Maximum RAM for a Dual USB iBook
From Ellen:
Hi,
I was reading the "Compleat" guide
you wrote on these machines, but I'm trying to find the unwritten info.
I am a long-term Mac user and member of LEM (before it's lists moved to
Google!), so I know about the difference between Apple's specs and what
is actually possible.
My niece gave me her old G3/700 iBook when I returned
to school. I see that 640 MB is listed as the max (128 onboard + 512
stick). Is this really the limit, or can it handle a 1 GB
stick.
On the other hand, I am so far willing to abide by the posted limits
on my Mac mini 1.25 GHz,
because I have not seen anything about people pushing it and
only a limited number of people talking about overclocking it.
The iBook is well beyond warranty, and I do have a backup for spare
parts. I'm totally comfortable and experienced in taking these machines
apart successfully. I have no intention of holding you responsible for
anything that happens to the iBook, I was just wondering
. . . in the olden days it used to be much easier to find
this type of info.
Thank you
Ellen
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do
nothing!
Hi Ellen,
As the owner of a 700 MHz iBook G3 that provided six
years of faithful service before expiring without warning, I can tell
you with certainty that 640 MB of RAM is the maximum these machines
will address, alas.
I like the Edmund Burke quote in your email signature.
Are you a Burke fan (I am), or did you just like the thought
expressed?
Charles
WindowShade: Apple vs. Unsanity
From Peter in response to Waiting for WindowShade X
before Going Snow Leopard:
I have been an Unsanity fan for
years, but Apple does not like them, because their approach is not
sanctioned by them. So months waiting for a Leopard compatible APE,
until, finally they did it, to be knifed in the back again by "da Snow
Cat". I am afraid at sometime they will give up.
No substitute for WindowShade, but I did find a
nice sub for FruitMenu: XMenu at
devon-technologies.com. Could have some more bells and whistles, but,
hey, it's free.
Good article.
Hi Peter,
Thanks!
As for Unsanity giving up, I hope not. I really don't
know what I would do without windowshading. As I noted, I went without
it for several months after Leopard came out, and it nearly drove me
nuts. I consider OS X crippled without it.
Charles
Puppy Linux Impresses
From Dan in response to Puppy
Linux for Intel and PowerPC Macs:
Hi Charles -
I always enjoy reading your articles on Low End Mac.
I just tried Puppy Linux on my
Intel iMac, and despite the fact it was running off the CD, I was quite
impressed with the speed of the OS.
I've tried Ubuntu in the past
and have ended up frustrated with it. I think Puppy may have a great
deal of potential if for nothing more than it is much more user
friendly, especially for a new user.
Regards -
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the kind words about my LEM scribblings -
also for the positive report about Puppy Linux. Even though I'm as
consummate (albeit not uncritical) OS X fan, I really want desktop
Linux to thrive, and for that matter Google's forthcoming Chrome OS as well.
Alternatives (especially to Windows) are always good to have.
Charles
New Mac Email App
From Dan Knight in response to Do We Really Need Another Mac
Email Client?:
Charles,
I think Mac users do need a new email client because Mail has
several shortcomings. However, I don't think the solution is designing
an entirely new client and data format. In my opinion, the ideal
solution would be to take the goals for "Letter" and apply them to a
new client that is compatible with Mail's email format. No need to
reinvent the wheel, and users could readily migrate back and forth
between the two apps, much as you do with Thunderbird and Eudora 8.
My 2¢ as a former Claris Emailer, PowerMail, and GyazMail user
who finally settled on Mail because it just works, not because it's
anywhere close to perfect.
Dan Knight, LowEndMac.com
Using 'Obsolete' Technologies on a Daily Basis
From Scott:
Hey Charles,
Have you noticed that the obsolete peripherals tend to die way
before the obsolete Mac that's running them? I just discovered my
8-year-old Epson Perfection 1250 scanner doesn't work now. The
10-year-old Pismo
running it still works great though. I also had three Canon inkjet
printers die on me before I finally got smart and bought an Oki C5150n
color LED printer several years ago, which still works great
thankfully.
I've never had a Mac die on
me yet. An early adopter Mac fanboy ridiculed me the other day for
having such out-of-date Macs, but I like obsolete technology. In this
same room with my 10-year-old Pismo is a beautiful Philco radio that's
over sixty years old, and a one hundred thirty year old clock, among
other obsolete technologies. Here's a photo of my obsolete 1965
Chevrolet at the Cold War Air
Museum at the Lancaster Airport in Lancaster Texas.
If
you wanna see some obsolete cold war Soviet technologies, that's the
place. My friends took me up in an L-39 Albatros jet a couple of years
ago to fly aerobatic maneuvers. It was quite a rush . . . I'm
so glad the obsolete technology held up! hahaha. That's actually me in
the back seat of 909 in the photo.
Hi Scott,
I like old technologies too, and of course share a
passion for Pismos. I've had pretty good luck with my Canon IP2000
printer, though. Five years and no problems yet, although I don't do an
awful lot of printing. Lack of compatible drivers for the later OS
versions is often the cutoff for computer peripherals.
Hey, '65 Chevy; way cool!
I had one, regrettably not in as good shape as yours. Mine had a
gazillion miles on it, but I only paid $175 for it back in 1977, and I
got more than a year's running out of it, then gave it to a guy who
hauled it out to an island off the Nova Scotia coast - and he got more
running from it there. I think the engine (230 CID six cylinder) might
have ended up in a fishing boat. I've owned more than 50 cars, and that
'65 Chev was one of my favorites.
Charles
I think everybody had a 1965 Impala. It was probably the best
selling car of all time, with the possible exception of the 1971
Volkswagen Beetle or the 1921 Ford Model T, depending on whose figures
you go by. Both the Beetle and Model T were the cheapest cars available
at the time.
The '65 Impala was the top-of-the-line Chevrolet, but yet it still
outsold everything that year. Mine has over 200,000 miles on it now. I
rebuilt the original engine and transmission ten years ago, turning it
into a total hot rod. It has the original small block 283 V8 heavily
modified to wind up over 8,500 rpm. It has the original two speed Aluminum Powerglide
transmission, which has been heavily modified with dragster
components. The car can scream up to 75 mph in first gear! (laugh)
Don't try this at home kids.
When I shift into high gear at 75 mph, the rear tires chirp and I
see a puff of blue smoke in the rearview mirror. This car has been in
the family since it was new. When I was born, my parents brought me
home from the hospital in this car. It was given to me in 1982 when I
was sixteen years old. It was going to the junkyard but I got it, and
I've been driving it ever since. My family and friends used to tell me
what a hunk of junk it was. I don't hear that too much anymore. It
attracts a lot of attention everywhere I go. It's my only car now. It
was paid off before I was born. I like not having car payments
. . . and I like old technology. (satisfied smile)
Scott
Hi Scott,
My '65 Chevy was a Bel Air with a 230 inch six and a
three-on-the-tree manual gearbox, non-power steering, and few options
other than a tinted windshield and a radio. What a great car
though!
I did have a '67 Canadian Pontiac
Parisienne four door hardtop with a 283 (stock) and a Powerglide
tranny though. Full size Pontiacs sold in Canada in the 50s and 60s
were actually hybrids with Chevy chassis and drivetrains and roughly
7/8ths scale downsized body skin sheetmetal with similar styling to the
American market real "wide-track" Pontiacs like the Bonneville.
One backhanded upside to the long low gear in the
Powerglide two-speed auto was that I had one break while on a road trip
(in a '66 Corvair), refusing to shift into high gear, but was able to
limp home in low range at about 35 miles per hour without over-reving
the engine. A very long boring day on the road, though!
I still drive old cars. The newest one I've ever owned
was in its fourth year when I bought it. We have a 1990 Toyota Camry in
quite decent shape, '89 and '91 Corollas (both beaters), and a '94
Mazda B-4000 4x4 pickup (Ford Ranger clone built in Edison, New
Jersey). What kills cars here in Nova Scotia is a combination of the
salt sea air and the incredible amount of road salt dumped on the
highways in winter, plus a damp climate. Bodies usually rust out long
before the mechanical stuff wears out.
