We saw the movie Mad Hot Ballroom tonight. Delightful film - I recommend it highly. It's a documentary about a program in New York City to teach ballroom dancing to inner-city fifth graders. The project seems improbable on its face, but it turns out to be a big success. The children actually learn to dance: tango, meringue, rumba and others. The film also shows that hard work and discipline, acquired in the context of competition, can have side effects that are very beneficial. The children get some direction. They get a sense of pride in what they can accomplish. One girl who is described by her principal as having been a discipline problem in fourth grade is changed by her involvement in the dance program; she hasn't been in trouble all year. On the other hand, not everybody is helped. One boy who apparently has some talent as a dancer simply can't get into the dancing. As the competition draws near and team assignments have to be made, the teacher puts him on the spot: get serious about dancing or leave. He leaves. Later in the film he wishes the school's dance team well, but he says he himself is only interested in playing basketball.
The film resonated with me. For grades six through eight, I attended what was then known as the Columbus Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey. At that time - early '60s - the Columbus Boychoir was certainly one of the best boys choirs in the world, if not the very best. As a member of the choir, I toured the country and Europe, appeared repeatedly on national television, had the pleasure of appearing on stage with some of the best conductors and soloists in the world, including Erich Leinsdorf in Boston and Leonard Bernstein in New York. I was on stage as a member of the choir for the inaugural concert at Lincoln Center.
Now unlike the fifth graders who dance in Mad Hot Ballroom, we boychoir members were an elite. We auditioned to get into the school. And we worked hard, rehearsing three hours a day, six days a week. But just like the children in the movie, we boys in the choir learned a lot of fantastic life lessons, about discipline and hard work, about striving for excellence, about working with others as a member of a group, about living up to expectations, dealing with pressure, and more.
But to get the benefit of those lessons, I had to take the music seriously. The same is true of the children in New York. Administrators might institute a dance program with ulterior motives, but the program will surely be a failure if the children and their teachers don't take the dancing seriously.
This is true of many things in life. I learned a lot of indirect stuff about grammar, word roots, etc., from the study of Latin, but I wouldn't have learned that stuff if I hadn't been able to get interested in Latin in itself. I learned some great lessons from playing soccer for three years in high school, but again, I wouldn't have learned those lessons if I hadn't been able to get truly interested in soccer. If I hadn't cared about winning and about doing my best for the team while we were on the field, I wouldn't have had a reason to become as good a player as I was capable of becoming.
This is preeminently true of religion. Perhaps nothing else in life has the ability to have so profound an effect on your life as religion. When you believe in God and attend church, you learn to measure yourself against an impossible standard and strive to become better than you know you can be. You pray and learn to examine your own failings candidly and bravely. You learn humility. These are somewhat accidental benefits, but they are quite real. And yet, you can only realize these benefits if you can first take religion seriously.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Not quite 10 ways to know you're becoming a Windows user
1. You buy a Dell Inspiron 6000, and then start using it full time, even though you have a perfectly good Apple PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) running OS X.4 within reach.
2. You start moving your files from the PowerBook to the Dell.
3. You buy and install a Netgear wireless router, replacing your Apple Airport Extreme base station. You manage to configure the router successfully even though doing so requires support calls to both Netgear and Dell and the downloading of an update for the Inspiron's ethernet port driver. Who knew that ethernet ports had drivers! It's exciting to learn new stuff.
4. When you have to travel, you worry about whether you should bring the Dell (which now has all your "stuff" on it, so you could actually DO something useful while at the client's offices) or the PowerBook (which it would hurt less to lose).
5. To kill time while waiting in the airport to fly home, you buy - and then read, cover to cover - a copy of PC Magazine (November 22, 2005). You note with satisfaction that the Dell Inspiron 6000 is in PC Magazine's list of top-ten laptops and described as an "outstanding value." You read a review of Norton Internet Security (which came preinstalled on the Dell) with genuine interest and make a note of the fact that, while PC Mag likes NIS, they like ZoneAlarm even better, and you decide to visit Fry's a.s.a.p. to buy ZoneAlarm.
6. When you can't successfully register the copy of SnagIt 7 that you downloaded and have now purchased, you write to SnagIt 7 tech support, and then, all on your own, realize that you need to log into your computer with admin privileges to get the program to accept your licensing key. So you do, and it does.
7. You start moving your photos out of iPhoto into Picasa and decide that you like Picasa better.
8. You make a to-do memo that reads, "Download and install iTunes for Windows a.s.a.p."
9. You find that one of the joys of the Dell is that it allows you to run great non-Microsoft software like Firefox, Google Desktop, Google Earth (wow!) and Picasa (also from Google - seems to be a pattern there) and OpenOffice.org 2. You discover that SnagIt 7 compares very favorably to SnapzPro X, and that As-You-Type is actually better than TypeIt4Me.
Well, if I worked hard, I could come up with 1 more reason to make it an even 10. But you get the point.
I will admit one thing: I'm using my Apple Mighty Mouse, instead of the Microsoft "Intellimouse" that I have.
2. You start moving your files from the PowerBook to the Dell.
3. You buy and install a Netgear wireless router, replacing your Apple Airport Extreme base station. You manage to configure the router successfully even though doing so requires support calls to both Netgear and Dell and the downloading of an update for the Inspiron's ethernet port driver. Who knew that ethernet ports had drivers! It's exciting to learn new stuff.
4. When you have to travel, you worry about whether you should bring the Dell (which now has all your "stuff" on it, so you could actually DO something useful while at the client's offices) or the PowerBook (which it would hurt less to lose).
5. To kill time while waiting in the airport to fly home, you buy - and then read, cover to cover - a copy of PC Magazine (November 22, 2005). You note with satisfaction that the Dell Inspiron 6000 is in PC Magazine's list of top-ten laptops and described as an "outstanding value." You read a review of Norton Internet Security (which came preinstalled on the Dell) with genuine interest and make a note of the fact that, while PC Mag likes NIS, they like ZoneAlarm even better, and you decide to visit Fry's a.s.a.p. to buy ZoneAlarm.
6. When you can't successfully register the copy of SnagIt 7 that you downloaded and have now purchased, you write to SnagIt 7 tech support, and then, all on your own, realize that you need to log into your computer with admin privileges to get the program to accept your licensing key. So you do, and it does.
7. You start moving your photos out of iPhoto into Picasa and decide that you like Picasa better.
8. You make a to-do memo that reads, "Download and install iTunes for Windows a.s.a.p."
9. You find that one of the joys of the Dell is that it allows you to run great non-Microsoft software like Firefox, Google Desktop, Google Earth (wow!) and Picasa (also from Google - seems to be a pattern there) and OpenOffice.org 2. You discover that SnagIt 7 compares very favorably to SnapzPro X, and that As-You-Type is actually better than TypeIt4Me.
Well, if I worked hard, I could come up with 1 more reason to make it an even 10. But you get the point.
I will admit one thing: I'm using my Apple Mighty Mouse, instead of the Microsoft "Intellimouse" that I have.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Cutting the umbilical cord
It is one thing to move from a Powerbook to a Dell. It's another and even scarier thing to give up on Apple's Airport. But I've done it.
My wireless network has, for the last several years, been built around Apple's Airport technology. When I got the Dell Inspiron 6000 two weeks ago, I was using an Airport Extreme base station with an Airport Express ancillary access point (in the living room, so we could play music from iTunes to our stereo). Although the network hardware was Apple, the Dell was able to get on the Internet without any difficulty.
But afterwards, I began to think that perhaps I should switch to a non-Apple wireless router, for a couple of reasons. First, Apple's Airport Extreme and Airport Express hardware has to be configured from a Mac. It would be nice if I could configure the network from the Dell or, indeed, from any machine running any operating system, using a Web browser. Second, I've been told by the tech folks at Speakeasy.net (our top-notch Internet access provider) that, perhaps because we're so close to the central station, we should be getting a great signal, and that we should notice how good it is because Web pages should leap open. I've not often complained about the Web, but I wouldn't say pages were leaping open, either. Third, I was hoping to get a router that had a better firewall built into it than the Apple base station seems to have.
Tim at Speakeasy.net suggested that Linksys might be a good choice for a mixed-platform network, so on Saturday I tried a Linksys router. I couldn't get it configured. I concluded that the problem was mainly with the "wizard," which, to my mind, was simply terrible. Right from the start, there were options available to me that weren't clearly identified as options. Up at the top of the wizard's screen, there would be a description of what was about to happen, followed by a button labeled Next. Then, down below the Next button, there was a description of something else, with another button. There were many such confusions in the wizard. Anyway, after an hour of frustration, I gave up, reconfigured the Apple network, and put the Linksys back in its packaging.
Last night, I found an old (2002) Macworld review of non-Apple wireless routers. The review rated a Netgear router tops, so today I took the Linksys back to Frye's and exchanged it for a Netgear model.
The Netgear wizard was hardly better than the Linksys one. The "read me first" piece of paper in the router's packaging suggests that you set the router up but says explicitly that you should not plug it in immediately; instead, you should insert the installation CD and follow the instructions. One of the first screens displayed by the installation "wizard" observed that I was not connected to the Internet. Well, duh. That's what the wireless router was for, and I had not yet been told to connect it to the computer or do anything else. They really need to test their wizards.
