Klaas
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Posts posted by Klaas
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Given the current problems regarding Social Security, is anyone currently working going to seriously consider it as a sold retirement income? I know that I would like to save a bit more money so I don't have to rely on Social Security
Hmmm, first of all this should be split
Anyway, the thing about social security is that it's also an insurance for something bad that might happen to you. A normal worker around here earns about €1000 to €1300 a month after paying taxes. If that worker has an accident and needs to be in hospital for a few weeks or rehabilitation it is simply impossible to pay that with such an income. That's where social security comes in.
Same thing about university. Anyone with a decent highschool degree can go to university, money doesn't matter in a socialist system in this case.
So if you have a high income it's easy to save for stuff like retirement, school, hospital, etc., but not if your income is low. That's why social security is needed: anyone should have the right to live a decent old life, go to school and go to hospital, these are basic needs in a modern, rich society.
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Well since lately quite a few questions regarding web design and scripting have been popping up here it might be interesting to make some kind of reference. I've noticed that I keep referring to the same websites and tutorials, so it might be a good idea to refer them to this centralised topic instead.
I'm not going to write up the whole thing right now, lets regard this as a continuous work in progress.
Topics
1. General web design resources
2. XHTML, CSS, accessibility and usability
3. Graphics and interface design
4. Javascript, DOM and AJAX
5. PHP, MySQL and other programming and database related resources
1. General web design resources
Excellent website containing tutorials, articles, blogs and forums related to nearly any web design aspect. They also publish very interesting books which can be bought online from their website or your local bookshop.
Be carefully with certain articles, some are rubbish, but you'll also find some of a very high quality. The forums are a must for anyone interested in web design.
Level: beginners to advanced
Topics: php, xhtml, css, photoshop, usability, databases, business, webmaster, ...
This website contains both very comprehensive tutorials and nice references. It is interesting if you want to learn a new technology but don't want to go through a huge book or tutorial or if you can't remember that obscure xhtml doctype tag or css property.
The tutorials are worthless if you want to learn something more in detail, and the php section is not worth your time. You might want to bookmark their XHTML and CSS references though.
Level: beginners to intermediate
Topics: xhtml, css, sql, xml, javascript, php, dom
O'Reilly has long been known as the book publisher for anything related to computers. If you want a book about a certain topic or technology look through their catalogue, they are among the best you'll find.
Their website network is also very interesting for web designers (especially onlamp). You'll find some really good tutorials, though some might be a bit dated.
Level: intermediate to advanced
Topics: anything
The biggest archive of scripts there is. You'll find anything here: PHP, ASP, Javascript, Perl, etc. Also has tutorials and tools for each language.
If you're looking for example scripts or just plain scripts for your website look no further. Watch out though, there are many crappy scripts floating around there, though you'll find some high-quality stuff too.
Topics: script archive, tutorials, tools, php, javascript, dhtml, asp, perl
2. XHTML, CSS, accessibility and usability
2.1. General resources
Devmo is Mozilla's department for anything related to development for the "Mozilla platform". Next to information on plugin development you'll find many articles and links about client-side technologies like CSS, XHTML, XML, Javascript, DOM, SVG, RSS and more.
Level: intermediate - advanced
Topics: CSS, XHTML, Javascript, DOM, RDF, RSS, SVG, XML, AJAX, XUL, XSLT, web services
The official website of the organisation managing web standards like XHTML, CSS, XML, DOM, etc. The website contains the specifications of all these standards and more importantly validators.
Anyone serious about web design should bookmark this one and use its validators.
Level: intermediate to advanced
Topics: web standards, xhtml, css, xml, dom, xslt, xforms, dtd, accessibility, etc.
This fanastic ezine is a must for the more advanced web designer. You won't find beginner articles here, but more advanced tutorials about everything regarding xhtml, css, javascript, dom, usability and accessibility. Many authors on this sites are masters of their trade.
