I normally don't repost comments I've made in other people's G+ streams. Well, this time I am, by collecting some of the comments together and expanding upon them.
One of the murmurs going around tech circles right now is an apparent push from Google to centralize Android/Linux distribution. The objective on Google's part is to get Android/Linux updates into the hands of users. Case in point the latest version of Android/Linux is the 4 to 5 month old Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 release. However, Android phones are still shipping with the literal years old Android Gingerbread 2.x release, and many popular Android/Linux phones like the Galaxy S II still haven't been updated despite carrier promises (AT&T) to get their act together.
The largest issue caused by inability of carriers to get their acts together and get updates out to device owners is not application incompatibility, despite what some reports, and programmers for that matter, would have you believe. The actual Android Application Programming Interfaces are very clearly defined and relatively stable between releases. The reference case in point here could be any long standing RPM or Debian based GNU/Linux distribution. Despite a wide variety of GNU/Debian operating system environments and /Linux kernels, you can generally maintain program compatibility if you target the published /Linux API's. Case in point, I can still run games like UT'99 and Doom3 that haven't had any effective updates to the binary executables in years.
From what I can tell from the Android/Linux documentation Google wasn't too particularly worried about Operating System fragmentation since they could implement API fallbacks for deprecated API features. In practice the program compatibility question does become complicated. The level of control given to vendors means that API fallbacks may not be exposed on any single Android/Linux device a user may actually have in their hand. There also can be other vendor-caused issues, such as "baked-in" shovelware like Facebook.
In my opinion the largest of these vendor-cause issues is the exposure of users to security threats. As Android/Linux devices become more widespread they become a more desirable target for malicious software and targeted attacks. It is my opinion that too many security choices are left in the hands of the phone carriers, many of whom have a long history of proving they have no business participating in software distribution or management.
Centralizing Android distribution allows Google to force the software-compatibility and security issues. This proposed centralization is very similar to the methods used by Apple in regards to the Iphone, which often raises the question of why it took Google so long to mimic Apple's successful software management strategy. My opinion here is that the recent history is being re-written by the present events.
Google publicly launched the Open Handset Alliance in November of 2007. When Google started the Open Handset Alliance it, as in Google, was trying to break into the smartphone market. The Android/Linux platform was unproven, and for that matter, unwanted. In 2007 there was active market competition from not just Apple's Iphone, but also from Palm and RIM. Case in point 2007 Palm was both profitable and already talking about their next generation software platform. Granted 2007 was also when RIM thought the Iphone was a wormhole product. Just getting the a foothold against the established players in the smartphone meant Google had to take a fundamentally different approach than Apple, which meant allowing the decentralization of updates and allowing phone vendors to do their own things.
Fast forward to today and the market itself has changed. Former smartphone powerhouses Palm and RIM have been mismanaged into irrelevance. One of the strongest players in the dumbphone market, Nokia, suffered not only from internal mismanagement that encouraged in-house competitions to ludicrous levels (Symbian, /Linux, and QT); they also suffered from external mismanagement (Microsoft, Elop, and Windows Phone). Also, yes, I know I just linked to an article written by Andrew Orlowski. As far as I can tell that article is actually accurate. Yes. I checked. Multiple times.
Anyways, the very competitors that forced Google to make concessions to get the OHA rolling to begin with, are, as far as the market is concerned, gone.
There are other factors to consider, such as the emergence of malicious software that attacks mobile devices, and then the whole updating question. Quite frankly Apple pioneered the entire concept of a smart-device getting an operating system and functionality upgrade, something Palm and RIM users had always equated to "spend more money on a new device."
Another unmentioned factor here is Kaz Hirai's push on Android through Sony. Sony needs Android centralized in order for Sony's content-driven Playstation Suite plans to actually work. I'm not too terribly interested in going into why Sony needs a centralized Android since that is it's own story, and will likely be posted on GNiE.
Additionally there is the whole legal quagmire with design patents, software patents, copyrighted API's, and so on and so forth. Google's ongoing triumph against Oracle in a courtroom probably is the straw that broke some of the involved camel's backs.
From an outsiders standpoint I think Google only now has the market muscle to actually push centralization of Android Distribution onto unwilling carriers. From the user's perspective the hopeful outcome is that devices running Android/Linux will be updated within a reasonable amount of time, say a couple of weeks if not days, from the launch of new software versions. I'm not sure I can imagine what the hardware vendors perspective is, but the loss of software competitors means they'll just have to focus on making better hardware. I can imagine what the carriers perspective is right now, Google's taking away their baked-in cash-cow shovelware deals and giving users back their devices. I think AT&T is not going to be happy about this.
