paulmoreland.com » Computers

Mobile blogging

paul — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:35:02 +0000

We live in a marvelous time. In my own brief life time we have gone from rotary phones on a a party line to cellular phones that allow one to call or be called over a vast portion of the world’s surface. We have gone from mail service that could take a week or longer to take a message from on end of the country to another, to email that can show up on another person’s computer, across the hall or half way around the globe, in a matter of seconds. Mimeograph machines had to have their templates painstakingly created by hand or on a type writer and each sheet of a multipage document had to be printed off separately and then each set had to be carefully correlated prior to handing out or mailing. Now one can type up, spell check, lay out and print, together with full color images or even high resolution photographs, multipage documents completely correlated and ready to be handed out or mailed. And that same document can be made into a pdf file which allows it to be sent via e-mail or posted to the internet so it can be downloaded. Such a document can be printed identically by virtually any computer and printer any where in the world.

The mass creation and sharing of information is easier and cheaper than at any previous in history. The internet has provided the means whereby one can communicate via text, image, audio, video or any combination there of. Social networking sites such as Facebook ™, MySpace ™, Twitter ™, YouTube™ and others allow people to create virtual communities in which to share ideas, opinions, news and anything else they so desire.

This ability is at best a two edged sword. It can cut for good or for ill. It can draw people together for growth or draw them together for destructive things. Anyone can participate, all it takes is a connection to the internet. And that brings us to the title of this little blurb – mobile blogging. Today’s “smart phones” don’t just allow one to make and receive calls. They also allow one to type texts with relative ease, thanks to the familiar keyboard layout. And with an appropriate application, easily downloaded from the ‘net, one can type up a blog entry while standing in line – or waiting for the rain to slack up, like I am doing today.

Truly we live in interesting times. The question is – will we use the tools now available for good or for ill? Will we take an active part in shaping the world around us by entering the market place of ideas with minds transformed by God’s spirit – or will we hide and wish the world would go back “to how it USED to be”. Change has been a constant since Eve made the first apple pie. Too many times through out history that change has been met by apathy by those who would call themselves God’s people.

Wordpress in my pocket

paul — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:03:35 +0000

Well, what do you know? Recently I obtained a “smart phone” to allow more communication options for ministry. It has indeed begun to yield fruit, allowing me to be in contact with folks in various ways. And now I’ve found Wordpress Mobile. It allows me to publish to my blog “on the go”. Time will tell if this allows me more opportunities to blog or not.

Thoughts On Facebook

paul — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:19:41 +0000

There’s a “social networking” website called “Facebook“. I was a bit leery of such places for a while. The whole “My Space” and such whoopla left me cold. And then I started paying more attention and saw that there’s actually some value to these places. So I set up an account. And then started finding friends, and friends started finding me. The whole thing is interesting, because it shows how we all have rings of influence in our lives. It’s interesting to take a look at friend lists on other people’s profiles. It’s amazing how many of us know the same people – and yet each of us knows oodles of folks the others do not know.

On my own profile, at the time of this writing, 487 people are listed on my “Friends” page. In that number are relatives, other MK’s, school mates, folks I’ve worked with, people we’ve ministered to, people my wife works with, kids we’ve known since they were wee children and folks I’ve met through other folks on Facebook. It is interesting to see how certain items appear on successive people’s pages. Most folks on my list seem to have very similar ideas and tastes. There’s a few who are radically different in one way or another but for the most part “birds of a feather”.

Humor, games, inspirational videos, music, prayer requests – all these and more are piped right onto my computer screen each time I connect. It’s been a blessing to catch up with old friends from college and even a “lost” cousin or three I’ve not seen in 30 years or more – all thanks to this social networking phenomenon.

The big question is – will it be a tool or a master? Will it rule one’s life or will one use it for good? Who do we glorify through this medium? Are we working for a better world – or sinking to the same level as those around us? It is my hope and ambition that this will be one more tool through which I can bring glory to Christ’s kingdom.

Another option for a computing environment

paul — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:14:39 +0000

It’s been quite a while since I did a computer related post. Here’s a little something for those of you who may be tired of Microsoft’s near monopoly on computing environments – usually called “OS’s” for “Operating Systems”. To many new computer users the only option for a computer is the Microsoft Windows based machines at Best Buy or Walmart. A few more savvy people believe that Macintosh will save them from “windoze hell” and lock themselves into an even MORE expensive and limited computing experience.

I admit to occasionally looking to the Apple Macintosh side of things with a bit of curiosity. Back in the “dark ages” an employer of mine had an old “Trash 80″ (TRS-80 by Radio Shack) that he messed around with a bit. He had a book project he was working on and finally he decided to upgrade to something more usable. Which took the form of one of the early Macintosh computers which he soon upgraded to a full megabyte of RAM. The tiny little black and white monitor was usable enough for him and the mouse simplified a lot of processes as well. He was a bit afraid of it, perhaps fearing that the wrong combination of key strokes would melt it down like in some Sci-Fi movie. But I poked around on it a bit and was able to point him the right direction and he eventually finished his work on it. It was cool. It was slick. And it was EXPENSIVE. Today the Mac has all that going for it still.

Now, as direct support missionaries we tend to count our pennies and try to eke stretch our income as best we may to obtain the greatest results with the least outlay of cash. So each time I look at a Mac I’m reminded that the same amount of money will buy me a premium Windoze machine – complete with a lot of fancy software. Plus, a lot of the programs I use are compatible with the newer versions of Windows or can be upgraded for a relatively low cost. However, Windows is the worlds largest virus and also is the worlds greatest target for virii, worms, trojans and other malware. As well as being expensive.

