This Wired article is about Sony and their invasive copy protection software that is on 20 of their new CD releases. Being aware of information rights is important, and putting your trust in anything a technology company gives you is not a good idea(even if it is Sony). Another important point this should make one aware of is to always know everything that is installed on your computer.
I first saw this issue discussed on Slashdot, and of course most people were disgusted at Sony's actions, which pretty much amount to installing the worst kind of spyware on a person's computer. It will comprimise your computer's security in a way hackers could take advantage of, besides it being an invasion of privacy. As the article suggests, I would also recommend not buying Sony music until they change their stance on this issue and remedy the damage already done.
I think Sony makes excellent ultra-lightweight notebook computers. Feel free to buy those. They are probably not the people involved in the music end of the company, except at the very highest levels.
What the heck, Sony? Get your act together and stop being evil!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
Grad School, and the holy pursuit of scientific truth
The reason you go to grad school is because you care about what you're studying in an academic sense. That is, you want to gain knowledge of your field for knowledge's sake.
My interests are in the study of pragmatics, semantics, and computational linguistics. Actually, my pragmatics class gets me excited sometimes. In pragmatics you study how the outside world affects language in terms of context and assumptions and things like that.
I've also started learning Japanese. I have a very good teacher, but I get a little tired(like literally tired) from it because we have it 5 days per week.
I went to a lecture on Monday at Newman Hall(the Catholic Center here). It concerned the harmony between faith and reason. Basically, he was showing a perspective on interpreting scripture that has been forgotten by many people these days.
These days you get many fundamentalists who read scripture first, and then interpret the world through the lens of scripture.
On the other extreme you get scientists who see people doing this and use science to claim that religion/faith is ignorant/non-thinking/obsolete, take your pick.
Before about 300 years ago, interpretation of scripture happened much differently. It was reasoned that scripture is never mistaken, but interpretation of scripture is. Additionally, Christians(particularly, the Catholic Church) took the laws proven by science to be one and the same as God's truth. Thus the pursuit of science in order to discover truth was considered a holy venture.
Given this, interpretation of scripture should be done through the lens of laws founded in science. Scripture should be made to fit science, not the other way around. If a new discovery in science is made that conflicts with a previous theory or a current interpretation of scripture, "proof" must be given for it to be taken seriously. Then interpretation of relevant scripture is changed to fit the best "vision" of the universe that we have.
I hope this explanation has inspired you in some way, because it did for me :-)
My interests are in the study of pragmatics, semantics, and computational linguistics. Actually, my pragmatics class gets me excited sometimes. In pragmatics you study how the outside world affects language in terms of context and assumptions and things like that.
I've also started learning Japanese. I have a very good teacher, but I get a little tired(like literally tired) from it because we have it 5 days per week.
I went to a lecture on Monday at Newman Hall(the Catholic Center here). It concerned the harmony between faith and reason. Basically, he was showing a perspective on interpreting scripture that has been forgotten by many people these days.
These days you get many fundamentalists who read scripture first, and then interpret the world through the lens of scripture.
On the other extreme you get scientists who see people doing this and use science to claim that religion/faith is ignorant/non-thinking/obsolete, take your pick.
Before about 300 years ago, interpretation of scripture happened much differently. It was reasoned that scripture is never mistaken, but interpretation of scripture is. Additionally, Christians(particularly, the Catholic Church) took the laws proven by science to be one and the same as God's truth. Thus the pursuit of science in order to discover truth was considered a holy venture.
Given this, interpretation of scripture should be done through the lens of laws founded in science. Scripture should be made to fit science, not the other way around. If a new discovery in science is made that conflicts with a previous theory or a current interpretation of scripture, "proof" must be given for it to be taken seriously. Then interpretation of relevant scripture is changed to fit the best "vision" of the universe that we have.
I hope this explanation has inspired you in some way, because it did for me :-)
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Gichin Funakoshi
A short biography about the founder of my style of martial arts, Gichin Funakoshi.
From the article:
'Whenever the name of Gichin Funakoshi is mentioned, it brings to mind the parable of "A Man of Tao (Do) and a Little Man". As it is told, a student once asked, "What is the difference between a man of Tao and a little man?" The sensei replies, "It is simple. When the little man receives his first dan (degree or rank), he can hardly wait to run home and shout at the top of his voice to tell everyone that he has obtained his first dan. Upon receiving his second dan, he will climb to the rooftops and shout to the people. Upon receiving his third dan, he will jump in his automobile and parade through town blowing the horn, telling one and all about his third dan".
