Category: techno

Speaking of anniversaries

My Google Calendar reminded me of something today.

3 years ago today I officially started my blogging adventure.
Stranger in a Strange Land 1.0.

Although back then, it was hosted elsewhere and looked a good deal different (I’m not sure what happened to the old header).

You may notice there are posts older than April 30, 2005 – have no fear – those were added after I started my blog so I could have some record of the columns I wrote for the Belton Journal and Harker Heights Evening Star. You might also find an old Xanga account out there that I tried briefly and I even tried building my own “blog” from scratch but that was taken down ages ago – after I found out all about CMS.

It’s been a great ride so far. The feedback has been great – well most of it :-).

Through writing my blog and reading others I’ve met some great friends like Thomas. I’ve connected with old friends like Chad. I’ve gotten a better insight into the lives of some very close friends. And I’ve even gained a better insight and understanding of my wife.

And hopefully you’ve each learned something more about me as well. Hopefully you’ve been able to see more of what makes me me. While my posts may not always be personal in nature – they are personal to me. They are things that make me think, influence me and challenge me.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far and hope you continue reading. Thanks!

Quote of the day

“I’ve really just begun to see that everything that I do with my life is sort of a theological statement. So many times I thought theology was just this black and white doctrine in a dusty book somewhere. But I’ve begun to realize that what I do with my money, what I do with my lifestyle, what I do with my politics, all of these things are theological statements. I’m not just living in a vacuum somewhere… Where I shop is not just a practical decision anymore or or financial decision or because they have the best products or the best tasting things. Where I shop at and where I go to eat at and what types of things I buy with money… I’m trying to invest in these things with some theological meaning because they are theological statements. Where I shop shows the world what I think about God or how I view God.”

– Josh from the Nick and Josh Podcast 4.0

Found out about The Nick & Josh Podcast from Chad and Tripp on The Homebrewed Christianity Podcast. Apparently Nick & Josh have decided to pick a “podcast war” with the Homebrewed guys. Should make for some fun. I’ve advised Chad to break out an F.O.C. gun as the true WMD.

Shift happens

wired
I noticed an interesting shift on the bus today.
As I sat down, with my laptop in it’s bag at my feet, my new Blackberry in my hand and my Zune in my pocket playing a new podcast an older gentleman sat down next to me.
Didn’t look close enough, but I’d say he was in his mid to late 50s.
I’m wearing dockers and a button down green shirt. I think I was told I should wear a tie to work everyday but I’ve tried to push that idea(l) further and further away from reality.
He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie. He sat down and pulled out the Sports section of the Dallas Morning News.
He read the paper on our route downtown, reading each story of interest. Going from page to page.
I on the other hand listened to a podcast about GAP and GAP Baby using kids working in sweatshops to make their clothes and scanned the “headlines” of the day via my RSS reader.
As I put all my gadgets away before arriving at the bus stop I thought to myself, “I feel pretty wired and connected… but to whom?”
As he gets off the bus I imagine he’ll simply fold the newspaper and stick it under his arm or toss it in the trash on the way into his office.
Shift happens.

Born that way?

Listening to E. Scott Jones on the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast.

Interesting tidbit here… he says that the original idea behind the “we were born that way” argument about homosexuality was originally brought up by those against homosexuality.

The reason being, that if they were “born that way” then they were different and they could then justify treating them differently.

It would be similar to the white supremacist knowing a black man was born black or that a sexist knows women were born as women.

They know they’re born different and that’s how they can justify treating them differently.

Going green

Found several examples of folks getting creative with green energy sources for transportation today (mostly thanks to the MAKE blog).

Andrew, a 17 year old in Michigan has already constructing two EV (electric vehicle) cars.
He’s converted a 1988 Mazda B2200 to electric, as well as his current project, a 1992 Toyota Tercel. He get a top speed of 55 mph out of the Mazda and can get around 40 miles out of a charge. He’s hoping to get closer to 80 mph on the Tercel. You can read more about the projects on his blog.

SUNN

Another cool project is the SUNN vehicle that was designed and built a guy and several high school students in Maine as a hobby project but is now also available through the SUNN Solar Electric Kit. The car can be charged with solar panels or being plugged in directly to a wall and gets an average of 20 miles per charge. The top speed is 20-25 mph. There’s even a cool 14 min video on YouTube showing the car in action during the day and at night.

Finally, there’s the steam powered micro-car and motorbike (moped).

I also read last week about a community that told their 15 year olds they couldn’t get a driver’s license until they were able to create a vehicle that runs on something other than oil/gas based products. So they built a pickup truck that runs on burning mesquite wood.

I wonder, if we keep putting our heads together like this, what will we discover in the next 5 years? What if the next big thing in transportation is steam powered vehicles, or maybe a waste powered vehicle? What waste product can you think of would be better suited for powering the vehicles of the future?

Whether is for environmental or economical reasons, I think we’re all beginning to agree, something must be done to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Label your Thumb Drives

If you’re prone to losing your Thumb Drives – or just afraid it might happen some day, Lifehacker has a great tip/hack to label your drive with your name, phone number or other information.

Here are the basics:

I created a next text file in Notepad, typed the word:

[autorun]

And saved it to the root directory—the “main” area of your drive, not in a folder—as autorun.inf.

I chose a big yellow smiley face for my icon but any brightly colored, unusual icon will be easily noticed. I copied the icon to the root directory of my thumb drive and renamed it myicon.ico.

Then I opened my autorun.inf file and added this text:

icon = .\myicon.ico
label=My Name (mobile xxx-xxx-xxxx)

(Of course, you will substitute your name and your mobile number for the above text.) I saved the file and marked it “read only” and hid it (just as an added sense of security—a lot of people have not learned how to tweak their “Show hidden folders” settings and, thus, will not be tempted to delete or
edit the file.)

I gave this a try and it works like a charm. If you recall, I wrote about some great software ihoundsoftware.com back in Dec. and this works right alongside the software. I simply edited the autorun file that was already saved on my drive and added my name and phone number.

Here are a couple screen shots showing the final results: