September 09, 2011
September 08, 2011
September 07, 2011
September 04, 2011
September 03, 2011
Best laid plans, get screwed up...
My computers motherboard fried. I calculated over what to do and opted to get a replacement motherboard. Actually two generations higher then the previous, with some of the overheating issues resolved. Along with some nifty chipset updates.
I also decided to jump into Windows 7, so I ordered a new HD and got the upgrade.
Today was my first day off and I was very excited to get into my system. I had a few issues with the rear IO panel changes. I bought a metal nibbler and made some crude adjustments. Then I found the front IO panel interface cable was different as well. Argh! Who changes a CABLE interface?
So I got online with the motherboard folks and they directed me to the original manufacturers parts department. I need the Front IO board, The rear board and two cables. I got the part numbers and found the much needed cable was out of stock.
The representative did some digging and found a replacement part that will work (fingers cross). So I ordered up the parts and now I am waiting. Knowing in the back of my mind this whole thing might just blow up in my face.
August 30, 2011
learnering.
I love my job. Every day I have members (customers) asking questions around something they want to be able to do with a computer. More times then not I can offer them solutions they have not considered. Most times this results in a sale now, sometimes a sale later. Always, it results in another conversation with the same member at a later time.
While keeping up with the latest hardware requires a bit of investigation, keeping up with accessories can be daunting. I haunt the various new tech websites and magazines. Still something new will slip by me in a disconcerting manner. The Knowledge base builds upon itself in an interesting manner. Knowing what something can do makes learning what something new will do a quick understanding.
One of those things that snuck by me is WiDi (or Wireless Display). Most televisions can be hooked up to a computer. The picture quality will depend upon the resolution of the graphic card there within. Given that you have adequate hardware, you can then have a super-sized monitor for your entertainment needs.
This requires a cable, tethering you to the TV, which can be annoying and problematic. Enter WiDi!
With a box hooked up to your monitor and the capacity on your PC you only need to be in the same room to broadcast sans wire. So you plop your laptop onto the coffee table and start the slide show! or Hulu up lost episodes of "lost" or something.
You can even hook this up to a projector for a presentation. It is just a cool idea.
While keeping up with the latest hardware requires a bit of investigation, keeping up with accessories can be daunting. I haunt the various new tech websites and magazines. Still something new will slip by me in a disconcerting manner. The Knowledge base builds upon itself in an interesting manner. Knowing what something can do makes learning what something new will do a quick understanding.
One of those things that snuck by me is WiDi (or Wireless Display). Most televisions can be hooked up to a computer. The picture quality will depend upon the resolution of the graphic card there within. Given that you have adequate hardware, you can then have a super-sized monitor for your entertainment needs.
This requires a cable, tethering you to the TV, which can be annoying and problematic. Enter WiDi!
With a box hooked up to your monitor and the capacity on your PC you only need to be in the same room to broadcast sans wire. So you plop your laptop onto the coffee table and start the slide show! or Hulu up lost episodes of "lost" or something.
You can even hook this up to a projector for a presentation. It is just a cool idea.
August 23, 2011
August 13, 2011
August 09, 2011
August 07, 2011
Book stores
So Borders Books is closing down their storefronts. It is a sad time to their remaining customers and those who sat inside, reading books and never purchasing.
I recall an outcry from the populace when the big book stores started displacing the mom and pop stores of yesteryear. There was even a Tom Hanks movie about this very issue. They had a sales model that did not keep up with the times. You can read many analysts reasons for the giant going under.
My mind goes to the "whats next" arena. Amazon and other online stores are starting to find governments interference causing a change in the way they do business. E-readers are taking a toll from the printed page as well.
August 02, 2011
Mount Thielsen
One of the surprising things about Roseburg is the elevation. It just seems higher then 500 feet. Douglas County goes from the ocean to the High Cascades. The highest point is Mount Thielsen at 9,184 feet. I climbed it at 50 years old.