Charles
Multitouch iMac Coming Soon?
From Alvin, following up on iPad: Genie in a
Bottle:
Hi.
Yeah. I don't think [the iPad will] ever replace the keyboard and
anything physical where you need your finger placed accurately for
serious work, as evidence of them having the keyboard peripheral for
it. I suppose multitouch is really just for replacing the mouse and
other swiping motions that won't need such accuracy.
By the way, I'm planning to go to the bank to make the down payment
for the iMac i7, but I just
read new iMacs for 2010. I'm not that in a hurry, should I wait for
those? Maybe those will be iMac multitouch, you think? When is the iMac
refresh, based on your experience, and will this be multitouch?
Thanks.
Alvin
Hi Alvin,
I can't advise you what to do about the iMac purchase.
It's always a bit of a crapshoot, like trying to time the stock
market.
In 20/20 hindsight, I wish I'd held off another four
months and got a 13" MacBook Pro
instead of the 13" Unibody
MacBook that I'm typing this on. That said, this has been an
excellent machine in every way except for the lack of FireWire and an
SD Card slot. On the other hand, my MacBook has a swappable battery and
separate audio in and out ports, so there are advantages (IMHO) with it
as well.
As a general observation, I think that if I were you,
I would hold off for a bit on an iMac purchase until the dust settles a
bit on the widely-reported video issues.
Multitouch iMac? Beats me. I'm not much of a
touchscreen fan anyway, so that wouldn't be a deal-maker or breaker by
my lights, but that's just me.
Charles
Nondestructive Repartitioning
From Alvin:
Hi.
Would you know of a live partitioning program that's open source or
free? I just made a down payment on the iMac i7 (I hope the shipment is
back to normal), and I will use it for development, digital
art/animation, and pro stuff (medium to slightly heavy quality), but
I'd like to use Windows when I want to relax by playing games on it, or
if I need to run some monitoring tools for the temperature and things
like that.
I plan to partition it into two for Windows and OS X, but I'd like
it to be dynamic so I could run a program that'll maybe do the
partitioning overnight if that's how long it takes for it's 1 TB
hard disk without reformatting again and reinstitute things through
Time Machine. In case I need more room for Windows or OS X, I
could adjust or delete the partitions easily. Maybe use a third
partition as a disk cache for Photoshop and similar programs that may
need to launch big files in one continuous flow. And also a partition
for experimental OSes like new Linux releases. Is there such a program
for OS X?
Gbu,
Alvin
Hi Alvin,
I'm not aware of any Open Source hard drive
partitioning program for OS X, although if anyone is, I'd like to hear
about it. Tools I've used for partitioning include OS X Disk
Utility, ProSoft's commercial software Drive Genius,
and iPartition.
Charles
Editor's note: OS X Disk Utility supports "live"
partitioning, Drive Genius supports "on-the-fly" repartitioning, and
iPartition supports non-destructive resize of HFS+ (including
case-sensitive and journaled), FAT and NTFS partitions.
iPad Could Replace Notebooks for Many Users
From Rick:
Hello Charles,
I have been following the iPad
speculations, release, and subsequent discussions fairly attentively
and have a few observations on the subject.
As a true "low-ender", I am writing this on my Lombard PowerBook that is my
primary non-workplace computer (I have a G4 MDD in my basement and an XP
machine at work), and I consider myself an excellent candidate for the
iPad. I have been toying seriously for the past several months with the
notion of retiring the Lombard and replacing it with a 15" MacBook Pro.
Considering what I actually do with my laptop, though, the iPad would
seem to serve my needs by checking my email, seeing what's on LEM and
eBay, and generally catching up on the world news.
I thought that my iPod touch might manage to perform those tasks,
but my 58 year-old eyes aren't really up to the challenge of the tiny
screen, and typing on it is a pathetic joke. The prospect of the iPod
touch being transformed into a machine four times larger and sporting a
pixel resolution identical to my PowerBook is a compelling case for
purchase.
