Seventh Leper

I've moved!

2011-01-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

What's your excuse?

2010-12-23T10:22:00.001-07:00

You understand Teacher, don't you, that when you have a mother who's an angel and a father who is a cannibal king, and when you have sailed on the ocean all your whole life, then you don't know just how to behave in school with all the apples and ibexes.

Pippi Longstocking

Paganization of Christianity

2010-11-19T10:37:00.017-07:00

I am listening to Fr. Thomas Hopko's podcast series on Church & State. This is an excerpt from Part 3.

He describes the "paganization of Christianity" after the 4th century, the change from a Church looking for the coming Kingdom to one wanting to protect earthly kingdoms, from Christians asking for the strength and grace to endure suffering to asking to be spared all suffering. Sound familiar?

Download MP3.

Skepticism

2010-11-19T09:41:00.001-07:00

By nature I am a skeptical person, and people with a lot of skepticism start to question atheism.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Trust in God, not riches

2010-11-08T07:43:00.004-07:00

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

On Living Simply

2010-09-17T09:45:00.004-06:00

We who are disciples of Christ claim that our purpose on earth is to lay up treasures in heaven. But our actions often contradict our words. Many Christians build for themselves fine houses, lay out splendid gardens, construct bathhouses, and buy fields. It is small wonder, then, that many non-believers refuse to believe what we say.

St. John Chrysostom

The Last Supper and Passover

2010-09-11T21:01:00.004-06:00

Ever wonder why the Gospel of John has the Last Supper occur before the Feast of Passover while the other gospels have it occur on the Feast?

John 13:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended [...]

Matthew 26:

Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

Presbytera Jeannie explains it in Part 6 of her lessons on Exodus. Here is the excerpt.

Play audio. (requires HTML5 browser)

Download MP3.

Beginning to Pray

2010-09-05T20:22:00.006-06:00

Just finished listening to a series of podcasts covering Metropolitan Anthony's "Beginning to Pray". The first chapter is called "The Absence of God". Listen to this audio excerpt of the first in the series if you've ever felt that you were praying to a wall and wondered why God didn't seem to be responding.

Play audio. (requires HTML5 browser)

Download MP3.

I recommend Deacon Michael Hyatt's "At the Intersection of East and West" podcasts. I would probably also recommend the book, except that I haven't picked it up yet! Will try to bring exact change to the church bookstore next week. :)

Who Wants to Live Forever

2010-08-01T08:03:00.002-06:00

As a young physician caught up in the early years of the H.I.V. epidemic, I was struck by my patients’ will to live, even as their quality of life became miserable and when loved ones and caregivers would urge the patient to let go. I thought it remarkable that patients never asked me to help end their lives (and found it strange that Dr. Kevorkian managed to encounter so many who did). My patients were dying young and felt cheated out of their best years. They did not want immortality, just the chance to live the life span that their peers could expect. What de Grey and other immortalists seem to have lost sight of is that simply living a full life span is a laudable goal. Partial success in extending life might simply extend the years of infirmity and suffering — something that to some degree is already happening in the West.

Abraham Verghese

Forgetting wrongs

2010-05-12T21:16:00.004-06:00

You will know that you have completely freed yourself of this rot [of remembering wrongs], not when you pray for the person who has offended you, not when you exchange presents with him ... but only when, on hearing that he has fallen into bodily or spiritual misfortune, you suffer and weep for him as for yourself.

St. John Climacus

Mud

2010-05-12T08:09:00.001-06:00

Man is mud whom God has commanded to become god.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (via Fr. Stephen)

Faith

2010-05-12T08:03:00.004-06:00

Is faith to be understood simply as a mental exercise, or is it somehow something more? [...]

When speaking of faith, we are describing a relational trust that is rooted in our participation in the life of God. St. Paul says that “faith works by love” (Gal. 5:6). Marriage, at its best and highest moments, can have something of this experience on a human level. The relationship is more than mental and emotional. It is physical and involves a union with the other than can only proceed from trust, freedom and love. It would not be wrong to describe such a relationship as faith. The Church asks husbands and wives to be faithful – which means far more than simply avoiding sex with other persons. It is little wonder that marriage is a common image used for the relationship between God and His Church.

Fr. Stephen

Praying when weak

2010-03-24T10:29:00.003-06:00

I often tell people who say they are struggling with prayer to quit trying to pray like a Pharisee and learn to pray like a Publican. We often want to pray from strength – to approach God when we at least feel spiritually alive. The Publican refuses to lift his eyes to heaven. The contradiction of his life and the goodness of God are more than he can bear. And yet he prays. And, ironically, it is he who goes down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.

