I’m in the middle of upgrading our computers at work to Windows 7, which, by the way, is an impressive operating system and a very quick upgrade. Although you can’t upgrade directly from Windows XP (you have to reformat and start afresh), the process still takes less than half an hour.  For the most part, all your hardware works.  It’s just a beautiful process!

BUT, there was one thorn in my side during all this — the Linksys wireless adaptors some of our computers use. We’re upgrading all our computers to the 64-bit version of Windows 7, and that requires a special driver.  Linksys published this driver years ago, but I could no longer find it on their Website.  Other sites linked to the page on their Website where it should have been, but it just wasn’t there anymore.  This is how the six-hour nightmare began.

I searched Google for the driver.  I searched forums.  I searched everywhere I knew to look. I read about complicated workarounds.  Some people said you should use alternate drivers by other manufacturers.  But no real Linksys driver… until I finally came upon ONE user who happened to have saved the driver file before Linksys removed it from their site.  With this one file, I was able to install the wireless adaptor in less than five minutes and get the computer online easily.  Here it is, for those looking for it:

http://homecommunity.cisco.com/t5/Wireless-Adapters/PLEASE-HELP-WUSB54GSC-64-bit-driver-needed-please/m-p/339424/highlight/false#M28097

My question is:  Why did Linksys not make this file available online themselves? (The latest driver listed on their Website was from 2002 and for WinXP only.)  I can only guess that it has to do with the fact that they’re now part of Cisco.  In the effort to rebrand, the linksys.com site redirects to the cisco.com site.  Some of the content must not have made the switch.  An innocent enough mistake… other than the fact that I have hundreds of dollars of Linksys gear that should not be obsolete, and they’re now paperweights, thanks to Cisco’s mismanagement of their driver database.  The drivers exist to make these adaptors work with Win7, but Cisco just hasn’t put them online.

Maybe they want you to buy even newer gear???  Well, not me! If that’s how they manage their driver database, I can only imagine that gear I buy today might become unnecessarily obsolete in just a few years too.  No thanks, Cisco.  I’m off to find a different brand of wireless technology to use.  Users shouldn’t have to rely on other users who happen to have saved driver files before they were ripped offline by the manufacturer.

And for anyone out there who’s been luckier than me, I’m still looking for a x64 driver for several other pieces of Linksys gear.  Until I find them, I’ve got some really nice blue paperweights on my desk.

Photo courtesy: azn_racer_fan

Category: Cool Stuff, Geek Stuff | Place a comment »

Last week, I preached about the wonder of our physical birth from Psalm 139. This week, I concluded the two-part series by looking to Ephesians 2, which teaches that our spiritual rebirth is no less miraculous.  In fact, God calls it His masterpiece on display for all to see.

http://vimeo.com/12646483

Category: Cool Stuff, Sermons | Place a comment »

When we preached on Psalm 40, we illustrated the topic with a video of people sharing their testimonies. But, we noted that the psalmist says God put a new song in his heart.  We couldn’t get anyone to sing a testimony, so we forced them to sing with a little help from Auto-Tune!

Category: Cool Stuff, In Yo' Face Creativity | Place a comment »

Last week, I had the privilege of filling the pulpit at Wade. I took on Psalm 139 and discovered that humans have worth and value because God personally created them, knitting together each and every inch of their DNA.  The psalmist teaches us that we are wonders of the world because of the fingerprint of God that is upon each of our lives.

http://vimeo.com/12496701

Category: Cool Stuff, Sermons | Place a comment »

Like so many other tech geeks, I was spellbound today, listening as the Willy Wonka of the world of computers left seclusion long enough to let us all in on his latest wonder. Funny thing was, the network wasn’t exactly cooperating with him.  Check out the video of Steve Jobs and the iPhone 4 that couldn’t get online here: http://gizmodo.com/5557458/watch-the-steve-jobs-keynote-meltdown

I guess it’s not Apple’s fault that the WiFi was so bad. Or was it?  Weren’t they smart enough to have two distinct networks — one for use by presenters and one for use by the pool of reporters?  And why should they be using WiFi at all?  Looking up the New York Times is something you should be able to do on 3G.

I’m still forming my opinion of the iPhone 4. I generally think very positively of what I’ve seen so far.  The 720p video camera looks great.  The display is gorgeous.  Multitasking is da bomb.

My chief concern is that the technologies they claim are based on open standards really may not be. Take “FaceTalk,” for instance.  This has the potential to revolutionize video phone conversations — but only if it’s a standard that can be adopted by other carriers and phone makers.  Why not go with something more generic like Skype or qik.com (like the HTC Droids do)?  Oh yeah, because if you tie FaceTalk to the cell phone number, then AT&T will probably get to charge you for all the minutes you spend talking on it — even though you have to BYON (bring your own network).  That is to say that FaceTalk isnt available via Edge of 3G — only WiFi.