And before you ask, I'm singling out AT&T since the Samsung Galaxy II S was flagged for ICS 4.0, and as far as my friends tell me, it's still Absent without explanation.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Homosexuals: It was never about Rights.
Okay, I've had enough. I think the breaking point for me was somebody who declared that Homosexuals being unable to marry was equivalent to the "Separate But Equal" doctrine. That's a load of horse hockey, and it's probably about time somebody shut the entire concept down. Might as well be me.
Thing is there has been a dramatic push by supporters of the Homosexual Agenda and their counterparts from the Liberal Democrats to compare the lack of legal right for Homosexuals to marry to various legitimate civil rights issues in the past. Comparisons can involve the female right to vote and the civil rights of non-white US citizens. The Homosexuals and their supporters claim that they are being discriminated against. Okay, so the first point of contention here is to define discrimination. Dictionary.com defines Discrimination as: "treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit." Let me phrase this in terms of plain English:
Next Question: Who defines the social institution?
The short answer is this: From the Government's point of view the sole reason a Government needs to recognize the legal status of people living together is that it provides the Government with a concrete benefit. From the perspective of a Government the concept of Marriage has only one concrete benefit. That benefit is the production of more citizens. All of the fiscal benefits that Married Couples get are designed to do one thing, and one thing only. Aid that couple in producing children.
Remember something I said years ago? That the Homosexual Agenda is just about money? Well, it's not, and I'll get to that in a second. Here though is one half the crux of the Homosexual Marriage push. It is to award Homosexuals with the same financial benefits that Heterosexual couples are awarded. However, Homosexual Couples are physically incapable of fulfilling the Physical Requirements for those benefits.
This goes back to what I opened with in terms of Discrimination. It is not discrimination to withhold or disallow a person from partaking in a specific job, benefit, event, or whatever, if they don't meet the requirements for that specific job, benefit, event, or whatever.
The reality is this: Homosexuals do not qualify for the Benefits of Marriage to a Government. Ergo it is not Discrimination to disallow Homosexuals Citizens the benefits that are granted to Heterosexual Citizens.
I suspect that these statements will produce lots of teeth gnashing and probably earn lots of vicious whining from people who hadn't actually thought this through. I'm not finished lobbing bricks through the glass houses though. Remember a question from just a couple lines ago? What does Marriage do that Civil Union does not do? Yes, let's bring that back up. What DOES a Marriage do that a Civil Union doesn't?
Here's the short answer: a Marriage is generally established by a church or a religious body. A Civil Union is generally established by a government. This difference is the key point on why supporters of the Homosexual Agenda want Marriage Recognition.
What supporters of the Homosexual Agenda want is for the Government to tell the Church what the Church has to recognize.
Subtle isn't it. The same group of people that howl and complain about Separation of Church and State; the same people who have made it all but illegal for Priests and Pastors to even mention politics from the pulpit; the same people who howl about religious persecution; the same people who stamp their feet and point dramatically anytime it even looks like the "Church" might have a modicum of influence on their lives; are trying to influence the "Church" and interfere with matters of the "Church."
In case you missed the point, this is the textbook definition of Hypocrisy and Double Standard. Supporters of the Homosexual Agenda and Liberal Democrats feel they are free to perform the exact same actions they declare nobody else can perform.
To reiterate I expect that these statements will also generate a large amount of teeth gnashing and more whining from people who hate to be called out. Unfortunately for them, I'm not done. When looking at the cold hard logic behind the goals that supporters of the Homosexual Agenda are trying to achieve, the question has to be raised; How did this ever become a big deal to begin with? Why have Homosexuals become some a large part of the perceived American Life?
The roots to these questions are to be found in the so called Kinsey Reports, which were two books published on sexual behavior. Many of the commonly accepted ratios for homosexual market penetration and demographics were taken from data provided by the Kinsey Reports. The problem here is that Kinsey Report were false, and were medically disproved. All of the figures and ratios developed by Alfred Kinsey were, in fact, fraudulent. For the record, Kinsey himself was a pedophile and is confirmed to have committed acts of sexual abuse. In most academic circles this would result in the immediate rejection of any data furnished or provided by a person who had committed such acts.
