Rest In Peace, T-Mobile Sidekick

It wasn't my first Smartphone - the Kyocera 6035 running PalmOS was that - but the Sidekick may have been the best pre-iPhone smartphone. It provided the killer e-mail experience of a Blackberry at about 1/10th the cost, and also offered excellent texting, good-enough web surfing, and a real App Store years before Apple. It was the T-Mobile Sidekick. And it's best feature was full cloud integration - years before anyone else got it right - your contacts, e-mails, photos, everything was always available online from any computer. But that cloud service goes away starting today, relegating a titan of smartphone usability to being just another Android phone.

Rest in Peace, Sidekick. You will be missed.

Thank You on Memorial Day

Glorious sunset

Romantics, this is your last chance tonight to share the sunset with someone special!
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

Just a beautiful image to share with my Mod-Blog friends.

Most days, I wish I could say this

Apologies for so few posts. Blogger and Firefox have not been getting along, so I've been unable to log in the last few days.

New Muppet Movie Trailer

I can't wait!

A Great Marriage Proposal

Social networks as Big Brother

Have you noticed those "Like" and "Tweet" buttons that are popping up all over? A new study suggests they are being used by Facebook and Twitter to track your browsing, even when you don't click them!. It may be time to consider logging off of Social Networks, as these companies are going overboard in their efforts to know everything about their users.

The widgets, which were created to make it easy to share content with friends and to help websites attract visitors, are a potentially powerful way to track Internet users. They could link users' browsing habits to their social-networking profile, which often contains their name...

For this to work, a person only needs to have logged into Facebook or Twitter once in the past month. The sites will continue to collect browsing data, even if the person closes their browser or turns off their computers, until that person explicitly logs out of their Facebook or Twitter accounts, the study found.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and other widget-makers say they don't use browsing data generated by the widgets to track users; Facebook says it only uses the data for advertising purposes when a user clicks on a widget to share content with friends.

I don't want to be one of those paranoid people who assumes the worst of every company. But these days, the Social Networks are giving us every reason to be suspicious.

My thoughts on May 21st "Doomsday"

I have been trying to ignore the Family Radio madness predicting Doomsday on May 21, for fear of giving a false prophet publicity. But now it is all over the news everywhere, so my little blog is not adding to the noise.

My thoughts?

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. - Matthew 24:36

And also...

For you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. - 1 Thessalonians 5:2

So, first, anyone who claims to know when "the End" will come is claiming to have knowledge the Jesus Himself did not have. But, second, all Christians are called upon to live as though Jesus were returning any second.

Please, be kind on May 22 when we all wake up and find the world still here. There will be many people disillusioned and shocked that they were wrong. And most of them were not deceivers - they were deceived!

Our Canoe Trip down the Delaware River

Thanks to Bowhunter for captaining our little vessel!

Actually, I wonder if this isn't a good idea

I got a visit from Bambi this morning!

I got a visit from Bambi this morning! a video by nomad7674 on Flickr.

While visiting Bowhunter in Bushkill, PA at Camp Mont Lawn.

WHAT IF? Microsoft & Skype

There are many people second-guessing the Microsoft acquisition of Skype. And for good reason. $8.5 billion is Microsoft's largest acquisition ever, and it was for a service which largely duplicates the existing MS Messenger application. The only two features that Skype has which MSN does not are: (1) the ability for telephones to call into it, and (2) the ability to call out to telephones.

And I am wondering if that is EXACTLY what MS wanted to buy.

A little while ago, Google rolled out Google Voice as "the last phone number you'll ever need". The idea was that you could give people your Google Voice number, and it would "bounce" the calls to whatever other phone you chose. It was paired with a clever speech-recognition system which was able to transcribe voice mails and send them to you as text messages and/or e-mails. The whole thing is quite clever, but it is ultimately a hack looking to work around the existing phone systems.

