Last week, Google CEO Larry page was the keynote speaker at I/O and shared some interesting insights.

The insights weren’t about Google+, Google Glass or anything like that. No, these insights had to do with him personally.

Today I had the privilege of guest posting for Church Marketing Sucks on Page’s keynote. I’ve been following Church Marketing Sucks for years, so I’m still geeking out a little. If you don’t current follow them, be sure to! If you love ChurchMag, you’re going to like what you find on Church Marketing Sucks.

Check out my post and click around, you won’t be disappointed with Church Marketing Sucks.

What I take out of this for a spiritual direction is this idea of a whole world within the Christian life that is to be experienced. As Christian tech workers, we have the opportunity to invite a whole host of people within a church building as well as out in the community to experience Christ in a unique way, with technology. My hope is that you try to achieve something that will make people react thee way that this grandmother does, but to the Gospel.

This video gives you somewhat of an idea of what she’s seeing, although I would imagine it has much more of a 3-dimensional feel than a 2D YouTube video:

Thoughts?

The way we gather and take in information has changed drastically over the last decades. If you wanted to learn something, it used to be that you grabbed an encyclopedia out of your book case or if you didn’t have one, you went to the library. Now all you need is the Internet.

So it makes sense that with those dramatic changes in how we find information, the way we process it has changed too.

How the Internet Affects Our Brains

This video makes an interesting point, namely that we learn less because the information stored in our short term memory isn’t transferred to our long term memory because we are distracted by the digital information overload that surrounds us. An interesting point and certainly one that seems to make sense.

Yet it’s not as crystal clear as this video suggests, scientific findings so far may have confirmed that we’re not as good at multitasking as we think, but that doesn’t mean all the other claims are true as well. The New York Times has published some interesting articles about this, describing the problems of Internet addiction and how this has damaged our ability to focus. But they also show arguments that the Internet is actually making us smarter, thereby giving a voice to the other side of the aisle.

In short: it’s an interesting discussion to follow.

What do you think, has the Internet negatively affected our brains?

Yesterday a tweet from someone I trust popped up in my timeline saying I could get 15gb free online space. To be honest, I was a bit suspect and thought his account might have been hacked – but then he tweeted again saying it was legit and that ‘Copy’ was run by the well known security company Barracuda Networks, so I took a look!

Sure enough it was true, so I signed up and so far, I’m very impressed!

I’ve been a Dropbox user and fan for years – but hey more online cloud storage, yes please. (I’ve not really used Google Drive much as it’s a bit too ‘documenty’ for me, I just want somewhere to store stuff!)

Copy was an easy signup and sure enough I got 15gb free – but if someone signs up using your referral code (hint hint!), you BOTH get an extra free 5gb!

Like Dropbox, Copy has a (very) nice web interface and also apps for Mac (10.7+), Windows, Android & iOS. On computers it installs as a folder (like Dropbox) so you can easily dump files into it. On the mobile apps you view files as you need them (but can fav/star) them to save locally.

There’s all the file sharing options you’d expect (both public and sharing folders, etc.); but there’s also a nice secure file sharing option where you can email the link to someone.

As well as the free option, there are extra pay for storage with excellent prices – and also team/business versions.

So if you’re looking for some online cloud storage (or more online storage!) then check out Copy. (and if you want, feel free to use my referral code!)

Are you using Copy?

What other online cloud storage do you use?

I was in Chicago, Washington DC, and Detroit for 2.5 weeks during April with the need to work on the road the entire stretch. Sure I had wifi sometimes, but one hotel was going to be a $20 extra daily fee (the nicer places always get you!), and the Missio Alliance conference where I was representing Great Commission Ministries had public wifi for 800 attendees all at once. Eesh: good luck connecting or getting much throughput. Not that this is unusual: at the Verge Conference or Exponential or others, I’ve usually found the available wifi to be iffy at best.

Personal Hotspot to the rescue! iPad tethering worked even better than I hoped for. Thinking of trying it? 4 tips:

1. Verizon was a good choice for me. You don’t need to jailbreak anything, and Verizon doesn’t force extra fees or higher plans beyond the actual data charges.
2. The data cost may be less than you think. Just the thought of the bill had scared me away from trying it at first. I am paying for only 1GB for $20 a month, and I thought surely connecting my MacBook Pro would burn through that in seconds. Not true. As long as I was mindful not to jump on Netflix, I was able to keep up with ministry e-mail, post on our internal wiki and issue tracking system, and generally keep my head above water. And I didn’t even use the full gig! Plus, at a contract-free $20 a month, my $85 smartphone bill on a different carrier is starting to look like a bad investment.
3. It’s not just a backup option: it’s almost better than wifi! Here’s the best part: the LTE I was using was blazing fast. In DC, I was getting 30 Mbps +, even at less than full signal strength. Try getting that from shared wifi! The ping speed was initially a little slower if I let the connection sit for a while (say 160ms), but it never felt like a big deal. Sometimes when I had an available wifi access point, I found myself switching to tethering anyway, just for the speed.
4. Maybe it’s overkill, but the iPad can be a nice “second screen” while working on the laptop! I’d have it out of my bag anyway. Instead of missing my multiple monitors in my home office, the iPad not only played hotspot, but let me google around while keeping my writing screen front and center.

Nice huh?

