Tech Tips for Catholic Teens

LivingSocial Blog: Have an iPhone? This looks like a great iPhone application from the “Virtual Bookshelf” creators at Facebook. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but I can see real value in having a running list of books that I need/want and those I’ve already read that would be easily accessible from my iPhone. I currently use Library Thing and it has a mobile feature at http://www.librarything.com/m/ but this only allows me access to my existing catalog and doesn’t have the “Want to Read” feature. Are you using an iPhone interface you’d like to recommend?

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

A while back I wanted to randomize my homepage so that when I open my web-browser (I personally like Mozilla Firefox) a different website appears. The following is what I came up with.

Step 1: Open a new page in your preferred html editor (I just used notepad or WordPad).

Step 2: Copy and Paste the following code, between JavaScript tags, into your newly blank page.

var aMyLink = new Array();
var nIndex;
aMyLink.push(’http://www.yourfavoritesite1.com’);
aMyLink.push(’http://www.yourfavoritesite2.com’);
aMyLink.push(’http://www.yourfavoritesite3.com’);
nIndex = 0 + Math.floor(Math.random()*aMyLink.length);
window.location=aMyLink[nIndex];

Step 3: Fill in the websites you want to load (the order doesn’t matter, because they will load randomly). You may add more than just three pages by adding more lines.

Step 4: Once you have added your preferred homepages, save the file as: startup_page.htm (or whatever other name you may like better).

Step 5: Open your web-browser. Go into the Options menu and find where you can set the homepage (in Mozilla Firefox this is under “Startup” in the Main Options tab). Now this is where it can get a little tricky. You need to know the file location where you have saved the startup_page.htm file (for instance mine is in the “My Documents” folder. So the file location is: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\startup_page.htm). The easiest way to find the directory is to right-click on the file, go to “Properties”, and copy the file location. Now just paste it into the Homepage Options. Click OK.

When you open your browser the next time or go to your homepage, you should get one of your random pages. If you do not, then something is wrong with your scripting and you’ll need to go back into your editor and make sure everything looks correct.

Tip: If you would like to use my random hompages you can Copy the Link Location by right-clicking Here and going to “Copy Link Location”. Then paste that into the Homepage Options. Or you can right-click and “Save Link As” to your computer and then either modify it or use it as is.

If you have any problems or it isn’t working properly, feel free to post a comment or contact us.

My Light Magazine is looking for Illustrators for their new publication for kid’s. If you are interested check out the Illustrator’s Guidelines Page.

Also, I just got word about a potential contest. The winning illustration would become the cover of their debut issue! To participate visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/mylight. If you’re not already a member, join for more updates about the magazine.

Over at Pro Blogger, Daniel Scocco has a very good look at the etiquette related to the use of Social Networking sites. Take time to read through the comments, which give added value to the article. If you’re using social networking tools to market your work, you want to make sure you are following these rules rather than driving folks away from you by your online behavior. I witnessed something last week on one of these sites that changed my impression of one of the participants (and not for the better). Good to know the culture of these places before diving in!  What Are The Unspoken Rules of Social Networks?

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

As many know, we strive to be good stewards of all that God has given to us. This includes our time, our talents and also our money… In the world of technology, everything seems to be overpriced, from the latest iPod Touch, to the Sony Ebook reader that I may get someday if I can ever save up the cash… However, there are some great resources out there that are totally and completely FREE for most computers.

Take for instance Open Office. Open Office is a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, which costs hundreds of dollars! It reads and writes to Microsoft Office formats, so you can still use it for all of your school projects.It has an excel-like program, as well as a Powerpoint clone and works pretty much the same as Microsoft office with the exception of certain menus and other things. However, for everyday use, it works just fine.

However, the free open-source software movement doesn’t stop with mere office programs that really aren’t that much fun. If you are an artist, or digital photo enthusiast, you may want to look into The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Project). The GIMP is basically a free, open-source version of the $400-600 Adobe Photoshop.

Using The GIMP you can cut and crop photos, apply effects and do more professional touch-ups to your photos and images. Or, if you want, you can make it look like you have a Saintly halo around your head, then you can print out the photo and say to your parents that they are wrong and that you are indeed a Saint!

A third example of a great free program is Blender. If you want to go into game design or computer animation, this may be the program for you! Blender is a free, open-source 3-d modeling program that can be used for anything from designing buildings, to creating game characters, and even to make animated movies such as Elephant’s Dream and the soon-to-be-released Big Buck Bunny (May 2008). The software is very complicated but, if you know to use it, it becomes very powerful. Commercial 3-D programs generally cost in the THOUSANDS so, this is a great alternative!

