theo|digital

I just finished reading today’s Newsweek article “The Facebook Effect” (cover dated 27Aug07), and it feels like they got it right. Facebook’s goal is to serve a profile for every internet user (really). 23-year-old Mark Zuckerburg keeps saying “it’s not just for students anymore.”

While I love his “social graph” theory – online networks should clearly and in-detail model pre-existing relationships in real life – the article shares my lament that the older generation newcomers might be undoing it. It’s not natural to add your mom as a facebook friend. Like the social equivalent of inviting your parents over for a beer with friends, and spending the time chatting up The National, “shoes” on YouTube, and Jon Stewart.

Having turned down a one billion dollar offer from Yahoo, Facebook is betting it’s going to make it (IPO in less than two years?). We’ll see if does without watering down the safe-boundaries feel that made it win in the first place (come on – there’s a graveyard of similar sites that didn’t make it).

Meanwhile, I’d love to know if anyone is doing studies on online social networking in church/religious communities. (an explicit example: MyChurch.org)

Rob Bell released another Nooma short film this weekend. It’s called, “Today,” and it’s only available to watch online full-length until Wednesday.

I’ve only watched it once, but my initial reactions are:

• Rob Bell is characteristically more enthusiastic the more he talks, leaning toward the camera, etc. Because it seems like he follows the same pattern each time, I started suspecting it as “just an act,” but then ditched the cynicism and realized that Rob understands how gripping it is to listen to someone who looks like they really are all-about what they are saying.
• The metaphor/story of the video does what many of the others do: hold you in suspense until the end (“what’s going on?”) and then reveals at the end. They’re never a “big” surprise – usually just simple and effective. This new one follows suit.
• Rob’s distilled message seems to be “seize the day.” I like it. It’s a value of the Kingdom to live simultaneously in the “now” and the “hope to come” – the places the Kingdom exists – and not elsewhere. Living in the past or the simple future (1 year, 5 years, 10 years from now) has produced much worry and spiritual sludge in my life.

You can buy Nooma DVD shorts at www.nooma.com.

Seeing how:
>> the US Senate just spent an all night vigil debating the Levin/Reed amendment to pull out of Iraq (it didn’t pass)
>> a dramatic plane crash in southern Brazil has killed almost 200,
>> and scientists have potentially ended the conflict in violent Darfur, Sudan by discovering a source of relief – the world’s the 10th largest lake buried directly underneath

…I thought now would be a good time to mention Nabaztag, the WiFi Rabbit.

With adjustable ears.

Nabaztag – “the first smart rabbit” – not only claims to be unpronounceable, but also to connect to your home network and do useful things like read you New York Times RSS feeds and txt messages your friends send. The newest version can even understand voice commands and respond to RFID tags (maybe turn your lights on when you wave your keys near his face?). I didn’t know I needed a plastic flashing internet bunny, but I do.

If you’ve already watched the instructional video I linked to above (and it’s worth it), after you make your purchase on Amazon, you’ll probably want to check out the rest of the internet crazies surrounding the phenom, like:

• two Jesuit priests tech-reporting on Nabaztag, video podcast style,
• Nabtaztag wardrobe,
• and, The Nabaztag Opera (subtitled, of course)

Slate Magazine notes today that those scrambled letter things are officially lame.

Computers and humans are becoming harder to distinguish in cyberspace. Latest problem: Security tests designed to block computers that impersonate humans (e.g., “type the fuzzy number you see on the screen”) have become too hard for many humans. The tests, known as captchas (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart), have been toughened because spammers learned how to make their machines better at “analyzing the images and separating the letters and numbers from the background noise.” Now the images are so hard to decipher that even a company’s chief technology officer flunks 25 percent of them.* Earnest complaint: Security screens have become an “intelligence test.” Cynics’ rebuttal: Fine with us.

I’ve never heard of this author. She’s new. But Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) is recommending her. And, um, I like her low tech website.

