Open Office is from Sun Micro Systems and they have a pay for version as well called Star Office.  There are pay for Open Source apps like Cross over office (for running MS software like adobe photoshop, Office, IE 6 and some others).  Most linux distro's that do make money charge for their OS and in corporate envirnments get money by given support for said products.

Yes Sun has a bone to pick with MS.  As far as linux is concerned (a lot of linux apps have been made or ported to MS to) a good portion of the programs were developed by learning college students and those that wanted to learn to program for little or no cost.  Linus Torvalds (the creator of the linux kernel and "founder" of linux as in Linus Unix) was a college student when he decided to write his own OS kernel and copied the format of Unix.  This is why the commands for both are the same or similar.  FreeBSD is an OS developed by Berklee students and such.  This is a good reason why you find so many strange titles and words seeing as they were learning at the time.

Have you ever gotten a a message that the mail-daemon returned blah blah blah blah?  That's because 50% or more of the net is run by linux and unix servers.  The word daemon pronounced Day-mon or demon is a greek word for a harmless or "non-evil" demon.  Just some silly greek mythology but dealing with computers I can relate to the name.  Daemons control jobs and services in linux.

Mozilla developers get paid to write the code for those programs.  I forget who is bankrolling them but they get payed.  However, a lot of distro's (like PCLinuxOS which I like) get money from donations and such.  There are plenty of people who work for free in their spare time.

So this is probably way more than you wanted to know but there you go.

Just wanted to make a little correction for you on the Open Source thing.

Open source does not mean free of charge but free to modify and distribute without any specific copyright things like pictures or proprietary or closed source parts.

You can not redistrubute firefox as "firefox" in an OS or such unless you leave it completely untouched.

Lots of linux distro's will use firefox as the main browser but if they change the pictures or make it "fit in" with their distro they have to call it something else.


Ok, just so you know, because open source doesn't = free of charge but free like "speech".

God Bless,

and hi again.  

nifty, do you happen to have a link or source I can use for that?

You see the other problem is we already allow poeple to live longer when ill because we sustain them with machines.  More often than not and I would put money on the fact that these "deformed" babies are not surviving on their own.  What about braindead people (from accidents or otherwise) that are only alive because we've hooked them up to machines?  Is that not playing God by your definition?  If we "had let it to nature" than a lot of ICU people would have been dead long ago.  Now we have this issue where we think it's killing if we take them off the machines.  Either way we are really playing God when we use medicine and surgery.  We have to "keep people alive" while we cut them open and replace their heart or put stents in their arteries.  Operations we have to circumvent the natural course God has given us and even more often we have placed on ourselves.  How many overweight, smoking drinking, etc people have heart surgery?

We have given ourselves a shortened life by our own actions and then we go and try to make our body last longer than "God intended".  We have made these questions harder on ourselves and God was not considered in the matter I'm sure.  So be careful of the argument you use.  And to simply save the bible tells us not to "kill" is inacurate when the whole word is taken into context.  God commanded whole nations of people to be executed and we kill animals and plants every day so we can eat.

It's a hard question for sure and again I would want to know how long these babies would live without any fancy intervention.  Such as if the child has no brain (it can't worship either we take some things out of context) then it's heart will not pump and it will die shortly.


Now what do you think?

I'm not one for euthanasia but I can't honestly tell you I would not want to see my child/newborn in agony.  I think you miss the point of how bad these deformations really are.  In a lot of cases they can't even eat and brain activity is minimal.  It's not like they are going to be handicapped for life, they've been given a death sentence right out of the gate and wouldn't live for very long anyhow.

I think you need to think about these particular cases, though it could be quite the slippery slope.

The commecial ginats may not count on your family or some others but overall they count on the marketed version of christmas for 4th quarter sales which are usually higher than any other quater.  It makes a big difference in the financial year as a whole.