One of the larger of the legacy problems here is the abject failure of the American Medical Association to act on the status of the Kinsey Reports as fraudulent data items, or to act on the revelation of the crimes committed by Kinsey. These abject failings has been complicated by other failures of the AMA. Since most people are not aware of these failings I have more questions to ponder here.
For example, did you know that most people who claim to have same-sex physical desires also have mental or psychological disorders? Did you know that people who have identified as homosexuals who have received treatment for confirmed and diagnosed psychological problems have reported the loss of same-sex attraction? Did you know that people who have identified as homosexuals who have undergone counseling have reported the loss of same-sex attraction? Did you know that the AMA has blacklisted doctors who have tried to research the link between psychological disorders and homosexual attraction? Did you know that the AMA has worked to block medical reports or research that indicate a link between psychological disorders and homosexual attractions? Did you know that the AMA has worked to block medical reports or research that links specific chemicals and or bio-organic compounds to homosexual attractions?
While that sends quite of few of you to Google with exclamations that such events can't be right and that I have to be wrong, I'm just going to point you to Love Won Out. Which will link you to many of the former homosexuals who have been treated or counseled, and some who have been through treatment for other mental disorders and found themselves without homosexual attractions.
Here's another factor to consider. A few years back there was a push to find a "Homosexual Gene" which would cause somebody to become Homosexual. The entire concept didn't sit right with anybody who was awake during high-school biology where we learned that in order for genes to be passed on, there had to be kids. Going back to the physically incapable of producing children bit from earlier, there is no physical way for Homosexuals to pass on a gene that would cause same-sex attraction.
It is, however, very possible to pass on or generate things like Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and many other known birth or near-birth medical conditions. See where this is going? While it is physically impossible to pass on a "homosexual gene," it would be possible to pass on or generate a chemical imbalance or other mental disorder that would cause same-sex attraction. Keep in mind that hormones and pheromones as methods to modify sexual behavior are scientific facts, not to mention the non-scientific existence of aphrodisiacs which proclaim to modify sexual behavior. This is why the AMA, and for that matter other international medical organizations, blockage of research into the psychological, biological, and chemical effects on same-sex attraction is such a major point of contention. Such blockages are not just irresponsible, there is evidence to support that those blockages have stifled and stymied other areas of potential medical advances. All this blockage for the sake of perpetrating a fraud. Again, anybody who was awake through High-School Biology should have caught this. This is not, as one might say, rocket science.
The medical problem has been complicated by the influx of liberal democrats into positions of authority within news sources; like the Associated Press, Reuters, CBS, NBC, ABC, Microsoft-NBC, and CNN; and entertainment production companies. Homosexuals have been given a free pass for promotion by the people who are actually in charge of creating most of the content that is aired on television or in movies. Ergo there has been the artificial perception that Homosexuals really do make up a large percentage of an "average population."
Economically speaking, that has never been true. From a purely economical standpoint companies that support Homosexuals tend to lose money. The dramatic case in point here is the Disney Corporation which suffered an extended boycott, and only managed to stay profitable by slicing expenditures such as planned cruise lines, planned resort expansions and renovations, the shuttering of the 2D animation studio and the reliance on a third party for Disney family movies, and so on and so forth. The final result of the boycott was the ejection of Michael Eisner and the return of the Disney Corporation to a family friendly oriented company.
The same holds true with the Voting population. The dramatic case in point here is the vote in California on Homosexual Marriage. California is considered one of the hot-spots for supporters of the Homosexual Agenda, and they still got smacked down. To put it bluntly, every single state that has brought up the definition of Marriage as One Man and One Women has passed that measure. Every single state that has brought up the possibility of legally recognizing Homosexual Marriage has defeated the measure.
Put bluntly, supporters of the Homosexual Agenda are neither an Economic nor a Political Factor.
What they are is a bunch of people who have been given a megaphone, and told to have fun with it.
To repeat myself, I realize this posting is not going to be very popular. It is going to attract a lot of people who don't want to discuss things in terms of cold hard facts. It is going to attract attention from people who probably wish I had just stayed dormant instead of laying out another colloquial smack down.
Will this posting have any effect on the political landscape as we move closer to the US elections?
Well, that's really up to the people reading this.
