Utah Open Source Planet

It all started with this post today. A supposed “employee ‘close to the deal’” told blogger, Zach Klein (who doesn’t seem to allow comments on his blog) that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History division had made an unsolicited bid to purchase Facebook. Nothing else - no other background, no other resources to confirm the deal. Soon after, ValleyWag, the first to the scene and first large blog to publish anything about it, was blogging rumors they are well known for spreading. Soon after, Venturebeat and the Industry Standard were blogging about it, quoting Brady Brim-DeForest, who ironically was claiming this as news, not a rumor at all - I’m unaware of where he got it, but his news broke after Valleywag’s. TheInquisitr, while I’m sure had no ill-intentions, even made fun of the manner with some very radical and somewhat inaccurate claims that I know have offended some members of the LDS Faith that read the blog. The blogosphere seems to be a mess today in regards to regard for religion, faith, and respect for one another’s belief. It appears the LDS Church has become the punch-line of the blogosphere’s Jokes and I’m getting really tired of it.

Now, let’s talk about rumors. The blogosphere is known for spreading rumors - I’ve hated them from the get-go, but let’s face it, it’s a part of many blogs out there, and it may not be going away any time soon. (I think I could do an entire post about rumors in and of itself) I expect an occasional rumor about Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo, or Facebook employees leaving the company because they are mad with Executives, or even a crazy one like the iPhone 2.0 coming with 2 cameras and iChat video support. Frankly, I never share those (well, rarely), but they are fun to read because, well, they’re funny. But rumors like an entire Faith buying a huge company like Facebook are ridiculous, unfounded, and frankly offensive to me that anyone would take such a rumor seriously when the Faith is my own. It’s a religion, people - tell me one reason a religious Faith would need a social network like Facebook to further its mission. Do you seriously believe any religion would be so stupid as to try this? People would leave Facebook in droves if that were to happen, and a network like Facebook has no good way of building up the members of the Faith itself. The claim is absolutely ridiculous, and I can’t believe established bloggers are taking this serious enough to share with others! There seems to be a serious lack of understanding between the blogosphere and the LDS Faith and I’d like to figure out a way to put an end to it.

Let’s go back to earlier this year. You may remember my “Shame on You TechCrunch” post I wrote awhile back, calling out the writers at CrunchGear for an extremely biased, and very misunderstood and inconsiderate interview of Penn Juliette, in which he claimed Mormons had “magic underwear” (as a Mormon, I affirm to you, that my underwear is not magic), and went on to encourage him as he talked about how easy religious women were, degrading women at the same time. While I still will not read CrunchGear because of that, I have lifted my boycott of TechCrunch (just because there is no way to avoid it - I also did not know Arrington at all at the time), but as you can see, there is a blatent misunderstanding of the LDS Faith in the blogosphere. CrunchGear still stands by their article and has refused to make any statement to the contrary.

Now, to give credit to those that have blogged about this today, Eric Eldon (of VentureBeat) does have a great point in that the LDS Church does actively invest in stock to retain and increase the value of its members donations through Tithing, and Facebook employees are selling stock. Like Louis Gray, I too give 10% of my wages in the form of Tithing to the Church, and I sincerely hope they invest it wisely and don’t just waste it away. I know their investments are wise though, and even the “widow’s mite” is considered and cared for. The Church itself never publishes these investments and it would be impossible to know if some are in Facebook or some are in Microsoft or some are in Google. They take these donations as sacred, and every effort is taken to maintain the sacredness of those donations. However, an outright acquisition of Facebook would be proposterous and completely out of line with the Church’s history.

Every one of these bloggers could have done a simple Tweet in fact, and quickly gotten a response from Mormons on how ridiculous the claims are. Or they could have shot Louis Gray, or me, or Matt Asay, or Phil Windley, or other Mormon bloggers an e-mail asking us if the claims were true. It took me about 5-10 minutes to send an e-mail to the LDS church and get a response back (which, btw, said the claims are not true and unfounded), and in fact, the LDS Church CIO is even on Twitter - an e-mail or even simple dm to him may have done the trick.

Now, I’m not necessarily trying to call out these specific bloggers, but rather point out the problem in general - I respect most of them in fact and really enjoy their regular blog posts. I’m just trying to make a shoutout to the blogosphere that we’re here if you have questions! Let’s start an open dialogue about the Mormon Faith - do you have questions? We’d really like to answer them before you assume and blog inaccuracies in the first place. Please, don’t hesitate to contact me, Louis Gray, or any other Mormon blogger if you have any hestitancy before posting an article. It’s time we put an end to this nonsense, once and for all.

I taught at church today. I’m a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints and I was called by my ecclesiastical leaders to be a teacher, once of month, to the Elders Quorum (men 18 years old and older who haven’t been called to be in the High Priests group yet).

This year we are teaching from a new book the Church has produced called Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith which contains lessons taken from the recorded writings, sermons, etc. of the first prophet and president of the LDS Church: Joseph Smith.

This book is fascinating to me because the way Smith taught is different in many ways from how later and more contemporary leaders taught and teach today. I think this is partly because he had a big job on his shoulders: to convince people to join his new church and that the beliefs the religion is based on are grounded in truth.

Today’s lesson was on missionary work and sharing the gospel with others. I started a group discussion with the class about why members are reluctant to share their gospel beliefs with others in their life who are either less active members of the church or non-members. Lots of people responded saying it just has become increasingly inappropriate in today’s society to share such personal, sacred things with people, that we’re supposed to just accept other people’s beliefs regardless of what they are.

This is in contrast to the way Joseph Smith behaved. He relished the opportunity to speak to people about his beliefs. He encouraged missionary work among all members. He explains at one point that Christ died so that people can be saved, but only if they have the opportunity to learn of the Plan Of Salvation. That’s where church members come in: Sharing the knowledge of the Plan Of Salvation with those who haven’t yet had that opportunity.

To close up the lesson, I read from Elder Russell M. Ballard’s talk in December 2007 in which he talks specifically about using New Media to Support the Work of the Church and encourages members to write about their religion, their beliefs in their blogs, to participate in online discussion forums social networking communities, to comment on online news stories that may misrepresent the beliefs of the LDS Church, etc.

Having not really written much of a religious nature on the Fozzolog, I thought I would give it a shot.

The blogosphere is rife with discussion on gay marriage and the LDS Church’s involvement in California. I would like to do my part in the battle for family. I pray this post will have positive effect in that battle, however modest it might be.

First of all, I’ve already said how I feel about group rights. Gays don’t have rights. Human beings have rights. Gays happen to be human beings. Good, we’re on the same page.

That said, this isn’t really about gay rights as much as it is about gay marriage, but it brings me to my first point.

Marriage is not a right.

