A very good month

    It's been a very good first month of the year. Every day, I have been getting busier and busier, which believe it or not is a very good thing.
    Being busy is not a problem, because I credit everything I have and everything I am to God, right down to my very birth. I strive every day to do whatever He wants me to do, which not only makes me happy and gives me peace, but it also keeps me out of trouble (I'm reminded of the old paraphrase, "idle hands are a devils workshop" - Prov 16:27 TLB).
    I am currently praying that God will reveal His purpose for my life, as there are many paths that I could take right now. Sometimes I start to feel overwhelmed with these decisions, but that's when I have to take a step back and put my life into perspective. I have to remember to "think outside of the box," as another programmer once told me; the "box" in this case being the worldly view of life. Through it all, I know that I can trust God with whatever He has in store for me and my life.

"The Changing Face of Worship"

We flipped on the TV today during lunch and a show called "The Changing Face of Worship" was playing on FamilyNet. It talked about how we as the new generation are beginning to worship God in different ways, and how this new type of worship is shaking and stirring-up the foundation of worship to which many churches today cling. I highly recommend this show (also on video) to anyone in a church leadership position. You'll be amazed to see how God is using the talents He has given us to reach people in the "Postmodern World".

Church Lock-in; WikiChristian

I'm posting this from my church... we're having a lock-in tonight and I'm helping chaperon (please pray for me! ;-)

I found a really neat site today. It's called WikiChristian (similar to Wikipedia) and it seems to have a lot of good stuff. Because its "wiki", they allow anyone to edit the site. Who knows... maybe I'll even try to contribute something. At any rate, the way its looking, it could turn out to be a really good place for open discussion about life's topics.

Go to bed!

If it's dark outside and you're still up reading this blog, go to sleep!!!

Proverbs 20:13 says, "...Wake up and get up; then there'll be food on the table." And, the only way you're going to wake up early in the morning (consistantly) is to go to sleep early. You know the old saying, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise." I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind having any of these; so, ... Goodnight!

My first dance/trance/techno song

I've been playing around in the past 2 or 3 hours with a few of the freebie audio tools out there, and I actually made a little techno song (this would have to be my first). Hope you enjoy it...

Download MP3

(BTW, it's called for no reason whatsoever, Kung Fried Pancakes)

Good news about "The Book Of Daniel"

With all of the bad hype over "The Book Of Daniel" TV series, NBC has decided to cancel the show. This is wonderful news for those of us who were worried about the shows' false representation of Christianity. But, lets also remember to pray for those who were involved with the show (actors, producers, etc.). I'm sure some of them are pretty upset with Christians right now :-).

Old ISA Modem

Well, I spent about 4 hours today trying to configure an old ISA modem to use a non-standard port configuration (0x3e8 with IRQ 5). After finally deciding that it was just my lack of knowledge keeping me from getting it working, I put in another ISA modem and guess what... it worked! :-) 4 hours down the drain because of a faulty modem!!!! AAhHhhh. Ok, I learned my lesson... the hard way.

Sorry, but I had to get that off of my chest. In these kinds of situations, I just have to remind myself that there is a reason for everything. Maybe God was keeping me there to protect me from a car accident or something. Maybe He just wanted me to learn to not always assume that every computer component works out-of-the-box (or, in this case, out-of-storage). I may never know how God used this situation, but nevertheless, I will continue to trust in Him.

So far, so good (1&1)

    Following up on my switch from GoDaddy, I'm absolutely loving 1&1. The registrar/host integration along with the features, combined with unprecedented simplicity, is amazing (no, I didn't copy that from somewhere). I've never experienced an easier-to-use web host or registrar.
    My favorite features would have to be the dirt-cheap domain pricing of $5.99 and the free private registration included with all of the domains. They even snail-mailed me an information packet and a thank you letter! I would have to say that, so far, 1&1 is looking to be one of my favorite registrars (out of at least 8 I've used in the past).
    BTW, this blog has successfully transferred over and is now running on 1&1 servers.

