Big Brother Is Watching vs Freedom and Integrity

I was shocked to learn that a school near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has been accused of cyber-spying on their students via the web cam in their Macbooks. This is a school whose district officials had bragged that they had given all 2,3000 of their high school students these laptops to "ensure that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources."

Apparently some of those same School Officials had 24/7 access to the students as well in the form of web cam spying.

The Superintendent of the school district has since admitted that they do have the ability to spy via those web cams - in other words they can remotely activate the web cam on the sly allowing them to see a live image of whatever is going on in front of that camera as long as the computer is turned on. However the Superintendent of the School District is claiming that this 'feature' was for security purposes only - that it was to be used in case of computer theft.

Honestly, that is the lamest thing I've ever heard! Why didn't they instead keep the MAC addresses of those machines and track those electronically if the machine went missing?? I am incensed to think that anyone would believe that remote access to a web cam was good idea!! When would it EVER be okay to turn a computer that you are giving to children into a spying device that allows you to peek at them in their private quarters?

Ignorance is no excuse. I believe that most of the officials of the School District honestly believed that the spying 'feature' would never be used except in case of 'emergency' or theft. Still how could they ever approve this? Did they ever even consider how this system could be abused?

And what IT professional recommend such a thing? As IT professionals we all know that we have the ability to spy on people if we really wanted too. And some of the more deviant of us do. But for the most part folks in the IT industry are very careful to police themselves and maintain a high level of personal integrity when it comes to this kind of thing. Or maybe I'm dreaming. *sigh*

Parents only learned about the cyber-spying machines that had infiltrated their homes when an Assistant Principle called a student on the carpet for 'improper behavior' at his home.

This article from the Philadelphia News explains:

The family first learned of the embedded webcams on Nov. 11, when Harriton High's Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko reprimanded Blake Robbins for "improper behavior in his home," according to the lawsuit. Matsko cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam on the boy's school-issued laptop.

The lawsuit does not specify why the photograph was objectionable.

They were spying, in private homes!!! This should increase the blood pressure of every one of us who believes in the US Constitution and in our rights to fundamental freedoms.

And what exactly were those pictures of? That's the really frightening thing...

Honestly I am incensed over this issue and as far as I'm concern someone had better go to jail over this issue, including the IT 'pro' that set it up. It's not only wrong, it's just plain stupid.

Nothing ordinary about it...

The Church counts the time after Pentecost and before the Christmas Season as Ordinary Time. So between June 1 this year until November 28 life will be ordinary.

I discovered this because as a new Christian I like to study not only the Bible, but Biblical and Church History. I read the above article about Ordinary Time – which really just means 'ordinal' or counted time. But I highly object to that name!!

There is nothing ordinary about following Jesus Christ. Ever since I made the choice to accept Christ into my life I've been living an incredible adventure. Doors have opened that I never expected. People accepted me and my life is filled with those who not only love me, but stand beside me in times of crisis. I see miracles happen all around me every single day - evidence that the Lord works both ends of every situation. I have gained wisdom, and confidence that I never knew I could possess because all of these things were born of the Lord.

Sometimes I almost feel a little sorry for those who have known Jesus their whole lives because I understand that they will never get to feel the thrill of the realization that they are finally honestly FREE from the darkness, and pain in which they used to live. I'm going to keep the joy that 'thrill' gave me forever.

It may well be that the Church counts the time after Pentecost as 'Ordinary Time'. But my life after my own personal Pentecost is anything but ordinary. Life with Jesus is an eternal adventure!

The Timelessness of Jules Verne

I grew up reading Jules Verne and HG Wells – the fathers of 'steampunk' before moving on to Orwell, Asimov, Bradberry, and Gibson. Science Fiction has always been my genre of choice. Recently I began to reread 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and was again reminded of the creative and future-sighted genius of Verne.

From the submarine Nautilus to the spacecraft Columbiad Verne's fantastical machines were as much works of art as they were practical vehicles - all polished brass clockwork fueled by steam whose ethereal qualities added to their mystique.

When I saw an article about the Corpus Clock I was struck with the idea that Mr. Vern would be pleased to see a project like this come to fruition. And the fact that the art behind this practical clock is a metaphor for fleeting time makes this something that we can all appreciate.

Watch the video. It's incredibly cool.

Wisdom from my Network Cable Tester

These words of wisdom were found on the cardboard backing of my new Network Cable Tester. I knew I just had to share them with the world:

ATTENTION:

Do not use it beyond usage
Do not change it on your mind

Okay!

