iMurphy

Flock seems like a cool idea that is almost all there. The goal is to have a web-browser that combines all the savy, open-source coolness of Firefox, and a heap of Web 2.0 smarts (it automatically links up with your Flickr library and Delicious account). There are just a few kinks left in the system, but it’s at a stable beta release and will soon be enterprise ready. I wish they’d use Flock or Firefox at my work. It’s bad enough being trapped behind a lousy firewall, but it’s worse to have to use an outdated, incorrigible web-browser as I’m trying to re-layout my website. Ugh.

technorati tags:flock, web-browser, firefox, internet, web-2.0, open-source

Blogged with Flock

So, you may note some differences in the site. This is because I was hacked!!! Some Lithuanian jerk hacked my Movable Type blog and installed all kinds of PHP scripts that were sending out spam and phishing people. His email address is garliavos@mafija.lt . I managed to delete everything, but was my host ever mad. I was furious! He took advantage of the fact that MT’s archives have to be world writable for the software to work. So, I have changed to Word Press, and need to learn the particulars all over again.

THIS POST WILL REMAIN ON TOP UNTIL I FIX THE SITE!

I just had a very strange thing happen. Allow me to tell you the whole story.

Since I upgraded to Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), I have been looking around for cool Dashboard Widgets. One of my discoveries was Daily Verse which shows a Bible verse per day. For some reason, I clicked on the letters NIV in the bottom right corner of the app, hoping to change the Bible version I was reading (to NKJV). Instead, I was taken to ChristNotes dot org and their page about the KJV. I know, it’s not right.

Continuing with the bizarre coincidences, I clicked on the first Google ad I saw. Why? It said “Homosexuals Forgiven: God’s New Law Welcomes the Gays”, and I was curious. This contentious subject is especially interesting to debates amongst Christians, so I thought I’d see what they had to say. It turns out that End Bible dot com exists solely to sell or host Tim Fleming’s personal Bible. This crazy add-on to God’s Word is Tim’s insane ramblings about his own experiences seeing God in person and hearing Him revise His own Word. I couldn’t form any concrete picture about Tim’s goals from the work, and he doesn’t seem to have any agenda. It’s kind of like reading a first draft of the Book of Mormon.

Anyway, there were no links to follow up with and nothing in the source code of the pages to suggest that there’s an organized cult somewhere, so I decided to dig a little deeper. I did a WHOIS on endbible.com and found the owners address and phone number. Again, a weird whim struck me, and I decided to call the number. I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but, strange luck, Tim Fleming himself answered the phone.

“Hello?”
“Uh, hello. … is this Tim?”
“This is Tim Fleming.”
“Did you write this, online EndBible?”
“Oops! Gotta go!” click

How weird is that? I called him back and left him two voicemails, one asking him why he advertised and what he meant in his wacko Bible, and another giving him a chance to reply before I posted everything on the web. While I was doing that, I found his number also listed on Toasted Spam dot com as both a spammer and an illegal telemarketer. His other website, startnewlife.com, seems to be dead.

I just thought I should post about this guy, so that the world will know. Hopefully, every decent website will pull his nutso’s ads off their sites!

There are so many good podcasts, I don’t know what to do! I don’t have time to listen to all this great stuff! Here are som good ones and highlights:

5 Minutes with Wichita

No, I didn’t hear about this on Podfinder, I searched for bluegrass and found it! Ignoring the upcoming vlog entries about the gay, Elvis-impersonating, Ozzy-covering, bluegrass legend, this is a hilarious podcast featuring a hilarious interviewer talking casually with the biggest stars in bluegrass. Always short, sweet and funny.

Rip-n-Read

Charlie Quidnunc is from Seattle, but you’d never know it by his deeply conservative politics. He avidly trolls the blogosphere and C-SPAN for the glaringly obvious truth in the midst of the media blitz to the Left. He solid, hype-free take on the news is always sober and refreshing. Looking for a way through the fluff? Look no further.

The Signal

I’m sure all of you good Browncoats went and saw the movie 28 times in the theater, and are uncontrollably eager for the DVD, but you really should listen to this podcast to meet the true Firefly geeks. These guys mouth-breathe their way through several cool interviews with cast and crew and offer evangelistic tip for converting and hosting shindigs. The Chinese section is not to missed either.

The Bored Again Christian

I’m not 100% on this guys theology, but he finds great, Christian, podsafe, downloadable music from beyond the pale and makes wonderfully thematic podcasts out of them. I recommend this one and the music it contains to any one (as well as Dave’s Lounge).

    Rocketboom skiped their usual geek news read by hot chick routine the other day, and instead hosted a bizarre greyscale (not just black and white) animated video of birds attacking a British man in the bath. I’m seriously considering buying the album on iTunes. The song is “Bathtime in Clarkenville” by (The Real) Tuesday Weld, which samples “Sweeter than Sugah” by The Mills Brothers. It is playing over and over again in my mind; it’s an earworm.

    One of my favorite podcasts is IT Conversations. I subscribe to the ‘everything’ feed, and man is it diverse! If you want to hear about things you never knew you never knew, check them out. I can’t believe it’s free. Actually, they need donations, so if you’re wealthier than me, consider chipping in. And give to Wikipedia while you’re at it. Anyway, I heard a fantastic podcast unlike any other episode today.

    Normally, all the tech people who get interviewed on ITC are pretty liberal. I haven’t really come across any political shows, but there is the general, underlying assumption that you too hate the President and are embarassed to be an America. But today, I heard George Gilder’s politically charged interview on the ‘Larrys World’ section of ITC. He talked about China not being communist any more and about energy infrastructure in America. I could tell the interviewer was rubbed a little the wrong way with so much conservativism. The part that really gave me pause, however, was when they spoke of the media and entertainment.

    Two things must happen to reform our videocracy, accord to George Gilder. First, true broadband connectivity must become highly distributed so as to facilitate easy downloading of video. Such access is commonplace in Japan and Korea. Second, the purveyors and peddlers of television and video must wake up to what consumers really want. Mr. Gilder quotes Chris Anderson’s statistic: 60 percent of Amazon’s book sales are from items outside the top 150,000. People buy the book they want, not what the publisher is pushing. When TV and video get to this point, the fear-mongering, liberal media elite will find themselves out of the street!

    My summary is highly colored by my own opinion, so be sure to download the original show yourself. Enjoy!

    I subscribe to many RSS feeds in my attempt to not have to re-surf the entire internet each day. Even so, I can still end up with way too many feeds and too many posts to read, everyday. Recently, I removed my old favorite, VersionTracker, from my RSS reader (NetNewsWire Lite) and decided to just go with Apple’s Mac OS X downloads page, so as to not get the same stuff twice. I am currently wrestling with several news site’s feeds in an attempt to whittle down the four mountains of stuff I get every hour. I could probably simplify further in other areas as well.

    I have just decided to no longer subscribe to Christdot anymore. For one thing, their name reveals that they are just a reinterpretation of Slashdot, which itself is often 1800 pounds of lame opinions per teaspoon of usefulness. No issue is approached with the assuredness of Truth that is our’s as Christians to claim. I assume that they are attempting to cater to Catholics, Pentacostals, Anglicans, Homophiles, Universalists and Mormons all at once, so they end up sounding no different than the liberal media. A moment ago, while scanning their FAQ, I was appalled to discover that they cannot even answer such basic questions as to the meaning of our lives. Yuck!

    The World Magazine Blog is not as expansive, and doesn’t cover every issue that Christdot touches on, but what they do cover, they cover from the Christian perspective. I wish I still got the magazine, but the wallet is thin and there’s enough free stuff on the Net to satisfy anyone. World’s sub-blogs on the evils of the TNIV and movies are worthwhile too. I think their RSS feed will keep me busy enough.

    As an aside, the one thing Christdot said that I agreed with concerned the use of ‘X’, as in X-mas or Xian. I have heard people decry this practice for a long time, saying that those who write this way, even for shorthand purposes, are “as bad as heathens trying to take Christ out of Christmas”. Give me a break! TheΙΧΘΥΣ (fish) bumper-sticker we all support abbreviates Christ with the Greek ‘X’. Ban the bumper sticker before you ban ‘X-mas’.