When I lost my weight, I started looking for challenges. Recapturing youth? Sure... why not? Ego? Okay... Things I always wanted to do? All of the above, plus plenty more upon reflection.
Turning 50 has been a bit of tumult. There is some disbelief that a half century has passed. Then again, I am really happy with my life. I am just in such a good place with good people that turning 50 is much more sweet then bitter.
Anyway - Last year I was thinking of climbing Mt. Thielsen for my 50th. With the start of summer and all the planning and being included in plans, I kind of shunted that goal to the side. In the back of my mind I kept thinking of ways to get up there.
So my birthday came and Tina, true to form, planned a number of fun things. My co-workers were very gracious in accolades. I had a fun outing at a karaoke bar, and a nice dinner out with my in-laws. It was all a pleasant time. I was actually having some down time from visitors, etc., when someone pulled into my driveway early Saturday morning. The sound on our street plays tricks, and I had thought it was the neighbors. Tina's out-loud wondering of who could that be, prompted me to investigate.
There is a context of your day-to-day life. When something so totally unbelievable occurs, your mind can reel in flashes of justifications and possibilities. I would categorize this as mental shock. Which is what I experienced as my childhood friend Robert Shoemaker (Shoo) was standing in my doorway, with his teenage son Kenrick.
Shoo lives in southern California. Due to the wonders of the internet we keep in touch regularly. His showing up on my doorstep was so beyond anything, I was just stunned and surprised . Tina had been planning this for a year. Which is all the more remarkable as she is usually less then able to keep surprises.
The three of us sallied forth to Mt. Thielsen. This is just under a two-hour drive to the Trail Head near Diamond Lake. The hike is an uphill trek for about three miles. You go through wondrous forest with some snowy patches. The trail vanished at one point, but was unerringly found again by Shoo's preternatural ability to find such. The peak was slowly moving closer and closer. I was able to keep pace with Kenrick, which I was quite pleased with due to my fitness level, as he is a sporto in wrestling and football.
With about two miles left the terrain changed. There was loose dirt with foot-sized rocks on a pseudo trail, cutting back and forth above the treeline. Each step would be either a good step up or a slide back. You quickly learn to plant your foot and ease the pressure in anticipation. At this point I began to outdistance Kenrick. We would pause at times and gather back together. It was slow going at a lung-busting elevation. Shoo's tenacity was remarkable. He stated that he was concerned about making the climb, only to note his progress toward the peak and then double down on willpower.
The next section was loose rock over rock. As luck would have it, a young Swiss gentleman by the name of Allen was not far ahead, providing a visual reference for the climb. It was a hands and feet climb, the last hundred feet or so. Kenrick and I got to the top, Shoo was close behind us.
The views are spectacular. There were geological curiosities to ponder and quite a sense of accomplishment.
Currently I am in my own personal feeling of grace.
When I lost my weight, I started looking for challenges. Recapturing youth? Sure... why not? Ego? Okay... Things I always wanted to do? All of the above, plus plenty more upon reflection.
Turning 50 has been a bit of tumult. There is some disbelief that a half century has passed. Then again, I am really happy with my life. I am just in such a good place with good people that turning 50 is much more sweet then bitter.
Anyway - Last year I was thinking of climbing Mt. Thielsen for my 50th. With the start of summer and all the planning and being included in plans, I kind of shunted that goal to the side. In the back of my mind I kept thinking of ways to get up there.
So my birthday came and Tina, true to form, planned a number of fun things. My co-workers were very gracious in accolades. I had a fun outing at a karaoke bar, and a nice dinner out with my in-laws. It was all a pleasant time. I was actually having some down time from visitors, etc., when someone pulled into my driveway early Saturday morning. The sound on our street plays tricks, and I had thought it was the neighbors. Tina's out-loud wondering of who could that be, prompted me to investigate.
