Ubiquity and Blaming the Box

#An old article copied over from my blog at 20six#

"Woah!", I hear you say. "What's with the hip mounted Oxford dictionary" ... I'm far to lofty to answer that question. But (for your information) ...

Main Entry: ubiq·ui·ty
Pronunciation: -kw&-tE
Function: noun
Meaning: presence everywhere or in many places especially simultaneously : OMNIPRESENCE

Pretty straight forward, huh! Having bored you with a dictionary definition, what's that got to do with Tech/Geek stuff? Read on dear one ...

Technology is working to make media ubiquitous. In other words, the technological direction of our world is moving to make the global media stream available everywhere. Lots of really cool devices are being produced that do just this. MP3 Players that transmit on FM (you can listen to your MP3 player in your car over the car sound system), mobile phones that can receive streaming video (you can watch TV on your phone), Centrino laptops (connect to the internet without plugging in any cables or wires).

What does this mean to us (as Christadelphians)? It means we have to stop blaming the box. For years we have blamed a box for many problems in the ecclesias. We have argued against TV in the home. We have railed against evils of TV. Time to be smarter ...

As long as we continue to blame a specific box (like TV or your internet connected PC), we as Christadelphians will always be just that little bit behind the 8 ball ... you know the situation where you consistently arrive just as everyone else gets up from the table and leaves you the bill ... The technology will keep improving and getting better and smarter. Better and smarter at what? Providing you with whatever media you (read, your non-spiritual self) want/s, wherever you are. We blame one box, and we will be blind sided by others.

So what can we do? Time to start talking, not about TV, or the internet ... but media. The world's media is (as we all know, c'mon now, admit it) is the speaking of serpent minds. It's there to gratify, please and entertain the 3 lusts John describes. Nothing more, nothing less. So lets get with the program people, and start educating ourselves on the danger of the real danger, and stop blaming the box.

Update: It's been some years since I wrote this post, but I was mailed this article today, which repeats exactly what I was saying back then. Not that it was anything that profound ;)

Too geeky

I dunno about you, but I can tell when I've spent too long in front of a screen. It's when you are driving home and see the setting sun glinting on the shining skin of a distant skyrise, filling the horizon with warm lit haze ... And you (in this case, I) think "Awesome ... How do they do those graphics?" ...

Theres other clues, but thats a goodie!

For the love of ...

Been trying to buy myself a snowboard. One of the few sports I am very keen on ... Anyway, do you have any idea how hard that is? Nooo, I thought not ...

Well for me here in Australia, its like this. I live in one of the driest states in perhaps the driest country on the planet ... We recycle 20% of our water here, for crying out loud ... Snow? Not a chance. So unsuprisingly, it would be cheaper for me to buy a medium size ocean going yacht complete with leaping dolphins, that to purchase the middle of the road snowboard I am contemplating.

Luckily, there is this neat thingumy-jig called the internet ... It allows me to see the bargains available to snowboarders in the US and to be shattered by either the price of postage (I've been quoted US $200) or the fact that "we don't ship out side the world ... and by world, we mean the 48 contiguous states of US of A" ... Isn't the world wide inter-shopping mall fabulous ... It encourages my desire and then crushes me, all in 3 clicks ...

(Incidentally ... heres what I want ... Nay, need, my friends ... 156 cm of shiney, snow carving goodness )