It’s amazing how little things in our life can create joy and grief at the same time. It’s always fun to live life. Which makes life random and fun.

Wait. What?

Hasn’t the rhetoric of the past year and year of a half been that the world is headed to hell in a handbasket and that every year we are getting warmer and warmer and that if we don’t do something about it soon, that our children will suffer from the unstable environment produced by this increase in temperatures across the globe.

Of course, that has been at all times, propganda used for political motivation and has never once been scientifically sound or based(just like evolution, but that is something for another time) to where the arguments make sense with the data presented for it.

Now, we find out, that last year the earth suffered the greatest fluxuation in temperature that has ever been recorded, with enough cooling to wipe out the past 100 years of “global warming” that we have seen. If you look at the temperature change in the native format of Celcius, to us Americans who rely on the Fahrenheit scale, it doesn’t seem that much. But when you convert this over to something that we understand…well…it becomes that much more significant. To start out with, the temperature change (Per the information found on the DailyTech website) of the earth this past year places the cooling of the earth anywhere from 0.65 to 0.75 degrees C. Not that bad right. I wanted to see what that was in a temperature I could understand so I dug out my old science notes and excell to do some calculations. Per my notes:
Tf=Temperature in degress Fahrenheit
Tc=Temperature in degrees Celsius

Tf=(9/5)*Tc+32

So if we plug our numbers into the equation here….
Tf=1.8*.65+32
Tf=1.17+32
Tf=33.17

This is the low side. So according to scientist, the earth cooled a whopping 33.17-33.35 degrees Fahrenheit in the past year. I didn’t believe my calculations, so I checked them against some sites that do it for you automatically with javascript. Same results. One of those sites can be found here.

So essentially what is happening here is that the polar opposite is happening of what Al Gore and his cronies have been saying will happen. Instead of the earth getting warmer and burning up, it is in fact getting cooler. Now while this drop in temperature may seem extremly significant, it could be just due to a weird cold cycle that we are going through. Or it could be the herald of something much worse on its way. What could be worse?

According to The Australian, our sun has not followed through on its cycles the way it is supposed to. This is how it is supposed to work. Sunspot numbers follow a cycle of a somewhat variable length, with an average of eleven years. The most recent minimum (by minimum it means end of cycle, or low of the cycle with the lowest/low number of sun spots in the cycle) ended last March(2007) and the next cycle (what they deem 24) should have started sometime after that. The only problem is, that it hasn’t. In fact, the very first sunspot that had been spotted was in January of 2008 and since then only a small handful and they have been really small and lasted only a little while. It is these very sun spots that provides the heat and the increase in temperatures we have seen.

I like the IBD as it summerizes a study quite well

A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and came to a similar conclusion.

“The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100,” according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.

The study says that “try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures.”

The study concludes that if you shut down all the world’s power plants and factories, “there would not be much effect on temperatures.”

The article also states:

R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada’s Carleton University, says that “CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet’s climate on long, medium and even short time scales.”

Rather, he says, “I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet.”

So Mr. Gore and everyone else that thinks that we are killing our planet by overheating it. Sorry to say your wrong. Now, don’t get me wrong. We need to take care of our planet. We need to reduce pollution. But the impact that these so called greenhouse gasses are having on the planet is a joke. We need to look at this from a purely scientific standpoint and realize that we are not warming the planet at all. In fact, if predections are right, we will need to find ways to warm the planet due to the decrease in temperatures. So I’m gonna do my part. I’m gonna drive my nice SUV to and from Milwaukee each day. Gotta keep those greenhouse gasses in the air…never know….global warming in that regard could be our friend!

Sources:
The Australian: Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

IBD: The Sun Also Sets

Power Line

EDIT:
Something just doesn’t feel right about those numbers. I’m triple checking some articles. Even if it was only 10 degrees F, that would still be alot, however.

You are then welcomed, introduced to simulation, given your code words to follow and told to praise—ok not praise—but notice the "pretty orange vest"(I honestly was thinking he was going to burst out into a chorus of "I feel pretty.." you know what im talking about)  The militia, for all intents and purposes are now in control of the camp.  The judge, who sits outside the game, just watches and(at the times he deems necessary) shows his bias towards his rulings….