Level: intermediate to advanced
Topics: xhtml, css, dom, javascript, accessibility, usability
Eric Meyer is the uncrowned king of css of xhtml. He wrote several great books on these topics and has been a standards advocate longer than anyone could imagine. His site has a few interesting articles on css and xhtml and also an experimentation page with nice css stuff.
Level: advanced
Topics: xhtml, css
If you're a beginner this is a nice place to start. Not updated anymore but contains very nice references and beginner - intermediate tutorials.
Level: beginner - intermediate
Topics: xhtml, css
http://www.dezwozhere.com/links.html
This page is actually a portal to other css, xhtml and accessibility websites. If you have a problem with your css layout look through their list and you might find a website or article pointing out the sollution.
Level: intermediate - advanced
Topics: xhtml, css, accessibility, usability
WASP is an organisation striving for the use of webstandards following the W3C guidelines. Interesting discussions and information to be found here.
Level: advanced
Topics: xhtml, css, javascript, dom, browsers, accessibility
2.2 CSS related resources
http://positioniseverything.net/
Is IE bothering you again, don't know why that floated box has a double margin? Position is Everything offers a run down of common CSS problems in browsers like IE5, IE6, FF, Opera, etc. They only offer a wide array of possible sollutions to go around those annoying bugs.
One problem though: some of their articles are only accessible to subscribers ($25/month). Don't let that scare you, the free articles are definatly worth your time.
Level: advanced
Topics: css, browser bugs
This site is a revolution on its own. No articles to be found here, but only css layouts. The concept is a single static xhtml file for which designers can write a css file to make the layout. You'll be amazed by the possibilities css has for creating layouts and it's also a huge source for inspiration.
Level: advanced
Topics: css
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/
Again a must have website in your bookmarks list. It's both a mailing list and a reference to common and uncommon css and browser related problems and bugs. Also offers much additional information regarding the use of css, browsers, tools, etc.
Level: intermediate - advanced
Topics: css, browser bugs, tools
2.3 Designer blogs
The reason for this category is that designer blogs often contain very interesting articles and links regarding css, accessibility, usability and ajax. These aren't targeted towards beginners of course, only for those who master css but need to find sollutions to rare problems or wish to learn more about the latest css tricks and hacks.
They are listed from most interesting to least, though that's just my personal taste.
http://www.mezzoblue.com/ (creator of css zen garden)
http://www.stopdesign.com/ (creator of the blogger layouts)
http://shauninman.com/plete/ (this guy is amazing)
http://www.molly.com/ (WASP member, voted in top 25 of most important women on the net)
http://www.veen.com/jeff/index.html
http://www.accessify.com/default.asp
http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/ (creator of the firefox logo)
2.4 CSS and XHTML Tools
Doesn't need more explanation. However, asuming you already have Firefox installed, be sure to get additional extensions, especially the webdeveloper extension. Mozilla.org is also an excellent place to learn more about what your favourite browser supports and how stuff is implemented. Just search around the site.
Topics: browsers
Sick of writing 'blablabla' all the time to fill that layout with content for testing? The real professionals use Lorem Ipsum, a fill text. This website will generate as much lorem ipsum as you want to paste into your layout.
Topics: layouts, testing
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/
Made by css coders for css coders, this is the best tool there is for css editing and coding. There's a lite version available, the commercial version will cost you $59.
Topics: css
WYSIWYG editors are things no sane webdesigner would recommend to use, but Dreamweaver is an exception. Dreamweaver offers you much more than WYSIWYG, just put it into coder mode and you'll see the plethora of features useful to any webdesigner. Code coloring, project manager, validator, powerful search & replace, etc.
It's not cheap, but there's a 30 day trial available to see if it's worth your money.
Topics: css, xhtml, layouts, testing
Essential to anyone. Here you can download all the Internet Explorer versions, from IE3 to IE6. A good website should work in IE5, so if you don't have it already get it here and start testing.
Topics: browsers, testing
Just like Firefox an excellent browser. If you're working for a broad public be sure to test your site in this one too.
Topics: browsers, testing
3. Graphics and interface design
3.1. Inspiration
This site has a gallery of the most beautiful css-based layouts to be found online. If you lack inspiration be sure to check out its gallery. Also offers a few links to css related articles and tutorials.
Topics: layouts, css
See entry under section 2.2
Topics: layouts, css
A css gallery with ratings and a fair amount of links to css tutorials and quite active forums.
Topics: layouts, css
http://www.unmatchedstyle.com/
Also a css gallery site with layout rating.
Topics: layouts
Another css gallery
Topics: layouts
3.2. Graphics tutorial sites
http://www.netdiver.net/toolbox/design.php
A fairly extensive list of links to good design and graphics tutorials, and several other related stuff (fonts, stock photos, etc.).
Topics: photoshop, design theory, fonts, tools, stock photography
A portal to tutorials for various programs.
Topics: photoshop, gimp, fireworks, illustrator, paint shop pro, etc.
Interesting and quality photoshop tutorials.
Topics: photoshop
http://psworkshop.net/psworkshop/
Photoshop tutorial site with 1700+ tutorials and links to other websites.
Topics: photoshop
3.3. Stock photos
Probably the largest and best free stock photography website there is. Be sure to register (free) to be able to download high res images.
Not really a stock photography website, but it's the place where many good (and bad) designers show their work, and sometimes give it away for free. You'll find anything here from photos to 3D renders.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/04...free_images.htm
This article gives a nice overview of free and commercial stock photography websites, along with a short description or review of each one. Don't miss it!
3.4. Design tools
Their products might be expensive but both photoshop and illustrator are industry standards for editing and vector art. If you have the dough and want to get serious into graphic design you'ld be stupid not to buy these.
Macromedia offers cheaper products but also of a very nice quality. Most notably:
- Fireworks: excellent graphic design program for the web
- Flash: animation program (don't even think about making interfaces in this thing, unless your client demands it
).- Freehand: vector program
Open source photo editing and graphic design application, the best one there is for 0$. If you're on Linux this is your weapon of choice, though there is also a windows version. One thing that bugs many people is the annoying multi-window interface and the lack of a "save for web" option with preview. If that doesn't bother you get it ASAP.
Another free and open source application, for vector art. Not nearly as good as Illustrator, not that stable, but enough features for most people.
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
No inspiration for good color schemes? Use this tool which generates many great schemes for you with only one click.
http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
It's old but it works. This program lets you easily capture parts of your screen.
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/
Firefox has a few handy extensions for graphic related stuff. All time favourites are Colorzilla (hover your pointer over a color and find out its color value) and MeasureIt (measure stuff in your browser screen).
4. Javascript, DOM and AJAX
4.1. Javascript and DOM references
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/dom/domref/
This is the Gecko DOM reference, handy if you're going to do serious javascript work for browsers like Mozilla and Firefox.
Topics: DOM
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/...rence_entry.asp
Sad but true, we still need to design for IE. This is the DHTML references at MSDN.
Topics: DOM, DHTML
Devedge
Sadle Netscape's Devedge has disappeared from the net. It was the most valuable source for anything related to javascript or DOM, and especially their references were handy. Mozilla is busy bringing it back alive again, so you might want to do a Google search on this one.
Topics: Javascript, DOM, DHTML, CSS, XSL, HTML, etc.
http://javascript-reference.info/
A comprehensive javascript reference, good for printing.
Topics: Javascript
http://www.javascriptkit.com/jsref/index.shtml
Another pretty good javascript reference.
Topics: Javascript
4.2. Javascript, DOM and AJAX tutorials
The best place on the planet for learning javascript and DOM. This guy is the javascript guru.
Topics: Javascript, DOM
Level: beginner - advanced
http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml
Good for starting out, here you'll learn to handle the javascript language itself and its various functions.
Topics: Javascript
Level: beginner - intermediate
Sitepoint has some excellent tutorials about the DOM and AJAX. Also be sure to check out the free chapters of their "DHTML Utopia" book.
