Piqued

I read an article today posted by a friend of mine.  The article was written by an abortion doctor and outlines the reasons he chooses to provide them, and his experience dealing with the criminal violence of a couple of anti-abortion activists.  It was published in the National Post (a Canadian paper), and is located here: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=283931&p=1

Below this posting, my friend pointed out that even if abortions were illegal, they’d still happen. Here’s my take:

It is true that abortions would still occur were it to be made illegal. Violations of individuals rights to life and property, such as theft, rape and murder happen all the time too. Should they be made legal?

While the article points out some chilling facts about amateur abortions, it ignores the fundamental issue in the abortion debate. What happens to the mother is completely irrelevant if the fetus is a human being, and not just some meaningless attached tissue as abortion proponents argue. This article then becomes an example of the consequences of an illegal activity, the gory details of which should, if anything, encourage pregnant girls to give their children up for adoption rather than go through such a thing. The fact that legalizing the practice would have fewer consequences for the person who decides to have it has nothing to do with whether it should be legal or not. Either type of abortion (professional or amateur) still has the same, far greater, consequence for the other person in the situation: death.

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So the market suffered a pretty serious decline at the beginning of this week. And once again, the Fed used their all-powerful control over interest rates to balance the drop. I understand that a balancing force like the Fed does encourage investment by reducing the risk to investors of a sudden drop like the one that triggered the Great Depression. However, it also tends to mask the underlying issues behind market declines like we saw this week. Chief among these is the fact that the US dollar continues to fall compared to foreign currencies, which may be a sign of a weakening economy. This devaluation of our currency also hurts our buying power in the world market. Of course, it also means we may finally start balancing our trade deficit by exporting more. And that could be a very good thing for portions of the market.

Still, I can’t help but think that the optimism of some on Wall Street about the market’s ability to rebound is a bit unrealistic when you look at government fiscal policy. As we continue to run up our national debt by borrowing money to fund foreign activities and domestic welfare programs, our national fiscal crisis becomes ever more dire. While this may not seriously affect the marketplace right now, I do not think it bodes well for the future. Our national debt is currently over $9 trillion and growing, and one must wonder how the government will ever pay this off. I can think of a few possibilities, only one of which could benefit the economy.

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First off, I apologize for the inactivity of the past month+.  Part of that was busyness (lots of traveling over Christmas break, and other preoccupations), and another part laziness.  I think I’m going to shoot for a more reasonable blog schedule…as in, once a week or so.  Hopefully…

This week’s topic is Apple vs. Microsoft (particularly their competing computing platforms).  Yes, it’s been debated to death already, but as a Computer Science major who’s fairly familiar with the subject of computer platforms and OSes, I thought I’d write something about it.

Personal Bias

Before we get into some of the fundamental differences between the two computer companies and their strengths/weaknesses, I think it’s important to point out what I think fuels a lot of the bickering between Apple fanboys and PC defenders (specifically, Windows PCs): familiarity and personal investment. 

One reason I run Windows machines and prefer to work with them is that those are the computers I grew up using.  From Windows 3.1 to 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, XP and now Vista, I’ve grown up with Windows and am familiar with where most everything is located in Windows.  Thus, I am pretty efficient at configuring my PC to do what I want it to do.  I’m also accustomed to using a variety of 3rd party applications which run in Windows, many of which aren’t available for Mac.  So naturally, I’d rather run an OS I’m used to and don’t have to learn all over again.  It’s for this reason that I tend to get frustrated whenever I use a Mac.  It’s not because it’s necessarily worse, it’s just different and not as intuitive to my Windows-trained mind.  I think this is why a lot of Windows people don’t like Mac, and why a lot of Mac people find Windows frustrating. 

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Note: The following is a chapter from an unpublished book I wrote a year ago. The purpose is to share lessons and observations from my time in college. I hope to revise and somehow publish the book in its entirety at some point, but for now I’m sharing the current drafts one chapter at a time.

Part I – The Past: More than Just a Bunch of Dates

“Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
- Ronald Reagan

Growing up, History didn’t interest me much. I guess I knew in my head that there were lessons to be learned from those who lived before me, but it still seemed like a lot of tedious memorization of facts that I’d never need in my daily life. Some of my peers found it fascinating…I would have much rather learned about technology, science, or computer programming. But I’ve come to realize that understanding the past is a great way to make the most of the present and succeed in the future. Generations of imperfect people have been trying things, some of which have worked and some which haven’t. Rather than going through that whole process ourselves, doesn’t it make more sense to learn about what they did and how it turned out, so that we can avoid making those same mistakes?

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So I’m planning to take the HD plunge soon, and as such have been trying to figure out which format to go with (first, at least). Now I don’t yet have an HDTV per se, so I’m planning to just hook up the player to my 24″ computer monitor (capable of displaying better than 1080p video). My home theater tv is a 480p widescreen projector (Infocus IN72) which DVDs look amazing on, and I don’t plan to get another projector until I can afford a 108op one. So it looks like I’ll be stuck watching HD movies on my computer monitor, or in low-res through the projector (which can downconvert 1080p video).

Still, I’m tired of not being able to grow my movie collection without knowing that for a few dollars more I could get a version that isn’t practically obsolete. If I could play it.

So HD or blu-ray? Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player has gotten as low as $100 recently, and their current entry-level HD DVD player is still under $300. Problem is, I can’t justify spending that much on a player that can’t do better than 1080i. My monitor and next TV will almost certainly be 1080p, so I want a player that can do justice to the hardware. True, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on is a great way to play 1080p HD DVDs…but I don’t have an Xbox 360, and I don’t really want one.

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