Having already (mostly) mastered the Touch and its touchscreen
interface, I'm ready to make the leap. The Lombard has been left behind
from a support perspective and has, unfortunately, nowhere to go but
closer to obsolete. As a laptop replacement, the iPad will more than do
it for me. Admittedly, I do come from the background where a laptop
computer is regarded as fractionally functional in comparison to a
desktop and, as I have my MDD to do the heavier lifting, I'm not
expecting the iPad to "do it all". I would expect that all of my
Photoshop and InDesign work will still be done on the "big machine"
downstairs. If anything falls by the wayside, I would expect that the
Touch would find itself on the way out.
Some have objected to the lack of a hardware upgrade path for the
iPad and, while I can see their point, it's not really all that unusual
of a situation. The same can be said for iPods and iPhones. Many
laptops have been notoriously difficult to upgrade and have suffered
from lower powered components that made them second-class computers
from the start. If the iPad has enough in the way of processing power
and memory to run its apps without a hiccup, then it will be a
success.
I also expect that the aftermarket will fill in many of the "feature
gaps" and add expanded functionality to the iPad. It wouldn't surprise
me at all to see someone build a docking case to hold the iPad that
features a full-sized keyboard, a trackpad, and an expansion port or
two
Thanks for your column!
Rick
Hi Rick
You're most welcome.
Also being 58, I fully appreciate what you say about
Internet surfing on tiny displays, and I anticipate a healthy market
for iPads with users like yourself.
I'm in a slightly different space than you are,
however, having been a virtually exclusive laptop user for about a
decade now. My "newest" desktop is a circa 1997 SuperMac S900 Mac clone, and I don't think
it's been booted up for two years or so.
With Mozilla.org
musing about dropping support for OS X 10.4 "Tiger", however, the
proverbial writing is beginning to appear on the wall for my beloved
Pismos' future as fully capable production machines, so the idea of
replacing at least one of them with an iPad-like device is something
I'd seriously consider, but I want the real Mac OS and the ability to
run production software.
Charles
Hello Charles,
It seems that browser support (or lack of it) is what has prompted
most of my hardware and software upgrades, and the likelihood that
anything running less than [Mac
OS X 10.5] Leopard will soon become obsolete has me scouting
around for options. While my MDD and my wife's Quicksilver both run Leopard
quite handily, my Lombard is officially stuck at [OS X 10.3] Panther (though I
could sneak on Tiger to gain a few months of breathing space) and is
becoming less capable with every "improvement" that my ISP (Comcast)
throws out.
I have a whole collection of Apples - IIGS,
Mac II, Portable, SE, Power Mac 9600, PowerBook 3400, and more - that are
fully functional, except that they have been abandoned by the software
development community. Admittedly, Internet browsing on the Portable or
the SE would be less than satisfactory today (although they were
somewhat capable long ago), but word processing on the SE running
System 6 with 4 MB of RAM is more responsive than on my 1.25 GHz G4 MDD
with 2 GB of memory. I occasionally fire-up the 9600 because I
find that Photoshop 5 suits my purposes better than Photoshop CS, and I
sit here writing to you on my old Lombard, because I am entirely
comfortable with the keyboard. I have yet to find one computer that
"does it all" for me, but one that will do most of it will likely
replace my last PowerBook.
The one main virtue that I see for the iPad is the potential for
expandability through the aftermarket. Just as I can dock my iPod touch
with my MDD to synchronize data, there will likely develop a Duo-like
dock for the iPad - replete with various ports and augmented storage
and processing capabilities - that will address the perceived
shortcomings of the iPad platform. The dock could be either a
stationary unit like a conventional desktop or it could be of a
notebook format. There would be nothing (other than cost) to prevent
one from having both alternatives if one chose.