Topics: Javascript, DOM, AJAX
Level: intermediate - advanced
This is a wiki about AJAX. It offers best practices and patterns, though things aren't always explained as clearly as they should. Invaluable to any AJAX developer though.
Topics: AJAX
Level: advanced
4.3. Script archives
Has a few good javascript scripts.
Excellent source for scripts. They've been around for ages and probably the most visited javascript archive there is.
4.4. API's and useful tools/scripts
A very nice API for javascript animation and AJAX stuff. Really worth checking out and testing the demos for fun.
Topics: AJAX, javascript animation
http://trimpath.com/project/wiki/TrimJunction
A very well written javascript API especially useful for AJAX work.
Topics: javascript, AJAX
Related to Trimjunction, another excellent API.
Topics: javascript, AJAX
http://www.prescientsoftware.com/JPX_WDDX/
Another API, this time only for AJAX. Might be a bit outdated but worth checking out to learn more about how AJAX or remote scripting works.
Topics: AJAX
Maybe this is going to be the definitive Javascript API or class repository. Just as CPAN for Perl is JSAN aiming to distribute high quality javascript libraries and classes.
Topics: javascript, AJAX, DOM
Not an API but this thing is revolutionary and worth mentioning for the heck of it. Openid is an authentication system that can be used on any website. Sounds a bit like Microsoft's passport.com but it's free and your personal data resides on your own server/website, not that of a monopolising company in Redmond
Topics: authentication, AJAX
5. PHP, MySQL and other programming and database related resources
5.1. General PHP and MySQL resources
The official PHP site. Many starting PHP developers forget to visit it often while it's a very important place. The first reason to visit this site is either to download or read the reference (comments are important too, read them!) and the second reason is their links section. The links section is a starting place to find tutorials, tools, articles, etc. regarding PHP.
Handy tip: if you type http://www.php.net/whatever in your address bar it will immediatly send you to the reference page of the php function or feature. Example: http://www.php.net/switch, http://www.php.net/variables, http://www.php.net/ereg.
Topics: reference, tutorials, tools, articles, code library
The official MySQL website. The most important reason to visit this one is its MySQL reference. Not as readable as the PHP one but very useful if you're learning more advanced SQL.
Topics: MySQL, reference
The official "PHP company". Their site offers much valuable content. The developer section for example contains tutorials, articles, tips, code snippets, etc. Also interesting if you want to learn more about PHP5.
Topics: tutorials, articles, code library, tools, PHP5
5.2. PHP and MySQL tutorials
Codewalkers is a good starting point for well written tutorials. Nothing fancy here for an advanced PHP coder, but very good if you're just beginning or want to learn more about certain features or concepts.
Level: beginner - intermediate
Again a good starting point. They have some interesting tutorials but be warned that the quality isn't always that good. This is not the place to go for advanced stuff or best practices but interesting for getting an idea how to do something with PHP.
Level: beginner - intermediate
http://www.devshed.com/c/b/PHP
Devshed has always been known for very good tutorials. You'll find everything here, from beginner to advanced. The bad side is that it's not easy to browse the list since it's just a list of tutorials without categories.
Level: beginner - advanced
This is a website by the folks of O'Reilly. Just like devshed a very interesting place with high quality tutorials, though not open to beginners.
Level: intermediate - advanced
They claim to be the best resource for php tutorials but don't be fooled. They cover many subjects so it's interesting to get an idea how to do something with PHP, but generally their tutorials lack some quality (depending on the author). Don't go here for best practices!
Level: beginner - intermediate
I'm not familiar with this site but it has quite a bit of content. Use at your own risk
Level: unknown
http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/
This is an online php book. It covers nearly everything you need to know, and above that it's free!
Level: beginner - advanced
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Klaas:
This explains only why you are not part of a religion; not why you believe there is no god.
My first points yes, not the last ones.
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Geez I think the history is the weakest reason. If I were you, I'd be much more turned off to the faith by all the preceding things you had mentioned.
