From the Garden to the City

Book Cover

It's funny how things converge sometimes. A couple of months ago I was intrigued by a handful of reviews in the Christian Research Journal on books that address the issue of how modern technology relates to matters of faith. The book I chose was "From the Garden to the City" by John Dyer. I don't recall why I chose this particular book but I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the title. I'm only up to Chapter 3 in the book but it's very good. Dyer discusses how our fascination with technology and advances in technology are a kind of story where we use our imagination to think through how technology might help us do something better. He gives the basic example of a shovel. We can dig the dirt with our hands, but then using a shovel helps us do it better, quicker and more effectively. I'd never thought of technology in those terms but it makes sense. He also talks about how technology changes us. I'm early in the book yet so I'm not totally sure where he's going with this, but sitting here tapping away on my Bluetooth keyboard connected to my iPad which will wirelessly beam this blog onto the Wordl Wide Web... yeah, I can appreciate that technology has changed me!

Last weekend, I went to an interesting conference in Kansas City called CG2013, where the "CG" is for "Common Good," which, I'm told, is a concept of social justice that Pope Leo XIII addressed in his Rerum Novadum. The general idea is that Christians should be engaged in activities which promote the common good of all. Very interesting. One of the main speakers at the conference was Andy Crouch and he did a talk entitled "From the Garden to the City" (uncanny, huh?) where he talked about the fact that many Christians miss the first 2 and last 2 chapters of the Bible. They start from the description of our rebellion against God in Genesis 3 and end with Revelation 20 which describes judgement day. However, backing up to Genesis 1 & 2, there is a picture of creation in which God says "it is good" over and over and then He creates humans which he says are "very good." Then there is a description of a garden and in that garden humanity is told to work it - note all this is before the rebellion against God which means that work in itself can be a good thing. The Judeo-Christian account of creation is much more positive than the accounts in other faiths where the universe comes about through some kind of conflict or strife. Flipping to the end of the Bible and Revelation 21 & 22 we see a City. Yup, the new heaven and new earth is focussed on a massive City. Not rolling green hills. Not a bunch of people sitting on a cloud playing harps. A massive City. I'd heard this before from a book by Mark Driscoll but now at the CG2013 conference this idea has legs for me and is becoming less of an esoteric musing and something I need to think about more seriously. I guess I've also been influenced by some ideas I've seen on developing sustainable cities. I've seen presentations on ideas for Perth, WA and more recently for the Singapore International Water Week (water is a very big deal for that City). I'm still early on the learning curve but am intrigued to know more.

So, where does leave me in pondering "From the Garden to the City" and how do these two experiences shape my thinking? I guess the main thing is figuring out how to embrace technology and cities in a positive way - seeking God's redemption in both - rather than being a naysayer that sees evil in everything new. New stuff can be good. It can be very good. I see this in technology and I guess I need to start seeing this in cities too. At the same time we should not be niaive to think that all new things are good. I see plenty that's bad in many cities and there are uses of technology that are very bad (nukes for instance). Plenty to ponder!

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Comparison of Business Class Travel

OK, before we start, I'm grateful to be traveling business class and not economy. These notes are meant to convey my own personal experience traveling with different airlines and give feedback on the best of the best. Overall my experience of business class travel is very positive. Maybe some other time I'll contrast business and economy class which is a whole different story (guessing JAL will be top of the list in both categories actually, but I'm ahead of myself as usual).

OK, here is my own person run down from best to good (can't say worst as the others are all good).