Anyway, this time I decided to try Netgear support. A nice fellow with a heavy Indian accent told me to plug in the router's power cable, and also to connect the router to my computer's Ethernet port (with an Ethernet cable, obviously). So I did. At this point, I gather that the wizard was supposed to be able to sense an Internet connection, but it couldn't. Eventually, the support guy told me that the problem seemed to be with my Ethernet port and he suggested that I call Dell.
So I called Dell. A nice lady whose Indian accent was less noticeable than the Netgear guy's, helped me update the driver from my Ethernet port, by doing a download from Dell's web site. That fixed the problem. After that, I was able to enable the port, type in the default URL for the browser-based configuration pages, and configure the router manually. I never did actually use the so-called wizard. I'm now connected to the Internet using the Netgear router.
Couple quick notes about all this.
First, I just have to observe that I almost never have to go to this much trouble to install something from Apple. The last time I had serious trouble with a Mac installation was about a year ago, when a Canon scanner (that I purchased from the Apple Store here in Dallas) wouldn't install or work until I'd spent an hour online with a Canon support guy. But the problem here wasn't just with the hardware, it was mainly with the wizards that were supposed to make things easy. The installation wizards for the Linksys and the Netgear routers were, by Apple standards, terrible. The options are badly presented, the instructions are inconsistent, and the feedback that you get when there's an error is useless. And of course if you step away from the wizards thinking, I've got the info I need, so I'll just configure everything manually, well, Heaven help you. The Windows XP control panels are a labyrinth of dialogs with mysterious options. What is a QoS Packet Scheduler and does it really need to be enabled? What's the difference between an access-point-preferred network and an access-point (infrastructure) network, and which should I use?
Second, the tech support folks for Netgear and Dell were patient and helpful and did, in fact, get me to a resolution of my problem. I think the Netgear guy should perhaps have considered asking me to check the driver for my Ethernet port. But I'm grateful both to Netgear and Dell for having support folks available on Sunday afternoon.
Third, now that I've got the Netgear router configured, my network is once again working fine, and indeed, I think it does seem zippier than it did before. Pages actually do seem to leap into the browser window now.
The hardware in the PC world seems to me to be pretty good. Not sleek and sexy, but certainly functional. And some of the applications I use - Picasa comes to mind - match Apple's standards for user friendliness pretty well. But boy, anything that has to do with configuring the computer is lousy. Networking has always been something of a black art, and wireless networking is twice as bad as the old-fashioned kind. It doesn't need to be so hard! I'm available to any company that wants help writing a wizard that's truly user-friendly and easy to use.
My wireless network has, for the last several years, been built around Apple's Airport technology. When I got the Dell Inspiron 6000 two weeks ago, I was using an Airport Extreme base station with an Airport Express ancillary access point (in the living room, so we could play music from iTunes to our stereo). Although the network hardware was Apple, the Dell was able to get on the Internet without any difficulty.
But afterwards, I began to think that perhaps I should switch to a non-Apple wireless router, for a couple of reasons. First, Apple's Airport Extreme and Airport Express hardware has to be configured from a Mac. It would be nice if I could configure the network from the Dell or, indeed, from any machine running any operating system, using a Web browser. Second, I've been told by the tech folks at Speakeasy.net (our top-notch Internet access provider) that, perhaps because we're so close to the central station, we should be getting a great signal, and that we should notice how good it is because Web pages should leap open. I've not often complained about the Web, but I wouldn't say pages were leaping open, either. Third, I was hoping to get a router that had a better firewall built into it than the Apple base station seems to have.
Tim at Speakeasy.net suggested that Linksys might be a good choice for a mixed-platform network, so on Saturday I tried a Linksys router. I couldn't get it configured. I concluded that the problem was mainly with the "wizard," which, to my mind, was simply terrible. Right from the start, there were options available to me that weren't clearly identified as options. Up at the top of the wizard's screen, there would be a description of what was about to happen, followed by a button labeled Next. Then, down below the Next button, there was a description of something else, with another button. There were many such confusions in the wizard. Anyway, after an hour of frustration, I gave up, reconfigured the Apple network, and put the Linksys back in its packaging.
Last night, I found an old (2002) Macworld review of non-Apple wireless routers. The review rated a Netgear router tops, so today I took the Linksys back to Frye's and exchanged it for a Netgear model.
The Netgear wizard was hardly better than the Linksys one. The "read me first" piece of paper in the router's packaging suggests that you set the router up but says explicitly that you should not plug it in immediately; instead, you should insert the installation CD and follow the instructions. One of the first screens displayed by the installation "wizard" observed that I was not connected to the Internet. Well, duh. That's what the wireless router was for, and I had not yet been told to connect it to the computer or do anything else. They really need to test their wizards.
Anyway, this time I decided to try Netgear support. A nice fellow with a heavy Indian accent told me to plug in the router's power cable, and also to connect the router to my computer's Ethernet port (with an Ethernet cable, obviously). So I did. At this point, I gather that the wizard was supposed to be able to sense an Internet connection, but it couldn't. Eventually, the support guy told me that the problem seemed to be with my Ethernet port and he suggested that I call Dell.
So I called Dell. A nice lady whose Indian accent was less noticeable than the Netgear guy's, helped me update the driver from my Ethernet port, by doing a download from Dell's web site. That fixed the problem. After that, I was able to enable the port, type in the default URL for the browser-based configuration pages, and configure the router manually. I never did actually use the so-called wizard. I'm now connected to the Internet using the Netgear router.
Couple quick notes about all this.
First, I just have to observe that I almost never have to go to this much trouble to install something from Apple. The last time I had serious trouble with a Mac installation was about a year ago, when a Canon scanner (that I purchased from the Apple Store here in Dallas) wouldn't install or work until I'd spent an hour online with a Canon support guy. But the problem here wasn't just with the hardware, it was mainly with the wizards that were supposed to make things easy. The installation wizards for the Linksys and the Netgear routers were, by Apple standards, terrible. The options are badly presented, the instructions are inconsistent, and the feedback that you get when there's an error is useless. And of course if you step away from the wizards thinking, I've got the info I need, so I'll just configure everything manually, well, Heaven help you. The Windows XP control panels are a labyrinth of dialogs with mysterious options. What is a QoS Packet Scheduler and does it really need to be enabled? What's the difference between an access-point-preferred network and an access-point (infrastructure) network, and which should I use?
Second, the tech support folks for Netgear and Dell were patient and helpful and did, in fact, get me to a resolution of my problem. I think the Netgear guy should perhaps have considered asking me to check the driver for my Ethernet port. But I'm grateful both to Netgear and Dell for having support folks available on Sunday afternoon.
Third, now that I've got the Netgear router configured, my network is once again working fine, and indeed, I think it does seem zippier than it did before. Pages actually do seem to leap into the browser window now.
The hardware in the PC world seems to me to be pretty good. Not sleek and sexy, but certainly functional. And some of the applications I use - Picasa comes to mind - match Apple's standards for user friendliness pretty well. But boy, anything that has to do with configuring the computer is lousy. Networking has always been something of a black art, and wireless networking is twice as bad as the old-fashioned kind. It doesn't need to be so hard! I'm available to any company that wants help writing a wizard that's truly user-friendly and easy to use.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
N.T. Wright wins the Ramsey Prize
The Pontificator - one of my blogging heroes - notes that N.T. Wright has won the Michael Ramsey prize for theological writing for The Resurrection of the Son of God. Let it not be said that prizes go only to the undeserving! Wright's book is truly magisterial.
What it is not is light reading. I have a Ph.D. in Classics, read the Bible in Latin and Greek just about every day, and taught many of the classical and Biblical texts that Wright examines in his book - and yet I found it challenging, not because it's poorly written - it's not, Wright's prose is lucidity itself - but simply because he covers an astonishing amount of ground. An excellent, less demanding alternative to The Resurrection of the Son of God is Wright's little book Who Was Jesus? (Eerdmans, 1992).
What it is not is light reading. I have a Ph.D. in Classics, read the Bible in Latin and Greek just about every day, and taught many of the classical and Biblical texts that Wright examines in his book - and yet I found it challenging, not because it's poorly written - it's not, Wright's prose is lucidity itself - but simply because he covers an astonishing amount of ground. An excellent, less demanding alternative to The Resurrection of the Son of God is Wright's little book Who Was Jesus? (Eerdmans, 1992).
Monday, June 20, 2005
Mr and Mrs Smith
Penelope and I saw Mr and Mrs Smith over the weekend, on the recommendation of our babysitter. It's a sorry piece of work. Mr Pitt is very handsome and Ms Jolie is a knockout. For me, the parts where Ms Jolie isn't wearing all her clothes were the high point of the film. Beyond that, there's not much to the film, which is not so much a film as a filmed video game. The two stars walk around, looking sexy and cool, and they kill lots and lots of people, trying to rack up a high score. None of the people killed has a face or a name, which makes it easier for us not to care about them. But the fact that there isn't a villain also makes it harder for us to care about the protagonists. Penelope was hoping they'd kill one another and put an end to everybody's misery, but no such luck.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Angels
Pageant Angels
Originally uploaded by William Porter.
Sometimes you get lucky. I got no decent photos of my daughter at the pageant, but when these boys, er, angels were on stage, I noticed them and had the sense that a good shot was in the offing. Really good photographers must have that sense all the time.
Anything, this post demonstrates how things come together by accident. Flickr - maybe the best web application ever - works nicely with TypePad, which is a pretty great web app itself. Is Paul Graham right? Are web apps better than desktop apps?
(Originally published on Typepad 1/7/2005)
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