james david low

Use of Foxconn and other manufacturers

2012-01-17T14:41:41Z

Watched the latest daily show, and was struck by how we really are complicit in the treating of employees in Chinese factories. I feel pretty helpless, as electronics do feel completely integrated in our modern lives. But one thing I thought I could do, apart from pray, is send feedback to Apple. You can watch the clip and see my message to Apple below. You can send your own feedback to Apple here, or find your preferred electronics company and send something similar.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have been using Apple products for many years and as I’m sure many people have told you, your design and your products are the best around.

I am very glad for the leadership Apple has taken on it stance on the environmental impact of its products, and has gone beyond what is legally required.

I would like to add my request for you to take a similar stance on the use of Foxconn and other manufacturers in China. As you may be aware, conditions in those factories are often far less than ideal, so it would show real courage and integrity if you were to extend your care for the environment to a care for people employed by your outsourcing partners, either by pressuring the manufacturers to improve conditions, or choosing manufacturers that treat their workers better.

I hope you take seriously this request, as I believe it is important for our values as people that live in parts of the world with more freedom, to seek that freedom for our other fellow humans.

Yours Sincerely,
James David Low

iPhone Screen Setting

2012-01-09T04:38:34Z

I switch auto-lock on and off a lot, and I wish they combine the auto-lock setting with the brightness setting, and make a new “screen” setting. This would make it far fewer clicks to turn auto-locking on and off.

You can do as search for issue #10661356 at https://bugreport.apple.com if you want to add your support.

Pedal Board

2011-12-03T12:57:30Z

I love the simplicity and that things are just. Love the Michael Kelly Hybrid Special and the Fender Super Champ XD.

Details
- Input/output jacks wired into the Pedal Train Mini
- Stereo input, one side goes to the Fulldrive 2, the other to the Fisherman Aura – a must for anyone using a piezo pickup.
- The Fulldrive is pretty old, ’99 model, serial number around 2000.
- Built in Footswitch for the Fender Super Champ XD.
- Straight jack-jack connector between the Maxon AD-9 and the Fishbone Overdrive Supreme, a Zendrive clone.
- 1 Spot power supply with right angle daisychain – these really make the wiring neat.
- Custom stereo cable from Acoustic Engineering Hong Kong with Amphenol connectors.
- Changed the stock pickups to Dimarzio Air Classics on the Hybrid Special.

Links:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=379147&page=2
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=793223&page=34

New Family Friendly Homepage

2011-11-29T14:21:02Z

For those of you who want Google Safe Search enabled all the time:

http://www.safe-search.org

Tip for efficient living

2011-11-14T05:00:21Z

One thing I’ve done is scan in my Park ‘n’ Shop and print it out on paper sticking it to my Octopus:

Detecting Quercus

2011-10-30T11:39:43Z

At Onoko, I’ve been using Quercus to run PHP applications on Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon’s scalable Java stack.

Quercus is great, although I’ve found I have to work round some of its unimplemented methods or implementation differences from PHP. I test on a plain Linux/Apache/PHP server though, and wanted a way to detect Quercus so I can conditionally use different work arounds. You can do this with the following PHP:

$IS_QUERCUS = strpos($_SERVER["SERVER_SOFTWARE"],’Quercus’) !== false;

Amazon S3 for WordPress with CloudFront

2011-10-12T14:09:13Z

This WordPress plugin allows you to use Amazon’s Simple Storage Service to host your media for your WordPress powered blog.

It is an extension of the Tantan S3 plugin adding support for setting a CloudFront distribution for your files.

Get it from WordPress here

Database Read Replicas

2011-10-11T22:18:54Z

Database Read Replicas is a WordPress plugin that extends the built in database class to support MySQL Read Replicas so that you can scale your database to support more users.

Get it from WordPress here

Force User Login Multisite

2011-10-12T08:37:19Z

This is my first WordPress plugin in a while. Its a modification of the Force User Login plugin that extends it in two ways:

1) It works with WordPress multisite, so that you can set on a per site basis if a site requires login to view the content.
2) It allows you to set a minium user level to view content, so for example, only Editors and above can view the content. (This is useful when you have automatic user registration set up or on a multisite where users may have access to multiple sites.)

Get it from WordPress here

Moving Church

2011-09-17T15:08:05Z

This is mainly for people that I know, at least that I’ve met through Shatin Church.

Some of you may have heard that Anna and I have decided to move on to another church. This has been a long and painful decision, not least because I’ve been there so long, served there so much, and like a lot of you a lot!

Its been hard because I can’t explain all the reasons why I feel its right to move, but I want you to know:
- I have no ill feelings towards anyone currently at Shatin Church.
- While I have been hurt about things in the past, I also know my reaction to things has been less than perfect too
- God has used everything I’ve been through, being hurt, burnt out, depressed to grow and mature me
- I love God more than ever, even though at the same time I realise more than ever, how much I still have to grow and mature
- I do feel that there is a hope and future for both Shatin Church and myself, only that now the future is different for both of us

I want you to know I enjoyed serving with all of you, and have great affection for you and the times we spent together, especially in Solid Rock. I want you to know you’re still my friends and the last thing I would want is for you to feel you can’t ask me about this.

Top 10 things I love about living in Ocean View

2011-09-05T13:54:24Z

1. The band room complete with drums
2. Drinking cheap/bad coffee from the coffee machine every morning
3. Working out at the gym
4. Living by the ocean
5. The podium with its resort like feel
6. Having a super nice land lord
7. Living with cats
8. My office
9. Amazing sunsets every night
10. Building a new home with Anna <3

My Paper

2011-05-07T15:54:51Z

I was looking up papers Google Scholar related to quantum evolution recently, randomly inspired by watching the movie Creation.

Anyway, it made me wonder if my paper from uni was on there and it is!

iPhoto ’11 No Place Smart Album

2011-05-07T02:38:24Z

I was wanting to find all the Photos in my iPhoto 2011 library that didn’t have a place assigned, so I could assign a place to them. There wasn’t a filter option that would directly detect if a place was blank. Then I realised I could check for every single letter in the alphabet to see if the place didn’t contain them, but a Smart Album is only allow 10 filters, not the 26. Then I realised almost every place name will contain a vowel, so I could just check for the 5 vowels. If you want to do this your self, make sure you select “Match all of the following conditions”:

Update:
I later realised you could do this for a similar affect using the GPS tag, although its not quite the same because if a photo has a place assigned but wasn’t tagged with GPS it will still appear in this filter:

Creed

2011-05-02T14:50:51Z

I am a Christian
I believe in Jesus
And I believe Jesus is the way
And I believe in heaven and I believe in hell
And I believe the Bible is God’s word
And I’m not a universalist because I believe God’s love is so great, God lets you decide

I believe in the community of the saints
I believe the Church is the fullness
I believe in the new heaven and the new earth
I believe in healing
I believe in miracles
I believe in salvation
I believe in the power of prayer
I believe that God is alive and working
I believe that there’s been a resurrection, and there’s a whole new creation bursting forth right here in the midst of this one
-Rob Bell

Random OSX Hacks

2011-04-07T18:03:43Z

1) Custom Sidebar Icons
I had linked my “~/Movies” directory to a directory on my second hard drive (I have an SSD + 1TB 12.5mm in my 13″ MacBook Pro). However this removes the special icons OSX will show for folders like “Movies”, “Documents”, etc. if you drag them to Finder’s sidebar.

I found out that the sidebar icons are kept track of in “~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist”. However it gets overwritten from cache when you log out, meaning you can’t edit it while you’re logged in. I was able to copy and paste in the icon information from the file of a second user when logged in as the second user or by using ssh when the original user wasn’t logged in.

2) Forcing Google Contact Sync
I found this through a combination of searching on google, and running “Sync Now” from the iSync.app menu item while doing a “ps -ef | grep google”.

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/A/Resources/gconsync --oneshot --sync com.google.ContactSync --entitynames com.apple.contacts.Contact,com.apple.contacts.Email Address,com.apple.contacts.IM,com.apple.contacts.Phone Number,com.apple.contacts.Street Address

3) Toggle File Invisibility
I’ve created an AppleScript app that you can drag to your Finder toolbar to toggle file visibility. It requires Xcode to be installed and will make files visible or invisible, but you’ll need something like Total Finder in order to be able to view hidden files to make them visible.

Getting Married :)

2011-03-30T14:47:31Z

Been so busy since I proposed Christmas Eve last year, that I haven’t blogged anything about it yet But anyway so happy to be getting married to my wonderful Anna!

We launched are website, a little wordpress, some google docs and some paypal to make something that has made things much easier. People (Stacey, Jan, Mum, Andrew/Irene) have been so helpful so far, because we’re trying to make / decorate as much stuff ourselves as possible to save money.

Another really nice surprise was Total Finder. I’ve blogged before about how I use it for adding Tabs and Cut/Paste to Finder on OSX. I emailed the creator asking to see if they did discounts so I could install it for Anna as well, and he gave me a copy for free! Goes a bit to restoring my faith in people and made Anna and I both smile :) Be sure to check out Total Finder, this should have been built in to OSX!

Diddy Feet

2011-03-27T01:21:46Z

My cousin has launched a personalised greetings card site. If you’re in the UK be sure to check out diddyfeet.com

Very helpful error message

2011-01-11T08:43:23Z

This was from the official Apple iTunes Connect app :-P

Apple LED Cinema Display with a PC

2010-12-17T01:23:10Z

This is a really random post, but like the MySQL Bit post, it took me ages to find the right information on the internet, so thought I would blog it. I wondered if it was possible to run the 24″/27″ Apple LED Cinema Display which only have a DisplayPort input with a PC that normally only have a VGA or DVI adaptor. I’ve realised it is using these adaptors:

http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-p-17859.html

http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-Dual-Link-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-USB-Powered.html

However the caveats are:

- VGA only supports up to 2048×1533 and I’m not sure if the above will take a VGA signal to DVI
- The first model which is DVI only supports up to 1920×1200
- The second model which supports the full 2560×1440 of the 27″ required a Dual Link DVI, which as few PCs have as have as a DisplayPort adaptor

Long and short of it is, if you really want to from a laptop you’ll get low resolution at best, from a desktop your best bet is to buy a graphics card with a DisplayPort adaptor output, or better yet get a mac. I think part of the reason for DisplayPort over VGA/DVI and even HDMI is the higher resolution.

Simply Christian – N.T. Wright

2010-11-11T03:25:30Z

Christian holiness is not, as people often imagine, a matter of denying something good. It is about growing up and grasping something even better.

Made for spirituality we wallow in introspection.
Made for joy we settle for pleasure.
Made for justice we clamor for vengeance.
Made for relationship we insist on our own way.
Made for beauty we are satisfied with sentiment.

But, new creation has already begun, the sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. It is time in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian. To follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us.

Some things need to be said again

2010-10-17T00:40:54Z

Because sometimes the truth isn’t said enough.

If weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of
Then “cool” is just how far we have to fall
I am not immune, I only want to be loved
But I feel safe behind the firewall

Can I lose my need to impress?
If you want the truth I need to confess

I’m not alright, I’m broken inside
And all I go through, it leads me to You

-Sanctus Real

G. K. Chesterton – Orthodoxy

2010-10-09T14:33:47Z

The thing I mean can be seen for instance in children. When they find some game or joke that they especially enjoy, a child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free.

Therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. they always say “Do it again!”, and the grown up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown up people are not strong enough to exalt in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exalt in monotony. It is possible that every morning God says;

“Do it again!” to the sun, and every evening;

“Do it again!” to the moon.

It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike. It may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy for we have sinned and grown old and our father is younger than we.

What life in heaven is like…

2010-07-23T11:00:47Z

These aren’t necessarily theologically correct, and it might be more accurate to say life in the “new heavens and the new earth”, but here it is co-written with annatsang.com:

Garry / animals / pets / furry things
New socks every day
Happy
Really good food but still healthy
Dancing
People will share possessions
Freedom
If people have needs others will give things to them
Peaceful
No neck pain
No periods
Good environment and nature and picturesque scenes
Tasks and jobs satisfying and fulfilling
We have time to see and explore all the different parts of the world
Life is like a good book
Time to learn and study everything about God and about the world
We are wise
We are mature and healthy inside
Not perfect but have tools to deal with things
Not so wounded inside
Garry finds his family (other families are reunited too :-P)
Balance of work and rest and play
People know how to relate
People have genuine relationships and community
One big family
People are who they were always meant to be
People have grace
People have different roles small/big and are happy where they are, it fits them!
People don’t put expectations on others
People are vulnerable and know each other
People feel okay to be themselves
People know God and are close to him and feel loved

Cut & Paste and Tabs in Finder

2010-07-08T01:55:26Z

Just a quick post about things I’m liking right now:

1) Tabs in Finder thanks to Total Finder.

2) Cut & Paste, thanks to Move Addict. Apple say they don’t include this because its a user interface inconsistency compared to cut & paste of text which deletes the text when you cut it. On windows when you cut a file, it only deletes it after you paste. But still I think its a better way to move multiple files than dragging and dropping.

Titanium Autocomplete Eclipse

2011-01-21T05:50:28Z

Update
Appcelerator just announced that they’ve acquired Aptana. Not sure if it had anything to do with me pointing them in that direction via my plugin, but that would probably mean that I eventually stop maintaing this, since they’ll produce a much more integrated solution. Looking forward to it though!!!!

Original
I’ve been using Accelerator Titanium to create iPhone applications in JavaScript. One thing JavaScript is missing is really good editor with autocompletion / code completion. I recently found Aptana and wanted a way to autocomplete from the Titanium API in that. I’ve created ScriptDoc compatible JavaScript header file that does the job.

Installation
1) Install Aptana standalone or as an eclipse plugin.
2) Download the javascript header file
3) Switch to the Aptana perspective in eclipse
4) Set Aptana as the default javascript editor in preferences
5) Add the timobile.js to the references

Other points of interest:
- You can download the PHP file here that I use to create the JavaScript header file from the Titanium API JSON file. Run the PHP script in the same directory as the api.json file from Titanium.
- I’m working on an Eclipse plugin, you can view the source here.
- If you’re wondering why there are function names like Titanium_UI_Window, these are to act as dummy return types, because Aptana ScriptDoc didn’t allow me to return an Object in a name space like Titanium.UI.Window.
- Mbirth has a JSDoc code completion file here, but Adobe no longer seem to distribute JSEclipse so I’m not sure how it would work in Eclipse.

2010-05-15T23:09:53Z

Must listen to

2010-05-13T08:05:02Z

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about motivation, how to balance not doing things in order to achieve, but realising we don’t always feel like doing those things. This lecture by N.T. Wright is one of the best I’ve heard, and may provide the key for all the thoughts I’ve been thinking.

Number 5 UK Social Networking Apps

2010-05-09T00:25:19Z

Just sharing that Social Interview is up to Number 5 in the UK app store for Social Networking apps. Just below Skype :-)

OpenTerminalHere and AntHere

2010-04-22T14:17:33Z

Here are my modifications to OpenTerminalHere.

