Brief Overview of Operating Systems

I'm not sure this will help anyone, but I wrote another essay for one of my classes. It's such a waste to write them and never use them again. Hopefully someonewill find something useful in it. I've not turned it in yet or anything. The last one I wrote had a user who was helped by it. I didn't do any proof reading. Not everything is documented because 90% or so I just wrote from my own knowledge (there could be some errors?). Here's an excerpt:

The computer operating system world is massive with hundreds of flavors, yet small at the same time with only three popular – or at least recognizable – systems: Linux, Windows, and Mac OS (mainly X today). While there are many different types of operating systems, they are all used – often times at least two operating systems are interacting with users each day, much of the time behind the scene. There are two major client-focused operating systems: Windows and MacOS.

Also note, I'm somewhat biased towards Windows and Linux as those are the two operating systems I use.

Click here to read a "Brief Overview of Operating Systems".

School, History, and Creation

Over the past few days, I’ve been wondering about what I’ve actually learned in college thus far. I’ve almost got a full year out of the way … sadly, only two of the classes really taught me anything. What’s more, there have been studies that have pointed to those who throw away usless information (hence: music appreciation, among other information) are generally smarter. Maybe it’s just these core classes, I’m not sure. Math and Economics — those are two subjects that are real world and I know I’ll be using constantly throughout my life. Essays and the history of China are two things that (unless God really surprises me) I won’t care about two months from now, much less remember (note: I’ve learned a lot more from the History Channel than I have any history class since 10th grade). Sorry to say this, but essays don’t help people learn a subject. Tests don’t either (I may remember a date better, while another person may remember the color of the leaders robe better, for example). I’ve almost (almost) came to the conclusion that [freshman?] college makes people more ignorant.

On another point, I’ve found that I can understand why the statistics for people coming out of college whom are Christians are less than those who do not attend college. Anyone taking what the professors say at face value are ignorant. No one should do that. There’s a lot of debate about what this and that 5,000 years ago really meant. It’s not proven fact — it’s speculation. The History Channel generally tries to make this assumption. Text books, some do and some do not. Sometimes I seriously wonder if they’re trying to brainwash and make people believe everything they say to be history. Parts are great and interesting. Roman history is great — there’s tons of laws and text to actually back things up there. Pots and picture text in these other civilizations — that’s not really a lot to go by (no matter how educated you are).

There is so much history in the Bible it’s incredible. What I don’t get is why we didn’t go over the laws for the Israelites in my history class. What other civilization had so much history and laws (not to count that it’s been the most widespread history book — not including the other great lessons — of all time).

Moving on into Creation discussion …

There’s one question about the creation account that I’ve came up with (that would explain an “old” Earth), when God created the Earth, did he create it and then just let it sit for a while? Why I say that is because,

IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep.

Genisis 1:1-2 (Amplified Translation with emphisis added)

When was the beginning? Did day one start there, or did it start when God created light? Other planents are void and formless (Mars, Saturn, etc). I’m aware that this really doesn’t matter, but I think it’s interesting. Thinking a little deeper on this … if there was no light, then there would be nothing seperating night and day so therefore there would technically be no night or day and so when the light was created, would that begin the first actual day? God could have created entire galaxies (and even put the stars in place), accounting for the time it would take for light to reach the Earth (this was an interesting question posed by a friend). Light speed could have been sped up. The speed of light could be diffrent then and now, or there could be holes in space, among countless other possibilities. Light could have been created thousands of years after the Earth was created (I honestly don’t buy any “million year” theories).

The entire debate and discussion on this could be very interesting. I found an interesting quote today, “saying life came from evolution is like saying a library was made by someone spilling a bottle of ink” (Annale Fleisher, high school student). Also, if evolution took place, why aren’t other planents still “evolving”? There would be “evolving” on them too because organisms would “adapt” to their enviorments. So far, there’s not been anything found on the other planents. For the most part, scientists still seem to be looking for water and oxygen — even though it works on Earth, why would it have to work on other planents? Didn’t we evolve and adapte to use oxygen and water (evolution supporters thinking, that is)? And if there was a “big bang”, where did the bang come from? There would have to be some sort of origin. You can’t get something out of nothing (that’s why 4 times 0 equals zero).

I jumped to a few topics tonight, but purhaps I’ve got some people thinking. Creation happened. There’s evidence there. I personally believe the world was created in a 6 day period (+1 day of rest), just as God said it was (literal translation). There’s some thought provoking questions that can be arived from the first few sentences of Genisis though. Also, I don’t dislike my professors, I just dislike the work they give. Most of them have great personalities, and I like them all okay (some more than others, of course). Are essays really that important? I can freelance just fine … I think … why don’t they just ask me to do that?

Goings On

I’ve not really posted much about what’s going on with me lately, so here I go I ‘spose.

School is actually kind of lame (and getting lamer by the day).  Essays, I’m okay with — as long as it’s not about literature.  That’s some of the lamest stuff I’ve ever heard of.  Just something I’ll have to try to manage to get through.  I’ve always been a B student in English, but this class may push me to a C.  Hopefully not, but I don’t know.  The two classes I enjoy are on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, which is Economics and “the computer class” (that’s boring as I know most of it, it’s in front of a computer though … so, not all bad, GMail with GTalk is great for that class).

E-Blah has been going pretty good the past month.  I’ve started working on version 9.75 (don’t ever ask me how I’ve numbered E-Blah, as I still don’t know).  There’s a lot of new things that I’ve implemented just over the past six months that from version 9.2 to 9.75 makes it feel almost like a brand new system.  I just enjoy seeing people get it and see that what they’ve wanted all this time is finally there.  The moderator team there has been pretty stable as well, those are some of the best support guys any company could ever have (anyone who’s got support from them can atest to it).

