April 2007

My wife has decided to write a book, and I couldn’t be more excited for her. She is an amazing writer and it will be fun to see her push and stretch herself in this goal. The topic of the book is something that is very close to both of our hearts.



She has posted some initial questions for people to answer to help her (she is especially looking for answers from people who would not call themselves Christian),  here are my two favorites:

• What comes to mind when you hear the word Christian?
• What do you desire most out of life?

See the rest of the questions here:

… awesome…



excerpt:

“SAN FRANCISCO—Open-air preacher “Brother Sam” Hilson rescued more than 300 of God’s children from appreciating a cloudless spring day at Golden Gate Park Tuesday by informing them of their sins and the swift approach of Judgment Day.“

READ MORE!



[It is okay to be inspired to evangelize, but don't be a "Jack-Donkey"]

Over the past year and a half I have been very interested in a movement that has been coined “Web 2.0″. It is in relation to how the internet, and our interaction with it, has evolved. Recently I started processing what the core values of this movement were, and where they were originating.



The initial response is “duh, these new internet realities have come about because of technological advances!.” But I don’t think it is as subtle as that. I believe there are much more profound societal changes that are driving this movement, and that technology has been the tool (ex. myspace, youtube, blogs), device (ex. computers, cellphones) , and the medium (the internet, websites, web services) that these new values have been expressed through.



Here the core values I see changing in our society at large that is strongly behind the Web 2.0 movement:

1. Global Community: the world is quickly growing smaller, and our perspectives are growing much larger. We understand that there is a diverse world around us, but we also recognize that connecting to someone in community no longer has to be constrained by geography. We can and want to interact with people who are like minded, no matter where they live. Engaging in a community that likes what we like, and talks about what we like to talk about. We are also drawn to consider others, more than just ourselves. This emerging generation has strong value in social activism on a global scale.
   
   
2. Authenticity: we would rather have a conversation over coffee with an expert, than attend their conference. We aren’t as interested in the “wow” factor, as we are with the “real” factor. I want to see someone in the middle of the conversation, on a blog, than read their article on CNN.com. Because then I know I am really getting them, their responses, and more importantly their humanity.
3. Sharing: we want to share our experiences with the world. We want to share our videos, we want to share our opinions, we want to share our values, our pictures, our life story. We want to give an account or a witness or a testimony about what is happening to us, and what we really care about. Or what we really don’t a care about. We want to share a funny experience and hear the rest of the world laugh with us.
4. The collective: we appreciate experts, but it is no secret that the more people that are addressing a topic, the better the result will be. We want to share in the authorship, the accountability and the result. We want to collaborate together on topics, themes, and things that interest us. We want a collective effort, that includes a collective accountability, that produces a collective result that is better than anyone of us could have done alone.

That is all I can think of now, but these are the roots of almost every Web 2.0 service, site, or fad I can think of. What do you think?

I love mobile devices, mainly because I haven’t really seen the “right” one yet. But I know that there is an incredible advantage to who ever gets it right. Now the Blackberrys and Treos out there get close, but depending on your industry and computing needs, it is hard to trust one of those smartphones as a convenient replacement for your laptop or desktop.



That said, I have just stumbled upon a device that gets dangerously close to the “bullseye”; It is called the HTC Advantage. Here is my list of Pros and Cons for this device:

PROS

• 8 Hours Battery Life, 5 Hours Watching Video
  
  
• 5 inch touch screen
  
  
• Keypad and tablet form factor, with cool magnetic connects as the keyboard or cover
  
  
• Wifi b/g, bluetooth, and high speed cell/wireless
  
  
• cell phone
  
  
• large storage
  
  
• vga out
  
  
• Instant/Always on Operating System
  
  

CONS

• Large
  
  
• Weird Keyboard placement, would have to feel to see if it was usable on the go
  
  
• Windows Mobile OS, specifically the browser. Internet Explorer Mobile is a poor excuse of a web browser, and a simple connection to the web and a fully supported browser takes care of 95% of anyones productivity needs.
  
  
• super big phone, would have to be used with a bluetooth headset, but I sort of do that already
  
  
• not sold in us
  
  
• expensive
  
  

So, basically, I love it! haha. With the storage space it seems entirely feasible to “hack” it and install linux on it for a full os. But then you would lose all the cell phone, messaging, and syncing ability - which entirely defeats the purpose of the device.

Are there any other mobile gadget geeks out there? What do you think?