Firstly, update to always open in new tab, and use the leopard icon:
http://jameslow.com/content/software/misc/OpenTerminalHere.zip

Secondly, completely new app to launch terminal and run ant from Finder:
http://jameslow.com/content/software/misc/AntHere.zip

Two Excellent Podcasts

2010-04-12T06:11:32Z

Recently heard two excellent podcasts, one one free will (Ravi Zacharias) and one on the resurrection of Jesus (Rob Bell). Here’s the article Michael Ramsden mentions when he speaks.

Free Will (Ravi Zacharias)

Resurrection (Rob Bell)

Grrr Apple

2010-04-11T13:43:01Z

I love my mac and my iPhone, but I wish they wouldn’t do things that are bad for the developer and the end user. I know the latest SDK fineprint might be beyond the average user, but I don’t like it, and I think it overall isn’t good to close a system even more.

Found these interesting thoughts about it:
http://www.taoeffect.com/blog/2010/04/steve-jobs-response-on-section-3-3-1/
http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331

If you want to do something join, even if its just vent, join this facebook group.

Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven

2010-04-03T18:39:58Z

Pebbles + Needles = 1.6180339887

From The Lord’s Prayer

2010-03-23T03:16:31Z

Dad, you are different to everyone else.
You are the only one who is perfect,
the only one who is completely loving.
I believe You have the best of intentions,
towards me, and towards the world,
yet I find it hard to trust.
But we need You and Your love,
so may Your will be done on earth,
just as it is in heaven.

God, You are so loving,
You care about the details of life,
so give us today all that we need.
And may we trust you and not worry,
because if we ask for bread,
You will not give us a stone.

I still sin because I’m not perfect.
I’m wounded, broken,
but also selfish.
Forgive me my sins because you love me,
and help me forigve others,
because they are simply wounded and broken too.

Protect me from the enemy’s lies,
from fear, condemnation and his accusation
and remind me again of your love.
And may you have glory because of your love,
now, because I need you now,
and forever because our hope is in you making everything new.

Amen

Writing Word/RTF Docs In Java

2010-03-22T03:14:14Z

Working on Zest I’ve need something to write a document that get be opened by word. I’ve found several posts about this, so just thought I’d summarise what I thought:

1) You can use srw, which is really easy to create an RTF file, and I’ve modified it to support columns.
2) You can use iText but I think you have to use a version prior to the latest one.
3) You can use Apache POI to create an actual word .doc but you have to load from a template and you have to preset margins in the template.
4) You can use OpenOffice UNO but its complicated and users need openoffice installed to run your app.

CarbonHomepage.com – One up on blackle

2010-03-11T01:40:54Z

CarbonHomepage.com – one up on blackle

Manifesto – The goal theory of motivation and the circle theory of value, security, Sin and repentance

2010-03-03T14:44:04Z

Preface
Before reading this is should be noted that I suffer a lot from trying hard to be perfect, and so these thoughts come from a journey of having to give up trying so hard to be good in order to really trust God and accept grace and then trying to reconcile the good of being disciplined without it being pleasing God or pleasing man.

Manifesto – The goal theory of motivation and the circle theory of value, security, Sin and repentance

February 21st 2010

In the shower, well brushing my teeth and then going into the shower, and I think I got it, I have so much to write down and I’m not sure if I’ll forget or it will become less clear, but God please let it remain this way. REVELATION

Was brushing my teeth and realised that I hadn’t used my mouth wash in a while. I wondered if I was slipping back into not being disciplined, and if I should force myself to use my mouth wash, or if that was unwise, because it was something else I had to “do” in order to be “perfect”, striving, etc. I then started thinking about goals, and that actually what made me feel I should brush my teeth. Started to think, I really do want to be able to enjoy food when I’m older, not gluttonously, but because its a gift and a joy that to be enjoyed in life. I also want my health too, not because a perfect person also looks after their health, but because I want to have my health for my old age, so I’m not miserable then, and so I have it for my kids. I then started to realise that these were purer ultimate goals that changed the simple act of being disciplined about brushing my teeth being into something that was right and worth it.

I then realised that even the goals that we want in the future can become “idols” and impure, if we only want health for our children so that we’re good parents, to show we’re perfect, to feel good about ourselves or to make up for lack of our own parents. We then need to make the ultimate goal and motivation, the reason why we want to be good parents, something above that to make it pure. It was glaringly obvious that this was God, that we should “chase” our desires and goals upwards to be based on something God ordained. I realised this comes in several forms, general commands in the bible (when we’re not using them as legalism to be “perfect”), specific leading by his holy spirit and desires he’s placed in our hearts, being the “you” God created you to be.

My thoughts then turned to the definition of Sin (big ‘S’), realising that both the laws we break (sins, little ‘s’) AND the reasons we try to keep laws can be Sin (big ‘S’). This was an idea I had been exploring for a while, and trying to understand, link together, and understand where grace fits in. I’ve toyed with the idea of ego preservation, that Sin is mainly the preservation of our “ego” or “false self”. We, by our own strength, try to preserve ourselves by saying we’ll be “good enough”, insinuating that we can be good enough, and engaging our pride. The other way is that we try to please the ego is through pleasurable sin, sometimes to numb pain, but sometimes for the pure selfish pleasure of it. We either try to feel good or to be perfect, and being perfect is really just feeling good by feeling good about ourselves.

This time my thoughts went to the idea of security. Janakan’s talk on Saturday was really good that identified insecurity as the key to why people are often workaholics, and it has come up a lot in counseling and with Anna, and I realised that was the key here too. Linking this I managed to come up with a definition of Sin that makes sense to me.

Sin, the inability and unwillingness to find our value, security and enjoyment in God and the choice to try and do it ourselves, leading to legalistic behavior or debauchery, and normally an odd combination of both.

It really is the God shaped hole, the desire for love, that can ultimately only be met by God. And its not a love that is earned, its a free gift, grace, Jesus stretching out his arms on a cross, so that we could know we’re loved, without doing anything.

This then is the truth of “if you want to save your life you must loose it”. That we give up our ego and find our security, value, love and life in God. We have faith, we trust, that God has taken care of everything. When we don’t have the strength to do good (one extreme), trusting God has forgiven us and ask for his strength, and when we feel like striving to earn our value, trust God that we’re valued enough already (the other extreme). Discipline and working hard then are tools and gifts from God to do and achieve our goals, and the things he wants us to do, but not forgetting we always have to admit our need for him in order to be able to achieve everything, and that like food, the earth, our talents, or even life itself, disciplined itself is a gift, and it all comes from him. Obedience and the law then are also a tool, to set us free to achieve what we want, or not to hurt others, but again a tool that goes hand in hand with a trust and an acknowledgment of our need for him. Obedience then becomes something we want to do, even if it feels hard or it goes against our ego.

Several other ideas were important in thinking about this, counseling, John Eldredge, Ravi Zacharias and of course Rob Bell. Ravi Zacharias turned me on to the quote “Intent is prior to content” (I think it was C.S. Lewis). Had a great discussion about this with Anna, expanding to be “intent is prior to action”. This was especially with regards to talents like my discipline or her people skills, that are good things, but that have been to our detriment when we’ve used them to strive to give ourselves value or feel worthy of love. We never ultimately feel loved, its just the elusive idea that we might one day be good enough to be loved.

I also love what Ravi Zacharias’ “love is the ultimate ethic”, and how it so clearly indicates ultimately what is behind all morality and theology. Sometimes this is a feeling, that as we realised we’re loved, and as we fall in love with other people, that we then have a natural motivation to do the right thing. But I was struggling with the times we don’t feel like doing the right thing, but being confused because I had had to stop disciplining myself while I sorted out my sin of striving, realising when I was trying to earn being loved, and not relying on God’s strength. But all this has made me realise that ultimate goals and motivation can be the reason for discipline and doing things when we don’t feel like it, and that this makes discipline an act of love, always remembering we rely on God’s strength.

Finally WE’RE ALL BROKEN in this way. We all either try to indulge in pleasure or strive for perfection, and don’t turn to rely on God. You can believe what you want about the doctrine of original sin, but the bible clearly states “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” so whether is from Adam, or from each of us individually, we all have it. And so even for me, thinking about and understanding all I have just written is one thing, but doing it is another, and that as I said before is turning to trust God.

Some of you may have heard of this as repenting. Usually it gets presented as turning around 180 degrees and trusting that God has taken your “Sin” (normally simplified to just the bad things you do, “sins”) and taken them on himself on the cross. But this so easily becomes promising the things we’re going to try harder to do differently, and if we do that we really haven’t turned 180. We’ve turned 180 to trust God, but passed through, not resting in that trust, turning a full 360 degrees to working really hard to be good enough to be loved.

So may you, when you’re tempted to indulge in pleasures that are either hurtful or for the motivation of feel good without God, trust that God has forgiven you, gives you the strength to do good, and loves you just the way you are. And may you, when you’re tempted to strive, earn your value and do things in your own strength, trust that God has forgiven you, gives you the strength to do good, and loves you just the way you are.

22nd February 2010

Even “for God” is not the ultimate goal or motivation. Otherwise we might be tempted to please him. But we love because he first loved us. And not because we owe him, but because as with any good relationship when we see someone for how they truly are and we see that they love us it causes us to love then back. And again not to feel guilty if you don’t feel it yet. Pray that God shows his true self to you in your heart.

I think that most and I would go as far to say that all sins are just twistings of something good. Like lust is sex out of the context of marriage. The devil isn’t very creative. Even other religions are almost true. They go as far as to say the ultimate motivation is to please God or to be good enough. But this is one short of the ultimate; that God already loved us and provides the way and the strength to love him back.

Chrome my firefox

2010-02-22T12:28:47Z

I like the idea of tabs on top (wish safari hadn’t removed it) and I like Chrome’s integrated address/search bar. But firefox has the addons and is my browser of choice. I recently found these two programs that do what I want to do:
Omni Bar – Merge the address bar and search bar
GrApple Crisp – Tabs on top and mac like skin

iPhone Apps

2010-02-19T03:07:11Z

Here’s a few iPhone apps I’ve written while working for Onoko


socialinterview.com	boredombutton.com

On not having energy to explain depression because you’re depressed

2010-02-22T16:59:13Z

To be read as a limerick:

There once was a boy from Hong Kong
Who slipped over and lost his tongue
People thought he was rude
But he shouldn’t be sued
Because he couldn’t tell any one

Windows Live Fail

2010-02-02T06:30:47Z

Apparently I’m not allowed to upload Windows Gadgets from a non-windows computer:

My official (only?) post on the iPad

2010-02-02T06:21:12Z

Apple released their iPad recently to a mixture of hype and disappointment. I never really felt like I needed one, and prefer a laptop with a multi touch pad over a touch screen right now. I do understand why people are disappointed, and that its not a tablet PC.

But that said, after seeing what it could do for the price, I don’t think its a bad device at all. It actually be pretty cool to have a device to show/share things easily, read a recipe in the kitchen, relax and read/surf the web for not a bad price.

But the biggest not mentioned use is as a CHEAP digital photo frame with more. It would be cool to have a load of devices around the house that tell you the weather, or have the latest news playing, or show your photos or let you control your lights. Digital photo frames have even started doing this using things like Frame Channel. But many of those are even more expensive than the iPad, and don’t support custom Apps or simply displaying a webpage. Apple do mention using it as a photo frame when talking about the photo features, but it could be even more!

Stop blaming the investment banks

2010-02-22T15:58:55Z

If I hear one more person blame the investment banks for the recent financial crisis I think I’m going to go insane! I saw a brief interview on Bloomberg today talking about how the increased government regulation on Investments Banks has been great news for Hedge Funds, because everyone is now using them for high risk / high return investment, and it just reminded me how the problem is not the investment banks or their managers. Its us! Is yours and mine and the world’s greed in general.

The market
The 3 biggest participants in the market by a long way are pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies. These all ultimate are owned by retail investors, and you by your choices of who to invest your pension or to take out insurance with control the actions of these institutions. If the institutions are greedy, its because you and I have unrealistic expectations for how we want our retirement money to perform.

Mortgages
Yes the investment banks might have been able to act more responsibly, but we caused this 2 ways, sorry 3 ways.
1) We strive and are greedy for better and better homes, ones our of our reach, and took out mortgages above what we could afford.
2) If we are in the more well off proportion of the world, we (and yes I don’t either) share are wealth enough with those less fortunate.
3) As I said, we by our actions or even our indecision, demanded performance out of our investments, which caused banks and funds to invest in risky mortgages too.

Bonus
And can we please stop complaining about big bonus for IB execs. You pay your football players / basketball players / movie stars that much, and all they do is entertain you. Millions is simply what it costs to get someone to do that job, to take on the responsibility and stress of managing that much money. And please pay if its in the contract! Yes good people might give back bonuses paid to more needy causes if everyone else is not doing good financially, but if a company has a contractual agreement to guarantee a bonus it should pay it! You can’t fix a wrong (that is our greed), by another wrong, breaking of something you promised to do. We’re acting like a respectable business man, who pays the mob to do all his dirty work for them, and then pays someone to kill them!

Things you can do, if you want to stop this:
1) Choose ethical / low risk / or at least be conscious of your pension investment choices.
2) Buy index funds, instead of paying someone to manage your money. They normally outperform manage funds anyway!
3) Stop watching all those home make over programs. About the only good one is Extreme Makeover Home Edition because they actually help people in need, and it makes me cry almost everytime! Although cynically I could say they are only able to help people because they know all of us the rest of will buy stuff we don’t need from their sponsors.
4) Be productive in your retirement. John Eldridge says “This is the heart of the Sage, to make his greatest contribution with the last years of his life.” It will keep you happier, more satisfied, healthy and living longer if you find worth while things to do. Things that are both what makes you come alive, and help other people.
5) Figure out why we can’t say that what we have is enough (I still feel like this too), I’m sure finding satisfaction in God and family and friends and the things that really matter has something to do with that. If you’re a guy, this is a great place to start: http://www.mensfraternity.com

I am probably being too judgmental here, not that what I have said is wrong, but that I am too much a part of the problem to have taken the tone that I have here.

2010

2010-01-08T20:59:41Z

Its 4am and I’m currently suffering the worst case of jetlag I’ve had in years. I thought I would use the time to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and write my semi regular goals for 2010. They’re not quite new years resolutions, but I had intended to do them more like this, but that seemed like too much work, so here they are starting with the last ones I made:

Practice trumpet – Not going to do for a while

~~See a councilor~~ – Yay! Actually done this one, and EVERYONE should do it.

Be cash positive – Semi…

Program Zest – Going to do it!

