Blogging Restart: Something Light - Paper Plane Light!

Basic Tech Tips from David Pogue @ NYTimes.com

There's a great article about basic tech tips on David Pogue's Blog at the New York Times. It's a compilation of things that most thorough computer geeks know but the rest of us don't. Here's a sampling below. Click here to read the entire list... It might save you some time some day :)

* You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.

* You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it’s the Command key and plus or minus.

* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.

* Google is also a units-of-measurement and currency converter. Type “teaspoons in 1.3 gallons,” for example, or “euros in 17 dollars.” Click Search to see the answer.

* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).

Scary

New York Times is reporting... Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China

Bloodline the Movie: Da Vinci Code Redux?

Oh brother. Here we go again. Another "Jesus had children with Mary Magdeline and it's the greatest secret ever revealed" movie. I thought we got this out of our system with the Da Vinci Code.

Fortunately, even the mainstream media see through it this time. Here's a funny (and damning) quote from the NYtimes review...

“I’m not an archaeologist or a historian,” the director Bruce Burgess humbly states. “I’m just a filmmaker who is fascinated by the huge implications of this story.” He also seems to be more than a little fascinated with himself.

And here's another funny quote from Mania.com, an entertainment review site...

Perhaps the most saccharine moment of the film came when a forensic artist drew a life image from a photo of the mummified corpse - a female figure, naturally, although the lab at Lakehead has since pointed out that their test did not reveal the gender of the corpse. The Magdalene fans in the audience could be heard sighing their approval, although one seated near me expressed disappointment that the artist made her a brunette instead of a redhead.

Lastly, Mania reports that the movie isn't exactly setting the box office afire...

Bloodline wasn't even the highest ranking new release in the New York theater it premiered in—Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead opened the same weekend at the Village East Cinema, taking in $10,624.00.

Let's hope it continues to die a quiet and quick death.

Dubai Metro Test Run

Bear with me... we're in the final two weeks before traveling for 2 months. Things a little hectic. Here's something interesting to click on in the meantime - a test run video of the new Dubai Metro. The Metro will hopefully relieve some of the traffic problems in Dubai. And boy do we need that! Let's hope the Metro is up and running sooner than they say it will be.

New Dubai Government Website: Islamic Affairs Department

The screenshot below is of the official Dubai website of the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department. This is a government funded department that oversees the propagation of Islam and Islamic activities here. You'll notice interesting things on the website like an English translation of last week's official Friday sermon. Those of you who live here know that the Friday sermons are broadcast over loudspeaker from every mosque but it's in Arabic (except at the Jumeirah Mosque where it's broadcast in English).

A sampling of the last few sermon titles includes "Loving Our Country", "The Value of Work and the Rights of Workers", "Islam's Respect for Health", "Respecting Our Elders", and "The Prophet Mohammad: The Husband and Father".

It's an interesting idea to consider what a predetermined sermon schedule would be like in churches. Imagine if the government dictated what all churches would preach about on any given "Lord's Day". Hard to imagine actually.

I've always wondered if these are the actual sermons preached in every mosque on Friday. I remember hearing from some Muslim friends who visited more remote mosques that the sermons sometimes deviated from the prescribed topic.

On the website you can also find a section on Fatwas (religious rulings), lists of local mosques and the prayer leaders there, help for new muslims, and forms for requesting permission to distribute religious materials.

The website is new and some of the sections don't seem too developed yet. Last year, the old website also included a "dream interpretation service" where you could send in the details of a dream you had and the religious scholars would interpret it for you. I'm not sure why they're not doing that anymore. Check it out though... it's bound to grow and it's interesting.

New BibleGateway Sidebar

If you want to look up a word or specific passage in the Bible you can just scroll down to the BibleGateway sidebar gadget I just installed below. Give it a try!

I also recently added a sidebar which lists books I'm currently reading.

My Experience on G4tv's Attack of the Show

A few weeks back I did an interview on G4tv's Attack of the Show - Global Loop interview segment. It was an interesting experience doing live television via satellite linkup pulling together a guy in Dubai, a guy in Tokyo, and the show production in Los Angeles, California. Click below for a report on how the early morning went for me that day.


Until about one hour before the interview all my communication with the G4tv people had been via email. No voice contact whatsoever. The guy at G4tv had gotten in touch with me via the comments section of this blog.

The show segment was to take place at 4:30pm Pacific Standard Time which is exactly 12 hours behind Dubai time. So that meant I would have to be in place and ready to go with the interview by at least 4:00am Dubai time. Ugh. But I thought the experience interesting enough to try it at least one time.

A week before the show I knew the general topic of the questions they would ask me. Then the night (LA morning time) before the show they tightened up the questions and narrowed them down. They also made a tentative plan for which of us would get which questions. I also didn't know the location of the Dubai studio until a day before the interview. But I had recommended Media City so I knew the general area.

Last minute changes in the show also included the people being interviewed. Originally it was to be a woman in Argentina, a guy in China, and me. But the satellite setup in Argentina didn't work out and the Chinese government put the brakes on the interview from China. So the show ended up being just me and a guy who runs a Gaming website in Tokyo.

I got an email around 9:30pm Dubai time on some final show details and then I went to bed around 11pm. I slept lightly and woke just before the alarm (unfortunately this seems to happen in middle age :) at 3:15am. I got dressed in a blue dress shirt since I had been instructed to not wear anything green as I would be interviewed in front of a "green screen" in the Dubai studio. The green screen is what you actually sit in front of but then the computers are able to superimpose an image behind you so that I would appear in front of say, a picture of the Burj Dubai. They ended up using an Emirates tower/Shiekh Zayed Road backdrop.

I drove down an almost completely empty Zayed Road (never seen it like that!) and was pulling into Media City when my phone rang and I spoke with the Producer of the show. He just wanted to make sure I was on my way and he asked me to feel free to engage in lively discussion during the interview.

I had a little trouble finding the building but eventually parked just outside the CNBC building where I go for McDonalds sometimes. There were two tech-looking guys standing outside the doors when I walked up and they asked me if I was there for the television interview. A little surprised, I said I was and they escorted me up to the 2nd floor studios.

All the newscaster/reporters desks were empty but all the tv's were turned on and CNBC Arabia was running. We walked past the main newscasters desk with cameras in front of it and huge wrap-around screen behind where I imagined they'd be broadcasting from later that day.

They opened the door to a small back room which had several cameras in it and a blank screen behind the single chair in the middle with bright lights shining down on it. An immediate problem presented itself.

The screen was blue not green! My shirt was blue. This meant that anywhere I had blue on would appear transparent or at least translucent on screen. Argh!

The tech guys asked if I had another shirt with me. No, I didn't! Could I go home and get another? No, interview time was in 30 minutes and a fast round trip run back home would take at least 40 minutes. So they began rifling through the dressing room closets of some of the newscasters! A couple of times there was laughter as they pulled out women's clothing and held it up for my consideration and I waved it off with a snide comment and a smirk. Finally, they found a whitish men's dress shirt that came close to fitting me and I quickly put it on and moved toward the camera room.

There was only about 5-10 minutes left as I settled into the interview chair, got my ear plug speaker adjusted (so I could hear the other interview participants and the interviewer) and my microphone set in place on the front of my shirt. The camera height was adjusted as well. The only thing on a tv screen I could see was my own image in front of me and just off to the side of the camera. I realized then that I would not be seeing anything other than the camera that I could fix my eyes on and respond to... no interviewer nor the other interviewees. In addition, the camera man, after he had adjusted the camera height, told me not to look at myself in the monitor next to the camera. This would be difficult not to do as it was a bright colorful image with some movement set just next to the black, round, and "dead-looking" camera lens. I immediately asked if he could turn the monitor so that I couldn't see it and wouldn't be tempted to look at the image as I spoke. He agreed it was a good idea. :)

Then they all left the room! For some reason I had imagined more personal interaction but it wasn't to be. I was there alone in a empty small room and I was supposed to engage in "lively" discussion with people I couldn't see. Pretty weird.

There were some sound transmission problems just before the show was to go on and it took a few confusing discussions between G4 talking in my ear and the Dubai tech guys just in front of me. Eventually they got it worked out and I could hear the tv show audio in my ear in the last 5 minutes before the show. I also met the show's host over the audio feed as well.

There was one moment that has really stuck in my mind since that early morning. With just a few minutes to go before the airing, G4 did a little promo of an upcoming show they're doing on a pornography convention happening sometime soon in the U.S. It seems they regularly report on the adult media industry and they portray it in a positive light. I don't approve of the pornography industry as I think it's only destructive to those who make it and those who consume it. I had second thoughts of being on the show at that point. Since that time I've thought that I would consider doing more "Global Loop" interviews despite G4's coverage of the pornography industry. I'm still mulling this over though and it's weighed on my mind.

Finally, the were a few minutes before the segment was on and it was clear that the audio feed between Tokyo, LA, and Dubai had some significant latency or delay in transmission. Have you ever tried to have a free flowing conversation over an internet connection with a delay? Yeah, it's kind of impossible. But that's what we had and pretty soon there was one last Dubai tech guy in the doorway saying "30 seconds til broadcast..." and then he backed out the door and closed it.

The rest you can see on the embedded video that I posted a few entries earlier. The delay was difficult to deal with and I found myself a couple times talking over the show host and my other interview partner. It made for awkward conversation as I tried without success to interject comments somewhat spontaneously.

At the end the show host thanked us on air and they went to a commercial. The earplug went silent. I sat there for about 15 seconds and then said, "hello?... anybody there?" No one answered. An inauspicious ending.

The Dubai tech guys asked if it went well and I told them I had no idea since I'd not done it ever before. They shrugged and began to lock up and head out the door. I walked toward the door and drove home in the dark as it was still only 5am.

All in all, it was very interesting and I think I'd do it again if it didn't happen too often. I learned that live television is very difficult and multi-site satellite linkups are even more prone to problems. No surprise there.

Later the show producers emailed me and said they thought it went well all things considered and they'd like to try it again in the future. Let's see what happens.

G4tv Global Loop Interview

Well, I appeared on the cable channel G4tv Global Loop interview. It was a very interesting experience and I'll blog about it in the next couple days. But here is the video of the segment. The segment is an international view on pop culture issues that Americans are interested in. Originally it was to be me from Dubai, a guy from China and a girl from Buenos Aeres. But the Argentina situation had technical difficulties and China had government approval problems (communism!). So it ended up being me in Dubai and guy from Tokyo. We had tech difficulties too as you'll see if you watch but in the end I think it came off ok. As I said, I'll blog more later.

International Interview on G4tv

This is the home page of the cable channel G4tv. I'll be interviewed live on one of their best rated shows Tuesday at 4:30pm PST. The show is called Attack of the Show and the segment is called "Global Loop". There will be someone from China, Argentina, and (me!) from Dubai. We'll be commenting on everything from inflight internet service, the shortage of the Nintendo Wii gaming system, to world opinion and popularity of American movies. It should be fun. I've included an embedded link of the last "Global Loop" episode so you can see what it's like. If you're not able to catch the show on air I'll try to post the segment here later.

Article: Fatwas (Islamic religious decrees) and the Internet

This is a fascinating article on the effect the internet has had on Islam and it's practice of issuing religious decrees or "fatwas". Here's the first several paragraphs to the article...

Cairo: The internet, satellite television and even the telephone are increasingly being used in the Muslim world to issue fatwas — religious decrees — on issues as varied as whether women can pluck their eyebrows or good Muslims should read Harry Potter.

A fatwa is a ruling by a recognised Islamic scholar, often on a weighty matter. But the traditional definition is becoming blurred as Muslims turn to Islamic websites and "tele-imams" for advice on how to live their lives.

For example, going online turns up the fatwa on British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, banning reading about the boy wizard because of his ties to witchcraft.

Another says plucking women's eyebrows is "haram," or forbidden, because it alters God's creation. One exception: if the lady's bushy brows displease her husband.

Dubai... of 'Travel Channel' fame

One thing that struck me this summer in the U.S. was how much more known Dubai is these days as compared with when we moved here 5 years ago. Back then people still didn't know where the country was or anything about the culture or landscape. Now it's different largely due to television exposure. Shows and newspaper articles describing the latest construction project or tourist spot have been popping up rapidly over the past couple years and this past year they seem to be everywhere.