For all the talk about gay rights you can mostly chalk it up to human rights that need to transcend prejudice. In other words, instead of clamoring for “gay rights” they should instead be insisting that they be afforded the already existing human rights. Gay marriage, on the other hand, is a prime example of a group inventing new rights so they can feel the same as everyone else regardless of their decisions. It’s like a people with dreadlocks inventing a right to lay their heads on your table simply because you don’t mind another person without dreadlocks doing it.

Marriage is fundamental to society.

This is entirely incident to marriage not being a right, but is yet a powerful argument against the thought that marriage should be a right. Marriage is the very institution by which children have parents, both mother and father. It is the core of the fundamental unit of society—family.

Marriage involves more than the couple.

Intimate relations are not just about consenting adults having a good time. There is ever present the possibility of new life. This new life has rights just the same. It has needs, physical, emotional, spiritual.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God [etc.]

Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.

—The Family: A Proclamation to the World

It is because of this sticky situation that marriage is instituted. The very purpose of marriage is to give children stable homes, to assure where possible that when children are created they have a mother and a father. Once you realize this, you realize that gay marriage isn’t the only thing you ought to be worried about. Fornication, adultery and divorce come to mind. Alas, this post is about gay marriage. Indeed, homosexual relations cannot result in offspring, so the very reasons for instituting marriage don’t even apply to the deviants. Yet they insist they have a right to marry. Again I propose it’s merely about them feeling the same as everyone else, regardless of their personal choices. It’s validation, nothing more.

Government should be involved in marriage.

Many of my libertarian friends throw around the idea that government should step out of marriage completely, leaving it a private and religious matter concerning only those involved. This is one of few places where I diverge from the libertarian camp (though not necessarily libertarian ideals). As stated previously, marriage inherently involves more than the parties involved. It involves family and new life; it involves society as a whole. It is in the interests of everyone involved (and everyone is involved, who among us was not born of a mother and a father?) and we should take every opportunity to encourage marriage over promiscuity and counseling over divorce. We should take every opportunity to afford children the privilege of being born into the marriage relation, and where that’s not possible to be adopted into such (no, I’m not saying single parents should give up their children, though they shouldn’t be discouraged to do so). The government is the vehicle by which the people are governed. Whereas the people deem it in society’s interest to afford children the opportunity to develop under the guidance of bonded mother and father, encouraged to stay together, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, thus is born the state sanctioned institution of marriage.

“Is your Father also Jesse Stay?”

I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have heard those words when introducing myself. Whether I was registering for school, going to church, a Boy Scout, or even half-way around the world or in multiple states in the US, it seems there was always someone that knew my Grandpa, had some story to tell about how he influenced their lives, and what a great man he was. Despite the name, they, of course weren’t referring to me, but rather my name sake, my Grandfather, Colonel (President, Bishop, and Patriarch) Jesse Eldred Stay.

Talking about his life would take an entire book to publish (you can read in detail about him here - it really is worth reading!) - he was, quite simply, a great man, and I mean great in the very sincere and large/tall sense of the word. I remember one family telling me when they met me about how he helped bring them back to Church and changing their lives as they did so. I remember stories from other families of him helping them in times of need, fixing their cars, helping them with home repairs, and more. Everywhere I have gone in life, my Grandfather’s name was recognized and honored by many. There is a very good chance some of you, my readers, have had some brush with him over your own lives.

Grandpa was a War Hero. In World War II he was a B-24 bomber pilot in the 307th, 11th, and 42nd Bomb Groups for the United States Army Air Corps (there was no air force back then, but he soon became part of the Air Force after World War II). He flew many missions, risking his life, getting shot at and shooting back, so that you and I could maintain our freedom in this world. He was a true believer and maintainer of freedom.

At the highlight of his career (if you can really call World War II a “highlight” - I know he wouldn’t), he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses, one for flying over Wake Island (he also flew over earlier at only the second time Wake Island was bombed by the US) despite most of his squadron being shot down. He literally saved the world with his own bare hands. Of the 40+ missions he flew in World War II, with five airplanes flying at his wing going down, he was only hit once, with one small 7.7mm hole in the bottom of his plane on a raid on Wake Island. In a letter to my Grandmother during the War, he shares this story:

“I found out that this ship (his airplane) will stand up, with any luck at all, against any number of Zeros. I also found out a very fine thing about the men in this outfit. As we were leaving our target in the raid, we heard one fellow say over the radio that his ship had been crippled and that he had been forced to fall behind. Naturally that meant that all the Zeros in the sky would be on him; so we turned around to give him some help. As we turned, we saw a wonderful sight. Every ship in the flight had the same plan. They had turned as one ship and soon we had the crippled ship tucked among us where we could protect him with our converging fire. I don’t believe that I will ever forget that. Every plane, without command, had turned back into the fight to help this one fellow out of a tough spot.”

These words show the integrity of this man and devotion he had to those he was fighting with. He would have done this for any one of his fellow squadron members.

Also notable, of his War accomplishments, it was one of his suggestions that led to the first recorded parachute landing. From his words:

Finally my wing man, 1st lt. Charles Pratte, had to leave also and headed for Tarawa to re-fuel. He had over three hundred holes in his airplane but didn’t have one man wounded. On one pass the Japanese machine guns had stitched holes the length of his fuselage and had blown up the oxygen tanks which had knocked down the two waist gunners in time for the machine gun bullets to pass through the fuselage where they had been standing. I later found out that his hydraulic system was also shot out and he landed at the new strip at Tarawa with parachutes tied to the waist and tail guns and which the crew men deployed as they touched down to slow the airplane because they had no brakes. We had talked about this possibility before but the crew of the Belle of Texas received a commendation from General Hap Arnold, Chief of Staff of the Army Air Corps for making the first recorded parachute landing.

Since then, every time I see a Space Shuttle land, I think of him as having had a contributing factor in allowing man to fly and come back from Outer Space.

It was said of him in his Squadron History,

“The greatest loss to the squadron was that of the Commanding Officer, Captain Jesse E. Stay. Captain Stay was with the squadron for nearly two years, beginning in April 1943, and was C.O. longer than any other man in the squadron’s history. He took part in practically every mission flown by the squadron since its arrival in Guam, either actually or in their preparation. He received the D.F.C. from Admiral Nimitz for his leadership in the highly successful but disastrous Wake raid in July 1943.

“As flight leader, he flew against the Marshalls, Gilberts, and Nauru, from the Ellice Islands. In his capacity as commander he accepted the mining project, which others had turned down, and led the unit to a superb record in its execution.

“Capt. Stay was missed by the members of the squadron who remained behind to carry on.” (p.35)

In his entire career he received 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 8 Air Medals for his service in the War. He sacrificed his all so that he could win freedom for this Country and many others.

