Every year, Americans gather around their dining rooms to have holiday dinner. Unlike other special days of the year, however, this holiday is a holiday of intolerance and division. Surely you know the day I refer to, don’t you? Thanksgiving!
For centuries, the holy grail of a certain segment of the elite has been to boil down religion into something common to all faiths, thereby eliminating what is seen as one of the “major negatives” of religious belief – sectarianism and fighting between religious groups. Now, members of the TED Conference, at the behest of author Karen Armstrong, want to give it another go with the “Charter for Compassion.” Inevitably, it will fail.
DEVELOPING: With California reporting its results, it appears that Sen. Obama is now President-elect Obama. Votes are still coming in, but OFB believes that the senator from Illinois has already clinched the presidency.
We as a country have messed up priorities. For weeks, there have been discussions of massive voter registration fraud and fears of actual voter fraud on Election Day. The board of elections in the state of Washington finally kicked into gear – against Starbucks.
Can you believe it has been two years? For two years we have listened to candidates build platforms, argue their cases and tear down their opponents. Now we look at the final two candidates and the question that should be on everyone’s mind is this: who offers the best solutions for this country? My answer is John McCain.
In a year filled with election twists and turns, the pièce de résistance could very well come up at one of the three presidential debates. So, how did the first debate go on Friday? OFB editor-in-chief Timothy R. Butler and freelance analyst Jason Kettinger assess the aftermath.
Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch is proving interesting in large part because it has suddenly mainstreamed the idea of downloading third party applications for a mobile phone. With the prominent storefront, developers seem anxious to get their fifteen minutes of fame. TouchTerm’s developers, however, are now trying for a second fifteen minutes — can they get it?
Few things in Unix match the importance of the terminal emulator. Having a nice GUI is fine, but nothing beats the command line, which some have said is the "front line" of computing. As an official member of the Brotherhood of the Commandline, I have always kept at least one terminal window open at all times, and often three or more.
Media bias is a topic almost everyone seems to have an opinion on, particularly when high profile examples occur, such as the New York Times’s refusal to run John McCain’s editorial this week. Many people will get quite upset about big media’s “bias,” yet depending on a person’s political orientation, the alleged bias will typically land on the opposite side of the spectrum. For those on the same side of the spectrum, the typical response is a thorough scratching of the head and a response of, “Bias? What bias?”
A year ago, page after page of ink was spilled by prophets of doom fretting about the iPhone and how it would surely not be as good as this or that other phone. It doesn’t have a keyboard! It can’t do voice over IP calls for really cheap international calling! It isn’t open enough to allow Quake to be installed on it! Oh, the humanity! A year later, were the critics right?