Thing is there has been a dramatic push by supporters of the Homosexual Agenda and their counterparts from the Liberal Democrats to compare the lack of legal right for Homosexuals to marry to various legitimate civil rights issues in the past. Comparisons can involve the female right to vote and the civil rights of non-white US citizens. The Homosexuals and their supporters claim that they are being discriminated against. Okay, so the first point of contention here is to define discrimination. Dictionary.com defines Discrimination as: "treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit." Let me phrase this in terms of plain English:
- If I were a business owner of a computer repair shop and I needed a new employee to repair computers it would NOT be discrimination for me to ignore applications who have no experience repairing computers. It would be discrimination if I were to discard an applicant with experience in repairing computers because they were Catholic. Their religious status makes no difference to the job.
- If I were a business owner of a bakery and I needed a new baker it would NOT be discrimination for me to ignore applications who have no experience in baking. It would be discrimination if I were to discard an applicant with a Diploma in European Baking and Pastry because they were white. Their color makes no difference to the job.
- To take this to the extreme, if I were a business owner of a car repair shop and I needed somebody with two hands to help with repairs it would NOT be discrimination to turn down an applicant for that job who was missing an arm. It would be discrimination for me to discard that application because he had a girlfriend. Their sexual status makes no difference to the job.
Next Question: Who defines the social institution?
- Is is the established central government? No. Governments typically establish Civil Unions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union
- Is it a Church? Yes in part, most marriages are referred to as Holy Matrimony, and are performed under the authority of a priest.
- Is it a religious Convention? Yes in part, the concept of marriage as Holy Matrimony was laid out within the books known as the Jewish Torah, books that are accepted by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions.
- Is it love for your partner?
- Is it to have kids?
- Is it to save money?
- Is it convenience?
The short answer is this: From the Government's point of view the sole reason a Government needs to recognize the legal status of people living together is that it provides the Government with a concrete benefit. From the perspective of a Government the concept of Marriage has only one concrete benefit. That benefit is the production of more citizens. All of the fiscal benefits that Married Couples get are designed to do one thing, and one thing only. Aid that couple in producing children.
Remember something I said years ago? That the Homosexual Agenda is just about money? Well, it's not, and I'll get to that in a second. Here though is one half the crux of the Homosexual Marriage push. It is to award Homosexuals with the same financial benefits that Heterosexual couples are awarded. However, Homosexual Couples are physically incapable of fulfilling the Physical Requirements for those benefits.
This goes back to what I opened with in terms of Discrimination. It is not discrimination to withhold or disallow a person from partaking in a specific job, benefit, event, or whatever, if they don't meet the requirements for that specific job, benefit, event, or whatever.
The reality is this: Homosexuals do not qualify for the Benefits of Marriage to a Government. Ergo it is not Discrimination to disallow Homosexuals Citizens the benefits that are granted to Heterosexual Citizens.
I suspect that these statements will produce lots of teeth gnashing and probably earn lots of vicious whining from people who hadn't actually thought this through. I'm not finished lobbing bricks through the glass houses though. Remember a question from just a couple lines ago? What does Marriage do that Civil Union does not do? Yes, let's bring that back up. What DOES a Marriage do that a Civil Union doesn't?
Here's the short answer: a Marriage is generally established by a church or a religious body. A Civil Union is generally established by a government. This difference is the key point on why supporters of the Homosexual Agenda want Marriage Recognition.
What supporters of the Homosexual Agenda want is for the Government to tell the Church what the Church has to recognize.
Subtle isn't it. The same group of people that howl and complain about Separation of Church and State; the same people who have made it all but illegal for Priests and Pastors to even mention politics from the pulpit; the same people who howl about religious persecution; the same people who stamp their feet and point dramatically anytime it even looks like the "Church" might have a modicum of influence on their lives; are trying to influence the "Church" and interfere with matters of the "Church."
In case you missed the point, this is the textbook definition of Hypocrisy and Double Standard. Supporters of the Homosexual Agenda and Liberal Democrats feel they are free to perform the exact same actions they declare nobody else can perform.
To reiterate I expect that these statements will also generate a large amount of teeth gnashing and more whining from people who hate to be called out. Unfortunately for them, I'm not done. When looking at the cold hard logic behind the goals that supporters of the Homosexual Agenda are trying to achieve, the question has to be raised; How did this ever become a big deal to begin with? Why have Homosexuals become some a large part of the perceived American Life?
The roots to these questions are to be found in the so called Kinsey Reports, which were two books published on sexual behavior. Many of the commonly accepted ratios for homosexual market penetration and demographics were taken from data provided by the Kinsey Reports. The problem here is that Kinsey Report were false, and were medically disproved. All of the figures and ratios developed by Alfred Kinsey were, in fact, fraudulent. For the record, Kinsey himself was a pedophile and is confirmed to have committed acts of sexual abuse. In most academic circles this would result in the immediate rejection of any data furnished or provided by a person who had committed such acts.
