Today We Cried in Church
Today’s sermon
Regional Affairs Minister?
I'm not sure that Simon Crean is the best person to be Minister For Regional Affiars. And the way this is expressed it seems to me to be more like a promise they fulfil in name but not in fact, but I guess we can live in hope. …
Evolution or Thunderbird or …
Despite the rise of facebook as a dominant force for communication on the internet, I still rely a lot on email. Some people like web-based services such as gmail and hotmail because you don't have to bother with finicky details like POP, IMAP and SMTP accounts. But I like having my email in a separate application because for one thing it's quicker to access and you don't have to log into yet another service on your web browser to access it.
In linux (as in Windows for that matter) there's a wealth of applications available. I used to use claws-mail because it was fast, but when I switched to Ubuntu a few years back I decided to try evolution which is the default client in many linux distros. It has the advantage of having calendar clients built in and ties to a number of panel notifications for new email messages, appointments etc.
But I've been really irritated lately by how slow it is. It takes several seconds to open a new window to compose email, the same to switch to the calendar view. And with all of my contacts and calendars now stored on Google accounts to facilitate syncing with my Android phone, maybe it's time for a change.
I've been trying an old favourite Mozilla Thunderbird. Compared to evolution it's really fast and its screen lay out is quite compact. There's as much configurability as evolution and a plug in that allows for a tab with the google calendar page there at a click and much more responsive than evolution. Junk filtering seems to be as good as evolution and other filtering works quite well also.
So at the moment I'm quite happy with thunderbird. I'm sure I will run into limitations and problems, but it's great to have the opportunity to try out different applications. …
Two Korans for every one burned
Now With Extra Gullible
Geeky Bit
I've been using Linux on my computers now for probably a decade, and it never cease to amaze me how easy it is to do some things …
Understanding the Media
Another funny video from the Hong Kong bureau …
I Am So Tired of Malthus- Willis Eschenbach
I Am So Tired of Malthus
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
Daily we are deluged with gloom about how we are overwhelming the Earth’s ability to sustain and support our growing numbers. Increasing population is again being hailed as the catastrophe of the century. In addition, floods and droughts are said to be leading to widespread crop loss. The erosion of topsoil is claimed to be affecting production. It is said that we are overdrawing our resources, with more people going hungry. Paul Ehrlich and the late Stephen Schneider assure us that we are way past the tipping point, that widespread starvation is unavoidable.
Is this true? Is increasing hunger inevitable for our future? Are we really going downhill? Are climate changes (natural or anthropogenic) making things worse for the poorest of the poor? Are we running out of food? Is this what we have to face? …