~~Spread certain church responsibilities~~ – Learned to say no, and take breaks in general

Love people (ok I’m going to fail, but we’ve all got to try) – This is really hard when you’re going through counseling

So for this year I’d like to… (drum roll please)

Be more cash positive

Get breakthrough in counseling

Get healing for my neck

Get back into regular exercise

Stop biting my nails

Program Zest

Thoughts On Keyboards

2010-01-23T15:22:59Z

When Apple first released their wireless keyboard without the number pad attached I thought “What are they thinking?”. But having worked on a macbook with a small keyboard and an integrated touchpad, and then consequently getting neck pains from pad posture and switching to an external keyboard and monitor, I now see that having the keyboard right next to your mouse or track pad for both speed and ergonomics, is a really good thing.

I’ve since bought the small Apple keyboard for work, along with a Wacom Bamboo Touch for work, since I prefer it over a mouse (2 finger scrolling FTW!). I’m now selling/trading my Apple keyboard that I have at home with a number pad built in as its not for me, maybe for those doing a lot of a numeric entry (like when I worked in an investment bank doing excel all the time). Let me know if anyone wants it or want to trade for the small Apple keyboard.

With the Bamboo Touch, its not quite as good as an Apple touchpad. I would love an Apple keyboard with one built, just like a laptop. I had to turn off Add left and right taps to click and drag, and stick with the release fingers and retouch to have a click to keep the Bamboo Touch from detected accidental clicks, which the Apple one tends to ignore better. The texture isn’t as good as the nice glass Apple touchpads either, but I still prefer it over a mouse.

I want something like this:

Guitar History

2011-05-20T17:47:53Z

Total count in (brakets)

1993 – Yamaha Acoustic (1)
1994 – Aria Pro Electric (2)
1997 – Musicman Silhouette Special (3)
1998 – Fender Tele Nylon String (4)
1998 – Sold Aria Pro Electric (3)
1998 – Fender Bass (Used) (4)
1999 March – Gibson ES-175 (5)
1999 May – Sold Fender Bass (4)
1999 May – Sold Yamaha Acoustic and bought it back straight away (3/4)
2001 – Takamine (5)
2002 – G&L Legacy 2000 (6)
2006 – Sold Takamine (5)
2006 – Another Takamine (6)
2007 – PRS Santana SE (7)
2009 Nov – Michael Kelly Hybrid Special (8)
2009 Nov – Sold PRS Santana SE (7)
2009 Dec – Sold Musicman (6)
2009 Dec – Sold Gibson ES-175 (5)

Good Idea

2009-12-26T21:45:38Z

I’ve always thought this was a good idea:

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2007/10/10/microsd-to-memory-stick-adapter-for-the-giga-thrifty/

Can I lose my need to impress?

2009-12-14T05:09:09Z

If weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of
Then “cool” is just how far we have to fall
I am not immune, I only want to be loved
But I feel safe behind the firewall

Can I lose my need to impress?
If you want the truth I need to confess

I’m not alright, I’m broken inside
And all I go through, it leads me to You

-Sanctus Real

Some Images

2009-11-22T14:59:15Z

Going through some old files and I found these. Realised I have a lot to learn still.

The Things That Will Destroy America

2009-11-11T15:32:35Z

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.” – Theodore Roosevelt

HTTP headers and raw POST data for PHP-CGI

2009-11-10T14:08:01Z

I host my website on Dreamhost and as good value as it is, with great email/SVN/MySQL and hosting, there are some limitations. One of them is trying to read raw POST data from $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA and the other is trying to read custom HTTP headers because PHP runs as a CGI module using there service.

I realised the working around for getting raw post data is to use:

$data = file_get_contents(‘php://input’);

And that you can use mod_rewrite to to pass HTTP headers to the $_SERVER variable, as described here. If you want to add additional header values, you must specify each one as a seperate E= statement in your .htaccess file. I was writing a CALDAV server and wanted to be able to (1) use the HTTP authentication described here, (2) read the “Depth” HTTP header, and (3) redirect all requests queries through a single php file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php [E=REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},E=DEPTH:%{HTTP:Depth},L]
RewriteRule .* – [E=REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},E=DEPTH:%{HTTP:Depth},L]

Mail.app RSS Smart Mailbox

2009-11-07T13:49:34Z

If like me you have quite a lot of RSS subscriptions within Apple Mail.app you may find that you either get sick of navigating each RSS folder on the left individually but don’t want to put all your RSS subscriptions within your inbox. What I realised you could do is create a smart mailbox to only show read RSS items, greatly saving space in the left hand pane, and making it easy to navigate all unread subscriptions.

iSync icon after iTunes sync

2009-11-05T03:39:58Z

For some of you this maybe so minor its not worth worrying about, but I really don’t like how if conflict resolver is shown when syncing my iPhone with iTunes, the iSync icon gets added to my menu bar no matter whether I click sync now or later after resolving the conflict. I’ve contacted Apple about this, but I recently found this article (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/02/mac-101-how-to-manually-enable-menu-extras/) that helps explain how to load menu items. What I’ve done instead is rename the sync menu item, so that it never gets loaded. Quick disclaimer, I’m not responsible for any damage to your computer using this command.

sudo mv “/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Sync.menu” “/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Sync2.menu”

The New Cosmology: Theistic Implications

2009-11-04T03:10:43Z

The 5th talk in this series at SPU is an excellent look at contemporary physics and how it relates to God. All of them are good, but espeically the one titled “The New Cosmology: Theistic Implications”

A Guitar Story

2009-10-19T07:43:40Z

Been meaning to blog this for a while. Not sure of everything I want to say through it, but I know its a story and I want to share it.

The background is something like this. I’ve wanted one of these guitars for a long time, a Michael Kelly Hybrid Special, but… I’ve also been thinking about the words of Jesus, giving everything away to the poor and how much I have compared to other people. I also struggle a lot with deciding things for myself, especially things that I want, I feel like God doesn’t want to give them to me, or worse wants to take them away! Any time I have to make a decision I can often get worried about making the wrong one or something not being what God wants and I can end up feeling really guilty for it. Some of the things I do this with include:

- Breaking fast in the morning instead of the evening
- Not knowing exactly the songs to choose for worship instead of just trusting and picking them and then putting it off to the last minute so I have to just pick them quick anyway
- Checking my email before having my quiet time
- Buying a meal for myself that I like
- I even worried once that God might not want me to program ever again!

The guitar isn’t available in HK, so after watching a few videos on youtube I thought I would see if they had any on Ebay. One company was willing to ship internationally. Around the same time I started to receive abnormally large sums on money through my paypal through ad clicks and people paying to extend plugins that were original distributed for free.

After struggling for a while with whether it was right to buy the guitar, but secretly wanting it and wanting to look a bit like David Crowder, one day during my quiet time on my podium I decided that I’d get the guitar if I got US$800 in my paypal. This was the sum of the cost of the guitar + shipping + tithe. At the time I had some faith but still thought it was unlikely.

Anyway, days went by and I actually got close in my paypal earning up to $550 from ads/freelance programming. Then I sold some things on Ebay and ended up getting $200 for it, even though I thought I might only get about $100. I had $750, 50 dollars short! I was actually starting to believe this might happen, and was waiting for God to come through and send me the last $50.

It came to the day the auction on Ebay was going to end, and I was starting to feel sorry for myself, feeling, you see God wants to give everybody else stuff and not me. Or thinking God really wants to do something else because something else would be better for me, and started to feel really guilty. Then I started to journal about what I was thinking and feeling, and said I was sick of feeling guilty for wanting stuff. And I felt something small say “Then don’t”. I wasn’t and I’m still not sure if it was me or God, but then I felt it say, “Go buy the guitar”.

I was thinking, ok, maybe I just got the last $50, so I checked my email on my iPhone, but no new money in my paypal (more self pity). I decided to go upstairs to my computer. I checked the auction, it had ended…

I decided to to do one last search on Ebay just to see what was there. The original company had relisted! And they relisted it $50 cheaper!!!! I couldn’t quite believe it. I bought it there and was very happy :-) and its one of the few signs of God’s provision that I’ve had (or at least that I’ve noticed!), given that it was the exact guitar, the exact price, and not just any store, but the store that offered me international shipping.

Anyway, I’m not just blogging this a testimony to how good God is, and I don’t think generally we should test God like this. I still didn’t feel it that much, and the feeling of happiness faded quite fast. Maybe its because I haven’t got the guitar yet, but I also know there are a lot of deep reasons why I don’t feel God’s love that much, or worry about him not giving me stuff I want. I believe that we are to share what we have with those in need, but that God also wants to bless us and give us stuff that make us happy. I also believe sometimes bad things happen or we don’t get what we think would be best, and we don’t know why.

I do know that God is good, even if he doesn’t come through like he seemed to this time, there is a reason, and this prayer helps me a lot.

A slow miracle is as incredible as a fast miracle

2009-10-19T07:08:30Z

Ravi has been a large inspiration recently and his exposition on C.S. Lewis’ “A slow miracle is as incredible as a fast miracle” is also excellent:

Prayer – Ravi Zacharias

2009-10-18T13:22:17Z

Your ways mystify me oh Lord.
Oh yes, in some journeys I feel you all the way, never doubted.
But sometimes You seem to vanish after half way of that journey.
At other times You appear to me at that very last moment.
And You know Lord, sometimes I actually fear that You’ll let me go over the edge.

You are very unique My child and I will help you learn from Me with that very uniqueness in mind.
You see if I took everyone all the way, where is the room for their faith?
If I took everyone more than half the way, where is the room for their love?
If I did not let You at times even feel abandoned, where is the room for My Cross?

You are not what you will someday be.
I AM who I AM!
And I know how to get you from who you are to who I AM.
If you do not understand this, where is your hope?

Dismantle.Repair.

2009-10-16T17:05:07Z

Oh oh, things are gonna change now for the better
Oh oh, things are gonna change

Hands, like secrets, are the hardest thing to keep from you
Lines and phrases, like knives, your words can cut me through
Dismantle me down (repair)
You dismantle me
You dismantle me

Great Ravi Zacharias Talk

2009-10-16T16:52:55Z

Listened to this more than 3 times today, helped me through some tough times.

Top 5 Pet-Peeves

2009-10-12T17:49:09Z

1) Tinned Spaghetti/Tomato Ketchup (especially in fried rice)
2) Spam/Plastic square cut ham (also especially in fried rice)
3) Trying to fix a computer over the phone
4) No ToDo list syncing on my iPhone
5) Doors that don’t open both ways (push and pull)/Cupboards with that stupid thing that means you have to open one door first

Top 5 Books

2009-10-12T17:20:19Z

1) Sex God – Rob Bell
2) Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
3) Velvet Elvis – Rob Bell
4) Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
5) Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die: Or the Eschatology of Bluegrass – David Crowder, Mike Hogan

Also had to get in there Wild At Heart / The Way Of The Wild Heart (which I think is great and I’m only a few chapters in!), both of which my girlfriend gave me. They’re the next best reads!

iPhone Idea

2009-10-12T17:19:46Z

My friend Janakan just got a Google Andriod. I think they’re pretty cool along with the Palm Pre and iPhone. Abduction on Google Android is great :-P

Anyway one thing the iPhone could improve is adding a central notifications area to show all push notifications. The way I’d see this working is to swipe right from the home screen to where spotlight/search is now, and show a chronological list of all notifications for all apps. Then if you start typing it starts to search your iPhone as usual.

Top 5 Movies

2009-10-12T17:06:49Z

1) Spy Games
2) Tuesday’s With Morie
3) The Matrix
4) The Princess Bride
5) Forest Gump

Honorable mentions:
6) Lord Of the Rings Trilogy
7) Star Wars Trilogy
8) Back To The Future Trilogy
9) The Borne Identity
10) Coach Carter

Dawen – American Me

2009-10-08T09:26:46Z

My friend Dawen has just recently released his debut ablum. Get it here!

Great new homepage

2009-10-06T07:29:02Z

I don’t normally use homepages, but found this is actually kind of cool. Google search with a new word every day!

http://www.wordhomepage.com

US$150 Off Dreamhost Promo Code

2009-10-03T01:58:49Z

I use the excellent Dreamhost webhosting service to host my webpage. Its use by my church and some other companies I work closely with and it has seriously good performance / features for the price.

I have 5 special promo codes that expire on the 16th of October. They get you $150 off signing up for 5 years or $200 off 10 years! 5 years might seem like a lot, but its a seriously good service, and they have a 97 day complete money back guarantee, so if you don’t like it you can leave. Normally the maximum is $97!!!

When you sign up here https://signup.dreamhost.com/ use one of the following promo codes, let me know if one doesn’t work and I’ll take it off the list.
027454987515
255736220221
976239709269
197256262936
970929354547

Songs I wish I wrote

2009-09-15T13:03:20Z

Top 5 songs I wish I wrote:
1) David Crowder – Here Is Our King
2) Cold Play – Fix You
3) Any song off U2 – Josuha Tree
4) John Mayer – No Such Thing
5) Mainstay – Take Away

Apple Remote Control

2009-09-15T00:35:23Z

I recently came across this utility for access the apple remote. It should be possible to use in shell scripts, applescripts and even Java as described here

I wanted to be able to have exclusive access to the remote and I found this discussion which showed me how to do it by changing the open command to use a 1 (this occurs in two places in the command.
ioReturnValue = (*hidDeviceInterface)->open(hidDeviceInterface, 1);

I have uploaded my changes here: http://jameslow.com/content/software/misc/iremoted.zip
How to compile is in the source code, but it took me a while to realise that, so here’s the command: gcc -Wall -o iremoted iremoted.c -framework IOKit -framework Carbon

Worship slides on an iPhone/iPod

2009-09-03T07:01:18Z

I’ve been wanting a presentation program that could display on a TV or projector for my iPhone for a long time, firstly a laptop doesn’t fit in your pocket, and the new display port on my Macbook doesn’t have a TV out adapter. I thought about writing a mobile version of my Limelight application, that is a presentation management application, meaning it can handle different file types (powerpoint, text, movies), within the same application. That would be a lot of work and there aren’t any other programs out there yet. Apple hasn’t made their video out API public, so even the programs that can display powerpoint, can’t do it externally on a TV.

Discovery
I was browsing the Apple online store (as you do), and saw that the cable I have for plugging my iPhone in a TV also supported displaying photos. I didn’t realise this because it only does it when you start a slide show, by clicking the play button in a photo album. That made my mind click, and I realised I could use it to show presentations, or song lyrics.

Song lyric slides
Putting powerpoint presentations on the iPhone is discussed here, but this article will discuss how to easily create song lyric slides using Limelight. Once you’ve downloaded Limelight (available for mac or pc), and created some lyric files (just plain text files), you can simply right click a file or a set list and export images.

Sync photos
You should then have some slides exported to your Documents folder. These can then be copied to iPhoto or the folder on your computer that you synchronise your photos using iTunes to your iPod/iPhone. You’ll then be able to do something like this:

Tips and tricks
1) You need to start the slide show after plugging in the cable, otherwise it won’t show on your screen
2) You can’t normally pause a slide show on the iPhone, but you can if you’re outputting to the TV! That’s what you need for presentations! See the below screenshot.
3) You can edit the slide show settings under Settings -> Photos (I set the longest slide setting)
4) You can edit your TV out settings under Settings -> iPod-> TV Out
5) Its a good idea to turn of auto screenlock in Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock
6) You may need to reorder your photos within the album in iPhoto
7) To display your slides on a TV you’ll need a Apple Component AV Cable or Apple Composite AV Cable. On the iPhone your display resolution will be limited to 480i (NTSC) or 576i (PAL). You can find out about more about video capabilities of Apple products here.

