Monthly Archives: February 2008

iPhone scriptures (and more)

Posted by on February 25, 2008 2 comments

I’ve reviewed the iPhone in the past and although I love the device, it has it’s problems and I have my pet peeves.  One of the cons I mentioned in my review was a lack of third-party applictions.  And although I am waiting with baited breath for the iPhone SDK (promised by end of February), which will bring third-party apps, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the online applications inspired by the iPhone.

Within the first few days oh having my iPhone, I went looking for the scriptures online.  But not just the scriptures. I wanted something that was optimized for the iPhone so I wasn’t waiting for several minutes in Church for a verse to load.  I found a decent application at MountainMighty.com ScripturesApp.com.  This little site provides not only a the scriptures formatted for the iPhone, but handy tools like bookmarks, community bookmarks and searching.  Just recently though, they outdid themselves by adding the current Elder’s Quorum and Relief Society lesson manual as well as the words to the hymns.  I’ve been wanting the hymns for a while and although the manual is available on lds.org it’s much more bulky and hard to navigate.  So thank you Chuck!

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First WordPress Template… kinda

Posted by on February 23, 2008 No comments

Myblog 1.0 ScreenshotI use WordPress for my blogging software.  WordPress is an incredibly popular software package (it’s open-source and free) and thus it has lots of contributions of free templates/themes.  These themes provide the look and layout of the blog site. I recently decided that I didn’t like the look of my blog.

So I looked at a lot of free themes out there and found one that I kind of liked.  But it only had two columns and I like a three column layout.  So intead of looking for a different theme, I decided I would simply add a third column.  I didn’t realize it would be as complicated as it was.  Four hours later, I finished what you now see.  The side-bars are all fully “widgetized.”  Which means you can move around and order the different WordPress widgets to get the functionality you want.

So not really a new template, but I reworked a lot of the theme (except for the colors, etc).  Let me know what you think.

The war is over! Blu-ray Wins!

Posted by on February 20, 2008 No comments

crave.cnet.com's version of a cartoonI recently wrote an article about the High Definition DVD format war.  Well, the war is over.  Yesterday, Toshiba (the creator of the HD-DVD format) announced it would cease production of HD-DVD technology.

So what does this mean for you?  Probably still nothing.  Should you rush out and buy a Blu-ray player?  Nope.  Prices are still way to high.  The cheapest Blu-ray players are still over $400 with the exception of an announced player from Funai for “less than $300″.  And in reality, the Sony Playstation 3 is probably the best bang for your buck in Blu-ray players.  Not only is it a top-quality player, but it also plays lots of amazing games (if you are into gaming).

I consider myself a bit of a technology geek.  I’m not the type that has to be the first to have new technology, but I consider myself an early adopter.  Although my main DVD player is on the fritz right now, I am going to hold off on a Blu-ray player.  Once they get below $250, I might consider a purchase.  Until then, the 480p resolution from standard DVD is going to have to suffice.

Life After People – The History Channel

Posted by on February 18, 2008 3 comments

History ChannelWhile flipping through channels today, I noticed a miniseries by The History Channel called “Life After People.“  They had been running some ads over the past several weeks with an interesting line that went something like this… Welcome to Earth: Population 0.

It intrigued me and so I flipped to it. After just a few minutes into it, I realized that the show wasn’t all scientific, but was almost all political.  And it was just a human race bash.  I didn’t watch much, but the 10 minutes I did watch were rather disappointing and more to the point — disturbing.

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Google adds Greater Salt Lake Area to Street View

Posted by on February 16, 2008 No comments

Ratchet up the stocker fears.  Google has just released Street View for Salt Lake (including Utah and Davis Counties).

Some of you may recognize the following locations.  I’ll post about the fears and privacy concerns later.

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Interesting Factoid: Humber Bridge

Posted by on February 11, 2008 6 comments

Humber BridgeJust and interesting fact about the Humber Bridge in England — The perfectly vertical towers are actually 36mm further apart at the top than they are at the bottom, due to the curvature of the earth!  You gotta admit.  That is cool!

Thanks GoogleSightseeing.com

Utah Legislature Bigotry

Posted by on February 4, 2008 2 comments

A new law is currently being pushed through the Utah Legislature that will seriously hurt the people of the State of Utah. Among other things, SB81 would make it illegal for an employer to fire a citizen if an undocumented worker is performing the same responsibilities.  WOW!  Let’s all say it together — discrimination!

I’m so tired of the immigration debate.  Actually, I’m not tired of the debate, I’m tired of the lack of substance on the side of the “anti-immigration movement.”  I like to call it the bigotry movement.  I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day about this and realized that there are so many people blinded by “illegal is illegal” argument.  I totally agree that what they are doing is illegal.  But so was so much of the Civil Rights Movement.

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