Posted 11:33 PM by dave yates
"Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)"
Ignorance Ig"no*rance, n. F., fr. L. ignorantia.
1. The condition of being ignorant; the want of knowledge in
general, or in relation to a particular subject; the state
of being uneducated or uninformed.

Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing
wherewith we fly to heaven. --Shak.

I don't know about all that. It has been my experience that ignorance can be a good friend in time of need. For instance, when my first child was born. It was an emergency C-section. The cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times, and she was in distress. I had no idea of any of this. All turned out well in the end. But becuase of my ignorance I had no reason at all to panic or worry. Another for instance: When my wife was undergoing laproscopic surgery to remove a tubal pregnancy. The surgeon severed her main ambdominal artery, and my wife nearly blead to death in a 6 hour operation that should have lasted 45 minutes. I had no idea that 6 hours was out of the ordinary. Again all turned out well. Yet another for instance, when my youngest daughter was born, we got to the hospital 30 minutes before delivery. I had no idea how close to delivery we were. Again, no reason to panic, because I had no reason to think anything was out of the ordinary.
This past Saturday my 9 month old daughter nearly died. I just became aware today of how close to dying she actually came. I really don't know what good it would have done me to know how much danger she was in at the time. My ignorance again saved me from unnecessary worry. Again all turned out well.
I m not saying that ignorance is a good thing. I guess what I am trying to say is that it's best not to panic until sombody tells you there is a reason to. Maybe that's not even it....I don't believe in panic, or worry for that matter. I figure God has it all under control. He knows how much I can handle. And I know that there is nothing I cannot handle without him.

Matthew 6
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Posted 9:52 PM by dave yates
Got out of the hospital today with youngest daughter. It has been an awful 5 days!

Posted 10:45 PM by dave yates
This has to have been the worst Christmas ever for me. We took our youngest daughter (9 1/2 months old) to the emergency room Christmas morning about 9:30. She stayed in the hostpital 3 days, and was transfered today to ICU at another hospital. If all goes well she will leave ICU tomorrow, and go into a regular room. Maybe she will be home in a couple of days.

Posted 9:00 PM by dave yates
Merry Christmas!

John 3
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


Luke 2
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Posted 1:02 AM by dave yates
I now have a page to put all my photos:

my deviantART photo page.

Check out the main deviantART page too.

Posted 11:55 PM by dave yates
I saw The Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers tonight. It was perfect! Equal to or better than the first one. Peter Jacson deserves Director of the year or something. The movie really was perfect. I can find absolutly nothing I didn't like about it. A whole lot more action. The ending was perfect too. Very very entertaining.

Here is the link to the official movie site

Posted 12:52 AM by dave yates
Here is a super cool program for windows as well as linux:

Celestia is a free real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All travel in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.

Posted 12:20 AM by dave yates
It's been a long weekened already. My youngest daughter (almost 9 months old) has RSV, double ear infections, and the chicken pox.
She is on steroid breathiing treatments for the RSV; and that can cause complications with the chicken pox. For that reason, she is on some immunogloblin to keep the chicken pox short lived and mild.
Oldest daughter is feeling only slightly neglected
Being a parent is always fun, but seldom easy.

Posted 12:07 AM by dave yates
Games I play on my linux machine:

Descent3
Eric's Ultimate Solitaire
Ultima6 (via exult)
Ultima1
Heretic2
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Mindrover
Myth2
Quake3
Quake3 Team Arena
Railroad Tycoon II
Rune
SimCity 3000
Alpha Centauri
Tribes2
Soldier of Fortune2
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament 2003
Return to Castle Wofenstein
FooBillard
Armagetron
LBreakOut
Frozen Bubble
Cube
TuxRacer
Jay Peak Snow Bording demo
Star Wars Jedi Knight 3 Jedi Outcast (via WineX)
Soldier of Fortune 3 (via WineX)
Diableo II (via WineX)
Max Payne (via WineX)
Baldur's Gate II (via WineX)

I am looking forward to NeverWinter Nights and Doom3 for linux

Posted 9:35 PM by dave yates
I got an email today telling me that my main webpage, Lotta Linux Links, was not GPL compliant. That page ,Lotta Linux Links,
is built using sorce code from Loads of Linux Links web page (an open source project that makes available the tools necessary to build a linux links page). I had inadvertantly failed to make their source code available, as well as any changes I had made to it.
I fixed the problem as soon it was brought to my attention.I found the whole experience to be really neat.
The GPL in plain english states that:
* Anyone can use this software for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.
* Anyone can modify this software in any desired way for private use, without redistributing any code.
* Anyone can redistribute this software, in its original form or modified, as long as the distributed product comes with full source code and is also licensed under the GPL.

This is an altogether neat thing. It's what makes linux work. And it's what protects open source property from being hijacked.

I used dos and windows for several years before I discovered linux in 1996. When I was a windows user, and was first getting my feet wet on the internet (back in 1990), I remember describing my experience with windows and dos freeware/shareware to someone; it was like a big software store where you could go get free software. It was cool. But as time went on I remeber being frustrated by "nagware" and "unwanted" registration screens. I either found unauthorized ways around the problem, quit using the software, or even less often, registered the software. Not buying proper license for software is a bad thing that alot of folks are guitly of. I choose not to use software that requires me to purchase a license. I use software licesened under the GPL. But, if you value open source software and respect the GPL, and still choose to use other software that requires you to buy a license, then do the right thing--respect their license, purchase the software. Or better yet, ditch that software and find an open source alternative.

Linux reminds me of those early days. The GPL keeps programs free for use, free from charge, but not free from cost.
In order for open source software to work the GPL needs to be protected and adhered to.

Posted 7:04 PM by dave yates
I had a great Thanksgiving! It was great to be able to have my whole family together.

XFCE3 didn't last long on my laptop; I wanted easier access to all the programs on my computer. Thanks to a program called genmenu, I now have menu access to almost every program on my computer while running flux/hacked/blackbox, enlightenment, and the windowmaker window managers. I settled on windowmaker. It's as fast as XFCE3, and much more themeable. I will post screenshots when I get around to it.