1. JAL - OK, so I'm on one of their planes typing this blog now so that may be influencing me, but I'm bowled over by their awesome customer service. The air stewardess (non PC but I forget the PC name so slap me), was very apologetic for not having the particular veggie/fish meal I wanted and made efforts to combine the meals to make sure I had something to eat. In addition, their video entertainment system has a better user interface, better screen and overall better experience than any other carrier I've flown. Japanese customer service plus Japanese Tech = ++++ experience! Well done JAL, I'm sold. As an aside, I also travelled with JAL in economy last year and their customer service was awesome - akin to what I'd expect in business class (without the leg room though!)
2. Qantas - it has been a while since I traveled to Oz on a Qantas flight but their customer service for business class is awesome (yes sir). The seats are very comfy and conducive to sleep, relaxation or just to watch a nice movie. Now don't ask me about economy class as it's odd to see that a country that regards itself as "classless" treats the folks in the cheap seats a little less than average, but I must say their cheap seats do still have a good entertainment system.
3. Dragon Air - this is an Asian airline based in Hong Kong and affiliated with Cathay Pacific. As such they may be classified as more of a "budget" airline but I have to say my own experience was far from budget! Their entertainment system has an awesome widescreen and their customer service was pretty good. The flight attendant (ah, now I remember the PC name!) was a little put off by me asking if I could have a non-meat meal when I hadn't pre-ordered a vegetarian meal but she wasn't rude at all and we figured something out (maybe I've become one of those difficult "high maintenance" people that I hate. Heck, I hope not - switching to vegetarian food is trickier than I thought).
4. American Airlines - pretty decent service and good staff but their entertainment system is starting to look old with a little screen. I had to wear my glasses to watch the movies. Sorry, that's picky but for Dragon Air and JAL the screen was bigger/closer to me so I didn't need to worry about that. Also, on the flight from Dallas to Narita, the video quality was sub-par. OK to watch but when you pay extortionate fees for business class you expect better.
5. British Airways - it has been a while, but my memory of the BA flight in business class is that the customer service was OK but that their seats were a little funky and I found it difficult to sleep. Sorry BA if my memory is failing me, but my mental list has you just below AA. Still good, and I'm not complaining, but some way to go to catch up with your Asian and Aussie colleagues.

OK, that's my totally biased opinion on business class travel. If I have a choice, the Asian airlines definitely have an edge. I've heard very good things about Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific but I've not had the pleasure of flying with them. Maybe next time?

 

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Movies on a plane

Spending hours traveling on a plane is not really my idea of fun. The one plus to the long distance flights with modern entertainment systems is the chance to catch up on all the movies I've missed. Surprisingly on my flights to/from Asia this month the blockbuster fantasy and sci-fi movies that I usually enjoy were a bit disappointing whereas a couple of movies that are outside my clichéd mainstay of movies were actually very good. OK, I also enjoyed the one animated movie I watched too, just don't tell anyone (if only Noah were still 6 and I could claim I was just watching them with him)!

Here Is my rundown of the movies I watched, my marks out of 10 and brief comments:

1. Safety not guaranteed - 10+/10. OK, if you read the description of the movie it sounds like a sci-fi, but it is most definitely not science fiction. It's about quirky people in the NW of the US interacting with each other. It's funny, quirky and a bit of a love story thrown in. Not my usual thing but I do love original movies done well and this is just that. This should win awards but I'm guessing it won't because it's too good. I recognize a couple of the actors but ask me to name them. I highly recommend to everyone.
2. Safe house - 9/10. If I have to pick a favorite actor it would probably be Denzel Washington. He is awesome in this very original spy movie. The supporting cast are very good too. In some ways this is a formulaic spy movie but with a couple of twists and strong and convincing acting. Definitely worth a watch especially if you like the Bourne series (which I do).
3. Brave - 8/10. OK it's an animated movie for kids but, hey, it's done well, the story is good and the characters funny throughout. There's enough "mush" to tug the heart strings but not too much that it degenerates into a soppy pile. Worth watching. Oh, the animation is impressive too if that's your thing.
4. Prometheus - 5/10. Very disappointed. Alien 1 was good and suspenseful. Alien 2 was even better. Alien 3 was crap. Alien 4 was OK. As a prequel, Prometheus promised a lot but delivered little. Now I think about it, 5/10 is generous. I put it in the same camp as Alien 3. Sorry. The acting was very good. The special effects excellent. But the story was awful and unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for fantasy and sci-fi but somehow the story has to me credible. At college I recall someone saying that in fiction we have to "suspend our disbelief" but if the writer is bad then they can lose us and end up with a bad book or film. The whole scene with the lead character cutting an alien out of her own body was complete and utter... to be polite I'll just say "crap." Sorry, they totally lost me at that point. My disbelief was off the scale and the plot was lost. The other elements of the film were OK if a bit tenuous. Not one I'd want to watch again.... maybe 3/10 is closer to the mark. I'll watch Alien vs Predator instead.
5. Snow White and the Huntsman - 4/10. My wife loved this movie though I guess it's because of a certain lead character wielding an axe instead of a hammer. The acting and effects were good but, again, the story was a bit lacking. Ah well.

