Something Unexpected

Posted March 23, 2010, 6:00 a.m.

Here’s something you might not have expected to find in my home: a retail copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.

No, I’m not abandoning Mac OS X (or Ubuntu Linux, for that matter). While Windows has not been my primary operating system for a long time, I have pretty much always had a copy of Windows around either on a secondary computer or in virtualization environments. I need it to do cross-platform web site testing, run some mobile emulators that only work in Windows (primarily BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile), and a handful of other ‘occasional’ tasks.

I’ve been running Windows 5.1 (XP) for ages as my pet Windows and, like most of you, I skipped version 6 (Vista) entirely. Now that Microsoft has a stable, functioning version of Windows on the market, XP support is finally starting to fade away. Microsoft has already announced that the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 will not run in XP, and the development kit and emulator for Windows Phone 7 will require Vista or higher too. If I intend to support these platforms (and I do), I need to upgrade.

Plus, I’m getting more and more tech support requests from friends on Vista and 7, so it’s about time that I got more familiar with the newer platform.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

The use of force is . . . at the very heart of the welfare state—a bad means that tends to corrupt the good ends.

Nothing which makes us happy is an illusion.

Nobody really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you’ll see why.

There can be only one true religion, because a thing cannot be false and true at the same time, and, therefore, all religions that contradict the teaching of the true Church must teach falsehood.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.

Why is it nobody understands me and everybody likes me?

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.

We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.

We must not seek martyrdom, though we must endure it when it comes.

It is important to distinguish between ‘schooling’ and ‘education.’ Not all schooling is education nor all education, schooling.

Thus while walking along the road one needs not to be thinking of the end at every step.

I often say after eight years in Washington, I longed for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.

Socialism is structured so that it will never achieve its stated goals. The reason is self-evident: Socialism is a self-perpetuating consumption of other people’s labors, and when those labors run out, the whole system collapses.

It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a nation must win greatness.

Grammar does not make a man always speak correctly

And the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions.