Archives for February, 2003
XP it is
Well my new box is up and running. As I mentioned before I bought a Windows XP box. My other computer was either dying or becoming self-aware, either way it was time for a new computer. XP right now doesn’t seem that much different from Windows 98 but I am sure some XP only app will come out that will make it all worthwhile (or not). I looked at some Macs but in the end, this thing cost me $380 (CDN) plus and OS. I would have had to pay $1500 for an iMac and then half to buy a bunch of new software (my old box is being ripped apart for parts). Plus, posts like this from Doc, remind me that Macs aren’t perfect either. It just seemed to be the better if less cool investment.
UPDATE: Okay, I’ll admit it, I want a TiBook but I couldn’t afford one.
FOXSports.com | Team head’s cheerfulness offends despondent fans
Relentlessly cheerful New Zealand syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg would “see the positives in his own death,” an offended fan said Saturday as New Zealand faced a 4-0 deficit in its America’s Cup match with Alinghi. Schnackenberg encouraged New Zealand sailors to “take the positives” out of Team New Zealand’s loss to Alinghi Friday, when its 35-meter (110- foot) mast collapsed and it failed to finish the course for the second time in four races. Fans failed to share his chirpy outlook.
“He would see the positives in his own death,” one fan said as a small and somber crowd gathered for race five Saturday to see Alinghi possibly finish off Team New Zealand.
Others vented anger at Team New Zealand’s breakages in letters to local newspapers.
“Well now we know. The black rocketship has turned out to be a damp squib,” wrote John Chant to the New Zealand Herald.
“Those associated with the design of NZL-82 should hang their heads in shame.”
Leslie Opie of Takapuna described the New Zealand yacht as “an insult to the skill and intelligence of the crew.”
Ahh, the fans. No matter what country or what sport, we are all united in our hatred for losing and making really irrational statements.
Team Alinghi is there to make them feel better
The disastrous breakages which had cost Team New Zealand two races in its America’s Cup series against Alinghi were due to lack of preparation and not bad luck, Alinghi grinder Christian Karcher said Saturday.
Cup veteran Karcher, sidelined with a recurrent hip injury, said New Zealand could not blame the boom breakage which cost it race one and the mast breakage which lost race four on simple misfortune.
“For me, once again, this was nothing to do with luck,” said Frenchman Karcher.
“This was about lack of preparation, training and time on the water. Their boat spent too much time in the shed being fine-tuned ashore.
“Last autumn, nearly a year ago, we wore woolen hats and went out sailing 12 hours a day. We rarely saw them out there. We were ready for real street fights on the water.”
I agree with them but keep the trash talk to a minimum until you have won race five. If there was a team that could sweep the series from here on out, it would be Team New Zealand.
Telegraph takes some shots at the Church of England…
Without some young blood, the Church must surely die
The Church of England is failing - failing to recognise it is out of touch with young people and failing to do anything about it.This comes as no surprise to Christians under 30. According to the Social Affairs Unit, church attendance has dropped by half in 50 years and child attendance has collapsed. There will be no one to fill the pews in another 50 years’ time.
Google is not a search company (kottke.org)
Jason Kottke says that Google is not just a search company, “What they are exactly is unclear, but their biggest asset is: a highly annotated map of the web.”
Paul Martin in power already?
Warren Kinsella’s website being blocked by the Canadian government…
There may have been a change in Prime Minister’s Office already, and I didn’t notice. A regular reader in government got this message this week:
…………………………………………………………………………….Forbidden by rating check
You are not permitted to access the URL http://www.warrenkinsella.com/ due to the policy of your organization. Please refer to HRDC has technology solutions (hardware and software) in place that maintain the integrity of the network. Please be advised that all traffic originating or terminating in our network is recorded. Access to inappropriate Internet sites is blocked, and logs are made of such attempts.
If a particular site is blocked in error, then you should contact IT Security (INTERNET_ACCESS@ITC.SEC@ONT).
…………………………………………………………………………….
I wasn’t expecting this to happen for another year!
It happens to the best of us. A couple of seminaries and Bible colleges block this site (so I am told). I don’t blame them.
Disaster strikes Team NZ again
Team New Zealand has all but lost the America’s Cup.
The boat’s mast has snapped, forcing the team to pull out of the fourth race.
It has been nothing short of a disastrous regatta for New Zealand.
They were forced to pull out of the first race, lost the second and third and have now had a major breakdown in race four.
The mast of Team New Zealand’s boat has fractured, the mainsail has collapsed and the boat looks like it is barely staying above water.
Microphones on board Team New Zealand could capture the sailors frustration at what had just happened.