There is no longer a need to respond to this thread.  I reread Romans this morning in the KJV....and am a little stunned that the answer is so clear where the other 4 versions I've read are murky.  Either that or God just hit me over the head with the Bible....which He's done before when I seem to be a bit dull witted.


Thank you to those who responded though.

That's cause the KJV is best.  

Ya know it's funny, and I know it's naive, but I always took "Happy Holidays and Seasons Grettings" to mean combining Christmas and New years together.  

 

[Our clean fun is MORE FUN - and we can legally drive when we leave the party.]

I don't think that the television and media folks have a clue about how many Christians celebrate Christmas. They are more in tune about how the world, not Christians, celebrate Christmas.

For many Christians, Christmas simply means bigger and longer worship services, special church and family gatherings to eat together, give thanks, and share the love of Jesus. For many Christians, Christmas really is a time for joy, thanksgiving, and sharing happiness in Jesus. Our fun always involves the Bible, singing worship songs, prayer, and things the world does not understand or appreciate. We've already been given the biggest and most precious GIFT in existence, JESUS CHRIST! The best personal gifts we give each other is Christian fellowship. The material gifts we give each other are usually small and insignificant. However, the children don't think so.

There are a few television shows that come fairly close to describing what many Christians do or try to do every day - share the love of JESUS with others. However, they may be more motivated and try harder at Christmas. After all, this is a time that we celebrate the Birth of Jesus. There are a lot of special things that families and churches do during this time of the year that the world would not view as fun, but we do.

Many folks don't think that it is possible for Christians to laugh and have fun. That would be another television stereotype, and it simply isn't true. Christians simply have fun in different ways than the world. Christians don't need alcohol and other substances to get happy and have fun. Maybe that's why the world thinks that Christians are dull, boring, never have any fun, and never laugh. WELL, I've got a NEWS FLASH! - Our clean fun is MORE FUN - and we can legally drive when we leave the party.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Titus 2:11-14  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

My father (who was not Christian) loved to give gifts at Christmas.  He really enjoyed that for some reason.  I'll never really know the "full" reason behind it but I have some guesses.  The rest of my family isn't as big on it.  This year we still got each other something but it's only a gift or two and it's not about spending money.  The point though is that I got into an argument  with my father and his girlfriend about not teaching my son about santa claus.  Their argument was that's what christmas was all about to which I had to correct them and say it was about celebrating the birth of Christ even if it is the wrong time of year.

They didn't like that at all and it gets wierd for me when other people ask my son if he's ready for santa claus.  I never make mention of SC in my house and so my son looks at them like "who?".

Next year though I am going to suggest that instead of getting gifts for each other that we gove to some charity or something in  their names.  Actually doing the christian thing and being charitable and even fullfilling the supposed message of "giving" to others.

Unfortunately though we have bought into the marketing of Christmas so much that our economy now depends on christmas sales to make out the year.

I've seen the "Satans Claws" several times really.  It's a shame really but the concept of Santa Clause is wide sweeping across countries and his/her character is always one of giving to those that have not.

Really it wasn't a bad idea but it got twisted somewhere along the line and became a time for giving and recieving to each other who already have.

When I grew up though the only time I recieved any gift or something was strictly at my birthday or Christmas.  That's not how I do things with my son and family now anymore though.  If we see something we think another would like or need we just get it for them.

Better yet;

Hungry Man: "Um hel..."

Pizza Dude: "Would you like your regular pepperoni extra cheese sir?"

Hungry Man: "I have only order here twice!"

Pizza Dude: "We know we keep logs of every order."

Hungry Man: "Okay I guess."

Pizza Dude: "Thank you sir we have automatically transfered the money required and will have your pizza delivered in 5 minutes or your money back."

You guys get reall silly about these things.  Do any of you use a food store "discount card"?  The only reason they exist is so they can see what you buy and try and specifically maket things to you?   Are you computer savvy at all?  If not then chances are you don't block cookies from your computer and ad sites (meaning an ads you see flashing on the web site etc) leave cookies on your computer and report back to the ad server of you browsing habits to better market you.