The code word to start the simulation is given, and you return back to the scene that you left for those brief few seconds while the rules were explained.  Still divided, the men on one side of the room the women on the other, you start to hear the insults, jests, and cruelty in voice come out through the hall.  The small hall seems to amplify the words around you, meshing together to create a large shouting voice able to drown out your own mind.  They are trying to rattle you, to make you break down..and they are willing to do anything to do it.  They want to make you nervous..to get under your skin just a little is their goal.  The group next to you is the ones who are the current point of amusement for the militia.  One comes by and gives them and their group one order.  A few seconds later, another comes round and gives the group a completely different order. Both times the group complies, and just as they finish complying with the seconds soldiers demands, the first one comes back and yells at them for not following his orders. Anything to break you down.

A few at a time, you are told to take your possessions over to a table on one side of the building.  You head over there with everything you have.  Your bible is taken away from you, and placed in a bag.  You are then numbered, a piece of duct tape attached to you with a number.  You loose the number….your just told you don’t want to know what happens when you loose your number.  Your moved to another area of the hall where you are instructed to sit down, face facing the floor.  Once in a while, they will find something, so they will instruct everyone to look at them while they try to figure out who it belongs to.  All the while all of this is going on, there are still people on the other side being told to stand, sit, face the fall, and whatever else the militia feels to do at that time.  This entire time, they are pacing around giving you orders, asking questions, and making statements.  Shouting at the top of their lungs, the make sure that you hear statements such as "Christianity is simple.  Your weak" and you can guess the drill from there.  As they number your peers, they find names for them.  You laugh, your a joker.  You are therefore named Joker.  You have a honeybun, and guess what your named…..

This continues for an extended period of time.  As you sit there on the floor you realize that even though this is a simulation, it should be and will be taken at face value.  And then it happens.  From one side you hear the resistance of one person refusing to give up their Bible.  They are carried over to the other side, and shot.  Now one person from the group is dead.  Reality starts to sink in.  You can’t just go through this simulation knowing that it will end.  You go through it knowing that you have to think every second of it.  Keep your mind, and your heart, sharp.  Re-enforcing your faith by depending on God.  You will be challenged, you won’t leave the weekend the same person that stepped foot onto that white snowy ground.  How much maturing can happen in only a few days.  The next few days will show you just how much you can do just that.

The sounds continue to surround you for a few seconds and then you hear some yelling.  More challenges to your faith are thrown at you.  And then, it happens.  Lights out are being ordered.  You are instructed that you have a half hour until the lights in your cabin are to be out. Your lights are on, and your will be paying the price.  Standing outside in the cold, while it seems like small punishment, could easily be made worse by the militia.  With this last warning of standing outside in the cold, you are dismissed to your cabin to prepare for bed and be in bed by the time the militia makes their rounds.

Going to the cabins, its kind of a somber mood.  There is still a joy and happiness, but there is also this thought of "What has become of snow camp".  No one said it, but you could see it and feel it.  A half hour seems like a long time to get ready, but when everyone is competing for the same facilities, it could easily become a game of tug and war.  Instead, one of the most beautiful things occurred.  Even though things were, to be honest, looking not the best for everyone at the time.  They shared.  They respected one another, and everyone was able to get the resources and facilities that they needed.  Even in the cabins, you witness as those who have more blankets or other items share with those who have less.  The idea that they were in this together and had to rely on one another more was already spreading through the camp. As the lights go out, the militia patrols the camp.  They are looking for someone to break their rules to make an example of.  As you peak out the window nervously, you see that not one cabin is giving them reason for recourse.  They are complying.  As you sink back down to go to bed, knowing that no one else, at least for the night is going to be shot you hear the militia start to yell.  Its late at night, but night has just begun…..

Now for someone who knew all of this was coming, it didn’t bother me.  But for those who were surprised by the sudden turn of events.  I can’t help but wonder what they were feeling, or thinking as they started to process all of this….

Continued….within the next few days

Well snow camp for Fellowship this past year was anything but that.

