1. “Bioethical” violations such as birth control
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

The original seven deadly sins:

1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Gluttony
4. Lust
5. Anger
6. Greed
7. Sloth

The first two new sins might as well be the same. I’m still trying to figure out what the deal is with the catholic church being ok with not advocating birth control (24 million cases of AIDS and 2 million deaths in 2005 due to AIDS in Africa is A-OK with the Pope, just as long as they’re not using condoms). The last three new sins could also be the same. Granted, contributing to poverty, possessing great wealth, and creating more poverty are morally reprehensible, but could easily be grouped under – oh, let’s say – “Fiscal Immorality.”

I think the Vatican would be better served looking outside their own ranks for more universally accepted truths rather than trying to update their narrow views to “jive” with todays youth (geez, how old do I sound there??) or current technologies. In other words:

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

If this is true, then we’ve already gotten ourselves figured out, and all we have to do is listen to the voices of the past and allow that to point our way. For instance, the Vatican should really have just gone with the original Seven Social Sins as written by Mahatma Gandhi around 1925:

1. Politics without principles
2. Wealth without work
3. Pleasure without conscience
4. Knowledge without character
5. Commerce without morality
6. Science without humanity
7. Worship without sacrifice

From “Young India”, 1925, Mahatma Gandhi

Notice numbers 2 and 6. Huh, way back around the turn of the century people were worried about science/wealth and morality too. All-in-all, this list is more eloquent, more thoughtful and better articulated. These seem to be better oriented towards modern lifestyles and concerns. They even feel more universal and timeless – like they’ll even withstand the test of time – go figure. Sounds like Vatican scholars really need to do a better job of researching their subject matter.

Links:

News item on Bloomburg
via BoingBoing
The complete works of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (see Volume 33 page 135 for his list)
Image Credit

=>

See anything familiar looking? No? How about if you compare it to this:

=>
Image from Wikipedia.

Now, I know that NASA is rolling their eyes at this whole thing. All I’m saying is that maybe we’re not looking at the problems from the right angles. Maybe we should be looking for scaled down versions of life instead of microscopic or full sized. Maybe we shouldn’t let our preconceived notions of what life should look like cloud what we see or what we’re looking at. Eh, what do I know. All I know is that Martians are little and red-brown. No wonder we never saw them there before…

When I talked to my wife from work, she mentioned that she was having some problems with connecting to our home network with her laptop. I told her to unplug the wireless router and plug it back in again (things would be so much easier with a little “reset” on these things – manufacturers, take note!).

On the way home my truck’s check engine light came on. Okay, no major problem yet, I’m still able to drive for now. After I got home that evening I decided that I’d see if my wife was still having problems. That started a lovely, 4 hour ordeal that I’m loath to repeat.

As it turns out, her wireless card wasn’t working anymore, and Vista, being that sterling example of how not to design an OS or GUI, was of little help. We’ll just have to wait and see if it’s still under warranty with HP for replacement parts, otherwise I’ll be picking up a new mini-pci card for her. As a temporary measure I tried adding a wireless USB dongle (hehehe “dongle”), but Vista Home Premium (I know those words, but when you put them together like that, I just don’t understand them) didn’t have the drivers built-in (huh, go figure). So I tried to download them on my laptop. Thus started phase two of my evening – wireless router troubleshooting.

The wireless router has been acting wonky for a few weeks now, netstumbler has been reading the wireless access point as, not only the programmed SSID, but the SSID and a random string of characters on every probe. Which is weird because I have it set not to broadcast the SSID to begin with, so the fact that it’s identifying itself that was is troubling. Long, story short I spent the next couple of hours trying to get my crappy, spare wRouter working (f**k you D-Link, f**k you very much). Ah the joys of a web interface that isn’t compatible with Firefox (’nuff said).

After I got that working (I’m leaving out the part about trying to upgrade the firmware in a futile attempt to get the UI to work with Firefox, heaven forbid that I try to manage it from something other than Windows), I tried to connect to the internet. No, that didn’t work either. I accessed my DSL modem, and ran diagnostics and pings from there. No DNS, huh. I tried calling BellSouth – no… sorry, the “new” AT&T (which is to say the old AT&T, just with less customer care). The customer service number was of no help, everyone was gone because it was after hours (but what if I have a problem?! what – no helpful message telling me who to call after hours for service? oh well). Then I found the number for the internet support, oh good. That worked, eventually – when I finally got a line (yes, for 20 minutes I wore my redial button clean of letters because they didn’t have the number of phone lines to cover the number of customers calling in – let me make this clear, the PHONE COMPANY didn’t have the lines to cover the call volume – that should give you an idea of the size of the problem). Turns out the prerecorded message said they were having a “region wide problem” and that customer service techs (?) didn’t have any more details.