MinistryTalk.com lately all I’ve been working on with MinistryTalk.com is the Church Broadcast (or “sermon”) section.  I’ve added several new features with a few more planned in the next few days.  I’m actually hoping that we can expand and grow and offer a few more services for churches and other Christians “areas of interest” (whatever that’s supposed to mean).  Either way, hopefully Tim and I can get something going that pumps it up from being “just a sermon site”.  Ah, and I’m hoping to allow a few more churches to join in the next few days (with the approval of the server admin — Tim).

Church is going great.  More and more things are coming in and it’s just awesome.  The projector is now working, which is what I like to do.  I’ve been spending several hours lately trying to find some things to make things better software wise.  Overflow (band is coming from Wetumpka) is Saturday and prayer walk is Sunday at 10am.  The sad thing is, I’ll have to cut both events short as my sister is in the city wide pagent and on Sunday morning my other church is going to need me (my mom said).  I’ll probably get to stay at Overflow for an hour or two, and then I’ll probably get to go to the first 45 minutes of the prayer walk … at least I’m hoping.  Now I just need to figure out which one I’m more ready to go to (hmmm) …

There’s other things I could talk about, but none of it’s that important.  I’ve not been as focused on many other things here lately.  I guess something that does deserve mention, I’ve gotton back into playing Enemy Territory (the free multiplayer FPS World War II game).  Now it’s an “older” game, so I can max out all the settings with my computer and it has no slow downs.  There’s still hundreds of users playing the game too, that’s what makes it all the more great (and it’s free).  That and Age of Empires III are the only games I have installed (I believe).  Both are relatively clean games, so that’s a plus with me now (actually, I wouldn’t mind burning a few of my old games).

With the Bible on Radio podcasts, I’ve been going through the book of Numbers.  I’ve really enjoyed a lot of it (minus the parts I skip — the census numbers, for instance).  There’s a lot of good teaching in Numbers though.  A lot of good discussion topics too!

I’m going to start building people up and encouraging them more.  I think sometimes we can have friends that are really close, but yet we also pull them down sometimes by joking with them (when it may be something they can’t handle).  A good example is, for instance, joking with a friend about their weight.  The person could be skinny as a stick (and even if they aren’t), but saying they “really big” may not exactly be helping them.  I think it’s based on the person though, too.  Some people take things in stride, while some people wallow in them and believe everything and take it to heart.  Other times, I think that some of the words are friends say are taken the wrong way (especially if that person is going through depression or feeling worthless).  Point being, we should all be encouragers.

Media Bias and How it Affects Us

I posted my final exam essay a few days ago, so now I’ve decided to post one of the best papers (I think) that I have ever written. I got an A+ on it, so obviously the teacher thought it was good too. For some reason when I closed it on the last edit, I forgot to save my edits. Thus, a few corrections were not included, so some stuff may not be perfect (I’ve attached an updated version). This was a documented essay, so I site my sources at the end. Here’s an excerpt:

The media affects our daily lives in numerous ways – from television to radio to print. Sometimes these media avenues persuade our opinions on certain issues – such as abortion, homosexuality, racism, and political. Numerous times throughout history the media has downplayed bias, which simply means prejudiced*.

Media bias dates back to the early days of the newspaper and continues to this present day*. There are many examples throughout history showing biased media. Benjamin Franklin wrote a great example of early media bias in 1728 when he wrote an article in favor of printing paper money. Franklin did not specify he would be one of the beneficiaries, in terms of business, in printing the money*. Sometimes such bias pushed the political leaders of the time to limit the freedom of press, as did Abraham Lincoln when he ordered many newspapers, in favor of the South during the American Civil War era, to shutdown operation*. There are countless times in history where the media has been bias towards one particular point of view.

Click here to download the PDF version of this document (rough draft). I’d love to see some comments on what others think about this! Documented areas in the excerpt was indicated with an asterisk (*).

I decided to go back and redo my corrections, so here is the final version (there may be some I overlooked, though): Media Bias and How it Affects Us (Final).

College – Day 1

Day one of college. It happened. Today was the very first day of my college experience. I got there at around 9:00 and had a few minutes to just “chill” until class started at 9:30. The first class: music appreciation. While I’m not much of a fan of music [class] in school in the first place, I was a little sceptical upon entering. It paid off. I definatly wasn’t “amused” by what we’ll be doing in there. I don’t really mind it that much though, I know I’m going to do work — I just didn’t expect it to be in a music appreciation class. I might not mind it too much, though. I have to do an oral presentation (eek) about music, so I think I’m going to sign up to do Modern Worship. That might be pretty cool to research. We can work with a partner, but I don’t know anyone … but maybe I can meet someone and we can do it together, I would love that. We also have to go to a concert … so I’ll be experincing a concert soon, I suppose.

Next class was English. We did very little in the class, it was actually pretty good. I had to write an essay (which I believe I did sorely on). I’m good at writing on the computer where I can just … type — like I’m doing now. But sitting there putting my thoughts out with pen and paper, it’s both slower and I find it more difficult to do. I wrote about Desperation. I thought it was somewhat decent, although I put my heart into the posts here … what I wrote there was just mind to paper. I hate reading mind to paper. Very boring stuff. Maybe someone will see something out of it and all though. We’ll just see.

Now … tomorrow is two new classes. First is math, second is government. I like both of them, but really I don’t know how it’ll be in class. That’s a post to be saved for tomorrow.

Ah, a lot has seemed to have happened since my last post. Anywho … thanks to everyone who reads my blog, I don’t normally address the reader, but thanks. If you’re a reader and ever find an entry you want to comment on, feel free! I love comments about the entries. Now I’m off …..