web dev

I miss git.
Specifically, I miss the commits at the end of the day, that sort of self-documentation and wrapping up the day, instead of forgetting about the struggles that have come before. Blah.

Templates

How much do templates matter, in the grand scheme of things?

Currently, the vision for ezlo templates is big. Huge, maybe. And I've just realized that it's going to take a while to implement the sort of quasi-social aggregation system that I want to help advanced latex users to help the beginner latex users. I can only ask: does anyone care if people vote on various templates? Would anyone use more than a handful of templates? Sure, people could hack them to fill the need for, say, auto-complete and keyboard shortcuts, but would my time be better spent on those features?

Need to sleep on this. I haven't allocated myself much time on ezlo, though. Hmm.

Ezlo Images

Images work pretty well; they're styled hideously, but insertion with png's works. I probably should use the file handling utils that ruby comes with, but that's for later...

Voronoi, and Ezlo

So I'm kind of ish done with voronoi; at any rate, I'm doing a simulation with a huge number of points, so whether or not it'll come out any good is still to be seen. I'm leaving a problem with gen_verts(), though, which is bothersome: if I ever get bored, I'll go fix that.

I've spent a bit getting back into hacking on ezlo, and I've discovered that this render :update malarky is a bit more complicated than everyone makes it out to be. I have to take a look into rjs, though, which might fix my current conundrum of getting the image handling interface to behave nicely.

Algorithms

I swear, writing algorithms suck, and I don't want to see one for a while.

Yeah, take that, you sucky algorithms.

Ignite

Well, I'm hooked on ignite.

Port 80!

After all these years, I finally have a http server that connects on port 80.

Go me.

Input/Ouput ratio

For the amount of time I'm spending on one project, I'm getting very little output...

Twitter, Voronoi Diagrams

So I've gotten into twitter. Enough said.

I'm also trying to generate voronoi diagrams. NOT WORKING OUT SO WELL.

tno.anim3

So I've taken it upon myself to fully quantify the animation's code name to tno.anim3. New HD render can be found at http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt138/thenoviceoof/anim3/planet3.png, where I'm experimenting with a somewhat downsized HD rez, and trying out the day/night paradigm.

Also, read some Lovecraft today, while also rediscovering a major weakness of mine. I took on a particularly long short story of Lovecraft's, and while modeling a lilypad called to me, I couldn't stop reading. It was not a matter of suspense, or, after reaching the halfway point, interest, but I just need to finish what I start. Although, I must say it has an interesting plot 'twist'; I must also say that, as written some time ago, is much more long winded than I am used to.

I also got my recert'd sansa today; 16gb View. Not bad at all, especially since there's a GSoC participant working on a rockbox port. Here's to a successful, and quick port.

Ezlo Update #w/e

Started building the template engine, not sure whether to just push it into the brew interface or not. Finished chrooting the goods: the images stack is almost finished, just can't figure out why the conversion to eps is failing. I'll figure this out, and call it a day/night: I have a pretty big headache right now.

Ezlo Update: #5

So I spent a bit of today hacking on ezlo: I got the file uploads to work, realized that I was only imagining a bug, and started added template support. Works in progress: evaluating BSD as a potential platform for the server, since I've been chrooting ezlo's latex processes, so users can't craft latex files to probe the server. However, there's a very interesting way to break a chroot detailed at http://www.bpfh.net/simes/computing/chroot-break.html. Although latex wouldn't be run as root, BSD might be a stronger, more secure system overall (especially openbsd, whom I have discovered have a song and artwork to accompany every major release. Seriously). Another work in progress, although it's a bit a trivial: getting the ctrl-s combo to save. Actually, deciding whether to do this means deciding how the update mechanism is going to work.

I also found out today that the third season of the big bang theory had begun.

Just as a heads up, I'm also working on generating 2-d and 3-d voronoi diagrams, generating fast noise (perlin or otherwise, essentially, going for a plasma) for a game, and working through an abstract algebra text.

Also, Up has 98% on rotten tomatoes. Very sweet. Which reminds me that I've made no progress on my animation thus far. Shoot. (need a codename for that project).

