Java Zen:Thinking Out Loud Thursday, 2024.11.21
Write yourself a threatening letter and pen a defiant reply.

2004.10.28

Does evil exist?

Came across this story:

Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!”

“God created everything? The professor asked.

“Yes sir”, the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil”. The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth. (more…)

2004.10.25

Great moments in TSA security

Unlike prior examples which had at least a shred of physical “evidence” (an air sick bag with “BOB” written on it and Arabic writing in a magazine), this one is pure fantasy with real consequences. From a March 27, 2004 AP story:

“A self-described psychic’s tip that a bomb might be on a plane prompted a search with bomb-sniffing dogs that turned up nothing suspicious, but forced the cancellation of the flight.”

Doug Perkins, a local administrator for the TSA director, had this choice quote: “But in these times, we can’t ignore anything. We want to take the appropriate measures.” When the TSA officials declined to identify the psychic who made the tip, it was undoubtedly done for security reasons – the psychic’s security, I mean, not our’s.

With such unwitting allies, it’s little wonder the terrorists seem to be winning.

Ref: https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4614495/

2004.10.20

Farewell to Quicken

I’ve been a Quicken user for a long, long time. The oldest version for which I could find disks was MS-DOS version 5.0. Although I have an earlier manual, the accompanying disk has long since been buried in a long forgotten box.

Prior to Quicken, I used a program called Pacioli 2000 (this was 1990, before marketing types hijacked versioning.) Named after the monk who invented double entry bookkeeping, Pacioli 2000 was also an excellent program. It was straightforward to use, the documentation was excellent (it contained one of the more concise MS-DOS tutorials I’ve every found and came with a cheesy video on accounting) and reporting was robust. But Pacioli 2000 was geared more for business and accounting principles confused the heck out of me.

Back then, Quicken was also straightforward and easy to use. Like your grandfathers roll top desk, everything had a place, organization was easy and reporting was concise. Everything in the package was yours. Customization was limited to screen colors and the like.

It’s different today. Everything isn’t yours and you don’t have access to all the cubby holes. Some of the drawers are locked and you don’t own the key. Tickers for mortgage loans scroll across the status bar and you cannot turn them off. Features you might find useful are displayed, billboard style, but only available via subscription. Grandfather’s roll top desk has become cluttered and stuffed with junk mail. Finding what’s yours consumes half the time spent floundering around in the program. (more…)


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