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Jan 14, 2004
By | Posted at 12:6:21
This message is for two requests. As I announced a few months ago, FaithTree.com now allows users to place their favorite blogs on their customizable front page, just like you can local and national news, tech news, Bible quotes, local weather etc. You can find the few that I put up right here. I didn't add all of my blogroll, although I am planning to.
- My first request is to hear from you about some of your favorite blogs that you think might make a good addition to FaithTree.com's listings. Maybe picking your top favorites would be best, but if you can't decide, that's alright. Just let me know what you like.
- The other request is that, if you like the idea of seeing a customizable Christian home page that can take blogs as feeds, that you might consider mentioning this post on your own blog so that I can gather a good selection of blogs for this project.
The only real catch is that the blog must be Christian and agree with Christian Scripture as interpreted by historic Christian belief (the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed are a good base for this judgement). Essentially, anything that would go on Blogs4God can go on FaithTree.com's blog selection. This may change in the future (perhaps some secular blogs will be allowed), but for now that's the safest way to insure that the blogs meet our guidelines for content.
Once a blog is listed, it will be given a unique ID. If the blog owner wants to make it easy for people to add the blog to their FaithTree.com home page, they can follow some simple instructions on how to do so. This all works much like it did on the old “My Netscape” that existed in the days when Netscape was still a force to be reckoned with. If you are interested, please indicate so and I'll post about that.
Thanks for your help with this project!
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Jan 13, 2004
By | Posted at 18:43:50
To answer Christopher's question from the last post, I am back up, at least mostly. I'm going to be writing about what I'm up to on OfB, so I guess I'll save it until then, but it's kept me busy!
And it all started because of a phone. I hinted about cell phone service issues a few weeks back and intended to follow that up sooner than I did. Verizon Wireless had, after over a year and a half of fighting, still failed to provide me with a number that actually could be reached from many phones in the metro area. They had also, earlier in 2003, managed to lose my voicemail for about a month and then somehow switch my number over to “pay as you go” (which of course caused it to be terminated, since I didn't have pay as you go minutes — I had a monthly plan!).
At any rate, they finally relented and let me out of the contract. I'm now with Cingular Wireless and have a new Nokia 3600 phone (the GSM 850/1900 MHz variant of the Nokia 3650). So far things have been good with Cingular — good coverage, good customer service and a great phone. The Nokia 3600 is a camera phone that is powered by the OS that's somewhat of a cell-phone/PDA blend: Symbian. It has a 100 MHz processor, is capable of running Java and Symbian applications (of which there are a ton!) and can play wave and polyphonic midi ring-tones. Battery life seems to be 4-5 days of standby and light usage, or 2-day with moderate Bluetooth usage (leaving Bluetooth on all the time seems to lower that to around a 24 hour battery life).
One feature I really liked about the phone, other than the 640×480 camera (which is nice for when you don't have your normal camera with you), is the inclusion of Bluetooth. That's also how I ended up taking on a major project in trying to get my contacts, that are on my GNU/Linux box, to my Mac (which has Bluetooth) and then to the phone. sigh
At any rate, it's a good phone. IMO, the future of wireless is on a GSM network, so if your looking to get a new phone, this nice Nokia 3600 GSM phone might be a good choice.
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Jan 9, 2004
By | Posted at 19:54:28
If you've e-mailed me and I haven't responded, please forgive me. I've been trying to get a server configured. That project ballooned into something bigger, and presently I have a new install of GNU/Linux on my desktop in which I have not imported my e-mail yet. I haved viewed it a few times in Apple Mail using IMAP, but I haven't done much with it, and I can't respond to messages sent prior to the move (since they aren't on IMAP any longer).
At any rate, I'm hoping to finish the server project tomorrow. Once I do that, I will import my e-mail from my backup and respond.
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Jan 8, 2004
By | Posted at 11:36:28
I saw this in the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday and couldn't help but chuckle (although fear also hit me when I realized there is a chance we might have to live with this guy being our president). Apparently Democratic front runner Howard Dean, who has been trying to talk a bit more about religion as he attempts to appeal to Bible-belt voters, was asked what his favorite New Testament book was.
As he heads into what H.L. Mencken called the “Bible Belt,” the candidate moved to plug an apparent hole in his resume about an interest in religion. After hearing Dean's observation beginning “If you know much about the Bible - which I do …” a reporter asked about his favorite New Testament book. Dean named Job, adding, “But I don't like the way it ends … there's one book where there's a more optimistic ending, which we believe was tacked on later.” [link]
So, it seems Dean's Bible is organized a bit different than everyone else's. Robert Novak, the conservative CNN commentator, explains what happened afterwards in his syndicated column for this week:
Dean returned to reporters, confessing a slight error. When they persisted in asking his favorite part of the New Testament, he prudently answered: “Anything in the Gospels.” [link]
While I always feel sorry for people making dumb mistakes, I can't help but see this as Dean trying to look Christian when he really could care less. For someone who has, as Novak reports, claimed to have read the Bible “from cover-to-cover” and also has also stated, as the Post-Dispatch reports, “If you know much about the Bible - which I do,” it is disturbing that Dean lists Job as his favorite New Testament book and then can't be any more specific than the Gospels when he is reminded that Job happened about 2,000 years too early for the New Testament.