While I am quite a fan of OS X, there is a lot to be said for the
lean functionality of the iPhone OS and the speed at which it can
operate. The key is, of course, to match the software to the hardware,
and Apple has done a good job of that so far. Multitasking has
effectively disappeared, but switching between apps is so fast that you
hardly miss it during casual use. For most users, the iPad should do
more than enough. For the rest, I think that the "iDock" will provide
most of what they'll need!
-Rick
Hi Rick,
It will be fascinating to see how all this plays out
in the fullness of time. A dock such as you describe would be ideal. I
loved the PowerBook Duo concept and
probably would have bought one had they not been so incredibly
expensive.
Charles
iPad Too Handicapped and the Climate Debate
From John, following up on iPad Not Likely
to Kill Off Laptops:
I've never used the Logitech device you mention [the Logitech diNovo Edge
keyboard - ed], Charles. I suppose you're thinking of
something like the little keyboard that slides out from under some cell
phones.
You've obviously looked more in depth at the "iTablet" than I have.
I haven't even read the specs in any detail. From what you say, this
machine is even more crippled than I realized, and it's definitely no
substitute for a good laptop. When the MacBook Air came out, I concluded
that, though it was nice and light, it had some shortcomings that I
wasn't ready to accept. The iPad is even more handicapped, being what
someone called an "iPod touch on steroids." Was it you that wrote that,
or did I read it somewhere else?
Do you get any snow this time of year out along the Atlantic? I
spent two years in the US Army, stationed on the coast at the entrance
to Lower New York Bay. The winters there in the early '70s were pretty
mild. We got our occasional deep freeze with snow and ice starting this
past Friday. I haven't driven anywhere since Friday, as the roads where
we live are still iced over. We're expecting a day with temps in the
40s today, so maybe that will thaw the roads. I'm personally glad we're
having a real winter. It takes the wind out of Al Gore's sails.
John
Hi John,
Well, if you think the MacBook Air is crippled (as I
do), you're going to find the iPad even more so, its biggest
deficiencies IMHO being that it doesn't run the Mac OS or have mouse
driver support (the former, of course, would take care of the
latter).
The was a rumor floating last week though that Apple
may be working on a larger tablet-type device that will run the Mac OS,
which I would find much more appealing.
I can't take any credit for the "iPod touch on
steroids" characterization, but it pretty succinctly sums up what
obtains with this machine. I'd still like to have one, but I'll
definitely wait a bit - perhaps pick up an Apple Certified Refurbished
unit someday.
As for snow here this winter - and for that matter in
recent winters on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore - we bought a snowplow
for our truck after Christmas (we have a steep, 150 foot driveway and
aren't getting any younger), and it hasn't snowed enough here yet to
try it out. Just a couple of light shovel jobs, and we're not going to
get the US Atlantic coast's "snowmageddon" storm, either, being under a
big, cold Arctic high that will keep it pushed well out to sea as it
passes.
They've had more snow in Texas and Arizona than we
have in this part of NS this year. Mind you, I'm not complaining, and
this coming week we're forecast to be near or above freezing most days.
Actually, we've been getting a lot less snow here on average over the
past ten years or so than I recall from the first 40-odd years of my
lifetime. We bought the 4x4 pickup in Feb. 2006, and it was two years
before we got enough snow to try it out in earnest on our hill.
Paid off last winter, though, when we had a fair bit
of snow and also transported some five cords of firewood up the icy
hill running in low range 4WD.
I'm don't think your snowstorm negates Al Gore's
argument, however, since the weird weather is being attributed to an
El Niño
event, which is a lens of super-warm water in the South Pacific,
exporting warm, moist air north and east where last weekend it collided
with that big, frigid arctic high I mentioned, creating those record
snowfalls in the US east. Probably "climate change" is a more accurate
description of what's happening than "global warming."
Charles
Charles,
You're more curious than I am, if you want an iPad. It looks to me
like it will be an oversized in-between without much to offer. No way
can it compete with the "BigAl," to use your term, that I'm typing on
right now. I think the only thing this PowerBook lacks is the ability
to run Windows. I find though, on our Mac mini, that even though I have
VMware Fusion on it and Windows XP, I rarely have any need to use it. I
think that ability is more of a lure to draw PC users to the Mac
platform.
