“Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth. Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says “love thy neighbor as thyself,” they think they are referring above and beyond themselves. Nevertheless, such reference (more…)
On Computer Bugs
Little-known (and apocryphal) trivia: The first recorded computer “bug” was a processing error caused by a dead moth that had been caught inside a relay, blocking the switch.
This story is both true and false. The insect existed, and in point of fact has been preserved as part of the collection at the National Museum of American History, but the term “bug” was in common use for many years before the moth was found in 1946. Here are some other bugs that have been found and preserved as a part of my own collection:
It’s Not The One Percent, Dammit!
There is more than one valid and effective solution to our problems. Unfortunately, the political parties in our strongly divided system are far more concerned with blaming one another than in getting anything done. This is hardly a purely American phenomenon, of course; that’s just a handy example.
The evident solution is NOT to discard parties and then recreate the process from the ground up. Instead, it’s to get (more…)
Amazon Is Evil: Why Do I Still Link To Them?
For background, please read the post that inspired me out on Steven Brust’s blog, plus the original article he linked in his post. If you already think Amazon is evil, you might want to skip these; alternately, if you read them both, you’ll be able to feel more justified in your indignation. If, on the other (third?) hand, you feel that all corporations everywhere are evil… (more…)
In A Few Words
How provoking! This website wants me to compose a tagline, thus: “In a few words, tell us what this page is about.”
Look, mate — if I knew what the frigging page was about already, I wouldn’t need to write it, now would I? Bloody cheek!
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All right; most of you who are reading this probably don’t have a clue what that’s supposed to mean, why that simple little request has me (more…)
On Honor In Warfare
(Reposted from The Planets Magazine; revised)
This short treatise was inspired by a public thread in an online game, Planets.Nu, and many of the terms are specific to that game. Nevertheless, the concepts are common ones, and I don’t think the game terms will be any bar to your understanding.
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In the original thread, two Emperors, at least one likely prospective Emperor, and several current and former championship contestants participated in a lively discussion on the subject, but in the end I felt that as many questions were raised as were answered. Here, then, I have attempted to organize many of the thoughts expressed there and to (more…)
On Literacy
“Words! Words when spoken out loud for the sake of performance are music. They have rhythm and pitch and timbre and volume. These are the properties of music – and music has the ability to find us and move us and lift us up in ways that literal meaning can’t.”
– President Josiah Bartlet
(The West Wing sn. 3 ep. 5 “War Crimes“)
The above quote was meant to be read aloud.
Try it. Pretend, just for a moment, that you are in fact that famed oratorical snob, President Jed Bartlet, and read this aloud. Be persuasive; be passionate. Convince me. (more…)
On Welfare
(from the archives)
I’ve been reading Martin Cruz Smith again – “Gorky Park” and “Polar Star”. It’s a fascinating snapshot of another country at another time, and the contrast of that vision throws the realities of our own time and place into sharp relief.
The great boast of the Soviet Union was that it was a Worker’s Paradise. Everyone (more…)
Samizdat
(From the archives)
Some thirty-five years ago, a particularly brilliant Czechoslovakian dissident named Vaclav Havel wrote an essay entitled “Power of the Powerless”. The subject matter was a thoughtful and timely dissection of certain paradoxical behaviors required by society in order for a person to prosper under the post-totalitarian regime then in power. Unsurprisingly, the (more…)
EVE Online Missions: Lists And Guidelines
NOTE: This guide is based in part on the original “The Plan” article that was at one time hosted at the EVE Online Wiki but has now, sadly, been lost. The guiding principles haven’t changed at all, but some of the details work differently due to recent updates.
My own goal in EVE is to gain the maximum advantage from trading in every region, and to do so with the least amount of effort. The objective is minimum taxes and broker fees in any high-sec at any Empire corporation station — a derived standing of well over 6 with everyone that’s not a pirate faction.
In order to accomplish this, there are some general rules (more…)
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