 

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Three Societal Objections to Evolution

In a previous blog, I listed 3 objections to the theory of evolution in its rawest form. In this current blog I turn my focus to some of the consequences of considering humanity as just a bunch of intelligent naked apes. I present 3 social or societal (sorry I'm not a sociologist, just a general observer of life) consequences of holding to this flawed theory of origins...

1. Ultimately we answer to no-one, so anything goes. The Bible talks about the Fear of the Lord being linked to knowledge and wisdom. This isn't just a poetic phrase or a means to control the masses; it's a basic and logical truth. If you know that some day you must answer for your actions and choices in life then that influences your decisions in society and how you interact with others. Without that, who's to say you shouldn't do something? Not sure that's a wise choice for society as a whole.
2. There is no right or wrong, just whatever works. This seems to be where the western world sits right now. There is a legacy of morality from previous generations (arguably from Christian ethics but that's another discussion!) but let's just keep what helps us to get along and throw aside the other stuff... as long as no-one gets hurt... or it's between consenting adults. Freedom for individuals to do whatever the heck they want seems to be the only moral guidance. I'm all for freedom to choose, but self-centredness and self-indulgence as a moral compass for a society doesn't bode well for civilization. Selfishness in all aspects of society can't be good for anyone in the long run.
3. The strong should prevail and the weak be discarded. One word. Eugenics. That's the consequence of holding to evolution as an explanation for humanity. The idea fell out of favor as a social movement after World War II (the Nazi's were big fans), but expect to see genetic engineering and bio-enhancements becoming the norm as well as the potential mis-use of DNA testing to enhance human capabilities. These latter ideas are not bad in themselves but in the context of seeing ourselves as evolved apes and wanting to give evolution a boost, then anything goes.

 

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Can't vote... Thankfully

I'm a foreigner (a legal alien to borrow from Sting), so I don't get to vote for your president or anyone else. I still pay taxes though, and still get to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities of this great nation. Now, for some, not being able to vote in the country in which they've lived for 10 years or so, would be a negative thing, but I have to say I'm glad I don't have to vote. American politics suck the life out of me when I think about them. The unruly mess of house, senate and judiciary at State and Federal level, the grotesque spectacle of lobbyists legally bribing politicians and the pork-barelling of bills to sneak through your own special interests without anyone noticing, all make me shake my head.

But none of these are the things that really make me glad that I don't get to vote. It's the negative ads. This campaign seems to be about what will you vote against, rather than what you will vote for. Vote against Obamacare, or vote against capitalist greed. Sad. But maybe that's what democracy is all about. For the most part the politicians try to do what's best for their country (though I suspect most do what's best for themselves or their lobbyists), so as long as they don't do anything crazy - have at it. But if they do something that does seem crazy to the masses, then they get to vote them out! Hopefully the next guy or gal will do a better job.

Still, I recall from my college education that negative ads aren't as effective as positive ads. Or maybe that was only in the UK and here in the US you're a more blood-thirsty lot! "Without vision the people perish" so it would seem that a vision means you need to be for something in politics and not just bashing the opposition, otherwise there is no way to govern or inspire people? But what do I know about politics? I'll close with this interesting note on Coke versus Pepsi. Surely the same applies to the politicians. For sure their negativity has turned me off...

Unlike politicians, companies hardly ever run negative ads. Pepsi ads don't tear down Coke; they build the brand image of Pepsi. Why? Because a tit-for-tat war of words would turn off consumers of both brands. And sales growth, not just market share, is what puts money in shareholders' pockets.

As the market leader, Coke would never give the underdog Pepsi the benefit of a mention in its ads. For its part, Pepsi would worry that negative ads against Coke would say more to consumers about the character of Pepsi than Coke. And when Pepsi did famously "challenge" Coke twenty years ago, it was with blindfolded consumers choosing between two unlabeled samples, as close as you could get to a scientific test. http://blogs.hbr.org/quelch/2008/05/how_negative_advertising_works.html

 

 

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Three Logical Objections to Evolution

I recently heard an excellent presentation by a colleague that included a slide on the evolution of the nitrogen cycle that he used to illustrate the role of archaea and anammox bacteria in the cycle. Whilst I deeply respect this colleague, his presentation highlighted one of my three intellectual reasons for considering Macro Evolution to be illogical and fundamentally flawed. He first showed an early nitrogen cycle, devoid of life, with purely chemical reactions driving the cycle. Next he showed a slightly more advanced cycle in which some basic life forms (archaea) take part in the cycle. Here's my problem... Where did these life forms come from? In his presentation they magically appear from nowhere. This is one of my main intellectual stumbling blocks for evolutionary theory. Every example seems to require a starting point that's way more advanced than evolution can explain. In other words, they need seed material.

So, here are my three intellectual objections to Evolution:

1. No seed material. In almost all descriptions I hear of evolution, the seed material magically appears with no adequate description of where it comes from.
2. Ecosystem complexity. Ecosystems are complex and require multiple interactions between living organisms. Take one organism out of the loop and the system breaks down. So we need more than just one seed. We need multiple and diverse seeds, right?
3. Evolution is a strong destructive force but weak creative force. "Survival of the fittest" is an excellent mechanism for wiping out species i.e. for describing extinction, and adaptation seems a reasonable description for how species survive and thrive (though somehow they must have this resilience already built in). But the reliance on random mutations to describe the creation of new species (macro evolution) seems illogical and inadequate. I've never heard a good example given for this. All the examples I've seen were for micro-evolution and then imaginatively extrapolated to explain major intra-species changes that ultimately produce a new species. That sounds OK in a sentence but requires a lot of creative thinking to get the pieces to fit for real examples. Somehow that seems counter to the assertion that evolution is scientific. If we have to imagine so much and get artists to creatively draw stuff, that's stepping away from observation and true scientific methods too much. That is too subjective.

 

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The PC is dead. Long live the PC.

I saw a couple of interesting articles this week on the rise of tablet computers and the pending death of the PC. The first was a news article on the new CEO of Apple talking about the "post-PC era." Apparently they sold more iPads in the past 3 months than any single PC manufacturer sold PCs. That's a pretty radical shift in technologies.

The other article I saw was on LinkedIn and focused mostly on smart phones but also talked about tablets. They projected the global use of smartphones and tablets increasing whilst PC use stayed flat. I suspect that their extrapolations for PC use may be shaky and I could envisage a decline rather than a plateau.

The times they are a-changing... again.

I started my career in the late 80s and early 90s in the UK at a time when businesses were starting to use PCs more widely and home use of PCs was pretty rare. Though it didn't seem like it then, that was a pretty revolutionary time. Think about handwriting memos or having the typing pool type one up for you, that you could then pop in the internal mail system to have it delivered next day. I'm sure I must have done that but I honestly don't recall it. For as long as I remember, email has been ubiquitous for business communication. Similarly, spreadsheets have been the mainstay of basic engineering calcs and data presentation, and PowerPoint has been the basic tool for presenting ideas.

The subsequent couple of decades (OK now I feel old using an expression like that!) saw home use of PCs increase dramatically especially as the Internet and information age took off.

About 18 months ago my lovely wife bought me an iPad (now that the iPad 3 is out I can legitimately claim to have an "original" iPad!) I've used it for plenty of fun stuff like Angry Birds (love the new one, by the way), Words with Friends, watching TV, reading books and mags, looking at maps, studying scriptures, viewing You Tube, looking up movies, checking Facebook,... For home use the iPad is ideal and I really can't think of why I'd need a home PC. I could see that home PCs could become a thing of the past within a few years or maybe just kept around for our kids to do their homework!

21st Century Office

So it's a no-brainer that the iPad is ideally suited for home use. Also a no-brainer that it's great for keeping kids young and old entertained when traveling. The thing I haven't figured out is how the iPad and other tablet devices could change the face of business. At the end of the 20th Century it was business use that drove PC development initially and then home use came second. In the 21st Century it's possible that home use of iPads will spill over into business use that will transform the office in the future.

I use my iPad at home but I've also used it some for work. Below I list out some ways I've used my iPad for work stuff with varying degrees of success versus using my laptop.

iPad works well for...

Reading e-mail: in this I find the iPad superior to my laptop. It's more natural to swipe through an email and tap on attachments. Very nice.

Reading PDFs: similar to e-mail, it's natural and easy to use the iPad. Annotating is pretty easy too with the right app. I'm using Notability and I like it a lot. Much better than using my laptop and the basic Acrobat reader.

