Android Gospel Library Tip: Updating Bookmarks

I’ve enjoyed having the LDS Gospel Library on my phone and tablet quite a bit, but one of my frustrations with it has been bookmarks–it’s fairly straightforward to create a bookmark, but how do you update (move) an existing bookmark for when you’re doing your daily scripture study?

Someone recently showed me how to do it. It’s really pretty simple. I created a bookmark called “Daily” and set it to where I’m at in my scripture study. Then, when I was done with my scripture study and ready to update my bookmark, I open up the bookmarks dialogue and longpress (press and hold) on the “Daily” bookmark. When I do that, I am prompted whether or not I want to update the existing bookmark, and I say yes.

The new computer

We have finally decided to enter the world of smartphones. My wife and I have been on a family plan with her parents until now, but do to various circumstances, it was time for us to get set up on our own phone plan.

I have to confess, I am really enjoying my smartphone.

It’s nothing really spectacular, a LG myTouch. My wife got a nicer phone (HTC Amaze 4G), but I like the smaller size of my phone–it actually fits into my pocket nicer than my old feature phone.

I am certainly not a fan of the wonderful data plans that come with the phones, but I am finding myself really enjoying a lot of the basic features of this new world of apps and constanct connectivity. The question “How did I get along before without this” is an indicator of successful technology.

I did have some planned uses for getting a smart phone. The main things I was thinking of were the ability to synchronize contacts and calendar items between computer and phone (and to share a calendar with my wife). I was also wanting to have the LDS Gospel Library information (scriptures and manuals, etc) available–ever since we started carrying a diaper bag, we’ve had a harder time bringing our scriptures to church.

Happily, my phone does not disappoint on either of those points. I have been able to have a better management of contacts and calendar, and have already made a lot of use of my phone at church. But there are a number of other things that I have really found useful. One of these is simply Google Reader. I have lately found an awful lot of really fun/interesting/informative blogs, but I have had the hardest time keeping up with them–every so often I would just have to skip a whole bunch of entries. With the phone I have been able to read blogs in my spare five or ten minutes while I’m waiting for the carpool, or in the bathroom… after washing my hands very carefully and thoroughly…

…Anyway…

I have also enjoyed the GPS navigation apps, especially since the in-laws have just moved and I haven’t quite got a good handle on where they live and how to get there. And I have never really been all that great with directions anyway.

The next app I have enjoyed is audiogalaxy. This allows me to stream my music from my home to my phone. Awesome.

The, a couple weeks later, my company gets a tablet for me to use! So I am typing this post from my new Lenovo tablet. It’s a little heavy and (as with all things lenovo) the speakers aren’t that great, but so far I’m pretty impressed. I have an external keyboard that goes with the case, so I can really use this as a pretty nice netbook.

It is interesting to see how the computer has shifted over the years. Laptops and desktops certainly have not gone away (but mainframes and servers haven’t really gone away, either), but the common user device is now part of your phone. Maybe a tablet.

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General Conference Oct 2011

Another excellent conference come and gone. I think the most exciting part of it was the announcement that the Provo Tabernacle (which suffered a severe fire) will be rebuilt into a temple!

In general the comments that stuck out to me were the ones that talked about standing up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also about being more diligent in our regular responsibilities: daily scripture study and prayer (individually and as a family), attending church meetings and the temple, etc. I’ve referred to these things as the Primary Answers for two reasons:

  1. They are the answers to virtually every question asked by a gospel instructor since we were in Primary. If you had fallen asleep in class and were woken up by the instructor asking you a question, your safest bet is to reply: “Go to church, listen to the prophets, read your scriptures, and pray” (OK, so this isn’t really the case, but sometimes it feels like it)
  2. They are Primary, meaning first and foremost. There is a reason why said instructors are trying to pound those things into our heads. It is critical that we stay close to the gospel, and the way that is done is not through some occasional or once-in-a-lifetime super-spiritual experience (Even the scriptures demonstrate that while such things do happen, they do not by themselves bring about either salvation or conversion). Instead, conversion to the Gospel, and developing a relationship with our Father in Heaven, is done through steady, regular, consistent effort.

I particularly liked President Monson’s talk in the Priesthood Session. He summarized a survey that indicated many young people in the country have little if any sense of morality, often stating that they do what feels right at the time. (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/if-it-feels-right.html). Here is President Monson’s response to the holders of the Priesthood:

“Brethren, none within the sound of my voice should be in any doubt concerning what is moral and what is not, nor should any be in doubt about what is expected of us as holders of the priesthood of God. We have been and continue to be taught God’s laws. Despite what you may see or hear elsewhere, these laws are unchanging.

As we go about living from day to day, it is almost inevitable that our faith will be challenged. We may at times find ourselves surrounded by others and yet standing in the minority or even standing alone concerning what is acceptable and what is not. Do we have the moral courage to stand firm for our beliefs, even if by so doing we must stand alone? As holders of the priesthood of God, it is essential that we are able to face—with courage—whatever challenges come our way. Remember the words of Tennyson: ‘My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.'” (see http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/dare-to-stand-alone?lang=eng).

