Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Before They Were Part II... By Francisco Rangel
Famous movie characters weren't always comedians, knights or scary little
kids. They were pizza delivery guys, garbage collectors and even tech support.
Jerry Seinfeld from Seinfeld
Customer: I bought a 256MB DIMM from your company last week....
Seinfeld: Did it come in a bag? One of those bags that look like airplane
peanut bags?
Customer: Um, if you're referring to the anti-static bag, then...
Seinfeld: What's the deal with airplane peanuts?
Customer: Look, I just need help installing the DIMM.
Seinfeld: Why do they call it a DIMM? Are the people who created it not
BRIGHT enough?
Customer: *click*
Sir Bedevere from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Customer: I bought a CD and I want to burn it, but I don't know if it's
copy-protected.
Bedevere: There are ways of telling whether it is copy-protected.
Customer: Are there? Tell me!
Bedevere: Now, what do you do with CDs?
Customer: Burn them!
Bedevere: What do you burn apart from CDs?
Customer: More CDs!
Bedevere: No.
Customer: Wood?
Bedevere: Right. So, why do CDs burn?
Customer: Because they're made of wood?
Bedevere: Exactly. And wood floats in water. So logically...
Customer: If the CD floats in water... It won't be copy-protected... and
I will be able to burn it!
Bedevere:Yes!
Customer: Thanks! *click*
Cole Sear (the little kid) from The Sixth Sense
Customer: Hi, is this where they help you with broken computers parts.
Cole: Yes. I see dead computers.
Customer: Well, I can't get any sound from my computer.
Cole: I see. Dead speakers?
Customer: No, my speakers are working fine. The little light is on.
Cole: Sometimes speakers lights are on like regular speakers. They don't
know they're dead.
Customer: Oh, wait. The volume was turned down. Never mind. *click*
Stuff I've decided to do some *minor* updates to my Resume
heh heh...
Monday, June 24, 2002
Economics In other news, I am reading Human Action and it's AWESOME! Mises explains the intricacies of economics as clearly as Hazzlit explains its basics and Rand explains philosophy. I've just started the book, but I've been highlighting practically ever other sentence as a quote to add to my list.....
Oh, and I got a 100 on my last logic exam! Yay!
Annoying Stuff My INFO class is BOOORING!
We were learning html today and it was like someone teaching me how to tie my shoes. I make it a point to go to every class, but I think I would be much better of skipping and going to work where I can get paid to do real work with computers. Plus it's really frigging annoying that my prof does her html code in ALL CAPS, without "quotes" and with huge tabs in front of her code. (It's against the current html standard) Not to mention that she requires us to use frames and I consider frames a big no no when it comes to make quality sites.
Then at work today, this cute sounding, but clueless girl calls in and I spend AN HOUR trying to figure out just what her problem is. My favorite thing with people like that is when I ask them to do something simple like "open up your browser" and then wait for 5 minutes as I hear them struggling and saying thinks like "ok" and "here we go" and "hmmm" and and I ask them if they need help and they say "no, I got it!" and then finally they ask "so, what's a browser?"
!!!
Thursday, June 20, 2002
QOTD Finished converting my Quote page to XML and set it up to accept parameters.
Random Quote
Daily Quote
All Quotes
Instructions
XML Source
Update: Added "XML Edit" feature
Definitions Irony: David stays up all night programing instead of sleeping/studying and get's a low grade on his INFO exam on computer systems the next day.
Public educamation: He still gets the highest grade in class.
Irony (#2): David practices every day for his swimming exam thursday only to find himself sore and cramped up all over wednsday night.
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Swimming Sucks Actually, I love swimming, but lately I have been cramped up all over and seriously not ready for my 100 yard swim test on thursday...I should probably spend more time at the pool practicing and less on the keyboard getting carpal tunnel...
(Update: I passed my swim test! Yay!)
For computer newbies I wish I could just give one of these to all the people have who mess up their computers for no good reason and then come asking me how to fix it...
Monday, June 17, 2002
QOTD My first ASP do .Net conversion is the random quote generator you see above. What do you think? I've added 80+ quotes so far...
Also, I realized that this page was competely unreadable to low-res visitors. I changed it to support resolutions down to 640x480, though I hate it when people setup their screen so that you have to scroll two pages to see the next sentence...
Saturday, June 15, 2002
My South Park Character!
Get your own...
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Grrrr... The DNS2Go DNS server is down!
GRRRRR!
(update: the server is back! Yay!)
An application to an Objectivist forum... Hello,
Since your agreement excludes any "enemies of Objectivism" from joining your group -- in particular, libertarians, I wanted to write a short defense of my association with the libertarians and submit it up to you, whether I am in fact, an enemy of Objectivism or its ally. To start with, I am the current president of the Aggie Libertarians, a new libertarian group at Texas A&M University. This, I suppose would be my main offense against Objectivism, and is sufficient evidence in your view to classify me as thoroughly corrupt and irrational anti-objectivist. Allow me however to present some extenuating circumstances and arguments in defense of my association with the libertarians.