As a resident I have mixed feelings about the notoriety. The shows give the impression that I might live in a high priced hotel or hang out at expensive tourist spots regularly. Or they give the impression that Dubai and the UAE are a first world country. It's not true of course. The country has made enormous strides in the past decade but it's just all that the marketing makes it out to be. But perhaps I'm just being defensive because I don't want to be seen as a person who lives in opulent luxury all the time... driving expensive cars, spending half the day at the spa and the other half shopping at upscale stores.

As I reflect on these things it reminds me of how much the media shapes how we think about other places and peoples in the world. And unless you've been there yourself it's difficult to get an idea of what places are like. But it does remind me to be careful and thoughtful as I watch or read popular media. Everything isn't all that it seems to be when it's coming through the television.

For Texting Teens, an OMG Moment When the Phone Bill Arrives - washingtonpost.com

Fascinating story at the Washington Post today on texting and teens. Having arrived in Dubai 5 years ago and working with my church's youth group have perhaps given me a earlier entre' into the world of texting than my Western counterparts.

For Texting Teens, an OMG Moment When the Phone Bill Arrives - washingtonpost.com:

"Teenagers elsewhere in the world have been texting furiously for years, using the cheap technology to evade government controls on dating in Saudi Arabia and to foment revolution in the Philippines. Now that texting has exploded in America, it's regarded as one of the current teen generation's inexplicable behaviors, like instant-messaging or spending hours on Facebook.

'What we have to see is that connections are very different than when we were growing up,' said Lilli Friedland, a Los Angeles psychologist who also does consulting for the entertainment industry. Text-messaging, she said, is how kids feel comfortable communicating today. Think it, text it, keep it short, have to have it."

As with any other type of technology, too much or misapplication of it can lead astray. But I personally like texting for lots of situations. It's quick and effective often. On my recent business trip to Jordan I could text back to Dubai and feel in touch with lots of people at a lower cost than a voice call and with less of a time commitment.

One of the questions of texting though is how it effects the quality of relationship you would have with another person. I believe that at some point, loving another person requires being there. Paul, in the New Testament, wrote many letters to congregations he couldn't physically be with (often because he was in prison or traveling in far off places). It was better than not writing, but even he mentions many times in his writings that he longs to be with them.

The article touches on this idea:

Friedland, the psychologist, says texting is different from the marathon phone calls most parents remember making as teens because it's typically done with a large group of friends. "For many of them, it is the sense of being part of a group that is really important," she said. What she worries about is that children aren't getting the "cleaner, deeper sense of friendship and relatedness" that came from talking to someone directly, even on the phone.

"We just don't know yet what the impact will be," she said.

Rubenstein can text without even looking at the keypad and responds within seconds, although the conversation tends to be about nothing especially important.

Being there physically is better than writing, whether it's on a mobile phone keypad or with quill and parchment. Still, texting is here to stay (until a superior technology supplants it) and so I'll use it to stay in touch and perhaps as a bridge to fill the gaps between face to face meetings with people where I can really communicate the love of Christ.

Does your dog love you? Watch his tail.

Odd/Interesting article in the NYTimes on what your dog's wagging tail can tell you about brain activity.

I stood over my dog and tried to gauge the angle of deflection to see if he really loves me or is afraid of me. I couldn't tell a difference between the wag to the right and the wag to the left. Looks like I'll need a stop-motion camera setup to determine this as per the article.

But I know he loves me. I feed him :)

Tracing Your Family Tree... Online

I'm not very good at remembering family stories and histories. But I've always wanted to have it recorded so that I could look at it and learn anytime I wanted. That takes a lot of time though and now that I live on the other side of the planet from my family it seemed even more remote that I could make it happen.

Then I found Geni.com.

It's an amazing (and free) website where, after registering, you begin by putting in the most basic of your family tree. I started with myself, my wife, my kids, my parents, her parents, then my sister, and finally her sisters. Each time you enter someone in the tree you can invite them via email to join in the task of adding to the family tree. Everyone can add pictures and each person has a profile they can fill out too that others can view.