Check them out: 1&1   (I know, I know, it's an affiliate link; but, since I was planning to write about 1&1 anyway, I might as well get the credit. ;-)

Sorry, no post today :-)

Getting in late... no post today. Sorry! :-(

;-)

Daily Proverbs

Read your daily Proverbs today?

:eachday
$eyes = read("Proverbs " + DayOfMonth("today"));
waitaday(1);
goto eachday;

GoDaddy has lost my business

    For a couple of years now, I have been a avid customer of GoDaddy.com. However, in light of their recent provocative commercials, I have decided to pull out.
    GoDaddy has always offered competitive pricing and features to match any registrar out there, and has recently become the world's #1 domain name registrar. A few years ago, I transferred my domains over to them, and have since experienced very good service. There has been an occasional support issue (one of which to this day still goes unanswered), but overall I have been happy with them. Last year, I decided to try out their hosting service and signed up for one of their VPS plans. In fact, this blog is (as of right now) still running on one of their servers.
    However, my support for them began to drop as they slowly began introducing offensive material in their promotions. For instance, Radio GoDaddy, introduced in March of 2005, often contains profanity and talks that are sexual in nature. GoDaddy also has a history of producing provocative TV commercials (see last year's Super Bowl), and has just recently started promoting these commercials on their main website. They are currently fighting to get yet another suggestive TV commercial in this year's Super Bowl, making the following statement on their site: "We hope censorship will not kill the creative edge... especially those ads we would choose to run."
    Needless to say, enough is enough. If I can help it, I don't want any of my money to aid in the promotion of this kind of material. After doing some research, I found that 1&1 offers comparable (and sometimes superior) services compared to GoDaddy, and I have since started switching my domains and websites over to them.

The word "Christian" does not always mean Christianity

    Advice for today: be skeptical about something that claims to represent Christianity. Don't always trust that something claiming to be Christian is accurate. We have experienced two major examples of 'false representation' just recently.
    One is NBC's new show, "The Book of Daniel." NBC claims that this show is a serious drama about Christianity; however, it appears otherwise. Focus on the Family says, "The [Book of Daniel] series wants us to think of Jesus as a joke... It preaches that homosexuality is both genetically derived and socially proper... That sex before marriage should be assumed... And that pot is part of life". Some TV stations have already ceased broadcasting the show, and most of the show's advertisers have backed away from sponsoring it.
    The other example I will mention briefly. A church in Germany has actually started selling an explicit, nude Bible calendar "intended to entice young people". It goes without saying that this most certainly disagrees with what we believe. John Massam, a publisher for New Zealand's Challenge Weekly, says, "I ask what next? Can't they do anything better than using the Bible for producing a pornographic calendar? It is unbelievable that the church should provide a calendar like this to make money."
    So, my point is this (and is especially emphasized for the unbelievers out there). Don't assume that everything claiming to be "Christian" is authentic. The Bible says in Matthew 7:15-16, "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You don't pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles." (NLT) Also, Matthew 7:21 says, "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as `Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven." (NLT) That is the key component in all of these situations... "whether they obey my Father in heaven."

If only everyone knew the Truth!

Oh, if only everyone knew the Truth! It all makes so much sense. People keep digging, only finding fools gold, when the real gold is right in front of them!

High-def DVDs

 
Like most of you, I can't wait until high-definition DVDs come out (I'll finally be able to get a ROI on that dusty HDTV in the corner ;-) ). Unfortunately, the way things are heading, we are going to end up with two different kinds of high-def DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. It's nothing new to have many formats for a medium (just look at regular DVDs: DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.). However, at least 99% of the time, "Hollywood" DVDs would work in any DVD player. With the new high-def DVDs, even Hollywood is going half-and-half. Just imagine going to a local Wal-Mart by this time next year and seeing one row of Blu-Ray movies and another row of HD DVD movies, trying to figure out which one a particular movie is on. Most of them will be on either one or the other, not both! (because of this, dual-format high-def DVD players will probably be very popular) And to think, the 'older' crowd was just about to get used to DVDs! Oh well, I guess we all suffer when both sides are stubborn.