Father Stephen

Reasons to not read the Bible

2010-03-22T21:59:00.005-06:00

Reasons 4th century Christians gave for not reading the Bible, from St. John Chysostom via Presbytera Jeannie. From another podcast I've started listening to and highly recommend, Search the Scriptures.

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Be still

2010-03-11T21:07:00.002-07:00

The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still.

Exodus 14:14

Success

2010-03-07T12:18:00.001-07:00

We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful.

Mother Teresa

Living and dying

2010-03-05T12:26:00.004-07:00

To live as a Christian is impossible. As a Christian you can only die.

Elder Sophrony via Fr. Zacharias (24 MB MP3)

Bodily afflications

2010-02-28T22:18:00.006-07:00

An excerpt from another podcast, this one from Fr. Thomas Hopko, about how our bodily afflictions contribute to our salvation.

Play audio. (requires HTML5 browser)

Download MP3.

Lent, salvation and the body

2010-02-23T08:39:00.005-07:00

An excerpt from a recent podcast I've listened to. An interesting insight, I think, into how our bodies contribute to our interaction with God and are not just things to be despised because of their inclination to sin. And a profitable saying at the beginning of Lent.

This is Fr. Meletios Webber is the Abbott of the Holy Monastery of St. John of San Francisco.

Play audio. (requires HTML5 browser)

Download MP3.

TV for baby

2010-01-13T08:20:00.003-07:00

“I’m proud of what I made,” Ms. Aigner-Clark said in an e-mail message on Monday night. “Welcome to the 21st century. Most people have televisions in their houses, and most babies are exposed to it. And most people would agree that a child is better off listening to Beethoven while watching images of a puppet than seeing any reality show that I can think of.”

Julie Aigner-Clark, Baby Einstein founder

That's setting the bar pretty low, isn't it? Better than a reality show?

Regardless, I'd be interested to see if there are flaws in studies showing that television is bad, period, for children 2 & under.

Slashdot scriptures?

2009-11-28T10:08:00.002-07:00

Since when did Slashdot start doing Bible quotes? (Click on image to see full-size.)

Power plays

2009-11-09T07:19:00.007-07:00

On Sunday, some abortion rights advocates lashed out at the bishops. “It was an unconscionable power play,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, accusing the bishops of “interceding to put their own ideology in the national health care plan.” (NY Times)

Isn't it irritating when people or organizations with views opposite to your own exercise their democratic rights.

Share in suffering

2009-10-26T07:21:00.004-06:00

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.

St. Paul, 2 Timothy 2

Oddworld on PSN

2009-10-20T08:03:00.001-06:00

I still have the original discs and PSOne if anyone wants to borrow them. :)

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/coming-to-psn-this-week-oddworld-psone-classics/

Woe to you that are rich

2009-10-05T22:00:00.003-06:00

The Lord said to the Jews who had come to him, "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.

"Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger.

"Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

"Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

"But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again."

Luke 6

God's thought

2009-10-05T21:53:00.003-06:00

You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God, who made all these things, and find out his mind or comprehend his thought?

Judith 8

Foolish, ignoble, weak, low & despised

2009-09-19T09:27:00.003-06:00

Brethren, consider your call, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 1

Boasting

2009-09-03T07:47:00.004-06:00

"Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord." For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends.

St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 10

Prayer & politics

2009-09-01T07:19:00.006-06:00

I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way.

St. Paul, 1 Timothy 2

A Different Kind of Liberal

2009-08-31T07:01:00.002-06:00

For abortion opponents, cruel ironies abounded in this sibling disagreement. Because of Eunice Shriver’s work with the developmentally disabled, a group of Americans who had once been marginalized and hidden away — or lobotomized, like her sister Rosemary — was ushered closer to full participation in ordinary human life. But because of laws that her brother unstintingly supported, that same group was ushered out again: the abortion rate for fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome, for instance, is estimated to be as high as 90 percent.

[...]

It’s worth pondering how the politics of abortion might have been different had Ted shared even some of his sister’s qualms about the practice. One could imagine a world in which America’s leading liberal Catholic had found a way to make liberalism less absolutist on the issue, and a world where a man who became famous for reaching across the aisle had reached across, even occasionally, in search of compromise on the country’s most divisive issue.

Ross Douthat, NY Times

Fasting

2009-08-28T08:18:00.003-06:00

Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

Jesus, Mark 2

Ted Kennedy on abortion

2009-08-27T05:06:00.005-06:00

While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized -- the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.

On the question of the individual's freedom of choice there are easily available birth control methods and information which women may employ to prevent or postpone pregnancy. But once life has begun, no matter at what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire.

I share the confidence of those who feel that America is willing to care for its unwanted as well as wanted children, protecting particularly those who cannot protect themselves. I also share the opinions of those who do not accept abortion as a response to our society's problems -- an inadequate welfare system, unsatisfactory job training programs, and insufficient financial support for all its citizens.