Also, I've decided that I need to be more humble, jobwise. I read in The Rest is Noise that Glass worked as a plumber, so much so that a music critic wondered what a cutting edge composer like Glass was doing on his kitchen floor. I immediately thought "cool! That's pretty anti-establishment, shocking, something unexpected." However, with serious introspection, I realized that I think I'm above some jobs, including but not restricted to plumbing. Somehow, because I, say, play the violin and code, means that I'm exempt from certain 'lowly' jobs, like flipping hamburgers. But, I'm not: just because I'm insecure in being unsure whether the world will remember me for my work, not for flipping hamburgers, doesn't mean that my time has become more valuable, that I need to fulfill my needs and dreams before I can accept humble jobs with the knowledge that I'm above them. I guess no one really made it clear that I need to think of my time as worthless before it gains worth.

A quick note, while we're talking about composers: I watched Children of Men again, and noticed almost all the music was coming from sources inside the film (sidenote, I wonder how we'll explain the use of 'film' to refer to movies to our kids). The few times there was something akin to a soundtrack, the music was always previously composed: in fact, the entire film used previously composed music. I thought the use of Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (which was in fact a politically oriented name used for the piece after the first performance, one of the many things I learned from The Rest is Noise) was especially pertinent, as well as the use of Shostakovich.

AppleGeeks

Despite being about Apple geeks, I am afraid that I've read the entire backlog of Applegeeks in one night.

Shapshot: Kimota v0.2

Just to keep abreast of the latest development stuff, some actual information inside the app! Now, it's time to get the rest of the information and speed up the app, especially scaling and startup.

Oh, and here are the actual goods. Tested with firefox and webkit under linux.

Silence

Why yes, I have been maintaining blog silence recently: the primary reason being that I am a giant slacker, and the secondary reason being that posting without having anything to say is kind of depressing. Perhaps I should go read some books to expand my mind. Or not.

The real reason I'm posting this is to tell everyone that a development snapshot of kimota is available here. Mind you, it doesn't actually have any isotope data loaded into it yet, but the whole engine is there. It works well with firefox, opera, chrome, and safari. IE 8, and probably everything below that, barfs upon seeing the scripts.

Happy happy joy joy!

'Shrooms

I have made my peace with mushrooms. The edible, non-trippy kind.

That is all.

Whatever

For posterity, when I was talking about 'doing things right' in my last post, I meant how I was connecting users and documents: originally, I just assigned a user id to a document, but that kind of defeated the point of a collaborative web app. So, I just made up a new table that connected users and documents in a more flexible way, which took less time than I thought it would. I was pretty happy about it.

IE (6-8) is also not very cool about not letting me access the height of an element that I haven't explicitly set a height for. Annoying, annoying, annoying. It'd all work so beautifully if it didn't break like that....

EDIT: I have a new video up; it's not a short, but it's just a pos vid of me playing part of rach's 2nd piano concerto. Enjoy! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfxOfkA1HSY

As a bonus, here's a vid that shows us all exactly how weird violinists are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_aX4xm0JY

Stupid, stupid

Instead of sleeping, I'm working on ezlo. Blah. At least I bit the bullet and now I'm doing things right.

Also, safari feels fast. Just thought I'd comment on that.

Unified Diffs?

Just to make sure I'm alive:

The unified format for diffs seems like the one that can fit my needs best. 

That is all.

Stuggles

Not only do I not have a life, I have found some answers to my problems, which only makes everything harder (although it is nice having something to do).

First order of business, getting a diff function that will do diffs on multiple, possibly broken copies of a document (ezlo business). Modeling: there are a couple users (A, B, C) that are working simultaneously on a document, and user A decides to update line 5. At the same time, user B decides to... well, alot of things can go wrong just about now. B could start to edit the line at the exact same time, B could create a couple new lines between lines 3 and 4, throwing off any line-based diff systems, he could make a few copies of line 5 into lines 2 and 3, or any number of things. 

