I read an article in Wired this morning about the Boy Scouts of America. First, it made me reminisce about my own personal scouting experiences, but then I started to reflect that one of the biggest things I got from scouting was the importance of living a principled centered life. No, don’t get me wrong, I was never the best behaved child in my family … I made mistakes and wandered from the path my parents had outlined for me.
What happened later in life is that I saw my mistakes and started to correct for them. This led me back to the Scout Law [A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent] and living to bring those principles into my life and making myself a better person. I learned next about ‘Beginning with the End in Mind’ from Dr. Stephen Covey; and I learned, through time, that Christ and HIS teachings focused on a principle centered life. It really made me think and expand my thinking about how I lived and what I wanted in my life.
I thought about the people that I respected the most and those that I looked up to. I thought about my own life and realized that Thomas Jefferson was right, “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock”.
The best life is one that is built upon a framework of principles.
iron wil
A friend recently published a book about adoption.
The Gathering
one family’s adoption story
by Annie Laurie & Brian Richardson
“Daddy, please send mommy to find me!
After years of gut-wrenching struggles, almost a half a million in adoption expenses, months of separation, hours and hours of pleading prayers on our knees and silently in our hearts, this was it, and there she was.
The Gathering is the account of an incredibly courageous woman. The Gathering is the story of a mother, with the support of her husband and children, who searched for her missing children in the jungles of the Marshal Islands, the poverty-choked country of Vietnam, and the corrupt country of Haiti. The Gathering is a story of a family that fought and struggled to find their children in the U.S. through private adoptions and state foster-care systems. The Gathering is an incredible story of faith, hope, and miracles.
This is their story.”
Get the book here.
iron wil
I recently downloaded Touch Mouse [Free] & Air Mouse Pro [1.99$] from the App Store trying to avoid buying the new Logitech Performance Mouse MX with the Darkfield Laser.
But so far, failure.
I have used both of these Apps on my iPhone and they are nice on the couch and I will probably set them up with the iMac and use that when we are watching TV shows or movies from the couch. It is not a great tool for sitting and working with my MacBook like I would a mouse.
I have to say that for a standard mouse replacement this blows … big time!!!
I think that it will only fit that remote use like the Mac Mini I keep thinking about for my media center.
iron wil
For starters, I have to say that I am amazed!
I can see replacing my 13″ MacBook with the iPad and using my iMac to do the heavy lifting. I can see using Dropbox and Evernote even more. I can see converting all my current OOo [OpenOffice] documents to iWork which means that it easily justifies the expense [not that I consider iWork expensive]. In fact, I think that I could buy 1 iPad for each of my family members and then set up accounts on our iMac as the kids get older. This would allow my boys to each have one for online games and Apps and their own music selections.
While my personal transition to eBooks has been slow, this may entice me to make that move. I am using Stanza on my iPhone & it isn’t really a compelling experience. I also don’t have a lot of reading time and find that Audible is a better resource for me right now. I hope that this iBook software allows for marking and notes because that would be a big failure right out of the gate if it wasn’t included. I hope that Amazon gets on board like Audible has with Audiobooks available via iTunes; especially if they can keep the books at the low cost they already are for Kindle owners.
I think this beats the NetBook model hands down even if it isn’t quite what I thought it would end up being. Now, a few weeks ago I published my own predictions for the iPad.
I predicted that Apple would release a multi-touch device similar to the JooJoo [aka CrunchPad] that ran Apps, eBooks, with WiFi/3G, iTunes, a built in battery, Lala, and the content aspects of the Sports Illustrated Tablet demo. I was right on some items and we could still see Lala become part of the service package MobileMe [I was not the first to suggest this]. I will admit that I am still blown away. I love the device and look forward to heading into town in 60 Days and testing one out. I think I will have to get a sitter & take the wife to a movie to justify the whole thing.
I know that many people will not get it until they see others using it and that I can understand. It was the same way with the Kindle and other devices. I didn’t get the iPod until I owned one. Yeah, until I owned one and then I felt dumb because I had not invested in it before then. It was a mind blowing music experience and since then, I have bought a couple dozen albums.
New Prediction, iSlate with Inkwell for writing with a finger or 3rd party stylus. This will be more like the Axiotron ModBook. It will be slide between the iPad and MacBook.
iron wil
Every now and then I come across something that is totally hilarious. If you are any bit geeky, you need to see this!
A few favorites:
- When Bruce Schneier observes a quantum particle, it remains in the same state until he has finished observing it.
- Bruce Schneier can see SHA-256 collisions by holding a hash up to a mirror and crossing his eyes.
- Santa Clause doesn’t know if Bruce Schneier has been good or bad.
- Bruce Schneier can break elliptic curve cryptography by bending it to a circle.
- If Bruce Schneier wants your plaintext, he’ll just squeeze it out of the ciphertext using his barehands.
I don’t know if this is on the road map for Netflix or not; but I would hope that they are building up enough streaming customers to make it a negotiable item for them.
I would love to watch new release movies in my living room on opening weekend in my home. I would be willing to pay 20$ for this. My own snacks, a pause button, my couch, being able to sit and watch a new movie in my home! That would rock! Think about it the Studios could take most of that [90%/10%] and make much more than I am guessing they do through the current movie theater system.
Of course, if I like a movie enough, I may then go see it in the theater for that huge screen or to see it in 3D. I am just saying … how about it Hollywood!?!
iron wil
I always check the Astronomy Picture of the Day because NASA puts up some amazing ‘photos’ of the universe around us. Today there is a Google Earth/Universe video showing size and scale it is 6 minutes long and pretty cool. See it here.
iron wil