It wasn’t just Grandpa’s military service that made him honorable. While he went on and did many things in the military, including putting an end to the United States Air Force UFO investigation program (which, to this day he still says, and I’ve asked him frequently, that they found no evidence of such), being on 24 hour notice with engines on during the Cold War, and being the first Colonel over the BYU Air Force ROTC, his Church service and devotion to God were paramount to his life. Throughout his life, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as a Bishop, Stake President, Regional Representative (over the L.A. area), Mission President, member of the General Sunday School Presidency (with Elder Russell M. Nelson, now an LDS Church Apostle) for the LDS Church, a member of the Los Angeles LDS Temple Presidency, Sealer, and Patriarch. His devotion to God came first, and as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, never ever drank a sip of Alcohol, never drank a sip of Coffee or Tea, remained faithful to his wife and 7 children, and served faithfully in his Church assignments with no pay for his service. He was also a Scout Master, and during his service in the Boy Scouts received the Silver Beaver Award. He touched the lives of many during his life of Service.

It was in Hawaii, when my Grandpa was head of Public Affairs for the LDS Church College there (now BYU Hawaii), that Judge Whitaker, a long-time friend of my Grandfather’s, invited him during the shoot of “Johnny Lingo” to come and serve as his Assistant Director of Motion Picture Production at the BYU Motion Picture Studios. My Grandfather packed up his family and moved back to Utah, and under the direction of Ernest Wilkinson (also longtime friend) and LDS Church President and Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, produced and directed such shows as “The First Vision”, “Uncle Ben”, “The Gift”, “The Mail Box”, “John Baker’s Last Race”, and even the famous talk by Spencer W. Kimball asking members to “Lengthen [their] Stride” and “Go Ye into All the World” (Many LDS Church members may be familiar with these).

He recalled an experience with President Kimball which, to me shows the love and respect that even LDS Church leaders had of him:

“This morning I was called up to Salt Lake City to show the film “Where Jesus Walked” to President Kimball for his approval. The showing was to be in the fifth floor auditorium of the Church Administration Building. This is the room where the Council of the Twelve hold their regular meetings. I arrived early and had the film ready on the projector and was sitting alone in the room. President Kimball and Arthur Haycock, his secretary, arrived a few minutes before the scheduled time for the showing. President Kimball came over to me and took my hand in both of his. He looked up at me and smiled and told me how happy he was to see me. He then put both of his arms around me in a warm embrace and told me that he loved me. I was thrilled and touched and told him that I loved him and sustained him with all of my heart. This was no maudlin moment but the sincere expression of love between two bearers of the Priesthood. The Lord has surely preserved him for his holy calling as President of the Church and His Prophet on the earth. I am blessed to be associated with him. I know that I am nothing special to him above other men but he has the ability to make each person he meets feel that he loves him more than anyone else in the world. I felt this was a special moment worth recording.”

Through the Church movies he Directed and Produced, he also touched many lives, in and out of the LDS Church.

My Grandfather, Jesse Eldred Stay, died peacefully this morning at 7:13 am. I would not pay proper respect to him if I didn’t embrace this moment in celebration of his life, his accomplishments. At the same time I look forward to the future when he and I, and his family of 7 children, 50 Grandchildren, and numerous Great-Grandchildren, what he would consider to be his greatest life accomplishment, can be with him again. Grandpa was a Sealer in the Los Angeles temple of the LDS Church. As a sealer, he married and sealed me and my wife together like he did most of his children and grandchildren, for what we believe to be, time, but not just time - all eternity beyond this life. While I have my 3 month old son, Jesse Eldred Stay III, to continue this legacy in this life after me, my Grandfather’s greatest accomplishment is giving us hope, and knowledge that we, as a family, can be with him and each other again when we pass away, and always be able to cherish and respect the example that he gave to us here in this life. Seth Godin recently asked people to point out, celebrate, and respect the Superheroes in our lives. My Grandfather is my Superhero! He truly was a real-life Super-man. I have had the privilege to have known him longer than any other man, other than my Dad, in this life and it is my honor. It is with this respect, hope, and faith, that I honor, love, and thank him, for the life, both mortal and eternal, that he gave us.

Continuing in the vein of finishing up long started projects instead of jumping into new ones, I’ve cleaned up the website for the LDS Scriptures exports site.

The design itself hasn’t changed, I just reorganized everything, and it seems much simpler to navigate now.

I should hopefully have that new release ready real soon now.  The problem I run into is that I’m so particular about details, that it never gets done.  It is, of course, much more important to get it out there, even with all my human flaws, then to keep it all to myself, but I just can’t stand doing version bumps.  I like to have things done the first time.

Anyway, I’m glad this is finally cleaned up.  I like the layout much better.

Just another update on what I’ve been poking at lately.

I’ve mostly been cleaning up really small stuff, small bugfixes that have been annoying me for a while.

GPNL / Packages

For the packages website, I finally fixed it so that you can search by just package name again. It’s still messed up where it searches way too much stuff by default, but that’ll be fixed soon. It was originally searching by atom and description, so stuff like package$ would break.

I did, however, put the basic search I want to add to the packages website into GPNL: search by atom, package, category, description or all. I need to add changelog to that list. It’s not much, I know, but it’s a start on the long road to getting an advanced search going. I also cleaned up the front page a bit, and added a link to the nightly database dumps.

I also cleaned up the bash script to import the data. It actually has the beginnings of some error checking now, so you shouldn’t be seeing blank pages anymore. And the database is vacuumed correctly, and on a regularly basis, so things should be slightly snappier. I’m also importing the entire portage tree 3x daily now instead of twice. The import script is actually a nice cleanup for me, because if something breaks, I can run parts of it partially, instead of having to manually fix it. It’s much nicer.

My next big thing is getting RDEPEND searchable.  In the database, it’s combined with the DEPEND variable, so I have to separate the two out.  Once that’s done, we can finally dynamically query the tree to see where ebuilds need to be fixed for binary packages.

MPlayer / Transcode

Looking better, closed like eight bugs the other day for mplayer. Finally fixed some asinine bugs of mine for transcode, have one more to go.

Took out the masked libdvdnav because it will conflict and break libdvdread. I already wrote about how I put it in my overlay so if someone wants to use it, they can.

Sword ebuilds

I finally got pretty much all the main ones in the tree that I wanted to get in. There’s still two LDS ones that I have to make myself. Shouldn’t be too hard. I hope. In all, there are 150 sword ebuilds in the tree. Freak. That reminds me of something else I fixed on the packages website: it lists the number of results. That’s something else that’s been annoying me for a while.

I still need to remove the old sword-modules ebuild and add a new virtual-type one that will pull in all of the ones based on which language they are written in. Not hard to do, just slightly tedious. Should be done soon.

lds-scriptures 3.0

Believe it or not, I’m actually planning on getting this finished this week. The actual data has been finished for a very, very long time… it’s writing the documentation that I am extremely particular about because I plan on this being the final release.

That’s about it for now, that I can remember.

Note that I’m not going to provide any links to the mentioned content here - you can go research yourself. Unlike Wikileaks, I respect others’ copyright.

One thing you may notice on this blog is that while I rarely pipe in with religious thoughts and my own personal religious beliefs (although I used to quite often), I will not hesitate to step in when a Social Media-related religious event occurs. An interesting Groundswell is happening today between the Headquarters of my Faith, and the controversial anonymous sharing site, Wikileaks. However, I don’t think it’s occurring in the way people think it is.

This morning on Slashdot you may have seen an article about the Mormon Church (or “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints“, which is the Official name of the Church) sending a Cease and Desist to Wikileaks for posting links to a Copyrighted, yet old version (1999) of the Church’s “General Handbook of Instructions” for others to freely download.

I don’t understand why this is news. Having been in LDS Bishoprics before as a Clerk and Executive Secretary, I am very familiar with this manual. It is simply a guide for leaders of the Church to know how to council and guide members of the Church, and according to my understanding, NOT (fully) DOCTRINE. It is simply a Policy manual, and while Bishops and other Leaders of the church may follow its council, in the end they are left up to their own judgement (encouraged by the Church “to follow the promptings of the Spirit”) to decide how to handle matters in the Church. The Church considers the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Perl of Great Price to be the Official Doctrine of the Church.

The Mormon Church is simply requesting Wikileaks remove the content because it is their own IP, not Wikileaks, and they are removing it as they would any other Church-owned and copyrighted document. Wikileaks and other sites are also portraying the contents of the manual as though it is doctrine for the general membership of the Mormon church, when in reality it was only intended as a guide for Leaders in the first place. The Mormon church has to protect the dissemination of false information as well.

In Charlene Li’s and Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell, she starts out with an example that happened last year on Digg.com where a user shared a blog post about how the HD-DVD Encryption standard had been broken. AACS LA quickly sent a cease and desist to Digg.com and the Digg.com founders promptly removed the link. Before Digg knew it, their own users began to backlash against them, occupying the entire front page of Digg with copies of the HD DVD encryption algorithm. Digg had a Groundswell of its own between its own users and it knew it had to do something. What did they do? They listened to their users and put the link back up, stating they would go down fighting rather than ignore their users.

I think with the post on SlashDot this morning some people may be thinking (and some hoping) a similar Groundswell is going to occur with the Mormon Church. Those that think so will be pleasantly surprised - there’s a difference between a Groundswell of your own members and those outside of your membership talking about you. How do you handle a Groundswell of people outside of your customer-base/user-base/member-base? You get in the conversation!

I want to share with you a video from Elder Russell M. Ballard, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of 12 Apostles - religious or not, I’d like to encourage you to read this not just from a religious perspective, but also a business perspective and how you can disseminate correct information about your business:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is getting in the Groundswell through its own members. They encourage their members to blog, Twitter, get on Facebook, and clarify misconceptions. The Mormon Church will overcome this Groundswell (if you can even call it one) via its own membership, correcting misinformation Socially rather than through news releases and other means and letting the general media and blogosphere say what it believes. They have a Youtube channel here. They are on Twitter. They have a Facebook Page.

I encourage other churches and even businesses to take this response - there is a lot that can be applied from a religious, or even non-religious perspective from this. When you get your own followers of any business, brand, or religion to spread correct information about your brand it can overcome any misinformation spread about it.

Wikileaks is wrong in this case - they are sharing copyrighted information, not owned by themselves, and without the permission of the owner. The LDS Church isn’t going after them because the shared links are “secret”, but rather it is copyrighted material, and Wikileaks does not have permission to share it! As a book author and software developer I don’t want people using my content without my permission (which I’m generally pretty relaxed on in my personally owned content). Why would I want Wikileaks sharing the content I personally own on their site let alone others?

I got a poke yesterday on my original random book of mormon chapter post about creating some feeds so that people can pull them themselves. I’ve been meaning to do that for a long time, but always put it off because I’ve never written any dynamic RSS or Atom feeds before. I finally sat down and and figured it out this morning. It took me about an hour and a half to do, and I don’t think my XML is perfectly formed, but at least it works. I’ll clean it up when I have more time.

Here’s the new feeds right here. I have one for every volume of scriptures, from the Old Testament to the Pearl of Great Price, it’s all there. I think it’d be fun to add some for the Gospels and Psalms.

 http://scriptures.nephi.org/feeds.php

Right now the feed will update every time you check it, though I’ll probably come back later and change it to only update every 5 minutes or every hour or something.

To be honest, I’m not real proud of the quality of this thing right now, and I’d like to do it a lot better since I think it has some potential (like anonymous user preferences, or something), but the fact is I’ve been putting it off for way too long and I wanted to get something out the door. Aside from that, it helps me to read the scriptures more often by adding a bit of novelty to the mix.

Some other things I want to do for the feed is to have a link to the MP3 that is offered by the LDS Church on their scriptures website. Each entry feed will already link directly to the chapter page, but the naming scheme for the MP3s is slightly different, so I’ll have to do a bit of poking around before I can throw that together.

Another idea I’ve been toying with for a long time has been a simple “chapter a day” RSS feed, but with a few options for users. For instance, it’d be trivial to add features like number of chapters or verses per day, the update interval, and where to start reading.

Anyway, there’s a lot of really cool potential things to do, and I’m open to suggestions if anyone has ideas. With the database nicely normalized (and still lacking a formal release, sheesh I’m behind) it makes getting the data really simple and easy to work with.

First, let me start by apologizing for the silence.  I kind of went dark over the weekend for an all-weekend binge to finish a project developing a Facebook app for a very large client.  I’m actually quite pleased with what we were able to accomplish in just a matter of 2 days! (and no sleep, I might add)  When their application goes public I’ll talk more about it - I really like what we did!

Now, back to the topic.  Recently, my Aunt sent out an e-mail to my extended family’s e-mail list on yahoogroups asking about how she could use Twitter in the event of a disaster, or to prepare for disasters.  My Aunt and Uncle are currently in charge of the Welfare program for the entire country of Chile, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

First, I was taken back that my 60+-year old Aunt even knew what Twitter was, but secondly it got me thinking.  Chile has had some of the largest earthquakes in the recorded history of this earth.  It is not quite at the level of the United States in terms of mass-communication methods such as computers and the internet.  I’m sure there are many areas that do not even have internet.

Because of the inability to get high-speed internet access (or even phone lines, in general) out to remote areas, the majority of people in third-world countries communicate via cell phone.  It is simply easier to give someone in the middle of Chile, or Brazil, or Nigeria, or Burma, a cell phone than to run phone lines and broadband lines around to every remote village in the country.  Not only that, but it’s more expensive to do so!

Therefore, I can very much see a strong benefit for these countries to utilize services such as Twitter, that have a strong Mobile, SMS platform, to communicate in the event of an emergency.  I mentioned my Aunt’s desire on Twitter, and got this response from @theotherdrummer via e-mail (Please forgive the LDS terminology.  For the non-LDS, a “Ward” is a local congregation.  A “Stake” is a group of those local congregations.  A Bishop is the leader of a Ward.  In LDS culture, LDS refer to each other as “Brother”, and “Sister”, hence the reference…):

 My first thought was that it can be used to notify families/stakes/wards of the status of individuals, to serve as a central hub. For example, set up a Twitter account specifically for the Chile 1st Ward. Should something happen, members of the Ward begin texting their status and location to Twitter: “Brother Martinez, at home, OK.”

The Bishop can use this as a starting point to check on people, and can also be used as a source of info for relatives and friends who might be out of the affected area worrying about their loved ones.

The Stake would also have an account to which the Bishops can pass information to.

I thought this was an excellent example of a way to bring people together in the event of an emergency.  Of course, I’ve been in Hurricanes before.  Having grown up in Houston, TX, and lived in Richmond, VA, I know that when emergencies happen, communication lines generally go down.  In cases like that there are better communication methods such as Ham Radio to consider (I’m KC5PZP in case you were wondering…).  There are still often cases where that isn’t the case, and even those that are able to get through can communicate with the world the status of their situation, and where they are.

Twitter as an Emergency Tracking Tool

After this, as an experiment, I started tracking “earthquake”.  There was recently a 6.0 earthquake near us, out in Wells, NV.  I even felt it in my bed early in the morning, way out in Salt Lake City, UT!  This inspired me to follow the term and see where else in the world people were experiencing earthquakes.

Once I started tracking “earthquake” on Twitter I began to realize this was not at all a rare occurance!  Soon I was seeing big and small earthquakes all around the world, from California, to aftershocks around Wells, NV, to Sumatra and Jakarta, Indonesia.  What was fascinating is that I wasn’t only being notified of the earthquakes, but I was also seeing others’ reactions to the events!  I can only imagine what I’d see if I tracked, “tornado”, or “fire”, or “storm”.  It would take just a simple, “help” from someone for me to get into action and communicate via Twitter to find someone to help them.

Now, imagine a tracker that tracked all these terms, and put them on a map, such as the USGS’s earthquake tracker, and added Twitters to the Earthquake Geological alerts.  Add in Hurricane trackers, weather data, and more, and you’d have quite a useful tool that could be utilized by FEMA for tracking where help is needed on an on-demand basis.  FEMA could actually become the first responders with such a tool!

While communication is often disrupted in such events, Twitter can still serve as a useful resource among those that do still have communication.  What suggestions do you have for emergency management and preparedness using Twitter and similar such services?  Any and all comments I will forward to my Aunt for use in Chile.

It used to be, one could make a deal on just a handshake.  People could leave their doors unlocked on their homes and their cars without worry of break in.  A man’s word was his bond.  Everyone knew everyone, by name.

This wasn’t the world I grew up in, but I’m told by my Grandparents, and I’ve seen stories of ancestors where this was, at one time, the way things were done in the world.  We just trusted each other back then.

You see, back then, communities were much smaller.  In the days when trust was in its prime, everyone did know each other by name, because they could know each other by name.  Communities were much smaller back then and accommodated this lifestyle much easier.  Crime was much harder to commit because everyone in the town knew you, and you knew them.  Think, the Scarlet Letter - the worst punishment of that time was shame.  There was no anonymity.  There was no privacy.

Sound familiar?  We are quickly overcoming the bonds of large society which put us in this untrustworthy time to live.  The internet came at a time when society wasn’t ready to be exposed.  People enjoyed their anonymity and their sheltered lives.  They were used to contracts, and handshakes never meant what they used to.  Society fought the internet, and it appears, finally, the internet is fighting back.

Social Media is bringing back an era which we thought we would never see again.  People are being held responsible for their actions online, and again, communities are getting much smaller.   Now, circles of friends can virtually know everything about each other, know each other by name, and start to trust each other again.

I argue, the lack of privacy in Social Media is a good thing.  When you know who your friends are, you can build trust with them again.  Contracts are no longer necessary, and back is the handshake and word as a bond.  Small Community has been re-architected through a virtual means which no one saw coming.

Now, imagine the cell phone, when virtual lives become melded with real life.  Virtual “small communities” become real, and back again is the small town, weaved into the fabric of a very large Society.  Social Media is bringing back the days when man could actually trust one another!

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With Mitt Romney now out of the 2008 presidential race, I’m reminded of a documentary I saw recently called “Article VI - Faith, Politics, America“.

Article IV, of course, is the article of the US Constitution that states (among other things) that

“…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Of course, Mitt’s failure to win over the Republic party was not the result of a Religious Test administered by the government. I would say, however, that an informal religious test was undeniably administered by the media and the people. Contrast these covers from Time Magazine, for example:

The headline stories for Romney:

“Sure, He Looks Like a President. But What Does Romney Really Believe? Plus: The Debate about His Mormon Faith”

The headline about John McCain:

“The Phoenix - Can John McCain Keep Rising?”

Can anyone seriously look at these two covers and say that Mitt is getting treated even-handedly? But TIME probably doesn’t consider fairness as important as magazine sales; and as far as sales go, controversy is a good thing, as long as reflects public opinion as a whole.

Consider TIME’s article entitled “Can a Mormon be President?” The objective answer to such a lame question is painfully obvious, since Article VI guarantees it. But the real answer is “probably not”, at least not while TIME and others are willing to influence millions by casting doubt upon it. But TIME’s eagerness to ask questions that might be considered bigoted only reflect current attitudes of America as a whole, for they would never ask “Can a Woman be President?”, nor “Can a Black Person be President?”, nor “Can a Jew be President?” Heads would roll if such questions were asked these days, but it’s not yet unfashionable to be bigoted toward Mormonism.

So where is the public outrage? It certainly isn’t manifested in the “objective” mainstream media. Nor is really even manifested among Mormons, who are by now well accustomed to if not apathetic toward anti-Mormon sentiment. If Mormons demanded an apology, they might get one. Alas, they do not.