One of the larger of the legacy problems here is the abject failure of the American Medical Association to act on the status of the Kinsey Reports as fraudulent data items, or to act on the revelation of the crimes committed by Kinsey. These abject failings has been complicated by other failures of the AMA. Since most people are not aware of these failings I have more questions to ponder here.
For example, did you know that most people who claim to have same-sex physical desires also have mental or psychological disorders? Did you know that people who have identified as homosexuals who have received treatment for confirmed and diagnosed psychological problems have reported the loss of same-sex attraction? Did you know that people who have identified as homosexuals who have undergone counseling have reported the loss of same-sex attraction? Did you know that the AMA has blacklisted doctors who have tried to research the link between psychological disorders and homosexual attraction? Did you know that the AMA has worked to block medical reports or research that indicate a link between psychological disorders and homosexual attractions? Did you know that the AMA has worked to block medical reports or research that links specific chemicals and or bio-organic compounds to homosexual attractions?
While that sends quite of few of you to Google with exclamations that such events can't be right and that I have to be wrong, I'm just going to point you to Love Won Out. Which will link you to many of the former homosexuals who have been treated or counseled, and some who have been through treatment for other mental disorders and found themselves without homosexual attractions.
Here's another factor to consider. A few years back there was a push to find a "Homosexual Gene" which would cause somebody to become Homosexual. The entire concept didn't sit right with anybody who was awake during high-school biology where we learned that in order for genes to be passed on, there had to be kids. Going back to the physically incapable of producing children bit from earlier, there is no physical way for Homosexuals to pass on a gene that would cause same-sex attraction.
It is, however, very possible to pass on or generate things like Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and many other known birth or near-birth medical conditions. See where this is going? While it is physically impossible to pass on a "homosexual gene," it would be possible to pass on or generate a chemical imbalance or other mental disorder that would cause same-sex attraction. Keep in mind that hormones and pheromones as methods to modify sexual behavior are scientific facts, not to mention the non-scientific existence of aphrodisiacs which proclaim to modify sexual behavior. This is why the AMA, and for that matter other international medical organizations, blockage of research into the psychological, biological, and chemical effects on same-sex attraction is such a major point of contention. Such blockages are not just irresponsible, there is evidence to support that those blockages have stifled and stymied other areas of potential medical advances. All this blockage for the sake of perpetrating a fraud. Again, anybody who was awake through High-School Biology should have caught this. This is not, as one might say, rocket science.
The medical problem has been complicated by the influx of liberal democrats into positions of authority within news sources; like the Associated Press, Reuters, CBS, NBC, ABC, Microsoft-NBC, and CNN; and entertainment production companies. Homosexuals have been given a free pass for promotion by the people who are actually in charge of creating most of the content that is aired on television or in movies. Ergo there has been the artificial perception that Homosexuals really do make up a large percentage of an "average population."
Economically speaking, that has never been true. From a purely economical standpoint companies that support Homosexuals tend to lose money. The dramatic case in point here is the Disney Corporation which suffered an extended boycott, and only managed to stay profitable by slicing expenditures such as planned cruise lines, planned resort expansions and renovations, the shuttering of the 2D animation studio and the reliance on a third party for Disney family movies, and so on and so forth. The final result of the boycott was the ejection of Michael Eisner and the return of the Disney Corporation to a family friendly oriented company.
The same holds true with the Voting population. The dramatic case in point here is the vote in California on Homosexual Marriage. California is considered one of the hot-spots for supporters of the Homosexual Agenda, and they still got smacked down. To put it bluntly, every single state that has brought up the definition of Marriage as One Man and One Women has passed that measure. Every single state that has brought up the possibility of legally recognizing Homosexual Marriage has defeated the measure.
Put bluntly, supporters of the Homosexual Agenda are neither an Economic nor a Political Factor.
What they are is a bunch of people who have been given a megaphone, and told to have fun with it.
To repeat myself, I realize this posting is not going to be very popular. It is going to attract a lot of people who don't want to discuss things in terms of cold hard facts. It is going to attract attention from people who probably wish I had just stayed dormant instead of laying out another colloquial smack down.
Will this posting have any effect on the political landscape as we move closer to the US elections?
Well, that's really up to the people reading this.
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