What if, rather than just adding Skype to XBox, Microsoft wants to change Windows Phone such that all calls thru it are done via VOIP, routed thru Microsoft servers. If Microsoft "owns" your phone number, then all calls are over data connections and it doesn't matter if you are calling on a Verizon phone, a Sprint phone, an AT&T phone, or even over your home Wifi or your XBox's ethernet connection. It could provide true phone number portability - perhaps better regarded as phone number "agnosticism" (so long as you stay with a Windows Phone). You could even, theoretically, have a "family phone" where all members of the family have their cell phones/laptops/XBoxes/Zunes ring when anyone calls their Microsoft phone number.

This would truly be thinking outside the box, and could free the customer from the control of the cellular companies. Of course, I doubt the cell phone companies would be too fond of that idea.

REVIEW: LOVE WINS by Pastor Rob Bell

BOOK: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
MOD-BLOG RATING: *

THE SHORT VERSION:

More of a college bull session on paper than a serious discussion of the doctrine of Hell, Pastor Bell's book is thought-provoking but not particularly useful. It is recommended only to those interested in what Bell is hearing from non-Christians, rather than to current Christians looking for a real analysis or study of the historical doctrines of Hell.

THE LONG VERSION:

Since the time of the Jesus, the Church and it's leaders have had to keep a close eye on Doctrine - the right teaching about Jesus and God. First century heretics wanted to do away with Christ's humanity - arguing that his flesh was merely an illusion because all that was physical was evil. Later heretics attacked the idea of morality - arguing that Christ had brought complete freedom from ethical living. Still later heretics wanted to abandon Christ's deity - arguing that it was enough for Jesus to be a good teacher. Separating well-meaning questions from sheep from evil-intending questions from wolves has been a major preoccupation from Jesus to Peter to Paul to Augustine to Martin Luther to the present.

The newest charge of heresy within the Evangelical community is against Pastor Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan (not to be confused with Mars Hill Church in Seattle run by Pastor Mark Driscoll). In his new book "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived", Pastor Bell questions the existing prevailing doctrine of Hell - specifically the eternality and finality of eternal punishment - and points out how the doctrine has done much to alienate non-believers.

Bell's book is not a comprehensive treatise on the doctrine of Hell, neither an analysis of its historical underpinnings nor a detailed philosophical argument for a particular position. It is even hard to really figure out what his exact position is on the doctrine of Hell. (I suspect Pastor Bell would see this as "nuanced", whereas to me it was simply "vague".) But I believe this is a fair encapsulation of his views:

Hell does exist. However, it is neither eternal nor inevitable for any human being. Hell is not "punishment", but rather God allowing us to choose to be without Him, which is necessarily misery. God's love and omnipotence is paramount over his wrath or judgement, and ultimately all will come to Him, whether it takes a lifetime or millennia.

Pastor Bell's arguments are actually limited to only a single chapter of the book (all others are preamble, or reflection afterwards) and come out to these:

1. From the very earliest Church fathers, there have been those who believed Hell was not eternal.
2. References to Hell in scripture are vague. (He has digressions into discussions about the Hebrew "Sheol", Greek "Tartarus" and "Hades", and a dismissive look at Gehenna.)
3. God is absolutely sovereign, and absolutely wants all to be reconciled to Him.
4. Most of Jesus's references to "the coming wrath" were references to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, and not to Hell. (A statement he does not spend much time defending.)
5. "Forever" is an incoherent concept, and not one recognized by the Biblical writers.
6. A temporary Hell is "a better story" than an eternal place of conscious torment.

I am not going to address each of these in turn - I leave it to other more educated men and women to do that. But I will note that none of these arguments are novel, convincing, or in many cases even compatible with a plain reading of the text. And Bell ignores many, many more scriptures dealing with Jesus speaking words like "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew 25:41) Nor does he dedicate much time to the "lake of fire, which is the second death" in Revelation, which is the most clear reference to an eternal place of torment in all of scripture.