The Future of Business IT

    Most organizations today employ several people and hundreds of computers for their internal technology needs. You rarely see any organization or business these days without some sort of computer sitting beside a secretary or mounted up on a wall for the blue-collar employee. No doubt, computers have become a necessity in the business world.
    There are multiple problems that have risen from this scenario, however. One is that IT staff are often not extremely knowledgeable in the technology they handle, and who can blame them? The way technology is accelerating these days, just about everyone in the field needs to spend at least a few hours a day just in training. Another problem is that the reliability of computers (and networks) is usually low in businesses. It would be interesting to see just how many hours a month organizations spend on installations, upgrades, and repairs.
    So, what would be the logical solution to these problems? One word: outsourcing. I believe that most, if not all, computers in the business of the future will be nothing more than thin-clients (or terminals), connected at high-speed to a local data center. Why not let the data center focus on keeping the technology running, upgraded, and available, and let the organization focus on it's original purpose? This would not only cut costs significantly for the organization, but would also lower downtime and free up valuable office space (no more bulky desktops or rooms dedicated to servers).
    Granted, this may not work for every company out there, but I believe the majority of companies today could benefit from outsourcing their technology.

Prayer request; CES, MacWorld 2006

Well, I just found out that I will be playing drums at our big State Youth Convention in May. Please, remember me in your prayers! I know I will do fine, as long as I keep my focus on God and off of those around me.

By the way, I'm looking forward to the products introduced in this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and MacWorld Expo 2006. My favorite new items would have to be Apple's new MacBook Pro (yeah, it's powered by an Intel processor), Lego's new NXT, and DS2's chipsets. For full coverage, hop over to PC Mag.

A small testimony

    I want to share with you a small testimony of something the Lord did for me a few weeks ago.
    For about a month, I had been experiencing Blepharospasm, which is an involuntary twitching of the eyelid. Blepharospasm is known to come from stress and fatigue (which is usually the norm for me). For many weeks, I tried taking deep breaths, relaxing, and getting plenty of sleep. However, nothing seemed to help it.
    One day, on the way home from work, I started thinking about God, and how He has everything under control. As soon as I began to realize this, the Blepharospasm went away, and I mean instantly! And, to this day, it hasn't been back! Praise the Lord!
    I had tried everything to fix this, including getting my mind off of the world and just relaxing, but the only thing that worked was when I put my life in perspective, and started trusting that God would take care of my situations.

It's Friday!!!!

It's Friday... Yay! I hope and pray that everyone has a good weekend. I want to leave you with some scripture, maybe something you could read when you get a free moment during the next few days. Check out Matthew 5-7, where Jesus talks to us about Christian conduct.

And may God bless you!

Why non-Christians dislike Christianity

    I heard a preacher on the radio today talking about all of the different religions that are out there, and something he said caught my attention. He said that, out of all the religious beliefs in the world, the one that non-Christian people always seem to be nervous about is Christianity. I agree with him. Non-Christians are quick to promote tolerance, but yet they don't want us to say "Merry Christmas" because it may offend someone (which, by the way, makes no sense because by not saying "Merry Christmas", it offends Christians).
    Many of these people seem to always be looking for ways to take out Christianity, which brings up a very interesting point. I believe the reason why non-Christians dislike Christianity so much is because, deep down, they know that it's true.
    Revelation 3:20 says, "... I stand at the door and knock." You see, every time non-Christians hear about Christianity, Jesus begins knocking at their door. Think about it... if someone kept knocking at your door, even after you decided not to open it, wouldn't you begin to feel angry? I believe this is what is happening to non-Christians. They may be feeling angry, but what they don't know is that Jesus sees how terrible the future is for them, and He wants to save them from it. If my house was burning up and I didn't know it, wouldn't you keep trying to get my attention? Jesus is doing the same thing to non-Christians today.
    So, if we ever begin to worry about people trying to take away Christianity, just remember why they are doing it in the first place: Jesus is knocking at their door. Pray for them that somehow they will decide to open that door before it's too late.