When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.

From a letter to Mr. Thomas Donnelly of Great Neck, NY, dated August 3, 1971.

Here's to the pro-life Democrats.

Joyfully accept plundering

2009-08-26T06:41:00.001-06:00

Brethren, recall the former days when [...] you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised.

St. Paul, Hebrews 10

Do not lose heart

2009-08-21T06:48:00.003-06:00

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 4

Jesus Prayer

2009-08-20T10:20:00.002-06:00

The Jesus Prayer set to music by John Michael Talbot.

Download AAC file here if Flash player doesn't work.

Morning & evening prayers

2009-08-19T15:48:00.003-06:00

In the morning I greet my God and resolve to give no room to sin,
But rather consecrate the day to You
Abiding firm and mastering the passions;
For wickedness would bring dishonour upon my greying hairs and upon the table at which I minister.
I pray You, O my Christ, bring this beginning to a happy end.
----
I deceived You, Word of God, in very truth when I consecrated this day to You.
Now night comes upon me,
And my own light is not undimmed.
This I prayed over and foresaw, but in part my feet have stumbled and on me darkness fell, that hater of salvation.
Rekindle my light, O Christ, and shine on me again.

St. Gregory the Theologian

Virtues

2009-08-19T09:58:00.003-06:00

He who seeks humility from God but does not accept the person that God sends him so as to humble him, doesn't know what he is asking for, for virtues are not purchased like groceries (as many kilos as we want). Rather, God sends us people for us to be tested, to exert ourselves, acquire virtues, and be crowned.

Elder Paisios, Epistles

On questioning

2009-08-17T16:28:00.004-06:00

On this account, the Watcher [Gabriel] had saluted Mary as a pledge of great peace for the whole world.

"Hail Mary, our Lord is with you," he was saying to her, "you will conceive and bear a son in your virginity."

She said to him: "How will this be as you say, since I am a virgin and there is no fruit of virgins?"

In that moment it was very necessary to question, so that the mystery of the Son dwelling in her might be explained to her.

[...]

Eve had not questioned the serpant when he led her astray, she who by her will kept silent and firmly believed the treachery.

The latter maiden heard truth from the faithful one, nevertheless in this way she had sought out an explanation.

The former heard of becoming a goddess from a tree, but she did not say: "How will what you mention ever happen?"

The Watcher told this one that she would conceive the Son of God, but she did not accept it until she was well informed.

That she in her person would ascend to the divine rank, the virgin wife of Adam did not doubt the liar.

To this one who would bear the Son of God it was told, but she inquired, sought, investigated, learned and then kept silent.

See now how much more beautiful is the latter than the former; because of her beauty, the Lord chose her and made her his Mother.

Jacob of Serug, On the Mother of God (Mary Hansbury, translator)
Homily 1, pages 31-33

I recommend this episode of the Word from the Fathers podcast.

Fathers in Christ

2009-08-16T21:07:00.003-06:00

I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 4

May we all have such fathers.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

2009-08-13T07:36:00.005-06:00

"Eunice Kennedy Shriver's heart for the most vulnerable among us will be deeply missed," said Jane Abraham, General Chairman of the Susan B. Anthony List. "She fought for the dignity inherent in every human life, born and unborn. Her legacy will serve as a life-affirming example to young women everywhere, and for that we are so blessed."

US News & World Report

Iraqi Shiites turn the other cheek

2009-08-12T13:10:00.003-06:00

“Let them kill us,” said Sheik Khudair al-Allawi, the imam of a mosque bombed recently. “It’s a waste of their time. The sectarian card is an old card and no one is going to play it anymore. We know what they want, and we’ll just be patient. But they will all go to hell.”

NY Times

Harlots & tax collectors

2009-08-12T07:24:00.002-06:00

Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Jesus, Matthew 21

Shame & strength

2009-08-11T10:22:00.003-06:00

It is the same in the sacrament of confession: the more shame we feel when we make ourselves naked before God, the more strength is given to us to overcome sin and the passions.

Archimandrite Zacharaias, The Enlargement of the Heart

Dallas Schoo interview

2009-03-05T08:24:00.008-07:00

Recorded a 5-minute interview this morning on KBCO with Dallas Schoo, Edge's guitar tech.

If the player doesn't work you can download the aac (1 MB) or the mp3 (4.7 MB).

Update 3/6: What they played on the radio was an edited version of the entire conversation. You can download to the entire mp3 here. (10.8 MB, ~10 minutes)

Yahoo Mail ads

2009-02-13T09:48:00.003-07:00

I think I've mentioned before how tacky I think many Yahoo Mail ads are. (The worst offender in my mind being the animated "before & after" tummy fat.)

