Category: Uncategorized

Winamp 5 is in beta. I have just two words to describe it: GET IT

In other news, iTunes is now available for Windows. I was not particularly impressed with it. On the plus side, $1 per song is a lot cheaper than buying CD’s, especially since you only pay for the songs you like. On the downside, the iTunes software is not very powerful and does not support WMA. With my very limited student budget, I’m still waiting for an unlimited subscription model, even one that doesn’t allow songs to be stored locally.

What I’d really like, is music that plays in surround sound to justify the 5.1 speaker system I bought…

Terrorists can have serious moral goals, says Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. Furthermore,

“Violence is not to be undertaken by private persons,” he said. “If a state or administration acts without due and visible attention to agreed international process, it acts in a way analogous to a private person. It purports to be judge of its own interest.”

A nation protecting its self-interest? God forbid!
In related news, here is an interesting story on Shirin Ebadi, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize: “Why the Mullahs Fear Her“

In response to Yahoo’s refusal to delete a listserv run by “banned separatists,” the Indian government forced Indian ISP’s to ban the entire Yahoo Groups community. The easily circumvented ban is one of many instances of censorship in India and Pakistan. I’m curious as to whether the site is still being blocked. Perhaps some readers in India could enlighten me…

Amir Taheri writes on “The Real Iraq“: “a first-hand account of an Iraq that is rapidly moving forward in nearly every aspect of life – political, economic and cultural. And a people that, while understandably skeptical after decades of tyranny, is nonetheless hopeful – and grateful for their liberation.”

China has successfully flown its first “taikonaut.” According to Glenn Reynolds, China’s space program represents a new outward focus that’s an improvement over, say, preparing for WWIII or invading Taiwan. I’m more inclined to think that it’s an attempt by the Communist leadership to show the relevance of the Party in response to the growing influence of businessmen. As Americans should know well, nothing justifies billions of dollars of government waste and useless bureaucratic jobs like a space program.

While China is rushing ahead with its space program, NASA’s fleet of 1980’s era space shuttles is still grounded with little hope for change due to an entrenched bureaucracy that cares more about their jobs than innovation. Our best hope in space is a private initiative run by amateurs – currently waiting for FAA approval to launch their flight-tested space vehicle. What’s the federal government’s response to this dilemma? To ban model rocketry of course. Clueless politicians claim the rockets fuels are a “high explosive” that private citizens cannot be trusted with. Did you ever notice how, unlike real high explosives, the rockets don’t just blow up on take off? Anyone inspired by the awesome movie October Sky should keep their dreams to themselves these days: not only is the rocket fuel illegal, but launching a model rocket requires FAA approval.

So I finally installed Microsoft Office 2003. I disliked the new interface at first, but after a few days, it’s grown on me. I can’t say there is anything objectively better about all the new icons – more like the latest fad in UI design. You can be sure that in a few months, all the new software will be sportin’ the new “shiny” icons. What Windows really needs, is SVG icon support. There aren’t that many new features I found all that useful, except SPAM filtering and the new Outlook 2003 layout, which is very neat with two monitors. Unfortunately, my server-side SPAM filter thinks all mail from Outlook 2003 is forged.

In related news, it seems that spammers are either using my account to send spam or faking my return address in their spam, so I’ve been getting hundreds of bounced emails and “unsubscribe requests” daily for the last few weeks. I’m not sure what I can do about the forged return address, but for now, I’ve disabled my wildcard email addresses so that only david@freecapitalists.org will receive email. Whatever the case, it’s clear that my domain was singled out by spammer(s).

The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass – potentially exposing thousands of people to risk

Why is the church peddling a lie that could expose millions of people to AIDS?

The church opposes any kind of contraception because it claims it breaks the link between sex and procreation – a position Pope John Paul II has fought to defend.

Well, at least the Catholic Church is consistent. The Church is merely taking its view that the human body is dirty and sex sinful to its natural conclusion and evading any evidence to the contrary. It ignored child molesters, because it is simply unconceivable that a pure and chaste priest would ever succumb to the lower pleasures of sex. Now it opposes condoms because sex is a reproductive duty that cannot be allowed to mix with pleasure. It doesn’t make exceptions for married couples either: it opposes condoms both as a means of contraception and as a barrier between an AIDS infected husband and his wife. Sex is for reproduction, period.

In related news, the Pope is favored to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Considering its history of recognizing terrorists as “peacemakers” I think it’s appropriate.

Do you like the layout of my website? Would you like to get a blog of your own, or to upgrade an existing one? If so, you can use my template and/or domain names for your own website. If your website is dedicated to promoting ideas I support, I might just help you for free, and if not, a little motivation should the trick. One Objectivist club is already using my template, and I haven’t heard too many complaints so far.

As my 23rd birthday approached, several people asked me what I’d like to get. I understand that my unusual intellectual persuasions make finding a suitable present somewhat difficult, especially for my family. So, purely out of an altruistic concern for easing your present-searching efforts, I spent several hours laboring to create an Amazon.com wish list of the books and gadgets I’d like to get.

I also made a list of my favorite novels and non-fiction books, sorted by my recommended reading order for anyone interested in reaching my level of intellectual nirvana 🙂 It’s not meant to be a definite guide by any means, just a list of what I consider essential reading for any rational, well-rounded, new intellectual geek.

Disney joins forces with pro-fish activists: “Fish are friends, not food!”
My favorite part:

What about Jesus and the fish? Didn’t Jesus eat fish?
Probably not: There is strong evidence suggesting that Jesus was a vegetarian. The only stories depicting Jesus eating fish took place after the resurrection, and most Biblical scholars agree that they are very late additions to the Gospels. The scribes who added the stories were not, apparently, averse to eating fish. But since this is the only depiction anywhere in the Gospels of Jesus eating any animals at all, it seems that he was a vegetarian.