Tag / News

by Greg

Microsoft Surface & The iPhone

Microsoft Surface
Microsoft announced last week a revolutionary “new” interface for computing. I really wanted to comment on it last week, but with a very shortened week, did not find the time to do so. A friend posted a link on his site, reminding me to comment… so, thanks Steve. 🙂

This really looks phenomenal. It’s a real interface. No mouse… no keyboard. You just use your hands. You can even have multiple touch points. It’s fantastic.

And looks A LOT like the iPhone.

When the iPhone was announced (and demoed) in January, Steve Jobs said they had filed LOTS (he said a number, but I forget what it was) of patents for this phone, and that they would be enforcing them vigorously. And after seeing the Surface demo online last week… I can see now why he said that. 🙂

Microsoft claims they have been working on this project for five years. I believe Apple claimed a similar time frame for the iPhone. It will be quite interesting to see what happens here… 🙂

So, if you’d like to check it out… it really does look fantastic. (Link below…) I love the way you can set stuff on top of it and it automatically recognizes it as a device to read or save to! Fantastic.

Apple iPhone Ads - June 29th
In related news… Apple announced today that iPhone will be released to the public on June 29th. They also released some ads. Neat stuff.

Technology is pretty cool!

But of course… Apple’s is just a tad better. (And Microsoft is a LOT better at copying it…) 😉

LINKS:
microsoft surface
apple iphone ads

by Greg

iTunes "Releases" Music

iTunes StoreiTunes has announced today the beginning of their move to DRM-free music (meaning, no copy protection… which has been really annoying to digital music purchasers for quite some time). This also means that people who don’t have iPods can purchase stuff from iTunes and just put the song right on their non-Apple MP3 player now. (I still recommend iPods though…) 🙂

Read the linked article for more.

They also announced they have added Paul McCartney’s catalog (I believe DRM-free?) to the store. Another first. The Beatles have been scarce to say the least at the iTunes store. But more will be coming.

So, just wanted to let you know… click over to iTunes and have a look!
iTunes Music Store (iTunes link)

by Greg

Damage Control

I have been refraining from any comment on the events that transpired at Virginia Tech last week. I did post the one e-mail we received from our friend at VT. I thought it was a good “different” perspective on what happened. There was no need to rehash the events “news-style” here. It just felt over-done in every media “outlet” anyway.

But I have heard some interesting things in regards to the reactions to it. From applauding the professor in his 70s (who was a holocaust survivor) for barracading the door – giving his own life – in an attempt to save the students in the room… to decrying the networks decision to air the videos the killer submitted to NBC. (I think it was NBC.) All sorts of emotions, all sorts of thoughts.

One thing I heard while listening to the latest God Journey podcast struck a chord with me, and perhaps it does with you, too.

I had read several comments on the news sites I was browsing that read something like this, “Hundreds of innocent Iraqis die every day and we don’t see news coverage like this!” There was some frustration over the “overreaction” by US media regarding this killing of “lesser” significance (number-wise), and the diminishing of the lives lost in Iraq. That angered me a bit, as I do understand the sentiment, but can we please drop our political agendas for just one moment???

But the God Journey guys were talking about it and they commented on how the rest of the world deals with tragedies like this very differently. Here in the US we are scrambling to find a “reason”, or a “motive”, or even someone (or some system, or someones) to blame for it. We can’t accept such a thing. Our lives are so in our “control” (or so it would appear) that clearly an event like this reveals an error, or a mistake, or some form of blame be placed somewhere. Certainly on the killer… but there has to be more. He can’t be solely responsible for his actions.

Maybe it’s gun control. If we would just tighten that up. Or maybe it’s his parents. If they would have loved him more. Maybe it’s that the University should have shut down the entire campus, because they surely must have known he was going to go on a killing spree. Surely. Maybe if the other students – who had noticed he was different – had stepped in earlier, instead of allowing political correctness to govern their actions. Maybe it could have been prevented if US immigration laws were more strict, not just allowing visas to anyone who wants them.

Maybe… maybe not.

See, bad stuff happens. People die. People do bad things. What happened last week was bad. It was ugly. It was horrible. Just like the stuff that happens in Iraq and Darfur and everywhere else around the world every day. The human condition is marred by sin. People can make bad choices that hurt other people. And really, there is no amount of laws or training or educating or any preventative methods that can curtail that.