Seeking Security Advice.

People around here have very good intentions. But we all know where the road to good intentions leads...

Let me just preface this by saying that I love my Pastors, the staff here, and every single person that walks through the door of our Church.

But I want to address a growing problem here that's causing me a great deal distress and extra work.

I'm wrestling with the issue of security for our tech hardware - and I'm now imagining the sighs of understanding that I'm hearing from techies reading this.

The problem that occurred this morning was with our Wireless Access Point. It is kept in the Concourse of our Church to facilitate access to the internet for our Cafe our Sanctuary, and at times the prayer chapel upstairs. This morning I discovered that the config file has been reset so it's no longer accepting connections.

Let me just state that getting to the Wireless Access Point is not easy. It requires a ladder, or perhaps a sturdy person on whose shoulders you can ride. Or maybe they just climb up above our coat room like a monkey. I don't know how they are doing it but someone has pressed that reset button twice in several months.

I don't know how to keep them from doing it. I can't put the WAP in a cage or box, as I fear the metal will interfere with the signal.

Any suggestions? Is there any kind of security 'box' for a wireless access point? I honestly am at a loss as to how to proceed.

... And again I love everyone here. Especially Jesus. BOY I feel guilty for complaining... ugh.

Nerdly Olympics

I'm betting that I could kick your butt at Speedcabling . I dunno about the soldering... And I would surely lose at Meeting Sitting.

If you wanna take a look at what IT World thinks the Nerdlympics would look like check it out.

But what I like best about this article is that it honestly showcases the irreverent humor that we geeks tend to share. Go IT!

Cell Phones and Cancer?

Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the prestigious University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute has issued a warning against Cell Phone use.

I'm flabbergasted.

A House Divided

There is reference to a story about Tod Bentley's Florida's Lakeland Revival on a blog I read frequently. The story is entitled “Florida event causes rift in charismatic community”. And being a person who considers herself well grounded in science and technology I will admit that I have wondered about the goings on down there in the sunshine state.

In the blogsphere and elsewhere there are plenty of people who are coming out vehemently for and against this revival. Just do a Google search, you'll see what I mean!! And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But the amount of overt bashing that I see going on between devout followers of Jesus is starting to break my heart.

We are exchanging blow for blow in the name of God and we are drawing blood. How ironic that our wish to defend the truth about our Lord ends up being a tremendous victory for darkness. The same people who struggle to see others through the eyes of grace are quick to take pot shots at people who should be considered allies.

Now please understand that I don't know much. I've only been saved for two years. And I fully admit that before I was saved I was one of those people who bashed Christians with great glee every chance I got. I often loudly accused the very Church that I now call home of being full of uneducated, obsessive, zealots. I referred to them as 'snake handlers'. And I could not have been more wrong.

I now realize that I behaved so badly towards those that follow Christ because somewhere deep within my heart I knew that they were right. And I will forever praise the God that forgave me for those grievous wrongs.

So when I see infighting between those of us who follow Christ it breaks my heart. Though I often fall short of the mark I honestly believe that every time we don't deal with things with love and the grace that God shows us that we're working for the wrong side.

I don't know much but there is one thing I do know beyond any doubt: Our God is big enough to take anything at all and turn it into gold. I'm going to trust that the Lord knows what he's doing, now and forever! Thanks Heavens!!!

Creating a Life Plan

Pastor Jeff always has yearly goals that he is brave enough to put in his blog. But he mentioned way back near January that a fellow Pastor had put his LIFE goals on his blog. That blew my mind!

But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Just because you write down a Goal does not mean it can't morph and change into something entirely different as your life goes along. There was only one problem. I'm 48 years old, I figured that my life is most assuredly at least half over. Why bother now.

Well I decided to give the life's goal thing another look when I found this article by a Corporate CEO Michael S Hyatt who decided to live his life on purpose.

Since I found Jesus (Or he found me) living my life on purpose has become very important.

I'm going to work on some Life Goals, because my life isn't half over, I've still got half to live!!!!

Why I now love Church (when I used to hate it)

This article fills me with joy. It makes me know that there are other Churches out there with the same philosophy that I have found here at APC.

How do you measure the success of your church?

When I first started coming here I remember telling everyone "They don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk." And they do. We do. :-)

I used to hate 'The Church'. 'The Church' drove me away from Christianity. I saw it as a place full of hypocrites who loved to pat one another on the back and laud their holier-than-thou attitude over all the rest of us sinners down there in the muck.