However…

This. Is. Awesome.

Meet Ghost

Ghost is one of the newest wunder-projects of Kickstarter, and it just might be the blogging platform to unseat WordPress in my heart. I mean, come on!

Look at this:

In case you missed some of that, Ghost features…

Side-by-Side Markdown and Preview
This is awesome! Nothing kills your workflow by having to “Save Draft,” wait, “Preview Post,” wait, and then begin to review the changes you’ve made. This looks awesome.

Simplified, More Customizable Dashboard
Personally, I don’t use my WP dashboards all that much. To be honest, this stems from my early days when I didn’t understand a lot of this stuff. Now, I understand most of it, but don’t really care for how its displayed. A new dashboard would be seriously welcome.

Tons of Other Good Stuff
The good stuff keeps coming! Ghost is also mobile friendly and is being prepped to handle even the most ambitious blogging projects. It even looks like WordPress theme developers will have an easier time porting their themes over to Ghost. (Did you heart that 8Bit? Can we get some Standard love for Ghost?)

I’m very excited about Ghost. Seriously excited. Not only because I can’t wait to use Ghost, but also because I can’t wait to see how this challenges WordPress to offer more (and less) features to its users.

If you want to find out more about Ghost, follow them on Twitter, check out their website, or donate to their Kickstarter campaign.

Does Ghost excite you? Would you use it?

[HT Bryan Allain | All images from Ghost's Kickstarter page.]

One does not simply …

… end a Jesus Culture song.

[via Christian Memes]

But why would you need such pictures?

It’s a great way to draw attention for your church members to pray for those that have been struck with disaster. In this case, those effected by the OK tornado. You can place these images on your church website, but you can also use them in your e-newsletter if you’re sending out any prayer alerts.

Whether you’re  a church nearby trying to gather volunteers to go help or a congregation on the other side of the United States calling for prayer, having legal images of the actual event can add a lot to your message.

Here’s what you can do:

Compfight

Compfight is my favorite place to get legal images, but you’ll need to do a few things to make sure you’re getting what you need and you’re using the images right. Compfight searches the entire Flickr database, and with the Flickr mobile app being so easy to use and Flickr having such a robust photographer community, it’s the perfect place to look for images.

Go to Compfight.com:

Now, there are several ways you can search, and from my personal experience, you’ll want to try several different combinations and phrases to find what you’re looking for. Let’s try “Oklahoma tornado” first:

Before you get too excited, there are some options you’ll want to adjust, as you’ll only want to search for photos that are Creative Commons. Take a close look at the options in the sidebar and make these adjustments:

Here are your search results with only Creative Commons, but make sure you ignore the top section of photos. These will cost you.

You think you see an interesting photo, so click on it!

This gives you several options, including some HTML that’s easy to copy and paste when you cite the photo on your website or newsletter. Before you do, however, click on the License Agreement:

As you can see, it tells you how you can use it. Using this photo as an example, you’re not allowed to remix it–like add text over it or make color changes. You can use it, just be sure you follow these guidelines. Again, these rules will vary from photo to photo, so you may want to check several and weigh your options as you decide what you want to do with it.

Let’s say this works for you, as you only need the photo.

Before you download it, make sure you this is the right Oklahoma tornado!

To do so, go back to your Compfight browser tab and click on the photo:

Wah, wah, wahhhhh!!!! This photo is from 2011.

After trying several more, I find that most of the photos are not pictures from the most recent tornado. If I only needed a photo of a tornado in Oklahoma, it would be fine, but we’re looking for something fresher.

So, I changed my search term to “OK tornado” and I’m able to snag a few that are less than 24hrs old:

After further review, the license for these allow remixes, so although they’re not the best photos, you can crop and edit as you desire–as long as you attribute! (more here)

As of now, there are not many photos to choose from, but I’m sure the selection will grow. Besides, you’re obtaining a free and legal photo of a recent natural disaster.

Not too shabby.

If you know of any other good sources other than Compfight/Flickr for royalty free and Creative Commons photos for breaking news events like this, please leave us a link in the comments!

[Editor's Note: Please take a moment and pray for all those effected by the Oklahoma tornado and the emergency workers who are on the scene. Thank you!]

For the most part, much of the web is free, especially Google and Facebook services. If we take a moment and think about, though, why would Google and Facebook spend all that money to serve millions for a few sidebar ads?

They want your data.

Here’s a closer look at just how unprivate the Internet really is:

[Click for Larger]

A good reminder.

Does this make you rethink what services you use and how you use them?

[via HostGator]

Video games and video game culture has come a long way since Super Mario Bros.

Did you know that:

“A nationally representative study found that the average American 8-to-18 years old play video games for 13.2 hours per week.”

And video games aren’t “just for kids,” anymore, as plenty of adults are in on the action. So how can the Church tap into this gaming culture?

Gamechurch.

These guys are bridging the gap between the Gospel and the gamer, a culture that has hardly been untouched by the Church–until now.

Gamechurch

From the same folks that put together XXX Church, comes Gamechurch. No surprise, right?

I love it when the Church figures out creative ways to tap into unreached culture groups.

Check this out:

Gamechurch 2013 Teaser

From their logo, to the gamer Bible, Gamechurch is doing everything right.

Learn more and how you can get involved on the Gamechurch website.