Oct
9
2006
<font size="2">Firstly, I have been reading through J.P. Morelands book, "Love God with all your mind" and came across a very good point which I think all people who are in ministry should take ot heart, that we should not be trying to make a name for ourselves in the world, but spread the name of God. Very simple but I really think that many lose sight of this if they are at the head of a very successful ministry.
Anyway
Well the camp for our youth group (the first one which has been run in over 3 years) has is done and both Katie and I were very happy with how it went.
We covered aspects of Christian living (The Bible, Prayer, Holy Spirit, The Church) and very briefly touched on the reformation. In addition to this, like camps often are, it was an excellent opportunity for everyone to get to know each other much better.
The one thing that I have to say though is that, it has been many years since I had a part in running a camp. It would have to be one of the most exhausting things that I have done in a very long time (including Army exercises), it was also apparent that Katie was quite tired by the end also. Despite this I still think that it was very successful weekend.
I really think that it is situations like this when we see God taking advantage of less than Ideal situations for his Glory.
Oct
2
2006
Given that I have been very busy recently, I have not had any time to post anything.
Fortunatly I am going to Cairns for three weeks.. Unfortunatly I have things for Uni which are due while I am up there. I therefore need to be able to work on reports/etc while away.. Time for a laptop.
After looking around at few ultraportable notebooks, I decided to go with the Dell XPS m1210.
<img height="375" width="500" alt="" src="/Portals/0/blog/lappy1.jpg" />
<img height="375" width="500" alt="" src="/Portals/0/blog/lappy2.jpg" />
VERY happy with the performance so far. Only downside is that now I can take my uni work on the bus with me 
Aug
30
2006
<font size="2">I recently attended a conference for Qld Youth Leaders which was run by YACMU. This was a very interesting weekend as they addressed many shortfalls which are present in the way which Youth Ministry is done in the western world.
The speaker there was Ken Moser. He has a significant background in Youth Ministry (infact he has been doing it about as long as have been alive) and during this time has had plenty of time to observe what doesn't work.
Basically his message is that we have moved away from Youth Ministry and more towards providing entertainment. You just have to look at the way that the majority of Youth programs are run to see this. His position is that the games based groups simply don't retain people past high school age. Furthermore he think that Kids will generally come along to learn about faith. I cannot say that I disagree with any of this.
<font size="2">The general aim of a Youth Group should not simply be numbers, but to help young people to grow in faith.
Funilly enough while he spoke, I had the distinct impression that I had heard it before. Upon returning home from course I found that the book which I had gone through before starting as a Youth Leader was actually written by him…
In addition to the speech, YACMU have also produced a resource called "The Fridge" which is based around the theory that we need a well rounded spiritual diet for strong faith.
The 7 "Soul Food" Groups are
<li><font size="2">God and I: Enjoying an intimate relationship with God
<li><font size="2">Hanging Out: Cultivating healthy and authentic relationships
<li><font size="2">Serving Others: Using gifts and abilities in a life of sacrificial service
<li><font size="2">Doing Church: Belonging to and participating in a community of faith
<li><font size="2">Living Life: Being sustained, recharged and empowered by the Holy Spirit
<li><font size="2">On a Mission: Actively engaging in Mission
<li><font size="2">Who I Am: Developing a Christ-Like character
<font size="2"> Overall I think it was a great weekend and I think that the resources will be very useful. We will be taking what we learned and implementing some of the suggestions into our 2007 program.
Aug
7
2006
It was March 2003, I had just started uni and was down at a local computer store. There I spied a 128mb USB memory stick. Given that floppy disks are the bane of my existance, and that I couldn't always be sure of having a CD-burner avaliable for files over 2mb I decided to grab it. From memory it costed about $120.
Anyway its now August 2006 and 128mb is really not a particularly large amount of storage anymore. $90 later this problem was sorted and I had a shiny new little 2gig usb memory stick. After testing it to verify its capacity I am quite happy. While this is not particularly useful think its great that, just a few years ago, 128meg was the limit. There today there were 4gig drives…Best invention ever..
<img width="300" height="240" align="middle" src="/Portals/0/Img/memsticks.jpg" alt="" />
My old 128mb one is on the right and the new 2gig one on the left.
Aug
5
2006
My little DNN site is finally to a stage where I am fairly happy with its ongoing operation. As such I have decided to list the things which were a pain for a n00b to deal with. It covers things which I found while running it as a VM on my PC and also after I got it hosted.