With that in mind, come with me to a nice February Friday night.  Locate yourself in the mess hall of a camp.  Not a run down camp, but a fairly nice and well kept mess hall.  Good.  Got that image in your mind?  Your sitting in a chair, you know, the ones that churches across America keep in their basement.  They are cushioned at least.  There are many rows, all filled with students.  Up front is a stage.  There is a drum set, electric guitar, keyboard, and bass guitar as well as a sound system, and a laptop computer.   The speaker for the weekend has just finished speaking when all of a sudden from behind you there is the noise of airhornes, whistles and yelling as masked men storm the building.  They turn off the lights(or maybe they were just dimmed well–can’t remember exactly) and continue to yell for everyone to go to the floor.  You then hear the pastor of camp asking them under what authority they have come on camp grounds.  All the while, your laying on cold concrete, your face staring at cement.  Your heart beating a mile a minute, not knowing what is going to happen next.  You hear some more words exchanged between these new men and the camp pastor when you are told to go face the walls.  Men on one side, women on the other.  As you stand there, you hear the pastor being dragged, all the while yelling at you to stay strong.  You hear him yelling this to those around, encouraging them, even as he’s being dragged away.  As he does this, you then here a gun go off, and his voice fall silent.  That is when it hits you, this is no game.  And that is when you hear the word “debrief”

That is how snow camp for Fellowship Baptist Church in Racine, Wisconsin started this year.  Don’t worry, those weren’t real people there to perform real harm, they were all there for one purpose, to play out a simulation for the teens to live through and work through and to learn from.

Keep in mind the following as I recount the weekend.  The people who were used and were participating in this exercise are all Christians and there desire is to help those kids that were there(and that they were yelling at) to grow and get a small glimpse into the reality that thousands across the world face on a daily basis. Also keep in mind, that this is also written from the point of view of a leader of the group who knew what was going to happen and was actually kinda excited to see how it would play out trying to think like a student who is encountering this for the first time without knowing the plan. With all of that being said, the weekend played out in a very interesting way.  I’ll recount some of the more interesting points, and along the way pause and put in a (#) which indicates a future point that I will expound upon later.  Basically any (#) are thoughts/rants that I already have stored up in my mind/heart but this weekend has just prompted the rapid release of them to the general public to hear/read.

This will be continued…tomorrow…

One of my coworkers said that journalist, when they report, should not show their bias.  Well.  Guess what.  I’m not a journalist.  I show my bias, right at the start.

For the past week or so, I have been following the release of Leopard into the wild(so to speak) and have taken it with great interest.  For a company that trumpets many cards claiming how stable and secure their operating system is, Apple has had a lot of bad press these past few weeks.  It makes those PC versus Mac ads seem pointless as the Mac is now the new PC, and in some cases, even worse off.

When Microsoft released Vista for the masses to consume, there were a bunch of people claiming that it was still incomplete, that it needed work done on it.  There were others that, after using it for a while, downgraded to Windows XP.  And now, the same thing is happening to Apple.  Problems have been consistently rising for their new crown jem.  The first problem reported was a Blue Screen of Death for Leopard that is eerily familiar with those that windows users sometimes face when there is a hardware problem on their system.  But with Leopard(the most sacred and secure and stable operating system ever(sick)) it is piece of software that is taking the system down.  When they(bloggers) dug into the problem more, it appeared that the windows manager crashes and is unable to launch.  Upon calling Apple support(which the writer of itsallmac.com blog noted was very incompetent—I would rather speak to someone in India than someone who is incompetent) they were unable to get the problem resolved, even from a senior level techsupport person.  The solution?  Format your hard drive and start over.  While initial reports placed the blame on Unsanity’s APE software, Cnet’s New.com reports that the problem exists even for those users who have not installed the software.  And it has come to light recently that Apple has acknowledge the problem with the method of install and have been marketing work arounds.  I have not found a source yet for this last claim, but am looking for it. 

Nice Apple, nice.How sad for those Mac users.(O.T.: one writer suggests renaming the Blue Screen of Death to Blue Screen of Knowledge.  I agree with the argument as most blue screens now a days come as a result of hardware problems.  For the article, read here: Apple’s BSOD Joke is Slightly Amusing)

The second item to plague Apple and Steve Job’s precious child is something that Microsoft has gotten right(since XP sp2) and Apple, for whatever reason, decided to do just plain wrong.  So what is happening to Leopard?  Well according to researchers, there is a lot wrong with its firewall. eWeek has an article on the firewall incident(as do many other places)  which tells a pretty chilling tale for Mac users.  Of note are the following items related to the firewall