Eventually, my internet was restored (at least they new how to fix the problem and got things going in a “timely” manner), I got to the internet and got the drivers I needed. While I was pulling my hair out (what little is left) I saw news reports (my TV/cable was working at least, although one of the local channels faded out a couple of times…) about the North East and West coasts getting pounded by extreme whether. That’s when I thought about how even though I was stuck in my little corner of hell, I was still better off pulling my hair out with these smaller problems than those poor bastards who were getting snowed in or flooded out. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.

• July – Applied to East Carolina University
• August -
  • Was accepted to ECU
  • Started looking for financing to attend ECU
  • Registered for classes
  • Ordered books and paid for classes
  • Installed Vista Business on my laptop for school (now I can say without question – I LOATH Vista – with a passion hereto unknown to me)
• Last Couple of Months – Working on a new theme for the website
• Last Couple of Weeks – Working on an idea for a web comic, trying out different management solutions for said web comic (definitely more on this to come)
• Last Night – accidentally wiped out my gallery, decided to use the opportunity to install Gallery2 and give it a try (again)

More to come, when I get some time that is (did I mention I’m taking classes again? so much for “when I get time, I’m going to start concentrating more on my on-line presence…).

2. Search on the phrase “assembly building”.

3. Go to page 2 of the results (should show the large booster tank)

UPDATE! 070622

Weeeell, it looks like the KSC team regularly updates their photo archive, so to get you to the results more quickly (actually find them I mean) here are replacements for the above steps:

2. Search on the phrase: “KSC-07PD-09″

3. Scroll about halfway down the page (you should see the large, orange booster tank seemingly inserting itself into the repair building).

All this wouldn’t be necessary if the KSC web developers had seen fit to allow a suitable search address for the results to be linked to. Then I could just post the link…

4. Scroll down the page and let the space p 0 r n begin (insert funky bochikiwow music here)!!

Monday, April 16th

We had a break-in. Now, I don’t have anything in the house that’s really worth anything to anyone but me. A bunch of stuff that, by itself, is junk. Like the old laptops I have. They’re Pentium 100′s which I plan on installing Linux on and using as a dumb terminal or weather station, or some other thing – junk. Or like the other bits and bobs that really have no value of any kind. So what, you may be thinking, was taken? Well, my wife had (had) some jewelery (including her wedding ring), her digital camera and about 10 lbs of pocket change (maybe about 40 bucks). Not the TV, not the DVD player, not my wife’s laptop or anything else for that matter. For this little bit of stuff (almost not enough to even get past my deductible), my back door was broken in, bits of wood scattered everywhere, and everything we own is called into question – ew.

Where they casing the house? Yes, both to break in the first time, and to come back later to try and get more (read on). All the demographics I’ve looked at for this area say that we live in a pretty safe neighborhood. Plenty of college degrees, very high employment rates, even mix of race and ethnicity. None of this matters if you’re not low-profile enough. What I mean by low-profile is, you don’t look like a good target. You can do a lot to deter thieves just by putting lights on timers (for more and better tips see here via LifeHacker). Not that this would have helped us, this was a daylight robbery. Our neighborhood is mostly working stiffs – 9-to-5ers. Which means that between about 8:30 and 11:30 and 13:00 and 15:30 the streets are quite, deserted. Kids are at school, homemakers (both women and men) are out on errands still inside their houses doing chores or are out at lunch, etc. In other words no one’s around to see anyone or anything out of the ordinary. It also means that finding a good target is easy, just look for the houses without any vehicles around (like ours).

The thieves broke in through our side door on our car port, which is on a side of the house where we don’t have any neighbors to see someone suspicious. One of the first things we did when we moved in was to change not only the locks, but to replace the doors which were kind of old (one was a hollow-core, the other was wood, but had windows which where single-pain and easy to reach the door knob after breaking). We replaced the back door, but not the door jam. So there was only a forty-year-old piece of 1-inch wood holding the doorknob and deadbolt in place. Pretty easy to break.