Sure, there are grumbling here or there, but who among Mormons has boycotted TIME? Mormons who boycott TIME for their bigotry and hypocrisy might well have to boycott everybody, including themselves; for what percentage of Mormons could honestly apply the same standard of religious tolerance to a presidential candidate who happened to be Jehova’s Witness, regardless of the issues? I would venture that there are numerous “conservative” Mormons who would vote for a liberal John McCain over a JW runner up, no matter how conservative the JW was politically –just as there are undoubtedly numerous Mormons who voted for a Mormon Mitt Romney without really considering (or even knowing) his platform (let alone how his platform compared to the platforms of other candidates).

This illustrates a point that I would like to draw out. It has been said, and repeated in two opinions that I deeply respect that “Anti-Mormonism is the last respectable bigotry in the United States”. Although the rest of their arguments resonate very well, this one does not. People have a long and storied history of being suspicious of the religious beliefs of those who belong to other faiths; we’d be very lucky if Mormanism were the last frontier in religious tolerance. The situation today is exactly as John F. Kennedy said in his phenomenal “religion” speech to the Houston Ministers when there were qualms about his Catholicism:

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril.

I think we may well be in “great national peril” right now, at least economically. Could there be a worse time to have no widely-popular fiscal conservative on the ticket, and this at least partially due to right-wing religious pettiness? But there are many denominations of potential good candidates that might have gotten shafted –it just happened to be a Mormon this time.

Do I think an informal religious test is wrong? Well, not necessarily, but usually. Although informal religious tests are certainly not illegal, they’re almost always stupid. I don’t really take offense to individuals applying them on a personal level (in fact I would defend a citizen’s right to personal bigotry with my life, just as I would defend their right to religion with my life); I do, however, dislike the consequences. Nor is an informal religious test unique in my disapproval: I dislike any differentiation on candidates based on anything but their records and the issues. Bill Clinton’s saxophone skills, for example, may have made him slightly more electable, but it didn’t make him any better of a president.

Back to the documentary: Article VI - Faith, Politics, America is a fantastic treatise on religious tolerance in America. It tends to focus on the Mormon thing a bit too much for me, but this is no surprise since the director (whose family I should disclose I know) is Mormon –and the production was obviously inspired by Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Still, there are small parts of the film that non-Mormons might not understand. And Mormonism being a focus, I would probably have liked it more if it had been created after Mitt’s 2008 candidacy had already been played out, even though that would have circumvented the implicit object of getting people to see it before the primaries. I maintain that Mitt Romney’s own religion speech and Mike Huckabee’s “unintentional” anti-Mormon jabs would have made some excellent points, but they obviously couldn’t be included since they hadn’t happened yet.

The film also seems to go just a tiny bit overboard (for me), implying that we should seek out friendship with even our most ardent enemies. I believe it’s quite possible to be friends with people of any denomination, but I’m not keen to seek out individuals who are particularly belligerent against me. The film does do a good job, however, of promoting the Christian ethic to “love your enemies”, and its correct accentuation of the fact that religious intolerance is an antithesis of this axiom is (sadly) needed.

The film also does a fantastic job portraying a brief history of (recent) religious tolerance and intolerance in general. It portrays interesting political events like JFK religion speech and the protests of a Hindu prayer on the floor of congress wonderfully, and it contains a host of insightful interviews.

Particularly moving is a motif toward the end that address this theme, also from JFKs speech:

This is the kind of America I believe in — and this is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we might have a divided loyalty, that we did not believe in liberty, or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened — I quote — “the freedoms for which our forefathers died.”

And in fact this is the kind of America for which our forefathers did die when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches — when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom — and when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo. For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died Fuentes, and McCafferty, and Bailey, and Badillo, and Carey — but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not. For there was no religious test there.

The way the film shows this principle by splicing footage of American war heroes in combat with a myriad of religious symbols depicted on the graves of our fallen soldiers is truly wonderful. Basically, anyone fit to fight (and perhaps die) alongside you would probably make a suitable leader, regardless of denomination.

Anyway, I recommend seeing the film. It’s available at the website, as well as Desert Book and a number of other places. I also have around 4 or so copies I could give away to any blogger who’ll consider doing a short review (unlike this lengthly monstrosity). Let me know if you’re interested.

It used to be, one could make a deal on just a handshake.  People could leave their doors unlocked on their homes and their cars without worry of break in.  A man’s word was his bond.  Everyone knew everyone, by name.

This wasn’t the world I grew up in, but I’m told by my Grandparents, and I’ve seen stories of ancestors where this was, at one time, the way things were done in the world.  We just trusted each other back then.

You see, back then, communities were much smaller.  In the days when trust was in its prime, everyone did know each other by name, because they could know each other by name.  Communities were much smaller back then and accommodated this lifestyle much easier.  Crime was much harder to commit because everyone in the town knew you, and you knew them.  Think, the Scarlet Letter - the worst punishment of that time was shame.  There was no anonymity.  There was no privacy.

Sound familiar?  We are quickly overcoming the bonds of large society which put us in this untrustworthy time to live.  The internet came at a time when society wasn’t ready to be exposed.  People enjoyed their anonymity and their sheltered lives.  They were used to contracts, and handshakes never meant what they used to.  Society fought the internet, and it appears, finally, the internet is fighting back.

Social Media is bringing back an era which we thought we would never see again.  People are being held responsible for their actions online, and again, communities are getting much smaller.   Now, circles of friends can virtually know everything about each other, know each other by name, and start to trust each other again.

I argue, the lack of privacy in Social Media is a good thing.  When you know who your friends are, you can build trust with them again.  Contracts are no longer necessary, and back is the handshake and word as a bond.  Small Community has been re-architected through a virtual means which no one saw coming.

Now, imagine the cell phone, when virtual lives become melded with real life.  Virtual “small communities” become real, and back again is the small town, weaved into the fabric of a very large Society.  Social Media is bringing back the days when man could actually trust one another!

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I mentioned previously about the death of the Mormon President, Gordon B. Hinckley.  What I found fascinating was the response on sites like Twitter and Facebook to his death.  Gordon B. Hinckley is the President of the LDS church that truly brought the church into the 21st century.  Yesterday was his funeral, and as a token, I thought I would post this image, showing the true devotion, through avenues like Facebook, those in and out of Mormon communities have for this man (note only one non-GBH feed item at this point in time).  I think this shows as a tribute to where Gordon B. Hinckley has brought the LDS church in this century:

On a related note, you can follow live here to find out who the next President/Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will be, tomorrow at 11am.

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Tonight at 7:00 pm Gordon B. Hinckley, President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away in the company of loved ones. President Hinckley was 97 at his passing. I’ve been alive through the death of a few LDS prophets, but never has the death of one President hit the world with such force as this one. I heard of the news first through Twitter, then through the Phone, then the TV, and soon the Internet was ablaze with tributes to President Hinckley. This has been so amazing to watch! I’ve seen at least 5 Facebook Groups created, and even created an Event of my own in memorial of his death. On Twitter, I’ve tracked the term, “Hinckley”, and was already tracking the term, “Mormon”. My cell phone has been going nuts all night! The Twitter and Facebook responses themselves have been tribute enough. President Hinckley truly led a worldwide church, and spoke to a worldwide audience, something very different from previous Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. President Hinkley - we will truly miss you!