1. The firewall shuts itself off by default, even if the user had the firewall on before upgrading to the new version of the OS
2. Allows incoming connections under "deny all" setting—which means that even under the deny all setting, connections are still able to be made to the computer.
3. Only three choices: Allow All, Deny All, Pick By Program(no ports here or network services–by by ssh, web server, file sharing(at least easily)—come on Apple—windows does it!)
4. There is an open source firewall included, but it needs to be done via the command line.  I though Macs were for those who like to do things with a nice pretty interface and have it done simply and easily for them?
5. Unlike Vista which changes the rules of the firewall based on location(public, home, work, etc…) all networks in Leopard are treated the same.  There is no difference in the rules that the firewall attempts to follow(as seen by the Deny All still letting in traffic)
6. The versions of NTPD and Samba that are included in Leopard do not run in sandboxed mode, run as root, and the firewall doesn’t block access to these services even with "Deny All" as the option

This opens the door wide open(number 2 and 6) for a virus/worm to easily and maliciously spread across the Mac world.  Someone just needs to write some code to take advantage of the flaws and we will start to see the number of crying Mac users roll in, most of whom would have no idea what to do with a virus since they have been cradled and pampered for so long(can’t wait till the average Mac user has to come to the real world and deal with real life issues like spyware and viruses—its just a matter of time Mac!)

The third item that seems to be coming around and biting Mac users is a problem with their cd-rom drive.  There have been reports of cds being ejected 10-20 seconds after they are inserted into the system.  Odd.  They report that the internal drive, for whatever reason, just ejects the disk.  But(and here is the kicker) if you reboot your computer and hold down the "t" key you can then connect to another mac via FireWire to mount the cd-rom drive on the other mac on your mac and then use the cd that way.  Or you can use an external drive.  I thought mac was the easiest operating system in the world.  Its sounding pretty archaic to me…and there is still more that troubles the new OS.

Wireless.  Wireless is something that has been around for a long time now and is pretty standard.  You would think that being a company that has very limited hardware choices and options for wireless that there would be very little wrong with it.  Well reports that surfaced from Gregg Keizer on Computer World reveals a completely different story.  It would be best to just quote the site, as there is no way to paraphrase this better than this.  So to quote Gregg Keizer: "When you connect to your wireless network, your transmit rate will be 54 (if you’re using the 54g standard)," said someone identified as nunofgs. "If you start up a download or something that occupies your bandwidth (even LAN traffic), you will notice that the transmit rate drops to 11, then to 3, then to 1 until finally your downloads will drop, your iChat connections will fail and your browser will not load pages."  It has not just been this one person that has reported this, other people have reported the problem as well. 

Graphics have taken a hit as well.  Macnn.com reports some graphics issues.  There have been problems with AMD’s ATI Radeon HD video cards which were included in the new iMacs, and these problems were not resolved with the new operating system, but Apple is promising a fix soon.  That’s cool and I can understand tweaking drivers for a new piece of hardware.  But why they didn’t test it before they shipped the new Macs, that is another question.  Maybe they just decided to rush their product out and they knew that Apple fanboys would stick with their product no matter what?  But beyond this piece of hardware snafu, there is just some general graphic problems with Leopard.  Reports include brief instances of pixel artifacts around Dock icons and an instance of what can best be described as "streaks" flying across the screen which, according to the site, previously only appeared in the boot camp installs of windows. 

Another video problem that has been seen in Leopard is a shutdown of the video system altogether.  Mann.com reports that under certain conditions the video system completely shuts down, especially when switching to a full screen program.  The video goes completely black and there is nothing on the screen, although there is still audio which shows that the system has not shut down and there is something processing in the background.

Apple keeps taking a bashing, but that’s ok because apple fanboys will continue to love their precious apple.  There are unconfirmed reports(so they can be bunk) of people having problems when upgrading.  Their accounts which were administrator on the Mac before are then downgraded to normal user level.  There are other reports of errors with such things as active directory integration, Finder, Time Machine, and file locker(which in one persons case, with file locker enabled from 10.4, he was no longer able to boot his 10.5 machine once it was upgraded.  He manually deleted it(he didn’t say how) and then his machine worked again…..)