Then again, it would be nice too if this PowerBook could take more
than 2 GB of RAM, though I haven't so far found that to be a
problem. The fact that I bought this machine on LEM Swap a year ago for $480 shipped still
makes me smile. I did have to put a new SuperDrive in it a few months
ago, but that's been its only problem.
Looking at a much more functional device, my wife had an iPhone,
which she liked very much, but when I got force-retired a year ago,
that was one of the things we replaced to cut expenses. The required
$30/month data plan makes owning that phone expensive. I replaced it
with a similar Samsung Eternity knockoff, which doesn't require a data
plan, and, as I bought a refurb, it was about one-third the cost of the
iPhone. It's nowhere near as intuitive and cool as the iPhone, but it
fits our budget better. It also does just about everything the iPhone
does, though without the pizzazz.
On the climate deal, I have to take issue with that, so bear with
me. :-)
Call it whatever you will, I'm inclined to agree, from the rather
extensive reading I've done, that climate change is a ruse to grab
power over people and transfer wealth. You should read Christopher
Horner's book, The
Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and
Environmentalism. While taking care of the environment is a
good thing, calling a natural cycle in nature's many cycles a
catastrophe, is overkill.
The people who promote this point of view are religious zealots too.
I used to work with a guy who was sold out to saving the earth. He,
along with many others, viewed Hurricane Katrina
as the harbinger of the end of our coastlines. He showed me an article
that had a chart showing a purported increase in hurricanes since 1970,
and the assumption that the trend would continue. Knowing human nature,
and being a skeptic, I did an Internet search and found that the
mid-1940s was a time of higher hurricane activity than anything in the
post-1970 period. Like the East Anglia emails showed, the advocates of
this point of view don't want a debate; they want everyone to see
things their way, and manipulation of data is part of the scheme.
I presume you're familiar with the 1975 Newsweek
article found here among many other Internet sites. This article is
marked by its fear then that the earth was going to freeze over.
I'm thankful that the Lord God made the earth self-regulating, with
the ability to withstand whatever puny assaults man can make on it. I
believe Horner's book points out that volcanoes wreak more havoc on the
atmosphere than human activity. Our time would be better spent on
finding real solutions to our energy problems.
The Apostle Paul's listing of the evils of all men in Romans 3
applies today in what some have called the "Post-Christian Era". In
verse 4 he writes, "Let
God be found true, though every man a liar." There's certainly a lot of
lying going on when it comes to talking about "climate."
John
Hi John,
I agree about the outrageous cost of cell service, and
it's even worse here in Canada. I'm still getting along with a
landline, which is expensive enough, but at least requires no contract
term. There's no GSM service within about 35 miles of here anyway, so
iPhones are a bit superfluous here, as my iPhone-owning friends
discover to their dismay when visiting this neck of the woods.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on the reality
of anthropomorphic climate change. Believe me, I've researched the
topic from all angles in writing many newspaper columns about it over
the years and must have heard every angle of the debate forcefully and
eloquently articulated in the hat I wear as moderator of a
pan-denominational email forum on faith and ecumenism, where it's been
a topic of vigorous debate from time to time over the past 14
years.
I am convinced that climate change is a reality, but
pessimistic about the potential for slowing, let alone reversing, the
growth of carbon emissions, and I believe the consequences will be
ugly, but with 6.7 billion people on the planet and counting, most of
them aspiring to ramp up rather than diminish their material lifestyle
and consumption habits, prospects for "fixing" global warming and
climate change are dim indeed.
IMHO, so-called "climategate" was one of the most
overblown news stories of 2009. Even if these guys did fudge some
figures (and based on an extensive analysis of the emails by the
Associated Press, it's pretty murky as to what was being discussed),
they represent only a small enclave of total scientists working on
climate research. For example, they had nothing to do with the US NOAA
climate projects, and any falsification or selectivity they indulged in
certainly doesn't change the observable fact that the snow in the Alps
and Himalayas is melting, the NW Passage is opening up, the polar ice
caps are crumbling, droughts and record storms, etc.