I guess it could have been worse — he could have mentioned his favorite New Testament books where the ones that followed Moses's life or something like that.
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Jan 7, 2004
By | Posted at 18:43:13
This is a blog post about $X. When I heard about $X, I thought $Y and $Z. According to $A, “$X is the best thing since sliced $B!” The Associated Press also talked about $X and declared it the “Best of the Best” for the $foobar industry! This is so exciting! You really should read more about $X. I bet you'll think $Y and $Z too. Or maybe not, but then you may at least think $C and $D. Whatever the case, let me know what you think about $X in the comments below. If you think $E or $F, please explain why, as well.
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Jan 4, 2004
By | Posted at 17:28:49
I've spent a few hours over the last week or so ripping Christmas CD's. I'm not quite done and there are over 40 albums spanning almost a day an a quarter in playtime. But what to do with them? Well, I thought it might be nice to listen to it as I went from computer to computer, so I decided to try Apple's Darwin Streaming Server (DSS). DSS is the Free Software/Open Source sibling to QuickTime Streaming Server. It appears to have most of the same functionality (including QuickTime streaming).
One of its many features is IceCast compatible MP3 streaming. So, in a (nearly) effortless few minutes, I installed DSS, fixed my MP3 directory's permissions, used the great web-based GUI to select the proper folder, and clicked “play.” Now, I can connect from any system on the network and hear the continuous stream as if it was on the radio. Only its 100% good Christmas music and not some of the stuff that makes you wince in agony (the Christina Aguilera Christmas songs where the worst of the year, I think).
DSS's stream works just fine in iTunes (which shows the proper track information), XMMS (which does not show proper track information), Windows Media Player, and probably others. WMP seems to have a larger buffer and thus you don't want to have WMP playing the stream within listening distance of a system using XMMS or iTunes, but other than that, it works well on all three.
Now, I'll just do the same in a few weeks for my non-Christmas music and all will be well.
If you'd like to try DSS, you can do so on Mac OS X, GNU/Linux or Windows. The server is available for a free download under the GNU Project approved Apple Public Source License (ASPL) 2.0, right here.
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Jan 1, 2004
By | Posted at 18:16:32
Happy New Year! Well, I always have mixed feelings about new years, but it was a nice evening last night anyway. Per an annual family tradition, my family got together and played games until midnight at which time the house was properly covered in confetti made of shredded Christmas wrapping paper (dual usage!!!). That took until about 1:45 to clean up.
Depending on your view, you may or may not consider it a bright idea that I decided to save last year's confetti and use it again. Depending on your view, you may or may not consider it a bright idea that we decided to use the outdoor blower/vac to get the paper gathered up (yes, I was in a completely sober state of mind — I don't drink — however the urge to get done and get to sleep may have motivated the bad choice of using the blower/vac without turning it on outside first). Either way, the end result was dusty — year old Christmas paper and a outdoor blower/vac combine to spread a lot of dust. So I dusted too. And then I was covered in dust and had to get that washed off — but overall, I was asleep no later than about 2:30 a.m. Not too bad.
Today, I didn't get much accomplished. I slept late, fixed some problems on FaithTree.com and setup my one of my Christmas presents — some shiny new Crucial RAM for the PowerMac G5. With this new ram, I'm now up to 1.5 GB of ram, which should be enough for my purposes — it's twice as much as my x86 desktop has.
Finally, my complete Christmas and New Year's greeting is below. Due to delays in the legal department, it's a bit late.
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Dec 31, 2003
By | Posted at 14:22:46
Well, I should have posted something after Christmas, but I haven't gotten to it yet. To give you a hint of what I've been up to the last few days, it has something to do with fighting with Verizon Wireless concerning my year and a half old cell service (call receiving problems) and the fact that my Apple PowerMac G5 has bluetooth.
You can also catch another thing I've been doing today at OfB.biz — my annual GNU/Linux year-in-review article.
Depending on what happens, I may not be back on tonight, so have a very very happy new year! Thanks everyone for a great year of blogging in 2003, I'm looking forward to 2004!
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Dec 24, 2003
By | Posted at 19:55:31
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” -Isaiah 9:6
Merry Christmas to all of my friends in the Blogosphere. I hope all of you have a merry and blessed Christmas this year (and have plenty of good things to eat to boot)!
Here's my annual Christmas story quotation:
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. {11}Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. {12}This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
{13}Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
- Luke 2:10-14 (NIV)
I have the whole thing conveniently placed online
here if anyone is interested.
Merry Christmas once again and to all a good night!
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Dec 22, 2003
By | Posted at 18:50:28
I finally got part I of my Shuttle XPC review up. You can read all about the SB62G2 at OfB.biz. This is a really amazing system — and it is part of an amazing lineup, including an Athlon64 supporting model that even has a built-in 6-type memory card reader.
OfB has awarded Shuttle our “Best of the Year” award for the SB62G2. It is an amazing little box and I highly recommend it if you're looking for a semi-DIY system that isn't just a plain old system. Very very nice. I figured with the cost of the barebones system included, a P4 2.6 GHz with HT, 512 megs of PC3200 ram, a combo drive and an 80 gig SATA hard disk comes out to less than $700 — that's quite a steal!
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