It's not like there was some world trend in how they worshipped gods. As a general rule, there have been pantheistic religions for as long as there have been people. The only real popular monotheistic religions have been Judaism, Christianity, and most recently, although by no means new, Islam. But throughout this entire time, pantheistic religions have existed, with gods for every aspect of life. I am not recognizing any chronological trend from painted animals to nature gods to gods of cities to kings that were descendents of gods. All pantheistic religions have at least some gods based on nature, and many with cities have deities for their cities. Also, almost every pantheistic religion has claimed rulers descended from God at one time or another, but I'm not sure what trend you see or why it's disturbing at that.
I guess I didn't really explain my view very well in this area, I'll try to clarify it
I agree that there's no general rule regarding that development of religions, I rather wanted to give some examples.
What I exactly mean is the context of all those religions, usually a context that can be explained quite easily. During the stone age for example we find two religious symbols: animals or hunting scenes depicted on rocks and figures of fat women (and recently found, falussymbols). Those relate to the most common aspects those people probably had in their life: getting food and fertelity.
Later we have for example city gods (eg. Egypt and Greece). Again these exist in the context of the development of cities, so to me it's clear again those people "invented" those gods in that current context.
Judaism seems to be very influenced by Egyptian religion, which is AFAIK the first religion that mentions monotheism (first Ikhnaton (Echnaton) with Aton, later the post-Ikhnaton Amon-cult which is a blend of monotheism and pantheism).
Have a read for a big overview of such theories:
http://www.neue-einheit.com/english/is/is2003/is2003-24e.htm
And also, I'm not sure what you're getting at with the Amon thing. Are you saying the doctrine resembles the trinity? Or that the teachings about Amon gradually changed to resemble the trinity? I'm not sure when Echnaton was, but the idea of the trinity was developed officially around the Nicaean council time, but mentioned often before the council.What I'm getting at is that aspects like the trinity, man came from earth, a single god, the Flood, etc. gradually developed and aren't things first mentioned by either Judaism or Christianity. So I mean that the knowledge of these things don't come straight from a god or a single religion, but that they existed already earlier (eg. Mozes lived some time later after Ikhnaton during the post-Ikhnaton Amon-cult). So to me it just seems that these are religious aspects that developed and didn't just fell out of the air.
Again I misunderstand you. Doesn't the first make the second unremarkable? And wouldn't different regions develop slightly different characteristics? I mean you'd expect them to be similar to a great degree, but by no means the same religion. So why is this remarkable?Well I don't see what's so similar about those religions, they're all fundamentally quite different, except those that had much contact. What some do share is that they have a pantheon of gods, and sometimes have gods for the same things (eg. war), but the religions differ quite a bit. So what I'm getting at is that those religions simply developed from the mind of the people, not things that are the word of god(s).
So why would the god the Christians believe in only show his face in the Middle East, and not somewhere else, why would he allow all those other people to develop a totally different religion?
And also, I can speak for Catholic missionaries when I say that God is revealing Himself to "all those people". Thoughout it's history, the Catholic church has been known for sending out missionaries, even though it was often a process done entirely in the wrong way. But even know, missionaries are in China, where the church is still an underground effort... we shall see as the Olympics come up what happens, and in Africa, and many other of those reaches of the globe.Well this is not god who's doing his work but just followers of a religion. Why would he wait so long and why doesn't he do it himself? Why making it such a hard and long process?
Except for the case of your grandmother, whose situation I don't know clearly enough to make a judgement, you do know, Klaas, that the actions of these people are contrary to what the church teaches/Jesus taught about how to treat people.Jesus was absolutely hated in his time because he would eat dinner with prostitutes and tax collectors (who were rightly notorious for their early versions of corporate theft- they were hated by the people). For those who would disrepect your brother because of his homosexuality or look down on him with contempt do not do as Jesus would have done. The same for your friend's parents.
Yeah, I agree here. That's why I also added the comment that it's not the fault of people believing in god, but of people with a bad character who act under the veil of their religion. It's just sad that all these things often happen, many people here have stories like that to tell about the catholic church, which is also one of the main reasons why the church isn't popular at all here.