If you are similarly afflicted, go shopping online for network drive enclosures. I don't know who it is who handles the ads, but they've installed a cookie in my browser that is now causing ads for the drives to be served in Mail. Hooray!

VW Polo coming to US

2009-01-27T14:03:00.002-07:00

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, the VW Polo is slated to come to the US too.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/16/confirmed-vw-polo-coming-to-the-u-s/

Neat. Hope they include a TDI option.

Fiat 500 coming to US via Chrysler

2009-01-27T14:00:00.004-07:00

Very cool. Hundreds of pounds lighter than Miata or Mini.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/26/fiat-chrysler-partnership-will-bring-7-new-models-to-u-s/

Apple iPhone documentation

2008-11-08T17:46:00.002-07:00

A press release for a new iPhone SDK book says:

You’ll gain a complete understanding of objects such as view controllers, navigation controllers, and how to build professional looking user interfaces - explained in English, rather than the obfuscated language Apple writes their documentation in.

Hm, I think the Apple documentation is rather good. Not that I don't want to get a book or two as well.

Vista bake sale

2008-10-22T09:40:00.000-06:00

There is an irony to Apple broadcasting an ad about Microsoft spending too much on an ads.

OpenOffice 3.0 released

2008-10-14T09:25:00.001-06:00

OpenOffice 3.0 is officially available for download. The biggest thing (for me) is it has a full version for the Mac! (No X11 necessary.) Among other things, it supports Microsoft's OOXML document format, so you can open MS Office 2007 files. And the Mac version supports VBA script, which the current version of Mac MS Office doesn't even do. (Though I hear MS is restoring it for the next release.)

But the Mac version appears to be a little buggy. Hopefully those bugs will be fixed soon. Or we can wait for NeoOffice 3.0 to arrive.

Sweetening the bailout bill

2008-10-01T15:49:00.001-06:00

After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, speeding toward passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House where conservative opposition seemed to soften.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners for the right and left, hoping to secure approval in the House by Friday

Lovely. So instead of just a $700 billion bill, we now have one with added "sweeteners". (Read: pork.) I'm sure glad we have politicians looking out for us. :\

Microsoft hiring Seinfeld

2008-08-21T10:10:00.000-06:00

Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads.

Unhappy Android developers

2008-08-12T16:31:00.001-06:00

Given the bumps in the road I've encountered developing for the iPhone, I can't say I'm entirely disappointed that Android developers are having a bit of a rough time as well.

But mainly because Android developers are wont to express what a bad idea it is to develop for a "closed environment" like the iPhone. Not because I'm into schedenfreud or anything. Really!

Liberal church shooting

2008-07-28T09:13:00.001-06:00

Knoxville's police chief says the man accused of a shooting that killed two people at a Tennessee church targeted the congregation because of its liberal social stance.

Chief Sterling Owen IV said Monday that police found a letter in Jim D. Adkisson's car. Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a "stated hatred of the liberal movement." (AP)

Beautiful. I wonder what radio programs this guy regularly listened to. (I can guess.) If it is important to know what media teen shooters consume (playing shooters, listening to NIN, whatever), why not this guy?

End of an era

2008-07-01T11:33:00.000-06:00

The Ford F-series pickup truck, which has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for 26 years, was outsold by four fuel-efficient Japanese sedans in May.

NY Times

.Mac to MobileMe

2008-06-27T09:42:00.001-06:00

Funny how so many seem inclined to interpret the latest .Mac outages to possibly be related to the upcoming upgrade to MobileMe. Maybe they are, but they also seem to me to be a bad indication of MobileMe's possible future uptime. Having the previous generation service down even more than usual in the weeks preceding the new service roll-out is not the best way to generate hype.

That said, I will consider MobileMe when it's available. Having services available between the native Mac apps, the web and my iPod touch would be nice. I've been using my iPod touch with the beta 2.0 OS at work and it's been nice having access to my work email and calendar wherever I am in the office.

More iPhone 3G pricing

2008-06-13T08:08:00.000-06:00

Sounds like the 3G pricing is going to be even higher when you figure in SMS.

The original $20 iPhone data plan includes 200 SMSes. The new $30 3G plan does not. To get the 200 messages/month (and avoid paying 20-cents a message -- ouch!), you have to add $5/month. So that makes the 3G $15/month more expensive.

Over 24 months that's $360. Which is more than the $200 being saved initially when purchasing the phone.

iPhone 3G pricing

2008-06-09T22:08:00.000-06:00

Okay folks, it's basic math: if the iPhone 3G is priced $200 less but you end up having to pay $240 more for the AT&T data plan over two years, you are not saving money! (Not without 10% annual inflation or something.) Yet the NY Times says "Apple Aims for the Masses With a Cheaper iPhone".

