So, I was checking out a site I recently discovered which you should check out called GodBit which is a community of Christian web developers and designers dedicated to creating quality content that is standards compliant… Hey! That is one of the things I am all about!

Long story short, I ran across one of the member’s sites that was hosted at Christian.net, my first web host (at the time, and perhaps now still, they offered 5mb free hosting and POP email — something hard to come by… I even talked the owner into letting me have a mysql database). Quite a long time ago I ditched my site at posborne.christian.net for my current domain (hosted with a more solid domain service now) of posborne.net.

I decided to check if my site at http://posborne.net/ still existed… it did. Things looked normal and I was actually pretty impressed at what I was able to accomplish at the time (with my limited knowledge of things). The hit counter is still counting, the design looks decent, and the guestbook is still very operational.

You see, sometime between when I launched the site (some time before May of 2004… my Junior year of high school), and now the spam bots got ahold of the guest book and left me several thousand million advertisements for viagra and other sorts of scams. Lovely.

I will be seeing if I can rid my lovely first host of the mass of mysql entries, but before then go ahead and check out the madness yourself. DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS!.

As a warning, it took me about 15 minutes for all the spam to load when you can see the 10 or so legitimate entries.

Interestingly, on my next guestbook I put the question: “What is Paul’s first name?” as a form field and did not receive a single spam message

So, I decided that because this next application is so sweet it deserved a sweet name.

The AJAX Graffiti Wall is basically a publicly available board that anyone (under any name) can post to. That in itself is nothing special. The cool thing is that the wall is alive do to the awesome power of AJAX. So, when you submit to write to the wall, your message is saved without changing pages, and you will be able to see (within a few seconds) when someone else posts something to the wall (without reloading the page at all).

Basically, the application is a chat client open to the entire world. I really want to have a conversation using the graffiti wall, so let me know when you want to have some fun (it’ll make me feel all special). Hopefully this thing will work in the different browsers this time.

» Link: AJAX Graffiti

Ok, I admit it - I failed to complete an app for yesterday (Monday). However, I do give myself credit for not giving up.

Today’s app is, once again, something not very useful but pretty cool when you think about what it is doing. The programming language of this project was Javascript, and the application itself is a page that lets you load other pages (on the same server) on the fly using the XMLHttpRequest Object that serves as the basis for that big buzzword “AJAX.” It’s not useful at all but worth checking out.

What the code basically does is, when the ‘go!’ button is pushed, is a request is made to the server, using Javascript, on a given page. That page (and a status of 200 or 404, etc…) is sent to the Javascript and an error or the page content is displayed based on the status code.

» Link: MathCS Surfer

So, this week I will be working at the first floor help desk at ITS full time starting at 8:00am and ending at 5:00pm with an hour break for lunch. It is Spring Break, so unless I am absolutely incorrect I will have quite a lot of free time on my hands. As a result I have decided to spend some of that free times doing something I love, developing software.

So, today (Sunday) and for the next 5 days (through Friday) I will release one, most likely not very useful software application to the world (most with source included).

Today’s App: A Java URL Viewer

Not the most interesting or amazing application ever, the URL Viewer allows you to enter a URL into the address bar, click ‘Go!’ and retrieve the text content (HTML, CSS, Javascript, Whatever) of the given URL. Basically this app was a way for me to improve my Java GUI skills and play around with the java.net.* packages. They are quite nice, and I would encourage my fellow Computer Scientists to check them out and mess around with them. The source for the files should be included in the .jar file.

» Screenshot: screen.png
» Download: HTMLViewer.jar

Well, I’ll be honest — I like facebook. I think it is the most superior social networking site, and I think that much of its success is thanks to its being independently owned. Sure, there are some great web applications like flickr owned by Yahoo!, but as a whole I tend to like how independently owned and run development projects flow. Even flickr started out independently — and, quite honestly, I think that being owned has stunted some amazing possibilities that the project could have brought about.

Back to facebook: According to this posting on TechCrunch, facebook isn’t planning on selling out anytime soon or at all. Mark Zuckerberg seems like a smart fellow, and I’m sure that he is making enough to get by right now as it is.