We are not in control. We may think we are. We may think we can be. But, we are not.

So, best you can do (in my estimation) is live your life to the fullest. Live everyday enjoying where you are, and who you’re with. Love as you have been loved. You never know when you’ll breathe your last breath here. And if you know Jesus, you can trust him that it won’t be your last. You can’t control what other people do, but you definitely have a say in what you do. (Sin kinda messes that up on occasion, but at least we have some say) 🙂

Love God, and love people today. Don’t worry about what might come tomorrow, or what has happened yesterday. Any control we think we have is mostly an illusion. Trust the one who holds all things together, and follow him where he leads.

Maybe that’s the best damage control.

by Greg

From Virginia Tech

I’m sure you have heard/seen/read the news from Virginia Tech of the ugly events from yesterday. When it happened, I immediately thought of a friend who is working there with a campus ministry group. We met her at Crosswinds several years back, so now a few friends from there have updated us on how she is doing there. An e-mail came in today, a forward from her, so I thought I would post that here. It’s an on-site update from the campus (from the perspective of a campus ministry, I suppose).

Here’s the letter from Terri: (unedited)

Hello, and thank you for emailing to let me know you were thinking of me! Each message is encouraging, and I am thankful to know people are responding to this tragedy in prayer. I apologize for not sending a more personal email, but right now, this is the best way to share.

THE DETAILS FROM DAY 1 – A brief synopsis: There were 2 shootings today – one that was a domestic type disturbance in a dormitory around 7am. The shooter there killed a student and an RA that entered the room to try to mediate the dispute. Both of those students have been confirmed dead. The RA was widely known on campus, and a friend of many people in [nlcf].

The 2nd shooting was on the 2nd floor of an academic building onat 10am. From what I understand, there were 3 different classrooms the shooter entered and killed and wounded people in. Most reports are saying that he lined people up and shot them in, others tell of classrooms in that hall that had barricaded the door that the gunman started to open and fire shots inside, and the class managed to shut the door on him. In several classrooms, students jumped out the window when they heard shots. In one classroom, a male student broke the glass and jumped – 5 other students followed him before the shooter entered. Everyone else in the room, including the professor, was shot. We know that guy – he’s the roomate of one of our [nlcf] leaders – and praise God that he survived. He doesn’t know Jesus yet, and his roomate has been witnessing to him for 2 years.

The stories break my heart, and they are just the beginning. So far, we know 34 people have died. We know 3 students names, and each are linked to people within [nlcf]… one of those students was an attender of an [nlcf] small group. There will be a full listing of names tommorow of the students who have been confirmed dead. The hardest thing right now for most everyone is waiting for that list of names to come out.

HOW NLCF IS RESPNDING:
Tonight, we had a prayer vigil at 8pm for [nlcf]. Several people came who are not from [nlcf], and they are considering getting into a small group this week. Later, our HG’s met in different locations where people spent time in a smaller, family like setting. Student leaders throughout [nlcf] opened their apartments to those on campus who didn’t want to sleep in the dorm tonight.

This week, our staff will be on call & available to anyone who needs us. We are letting everyone know set places they can find us on campus, and intentionally going into the dorms as much as possible. We will be attending the convocation on campus Tuesday at 12noon, and we are working to plan a possible prayer vigil on Wednesday mid-day. We will also have this Sunday’s weekly gathering devoted entirely to responding to this week’s events.

HOW YOU CAN PRAY:
– for the staff – For our energy, our unity, and for us to be guided by the Spirit in how we respond to students this week. For our pastors as they decide how we will directly talk about this week’s events this Sunday in our worship gathering.

– for the campus – Pray for the [nlcf] students to be a light even as they grieve their losses, and interact with their friends around campus who lost someone.

– Pray for a response of love, rather than hate to today’s events.

Pray for the school administrator’s interactions with parents, and for the press to be respectful in the way they interact with the students, faculty, and families of VT.

– for the spiritual battle we are in – I felt very clearly today that I was getting ready to go into battle as our staff gathered to pray and discuss our response. There is still a great amount of fear remaining for some students who live on campus… some are concerned that there were two shooters, not one, and they fear another shooting will happen. THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED… it is what people are afraid of. Please pray for truth about what happened today to shine clearly for the
investigators, and God to remove fear and bring peace to campus.

