Is man made to work?

I love this quote from Paul Graham:
"As societies get richer, they learn something about work that's a lot like what they learn about diet. We know now that the healthiest diet is the one our peasant ancestors were forced to eat because they were poor. Like rich food, idleness only seems desirable when you don't get enough of it. I think we were designed to work, just as we were designed to eat a certain amount of fiber, and we feel bad if we don't." Paul Graham - What Business Can Learn from Open Source.

Isn't it funny that the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence? Because we have to work we wish we didn't! If, like me, you have had times in your life when you didn't have much to do, you soon realize how empty that kind of existence is.
Rick Waren made this point in his book, "The Purpose Driven Life". We are not here on earth to sit around an make life as easy as possible for ourselves. Instead we are here for a mission (a purpose), to make Jesus known throughout out the world, to live in fellowship with one another, to worship God, and to serve others.
Notice the last point, serving others?
Serving others is the basis of open source software, the open source movement is fueled by people who say, I am willing to give my time and effort so that I am able to help others get great software. Without this attitude I suggest that open source wouldn't get very far.

Optical Illusions on pavement

These pavement drawings are amazing!

Here is a globe (Commissioned for live8):

From the other side:


See more pavement drawings at Julian Beevers Website:
Julian Beever's pavement drawings

A car powered by Air!

I remember as a kid imagining myself as the inventor of an air powered car. Of course as I grew older I learned that it was pretty much imposible. Others don't seem to lose faith so quickly:

The MDI Air Car - the world's cleanest car.

It is running on compressed air, which means it does need to be 'charged' or 'filled' up every so often. But you can't deny that is runs on air :)

Another Photo...

I've been experimenting lately with some close up photographs.
Here is an example:

I have labeled this Photo "A Leaf, A Branch and an Island"

To see more closeups visit my photos tagged "closeups".

How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily

How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily - This is a very interesting presentation, Not only does it communicate ways to learn and write, it talks about logic, and how to evaluate an argument. Highly recommended...


Note: The above presentation was writen by Michael Covington

Google is Expanding

The next big thing in search! Google Heart...

foldedspace.org: Get Rich Slowly!

Yet another article for you to read:

foldedspace.org: Get Rich Slowly!:

Quote from the author: "I've read over a dozen books on personal finance. Recurring themes have become evident."

dervala.net: Strong Language

dervala.net: Strong Language: "Engineers, scientists, and military officers often turn out good prose. Their sentences may not always be limpid, lyrical or arresting, but as writers they are capable of a clarity and precision that academics and marketers often can’t or won’t match."

While this statement may be a generalisation, I stand with the first comment for this article. "Hear Hear".

Small is the New Big

I thought it was interesting what Seth Godin (who I gather is an author of some kind) said about Churches in his article: Small is the New Big!

He said this, "A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick."
It is so true! In our Mega-Church culture, we have moved away from churches that have time for indivduals, we now have churches that just serve some arbitrary (though admirable) vision. Personally, I hope Seth is right and we start to move back towards smaller, more personable churches... With a the right lessons learn along the way of course :)

Does God have a sense of humor?

I thought this was a funny cartoon :)
It always amazes me that people think of God as uninteresting, always serious, etc. You just have to look around you to see that God definately has a sense of humor...
As well as an eye for art, and an imense love for you!

Soccer Anyone? 

James' Rambling at Bloglines

If you are wondering what blogs I read, try checking out my blog roll on this page:
James' Rambling at Bloglines
BTW:I have no imediate plans for this blog, but I am sure I will find a use for it someday :) It is a very easy way of sharing things I find interesting on other blogs... So that will be it's purpose for now!

A bit of archaeology for your week?

There have been some interesting archaeological discoveries recently. I was alerted to these by Khouse E-News.

9000 year old documents read for the first time by new infrared technology

Archaeological treasures found in the trash near the temple mount.

Enjoy!

Sampling Infinity

Jill Carattini Of RZIM comments on the way amazon (and increasingly) other services offer you suggested books to buy, music to listen too, etc... She suggests that this could lead to us restricting our choices to subjects or things we all ready know about? Is this a good thing? Who knows...

A Slice of Infinity (RZIM)

Red Rocks Photo

At Easter i visited "red rocks" which is basically the name for a beach at the very bottom of New Zealand's North Island. I snapped this picture look out towards the sea.

Red Rocks in Wellington

Colorization Using Optimization

This looks like a very impressive technology. Colorization Using Optimization
I just can't decide whether I should believe it!

James

I can do photo's too

Everyone else seems to be blogging about their photo's now days,
Not wanting to be left behind I have dutifully posted one of my own.
I have always loved photo's involving sunsets, silhouettes and Trees.

So I thought I'd have a go at creating one :) I hope you enjoy it...



Silhouetted Tree

Everyone thinks they're hiring the top 1%.

Joel on Software - Thursday, January 27, 2005 This article talks about the illusion some companies are under that they are hiring the top 0.1% or similar. When in reality they are hiring the top 0.1% of the applicants...

Its worth reading if you are a prospective employer or employee :)

Gates and communism

Bill Gates said some controversial things in a CNet Interview today:
Gates taking a seat in your den

He says:

CNET: In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?

Gates: No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.And this debate will always be there. I'd be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned--including the U.S. patent system. There are some goals to cap some reform elements. But the idea that the United States has led in creating companies, creating jobs, because we've had the best intellectual-property system--there's no doubt about that in my mind, and when people say they want to be the most competitive economy, they've got to have the incentive system. Intellectual property is the incentive system for the products of the future.

There is a lot of people commenting on these "communist" remarks (see: Slashdot)

My quick comment is that the difference between OpenSource/FreeSoftware etc. and communisim, is that Open source is based around voluntary sharing ie. Sharing is not required. People still need to be able to own software and sell it. We also need the ability for people to say I have already gained enough for myself out of this software, and I want to give it away now. This Practice makes economic sense, because everyone has the choice; To try to patent, and market this software as a product for people to buy. Or to share it with everyone, knowing I have benefited from my software, and hoping that the others will share their software as well.

I don't have time to go on about it but I just wanted to make the point that software patents and commercial software are actually upholding our freedom, Not stealing from us. So I am kind of backing up Gates, However I don't know anything about the proposed laws or patent systems, there is potential for these to restrict freedom.
If properly constructed though, these laws should actually increase freedom not reduce it.

James

How to build a better web browser

How to build a better web browser

I am sure this has been linked by a whole bunch of other people, not to mention slashdot. But who could miss the ranting of an Ex Internet Explorer Developer?

James