New File Server

So, at my house we tend to use up disk space pretty quickly, and one of the ways I’ve tried to consolidate that is by having a home server. It was really just another Windows XP box but with some file shares on it, which actually works pretty well.

About a year ago we ran out of space on our server. And we were also out of money. No problem; I had lots of old hand-me-down computers, so I gutted a number of them, ripped out their hard-drives and stuck them in our server. It was touch-and-go for a bit; and while I did eventually get it working, the phrase “held together with spit and twine” seemed rather applicable, and I knew I needed to find a better solution at some point.

Then we ran out of space again. Nuts. How do we keep running out of space? Well, we takes lots of pictures, and I’m rather paranoid about backups–we had a new external drive fail on us previously, and lost about a year’s worth of pictures. Lesson Learned: Keep at least two copies of everything you don’t want to lose, preferably three (one of them being remote).

We still weren’t quite ready to buy a new computer. Well, I was (You might be a geek if you find yourself occasionally getting on Newegg.com to spec out a computer just for fun), but my wife provided the voice of reason. So we made a compromise. We bought an external hard-drive that we could use to relieve some of the space on the server, and would get a new computer in the fall.

So, fall has come and I’ve got a new file server going. It actually took more effort to put together than I thought. I bought the parts individually, and also bought a different operating system based on a friend’s recommendation (Windows Home Server, which for an Microsoft OS is pretty cheap). I wanted to make sure I got computer hardware that would be relevant for a decent amount of time. Some of the things I was looking for were:

  • Motherboard and power supply with plenty of SATA connectors (so that I had expand-ability)
  • Lots of initial hard-drive space with room to grow
  • RAID support
  • Support for both USB 3 and SATA 3 (which provide for much higher data transfer speeds than their predecessors)
In the end I purchased a Gigabyte AMD motherboard that had what I wanted, and I found a good deal on a Rosewill power supply. For hard-drives I purchased two Hitachi 3TB 7200 RPM drives. (Did anyone else just hear Ralphie saying, “I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!”?)

9/11 Remembered

On Friday I attended the Utah Symphony Orchestra with my wife and parents. The first piece was “On the Transmigration of Souls” by John Adams, written to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attack. I don’t care for modern classical music (unless movie soundtracks count, which for some I reason I don’t think they do…).

The reason we had bought the tickets was for the second piece, Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It was a fantastic performance that had the four of us pretty floored. My dad’s comment was “I don’t know how long it will be before I can stand listening to a recording again” (He has over 10 separate recordings of the 9th). The second movement was particularly well done.

So why am I talking about Beethoven in a post about 9/11? Well, the “Transmigration” piece was pretty effective at communicating fear, grief, confusion, and anger. But there were other responses and emotions during that time besides fear, confusion and anger. In fact, if that was the only response and the only way that we remembered it then the terrorists who carried out the attack will indeed have succeeded in their goal.

Ten years ago I was headed out the door when our neighbor called and told me to turn on the TV. I was in time to see the second tower fall.

There was a lot of fear, and confusion, and even anger. Almost 3,000 people died. But the fear and confusion that I felt does not compare to the hope and pride that I felt as I watched the many selfless acts that followed. I remember almost crying with pride and joy as I watched the New York City streets lined with onlookers cheering on the firefighters, policemen, doctors, and other volunteers as they headed into the chaos. As they did their best to save as many people as they could. As we heard of Flight 93, who gave their lives to thwart their hijackers plans.

Regardless of how politicians have used this event for one purpose or another, or even considering a number of conspiracy theories surrounding the destruction of the World Trade Center, what really struck me was the courage and strength of the people of this nation. We live in a time where we talk of the great evils of this world; immorality, drugs, gangs, corrupt governments, greedy corporations–there is almost no end to all the evil things in this world.

I do not like to focus on the negative. These things do exist, and we should not pretend that they don’t. I do believe there is far more in this world that is good. People are better than we think they are. and you know, Beethoven does a pretty good job of capturing some of those emotions and feelings.

“Oh friends, not these tones! Rather, let us raise our voices in more pleasing And more joyful sounds!”

Perhaps that is why they decided to pair those two pieces together. There was loss and grief and mourning. There was also hope and courage and strength. And that is what I wish to focus on when I remember 9/11. The time when I became proud to be an American.

Family History Programs

So one of the things that I’ve started looking into is a decent way of storing and sharing family histories. I’m less interested in the dates and sources, although I do agree that those are important. I don’t think nearly enough emphasis has been placed on learning the histories and stories of our ancestors.