The sensei continues, "When the man of Tao receives his first dan, he will bow his head in gratitude. Upon receiving his second dan, he will bow his head and his shoulders. Upon receiving his third dan, he will bow at the waist and quietly walk alongside the wall so that people will not see him or notice him".
Funakoshi was a man of Tao. He placed no emphasis whatsoever on competitions, record breaking or championships. He placed emphasis on individual self-perfection. He believed in the common decency and respect that one human being owes another. He was the master of masters.'
From the article:
'Whenever the name of Gichin Funakoshi is mentioned, it brings to mind the parable of "A Man of Tao (Do) and a Little Man". As it is told, a student once asked, "What is the difference between a man of Tao and a little man?" The sensei replies, "It is simple. When the little man receives his first dan (degree or rank), he can hardly wait to run home and shout at the top of his voice to tell everyone that he has obtained his first dan. Upon receiving his second dan, he will climb to the rooftops and shout to the people. Upon receiving his third dan, he will jump in his automobile and parade through town blowing the horn, telling one and all about his third dan".
The sensei continues, "When the man of Tao receives his first dan, he will bow his head in gratitude. Upon receiving his second dan, he will bow his head and his shoulders. Upon receiving his third dan, he will bow at the waist and quietly walk alongside the wall so that people will not see him or notice him".
Funakoshi was a man of Tao. He placed no emphasis whatsoever on competitions, record breaking or championships. He placed emphasis on individual self-perfection. He believed in the common decency and respect that one human being owes another. He was the master of masters.'
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Rachel and PuzzleCrack!
This past weekend Rachel my girl visited for the weekend and we had a great time spending time together. She got to spend some time with my roommates. We went to a couple parks and watched Wings of Desire, a German film about guardian angels. Quite good.
This past week(Monday through Friday), my roommate JT and I participated in a puzzle competition based at the University of Illinois campus.
It was quite fun but very tiring and I get burned out at the end after I finished solving a very hard cryptographic cipher.
We finished the last puzzle 4th, which got us some free pizza, but really that was just because the organizers had extra pizza they wouldn't be able to finish. Yes, we met the people who made the puzzles, and got to talk with them a bit. You see, the last puzzle required us to go to the computer science building and find them, in order to get the final clue from them.
But we spent a very long time on those puzzles all week, and now we must get back to work :-)
This past week(Monday through Friday), my roommate JT and I participated in a puzzle competition based at the University of Illinois campus.
It was quite fun but very tiring and I get burned out at the end after I finished solving a very hard cryptographic cipher.
We finished the last puzzle 4th, which got us some free pizza, but really that was just because the organizers had extra pizza they wouldn't be able to finish. Yes, we met the people who made the puzzles, and got to talk with them a bit. You see, the last puzzle required us to go to the computer science building and find them, in order to get the final clue from them.
But we spent a very long time on those puzzles all week, and now we must get back to work :-)
Monday, September 26, 2005
Other interesting things I've done
Let's see...
Saturdays have been interesting. The Saturday before last I was a scorer for a mud volleyball tournament for an all-girls' dorm. An RA I know in Navs invited JT and I to volunteer, and we were much obliged ;-) There was even a good amount of mud wrestling :-P
This past Saturday I went with some Navs to do "hawking" at the football game. This consists of selling concessions in the stands like at any major sporting event, except that this is non-profit(except for tips ^_^). A portion of the proceeds of whatever we sell go to the Navigators, so it's good work, free admission to the game(UofI lost 61-7) and we make some money for our group. Navs also sponsored free dinner for everyone who went hawking. Twas funness.
Meow.
Saturdays have been interesting. The Saturday before last I was a scorer for a mud volleyball tournament for an all-girls' dorm. An RA I know in Navs invited JT and I to volunteer, and we were much obliged ;-) There was even a good amount of mud wrestling :-P
This past Saturday I went with some Navs to do "hawking" at the football game. This consists of selling concessions in the stands like at any major sporting event, except that this is non-profit(except for tips ^_^). A portion of the proceeds of whatever we sell go to the Navigators, so it's good work, free admission to the game(UofI lost 61-7) and we make some money for our group. Navs also sponsored free dinner for everyone who went hawking. Twas funness.
Meow.
Indianapolis Zoo
The Indianapolis Zoo is cool. Rachel visited Indianapolis with Kathy and Greg last weekend and I decided to make the 2 hour drive to meet them, on very short notice. I even blew off a meeting for a class to go see her :-) Anyway, it wasn't an important meeting, and there was no reason for me specifically to be there.
