You may have noticed a lot of sites on the web went “black” today.  If you tired to find something on Wikipedia you were met with a black screen telling you that the internet must remain free.  I’ve talked to many people that have no idea what this is talking about.  Someone told me today, “The Internet isn’t free, I pay for it with my cable bill.”  I had to explain that what this bill was talking about was the freedom to post and share what you want on the internet.  At the heart of the matter is piracy, or the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials on the internet.  That’s where SOPA comes from, Stop Online Piracy Act. Now, I need to say upfront, that I’m not in favor of piracy.  People that create the movies, music, and books that we enjoy deserve to be paid for what they create (even the ones we don’t enjoy deserve it too).  But where SOPA goes a little off track is that it doesn’t really accomplish what it says it wants to do.

I’d love to be able to explain it all in a way that makes the issue perfectly clear, but it’s complicated and there are people smarter than me that have already set out to do that. So if you’d like to know more about the issues that people have with SOPA or why people say it will “break” the internet, watch these videos.  I thought they did a great job laying out the issue.  Once you know the background and the how things work, you can decide for your self what you think.

Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Kahn Academy – SOPA and PIPA

What do you think?

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Try these 5 actions for a week and see if the temperature in your home doesn’t change a little. Plus, even if your relational temperature is “fine,” these ideas may make it even better.

1. Leave the phone in the car:when you come home from work it’s too simple to get lost in texting, checking, and reading from the phone. You won’t be distracted when the phone left in the car. More time to focus on real people.

2. Shut the laptop: It’s too easy to come home and “get lost” in the computer that’s always on and calling your attention (blogs, email, Quicken, etc…). Turn it off and see if you can turn on some dialogue and/or focus on others.

3. Show up on time: If you tell your spouse that you’ll be home by 6pm… get home. Not 6:30…not even 6:05. If you make a commitment to a loved one, honor it. It’s amazing what simple actions will communicate about love and respect.

4. Turn it off ½ the time: I’m not asking you to become Amish and ditch all TV, I’m suggesting you cut your viewing time in half. Instead of the easy default of turning on the TV, cut it in half and spend that extra time engaged with others.

5. Leave a short note: Emphasis on “short”… I’m not suggesting 2 pages, typed out, double-spaced. What if you left your spouse and/or child a short note every day for a week? Short words of affection and encouragement can be powerful. And, if it’s not a regular practice, these notes will become treasures.

What are some of the other little things could we tweak that would make a big impact on our families and marriages?

Read Doug’s entire post HERE.

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1. MacBook Air - I love this little computer.  Great for travel, and super fast.

2. Sticky Faith - These books have really made me think a lot about youth ministry and being a parent.  I highly recommend them. Plus check out StickyFaith.org for more insights in their articles and blog.

3. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – I found this book to be a difficult read.  He could be so harsh with people.  It really made me think about leadership, success, and family from someone who did great things, but failed at so much too.

4. iPad 2  - This continues to be a device that changes the way I interact with content.  I love it.

5. Kindle Fire - You probably didn’t expect to see this after I listed the iPad, but it’s a different device for me.  It’s a great reader that also does some tablet functions.  Plus, I love that there’s someone pushing the iPad to be better.

6. YSnetwork - This one is personal, but we launched it this fall at YS (where I work).  It’s a great way to connect with other youth workers, join a network or build your own.  It’s free to join, and if you sign up join the Youth Ministry Geek network to stay connected.

7. Flipboard - This is probably the app I use the most, and with the addition of the iPhone version a month ago, I just use it even more.  It’s by far my favorite news reader.

8. GoPro - I got one of these cameras to take on our vacation to Hawaii this year, and it’s so much fun.  We use it under water, on water slides, in the pool, the beach, on the trampoline.  It’s a great camera to take when you don’t want to risk you full size, expensive one.  Sure it has it’s limitations, but you get an amazing picture that can go anywhere.  It’s my Flip Camera replacement.

9.Timbuk2 Control Laptop Case - After about 7 years, my old shoulder bag finally wore out. This was my replacement.  Things I love about it: separate sleeves for laptop and ipad, TSA compliant so I don’t have to take my laptop out, not too big, but big enough.

10. Tech News Today -  I love podcasts and increasingly over the last year, this has been my #1 to go to.  It’s about 45 minutes every week day covering the lastest in the world of technology.  Entertaining and informative, perfect for this geek.

What were you’re favorites from the last year?

