Art for Geeks

"Paul the Wine Guy" has started a photoset on Flickr entitled "Understanding art for geeks." In it, he has taken famous works of art and overlaid some geeky "explanations" to help the visual-art-impaired figure out what is going on. It's also continuing to expand; he's added a few more since I looked at it a couple of days ago.

Here are a few of my favorites:
Andy Warhol
Paul Cézanne
Caravaggio
Auguste Rodin

The whole set is pretty great, though...

Understanding art for geeks - a photoset on Flickr

National Academy of Sciences Rejects Science-Religion Dichotomy

Linked below is a brief book review of Science, Evolution and Creationism, a 70-page volume published by the National Academy of Sciences. Its basic tenet seems to be encapsulated in this quote from the NYT article: “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.”

I couldn't agree more. There needs to be a balance between science and religion; leave science to the scientists and theology to the theologians. If someone from either side wants to make comments on an issue that concerns both camps, it should be done with an attitude of engendering harmony, not dismissing others' findings out-of-hand.

I make no bones about the fact that I am undeniably a Christian, and I believe in the truth of the Bible. However, that doesn't mean that I have to subscribe to knee-jerk Creationists' beliefs that God must have created the Earth in six literal 24-hour periods. I can believe in theistic (God-directed) evolution, with the "days" of Genesis corresponding with "ages" or "eras" of undefined duration, without compromising my belief in Scripture as the inerrant Word of God.

Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap - New York Times

OS Virtualization on a Mac: Parallels vs. VMWare

Now that Apple's computers use Intel processors like the rest of the desktop computing world, it's become easy for Mac users to run other operating systems in tandem with OS X. Sure, PowerPC Macs can dual-boot certain Linux distributions that distribute a compatible version, but a lot of Linux software packages are written only for Intel's x86 platform.

With the change in processor architecture, a Mac can run all the mainstream desktop operating systems... including Windows, if you want. In fact, you no longer even have to reboot the computer to switch the running OS; virtualization software is now available to let you boot a virtual "guest" system within your OS X "host."

The two competing commercial programs for virtualization within OS X are Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion. (There are a few free-software alternatives, but I haven't successfully used any of them.) It seems that VMWare and Parallels are both very good at what they do, and they seem to be playing a constant game of leapfrog such that "who's better" is constantly switching sides.

It was really hard to make a distinction between the two, but after reading an intense comparison on MacTech.com I discovered that:

• Parallels is a little bit faster than VMWare


• However, the faster the "host" Mac, the less speed difference there is between them


• VMWare is much better at virtualizing operating systems other than Windows (i.e. Linux)

Since I have a fast, recent Mac, and I plan to run a lot of Linux virtual machines, that clinched it for me. In fact, I ran into a poll on MacResearch.org that showed that people virtualizing Windows tend to go for Parallels those running Linux VMs tend to go for VMWare. Since my primary application will be Linux virtualization, I bought VMWare. I tested it before I bought it, and it's been running the latest version of Fedora (one of my favorite Linux distributions) just great. It also looks like I'll have plenty of cool features whenever I decide to start virtualizing Windows.

And, since I bought in 2007 (December 31, but it counts), it looks like I'll be able to take advantage of a $20 VMWare rebate as well. The website says it'll take a few days for my order to be fully processed and for my rebate eligibility to be verified, but it looks like it will go through.