Truth Project - Conference Schedule

Here's what to expect (view the conference agenda) ...

• Dr. Del Tackett teaching The Truth Project Curriculum
• Understanding and living the Christian worldview in daily life
• Knowing the nature and character of God
• God's design for all of life: work, science, family, government, art, ethics and more
• How to thrive in a hostile culture
• Participants will receive the complete DVD set of 12 Lessons. (These professionally produced DVDs are only available by attending Focus on the Family's The Truth Project conference.)
• Access to our password protected learning support site that features lesson outlines, bonus multimedia content, discussion forums, worldview articles and more
• Conference hours: Friday, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Upcoming Conference and Training Events:

Spring 2007

• San Antonio, Texas, February 2-3, 2007 (Trinity University)
• Sacramento, California, March 23-24, 2007 (Bayside Church)
• Kansas City, Missouri, April 13-14, 2007 (First Baptist Church of Raytown)
• Orange County, California, April 27-28, 2007 (Yorba Linda Friends Church)

Fall 2007

• Louisville, Kentucky, October 12-13, 2007 (Highview Baptist Church).

Other Planned Event Locations, 2007 (dates to be determined)

• Colorado Springs
• Phoenix
• Toronto
• Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Vancouver, British Columbia

Amazing Juggling Finale

Chris Bliss performing an amazing juggling routine.

Mozilla Virtual Patching

I've always wondered if you could create a useful "virtual" patch extension for Firefox. What I mean by this is real patches, or security updates are not released until their fully tested to not break core features or external plugins, and some security improvements involve creating new GUI's, and modifying default preferences, and the coders what to solve it "correctly" the first time at the root of the problem and not just band-aid the fix and have to solve it over and over again. But what about the time it takes to get a real "fix" and do it correctly? Between the time the problem is discovered and fixed it can take a few weeks for critical security bug and literally years to make some security enhancing fixes. What if I'm willing to live with a band-aid or imperfect GUI's between those times, in the name of security? What if a corporation is willing to live with these band-aid as well?

Design ideas
1. Simple extension where a user can optionally enable/disable security related prefs on a per site or global basis (like noscript but more granular and moving beyond javascript and plugins.). I believe Mozilla does have the ability to disable particular javascript commands on a per site basis, there is just not a GUI For it.
2. If possible I would not want to change the original code at all, just override functions externally (can I do this through an overlay? Like a wrapper class in a java filter, wrapping a function, changing its behavior as needed but not having to modify the original code) and allowing the altered functionality to be disabled or enabled per site. If the new/altered functionality breaks something you care about turn it off for that site.
3. If possible, do all of this using only cross platform languages, javascript, XUL, etc so someone doesn't have to continually recompile the solution for multiple platforms.

Update 1/1/2007:

I'm now wondering if this should be more of an library and API rather than a product. Then each patch will be javascript & xul files which call the api.

1. Use Cases (Some based on http://www.squarefree.com/2006/12/14/sgwant/ and http://www.squarefree.com/securitytips/users.html)

• HttpOnly
• Gmail contacts vulnerability

http://cyber-knowledge.net/blog/2007/01/01/gmail-vulnerable-to-contact-list-hijacking/

• block known bad sites by default as black list or white list
  

2. Functionality required from API

• warn or Blacklist/whitelist specific domains
• warn or Blacklist/whitelist Block specific pages
• warn or Blacklist/whitelist specific URL Parameters
• warn or Blacklist/whitelist specific POST Parameters
• Encrypt specific param values or cookie values so they become useless to scripts, but get decrypted before being sent back to the server
  
• Scan params for cross site scripting type code, (javascript, SQL, etc)
• limit get/posts and specific params to particular URL's by referrer
• Clipboard monitoring???

Existing functionality to study

httpOnly-extension
noscript-extension
adblock-extension

Configurable Security Policies
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/components/ConfigPolicy.html

Cheap ways to stay warm this winter

Check out this link from the Get Rich Slowly Blog

Examples from the page.

1. * Let in some light. Open blinds on south-facing windows during the day to let in the sun. Close them in the evening to add a bit more insulation. This provides just enough mid-day warmth that we don’t need the heater.
2. * Use rugs on bare floors. We have hardwood floors above a poorly-insulated basement. These floors are cold in the morning and the late afternoon. An area rug does a fine job of keeping my feet warmer.
3. * Block drafts. This is best done with weather-stripping or other forms of insulation, but even a blanket in front of a door helps. Because our house is so old, nothing is level. This makes it difficult to install weather stripping. The bottom of our mudroom door, for example, has a one-inch gap on one end but is flush with the floor near the hinge. By laying a blanket in front of the door, we can mitigate some of the heat loss.

etc.

Biblical Dating - An Introduction

Biblical Dating: An Introduction

Beginning of a series of articles on Christianity and dating. Scott Croft attempts to address how to apply Biblical principals to find a person to marry.

Excerpts from the article ....

Biblical Dating

OK. Let's take care of some basic definitions. We may define biblical dating as a method of introduction and carrying out of a pre-marital relationship between a single man and a single woman:

1. That begins (maybe) with the man approaching and going through the woman's father or family;
2. that is conducted under the authority of the woman's father or family or church; and
3. that always has marriage (or at least a determination regarding marriage to a specific person) as its direct goal.

....

Modern Dating

We may basically define modern dating as a method of introduction and carrying out of a pre-marital relationship between a single man and a single woman:

1. that begins with either the man or the woman initiating with the other;
2. that is conducted outside the formal oversight or authority of either person's family or church; and
3. that may or may not have marriage as its goal and is often purely "recreational" or "educational."

Crisis Counseling - What to do or not to do

These items are quoted/paraphrased from the "His Presence in Crisis Evangelism Conference" Training Guide by Billy Graham Ministries. These are things to not say immediately after a crisis to the person you are counseling.

Do Say

1. These are normal reactions to a disaster.
2. It is understandable that you feel this way
3. You are not going crazy. This is just a abnormal situation which is beyond your ability to cope [right now].
4. (If the statement is true.) It wasn't your fault. You did the best you could.
5. Things may never be the same, but you will get better and you will feel better.
6. Would you be willing to tell me how you feel?
   

Don't Say

1. It could have been worse.
2. You can always get another _______ (pet, car, house, spouse, child).
3. It's best if you just say busy. (Don't use over-working to self-medicate and so avoid dealing with the problem).
4. I know just how you feel.
5. You just need to get on with your life.