Surviving the Technological Future
Posted by Brett Veenstra
My bud’s over at Geeks and God pointed me to this awesome video below.
Jon makes a great followup to something Rob and MF already commented on for unplugging, and being there when you’re with real people, not your virtual friends.
He also makes some resolutions about going “natural”, and finding a way to completely disconnect using nature. I wish him well in this endeavor, must past my estimated endurance of 3 days.
How long would you last?
Posted by Brett Veenstra
The Today Show released a video to YouTube on how addicted we are in America. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmEErhy7AIc
MF wrote about the same thing, in a different perspective.
I think I could last a weekend, and the day after.
How about you?
Poetry, the kind I could like…
Posted by Brett Veenstra
I never got into poetry during my studies… perhaps I should have delved into satire more… here’s a great poem that I heard recently… I found the text here: (http://derekvreeland.blogspot.com/2006/08/if-chance-be-father-of-all-flesh.html)
This is from the mind of Steve Turner (http://www.rejesus.co.uk/expressions/steve_turner):
CREED We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin. We believe everything is OK as long as you don’t hurt anyone, to the best definition of hurt, and to the best of your Read the rest of this entry »
The truth is…
Posted by Brett Veenstra
that truth is hard to come by in this new age. We have a multitude of information at our fingertips, more exposure to other cultures and points of view and yet truth seems to be hidden. Not because people are actually trying to hide the truth, but rather there is so much noise out there that the truth gets buried…
You’ve also got the folks that are “plural truth” (hey dude, your truth and my truth can live together), or you get absolute truth thrust at you from different camps of people (including us Christians). Then you’ve got the folks suggestng that there’s an alternative truth (shout outs to D. Brown). This always seems more pronounced during an election year, and I don’t even know why I’m letting politicians get me lit up about this, but whenever the two sides are claiming truth on an issue, obviously they aren’t telling us the truth.
WAY Back (I’m talking early ’90s era), I was at a luncheon where the presenter said that the rate of information was doubling every 15 years. Guess what? It’s now doubling every three years - and that report is three years old! According to that report, we’re churning out as much noise, er, information the size of “all the words ever spoken by human beings” (which is 5 EXAbytes).
Q: Why am I being so technical and non-sensical? A: (1) I am geek, and (2) if you can’t filter through the information, you’re not setting yourself up for success in this new age.
CONCLUSION TO POST (shortcut for the ADHD afflicted) Most importantly, with the amount of information noise that is being generated, it will most likely by noted by the time my Grandkids are in high school that the Sacred Chalice of the Holy Grail is in fact, Mary Magadelene, wife of Jesus of Nazareth. Will our new society have the patience enough to wait for the truth to prove itself, or only go by what is G-dexed?
How ’bout you? Are you spending time in the truth?
[originally cooked up: 3/26/06]
No, I’m the cool computer
Posted by Brett Veenstra
In honor of Apple’s, “we’re cool like that” ad campaign, I’d better throw another log on the fire! Enjoy the the following:
With the recent court victories Microsoft is finding itself having to expose more of it’s operating system code to third parties. For instance, in Japan they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages.
Haiku poetry has strict construction rules -each poem has only 17 syllables;
5 syllables in the first line,
7 in the second,
5 in the third.
They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity.
Here are 16 [sic] actual error messages from Japan:
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you’re seeking
Must now be retyped.
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Joke over… now get back to work!