A couple quick examples:

  1. I really don’t need a census to tell me that I have a great-grandfather. I am very certain that at one point he did exist. So what? Why do I care? Why should I care? Well, when I heard the story about how he and his father worked together for a time, something inside me resonated with that. It did so enough that when I got a chance to work with my dad professionally I jumped at the chance. I even left a solid job for one that was rather shaky (the company did go under a couple years later). But I not only love and respect my father; he is one of my best friends, and I wanted to have the same experience my great-grandfather had. Virtually everyone I talked to warned me about the dangers of working with family–you can really ruin your relationship that way, etc. But you know what? It was awesome! I loved it–it was a wonderful experience. I’m sorry it didn’t last longer.
  2. Let’s say that you ask me how my day was, and I respond like this: “I woke up at 4:00 am, ate a very small breakfast. Lunch was at 12:35 pm, dinner at 6:30. I went to bed at 11:00 pm.” What have you learned about me? I’ve given you some facts, but without context it means nothing to anyone. It proves I was alive, but doesn’t show anything beyond that. In fact, that particular answer is misleading; as it implies that I get up extremely early–I did get up extremely early that day, but that was very much the exception. I’m actually known for sleeping in somewhat. You don’t know if that was a good day or a bad day, or whether it was remarkable in any way. The day I just described was June 11, 2011, when I ran the Utah Valley Marathon with two of my sisters. It was extremely hard, due to lack of both sleep and training, but still a very worthwhile (and remarkable) experience. Will my children and their children be affected in some way because they learn that I enjoyed running long distances? Probably more so than just if they know that I existed.

Now, I’ve heard my parents tell a couple remarkable stories about our ancestors, and I want to know more. I want to record those and share them. That’s where this gets a little tricky. The traditional genealogy programs out there focus very much on dates and sources–proving that this person was your ancestor. That is valuable and important. To a Mormon like myself, it’s even important for our salvation. But I believe that is only half of the equation. The Bible talks of the hearts of the children turning to their fathers. For myself I have experienced this as I have learned about them–what kind of people they were and the stories of their lives.

I want a program where the focus is on sharing stories. I want it to be collaborative. I want it to be sharable. I want it to be simple. Family History is done largely by people who are unfamiliar with computers, and even I get confused at all the buttons, options, and choices presented to me on some of the programs I’ve seen. Why is it so complex? Why is it that the only place to put histories is in the notes? And why, oh why is it that I can only upload pictures and sounds? Why not RTF documents, PDFs, videos, etc, or even text documents? Histories do not belong in the notes section. Notes belong in the notes section. Thankfully the genealogy programs seem to be improving somewhat, but the focus is still on proof and dates much more than stories and histories.

Personally, when I see a quick summary view of an ancestor, what I would like to see is:

  • Their picture, if available
  • birth and death (years ONLY)
  • A one or two sentence summary about the person (“Cattle thief. Good with kids”).

The detailed view of the individual would have the picture, full birth and death dates and summary at the top. The main section would be their full biography. Other data (birth place, ordinances, etc). would be in an info box to the side. Sources would be at the bottom. Something along those lines.

I thought a wiki-based approach would be a good way to do what I consider to be a family history program as opposed to a genealogy program. It is collaborative, it is online, so it’s sharable. The trouble is that without some serious work, the average wiki is too complex. We don’t want the users to have to learn wikitext. They need a rich text editor. They need a simple way to attach families, individuals, pictures, movies, etc.–the process would be more like writing a blog than using PAF.

I just recently installed a wiki with the intent to try and grow it into something useful, but a friend pointed me to a few sites that are doing this kind of thing, and I’m looking into those as well as trying to do further research on additional existing functionality. So far the ones that are the most interesting to me are werelate.org and familypedia.org, although there is a lot more research to do.

I’m especially intrigued by the idea of combining family history information (including the dates and places that I’ve been ranting about) with the idea of the semantic web, making that information (and the associated stories and histories) easier to share not just by pointing people to your specific site, but allowing other sites and programs to easily find, interpret, understand, and re-share that same information.

For the short term, I’m going to research the existing products more, and decide whether to continue trying to build my own or to use an existing program (and/or assist in developing it). Part of me wants to build my own, of course, but that would be a very large undertaking, and I don’t have very much time to spare.

Do you have any family history programs you would recommend? How do you share your family stories?

The Rending of the Veil

Matthew 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

This is my favorite image in all of scripture.

The veil of the temple separated the Holy Place–containing the shewbread, incense and candlestick–from the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant. The Holy of Holies represented the presence of God (The Bible Dictionary has good descriptions of the Tabernacle and Temple of Solomon).

The veil of the temple was not torn by men, armies or machinery, but rather an earthquake (such things are still referred to in legal documents as “acts of God”). It also wasn’t just a small tear or hole–it was ripped from top to bottom.

What does this mean? Consider what has just been accomplished: the Atonement. Christ’s body was rent, giving mankind the ability to repent of their sins through Him. Through His blood we can be made clean and return to His presence. The veil separating man from God has been removed.

As the stone being rolled away from the tomb represents the triumph over physical death, the rending of the temple veil represents the triumph over spiritual death.

Helaman 14:15-19:

15 For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord.

16 Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.

17 But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.

18 Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness.

19 Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are brought down unto this second death. (Helaman 14:15-19:15-19)