Presented with a choice of shipping it off for at least 2 weeks and some probably-not-insignificant freight costs (the device in question was under warranty but a parallel import from the US), the best option was, of course, to crack the thing open.

YouTube evidence of the (highly successful) insanity follows:

I’ve been using it reliably for about a week now and can say confidently that no damage was done! In fact, it’s actually sounding better, too.

Not only did the USB port coming loose stop data from flowing, it also caused grounding issues and introduced some hum/other noise when it was incorrectly positioned. The new USB port has not only stopped the device from spontaneously disconnecting, it’s also improved the quality of the audio recorded. Brilliant.

This was the first time I ever encountered this face-detection feature, and it just so happened Facebook picked a particularly poor photo to introduce it with!

Clearly they’ve started using a face-detection algorithm to pinpoint probable candidates for tagging — unfortunately, the algorithm is easily fooled by V for Vendetta masks. The photo in question features four friends and we have no idea who is whom — it was a few years ago and we’re all identically clothed!

Nice one, Facebook!

Just bought a cheapie compact digital (well, next to the Nikons I usually chuck around) to do some low effort filming with and decided to (literally) take it for a drive. Titles and speed are the only changes I’ve made to the footage apart from the fact it’s only PAL widescreen.

The camera did okay, but for the slight inability to focus a lot of the time (and forget manual focus, this is a strictly for-dummies camera) — no vertical flaring or other weirdness that has plagued many a digital still camera in the past.

For me, it was a toss up between jello-vision D90 land and getting a compact digital that would do HD (1080/50i) well enough to last in situations where hiring a real camera is total overkill. Biggest downside so far seems to be battery life. The internal mic is decent enough for a lot of uses because, beautifully, the whole thing is pretty much solid state and the zoom is internal/not-that-noisy. The few unfavorable (audio) reviews out there seem to come from the party video crowd — and they’re right, no, it will not deal well with Tiësto’s basslines.

Crap battery life aside, seems like a decent camera so far.

Admittedly I’m not using the most zany set of plugins in the world, but it’s nice to know that an open source project can be so darn painless. Upgrade, the water’s fine.

Podcasting fulfills much the same role an email newsletter/mass contact does — yet manages to differentiate itself in the medium to actually get onto people’s desks in a bit of a unique way. Technically podcasting is pretty easy to implement, with WordPress being one obvious tool to make it happen online and most new computers sporting Windows, OS X or Linux coming with free software included (or at least easily available) to produce the content.

So what’s our role? Just lifting the bar, really. From snazzy intro/outro music to standardised call-to-action snippets that get attached or rotated week by week, a little bit of expertise goes a long way to creating a successful, easy to create podcasting experience. This makes it easier for small businesses to stay in it for the long haul, building better brands, leads, and adding value for customers.

Firstly, it’s worth noting that this free software is published by Adobe, developed using Flash, and is featured in the App Store.

For those who keep their head off the Internet/are apathetic towards Apple’s mobile platform powerplays, let me just briefly note that Apple and Adobe are hardly best of friends. Accordingly, while the approval of a Flash-based application is a little cheeky, the elevation of one to featured app store status is straight up devious.

We can only speculate as to whether pragmatic or political reasons motivated Adobe’s development in this way. Self-evidently, they have a lot of in-house competencies around Flash development, but they would also love to get a product approved insofar as it drives adoption of their Connect platform (which, unlike the App Store app, is anything but free).

There are many less sneaky ways of building a compelling tech demo. If I had to guess, I’d attribute the use of Flash to a substantial existing software investment for web-based clients that was largely portable to the mobile context. The impact this has on user experience is likely to be minimal, as they likely redesigned the frontend entirely — though obviously other performance concerns may apply.

At any rate, this is the first I’ve noticed of approvals of overtly Flash-based applications. If possible, this may open the App Store floodgates even further, while providing hope to many for whom the barrier to entry in terms of rewriting code was simply too high.

We’re excited about this as certain component parts of software we’ve developed depends strongly on Flash for data visualization and reporting. The prospect of being able to deploy this on the iPhone (and yes, the iPad) is a compelling opportunity that is, plainly, freaking exciting.

In the future, one thing is certain.

Someone’s going to drive it.

Someone’s going to collect it.

Someone’s going to lie on it. Sit on it. Sleep on it.

Drink too much German beer on it.

Someone will sit in front row seats, here, here and here.

Someone will land it. Someone will save it. Someone will find it. Then get happily lost in it.

Someone will sleep five stars, someone will sleep under the stars.

Someone will ski down it, fly over it, and scream across it.

Beautiful things will still be made in the future. Someone is going to buy them.

Someone’s going to walk it. Someone is going to ride it.

And at the end of the day, someone’s going to watch it.

And there’s no reason why that someone can’t be you.

Since 1849, AMP has helped more Australians own their tomorrows.

Own tomorrow. AMP.

Emotive as it was, it is also, of course, absolute hogwash — GFC or no!

Someone once told this story:

A rich man once thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’

He decided, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

But God said to the man, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

You don’t own your tomorrow. It’s not even yours today. The Bible says there is one good kind of storing up to be done — I can “store up God’s word in my heart, that I might not sin against Him.” (Ps 119:11) — yet I still fail and need to fall upon His mercy.

The man who told that story was Jesus. (Luke 12:16–20) He promises peace and a greater security than all the riches of the world.

Own eternal life. Jesus.

We recently refreshed one of our core product websites, Equip Schools. It hits a fairly complex mix of schools, parents/carers and individual students and we spent a lot of time trying to best articulate how the programme speaks to the varied concerns of each of these groups.

The product has three curriculum-driven strands in the form of workshops, publications and software.

The software strand is certainly the most distinct of the three in terms of conventional expectations of life-skills / personal management programmes that schools already run — and we’re still coming to terms with the best way to articulate that within the website. We’ve developed a brief (16 minute) training DVD that accompanies the product — however, this is obviously too long for initial contact and, while being highly explanatory, doesn’t really articulate the thousands of hours of educational psychology research and student mentoring that inform the product as it stands today.

Distilling that down to a 10 minute package is a tall ask, but it’s also something near on the horizon as we seek to make this available to individuals beyond the school context.

The teachings of Jesus were clearly divisive in the Gospels and continue to be so today. Light illuminates darkness. Christ reveals sin.

He also pays for it. And is worth following. The unsweetened reality of the end of Luke 9 is at once immensely painful and wholly true.

Our speaker, David Ould, faithfully preached Jesus’ words without coating them in false comfort or apologising for their truth and goodness. The hard truth of the gospel is such that, though we find great joy in the King who pays sin’s great price, we wept and prayed for those who do not yet acknowledge Him.

We fail as much as any fallen, sinful people do. Pray for us that we would love like Jesus, which rightly includes declaring the reality of division as sin is exposed by the gospel.

What a realisation!

So often in our tabloid, syndicated-to-the-hilt, visually oriented, and, of course, commercially driven media the objective of “the public’s right to know” is utilised as an overriding justification for publication of content that, simply, is unnecessary for the public and unhelpful for those it concerns.

In the Bible, a king called David writes, “You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.” Words can wound, and information can cause pain — and so often our media will “love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right.” (Also David, Psalm 52) The defense that it rates well is inadequate, yet it is enthralling to discover a genuine discussion of journalistic ethics that reflects biblical truth about speech.

God teaches that Christian people are to speak the truth in love, and that, whatever other abilities we may have been given by Him, if we don’t exercise those with love, we have nothing. Oh, that our press would operate on this basis — to do so would serve the “public interest” well!

This video goes some way to dispelling that myth. Some of the statistics appear hyperbolic or dubiously verified, and as with much content on YouTube it avoids any form of rigorous referencing, but enough of it is true that it stands regardless.

Our unverified account has never processed a single payment, and yet with the amount of ID they require for something as simple as a contact name change you could get a passport in some countries.

Business Contact Name Change
To process your name change request, you need to fax in additional information. Please provide a current photo identification and one of the other following documents:

• A copy of a valid photo identification showing your new name.
• Acceptable forms of photo identification are a driver’s license, passport or any other state or government issued photo identification.
• A copy of a recent utility bill showing your new name and address exactly as they appear on your PayPal account.
• A copy of a recent bank statement for the bank account listed on your PayPal account (if applicable).

Please include a letter on company stationery indicating the primary email address, current name, address and telephone number on the PayPal account, the reason for the name change, and the new business contact name.

So that we can process your request efficiently, please ensure that your documents are valid and legible. As always, any personal identification information that you submit to PayPal will remain secure and will never be transmitted to any third party.

PayPal have never had a rep as a particularly customer friendly organisation, but this isn’t even beneficial to them! With no transactions in the past and less documentation than this required for establishing a NEW account it doesn’t pose any credible threat so far as hijacked accounts/money laundering/whatever goes, and they need to spend time reviewing documents sent in a thoroughly nonstandard way. The bank account verification process is pretty good in terms of automation (albeit risky — you’re essentially giving PayPal license to do whatever with all funds in that account) — this is most certainly not.

Anyone have any good, low % fee or cost/transaction way of hooking into CBA’s Evolve system? The application doesn’t warrant us spending heaps setting it up just yet, and PayPal are good at making things way too risky and difficult. Grumble.

Tonight while driving me home, Josh and I stopped at Maccas and bought a chocolate sundae. He asked me whether there are McFlurries in China and I said yes. He was glad, and joked that this isn’t something he’d be willing to give up for Jesus. We laughed, because this isn’t true. We both would give up much more than McDonald’s icecreams for Jesus. I love this boy.

*ahem*

Well, that feels better. But I still need to write about it :(

Sydney’s covered in a dust storm this morning and everyone’s talking about it. It’s pretty funky coloured and unprecedented in recorded history. Tori says Thank God in her new blog (at least, that’s the blog’s focus :)) — others say more amusing things. Here’s a sample.

““UFO?” — my brother, “no, dust storm” — me. He looked upset.”

“[name] proudly welcomes you to Sydney Ranga Day. You can’t see us, but you know we’re out there.”

“[name] would hate to be holding a climate change deniers press conference in Sydney today.”

“Apparently you shouldnt go outside if u have asthma” [sic] — stating the obvious award

“[name] wonders if, due to global warming, jesus will return on a cloud of orange dust?”

“[name] is wondering how he got inside a sepia photo?!”

“[name] wants it to rain so she can make a mud pie on her car”

“Hey guys i had this big bag of red dust that i left outside, but how [sic] can’t find it. Would anyone know where it is?”