I’ve had a couple of conversations in the past week on the subject of abortion. One was with a friend telling me about the abortions he was involved in and another was with some people defending the right to choose abortion.

The friend who was involved in the abortions was regretfully of them and said he didn’t know when life began but he believes that if they were children that they are with Christ. His reasoning had to do with an age of accountability. He asked what I thought and I saw that there was a burden on him so I told him that I believe that God is a more loving and gracious father than I could ever be and I trust Him with my children more than I trust myself. I could have pointed to the Psalms to say that a child had died, but that would have been Law applied unnecessarily.

The people defending the right to choose abortion also say that they don’t know when life begins. In this case, these people needed to hear the Law. They weren’t Christians, so appeals to Scripture would be pointless, but simple scientific arguments would force them to consider that life begins at conception and taking that life is wrong. (of course “personhood” then becomes the point of contention).

These two interactions really highlighted the importance of distinguishing Law and Gospel so they can be properly applied in the course of living in ones vocations.

художници на икони

Concept: A quiz game where you compete against others. My wife loves playing “Words with Friends” (Scrabble) on her iPhone. You would select the category you want to compete in and challenge friends or random users. There would be leader boards, achievements, and the ability to post victories to Facebook and Twitter. I was going to confine the questions to theology, but it doesn’t make sense to limit myself; although I would probably start there. With the answers I planned on linking or embedding additional resources that are related such as sermons, podcasts, or videos.

Viability: The Table Talk Radio app which I wrote awhile back still gets downloaded and there are a lot of quiz applications. There might be a lot of head-to-head quiz games as well, but it will come down to the execution and I think the category idea and linking/embedding additional resources are differentiators.

Status: This one will require quite of bit of technology which I haven’t used before (a motivator for me) and also seems to have the most commercial viability of any idea that I currently have. Looks like I’ll be headed in this direction until something new distracts me

That’s a part of an excerpt from Penn Jillette’s book that’s making the rounds in the tech blogs I read (via Daring Fireball). Here’s the full excerpt:

There is no god and that’s the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.

Since this is an excerpt, I’m not sure whether Mr. Jillette is arguing his case from the standpoint of all historic facts being lost or if he’s arguing from the standpoint that history itself is reset (people lauding the quote seem to take it both ways). Here’s the thing if all historic facts were lost could we prove that George Washington lived? Or if history were reset and George Washington never lived could we prove that he existed? See, Mr. Jillette’s argument is a fantasy, but it sounds so authoritative that people who want to dismiss religion gravitate toward it.

Christianity does not live outside of history. Something that is most obvious at this time of year. This is when we celebrate our savior’s entrance into time and history and His becoming incarnate to take on our sin and pay the punishment for it so we might have eternal life. Mr. Jillette’s fantasy question implies that only science is based on objective truths. Well, so is history.

Concept: An app that is like iBooks or the Kindle Reader but for sermons.

Viability: The concept has proven successful in several different context. As mentioned it works for iBooks and the Kindle Reader, additional examples would be the Marvel Comics app, DC Comics app, and even Free Books. Their revenue comes from in-app purchases of content.

Concerns: Making the content compelling enough to purchase. I don’t think simply giving the text of the sermon would be enough. I think additional features such as narration (which may or may not in itself be enough) or additional content related to the sermon would be needed to add value to the customer. Also, bundling collections of sermons might add enough value. For example, combining all or a set of Luther’s house postils as a single unit of purchase. Sermons by contemporary preachers might be of interest to some as well, but this would come with its own set of issues such as audio from those pastors that only post their text, those that preach from outlines, etc.

Status: This idea is one that I’m going to explore heavily in 2012. It doesn’t have a lot of external dependencies which is a real plus and the business model is one that is currently well accepted.

I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to make a full blown business out of developing software that teaches and proclaims the Gospel. I’m still not sure that I can create a compelling enough application to attract enough paying customers to be able to leave my “day job” and focus just on this type of software.

On this journey, however, I do come up with quite a number of ideas for applications and as has been pointed out many times, ideas are worth little without execution. What I’m going to do is start to post these ideas on this site and hopefully someone will come along and execute I the idea. Also, if you think the idea is good, feel free to leave a comment so I can get a feel for what people are interested in. Finally, if you’re interested in idea but don’t have a developer to work with, I’d be willing to talk about collaborating especially if you can bring artistic, design, or other skills that are my weak areas. Please keep in mind that I’m really interested in making commercial products because I want this to be a sustainable business.

Over the next couple days I’ll be posting the ideas I currently have and will continue to add them as they come to mind.

I’m a geek and one way that this comes through is how I manage my blogs. I use a DreamHost Virtual Private Server (VPS) account to host this blog, my wife’s blog, Wittenberg Media, The Parental Office, and Joyful Games just to name a few. I do this because I can control plugins and manage podcasts and other resources at very reasonable costs (storage and bandwidth is unlimited with a DreamHost account). If I tried to do this with a more turnkey solution, I’d either be limited with what I could do (Blogger) or have to pay a lot to host all these sites (WordPress and TypePad).

With those blessings come the curse of troubleshooting technical issues. For the past couple months I’ve been getting intermittent messages telling me that my VPS has exceeded memory usage and gone down. Luckily the VPS seems to bounce back up after about a minute so there isn’t too much downtime. This week I decided that I was going to track this down because the problem seemed to be getting worse, and I really wanted to get rid of the nagging feeling that there was something I should fix.

The first thing I did was monitor the memory usage (watch free -m) of the system and saw that if I hit more than a couple of the sites the memory usage would balloon and the server would reboot. I then went to my account and bumped up my memory allotment (+$5). I tried hitting a bunch of the sites and that seemed to do the trick. The memory usage would get near the limit, but seemed to hold at that level and didn’t tip over to where it would cause a reboot.

That lasted a couple of days, but this morning I got hit with another message that the VPS had rebooted. Since the problems definitely revolved around hitting multiple WordPress sites, I did a search for optimizing WordPress on DreamHost and found this page. It turns out that the default setting when configuring a domain is to use FastCGI. This is a memory pig and overkill for WordPress. I switched all the sites to use CGI and memory consumption plummeted without a noticeable hit to performance!

So I’m thankful that God has given me the aptitude and interest that allows me to work through these problem which are caused by the aptitude and interest I have for these problems (classic Lutheran paradox!). I am also thankful that I have these gifts that I can use to serve others through the sites I mentioned above. Hopefully some find them edifying and if not those sites, I have such a wide range of interests I hope I eventually put one up that does.

Last plug. DreamHost is pretty cool in that they will host a 501c3 for free. We use them for our church and preschool.

I’m not surprised at the outpouring of emotions from people over the death of Steve Jobs. After seeing the reactions to high profile deaths of Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, etc. any community that loses such a high profile and leading member will have a strong emotional reaction, even a community as little known for its emotional response as the tech. community. No, what has surprised me is how much emotion Jobs’ death has stirred in me.

iFanboy

Yes, I am probably what many people would consider an Apple fanboy. I’ve always been a proponent of Apple products since back in the Apple II days. I learned to program on an Apple II+ like so many others. I used Macs through college, my first job was developing software for Macs, and yes I owned a Newton and thought the vision for the device was better than the Palm although I will admit the execution was lacking. However, I’ve never been a Steve Jobs apologist. I remember hearing all the stories of how he mistreated and manipulated people. I believe he was a great visionary but the way he got people to execute on that vision was not something I could get behind. That’s part of the reason I’ve never considered applying for a job at Apple. I had this fear that I’d be working there and he’d drop by, take a look at what I was doing and say, “that sucks,” and move on. I understand that is the way he gets people to push themselves, that’s just not a culture that I’d want to work in. Yes, I believe I need to be pushed to do more, excellent work, but that method for getting there would leave me angry and headed for a heart attack.

So, while I am a huge fan of the products that his company produces I’m was not a big fan of Steve Jobs and when I heard yesterday that he had died I was saddened because such a wonderful, creative mind was no longer around, but I didn’t give it a whole lot thought. But today I couldn’t stop spinning on the fact that he wasn’t around anymore. The man whose vision brought about so many products that I have and still use everyday. Tools that I and others have used to effectively proclaim the gospel. Aside from my family and Pr. Todd Wilken, nobody has had a larger effect on my day-to-day life than Steve Jobs. I think this realization is what got to me. I was really struck by the impact he had on my life.

One thing I had forgotten about Steve Jobs was that he was adopted. This really got me thinking about how if he had been conceived 18 years later he probably would have been aborted. It really amazes me that people ignore these types of stories in the whole abortion debate. I think people want to discount the adoption option because that would lead people to consider the unborn as a human rather than an unviable tissue mass.

Finally, I was reminded of Jobs’ Lutheran roots. Of course, in his later years he seemed to have more Buddhist than Christian leanings so we don’t know if he clung to the promises of Christ at the end though we can pray that he did. What this brought to mind was how this path could have easily been my path. Being a Christian in the tech. industry just isn’t a well traveled road and leaving it for Buddhism, atheism, or what not is a lot easier. Ironically, it was Apple technology that kicked podcasting into high gear and connected me back to my Lutheran roots through Issues, Etc. God truly takes care of His own through the vocation of both believers and unbelievers.

I submitted my overture to my pastor/circuit counselor so it can be presented (or whatever happens) at the circuit forum this coming Sunday. He said it was fine and since he is on the floor committee that the overture would go to he thinks it can get to the convention floor. Like me he’s pretty sure it will be shot down. At the last district convention our DP boasted that we had such unity in our district as evidenced by not a single “no” vote on any of the overtures. If this overture gets to the floor, that illusion will be shattered.

Amazon announced the Kindle Fire last week, which is their 7″ media tablet. Some have hailed it the “iPad killer“, while many others analyze how it is not. As a tech geek, I of course had to place my pre-order. I will give it an honest run to see if it will replace my iPad, but I have serious doubts.

Content

Yes, you can buy all the content you want from Amazon, but how convenient will it be to get non-Amazon content on there? Here’s a small list of non-Amazon content I carry on my iPad:

• Luther’s Works from Logos
• Music from CDs
• Movies from iTunes
• Logia issues on PDF
• Der Lutheraner issues on PDF
• Technical Docs and periodicals on PDF

I’ve read where you can get non-Amazon content onto the device through the cloud. I haven’t seen anything about the types of content, formats, etc. I’m not really sure how convenient that’s going to be. iTunes, for all its warts, makes content transfer very easy. If Amazon provides a Dropbox like interface it might make it easier, but then I have to manage two file systems to keep my media organized; not appealing. Also, once that content is on the device, how will I be able to interact with it? Specifically, I do a lot of highlighting and note taking on PDFs and then sync them back to my Mac. If that’s not available it would be a huge limitation for me.

More Than Content

In addition to the content issues I’m skeptical because I use my iPad for so much more than a media player. It is my primary productivity device during the day because I use OmniFocus for iPad to manage all my projects, to-do lists, and next actions. I also check email on it. And of course it is one of my primary device for testing apps that I’m developing.

I’m also not sold on the 7″ screen size. Some of the PDFs I read, like Logia, are hard enough to read on the 10″ screen of the iPad. This is one are where I really have to remove the bias so that I can give a fair evaluation. Also, in my mind it’s not any more portable than my iPad. Yes it will be lighter, but it won’t fit in my pocket so I still have to throw it in a bag or carry it around in my hand like a book.

My guess is that it will be a fantastic device for buying stuff from Amazon and you won’t get the full experience unless you add Amazon Prime to your account to get the streaming movies, but I’m still getting ahead of myself. I really do want to give an honest review because Amazon is a company I respect. Hopefully I’ll be able to do so. Once thing that could derail me is if the device goes “Tickle-Me Elmo” and goes for double the retail price on eBay. I’ll have no problem flipping it for a profit, something I didn’t consider with my iPad.

Developer Note

Finally, as a developer I can’t see creating any apps for this device unless Amazon changes its pricing policies. There are some horror stories out there about how Amazon sets the price of you app no matter what you want it to be. Additionally, the fragmentation this will cause within the Android ecosystem makes me even more hesitant to investigate mobile development for anything other than iOS devices.

With district conventions coming next year, I thought I’d repost my proposed overture. I’m going to submit this at my circuit forum for submission to the district convention and then figure out how to get it to the national convention. Please consider submitting something similar to your district convention.

I’ve seen enough oddball services held at various LCMS gatherings. Many people have been offended by these cooked up orders of service. Sure some are offended as a matter of personal preference, but some truly take theological issue with the services. As we all know there is no order of service commanded in Holy Scripture, but it is quite clear from them and our confessions that worship should be orderly and peaceful. To that end I am going to submit the following overture to my district and the national conventions; You know “bubbling up from the grassroots” and all. If you have any suggestions to strengthen the wording, please feel free to leave a comment. I know we’ve go a couple of years, but this kind of stuff will drift out of my mind by then if I don’t put it down now.

To Use Lutheran Service Book at Services During Official District and National Gatherings

WHEREAS, God, in His 3rd Commandment, places an expectation upon us to worship Him; and

WHEREAS, God calls us to the Divine Service such that He might distribute His gifts to us; and

WHEREAS, AC XXVIII.55 states, “… that all things be done in the churches in order, and without confusion”; and

WHEREAS, Article III.7 of the Constitution states, “Encourage congregations to strive for uniformity in church practice, but also to develop an appreciation of a variety of responsible practices and customs which are in harmony with our common profession of faith”; and

WHEREAS, 1998 Resolution 2-12 commissioned a new hymnal to be produced, 2004 Resolution 2-03A approved Lutheran Service Book, and 2007 Resolution 2-03A thanked the Commission on Worship for its work on Lutheran Service Book; and

WHEREAS, Nearly 70 percent of all LCMS congregations have adopted Lutheran Service Book (2010 Convention Workbook pg. 46); therefore be it

RESOLVED, That for the sake of “love and tranquility” (AC XXVIII.55) all services during official District and Synodical gatherings use an order of service out of and as it is outlined in Lutheran Service Book.