What do you think?

Category: Cool Stuff, Technical Wizardry | Place a comment »

This week at Wade, we talked about the rhythm of repentance that God has ordained for our lives.  It reminded me of this sermon by Mark Driscoll, who distinguished between real repentance and worldly sorrow:

Repentance is not:

• getting caught
• blame shifting
• focusing on sins you didn’t do

Repentance is:

• conviction by God
• confession to God and others (agreeing with God)
• not minimizing or managing the sin (“If Jesus died for that sin, then that sin must die.”)
• restitution (bringing healing to those you’ve wounded)
• reconciliation

Category: Spirituality | Place a comment »

Why buy an expensive keying plug-in? If you have Premiere and After Effects, you have access to Keylight 1.2, which provides very professional results with little effort. Check out this video for a quick tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKbdT1gy9Tw

Got a photo or video question you want answered? Leave it as a comment below!

Category: Cool Stuff, Technical Wizardry | Place a comment »

Scenes like this are popping up all around us. I love spring (mostly because I hate winter).  It reminds me that no matter how harsh the deep freeze of winter has been, summer always comes.  And no matter how dark the night has seemed, the dawn always comes.  Thank God that the same can be said of our emotional and spiritual lives.

Sermon – Spring Is Coming from Bill Whitt on Vimeo.

Category: Cool Stuff, Sermons, Spirituality | Place a comment »

Check out what I did for April Fools Day:

Minutes after I sent this email, three of my coworkers were anxiously searching the third floor for the nonexistent homeless man. It took a few minutes before they finally realized they’d been fooled.  In total, I tricked about seven people with that email!

So, what’d you do for April Fools?

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Rants | Already 1 comment »

Since I’m currently in the middle of a Twitter fast, there are a few things I have to say here on my blog:

• Having your basement flood sucks.
• The new Japanese place in Bluefield ain’t that bad!
• I’m getting more creative each year at finding new ways to procrastinate when it comes to doing my taxes.
• Coming soon to a Web browser near you: The latest divisions of Whitt Media — RapidRetouch.com and BDubRecords.net.
• Now that I finished learning CSS basics, I realize why every Web designer hates IE6 so much.
• Always carry a Beta58 with you.  You never know when you’ll end up at a church that uses VocoPro mics…

Whew, well that felt good to get off my chest.  That doesn’t count as tweeting, right?  Man, this Twitter detox is hard!

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Rants | Place a comment »

I decided to shut down my personal Twitter and Facebook sites for 40 days. It’s not exactly for Lent, but the goal is similar.  I’m excited to gain a new perspective.  I’m going in with an open mind as to what my social media fast might reveal to me about myself and what changes I should make to my life.

I’ve gotten rid of everything on Facebook, leaving only the bare minimum:

After only 36 hours away from Twitter and Facebook, I’m already discovering just how much of my time is devoted to those two sites. I made a similar discovery when I fasted from food last year.  I was amazed to learn how much time I spent thinking about, shopping for, preparing and eating food everyday.  I didn’t anticipate to learn the same thing during a social media fast, but I’ve already done a good bit of pacing, looking for something to fill an unexpected void.

I’d be lying if I said that introspection was the only reason I’m doing this.  I’m also trying to free up some time and mental energy to focus on developing a marketing strategy for new areas of my business, chiefly rapidretouch.com and bdubrecords.net.  That will also involve creating new blogs, YouTube accounts, Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, etc.  In other words, I’m hoping to harness the power of social media for my business, which means that the current craziness of my online life has the potential to get exponentially worse if I don’t find a smart smart strategy.

There are other reasons as well. For example, I’d like to return to devoting more time to more weighty things that have more permanence – such as blogging and authoring books.  I also need to get a grip on my Facebook profile and perhaps create some new privacy settings.

Have you ever considered a social media fast, and why?

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Rants, Spirituality | 2 comments »

Awesome! I just got this in my email:

Looks like my favorite camera just got… favoriter. I’ve loved the EOS 5D Mark II since it first came out, even if it was released a little half-baked.  At first, there was no way to manually control anything when recording a video.  People came up with hacks, such as setting the aperture and then unscrewing the lens so that it could not go back into auto mode.  Eventually, Canon released a firmware update that gave us manual control over shutter and aperture (without having to risk our lenses’ lives).  You can check out what I’ve been able to do with that in this post.

