Ten years of superb notebook design. Notice how well Apple’s PowerBook design worked? The Unibody construction is their first major change in a decade.
I’m using a Unibody machine now, like the topmost notebook. My first Mac was a PowerBook G4, very similar to the second-from-the-bottom machine.
NT Wright: “To say ‘either history or myth’ is to say, ‘I’m not going to read the text for all it’s worth; I’m just going to flatten it out until it conforms with the cultural questions my culture today is telling me to ask’… and I think that’s a form of actually being unfaithful to the text itself.”
Meaning and Myth | The BioLogos Foundation.
What do you think?
My phone started ringing Friday evening. As I saw who was calling, my stomach tightened up a little – mostly from anticipation, but with a little tinge of fear as well.
“I just wanted to spare you a weekend of wondering,” the voice on the other end said. “I’m looking forward to having you join my department.”
I didn’t realize how tightly I had been sitting while I waited for an answer. Getting a favorable reply, even though I was expecting it, was quite a thrill. So – it looks like I’ll leave for a new job in Gap, Pennsylvania on the 17th. I’ll start to work the 25th at Eagle Business Software.
Looks like it’s time for another adventure!
Friends are special. We had long-time friends over for lunch; after lunch, a more recent friend stopped in for an hour on his way to Oklahoma. Just as he left, two other friends showed up and chatted for half an hour.
Since we visited Bass Pro Shops on New Year’s, my brothers have a shooting bug. We had a blast down at the tank, shooting .22, .243, and shotgun. I can nail a clay at 30 yards – we’ll see how longer distances work out.
It’s a great day to be alive, and i’m thankful.
Top o’ the morning to you all!
A day after the snow… 50 degrees and sunny.
And North Koreans.
Dave Barry’s year in review: 2009 – Dave Barry – MiamiHerald.com.
Brrrrr.
Bruce Schneier (of computer security fame) points out several obvious issues in his CNN opinion piece, Is aviation security mostly for show?. The “heightened security” measures springing up after attempted terror attacks focus only on the attack methods used in that attack, locking the barn door after the horses have bolted. And the knee-jerk reaction to ban anything connected to that method forgets that a determined, resourceful person still can find plenty of ways to cause havoc.
Furthermore, the various security measures put into place don’t even work in sync, so an attacker doesn’t need to fear getting caught at the second stop by his first lie: he can just fool each security measure individually and go on his merry way.
Schneier raises a fascinating point about human nature:
Stories are what we fear. It’s not just hypothetical stories — terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with explosives strapped to their legs or with bombs in their shoes, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened…
When people are scared, they need something done that will make them feel safe, even if it doesn’t truly make them safer. Politicians naturally want to do something in response to crisis, even if that something doesn’t make any sense.
To tell ourselves Something is Being Done and we can Relax and Feel Better, we submit ourselves to all sorts of hassle, confusion, and bureaucracy – that does very little to make us safer. We’re addicted to expensive Kool-Aid. The problem is, it’s not very healthy for us. In our panic to Do Something, we tear apart our social fabric and actually change our way of life, turning our society into a fear-based police state:
Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism.
Let’s quit locking ourselves up to make us think we’re secure.