The race condition is easy to solve: just disable further editing when B finds that someone got to editing line 5 first. Creating new lines and copies: well, I'll figure it out.

Second order of business, making the cracked-ground script. Voronoi diagrams give the sort of shape I'm looking for (probably provided I give it sets of points that aren't too close together?), but that means implementing voronoi and extracting verticies: after that, then splitting them and joining them back into polygons (or in the previous step?). 

I also ordered some relays to act as switches for the coilgun (I know, right?). Now, I don't really like radioshack (understated) but, as I know, they do for a 'real' electronics store in a pinch. I also need an excuse to use my under-used soldering iron. It's a real thing of beauty, just I never get to use it. Sigh. Oh, and note to self: get some pvc piping. Trust me, if I get my way, this will all make sense later. 

Out

Pandora

So, I woke up after a few hours of being in love with O3D, and now I'm looking forward to getting my server back up and running this weekend.

I also just found out that Pandora  added classical music a while back. Cool, but not cool at the same time,  if you know what I mean.

So, I wonder, how big of an array can javascript hold? (to hold all the radioactive elements)

I'm still struggling with how to even start making a cracked-ground script. Hmm.

Anyways, out.

O3D

I admit, I am a whore of commerce. Despite my appreciation for those that do startups, I am still a sucker for stuff from Google. Google search, Google Chrome, and now Google O3D. It is very possible that I'll forget about O3D soon (like when I discovered OpenGL) but for now, I am in love. (hahaha) But I still have to get my server back so I can finish hacking out ezlo.

That is all.

Dance like no one is watching

Sing like no one is listening.  Think like there is no god.

And above all...

Fart like no one is smelling.

That is all.

On Theft

Well, I've just had a pile of my shit jacked (put oh-so-eloquently) including my laptop, my cell, and my ipod. Those things represent good man-hours put into customizing and tweaking configurations, all to the end of some guy walking into the suite when I'm busy showering and taking it all. Well, I suppose it's the same as having each item die in turn, but it's really the fact that it was stolen that gets me. Now, I have the urge to serve some justice, although it's very possible (and likely) that none will be dealt. 

I suppose this comes at an opprotune time with regards to my introduction to religions class: we've just begun to study buddhism, and I can really see how attachment can be seen as a bad thing, especially in the light of these recent events. Maybe I'll expand on this more when I'm not supposed to be sleeping.

My server went down and didn't come back up because of some filesystem error/corruption. Not cool.

Ezlo Update #4

Yes, I should be doing homework and labs instead of this, especially since it's highly unlikely that ezlo can go into production before the lab cycle ends, and I don't have a reason to have collaborative latex later. Well, not that I can see. It'll always be nice to have a latex working somewhere online. 

Anyways, I still need to add file uploading to latex, that works in an ajax-y way (iframes are acceptable) and way to limit file sizes given through the file uploading. Also, chmod -R and chown -R are saviors when it comes to making the filestore for openid work well with the server user. Wheee. 

Also, I have come to the conclusion that having code generation on the fly is overrated. Of course, SBCL springs to mind, but it's fat. Ugh. I'm not sure how running what's essentially byte-code through stalin will do, though.

Ezlo Update: #3

My hair is very, very short now. As opposed to poke-myself-in-the-eye hair, I now have tenth-of-an-inch hair. This will take some getting used to.

On an unrelated note, I've moved ezlo to my main server configuration, so that it's not just up whenever I'm working with it. Unfortunately, the filestore I was using to make OpenID cracked, so I have to switch to some database store.

I suppose it would be a good thing to talk about my tribulations here, in detail, but I don't feel like it. Good night.

Okay, nevermind, I'll detail some things I found today:

When doing projects, take a name and stick with it. If you want to change names, then change it everywhere, otherwise it's confusing.

And, uh, everything else escapes me. It is late, after all.

Ezlo Update: #2

So after some 4 hours of hacking (it's the small stuff that trips you up, like mapping the values of a hash to a list), I finally rolled my own OpenID login. I still have yet to figure out how to do concurrent editing well... Oh well, still have a bunch to do with ezlo before I even introduce it to someone other than me.