I set this up in December. No activity took place for a month or so. Then family members began to join up and started adding to the tree. In February the tree was up to maybe 100 members or so... and growing. By early April it was up to almost 250 family members in the tree. Then, in two days, the tree went to almost 500! Incredible.

Today I checked and the tree has 556 family members in it.

It's an novel use of the internet. Now and then I go into it and learn about distant family members who've uploaded pictures and information about themselves.

For my Muslim friends from Arabia and elsewhere, the staff at Geni.com are trying to implement it in different languages and include features that take into account things like multiple wives. I encourage you all... give it a try!

Below is an example screenshot from my family tree.

Making fun of Facebook

Online Videos by Veoh.com
I recently got onto facebook.com. This is hilarious.

Out of Commission for a Few Days

I had a busy last few days leading a big seminar. And I had anticipated being back to blogging today but I woke up to a dead harddrive on my laptop. I will be out of commission for a few days while I try to bring it back to life.

And a brief encouragement for all my readers: If you haven't backed up your harddrive data recently you should take the time to do it :)

Tech Tip: Using Google Reader

Would you like to be able to quickly scan headlines from a number of websites across the internet? Do you know of a handful of blogs that you'd like to easily keep track of?

Google News Reader can do this for you easily. Google news reader is a webpage run by Google where you can add the web addresses of multiple sites and then see them quickly and easily... choosing to skip the ones that don't look interesting and choosing to investigate the ones that do.

Here are some quick steps to get up and running with it...

1. You need a Google account. If you've got a gmail account then it's likely this is your Google account login. Go to the Google home page and click in the upper right hand corner on "My Account". Follow the directions to set up the account. No money or big commitment necessary.

2. Go back to your Google homepage at Google.com and click on the "more" link just above the Google search entry box. You should then see a page of all of Google's offerings. Click on "Google Labs".

3. Here you'll find another list of Google's offerings. Look for Google Reader and click on it.

4. To tell Reader to track a website or blog you'll need to click on add subscription in the left column. It is on a green background. A pop up box will open and you can enter the address of the webpage/blog. Why don't you try and enter my blog (you can delete it later if you'd like). http://padandpen.blogspot.com ...

For others I like to navigate to the sites I want to track, copy the address in my browser address bar and finally paste it into the "add subscription" popup box. If the site has some kind of rss feed (it pushes or announces it's headlines and content out to the internet) then Google Reader will pick it up and you'll see all the headlines from the website/blog.

5. You can also create folders for different categories of sites... i.e. News, Sports, Religious, Etc.

6. Lastly, I recommend that you bookmark your Google Reader page so you can easily visit it and see the headlines and lead-in content from all the sites you've told it to track.

7. There is a lot more that Google Reader will do and you can explore them in the Google Reader tutorial and help pages.

Let me know if this is a helpful guide if you've tried to follow it.

World Championship Tennis in Dubai

Federer after the win... (sorry camera on phone is a little blurry)

Federer on the left and Djokovic on the right

I got to attend the Dubai Championship Tennis Tournament last night and watch Roger Federer (current world rank #1) barely get past a 19 year old Serb named Novak Djokovic. It was a great match and it was particularly interesting to see the technology called "Hawkeye" employed.

I think players had 2 challenges per game or set (not sure which). When they suspected a ball was not called out/in correctly then they could signal the umpire. Then everyone in the stadium would watch as the course of the ball was simulated on the large screen and the place where the ball had landed was indicated. The video would zoom in to indicate whether some of the ball had indeed clipped the line to be called "in" or whether it had, in fact, fallen outside the line.

The second set was decided on a "hawkeye" challenge. It was a tie breaker and the supposed winner was called "in" for Federer. But the replay showed it was out and so the tie break went on and the Serb won it!

Selected News, Views, and Info

I've added a nifty sidebar item today. It features news, views, tech, and miscellaneous items that I've decided to share with you from "around" the internet. If I see a news item that I think is interesting or I think might pique your interest it will show up in the sidebar as a headline and it will also show the source. For you tech-interested, this is all made possible by Google Reader. Reader is an rss aggregator that anyone with internet access can use. Tomorrow I'll tell you how to use it (and why you might want to... for those who have no idea what an 'rss aggregator' is :)