O-kay.

Beyond Good & Evil 2

2008-05-29T08:57:00.002-06:00

More good gaming news: Ubisoft announced a sequel to a critically acclaimed game that did not do so well commercially. Hooray! Here's hoping this one does better in the market so there will be more following it.

Not that I have time these days to play games. Nor do I have a newer game console. But that would all work itself out. ;)

Oh, and there are still used copies of the first game out there. Quite the bargain!

Axon

2008-05-23T09:10:00.000-06:00

The maker's of Britain's Axon tout the car can get over 80 miles per gallon, has lower carbon emissions and a cheaper price tag than Toyota's Prius.

Marketplace

This is with a regular gasoline engine, no hybrid technology. The trick is the auto body, made of carbon fiber and half the weight of a normal car.

Oddworld

2008-05-22T20:48:00.003-06:00

Mmm.. Oddworld news.

----

Update: Lorne Lanning confirms.

Java on Google App Engine?

2008-05-21T09:57:00.002-06:00

Could Google be getting ready to solve the long-standing issue with Java application hosting by doing something revolutionary?

Podrazik goes on to predict that Google will release a reduced capability JSE and do something along the lines of Android (Dalvik) and GWT’s reduced Java API. (ONJava.com)

Given the difficulties of hosting Java, it would make sense for Google to offer a Java subset. Full Java would be better, but I'd be happy with a semi-familiar subset rather than having to jump into Python or Ruby.

OpenOffice 3.0 beta

2008-05-08T09:13:00.001-06:00

OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released.

The new OS X version eliminates the need to run OpenOffice through the X11 environment. Sun, which oversees OpenOffice, announced some time ago that native OS X support was high on its priority list and Mac users should be happy to hear the company is delivering on that promise.

Unfortunately the new OS X version was noticeably slower than NeoOffice, a Mac-specific OpenOffice offshoot, and most of the extensions I tried to install wouldn’t work. OpenOffice still has a way to go before it’s ready for everyday use on a Mac. For the time being NeoOffice remains the better choice for Mac OS X users, but at least OpenOffice is available now.

Wired

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

2008-04-30T09:13:00.000-06:00

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

From a great talk Clay Shirky gave at the recent Web 2.0 Expo. (You can watch the video here.)

I had a similar experience recently. After watching some videos on my iPod touch, my 4-year-old put it down and tried controlling the TV similarly, tapping the screen, dragging her finger across the screen. I imagine it was quite disappointing to her. Here she thought she had just learned a secret to controlling videos, all you have to do is tap the screen and away you go. Alas, it's not that way most of the time. Maybe when she has kids.

Silverlight @ Democratic Convention

2008-04-28T15:17:00.002-06:00

Microsoft has also bought Silverlight's way into the Democratic Convention. Is this something like a parent finding friends for its child instead of the child making its own?

Silverlight Olympics

2008-04-25T12:00:00.000-06:00

You'll need Silverlight to watch the Olympics on the internet? Blah. I guess it's good Adobe's Flash has some competition, but I don't like the idea of installing yet-another-plugin to do exactly the same thing as another.

Robert Kennedy on Martin Luther King, Indianapolis

2008-04-04T08:58:00.004-06:00

Download MP3

Restaurants miss moms

2008-03-14T09:47:00.000-06:00

Attention working moms: The restaurant industry needs you. According to an article in today’s Journal, restaurants “are waking up to a worrisome long-term trend: The number of harried working moms isn’t growing like it used to.”

The article says that the steady increase of working women over the last several decades has been a boon to restaurants, as “the combination of women having less time to cook and households having a second income caused families to eat at restaurants more frequently.” However, since 1999 that five-decade increase has leveled off, “with the percentage of women in the work force down slightly at 59.2% as of January,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Why the number of working women is flattening out isn’t entirely clear. NPD Group analyst Harry Balzer suggests it has to do with more young moms opting to watch their children instead of work.

WSJ

Bush to endorse John McCain

2008-03-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

A bold move on Bush's part, I tell ya. Those pundits who thought he'd take the safe road and endorse Clinton or Obama were wrong, wrong, wrong.

OpenDNS content filtering

2008-03-05T09:34:00.001-07:00

I've used OpenDNS for a while to speed up my web surfing at home. DNS is what's used to look up domain names. When you type in "google.com", your DNS server (usually supplied by your internet provider) translates that into an IP address that is used to load the page. If your DNS server is slow, your web experience will be slow. OpenDNS promises to speed things up with faster servers.

What I just discovered the other day is that they also provide free content filtering. By default it will filter out phishing sites as they are discovered. The also have a mess of other categories that you can filter.

And it's free.

