Triumphalism vs. Relativism

We've always said that this blog was about politics, culture, and technology, and I do note that religion isn't in that list, but there's been a few things lately that I want to keep track of just for my own future reference. Here's another from The Atlantic: I'm Right, You're Wrong, Go To Hell. I hadn't heard of the terms "triumphalism" or "relativism" in this context before, but they'll be useful descriptions for me in the future.

I found it all interesting, but here's one good quote:

In one of his sermons the fifteenth-century Franciscan Saint John of Capistrano, immortalized on the map of California, denounced the Jews for trying to spread a "deceitful" notion among Christians: "The Jews say that everyone can be saved in his own faith, which is impossible." For once a charge of his against the Jews was justified. The Talmud does indeed say that the righteous of all faiths have a place in paradise. Polytheists and atheists are excluded, but monotheists of any persuasion who observe the basic moral laws are eligible. The relativist view was condemned and rejected by both Christians and Muslims, who shared the conviction that there was only one true faith, theirs, which it was their duty to bring to all humankind. The triumphalist view is increasingly under attack in Christendom, and is disavowed by significant numbers of Christian clerics. There is little sign as yet of a parallel development in Islam.

New Wise-Women issue

Still alive and kicking: there's a new issue up over at Wise-Women. Tutorials, book reviews, gems from the mailing list, and more!

Catholics vs. Democrats

I've never been a Christian, nor have I ever had a desire to be a Christian, but having numerous friends of that faith I've often asked them about how they handle the conflict between their faith and their values. The usual response is something along the lines of "Huh?," often followed by "I don't see that there's a conflict at all; after all, just because I'm a [fill in the blank with a denomination] doesn't mean I have to believe in my church's doctrine."

It looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't understand this distinction. Tom Daschle's Duty to Be Morally Coherent: The Senate minority leader is ordered to stop calling himself a Catholic.

Next, will every pro-war Catholic be excommunicated? If not, why not?

Product I'd like to see

Every so often, Mac users rant about how Apple ought to get into the [fill in the blank] business. This week it's the music business. Often, it's the printer and scanner business. Usually, it's the PDA business. For the most part (excepting the music business) these don't make any sense, because (1) Apple used to be in that business, (2) Apple got out of it because it wasn't making any money, and (3) the companies that are still in there aren't making much money at it, either.

But there is one niche market that I think that Apple ought to get back into: laptop docks. The only competition here is Photo Control's BookEndz docks, and they're coming to market too late. Some examples: the 12" PowerBook shipped in January, but the dock isn't coming out until next month. The 17" PowerBook shipped last month, but Photo Control hasn't announced that they're even planning on producing a dock, much less given a ship date.

Why do I care? My 667 MHz TiBook is 16 months old, and that's old for a laptop. I'd like something faster, and when I figured out what my requirements are, it got ugly. Apple won't ship a 15" AlBook until late 2^nd or sometime in the 3^rd quarter, and then Photo Control takes 4+ months after that to build and ship docks. Between the two, it could be the end of this year or possibly even early next year before I can get a new machine that fits my needs.

So why should Apple care? Apple could come out with a new AlBook next month that's perfect for me, but I'd still have to hold off until the dock shipped. Apple's placing serious bets on their laptops as their future, and I truly doubt that I'm alone in making a dock a requirement for when I can actually give Apple my money. If Apple wants to move huge numbers of laptops, they can't allow a bottleneck like this in their sales process.

Now normally, I'm a big fan of 3^rd party products and companies that make them, but Photo Control is holding things up. The best company to be in this market is Apple, and a coordinated launch plan (docks shipping at the same time as laptops) makes sense both from a product standpoint and a market standpoint.

Joel on icons

Joel Spolsky asks:

A question for tech writers: why does every technical manual and book include a section at the beginning on "conventions used in this document," full of ridiculous and useless tips like, "Tips are indicated by a lightbulb icon in the margin"? Is it because you're paid by the word?

It's because, honest to deity, some people wouldn't know what it meant if we didn't tell them. And even worse, when it's in the introduction, authors still get questions from people who don't read introductions, but who want to know what the icons mean.

Let's just say that if I had a nickel for every person who saw the "works in IE/Mac and Netscape only" icons next to some of our Chapter 2 scripts and still wrote to me yelling about how they don't work in IE/Win, I'd have made more money than I saw on my last royalty check.

You want it, it wants you, so get it already

Summer Fun Cthulhu:

H.P. Lovecraft's Great Cthulhu features the bloated Elder God decked out in a panama hat, Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and sandals.

Plan to spend some time looking around this site; there's a lot of good stuff here. For some definition of the word "good," so to speak.

Wi-Fi on old PowerBooks

Derek Miller wrote a great how-to on wireless networking for the PowerBook 1400/2400/3400/old G3. I sold my 1400 off years ago, but it's nice to know that it's still a useful machine.