This week, Canon announced another step forward — 24fps recording. In addition, the 30fps mode will be modified to 29.97fps to be compliant with NTSC standards.  They’ve also added a live histogram to aid in manual exposure.  But wait, there’s more!  Manual audio controls!  Documentary filmmakers who shoot with the 5D have come up with some clever techniques to circumvent the camera’s auto gain control, but nothing worked perfectly.  So the new manual control will be a great addition.  And last but not least, the Av and Tv modes will work as expected in video mode, allowing me to, for instance, pick a wide aperture and set-it-and-forget-it!

Getting all this is like an unexpected Christmas gift. I’ve always heard that firmware upgrades fix bugs.  You shouldn’t expect new features from firmware upgrades, and so I was just expecting these much-needed features to come with a hefty price-tag — buying a new Canon EOS 5D Mark III.  Thank God Canon didn’t do that.  Some companies (Adobe, are you listening?) abandon development on their products as soon as they come out and force you to buy new stuff.  All that makes for is angry customers who switch to more considerate competitors.

Creating good relationships with loyal customers is way better than making a quick buck.  And Canon just won a lot of goodwill from me!

Category: Cool Stuff, In Yo' Face Creativity, Technical Wizardry | Place a comment »

Conan O’Brien posted his first (and only) tweet about interviewing a squirrel in his back yard.  Less than 24 hours later, he’s approaching 300,000 followers on Twitter.  Other oddities from his new Twitter page?  He follows zero people (maybe I could be the first?) and the “Web” link comedically points back to the same Twitter page.

My favorite part of Conan’s new Twitter account, though, it his one-line bio: “I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account.”  Have you ever felt that way?  It reminds me of this passage from the Bible:

When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity (Hebrews 10:34, NLT).

The people receiving this letter lost more than a TV show. Their property was plundered.  They were beaten and endured public ridicule.  They went through “terrible suffering.”  And they did it joyfully.  How?  They knew better things were coming.  Specifically, an eternity where sin and suffering become distant memories of the past.

I hope you have that hope too. Whatever loss you endure on earth — whether it’s the cancelation of a late night TV show or something far worse — keep pressing on, looking to better days that are coming.  Better than you’ve ever imagined!

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Rants | Place a comment »

Yesterday, I posted a review of a book I recently read, Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung.  Here’s one more paragraph that I just love:

One of the virtues I appreciate most in others, and it’s a virtue I hope to have in some measure, is teachability.  Are you willing to change your mind when another person’s case has more merit than yours?  Are you able to hear good advice when it comes from some mouth other than your own and may even contradict your preconceived ideas?  Are you willing to admit “I didn’t think of that” or “I see your point”?  If no one has ever heard you change your mind about something, then you are either a god or you have mistaken yourself for one.

Teachability makes a good employee. When I hire interns, more than anything else, I’m looking for teachability.  More than specific skills or abilities, I want someone who is open to learn new things.

Teachability also makes a good boss. Even though you may have positional authority, that doesn’t mean every idea you have is gospel truth.  The best leaders are life-long learners.  Have you ever worked for someone for years and never once heard the words, “I see your point”?  That person may never lose a debate, but he’ll also never win my respect.

Whether you’re the CEO, a mid-level manager or the janitor, teachability makes you a good team player, and even more importantly, that humble attitude reveals that the Spirit of God is at work in your life.  God, help us to be teachable today.

Category: Cool Stuff, Spirituality | Place a comment »

Twitter is buzzing with news about Apple’s new tablet, the iPad. And it’s not good.  I couldn’t agree more.  You won’t catch me shelling out 500 big ones for this device, and here’s why:

• Not built on OS X. Unlike other tablets, this is not a laptop replacement.  It’s an overgrown iPod that won’t fit in your pocket.
• Higher priced eBooks. You’ll probably pay more for books on the iPad, but it will be much less comfortable to read them (backlit screen, as opposed to digital ink on the Kindle and other devices).  Give us some color digital ink if you really want to be innovative, Apple!
• No Flash support. And what’s the Web without Flash?
• No USB ports.
• No multitasking.
• No voice or phone features.
• No camera features.
• Web prices are “good,” but AT&T’s network is not. It would be like paying 3x as much for below dial-up speed (where available).

Also, no big announcement about AT&T losing exclusivity with the iPhone… no iPhone OS 4 updates… no MacBook updates…  Big disappointments all around.  I’m glad I don’t own any Apple stock today.

For now, I’m just going to stick to my iPad mini (an iPhone). Thanks, but no thanks, Apple.  When you can turn my MacBook Pro into a gorgeous, stylus-driven tablet with FireWire and a quad-core processor, then give me a call.

[ht: @PastorJimDrake for the iYawn headline.]

Category: Cool Stuff, Technical Wizardry | Place a comment »