Note that filters are not 100% accurate. Web sites can only be blocked as they are discovered by whatever service is tracking them. But filters are a good first line of defense in keeping unwanted material out of your home.

Chocolate during Lent

2008-03-05T09:26:00.001-07:00

It's fun to sometimes check out the search terms that bring people to my blog. A couple days ago, someone entered into Google "did the lord say it's ok to eat chocolate for lent on weekends" and somehow ended up here.

To answer the question: no. :)

And that reminds me. Since I have a couple days until Lent begins for us Eastern Orthodox, I've got some chocolate eating to do.

Mazda 2

2008-03-03T20:10:00.002-07:00

If VW never brings the Polo to the US, I could be consoled with a Mazda 2.

And with diesel? Sweet!

De-DRM'd audiobooks

2008-03-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

The NY Times says

Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books.

The trend will allow consumers who download audio books to freely transfer these digital files between devices like their computers, iPods and cellphones — and conceivably share them with others. Dropping copying restrictions could also allow a variety of online retailers to start to sell audio book downloads.

And perhaps libraries will start offering audiobooks that can be played on iPods as well. It boggles me that they think they're providing a service when the Microsoft-DRM'd files can't be played on a vast majority of mp3 players.

Cracking disk encryption

2008-02-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

I guess in addition to strong passwords you should also consider shutting down your computer instead of simply putting it to sleep.

A new paper (PDF) by a group of Princeton computer scientists suggests that disk encryption is vulnerable to a hack that will be hard to correct for: data about the encryption can be extracted from the machine's RAM.

[...]

With the memory contents in hand, the next step was to crack the encryption and compensate for the sporadic memory errors. Here, the researchers relied on the fact that most decryption systems store information derived from the encryption keys in memory to speed calculations.

[...]

The paper describes algorithms for recognizing and extracting AES, DES, RSA, and tweak key information from memory. The authors have also turned these on most of the common encryption methods, including TrueCrypt and dm-crypt, as well as Mac OS-X's FileVault and Vista's BitLocker. Using an external USB drive, the authors were able to identify and extract the key and mount a BitLocker-encrypted volume in about 25 minutes. While wandering around the memory of an Intel Mac, they not only cracked the FileVault encryption but also stumbled onto multiple copies of the login password.

Why the Microsoft Office file formats are so complicated

2008-02-19T09:08:00.001-07:00

An interesting piece by Joel Spolsky, a guy who worked for Microsoft back in the day.

If you started reading these documents with the hope of spending a weekend writing some spiffy code that imports Word documents into your blog system, or creates Excel-formatted spreadsheets with your personal finance data, the complexity and length of the spec probably cured you of that desire pretty darn quickly. A normal programmer would conclude that Office’s binary file formats:

* are deliberately obfuscated
* are the product of a demented Borg mind
* were created by insanely bad programmers
* and are impossible to read or create correctly.

You’d be wrong on all four counts.

Being the charitable guy I am, I only thought the first, second and fourth bullet points were true.

The advice on how to work around the difficult specs is good.

Misinformed craze for hybrids

2008-02-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hybrids like the Toyota Prius are selling like mad, but they are a stop-gap measure at best and the "misinformed craze" for them may delay sustainable technologies like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, French researchers say.

Gas-electric vehicles are not environmentally sustainable, yet automakers like Toyota and General Motors are pouring tens of millions of dollars into them in no small part because consumers are convinced they are, Jean-Jacques Chanaron and Julius Teske write in "Hybrid Vehicles: A Temporary Step."

Wired

Happy day-after-Evolution-Sunday

2008-02-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another Evolution Sunday, a day where some churches celebrate being religious and evolutionists. At the same time! (Cue dramatic gasp.)

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. [...] We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

Er, okay. Except that it sounds kinda post-modern to me. If science says "black" and religion says "white", do they have a problem with that? Or would those be complementary forms of truth?

Here's some previous comments of mine.

And the final word (IMHO):

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, living things, both small and great....These all look to thee, to give them their food in due season. When thou givest to the, they gather it up; when thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good things. When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground. (Psalms 104:27-30 via Mere Comments)

Unprofitable servants

2008-02-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

Luke 17:7-10

The ancient church

2008-02-08T12:21:00.001-07:00

Interesting article about evangelical Christians' growing interest in the ancient church.

[...] "The Chicago Call: An Appeal to Evangelicals" [...] declared evangelicals' "pressing need to reflect upon the substance of the biblical and historic faith and to recover the fullness of this heritage." This historic document began by issuing a "Call to Historic Roots and Continuity":

"We confess that we have often lost the fullness of our Christian heritage, too readily assuming that the Scripture and the Spirit make us independent of the past. In so doing, we have become theologically shallow, spiritually weak, blind to the work of God in others and married to our cultures. … We dare not move beyond the biblical limits of the gospel; but we cannot be fully evangelical without recognizing our need to learn from other times and movements concerning the whole meaning of that gospel."

