books such as Why Christianity Must Change or Die (two books I heartily reccomend to believers and non-believers alike).
I've always liked what I've read by Spong. He's a very talented writer and an incredibly gifted speaker. His inteligence and wit is striking and inviting. In the church of my childhood, I grew up around people who, I fear, were believers because they didn't know any better; Spong, I believe, is a believer because he does know better. And his years of study have pointed him to a way of understanding the possibility and nature of god that is uncommon but incredibly valuable, for doubters and believers alike. Spong's basic point is that institutionalized religions, practices, and the bible itself are all ways of trying to come to grips with what he calls "the god experience." But because these practices and words are human inventions--human attempts to define something vast and undefinable--they are limited, far too limited to do the work they set out to do. He takes the god experience as a real thing, but the efforts to literalize it as, by their very human nature, limited, imperfect, often wrong.
This freedom to abandon parts of the biblical story that he finds out of sync with modernity and postmodernity is what sets Spong apart from most bibilical commentators. His is not an exercise in apologetics. He doesn't have a grand explanation by which Jesus' god of love can somehow also be the god who kills any enemy of his chosen people. There is no effort, either, to lie by omition. Spongs books and lectures deal directly with the imoral actions described as the actions of god. For Spong, those descriptions are the ones that made sense to people a long time ago, in a world very unlike our own. But, for Spong, there is a third option beyond theism (which he defines as this outdated view of god) and atheism. And that third option is to reconceptualize god as the breath of life, love, and (to borrow a concept from his mentor Paul Tillich) the "ground of all being." The details of that reconceptualization are beyond the scope of this post. But the central point is that Spong refuses to be limited by past attempts to define this experience of god in which he strongly believes. And by being willing to see the limits of past attempts to describe this experience, he opens the way to describe it in a new language (while realizing that any description will be a limited one). In a talk he gave tonight at St. Paul's Episcopal Church here in my hometown, Spong said (I'm quoting from memory) "I can't tell you who god is or what god is and neither can anyone else. All I can do is share with you my experience of god." And Spong's experience of god is one a great deal more believable, comforting, and real than any other I've encountered heretofore.
"A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically." (Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism).
[0 comments]
I was raised a southern baptist. It was at about my thirteenth birthday that I started to think of myself as an agnostic. And it was sometime during my time as a college undergraduate that I began to consider myself an atheist. So, for at least seventeen of my (very soon to be) thirty-two years on this planet, I've been a doubter of one sort or another. I first discovered the words of Bishop John Shelby Spong at the Internet Infidels web site (infidels.org), an atheist/agnostic/doubter/free thinker/whatever-you-want-to-call-it resource on the web and on the usenet newsgroup alt.atheism.moderated. Spong is one of the few religious people you'll often see atheists quote as readily, and with as much favor, as they will Bertrand Russell. And, perhaps, for similar reasons: both are (or in Betrand's case were) uncompromizing, brave people not afraid to eloquently say what they think is true even if it makes them unpopular. In Russell's case, that meant publishing books such as Why I am Not a Christian. In Spong's case, that means publishing books such as Why Christianity Must Change or Die (two books I heartily reccomend to believers and non-believers alike).
I've always liked what I've read by Spong. He's a very talented writer and an incredibly gifted speaker. His inteligence and wit is striking and inviting. In the church of my childhood, I grew up around people who, I fear, were believers because they didn't know any better; Spong, I believe, is a believer because he does know better. And his years of study have pointed him to a way of understanding the possibility and nature of god that is uncommon but incredibly valuable, for doubters and believers alike. Spong's basic point is that institutionalized religions, practices, and the bible itself are all ways of trying to come to grips with what he calls "the god experience." But because these practices and words are human inventions--human attempts to define something vast and undefinable--they are limited, far too limited to do the work they set out to do. He takes the god experience as a real thing, but the efforts to literalize it as, by their very human nature, limited, imperfect, often wrong.
This freedom to abandon parts of the biblical story that he finds out of sync with modernity and postmodernity is what sets Spong apart from most bibilical commentators. His is not an exercise in apologetics. He doesn't have a grand explanation by which Jesus' god of love can somehow also be the god who kills any enemy of his chosen people. There is no effort, either, to lie by omition. Spongs books and lectures deal directly with the imoral actions described as the actions of god. For Spong, those descriptions are the ones that made sense to people a long time ago, in a world very unlike our own. But, for Spong, there is a third option beyond theism (which he defines as this outdated view of god) and atheism. And that third option is to reconceptualize god as the breath of life, love, and (to borrow a concept from his mentor Paul Tillich) the "ground of all being." The details of that reconceptualization are beyond the scope of this post. But the central point is that Spong refuses to be limited by past attempts to define this experience of god in which he strongly believes. And by being willing to see the limits of past attempts to describe this experience, he opens the way to describe it in a new language (while realizing that any description will be a limited one). In a talk he gave tonight at St. Paul's Episcopal Church here in my hometown, Spong said (I'm quoting from memory) "I can't tell you who god is or what god is and neither can anyone else. All I can do is share with you my experience of god." And Spong's experience of god is one a great deal more believable, comforting, and real than any other I've encountered heretofore.
"A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically." (Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism).