An official statement of his passing can be found at:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

UPDATE: btw, this article is at 130 Diggs, and still hasn’t made the front page of Digg!  Is this due to the algorithm change?

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I’ve been straying away from mentioning religion on my blog for awhile. Partly because I deal with so many religions on a daily basis through my Catholic Facebook Application, Baptist Facebook Application, and recently sold LDS Application. I love religion, and have grown to respect all religions as I strive to make this business model flourish. Each religion has its own identity and culture, and everyone within that religion appreciates that religion as part of their lives. A Religion one belongs to is a part of that individual, something they can’t easily part from, and will stay with them to the end, whether they remain a part of it or not. There are true, sincere human beings within these religions!

CrunchGear, TechCrunch, and the Mike Arrington crew crossed the line yesterday in a bigoted article that defies and offends many of the culture Mormons and I would say even other religions and cultures hold dear. The article can be found here.

I don’t care what religion or culture you belong to (See phil801’s post where he compares their comments to “the gay person that’s interviewing after you”). I don’t care if you belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for all I care. You were brought up in that religion or culture, you accepted that culture as part of your life. You love the religion or culture you are in and it is personal to you.

Now, imagine if instead of “magic underwear”, Devin and the crew at Crunch Gear were making fun of the “magic crucifix” that Catholics wear, or the “magic prayers” Evangelicals give to each other, or the “magic Turbans” Siekh’s wear, or the “magic yarmulke” that Jewish men wear, or the “magic Burqa” Islamic women wear. These are all very respectable symbols to their religion, part of their identity and culture that CrunchGear is making fun of by posting this interview. This interview is a symbol towards bigotry in America and we shouldn’t stand for it.

Michael Arrington and CrunchGear, I suggest an apology to the Mormons, and removal of the anti-Mormon comments on your blog. I don’t care if Penn Jillette or you guys started it. The fact is you have chosen to post an interview that is blatently bigoted towards a single faith on your site which has nothing to do with religion! As a religious person, or human being in general, I will be unsubscribing from CrunchGear, TechCrunch, abstaining from voting for the Crunchies altogether, and disassociating myself with any of the TechCrunch network. I hope my readers will as well until this is resolved.

(2008-1-11) UPDATE: Please join the Facebook Group, “Boycott TechCrunch!” here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7719689369

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm not sure I've ever felt so obligated to feel thankful for everything in my life as I do this year. What better way to express this than by posting a long-ass entry in my blog, right?

(Or, as our friends over at xkcd would say: "a long ass-entry".)

So, I've been creating a list in my head of things I'm thankful for, in no particular order.

I'm thankful to Robb Kunz at KnowledgeBlue for believing in the value Iodynamics could bring to his company and absorbing us so we can work together toward a common goal. It hasn't been the easiest thing for me to do, having been "my own boss" pretty much since 2003, but it has been a tremendous learning experience and II've tried very hard to keep looking at it as such.

I'm thankful to Thom, Adam, and Mike -- my colleagues and friends that shared the experience of running Iodynamics with me. They work alongside me now at KnowledgeBlue and I value their friendship, talents, and zeal. I'm also thankful to Stephen for working with us at Iodynamics. I'm glad we were able to teach him a lot of neat stuff and become great friends before he went off to teach for Guru Labs.

Dave and Chadd were instrumental along the way in making Iodynamics what it became, so I am very thankful for their contributions and for their friendship, which continues to this day despite the fact we no longer work together or see each other very often.

Where would I be today without Linus Torvalds and the open source community? I can't imagine where I would be. While I was a Unix person for a few years before Linux hit the scene, I didn't turn my back on the world of living under Bill Gates' thumb until Red Hat Linux was released. It's been about ten years now that I've been running Linux as my primary desktop operating system and twelve years I've been running it on servers as part of my jobs. While I would undoubtably still be doing something with computers had Linux not existed, I woudln't have been able to do the very cool things I've done and it woudln't have been as fun or as productive. Linux and open source software just rocks!

Before we leave the topic of Linux and the open source community, I want to shout out to some local folks that I'm very grateful for. Clint, for following through with the creation of the Utah Open Source Conference and the Utah Open Source Foundation and realizing a vision of a regional community of open source enthusiasts and supporters. Jayce, for his constant friendship and leadership.

I also can't go onto the next topic without expressing my thanks for the IRC community from the #utah channel on Freenode.net. The comradery and friendship I've enjoyed from #utah has been a great joy to me over the years. This has got to be perhaps one of the most fun, considerate, and polite groups of geeks I've had the opportunity to hang out with online in all my years on the Net.

I am very grateful to my church -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- and my local church leaders. I have been very standoffish in my participation in my religion for most of my life until this last year. While I'm still not a social butterfly as far as that is concerned, I have come to gain a much-needed new appreciation for the value of service to my fellow man during this last year. This began in April when I spent the entire day volunteering on Temple Square in Salt Lake City during the Spring session of General Conference. I was helping to direct vehicle and pedestrian traffic and over the course of the day, I saw thousands of fellow church members going to and from conference meetings and strolling about on the grounds of Temple Square. I came away from this experience with one very distinct impression: We are a beautiful people! I'm not just saying that because I saw a lot of pretty women (I did), but because just about everyone I saw was glowing, not just with happiness, but with a wonderful purpose. It was a subtle reminder that we're all in this life together and I can't think of a better group of people to be traveling through this life with.

I am thankful, of course, to my parents and my siblings. As I have grown older, I have realized two things: They are far from perfect; They are wonderful, good people. My mom and dad have been wonderful role models of service. Both of them are a lot more comfortable dealing with people than I am and it encourages me to get out of my shell. Many reading this may not know that my dad was a Utah state senator for twelve years when I was growing up. During that time, he worked hard to support the passage of bills that promoted conservative policies that were pro-Free Enterprise and personal responsibility. When I think back of some of the stupid ideas I had when I was younger and how tolerant my dad was of my misguided beliefs, it only increases my respect for him.

A couple years ago, I enjoyed listening to Jerry Doyle on the radio. He's a pretty cool guy, used to work as a Hollywood actor and now broadcasts his syndicated conservative talk radio program out of Las Vegas. His affiliate in Salt Lake removed his show and I was ticked off. I think they replaced him with Michael Savage who is angry, bitter, crotchety and not very satifying to listen to unless you are also angry, bitter, and crotchety. I wrote to the radio station to complain and, of course, got absolutely no response back. A few weeks later, my brother-in-law, Adam, asked me what I thought of this new guy they put in the afternoon spot Jerry Doyle used to occupy. I hadn't heard him, but I was happy they got rid of Michael Savage. Adam told me this guy was really funny, did a good show, and his name was Glenn Beck.

