Response to "Why I Raise My Children Without God"

This is a parent's manifesto: Why I Raise My Children Without God

I applaud this article's honest, open thoughts. What are your thoughts? Come on, you have some.

1. God is bad parent and role model.
Waita minute, he did intervene as a parent. He kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden for not obeying. Wait minute, just for eating a certain not-allowed fruit? (Yes)

2. God is not logical
"Why did God allow this to happen" -> "It's not for us to understand". This is the great question of suffering. The classic answer is... if you know the answer you will be God yourself. Yes I know this is not so satisfactory. We just have to admit there are things we don't understand. I am sorry I don't have satisfactory answer either. This means: don't bother looking for an answer as there isn't one. The author is wishing God to be the true world policeman to stop bad things. If God had to intervene, and kill everyone doing bad things the world would have ended long ago. There is promise of Judgement Day... in which all things are resolved.
3. God is not fair
Answered prayer on silly things like winning a soccer match but denied the prayers of parents with dying children... I am sorry about children suffering and I am not sure if they can win soccer match just by praying alone. I am sorry I don't know how the prayer-answer system work, as I am not God.
4. God does not protect the innocent - See (2)
5. God is not present
One cannot actually prove or disprove he is here or not... because he is some higher being. But you can believe he is.
6. God Does Not Teach Children to Be Good
So this is about externally focused or internal structured... Yes, teach them to be internally structured good kids. I agree.
7. God teaches narcissism
"God has a plan for you." came from a little line in Jeremiah 29:11. Waita minute this is talking to Jeremiah (concerning the future of the exiled Israel people) and not you or me. But book authors infinitely enlarge this verse to give hope to the hopeless. This actually may not be a bad thing... but I wouldn't go so far to call it narcissism.

So we live in a world where there is no world policeman that stops bad things from happening. I wish that's the case but unfortunately it is not how the world works. Yes, We are helpless. We don't know when the next tragedy will come.

I would tell kids to practice their soccer. Do their best. (and that alone)

I would tell kids to be good not just because I'll watch them, or any higher being watching them (with hand gesture of 2 finger pointing to eyes then pointing at kid). (Just like the author)

Now for the suffering. We need sensible people who take real actions such as gun control(!) Are the psychological disturbed people getting enough help? (Something the government ought to think about)
People need to love their kids so they don't grow up resentful and be criminals.
For those who have extra $, donate to charity so you can do something that Jesus talked about: feed the hungry, give drink to thirsty, cloth the naked, etc. (Matthew 25:31-46)
You can make the world a better place...even you are no more special than the next creature around you.

And for daunting questions about God. Yes I know you have heard the book of Job, and I know you are lost in the text after chapter 2. Skip right into chapter 38.

Windows Annoyance (part 5)

In Windows XP, there was an convenient Show Desktop that minimizes everything that is running and give you the desktop, where you may put icons to quickly access your files. Oh it has been gone for a long time. The icon is gone, but the functionality is still there for Windows 7. You have to click all the way to the right-hand-side, to the right of the clock to get to it, and it is not even clear. See details here. Ok, I actually don't use this too much so I didn't even notice with a couple years banging on Windows 7, and this tradition carries to Windows 8.

Windows XP	Windows 7 & 8

I refuse to give in. Computer should work for me. Not the other way around. I want to add the minimize shortcut icon back down in the task bar.

A two line VBScript will do the trick:

Set shell = wscript.CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Shell.MinimizeAll

Ok, create such script, drag to the taskbar... Alas it doesn't work, it gives you a wacky popup instead.

To overcome this, you need to create a shortcut, then make that call: wscript.exe minizeall.vbs, and then you can drag to the taskbar. Find pretty icons in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll. You are a real old timer if you remember moricons.dll

Java gets so much attention these days

The Department of Homeland Security wants you to remove java. There are many news article about this. It is a big security loop hole!

I like this article the best: See here as it tells you the detail.

Oh, nowadays you can do Class.forName() and invoke any method? How silly is that! This reflection thing looks like recipe for disaster. People are adding more and more to Java without remembering its original goals? Can someone interview James Gosling please. I'd like to see what he thinks... and just how he is doing in career after Sun.

Yikes this is a big punch in the eyes for Java...

Oracle offered a fix now. But who knows if there are more undiscovered loopholes? Even Microsoft doesn't get this much concern about security from the Department Homeland Security.

Abandoned Android App

You hear in news almost everyday in Chicago: so many people shot. In 2012 there were more than 500 homicides.

I had a good app idea: visualize Chicago homicide data. See data here.

I wanted to integrate this with the map, to see how close you are relative to crime scenes. I want to sprinkle the map with a blood icon for each homicide, tap on icon to see details of the incident. Well I have partial success in this. But 500+ overlays seems to be too much for phone to handle. See I have to take each address, reverse geo code it to find lattitude/longtitude, add an overlay with handler on the map. And there is fuss of getting MAP API to make anything to display. Oh no, the MapView has deprecated. Ok I am not going to bother... I haven't had a good app idea for a long while now.

Chess FEN

I have this interesting Android game: iChess Tactics. This provides me hundreds of puzzles to solve. It can export its puzzle in Forsyth-Edwards Notation notation. (Hey how come I can't easily screenshot my phone)

I found a very nice FEN viewer in DHTML Goodies. Enter the FEN notation and it will draw a board for you! (No, you can't play right on it, it is just a viewer.)

Chess can be full of surprises... one wrong move can cost you the game. In this puzzle, the game is just barely started. Almost all pieces are here. Black to move, can you spot the killer move?

FEN:
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/8/4P3/6n1/7P/PPPNPPP1/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1
Chess Piece Type: Motif Cases Merida Alpha Smart Leipzig