nforce4max wrote:

One day people will be glad those churches are there but the church so to say in much of the west in general has been hollowed out and really isn't a good experience. I don't like the dry bones churches and no one should either, I just wait knowing that the real thing will be back someday.

I don't quite know what you're talking about, so I gotta assume it's a regional thing. It is unfortunate that you feel that way, and I'm sad to hear you say that. Here around Chi-Town, there are many spectacular, extravagant, and beautiful houses of worship for many different faiths:

Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

Unity Temple

Holy Name Cathedral

Bahai Temple

If you ever find yourself in Rhode Island, the First Baptist Church built by Roger Williams is well worth a visit and tour. Bonus: HP Lovecraft's house is right across the street.

Salt Lake Temple is also quite spectacular. Bummer about it being located in Utah, unfortunately.

On a national level, there's the DC National Cathedral as well.

nforce4max wrote:

One day people will be glad those churches are there but the church so to say in much of the west in general has been hollowed out and really isn't a good experience. I don't like the dry bones churches and no one should either, I just wait knowing that the real thing will be back someday.

To me, they are a relic of the past, and they are a part of national history. A bit like old computers are a thing of the past, yet no one uses +25 year old computers for most of mission chritical systems. I know it's debateable and lots of examples can be found, telling the oppesite. Well.... I hope you know what I am talking about or what I am trying to explain here.

And then we have the state, that controls the church. The state supports the church (money wise, as they the money comes directly from the state, and not by personal donations), and I think it is a nice way of doing this. Services will be held anyway, no matter how few or how many people that are attending. It is basically up to each indevidual, to decide how much he or she will be attending a service.

Then we have those old wall-painting's that used to be in every church, when denmark was catholic. They painted everything over with white lime-paint, when we swapped it all out for the protestant church. Now a day's the church tax are being used to recover these old paintings. Part of our history, being brought back. And for that I am personally gratefull. It's awesomme to see what has been hidden for 400 to 500 or so years.

The old norse religion is comming back too. Awesomme.

Like I said... People should choose their own religion, based on what that religion offers. And no one shall make fun of other peoples religion, or put other people down because of their religion. 😀

Wich brings me back to me paying my church tax without having any personal issues regarding paying for something I don't use and need in my life. And when I am dead, I don't care what they do to my body anyway. Burry me in the cemetary, burn me and spread the ashes on a field or give me a sailors funeral. They can even send me to the sun for that matter. 🤣

I try to be careful about how much I reveal about myself online.

I'll say I'm in my thirties, living alone in Canada. I have an advanced degree in the physical sciences which is actually of some use in my day job, where I pilot a cubicle against the threads of existential terror. There's a good amount of variety, I generally don't have to talk to anyone, and the pay and benefits are excellent, so I don't expect to be leaving anytime soon.

Jorpho wrote:

I try to be careful about how much I reveal about myself online.

Same here. Or, if you are gonna talk about yourself, be sure you use a pseudonym that won't identify you in any way. You better know that family, friends, dates, employers, investors and creditors will certainly punch your name into Google to see what comes up.

Back when the Internet used to be a fun and exciting search for knowledge and like-minded cohorts, I used to participate in another forum with my real name. I even posted up pictures of some of our BBQs where there was plenty of spirits served. At some point in the mid-2000s, I realized that things were changing and the Internet was becoming a darker, more sinister place. Call me paranoid, but I believe that now the Internet's two primary purposes are 1- To sell you shit that you don't need, and 2- To track and surveil. This current online environment is not good for being candid anymore. It's why I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, or Linked-In.

That old forum is gone and fortunately the pictures seem to have went with it. Punching my name into Google yields few results, which is how I like it. However, I fear that the lack of an online presence appears suspicious and incriminating to those who would search me out. 😒

KT7AGuy wrote:

I fear that the lack of an online presence appears suspicious and incriminating to those who would search me out. 😒

Not you'r problem. So many people on the globe, not even on the internet anyway.
I am on G+, Vogons and a select few forums besides these two.
Basically... Google sites, are the only global ones I am using. The rest is small sites.

My real name is Joshua (you may call me Josh) and I am 28 years of age. Though I have not worked at any job before and never had a driver's license, I do spend time such as help my parents (well just my father now since my mother passed away months ago), do my share of programming, playing games (both old and new), changing my voice for fun, and anything else unlisted.

