Amish Country

My dad took this picture. If you look closely you can see the web URL and phone number on the sign.

The equation cracked me up the most.

Not Funny But Very True

Interesting Bible Study Topics

This is a list of Bible Study topics I'd like to learn and possibly teach. This is going to be a blog entry I continually update.

1. How to Study the Bible - I think there is a need for Christians to know how to use the Bible as a resource to solving many of their day to day problems. How to find what they are looking for, how to accurately research a topic, and how not to take verses of of context. A bible study like this would be very useful if it had homework, where each participant chose a topic and came back to lead it. If they felt unconfortable or where new Christians they could work with a more more mature christian to look over their homework before presenting it to the group.
2. Christian Love and Christian responses
3. Self Esteem vs Christian Self Worth
   

Eat whale and save the planet

Funny article.

OSLO (Reuters) - Eat a whale and save the planet, a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby said on Monday of a study showing that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock.

"Basically it turns out that the best thing you can do for the planet is to eat whale meat compared to other types of meat," said Rune Froevik of the High North Alliance, which represents the interests of coastal communities in the Arctic.

"Greenhouse gas emissions caused by one meal of beef are the equivalent of eight meals of whale meat," the study said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSEIC37493020080303?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Sci-fi fan site

Ever wanted to compare the size of the star ship enterprise (NCC 1071-D) to the size of the Death Star from Star wars? Me neither. But just in case this site has the dimensions for a huge number of sci-fi ships.

http://www.merzo.net/

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Answers in Genesis (answersingenesis.org) got a preview of Ben Stein's new movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" on intelligent design to be released on April 18, and they loved it!

After seeing the movie, I urge all people NOT to miss it. It is eye-opening, astonishing, exposing, fascinating, entertaining, and intriguing! Ben Stein (presidential speechwriter, commentator, and comedian—and starring as the boring economics teacher in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off) does a masterful job of exposing the overwhelming bias against belief in any intelligent design behind the origin of life on earth, something that is so rife through the scientific academic community.

http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/aroundtheworld/2008/02/20/don%E2%80%99t-miss-the-expelled-movie/

Movie Site: http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

VOIP - Cheap LIMITED Phone Service

I was looking for cheap local phone service with no monthly fees, only pay based on usage, and to use a home phone, not a computer for access. This is a different then Vontage which is relatively low monthly fees and unlimited usage. The reason for this is that I prefer to use a cell phone for most calls but want to have a home phone as well. The service I chose was gizmo (http://www.gizmoproject.com/) service which charges $0.019 per minute calls to normal phones, no monthly fees, prepaid. The only "catch" is that I have to add to the pre-paid accounts in minimum increments of $10 and which expire after 6 months if I don't use them. I looked at Skype, but it doesn't do true VOIP so if you want to use their service without a computer you have to buy an expensive proprietary Skype phone, not my normal phone. I purchased an ATA, an analog telephone adapter so I can still use my normal phone. Plus, so I didn't have to purchase a phone number from the gizmoproject (for $3 a month), I instead use the Grandcentral service (http://www.grandcentral.com/) from Google which give a user a free access number which calls all of your phone numbers, cell phone, home, work, and even your GIZMO account. So my setup looks like this

Outgoing calls

Home phone -> ATA (Grandstream HT488 Adapter) -> Comcast Internet -> Gizmo Project -> Normal Phone Network -> End Phone number

Incoming calls

End user caller -> Normal Phone Network -> Google GrandCentral Service -> Gizmo project -> Comcast Internet -> ATA (Grandstream HT488 Adapter) -> Normal Phone

I'm going to use this for a few days and then write more about my experiences.

Fixing a NSLU2

I'm running an NSLU2 server with the default linksys firmware. It serves up a USB hard drive to my home network. It was failing sending small files in Windows with the message "The Network name was no longer available". I just disabled UPnP support on the NSLU2 and then file transfers starting working. I found this tip here http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/FAQ/DroppingConnections.

Quick install CMS

Quickly install most cms stacks in less then 5 minutes for testing. I installed drupal in < 5 minutes on my windows laptop for playing. I have no idea if their stacks are production worthy or even upgradeable but for testing an a new app its really nice. Most installers are for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

http://bitnami.org/stacks

* Infrastructure
* LAMPStack
* MAMPStack
* RubyStack
* WAMPStack
* Blog
* Roller
* WordPress
* Bug-Tracking
* Mantis
* Redmine
* Trac
* CMS
* Alfresco
* Drupal
* Joomla
* KnowledgeTree
* ECM
* Alfresco
* KnowledgeTree
* Forum
* phpBB
* Poll Management
* Opina
* Portal Server
* Liferay
* Wiki
* DokuWiki
* MediaWiki
* eLearning
* Moodle

Putting it all together - Fun with web 2.0

This is a re-post of mine from here http://www.geekbrownbag.com/blog/topher/2008/jan/12/putting-it-all-together-fun-web-2-0


For a dynamic site I'd want it to be as easy as possible to manage data from multiple sources, and manage content with a team of people but never actually have to go to the site to manage content and I want to use the tools I already use on a day to day basis namely google reader, blogger, google calendar, and possibly google documents and flickr (although I don't use flickr currently). Plus for brownie points I don't want to have create special accounts on those sites, I want to use my existing accounts just use labels on the content specifying the topic.

If we did this on geekbrownbag I wouldn't have repost this same blog entry both here and on my own website so both communities can read it. I'd just put a label on the post for geekbrownbag, and then bang it would be both places.