I gave Glenn a listen and was hooked immediately. In early 2006, I let my Rush Limbaugh 24/7 subscription expire and became a Glenn Beck Insider and a regular listener. It was also in 2006 that Glenn started up his TV show on CNN's Headline News and I was there from Day 1... even though the first episode really sucked. There were only about five of us that "got it."

Glenn's political philosophy mirrors mine almost perfectly and his re-embracing of religion in middle age is entirely relateable to me. His honesty, humility and sarcasm are refreshing. If I ever meet him in person, I'll probably bawl my head off.

In April of this year, right after radio personality Don Imus was fired for making a racial slur on the air, Glenn complained about the political correctness of the move without apologizing for Don Imus's comments. There was some talk of other prominent radio personalities like Glenn being taken off the air because their comments could be offensive to some people. Glenn took an extended vacation beginning April 16 but before he left, he appealed to his audience for more voices, not less. As he signed off he said, "You have your voice and others will start losing their voice if you don't start using yours."

I remember these words had a profound effect on me. I don't have a radio program, but I do have a couple ways of sharing thoughts with other people. One is this blog. Another is video. I decided I would work on creating my own brand of education and opinion through my blog and through my own video productions online. Thus, Solitary World was born. I haven't done much with it yet; Still trying to feel it out and find the best approach. I don't even know if it will be political, but it may be. We'll see.

I am very thankful to Glenn Beck... for everything he is and everything he does. Thanks, man.

Finally, there's my wife and kids. Sure, Glenn Beck is a nice guy and all, but if there was one person in this world who is singlehandedly responsible for me becoming a better person over the last decade or so, it's my wife. Her support (and tolerance) of me seems to have no boundaries. I don't know where I would be without her. I know it wouldn't be quite as nice as it is here.

My kids are wonderful and I can't be thankful enough for what the experience of being their earthly father has brought into my life. They are the most precious part of my life and I thorougly enjoy teaching them, guiding them, and helping them grow up.

If you've made it this far without falling asleep or bashing your computer into pieces, then have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve been twittering for awhile now about a “big announcement”. I’m proud to say this is that big announcement! In my first successful exit from a Social application, a private, LDS Non-Profit has acquired the Facebook LDS App from my Social Apps incubator, Snaplicate. This is one of the first few apps to be sold on Facebook, so this is big news! Today we signed the final document and the news is official! I’m very excited for this, as it will mean immediate help for the LDS App and strong progress in its development. Managing this on my own has been difficult. I have high regard for the organization taking over, and I know they will do very good things for it. I’ll announce the name of the organization and more details as we finalize the press release (hopefully tomorrow!) and agree on what details will be released.

If you are a user of the LDS App, you have nothing to worry about. While I have no final control over what happens, the organization that has acquired the app is non-profit, which means it should continue to be free, without advertising or subscription charges. They have made it known to me that they have intentions to keep it this way, and hearing of their plans of where to take it in the future, it fits in well with where I was going to take it. If they let me, I will continue to volunteer my time in development on the app as well.

What will I do next? I have retained rights to the code, which is currently being used on the Catholic App, and will continue to expand to other religions as I enhance the code base. Feel free to tell your Catholic friends about the Catholic App! I am also focusing on some other big projects which you will hear of very soon.

In the next day or two we should have a press release finalized and more details should be released. Stay tuned!…

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I know a lot of you bloggers out there are pro-school vouchers. If not, blog about it and link to me! Utah is about to have one of the most heated votes in the history of the state, as it gets ready to allow residents to vote for or against School Vouchers. “Referendum 1″ it is called, and if you vote for it, you are for school vouchers.

What are school vouchers? Of course the details haven’t fully been worked out yet, but ideally school vouchers allow those sending their children to Private Schools and paying for school out of their own pocket to collect a “voucher”. Ideally, if you to receive a $3000 voucher that voucher would allow the possibility of paying as little as $100/month to send your child to Private school. Suddenly, a lot more people will be able to afford private school, encouraging more private schools to form to take advantage of this, encouraging competition among private schools and public schools alike. Classrooms will be smaller, and as such, education will be better and more focused for the children we care for.

Why are people against school vouchers? A lot of teachers, due to the smaller class sizes in the public schools, will be forced out of their jobs if they aren’t doing a good job. Because of this, the Teacher’s Unions are stepping up to protect those teachers that maybe aren’t cutting it, and are on the chopping block, were school vouchers to be handed out. Teachers would be forced to actually work and compete for their skills - only the best teachers would be able to stay. This sounds great for our kids, doesn’t it? It doesn’t sound so great for the teachers that are at risk, which is why the Teachers Unions are spending so much money to fight against it and tell us it’s “bad for Utah families”.

As bloggers, geeks, and people who understand the digital world, we have a responsibility here. If you are for or against vouchers, you need to speak up. You need to spread the word online and get it out in full force! Only we have such a capability to spread the truth to such a massive audience. We are the social web and we have a responsibility to start the chains to get the word out!

So I’m publishing a few links for you pro-voucher bloggers out there. This affects even those outside Utah. If vouchers succeed, other states in the Union will be looking towards Utah to see how successful they are here. If you are outside Utah, donate to this cause! Here are some links you should share with your friends and sign up for yourselves:

http://www.votefor1.com/ - the official “pro-vouchers” site

http://www.choiceineducation.org/ - Parents for Choice in Education, the supporters of VoteFor1

http://www.utahtaxpayers.org/

http://www.childrenfirstutah.org/

http://www.citizensfortaxfairness.org/x_home.asp

And of course, my Facebook “Causes” cause (join and spread to your Facebook Friends!): http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/23050?recruiter_id=6882383

So, if you’re a blogger, blog about this! If you’re on Twitter, Twitter your feelings - twitter this blog entry! Jaiku - Jaiku it! Add the Causes app above and send it to all your friends. This affects everyone, and everyone will be affected eventually. We have a responsibility as Social experts and users to utilize these great tools to pass on the word!

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It’s been a long time on my plate, and I’ve finally gotten around to it again, in my recent desire to finish up projects I’ve started a long time ago. This time, the LDS Scriptures exports are almost complete. I’m already done with the database exports, and I’m posting them online so I can hopefully get some feedback if there are any errors. The packaging isn’t complete, as I’ve only got Sqlite 2, 3, MySQL and PostgreSQL done. Once I know the schema is good to go, I’ll get to all the other formats (Access, CSV, XML, etc.).

The big change in this release is that