Notes from the Trail

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As I was saying in the last post, Hugh Hewitt’s book Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation was a challenge and provocation for me. The more I reflected on it after reading it, the more I realized that in many ways my blog was, well, bland. 

I hate to admit that to myself, because I feel that I’ve been pretty informative, encouraging, challenging and even edgy (heck, who else do you know that writes about butt boils?). However, I have rarely written about topics that are controversial. I have for the most part steered clear of politics (except for last year’s sales tax debacle). And I have been very vocal about my faith and love for Jesus Christ. It is the absolute foundation of all that I do.

Yet, Hewitt’s book bothered me. In a nutshell, it caused me to consider whether my writings were really influencing readers - or if they were merely informing readers. 

When I was running MonticelloLive.com, I chose to not only report news but to dig deeper beneath our community’s noise and try to see what was making things “tick” and “go bump in the night.” I learned a lot about some people’s motives, ideals and agendas. Some of those were encouraging; some were disconcerting.

The times that I wrote editorials (1, 2, 3), I got quite a bit of negative feedback from some leaders in town and even from a few Christians. The gist of their complaint was that I was a pastor, and that I shouldn’t be saying the things I was saying. It’s quite a turn of events to realize that just 100 years ago, pastors were the moral leaders and opinion influencers in their communities. Heck, 500 years ago, pastors were the primary civic leaders and engines of community life. (Can you say Martin Luther or John Calvin?!) Imagine what things would be like politically and religiously if they had listened to folks tell them that pastors should just preach and not get involved!

That brings me full circle to what I am have wrestling with. It’s been obvious over the past year that local news outlets choose simply to report news. It’s like a reflex. Something happens; someone writes about it. There is not much of an effort to dig deep and find news. Truly getting involved and seeking to contribute to community life, however, requires more than that. 

Edmund Burke said, 

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  (Wayne Greeson has an excellent sermon on this topic here.)

It’s not just evil that triumphs when good people do nothing. Ignorance prevails. I think it’s time to do something. How about you? (to be continued)

With a nice little message of “Thanks for waiting,” the iPhone Dev Team posted the new tool that will unlock, jailbreak and activate iPhone firmware 2.0 this afternoon!

The website iphoneunlockstatus.com provided this handy-dandy overview to know what you’re getting into with the new tool:

I am downloading it as we speak…

Update (7-19-08, 9:13 p.m.): I downloaded it, and tried to run it. It spun for almost 20 minutes looking for the firmware (which was on my desktop). I was not willing to run the “Expert Mode” until they publish better instructions. There was also a note over at iClarified.com that says that Installer app does not work. That’s crazy. How would one install jailbroken apps? Think I’ll wait for the morrow.

The Morrow (7-20-08, 6:00 a.m.): iClarified has posted a tutorial for the jailbreaking method. I have still have lots of questions about it and wish there was a FAQ.

Update (4:15 p.m.): Bummer. I can’t recommend or endorse this tool for anyone yet. After much anticipation, its use is unreliable. Even after following the tutorial the Pwnage 2.0 tool won’t find the firmware (I have to select it manually) or bootloaders (It offers to search the internet for them, but I already have them in the specified folder). Too bad ziphone didn’t get in on this project. His tool is so much easier to use for the average user. Unless you’re an advanced user, I would advise you to wait for either a better tutorial, better version of this tool, or another tool altogether. At least we know that the first jailbreak salvo has been fired. 

Others will hopefully rush in and clean up what the Dev Team have worked so hard to get out.

Update (7-21-08, 9:15 p.m.): I have successfully jailbroken my iPhone using the new tool (2.01) the Dev Team released yesterday! My error, I think, was not actually putting the iPhone in DFU mode. I didn’t know there was a difference until I found this article that described what to do.

Wow. I think I’m more impressed with Swurl than MobileMe right now. Of course, they’re totally unrelated, but Swurl “just works” whereas MobileMe has stumbled out of the gate and almost had me cussing this evening.

I myself stumbled over Swurl in a blog this afternoon and wondered what it was. The blogger compared it to Tumblr, which I love. When I got home, the name had stuck with me, so I looked it up. After realizing that it claimed to be able to “bring your life together,” I took about 5 minutes plugging in the various microblogging services I use - Flickr, Twitter, Jaiku, Last.fm, etc. (the kitchen sink). 

Imagine my slow-spreading smile of delight as I watched Swurl swirl all my RSS streams and feeds together into an attractive and amazing blend of technology. It even pulled in the friends that I follow on various services! Check out my swurl page: journeyguy.swurl.com. With a quick Photoshopped header, I had an amazing website in less than 15 minutes!

I highly recommend you to try the same thing - especially if you use any of the social website services and microblogs mentioned above. Tell me if you’re not impressed.

One AMAZING feature is how it creates a visual archive of all your past posts - almost instantly! The view below is what mine looks like when you click on my “Timeline.”

The only thing that Swurl appears not to do is to allow you create an entry there. You can comment on everything - which is very cool! However, it is true to its description - it seeks only to bring your web-life into one location. So you can still blog, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. (By the way, if you’re not using hellotxt.com to update your various sites, you could be saving a lot of time.)

In the long run, Swurl may capture the devotion of bloggers everywhere. It surpasses many other similar services in ease of use and graphic appeal. Who needs Friendfeed when there’s Swurl? If you happen to set up a site at Swurl, let me know in the comments so I can swing by and see!

Loopt or Whrrl? Which will become the premier location microblog? Will one or the other trump Twitter?

Both are fascinating and dumbfounding. How in the heck do these things work? Check them both out and let me know which one you like. They can both be downloaded through Apple’s App Store.

But not this weekend, their blog says. In the meantime, watch this video of just how easy it is to jailbreak your iPhone with the pwnage tool that will soon be released. 

Many many hours have gone into this and now it should be as easy enough for your grandmother to use.

 

You can also watch the video in high quality here.