They took a moment to get a snack from the refrigerator, then skipped our daughter’s bedroom, the living room and the bathroom (starting to see some good places to hid stuff?) and tossed our bed room. They looked under the corners of the bed, the dresser, the closet and that was about it. I’ve heard that it’s good to leave a bit of money (forty, sixty, maybe eighty dollars in cash) in a place that’s easy to find, but not too easy, so that the thieves don’t have to look to hard to find something worth while so they’ll leave more quickly. This may be a good idea, after all, during the day you don’t want to be seen carrying something too big or odd around, so you’re going to be looking for small things. But, I don’t think they’d stop with the money. If they think there’s a woman in the house, they’re going to look for jewelery. Which means it’s a good idea to hide you’re really good jewelery separately from you’re just so-so stuff (which you leave in a little easier place to find).

My wife was out at a bookstore before she went to pickup our daughter at school, so we have a good idea of when they broke-in. My wife called me at work to let me know, then called the police, we made a report, I called the insurance company, then fixed the door for the night. Then we cleaned the house. Then we listened to the news and I heard about the VT thing. When it rains it pours…

Tuesday, April 17th

My father came down from Virginia (he lives about an hour from us) and helped me put in a new door (complete with door jam this time). Lucky thing too, I would’ve been all day at just getting the old one out. We got everything back together, we added some extra metal straps to the door jam between the jam and the framing and when we put in the larger plate for the deadbolt, we put the screws in through it. We got the door jam installed and shimmed it up really well against the framing so that the jam couldn’t be deformed (like with a crowbar) to pop the door open that way. We replaced the screen door and I cleaned up.

Wednesday, April 18th

I was feeling pretty good, I had the door replaced, the house was cleaner now than it had been in a while (yes we’re still renovating) and I thought to myself that, since there wasn’t anything left to take of value, we where pretty safe again. Then I got home, that evening. The first thing I noticed where a few marks similar to the ones on the door I had replaced. Not as bad, but still there. I was pissed. I opened the door, no real damage, but fuck! There were the marks, and someone HAD tried to get in again (hehe, they couldn’t get the door to deform to pop it open – SUCCESS! kind of). I checked the back windows, did a walk around of the house looking for anything out of the ordinary, checked with my wife to see if she had seen the marks. Sure enough, they had tried to get in again that morning, when no one was around. I called the police and made another report – then I called ADT. Now I’m feeling like I’m trapped in my house, if no one’s around the house someone’s going to try and get in. I feel like everything I know is wrong (remember those statistics/demographics I was talking about?), my judgment is bad, etc., etc.

Thursday, April 19th

Fortunately, my boss is understanding (having been broken into a few years ago while he was out of town on business), he had given me the number of ADT, which our company has employee discount with. But they wouldn’t be able to install our new security system until the following Monday. I was able to go home and work from home when my wife left for work, so someone was home the whole day. Again, I was feeling trapped and stupidly paranoid.

Friday, April 20th

I reserved a 5×5 ft storage unit, so I could move a bunch of my crap out of the house on Saturday. I decided not to go home while the house was empty. Turns out, even crooks need a day off. That night we heard a bunch of the rowdy neighborhood kids (thugs?) walking through the streets (we live on a cut-through-type street that gets a lot of foot traffic).

Saturday, April 21st

I walked out to my truck to go over and do the paperwork for the storage unit and what do I see on my truck? Is that spit? No way anyone could have that much mucus. Is it vomit? No, its… an egg. Some ____ _______ _____ _____ (you fill in the blanks, I just don’t have the words for this type of thing crap, I’m at a loss) had egged my truck. Probably the same ass who tried to break in and couldn’t (oh yeah? try and protect your stuff from me will yah? *chuck*). **SIGH**. Take a deep breath. Wash it off. Keep going…

Conclusion??

Any way, I got a bunch of my stuff out of the house that doesn’t really need to be there, and now we have a security system installed (it’s more of a thing where we got stickers to put on the doors and a sign in the yard then any real security…). Having this stuff out of the way should allow me to concentrate on doing what I need to do for our remodel. So I guess we get the remodel done and get the hell out of Dodge. We planned on doing this anyway – renovating and selling – I guess this just lights a fire under my ass to do it quicker…
A lucky disaster if you will…

Lessons Learned (added 070507)

If you can afford a home security system, then it may give you piece of mind and may deter most thieves. Honestly though, if someone wants in badly enough, not much will/can stop them (at best, locks will only keep honest people honest, as in my case, they may have no effect due to other circumstances). If you’re going to hide things, don’t do it in the master bedroom or freezer, hide the stuff in either your children’s bedroom (in plastic furniture or the like, somewhere where you’re kids won’t really get to it either), or the bath room. Keep in mind that a safe or other *large* or *heavy* objects like TVs won’t be as attractive to someone as loose cash or jewelry, so hide accordingly. I was thinking that a hidden safe in the bathroom might be a good idea.