However, in the end, it appears to me that #6 above is the core of Bell's argument. "An eternal Hell makes for a bad story. A temporary Hell where all are ultimately saved makes for a much better one!" Bell is known for embracing the Arts more than the average Evangelical pastor, and his book is full of shifts from a prose to a poetic style (something I found jarring as a reader). As such, he is clearly bothered by the idea of an unhappy ending for many, and by the fact that there are many who reject Christ because they can not accept a God who would sentence a plurality or majority of the human race to a place of eternal torment "for a few short years of sin on the Earth." And he is even more disturbed by the number of people who have rejected Christ because of the traditional doctrine of Hell.

But Christ warned that the gospel, while being "Good News", would be an offense for many. And that "the way to life is narrow, but broad the way to destruction". Over and over in scripture - both Old and New Testaments - we see God saving a "remnant" from destruction - a relatively tiny number out of the mass of humanity.

But the weakness of Bell's argument is actually a saving point. I said to someone after reading the book, "What Bell proposes is heresy, but I do not think Bell is a heretic." This book is not intended to set a new standard for critical analysis, or preach that anyone who teaches Hell is against Christ. Instead, it is like a late-night college bull session, where a bunch of guys stand around saying "What do you think about THIS?" or "Have you ever thought about THAT?" These discussions are not intended to be the last word on any topic. They're intended to stimulate thinking, bat around ideas, and provide a safe forum to ask questions that no college professor would take seriously. Ultimately, they strengthen the orthodox, by allowing each person to figure out why the heterodox fails for him or herself.

Overall, I do not recommend this book to most readers. It's not a serious discussion that shows both sides of the issue, or even provides a coherent argument for its own side. It is more likely to disturb and weaken than to edify. But if you are someone who enjoys playing with ideas, and are comfortable doing lots of your own research afterwards, it can provide a diverting read.

And be aware, if Pastor Bell does shift from "What if?" to "This is the only way", he will truly have become a heretic.

Microsoft to buy Skype?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is set to acquire VOIP company Skype for almost $8 billion. This would rank as the largest acquisition in the history of Microsoft, bringing to mind their failed bid for Yahoo three years ago.

It is unclear to me what, exactly, Microsoft would be gaining with this purchase. Skype is a great service for video-conferencing and internet telephony, but it is already having problems with profitability and security. And these core technologies are widely available and cheap to deploy without buying the core technology. eBay purchased Skype in 2005, and has found little to do with it since then. Then again, they have also invested relatively little, since then.

Perhaps this will give Microsoft something to compete with Apple's FaceTime and Google's GoogleTalk. Or maybe it is just a landgrab for Skype's millions of users, who can easily and quickly switch providers in a heartbeat.

How do we respond to the death of OBL?

The day after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, I was surprised and saddened to see just how many people not only took no joy in the news - but actually took it upon themselves to condemn anyone who viewed his death as good news. Some were simply killjoys - people who took great pleasure in robbing others of happiness - but some were truly thoughtful people struggling with the situation. Religious leaders were equally split this weekend, as they tried to teach their congregants how to react to death of this mass-murderer.

My own read is simple. It is appropriate to rejoice in justice done - especially for those of us in the NYC area who were closest to 9/11 and knew those who died. But it is also appropriate to mourn at the necessity of killing, and at the fact that he will now never have a chance to repent.

Happy Mother's Day!

All of us here at Mod-Blog want to wish our mothers a VERY happy Mother's Day. (And one JUST as happy to one Mod-Blogger who IS a mother.) We thank you for your love, sacrifice, and for your part in giving us all life.

Is it bad that I have had this same thought?

From Pooch Cafe.

Time for honest introspection

We have celebrated the news of the death of Osama bin Ladin - a man who masterminded the killing of 3,000 innocent Americans, and would liked to have killed far more - and our politicians have basked in the glow of success. The spies who found him, the soldiers who confronted him, and the commanders who organized and approved it all should be lauded.

