E/R diagramming

Here's a good reference on the Entity Relationship model. It tells you what all those rectangles and ellipses and lines are supposed to mean.

Permalink | Comments? | Tags: Programming | id 4101

15:55 (utc-4)

 

Script Open Office with Python

Open Office just keeps getting better. I don't have Microsoft Office on my machine, because I just don't need it. Recently, I received a paper back from my professor by e-mail with changes entered inline and marked as such. Possibly even worse was that the document was from a Macintosh. Open Office read it with no problem, and even had at least one neat feature I noticed that Word didn't have. The only difference was that Word highlighted the changes in red, while Open Office did them in blue. It may be configurable, but who knows.

Anyway, I just read on Simon's weblog that you can script Open Office with Python! That rules. It's only available with Open Office 1.1, which happens to be in release candidate status (new features).

Permalink | Comments? | id 4100

15:18 (utc-4)
edited: 15:27 (utc-4)

 

Talmud Contradictions

I was shocked when I read this passage from the Talmud just now. Not just because it admits that the rabbis were willing to put their own decisions over God's, but because it was so darn explicit about it. I figured this type of thing, while clearly implied by their religion, wasn't spoken of in such stark terms. I was wrong:

The Gemara relates that generations later Rabbi Natan met the Prophet Elijah. (Several of the Talmudic Sages had visions of Elijah the Prophet, and discussed Halakhic questions with him.) Rabbi Natan asked Elijah about the debate between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. He said to him: "What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do at that time when Rabbi Yehoshua refused to heed the heavenly voice?" In reply, Elijah said to Rabbi Natan: "God smiled and said: 'My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me!" God's sons "defeated Him" with their arguments. Rabbi Yehoshua was correct in his contention that a view confirmed by majority vote must be accepted, even where God Himself holds the opposite view.

Wow. I'd love to see what my Orthodox relatives would say about this. Though, I really do have to make sure that that page is actually quoting the Talmud, and not just writing about what it says.

Permalink | 6 Comments | Tags: Religion | id 4099

03:24 (utc-4)
edited: 03:27 (utc-4)