Here are some tricks I've learned

Blogger allows label specific RSS Feeds

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=53336&topic=12455

So to subscribe to my RSS specific feed from my normal blog a cms could be subscribed to

http://eltopher.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/geekbrownbag

Goggle reader allows re-feeding label specific RSS items

http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=70656&query=pu...

Any interesting article, I could just tag it geekbrownbag and it would instantly show up on the main page.

Plus if the CMS software can't handle multiple RSS Feeds for one category like the main page not a problem seed the feeds through a feed aggregator which sends them out as one combined rss feed.

Using software called reblog and its re-feed component
http://reblog.org/refeed/README.html

Calendar Integration

Google calendar allows multiple authors
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=36598&ctx=si...

Google calendars can be embedded into a website
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=41207

Dynamic Sites

I'm looking for a good CMS software package which can do the following

1. Display multiple RSS Feeds into multiple parts of the page
2. Display images Flickr
3. Uses *nix but not java so probably PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc

So far Drupal, wordpress, and Joomla seem to be the main ones I've seen on the web.

I'm also interested in rss feed aggretators which can display a single section with feeds from multiple sources. I don't know if CMS's can do this or if I I need to find a seperate rss feed aggregator like refeed at http://www.reblog.org/refeed/README.html which can aggregate multiple feeds into one, optionally allowing moderation and selection of specific posts to refeed.

Geek Brown Bag

I started posting over at Geek Brown Bag a Christian/Geek Site hosted by a friend of mine.

http://www.geekbrownbag.com

Cool Firefox Car

Cool car

Robot Stand-in at work

http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/236315

IvanAnywhere - stand in for Ivan Bowman who is working from home, but uses cameras and microphones on a robot to go to meetings, and meet with co-workers in their offices.

thefreecountry

I really like this page for looking up free (no cost) and open source software in almost any category.

http://www.thefreecountry.com/

Examples

Backup and image software

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

Encryption software

http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/encryption.shtml

Partition Editors

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/partitioneditors.shtml

Emulators

http://www.thefreecountry.com/emulators/pc.shtml

Anti-virus

http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/antivirus.shtml

New Mexico Drive In Theaters

http://www.driveintheater.com/list/nmexico.htm

Operating Theatres

• Fiesta Drive-In Theatre
  
  401 W. Fiesta Dr, Carlsbad, NM (505) 855-4126

• Apache Drive-In
  1411 W. Apache St. Farmington, NM 87401 (505) 325-3925

• Fort Union Drive In
  3300 7th Street, Las Vegas, NM 87701 (505) 425-9934

• 85 Drive-in,
  1391 2nd St. Raton, NM 87740 (505) 445-3672

Funny New Mexico World Records

In 1998, Kevin Cole, of Carlsbad, New Mexico set a new world record for farthest spaghetti nasal ejection, by sending seven-and-a-half inches of noodle rocketing from his nose in a single blow.

In 2001, Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta vendors "The Original Breakfast Burrito" also set a record, for the most breakfast burritos sold in one hour at an outdoor event—417. Wow! 417!

Then, in 2002, charity workers from Albuquerque set a record for the world’s largest taco. The soft-shelled taco weighed over 1,600 pounds, measured almost twenty feet long, and took at least twenty-five people to construct.

So, there’s that.

New Mexicans, it seems, can be a pretty odd lot—with unusual hopes and goals and accomplishments—but it seems we may be represented by one of our own. In 2002, in Albuquerque, current New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson set the Guinness Book world record for most handshakes by a politician in an eight-hour period, shaking the hands of 13,392 potential voters.

http://www.mystrangenewmexico.com/

Websters 1828 - first edition dictionary search engine - Christian definitions

Websters 1828 - first edition dictionary

Search here

http://1828.mshaffer.com/

Example:

politics

POL'ITICS, n. The science of government; that part of ethics which consists in the regulation and government of a nation or state, for the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity; comprehending the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals. [emphasis mine] Politics, as a science or an art, is a subject of vast extent and importance.


Do think secular humanist ideas haven't effected our language? Look up words in this dictionary and compare to modern definitions. This 1828 edition bases many definitions out of the Bible and is completely politically incorrect according to todays standards.

1828 Noah Webster's Dictionary (first definition)
1981 Webster's New Dictionary (a more modern edition)

Examples copied from here http://www.hstreasures.com/1828dictionary.html

Marriage:

The act of uniting a man and woman for life...Marriage was instituted by God himself..."Marriage is honorable in all..." Heb. 13.

Marriage:

...man and woman are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family...an intimate or close union.

Education:

Education comprehends...instruction and discipline intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give them a religious education is indispensable.

Education:

The action or process of [developing mentally or morally]

Mercy:

That benevolence, mildness or tenderness which disposes a person...to treat an offender better than he deserves. "The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy." Num.14.

Mercy:

Compassion or forbearance shown esp. to an offender or to one subject to one's power...an act of divine favor or compassion...a fortunate circumstance.

Truth:

Conformity to fact or reality...We rely on the truth of scriptural prophecies. "Sanctify them through thy truth..."
John 17

Truth:
Sincerity in action, character, and utterance...the body of real thing... a judgment...that is true or accepted as true.

You can be my Firefox

Very, very funny geek love song.

http://www.gryphontech.co.za/ffsong/

Chorus from the page

Chorus:
My heart went Yahoo!**
When I Stumbled Upon** you
I couldn't help to Google**
Your beautiful face
So please don't be Froogle**
with your love for this nerd
You can be my Firefox**
and I will be your Thunderbird**