Laws of Thermo-whatsits?

Did EVERYBODY sleep through physics class? In recent years I've heard a lot of not-completely-stupid people say things that imply that they think that solar power is the answer to our energy woes. When I oh-so-gently mention that we receive laughably little energy from that orb, they say things like "We'll just use magnifying glasses to increase the energy from the sun!", as if that will magically produce more power!

Grrrr!

Religious Freedom

Why do some people (You know who you are!) feel that "religious freedom" means that I should be free to hear about their dumb-ass religion all the freakin' time?  Seems like every time I go on Facebook I see a good dozen posts about how wonderful some people consider their religion, their deity, and assorted whatnot to be.  (I know that Facebook is a total waste of effort, but still it's the only way that I can hear from some old friends.)  So, let's think about this a little bit, just how great their deity must be if he/she/it seems to require CONSTANT PUBLIC PRAISE?!!!  Would you work for, with, or around anybody who acted that way?  Say your spouse required you to constantly tell friends, neighbors and total strangers, "Praise Bob in the highest!".  (Fill in your spouse's name to replace "Bob", please.  Unless your spouse really is named Bob, then you should have been momentarily impressed with my predictive powers.)   How long would that marriage last? Now, why would you worship a deity like that?  Then, there's that whole prayer thing.  They're always either using prayer to praise the big Juju in the sky, or they're asking it for stuff.  Hmmm, so much for the whole idea of omniscience, huh?  Because if the big guy really does know everything then why do you have to pray for it?  Oh, maybe He does know everything, but only cares if you tell Him...?  

Oh, there I go expecting people to be reasonable again.  Sigh.

Somebody's Baby.

Hey, I know that this is the worst kind of sappy post but it's something that came to me in traffic some time ago, and it's kind of ...stuck...

While I was waiting for the light to change, I was watching a very old, very dirty and obviously homeless person push a cart across the street.  And just for that moment it came to me that this person was once somebody's baby.  Maybe once they were little and cute, and somebody was proud to bring them home.  They might even have been loved.  There was hope.  While I was sitting there, still waiting for the light to change, tears came to my eyes.  My old, world-weary eyes...

Every day we see signs that the young, cute or beautiful are treated differently.   They learn to expect it, and we do it out of, what, habit?  Or maybe we wish we were them?  I dunno.  But what came to me that day was this, that maybe we should try to remember that everybody was once young and cute.

So forgive this sappy post.  Maybe it doesn't mean anything.  But I find I look at people just a little bit differently now.

Open source, insert foot

Dear FSF,

Bite me.

Let me say this up front, I'm a big fan of open source.  Really, I like it.  I love being able to find pieces of software that I can grab up and integrate into my personal projects. Building on top of OpenGL (for instance) allows me to build nice graphics without having to reinvent the graphics pipeline, and that's a good thing.   Standing on the shoulders of giants allows everyone to gain, and greater advances to be made in a shorter time frame.

What I really hate, Hate, HATE though, are the stupid open source licenses!  How can you call it "freeware" when it infects anything that I create with it?  That's not freeware, that's "virusware".  A gift isn't really free (Free as in beer, or liberty, or cow farts, or whatever other silly analogy that they make over, and over, and over...) unless it comes without stipulations.  Otherwise it's bribery and coercion, and that pretty much sums up my opinion of the FSF.  Anything created with that bloated and incomprehensible license instantly becomes more of their pod-software, ready to infect other projects.

At this point the situation has gotten so bad that at least one compiler vendor is giving away their compiler (But you must release all created software as open-source!) but is giving a copy away when you buy their "support package" that can be used to create non-open-source software.  Huh?  How does that work?  Their compiler is only open source when you don't pay for it???  That's the kind of situation that this bass-ackwards license produces.

Look, if I give someone a hammer, I don't stipulate whether or not they will release any and all house-building secrets they might have when they sell that house.  I can't, and I wouldn't even if I could.  It's stupid, and it's infecting all kinds of software now.

Sincerely,
Phaedrus

In Defense

He lives on a mountainside, near a small town.  He's lived there with his small dog for years, only wanting to enjoy the peace and quiet of his secluded location, but the religious zealouts from the town below delight in tormenting him with their songs and religious festivals.  They make fun of his heart condition, and they even make up hate-filled songs about him...

"You're a mean one, Mr Grinch"

That's right, they taunted him.  The noise was too much for him to stand, and finally he snapped at the noise, noise, noise produced by the townies.  Vowing to stop their celebrations at least once, he dresses up to match one of their religious figures and does his best to take the accoutrements of their celebration.  Everything, including the food for their celebration, for poor Mr Grinch had quite lost touch with reality.

We contend that Mr Grinch's treatment by the townies have driven him to the state of mind which resulted in his actions, and we ask you, the jury, to award Mr Grinch the full $7,000,000 to help pay for the mental health treatment he will need to get over the "three sizes too large heart" delusion he suffers, as well as for the pain and suffering he has received.

The Good Book

It's Sunday, and certain people would be happier if I chose to attend church rather than sitting here with my coffee.  I don't get church, but specifically I don't get the "good book".  Really, we're supposed to believe that it's devine-inspired?  If it's divine-inspired, then shouldn't the writing be better?  Do you know anybody who has ever read it TWICE?  Considering the source, shouldn't the writing be at least as good as the books by JK Rowling?  I don't mean that it should be "Jesus and the Deathly Hallows", but I'd be happier if it was at least as good as a Clive Cussler novel.


And thus starts my love affair with the Bible-thumpers...

Magic

If magic was real, would you choose to learn how to use that magic, or would you choose to serve those who could use that magic?  Now, take another look at your computer...