Do you realize the text ads on the side of google are specifically targeted to you because of what you have search for in the past and where you browse?  When you call Pizza hut now all they ask for is your phone number because they store your other information for faster "processing".  

Your drivers license and SS # are used all the time for CC and the like.  For $35 and up I can get a backround check on you for several things with as little as a current first and last name.

Cell phones send out tracking signals even when they are turned off and you can be found if needed.  

I find it very humorous how people are getting worried about what is to come and not what is here.  Everywhere you go on the net is tracked by your ISP and has to be given over to the govn't if they suspect you of something like terrorist activities.  None of this is new either just much more prevalant.

I don't know what kind of graphics Evangilists uses. I just know it kills my graphics driver.

What I use my computer for besides these forums:
My wife has an embroidery machine and I make designs for her.
I wish to make animations such as smilies and childrens movies.

My problem is that my whole computer is outdated. My son is really into computers. It is what he does daily for a living. When I got this graphics card from him there really wasn't a proper slot for it but he put it in anyway. He says to remove it and a lot of the problems will go away. Between his work, family and church he is pretty busy and I am not sure which card it is so I have to wait on that.

He is going to help me on building a whole new system when we both get some time to do it.

Well the kind of graphics you are into using are actually CPU dependant.  A faster CPU would help you out more than a fancy 3D card.  Remember that even video editing (which one would think needs a good video card) is actually more dependant on your CPU and Hard drives than anything else.  I'm not sure how you could have a video card that "doesn't" belong in your computer.  It's not as if you can force different slot types together.  If your son says you should take out the card that's a different story I suppose.  

Do you know how to upgrade your drivers?  ATi updates there drivers once a month.  I'd imagine if you are actually getting a video driver lock up you need some updated drivers.

You can download them from here.  Just choose your OS version ----> graphics driver -----> radeon family.  There are two versions of the driver.  One for broad band that's one big file and another for dial up that is broken up into a couple of files.   There is a read me and such but basically you would be safe to just click on the setup.exe file and follow the directions.

He has a lot of misinformation and the simple fact it is a Messianic "group" makes him less valid to me.

You'd have to do much more than search a current dictionary to find the meaning of an old word.  I also don't approve of people trying to retranslate the bible and constantly declaring things are "mistranslated".

A good benchmark test for graphics card is 3dMark (http://www.futuremark.com/products/). You can download
this to test a graphics card(s). There is a demo version,
and some features will be disabled, but its a good way to
document your video card performance. I generally recommend
for people that are looking to upgrade their graphics card, and
what to play some game, or do some graphics works and are
wounding if a specific card will be able to do it.


jim.

Any 3dmark after 01 isn't all that good.  It also isn't relevant if you don't have a card with the level of DirectX it tests for.  A radeon 7000 is definitely getting old though.

Pastor if you want to know what to upgrade to let me know what you actually want to do with it.  What kind of graphics does evangelist use?  Flash and such are CPU dependant.

It's a tough thing.  I agree with you that the "Christian music" scene is really a business than about glorifying God.  On the other hand, the money it costs just to produce those things, regardless of their intent, gets expensive.  Good recording equipment and the production of CD's and cover jackets gets costly as well.  I used to be in a secular band long ago before I was saved.  I'm not a stickler about what kind of music a person listens to, but I disagree with those who pretend that "Christian" music that horribly immitates secular music is to glorify God and such.  

Honestly I would want to copyright music even if it was inspired by the LORD to me because I wouldn't want just anyone to take the song and perhaps mutilate it.  I could see some secular people taking advantage of that.  Also the copyright issue becomes more of a personal issue in enforcing it.  I could simpluy require people to ask permission to use my work but not charge anything, OR even better ask that they donate to missionaries and such.  That's just me though.