New American VW minivan

2008-02-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm not the target audience for minivans (I hate them), but still.

Volkswagen has two interesting minivans in Europe: the Touran and the Sharan:

The Touran actually looks half decent. At least it looks like a Volkswagen! But what does America get? The Routan.

Looks like a Chrysler? You don't say. It is. Blah.

I guess we can't expect much more given the weak dollar. (It's much cheaper to build a model in America for sale in America.) But still.

Carbon Lent

2008-02-05T15:54:00.001-07:00

The Christian and environmental church converge!

Two senior Church of England Bishops have called on people to give up carbon rather than chocolate for Lent.

[...]

Lent is the time when Christians traditionally give up such things as sweets, chocolate or alcohol in recognition of the 40 days Christ spent fasting in the desert to prepare for his ministry.

Christians may give up things such as sweets, chocolate or alcohol for Lent these days, but traditionally they gave up more than that.

This year they will be asked to think about their own carbon footprint and follow a few simple steps designed to help cut CO2 emissions. They include:
avoiding plastic bags
giving the dishwasher a day off
insulating the hot water tank
checking the house for drafts with a ribbon and buying draught excluders
Those taking part in the Carbon Fast will be asked to remove one lightbulb from a prominent place in the home and live without it for 40 days. On the final days of the Fast they will be asked to replace it with a low-energy bulb which over its lifetime will save 60kg of carbon dioxide per year and up to £60.

I'm all for environmental practices, but removing a lightbulb for Lent trivializes it, don't you think?

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Tis that time of year when more than 20 million Americans are buying sweets and flowers for their loved ones on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, these tokens of love aren't as sweet or pure as they may appear. Over 40 percent of the world's conventional chocolate (i.e. non-organic and non-Fair Trade) comes from Africa's Ivory Coast, where the International Labor Organization and US State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery. Meanwhile, commercial flowers, most of which are produced in countries such as Colombia, are the most toxic and heavily sprayed agricultural crops on Earth. In order for you to deliver your bouquet to your beauty, poorly paid workers in Third World countries put in up to 18 hour work days for poverty wages during peak flower buying times such as Valentine's Day. But don't let the bad news squelch your Valentine's plans. Show your love by choosing Fair Trade and organic flowers and chocolate for your Valentine's Day gifts.

Check out OCA's Buying Guide, watch an entertaining flash movie and take action against the 5 major chocolate and flower corporations.

Naughty Step

2008-01-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

For those that can't get enough Mac commercials, here's a funny one from the UK.

Deuterocanon

2008-01-28T09:21:00.002-07:00

A Protestant makes an argument for including the deuterocanonical books in their Bibles.

Anthony Sacramone says:

It seems to me that “Protestant Bibles” that do not have the apocryphal books are missing rich material that most certainly would have informed to some degree the Apostles’ own thinking about the relation of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection to the suffering of Israel and the promises of God to redeem that suffering and liberate them from oppression.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of Protestants get so hung up on the canon that they ignore other invaluable early ~~Christian~~ writings. And then they go out and buy the latest 21st century best-seller. Bring back the good stuff.

Update: Doh! The early writings we're talking about are Jewish writings, of course. Read by early Christians.

Jobs on Kindle

2008-01-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Steve Jobs on why the Amazon Kindle will be unsuccessful.

Undecided Republicans

2008-01-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

“I just don’t get the sense that any of them are finding as much synergy with voters as candidates have in the past,” said Mr. Beltram, a supporter of George W. Bush in the 2000 primary, in which Mr. Bush defeated Mr. McCain.

“Last time, we had just two candidates and the choice was kind of black and white, either or,” Mr. Beltram said. “This year, it’s an awful lot of gray. There is no single, clear message.” (NY Times)

Boo hoo! You mean the race hasn't been decided already after Iowa and New Hampshire? That rates as a good thing in my mind. It's nice having the electorate decide the candidate rather than the party establishment.

Recycle your cell phone

2008-01-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

By the agency’s reckoning, as many as 150 million cellphones are taken out of service each year. The phones contain metals, plastics, glass and chemicals, all of which require energy to mine and make, and many of which could be hazardous if they end up in landfills and leach into the ground. Moreover, many old cellphones still work and can be donated to charities or distributed to poor people. (NY Times)

Yeah, my favorite cell phone provider has been doing this for a while.

Iraq and oil

2007-12-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

I do not believe that an endless military, economic and political commitment to Iraq makes sense. It only makes sense if we are determined to occupy the Middle East indefinitely to secure oil supplies. But the rational response to oil dependence is not to entrench it, but to try and move away from it.

