Being Fully Present - A Christian Perspective

It is obvious that our technology today is having a negative impact on our ability to really connect with each other. Over a year ago I gave a speech at our Toastmaster's Club here in Brașov about this very subject titled Be Fully Present.

How should Christians view and deal with this problem? I came across an excellent blog post today that talked about this issue titled The Presence of Mind to Be Present by Jeremy Writebol. Here is what he had to say:

One practical way that love expresses itself is by our presence with others when we are actually with them. It seems to be the case more and more that whenever my wife and I go out on a date, we notice other couples in the room sitting at the same table staring intently into the World Wide Web on their cell phone. The glow of the smart-device covers their face and the concentration and devotion they exhibit towards whatever they are looking at is obvious. However, it looks rather odd to see two people at the same table staring into two devices and spending a significant amount of time not talking to one another. I often wonder if they are unable to talk and send one another text messages to communicate. It seems that this sort of ailment is occurring more and more these days. And  myself am not innocent.

You can read the rest here.

Bible References Now Automatically Linked

Thanks to blogger Adrian Warnock I found out that Logos Bible Software has made RefTagger available to use on websites and blogs so that Bible references can be automatically linked so that when you mouse over the links a pop-up window will appear with the verse(s). The Bible versions available so far are NIV, NLT, ESV, NKJV, and KJV. You can check out my blog post Descriptors of the Gospel in the Bible from Thursday to see how it works. Pretty cool!

From the Logos' RefTagger page:

Transform your website with RefTagger!

RefTagger is a free web tool that automatically turns all of your Bible references into hyperlinks to the passages at BibleGateway.com. RefTagger can also add an icon that is hyperlinked to the passage in Libronix and a tooltip window that displays the passage when you hover over the reference. So if your website says, "My favorite verse in the Bible is Romans 8:28," RefTagger will instantly turn it into this: "My favorite verse in the Bible is Romans 8:28."

Your readers will be able to have immediate access to any of the Bible passages that you mention. All you need to do is copy the customizable code that we provide for you below and paste it into your website's template file(s), and it will instantly be applied to your whole site—all past and future content! Because RefTagger uses JavaScript, it doesn't make any changes to your site's files. If you decide to remove RefTagger from your site, it's as simple as deleting the code from your template file(s).

Understanding RSS

If you don't know what RSS is all about take the time to watch this video. RSS is great and I have it on my blog so you can subscribe to get notified whenever I post something new. As the video says you need a "reader" in order to use RSS. I use Google Reader as I think it is the best one out there.

Future Watch - Wireless, 3D Video and More

Here are some links to articles about new wireless standards and products, genes making electricity, flexible solar cells, 3D video and a prediction about the next stage in the web.

Wireless USB poised to cut the cable

A new gene that can make electricity?

Flexy solar cells: Concert T-shirts in disguise

Wireless HD specification due in 2007

Cheoptics360: the future of 3D video is here- check out the video

The Firefox Kid- the next big thing - the merging of desktop with the web

Future Watch - Laser TV, Apple iPhone, etc.

Here are some links to articles regarding laser HDTV's, Apple i phone possibly coming in early 2007, technoologies that are going to change the world, and how the internet is changing.

Are Laser HDTVs on the Horizon?

Apple iPhone Details Unveiled: Analyst

Three Emerging Technologies that Will Change the World

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasting, Social Networks and File Sharing: How The Web Is Transforming Itself - Part I

Best Alternatives to Windows Explorer

Here is a link to an article about a comparison made of alternatives to Window's Explorer file system which is what comes with Windows OS and another link to the best rated free program mentioned in the article.

10 Windows Explorer Alternative Compared and Reviewed

FreeCommander

Firefox Browser Add-Ons

I finally have gotten around to using Firefox on a regular basis. What I really like about it are all the extensions, plug-ins and search engines that give it much more functionality. In the upper right hand of the Firefox browser is it's search engine. You can add lots of different useful search engines to it like Wikipedia, Amazon, Answers.com, etc.

Check out the add-ons page here- https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/ Below are some of the add-ons that seem to be the most useful to me.

Tab Mix Plus - Enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities (must have IMHO)

Fasterfox - Performance and network tweaks for Firefox

FlashGot – Download Mangager

ErrorZilla Mod - Implements a useful error page when a website cannot be reached

VideoDownloader – Download embedded videos like youtube, google, etc.

Hebrew Calendar - very small, located at the bottom right of the browser

Cacheout! – When webpages are down that you want to look at you can load them up using Google's caching service and CoralCDN.org

Answers.com – look up meanings, etc. right on the web pages you are viewing

GTDGmail – Getting Things Done - GTD - time organizing system that works with Gmail

Google Calendar Notifier