Ezlo

So, I've completely changed directions, and have taken on a long standing project that I have been meaning to do for a while. My server has been sitting empty for a bit (aside from the set files it's been hosting, and my git repos), so I decided that, while working on the physics lab today, that we really did need an online latex editor similar to Google's documents. So I've made a solid start on one. I'm using rails, mostly because learning another framework would be more work than the switch would save me. Right now, I almost have it spitting out pdfs, but I'm too tired to type straight, so that milestone will have to wait.

Oh, and name: I was casting about for something to call the directory, and saw my friend's thingamajig that's this yeast character from some anime. Yes, yeast, called ormize (or something like that), which is what I promptly named my rails project. Then, I noticed that reversing the word could lead to ezlo, which could stand for E-Z Latex Online. We'll see, but I think ezlo is my working name for now.

Stalin

I must say, I'm quite taken with the purported speed of Stalin, especially the advertised speed for numerical code. If I dare say so myself, green_tea's gonna need it. In other news, I still have no idea how to make a rose.

Chicken under XP

Well, chicken under XP works now. I've updated some of the chicken wiki pages to let people like myself figure out how to get csc working under Windows quickly and easily. 

I'm wondering if the chicken folks would want to have a msi avaliable. Probably would want to use nullsoft, as a note to self.

Real Life intervenes

Why yes, real life has intervened. This means that nearly none of my projects have made any progress at all, which is somewhat depressing.I suppose that if I spent the time that I slacked off doing projects, I would be happier at the end of the day, but meh. We'll see how that attitude works. 

On the bright side (somewhat) I watched a  pretty good tutorial on making heads in blender. It was a bit elementary, but I learned some things, and got some ideas for how to approach modeling. However, modeling a rose (or something like it, since I'm not trying to strictly mirror reality) and getting the main character to a riggable state are still posing problems (albeit under-explored). 

Oh yes, I'm working on an animation, for those of you unaware. I'll codename it Project Peachy for now. Also, until I can decide whether or not Diffy Cue is a good name for the differential equations solver I've been working on, I'll just codename it Project Green Tea (inside mathematics department joke).

Macros and Continuations

I get scheme continuations and macros. Kind of, not quite enough to get the involved examples that abound, but I can probably follow them now. And I got a timbuk2 bag; it's a bit big, but more volume can't be bad. Anyways, still casting about for a name of sorts.

Rawr on homework.

New Projects

Since I haven't had any complaints about my last release yet, I've been thinking about my next project. More than a few of my REU prospects have fallen through, so I'm going to need to make everything count. I can either:

• Mash up that registration system I've been dreaming about.
• Put together that differential equations explorer I've been inspired to make since getting to Diff Eq and realizing no one knew about a decent solution explorer (sort of).
• There were more the last time I checked. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually...

This is in conjunction with my robotics stuff, as well as my animation stuff. Boy, I better get cracking.

But first, sleep.

Oh, and continuations just blow my mind. And hygenic macros. Whaaaaa?

Set Version 2

So, I've decided to not go with the more traditional major.minor.fix versioning, especially since I don't ever expect to have more than a few versions on this. Hence, version 2, a mostly bugfix release so that it actually works. Once again, here's the source, and a binary. Once again, grab the binary if 'wxpython' fails to be familiar. If you still have a beef with anything, we can take it up outside.

Squishing bugs

So, squished another bug, for my non-existent git followers.

Also, determined that using scheme for my program of insanity is not going to be the easiest thing in the world, not to mention I haven't done any speed tests (now I check the computer language shootout...) and scheme is a bit slow for intensive computation (not that it really matters when you have cores and gigahertz to spare). Plus, getting scheme to play with wxwindows seems like it would be a pain. On the other hand, writing C wouldn't be a whole lot of fun, neither. Ah, conundrums...

I need a name for a differential equation explorer.

tno

Work on set

So I think I squashed a good number of bugs, at least in the git repo version that I had on the server (if you wanna get the git sources, just clone git://jakv.no-ip.org/git/set . And tell me how that goes). So, when I have more time, I'll make up a binary release and test that too.

What does it mean when windows is a port in progress for sbcl? And how's the numerical speed for scheme? I wonder...

Until later

Nathan

Troubleshooting

Well, apparently all the people that have tried out the set program have not been able to actually select sets. I suspect that I may have pushed out an old version of the program, in which case I will need to rectify that later. Now, I must find some time and peace to sleep.

Release Set 1.0

So, it's been a long time in coming, but I've been reminded that I have not yet actually put the binaries or sources for my set clone up for anyone. For the impatient:

If you have python and wxpython installed, you can grab the source file, which is 17kb in size.

If you have no clue what I just said, you probably don't have everything you need to play just yet: you'll want to grab the binaries I cooked up for windows xp (not tested for vista, although in principle it will work), which is around 8mb.

For the binaries, just unzip and execute the bat file. If you want to 'install' it, you'll need to move the folders to where ever you like your programs and link it yourself. I'm a bit too lazy to make it pretty, and it's not that big a deal (the game, that is).

The game itself is straightforward; start choosing sets, and the timer will start. If you don't make a set, nothing will happen. Buttons on the toolbar make a new game, add a card (if you add a card when there's a set on the table, you get penalized a few seconds and no card gets added), and a 'cheat' function that really lays down the penalties, in that order.

There is no documentation. I'm sorry, it's the way life goes.

It works under ubuntu, last time I checked. Right not, it's not working for debian testing for some odd reason.

I probably shouldn't put this last:
IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS, TELL ME ABOUT IT. If I am within 5 miles of your location, I may even find out in person what has gone terribly, terribly wrong (if it is sufficently interesting, like an explosion).

EDIT: if the download link is down, tell me ASAP. I'm hosting it on a personal server, and I have not yet perfected the art of keeping that thing up all the time.

EDIT 2: tagged the note appropriately

Best of luck procrastinating,
tno

So all things come to a close

Effectively, my spring break is over. Technically, I have a few days left, but I need to leave tomorrow. For a quick review:

• I worked on my cooking abilities, which will be sorely needed sooner than later.
• I didn't practice as much as I should have.
• I didn't really get any composing done. Shame.
• I didn't get any modeling done, either (I have an excuse here, though. Blender+Laptop is not the best environment).
• Some home and lab work got done. Finished The Autobiography of Malcolm X, an interesting work for my religion class that reinforces the Batman hypothesis (you either die the hero or live long enough to become the villain, where Malcolm dies the hero).
  
• Spent time with family.
• Saw some Shakespeare. Very intimate production by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, very well done: I only wish that I hadn't known the twist in the plot, which would have raised the suspense at least a few notches.
  
• Almost done with final REU statement. Really, editing it now. Amazing how procrastination works.
• Did NOT finish the two books. Got halfway through both Reading Like a Writer and The Rest was Noise, the first of which is enlightening with regards to reading (this one makes me want to become a (better) writer, which is terrible considering just how many things I'm still trying to focus on simultaneously), and the second with regards to modern music history. I will definitely either have to steal them or finish them later.

And so the world turns...

Parts, but not

I ordered parts (finally), but failed to really compose anything. At all. Win some, lose some?

Note that it is friday 'already'. (I have two new programming projects to keep me busy: not only do I have to revamp the server, I need to write some flash-card software)

Goals for afternoon of 19/3/2009

In the next few hours, I'm going to try to get the next few things done:

1. Practice
2. Compose a bit (at least get some themes down or in my head)
3. Shoot out my REU personal statement for proofing
4. Cook a bit (practice so I won't die next year)

If I have time, I can finish up my lab reports for some of my classes.

I think it helps to tell the world what you at least plan to do: once it's out there, you feel the inertia of having made a decision, and it becomes harder to not do something (I've noted that this holds, even when no one you know sees the list: the fact that someone might see the list is sufficent).

Spring Break Half-Life

So, I'm halfway through a somewhat productive spring break. Still chugging...