My idea on how to get rid of SPAM. Any takers?

    I've had this idea for a while and at one point in time was planning to implement it in the real world. However, due to time constraints, it never worked out.
    First, a little background information. A lot of web sites today use what has been coined CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart). The problem with this, however, is two-fold. First of all, most people are annoyed by having to enter the letters and numbers they see in a picture EVERY time they want to post a comment on a blog or a question on a message board. They're even more annoyed when the characters are scrambled beyond recognition, thus forcing them to either refresh the page or use another means of verification. The other problem is that CAPTCHAs are not 100% effective (see "social engineering").
    So, here's my simple idea on how we could get around this. What if, instead of having to prove that they are humans to each individual website they visit, people could prove that they are humans only one time (or, maybe, once per day)?
    How could this be implemented? One way is if there were a website that would allow people to sign-in, take the CAPTCHA test once, and would keep them signed-in through out their internet session. Other sites could then determine if the user was signed-in, thus proving that they are human. This would take care of the annoyance problem, but what about the social engineering problem? This could be handled by requiring users of the website to pay a small monthly or annual fee, just enough to keep it anti-cost-effective for spammers. It seems that everyone would benefit from this, because the verification website could focus on new and improved ways of verifying humans, and the other sites could focus on their intended goals instead of having to worry about spammers. Privacy would be the only negative, although there are ways that this could be addressed.
    So, there you have it in a nutshell. If I get a lot of feedback on this, I may post more specifically on how this could be implemented; but for now, I just wanted to get the general idea out there so that someone might be inspired to put it to use.

Story of the Three Employees

    One bright, summer morning, Fred, an owner of a manufacturing company, held a meeting with three of his employees: John, Chris, and Mike. He informed them that he would be going on a business trip and had decided to leave each of them in charge of separate portions of his business. He told John that he would leave him in charge of manufacturing. He told Chris that he would leave him in charge of marketing. And finally, he told Mike that he would leave him in charge of maintenance. After their meeting was over, Fred left for his trip.

    The next day, the three employees began working under their new responsibilities. John quickly began researching the entire manufacturing process. He found ways to cut corners, refine processes, and reduce overhead. Chris also dove into research and found ways to increase market share and promotion. Mike, however, decided to leave maintenance as it was for fear that he would mess something up.

    After Fred returned from his trip, he went to each of them to find out how they had handled their new responsibilities. John reported that he had reduced manufacturing costs by fifty percent. Fred was overwhelmed with joy and promoted John to Vice President in charge of Manufacturing. Chris also reported wonderful news, saying that he had doubled their number of customers. Fred was exceedingly happy with this as well and promoted Chris to Vice President in charge of Marketing. However, when Mike reported that he had left everything alone so that nothing would go wrong, Fred was not pleased at all. He told Mike that he should have at least done a small amount of research, even if he didn't implement his findings. Because Mike had done nothing with his new responsibilities, Fred fired him that same day and decided to give his salary to John.


    "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away." - Matthew 25:29 NLT



Many of you will probably recognize a similar story in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30). I tried to give the "Story of the Three Servants" a more modern setting. I am praying that this will touch base with someone out there and that through it all, God will be glorified.

Favorite e-stuff

I've always liked learning about other people's favorite computing tools, so I thought I'd put up a few of my own favs (some of these will be pretty obvious). Here they are, divided into categories (I may go back and update this list from time to time)...