So yes, it seems that Apple has been experiencing some problems with their newest child, and it is causing a PR problem for them.  Looking through their forums, there are many people who are experiencing problems, so its not just one or two loud voices in the desert causing the ruckus.  One neat thing has come out of this Leopard fun, a new phrase that I don’t think Windows will ever be able to duplicate.  What is this fun phrase?  Why.  Its the beach ball of death.  Yes…I have been a little harsh to the Apple company, but I know that it has been long time coming for them.  Poor apple fan boys, welcome to reality.  You need a good slap once in a while. 

On a side note, here is the average level of technical skill needed of a computer user.

1. Mac OSX
2. Commodore 64
3. Windows XP
4. Windows Vista
5. Windows 9x

I remember when Vista came out and how Mac fanboys pointed and laughed at the early adopters of Vista and the issues associated with it.  Well now its our turn to turn, point, laugh, and mock the apple fanboys.  Their god named Steve Jobs has fallen and produced an inferior product on the lines of Microsoft’s Windows 9x series.   Ah Apple.  The software/hardware company you love to hate and hate to love.  Don’t cry yourself to sleep fanboys, just take it and role with the punches.

Comcast for a long time has, for all purposes, been very smug about their services.  Since they basically have a monopoly in multiple states, they believe that they can do whatever they want.  It is because of Comcast that AT&T(the great company that it is) might have a chance to spread its DSL to corners that the cable has been run out of town from.  While I normally don’t condone violence, in this instance, its almost justifiable.

The Pros of Vista

1. UAC(user account control):  Hate it or love it, this is one of the best features of Vista.  At first, UAC seems to be one of the most annoying features installed in the new operating system.  The constant asking of questions tends to get old at first, but after the first time UAC prevents something from installing on your system that you never asked for, you learn that no matter the number of questions, its always worth it to ensure the integrity of your system.  Due to this setting, it is extremely hard for spyware/viruses to install itself using drive by attacks from web pages as well as unintentionally clicking on a link or ad that contains the malicious code.  Between UAC and a new feature in IE7 for Vista, IE has come a long way in becoming more secure(not to the level of Firefox for sure…but a lot better for the average home user who doesn’t know about firefox).
2. IE7 protected mode:  This is one of those cursed blessings.  Like UAC, IE7 protected mode tries to protect your computer from drive by malicious installs as well as from any software which might try to directly access your hard drive(outside of downloading a file and cookies).  In essence, this feature prevents IE7 from accessing your hard drive unless you are downloading a file.  This is nice in that spyware can not(if it somehow is able to bypass UAC or you have it disabled) copy itself to anywhere other than your cookies directory or temporary internet files directory which in turn helps keep spyware from installing itself on your system(it loves to attach itself to c:\windows\system32 or c:\windows)
3. Start Search:  One of those useful features that you look at and wonder how such a simple thing could be so awesome.  Basically a replacement for the run box, Start Search makes it easy to find and/or run a program or to quickly and easily run a "dos" command  or open a command prompt.  In the same way, typing in the Start Search also searches all your documents and emails(outlook) for the phrase you typed and displays all your results inline as you type more and/or less.  Pretty handy feature when you are trying to find a paper that you wrote long ago that had an obscure phrase like "eatering of odors" in it….of course…if you had a paper with that phrase in it……..
4. Sticky Alt+Delete: Anyone whose used windows is used to the Alt+Delete shortcut and is used to changing windows that way.  Well Vista takes it a step further.  If you add a CTRL key to the combination you get the traditional Alt+Delete dialog, but it stays active until you click a mouse button or choose a window.  This trick is nice if you want to switch to a window, but are not exactly sure which one at this time.  This also works for Windows Key + Tab.  Not as useful there, but still nice.
5. Virtualization of Processes:  Vista has a handy little ability to virtualize any process which is running.  This is handy on all processes, but even more so when running IE7, the office suit, or any product which tends to crash often(due to compatibility issues) then this feature is right for you.  You sick of having a program crash unexpectedly and then have that take down the entire windows system with it.  Your entire system slows down to a snails pace, and your unable to open the task manager?  Well if the process is virtualized and it does happen to crash, guess what goes down?  Just that process.  The rest of your system is up and running fine(of course, this doesn’t always work as intended, but most of the time it does)
6. Drivers run in usermode:  Remember the good old days of windows xp and below?  Remember that lovely thing called the blue screen of death?  Well most of the blue screen of deaths were caused by drivers that for one reason or another bombed out and caused the kernel of windows to take a nose dive.  Yeah!  What fun that was for the user. The reason the entire system took a nose dive was that the drivers were hooking directrly into the kernel itself(much like antivirus software will do with Vista SP1(which is a bad idea(sorry for the nested parens))) and caused the system to be unstable at times.  (or is if your still running XP SP1 or lower—SP2 has done a lot better in this—but not as well as Vista)  Well now in Vista all drivers try to run in user mode, unhooked from the kernel and not running as admin(again, as user level).  So lets say your video driver decides to stop and crash.  Well, instead of a nice blue screen and you loosing your work, you background turns to black and you get a warning message from your system tray indicating that the video drivers failed and have been restarted.  No crash, just a nice message to tell you the driver restarted itself after it failed. How refreshing.
7. Windows Mail:  Ah windows mail.  A glorified Outlook Express.  And glorified it is.  In fact, its a lot more handy and useful than outlook express ever was.  For starters, Windows Mail can now connect to IMAP making it a whole lot more useful.  Its not as good as thunderbird or full blown outlook, but is better.
8. Shadow Copy:  Shadow copy is another one of those blessed curse things.  It makes a backup of your file every once in a while so you can restore a previous version of it in case something happens to the file.  Its nice in that you can get to the older versions, its bad in that it takes up more disk space for system restore.  Think of it as the mother that never forgets the older stuff…..no matter how hard you want it not to.
9. System Restore:  Its so nice to have a system restore that actually works.  System restore has been around since the days of Windows ME(which I did have—that was before my days of enlightenment).  It stuck around in Windows XP, but really didn’t work.  Well in Vista, it finally works.  And works well it does. System restore in Vista is able to take a system that barely functions and bring it back to life.  For example, my Vista install took a nose drive and when I clicked on anything, it said that it couldn’t find the C:\ drive.  Did a system restore and it fixed the problem.  In XP, the system would be hosed the entire time, even after the restore, or the restore wouldn’t even work. Looks like Microsoft finally got this function right!
10. Compatibility:  Windows XP introduced the concept of running a program in compatibility mode to allow a program from an older operating system to run under XP.  This worked(for the most part) but has been greatly improved in Vista.  Microsoft was even kind enough on certain editions of Vista to include the Unix Subsystem allowing for the running of Unix programs in Vista natively.  This has no value to the average home user, but to an enterprise customer or a power user, this is a valuable little add-on.  This used to be only available if you were running the previous server edition operating systems.

