Baking Soda Made from Pollution
A fascinated blurb over at Switched:
The company's SkyMine project, in San Antonio, Texas, uses a three-step process that pumps the fumes from burning coal into water that is heated and fed through a filter that isolates hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide. That sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, is then combined with the carbon dioxide also produced by the burning coal. When this new mixture is filtered, it produces sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda.
The iPad, Flash and Proprietary Integration
CNet blogger and Canonical COO Matt Asay wrote an opinion piece today in which he applauds an earlier piece at sister publication ZDNet alleging Apple to be on an increasingly proprietary path. The quoted ZDNet writer Jeff Foremski writes,
Since the introduction of the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple is becoming less and less open, is using fewer standard components and chips, and far fewer Internet technologies common to Mac/PC desktop and laptop systems.
The iPhone and iPad, for example, don't support common Internet platforms such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. That means you cannot watch streaming video from Hulu, or Netflix.
And while iPhone chips are available from other manufacturers, the iPad runs only on the A4 processor—an Apple designed chip that no one else can buy.
Let's consider these claims. The Apple A4 processor that runs the iPad is based on the same ARM architecture pretty much everyone in the mobile space is focused on at the present time. While Apple certainly likes vertical integration — because it lowers its dependency on outside suppliers and drives down costs — to say that Apple is becoming proprietary because of an in-house chip design is absurd. An Apple A4 is compatible with other ARM processors. The iPad CPU does not make the iPad more or less compatible with other systems than the iPhone's chip; as a matter of fact, neither chip has any influence on Apple's devices being able to interoperate with competitors' devices.
Foremski's second claim that Asay quotes is that Apple is utilizing “far fewer internet technologies” (implied: “open internet technologies”). By this, he apparently means Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, neither of which are open nor standards. Only Adobe Flash is even a de facto standard, albeit one conspicuously missing from most mobile devices at present. And since when does omitting two plugins become equivalent to supporting “far fewer internet technologies”?
Foremski's other mutterings about Apple in the piece Asay links to are similarly bizarre for someone writing at a quasi-respectable tech media outlet. He suggests Apple came to the PC side, for example, by supporting USB. He fails to mention Apple helped drive the adoption of USB, with the original iMac making waves via its USB-only approach. He also suggests Apple made its “disk operating system files compatible with the PC world,” but fails to explain what he means by that. He can't mean that Apple finally supported reading PC-formatted disks (Apple has supported reading DOS/Windows-based disks for decades) nor that Apple has switched to Microsoft's formats for native disks (it hasn't).
As much of a pain as it may be that Apple is refusing to support Flash on the iPad and iPhone, the company is right in saying that it is pushing for something far more open than Flash. Call that decision whatever you'd like, just don't call it “being proprietary.” Asay, who is a smart chap, shows poor judgment in agreeing with Foremski on this.
Apple Targeting to Kill Ad Networks' Targeting?
Peter Kafka writes,
As I understand it, Apple is arguing that [iPhone and iPad] app makers can’t pass along information that incorporates each phone’s “unique device identifier” to ad networks and measurement companies.
This doesn’t expressly prohibit ad networks from selling ads, but it prevents them from selling targeted advertising, which is close to the same thing when it comes to mobile devices. The same problem would plague analytics companies, which might be able to compile very broad usage info about apps, but little else.
Nonsense. Your computer's web browser doesn't offer a unique hardware serial number to every web site either. Back in the late 90's when it looked like we were headed into such an invasive privacy situation with Intel's PSN (Processor Serial Number) system, people were rightly outraged and the system died a quick death.
An IP address, or in the case of an application in which a user logs into an online service (e.g. Facebook), the user's login and associated profile, are more than enough targeting data to create useful analytics. This seems to be a part of Apple's continued attempt to differentiate its practices from Google's. As Gruber observed recently,
I detected one other veiled insult against Google during the event — Jobs’s emphasis during the multitasking segment about how seriously Apple values the privacy of iPhone users, with regard to data and location information. In the way that the standard knock against Apple is that they maintain too much control over the App Store, the standard knock against Google is that they don’t value user privacy. Jobs’s message: You can trust Apple.
I expect Apple to continue to play up this theme as its war with Google escalates.
The Orthodox Church
I am doing an independent study on Eastern Orthodoxy this semester. Right now, I am finishing up Timothy Ware's book the Orthodox Church for that study.
Less than a hundred pages from the end, I really think this book is worth commending. While as a Reformed Christian I have some obvious differences with Ware's positions, I think the book as a whole is very irenic in spirit and compellingly written. The account of Orthodoxy history is especially engaging and has helped me to appreciate further the rich tradition of the Eastern Church. Reviewing the ramp up to the Great Schism of 1054 and the sack of Constantinople in 1204 reminded me all the more about the tragedy of the divided church.
It seems too me that most of us, as Western Christians, have spent too little time examining how some of the distinctives of Orthodoxy might enrich our own theological traditions. I will likely comment more on the book at some point, but, for now, it suffices to say the book is worth your time if you would like to become better aware of the Orthodox Church and its traditions.
O, Let Us Yet Be Merciful
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of man.