You’ll notice that all of the programs discussed are open-source. This means that the programming code used to make the program is available to the public. Open-source programs are great because they are usually free, will usually work on multiple operating systems and if you are a programmer you can adjust or make improvements to the program and re-release it.

Other examples of open-source software include: Mozilla Firefox, Flock, Audacity, Electric Sheep (screensaver), Opera and many other programs out there! You can find more at http://www.opensourcewindows.org or by doing a search for open-source using your favorite search engine.

While these programs may lack some of the bells and whistles of their commercial partners and can be a little harder to learn, once you get the hang of them they are very powerful. In fact, some of these programs have plug-ins, add-ons or features that professional products charge you extra for! For example Photoshop and 3D studio Max or Lightwave charge extra for filter packs, effects and other such things, but, in the open-source community these things are created by other users free of charge, again saving you valuable time and cash.

The other great thing about these open-source options, is that they encourage creativity and gives normal people the opportunity to explore things that they couldn’t normally do legally. A lot of people will want to pursue photography or 3-D modeling and get so overwhelmed with the costs that they obtain the software illegally through file sharing software. Stealing is NEVER an encouraged behavior for any Christian. So, these programs offer a way to learn the basics in the field you are interested in, without stealing thousands of dollars worth of intellectual property from software companies like Microsoft and Adobe.

Lastly, because open-source programs are usually free, you don’t have to spend anything but your time and creativity on them. This way, you can save those couple hundred or thousand dollars for better use, like donating to my ebook reader fund!

Seriously though, God wants us to be good stewards of the money he gives us. For example, right now there is a major food crisis in many countries. Did you know that a donation of $200 to the Haitian Health Foundation can provide a year’s worth of food for an entire family!? That’s $200 that you could have spent on software but, instead you can provide a better life for those in need! There are other charities as well, not to mention the needs of the Church and your own community.

So using open-source software is a great way to support the open-source movement, allow you to create in ways that you didn’t think were possible due to costs and to save money to be placed aside for better purposes, like supporting the Church or those in need around the world. How’s that for putting your money where your faith is?

WhoLockMe is a freeware Windows Explorer shell extension that will tell you what processes are locking a file. You can then attempt to stop the processes, making it possible to delete or move the file.

I work with large PhotoShop® files and from time to time I am unable to delete or move a file, because another program is accessing it. But all my programs are closed! In the past I would restart my computer and see if that would work. Nope! What to do now?

This is where WhoLockMe is one of the greatest little programs ever invented.

This freeware is a beta version. It doesn’t work on Win9x or Me. It does however work great with XP.

To download this freeware
	WhoLockMe104.zip (22KB)

WhoLockMe v1.0.1

Installation :

• Unzip WhoLockMe.zip
• Copy “WhoLockMe.dll”, “WhoLockMe.exe”, “Install.bat” and “Uninstall.bat” in a directory. (for example : c:\Program Files\WhoLockMe)
• Double-Click on “Install.bat”

How to use :

• Once you have installed WhoLockMe, all you need to do is right click on the locked file, scroll down to and select Who Lock Me?.
• A window should open up with the file information and which program is accessing the file.
• Select the file info and hit the “kill process” button.
• Finally, a window will pop-up that asks if you are sure you want to kill the process — you say “heck ya I do!”
• You should now be able to delete or move the file : )

I have used this little Tip more times than I ever thought I would have. This tip could also be quite useful in fighting persistent spyware.

I came across the following on Digg and thought I’d share it with anyone who might be interested. It would be great to see more Catholic Christian plugins for WordPress out there!

It is time for another WordPress Plugin Competition. Plugin competitions of the past have seen fantastic code, extremely useful and fun plugins and have generated a lot of interest in WordPress and plugin development. Prizes have been very generously donated by readers and well wishers and we already have some donations towards this year’s competition and are looking for more. The final list of prizes will be determined very soon. Lots of eyes see these competitions and your encouragement goes a long way in helping provide incentives. The plugin competition will begin on the 10th of May and will last till the 10th of July.

There will be prizes for first, second and third places and a consolation prize. The plugins should be officially submitted through email and the Plugin Competition Blog (which will be cleaned for the new competition) should be used as a launching ground for plugin ideas, updates, development news etc. The plugins will be judged by a panel of at least three judges and reader feedback will be an essential part of the judging process. At the end of the contest, we will put up posts for each submission and will open them up to our readers for two weeks. The contest results should be declared by the beginning of August.

All code must be GPL (or compatible) and should be available for download through the Competition Blog and preferably through WordPress Extend. The plugins can be modified and tweaked till the last day of the competition or until the author sends us an email with the final version of the code. In essence, the Plugin Competition Blog is the preferred vehicle of communication for all contestants.

