September 29, 2006 Posted by mitch |
thoughts |
While I enjoy my quotes that I have displaying randomly in the top left corner of this blog this one doesn't particularly fall into the criteria I use for adding quotes to that list. Least that is my current thinking... I may descide down the road it does and add it to the list. Will have to think on that. Anyway, I came accross this quote while reading Ciscos "Top-Down Network Design". On the first page of the first chapter they have a quote from a man I take some inspiration from, Albert Einstein, which reads:
"The world we've made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems that we cannot solve at the same level at which we created them."
Anyway, I love it, as it says exactly what I've been thinking recently... Why do we keep making the same mistakes over and over, throughout history. My thoughts are directed towards some thoughts I've had about various subjects, namely the continuing claims and now a law suite blaming the makers of "Grand Theft Auto" for a shooting back in 2004. And our current (retarded) presidency, claiming that torture is OK at any level, because "people watch [the tv show] 24, where the character Jack Bauer tortures people" thus making it OK. This is insane, its like we're moving backwards in time, but thats still not the end of it. They're also talking about making it OK to allow imprisonment without a fair trial and without being told what your being put on trial for.
This is nothing but fear mongering, and what bothers me more, is that people are ok with this because they're naive enough to believe that this will only be used against "terrorists". Just wait, if this goes through, the only thing that separates each and every one of us from being "terrorists" is our name being on a list. What would it take to get put on a list? Well, as someone who thought he had freedom of speech in this wonderful country of ours, and thought he'd express that freedom by writing "Kip Hawley is an idiot" on a bag that was search by the TSA before a flight. He was then detained for 25 minutes and told he no longer had freedom of speech while in the presence of the TSA!?! WTF!
Going backwards I tell you.... going backwards...
Yes, video games can be violent. We as humans *ARE* violent. Don't believe me? Look at history. Every form of communication humans have created during our existance on this planet, has depicted... wait for it... VIOLENCE. From the earliest cave drawings, to even religious works such as the Bible. Whats causing all the commotion now? The guy in Montreal who *gasp* played violent video games. Ask any one on the street, especially the younger demographic, and I'd beat it'd be easier to count those that haven't played some form of violent video game in their life. Does this make them violent? I'd say that that in and of itself does not. Its typically other factors that lead to the tragedy's such as the latest Montreal incident. The fact that he played these games is no more than a coincident. I mean, he could just as well of eaten at a McDonalds and drove a Ford, and someone honked his horn at him on the freeway just before he did what he did. Could they have caused this? Not likely, but does that mean we need to ban any of these things too? When does it stop? When can we stop blaming x product, and say blame the person that committed such acts? Where does personal accountablity start? After all that is what is really the problem. No one wants to accept their own responcibilities. Our rights (especially as Americans and any country that modeled their own constitutions after our original constitution [our changes to it since i'm less sure about]) have the freedom to do as we wish. The only reason for government intrusion, and the purpose of the government at that point... is to prevent say one persons freedom to shoot a cannon in an area that would affect another persons life or property. If said person had enough land and a cannon that they wished to shoot, and it all stayed within their property then they by all means nessisary should be allowed to exibit their freedom and shoot that cannon to their hearts content.
The point being of coarse freedom. Every decade or so has their own explination for violence, rock 'n roll, and Elvis were two in the last century that were used to explain violence and crime. However, I'm just sick that even after all of the unfounded aligations and the continuing attempts to try to limit the sale of video games, which are struck down because of violations to our right for freedom of speech. Video games are a form of art, art depicts life, and life is violent. Don't like it? Don't buy it. Nuf said.
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. -- John Stuart Mill(1806 - 1873)
September 17, 2006 Posted by mitch |
mythtv |
Well... After the move I still haven't hooked up my MythTV box, which I began last week some time. I've been using Ubuntu alot lately(on my laptop) and I'm looking at running Ubuntu Server for my mythtv backend/frontend. And I'm probably going to be compiling MythTV from source this time around on all boxes that will be running it. Binary releases are nice, but making sure they all match up across distributions is a real pain. If i was only running one distribution it would be a no brainer... however I'm probably not going to ever be on just one distribution. I think this desktop will always run on the latest fedora just so I can keep up with the changes going on there.
Anyway, during the rebuild of the mytv server... My power supply started burning... along with the power connector for the laptop hard drive i was installing the OS onto. Not good... So, I ended up ordering a new Power Supply and after it showed up... you wouldn't believe it... the power connector won't fully snap onto the clip because of a transistor on the old motherboard. Who designs these things anyway? So... I ended up ordering a new motherboard, going for a cheap Socket A motherboard that locates the power connector way in the corner of the board. After that arrived... as luck would have it... it no longer supports the RAM I had in the old board... needs DDR...!?!?! why oh why didn't I look at that to begin with you might ask? well my thoughts were of the opinion that Socket A motherboard... Duron 800MHz processor... old school right? Should take the same ram I had.... well, I was wrong. RAM is in the mail... should be here by monday hopefully... tuesday at the latest. Then I should have the box mostly setup by that night. Since I don't have school on Monday or Wednesday, I should have enough time to get it done... I might even take it to work... but we'll see whats going on there first...
September 6, 2006 Posted by mitch |
life |
I'm a Porsche 911!
You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
It also happens to be that:
I'm a Talent!
You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.
Talent: 49%
Lifer: 49%
Mandarin: 46%
Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.
Sorry for the personality quizes, but I thought they were amusing :)
