Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Pioneer 10 Still Running After 30 years [Slashdot] 8:56:36 PM    comment []

Think Of The Things You'll Be Able To Photocopy Now!. Roll-Up TVs RSN. "Reuters is reporting that scientists in England are on the verge of perfecting really thin-screen televisions: Roll-up, flexible televisions, akin to the melting watches of Salvador Dali's surreal landscapes, have become possible thanks to a glowing plastic compound perfected in the laboratories of Britain's Cambridge Display Technology (CDT). 'You're effectively printing televisions,' CDT Chief Executive David Fyfe told Reuters. 'They can be printed onto thin plastic almost like paper.' 'Realistically, you will see roll up displays around 2004 or 2005,' he added." [Over the Edge] [The Shifted Librarian] 8:19:04 PM    comment []

Google Art. Metafilter uncovers a neat new thing: Posting to Usenet in such a way that when you search for a keyword... [Ben Hammersley.com] 8:18:07 PM    comment []

Frank McPherson Thinks Churches Need To "Shift," Too. "Today I had a good conversation with Matt and his wife, Kim, about the unique perspective that Gen-Xers have on church. In particular, Gen-Xers expect far more use of computers and electronic communications such as e-mail, instant messaging, and yes, even PowerPoint. One of the things that Matt said that really stood out is that he and his wife checked to see whether our church had a web site, and if it didn't that would have told them a lot about our church. The lack of a web site might have caused them to not come to our church. I think that for anyone associated with Christian churches today, Matt's comment has got to make you think about how you are reaching out and communicating with today's generation. The conversation inspired many thoughts. One would be, wouldn't it be cool if churches provided mail servers, message forums, online chats, and web server space for weblogs tools to extend their community into cyberspace? When a person joined the church they would be given an email address. They would be provided the webloging tools to contribute to the community by providing their own content. Not many churches have the ability to provide all this themselves, but it wouldn't take much for technology providers to provide this type of service. Take for example Yahoo, which provides mail, forums, and web server space. Another thought I had would be to set up the entire church with a wireless LAN. When I say entire church I mean even the sanctuary. Then I would set up an internal web server (effectively building an intranet within the church) and put as much information on that server as I could. You could simply store PowerPoint files on that server to retrieve and view from anywhere, but a church really doesn't need PowerPoint for the types of things it would use. Here again simple weblogging or HTML generation tools would suffice to do things like project words to a song up on a wall. (Of course, you would need the projection hardware to do that too.) Video can be played using many different free tools. Actually, projection might even be too old today. With a wireless LAN worshipers could access the words to songs, scripture readings, sermon notes, etc.. directly on their PDAs. This could also be an nice application for Mira and Tablet PCs.... The label doens't matter, but the spirit does. The point is that churches today have got to start using technology as a means to reach out to their membership and communicate with them in ways that make sense to the membership." [Notes From The Cave] [The Shifted Librarian] 8:14:18 PM    comment []

For the story behind the story... Tuesday, July 16, 2002 Who Says the Communists Lost? The Soviet Union is no more, and communism has been discredited as a political system. Despite these facts, many of the goals set forth by the Communist thugs in the Soviet Union to bring about a world socialist order have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented down to this very day. NewsMax.com is indebted to reader Ed Werner for reminding us of the following 45 goals of the Communist Party that were exposed 40 years ago in "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen, who was head of communications at the FBI for 16 years. 45 GOALS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY* U.S. acceptance of co-existence as the only alternative to atomic war. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of moral strength. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist domination. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests, because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. Do away with loyalty oaths. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. Capture one or both political parties. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of "teacher" associations. Put the party line in textbooks. Gain control of all student newspapers. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate" all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms. Control art critics and directors of museums. "Plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." Eliminate laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and violation of free speech and free press. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "Separation of Church and State." Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the grounds that it was only a minor part of "the big picture." Give emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture - education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. Infiltrate and gain control of more "unions"! Infiltrate and gain control of "big business"! Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which "no one but psychiatrists" can understand and treat. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. Discredit the "family" as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the "negative" influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blanks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition, that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. Internationalize the PANAMA CANAL. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the WORLD COURT from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the WORLD COURT jurisdiction over "Nations and Individuals" alike. *All 45 Goals above are from "The Naked Communist," W. Cleon Skousen, November 1961, pp. 259-262. TAKE NOTE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER CONVENTION FOLLOWING THE 45 GOALS. 7:36:26 PM    comment []

J2EE vs. .NET. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. But this comparison is even-keeled and well done. For those who know one environment but not the other, this is probably a good place to start your education. Link   Discuss [The .NET Guy] 7:24:47 PM    comment []