tech

Found in the memory archive:

...and we now get hundreds of 'electronic letters' a day. Ick. (From a Science Encyclopedia I devoured over and over as a kid).

Found: An interesting article from Gladden J. Pappin on Liberty, Technology, and the Advent of Social Networking. It's a bit tl;dr, but I've read through once, and hope to sit with it a little longer sometime.

The article (and many like it) makes me think a bit about the theme of personhood on the Internet, and how our use and overuse of social media, blogging, etc. in building our own self-image is something about which we must always be cautious.

I recently watched the Star Trek TNG Episodes 'Booby Trap' and 'Galaxy's Child', and while I'm no supporter of the strange philosophies that guide Star Trek morality/ethics, I wonder if we are becoming like Geordi LaForge, who fell in love with a projected image of a person on the holodeck.

One of the keys to using social media effectively is to keep a proper separation between one's true self-image and the image one projects on the 'holodeck' of the Internet (and make sure you know that others are not defined by tweets and avatars).

The St. Louis Review published a 'Living Our Faith' section on Technology and Faith in their most recent newspaper (Feb. 25th issue), and it highlights the fine line between faith and technology.

Two issues I have been thinking about more than others lately are technology as a distraction, and the distance between the Church and mainstream culture in implementing new tech/media initiatives.

To the first, the article reminds the reader, through the words of seminarian Gregory Carl, "Media and technology have a way ofgrabbing up a lot of your time and drawing attention to itself. In a certain sense, our object is to use this means of communication so that in due time, we can set those things aside and be in communion with Christ. There's almost a kind of dichotomy there."

I have been pondering this dichotomy for quite some time, with special consideration for my current role in the Archdiocese. How can I best be a steward of God's gifts, and a tool of evangelization, but continue to keep my priorities straight, and my attention focused on eternal unity with God?

To the second, I am quite happy to report that my quote in the article doesn't make me cringe (for once), but actually sounds half intelligent! I said "Catholic iPhone app development is going at the same rate as Catholic web devleopment... We have a lot of catching up to do." And I meant it.

Anyways, I plan on continuing both of these threads of thought in future blog posts, both here and on Open Source Catholic. I have enough compiled notes and reflections on both of these topics that I could write short books already. Who knows, maybe I'll get the time someday. For now, I will remain distracted by these glowing technological wonders around me ;-)

The article also mentions a new App to be released by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. More on that to come!

Every year, it seems there are more and more extravagant displays of programmed Christmas lights. This year is the most impressive so far—so impressive, the tech side of me wants to do something along these lines, while the religious side of me balks at how much time/money was spent on these displays (even if they use LEDs... that's a lot of power, and a lot of cost/material for the bulbs and cords!).

Anyways, for your enjoyment, here are two of my favorite displays:

Little Drummer Boy

This neighborhood synchronized lights to different songs among 13 different houses. Lots of wireless controllers, I presume:

Click through to see more...

Snowball Blaster - the Game

With a slight bit of 8-bit graphics/sounds thrown into the mix, this looks like it's actually pretty fun... and on par with the graphics of an Atari, at least :-)

Most Expensive Electric Bill...

This family will apparently pay $82,320 to light their house for this Christmas season: