Happy Thanksgiving! Your gratitude depends on seeing and remembering — what you see in life’s events and what you choose to remember. Here’s a great quote from Henry J. Eyring, president of BYU-Idaho: “I know of no better way…than by keeping personal records, especially written ones. It’s easier and more rewarding than you might think. …
In October 2018, Bishop Dean M. Davies said, “In recent months, I have listened to every general conference address which President Nelson has given since he was first called as an Apostle. This exercise has changed my life.” I’ve decided I want to do this — listen to every talk from President Nelson since he …
All of President Russell M. Nelson’s talks as a podcast Read More »
If learning to do genealogy research interests you, I want to talk with you! Among many good reasons to do genealogy research, one reason has great purpose: You may have ancestors who need your help. In John 3:5, Jesus Christ says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter …
Immigration is really under-rated. I want to see more of it. We may have misconceptions about immigration that make us worse off. I hope to persuade you to think differently about immigrants and immigration. The ability to visit, travel, live, or work where you choose is the broad sense of immigration. I am not just …
A few months ago I realized I don’t like setting goals. However, I admire people who work this way. “I’m preparing for a triathlon next summer.” For some people, a triathlon next summer is the best way to run on the treadmill today. If you like to set goals, you are outcome-focused. The outcomes are …
Three years ago I read a weight training book that was more influential on me than I expected. Muscle According to the book, called “Training for Mass” by Gordon La Velle, weight training is best done at high intensity. You might think all weight training is high-intensity. High-intensity training (HIT) is a particular flavor of …
I wasn’t planning to write this today, but I want to. It was two years ago today that my brother David left home. We thought he had run away to start a new life or something. Then last fall, we learned he had passed away. I feel melancholy thinking about my brother today. However, I …
As a little background, I’m Mormon and we take marriage seriously — a high ideal worth working for. Because dating is the process that leads to marriage, we usually take dating seriously too. We might do well to be both more serious and less serious about dating — more deliberate, but less anxious. I look …
In addition to whom to support for public office, it’s important to consider how we select candidates for public office. I wrote previously that in 2008 I voted for Mitt Romney but now I prefer Ron Paul. I believe there are strong principle-based reasons to support someone like Ron Paul. Now that Romney is the …
How a Caucus is Not a Primary and Why It Matters Read More »
There are supply-side efforts to fight pornography like the Lighted Candle Society, which litigates pornographers and is attempting to prove medically that it causes addiction. Agree or disagree, I think most technologists and much of the world consider such supply-side efforts an affront to free speech, censorship of the Internet, etc. I’m inspired to see …
I didn’t just vote for Mitt Romney in 2008, I donated to his campaign, asked others to donate, and volunteered at phone banks, fundraising events, the national call day in Boston, and at the Nevada caucuses. I’ve met him several times. I drank the Romney root beer (someone actually made some) and I have a …
I voted for Mitt Romney in 2008, but in 2012 I’m voting for Ron Paul Read More »
One of the Christmas traditions in my parents’ home is a small family “program” on Christmas Eve. My dad asks us each to share a quote, scripture passage, or other thought related to Christmas. I had recently been listening to Coldplay’s latest album Mylo Xyloto. I was struck at the similarity between the album’s last …
I was asked to speak in church a few months ago and spoke on the topic of attention and distraction. Here’s the outline of my talk, delivered Aug 28, 2011 in Boulder, CO. By the way, I consider this a very positive topic — the opportunity to direct our attention and feel more peace and …
Today I needed to password-protect a Redmine installation. I’ve typically used mod_auth_mysql for similar projects, but Redmine uses a salted password format that’s incompatible with mod_auth_mysql. So, I turned to Apache/Perl authentication, a first for me (I rarely touch Perl) and was able to make it work. Install mod_perl, and the DBI, MySQL, and Digest …
How to Password Protect Redmine with Apache, mod_perl, and Redmine.pm Read More »
I can empathize with the Occupy Wall Street protestors, but my perception is that many of them misunderstand the cause of their pain. They naively blame capitalism; they should blame corporatism. Corporatism is the alliance of government and business. It happens on the left (think Solyndra), and on the right (think military-industrial complex), in the …
Capitalism is pro-markets; corporatism is pro-business Read More »
I’m working in a coffee shop today. I used SSH and SOCKS to browse the Internet securely, but today I decided to take it a step further and automate the process with a shell script. Here’s the script, for what it’s worth: Instructions: Save this to a file. I saved it to “/Users/richard/bin/ssh_tunnel”. Make it …
Script to enable/disable SOCKS proxy on Mac OS X Read More »
Your home Internet router gives you some protection against direct attacks on your computer by keeping your home network safely encapsulated. Each of your home computers can access the Internet (this is called NAT), but no outsider can access your computers directly. Outsiders only see the router. However, sometimes you want your computer to be …
Script to enable/disable DMZ on Linksys and Verizon routers Read More »
Following up on my previous Kynetx post, here’s a demo of how FamilyLink.com and Kynetx could reveal your relatives on WordPress blogs:
I’ve been playing around with Kynetx.com technology. I think it has a lot of cool potential for helping FamilyLink.com users see who their relatives are across multiple websites. For example, What if you could see your FamilyLink.com relatives directly in Facebook? If you knew which LinkedIn users were your relatives, would you be more likely …
FamilyLink.com + Kynetx: How websites could be better with your family Read More »
One of my first web development projects and biz partnerships with Brian Stucki was Provo411.com. We were roommates at BYU and conceived of a website where students could share events — parties, concerts, football games, etc. We were already in our beds for the night when the idea came, but we couldn’t go to sleep …
Reminiscing about Provo411.com and Scraping the Course Catalog Read More »