I sure hope that facebook doesn’t turn into a piece of junk like myspace; fortunately, I don’t see that happening. Facebook constrasted with myspace simply exudes cleanness, good design, and most importantly organization.

Growing up I had always seen the creation/evolution debate as such:

• All Christians are Creationists
• No Evolutionists is truly a Christian

It was a shock to me to find out that there were those who believed in things like “Theistic Evolution.” I did not understand how people who claimed to be believers, and who believed in the integrity of Scripture could hold such a position.

It came as an even bigger shock to me when I found out there was quite good theological, as well as scientific support for the position — the theological support being in the literary framework view of Genesis 1.

My personal position on the issue is still being formed, and I have come to the firm conclusion that the issue is not one of dogma (worth dividing over) but doctrine (a legitimate debate that is worth debating but concerning which division should not come about).

In just about every one of Paul’s letters, the need for love in the face of differences between believers for the sake of unity is paramount. Paul even acknowledges that one side is correct (say on eating food that may have been sacrificed to idols), but tells the believers who know the theological truth to sacrifice their rights to keep the weaker believers from stumbling.

This overarching principle of love and unity among believers, which I myself would not have ascribed to several years ago in the creation/evolution debate, is the principle that should be applied whenever this issue is discussed among believers.

What does it mean to be a “Christian?”
What does a “Christian” look like?

These are two questions which have been the center of much of my spiritual development. For the first question, my conclusion has been that a “Christian”, that is one who believes in Christ in the Romans 10:9-10 way, is a follower of Jesus Christ — in much the same way as the 12 Disciples.

But what does this look like when this ideaology meets reality in this thing we call “life?”  Following can be seen as a two-step process… First, in order to follow one must have an idea of where they are going — or at least they need to know the direction in which they are supposed to take the next step.  Doing this requires looking intently toward the one we are trying to follow, Jesus Christ.  Second, once we know the direction God is calling us to go, we step out in faith and act on that call with an intense trust that God will be with us in the hardships that may ensue.

Over the course of the past year, and in a renewed intensity as of late, I have fealt that God is leading me, in some capacity, toward the homeless.  My friend John Schmit and I both felt this way last year and started acting on it — we went downtown on Saturday nights, made some sandwiches, walked around and when we came across a homeless individual we talked to them and offered them food.  We had some dissapointments, some shallow conversations, and some true, heartfelt conversations.

We plan on starting up this Saturday night activity again a week from this Saturday (John is moving this Saturday), but I also believe is calling others towards such actions.  Please respond if you are interested in loving — there are people who need help and love… We, as followers of Christ, are called (every one of us) to help those who are in need.

I’ve been thinking quite a lot about theological matters recently (Ok, I am most of the time), and in the midst of all this theological thought I was required to write a Christian Theology paper. If you like theology or want to learn a thing or two (or at least tear apart my arguement… please do, this helps me learn) please read the following post and leave a comment (on the paper page, blog, or facebook).

http://blog.posborne.net/god-and-time

So, I haven’t blogged much recently for two main reasons…

1. I’ve been busy as all goodness (or at camp).
2. My site, posborne.net, was
   down for awhile — I’ve switched web hosts, so there is now no
   problem (and should be for awhile).

That being the case, I write this in order to, in a concise fashion,
bridge the gap between my current situation and my situation last
spring. In keeping with my academic inclinations as of late, I’ve
just now decided to create an outline of this time period.

1. Freshman Year
2. Summer
   1. Camp
      • I served for my fifth summer at Camp Nathanael, an all boys camp near Hinckley, MN.
      • My position (for my second year) this year was Campfire Director (CFD), so I was in charge of the nightly time of ministry which includes songs, skits, stories, and a message/invite. Campfires went well and a suprising number of campers “staye after” with counselours and staff members to talk about things like what it means to be a christian, how can they be saved, and personal issues with sin. It was encouraging to see the “results” of the work I put into campfires, but I know that it’s not by my work that good things happen, but only as a result of the working of God’s spirit in the heart of campers.
      • God really revealed himself to us as a staff over the summer. The weather which was extremely dry served as a reminder of how our own lives are without the moving of God’s Spirit. God chose to use times of storm during the summer to reveal Himself to us in ways we did not expect but which were amazing. Ask me about specifics, there were several simply amazing experiences.
      • I managed to find a little time to read this summer, and I decided to read the Penteteuch (first five books of the Bible). Coming into the reading, I figured that the books would fit the traditional view that they have a few “interesting” parts but are more-or-less boring and far from applicable. To some extent, this was true — The second half of Exodus was incredibly boring (most all of it was God’s specifications for the building of the tabernacle and then how the building of the tabernacle and then how the building of the tabernacle actually went down). However, all in all, I found the Penteteuch to be extremely interesting — The book of Deuteronomy was particularly interesting. It really reveals quite a lot about the character of God. If you haven’t read the book, I would really recommend it.
   2. Backpacking Trip

