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Substance and Style: Strange Bedfellows? January 17, 2007

Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Communication, Computers, Knowledge Workers, Language, Mac vs PC, Macintosh, Management, Science & Technology, Technical Writing, Technology, Windows, Writing.
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Oddly enough, those of us who are highly technology centered frequently forget that most of the rest of the world is not. As a result, the truly geeky among us probably don’t use HTML e-mail, use plain text instead of a fancy font when building a to-do list, and probably don’t worry a bit about how our PC looks. The rest of the world, however, seems to want technology to be visually appealing and esthetically pleasing.

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Mercedes is famous for describing its cars with the slogan: “Form follows function.” However, anyone who’s looked at any Mercedes for more than a moment would realize that these cars embody a certain style as well. Does this minimalist approach extend elsewhere? Is it ridiculous to expect style and substance to co-exist, or does the very presence of style suggest that there is no substance? (more…)

Gospel DRM? January 16, 2007

Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Church, Communication, DRM, Religion, Religion, Philosophy, and Science, Security, Theology.
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Monday night, several friends from church were talking about church growth, technology, and other issues, and one of them mentioned Napster and people stealing content. One of the industry responses to this is Digital Rights Management, or “DRM.” Lots of tech people hate DRM, for various reasons, but a common mantra is “information wants to be free.”

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Thank You Rush Limbaugh & Al Franken January 14, 2007

Posted by TimTheFoolMan in anger, Blogging, Communication, hate, hate speech, Politics, Race and Prejudice, Stupidity.
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This past week, in a public middle school in a the Midwestern United States, two young men sat next to each other. They were African-American and an Asian, but other than the nature of their remarks, they could have been of any race or gender. They had a conversation that went like this:

“Why don’t you go make me some shoes, or maybe an X-Box?”

“Why don’t you go pick some cotton?”

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These young men are in the 7th grade, in a school system that has been racially integrated (via system-wide busing) since 1975. Sadly, this kind of exchange is not that unusual. (more…)

iPhone vs PPC-6700 January 10, 2007

Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Communication, Computers, iPhone, Music, PPC-6700, smartphone, Technology.
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Yes, I know the iPhone is six months away from shipping. Even so, Steve Jobs’ keynote address at Macworld yesterday has already shaken up the phone industry (the three largest manufacturers of “smart phones” all saw stock drops of 2-8% yesterday, while Apple went up 8%).

iPhone vs ppc-6700

Until June, few outside of Apple, Cingular, and the FCC will have any “real world” experience with the iPhone, but in watching the presentation yesterday, I noted several ways that this product addresses serious shortcomings in the PPC-6700, my current phone. Since much of the “so what… big deal” talk that’s coming out in response to the iPhone surrounds some of the touch-screen features, and since many of the “oohhhh… ahhhh” features of the iPhone were prime selling points for the PPC-6700, it seems reasonable to compare these two devices directly, far more than any other “smart phone” that I’ve seen on the market.

Lastly, since the price-points are very close ($499-599), the iPhone is clearly aiming at the same market. Instead of posting in the usual way, where I’ll work on an article for several days (a few minutes at a time, I’m writing and editing this as I go. I’ll break this apart using the feature sets that Jobs used yesterday during the keynote, and then close out with what I feel truly sets the iPhone apart. (more…)

Grace, Delivered by a Child November 25, 2006

Posted by TimTheFoolMan in anger, Communication, Discipline, Family, Football, Love, Parenting/Children, Self-Worth, Sports, Stupidity.
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Grace.

It’s a simple word, and one that takes on a variety of meanings in today’s culture. For instance, we may “say grace” or say that someone “exhibits a certain grace” when they move.

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Or, we might experience the strange wonder of undeserved forgiveness. This is what the Apostle Paul talks about in the New Testament book of Romans. Typically, parents expect to be the “givers of grace.” A more amazing grace is that which can be delivered by your child. (more…)