There is a context of your day-to-day life. When something so totally unbelievable occurs, your mind can reel in flashes of justifications and possibilities. I would categorize this as mental shock. Which is what I experienced as my childhood friend Robert Shoemaker (Shoo) was standing in my doorway, with his teenage son Kenrick.
Shoo lives in southern California. Due to the wonders of the internet we keep in touch regularly. His showing up on my doorstep was so beyond anything, I was just stunned and surprised . Tina had been planning this for a year. Which is all the more remarkable as she is usually less then able to keep surprises.
The three of us sallied forth to Mt. Thielsen. This is just under a two-hour drive to the Trail Head near Diamond Lake. The hike is an uphill trek for about three miles. You go through wondrous forest with some snowy patches. The trail vanished at one point, but was unerringly found again by Shoo's preternatural ability to find such. The peak was slowly moving closer and closer. I was able to keep pace with Kenrick, which I was quite pleased with due to my fitness level, as he is a sporto in wrestling and football.
With about two miles left the terrain changed. There was loose dirt with foot-sized rocks on a pseudo trail, cutting back and forth above the treeline. Each step would be either a good step up or a slide back. You quickly learn to plant your foot and ease the pressure in anticipation. At this point I began to outdistance Kenrick. We would pause at times and gather back together. It was slow going at a lung-busting elevation. Shoo's tenacity was remarkable. He stated that he was concerned about making the climb, only to note his progress toward the peak and then double down on willpower.
The next section was loose rock over rock. As luck would have it, a young Swiss gentleman by the name of Allen was not far ahead, providing a visual reference for the climb. It was a hands and feet climb, the last hundred feet or so. Kenrick and I got to the top, Shoo was close behind us.
The views are spectacular. There were geological curiosities to ponder and quite a sense of accomplishment.
Currently I am in my own personal feeling of grace.
July 29, 2011
Turning 50
It was a fun birthday. Even though I am not really a Birth-day kind of guy.
Tina arranged, via Facebook, a karaoke outing with with my work crew b-day eve, Keeka and Kirby in tow as well. It was a pretty good turn out. I did not choose the best songs to sing. Two of them being way out of my range. I did save my best (Soul Man) for my last tune.
I worked early the next morning and large amounts of caffeine buoyed my, already flying high spirits. I received a happy birthday from everyone (was even sung the Swedish Birthday Song). There was some honest disbelief that I had hit the half century mark, with a caveat being a wish they had similar energy and fitness level when they reached this number of solar orbits.
The Happy Birthday part was expected, the latter was not. That kind of accolade made my day, multiple times over.
Tina arranged, via Facebook, a karaoke outing with with my work crew b-day eve, Keeka and Kirby in tow as well. It was a pretty good turn out. I did not choose the best songs to sing. Two of them being way out of my range. I did save my best (Soul Man) for my last tune.
I worked early the next morning and large amounts of caffeine buoyed my, already flying high spirits. I received a happy birthday from everyone (was even sung the Swedish Birthday Song). There was some honest disbelief that I had hit the half century mark, with a caveat being a wish they had similar energy and fitness level when they reached this number of solar orbits.
The Happy Birthday part was expected, the latter was not. That kind of accolade made my day, multiple times over.
July 23, 2011
July 19, 2011
Summer's Eve Hail to the V: "The V" Extended Cut
Never before have I seen a commercial like this... for this...
July 11, 2011
Raise Taxes?
Obama didn't raise taxes in a lame duck session when he had 59 Democrats in the Senate and almost 260 in the House.
Scratch an atheist, find a Fundamentalist.
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/zac-alstin-notes-a-basic-principle/
Zac Alstin Notes a Basic Principle. Namely, he recognizes that when you scratch an atheist, particularly a New Atheist, you will typically find a passionately religious (albeit flatfootedly moralistic and literalistic) Fundamentalist.
I can’t tell you how often I have gotten mail from people who tell me they don’t believe in God and then almost instantly reveal that they are furious with him. Sometimes they are furious with him for not existing, but much more often they are furious with him for not doing something they badly wanted him to do.
