TheIdeaMan

Force an IP address change in Ubuntu

I use Ubuntu on my laptop at BigBlueHat almost exclusively (save for some Photoshopping). I ran into a problem last week with having the same IP address as our wireless printer. After some man page research, I can up with this solution:

sudo ifconfig eth1 address 192.168.1.7

For me, that changes my wireless card (eth1) to use 192.168.1.7 IP address. The really happy part was that there was no rebooting required, and the changes was quick and painless though a bit geeky.

Market Square Deli

Anyone know what happened to Market Square? It's been closed for a few weeks now with the message "thanks for 3 years" on their sign. Any information would be appreciated.

Hancock: half-cocked

Caution: product may contain spoilers.

If you've seen the trailers for Hancock, you may have gotten the impression that it's primarily a comedy about a drunk superhero. They're not entirely misleading. The first 30 odd minutes are hip-hop backed episodes of drunk "heroics" by the reluctant, anger motivated "superhero" Hancock. It's a humorous, relatively fast paced, expletive-filled ride to the plot line and key characters.

Christians in the Arts

My wife and I have been discussing this topic for several years. We're recently back to it en force as we try to map out what's next for our family. I hope to be posting more on this topic soon, but for now, here's a link dump of some recent sites I've found:

• Transforming Culture: A Vision for the Church and the Arts - this was a symposium held on the 1st-3rd of this month in Austin Texas. They'll be making audio downloads available for purchase soon. The general information they provide is interesting and encouraging.
• Space for God blog's write up on the Transforming Culture symposium
  
• the author of Diary of an Arts Pastor was one of the speakers at the Transforming Culture symposium
  
• Imago Dei Community - a Portland, OR based church with a focus on the arts both in worship, as ministry, and as a vehicle for the communication of Truth.
• International Arts Movement - Makoto Fujimura who came to Christ because of a search for Truth in art has begun this group to promote similar exploration by other artists.
• Art for God's Sake by Philip Graham Ryken - a short but effective introduction to Christian art and the need for involvement. The introduction features information on Makoto Fujimura's work.

• Silver Chair Books - a local book store in Greer, SC is hosting a Christian in the Arts discussion group in the next few weeks.
• Another group is going to be hosting an presentation on the Transforming Culture symposium this Friday night at Snapshot Café and Art Bar. Details provided by the organizer are below:
• Where: Snapshot Café and Art Bar
  110 Poinsett Hwy at Rutherford Rd.
  Greenville, SC
• When: Friday, May 2, 6-7 PM
• Who: Any Christian in the visual arts. Bring a friend!
• RSVP: stgeorgeapa [at] bellsouth [dot] net

Learning by doing...

This quote comes from the development/programming side of my life, but it likely has farther reaching application:

"when you learn something new by using it, the application you build
will contain all the mistakes produced by learning, and you don’t
always get a chance to return and fix those mistakes."

from REST and Resource Oriented Architecture

Missional Meme

Brannon recently posted a short write up about the "What Makes a Church Missional" article in ChristianityToday. Missional is a word I've used for things I want in the Church and to see more actively expressed in local Church assemblies.

The article explains a little about at least one of the origins of the word, and as we should expect, it's original definition was more accurate and even more appealing than the definition of the word today.

So, to pick up the Missional Meme, read the article, and then post below or trackback this post about the word "missional," how you see it being implemented, and how you'd like to see it implemented.

Status messages and game ending music

Recently I posted a strange status message on Facebook. For the curios, the line (roughly) comes from the music at the end of a video game (which I've actually never played) called Portal. The lyrics are sung by the computer that guides you through the game. It's a quirky, funny, weird set of lyrics. The seriousness of the computer's tone adds to the humor.

Anyway, it's a long-day-programming kind of song. :) We'd listened to it that morning and I felt it fit what I was doing that day ("science"). The song is free to download. It's video game ending music, so it's techno and weird, digitized female vocals, just so you know. :)

In researching this post, I also found a very fun 2D version of Portal built in Flash. Enjoy!