The Aggie Libertarians function independently of the actual Libertarian Party, or their local county group, and work to promote libertarian views on campus by bringing in local and visiting speakers, facilitation discussion, and running flier campaigns on local issues. Planned topics for next year include the environment (with the tentative slogan: "Save the Earth: Protect the Corporation"), "The Costs of Regulation", and "Affirmative Action and Diversity as Racist Policy." This sums up my offenses against objectivism.
However before you close the book on me as a nihilistic, amoral, anarchist hippie, I would like to mention, that in addition to leading an active libertarian group on campus, I am also an officer and one of the founding members of the "A&M Objectivism Club" - a new group at our university dedicated to the study and promotion of Objectivism. In our first year, we have run campaigns against the pro-life group on campus and a campaign in support of Israel, including a successful speech by Dr Yaron Brook, which was featured on the front page of the local school paper. We have also had weekly meetings at which we discuss philosophy, and recently, study the "Objectivism through Induction" course by Dr. Peikoff. Three of our members, including me, have been accepted into the Objectivist Academic Center's 4-year undergraduate program, and our mailing list, while not much larger than when it began, has expanded to include several new fans of objectivism. I should also mention that three of the five officers of the Libertarians are also members of the Objectivist group, and as such, we have used the more widespread membership of the libertarian group to introduce libertarians to objectivism, with many failures, but at least one success.
The real question however, is whether the libertarian group, and my identification as a libertarian is a sanction of ungrounded, amoral, subjective, and nihilistic claims to the right to do whatever we please at the spur of the moment or not. The arguments of Peter Shwartz notwithstanding, I think that if you look at the actual actions of our group, our stated goals, and the libertarian movement as a whole, our ideas are NOT a "mindless quest to eliminate all restraints on human behavior - political, moral, metaphysical," but specific, principled, *political* goals that are based on classical and neo-classical economics and the principle of non-initiation of force.
Do I think that it is impossible do achieve a libertarian (or rational) society without a fundamental change in society to a proper view of the nature of rights and a rational morality? Sure.
Do I think that many libertarians are anarchists or liberals for whom libertarianism is either a step on the road to "market" anarchy or a means through which to allow them to do whatever drugs they want? Sure.
Does the official libertarian position support rights which are ungrounded on rational principles (such as a right to free speech or a right to privacy) and requires the adoption of objectivist principles if it is to be consistent? Sure.
Do I think that one should not tolerate or sanction those who promote immoral and irrational ideas? Sure. (And in fact I have used my influence with the libertarians to exclude speakers (such as anarchists) who fundamentally opposed my views.)
However, the libertarian movement as a whole and my group in particular is in fact about certain and specific *political* actions which are in fact based on rational principles of individual-rights, free-markets, and personal responsibility -- wholly in line with objectivist principles, even if not always based on them. Furthermore, in my experience, for most libertarians, Ayn Rand's works *are* in fact a major, if not *the* major influence and basis for their political ideology (certainly that is true for me)
The libertarian movement is not, as many objectivists claim, based on nihilism, but on sound economic principles as stated by such economists as Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek, of whom Ayn Rand explicitly approved, and who directly (and in many cases personally) influenced the founders of the libertarian movement. As such, the libertarian movement is based on the western principles of capitalism and whether libertarians admit it or not, involved a practical and rational morality - at least as far as their political goals are concerned.
It is true that without explicitly and consistently adopting a rational (Objectivist) morality, libertarians will never succeed, maintain, or implement their ideas, and certainly not bring about the political revolution they desire, but back to my original question -- are libertarian's allies of objectivism -- I give a qualified yes.
In sum, until the intellectual climate is ripe for the mainstream parties to adopt rational values, the libertarian movement is a far better alternative than either one of the political parties (which are virtually the same) and is a source of converts to objectivism, real political results, and an additional forum for spreading the objectivist message.
One thing I have learned from experience over and over at my school is that there are precious few allies of my ideas in today intellectual and political climate, and I would urge you to consider whether in fact the libertarians are an enemy of objectivism or not.
(And that would be the extent of my uncertainty on whether I sanction someone that makes me disqualified from joining your list.)
-- David Leo Veksler
Monday, June 10, 2002
Libertarian Convention.. ...was a blast! I met many, many cool people, talked philosophy, politics, economics, ethics, and business all night, ate some great food, stayed in a snazzy hotel room, and got the (unofficial) job of LP state webmaster in addition to potentially doing some local campagn websites. I also made a tentative speech plan for the coming year and met several potential speaker I can invite to come to A&M.
There were some negative aspects however, such as the highly argumentative nature of the nomination and convention process (more than should be, methinks) Also, some less than qualified people were nominated to office, but I suppose that's what elections are all about. In any case, I bet the Libertarians are about the only party that actually have a real Parliamentary - style convention process, whereas the Dems, Reps, and Greens probably have big PR gigs, while the real decisions are made in smoky bars and strip clubs. I'd like to know how true that is.
Check out photos
here
Thursday, June 06, 2002
My New Website is up! Welcome to my new website!
Now featuring ASP.NET, XML, inline frames, an access database, 100% CSS formating and XHTML!
Please click "comment" below and tell me what you think!
Posted at 21:51 by Dave :: Archived :: TrackBack :: comment[
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