Free Republic

Pascal, the programming language he created in the early days of personal computing, offered a simpler alternative to other languages in use at the time.Dr. Wirth died of heart failure on Jan. 1, 2024 at his home in Zurich, his daughter Tina Wirth said. He was 89. He wasn’t nearly as well known as programmers such as Steve Wozniak, who founded Apple with Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. But to legions of computer scientists Dr. Wirth was one of the most influential and inspiring scientists of the early computer age. The Association for Computing...

n the preface to a book that presents eight of his interviews, just out in bookstores, Francis has lifted the veil on a couple of rather interestig things. At a certain point the pope writes:“Sometimes in my interviewers I have noted - even in those who say they are very far from the faith - great intelligence and erudition. And even, in some cases, the capacity to let themselves be touched by the ‘touch’ of Pascal. This moves me, and I treasure it greatly.”The first is in reality more a confirmation than a revelation. It is his affectionate esteem for...

595—Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have been very strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then, that we must believe him? 596—The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world. Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own testimony to be as nothing. The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone. 597—Against Mahomet.--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry,...

Sony executive at the heart of the leaked emails met with the civil rights activist to discuss battling an ‘exclusionary, almost all-white hierarchy’ in Hollywood.Amy Pascal, the embattled executive whose personal emails were exposed by the hack on Sony Pictures, has met with civil rights advocate Al Sharpton to discuss white bias in Hollywood. The meeting was prompted by leaked emails from Pascal to producer Scott Rudin, in which the pair joke about Barack Obama’s likely taste in films. “Would he like to finance some movies?” Rudin asked, ahead of Pascal meeting the president. “I doubt it. Should I ask...

After weathering one of the most embarrassing days in her career, during which her racially insensitive remarks were disseminated on the Internet, Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal is ready to begin the "healing process," and reached out to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. "I'm being proactive," the executive tells The Hollywood Reporter. "And I want to accept responsibility for these stupid, callous remarks." Pascal said one of the first calls she made today — after a leaked email exchange between her and producer Scott Rudin became the most buzzed-about topics in town and throughout the country — was...

More incriminating personal information was leaked Wednesday following the unprecedented Sony Pictures hack, this time in the form of emails between top producers and executives belittling a number of major stars and projects, and even making racist jokes about President Barack Obama. In one email exchange, Sony co-chairperson Amy Pascal -- a prominent Democratic party donor and Obama supporter -- asked movie producer Scott Rudin ahead of a fundraiser what she should ask the President "at this stupid Jeffrey (Katzenberg) breakfast," to which Rudin quipped "would he like to finance some movies." "I doubt it. Should I ask him if...

(NOTE: Huffington had to shorted to Huff because the original title exceeded the limit of characters.) Dana Loesch is a well-known conservative writer and thinker. Her fame comes about in part because, aside from being one heck of a smart gal and a good writer, she’s also extremely beautiful. Perhaps that beauty is what drove a Progressive Huffington Post contributor to abandon his political argument with her on Twitter and simply threaten her with anal rape. Loesch is a chronic irritant to Progressives. She’s a pro-gun conservative who looks like a fashion model and who can communicate her conservative ideas...

Recently, Free Pascal (FPC) version 2.2.0 was released. This open source Pascal compiler has - since its initial release in 1993 - grown to be one of the most sophisticated open source compilers available today. Daily, more programmers discover FPC and develop their applications in Object Pascal. Specifically, the development of Lazarus has contributed to this phenomenon: Lazarus is a graphical open source IDE for FPC, with an extensive tool kit to design graphical (GUI) applications. What is FPC's strength? For many programmers, the renewed interest in Pascal is surprising. Many think of Pascal as an old language, no longer...

'snip' I was reminded of this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury of the dialogue carried on-- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara-- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures...

RELIGION, CONSERVATISM, AND LIBERATIONISM Is conservatism necessarily grounded in religious faith? The answer depends, of course, on what is meant by both conservatism and religion. My charge is to make my answer personal, but I hope not too personal. I woul dnot want to say that conservatives must be Catholics, much less think and believes as I do in every respect. So I am going to define conservatism for this occasion in an expansive way. And I am going to limit myself to sayig that much of Christian psychology and portions of Christian faith must be true for me to...