Andrew Sullivan in his endorsement of Ron Paul for President.

Gain without pain

2007-12-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Republican presidential rivals called Wednesday for deep cuts in federal spending, and said the reductions need not require painful sacrifice by the millions of Americans who receive government services. (AP)

Oh brother.

barnesandnoble.com

2007-12-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

A big fan of Amazon, I strayed to Barnes & Noble this morning because the former did not have a book in stock. I discovered two things I didn't know before:

Barnes & Noble's free shipping kicks in at the same $25 level, but your purchases are "expedited" with a three-day delivery instead of Amazon's 5-9 days. And your purchases may actually be shipped within 24 hours (as opposed to Amazon waiting 5 or 6 days to send "free shipped" items).
Barnes & Noble lets you pay through Paypal.

Cool.

Is it Christmas?

2007-11-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Given that "holiday" ads start up Thanksgiving weekend, you might have a hard time tracking when it actually is Christmas. Here is a helpful website:

isitchristmas.com

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day

2007-11-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Adbusters

Diesel vs. hybrid vs. ethanol

2007-11-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

According to a new study, diesel tops hybrids and ethanol isn't even really in the game. Researchers at the Rand Corporation did a cost-benefit analysis of the top near-term alternatives to standard gasoline power-trains that looked at fuel savings, technology costs and performance. They also factored in societal costs in the form of noxious pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and energy security costs.

AutoblogGreen

Children and Big Pharma

2007-11-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

In Eugene Jarecki's documentary film Why We Fight, about the U.S. military-industrial complex, U.S. foreign policy critic Chalmers Johnson states: "I guarantee you when war becomes that profitable, you are going to see more of it." Similarly, as mental illness has become extremely profitable, we are seeing more of it.

On September 4, 2007, the New York Times reported, "The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003 ... Drug makers and company-sponsored psychiatrists have been encouraging doctors to look for the disorder."

Not too long ago, a child who was irritable, moody, and distractible and who at times sounded grandiose or acted without regard for consequences was considered a "handful." In the U.S. by the 1980s, that child was labeled with a "behavioral disorder" and today that child is being diagnosed as "bipolar" and "psychotic" -- and prescribed expensive antipsychotic drugs. Bloomberg News, also on September 4, 2007, reported, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs."

AlterNet

Husbands & wives

2007-11-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Jay Carson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said Mr. Clinton’s point was that his wife had the mettle to deal with tough challenges.

“President Clinton knows that she can handle and win any fight,” Mr. Carson said. (NY Times)

I think we can assume President Clinton has personal experience in the matter.

Robertson backs Giuliani

2007-11-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've said the evangelical uncomfortable with adulterers has an out (Romney). But it appears this evangelical has no problem!

I find this a curious endorsement. Thinking back to his 1988 run for the presidency, I don't know if he emphasized his anti-abortion views or not. If he did, what's changed since then? If anti-terrorism is his most important issue of the day, is he now saying that our lives are more important than the unborn's? Or does Robertson trust that Giuliani will appoint pro-life judges despite the latter's pro-choice views?

Password attacks

2007-10-24T15:55:00.000-06:00

Why you might consider lengthening your password beyond 8 characters.

Google Health features

2007-10-18T08:51:00.000-06:00

In her Web 2.0 Summit speech unveiling some of the projects Google Health has in the works, Marissa Mayer launched her presentation with a few jokes. Her tongue-in-cheek top 10 list of things you might see from Google Health (abridged):

Google's cookie expiration is now based on your expiration date.
An "I'm Feeling Yucky" button.
Viagra spam only goes to users who actually need it.
Typing in symptoms returns "Did you mean estate planning?"
Google paternity search.

Wired

The spirit of materialism

2007-10-09T13:11:00.000-06:00

Why begin marketing a holiday store in early October, seven weeks before the official start of the season and 12 weeks before Christmas?

“Everyone can use a little Christmas right now, after a summer of toy recalls,” Ms. Waugh said. “It’s time to remember what toys are all about.”

NY Times

Making credit freezes difficult

2007-10-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

In the ongoing story of credit reporting agencies and protecting your credit history,

Credit bureau Experian has joined rival TransUnion in allowing people in all 50 states to freeze their credit reports. The third major credit agency, Equifax, says it will soon join as well.

[...]

But don’t start applauding yet.

Credit bureaus don’t release the number of security freezes in place, but have said that it is low. It’s not surprising: the process of freezing and unfreezing your credit is complicated and aggravating. (NY Times)

Credit reporting agencies have no incentive to make this easier for the consumer unless it involves putting money in their pockets. They have every incentive to dissuade you from using this service.