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April 18, 2005
Ancient texts
The entire body of classic texts we have from then likes of Aristole, Plato etc. are only a tiny fragment of the total number that once existed in the flourishing society of the Greeks, Romans and others.
The fabled library of Alexandria that was put to torch was said to be the greatest repository of human knowledge of all time. All lost. That is only one incident that we know of. Despite arson and wilful destruction, texts can be lost, destroyed by earthquake, flood, natural conflagrations or simply forgotten about.
We routinely throw out copies of books that we no longer want. The same happened in ancient times.
A cache of text was found in an ancient rubbish dump in an egyptian-greek town. Unfortunately these texts were unreadable. Until now.
Scientists have discovered new techniques that allow them to read the scrolls and begin transcribing the ancient texts. They are prediciting that the known canon of ancient texts is likely to be increased by some 20%. With such a huge increase in our knowledge of the ancient world they are also predicting another Rennaisance.
Not sure if there will be another Rennaisance, we are hardly in a Dark age at the moment - although it is questionable whether or not we are as open minded as we should be.
It will be interesting to see what is turned up. Many plays, poems and the like of course, but undoubtedly philisophical works, perhaps even ancient Christian texts.
Imagine what impact they could have, new texts shining light onto accepted Christian doctrine just as the new pope is being chosen? hmmm.
Also, I wonder will the texts be made freely available? I'll be keeping my eye on the Gutenberg Project!
Project Gutenberg - out of copyright works
Their site has been updated recently and now has an RSS feed of recently added books - woohoo!
Posted by dottie at 10:01 AM
April 15, 2005
Calling out from Mac Mini World!
First post from my new Mac Mini.
So far so good. Couple of little irksome things like the Ctrl key is no longer the Ctrl Key and when I type Shift + ' for an @ sign I get double quotes instead, even though my keyboard is set up for Irish layout.
Connected into the PC Network domain no problem can view all the files, looking good!
Had a wee peek at som eof the apps - Garageband looks good, iLife I'll have to take a while to figure out, all the other stuff is as you would expect apart from the close, minimise, restore buttons being on the opposite side of the windows and the fact that there is no application bar - not used to the finder yet... - it is a pretty easy fit.
Have to figure out how to create a HOSTS file now so I can use the bloody thing for its intended purpose - checking to make sure web pages look OK on a Mac.
I'm sure it will get more use than just that but that will do me for the time being!
Posted by dottie at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
Mac mini (again)
Just checked the price of upgrading the Mac Mini memory through Apple - €330 plus VAT - jaysus.
However, through Komplett - €130 with VAT.
I'd love to hear a Macvangelist explaining why the memory from Apple is better, blessed by Steve, whatever...
Posted by dottie at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
mac mini is here!
That was quick!
Looks good - it really is tiny. Comically so. I hope I dont lose it under some papers on my desk and throw it out by accident!
More reports to come....
Posted by dottie at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2005
Tiger tiger burning bright
Apple have announced the release date for Tiger - the next version of OS Ecks.
Seeing as I have just ordered a Mac Mini, I asked if I would have to pay the $129 to upgrade my 'old' version of OS Ecks - apparently not.
WOSRT CASE SCENARIO - I will have to pay €15 for an upgrade CD.
We shall see!
Looks good though:
Start a Revolution on Your Desktop
A revolution? When will Mac stop telling us all to 'think different'? They have millions of people worldwide using their products - if we were to think different we would all use Linux and buy Creative's MP3 players instead (but wait... wouldnt that mean.... doh!)
It smacks of teenage rebellion to exhort us to 'think different'.
Mac OS X Tiger will change the way you use a computer. Breakthrough search technology, stunning graphics and media, unparalleled connectivity, an intuitive user interface and a virtual toolbox chock full of cleverly integrated features — all atop a rock-solid UNIX foundation — give you the most innovative, stable and compatible desktop operating system on the planet. Period.
Wow.
All that for €15? I'm getting a boner just thinking about it...
Posted by dottie at 8:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2005
mac mini me
Just bought one.
Should be here in eight working days!
(cue image of Vader enticing Luke to join the dark side...)
Watch this space for photos!
And probably much cursing, wailing and gnashing of teeth when I cant get the feckin thing integrated into my system properly!
Posted by dottie at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 4, 2005
Pope in repose
There are pictures of the pope, dead, in repose (I presume in St Peters Basilica or somewhere like that).
Regardless of the church's views and rhetoric they never miss a media opportunity - they own the pope and will sell him until (and indeed after...) they put him in the ground.
I dont know why I expected that the man would have a dignified death, or that things would get better afterward.
R.I.P. JP. I didn't agree with everything you did and said but you did good.
Safe home.
Posted by dottie at 1:59 PM | Comments (0)
Is there a draft in here?
I knew it was coming but apparently this is a bit of a shock to some Americans - well, mostly male 18-30 (and mostly black, low income, but thats another story...)
To all those who didnt vote for Bush I feel sorry, and for those who did vote for Bush, well.... I feel even more sorry - they will go to their deaths thinking they are doing the right thing.
There deaths will be made worthless when Bush, Cheney (if he survives his next heart attack - eat more pork Dick!), Wolfowitz and the rest of the merry pranksters get dragged before whatever is the appropriate tribunal that will result in them getting gutted and hung out to dry.
Posted by dottie at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)