Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Of Stars And Men

It is amazing how little we know compared with what we conceive as ultimately within our reach. And how small, probably, is that reachable portion compared with what is beyond.

Superstitions and loyalty to dogmas have kept us bogged down not far above the most primitive views of the universe. Fancy how far we might now have gone if we had not been shackled by mythology and by certain social conventions and national policies.

What intellectual progress we might have made by this time if we had, for example, emphasized psyche rather than property. Eventually we may not be as poorly equipped as now to answer three basic questions:
          What is the universe?
          How does it work?
          Why is the universe?
                                                  -Harlow Shapley

File Sharing: A New Renaissance?

A thought occurred. Advanced software applications today are costly, rare, and only can be obtained by a select few who have the resources to obtain them. Even once they are obtained, it takes a certain amount of training to use them properly. You must be literate of the software you have in your possession. But with the advent of the internet, these advanced software programs are being cracked and shared around the world. And once obtained, users who are literate are posting tutorials on how to wield the power of the program. Or you can purchase training programs for nearly nothing.


This is not unlike books before the printing press. Priests held the power of literacy which meant they could decipher the Bible any which way they pleased. For political agendas, power, or to suppress the commoners. My point is, now with file sharing and the internet, we common folk are becoming literate. Our eyes and minds are opening up to see the real truth, the real light. Just as if we were stuck in Plato's cave and were released to see sunlight for the first time.





What made books so powerful was the knowledge they contained. Knowledge which gave the individual the power to make their own decisions or become independent of uneducated thought. The printing press took much power away from these tyrants. The cost of books soon reached levels where peasants could purchase and read them if desired. This in turn created a widespread literacy rate among the human species which created innovation and was the beginning of the age of enlightenment. We have taken tremendous strides since those times. And I believe filesharing has taken the power away from the tyrants of today. The common folk now have access to the most powerful software programs in the world at the click of a button. Call it illegal, call it immoral, call it whatever you desire. I call it progress. I call it brilliant. This is a new age.

K, back to reading my book.

Friday, May 4, 2012

GOD I LOVE GOOGLE

This amazes me... they give a free web application development platform and ask for what? There must be something in it for google... nobody just gives stuff away.

But maybe...just maybe they actually care somewhat. But I doubt it.... at least one of their founders has taken away the pain of raping our Earth and will move into outer space to rape and pillage resources out there.

Thanks Udacity!

Hey thanks udacity for teaching me how to use Google App Engine and Python. Its an amazing course so far and much will be owed to you in the future when I'm stinking filthy rich.