Yep, I'm a sinner, but I'm no longer down in the muck. I've been raised, and cleansed, and reborn in Christ Jesus, not by my actions or my will but by his grace. My purchase was not cheap. It cost him no less than his life and his very blood.

And if we can all remember that, then we're happy to get back out there in the muck again. It won't stick to us any longer. It can't, because we have been saved.

I want to live like Jesus. I want to rub elbows with the unclean, because Jesus is for EVERYONE!

Fabric Vehicles?

I love it when people think outside the box. That's when true innovation happens. This is am amazing example of that very thing:

BMW's Gina

I love how the headlights of the car can be exposed or hidden by the car's skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine.

I want one. Then I'd have a car with wrinkles too! It certainly bring quite a few questions to mind. When it rains does it get heavier, or does the cloth repel the rain completely? Do you have to wash it to get the salt off in the winter? Does dirt stick to it? What about road tar, which is awful on the metal of a car? Will I have to carry a gigantic Tide Laundry Stick?

It's weird but utterly amazing! I love stuff like this!

Internet History Lesson

Here is a link to an article on Wired Magazine siting the first DNS (Domain Name System) test of the Internet in 1983.

Before that we simply used Arpanet and connected via IP address, or by dialing direct from computer to computer via the phone lines.

The article says that "DNS will lay the foundation for the massive expansion, popularization and commercialization of the internet."

Ugh. Now you know why we elder geeks are so cranky.

Submerged Computer

This is the coolest thing going!! It's a computer that utilizes a Fish Tank as the tower, then is submerged in liquid (Mineral Oil). I'll admit to being more than a little skeptical, but it works!

You can watch a video of them making it on YouTube here, and quite frankly it's astounding!

I'm going to make one of these someday for the Church Concourse!

Home Made Plastic

No kidding. Read about it here on Life Hacker.

The MYTH of Multi-tasking

I am as guilty of multi-tasking as the next guy, but recently I've become convinced that contrary to my intentions Multi-tasking has been cutting DOWN on my productivity. I've found my thoughts scattered when I should be concentrating on one thing. Phone calls, and email can derail me when I'm in the middle of something big.

Then yesterday, thanks to Slashdot, I came across an article in the New Atlantis Journal that addresses the issue of Multi-tasking. The evidence in the article against multi-tasking is rather shocking.

The article claims that "In 2005, the BBC reported on a research study, funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, that found, “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.” The psychologist who led the study called this new “infomania” a serious threat to workplace productivity."

Whoa! Twice that of a marijuana smoker??? Is all this information creating 'Info Zombies'? I don't do drugs for a reason, but I've been multi-tasking with the best of intentions!!!

We legislate against narcotics like Marijuana, but extol the benefits of something that has been proven to be worse than a drug? Ouch!

And considering that I've just been spearheading a migration away from desktop applications to Google Apps utilizing their widget heavy start page, I became doubly concerned with this next bit:

"One of the Harvard Business Review’s “Breakthrough Ideas” for 2007 was Linda Stone’s notion of “continuous partial attention,” which might be understood as a subspecies of multitasking: using mobile computing power and the Internet, we are “constantly scanning for opportunities and staying on top of contacts, events, and activities in an effort to miss nothing.”"

Yes that's /exactly/ what my Google Start Page does. It's riddled with news sites, RSS feeds, and task lists that thanks to Web 2.0 are change in real time! With all this information bombarding me constantly it seems like the Information Highway that was supposed to help speed me up has suddenly become one huge gridlocked traffic jam.

Then I remembered a book that I read way back in the 70's, ancient history by today's standards. The book was called “Future Shock” and it was authored by a visionary by the name of Alvin Toffler. I quickly became a fan of this learned man. While I consider myself a technophile I also am wary of Technology for Technology's sake. I credit Toffler for that dichotomy.

In his book Future Shock, Toffler claims that in the future change will happen faster and faster until it begins to overwhelm. The accelerated rate of technological and social change will inevitably leave people feeling disconnected from that which they are trying to claim, and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation". Future Shock. Toffler asserted that nearly every social problem of the day could be credited to future shock. Toffler coined the term "information overload".

Now I honestly don't want to be an alarmist but there is plenty of evidence, both theoretical and proven, that seems to point to the fact that we need to slow down. And given that I had been previously theorizing the same thing, I'm more apt to listen and heed the advice of the New Atlantean and Toffler himself.

You can read the New Atlantis Journal Article here:

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking