Computers: April 2005 Archives
TorgoX loves to say nonsensical and insupportable things like "Bush is a fascist." Oh, he doesn't come right out and say it, because saying what you mean is so gauche.
But really, my point in writing is to rebuke his silly attack on global warming skeptics. In this case, something brand new pops up, and he expects people to immediately recognize it as proof of some case. He decries that people should actually take time to study the evidence. It's amazing to me that people can take this stance at the same time they criticize people for supposedly ignoring science. He is, in fact, asking people to ignore science by jumping to conclusions about what this evidence means.
Take his sentence, "The data from the icecores will be denied." Maybe, but maybe that will be because it is actually flawed. Who can say, before the fact? '"More research" will be needed.' Maybe because the initial research was incomplete.
I could make equally damning charges of the other side. How about: the data from the icecores will be said to prove that global warming is caused by man. They will say no more research is needed, that the case has been proved absolutely.
I take it back, that is not equally damning, it's more damning. And at least as true.
And as side note, the title of that article, "900,000-year-old ice may destroy US case on Kyoto," is false. The case against Kyoto was never that we don't need to reduce pollution, but that Kyoto was a piss-poor way to do it, for many reasons, including -- but not limited to -- the fact that "developing nations" were significantly exempted, and that the U.S. would be harmed more than most developed nations in that the baseline data used for reduction targets was taken just before the latest U.S. economic boom, which makes U.S. targets far greater -- even proportionate to the amount of pollution produced -- than the others.
You could make the case, perhaps, that the U.S. should have to reduce proportionally more because it is the baseline that matters, and it is just unlucky for the U.S. that it has so much further to go. But then why not make a similar argument for developing nations? Clearly, there are some factors that are, if not more important than the need to reduce pollution, mitigating of it, but they pretend -- in the case of the U.S. -- that reducing pollution is all that matters, so suck it up!
Of course, the greatest argument against Kyoto is simply that the U.S. doesn't need an international treaty to fix its problems, and therefore we are better off doing it on our own. I'd vote against it for that reason alone. But I'm cool like that.
But really, my point in writing is to rebuke his silly attack on global warming skeptics. In this case, something brand new pops up, and he expects people to immediately recognize it as proof of some case. He decries that people should actually take time to study the evidence. It's amazing to me that people can take this stance at the same time they criticize people for supposedly ignoring science. He is, in fact, asking people to ignore science by jumping to conclusions about what this evidence means.
Take his sentence, "The data from the icecores will be denied." Maybe, but maybe that will be because it is actually flawed. Who can say, before the fact? '"More research" will be needed.' Maybe because the initial research was incomplete.
I could make equally damning charges of the other side. How about: the data from the icecores will be said to prove that global warming is caused by man. They will say no more research is needed, that the case has been proved absolutely.
I take it back, that is not equally damning, it's more damning. And at least as true.
And as side note, the title of that article, "900,000-year-old ice may destroy US case on Kyoto," is false. The case against Kyoto was never that we don't need to reduce pollution, but that Kyoto was a piss-poor way to do it, for many reasons, including -- but not limited to -- the fact that "developing nations" were significantly exempted, and that the U.S. would be harmed more than most developed nations in that the baseline data used for reduction targets was taken just before the latest U.S. economic boom, which makes U.S. targets far greater -- even proportionate to the amount of pollution produced -- than the others.
You could make the case, perhaps, that the U.S. should have to reduce proportionally more because it is the baseline that matters, and it is just unlucky for the U.S. that it has so much further to go. But then why not make a similar argument for developing nations? Clearly, there are some factors that are, if not more important than the need to reduce pollution, mitigating of it, but they pretend -- in the case of the U.S. -- that reducing pollution is all that matters, so suck it up!
Of course, the greatest argument against Kyoto is simply that the U.S. doesn't need an international treaty to fix its problems, and therefore we are better off doing it on our own. I'd vote against it for that reason alone. But I'm cool like that.
I've installed on use.perl.org the code that turns your comments and journals into valid HTML 4.01 strict. The surrounding HTML is not, but the comments and journals themselves are.
Or should be.
If you notice any big problems, let me know. I had some issues with character references, but a sampling of TorgoX's journal entries with Unicode in them showed that I appear to have gotten those fixed.
I had most of the problems recently with URL handling, mostly because I was not concentrating on those but the tags themselves, and some errors crept in. Those should be ironed out too.
Probably next week I'll begin converting old comments, sigs, user bios, etc. to valid HTML. Maybe even stories. Journals don't have to be converted, as they are rendered on display from the originally saved HTML.
Or should be.
If you notice any big problems, let me know. I had some issues with character references, but a sampling of TorgoX's journal entries with Unicode in them showed that I appear to have gotten those fixed.
I had most of the problems recently with URL handling, mostly because I was not concentrating on those but the tags themselves, and some errors crept in. Those should be ironed out too.
Probably next week I'll begin converting old comments, sigs, user bios, etc. to valid HTML. Maybe even stories. Journals don't have to be converted, as they are rendered on display from the originally saved HTML.
Three Mac models exist with USB, and no FireWire. These computers are supported by Mac OS X 10.3, but not 10.4. And I have them all: the original iMac, the original iBook, and the PowerBook G3 with a bronze keyboard and SCSI.
A later PowerBook G3/bronze keyboard was almost identical, but had FireWire and internal AirPort slot. There were a few different slight revisions of the iBook (I have the SE) and the iMac (Rev. B, which I have, and the "life savers" colored iMacs) model without FireWire.
Anyway, Apple screwed me here pretty good, if I cared about installing Tiger on these computers.
A later PowerBook G3/bronze keyboard was almost identical, but had FireWire and internal AirPort slot. There were a few different slight revisions of the iBook (I have the SE) and the iMac (Rev. B, which I have, and the "life savers" colored iMacs) model without FireWire.
Anyway, Apple screwed me here pretty good, if I cared about installing Tiger on these computers.
In the Lion King special edition DVD, in the audio set up menu, it has some text talking about "discreet 5.1 audio."
Maybe that's for systems in soundproof rooms?
Maybe that's for systems in soundproof rooms?
I am not Catholic and don't have much to think or say about the Pope. But one of my favorite songs from the 80s is by the incomparable Steve Taylor, written on the occasion of the Pope's visiting in prison the man who tried to kill him.
The first verse went:
The first verse went:
I saw a manAnd that's how I am going to remember John Paul II.
He was holding the hand
That had fired a gun at his heart
Oh, will we live
To forgive?
I saw the eyes
And the look of surprise
As he left an indelible mark
Oh, will we live
To forgive?
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