That’s not stuff for mockery by the way. Because many and many a time the something God was supposed to do was “save my daughter from death by cancer” or “keep my wife from committing suicide” or many other variations of the tragedies with which the world abounds. Many “atheists” are just broken-hearted people who can’t stand the thought that a good God would allow to happen the shock that shattered their world. For such folk, prayer and love, far more than logic-chopping argumentation is necessary thing. Many an “unbeliever” has felt the walls of ice melt between them and the Joy of Man’s Desiring after a wrenching, cleansing, gasping cry of pain and gush of tears after years of frozen rage. Seldom has that happened because somebody hammered them with an apologetics syllogism about papal infallibility. They needed healing, not a sound defeat in a debate.
That said, there are also any number of callow youth whose problem is not some dark wound, but simply that they are callow youth who have read some dim dumb thing that Richard Dawkins wrote or clicked on a diatribe by Christopher Hitchens and decided they are the intellectual heroes who will make them feel superior to their high school sophomore class. These people too cannot be converted by argument because nobody can be converted by argument. Nobody can be converted by your winning smile or my clever words or his watertight philosophical proof. These things can be prelude to conversion and rational human beings can come to acknowledge things by the light of natural reason. But only the Holy Spirit can do the heavy lifting of opening a human heart and mind to the light of divine truth.
That means that the first thing a gung ho evangelical atheist needs is prayer, not argument. The prayer is not so much for conversion as for de-conversion. Because a realio trulio confirmed atheist already has a deep religious belief. What he needs is not faith (he has that: faith in the three pound piece of meat behind his eyes). Nope, what he needs is right faith: in God and not himself, his brilliance, his rationality, his pride. And no mortal power can disabuse him of that wrongly ordered faith. Only God can.
Of course, not all atheists are of the gung ho militant variety. Some are atheists because, well, they were just raised outside any living encounter with actual faith. Indeed, I have known a number of atheists who range from curious to wistful about faith in Christ, as though it would be nice to believe if they could, but for whatever reason the inner “click” hasn’t happened to make the life of living faith in Christ real to them. Once again, prayer is the first thing, since only God and convert. At the same time, such atheists are often quite open to having a real conversation about the Faith. Such folk are often treated with profound contempt by the shallow noisy atheist Fundamentalists who have a script and are stickin’ to it. The contempt is due to the fact that these “Christ curious” atheists actually want to use their intellects instead of merely worshipping them.
But for the dyed-in-the-wool atheist of the New Atheist Speaker’s Bureau, the use of the intellect is strictly forbidden. Slogans and pre-fab sound bites are the key. The same clever lines get repeated again and again in a sort of atheist liturgy that drinks repeatedly from the same stale water. The same prophets (Dennett, Harris, Hitchens and Dawkins) are read from like the four gospels. Slogans about flying spaghetti monsters get repeated like antiphons at Mass. The same two arguments about “the Problem of Evil” and “How the Laws of Nature Prove There is No Legislator” get trotted out, oblivious to the fact that St. Thomas answered them both. In addition, we hear the same fallacies again and again in the liturgy of Padded arguments: religion is for suckers, Noah never lived, why can’t women be priests, Catholics sin, some miracles are fake so all are, the Pope is not photogenic, I am smarter than you, Galileo, six day creationism, SCIENCE!, etc.
It’s all as liturgical as a kabuki or a Mass—and as predictable. Only the New Atheist seems to be oblivious to how much he owes the religion he is attacking. Indeed, even his blasphemies depend for their power on the God he blasphemes, which is why he spends all his time Not Believing in the God of the Bible and very little time blaspheming Thor or Odin.
Zac Alstin Notes a Basic Principle. Namely, he recognizes that when you scratch an atheist, particularly a New Atheist, you will typically find a passionately religious (albeit flatfootedly moralistic and literalistic) Fundamentalist.
