BrianAndPamela.com

So I’ve been using Windows XP since forever (or since it first came out, which in computer time is roughly the same) and I’ve recently done a few things to soup it up some. (more…)

Just got back from seeing Transformers.

Short answer:  I really liked it. Read on for the full review.

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Link to Apple - Thoughts on Music

I made a bold statement back in October that the only people that are inconvenienced are legitimate customers.  That people who are serious about stealing music are going to do it anyway.  I'm not by any means the only one saying it.  Bloggers have been saying it.  DefectiveByDesign has been saying it.  The EFF says it. Bill Gates said it.

Now one of the biggest names in Digital Music is saying the same .  Arguably THE biggest name in digital media distribution, Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. released what amounts to a blog post today in which he says exactly that. (more…)

Link to Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : New Fonts For Documents

Aldous Huxley wrote:

A type of revolutionary novelty may be extremely beautiful in itself; but, for the creatures of habit that we are, its very novelty tends to make it illegible, at any rate to begin with.
Typography for the Twentieth-Century Reader
Aldous Huxley

So we will see, at any rate.  The new versions of Microsoft Office now ship with new default fonts and type faces.  Added to the ubiquitous Arial, Verdana, Courier (New) and the loathsome Times New Roman are the new defaults of Calibri, Cambria, Consolas, Candara, Constantia and Corbel. (more…)

Link to Many Eyes : Co-Occurrences of Names in the New Testament

Some of you know, I have a soft spot for data visualization.  I love interesting ways that people come up with to show data connections.  I've mentioned this love before, and have been meaning to talk about digg swarm and digg stack for a while now.  But this latest find is even cooler… all the people of the New Testament, organized into social networks.  Guess who has the most "friends"? (more…)

Link to Awaken the Dawn : Awaken the dawn podcast #1 now live

It's been a long dry spell and I don't know if it will go on after the conference, but I'm back on the virtual air. 

I've been doing a lot of work with Grace Church of Fredericksburg audio post production lately, and we're all getting ready for the Awaken the Dawn conference which is being held at Grace in February.  Saturday night, I posted the first episode of the Awaken the Dawn podcast.  I could spend a really long blog post explaining what is Awaken the Dawn, but it's better to just point you at the website (which we're working on) and the first podcast episode.  My co-host (Missy) and I interview Steve Dornbush and find out about what ATD is all about.  Give it a listen.  You can download it, or listen online, RSS feed is coming soon.

The more observant of you will have noticed a new tab in the site menu of late.  the Caffeinated at BrianAndPamela is the latest addition to the site.  At the most basic level, it's web forums for y'all to interact with us and with one another.  What else can it be?  Well, it could be a brooch or a hat or a pterodactyl… sorry, I was channeling Airplane.  It can be what ever your little heart desires.  Just a place to chit chat, ask us questions, and contribute your two cents.  You will need to register to post… sorry about that, but as an incentive there are special members only topic areas available!  (There are also private areas for friends and family, so if you register with a weird screen name that I won't recognize, make sure you tell us who you are.) 

Yes.  Next question? 

Ok, seriously.  This question comes from a first time reader to the blog.  Culture, language, just about everything changes.  Do table manners?  Is it still rude to have your elbows on the table?  It is, but not for the reason you might think… and, there are exceptions.  Pass the barbeque sauce, it's time for dinner!  

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The Unethical but (Mostly) Legal Retail Shopping Tactics of Devil Consumers - SixWise.com

Learn before you return - Charlotte Observer

There's a fine line between protecting your bottom line and punishing your customers.  Best Buy, Target and other retailers are pursuing ways to stop you from being a "Devil Shopper" that costs them money. 

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Everyone has some topic in their life where they can carry on both sides of the conversation.  It's that thing where someone finds out something about you and then the next five minutes of conversation follows pretty much the same path every single time.

For me, that conversation usually happens when people find out that Pamela homeschools our kids.  At some point, the same question always comes up.  Oh they phrase it differently sometimes, "How do you account for socialization?" or "Are you concerned about what they are missing?" or other less direct phrases.  What they are really asking is, "Aren't you concerned your kids are going to turn out to be socially inept freaks who have no clue about the real world?"  At which point I feel like shouting, "Have you seen public schools these days?  Aren't you worried that the kids there are going to turn into materialistic under-educated peer mentality zombies?"  But most of the time I just smile and say, "Not at all." 

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