My Anti-Bias Bias

I am really, really tired of a society filled with bias.

More to the point, I'm tired of rhetoric, the propegator of bias. Rhetoric is the tool the leaders of any given cause or agenda give to lesser members of their flock so that they can enlist new members, who are also equipped with the rhetoric. You can easily identify rhetoric when you are engaged in a debate or discussion with someone and realize that you just heard someone on TV say the same thing with the same words less than 24 hours ago.

What bothers me about bias and rhetoric is that it's indicative of a society that doesn't think for itself. This is especially dangerous in a democratic society - the public determine its leaders, but the leaders are all too happy to keep them supplied with a steady stream of rhetoric to keep them in line. Basically, once someone has aligned themselves with a particular group of people, whether it's a political party, religion, or conspiracy theory, they allow the other members of that group to shape their opinions and beliefs in such a way that it becomes very hard for them to be open-minded.

Here are a couple specific forms of bias that really drive me crazy:

• Religious Bias. I'm a Christian, and this is one that I find I have to keep in check pretty carefully. The problem with religious bias is that it's essentially intertwined with the belief system. When your pastor or priest or imam says, "this is what our religion believes about that," it's really hard to try to see it objectively. You've been supplied with the answer, and if you start from the beginning and work your way up (i.e. scientific method), you feel guilty (and are possibly shunned) if you come up with a different answer. Religious bias is also dangerous because it can often lead to the violation of basic tenents of the religion all while trying to advance its agenda (suicide bombings, burning down an abortion clinic, hate speech, etc.).
• Political Bias. Republicans and Democrats have got to be the most sheep-filled institutions on the planet. People wait to be told what their political party believes, and then they all jump on board. Drives me nuts. One of these days, I'm going to perform an experiment. I'm going to walk up to a Republican or Democrat and tell them some story about a politician on the "other" side - some story that is completely fabricated. I'm going to make it juicy, so that they waste no time in jumping in to decry that person's foolishness, and when they're done, I'll say, "Oh you know what? I remembered the name wrong. It was actually [someone from their party]." I'd love to see how fast they backpedal.

Google Wave

Holy cow, what cave was I in?

Somehow, nearly a month and a half ago, Google announced a new product in development called Google Wave, and I didn't catch wind of it until today, despite it popping up on several of my RSS feeds.

So what is Google Wave? Basically, it wraps up all of the contemporary text-based forms of communication in to one tool. That hardly sounds impressive, I know, but it is. A Wave document is essentially an email message, IM message, and collaborative document all rolled in to one. There's no way I can do it justice in a short blog post, especially since I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but you should really check out the link above and watch the video (or just check out the highlights).

I'm impressed, and personally, I can't wait.

How did I not see this earlier?

Ireless Wireless

As my first "real" post, I'd like to share some advice to anyone on Windows XP who might be having wierd problems with their wireless internet connection: disable the Wireless Zero Configuration service.

Anyone who's ever bought a new wireless adapter has undoubtedly noticed that they come with drivers, and when you install those drivers, they also install some sort of application that helps you manage the wireless connections. These programs always bothered me because Windows XP has a built-in wireless manager, so they seemed superfluous. However, it turns out that there is a strong case for using the manufacturer's software instead of Microsoft's (which is often the case).

The Wireless Zero Configuration service is the one that allows you to "View Avaialable Wireless Networks" and choose one to connect to. It also constantly checks to see if there's a better one than the one you chose. That seems like a nice feature (especially for mobile computers), but the act of checking can actually produce lag with some adapters. So, if you're experiencing 2-3 seconds of lag once a minute or so, you might see a big improvement by disabling the WZC service and using the manufacturer's software that came with your adapter instead.

Here are the steps I took to solve this problem when I experienced it this week:

1. Uninstall manufacture software, if it was previously installed.
2. Disable the Wireless Zero Configuration service by going to Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Services, find the Wireless Zero Configuration service and double-click it, and change the startup type to "Disabled".
3. Install the manufacturer software, and run it to configure your adapter.

Hope that helps somebody!

Intro

World, rejoice. I've started a blog.

Rejoice because herein I will present so much wisdom and helpful information that it will blow your mind.

Rejoice because herein I will present such deep and insightful thoughts on current events and issues, that you will find your mind opened to points of view you may have never before considered.

Rejoice because herein I will present musings that thus far I have been reluctant to share with the world due to their sheer power.

Rejoice because you don't have to listen to me do any of that in person.

Alright, seriously, I'm not that stuck up. I'm basically planning on using this blog as a mind-dump from time-to-time. You know, sometimes you see something or hear something or do something and you think to yourself, "Self, other people should see or hear or do this." Sometimes it's hard to find the right people to share this with, because they're either not interested in the same subject, not interested in debating the subject with you, or fixated on the fact that the way your hair is parted it really highlights the big zit on your forehead. Blogs don't have zits, don't care when people walk away, and cyber-people have a lot more opinions than actual-people, so debate is practically guaranteed, even if all you said was, "Hey, the sky is blue."

So sit back, relax, subscribe, enjoy, and don't take yourself too seriously. I mean, come on, look at you. You're wierd.