And with all pros, you need to know the cons…..

1. Resources:  Vista needs more resources than XP.  A lot more.  Hard drive space, ram, graphics card.  But the tradeoff of increased security and usability in Vista more than pays off for it.  Just make sure that Vista is put on a system that is more than capable of running it, and you should be fine.  Once SP1 hits the street though, expect the system that seems just a little on the sluggish side to feel snappier and more responsive.
2. Laptops: Eye candy costs money…and power.  Aero with its nice transparent graphics abilities takes a little more juice to keep it running.  This is fine if the computer is plugged in or has multiple batteries, but one battery and no ac adapters allows for a system running aero to loose about a half hour or so of usable time to the nice fancy transparency.  This usually isn’t too bad of a problem, but if your a road warrior and need to get as much life out of your computer as possible, you might want to consider turning this feature off. 
3. Sidebar:  The Vista sidebar.  One of the most wanted and then unwanted features of Vista.  The sidebar loads gadgets into the sidebar of the system.  This is nice, due to the fact that you can have tools that you frequently use on their, and have the ability to access them quickly.  The downside is that they are always running.  If one of them goes amuck, you could have your CPU being used more by a program you don’t want.  It also takes a considerable amount of ram to run this feature, and as a result of increased cpu usage and ram, the battery drains faster.  This is also a security nightmare waiting to happen as most of the gadgets are just a scripting language with html added to them. Security hole anyone?
4. Windows Genuine Advantage:  This annoying little program is now fully integrated within Vista.  You get so many days to activate your copy, and if you don’t then you get what is called reduced functionality mode.  This is a web browser and nothing really more(though you can load programs from the web browser —up to three processes!) and lasts only an hour before it goes completely black and useless unless you reboot. When the WGA servers went down earlier this year, this caused havoc for quite a few people.  If Microsoft could find a more balanced approach with WGA (like they did in XP) then I think that it wouldn’t be as bad as it could be.