There was a Polar Bear that did backflips all day cuz it was bored. We ate at the spaghetti factory. All was fun, and this coming weekend Rachel will visit me here in IL :-)
JT(mostly) and I just beat Zork: Grand Inquisitor today. It's an older game that I've kept because it's very entertaining and I could never beat it! But JT used a walkthrough when he got significantly stuck and we got through it in good time :-) Very nice ending and I'm glad I've finally seen it all.
Went to Stratford Park Bible Church this Sunday. The communion service at 9 was quite cool. No pastor or anything, just a lady at the organ and anyone can stand up and tell something God's spoken to them or they can suggest a song that everyone should sing. We also went to the Christian Education class afterwards, which had good interaction and so was interesting.
Good day ^_^ God will save the day, as always!
There was a Polar Bear that did backflips all day cuz it was bored. We ate at the spaghetti factory. All was fun, and this coming weekend Rachel will visit me here in IL :-)
JT(mostly) and I just beat Zork: Grand Inquisitor today. It's an older game that I've kept because it's very entertaining and I could never beat it! But JT used a walkthrough when he got significantly stuck and we got through it in good time :-) Very nice ending and I'm glad I've finally seen it all.
Went to Stratford Park Bible Church this Sunday. The communion service at 9 was quite cool. No pastor or anything, just a lady at the organ and anyone can stand up and tell something God's spoken to them or they can suggest a song that everyone should sing. We also went to the Christian Education class afterwards, which had good interaction and so was interesting.
Good day ^_^ God will save the day, as always!
Monday, September 05, 2005
A Cheese Festival!
For our fun activity on Labor Day, JT and I went to the Arthur, IL Cheese Festival. It was a good time spent with a good friend.
Arthur, IL is home to what seems like about half amish people, and is thus self-titled the home of the Amish. In order to get to downtown Arthur, you have to drive through miles and miles of corn and soybean fields. This made me a bit uncomfortable because I'm so not used to driving through such an expanse of farmland. There are plenty of farms in Maryland, but you couldn't find an area like there is in Central Illinois.
The cheese festival was comprised of a bunch of small tents lining the downtown area of Arthur, and the main source of the cheese was two bakery-type places, specializing in fresh cheese and bread and dessert pastries. They looked verrry good. We walked by all the tents, looking at the mostly-not-cheese vendors. In fact, we should've brought along a couple of girls because they would better appreciate a lot of the decorative arts and crafts/jewelry being sold by most of the people. There were also the standard expensive food vendors. However, there was a "cheese tent" in which a few people were handing out two large slices of excellent cheddar cheese on a sesame seed flatbread.
We chose to eat at a quaint restaurant called The Dutch Oven. I got a fried cod fish sandwich which fried mushrooms, and JT got a tenderloin sandwich with fries. The food was alright, although not overly impressive, just like the restaurant. But the people were friendly, and the prices were right, so it was nice.
We ended up buying some smoked gouda and some muenster(my favorite) after sampling a variety of cheeses available for sale. So we had a novel experience today and we have some good cheese to eat(while it lasts).
>>>I hope I can get all my work done :-P
Arthur, IL is home to what seems like about half amish people, and is thus self-titled the home of the Amish. In order to get to downtown Arthur, you have to drive through miles and miles of corn and soybean fields. This made me a bit uncomfortable because I'm so not used to driving through such an expanse of farmland. There are plenty of farms in Maryland, but you couldn't find an area like there is in Central Illinois.
The cheese festival was comprised of a bunch of small tents lining the downtown area of Arthur, and the main source of the cheese was two bakery-type places, specializing in fresh cheese and bread and dessert pastries. They looked verrry good. We walked by all the tents, looking at the mostly-not-cheese vendors. In fact, we should've brought along a couple of girls because they would better appreciate a lot of the decorative arts and crafts/jewelry being sold by most of the people. There were also the standard expensive food vendors. However, there was a "cheese tent" in which a few people were handing out two large slices of excellent cheddar cheese on a sesame seed flatbread.
We chose to eat at a quaint restaurant called The Dutch Oven. I got a fried cod fish sandwich which fried mushrooms, and JT got a tenderloin sandwich with fries. The food was alright, although not overly impressive, just like the restaurant. But the people were friendly, and the prices were right, so it was nice.
We ended up buying some smoked gouda and some muenster(my favorite) after sampling a variety of cheeses available for sale. So we had a novel experience today and we have some good cheese to eat(while it lasts).
>>>I hope I can get all my work done :-P
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