Here is installment number 2 of the Steve Hannah show. Topics include Dog fighting alternatives, politically correct musical terms, and some controversial web sites.
Note that the bit about the dog fighting materialized during a trip to Penticton with Rick, Alfonso, Ian, and Justin. The concepts presented are the result of much group deliberation.
Leave your comments.
I recently came across a this post on slashdot entitled “Why are so many nerds libertarians?”. There are a number of comments on this article, some more interesting than others. Here are some of my thoughts.
First off, it is worth noting that the author of the article didn’t have any statistics that would indicate that nerds tend to lean libertarian, aside from a slashdot poll that was conducted some time ago, which only tells us that most Slashdot users are libertarians.
But let us assume that the hypothesis is true – that most nerds are libertarian. Let let us pose the question “why”? Let us begin by first defining what exactly it is to be a libertarian.
Wikipedia defines libertarianism as “a political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others the same liberty.” (a future article may discuss why most nerds trust wikipedia as a reliable information source).
It will also be helpful to define what it is to be a “nerd”. Wikipedia defines nerd as “a person who passionately pursues intellectual or esoteric knowledge or pastimes rather than engaging in social life, such as participating in organized sports or other mainstream social activities.”
The intersection of these two definitions yield the answer to our question almost trivially. Since nerds refrain from social engagements and prefer to be left alone it only makes sense that they would adopt a political philosophy based on being left alone, as libertarianism is.
When I first read this article, I felt a little pigeonholed, since I read slashdot and develop computer software, and yet am not a libertarian. Reading these definitions, however, clears things up considerably. The reason why I am not a libertarian, evidently, is because I am not a nerd.
I decided that it would be easy and kind of interesting to try to record my own little talk show. So I went out and bought a 2nd digicam, some lights, and a pair of tripods – reinstalled Final Cut Pro, and went straight to filming.
I’m not sure the direction that I will take the Steve Hannah show, but I would like to at least bring in some guests to discuss interesting issues with technology or local issues.
Now that I have everything set up I hope to be pumping one of these out once every couple of weeks. Also watch out for a series of instructional videos on Dataface and other web related topics.
Enjoy, and do comment if you have suggestions about what you’d like to see on the Steve Hannah show.
I was listening to the Glenn Beck show on CNN XM radio, August 21st. He and his guest (MICHAEL SCHEUER, FORMER SENIOR CIA OPERATIVE) were discussing the SPP (security and prosperity) meeting between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In the course of criticizing the “northern border” security, Scheuer stated that
“immigration rules are such that almost anyone who speaks French can get into [Canada]” and because of this “there is a large community of Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians in Montreal and Quebec City, and those communities have ties into the Boston area in the United States, so it`s a dangerous situation.”, implying that Canada is a major terror threat to the United States. He underhandedly connected the security of the northern border with a possibility of “Bin Laden delivering another 20,000 to 40,000 dead Americans inside the United States”.
The transcript for this program can be found here.
The section that troubles me is:
–begin snippet —
SCHEUER: He came through Vancouver. That`s exactly right, sir. There is a large community of Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians in Montreal and Quebec City, and those communities have ties into the Boston area in the United States, so it`s a dangerous situation.
BECK: OK. And tie in birth rates for me, Michael, because I know Canada is having not as extreme as Europe is having, but they`re having a problem with birth rates in Canada. Why is that dangerous?
SCHEUER: Well, especially in the French-speaking province of Quebec, their immigration rules are such that almost anyone who speaks French can get into the country in order to beef up the numbers of the French community, and so people from French-speaking Africa, French-speaking Asia come in very easily, but also, French-speaking North Africans from those three countries I just mentioned, Glenn.
— end snippet —
I am not an expert on Canadian immigration policy. But I have some concerns as a result of hearing this program. (Frankly, since subscribing to XM radio about a month ago I have been surprised by the ultra-protectionist opinions held by most of the mainstream media in the United States – including a veiled (and sometimes open) mistrust of Canada).
My concerns are as follows:
How do we use logic in reading scripture? A simplistic view might be that we should not rely on logic to understand scripture. Instead we should accept scripture at face value and submit to it. On a verse-by-verse basis, this is a feasible technique, however, when it comes to understanding the Bible as a whole we cannot simply read verses at face value. We must take context into account, and where two verses appear to contradict each other, we must use logic to reconcile them.
Hence we must use logic to aid in our understanding of scripture. However we must not make the mistake of assuming that our human logical deductions which are based on the infallible word of God are, themselves, infallible.
Great Javascript tools for web sites. And they’re BSD open source.
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/
With only 15 odd days left before taxes are due, I think I’ll try something a little risky in the spirit of learning. I will be creating a database using Open Office Base to manage my books. With my business, things just got a whole lot more complicated, and I need something to track the flow of money.
You may ask: Why not just use one of the dozens of business programs out there (e.g. MYOB, Simply Accounting, etc..). Answer: I’m a computing scientist, not an accountant.
I actually have Simply Accounting, but got frustrated because it seemed way too complicated. I figure all I need is a simple database to track my income and expenses, and categorize it into the prescribed tax categories.
My ulterior motive is to get a little dirty with Open Office to see if it is a good as I think it is. If I am to find a slick way of integrating Dataface with Open Office, I must first get good at just using Open Office..
What do you think… is this foolish?
Came across this little article that explains how you can import XML into an InDesign document to produce business cards from a database. Shazzam!
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/08/04/indesign.html.
InDesign just got a whole lot more powerful in my book. I know there is an opportunity for Dataface to integrate with InDesign here, but I’ll have to sleep on it a little.
http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2007/computer-2007-article.html
An interesting article on the economics open source software and how companies and individuals are benefiting from it (from a developer’s perspective).
