A loud and long Sunday night

We've had a typically busy Sunday for our time in Mexico. The typical church service followed by VBS planning so that things can move along nicely during the week. It was pretty normal for the remainder of the afternoon, lunch immediately following arrival back at the hotel, followed by a puppet meeting followed by music, followed by a group meeting where we exchange names for prayer partners and make final announcemnts for how Monday will be for the first day of VBS.

A little different was a dinner buffet (because the hotel didn't and in my opionion kind of still doesn't have their act together) that included desert. Desert after dinner in mexico was a bit different, but certainly not bad and certainly not longer than usual.

The strange part came when it was time for the film. We arrived at the church about 7:50, fairly normal for a sunday. They already had the music roaring and were planning on starting the film inside the church at 8pm! This was wierd, standing outside the church waiting was a different experience in the day light. Even more so, we were'nt able to do music because the church has already settled with their music and there just wasn't time for us to do anything before they planned to begin the film.

But then it gets loud. really realy loud. Apparently, a neighbor of the church was either nearly deaf, had a bone to pick with the church, or just had a need to be obnoxious. He had had both speakers of his sound system facing out of his front window, toward the church at as high a volume as possible without having the sound be totally distorted. This went on pretty much all night long. It was difficult, for two reasons... 1.) Really frustrating to have someone act in such a belligerent manner and 2.) really hard on the ears. Hard to think... hard to hear and to be honest I really feel a bit dizzy from the whole thing.

Anyway, we finished up the film and headed home and we were back at the hotel by an early 10:00. Now it's time to get ready for another full day of interesting sights, sounds, people and hopefully fun.

P.S. See my previous entry for a link to my Flickr Mexico 2006 photoset.

Mexico 2006

Arrival and Day 1 in Mexico! I'll be posting pics to flickr as I have a chance to come back to the hotel and download.

Go here to view the mexico 2006 photo set, where I'll posting all my images.

Photos: Airships on the fly | CNET News.com

Photos: Airships on the fly | CNET News.com

I've always been fascinated by the idea of taking a zeppelin ride anywhere. Like a cruise, only in the air instead. Visually more interesting and faster. Take a look at all the evolving ideas that surround the resurgence of Airships.

The Top 10 weirdest keyboards ever - Fosfor Gadgets

The Top 10 weirdest keyboards ever - Fosfor Gadgets

If you're in the market for a new keyboard, check these out. My personal favorite is the laser projected keyboard. I think we will see more like this in the future. The most difficult thing about this keyboard is that absence of tactile feel when typing, but that's only because weve become so used to tapping a key. Most sci-fi keyboards you see deal with tapping on a window of some kind, so this doesn't really seem to far out there.

The other keyboard that interests me is the frogpad. I actually found myself searching for all the letters of the alphabet on the keyboard. I can see a good application of this keyboard on aircraft. The new model Airbus has a glass cockpit with a joystick instead of a flight yoke to make room for a keyboard. If you used a frogpad, you wouldn't need to do this because you would only need one had to do the typing (this could also work well for a fighter jet also).

Most of the other incarnations of the keyboard we know deal with ergonomic designs for those who are having trouble with a repetetive stress disorder or disability. Here's to hoping it won't come to that for me sometime in the future.

digg - Submit Item

Oracle tried to acquire open-source database maker MySQL. I don't belive it, I think Oracle is trying to take out a competitor. The article, however, discusses how this is "an indication of the profound changes the software giant is willing to make as it adapts to the increasingly significant collaborative programming philosophy"

read more | digg story

Windows .wmf Vulnerability - Patch

Windows WMF vulnerability temporary patch

If you haven't heard about this and you are browsing the web right now, click the link above to get the patch for the recent 0-day .wmf windows vulnerability.

Star of Bethlehem

My brother and father recently attended a presentation about the "Star of Bethlehem". In this presentation, Rick Larson gives profound discussion and evidence to support that not only was there unique astrological events surround the birth of Jesus Christ, but also surrounding his death. These astrological events are impressively presented and using documentation from other facts Rick is able to present an astounding case that you cannot simply deny at face value.

The simple way to foil identity theft

Fingerprints... yeah, low tech, simple, easy. This guys adds a statement to his credit report stating that extending credit will require a thumbprint for authorization.

This is so effective, because anyone fraudulently using his identity, will have to reveal their identity by submitting their fingerprint. This is great!

read more | digg story

EFF: A Spotters' Guide to XCP and SunnComm's MediaMax

If you've bought any CDs in the last year you might want to check out this list. If you've played any of the cds listed in your computer, your in for a good time... not! They say the list is not 100% complete, so they included some pictures with cds that are nasty. If you see the label they show, do not play it in your computer. The nasty stuff it installs is nearly impossible to remove, and even after you remove good luck keeping your windows machine up and running for any period of time without crashing.

Official Google Blog: First Base

Ok, so here it is... Google is now taking on Craig's List. So, watch your back craig.

I admit that the technology behind craigslist is not the programming that makes it work, it's the idea. Replicating the functionality shouldn't be too difficult. I do wonder, wouldn't it have made more sense to just buy craiglists, rather than try to compete with it. Google or no google, I guess we'll just have to watch and wait.