More to come
You can probably get this working on other phones/PDAs/MP3/video players that have a video out, but I don’t have one to try it. There will definitely be more updates to Limelight in the future, including customising the layout and additional file formats like movies and powerpoint. The first update will probably be do add a view to size the images so that they are 480 (NTSC) or 576 (PAL) which should provide the best quality output on those screens.

50 Things To Do Today

2009-08-26T09:37:01Z

Someone, sent me this, can’t quite remember who (SORRY!), but its got some good ideas for small improvements we can make to our lives. Its a bit newagey and I think you still need Jesus :-P, but there’s some good practical tips in this, I especially like the audio learning one, which I’ve started doing a lot through podcasts / audiobooks. In case the embedding doesn’t work you can get it at
http://www.learnoutloud.com

Back on form

2009-08-22T15:26:38Z

After disagreeing with Rob Bell over comments he made in one talk I’m glad to say his latest sermon from Mars Hill was really good, and along with some discussion with my counselor answered a lot of questions I had about salvation recently. Oh and there also was his worship talk a couple of weeks ago which was different, but excellent!

iPhoto -> WordPress

2009-08-20T04:28:33Z

Been wondering for a while if I should write an plugin to iPhoto that uploads directly to wordpress. There’s been WordPress Export for a while, but it wasn’t free, doesn’t work with the new WordPress gallery feature and doesn’t work with the latest iPhoto.

I did find though with the new Flash uploaded built into WordPress you can now browse your iPhoto library to upload files. Its not ideal, as you might upload large version of files, but its better than nothing, and in the view of doing less and not having to program every good idea I come up with it would have to do:

Emoji on iPhone

2009-08-04T00:59:42Z

I’ve started using Emoji on my iPhone, I did it with this app here: http://waterworld.com.hk/en/spell_number_easter_egg

Friend’s Music

2009-08-01T23:50:08Z

I’ve blogged about Dawen in the US and God Rock in Cebu, but haven’t about Preston and everything he’s doing at flat six. Here’s some of the flat six associated sites:

http://www.prestonlau.net
http://www.flatsixmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/sherinsiew
http://www.myspace.com/djprestonlau

Reverse Sabbath Ends

2009-07-31T16:28:43Z

Today is the last day of my reverse sabbath, and it’s a Friday which was the day I was using my computer anyway, so I’m using it :-P I might write more about it later. But here’s what I’ve learned:

1) A month isn’t that long a time to not work or do anything, or not using a computer
2) I can do it! (Not use my computer that much)
3) It’s a lot easier with an iPhone and when you’re on a mission trip for 10 days!
4) I cheated a bit with my iPhone or on the days I had to use my computer for an emergency I used it for non emergency purposes
5) It was good to know I didn’t have to do things, that I could be a human being on a human doing, but I still need to learn the art of rest more.
6) I really do genuinely like using my computer and programming, its not just a time killer or addiction.

Very Happy

2009-07-31T16:05:28Z

Ok twittered this, but couldn’t help but blog it since I wrote about it before. I’m really happy that Hong Kong now has this:

http://www.thechippy.com.hk

Nick Pitera

2009-07-31T15:50:29Z

Ok, rather random, but after visiting Disneyland was reminded about his Whole New World video. This one is pretty good too:

Dream Impossible

2009-06-30T20:51:12Z

Probably my last post for a while, as I see how my reverse sabbath pans out. I was watching with Anna something on the God channel (which is something I don’t normally do). The speaker was speaking about dreaming big, and giving all these examples of people that did great things, made their businesses go global, go from teacher to school board member, or give world changing speaches.

I understand his point, that we shouldn’t limit ourselves or God, and that there maybe a much bigger plan for you life than you have. But the truth is maybe the plan isn’t bigger…

And that’s not to place limits on anyone or just be realistic, but its to be truthful. Maybe instead of dreaming big, we should dream impossible. The calling on your life may in the world’s or prosperity gospel wielding preacher’s eyes, small. But that makes it no less noble, impossible or true.

Paul traveled all over eastern Europe, very big indeed, but Stephen was stoned and a martyr in the early beginnings of the church, and let us not forget the widow’s might.

And so for me dreaming impossible in truth, I dream to be a faithful husband, who loves his wife like Christ loves the church, and to be a father that does not pass his wounds on to his children, is involved in their lives and loves them unconditionally.

Part of the reason for the reverse sabbath is a lack of being inspired by my dreams for the future, and along with some other discussions with Janakan, was my reason for publishing them at 43 Things.

Lost in 8:15

2009-06-30T20:26:27Z

Ok, really random, but I’ve been back into Lost (and Prison Break) recently, and I really liked this summary that was on the Season 4 DVDs:

Reverse Sabbath

2009-06-30T20:25:28Z

Those of you that know me know I’ve talked a lot about sabbath recently. I definitely feel its an important part to the rhythm of life, and something a persistent achiever like me can forget in favour of getting stuff done.

Recent events (lack of joy, tiredness, a hurt neck) have led me to believe that I really need a proper holiday, which apart from a week last year I probably haven’t had in 4 years. I guess some might call it a “sabbatical”, but I’m calling it a reverse sabbath. I intend to only work or use my computer once a week, and take a complete break the other days for the whole of July, instead of the other way around.

It will be really good because my mum and sister are visiting and Anna is on holiday AND I’m going our church mission trip from 20th to the 30th :-) So I’ll be much less frequent at replying to emails and you guys can all keep a check on me, although if its an emergency I might just have to :-P

I have a couple more blog posts tonight, and then I’m signed off for July.

Awareness

2009-06-29T16:00:35Z

I recently attended this fundraiser for North Korea. They screen the full length version of this video and was struck by how bad things were, or maybe I always knew, but hid it back there somewhere. But now I more than know, I am aware. Aware of starvation, aware of the fear of death and punishment, aware of the blind worship of their supreme leader.

And with awareness, we must do something. Along with the video they screened I also found this on google video:

How He Loves

2009-06-29T15:42:31Z

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, weâ€™re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I donâ€™t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Upgrade IE

2009-06-23T08:13:22Z

If you do insist on you using internet explorer instead of a real browser you might as well upgrade to internet explorer 8 and get a standards compliant browser:

http://www.upgradeie.com

The God Delusion Debate

2009-06-15T04:20:30Z

Recently found this on the Ravi Zacharias DVD store and then realised it could be streamed and downloaded for free at google video.

Little side note, at 13:10 Richard Dawkins checks his iPhone, he can’t be all bad :-P

Gibson ES-175 Reissue for sale

2009-06-13T01:58:39Z

When I was 18 I got a beautiful ES-175 Reissue jazz guitar, intending to use it at Jazz gigs. As it turns out its the one guitar I’ve never gigged with, oh I played a couple of weddings! Anyway as part of wanting to live on less so that others can simply live I’m going to sell it.

Money from the sale will go towards the Shatin Anglican Church Solar Lighting project in Duncalan, Philippines. Leave a comment on this post with your email if you’re interested.

1) As new condition with case
2) Pickups changed to the amazing sounding Bendetto B-6s
3) Original pickups included
4) Beautiful flame maple top
5) HK$15,000

Shabbat

2009-06-05T15:28:35Z

Sabbath is a day to remember that I am loved just because I exist.

Sabbath is taking a day a week to remind myself that I did not make the world and that it will continue to exist without my effort.

Sabbath is a day when my work is done, even if it isn’t.

Sabbath is a day when my job is to enjoy. Period.

Sabbath is a day when I am fully available to myself and those I love most.

Sabbath is a day when I remember that when God made the world, he saw that it was good.

Sabbath is a day when I produce nothing.

Sabbath is a day when I remind myself that I am not a machine.

Sabbath is a day when at the end I say, “I didn’t do anything today,” and I don’t add, “And I feel so guilty.”

Sabbath is a day when my phone is turned off, I don’t check my email, and you can’t get ahold of me.

Rob Bell on Shabbat or Sabbath (Hebrew: ×©Ö·××‘Ö¸Ö¼×ª) in Velvet Elvis

Random Things

2009-06-03T04:27:55Z

Just some random things, some screen shots showing that the MTR isn’t doing very well running windows on its displays, and one showing Pret’s new $10 sandwiches :-)

Make your google look gorgeous

2009-06-01T02:45:11Z

http://www.searchslate.com

Competition

2009-05-22T00:53:02Z

A competitive spirit isn’t about being better than everyone else, its that inner drive to be the best person you can be. A true competitor can truly say “May the best man win!”

The best video EVER!

2009-05-18T15:37:51Z

Gotta love it:

Games / Icebreakers

2009-05-18T02:50:46Z

I’m not sure what category to post this under, since it involves programming for church, but anyway I recently wanted a way to have all our church icebreakers / games in a spreadsheet so they were easy to categories and sort, but also have a way to make a printer friendly version. What I ended up doing was putting them all in a google spreadsheet and writing a PHP file that created a HTML version that could be formatted using CSS. The end result is the massive games and icebreaker list available for everyone!

Inconsistent Messages

2009-05-07T02:04:24Z

I was using a public toilet the other day and noticed these two signs and couldn’t help but wonder what I was actually supposed to do. For me it is a comical illustration that there are relative ethics, that under different circumstances the right thing to do might me different. I believe in moral absolutes too, but I’m also aware that not everything taught by the church as dogma may be absolute. Anyway that’s my 2 cents for today. Off for a swim now.

Spanish Proverb

2009-05-05T00:35:03Z

He who loves one woman has loved them all, he who loves many women has loved none.

I think you’re wrong about this one

2009-04-29T14:31:29Z

I do really like the way Rob Bell looks at the scriptures, his ability to communicate and say the things I’ve always thought but not been able to put into words, his perspective on emotion and the existential realities of being human, and a lot of his overall world view.

But…

I recently heard him talk about Masaru Emoto and his water crystals in a Mars Hill sermon and in an interview with Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind I do have to say…

I do think that you’re wrong about this one.

To be honest I was really surprised when he talked about it positively. From his DVD Everything Is Spiritual seemed to show that he did have a reasonable grasp of science, so to give credibility and not be dubious of Masura Emoto seemed very out of character and more naive than I expected. There are a myriad of possible explanation including selection of results, or what part of the water they observed. If the results of these ‘experiments’ are to be believed then it would change physics and science as we know it completely, and I believe that the relative obscurity of the results and findings means that it probably hasn’t.

There are many different world views that attempt to reconcile observed scientific laws and religious beliefs. Some would hinge on Calvinist ideas like predestination and scientific points of view like determinism, where God is the first cause in leading to world in which manifests the choices that we make while preserving the laws of physics. Stephen Hawking himself says man is determined. Others would take on a more indeterminate view of the world where the universe is not a closed system and it is possible for outside influences to change things.

I would tend to lean towards the universe being determined on a macro and microscopic level, but as quantum physics seems to be showing us, at a quantum level it is random and indeterminate. This would lead to the possibilities of humans able to have free will and influence the universe while maintaining the laws of physics. Some have even suggested that quantum events may occur in the human brain.

A further random thought is that even if our brains are determined in and of themselves, the result decisions and possible paths for our lives are not, as one of the inputs to them has been the observation of quantum phenomena, indirectly through the resulting ripples through the universe from the quantum level to the macro level, and now directly through the knowledge and direct observation of scientists of phenomena.

In either case I do believe that God would be able to allow free will and even step in and intervene in the natural course of the universe while leaving scientific observation of such phenomena unseen, he can of course do anything. Likewise he can work and exercise his will (even if that will was determined from the beginning of the universe and is not individual interventions at a specific point in time), while at the same time allowing humans to have free will. For example people doing evil things crucified Jesus, and if God is loving, he never wills evil, and my personal belief is that he didn’t zap people with negative thoughts to get them to do it. But at the same time God was able to use those events as the method for saving people and providing a way for people to know God’s love and know him, which is a good thing.

Anyway, random ramblings, I don’t know where I was going with it…

Hugs

2009-04-29T01:02:58Z

Check out this, and the Dave Matthews Band Everyday video.

Ravi Zacharias – The Existence of God

2009-04-24T18:07:56Z

These are some great talks from Ravi Zacharias talking through the philosophical ideas behind the existence of God.

Video Part 1
Video Part 2
Video Part 3
Video Part 4
Video Part 5
Video Part 6

Life Story

2009-04-21T07:54:30Z

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but only got round to it now. This isn’t the best writing, I’m covering a lot of events in a long period of time, so ask if you want to know about anything more!

Without further ado…

I grew up in a Christian home. I first invited Jesus into my heart at age 6. I don’t remember understanding everything fully, but I do remember just ‘knowing’ that it was real and that it was what I wanted. I continued to have faith, and prayed to God at often, but thought not much more of it other than going to church with my family. I did have one experience when I was 11 or 12 when I felt God say I should get baptised. I didn’t hear a voice or anything, I was just knowing that it is what I should do, so I did it. Overall I had a happy childhood, and felt family life was good. My dad spend time with me and taught me things, my mum loved me, and my sister and I had a lot of fun, even if we fought at times! I know I wasn’t perfect, but overall I think I was a good kid. I tried to do good, and felt bad when I didn’t. I could count the number of times I’d sworn on my hands. I think there was the beginnings of pride that would later become a problem, and I’m not sure what the root cause was other than the general pride that comes from being human.

As I entered my teenage years things started to change a bit. I started to realise I did do comparatively well in studies at school, and this combined with regular emotions and experiences lead to me turning more and more arrogant, think myself better than most of my friends and my teachers. Dad also got busy, and didn’t know that as guys enter their teenage years they need to put extra effort into being involved in their boys lives, especially since we try to push everyone away, so I ended up relying more and more on myself, not really sharing with everyone, and thinking I didn’t need anyone else. I remember in my GCSE mock I got marked badly on something, and wrote some very rude things on my paper back to my teacher. I really felt I had to be the best at everything. I was known for being arrogant and being quite mean to a lot of people. This was all compounded when my Dad and my Mum were separated around my birthday. This just made me more of an angry teenager. I wasn’t angry at anybody in particular, or at God, I was just angry at the situation.

It was also during my teenage years that I first discovered pornography. There was little clear teaching on it other than “he who has looked at a women with lust has committed adultery with her in her heart.”, and so I wasn’t given any practical steps in order to control my sexuality which is a very powerful thing for a teenager boy.

Despite these bad things going on in my life during the week, I still had some genuine encounters with God, praying in tongues at some times, and often crying under the presence of the holy spirit, which to me is a sign that religious experience and the manifestations of the holy spirit are not as true signs of spirituality as the fruits of the spirit. But all these experiences showed me God is really real and wanted to relate to me.

All this came to a head my last year in high school. Things were not good between my 1st girlfriend Kassie and I, and I was at my 18th feeling really sad. It was then that I looked around and realised that all my friends around me were really great people, that I had treated them really badly, and I was really going to miss them when we all went to Uni. I committed then to really not be so proud, and try to be a nicer person, and committed to taking God more seriously.

This is the state I went into in Uni, realising I had been a really mean person, and that I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. Being at Imperial College without a lot of really bright people contributed to this, and I lost a lot of confidence. At Uni I did really miss everyone from Hong Kong, and found it hard to make a lot of other close friends, so overall I hung out mainly with my friends from Hong Kong, and wasn’t terribly social otherwise. The first week I was there though, I was praying for a church and I met some people witnessing on the street, and ended up going

My first year of university was depressing because my hall was really bad with the hot water pipe going through my room, and because of missing Hong Kong, my friends Lester and Mel were huge helps and made that much more bearable. But as I entered my second years things got worse. Because having my own place and broadband internet for the first time, my struggles with pornography got more and more until the point where I was completely addicted. I still kept going to church, and having an evening service really saved me. I’d sleep in Sunday mornings, but feel guiltier and guiltier all day until I finally would leave to go to the 6 O’clock service. I think I walked forward in more alter calls than just about anybody else EVER to recommit myself to the Lord not wanting to sin sexually anymore. Things got a bit better over my time at Uni, but still remained an issue. My church in England helped a lot though. It was a very Calvinist church, with the minister RT Kendall having even written a book called “Once saved always saved”, which helped me at a time where my sin was really making me doubt my salvation.

Coming out of Uni, it was 2003 and the Economic down turn made if very hard to find a job. I had started applying from January that year, but I was starting my final exams and still didn’t have a job offer. However in our department careers newsletter an opportunity turned up in Hong Kong at Deustche Bank. I apply, had 2 phone interviews and a video conferencing interview and I got a job. It was the only job I applied for in Hong Kong, and it was the one job that I got offered! I think God wanted me back in Hong Kong. The nature of the job also really suited my personality and temperament, so I really do feel it was God.

First starting work and moving back to Hong Kong wasn’t the best experience though. We started with 2 months of training in London, where they were paying us extra for not being in our ‘home’ country. We were all young earning good money for the first time, and so I started drinking a bit more excessively than I had at Uni. Uni it was mainly social, but people in Investment Banking drink for fun. This continued to coming back to Hong Kong, until one day I had the worst hang over I’d ever had, and was sitting in my bath tub on Saturday morning and I decided not to do that anymore. Strangely though, this still became the start of realising I didn’t have to be the same shy person I was at Uni.

My pornography addiction though didn’t get better, it got worse. I had even fewer good friends than at Uni, and so it became a way to deal with the depressed and lonely feelings I had. It was early 2004 though that my friend Nate invited me to 180, the young adults group at the Vine Christian Fellowship. This became the start of healing, seeing a vibrant and real Christian fellowship, and starting to really encounter God again. I remember one day I woke up and had this ‘knowing’, and I believe it was from God, that I was able not to sin sexually anymore, and I thought I was healed, and I had a period of a few weeks that I didn’t look at anything. However after that I messed up again. I ask God why, because I thought he had healed me. What I felt God say back, was that I was freed of the addiction, but that I had to form better habits of purity.

It was then in summer 2004 that there was a series at 180 called Series 56. It 56 stands for 56 days to change, being 8 weeks of 7 days, 7×8 = 56. At the beginning my friend Derek who leads 180 asked us to write down what we wanted God to help us change. I prayed two things, to get over pornography and to become the type of person that anyone felt comfortable talking to. I didn’t realise at the time, but these things were inextricable linked, as a huge part of my addiction was trying to find intimacy that I was lacking in the relationships around me.

Part way through series 56 I went to Singapore and temporarily was together with Su-Lin someone from there who wasn’t a Christian. This was a bit of a distraction and did lead me to feel far from God, but after I finally submitted to God and realised it would never work out because our lives were simply heading in different directions, I came back to God and to 180 and really started to change. Around the same time I also realised part of the reason I was so unhappy in Hong Kong was because I didn’t have good friends, so I committed to going to every invitation anyone gave me, something that was suggested in ‘Every Man’s Battle’. As I started to form better relationships and get closer to God through 180, by struggles with sexual sin started to fade.

Things in 180 started to go good and I started to really grow in God there. Derek started to ask me to consider being at leader there, but it would have required moving from Shatin Church to the Vine permanently. He gave me a while to think about it. This was in summer 2005. Nate asked me a lot of hard questions and that was good because it made me really consider if it was something I should do. One of the things I kept saying to him was how I really wanted to do something new, that 180 was like a new thing, and Shatin Church was old for me. One day when I just through I REALLY needed an answer, I got on my knees before church on Sunday and ask God for an answer. I then went to church. During the service they read a word from God from the team that prays before the service. The word was, “God is calling someone to be a leader in growing this church.” and the verse to go with it was:
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19

For me, as hard as it was, it made me realise I was supposed to be at Shatin Church, and that’s why I have been so committed to it since. I still went to Hillsong Conference in summer 2005 with the Vine, and had a great time, and attended some leadership courses, and bought leadership books stepping out in faith at the word God had given me.

That summer was significant in another way. We also went on a mission trip to Cebu, my first in a while and I didn’t really want to go. But on that trip I did really have growing experiences with God particular in the area of worship. (The Hillsong conference helped a lot for that too!) It was the main youth service there and Celia who was supposed to lead worship couldn’t and was sick. I without even thinking said I would do it. I’d never really lead worship before, just playing guitar in small bible studies, and doing it really timidly. It had been something in the back of my mind, but I really didn’t think I would be that good. Still it came to the main youth service and I did it, and it went REALLY well. After that I did realise it was something I should do, although didn’t start doing it until later that year.

That summer went by, and I still wasn’t sure what God wanted me to do in Shatin Church. I still went to 180, but wasn’t sure what I would be ‘leading’ in Shatin Church. I had my friends drum kit at my place, and we were going to give it to Solid Rock, as the one there was very old and not very good. I was serving at 180 most Saturday’s so I arranged to be free one week so I could drop it off. I decided in the end it was too big for the venue at Maranatha House, but decided to visit Solid Rock anyway. I went there and felt I could really connect with the youth, something I thought I never would have, I’d always felt scared of teenagers before! I drove back to 180 to see people and to sign the lease for my flat on the island, and Derek asked me where I’d been. I said I had been at youth group, he asked if I’d be going back, and I said “maybe”, but I knew I meant that I would be. I was driving back in my car, and it was raining REALLY heavily. All I can explain is that it felt like the presence of God filled my car, and I started sobbing uncontrollably. I just knew that I was supposed to go to Solid Rock and not go to 180 anymore. I could hardly see where I was going through the tears and through the rain. I didn’t go back to 180 again, accept one week a month later when Derek made me to say goodbye and say where I went. Things were going really well I loved serving there.

Eventually I would get together with Nat, someone I knew from 180 right before she went to Australia to be park of the Planetshakers church. Eventually through prayer we decided God didn’t want us to pursue things further and that are lives were on different paths. This was hard, but what made it harder was that the day we ended things, I had a feeling descend on me and I felt like God left. The feeling seemed to make me worry that God was asking me to marry someone, marry someone I really didn’t like. I felt that God had left me, and that I wouldn’t feel him again until I was obedient to him. This continued for a long time, most of 2006, and I even prayed and fasted meat / carbs (Daniel style) for 21 days to try and break this feeling. I found it hard to battle mentally because it felt like I was saying no to God’s will, which I thought I couldn’t do. It is one of the worst experiences I’ve ever gone through. It got so bad that I even felt like this voice was telling me that I was only listening to the worship songs or going to the scriptures I was, because I wanted to be comforted and I was using them to ignore God’s will. It got so bad one day that I had to walk all the way down from my house, get on the train and go to the end of the line and back just to deal with stress. I would actually wake up feeling physical tension across my chest.

This feeling continued until January 2007, when one week I woke up the tension and feeling was gone, and I felt God again, accept it was some how different than before. It happened the same time I read Blue Like Jazz and Velvet Elvis, and its why those 2 books changed my life so much. After I finished then I read about 11 books in 2 months, and the thing that echoed from the stories and the bible verses they shared was how much God loved me. And I started to feel God in so many more ways than before, in nature, in people, in all aspects of life, and not just music worship like before. This closeness with God continued for while, although some events at church made it not so in the forefront. Still it was a life changing experience that has changed me forever.

Another significant thing for me around this was leaving my Job. This happened about November 2006. I realised there wasn’t much left for me in terms of doing new things in IT and the traders at DB were asking me to become a trader, but I eventually realised I could do my job at DB and be very good at it and be comfortable for a long time, but end up wasting 5,10,15 or more years. So I eventually decided it was time to quit and do something more meaningful, which was going into Sha Tin College and helping out with livewire, the Christian fellowship there.. On the day I was going to talk to my Boss, I was talking to Janakan online, and he asked me what my vision was for there. I said to see 500 people worshipping God there. He said that was very interesting, and that many years earlier that same vision had be cast for Sha Tin College. That gave me the courage to go through with quitting. It was hard to do because it was during the time I thought I was being disobedient to God, but I believe that God gave me clarity and grace for that decision, even if it was in a more general time of testing. The Sunday after I quite my job someone at church who had no idea of what I was thinking about and who never does this normally to me came up and said to me they really felt that God asked them to tell me “My future is taken care of.” to me this was confirmation the decision even though it was different to the direct encounter with God in going to Solid Rock.

Since then my life really has been the best its ever been. There have still been issues and its not always been easy, but its definitely been good having freedom of time and freedom to relax, spend time with God, and live a really full life that doesn’t just comprise of work. I do feel that I was the least likely person to step out of a conventional career and do something alternative, but I now believe anyone can do it, and as long as you choose to that you don’t have to live life the way the world says you “have to live”.

This brings me up to today. A recent highlight has been Men’s group at church. The course (http://www.mensfraternity.com) that we’re doing has been one of the best teaching on biblical manhood and living life in general that I’ve ever heard, and it really has had a huge impact on me and how I live my life and seek to serve other people. One of the key areas it has taught me a lot about is relationships, and I do feel it has been great preparation, without which I would not be able to care for and love my girlfriend Anna how she deserves. She is an amazing and beautiful girl, and I thank God she is in my life. So many of the lessons and ways in which I’m growing now, are down to relating to her, and she makes me so happy.

I pray that God in someway speaks to you through this. That you learn to open up and share more. That we all learn to love more; after all, Love Wins.

Mission Statement

2009-04-21T01:35:33Z

One of the things we did in the third Men’s Fraternity at my church’s men’s group is write a mission statement for our lives. It comes out of a 20 week course which comprises of a lot of self reflection and a personality test to determine your unique talents and personalities. Here’s mine, what do you think? (Especially Brent / Dale / Jon)

Mission Statement:
God has uniquely designed me to initiate and lead, even when it feels no one else is (Persister). He has given me unique developing abilities on both technical and personal levels (Harmonizer). He has made me to develop others strengths, while serving their weaknesses. He has given me the ability to conceptualize problems, in order to solve them in away that achieves real lasting efficiency improvements (Achiever). He has given be the ability to break these down into achievable tasks, giving me an enjoyment when I do, while keeping in mind the bigger overall picture.

Summary:
Develop People And Processes

Single Word:
Developer

God Rock Music

2009-04-08T19:07:32Z

Just helped Carlos set up his new website on my server, he did the design. You can check it out here:

http://www.godrockmusic.com

Why I’m in counseling

2009-03-31T07:43:27Z

I’m off to my first counseling session today, not quite sure what to expect, but I think it will be ok, I’m used to talk about anything these days. Thought I’d share a few of the reasons why I am:

People I respect like Rob Bell and Jon from Stuff Christians Like do it for completely normal reasons, just to keep their head on straight.

I’ve realised there are a few issues that, while they don’t completely mess up my life, I don’t seem to be able to move past them by myself.

I believe everyone would benefit from (good) counseling, and if you’re Christian, (good) Christian counseling.

I think there definitely shouldn’t be any stigma associated with it, yet even as I write and as I’ve shared with people who I know accept me, I feel that pull of the world to worry what people might think. But, and this is something I’ve said to people I care about that have thought about getting counseling; I believe that it actually makes you a stronger and more noble person to want to be the best and the most whole person you can be.

WordPress Bible Gateway

2009-04-01T00:29:02Z

My latest wordpress plugin is a plugin that automatically creates links to bible gateway from reference in wordpress posts. You can get it here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-bible-gateway/

Its not perfect yet as its a modification of wp-bible, but because it uses bible gateway it has premium translations like NIV, NLT, The Message, and many more! By default it will reference which ever translation the user last looked up using in biblegateway, but this can also be specified in the options. It should handle references at least like John 3:15-16 and some others and I’m hoping to refine it further as it goes on.

Version History
1.0.4
Fix so that all links now include version, not just some
Added option to open links in a new window
1.0.2
Bible version to link to can now be specified in the options
1.0.1
Fix for bible references like John 3 verses 15 to 16
1.0.0
Initial Version

More Ideas

2010-07-04T01:23:30Z

Today is my sabbath. Its hard not to do work, I feel like I want to get things done, and move things off my todo list. But part of the reason for me, is to realise I can’t do everything, and not everything relies on me. So in the vain of these 2 posts:
http://jameslow.com/2009/01/09/fishnchipshk/
http://jameslow.com/2008/06/09/business-ideas/

Here’s some more ideas I’ve thought of that I’ve realised will probably never have the time to do:

Import vitamised water to HK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlacÃ©au
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vitaminwater.htm

todont.com
An online todont list and social network of all the things you will try not to do or that you shouldn’t do before you die. Kind of the opposite of 43 things

And finally rework the end of Matrix Revolutions to…..
“Wooooh…. Bill I just had the most amazing dream”

Update
Vitamin water is available in HK. Told you it was a a good idea ;-)

Imago Dei

2009-03-13T09:24:25Z

So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Only in Hong Kong

2009-03-02T06:36:50Z

Haven’t posted about much other than “work” (programming) recently. But here’s a few random things that happen in HK. Firstly my new favorite hang out is the science park. YES, the science park. It has great food / surrounds, starbucks, wifi, and its near the water. Its great for going to work or to reflect. I LOVE IT!

The other two pics are random. Firstly, and this was more unique for HK, its a person standing still in a white t-shirt with pots of paint for people to pain him. Must have been someone’s art project or something. Very creative for a conformist culture like HK. Lastly “Oops hair salon”, just speaks for its self – Only in Hong Kong!

Limegreen Autoupdate

2009-02-23T03:08:40Z

A while ago I “released” limegreen, an application template for making java applications look as good as they can, and function as natively as they can, on OS X, windows and linux.

Anyway, I use it in some of my applications, and I’ve recently added a completely automatic autoupdate feature. It will produce an ATOM file with the version in it and change history, and links for where to get the update files. I choose ATOM, because it meant with the same file I could store information that could be read by a program that needed to know if it should update, as well as allow people to subscribe and be notified of updates in a feed/RSS reader.

I’ve also released a PHP library and wordpress plugin that allows the ATOM file to be read, and version information to be automatically placed on a website. Its what I use to show this, and generated the latest download links on my website. If you’re looking for the PHP library, just download the wordpress plugin and include limegreen.php.

WordPress Backup

2009-02-11T01:25:07Z

I run several websites / blogs powered off wordpress. In order to back them up I’ve written a unix shell script to do this. It will automatically read the database settings and do a dump of it, as well as copy themes / plugins / uploads.

There are two versions. One will copy files locally, the other allows a remote sync to another server which is compatible with Dreamhost.

The local copy version can be found here: wp-backup.sh Example usage can be seen below. The -t option allows you only to backup a single theme. The -u option allows you to skip backing up uploads.

./wp-backup.sh /path/to/wordpress /path/to/backup
./wp-backup.sh -t theme -u /path/to/wordpress /path/to/backup

There is also a version to work with Dreamhost’s free (with hosting) 50GB backup plan than can be downloaded here: wp-remote.sh

./wp-remote.sh /path/to/wordpress b123456@backup.dreamhost.com:backup
where b123456 is your backup user

Limitations
1) Your wp-config file must be pretty strict in order to be read:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘hostname);

2) The directory you’re copying to must already exist.

3) The options/order of the parameters in calling the script is very strict

App Ideas

2009-02-11T01:03:40Z

In continuing to blog ideas that I think are cool but I need to take off my todo list, here’s a list of apps that I think could be written sometime. Feel free to write them:

Facebook Apps
Social facebook app of where to find hard to find stuff
Mac vs. PC
Virtual Time Capsule Gift app

Deskbands
World Clock
Multiple Desktop for windows XP

Widgets
Scrolling Stocks
Scrolling News

iPhone
Dos Box on iPhone, with easy to build script that incorporates it and a dos application into a new iPhone app
Penny football
Super rubber dub for iPhone
Style Diary for iPhone

Spreadsheet Widget

2009-01-29T23:51:32Z

I’ve been looking for a spreadsheet widget for dashboard for along time, something to quickly blot without loading up a full spreadsheet like open office, excel or numbers. I was thinking of writing my own, but I’ve been trying not to program so much “pointless” stuff and focus on what really matters. This lead me to the idea of using Mac OSX’s webclip feature that lets you create a widget from any webpage.

I originally tried Google Docs with a public spreadsheet, but something went wrong with the javascript. A quick wikipedia and I discovered Zoho’s public spreadsheet. It worked great as you can see from the image!

RandR REST Library

2009-01-23T04:04:14Z

Just a quick note saying I’ve released a REST library that I’ve been using in some of my work. There currently exits a version in PHP and Java and it signs the POST parameters with a key, so that you can be sure of client authenticity:

http://code.google.com/p/randr/

BufferedReader

2009-01-19T08:25:31Z

I was writing a program and needed a Java class that would read some text a line at a time but also tell you what the last line seperator was, whether a line feed, carriage return or both. It was written very quickly, and may not be perfect, and it requires a java.io.Reader in the constructor that returns true for markSupported()

You can download it here: SmartBufferedReader.java

Regular Expressions

2009-01-15T18:25:41Z

I spent some time fixing some bugs in my facebook comments wordpress plugin. It uses a lot of regular expressions to scrape data from facebook. Regular expressions can be a real pain to get working, but I recently found this website that helps you test them in PHP:

PHP regular expression tester

This is also useful:
Regular expression cheat sheet

fishnchips.hk

2009-02-09T17:03:42Z

Ok, so I think A LOT, and I get tons of business ideas and ideas in general. I write them down because its my habbits, and one of the habbits of creative people. I heard a sermon from Mars Hill titled a theology of creativity. It talked about how most people don’t think they’re creative, because they are not artsy, but that being creative is a property of God, and we’re made in his image, and commanded to go work (subdue) the earth. One of the things it suggests is putting yourself in a creative place and always having a notebook (or iPhone !!! :-P) to write down ideas, and also realise that ideas are creative too, not just artsy things! Anyway I digress…

My point is, I had the idea of having a good ol’ fish ‘n’ chips place in HK. I think it would make a lot of money if it was done well, because the ingredients aren’t too expensive and there are a lot of expats in Hong Kong that would love authentic fish and chips. Anyway I wrote down the idea on my notes / todo list in apple OSX mail, but it when I do that it makes me feel I need to do it!!!! I decided that it wasn’t my calling in live so I’m blogging it like my other ideas. There are some mentioned at the link below, I’m not sure if any of the further out ones are any good, and authentic British fish and chips.

http://www.geoexpat.com/forum/thread8457.html

The other ideas I’ve had recently include:
Pocket wifi creator
Create a mobile battery powered wifi network for linking iPhones and other devices together when not around a computer or router that can create a network, so multiplayer games or file tranfers can be done.

Wine glasses with detachable stems
A bit gimmicky but a cool design, and best described in a picture:

Number 352

2009-01-05T05:45:39Z

Just blogging and saying thanks for everyone that’s downloaded one of my plugins for wordpress. Its made me the 352nd most popular plugin author by number of downloads.

http://4webmasters.nicuilie.eu/2008/12/top-1000-wordpress-plugin-authors/

YouTubeApp.com

2008-12-14T14:06:43Z

Been helping Janakan a bit with his great new app found at www.youtubeapp.com. Its awesome and you can really should check it out.

Things I love:

Seeing everyone’s libraries, you get to find great videos AND its really interesting seeing how it reflects different things about someone’s personality.
Auto playing next video, this is great, because you can use a search or setup a playlist and it just keeps going.
Facebook integration, this is great because facebook is where I go to find out what my friends are doing. I don’t have most of them added as friends on youtube as well.
Drag and drop, just rocks

My new favourite store

2008-12-08T08:50:36Z

Hahahahahha, so I can’t believe I’m about to blog about this, but I just found my new favourite store in Hong Kong. Its a shop that cells nothing but memory foam products! I LOVE memory foam, its so fun to play with, and I’ve been having neck aches recently so wanted to get some things. I ended up getting this pillow, for HK$174.4 down from $598, and the memory neck cushion for only $134.4 to help support my neck while I’m working on my new macbook. There’s a massive sale on right now, so if you want some stuff (Lillian), go down and check them out!

Post ToDo

2008-12-14T10:44:33Z

Post ToDo is a modification of Our ToDo list with the ability to attach a to do list to a post or page and some additional options.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-todo/

Installation
1. Download post-todo and place in wp-content/plugins/post-todo
It must be in exactly that place to work:
wp-content/plugins/post-todo/post-todo.php
2. Log into your WordPress admin panel
3. Go to Plugins and “Activate” the plugin
4. Add a todo list to a post by just inserting the tag [post_todo]
5. You must be logged in to edit
6. Display all todos from all posts using [post_todo_all]

Todos for Post ToDo
[post_todo]

3rd Party Authentication

2010-10-01T16:58:28Z

3rd Party Authentication is a wordpress plugin that allows wordpress to authenticate against other authentication systems. These include:

Gmail / Google Apps

Any generic POP/IMAP email service

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/3rd-party-authentication/

Known Issues
There is a known issue related to the google login, sometimes it requires the user to enter a captcha (one of those pattern of fuzzy letters), especially if a user types the wrong password. At the moment the plugin doesn’t handle this, and may stop the user using this service. You can fix this by going here: https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

Change log
0.2.3
Fix so auto creating users populates email field allowing more than on user to be created! Thanks Cody!
0.2.2
Added text on login page to indicated regular logins work
0.2.1
Bug fix for when using default port
0.2.0
Remove blank from the list in 0.1.7
0.1.9
Fix for if wp_authenticate already declared
0.1.8
Added google apps domains to the list
0.1.7
Shows a list of domains that can be logged in using
0.1.6
Can now auto create users

Sound Interfaces

2009-04-29T16:35:10Z

Over the years I have owned a multitude of sound interfaces for different reasons, far more than my limited recording abilities justify, but thought I would randomly blog the ones I owned and why I sold them.

MOTU 2408 – returned, didn’t work with IBM thinkpad docking station
MOTU 2408 (yes another one) – sold, didn’t work with non intel chipset
M-Audio Delta 1010 – worked, then sold as I wanted a non PCI based one
MOTU 828MkII – worked, then sold for more preamps and bus powered Traveller
MOTU Traveller – worked, then sold because the ProjectMix had a control surface and came up for cheap on asiaxpat
M-Audio ProjectMix IO – bought from John Lauden, worked accept no hot plugging, sold to Audiotraffic when changing laptop to a new MacBook with no FireWire
M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R – bought on sale and what I’m currently using :-)

Computers Again

2008-11-17T16:49:39Z

I wrote a post a while ago about how it can be a tad annoying being asked to fix people’s computers. I recently found this on digg that illustrates it:

Google Spreadsheet to iCal

2011-02-12T02:55:27Z

At church and youth we have several rosters in excel for keeping track of who’s doing what and when. I’ve wanted for a while to make a rostering app that would automatically create a roster, assigning a set of users to different tasks at different frequencies for a set period of time. Additionally having it online could be people could automatically be notified of changes and provide an iCal feed.

In the end though I realised that after uploading an excel spreadsheet to Google Spreadsheet, a program could be written to produce an iCal feed for iCal / Outlook / Google Calendar / Thunderbird (via Lightning) / Sunbird, and it would save a lot of time. So that’s what I’ve done an you can download it here.

Installation:
1) Setup you spreadsheet in Google Docs
2) unzip ical.zip and upload it to your webserver
3) Edit config.php and add your username, password named range / event start times and spreadsheet key
4) Subscribe to your calendar!

Demo:
There is a demo calendar set up based on this spreadsheet. Click the link, or copy and paste the URL into your calendar application, especially if you’re using Google Calendar. The single entry configuration is available here:
http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=TestSheet
And an entry that produces multiple iCal events per spreadsheet row here:
http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=MultiEntry

Help
Help and version information is avaliable here: http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?help

Item query
You can query for calendar events from just a specific user or item name listed in the spreadsheet by specifying this on the URL: http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=MultiEntry&item=James

Multiple sheets
You can query multiple sheets by using the [ALL] tag: http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=[ALL] or doing a comma separated list of sheets: http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=TestSheet,MultiEntry. These values can also be used in the $DEFAULT_SHEET param in the config, to make these the default available at the root URL.

Test
You can run a test on any sheet by suffixing test to the URL. This will not redirect to an iCal file, so you can see any errors in your setup. It will echo the number of iCal events created if successful. http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=MultiEntry&test=1

Username
The username / password used to access the spreadsheet can be left out of the config file (global and sheet) and specified in the URL so that the data is not public: http://jameslow.com/content/software/ical/?sheet=MultiEntry&user=someone@gmail.com&password=password

Notes:
Uses the Google GData PHP client: http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/articles/php_client_lib.html
And Flaimo’s PHP iCal library: http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/873.htm

FAQ:
1) Named Ranges
- Sometimes google doesn’t return data from named ranges correctly, its recommended to use a specific ranage eg. A1:C20
2) Outlook / Windows support
- Outlook 2007 natively supports subscribing to iCal feeds. For windows you can download Windows Live! Mail. For outlook 2003 you can use the free Remote Calendars add-in and for Outlook 2000/XP this commerical add-in.

Change Log:
1.4
- Query all spreadsheets and multiple spreadsheets using [ALL] or comma separated list of sheets
1.3.1
- Add some explanation to config file
1.3
- Add calendar title
1.2
- Group similar items
- Link back to spreadsheet
- Fix to show all dates
1.1
- Fix for PHP on some systems
1.0
- Initial version

Shouting Match

2008-11-11T07:46:42Z

“I think being practically right is most important.” – James Low

“Well I think being theoretically right is most important.” – Lillian Li

“Ok, well theoretically speaking being theoretically right is most important, but practically speaking being practically right is most important.” James Low

“Agreed.” – Lillian Li

More Dawen

2008-11-06T17:13:23Z

More promos for Dawen, this time a performance of my favourite song of his:

Dawen @ A-List TV

2008-11-06T08:42:58Z

My friend and former band mate Dawen Wang just posted an interview he did for an asian-american internet show.

How long before we see an asian-american president. We are the majority of the world after all!

In other news Carlos Choi’s band Still just launched there new album, and it ROCKS!

YouTube Feed

2008-11-14T10:38:53Z

YouTube Feed is a plugin that allows you to embed a youtube video with a blog post, and have it show up as a link url when imported into your Facebook notes.

More info here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/youtube-feed/

Limegreen Released

2008-09-29T03:44:30Z

Most of the desktop applications I’m working on are based around a crossplatform java template that I’m writing, that basically makes java applications feel as native to the user as possible. It also has a sophisticated Ant build build file that provides automation for a lot of tasks including creating of exe or app files and uploading to google code and sourceforge.

I’ve released the first version of the the template over at google code.

Creativity

2008-08-20T05:10:03Z

Listened to this sermon recently, and while like every talk I wouldn’t agree with everything about it, still I thought it was pretty good and made me think.

Things I realiesd, I’m a creatue or habbit to some degree, I like ordering the same food from the places I eat, I normally work out the most efficient root to somewhere and take it most of the time. Still if I go one way, I almost always go back a different way, I always run up stairs, because when I run (up stairs) I feel his pleaseure, and I will go out of my way to step on the crunchy looking leaf. Most of that won’t make sense as to creativity until you listen to the talk.

I also realised I do get a lot of ideas, and I keep lists of them everywhere, because I realised I forget them a lot too (I thought it was early onset of old age before this talk :-P).

To end, I believe that YOU are a creative person.

Nice Blog

2008-08-18T04:51:55Z

I randomly came across this blog the other day. Kind of the antithesis of my blog, mine being minimalist (apple inspired) white, compared to the explosion of colour that presents itself at bealivebelievebeyou.com, and if I scanned in my handwritten journal entries for you to read, all that would be on my blog is a big mess. Still I like the style of that blog a lot.

Podpress and WordPress 2.6 fix with revisions

2008-08-18T02:54:44Z

Haha, two ‘work’ posts in a row!

As some of you may know, wordpress 2.6 broke podpress, the great podcasting plugin for wordpress. There were several ‘fixes’ that people found after, but basically all of them involved disabling revisions in the new version of wordpress. I then discovered this forum topic that showed how wordpress called the ‘save_post’ hook in the new revisioning system. The solution I came up with allows you to keep the revisioning system turned on, but still allow podpress to work.

Instructions (Podpress 8.8)
1) Download this file.
2) Rename to podpress_admin_class.php and copy it to your /wp-content/plugins/podpress directory, replacing the existing file.
3) Create a post and check it works

Instructions (Other versions)
The above file might work with other versions of podpress, but it might not. It would be better to edit your own podpress_admin_class.php file to ensure things work.
1) Edit /wp-content/plugins/podpress/podpress_admin_class.php
2) Replace the line function post_edit($post_id) with the following:
function post_edit($post_id) { if(wp_is_post_revision($post_id) || wp_is_post_autosave($post_id)) { return $post_id; } else {
3) Scroll down to just above the function edit_category_form($input) {
4) Insert another } above it to close off the condition statement.