They can be found <a href="http://www.burningsilicon.net/ITProjects/DotNetNukeExperience/tabid/180/Default.aspx"><strong>here </a>
Aug
4
2006
I recently decided that I would have another crack (or actually try to make some progress after a while on the backburner) with my efforts for the Brisbane Mesh.
One thing which I also realised is that the AP which I was using didn't really have the features I would require to align my antenna properly.
Time for Ebay to get some <strong><font color="#ff0000">REAL kit..
<img width="400" height="300" align="right" alt="" src="/Portals/0/Img/linksys.JPG" />
Good for mee that there just happened to be a V2.0 WRT54GS going, not bad given that the newer versions require a bit more effort to get going with 3rd party firmware.
First things first, the firmware had to go. After doing a bit of research I decided to go with <a href="http://www.dd-wrt.com/">dd-wrt,</a> its free and can do alot more than some of the other firmwares out there (*cough*- sveasoft) but is also user friendly.
The great thing about these linux based routers is that they will quite happily run custom builds of <a href="http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Kismet_Server/Drone">Kismet</a>. The effort here was actually trying to run a Kismet client under windows, this had mixed results. Given that cygwin is sort of unholy (Linux doesn't belong in windows 
), I eventually ended up running it in a VM using my free copy of <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/server/">Vmware Server.</a>
Well since that was happily working I decided to let this run the link between my place and a mates for a while and see how it goes. The results were quite impressive with the downloadstream speed now consistantly pulling 15mB/s (about 20% faster) but the upstream is what will benefit the most, given the significantly higher output power of this unit (to be save I'm running it at 100mW, as opposed to the 26mW of the other unit).
Furthermore this router is capable of being a VPN server may make life easier on when I finally get onto the mesh.
The only downside that I see to this device so far is that it doesn't use RP-sma connectors and I will therefore need to purchase another pigtail to enable the connection of my 16dbi grid antenna.
Anyway In closing I am going to continue to test this device over the coming week(s). But this should allow me (through the use of kismet) to do some decent testing. Very impressed with this device.
Jul
30
2006
<font size="2">I have added in my efforts for homebrew PCB etching as an electronics project. Like others, it is not completed yet, as the project itself is still yet to be completed by me.
Jul
25
2006
I have decided to add details about my experiences in obtaining a workable external battery pack/charger for my Ipod video. The intent is, through the use of a few AA's, be able to get over 4hours of continious playback from my 30gig Ipod Video
The article can be found under Electronics Projects.
Or by clicking here
<A href="/ElectronicsProjects/ExternalIpodBattery/tabid/141/Default.aspx">http://www.burningsilicon.net/ElectronicsProjects/ExternalIpodBattery/tabid/141/Default.aspx</A>
Jul
24
2006
After developing and using MultiTel at work, I finally decided that it may be useful to someone else. It is basically a Range Pinger and Batch Telnet tool.gt;gt;Its a nifty little tool which I use to apply quickly and easilly gather information about our entire network (ie: i can get the model of every switch in the state in under 10 minutes) and also to quickly apply wholesale changes.gt;gt;It works will all cisco 1900, 2900, 3500 and 3700 series switches. It also works with cisco routers. Basically the only thing stopping it from working with other models would be the login part of the script.gt;gt;Also as far as support and updates go, dont hold your breath. Unless major flaws are pointed out they are unlikly to change, purely because it does everything we need from it at work.gt;gt;The file can be downloaded from the repository and I have also made a page for it under IT Projects.gt;
Jul
16
2006
I recently got back from the 11th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, of which I was a member.gt;gt;I would have to say that overall it was a positive experience, even if I may not have agreed with everything that got passed.gt;gt;That said it was a great oppertunity to meet a broad range of people, for which I am very thankful.
<IMG height=256 alt=DSC00173.jpg src="/Portals/0/DSC00173.jpg" width=320 align=left border=0>
Also another thing which was good was that it was a "Live In" at the University of Queensland. The food was good and we got a room to ourselves, and it was fully catered.gt;gt;All the comforts of home. Including loads of paperwork for all the proposals.gt;gt;Also if you are feeling keen, there are photos (including some with me) at the 11th Assembly web site.gt;gt;<A href="http://assembly2006.uca.org.au/">http://assembly2006.uca.org.au/</A>