Of course you have others, and most notably priest Daens comes to mind. He was a Flemish priest in the early 20th century who stood up against the catholic church and the bourgeoisie to support the workers, to strive for better social and working conditions for the people (a socialist catholic). Flanders has a big tradition of such priests throughout the 20th century, but remarkable is that all those priests have never had any support from Rome, on the contrary.
The school thing, I'd say if it's a state school, well then I can see why you are violently opposed to any semblance of religion in the state. If it's a Catholic school, then I'm not sure why you're complaining, but I'm assuming it's a state school, and that would make sense, and put the wrongdoing on their side.As for pedophile priests, they are the worst abuse of all. But what can we say about them.... obviously they do not follow the teachings of Jesus nor the Church, and to destroy people's lives in the process.
The school thing is a Catholic school, but the only school in my neighbourhood. They do accept anyone else, except atheists. They accept Jews, Muslims, protestants, but not atheists. I don't understand this, they get money from the government, and quite a bit, my parents pay taxes, so why wouldn't they allow me? Either they are not funded by the government at all, either they accept people of any ideology imo.
And your grandmother again... well IDK about how you qualify physical abuse. I hear plenty of horror stories about nuns rapping the knuckles of my mom and her generation when they were little schoolchildren, but they lived just fine to tell about it. Anyhow you'd have to clarify.It was much more than that, something which is indeed related to the historical context. My dad was also hit by a priest once, so were most people of his generation. But my grandmother went through much worse things, not only being hit on the knuckles, but also being laughed at by them, humiliated in different manners, put in a small isolation cell for a long while, etc. Those things happened frequently in various nun schools here, but also in other places in Europe (the Magdalena sisters for example in Ireland). She was really traumatized by that experience and still has difficulty talking about it.
I think your real problem with religion is that you're turned off by it because you see those who should exemplify it instead gravely failing to live by it's commands.That is indeed my problem with religion, though the way religions impose moral and social rules is an important reason too. But since I realise that not all religious people are like that it's not the reason for not believing in god, that's where science and history is more important.
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How do you know?
You do know that the whole concept of that thing you're now typing on is based on logical mathematics I hope
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Klaas:
Klaas, we have a problem here. You keep on reffering to creationism as "believed by faith", and yet it is easy to see (from disscussions Mythos) that the evolutionist origin of life is totally believed by faith. You also keep on reffering to evolutionist theories as "scientific", when you present no evidence, no reason to believe any of what you are talking about. So unless you have anything that has to do with the SAH, you're just blowing hot air.
Are saying creationism is not believed by faith? Can you provide scientific evidence of creationism?
Maybe you should spend some time reading the sites Mythos and I referred you too? There's some scientific evidence for you:
They can be carbon-dated to prove the theory. If they are not, than there's no use in giving me that information.I don't understand what you're getting at here. AFAIK it can't by using specimens died after nuclear testing. First you're trying to say there are no recent specimens and now they should prove the carbon theory? Anyway, it can be proven by using specimens from before the nuclear testing, and I suppose they have. Why in the world would it be such a widely used method anyway if that wouldn't even work? Is the carbon theory now also regarded as something believed by faith?
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There is some proof that God exists, when they do an exorcism, why is it that afterwards all the paranormal things stop? But to believe this you would have to believe in the paranormal, which most people dont until something paranormal happens to them.
Well, someone asked something in that nature once in college to our philosophy teacher. This is what he said about paranormal things:
The essential thing people are missing when observing something "paranormal" is coincidence. It is something that only happens once, very little or something that is very vague. Yet, that's the essential part of it to explain paranormal things: it can simply be coincidence, no need to regard it as something godly. Of course there are exceptions, either the paranormal observation can be a fallacy (eg. crying madonna), or it can't be explained (yet).
Back on topic:
I'm an atheist because of several reasons, though most being a bit irrelevant in the discussion about if there's a god or not:
Just like Argalius I was raised without a religion or god. My parents are both atheists too, so were my dad's parents and my grandmother. The only relation I have to christianity is that my grandparents did go to church (because they had to), going to a funeral, and because my best friend was an evangelist (though he has become an atheist a few years ago).