Things that should be noted:

This worked for me, and its given here that it might work for you, but I’m not responsible for any damaged caused to your website or computer through the user of this plugin.

While the podpress information is saved for each revision, if you restore revisions, it currently won’t restore the podpress information from that revision. That requires using the wp_restore_post_revision hook, which I haven’t got round to doing yet.

I use wordpress 2.6 on all of the blogs I maintain now. I love it, I love the new file uploads that were introduced in 2.5, and the post revisions from 2.6. I use wordpress on some intranet pages along with allow categries and private files to control access to sensitive information. The new revisions work great because in a world of non-techsavy users, if we need to go back and fix something that someone broke we can, or for writing online documentation, it means you get a complete version history.

MySQL BIT in PHP

2008-08-12T03:16:53Z

Ok, if you subscribe to my blog for personal reasons, this isn’t very relevant to you, but for those of you here for the programming, on a recent project I had some problems getting the BIT field in MySQL to be interpreted as a boolean in PHP. There are a couple of discussions on the net about it here and here, but I couldn’t find any simply stated solutions on the net. So here’s what I ended up doing. You can also download the file here, rename the file .php to use it.

function mysql_bit($bit) { return ord($bit) == 1; }

Life Matters

2010-01-08T20:49:34Z

When I quit my full time job so that I could do livewire, I wrote a post outlining some goals now that I had more time to do things. As it turns out 2007 was one of the best years of my life, and I learnt far more about life and about myself than I ever would have imagined. I highly recommend a year out for any of you, and that you don’t have to believe the lie that you need a career or conventional job to be happy. Still here’s a quick review of last years goals:

~~Read the bible more~~ – definitely, not through more discipline, but seeing new things about God and wanting too.

~~Pray more~~ – ditto

~~Get REAL good at guitar~~ – I got better, but never got lessons

Practice trumpet – deferred (see below)

Get singing lessons – hmmm, might not do

~~Run twice a week~~ – YES! and more

~~Pushups/Situps everyday~~ – a bit inconsistent, but yes

I’m still wondering where my life is heading, and it looks like for at least another year I’ll be limited to doing one thing full time. While I don’t want a repeat of the last 6 months of trying to do EVERYTHING I possibly can, and feeling very exhausted and under appreciated in the process, there are a few things I want to make sure I do do:

Practice trumpet

See a councilor

Be cash positive

Program Zest

Spread certain church responsibilities

Love people (ok I’m going to fail, but we’ve all got to try)

Love the iPhone

2008-07-22T10:07:39Z

I know I’m obsessed with Apple products but the iPhone is seriously cool. So far I’m loving having email where ever I am and the facebook app is cool too.

I’ve just installed the new wordpress app, and I’m blogging to you from my iPhone. The picture is taken with it as well. It’s us gate crashing a dance reversal at Sha Tin town hall. Very random!

I’ve also started to use twitterific to update my facebook and adium status using http://apps.facebook.com/twitter and http://adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=xtras&xtra_id=3484

What we all should be

2009-08-26T09:33:17Z

Gave a talk at SR about Love, how it should be with no preconditions or agendas, partly inspired by Donald Miller BLJ and this interview from Anberlin’s Steven Christian. I’m not like this, but we all should be.

No I will not fix your computer

2008-07-19T01:31:00Z

I’ve realised I need to finally make a stand on this: No I will not fix your computer. I especially won’t fix it over the phone. This to me is the most frustrating thing in the universe, and it is not good for me, or good for our friendship. There are worse things I could say, but if you really do want to ask me a question or fix your computer, I will do it for $200 an hour and that’s only if I know you. If you really want a computer that just works get a mac, SERIOUSLY!

I was actually pretty close to burning out this year, and dropping everything and shouting at someone very loud. It was only that I was pretty drastic and was pretty decisive about stopping a lot of the things that were in my weekly schedule in order to spend time with friends and relax that I didn’t. Finally as things got really bad I got back to spending time with God, and taking Fridays off.

The bible says to remember the sabbath and keep it holy, but so many Christians, especially those in ministry rush about making themselves so busy, there excuse being that there is all this good work to do, with maybe even people’s very souls at stake. But this in my opinion is a wrong view of Christian faith. What I see is that we’re supposed to be bringing the gospel, bring rescue to a broken world, and we can’t do that at the expense of causing brokenness in our own lives, or being so busy we don’t spend time time with God, making ourselves poor, sick or exhausted. Yes we should self sacrificial, but maybe dying to ourselves means we say everything doesn’t depend on me.

I also recently watched Rob Bell’s latest Nooma, Shells. In it he talks about how busy we make ourselves, saying yes to everything and everybody. He finally makes the point that we need to learn to say no to things, not because they’re not good things, but because we’ve said yes to the one or few best things that we are meant to do.

Why then does someone paying me make a difference? Its not because I want to get rich, its not because money drives me, it’s that if you do pay me, it means I can really work less at everything else I do just to support myself so I can do the things I feel I’m really supposed to do.

Sorry that was written out of some frustration, but to end on a more light hearted note, I’m glad I don’t work here:

These Pages

2008-07-26T01:53:40Z

Words that You didn’t say were haunting these pages
Faces You didn’t make were all I was seeing
The way that they painted You wasn’t a picture
of one in control – and I don’t think they know who you are

Mainstay

Obama Endorsement

2008-07-09T08:36:19Z

In a small private press conference in Fo Tan, HK, political heavyweights James Low, Lillian Li and James Lewis added their name to the growing list of Obama endorsements.

There were some fears that such a close political alignment could cause division in the Sunday Lunch Bunch special interest group, but the trio assured the public that there would be no conflict of interest and that Lewis and Low would not be changing their stance on Politico.

And whatever you think of that you have to watch this:

Business Ideas

2008-06-09T18:37:37Z

So, for those of you that know me know I think, ALOT, and in the process I come up with lots of ideas. I’m also the type of person that tries to do EVERYTHING and too much. After listening to my Pastor’s (excellent) latest sermon on time, I’ve decided I need to be free of feeling like I have to do so much, and just concentrate on the most important things, if I’m really going to be successful in life.

So here I’m listing a load of the hair-brained business ideas I’ve had. They are now all public, so anybody can feel free to do them if they really think they’re good, and feel free to give a little of the profits if they make a lot :-P

Finance

Control Systems For Market Making
During by time at DB I was involved in a lot of derivatives pricing and risk analysis. One of the ideas I had related to market making. In market making systems use programming logic to determine what price / spread / volume to apply to market making a security. It might be a good idea to model these as a control/feedback system (or even fuzzy logic) as applied in engineering to come up with stable yet fast acting pricing systems.

Fuzzy Option Pricing
There are a few papers published about this, but basically the idea is you model an option’s behaviour using a fuzzy logic system that is intuitive to people who know how options should perform given certain conditions. It might be faster than analytical methods, but maybe less accurate.

Fuzzy Vol Models
Again related to option pricing. While you might still calculate the price of an option using conventional methods, it might be a good way to construct a vol service using a fuzzy logic system. This would allow the construction of a smooth service, with no discontinuities using logic steps rather than adjusting parameters for skew / long vol / etc.

China

Snowboarding
There must be snow in China, and its cheap to construct and employee in China. Would stand to reason that opening a ski resort for snowboarding and skiing might be really good way to attract tourists and make money, especially since within Asia, Korea and Japan are the main places and are both pretty expensive.

Tailored Jeans
There are places in Europe / America that will do tailored jeans for you, any style, custom fit, warn, new, etc. Thought Hong Kong / China would be a great place to do this too, due to the cheap labour and easy custom production that is available in China. Similar to the way HK is a prime destination for tailored suits and shirts at great prices.

TV Aggregator
There’s rise of having a ridiculous number of TV channels in Asia these days. In the US there are sites like Titan TV and Tv Tv in Europe which aggregate TV schedules from all the different networks so you can find out in one place what’s on. They also offer services so that DVRs like Elegato can query and programmatically record all of your favourite series like a Tivo.

Jesus And Domitian

2008-05-09T09:52:05Z

So those of you that know me, will know I say this a lot. But I just listened to this talk and it blew my mind. Never understood anything from relveation as clearly as the exposition on the part of revelation to the Ephisans. Its by Rob Bell (haha suprise suprise) speaking at Willow Creek. An awesome combination.

You can get the whole video here.

Or play it embedded here, but its much smaller.

Enjoy.

Tuesdays

2008-04-24T14:21:01Z

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie
The lie of authority
Who’s buildings grope the sky
No one exists alone
Hunger allows no choice to the citizen or police
We must love one another or die,
We must love one another or die

WH Auden

Thank You

2008-07-09T08:40:18Z

I really bad a a few things, accepting love and complements, and saying thank you is another.

But in an attempt to do all of them I’m writing this post and hopefully honouring everything and everyone did and said in the best way I can; To simply say its a sign of what Jesus can do to someone, when they let him.

So thanks for making this the best birthday.

Not all of you have heard my whole story, hopefully one day we’ll talk about it, but I would not have the quality and quantity of friends like all of you, if he hasn’t rescued me from my addictions and self-centeredness and if I have touched any of you in anyway, you owe that too him too.

I’m really happy all of you are in my life. Sorry I can’t tag more of you, facebook only lets me do 30.

The philosophical implications of stepping on that crunchy looking leaf

2008-03-14T01:02:29Z

Some of you may no that I’ve been trying to slow down a bit recently. I realised that I had become so task focused not people and God focused, was lacking intimacy with people, and it was leading to generally not a very healthy life.

I decided I was going to be drastic, I was not going to use my computer for a week, then I chickened out and decided that was impossible given things at the moment. So I decided no computer before mid day. My habit had been to get up immediately and check my mail, and then start work, and the realise some time around 3pm I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

So the first day came, woke up at as usual sometime just past 7 and I read my bible for 5 minutes, and prayed a little. Looked at my watch, still 4 and a half hours to go, so back to the bible, half an hour of prayer, sitting in a hammock and learning the harmonic minor on guitar, all things I’ve been trying to do for the last 7 years, all because I took a break and slowed down. A week of this, revelations that someone really did design my mobile phone and how there must be a God and a long chilled out ~~argument~~ discussion with Lewis, Lil and Sherin about determinism and in-determinism and I was starting to feel the zest for life I’d been lacking over the past few months. It all culminated in watching Rob Bell’s everything is spiritual on Friday night with Shaun and Janakan, by the end we were just silent, and peaceful, awesome. Yet still more to do, thinking of taking a holiday sometime, maybe somewhere like this.

All this is really just backdrop as to why I was out walking. In trying to keep with taking more time over things, life being a journey, not a destination, I decided to walk down to the shop and by some fruit, but mainly just for the walk. As I walked I noticed I was stepping on everyone of the dried up looking leaves. I reckon I suffer from mild OCD, so I had to step on everyone, but in general we can’t help it can we? The sound its just so…satisfying. 300,000 people on the facebook group can testify to this. Then it dawned on me, there must be a God. There was no other possible explanation.

Now I’m not for second proposing this as a serious argument, but revelation can be found it the strangest of places, and for me it works. I mean why else would I and millions of other people do it? Could it be an instinct of our hunter ancestors, having evolved it as a habit that they would partake of when in a relaxed mood for clearing away debris around there regular hunting grounds, that would then not be present when hunting and thus lessening the likely hood of them making unwanted noise that might give away their location to their prey. I think not. There was much more that I thought as I walked back up the hill tossing my mango up in the air nonchalantly (if that’s even a word), but it escapes me now, I’m sure it would have been mind blowing, but for now thus endeth the lesson of the crunchy looking leaf.

Pointless Sites

2008-02-08T09:21:19Z

Here are a few pointless sites on the internet:

http://www.isitaprilfools.com/

http://www.isitchristmas.com/

http://www.isitaleapyear.com/

http://www.istwitterdown.com/

iPhone HK

2008-02-07T07:42:57Z

As most of you know, I’ve wanted an iPhone since forever, but I’m waiting for it to be released “officially” for various reasons; the sdk, upgrades, and 3G.

Hong Kong is one of those places that you can quite easily get them unlocked, but even I was suprised are seeing a listed company giving them out as a promotional campaign:

Private Files

2009-09-07T17:20:23Z

Ok, latest wordpress plugin. I’m getting quite into these. The other two were modifications. This one is completely from scratch. There are several plugins to make a blog private, making it a good tool for basic collaboration / group ware. However file attachments / images have still been visible too the public, until now.

Private files acts as a proxy, making sure users are logged in before they can download any files. The nice thing about is, it doesn’t modify the current uploads at all, doesn’t store files in a different place, so if you want to stop using it, all links to files stay the same, so you don’t need to redo anything.

Download it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/private-files/

If you have deactivated the plugin or deleted it and you want to unprotect your files manually, just delete the .htaccess file within your wp-content/uploads directory.

As with most wordpress plugins, the security is not guaranteed, use at your own risk.

Change Log:
0.40
Added MS Office 2007 mime types
0.39
Enhancements to block URLs with /../ in them
0.38
Bugfix which prevented logged in subscriber users from accessing files.
0.37
Now accounts for spaces in file names
0.36
Shows a warning if you are not using WordPress permalinks
Should work on a wider variety of WordPress setups (subdirectories etc.), but uploads must be a subdirectory of your WordPress directory.
Should work with relative and absolute upload paths
Tested on the latest version of wordpress
0.35
Now uses raw file() read instead of echo, which should clear up issues on some setups.
0.34
Bug fix so this actually works under various wordpress conditions, eg. root and not root installations of wordpress
Tested with wordpress 2.5.1

Dawen Wang

2008-01-10T01:05:46Z

Just a quick one from me today. The pianist and amazing singer I used to play with in school has started performing / recording in chicago, and doing some amazing stuff. Check it out at
dawenwangmusic.com or his MySpace.

T-Shirt Gifts

2008-01-06T11:42:44Z

This is my latest facebook app T-Shirt Gifts (http://apps.facebook.com/tshirt_gifts/. Its similar to other gift apps on facebook, but we have some great designs courtesy of cafepress.com and you can really buy the gifts and own the T-Shirt if you want! Add the app and tell all your friends to add it too!

Allow Categories

2009-03-28T01:25:17Z

Ok, latest wordpress plugin modification. This time its of L. Fargue’s Restrict categories plugin.

Users are assigned permissions to view posts in certain categories
If users don’t have permission to certain posts, those posts aren’t shown, including in the main view and archives.
Categories can be made public to everyone, and there is an option to force users to login.
This is an initial version, so please report any errors or bugs.