No related posts.

ht Brandon Early

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Adobe Indesign CS5

Having done all of my publications in Microsoft Publisher over the years the switch to InDesign was fabulous!  In an effort to keep users from messing up, Publisher limits the ability to manipulate the document however you want. While this is not a problem most of the time, there are moments when it becomes quite bothersome. Publisher often gives me grief when I have images layered one on top of the other. InDesign has been a breath of fresh air. The program offers so much control over the document. The learning curve is steep at first but you catch on. I highly recommend this software if you want to step up the quality of your publications

Color Scheme Designer (colorschemedesigner.com)

Creating a professional looking publication means you don’t need to guess about your color scheme. While most of us can “eye-ball” a good color, this web app takes all of the guess work out. Plus, the app allows you to choose between monochromatic, complementary, analogous, split complementary and every other scheme you can imagine! I found this one late in the year but it has quickly become a go-to app.Samsung PX2370 LED Monitor:

I purchased this monitor at the beginning of the year and I have enjoyed every minute in front of it (well, maybe not every minute). The LED backlighting and 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio makes for a crisp display. Once again, if you want a top notch publication you need to create it on a display you can trust.

Screencast-O-Matic

When we built our discipleship website for our church members to register an account on we created a screen cast video to walk them through the registration (basically a video that captures everything happening on your computer screen). The software we used cost a pretty penny. Well, just the other week I found Screencast-O-Matic! It has 95% of the features as the expensive program but only costs $12 a year to use. I am amazed at what we are doing with web apps now, and this one is one of the most impressive I have seen yet!

Ethics for a Brave New World:

I took an ethics course this semester and this was one of our main texts. The title plays off of the famous work by Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. It’s a massive work (close to 1000 pages), but boy does it cover a load of pertinent topics. The Feinberg’s set out to give evangelical views on issues ranging from abortion to just war theory. If you want to give yourself a kick in the pants, pick up a copy and begin working your way through it.

Well, it’s Christmas eve when I am writing this and I am wicked tired and ready for Santa to get here! Hope 2012 treat you all well, and I hope all your techie dreams come true.

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Blue Microphone Yeti Pro. This guy does it all. With both USB and XLR hookups, 4 polar patterns to choose from, 24bit recording (4x better quality than CD) and an on-board headphone jack for zero latency monitoring, this could be the perfect podcasting mic.

And if you want the best sounding of podcasts you need to run XLR into an interface like this one. The Presonus Audiobox 22VSL is a champ for on the go recording. All the power is supplied through the USB bus, plus it comes with Presonus’ Studio One recording software so you can say goodbye to Audacity (I actually love Audacity for what it is).

In my opinion Timbuk2 makes the most amazing backpacks in the world. Rugged, spacious for their size, and fabulous for commuting, their packs outstrip the competition. Here is one of their latest models called the Q.

Give your iPhone the credentials it deserves! With one of these covers you can choose between Engineering (red, not shown), Science (blue), or Commanding Officer (yellow). Though it looks great I don’t think I will be “red-shirting” my iPhone.

Hope you all have a wonderfully geeky Christmas. December/January is gonna rock here in Charlotte- Christmas followed by YSpalooza. Can’t wait!

No related posts.

If you need a few more try these Digital Nativity and Mr Bean.

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After hearing about this, one of our students immediately went and broke the record for number of times saying “pretty” before “good” in one breath.  He was beaten soon after by a girl from Canada, but rest assured that he considered it a matter of national pride to get this  record back in American hands!

So, we hosted a world record event and set a bunch of great ones that are being verified as I type.  As a fun promo for the event our staff broke several records including my own world record:

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It’s been a month since this feature has gone live, but I am just now getting to reviewing it: GMail’s multi-account login. It is the perfect feature for those that have two or more GMail accounts that they actively use. I have been running three different accounts, personal, business, and 78P’s, and this feature has removed frustration and mistakes when emailing. Here is a quick How-To in setting it up.

• Sign in to one of your Gmail accounts.
• Go to the top right-hand corner of the page where it says the address@clubbeyond.org and click “Account Settings.”
• Look to the right side of the page at the end of the list, where it will say “Multiple sign in – off” and click “Edit.”
• Click the “on” option and click all the boxes, then hit “Save.”
• Go back to the “Mail” tab and go again to the top right-hand corner where it says the address of the account you’re logged in as.
• Click that and select “Switch Accounts” and click “Sign in to another account”. It will tell you that the second account will be enabled for multiple sign-in.
• Whenever you want to switch between the two, click the arrow in the upper right-hand corner again and select “Switch Accounts”, then click the other account you want to switch to.

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