Barefoot in the wilderness
in search of understanding

Good news about Windows Vista

Yes, that’s right – there really is some good news about Vista. One thing Microsoft has got right is a new emphasis on accessibility. In a recent survey, MS was shocked to find that 57% of people could benefit from some accessibility improvements. As a result, they’ve designed Vista so that the tools are easier to find, easier to use and less aimed at “the disabled”. Even better, MS’s developers now have to test their prgrams against the accessibility tools, which should see some errors corrected that used to creep through.
(More at The Register.)

pax et bonum

One to keep an eye out for

The UK Department of Health is planning to move all our patient records onto a centralised database. One of their many problems is that UK law requires permission for our data to be moved around or reused for purposes other than those for which it was collected. In this case, that means that they need permission to move data from our GP’s office onto their central database (or from hospital records, for example). However, the DoH doesn’t much like this, people because it believes that it wouldn’t get many people actually to give that permission (whether through apathy or opposition). To get out of this bind, the DoH has decided to go for ‘opt-out’ patient records. That means that they’ll stick the data up on a secure (hopefully!) website for a while and, if you don’t object, they’ll then carry on with what they want.

The British Medical Association supports an ‘opt-in’ model, in which we’d actually have to give explicit consent before our data could be shared in this way. One of their concerns (supported by polls) is that people will stop sharing sensitive information with their doctors for fear that it will end up public knowledge – hardly a good thing for medical care! This will be something worth keeping an eye on in the next few months.

pax et bonum

World Time Server

This is pretty cool - a website that gives lots of tools for working with the time in foreign countries - convert into your own time, see current time somewhere else. Even silly little things like this:

London

New York

pax et bonum

Blog upgrade

I’ve upgraded the software that runs this blog. You won’t see many differences (hopefully!) but there are a couple of useful ones. Being a registered used is now sensible – the system should remember you, send notifications when requested, and automatically enter your details when you comment. As an added bonus, your name will be green in the comments list Also, I’ve disabled the “spam quiz” for comments in favour of a less intrusive Javascript solution. If you have any problems with it, drop me an .

pax et bonum

Passport interviews

David Leppard writes in the Sunday Times:

Passport applicants are facing a looming crisis of delays, inconvenient journeys and ‘intrusive’ personal interviews, according to a leaked Whitehall memo.
They will have to wait up to six times longer for their documents and travel up to 80 miles for face-to-face interviews at passport offices under changes paving the way for the government’s ID cards.
At present people can apply by post and get their passports in as little as a week. From March 26, however, the leaked memo reveals all first-time applicants will have to be interviewed in person.
By 2008-9 this requirement will be extended to all those seeking to renew their passports, causing millions greater inconvenience by forcing them to travel to one of 69 new passport offices for face-to-face interviews.
The changes are being introduced in preparation for ID cards, which will include biometric data such as fingerprints, eye or facial scans.

Note that date: 26th March 2007.

(From No2ID.)

pax et bonum

Water on Mars?

NASA is reporting images from its Mars Global Surveyor satellite strongly suggesting that liquid water has flowed on the surface of Mars in just the past few years. The images show light deposits (probably ice or salt) appearing in a gully in a crater wall. Ken Edgett, a scientist with Malin Space Science Systems, said during a press conference:

We have had this story of ancient water on Mars. Today, we are talking about liquid water that is present on Mars right now.
You have all heard of a smoking gun. [This] is a squirting gun.

(Thanks to The Register for the tip.)

pax et bonum

Trapdoor

I used to love this show – an old cartoon. And, thanks to YouTube, I’ve found the title sequence once more

pax et bonum

Make yourself a snowflake

Remember doing this with paper and scissors?

Well now, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, we have Make-a-Flake so that you can avoid those dangerous paper cuts.

pax et bonum

The Motherhood of God?

Graham at Leaving Munster posts some excellent thoughts about God’s maternal and feminine attributes. Crucially, he points out, this isn’t an issue of “postmodernism” or “feminism” – it’s just about reading what the Bible and the great saints of the Church have said. The OT has no problems referring to God in feminine terms time and again. Jesus does the same. Why do we sometimes have a problem with it?

pax et bonum

Folk religion

Maggi has a useful discussion of one response to recent criticisms of Christianity - that if most people misunderstand theology then the majority understanding must be the "true" Christianity. As a result, perhaps we should reject Christianity on the basis of that majority understanding. Not so, suggests Maggi.

Is the fact that most of the population has a very inaccurate grasp of science a good reason for suggesting that carefully thought out science is not "real" science? Should we say that "real" science is actually what the majority think, and not what experts tell us? Should we stop believing in the credibility of science because lots of people have an inaccurate view of science? Should we insist that no-one should pursues science at all, because lots of people believe things that aren't true? I don't think so. I think we should go right on doing science.
Theology, like science, is sometimes obscured by layers of folk ideas. That doesn't mean there isn't anything worth knowing, and it certainly shouldn't stop anyone pursuing it at a more rigorous level if they want to.

pax et bonum

Advent candles

Today, we were with friends at St Albans Abbey for this morning’s 9:30 service (the 11:15 service had Jeffrey John preaching, which was a definite missed moment as far as we were concerned). There were lots of children there (40 or so, I’d guess) and they all crowded round the advent candles when they were lit at the start of the service. Today, they lit the second candle (this being the second Sunday of Advent) and the minister reminded the children that last week’s candle represented the Patriarchs. “And who does the second candle stand for?” he asked. “Santa?” came one hopeful response. Glad to know that these things happen everywhere! (The correct answer, for any non-Anglicans out there, is “the prophets” – the third candle represents Mary and the fourth John the Baptist, as the forerunners of Christ’s coming into the world.)

pax et bonum

Publisher requires authors to sign Nicene Creed

Publisher Thomas Nelson has instituted a new policy. All its authors will have to sign a statement to say that they accede to the Nicene Creed, and to Phil 4:8. Not so strange, you might think. But this isn’t a Christian publisher – at least, not exclusively. Their business writers, for example, will have to sign the same statement. Everyone. Something’s wrong here, surely. The publisher’s job is to publish good books, and a book’s quality is determined from the book itself, not from any statements that the author signs.

Only in the USA?

(Thanks to Miss Snark for the tip.)

Update
It appears that original reports were exaggerated. Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson, has written a clarification of their position – basically, that they are, in fact, focusing on being an exclusively Christian publishing house. This is a narrowing from their past position for strategic reasons and at least partly explains their stance. Also, this isn’t a contractual term but rather a winnowing process that occurs before contracts are signed; much the same effect but a different method.

pax et bonum

Advent calendar

OK, this might be a bit late but there’s plenty of time to catch up. The BBC have produced an excellent Flash-based Advent calendar, complete with pictures and themed readings by people including George Carey (former Archbishop of Canterbury).

pax et bonum