So for years I’ve played with Linux off and on. The early versions were fun to play with but were not that usable for a green newbie. Off and on I’d try side by side installs on one machine. Windows first and then some version of Linux afterwards. This would give me the option of choosing one or the other at boot up time. This was less than satisfactory.

Recently a friend of mine from college days put me to thinking about a Linux distribution I’d looked at before. It’s called “Ubuntu” and is available for download – or they’ll even mail you a CD if you like. The way it works is you download the ISO file and then burn it to a CD or DVD. This gives you a “Live CD” which then can be booted to. Just place it in the CD drive of your computer and boot it up. And you can do this without messing with your computer’s installation. What will this do for you? It will allow you to check out Ubuntu and see what you think – without committing to it. It will also allow you to use a machine that does not even have a hard drive – should your hard drive crash. All you need is an old computer with a CD drive in it.

Installing is pretty straight forward. I installed on an old laptop that has been giving us fits for a while. Last summer I purchased a new desktop for my darling wife and once she got it up and running I took over the problem child as a permanent Linux machine. Ubuntu breathed new life into the old clunker! It’s faster than it was under Windows XP Home and is much more stable. All I did was choose the “Install to Harddrive” option at boot time and took over the whole machine for Linux. Even setting up the wireless internet conection was not much problem – AFTER I remembered to turn it on physically.

So – what advantages does this Linux have over a comparable Windows machine? First – if you buy an old machine that does not have an operating system – Linux can be put on it free of charge legally. Each time the programs that run in Ubuntu are updated the machine automaticaly detects them and lets you know updates are available – and they too are free of charge. Ubuntu comes standard with Open Office – a very good substitute for Microsoft Office. In fact, you can choose to save files to Microsoft’s format should you need to share them with some less enlightened person still tied to Gates’ marketing campaign.

Fooling around with this machine has been fun. Right now I’m typing this up on it. You can search for and install all kinds of programs, depending on your needs and desires. I have several different web browsers (just because I can) and I downloaded a variety of other programs to try as time allows. If your main uses of a computer are for office and internet, there’s little – if anything – that Ubuntu can’t do. In fact, there’s even a handy, dandy little program called “Gimp” (Graphic Image Manipulation Program) that you can “photo shop” with. What’s not to like?

New use for old technology

paul — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:35:57 +0000

Here’s an interesting video. Interesting in that it was produced in Polaroid snapshots first, then made into a video. Anyway, they say a picture’s worth a thousand words. I wonder how much this video’s worth? Thanks to Hot Air for posting this.

A Look At Micro$ofts “Table of the future”…

paul — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:10:31 +0000

Micro$oft is talking about their vision for the future – a multimedia table. Here’s a humorous look at it. Language alert. If you’re easily offended by “modern” language – best stay away. I got this off of Hot Air.

Computing differently

paul — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:28:47 +0000

Obviously, anyone reading this blog has at least a passing interest in computers – or you’d not be on the Internet reading this blog! Â A recent spate of e-mails on an e-mail list I belong to was sparked by yet another new windoze based virus.Â It shows that we also care about security and usability when it comes to computing. However, not all of us are tech savy -some are barely able to switch on the box and connect to the internet to download e-mail.
Lately we’ve been hearing about this Linux stuff, but it can be a bit daunting to folks who aren’t sure how their computer works and reallydon’t want to mess anything up. If you’d like to get a taste of whatLinux is, but don’t want to commit to a long term relationship, you can use one of the “Live CD’s” or “Live DVD’s” with some version of Linux installed on it.

These CD’s and DVD’s are available for download in an ISO format (That’s an image of a CD or DVD that allows you to make an exact copy with your CD or DVD burner) Right now I’ve got various generations of Linux in different flavors. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Fedora Core 6, and a couple others I’m to lazy to go look at right now to remind me what they are. The way they work is you put them in your CD or DVD drive on your computer and then restart the machine. You’ll have to set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive and each computer works differently there. I’d suggest you look in your manual for information if you don’t know how to do that. Anyway, once you reboot to the CD/DVD the Live CD/DVD will start right
up and run the program right on your computer. This will let you see how things work without worrying about installing or overwriting your windoze installation.

For newbies to Linux, there’s a few things to keep in mind. If there’s a glitch on your computer some versions of Linux simply won’t run. But neither will WinXP. I’ve got one motherboard that Linux simply will not install to a hard drive connected to it. Nor will a Live CD work with it – but I also can’t install WinXP on it either. Yep, it’s on the way to the dump someday – perhaps. I still haven’t tried it with Win ‘98 – and I’m a glutton for punishment and refuse to give up until a piece of hardware is confirmed to be 100% dead.

For those of you who are interested in messing with video, etc. Take a look at Video Linux. It’s a version of Linux setup to allow you to mess around with Video. So far I’ve just downloaded and burned the ISO but haven’t had time to play with it. The concept is intriguing and we’ll see what happens when I get a chance to play with it.

There are more distributions out there than you can shake a stick at.Â All kinds of “flavors” of Linux that will do different things or are set up for certain applications only. I’d suggest you stick with one of the major distributions at first, Fedora Core 6 (based on Redhat Enterprise) or SuSE’s latest. You can get both the full ISO (For DVD or CD) or a Live CD ISO for either of them. That’ll let you at least get a taste of what you can do with Linux.

And Linux can breath new life into an old computer. We were able to upgrade our work machines to fairly recent technology. This frees up a couple of older boxes to play with.