I've also seen too many abuses and discrimination by religions to follow one. My brother's homosexuality that can't be accepted by some people and the disrespect they show him because of it, not being allowed to go to the local school because I'm not baptized, my grandmother who demanded euthanasia because she had much pain but didn't get it, the parents of my best friend giving me less respect than his other friends because I'm an atheist, my dad's encounters with two pedophile priests and my grandmother who has been physically abused by nuns in school. All these things have given me no faith at all in religions, though I do realize that it's not the fault of people believing in god that such things happen or happened. It's something related to people with a bad character (who can be of any or no religion anyway), though it's sad that all these things mostly happened under the veil of the catholic church.
I also don't believe because I don't feel any need for it. I have my own (variable) set of moral rules and I can happily live with them. I'm happy the way things are now, and if something goes wrong or right I don't feel the need to seek the problem somewhere up high because it is always related to me or the world around me. I also don't need an institution, book or preacher to tell me what's wrong or right, what I should do or shouldn't, that is something I will decide myself with respect to the people around me. And this doesn't only relate to religions, but also to other ideologies like socialism, libertarism, fascism, nationalism, whateverism.
Now, the more important reasons:
I don't believe because I have yet to see scientific evidence of a supernatural being. There's none, nor is there that sais there is no supernatural being. So in that respect I'm agnostic, I'm still open on that one and willing to review my faith if it is ever proved.
Another reason is the amount of religions and what they preach. Even if there's a supernatural being, I don't see why everyone seems to have his/her own interpretation of how to follow the supposed rules of that being and why some people try to impose those rules on others. This smells to something different to me, totally unrelated to that supernatural being, but more related to social and political issues. So even if there is proof of a or more supernatural beings, why would that being create rules for us to live by? I'm a democrat, so I rather leave that decision to the people, instead of another being either in its true form or that of a preacher, priest, pope, imam, monk, etc.
And the most important reason why I'm an atheist is history. I see the existance of a god as something that is psychological, developed because people couldn't explain certain things (what we now call paranormal). Throughout history people have believed in various gods, in many ways. First by painting animals in rock, later by believing in nature gods, cities that had their own gods, kings that were the sons of god(s), and more recently a single god. All those religions just didn't fell out of the air, but to me it's like something that gradually developed thoughout history. I noticed this once when I was making an assignment about an ancient hieroglyph about Amon, written around the time of Echnaton. Remarkable was that you can see the trinity through the text and how the pantheon of gods developed towards one god: the hill from which Amon came, Amon itself and the pantheon of gods that came from Amon.
It's also remarkable that in areas distant from eachother different religions, pantheons and gods developed. Strange, because why would that god only show his face on a single place to a single people, and not to all those other people?
Anyway, that's what I think
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Either get a cheap Palm or get the Acer N30. I got the Acer and it's pretty good. The only downside is no wireless internet and no removable battery, but aside from that it has everything you need.
I think I bought it for around €200, you won't find anything cheaper of that quality with pocket pc.
btw, don't be fooled by the 400Mhz CPU in that asus. The Acer has a samsung 266Mhz one IIRC, but it really is faster than an intel 400mhz.
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Yeah, I'm using a batch file for that.
example:
1:
2: mkdir C:\apachefriends\xampp\htdocs\%1\styles
3: mkdir C:\apachefriends\xampp\htdocs\%1\scripts
4: mkdir C:\apachefriends\xampp\htdocs\%1\images
5:
6: mkdir "C:\Documents and Settings\web design\Mijn documenten\projecten\"%1\trash
7: mkdir "C:\Documents and Settings\web design\Mijn documenten\projecten\"%1\scratch
8: shortcut -t "C:\Documents and Settings\web design\Mijn documenten\projecten\"%1 -n "C:\Documents and Settings\web design\Mijn documenten\snelkoppelingen\projecten\"%2
9:The shortcut thing doesn't work though. The %1 and %2 are the variables you send along with the shortcut to the batch file.