Installation:
1) Download the plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/allow-categories/
2) Unzip it
3) Copy to your wp-content/plugins directory
4) Activate within wordpress admin
5) Goto Managed->Allow Categories to edit permissions

Change Log:
0.6.4
Removed debug statement
0.6.3
Fix for recent posts
0.6.2
Remove debug statement
0.6.1
Added allow_list_categories($args) function that can be used in templates to replace wp_list_categories($args) functions. This is a work around until wordpress provide a proper hook for filter a list of categories, so its not perfect. It may work in place of some wp_list_cats() and list_cats() too.
0.6.0
Fix for (Public) posts and redirect to login
Admin users no longer show up in list for version 2.5+
0.5.9
Option to redirect to login if viewing a post or category that is not public and the user is not already logged in
0.5.8
Small bug fix to comment logic in 0.5.6
0.5.7
Allows editing of draft posts by non-admin owner of the draft.
0.5.6
Shows comment content for RSS for public posts or for RSS readers that
know that share login information with the browser (eg. Opera).
0.5.5
Bug fix that would show posts to users who had no categories listed.

Disclaimer:
This plugin is experimental and is provided with no support or warranty. It should not be considered as providing complete security to wordpress content.

Remedy

2008-02-14T00:15:18Z

I’m loving this album right now. It started with Surely We Can Change on Repeat 1 (95 plays) then Everything Glorious (85), but now The Glory Of It All is on everywhere I go.

Neverending is cool too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ2Fvov7–s

Alter Ego

2007-11-23T03:17:24Z

Hey, This is just a quick not to ask you to add my friends app Alter Ego http://apps.facebook.com/profile/ Its an app similar to your profile, but your friends edit it not you. Please spread the news and add edit as many other people as you can.

If any of you know Janakan, this is one of the steps leading to his website. It allows testing of some of the systems that will eventually make up the whole website. His company / website will eventually have a huge charitable element, so by adding the app, editing your friends profile, sending invites to others and spreading the news you’re helping make that a reality.

Hey! Get My IP

2007-11-20T06:17:33Z

I’m launching an IP address service. With my web hosting it basically costs me nothing, and it might get some ads clicked. Check it out here: http://hey.getmyip.com

Facebook Comments

2010-04-10T06:10:42Z

IMPORTANT: Facebook comments isn’t working right now, I’m looking for someone to take over this to make it work. Leave a comment.

Basically a new version can start using the facebook comments API for notes, but will still have to match note ids to wordpress URLs by screen scraping facebook like the original plugin.

Old Info:
For a while I’ve been using Adam Hill’s facebook comment importer, to get comments from facebook back in to my blog. I recently realised it wasn’t working, so I tried Thomas Albright’s edit, no joy there either. Did some debugging and got it working my self. You can download it here: facebooknotes.php.

All new changes have been commented incase they need to be moved back, though I think my version is the only one being actively maintained at the moment.

Change Log:
0.36
Latest fixes for facebook with changes from Benjamin Trice
0.33
Option to not import comments for posts whose comment status is closed.
0.32
Should work for pages and situations where there facebook user specified in wordpress isn’t friends with the commenter on the note.
0.31
Removed debug statement
0.30
Fix for the latest version of facebook!
0.29
Option not to notify (email) of new comments from facebook
0.28
Option to import from every page of notes from facebook, not just the first one.
0.27
Version 2.5.1 introduced that the GUID might not be the permalink (http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6492). The plugin now uses a different method for converting the URL to a post ID. Should also fix some earlier problems with the “Original Comment Post Not Found” error.
0.26
Version 0.26 with fix for latest facebook HTML mark up
0.25
Fix added by Aaron Harp to allow thie plugin to work with feedburner

Donald Miller – Story

2007-11-16T03:44:22Z

I just listen to Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz) talk at Mars Hill (Rob Bell’s church) about Stories. About instead of worrying about what you’re doing right or wrong, but worrying about writing a good story with your life. You can get the talk at the Mars Hill page or download the MP3 directly.

Part of it really spoke to me, the bit about being afraid. For so long in my life I was worried about things going wrong, so I didn’t make decisions, either for the fear that the decision would be the wrong one, or that it would put me in a place where things weren’t so ‘safe’, and thus make me more afraid.

But what he says I’ve found to be true, the last few years, I have been more proactive, making decisions to go towards what I want or what I think is right, particularly this year leaving my job. It was scary, but there was something I wanted more, to be able to put time into helping others, to not just go along with what was happneing around me, for my life to tell a good story…

I also watched Rob Bell’s latest Nooma (Name) recently. It goes through labels and things we or others say about ourselves. I started rewatching the video over and over, writing down things I thought about myself, and got to the word scared, it made me cry. Not in a bad way, but simply because I’d opened up part of my heart and expressed something that I needed to, that I’d got to know myself a little more. Life is scarier than its ever been, but its better that its ever been.

Play – update

2007-11-07T05:08:12Z

This was something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, move things from my old site to here. I’ve started with the play section. Added – bass / dumble / fuzz / jazz 101 / music

Fresh Look

2007-11-05T02:26:01Z

Ok, I’ve just started work on new look for the site. There are a few things like archives and stuff that I need to fix, so please be patient, but hopefully it will be more ‘me’ than the old design.

Limelight Released

2007-11-04T17:55:17Z

I’ve been working on a presentation management program for a while. Its cross platform java, but designed to feel as native as possible on whatever system you use.

Its very early stages yet, and has a lot further to go, but feel free to try it out. The icon was by the amazing Jen Hancock. More information on the work page .

Random

2008-07-09T08:40:55Z

Haha, ok so I had all this stuff I wanted to write on my blog, but it all seemed a bit too heavy for how I was feeling the last two days so I didn’t update anything. And now I’m kinda missing it, do here’s some random stuff going on with me.

I’m still in the UK, going to see my brother in law’s batism in Brighton on Saturday, then off to see more family and back in London sometime on Monday.

Been trying to stop biting my nails, doing better than I have in a while, but still a couple of them aren’t looking good. Sign up and support me (and others) at the facebook group if you haven’t.

Also I’ve really been wanting to go see The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3, and realised this is one of those years for finishing of trilogies:

The Bourne Ultimatum

Rush Hour 3

Shrek The Third

Oceans 13 (oh haven’t seen this yet either!!!)

Spiderman 3

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Kinda like the year Star Wars/LOTR/Matrix were all released…

Updates Galore

2008-07-09T08:41:06Z

So here’s a first, me blogging two days in a row, but habits (good and bad), take 30 days to form, so don’t get too excited yet. I’m half trying to stop biting my nails too…

Forgot to mention in my last post that I’m going to have… wait for it… CATEGORIES!!!!! Ok so its not that great, but whatever. Anyway they’re going to fall into Live. (stuff about me), Work. (any programming i do), Play. (music???). Haven’t deicded if I should use WORSHIP for anything, wanted to avoid putting music under worship, cause they’re not the same thing (that’s a whole other blog post). For now my random musings about life in general will be under “Maybe”, for I’m not sure of much, and that maybe the title of my book…

Anyway so this post is under Live. and just to say I’m in the UK for all those who didn’t know already, at a wedding (check the awesome boyband pictures on facebook), seeing family, ebaying, and getting some work done.

Just got Rob Bell’s Sex God, good so far…

Most Amazing Blogger Ever

2007-09-06T16:40:41Z

haha, ok, so I really don’t update this thing enough, I just plain suck at blogging. but today driving to my Grandma’s I decided I should. I’ve had a lot of ideas going in through my head since reading velvet elves / blue like jazz, and i thought I’d just start sharing some of them.

It’ll be along the lines of how can we do life better? It may be a little moralistic, but hopefully not judgmental, but I hope you take it as just suggestions, we’re all in life together. I hope as much as possible for the things I say to be right, but some of it may just be ideas or things I hear, or popular opinion. Wrestle with them, think about them, no that I’m not saying this IS the way things are or should be, but saying, maybe….

Haha, a while ago I started writing down ideas for book, I had a similar disclaimer penned out for that…

Anyway here’s todays thought. Thinking about hybrid cars, and whether if you were downsizing your life to have less environmental footprint, trading your car in for a hybrid, isn’t necessarily the best idea. I mean if you’re thinking of buying (read NEED) a new car, then sure, go with the most efficient you can, but if you’re selling your old one and buying a new one, then someone else is only going to be driving your old energy inefficient car around, so maybe the first question is how can you drive less?

Just LOVE

2007-11-05T01:00:37Z

So, its been brewing for quite a while now, starting I guess with ideas about social justice, fairtrade, but branching, growing, flowering into just seeing how Jesus lived his life, and the way he looked at the world, and realising as good as Christianity and the Church maybe, we aren’t called to be follows of Christianity or any religion, we’re called to be follows of Jesus. Its a subtle difference, and maybe one of attitude over anything else, but for me and my faith it was something I needed to see. It distills down to living out your faith and just LOVE. And that is HARD, probably hardest around people you know, I’m sure everyone could point a million fingers at things in me and say you’re not doing it, but lets not accuse or feel guilt, but be inspired by people that are just plain getting it done:

one.org

invisiblechildren.com

I love the cable guy, he was a pastor who was accused by someone that what he taught about sharing love really didn’t work in the real world. So on his day off he took a job as a debt collector for a cable company, and just had AMAZING experiences caring for people and being Jesus to people.

If you want some books, try Blue Like Jazz, Velvet Elvis (thanks mum), or The Gutter.

The Lark Ascending

2007-09-06T16:43:30Z

And Iâ€™m trying to make you sing
From inside where you believe
Like itâ€™s something that you need
Like it means everything

And Iâ€™m trying to make you feel that
This is for real, that life is happening
That it means everything
Iâ€™m just trying to make you sing

-David Crowder

Go listen to it if you haven’t…

Time To Blog

2008-07-09T08:41:16Z

Ok, so maybe I do have time to blog now that I’m no longer working at Investment bank, but time is still a funny thing. Not having to work a full time job, should give me 50 extra hours a week? But for some reason I still don’t feel like I have time to do everything that I want to.

I’ve been talking about making a schedule for the past two weeks. I REALLY need to get down to it, though at least I’ve started listing out my goals for this year, and well I’ve started a few of them. Here’s the list so everyone can help keep me accountable to them:

Read the bible more

Pray more

Get REAL good at guitar

Practice trumpet

Get singing lessons

Run twice a week

Pushups/Situps everyday

Anyway, sitting here working in Epoch cafe/bar, really funky joint that you HAVE to check out if you’re around Admiralty (Starstreet).

Still catching up

2008-07-09T08:41:24Z

Thought I’d write one more thing before I go to bed, trying to upload 200 photos from Church Camp (THANKS MIKAELA, I think…) Again that was a while ago, and once I’ve caught up with my own life, I’ll be sure to let everyone know. I mean’t to go to bed a while a go, but I’ve been staying up late, and getting up even later recently. Should snap out of it, especially since tomorrow I have to be up a 7am to go help fix up some wires at church. Anyway I just bought a book on type setting, doesn’t sound that interesting, but its basically 1000 examples of stuff to do with text / fonts / graphics, looks awesome. Anyway inspired this:

SYATP

2007-11-05T00:16:23Z

Ok, so this actually happened on the 27th of September, but I forgot to write about it, or didn’t get round to it, or something. But anyway, I SO should have. It was a great event, amazing how people offered to praying being asked, probably only 7 hours before they had to do it? Anyway, was kind of kick off livewire thing, for the current students to do SYATP, and at the same time have past students pray for them too. Thanks for all your replies and photos, proud of ya!

Here To Eternity

2007-09-06T16:44:45Z

AWESOME! God did some amazing things at the Here To Eternity youth camp. SO SO good to see all the youth jumping and going crazy for Jesus. Janakan did an amazing job organising it in such a short time, and Carlos is just gifted at leading people into a deep time of worship and just ministering to people. Definitely something to aspire too.

Coming back to England for Christmas. Dates are 22nd Dec to the 5th of Jan, will probably be in London the week after new years for all you Londoners. Can’t wait!!

Hmmm, for some reason that’s all I have to write. I guess that’s what happens when you actually slow down in Hong Kong for a while, or maybe cause its 1am, and as I’ve told numerious people the communication part of my brain shuts down at night. My mum and sister can explain how irritating it is.

Hillsong United Wed 6pm 16th November, Solid Rockers contact me for tickets. GONNA ROCK!

Oh, and a while ago I decided to txt one person a day with an encouragement or verse, um I started yeserday, saying its not everyday you get to make a new friend, so love it ;-) And yea today’s CHALLENGE (so so much for me) is “The servant heart needs no audience.”

2006

2008-07-09T08:41:31Z

Ok, I’ve finally had some time to think about my last post, and realised how stupid it was, of couse 2005 seems so long ago, cause i posted that in August. 2006 has passed so quick, and now it’s October!!! CRICKEY !!!

Anyway so a lot’s happened this year as well, from mission trip, to Hillsong 2006 (Louie Giglio, Rick Warren and Matthew Barnett where all AWESOME), to quiting my job and doing other things in my life!!! Uh… so welcome to my now yearly updated blog, haha, ok I should be able to update it more than that esepcially now that I’m supposed to have more time? I mean no work right???? Although I think the time always seems to go somewhere, no matter how much you think you have!

Was hard to figure out if leaving my job was the right thing to do. Sometimes God is quiet and wants us to figure out what his words says about things, or see how much we really desire to do things that are really worth while. But the week after I quit I’ve had a friend out of the blue offer me some freelance programming as well as someone at church knew nothing of the situation and hasn’t had words for me before say that my future was taken care off. So yea God is good, and works all things together for God for those who Love him.

Here’s where some of it has gone, redoing my church website.

My mum has also been visiting me from the UK. though I prefer going to visit her there. When I’m in HK I have all of my life going on around me, where as in the UK there’s none of that, I can just relax and spend time with my family. There’s also mum’s cooking :-)

One side note, my mum had dinner with Jackie Pullinger the other night, and she asked how me and my sister were, how’s that for recongnition ;-)

2005

2008-07-09T08:41:38Z

Ok 2005 seems AGES ago now. 2006 has been passing too quickly for me. Still 2005 wasÂ anÂ AMAZINGÂ yearÂ for,Â hadÂ aÂ blast,Â soÂ IÂ thoughtÂ I’d better backÂ dateÂ myÂ blogÂ andÂ includeÂ whatÂ happened:

February -Â Tahoe 2005Tahoe
July – Hillsong
July – Cebu Mission Trip
July – Lester’s Wedding
October – Pip’s Wedding
October – Sohoctober

Overall I took 9 return flights (18 in total) spending time in England, Japan, Philippines, Singapore,Â America,Â AustraliaÂ andÂ of course Hong Kong.

FINALLY

2008-07-09T08:41:44Z

Ok, so I FINALLY gave in and created a blog for myself. I avoided having a mobile for my whole time at uni, which turned out to be a mistake, so hoepfully I haven’t hopped on the band wagon too late this time. So prepare yourself for a rollercoasterÂ rideÂ throughÂ myÂ lifeÂ and more typos than you can shake a stick at.

I’ll be moving thingsÂ slowly over from my old webpage too here, so be patient, but if you want to check out the old music/pictures you can visit my old website here.