NXE Launch Video
Congrats to the Xbox 360 team on the NXE Launch!
Why do I dislike religion?
It is always my greatest regret to bring up politics and religion when it can be avoided. In this case, however, I find a need to talk about it.
The recent election passed and many states imposed a vote over the ban of gay marriage in their respected states, most notably being California’s Proposition 8.
I find religion’s greatest downfall to be the fact that it fails to adapt to the modern world. People base their lives on works written over 2000 years ago and take information from it that is highly controversial and base their lives on it. Homosexuality is the best example of this for Leviticus 18:22 states, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”
Now let me quote the bible some more and see how its words stand today:
- If I had a daughter how much could I sell into slavery for? (Exodus 21:7)
- My friend insists on working on the Sabbath to help bring in much needed money to his family, should I proceed to kill him now like Exodus 35:2 says to?
- I will admit, my vision is not perfect and I do wear contacts, do that mean I’m not allowed in church as Leviticus 21:20 says?
- Must football players only play football with gloves on to prevent them from being “unclean?” (Leviticus 11:7-8)
- Must I stone the local farmers for planting two different crops? (Deuteronomy 22:9)
- Must I burn my friend for wear clothing made out of two different linens? (Deuteronomy 22:11)
Do we follow those passages today? We obviously do not. Why should we automatically accept a single quote in the bible? Why do omit other versus to match today’s way-of-life but yet people shun something seemingly insignificant. Do people just use religion to cover their own discrimination?
This is why I dislike religion. It is followed only as people want to follow it rather than being followed as the holy book that people claim it to the be. They hide behind their books to try to cover their own opinions with those of a larger group to defend themselves. If you want to believe in a god or an afterlife then do so, but do not use it as a cover-up. If you follow a religion be loyal to it and don’t selectively follow it.
Final Words
Proposition 8 passed in California thus banning gay marriage. Now why is it that California revoked an amendment to require physicians to notify legal guardians of pregnant teenagers. Last time I checked the bible is against killing so why make killing easier? On top of that Washington approved doctor-assisted suicide. Does this not violate any biblical passages? Stem-cell research was approved in Michigan once again bringing up the topic of abortion. Does this obviously not show that people are slanted on what they feel? People obviously selectively follow the bible based on their own personal beliefs, not those of their god. If that is true then why follow any religion if you believe you can lead yourself? Religion fails to adapt to the modern-era and thus people have just taken it into their own points of view. I absolutely hate this idea for it is unjust. If you disagree with something or it violates your personal beliefs, then fine. Do not, however, oppose something based on personal beliefs and hide behind religion to defend your actions.
Blog Action Day 2008
[vimeo width="640" height="360"]http://vimeo.com/1979392[/vimeo]
Stats
- At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
- According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty.
- Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
- Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
- 1 out of every 2 children live in poverty conditions.
- 1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity
Resources
- http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/
- http://www.change.org/blogactionday
- http://www.kiva.org
If you cannot give, just think. It’s better to at least care than to be indifferent to this tradgey that is occuring. Be informed about poverty and see what you can do to help. You don’t have to jump onto every poverty fundraiser but rather just support the end of poverty and voice your opinions to those in power.
Blog Action Day ‘08
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1529825[/vimeo]
As you may have noticed I have a new, more charitable, ad on the right sidebar. Blog Action Day 2008 is a day for bloggers to set up and fight poverty. Find out more at blogactionday.org.
Applications I can’t live without
So here’s just some of the applications that I use on a daily basis that help me get work done faster and more enjoyable.
Firefox
This one goes without say, Firefox, in my opinion, is one of the best web browsers out there. They have a huge user base providing tons of free plugins that make web browsing mor enjoyable. Not to mention how many plugins there are for web developers, Firebug being one of the best and most helpful. Some other common ones that I use are Twitterfox, ColorZilla, PicLens, Greasemonkey, NoScript, YSlow, Facebook Toolbar, Mouse Gestures Redox, PDF Download, Nightly Tester Tools, and URL Fixer. All great addons that you should look into.
Skype
Skype is simlpy amazing. One of the highest quality free VOIP services I’ve ever used. It has a very nice GUI and making calls to friends and family is extremely easy. You can also buy credits to make calls to landlines (Toll Free numbers do not require credits) or you can buy a phone number and make it a phone that landlines can call you on. And may I just mention, I *love* how the menu pops up when you get a call, I think that’s a really cool feature. Simple, but useful.
Photoshop
Photoshop is my heaven. I love photoshop more than anything else (and mind you I’m a programmer.) There are TONS of features for image editing. Photoshop makes pretty much anything possible. Although there is a learning curve to Photoshop, there are tons of places where you can find free tutorials to jump-start your Photoshop learning.
Launchy
Once again, a very simple program with a lot of use. Launchy is a small program that hides 99% of the time but using the Alt + Spacebar combo it pops up allowing you to start typing the name of the program you want to lanuch. It will search through your install applications for what you’re typing and launch it right as you hit enter. It makes opening an application easy as pie — though I never understood why pie is easy… You can also use this to do a quick math problem without opening up calculator first (you would be surprised what you can calculate.)
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is my e-mail client of choice. It’s made by Mozilla, as is Firefox, and comes with almost all of the same perks of Firefox. A great theme/addon system and just an all around simple, easy, e-mail client. Not much to be said about Thunderbird except give it a try.
Filezilla
Filezilla is an open-source FTP client (and server) making uploading files to your server a snap and easy to do. It includes a quick edit feature where you can download a file from a remote site and open it immeditely, edit it, then when you save the file it auto gets reuploaded to the site. Nice feature for quick debugs of code. The program splits into two halves, a local side and a remote side so you can have a side-by-side view of your files in both locations.
Folding@Home
Okay, Folding@Home isn’t really a useful application for me, but it sure does make a difference for other people. The folding at home project is like a competitive file processing for a great cause. Let me quote the site for the exact explantion:
Folding@home is a distributed computing project — people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.
Go ahead and try it out, I’m on Team Engadget code: 39227
Pidgin
Pidgin is a cross-platform instant messenger than combines like every messaging service you can think of and it combines it into one lightweight interface. Contains a plugin system to add in additional features and services if needed. Great program and I suggest you check it out.
Top 5 Website Tutorial Sites
Getting into web development can be a hard task considering there’s a lot to consider in it. For example, you need to account for XHTML standards, cross-platform unity, and then working code. To help you out, I’m sharing my 5 favorite web development sites.
NETUTS
NETTUTS is a great resource for new and experienced web developers. They have everything from starter tips to tutorials on the latest web technologies. Tutorials are user written and the quality of these tutorials are nothing shorter than excellent.
PSDTUTS
So this one may not be directly related to web development but it sure will help you learn some tips in Photoshop to give your web has a great design. A lot of the tutorials will not be on some pretty random subjects but learn what you can from these tutorials and apply them to your website.
Pixel2Life
Pixel2Life is one of the biggest archives of tutorials for pretty much every program a tutorial has been written for. Whatever you’re looking for, Pixel2Life will give you a tutorial for it.
Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is one of the best design blogs I know of. These guys cover all parts of design from tutorials to resources to styles. They cover web design to typography. Smashing Magazine is one of the best resources for designers.
Function
Function Blog is a great resource for web developers and designers. They feature everything websites. Even if you’re not the best web designer you’ll find this blog useful for their listing of amazing free designs.