I can’t tell you how often I have gotten mail from people who tell me they don’t believe in God and then almost instantly reveal that they are furious with him. Sometimes they are furious with him for not existing, but much more often they are furious with him for not doing something they badly wanted him to do.
That’s not stuff for mockery by the way. Because many and many a time the something God was supposed to do was “save my daughter from death by cancer” or “keep my wife from committing suicide” or many other variations of the tragedies with which the world abounds. Many “atheists” are just broken-hearted people who can’t stand the thought that a good God would allow to happen the shock that shattered their world. For such folk, prayer and love, far more than logic-chopping argumentation is necessary thing. Many an “unbeliever” has felt the walls of ice melt between them and the Joy of Man’s Desiring after a wrenching, cleansing, gasping cry of pain and gush of tears after years of frozen rage. Seldom has that happened because somebody hammered them with an apologetics syllogism about papal infallibility. They needed healing, not a sound defeat in a debate.
That said, there are also any number of callow youth whose problem is not some dark wound, but simply that they are callow youth who have read some dim dumb thing that Richard Dawkins wrote or clicked on a diatribe by Christopher Hitchens and decided they are the intellectual heroes who will make them feel superior to their high school sophomore class. These people too cannot be converted by argument because nobody can be converted by argument. Nobody can be converted by your winning smile or my clever words or his watertight philosophical proof. These things can be prelude to conversion and rational human beings can come to acknowledge things by the light of natural reason. But only the Holy Spirit can do the heavy lifting of opening a human heart and mind to the light of divine truth.
That means that the first thing a gung ho evangelical atheist needs is prayer, not argument. The prayer is not so much for conversion as for de-conversion. Because a realio trulio confirmed atheist already has a deep religious belief. What he needs is not faith (he has that: faith in the three pound piece of meat behind his eyes). Nope, what he needs is right faith: in God and not himself, his brilliance, his rationality, his pride. And no mortal power can disabuse him of that wrongly ordered faith. Only God can.
Of course, not all atheists are of the gung ho militant variety. Some are atheists because, well, they were just raised outside any living encounter with actual faith. Indeed, I have known a number of atheists who range from curious to wistful about faith in Christ, as though it would be nice to believe if they could, but for whatever reason the inner “click” hasn’t happened to make the life of living faith in Christ real to them. Once again, prayer is the first thing, since only God and convert. At the same time, such atheists are often quite open to having a real conversation about the Faith. Such folk are often treated with profound contempt by the shallow noisy atheist Fundamentalists who have a script and are stickin’ to it. The contempt is due to the fact that these “Christ curious” atheists actually want to use their intellects instead of merely worshipping them.
But for the dyed-in-the-wool atheist of the New Atheist Speaker’s Bureau, the use of the intellect is strictly forbidden. Slogans and pre-fab sound bites are the key. The same clever lines get repeated again and again in a sort of atheist liturgy that drinks repeatedly from the same stale water. The same prophets (Dennett, Harris, Hitchens and Dawkins) are read from like the four gospels. Slogans about flying spaghetti monsters get repeated like antiphons at Mass. The same two arguments about “the Problem of Evil” and “How the Laws of Nature Prove There is No Legislator” get trotted out, oblivious to the fact that St. Thomas answered them both. In addition, we hear the same fallacies again and again in the liturgy of Padded arguments: religion is for suckers, Noah never lived, why can’t women be priests, Catholics sin, some miracles are fake so all are, the Pope is not photogenic, I am smarter than you, Galileo, six day creationism, SCIENCE!, etc.
It’s all as liturgical as a kabuki or a Mass—and as predictable. Only the New Atheist seems to be oblivious to how much he owes the religion he is attacking. Indeed, even his blasphemies depend for their power on the God he blasphemes, which is why he spends all his time Not Believing in the God of the Bible and very little time blaspheming Thor or Odin.
July 10, 2011
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