Haven't ordered parts yet. Boo. Started on final REU personal statement. Yay! Got my teeth cleaned, read a few chapters from The Rest is Noise, a good read on the 20th century music scene. Finished physics homework, retrieved lab notebooks.

Tomorrow is a new day!

Gosh darn it

Still haven't order parts. Anyways, wrote out a very long explanation of what I've come up with so far in my struggle with religious thought. I'll just copy-paste my latest correspondence with my Uncle (with some minor additions).

---

So, the fundamental question is whether God exists, and why do I think so (or not)?

In response to your first question, I have no answer; I cannot count myself as a Christian, because I can't say, in good faith, that Jesus was God; however, I can't say take the atheist position that God simply does not exist (since it requires about the same measure of faith, in a way, to say with certainty that God does not exist). The agnostic position, where people say it is impossible to know whether or not God exists, is also a bit too certain: perhaps you could say I'm a meta-agnostic, where I don't know if it is possible to know whether God exists (you could also call me human).

For the second part of the question, for easy reference, I'm splitting up arguments into two parts, excluding only those that are espcially terrible. Also, I'm including a relevant counter-argument for each argument (although it might not be the best counter I have).

PRO-GOD

Lewis, from Shared Cultural Morality
In at least one book of his (perhaps the problem of pain?), Lewis cites the similarities in morality that undergrids any culture, which in turn points to a certain inherent morality present in all humans: this points to a 'moral law', which strongly suggests, if not the Christian God, then some god. Counters can be made from sociology, where the human race as a whole originated from a spot, and society retains the morality to keep it upright (instead of being inherent in individuals, 'written on their hearts').

Lewis, from Miracles
From his book Miracles, Lewis argues from causality that if our ultimate origins are not rational, then there is no reason to believe that we ourselves are rational, and therefore it is meaningless to say anything, including 'Our origins are in the big bang, and nothing else'. The only way to retain a basis for our own reason is by accepting that we originate from something rational, or a god. Counters can be made that one can be a naturalist (rejecting the supernatural) and also reject determinism as something inherent in the universe, one crux that Lewis depends on. Also, it is hard to say whether or not particles can be rational (a question on the nature of rationality).

Archaeological
The Gospels, as a whole, showed up around 200 years after the events in Jesus' lifetime (fragments did start appearing around a 100 years after the event). This is an extremely short time in archaeology; other copies are accepted as near originals, despite being made almost a thousand years from about the time the original was written. Also, the dead sea scrolls verify the authenticity of the Old Testament, and remains of Biblical cities have been found. An obvious counter can be made: whereas no one bases a life and death decisions on the writings of Homer, one stakes an infinite amount of joy or torment on the writings of a book (fully) recovered 200 years after the fact.

ID (Intelligent Design)
Basic watch-maker argument. This one doesn't matter quite as much to me, at least when I was in the church: if evolution was true, then it was a God controlled evolution, and God's will be done. In the end, I spent a great deal of time with this, and I just don't care what the ID side says anymore.

POST-GOD

Occam's Razor
Originally used to boost faith in God, Occam (a priest or monk) said that 'one should not multiply entities unnecessarily' (something like that) or, essentially, take the simplest route possible (once you allowed one subjunctive, you would invite the whole family). Since nothing in the world necessitates God (obviously, tangible miracles were not a big part of Occam's day-to-day), we can consider God as unnecessary baggage (then, it requires *more* faith to believe in Him). Since it's more of a principle, I'll leave this one alone.

Scientific Worldview
Nietzche - God is Dead, meaning that the world didn't need God anymore; he isn't necessary for our day to day function. It's fairly straightforward. Counter depends on whether or not ID turns out to be true or not, although you could make an argument from decadence (we need religion to keep us socially in line, although this is a terrible line of reasoning, a subversion of religion into a means to a less-glorious end).