-King Henry V (Henry V, Act 2.2)
I've mulled this powerful passage from the play for a few days in preparation for class tonight. These words ring true in discussing when a trusted person betrays that trust. It is interesting in that Henry's response to Lord Scroop, the betrayer whom he most closely trusted, is threefold: first, realizing the danger of the three men's plot, all they must be stopped. Second, given that such a dear friend was actually willing to harm Harry for selfish gain, he recognizes the attempted betrayal is like “another fall of man” that will lead him to view even the “best” of people “with some suspicion.” They have robbed him of his ability to fully trust anyone going forward. Shakespeare clearly understands the pain of such a situation.
Most touchingly, even as Henry condemns the traitors, he notes to his fallen friend Lord Scroop that he will “weep for thee.” Henry shows a Biblical sense of justice in that even as he administers necessary justice, love rules it. He takes no pleasure in condemning the men he once held dear; and despite their attempts to harm him, he will mourn their loss. The crime must be dealt with, but he still wishes for them God's mercy.
He is Risen
In the end, the plans of men can never overpower the truth of the Christ.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Selling Like Hot Cakes
Jim Dalrymple writes,
Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst, Gene Munster, on Saturday said he believes Apple sold between 600-700 thousand iPads on the first day. This includes the pre-orders that would have been coming in since March 12.
Something tells me he is likely to be right and that there is a very good chance we could see Apple's press release announcing the iPad hitting the million unit mark before the WiFi+3G version even starts to ship (hurry up already, Apple!).
The naysayers of the last few months will be backpedaling about the iPad's impending failure any time now. Twenty years down the road, I think the iPad will be remembered as the device that finally pried people away from the desktop computer user interface model pioneered in 1984 by the Apple Macintosh.
The iPad will define the tertium quid between the PDA/phone and the PC that has been trying to appear since the ill fated Network Computers of the 1990's.
Travelogue
This has been a busy week.
On Sunday evening, my uncle flew in from Seattle and so I joined my parents in doing various touristy, fun activities with him for the first few days of the week. We went down the Great River Road in Illinois one day; the next, we made our way through Defiance and Augusta on the Missouri side. We also played quite a few hours of various card games each night. All and all, it was a whirlwind, but a fun to get to visit with him.
On Wednesday, he and my dad headed to Indiana to spend some time there with my grandfather. My mom and I joined them yesterday for my grandpa's 90th birthday parties — a small party last night and a luncheon with more of the family today.
While it has been spring break at seminary, I have more than enough reading and projects to work on to fill an otherwise empty week. Not surprisingly, I have not finished everything I need to get done yet. But, hope springs eternal: I still have until Tuesday night before my first class of the week — perhaps I can check off a few more tasks by then.
Denominationally Speaking
My #1 is: Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church (was #2)
My #2 is: Reformed Churches (was #3)
My #3 is: Presbyterian Church USA (was #6)
My #4 is: Reformed Baptist (was #9)
How's that for a solidly Reformed beginning?
My #5 is: Methodist/Wesleyan Church (was #1)
My #6 is: Southern Baptist (was #4)
My #7 is: Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (was #10)
My #8 is: Episcopal/Anglican Church (was #14)
My #9 is: Evangelical Lutheran Church (was #13)
My #10 is: Free Will Baptist (was #7)
My #11 is: Mennonite Brethren (was #8)
My #12 is: Assemblies of God (was #5)
My #13 is: Church of Christ (was #12)
My #14 is: Orthodox Quakerism (was #11)
My #15 is: International Church of Christ (was #16)
My #16 is: Seventh-Day Adventist (was #15)
My #17 is: United Pentecostal Church (no change)
My #18 is: Eastern Orthodox Church (no change)
My #19 is: Roman Catholic Church (no change)
I continue to remain surprised on #18-19. Given my admiration for Thomism, as well as a number of elements of Orthodoxy, I'd expect the sacramental churches to score well above, say, the United Pentecostal Church on my list. Of course, this is in part the fault of the quiz system. In reality, I am more in agreement with any church that can affirm the Chalcedonian Christianity than those such as the UPC that reject (little “c”) catholic orthodoxy.
My #20 is: Jehovah's Witness (no change)
My #21 is: Mormonism (no change)
My #22 is: Liberal Quakerism (no change)
My #23 is: Unity Church (no change)
My #24 is: Unitarian Universalism (no change)
The Lost Art of Catechesis
J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett observe,
Thus, for most contemporary evangelicals the entire idea of catechesis is largely an alien concept. The very word itself—catechesis, or any of its associated terms, including catechism—is greeted with suspicion by most evangelicals today. (“Wait, isn't that a Roman Catholic thing?”)
I have noticed that probably the majority of Protestants do look rather funny at non-Catholics who mention using a catechism. This is really a shame because catechisms such as the Westminster Shorter Catechism do offer such a wonderfully rich exposition of the faith. Certainly better than many a Sunday School curriculum will ever do today.
Protestants (generally speaking) desperately need to find ways to embrace theology again and catechesis is certainly a helpful way to ground that, especially if the catechetical answer is not the sum of the teaching.
Packer is right, as he so often is.
Via: Dr. Alan Meyers