Web
Search Engine: Google
Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox
Web-based Email Client (webmail): Gmail
Weather site: Wunderground
Money Exchange: PayPal
Auctions: eBay
Books (and other stuff): Amazon
Comparison Shopping: Froogle, PriceGrabber, and PriceWatch
RSS Reader: Newsgator
Freeware Site: Snapfiles
Public Domain Images: PDFoto
Spellcheck: Google (no, really) and Dictionary.com
Encyclopedia: Wikipedia

Desktop
Operating System: MS-DOS, Windows XP, and Linux
Linux Compile Reference: DevSide.net
Paid Antivirus: Trend PC-cillin Internet Security
Free Antivirus: Avast Antivirus
Email Client: Mozilla Thunderbird
Picture Editor: Corel Paint Shop Pro
Color Picker: CPick
Icon Editor: AWIcons Pro
Sound Editor: Audacity
Drum Machine: Hammerhead Rhythym Station
Personal Finance: Microsoft Money
Office Suite: OpenOffice
PDF Creator: CutePDF
File Search: Agent Ransack
Zip Utility: IZArc
Text Editor: Crimson Editor
Clipboard Manager: Ditto
Paid Screen Capture Utility: SnagIt
Free Screen Capture Utility: Gadwin PrintScreen
System Utilities: SysInternals
System Monitoring: Advanced Host Monitor
Remote Access: UltraVNC

Programming
Scripting Language: PHP
Scripting Database: MySQL
MySQL Admin: PhpMyAdmin
PHP Editor: ActiveState Komodo
PHP Example Code: HotScripts
Standalone EXE Language: RapidQ and BCX
GUI Language: Visual Basic 6.0 and XUL
VB Example Code: FreeVBCode
XUL Reference: XULPlanet
RAD Language: Visual Foxpro
Game Language: Game Maker
Styling Language: CSS
CSS, XHTML, (and many others) Reference: W3Schools
Clinet-side Language: JavaScript
JavaScript Reference: DevGuru
Installation Creator: Inno Setup
File Comparison: WinMerge
FTP Client: SmartFTP
Telnet and SCP (now SFTP) client: PuTTY
Browser Information: BrowserSpy
WHOIS: Whois Source

Hardware
Used Laptops (and used desktops): Bob Johnson
Supplies: NewEgg, Tigerdirect, and iSellSurplus
Memory: Crucial
Hard Drives: Maxtor
Desktop and Laptop Brands: Dell and Compaq (HP)
Server Brands: Dell
Reviews: CNet and PCWorld

PDA / Mobile-ware
Operating System: Palm
Smartphone: Treo 650
Software Site: Handango
GPS: Garmin GPS 10
Mapping: Delorme Street Atlas, MapQuest, and Google Maps

Christianity
Bible Referencing: BibleGateway
Movie Reviews: Christian Spotlight
Music Store: MusicForce
Reading: Boundless and Christianity Today
Radio Station: Air1
Other Techies: Gerv, ChristianFreak, DevotedFreak, Matt Wade, Network Nerds, and LeaveItBehind

Welcome to my blog!

I've been wondering for weeks what my first blog post would be about. With it being the first day in a new year, I want to go ahead and post the obvious... HAPPY NEW YEAR! As I type this, my mind keeps going over those words. What constitutes HAPPY? What is happiness, anyway? True happiness, from my experience, comes only from one source (and here come the flame wars :-).... Jesus Christ! No, for real, Jesus (aka God, and God Himself), is and are the only way anyone can experience true happiness. Finding His will for your life, and doing it, is a rollercoaster ride like no other! People are always looking for an escape, or a way to satisfy selfness. But, this only gives temporary (and fake) happiness. True happiness comes from the One who's in charge of it all. So, whenever you tell someone, "HAPPY NEW YEAR", remember where that happiness comes from. If you're a Christian, share your joy with others. If you're not a Christian, consider this an invitation to a better life. Wait a minute... let me re-phrase that. Consider this an invitation to life itself! Life without God is a joke... a prank being pulled by Satan. Life with God is life. Life without God is not life. Remember that!

For those of you who are interested, my name is Derek, and I am a 20-year old Christian, programmer, drummer, and techie. I will not always blog about what life is really about. Just whenever I feel led to. I'll also be blogging about technology, music, and anything else that pops in my mind. If you don't agree with something I have to say, please post a nice, friendly comment about it. If you do agree with one of my ideas, please post a nice, friendly comment about it ;-). Okay, enough redundancy.

I'll leave it at that. Look forward to some pretty interesting stuff (I hope) on this blog.