– for me – rest, and the ability to ask questions & listen wisely.

Thank you – it means so much for me to be able to tell students that they are being held up in prayer by a whole army of people they don’t even know.

Terri Dewey
www.nlcf.net
(we will have updates on how we’re responding on the web)

by Greg

An Article on Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith

Not sure how many of the readers of this blog also read my Newsvine column (it is linked to the right over there at the top of the page…) so I thought I might link to an article I posted there today re: the DVD Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith.

I also included links to coverage by the local Utah media as well. Fascinating. 🙂

If you’re interested, read the article here.

by Greg

Anti-Mormon, or Pro-People?

Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVDThere’s quite the firestorm happening out in the western portion of our country this week. Following the distribution of nearly 500,000 DVDs on Sunday by several hundred volunteers across the US, and abroad, the reaction has been swift and (at least to me) surprising.

TV stations and newspapers across Utah and around Phoenix, AZ are covering this story in the “top stories” sections. The headlines usually include “Anti-Mormon DVD” or some other hot-button phrase. The quotes are all basically saying, “This DVD is wrong, we’re right, end of story.” One website actually has publicly labeled the DVD “Mormon-bashing”, saying, “Hate directed at any of us is hate directed at all of us. From whomever that hate comes, and to whomever it’s directed, ADL takes it very seriously and will continue to speak out against it.”

The “spin” is hilarious. Anti-Mormon is the most popular phrase, but most reports paint the producers of this DVD as vehemently against the LDS church and Mormons in general.

I know the folks who made the video. They love God, and love people, and have the best motives to help people get free of a religion that is based on stuff they have found to be “unreliable” at best. (As well as being a very works-based, performance-based religion… which is never fun.) But I was not sure about that whole door-to-door distribution thing as we put the site together, and … perhaps I was right.

Can you ever accomplish anything good by “forcing” (even gently) something on someone else? Especially if it involves saying, “You’re wrong, and I’m right.” I know that’s not the intention of the people who made the DVD, but it’s just that whole thing of “Harsh words stir up anger, but a gentle answer turns away wrath.” The anger has definitely been stirred up. I think it’s certainly misplaced… there is definitely merit to what I have seen on the DVD (at least worth checking into) but this way of distributing the DVD has certainly “stirred up the hornet’s nest”.

Fight, fight, fight. That’s all we do when religion is involved. Whether it’s the big stuff like, “Who do you say that I am?” or just silly little stuff like arguing over semantics of a word in a certain Bible verse – or even sillier, arguing over music style or some other totally irrelevant thing. It is so sad to see how much religion polarizes people (though that word is inaccurate as it suggests only two possible opinions. Perhaps fragments would be a better choice. Whatever the word, the effect is undesireable.) The only folks that I see Jesus being angered by in the various accounts of his life are those who would put so many religious restrictions on others. But Jesus himself even loved them, too.

Mostly, I think we’re “supposed” to get along. We are all children of the same Father, created to live every day to the fullest (which means living it step-by-step-in-step with Him.) A lot of us don’t. Sin has trapped us. We’re kept from knowing the Truth. Not some certain list of “right thinking”… but Jesus said that HE is the Truth. He is the way. That’s not a club by which to bludgeon the non-Christian infidel. That’s an invitation. God became man, just because he loves us. Jesus spent so much more time NOT “doing ministry” than he did in the public eye, healing and teaching. He said the greatest commandment is to love God, and love other people. That’s it.

We get so caught up in the details… and we just end up fighting.

I hope this DVD does help some folks to break free of the bondage of religion. I know (as you can see from the links below) that it will cause division. That’s very sad, but expected. But as one who would love for there to be peace at least from people who have a strong desire to know the God who made them… I do hope that some good comes from this project. A lot of people have poured a lot of life into it. (And I can tell you that it is most certainly not simply “Mormon-bashing” or “hate[ful]” in any way.

It’s just… religion vs. religion… will always cause fights.

So, for kicks (just cause it’s kinda crazy that a website that I worked on is in the news in Utah and elsewhere…) here are a few links related to this DVD…

Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVD – Official Site
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Press Release
A site created to specifically address the “Search for the Truth” DVD
Google News Results for “Joseph Smith DVD”