Don't go changing people's stuff!

Point to note: When I do an upgrade, I will not change people's stuff.
I just upgraded from Opera 9.[something or other] to 9.52 and my whole theme was trashed. Buttons I had deleted were added back in (like that stupid new page button on the tab bar, isn't that what mouse gestures are for??), even bars I had disabled popped back up, not to mention the entire flipping skin changed to some ugly dark grey tabs and stars and such. Take note, go look back up top, THIS WAS A POINT UPGRADE. Not a major version. I don't even think it was a minor version upgrade, I'm pretty sure I was on 9.5 already, though I don't think I quite understand thier version numbering. Either way, this shouldn't have been ANYWHERE NEAR this traumatic.

Yes, it only took 10 minutes or so to get it mostly straightened out. I think. That's not the point. An app like Opera HAS to pride itself on customization (or why bother ditching IE in the first place? Okay okay, Firefox then) but when every upgrade (they've done this before a couple times) trashes those customizations, which were probably made long enough ago that you've forgotten exactly what you did in the first place, then what's the bloody point? And don't mistake, you CAN'T let your browser goout of date for very long. People keep trying to add crud to the HTML spec so you can't trust that new content will work properly unless you're up to date.

So in short, Opera, Don't Do That. It's BAD (tm). No cookie.

PS, I still think the Opera browser is the absolute best available, it's just thier update procedures that need some work. And a few relatively minor compatibility niggles that I rarely run in to. MUCH better than when I first started using it, BACK IN THE LAST CENTURY when it was still trial-ware and streamed ads to my browser window. So, yeah, not switching to anything else, but damn that's aggravating.

Thoughts on the nature of God

Edit: Yeah, apparently this is wrong. But I leave it up so I'll remember later that it's wrong. I should probably give up on this sort of contemplation but I know I won't.

I was considering the nature of God's omniscience, time, human free will, and the idea that God always responds to holy prayers (not selfish ones obviously).

The thought came to mind that perhaps God exists in all times at once. To clarify, instead of viewing the world like a movie He's already seen (which greatly complicates the idea of Him ever acting on the plot of said movie by requiring the ability to see beyond the present as experienced by humans, which is vastly complicated by the assumption of an infinity of possible futures based on present actions; not to mention making the idea of human agency altogether rather dubious) He instead views it entirely at once, as though laid out on the director's storyboard. If He chooses to create a worldwide flood He can watch the entire storyboard change at once see all hte repercussions thereof. If someone prays for healing and it fits His plans or whatever criteria He uses such that He grants the prayer then He can instantly see every change that makes further down the timeline, both the effect on the physical world of that person continuing to live and the effect on human agency in the world as a result of that person getting well.

In short, God exists out of time in this context. He has no need of fast forward and rewind to see the possible outcomes or adjust a decision. Following that idea then, reality would become something rather like a puzzle. Such a viewpoint would say nothing about the consequences and value of 'solving' the puzzle (or obtaining a best case result). And anyway, I've rambled enough about it. I should have put this down days ago when I first thought it out, but my internet's been down at home and I kept forgetting.

Accountability agent emails

Note for accountability agent's email:
Quote 2THS 3:14-15, Paul's comments on idle believers. It lays out a good biblical tone for the agent to set with their reminders.

Online bible reading resources

A searchable online bible, possibly suitable for linking into the InaYear project
http://www.biblegateway.com/

Another bible-in-a-year site. looks like there's a couple plans available here. might be worth a look at. One of which is chronological (so presumably quite out of order by page number, and possibly an interesting read). doesn't look like an actual app though
http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/

from the earlier post, this has a multiple track reading plan. when i glanced at it it had me reading from John, Malachi and Proverbs (or Psalms, I forget) at the same time. It's another plan to consider working with.
http://bible.crosswalk.com/BibleInAYear/

here's an interesting reading plan that bounces around daily, but not within a single day. probably want to add this one too
http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html

here's an app that looks like it emails the readings each day. competition! :) several reading plans, including partial readings (OT, Psalms, etc)
http://www.bibleplan.org/

lots of plans of varying lengths and commitments
http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Product/Bible/Plans

aah, looks like more competition. emails and such. deserving of a deeper look
http://www.biblereadingplan.com/

'choosing a reading plan', from about.com of all places. links to what purports to be the 'top 5 unique plans'
http://christianity.about.com/od/biblereadingplans/Bible_Reading_Plans.htm
here's the 'top 5' link
http://christianity.about.com/od/biblereadingplans/tp/topbiblereadpla.htm

Read a bible

project concept and initial spec:
read your bible in a year website.
process-
create an account
begin a reading
set beginning point and reading plan (initially just the one i've been using will be available)
define reminder schedule and channels
define optional accountability agent.
possibly define threshold for accountability, code for this but maybe not expose it to user

track readings in account center. email reminders to include 'read it' links to mark off each passage read.
allow reading of arbitrary number of passages, but only sequentially.
allow to 'reset' the reading, adjusting the proposed end date based on current amount read.
accountability data - flag to store whether agent contacted. reset flag when a reading is checked.
when reading plan is completed, total up days taken to read.
also note the translation used.

store all readings for historical amusement. track number of times accountability agent was contacted.

future improvements to possibly include text of passages to read.
data requirements- Bible 'map'. Books, chapters per book, verses per chapter. verse probably uneccessary but it can't hurt.

track readings using a bit vector for storgage efficiency. might be processor inefficient, will have to see.

for future enhancements, prayer request subsystem.


note: I'd better review this: http://bible.crosswalk.com/BibleInAYear/ before I spend much time on this one. I figured it'd been done before, but i'm not entirely sure what this one is doing. if nothing else i can aim to improve on what it's doing by building community infrastucture around it.

Separation of [church|religion] and [state|politics]

Separation of church and state differs from separation of religion and politics in that the former is the structured representation or institution of the latter.

What that means in particular is a little vague. I insist on the former, but the latter is awfully fuzzy and ambiguous.

WoW!

Blizzard are Satan.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But they really ought not destroy lives so thoroughly. World of Warcraft deserves its acronym, and is every bit as enthralling as its reputation. And I'm never touching it again. I think the only reason it's been relatively easy for me to drop and delete the game from my computers is because I only got the trial, and I don't have the money to pay for it.

And the pirate servers seem to be generally broken and much less compelling once you've tasted the proper, working version.