[0 comments]
Friday, April 19, 2002
You know you're geeking out when you spend most of the night learning how to use vi (actually vim) just because, well, because you never really understood it before. I read a nice little tutorial over at linux.weblogger.com and I was off and running. Once I had the basics down, I spent a long time reading up on how to set up syntax highlighting for the various languages I use. Then I read a little more on how to set vim as an IDE for Java (since the graphical IDEs I've used tend not to be worth the trouble). Vim is a whole, weird word unto itself. But I now feel a few percent less clueless for being able to use it in some small way (and, no, incendently, I'm not trying to evangelize vim. If you like Emacs, or Pico, or Kate or Kedit, or EditPad, or NotePad, or whatever else, that's cool with me. For years, I've used Pico and Nano [both really simple but great Unix editors--Nano being the GPL clone/enhancement of Pico] when I'm at a terminal and EditPad or Kedit when I wasn't). But, once you get past the oddness of it, vim is actually a lot cooler than I ever realized before. I can see why people get zealous about using it.
[1 comment]
You know you're geeking out when you spend most of the night learning how to use vi (actually vim) just because, well, because you never really understood it before. I read a nice little tutorial over at linux.weblogger.com and I was off and running. Once I had the basics down, I spent a long time reading up on how to set up syntax highlighting for the various languages I use. Then I read a little more on how to set vim as an IDE for Java (since the graphical IDEs I've used tend not to be worth the trouble). Vim is a whole, weird word unto itself. But I now feel a few percent less clueless for being able to use it in some small way (and, no, incendently, I'm not trying to evangelize vim. If you like Emacs, or Pico, or Kate or Kedit, or EditPad, or NotePad, or whatever else, that's cool with me. For years, I've used Pico and Nano [both really simple but great Unix editors--Nano being the GPL clone/enhancement of Pico] when I'm at a terminal and EditPad or Kedit when I wasn't). But, once you get past the oddness of it, vim is actually a lot cooler than I ever realized before. I can see why people get zealous about using it.
[1 comment]
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Good news for web admins (via dangerousmeta): Apache 2.0.35 is out. And, on the browser front (via Mozillazine), Compuserve 7 has shipped, powered by Geko (the Mozilla and Netscape engine) rather than Trident (the Internet Explorer engine). This could be the beginning of the rumored AOL migration to Mozilla in their next client (8.0?). Mozilla 1.0 is coming very soon (and I can't wait to try it out). I'm really wishing that AOL had waited for Mozilla 1.0 to relaunch the Netscape browser (rather than 0.9.4 or whatever they're using in the 6.x series). I've been using Mozilla since M18, and the improvements have been steady and impressive.
[2 comments]
Good news for web admins (via dangerousmeta): Apache 2.0.35 is out. And, on the browser front (via Mozillazine), Compuserve 7 has shipped, powered by Geko (the Mozilla and Netscape engine) rather than Trident (the Internet Explorer engine). This could be the beginning of the rumored AOL migration to Mozilla in their next client (8.0?). Mozilla 1.0 is coming very soon (and I can't wait to try it out). I'm really wishing that AOL had waited for Mozilla 1.0 to relaunch the Netscape browser (rather than 0.9.4 or whatever they're using in the 6.x series). I've been using Mozilla since M18, and the improvements have been steady and impressive.
[2 comments]
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
Things have gotten complicated here, in ways that I don't feel comfortable discussing openly. If you're in email contact with me, I'll give you the ins and outs of the current drama. Otherwise, consider yourself blessed for being spared it.
Speaking of blessings, Bishop John Shelby Spong will be speaking here in Fayetteville next weekend at our local Episcopal church, St. Paul's. He's actually giving several lectures on various subjects. I've read snippets from Spong's works, and his thoughts have always been very interesting to me. So today I checked out one of his books from the local library and I've been quite engrossed in it. I'm really looking forward to hearing him speak.
[0 comments]
Things have gotten complicated here, in ways that I don't feel comfortable discussing openly. If you're in email contact with me, I'll give you the ins and outs of the current drama. Otherwise, consider yourself blessed for being spared it.
Speaking of blessings, Bishop John Shelby Spong will be speaking here in Fayetteville next weekend at our local Episcopal church, St. Paul's. He's actually giving several lectures on various subjects. I've read snippets from Spong's works, and his thoughts have always been very interesting to me. So today I checked out one of his books from the local library and I've been quite engrossed in it. I'm really looking forward to hearing him speak.
[0 comments]
Sunday, April 07, 2002
I'm getting close to the end of my most recent freelance project (I'll post a link when it goes live). So it's time to take out some ads or something and generate some more business. If you know someone who needs web design and programming work, drop me a line.
[0 comments]
I'm getting close to the end of my most recent freelance project (I'll post a link when it goes live). So it's time to take out some ads or something and generate some more business. If you know someone who needs web design and programming work, drop me a line.
[0 comments]
Wednesday, April 03, 2002
"Tricky" Dick Nixon used to be the leader of the free world. This fact never ceases to amaze me (via katecohen.com).
[0 comments]
"Tricky" Dick Nixon used to be the leader of the free world. This fact never ceases to amaze me (via katecohen.com).
[0 comments]
Here's why I've bothered to learn how to roll my own web applications: if you can't code it yourself, you're at the mercy of someone else's tech support department. Like now, for instance, I'm posting to blogger, but I can't publish. And, since the app is running one someone else's box, I can't poke around a fix the problem.
[0 comments]
Tuesday, April 02, 2002
Today's lame spammer award goes to: mmm_info@subdimension.com (via dummy address kevin202joe@yahoo.com). Thanks for making the net a crappier place for all of us.
[0 comments]
Today's lame spammer award goes to: mmm_info@subdimension.com (via dummy address kevin202joe@yahoo.com). Thanks for making the net a crappier place for all of us.
[0 comments]
I recently set up a new linux box (Redhat 7.2, kernel 2.4.7-10). Thank god for firestarter and Apachetoolbox.
[0 comments]
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