Computer Ministry and the NET Bible

I love the NET Bible... The folks at Bible.org are behind the NET Bible translation. Someone there is much superior to me in terms of computer security, but they may have another area I can help.

I wish I could link this to the internship requirement I have this semester... too bad.

Replacing My DigiCam Kodak V550

I have decided to return the Kodak v550 I got to replace the Pentax Optio S5i. I was looking for photos to print out and frame, and nothing I've taken recently is pleasing to my eyes. I like to take macro shots of my cats but my recent attempts have been miserable compared to ones I took last year.

In looking at the photos Cathy took on her trip, it seemed to me everything was fine with the camera for everyday photos, except when I zoomed in. Subjectively, I think none of the photos I've taken recently will make decent prints on anything larger than a 4x6.

At first, I blamed my less-than-steady hands for the quality of the photos I've taken recently. I looked at my favorite photo, one of Malachi with soft sunlight upon her while she lay peacfully on the bed. I comapred it to a recent attempt of a macro shot of the same subject in the same room and the images simply did not compare.

By zooming in, it was almost instantly clear that I have far less detail on the recent phot than the origianl photo. Then, viola, I though I discovered the problem... the Kodak photo was _much_ smaller than Optio photo, so I must have resized the image! I just needed to find the full-size image I took with the Kodak and my problem would be resolved.

I couldn't find the "original", uncompressed version of the Kodak photo. It finally hit me: this is the size of the Kodak photos. The Optio and the Kodak are both 5 megapixels, yet the Optio photo was 2500k while the Kodak photo was only 800k. I looked on my Kodak camera for an "image quality" setting, like the Optio, yet I could not find one.

Simply put, the Kodak V550 appplies much higher image compression than my Optio S5i did. Unfortunately, this is not a user-adjustable setting on the Kodak, so I cannot adjust the setting to lower the compression.

That explained a lot... the increadible refresh rate, the lack of details on photos, the inability to get high-quality shots despite my best efforts. I did a few Google searches on the Kodak V550... everybody gave it glowing reviews, but a few reviews noted that the "compression is a little high". Well, the compression is too high for me, expecially since I can tell the difference between my digital photos and a 35mm 4x6 print.

I need a camera that will take 4x6 digital photos that look just like the same photo taken with a 35mm camera. So... the Kodak V550 is going back. I want a compact camera to carry on my waist, and Cathy wants a mid-sized camera with high optical zoom, so I'm stuck with having two cameras. I'll be replacing the V550 with another compact digicam, but I'll need to find one for Cathy, too. *sigh* Knoica Minolta is selling their digicam division to Sony, so I'll be looking at a Kodak, Epson or Canon... we'll see.

F.O.R.M. for Breaking the Ice

F.O.R.M. is the acronymn that my Field Ed professor uses to break the ice with strangers. It stands for:

Family
Occupation
Religion
Message

Good points to hit when making new friends. Probably good for salesmen, too, and I suppose pastors are salesmen in a sense.

Classes Begin!

As I previously mentioned, Cathy's not confident she can continue to work at Biola for an extended period of time. She enjoys her job (so long as she's busy), but we would both like for her work at home, if possible. It was thus that I met with my academic counselor and the registrar last week. Together, we discovered that my fiasco last year probably set me back three semesters, instead of the two semesters I spent attempting a hybrid ciriculum. I may only have two semesters left for classes, I may have to cut out my classes and switch from MDiv to M.A.

There's a good chance I'll get into most of the classes available to me this semester. I have five required classes before I graduate, and I am attempting to get into three this week. There's a good chance I'll get two, if not all three, of the classes I need.

I am concerned about the 1-unit class I am registered for. There's 6~7 books required and the workload promises to be quite high.

Audio - happy new year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Sunday is Chinese New Year. It happens to be the Year of the Dog, so I guess Oliver's "birthday" is Monday.

Cathy & I married on Chinese New Year, so we sort of have two anniversaries. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but probably not much. If we were in Taiwan, I would be getting together with all my family and having a very large lunch.

Maybe we'll hit a Chinese restaurant after church. It is too bad I don't have any Chinese-speaking friends around to say traditional blessings to, like "congratulations and may you get rich", "may you always have leftovers" as well as "Happy New Year." :-)

Update: Yup, we had Chinese for lunch... it was great, and Cathy impressed the server with her recitation of "Happy New Year."

New Theory of Gravity May Dispense of Dark Matter

A modified theory of gravity that incorporates quantum effects can explain a trio of puzzling astronomical observations: large scale structures, the horzon problem and the Pioneer anomaly.

The theory, called scalar-tensor-vector gravity (STVG), adds quantum effects to Einstein's theory of general relativity such that quantum fluctuations can affect the force felt between interacting objects. It does depend on a hypothetical particle called a graviton – which mediates gravity – appears in large numbers out of the vacuum of space in regions crowded with massive objects such as stars.

Any theory of gravity must explain the development of large-scale structures in the universe, and most importantly, the afterglow of the big bang called the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation (see "#2 Horizon Problem" of "13 things that do not make sense").

I am going to keep my eye on STVG, as it may offer a viable alternative to Big Bang Inflation theories of the variations in the speed of light and other universal "constants".

Priase and Prayer Items

A couple of praise items: much to my surprise, my car passed smog last Thursday. I honestly expected it to fail. However, even more suprising is that my MIL (Rhonda) had her smog test, and her car passed, too! It really smells bad when it is running, and the batter dies after sitting more than two days.

A couple of prayer requests: the fine California State Disability Insurance program cut Cathy off on 01/01/2006 without warning pending another written note from her doctor. Cathy noticed that the check for the 15th never arrived... so she found out they cut her off. Her doctor will be writing on the required forms, but for now we are very strapped on cash.

Also, I'm going back to school. Given Cathy's health and our mutual desire for her to discontinue working outside the home, I'm attempting to speed up my degree completion. I could drop out of the MDiv program and get an M.A. instead. I met with my guidance counselor yesterday and have an appointment on Friday to discuss the possibilities with the Registrar.

Finally, I still feel a little bitter towards the head of the Registrar, so I could use some prayer, there, too.

Back Up Your Data Already!

A client's main server crashed today. That is unremarkable, as their server is very old and poorly maintained. However, their most recent backup is 30 days old... they're in for some serious hurt. Remember to back up your data, friends.

I remember once, in college, when I helped a grad student recover her thesis paper. I think it was 1992 or maybe 1993. It was Winter, just before Christmas, and I was living on campus in a dorm. I'm not sure how it came about that I ended up helping this fellow student. I do not remember her name, and I have only a vague recollection that she was Asian and shorter than I am.

The cry for help was genernal, not specifically to me. Perhaps I heard her lamenting to another student, or read it on the campus BBS. The thesis she had worked on for so long and so hard was stored on a floppy disk. It spanned hundreds of pages, and now she could no longer read the floppy. I offered to help.

It didn't read in my drive, either, so it was the floppy. I explained to her that this floppy was old and worn, and she should probably go back to her most recent backup. Except, of course, that she had none. She was in tears, I remember that. I told her I would try to do something, recover whatever I could.

Payment was never discussed, and looking back, I suppose it did not cross my mind at the time. I used an old but trusty utility to read data at the bit level, did a hex dump and showed her what I found. Amazingly (very amazingly) I actually hit upon her thesis. Though her needle was in the haystack, somehow I had been guided to the correct sectors of the floppy. It was unlikely because the entire Bible fits on a floppy... so if you could flip open a Bible and just happen to land in the same book and chapter I am thinking of right now... well, you get the idea.

I dumped the entire contents as text to a file on my hard drive and showed her what we had. What we had was several copies of her thesis in run-on paragraphs. She'd have to do a lot of formatting, but all of her work was there. I gave her a new floppy (and perhaps an extra) and admonished her to make backups. She left in a hurry to get her thesis ready to turn in.

The short Asian graduate student and I never crossed paths again; or, if we did meet again, we did not recognize each other. Today, however, no such miracle is availble for this one client.

The moral of the story is simple: back up your files. If they are important to you, make a copy. For the truly important stuff, consider electronic storage off site, away from your primariy residence. If you have Windows XP, check out www.mozy.com (if you use this link, I get an extra 250mb, thanks no, I don't get anything for this). At least make backups to a USB drive or burn copies to CD or something.

"What do you do, Lee?" you may ask. I'm a little nuts on this... I keep large hard disk attached to my home network. Cathy backs up all files from her laptop to a ZIP disk and to a USB keychain. Occassionally, I back that up to the external hard disk. Periodically, I burn the contents of the hard disk to CD. For really important stuff, I'm planning on encrypting them and sending them to my Mozy account. If you sign up for one, try creating a separate Gmail account first. If you need a Gmail invite, I have plenty.

Well? Vasectomy or No Vasectomy?

So I'm getting a vasectomy tomorrow morning. I've put it off a bit due to work and remodeling and school and other inconveniences. The time, however, is finally here.

It is true that Cathy questions if this is the best course of action, she is primarily concerned with the possibility of her premature death. Her primary reasoning for rethinking the procedure goes thus: What if 1) she dies and 2) I remarry and 3) want kids later on? I figure the if...if...if... argument is not worth spending too much time on.

The fact is, we would probably make good parents, but I have no intention on having biological offspring (sorry, mom). I realize I am an only child, but I have plenty of half-brothers, so I am not concerned with my father not having grandchildren. If Cathy and I decide to become parents, I think we'll adopt.

"But it's different when they're your kids," some have said. Perhaps, but I'm not sure I need the difference in degree of immediate emotional attachment. Maybe I would love a biological boy or girl more than an adopted one, or at least love them differently without a difference in intensity. I don't konw... but I'm not convinced it matters to me. An adopted child has all the rights of biological offspring, which is exactly the relationship I picture between myself and God. Yeah, I know God loves Jesus differently than He loves me, but that doesn't make me feel differently about God, and I think that's the point.

I suppose I may chicken out tomorrow, but it is highly unlikely. The only things putting me off are the anticipated discomfort, my fear of sharp objects and the outside chance that my cats will stop loving me. When the kittens we raise for the shelter are "fixed" the other cats tend to regard them as completely different cats. I have settled all spiritual, emotional and intellectual matters, so all that concerns me know is the discomfort and the attention of my cats.

I'll likely not post for a day or so. :-)

Update: 08:30 A.M. 01/19/2006 - The scheduled vasectomy kept Cathy up all night. She told me this morning that we needed more time to talk about it. So... we'll wait.