But it is also time to be honest with ourselves. We must admit the discovery of Public Enemy Number One shows our intelligence capabilities in the Arab world are still inadequate. It has been 10 years since 9/11, and we have now learned that OBL spent six years in the compound where we was ultimately found and killed. Let me repeat that: SIX YEARS. And during all of that time, our best intelligence was that he was living in a cave along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, probably constantly in motion. Instead, he was in a secure mansion, surrounded by family, living comfortably with all of the advantages of a modern life except telephone and internet.

After 9/11/2001, we learned that our intelligence services were hampered by an over-reliance on technology over human assets. We loved our gadgets and our gizmos, but hate doing the hard work of building relationships and developing allies. This discovery appears to indicate that nothing has changed in that vein. OBL understood this weakness and exploited it, by keeping gadgets far away. In the end, he fell because of human intelligence - his courier.

Soon, when all of the ceremonies are done and the medals have been awarded, we need to sit down and take a long, hard look at ourselves. Has anything really improved since 9/11/2001 in the areas of developing human assets in the Arab world by our intelligence agencies? (I doubt it.) Or does this great victory show an even greater weakness, that another enemy can exploit?

Should Bin Laden's Photo be Released?

Should the White House release the photo of Osama Bin Laden taken after his death? The answer must be yes. Many believe that it will be inflammatory to some or that it will be too gruesome for many people to see. While both of these points of view may be correct, they don’t acknowledge the current reality. Eventually, the photo will get out. Whether we like it our not, in the age of Wikileaks and 24 hour news, someone will gain access to the photo(s) and release it to the public. The sooner the photo comes out, the less power it will have. The photo probably won’t do much to convince skeptics and conspiracy theorists that Bin Laden is still alive, since these people wouldn’t be convinced even if they took a scuba diving trip to find his body. But convincing people that he is dead is not really the point. We already know that his wife and some children where there and acknowledge that he is dead. If people don’t believe them, then they will never believe. The real issue is that this will be an example of how America tries to be transparent even when it may not benefit us. Just like a scandal situation, this is a situation that the American government needs to be driving the discussion of, not just reacting to what news organizations and internet groups can dig up.

"Living together" doesn't soothe the pains of divorce

It is almost a truism in my generation - "A couple should live together before they marry to test-drive the relationship." Even among some claiming the cross of Christ, it has become a de facto arrangement for many (the excuse usually being reduced expenses of cohabitation). But ethicists and theologians have warned for years that cohabitation is just like a marriage - without the assurance of actual promises or the protection of law. Now, we have proof in a new study which shows that cohabitating couples who split have all of the same pain and problems of divorcing spouses, but without any of the social or legal protections that married couples have available to them.

"I don't think there's any difference in how I felt after the fact, because it felt like it was a marriage," Emerson says. And when they broke up, "it still felt like it was a divorce."
Cohabiting is a significant emotional attachment, and when you break up, "it's going to hurt a lot," says Scott Stanley, co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver. "By cohabiting vs. marrying, people aren't avoiding that aspect of pain."
And because cohabiting has become so widespread — more than 60% of couples who marry today live together first, studies have found — the number of court battles between former partners and the number of cohabitation agreements have increased during the past five years, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

There's a reason marriage was created - to provide a stable foundation for family, and to protect those willing to give up their own lives for those they love. Modern cohabitation has not improved upon it.

Not exactly funny... but true!

Finally, he's the LATE Osama Bin Laden

Credit where credit is due. The Obama administration has accomplished something that the Bush Administration could never do. They have executed an operation which assassinated Osama Bin Laden. Apparently, the kill has been confirmed via DNA testing, so there is no concern that a lookalike or decoy was eliminated instead.

Bin Laden was located at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was monitored and when the time was determined to be right, the president said, he authorized a "targeted operation."

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation," Obama said. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

...Former President George W. Bush said in a statement tonight that Obama called him to inform him of the news of bin Laden's death.

Bush called the operation a "momentous achievement" that "marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001."

Now, we wait to see if this development (1) demoralizes al-Qaeda around the world, (2) energizes and united them, or (3) has no effect whatsoever.