Problem of Evil
Evil is in the world: since God is omnipresent, all-powerful, and all-good, he cannot allow suffering in his world to happen. Countering immediately can take an appeal to the difference in nature between God and his humans, where our own petty morality/reasoning does not comprehend His (Counter-countering can come from accepting Lewis' argument from Miracles: if God is the basis for our reason, shouldn't we at least be able to begin to understand him? Counter-counter-counter in short: not really). Also, the best-of-all-possible-worlds can be invoked, where what we think would be the happiest world for us (no suffering) would not really be the best-of-all-possible-worlds, and instead there must be at least a modicum of suffering (or a huge dollop, as we see it in our world) to season life (to use a terrible culinary metaphor).

Hypocrisy (kind of)
Molesting priests are a case in point: also, the pastors that were dropping from scandals recently, and the insignificant difference between how non-Christians and Christians (at least in America) act. If someone is seeking change, something real, then Christianity seems to be lacking. One could immediately (and cold heartedly) counter that a whole lot of people are going to hell. Another line is through human nature: everyone fails, it's just the grace of God that seperates Christians from the non (sola gratia, if one is into that. Or confession, if one is into that).

Supposed contradictions of the Bible
A big contradiction is the switch between personalities in the cranky Old Testament God, versus the compassionate New Testament God. Counter: God *does* have many faces/emotions, and he may have been trying to make a point in the Old Testament that would not have been taken as seriously otherwise (that we're screwed up, and he's a rightgeous God). I can't find any other contradictions that can't be explained (albeit, it would help to be 'inside' Christianity, but they can be at least tenuously explained).

LEMMAS (various points that I would like to comment on)

Absolute Truth
'Truth is relative' is self-defeating. However, it's very self-defeating nature can work for it, since it is essentially the same thing as claiming 'most truth is relative'. Defining truth, then, becomes the main task.

Congruence of Religions (obvious, but for clarity and completeness)
All religions cannot be the same: a simple comparison between two religions (the right ones, anyways) shows that the fundamentals of each are not compatible with the other. Ex. Christianity - Way to God is through Jesus; Islam - Way to God is through the 5 Pillars (among other things (for both)).

Prophecies of Jesus
When one doesn't take the veracity of the New Testament for granted, nothing about 'Jesus fulfilling this or that prophecy' carries weight. Same line of reasoning goes for the resurrection as proof for the veracity of Christianity.

Matyrdom
Well, people die for God. Counter: people die for many things.

Faith is required for merely living
You can't be certain that the exterior world exists, so you need to have faith (unless you accept Descarte's second postulate (his first being I think, therefore I am), which I don't). Therefore, faith is not nearly so much the boogeyman as athiests make it out to be. Counter: faith in, say, a plank of wood to not plunge you 30 stories to your death, is quite different from faith that you won't get sent to some other God's hell (This also ties into Pascal's Wager, below).

Pascal's Wager
The if you are a believer, you have an infinite gain if your religion turns out to be true, and a small 'loss' if false. If you are a non-believer, you have an infinite loss if religion turns out to be true, and only a small gain if false. Counter: introducing other religions just screws everything up. Plus, this is a terrible reason to believe in a religion.

So, that's all I have to say for now. There is somewhat of a slant to the opposition to God, but that might be expected. If you have arguments that carry water, please put them in the comments, and thanks for reading.

Switching Blogs

So I've finally decided, for the good of my health and sanity, that I will now use blogger as my main blogging thing-a-ma-jig. While it's been fun keeping myself busy with keeping the site up, it's really become too much of a hassle trying to keep the uptime downtime ratio large, while random crashes and power outages make things difficult to handle (I have a sneaking suspicion that the only piece of propietary software I have on my server is somehow causing the crashing). However, this brings up a new crop of questions: now that I've officially decided to switch, where do I keep my files? On the doomed and somewhat unreliable server? Do I decide to wait patiently until next year, when I'll have my own connection to screw around with? Should I switch over my project pages, too, and use the fantastic tagging system? Oh my, oh my.

Wish me luck.
tno

Woot

Site is back up. Swish.

OMGWTFBBQ

Alright, so my server's getting itself bricked again, for some reason yet unknown to me. Just posting so I can look back and laugh at myself.