Barefoot in the wilderness
in search of understanding

Getting presentations right

Have you ever sat through a terrible Powerpoint presentation? Have you ever given one? Go and read Seth Godin’s guide to getting presentations right.

pax et bonum

Vista's out

So, Microsoft has finally launched Windows Vista, the latest version of its computer operating system. Should you buy it? Well, the current advice to businesses is not to touch it for at least a year, until the inevitable bugs are fixed (all software has bugs – and Microsoft have already said that the first full Service Pack for Vista will be released around autumn this year).

Two things amuse me. The first is Microsoft’s odd attitude towards its software – it seems to believe that it’s your job to get ready for Vista. They’ve forgotten that the point of an operating system is to operate your computer. If it won’t operate the computer (the computer you’ve already got!) then it’s no good. You shouldn’t have to spend £1000 on a new PC just to continue doing what you’ve already been doing.

The second funny thing is how excited Microsoft are about all the new toys that come with Vista – the sidebar, gadgets, built-in search, file previews in Explorer and so on. They’d like you to think that these are stunning new ideas that they’re unleashing on the world. The reality, of course, is that these ideas all came from MacOS X and Linux. Yes – even Linux (often said to have a “primitive” desktop) is years ahead of Microsoft on such things.

Anyhow, all the best to those who bravely venture forth into Vista!

pax et bonum

School fingerprinting

The Register reports that the UK Parliament will not be debating the growing practice of recording the personal biometric data of schoolchildren, despite questions over its legality. Jack Straw, the Leader of the House of Commons, said:

“I am not aware of the practice [of fingerprinting children at school], but obviously people have accepted it”.

If he doesn’t know about the subject, how can it be “obvious” that it’s accepted? Indeed, is it not ever more obvious that it is not accepted, with more and more parents objecting to the surreptitious fingerprinting of their children?

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Becoming extreme

There was a piece on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning discussing a survey of young Muslims in Britain. The survey found that the younger people in the Muslim Britain are more “radical” than their older fellows, and more likely to have a “politicised” view of their religion – they’re more likely to support Sharia law, the wearing of the veil and even the actions of groups like Al Qaeda.

What struck me was this – that the young are always more “radical” than their elders, more excitable, more prone to simplistic answers to complex questions. This point was raised by the interviewer, but wasn’t really dealt with. The tone was rather that there’s something unexpected going on here, that there’s something wrong that needs fixing. And what was even stranger was the cause to which this problem was attributed – multiculturalism. The suggestion was that the presence of many cultures in Britain was making the young more insular and extreme. And this seems nonsensical to me.

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Gapminder

This is a pretty cool new tool from the Google folks. Check out the Help, but basically it’s a very nice graphical way to look at all sorts of country data, from population trends to carbon dioxide emissions to internet usage.

pax et bonum

Pastimes

It’s been a rivetting week But after playing some free video games over at Bored.com, I thought I might share a few other, possibly more enlightening, links.

There is, you see, the issue of free online email. I have kept a Hotmail account for years now, to use as my “reveal to the world when I have to register on websites” address – the sort of places you don’t necessarily want to leave your real email address, either because you don’t necessarily know who they are or because it will be displayed on websites ready for spam harvesting (as in blog comments on many sites, or on forums). Anyhow, I’ve been getting fed up with Hotmail for various reasons (annoying site design, the way they replace all links in email with Javascript that stops me doing my usual “right-click to open in a new tab”) but mostly because my work blocks access to Hotmail, so I can’t check email there from work.

So, I’ve been doing a little research on alternatives and I’ve settled on Inbox.com. They have a nicely designed, fast site that offers good spam protection and a decent storage limit. It even has calendaring and online file storage, if you want that sort of thing. A couple of other places I was tempted by include Fastmail (ultimately let down by slightly clunky site compared with Inbox.com) and Care2.com. Care2 is supported by adverts, but donates 10% of its income to environmental charities. It offers various extra services, like news on various ethical issues (civil rights, human rights, global warming etc.) but, again, its site design for email let it down – for example, you have to log in every time you visit, instead of being able to bookmark your inbox (which I rather like being able to do).

If you’re still using Hotmail, or any other webmail service, have a look at some of the alternatives. The standard is pretty high these days. Nowhere near enough to tempt me away from desktop email, but pretty nice nonetheless.

pax et bonum

Hiatus over

Well, that was a long time without a post! I blame Christmas spent at parents’ houses followed by a stomach bug. But we’re back and (mostly) healthy. Ruth’s started at the school nursery (one afternoon a week), Adam’s getting excited about his fifth birthday (still 4 weeks off), Anne’s still knitting and I’m…well, I’m back at work. I read lots of books over the holiday, which was nice. I may even post some more reviews soon! And I’m sure there’ll be more of the usual mix of posts too, this year. I realised that this blog is over two years and 700 posts old now! That’s quite a lot. Perhaps I’ll pass that thousand-post mark this year.

I hope everyone has a happy and exciting New Year!

pax et bonum

Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple?

Ben Witherington asks whether the “beloved disciple” in the fourth Gospel was not John son of Zebedee, but in fact was Lazarus, the man who Jesus raised from the dead. It’s an interesting article and he makes some interesting points. Not least, he looks carefully at the Gospel, which can’t be a bad thing

(Thanks to Alastair for the tip.)

pax et bonum

Progress and the past

Father Jake posts the following snippet from a recent conference. It’s by Peter Gomes, who discussed the conference’s theme “God’s unfunished future: why it matters now” in his talk “Can We Afford a Positive Future?”

“Preach to the future [because] there is no salvation in the past. There is no hope in history.” Gomes warned against a nostalgia that longs for what he said is a non-existent time in the past when all was right. “The only place worth going to for believers is to the place where we have not yet been,” he said. “Preach the future then not as a place of terror and fear and intimidation but as the place where we shall finally be fully known even as we; where we shall see God face to face.”

This is the true Christian idea of progress – not that things inevitably get better in the future, but that only in the future is there any possibility of perfection. Indeed, God has promised that all will be made well when His Kingdom comes in fullness. The past shows us God’s revelation, but not God’s perfection. The past is not where the Kingdom of God is. The past is not the goal, it’s only a signpost to the goal. The goal itself lies before us and, before that day comes, we must work for it. The future is not “a place of terror and fear and intimidation”, but it is a place of hard work and hard loving. The fruit of that work and love, though, will be a Creation made new by a God who we will finally see face to face.

pax et bonum

Does 'Christian' mean 'homophobe'?

I’m getting concerned about labels again. And this time it’s a big problem. What with the arguments within the Anglican church over gay priests and the rights of gay people in general, and protests from Christians in the UK against the new Sexual Orientation Regulations (which forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation), what face are we showing to the world? Is it really getting as bad as Ruth Gledhill is saying?

The whole SOR debate concerns me for a number of reasons.Tell anyone outside the Church that you’re a Christian these days, and they make one assumption about you. It is not that you are spiritual, or ascetically-minded, or dedicated to helping others, or opposed to the culture of consumerism. It is that you are a homophobe.

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