Too many people are still paying too much money for software when there are many freeware and open source packages available. Here is a list of FREE software that I recommend for private use. It’s often a lot better than the premium equivalent.

All of these programs do a great job at keeping your computer and its contents safe, keeping things running smoothly, and improving your productivity.

Web Browsing

Firefox – If you’re still using Internet Explorer now’s the time to stop. You’re putting your machine at risk and the limited user experience of IE doesn’t justify it. Mozilla Firefox is a free, customisable, innovative and secure web browser. Once you adapt it to your needs, you’ll never go back: it’s faster, more secure and it doesn’t try to take over your PC.

Useful FireFox add-ons – Adblock, Download Helper, Greasemonkey, Zotero

Thunderbird – Mozilla’s email client offers a welcome alternative to MS Outlook.

Anti-virus

There seems to be little point in paying for an expensive anti-virus program when regularly updated, secure and free alternatives abound. So cancel that subscription and save yourself a few beans.

Avira – I’ve never had any problems with this anti-virus program, which combines email protection, spyware and malware protection with a scanning system and firewall. The standard version is free, but business licences are reasonably priced. Once a day you get a desktop ad asking whether you want to upgrade to premium, but it’s a small price to pay for a free and reliable antivirus program. An alternative free anti-virus is AVG, which is a popular program. I used to use it, but after having problems integrating it into the outgoing email scanner in Outlook I don’t think it’s as user friendly as Avira.

Spyware/Malware

SpyBot – A highly regarded malware scanner, SpyBot can fix problems with system internals (Registry), Winsock LSPs, ActiveX objects, browser hijackers and BHOs, PUPS, cookie trackers, heavy duty, homepage hijackers, keyloggers, LSP, tracks, trojans, spybots, revision, and other kinds of malware. The Tea-Timer warning system lets you know whenever something fishy is happening.

Ad-Aware – Ad-Aware is a similar program to SpyBot, but it’s worth using both just in case the malware definitions from one are more up to date than the other. They will run nicely next to each other.

Utilities

VLC Player – If you’re tired of problems with Windows Media Player, consider switching to VLC as soon as possible. It handles any file type you throw at it and doesn’t try to scan your PC or bring you to a shop. A really nice bit of software that does what it says on the tin.

Irfanview – Replace the Windows picture viewer with this lightning fast non-commercial image viewer. Clean and functional.

CCleaner – Remove ununsed system and browser files and scan your registry for problems just by emptying the recycling bin.

Treesize – Provides a visual representation of space on your hard drive so you can see where it has all got to through an intuitive Windows Explorer interface.

CutePDF – No need for Adobe Acrobat when you can print to standard Portable Document Format (PDF) for free with this. Be sure to install Ghostscript too for it to work.

Help & Manual – Write your own interactive help files.

Office

Free alternatives to Microsoft Office have really come on as of late.

OpenOffice – OpenOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. You can use it to produce documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases, all of which are files compatible with Microsoft standards. If you’ve used programs from the Office Suite, you’ll have no problems using these. You can sometimes use these programs to recover data from corrupted files that Microsoft programs can’t read.

LaTeX – LaTeX is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing. LaTeX works by defining styles rather than having you manually word process every grapheme: so no more tearing your hair trying to get that paragraph to align correctly. You might also want to try LEd.

Operating System

Most PCs come shipped with Microsoft Windows installed ‘for free’. Except it’s not really free, since the cost of the licence is figured into the cost of the machine. The place of Windows as the standard operating system is how Microsoft got so rich. Howver, truly free operating systems are becoming more widespread.

This is because the systems themselves are becoming viable competitors. Earlier version of Linux weren’t too appealing to the casual user because of their code-based command system. Later versions are much more user-friendly. My favourite of the recent builds is Ubuntu, an integrated operating system packed with features. Its small size will make you wonder what Windows is full of.

Although I like Ubuntu, I’m not ready to make the transition to Linux just yet. But if, like me, you have a spare PC lying around, consider installing a free operating system on it and learning how to use it: you could save yourself a lot of cash in the future.

This page is provided for information only. If you have any questions or would like to recommend some software, just get in touch!

The Philosophy of J. J. Abrams
Edited by Patricia Brace and Robert Arp

University Press of Kentucky’s The Philosophy of Popular Culture
Series: http://www.kentuckypress.com/newsite/pages/series/series_philosophy.html

Abrams’ filmography from the Internet Movie Database can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009190/

Please send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu,  by January 1, 2010: (1) A short, no more than 100 word abstract of a  chapter you would like to write for the book. In the abstract, you could simply say something like, “In this paper I will argue X. First, I will do A…  Then, I will do B… Finally, I will do C…”(2) A short CV that has your
contact info (email, phone), affiliation, and a few publications, if you have any. Again, send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu, by January 1, 2010

Here are possible topics, but any related topic will be considered:

LOGIC
• The Logic Daniel Faraday Utilizes to understand the Island
• Fallacious Reasoning Utilized by Abrams’ Characters
• Feminist Logic Utilized by Abrams’ Characters

METAPHYSICS
• Eastern Philosophical Themes in Abrams’ Work
• The Place of God in Abrams’ Work
• Lost, Inadvertent Actions, and Fate/Determinism
• Lost and Time Travel
• Alias, Personal Identity, and Identity over Time
• Benjamin on Lost and the Distinction between Psychopathology and a Healthy Personality
• Fringe and the Definition of Conscious States
• Felicity and Philosophies of Love and Friendship
• Catharsis in the Human Psyche and Abrams’ Characters
• Cloverfield, First-Person Perspectives, and the Nature of Consciousness
• Cloverfield and the Conditions and Criteria for Living Things

EPISTEMOLOGY
• Lost and the Nature of Deception
• The Belief Systems of Paranoid People
• There are Two Spocks: Perceiver and Perception in Abrams’ Works
• Conflicting Testimony and Justification for Claims in Abrams’ Works
• Sydney Bristow, Alias, Sense, and Reference
• Locke’s Empiricism and the Island as Tabula Rasa on Lost

ETHICS
• Sayid and the Ethics of Torture on Lost
• Felicity, Virtue Ethics, and Parental Role Models
• Sawyer, Juliet, Kate and Jack: Free Love, and the Ethics of Sex on Lost
• Fringe and “If Science Can Do It, Then Science Ought To Do It”
• Jacob and the Idea that Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
• Why Daniel Faraday had to Die: Utilitarian Reasons for Maintaining
the Fabric of Time
• Utilitarian vs. Deontological Approaches in Abrams’ Work

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
• Film as an Essential Medium for Public Discussion
• Sydney Bristow and the Public’s Obsession with Superheroes
• Massive Dynamics and the Nature of Law on Fringe
• The Nature of Justice in Abram’s Star Trek
• Different Types of Freedom Espoused by Abrams’ Characters

The event is to be held at the Wilkins Haldane Room at University College London.  Speakers will inclue Lilian Alweis, Jay Bernstein, Peter Dews, Sebastian Gardner and Adrian Moore.

The website for the Mark Sacks Memorial Conference may be found at http://www.essex.ac.uk/philosophy/marksacksconference/.

We welcome papers (lasting about 30 minutes) on any aspect of Sartre’s life or work: literature, theatre, cinema, philosophy, psychoanalysis, biography and autobiography, journalism and the media, politics, etc, as well as on comparative themes: Sartre in relation to his influences, contemporaries or successors.

Please send proposals for papers (one side of A4 maximum) by 31 May 2009 to the conference organisers:

Dr Benedict O’Donohoe, President of UKSS,
Deputy Director, Sussex Language Institute, University of Sussex, BN1 9SH
Email: b.o-donohoe@sussex.ac.uk

Dr Angela Kershaw, Secretary of UKSS,
Senior Lecturer, Department of French Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
Email: a.kershaw@bham.ac.uk

The study is correlational, and whether religion actually causes social ills remains a moot point.  However, there is surely something to be said for the impact of religous tradition and taboo on education and public debate.  More importantly, perhaps, the kind of triumphanist faith that seems to be prevalent among certain communities in the US is clearly anathema to the critical, normative ideals of the Enlightenment.  What is intriguing, however, is that these same ideals informed the perspectives of the founding fathers.

So we have the following contradictory situation:  on the one hand, the strict separation of church and state is purportedly guaranteed by the first amendment to the constitution; yet on the other, the pledge of the allegiance to the flag identifies the republic as “one Nation under God“.

The report generated a lot of (typically hamfisted) debate at Newsvine.  One contributor suggested that the problem with the US is not religion, but diversity of belief.  It does not seem as if the writer is aware of the worrying tone of their hypothesis.  Conformism does not sit well with the cosmopolitan and egalitarian ideals of America, but it does seem to be entailed by evangelical Christianity.  It need not be thought, however, that Christianity should be like this at all.  In the Bible, Christ preaches tolerance, while the Apostles often come out with stuff like this.

America’s social ills can’t all be neatly explained with reference to Pauline Christianity.  But it might go some way to explaining some of the ideological constraints on who can speak and what they may say.

The 12th International Graduate Conference in Philosophy at the University of Essex, to be held 9 May 2009, invites abstracts on any issue relevant to questions on the language of philosophy, philosophical method and the forms philosophy can take. Possible topics include:

- Problem-solving by dialogue in Plato
- Philosophy through reflection and action
- Is there a proper medium for philosophy?
- The role of logic and rigour in philosophical analysis
- Must philosophy be primarily ethics?
- Should a philosophical ‘point’ be explicit?
- Kierkegaard’s reaction to Hegel’s system
- Philosophy as… (film, literature, music…)
- Heidegger and the circularity of philosophy
- Wittgenstein and beginning in the middle
- Derrida and the distinction between literature and philosophy
- Cavell and teaching philosophy

We aim to hold a wide-ranging philosophical exchange and hope for a broad display of positions and perspectives. We invite papers that explore the diverse ways in which philosophy manifests itself;
conversely, we encourage papers that have a clear view about what the proper philosophical medium is. In short, we hope for a day of productive discussion of a contentious issue for philosophy.