There really isn’t anything other than that that is wrong with Vista.  I know that some people argue that the system seems slower and that it takes more computing power.  That is true with any operating system in its first iteration.  Each new operating system requires more powerful hardware.  You could make the argument that Vista was released a little too early, and because of that it seems to be a little slower than people would like.  I couldn’t argue with that as there are times I am a little frustrated with hitting Windows Key + R and get the run dialog a few seconds later.  But with the release of SP1 soon, this should be, hopefully, a thing of the past.  With the new SP1,however, security companies got their way and made the system less secure…….you read that right.  Security companies protested and cried because they couldn’t hook into the kernel.  They said that this prevented them from fully scanning the system.  So there are some things that you need to program around.  Big deal.  With each new operating system, there are always new things to program around.  By placing API’s that allow a program to hook into the system, it will not take long for spyware and viruses that a user accidentally downloads to hook into the kernel as well.  Symantec has just made the situation worse for everyone who wants to be secure, and it should be these companies that have to comply with the framework of Microsoft, and not Microsoft that has to comply with the framework of other companies because they do not want to spend the time and/or money to figure out how to make their system work in a different fashion from how it currently is working.  Another thing I can’t argue against is the DRM in the system.  I know that some people hate it, and I do too, just not to the extent that others do.  I don’t agree with the philosophy of DRM, but since it is law(stated in EULA) that some things are DRM’d, then I will deal with it as long as the screwing over isn’t too much.  While the DRM in Vista is supposed to be extremely awful, I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything with it yet which would causes a system slowdown or cause any other rare and/or weird conditions…but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist………

Well I know that I just disagreed with a lot of tech people, many of whom I respect and read their advice on a daily basis.  That though, is what is so great about being in the tech field.  All of us have our opinions, and we can each(for the most part) respect each others opinions—–of course since im still a nobody in the techfield no one will take my ideas with any force behind them—just grains of salt…..if even that.  Thats ok though, im not giving up on it, or my dreams. 

A. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection paid the price for all of humanity to have eternal life in heaven, without any requirement to repent of sins and receive salvation.

B. Belief in Jesus Christ, is not necessary for a person to go to heaven. Salvation is unconditional, granted by the grace of God to every human being.

C. It is presumed that all of humanity will have its destiny in heaven, whether they realize it or not.

D. All of humanity will go to heaven regardless of their religious affiliation, including those who believe in false religions or adopt any other form of religious persuasion, or who have no religious persuasion.

E. Only those who have “tasted of the fruits” of real intimacy with Christ and have “intentionally and consciously rejected” the grace of God will spend eternity separated from God.

F. There are persons in some type of hell, but the emphasis is “to get away from the picture of an angry, intolerant God. I don’t see God that bitter.”

Reading over that a few times, it took me by total surprise. The story of his journey is that he had at one time he heard God talk to him in his head while he was watching the news and that through this he learned that Hell doesn’t exist and that Hell was the current living on earth. According to him, everyone is destined for heaven whether they believe in Christ or not. When he was interviewed, he said that he has received tons of letters from athiests, gays, lesbians, and said how much they are all touched by his message that they too are going to heaven. I find it crazy that this guy has been able to deceive so many people. Of course, this is the way things go when a person is able to make their own truth. In the interview he said that he thinks of the bible as an idol, but it is not the end all to end all on things. I also find it interesting that the church the helped relaunch his career was a church that promoted that being gay/lesbian is acceptable in the church and that its not a sin. Lots of interesting things in this last paragraph.

But the thing about it that makes me worry the most is that he has been starting to gain acceptance among some. This false doctrine, this lie that he is spreading is surely a cause for concern and harm. The problem is, it is the traditional evangelical community that has brought some of this on. Wait. What?
Ok. So its not all of the Evangelical community, but a certain part of it. That part is the part that refuses to talk about hell. They refuse to do so because the thought of Hell may upset of cause the unsaved to be insulted. Thats ridiculous. Its a part of life, and a truth, and one that if continued to be thought of like this, will only allow this heresy to continue and spread.

Thats all I got for now…but I have a lot more thoughts on this subject.