Link
The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP)

After reviewing the “Fine Print” under the Super Saver Shipping information, the answer seems to be a no. But not a straight forward no:

“If you qualify for FREE Super Saver Shipping but your order also contains one or more ineligible items, you’ll be charged shipping fees for those ineligible items.”

So, unless you can find 1¢ items that qualify for the Super Saver Shipping, then I guess you’d have to pay for the shipping on those items. That could add up. Then again, if you’ve just got to have that Andy Griffith Show DVD, then I guess you wouldn’t mind!

Drove from North Carolina to Pennsylvania and back this weekend so my mother could give my daughter her Christmas gifts.

…

…

Yeah, anyway, I decided not to use the Gallery2 software, but went with phpwebgallery and the photon plug-in for WordPress instead. Had a hell of a time getting that installed, but at least it’s working. Now I’ve just got to fine tune the login script and a few of the display attributes before I can really start using it in earnest.

Eventually I’m going to be writing a couple of tutorials as I get the chance on a couple of pretty good pieces of software: The GIMP and Paint.net. I’ve been really impressed with both of these packages as comparable in specific areas to high end packages like Adobe’s PhotoShop. Be looking for more on this soon! ^_^

“Stores are always trying to get you to do what they want. But what if you refuse? What if you do what benefits you and not the store? Aside from outright fraud, what are the things that you can do to come out ahead? We’ve put together 10 tips that will help you save money, but probably won’t help the store. That’s why they hate them. And you. “

Link. via Lifehacker

Birds chirping – in February – in the middle of a snow shower?!

I looked out the window and sure enough there was a light jacket of snow on the ground and birds were flying back and forth, landing here and there looking for food. This is the same kind of behavior you’d expect after a rain, when birds sing more loudly and look for food. But this is winter, why would their behavior remain the same regardless of the form of precipitation? Wouldn’t you think that temperature/precipitation type would trigger a different type of behavior?

Just, weird.

So, why even bother with this post? Well, really Vista is just another operating system release from Microsoft. So your decision to upgrade or not to upgrade really just boils down to a few logical questions that you should ask yourself about any OS upgrade.

1. Are you buying a new computer.

If your answer is yes, then you should get Vista. After all, this is the easiest installation method there is! If no, then don’t bother trying to figure out Microsoft’s insane licensing/versioning. Without a trained Microsoft sales person to help, you’ll just get a headache.

Besides, unless you can afford to go with a full version (I won’t even get into which full version) and not an upgrade, then you’ll probably want to wait till you can get a full version or a new PC so you can get a clean install. I don’t care how many improvements MS has put into upgrading, there are always issues with changing the OS under installed software (mainly, if it isn’t compatible it won’t work anymore, then what will you do?).

2. When will the first Service Pack be released?

If the answer is soon (in other words – within the first year), wait till the service pack is released. Honestly XP didn’t get it’s really good features until SP2, Windows 2000 wasn’t rock solid until SP4. So why would you go out right now and get a new computer with Vista, let alone an upgrade to XP when you know that in a few months time there will be a large service pack to download and install. Microsoft has already announced they’ll be releasing a Service Pack for Vista sometime in the second half of 2007 (probably December – with the delays we’ve seen with Vista, this SP might not be out until 2008).

3. Is the software you own fully compatible with this release and/or will a version that is compatible be available soon?

After all, if the only piece of software you can run is the new Microsoft Office, what good is having a new OS if you can’t run your games or other software?

4. Are you buying this OS for the graphical interface?

If you answer yes to this, chances are you can afford to be locked into a single vendor. So save yourself some time right now and just get a Mac. They’ve had the qute graphical interface for years (in other words, it’s been tested and is stable) and it doesn’t consume the resources (and I mean that in every sense, memory, CPU cycles, and power) that a typical Windows system will.

5. Are you a business buying this new OS?

If you are then slow down. Take your time, test, test, test until you know you’ve got all of your apps working correctly. Then roll it out on new computers.

All in all I think that about covers it. Take your time, weight your options and think about what you need before you start looking at the different versions of Vista. You may just find that XP will still meet your needs for a while.

UPDATE!!! 070226
I need to add a number 6:
6. How much are you paying for the new OS?

Europeans seem to be getting a raw deal when it comes to buying Vista, paying in Euros and Pounds the same numeric price as US consumers are paying (e.g. $199 ≠ €199). I saw some posts stating that some people had an opportunity to get Vista for free for participation in certain programs from Microsoft. So if you’re getting a really good deal on Vista, one that you just can’t turn down, then upgrading might be a good option for you.