Author: Vince Kimball

The National Identity Crisis

The National Identity Crisis. Bring up the subject of a national ID card and be prepared for a fight. It doesn't have to be that way: the key is verification, not identification. By Jeffrey Rosen from Wired Magazine. [Wired News]

Published
Categorized as News

A window on Scotland 450 years ago

A window on Scotland 450 years ago. One of the first surviving baptisms recorded in Scotland joined some of the nation's greatest historical figures in a valuable new archive published online. [The Scotsman]

Boot disk heaven

Boot disk heaven. Thanks to Leonard (and mostly as a bookmark to myself), I now know of another good boot disk resource. Of course, there's the damn fine bootdisk.com, and svrops.com's library; between the three of 'em, you should find anything you need. [Q Daily News]

Welcome to the Broadband Home of the Future

WIRED: Welcome to the Broadband Home of the Future. There, they are starting to connect strange new devices, part computer, part consumer electronics: digital video recorders with hard drives and Ethernet ports, networked MP3 players, online game consoles, media servers, even connected digital picture frames. And by connect, I don't mean RCA jacks in the… Continue reading Welcome to the Broadband Home of the Future

Bush Advisers, With Eye on Dean, Formulate '04 Plans

Bush Advisers, With Eye on Dean, Formulate '04 Plans. President Bush's campaign has settled on a plan to run against Howard Dean that would portray Dr. Dean as reckless, angry and pessimistic. By Adam Nagourney and Richard W. Stevenson. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Flying Ms. Fixit for 5 Secretaries of State

Flying Ms. Fixit for 5 Secretaries of State. As the traveling information technology specialist for the nation's chief diplomat, Lynn Sweeney has faced harrowing storms, computer meltdowns, and even attacks by wild animals. By Christopher Marquis. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

My three favorite saints in the Bible are St. Dismas (the Good Thief), St. James, and St. Joseph. I'll speak of James and Dismas in due time, but this morning, let's consider the story of that guy in the (mostly forgotten) corner of the church, with a saw in one hand, and toddler Jesus under his other arm. The man had an iron devotion to his wife, and a species of courage I don't think most of us understand anymore.

We who are not Jewish and don't read the Torah are generally unaware that in Joseph's time (and he was an observant Jew, after all) if your fiancee got herself pregnant by some other guy, you were not only permitted but obliged to turn her over to the local authories to be stoned to death. (See Deuteronomy 22:13-21.) Joseph knew this, but he would have none of it; he genuinely loved Mary and although he considered a quiet divorce, he changed his mind (with some help from an angel who came to him in a dream) and not only married her, but raised her child of mysterious fathering as though He were his own. This is so damned contrarian that I have to grin: My kind of guy! Had he interpreted his Scripture literally, Mary and the unborn Jesus would have been toast.

Is there a lesson here? Obviously: The law was made for Man. Man was not made for the law. (This does not mean, as some have implied, that there is no law.) When the law goes awry, love and guts were made to bring it back where it belongs. The story of Joseph is not the story of a Divine Plan being imposed from above, but of a good man following his heart in the direction where he knew his God was leading.  [Jeff Duntemann's Contrapositive Diary

My three favorite saints in the Bible are St. Dismas (the Good Thief), St. James, and St. Joseph. I'll speak of James and Dismas in due time, but this morning, let's consider the story of that guy in the (mostly forgotten) corner of the church, with a saw in one hand, and toddler Jesus under… Continue reading My three favorite saints in the Bible are St. Dismas (the Good Thief), St. James, and St. Joseph. I'll speak of James and Dismas in due time, but this morning, let's consider the story of that guy in the (mostly forgotten) corner of the church, with a saw in one hand, and toddler Jesus under his other arm. The man had an iron devotion to his wife, and a species of courage I don't think most of us understand anymore.

We who are not Jewish and don't read the Torah are generally unaware that in Joseph's time (and he was an observant Jew, after all) if your fiancee got herself pregnant by some other guy, you were not only permitted but obliged to turn her over to the local authories to be stoned to death. (See Deuteronomy 22:13-21.) Joseph knew this, but he would have none of it; he genuinely loved Mary and although he considered a quiet divorce, he changed his mind (with some help from an angel who came to him in a dream) and not only married her, but raised her child of mysterious fathering as though He were his own. This is so damned contrarian that I have to grin: My kind of guy! Had he interpreted his Scripture literally, Mary and the unborn Jesus would have been toast.

Is there a lesson here? Obviously: The law was made for Man. Man was not made for the law. (This does not mean, as some have implied, that there is no law.) When the law goes awry, love and guts were made to bring it back where it belongs. The story of Joseph is not the story of a Divine Plan being imposed from above, but of a good man following his heart in the direction where he knew his God was leading.  [Jeff Duntemann's Contrapositive Diary

Palm PDA for Lawyers

Palm PDA for Lawyers.  Thanks to LawTechGuru for the link to Susan Wilson's Palm Legal Expert Guide, an overview of Palm-OS PDAs from a lawyer's perspective. It includes a list of relevant WWW sites, and advice on Palm OS Internet applications, inluding AvantGo.  [Netlawblog]