As for my programming background, I was first introduced to BASIC through QBASIC by my father when I was about 11 years old. Didn't start to become capable at it till 15 years of age. During the time I was still using BASIC more often, I managed to pick up on tiny bits of assembly (but not much yet). Eventually moved on to Java (learned at Computer Science I during my junior year in high school) and C++ (the latter I meant to start earlier since my father did order a book back in 2002, but was too lazy to read the whole book). Plus, my CD for Visual C++ Introductory Edition got cracked. Fortunately, I learned about Dev-C++ from a friend on a game on BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream) back in 2004. This was before Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition went public. I have actually worked on several projects, though mostly tools. Due to some inspiration from the PSP Homebrew community, I started cracking into the DMB format for BYOND back in December 2006 (my first reverse engineering journey). Later on, I did start to work on a Win32 Wrapper of my own (around 2010/2011). However, I found that project to be way too tedious since there were a bunch of features the Win32 API has to offer.

As for my latest projects, one happens to be ClassicVCom HD. I have already mentioned that project started since April 2015. For the time being, I've been working on that project using my own time. Sooner or later, I'll make it more public (such as a Github entry). This project is not designed to compete with the PICO-8. It was designed as an experiment to achieve retro gaming at high definition resolutions (without resorting to upscaling).

As for the games I play; I play quite a wide variety of games (ranging from old to new). One of the first computers I have ever used was an Amiga 2000 (though my father also had an Amiga 500 and before that, a Commodore 64 (before I was born in reference to the C64). Don't remember what was the first game I ever played. I might tell more of my story later as I have a lot to tell. 😜

KT7AGuy wrote:

Same here. Or, if you are gonna talk about yourself, be sure you use a pseudonym that won't identify you in any way. You bette […]
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Jorpho wrote:

I try to be careful about how much I reveal about myself online.

Same here. Or, if you are gonna talk about yourself, be sure you use a pseudonym that won't identify you in any way. You better know that family, friends, dates, employers, investors and creditors will certainly punch your name into Google to see what comes up.

Back when the Internet used to be a fun and exciting search for knowledge and like-minded cohorts, I used to participate in another forum with my real name. I even posted up pictures of some of our BBQs where there was plenty of spirits served. At some point in the mid-2000s, I realized that things were changing and the Internet was becoming a darker, more sinister place. Call me paranoid, but I believe that now the Internet's two primary purposes are 1- To sell you shit that you don't need, and 2- To track and surveil. This current online environment is not good for being candid anymore. It's why I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, or Linked-In.

That old forum is gone and fortunately the pictures seem to have went with it. Punching my name into Google yields few results, which is how I like it. However, I fear that the lack of an online presence appears suspicious and incriminating to those who would search me out. 😒

I've got nothing to hide. (nothing that can be used against me anyway).

kanecvr wrote:

I've got nothing to hide. (nothing that can be used against me anyway).

Same here. I used to be more paranoid about privacy, but stuff leaks out no matter how hard you try. I try to live my life in such a way that it doesn't matter anyway.

Yes everyone obsesses over "1984" gestapo/cheka/stasi-type state surveillance, but the real problem is with (1) corporations that want to sell you stuff, and (2) crazies who think you're poisoning their cornflakes.

kanecvr, clueless1,

When the day comes that you have something that you don't want made public, I hope you will still have the ability to keep it private.

We are cheerfully building the panopticon and merrily paying for it as well.

Everybody has secrets. Everybody lies.

The success of IoT, Amazon Echo, and Google Home really make me wonder if I'm the only one who has read "1984" or "Brave New World".

People are talking about DRM in another thread. That's another major threat to privacy. A while ago I had a programming IDE running and was occasionally alt-tabbing into TF2 for a quick game of that. I found that I couldn't compile the program I was working on because something had locked the target executable. When I went to see what, it was Steam. My program had been locked by Steam. (I assume it got uploaded to their servers.) WTF?

KT7AGuy wrote:

kanecvr, clueless1, […]
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kanecvr, clueless1,

When the day comes that you have something that you don't want made public, I hope you will still have the ability to keep it private.

We are cheerfully building the panopticon and merrily paying for it as well.

Everybody has secrets. Everybody lies.

The success of IoT, Amazon Echo, and Google Home really make me wonder if I'm the only one who has read "1984" or "Brave New World".

I don't plan to get to a point where I'd have something to hide. Finding me by google search will only yield vague results, since I don't use my real name in social media.

I do get where you're coming from tough, and it's OK to maintain your privacy - but keep in mind that if you pay for internet, your REAL NAME and address can be linked to anything you post online - anything - so posting a picture and talking about yourself is not that dangerous.