Another major new study
by some 300 climate scientists from 27 countries released last week
underscores again how extreme weather will likely become more common as
the Earth continues to heat up, and melting arctic ice packs will have
dire effects on more than polar bears - and not just up there.
The elephant in the living room that no one mentions
at climate summits is that global population more than quadrupled in
110 years from 1.5 billion in 1900 to 6.6 billion in 2007, 7 billion by
2012, already arguably far greater than the planet can sustain, and it
is expected to grow by roughly another 25% by 2050 when India and
China's cumulative 3 billion will be greater than 1950's total global
population, most of them aspiring to Western-style consumer
lifestyles.
About 22% of the world's population currently consumes
some 80% of goods and services, and the prevailing trend is for the
other 20% increasing consumption toward our level.
It's projected we'll need 50% more food production and
50% more energy, with oil consumption rising to 126 million barrels per
day by 2030 from roughly 84 million in 2009. There'll be 50% more
aircraft flying and a commensurate increase in ships plying the seas.
J.D. Power forecasts automobile sales in India to nearly triple from
1.7 million in 2008 to 3.2 million by 2015, with reportedly 25,000 new
automobiles per day currently being sold in China, which is
projected to soar from 9.8 million autos sold in 2008, to to 16.3
million by 2014.
We're already in trouble at population 6.6 billion.
What prospect is there, really, of even slowing or arresting, let alone
reducing, carbon emissions with roughly 25% more people on board?
In respectful disagreement,
Charles
Believe what you like, Charles. I've read the same reports you have,
but have come to different conclusions. I won't debate numbers, but
will just say that there are plenty of experts that paint a different
picture.
Bottom line for me is that I've seen too much foolishness to go for
this scheme. There's so much hypocrisy in this whole climate scare. Al
Gore, whose permanent home is about 7 miles from my house, preaches
doom and gloom but lives in luxury in a mansion. A study was done on
the energy consumption of his house, and it was found that electric
usage records show that his house uses, even by the AP's modest
standard, twelve times the electricity of an average house of about
2,500 square feet. His house has, from what I've read, about 10,000
square feet. Mine's about a third that size, but my monthly electric
bill isn't even one-tenth of his. Who's being more
energy-conscious?
Then there was the Copenhagen summit in December 2009. After spewing
carbon as they jetted there, the participants mainly issued hot
air.
And finally, there's the media. They for the most part march in lock
step to every leftist idea out there. Investigative journalism is
almost a lost art. If I thought they were objective in their
pronouncements, I'd give this idea more credence, but they clearly have
lost that ability. You obviously are an exception to this rule. I
salute your research but must say that you appear to only have read
what agrees with your assumptions.
For years the big talkers of climate/global warming have been
forecasting doom. The weather man can't even accurately predict a week
out. It's crazy, in my view, to believe projections that assume a
straight-line future, when life teaches us that nothing works that
way.
Gore, Obama, and the rest should spend more time looking at what
their outlandish spending habits are doing to the future. That's
something that we can reasonably assume will spell doom for us. I bet
folks in Greece and Portugal wish now that someone had taken that
matter seriously years ago. The climate stuff is a ruse, the purpose of
which is to take away freedom.
The prophet wrote, "The heart of man is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Proverbs 8:29 says this: "
...He set for the sea its boundary, so that the water should not
transgress His command." I trust God way more than I do politicians,
the AP, and the UN.
Even though you're going down the wrong road, I love you, my friend!
I hope you'll have a blessed week.
John
Hi John,
Yes indeed. From the debates over the years on the
email forum I mentioned (a much more appropriate venue for such
wranglings than Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag), I deduce that we
could argue our opposing views on this topic ad infinitum
without reaching much consensus. It's a classic case of cognitive
dissonance.
I'm anything but a liberal or a socialist, but I'll
make the observation that conservative has the same etymological
derivation as conservation. ;-)
Reciprocated best wishes.
Charles
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