I’ve added a simple new box on my blog on the left side. It’s a list of posts that I read in my Google Reader and mark to share, because I found them interesting.

If you aren’t using Google Reader, I’d check it out. It’s an RSS reader and they’re referring to it as your “inbox for the web” – a perfect way to keep up with the 45 blogs I try to keep up with.

Possibly my favorite form of media is my podcasts (snottier way to say it: “new audio”). Here is what I’m currently listening to (in iTunes alphabetical order), including links to each! (click the pic):

Garrison’s Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac
Garrison Keillor recounts the literary highlights of this day in history and reads a short poem or two. Perfect — as expected from the master of vocal inflection.

Aristotle’s Philosophy of Friendship
“What is Friendship?” by Mark Vernon. Aristotle’s lecture notes on friendship are in Books VIII and IX of his Nichomachean Ethics, and dull-voiced Mark Vernon is about to explain. He begins with the “perils and promise” of friendship, starting with a thoughtful definition, and builds quickly. Don’t let the awkward choral interludes distract you: this content is worlds better than the production quality.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
“Grammar Girl here.” Grammar, punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a “better and more successful writer,” if not simply envious of her dry (and insane) example sentences. Occasional staid voicing is instantly forgiven by her humble segment conclusions, where she admits imperfection, and practically invites you to google for her number.

NPR: Religion
Explores the intersection between religion and society, with stories from Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs. Worth it.

NPR: Story of the Day
Funny, moving, exceptional, or just offbeat — the NPR story people will be talking about tomorrow. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs.

NPR: Technology
Perspectives on digital culture, research news, the tech industry and more. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs. Not all nerdy.

Pandora Podcast Series
A new one: The Music Genome Project starts explaining the methods behind it’s popular free music online player. Each episode will explore (they’ve done only one so far) a musical concept in an engaging, educational and digestible way.

The Onion Radio News
Doyle Redland reporting. “A daily podcast featuring a short news clip from The Onion’s award-winning 24-hour radio news network”. Always amusing, but hits a home-run only about once a week. Probably with illegal medical assistance.

The RELEVANT Podcast
Features the editors of RELEVANT magazine talking about the latest news, issues and entertainment that matters to your life- an extension of RELEVANT magazine covering covering “God, life and progressive culture”. Good topic selection, but the editor’s banter can make you switch windows and forget you were listening. Worth a shot.

This American Life Podcast
Official free, weekly podcast of the award-winning radio show “This American Life.” First-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny and surprising. Hosted by Ira Glass, from WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. This free version is new to me: I’m a massive fan of the full one-hour show, broadcast on NPR weekends, and available in storable audio only when purchased. Perhaps this version chooses only 1/3 of the show’s segments?

A programmer a Google created a piece of interactive art/java application that aggregates quotes throughout the web from the KJV version of the Bible, and shows you visually what is quoted the most. The site is called exegesis.

Yeah, it turns out Revelation is quoted a lot. Judgement, etc.

The project was commissioned by Turbulence, a New-York-based fund that commissions, exhibits, and archives new hybrid networked art forms.

It takes a minute to understand, but you can click and drag the cursor in areas to scroll through the text quickly. It also allows you to search for terms and uses small blue or orange arrows to indicate results. Orange is direct word-matches, blue are matches that finds using the text of the website the scripture was quoted on.

The End-User-License-Agreement is as much ubiquitous as it is ignored. Who doesn’t throw the An Important Change to Your Credit Card Agreement mailing in the can, or just hit the [Agree] button?

Trouble is that Sony says that if your house burns down, you’re legally required to delete the music they own. You agreed. And it’s important not to operate nuclear facilities while using the Yahoo Toolbar. huh.

The Small Print Project. Someone is having fun in grad school.

Found it surfing.

Isn’t the story posted along the side of the road the life narrative we really believe? Truth – when it’s presented as such – has not such real power as the billboard-illusions of our lives.

Culture is not something Christians think carefully how to face. Culture is the truth we all walk in the doors already believing.