10 Types Of People

My name is Alistair McKinlay. I am a student at Strathyclyde University, in Glasgow, studying Computer Science. I spent 1 year studying Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, but realised it wasn’t for me. So now I am in my 1st year of Comptuer Science BSc. I have lived in Glasgow all my life and am Scottish through and through.

Computers
Anyone who reads my blog will know that I am very into computers. I have been into them pretty much my whole life. My dad grew up through the computer revolution and became a computing teacher, and much of his enthusiasm passed onto me. I distinctly remember him putting me down in front of a computer and teaching me how to code basic HTML.

I then made a few websites, completely coded in raw html (none of this dreamweaver rubbish), however since then i have laxed, and the web has moved on so much since then. I haven’t moved on as fast, and am just trying to catch up now. However, nowadays it is a lot harder to code websites like i liked to code. Its so much easier to use a content management system, like Wordpress or Joomla.

In about 2003/4, i decided that i didn’t like Windows. It was slow, buggy, and I couldn’t change the look as much as i wanted to. I like changing how everything looks all the time. My room never stays the same for more than a month, and i wanted to be able to change my computer. So, i looked into Linux.

I first of all tried Ubuntu, but I couldn’t get it to work. So i gave up, and tried Fedora. But I couldn’t even get it onto the DVD that it needed to be on. So i gave up for a few months. i then tried Ubuntu again, and got it working this time (disabling ACPI) and boy i loved it. I immediately wiped Windows off my computer and installed it. And, since then, i have been a die-hard Linux fan.

I have learnt so much about computer in using them that i feel i am now a very intermediate computer user. (I wouldn’t say advanced, because i am nowhere near that level). But i still feel that i have improved so much, and know so much more about computers.

I used to always use Ubuntu, but recently I have been using Arch Linux much more on my desktop. I still run Ubuntu on my netbook, and occaisionally on my desktop, but I like Arch so much more. It is more suited to my uses. I still really like Ubunty. It is great, and the best distro for new people to linux. I would always recommend it to new users.

God
I am a Christian. But not what you might think of as a Christian. The church really embarrasses me, and puts me off Christianity. And for this reason I hate the term Christianity. The church has turned Christianity into a religion, and into something that is just a list of rules. Now, obviously, it isn’t fair to tar all church’s with the same brush, but mainly the Catholic and the Anglican churches have made Christianity into rules you have to do.

I believe that God exists. It is the only explanation that i can tie all of my Scientific beliefs together. I also believe that the hippie that came onto the earth 2000 odd years ago was in fact the Son of God, and he died to save me from the terrible terrible things that i do.

What really drives me insane, is when people (normally not scientists, but blind atheists who just don’t think about it) tell me or other, more vulnerable people, that science disproves God. It does not disprove God. Most science in the past 25 years actually only really makes sence if we tie it all together in God. There is not 1 scientific fact/theory that disproves God.

But that is for a blog post rant sometime.