Here are some relevant details:

• • Running time for competition = 2 months starting the 10th of May till the 10th of July.
  • True Wordpress plugins only. No manual modifications can be required of users.
  • You cannot submit plugins that have been released already. New code only please.
  • Plugins can only be submitted via email. We will make that email address public later on in the competition.
  • Plugins cannot have opt-out links back to the authors’ pages (from the main blog pages, admin pages are fine). If you have links or donation forms, please make them opt-in.
  • All plugins require documentation as in the Wordpress Extend pages. Documentation will be one of the judging criteria.
  • Preliminary support for the plugin has to be provided to the public.
  • We are looking for innovation, documentation and elegant code.
  • Any and all prizes/controversies/issues will be judged and decided at our sole discretion.

For more details visit: www.weblogtoolscollection.com.

About

The CRE, by Pistos at Catholicism Computes, is a WordPress plugin which activates both Scripture references and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, showing non-intrusive popups when you mouseover them (I have set my options up so that the popup occurs only when the link is clicked on).

Example

Jesus builds his church: Matthew 16:16-18. One holy, catholic and apostolic Church: CCC 748,750. The ark of the New Covenant: Revelation 11:19; 12:1-2.

Download

Wordpress Plugin

Version 0.8.13 released 2007-11-20.

• Version 0.8.13, without texts zip 25kb | tar.bz2 23kb
• Version 0.8.13, with texts zip 2092kb | tar.bz2 1460 kb

Texts

The CRE needs the texts in order to do its work. If you did not obtain the full package (above), then download these texts and unpack them in your catholic-reference/ plugin directory. They will be stored under catholic-reference/texts/.

• Douay-Rheims Bible zip | tar.bz2
• Catechism of the Catholic Church zip | tar.bz2

You may also download the plugin WordPress Plugins Directory.

About a year ago, I came across MyChurch.org and have found it to be a great tool for our parish community and it has helped us to grow in community.

• What is MyChurch?
  MyChurch is a free community‐buiding site for Christian churches. You can create a profile page for your church and allow members to join and connect through blogs, photos, events, media, bulletins, small groups and more!
• Is MyChurch Safe?
  A dedicated team of staff and pastors review thousands of church submissions each week to make sure church profiles are reserved for Christian churches that follow the Nicene Creed. Your church profile page can be moderated by multiple staff or members and each small group can customize their own level of privacy.
• Connecting with a Purpose
  With an extensive platform of tools, MyChurch allows your community to connect in a unique and fun way throughout the week. It’s like MySpace, but completely centered around your church! Keep members up‐to‐date on announcements and prayer requests with Bulletins. Post single or recurring Events, and allow members to RSVP. Small Groups let members connect around ministries and interests. Share and learn more about each other with Blogs. Upload church Sermons (Homilies) and Media, where members can add comments.

Please Note: Because MyChurch is not strictly a Catholic network, some Catholic parishes are not listed and might need to be added. Do a search for your Church prior to adding it.

Features: In the menu bar, after you have logged in, there are a couple of menu categories.

• The “Home” menu is all about you. You will see submenus such as Main, Write, Subscription, Photos, Friends, Comments, and Mail.
• The “My Church” menu is all about your church and takes you to your church’s MyChurch page, where you can post a bulletin, upload church photos, check out small groups, post an event, or post to the sharing board.
• The next menu I’d like to talk about is the “Explore” menu. This is where you will find public blog posts, reviews, and videos posted by other MyChurch people (keep in mind that not all posters in the explore section are Catholic and some maybe even anti-Catholic, but generally the posts are ecumenical in nature).
• The new menu that they are working on is the “Ministries” menu. Not a lot has happened with this one yet.
• And the last menu is the “Churches” menu where you can search for churches. This is good if you are going on vacation and are looking for a Catholic church near your destination (though I recommend MassTimes.org for a more official search). But you could maybe see what is happening in the parish you will be attending. They also have a pretty cool map feature that is similar to Frappr! Map, only with the different churches in a certain destination.

Well that about sums it up. If you’d like to see a short review I posted on MyChurch about Popple’s “Plaid” CD or a review of the DVD Padre Pio “Miracle Man” you may.

Here is a neat widget by Widgetbox called the Blog Badge.

The Blog Badge is completely customized and allows you to add links to some of the hottest web 2.0 communities: Digg, LinkedIn, Mahalo, Twitter, Mixx, Flickr, Delicious, Pownce, StumbleUpon, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Wordpress, Blogger and more. You can choose which to show and adding them is easy: simply enter your user ID or the URL to your public profile (based on the form below).

Tip: If you are adding the widget to your MyChurch.org profile then copy the JavaScript code into your profile settings.