Giving, editing or creating presentations: I really like Keynote and the couple of times I've given presentations using my iPad it was very slick. Once it was a formal presentation and the latter it was more informal sitting around a table. This was especially cool as it's more relaxed and natural to use the iPad than booting up your laptop and having it obtrusively on the table. I have even played with creating and editing presentations and think it's actually easier and more intuitive to use your finger than using a mouse. I just wish there was an AirPlay projector so I could cut the cord. Also, I'd love to use my Prezi app but unfortunately it only works with a projector for iPad 2 or 3 and not my "original."

Looking for reference material from the Internet or "Googling": the iPad excels in this, whether you're simply using Safari or one of the many apps specifically made for the iPad, it's very convenient to pick up the iPad and look something up. I love the Wolfram Alpha app.

Checking and updating my calendar: the mobility and inobtrusiveness of iPad make it ideal to take to a meeting where you can check and update your schedule. Arguably a smartphone is even more mobile and useful in this regard but here I'm just making the case for the iPad vs laptop.

Taking notes during a meeting: I probably should have listed this earlier as its such an obvious one, but I guess I don't do this as much as I could. Having an iPad in a meeting is as inobtrusive as having a notebook and yet you have access to your emails, and other info on your device plus the Internet. You can take notes and have them stored electronically. Very nice.

iPad works OK for...

Replying to e-mail: if it's a short reply of a couple of paragraphs you're OK, but if you want to type a long reply, poking on the keyboard on screen is tedious. I guess I could invest in a Bluetooth keyboard if I seriously wanted to generate more text. I guess I could also play with voice recognition.

Editing Word documents: similar to replying to email, the various apps for editing Word documents are OK but you wouldn't want to type too much. I've also run into problems with the graphics in Word documents being messed up. Maybe sticking to simpler Word documents and getting a keyboard would allow me to do more?

Using simple spreadsheets: as an engineer I use spreadsheets a lot. I've struggled to use the Apple "Numbers" app or other apps like QuickOffice that let you edit Excel spreadsheets. If the spreadsheet is simple, it is awesome to be able to have a spreadsheet "in the field" to enter data on site or to show operators or clients some simple calcs. I haven't done much with more complex spreadsheets but maybe that will come with time!

iPad really doesn't work well for...

Creating Text Documents: unless it's a short note, simple email or a blog! Maybe I need to get a keyboard after all!

Accessing Work Documents: in typing out this blog and thinking through the biggest impediment to me using my iPad more, I realize that I have a lot of files and information on my laptop hard drive. I also have information on severs in our office and on ProjectWise, none of which I can access from my iPad. This should be an easy fix for our IT folks if there's a will to do it but I suspect that it won't happen for a few years yet. For now I get by with shifting pertinent documents over to Dropbox but that has limited capacity, I'm way too disorganized to remember to transfer files and still it doesn't help me access internal company files.

Livemeeting: not sure why but my firm uses Livemeeting and you cannot access it from an iPad. Personally I would love for us to switch to WebEx which has a great iPad app that I use for a regular call set up by one of our clients, but alas, I'm guessing that won't happen anytime soon so I'm stuck having to allow 15 - 20 minutes before any web meeting to crank up my windows laptop and get Livemeeting running.

Windows-only software: in particular I use a couple of process modeling programs, GPS-X and BioWin that are windows-based. I keep hinting that they should shift to Cloud based applications that can be accessed through a web browser, but I'm not sure how seriously they take me! I can see that as more software suppliers shift to the Cloud, this will open more opportunities to leave the laptop at home.

Excel Spreadsheets with Graphs: not sure why, but the graphs don't come across into Numbers or most of the other apps I've tried. Some formulas don't work either I'd guess and I'm not sure about pivot tables as I've not tried transferring any.

Creating emails with attachments: OK now Apple, this one is just plain weird. Why have a device that's probably the best way to access email and not provide the ability to attach documents? Please fix this! You can send emails from within various apps with a file attached from that app, but say you want to send 1 email with, say, a Pages file and a Keynote presentation that goes with it, then you're out of luck. Unless there's a way and I've just not figured it out?

The future is bright and much lighter!

I travel a lot and I find using my iPad ideal for most of my needs whilst on the road. But still I have to lug my heavy laptop around for the few but vital things I cannot yet do without it. I'm hopeful that many of the impediments to wider iPad use I've noted here will be overcome in the not too distant future. Then I'll be happy to say "the old PC is dead, long live the new PC" (aka a tablet-style "Personal Computer"!)