Tuesday, June 28, 2005

My Sign

Ares is a pretty good file sharing program. I'm not sure if I want it to replace Shareaza as my officially endorsed file sharing program, but so far it's made a good first impression on me. So far, it's clean, efficient, and effective. Click here to download it.

Discussion Topic: What file sharing program do YOU use? Why is it better than either Shareaza or Ares?

FrogFusion

Google Earth

One corperation has more control over the world's information than any other. Someday, their use of power may not be as benevolent as it seems now. But that day is not today. Download Google Earth.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Adirondack Mountains

Well, I'm off to the mountains for the weekend. Much fun ensues.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Cyborg Abs and Cydoor Ads

All from Slashdot today. There might be someone who goes to this blog who doesn't read it regularly... or something. If that's you, read it.
  • Slashdot | `Bionic' Arm Brings Back Sense of Touch: One step closer to getting my shiny cyborg body. Ah, the villagers I shall burninate.
  • Slashdot | Marketers Scan Blogs For Brand Insights: I like targeted advertising. It gives me a warm, happy feeling to know someone or something is directing an ad directly at me.
  • Slashdot | DoubleClick Warns Against Ad-Blocking Browsers: Speaking of which, I think this guy is fucked. Large groups of people behave selfishly, and selfish folks like me use Adblock. No matter what he says, the web-viewing populace won't become idealistic to suit his needs, even if he is right. Perhaps if his company sold less offensive advertisements, it would fare better. Adblock, for instance, only blocks images and objects within the page. That means banners and flash animations. It DOESN'T mean text advertisements, like the kind Google uses.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

New Hookah

So, I got this new Hookah from my old MQP partner. It is totally sweet.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Sushi!

So, Tom helped me make some sushi today. Specifically, it was makizushi consisting of salmon, carrot, spring onion, lettuce, and cucumber, with wasabi, soy sauce, and ginger on the side. We made WAAAAY too much, and I ended up conscripting Josie to help me eat it after Tom bailed. On the plus side, I don't think it killed me. In fact, I thought it was quite tasty, if a bit bland without the sides. Here are some pictures, a plate with about half of it.

Moon base!

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE!!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Evil Genius Test

I am 75% Evil Genius.
Evil to the Bone!
I am pure evil. I lie awake at night devising schemes of world domination, and I will not rest until all living souls bend to my will.

Monday, June 13, 2005

On Morality

I was recently reading Ty's blog, and read this post about American morality. I started to reply, but it got kinda long, preachy and full of clichés, so I figured I'd just post my response here.
I also have a question for any of you out there who might have an answer. Why is American morality only extending into sexuality and family? I mean we as a nation have no regard for life because we applaud a senseless war, but we will be outraged if an official figure gets head from an intern. Morality apparently isn’t about helping others, or protecting freedom, or even caring for the underlying principals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It seems to me that this is because those in power don’t want the masses to care about things that matter; they want the population outraged at thing that has no bearing on their life so that they will be blind to anything that might affect them.
We can't all agree on what's BEST for America. So why not just create special rules, so we know what to do when we face a difficult choice? Morality is the easy answer; judgement is unnecessary when one has a code to follow.

The absence of morality isn't immorality. It's free choice. Just because one doesn't believe in the rules doesn't mean they will strive to break them. I've met plenty of pro-choice folks, but not many who are pro-abortion. There are some who never matured past their teenage years and still rebel against the status quo because they like being the "bad guy", but for the most part, adults believe in morality, choice, or something in between. I'm not going to go so far as to argue a Kantian "good will", but there is no "bad will" built into human nature.

The worst of what we see in the news aren't people who are evil inside because they don't ascribe to your moral code. The worst are the people who ascribe too strongly to their own warped ethics. In Hitler's mind, the Jews were immoral. In Bin Laden's mind, we are immoral. Maybe if everyone were moral like you, the world would be better.

I don't have any dogmatic solution to replace morality in the public use. Sometimes I have to make hard choices, but I don't make them based on anyone else's rules, and I don't make rules for myself. I make my choices individually, with no action or inaction that is always preferable. Sometimes I'm wrong. Because of this, my method cannot replace morals, which are always right. No matter how wise I become, I will still do the wrong thing sometimes. And I will have nothing to comfort me when I do. My way is painful and extremely undesirable to most people.

Ty is right. Morality is used as a tool. He and I might argue as to whether or not morality IS a tool, but regardless of its true nature, it has always been used to manipulate masses. The moment you fall into league with someone else's morality, a part of you belongs to them, and they will use that part to control the rest of you.

If you're the moral sort, I might be a monster to you. And who knows, maybe I am... I certainly can't prove that I'm a good person to you if I don't believe in intrinsically good and bad people myself. If you want to judge me, fine. If you think God will judge me and I will go to Hell, that's your right to believe too. I'd kill to protect your right to believe it, and killing is pretty damn immoral. But it's a choice I've made myself.

Since this post is mostly a downer and has no pictures yet:

Monday, June 06, 2005

New Place, Hot Weather

Ok, I've got a new place. Alex doesn't like being rushed, so I crashed at Jeff's for a few nights and now he and I have a new place. My room is at a slight angle, but other than that it's pretty sweet.

ALSO, most importantly,

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!!!