Keynote speakers:

Daniel P. Watts (University of Essex)
Marie McGinn (University of East Anglia)

Final papers should be suitable for a 20-minute presentation (2000-2500 words in length), which will be followed by a discussion. The Department of Philosophy will be able to offer invited speakers limited financial assistance towards the cost of travel. For enquiries, please e-mail Matt at pygradc@essex.ac.uk, or see the website.

Abstracts of 500 words in length should be sent by Monday 19 January 2009 to pygradc@essex.ac.uk or in duplicate by post to:

Graduate Conference 2009
Department of Philosophy
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

Dear Investor:

Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say good-bye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde

Whether or not “critical theory” constitutes a well-defined, easily identifiable and self-contained school of thought has been a matter of debate. For the organizers of this conference, given the plurality of theoretical projects that consider themselves in the tradition of the “Frankfurt School,” critical thinking cannot be reduced to one academic ‘camp’ in any meaningful way. Rather than representing one coherent philosophical paradigm, ‘critical theory’ embodies a diverse set of practices of radical questioning exercised in various discourses including that of arts, social and political sciences as well as radical political debate. Moreover critical theory is a highly self-reflexive process. Thus, rather than being a sign of crisis or lack of orientation, the increasing number of publications about the meaning and significance of “critique” and “critical theory” in recent years point to a vibrant and diverse intellectual community constituted around similar theoretical and political commitments. The existence of different theoretical positions and disagreements within that community can be best interpreted as an invitation to reconsider one’s own stance in relation to other ways of critical thinking and to reflect on common grounds.
“The Future(s) of Critical Theory” Graduate Conference in Frankfurt aims to serve as a forum for this ongoing debate. We invite PhD students and postdocs from the humanities and the social sciences to discuss their work in relation to the challenges posed by the current debates on the status of critical theory today. Critical theory proves itself only in relation to its concrete object of investigation. We are therefore equally looking forward to the presentation of empirical research as to theoretical reflections.

Contributions may include – but need not be limited to – the following themes:

• What is Critique? What makes critical theories critical? How critical is Critical Theory?
• C/critical Theory(ies): 1,2,3…many Generations of critical theory(ies); Critical Theory and Post/structuralism; Critique, Genealogy, Deconstruction; Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche; Postcolonial Studies, Feminism, queer.
• Methodologies of critique: Theory and Practice; Philosophy and Sociology; Knowledge and Human Interest; Militant Investigation, Collective Theorization.
• Critique and the Good Life: Desire, Love, Intimacy, Affect, ‘The Private’ and of course Friendship.
• Critical Theory, The Political and Politics: Democracies, Socialisms, Liberalisms; Power and/or Domination; Law, State, Police and Sovereignty.
• Theorizing Capitalism: (Ir)rationality, Alienation and Reification; Old and New Spirit of Capitalism; Redistribution or Expropriation; Reform or Revolution.
• Cultures of Critique: Sub-, Pop- and Mainstream- Culture (industries); Media and Cultural Studies; Hegemony and Discourse; Narratology, Semiotics and Rhetoric.

Submission Information

Please submit abstracts of a maximum of 300 words to the following e-mail address: info@graduateconferencefrankfurt.de. We accept proposals until the 31. November 2008. Languages of the conference will be German and English, abstracts can be submitted in either language. Papers presented at the conference should not exceed the duration of twenty minutes and will be followed by a brief discussion.
Papers will be selected through a blind review process therefore please do not mark your name or other indications of the author on abstracts and make sure to clearly state the title of your proposal in the email.
Candidates will be informed by January 1st whether their paper has been accepted for presentation.
The publication of a selection of conference papers is intended.

Keynote speakers

Keynote speakers are Bonnie Honig (Chicago), Axel Honneth (Frankfurt) and Emmanuel Renault (Paris/Lyon).

Contact

For further information see www.graduateconferencefrankfurt.de.

All papers that focus on some philosophical aspect of either the classic or recent Doctor Who will be considered, but papers on the following topics will be given special consideration. Such topics include:

· The metaphysics of Doctor Who
· The ethics and moral dilemmas of Doctor Who
· The science of Doctor Who
· Doctor Who, human nature, and spirituality
· Conflict and conflict resolution in Doctor Who

Deadline for receipt of essays is November 15, 2008

Interested parties should contact one of the individuals listed below for a detailed set of guidelines. As a rough guide: essays should be 12-15 pages typed, double-spaced, properly referenced, and should have a separate title page with author information to help facilitate the blind review process. Please send essays via email or hardcopy to both:

Dr. Paul Smithka
Paula.Smithka@usm.edu

Court Lewis
dlewis14@utk.edu