Swiss syndicate Alinghi needs only one more victory to claim the America’s Cup.
This is too bad. I am a big America’s Cup fan and would have loved to see a close regatta. Personally I thought Team NZ would have walked away with the America’s Cup and who thought the Swiss would have had a chance?
Some housekeeping annoucements
I did some spring cleaning on the site and cleaned things up. You will notice that the font is now 10 pt Arial instead of 8 pt Verdana. I also fixed the search template on Atomz so that it blends into my site. You may not even notice that you have left the site now when reading search results. I also added over 100 quotes to the quote library and added some excellent books to the bookstore.
My own personal opinion is that the font size was too small and that the search results section was from three redesigns ago (you now know how often I search this site). I think it is a little easier to read. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Sunday-Centric Ministry?
Recently I (Mike) heard Todd Hunter reference a statistic that 80% of the time, energy, and money spent by many churches goes towards making weekend services happen. Now I�m an industrial engineer by training and the idea of spending 80% of my resources on one thing offends my cost-conscious sensibilities. This focused expenditure has had many consequences. In my experience �Sunday-Centric� churches are always fighting to keep up with the Joneses. In the name of relevancy, enormous sums of money are spent aimed at keeping the attention of a congregation immersed in a market-driven world. Americans (Christians included) are, what Gordon Cosby suggests, �Addicted to culture.� It is na�ve to suppose that presenting the Gospel, the way of Jesus, in a mass-marketing style will do anything else than feed into consumer tendencies. In this article, T and I want to suggest a polemic for combating a consumer-driven orientation and hopefully become the kind of communities who consistently demonstrate the reality of the kingdom to a desperate culture.
Retraction Notice
A couple of days ago I posted a picture that I was certain was John Campea leaning over to lick Jeb Runquist’s ear.
XP it is…
Well, my current box is going to be going to the recycling centre. It started life as a 486-25sx with 4 megs of RAM and ended life as a 333 with 256 megs of RAM. It has been horrible for a year now. Slow, unresponsive, crashes all the time. The hard drive is starting to go, the floppy died, the zip drive is erratic, drives appear and reappear as they like. It has been a good decade long run but it is time to put the old thing down.
I did look at some iBooks. Tempting but the software migration costs are high for me. Since I am gutting my old box, I can migrate some old software over. I know many of you love them and say they never crash but Doc Searls counters your arguments by posting about his horror stories all the time. The new box will be assembled tomorrow.
Reuters: Blog publishers stealing Web limelight
Visitors to Daypop, an index of personal journalism sites known as Weblogs, were treated on Wednesday to a new feature called “word bursts,” an automated attempt to identify the hottest words at the moment.
“They are indicators of what Webloggers are writing about right now,” boasts the site, at http://www.daypop.com/burst/.
The “word burst” concept was borrowed from a New Scientist magazine article about a Cornell mathematician who came up with the idea. It has taken on a life of its own, making the featured words popular if only because the Daypop site said so and major Web sites were all pointing to the site for the latest buzz.
It’s just the latest example of the power of Weblogs to shape perception among a growing audience of online readers.
Lousy monsters…
The boy just came downstairs complaining of monsters in his room and that someone took Poober’s honey. I am going to keep him up for a while as this morning he came into Wendy’s and mine room at 4:15 a.m. this morning to wake us up. Mark has been hilarious lately (actually he always is.) This evening he gave me the phone and told me to call “Seb and Sarla”. Ahh, to be two and a half again.
Gloria
articulates what too many of my friends are saying….
I have had a “down” day. Things just don’t seem the same anymore. Everything changes and it seems that no one even notices that change has happened. We just go on with our lives as if nothing has happened. Makes me sad!
Happy Birthday John!
It is John Campea’s birthday today. Wendy and I joined Alison and John for a great lunch. Since John is Baptist (and therefore has limited theological depth…forget the flame mail, I am only kidding), we gave him a copy of Seeds. A section of writings by Thomas Merton.
Last night John, Jeb, and I went to see Daredevil. I had my doubts about Ben Afflect but in the end he was superb and the movie has become my favorite comic action hero movie. Better than Spider-Man. My only thought is that Bulls-Eye looks a lot like Andre Agassi. The good news is that Jeb wasn’t licked during the movie which is good for all of us.
WTC Design Chosen
THE NEW BUILDING is planned to be taller than the trade center towers, which briefly stood as the world�s tallest at 1,350 feet. Libeskind�s tower also would surpass Malaysia�s 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world.
The choice was made by a committee with representatives of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the governor and the mayor. The committee met briefly on Wednesday afternoon and decided on the plan that was favored by Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to a source close to the process.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
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