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Well if there's one university in Belgium I would recommend it's Ghent, not Leuven. Quality-wise they are even, but Ghent is just a bigger and nicer city to stay in, plus Leuven is Catholic and has a high level of rich spoiled kids
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Lol, that's much easier than I thought
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Hmmm, can't figure that out ATM, but you might want to look into the code of an application using BB code. Maybe download PHPBB or something to check it.
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There's a new tag on this forum which outputs the username of the person who's reading the post. Just type this (without spaces):
[ you ]
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What about Germans/Germanics? I'm 100% German (Frankish to be precise), though there might be a bit Celtic blood mixed with it.
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Well, always there's that discussion about taxes. So let's make a deal here:
You as a citizen can choose to pay taxes or not. If you do pay taxes you can enjoy free/cheap schooling/education, free/cheap medical care, cheap public transport, police protection, help from the fire brigades, funding after a natural disaster, no or cheap road tolls, use of the town's infrastructure (water, electricity, sewers, etc.), etc.
If you don't want to pay taxes you get nothing of all this, except if you pay money for it (and of course much more than those who pay taxes).
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
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I don't think there's much to say about this, except that that is how science is supposed to work, although from reading what I have been saying to Mythos, you probably know that much of the theory is indeed believed by faith, not evidence "e.g. The origin of life."
I'm not reading this anywhere. The only thing I read is creationist theories attacking scientific theories for the sake of proving a dogmatic theory. It is not believed by faith (but creationism is), scientific theories are the results of much research, not the result of people attacking creationism.
Have they been carbon-dated? And, how can you be sure that there has not been a nuclear age before?Why should they have been carbon-dated? The specimens' date of death is recorded anyway.
And we can be sure of that because there is absolutely no evidence for that. If reasoning is based on "what if" the only result is that not one scientific or creationist theory holds any truth.
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Just go to a university with quality education. I know many people who did the Socrates or Erasmus programme and there aren't many who are positive about it since the level of education was bad compared to here. This includes universities from Brussels, US, Sweden, Spain and Italy.
If you go to the US choose a good college, although that might be quite expensive. Just don't choose a US college for the sake of going to the US (you can always go on holiday instead).
Other countries I would suggest:
UK, Germany and Belgium. In Belgium UGent and KU Leuven are very good if you choose something related to computer science, civil engineering, history and languages. Not so good for political science, oriental studies, philosophy, biology, etc.
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What about Enemy Territory? It's free, lots of fun and you don't need a top of the line PC to play it. And last but not least: it's also available for Linux
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Looks much better now imo. Yeah, those navbar header look nice like that
Oh, and nice slogan too btw
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Well to be honest I liked the one for your friend much more.
What I really like is the composition of the header (quite an impressive piece of photoshopping imo) and the contrast between the content area and the blue background.
But I don't like the colors, blue and green aren't the best colors to combine imo. Maybe use some lighter shades or combine the green or blue with something else? Maybe you could use the hue/saturation set to colorize in photoshop to find the right color that fits with the blue background.
Another thing I would change is the outer glow on the central area, maybe use a lighter gray or make it more transparent.
The navbars have a nice gradient-like effect in the title, but I would try a different style that blends better with the column itself. Looks a bit out of place right now, too many vertical lines. Maybe just get rid of the thick right border and have the header stretch over the whole width of the column?
As whole I would try a different style. The popular layouts at cssvault are either a bit grungy:
Or the typical blue-white thing:
Or with much contrast:
http://www.viatrax.net/vish/index.php (I love this one)
Maybe try something in that area?
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You're welcome
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Well tuesday I'm going to Rome. The weather forecast sounds great:
106°F or 41°C
Pfffff!
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type this command in a shell:
ifconfig
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That's a handy link Tim, thanks a bunch, and also for the rep
Web designer's reference
in Computer Desk
Posted
Ok I stickied it.
Also added a few extra links