      • So, this summer, we as a staff were talking about how we could minister to the counselours additionally coming out of camp — a time which is particularly difficult. There used to be a trip after camp called “Hardcore” in which the counselours (led by the staff members) would be physically and spiritually challenged by a series of trips/challenges such as whitewater canoeing the Brule River in a day, spending three days in the wilderness by one’s self, and running 10 miles after being completely physically exhausted by everything else.

        Based on this idea, and a 4-day time constraint we came up with the idea of doing a “Hardcore” backpacking trip. What made the trip more hardcore than a usual backpacking trip? Well, we prayed and decided to go a long distance, to go without tents (shelter), and to go without eating (we fasted the entire trip). The hardest part of the trip was probably convincing the highschool-age counselours’ parents to let their kids go on the trip. Somehow we got a total of 17 people to go (including myself and the other staff members).

      • The trip was exactly what we thought it would be… difficult. We met together on the Sunday after camp, went to Upper Room together, and got a nights rest after watching and being inspired by one of my favorite movies, Braveheart. The next morning we got up early (3:30 I believe) and had our final meal at Denny’s. We drove up to the Superior Hiking Trail (north of duluth by Two Harbors) and hit the trail in our three pre-defined groups named after Levitical groups (The group my friend Graydon and I led was “Merari”).
      • I won’t go into tons of details about each of the days, but I will mention one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. Our second day of hiking, after hiking about 12 miles (quite a distance), we rested for a few hours and studied a passage from Luke and Ecclesiastes. In our group debrief/study time a large number of us felt a strange amount of energy (this is after fasting for about 2 days already while expounding huge amounts of energy hiking) and we decided to hike through the night. We used a flashlight and a headlamp for awhile to see our ways through the paths, but eventually we adjusted our eyes to the darkness and went by straight moonlight. It was amazing! Eventually my mind started going and I started to see things and we rested after hiking 7 hours through the night to rest for a few hours.
      • The next day, after resting for about 4 hours after our night-hike, we finished the last remaining part of the hike. I, and the others I was with, had literally nothing left, yet by the strength provided us by God (and I am convinced this is the only way we were able to do what we did) we made it through to the end. The terrain throughout the whole hike was brutal which large hills being the norm. The peaks were beautiful but the sight of the vans at the end of the hike was even more beautiful. Then we got to eat I have never loved the feel of a greasy double cheeseburger sliding down my throat more in my life.
3. Sophmore Year
   1. RIOT Trainining
      • Came back to BU the 25th of August (more than a week before classes) for RIOT training and the leadership retreat. All the RIOT leaders rock, but the Nelson Team rocks especially hardcore. It was fun doing trainig, watching amazing funny van training videos, and doing things like crazy scavenger hunts (oh, and worshipping God… of course).
   2. Classes
      • I definitely have a very busy semester. Here are the courses I am currently taking:
        1. Discrete Mathematics with Eric Gossett: Dr. Gossett wrote the book and the course is a ton of work — right now we are doing proofs which is proving to be very difficult (fine, pun intended). Each homework (and there are three a week) consumes an average of 3-4 hours (no exaggeration).
        2. Computer Scinece 2 with Benji Shults: I hear this course is going to get progressively more difficult and work-intensive as the semester goes on. So far things haven’t been too bad, and I am starting to get back into the coding groove after a summer away from computers, Java, and programming in general.
        3. Life and Teaching of Paul with Steve Enderlein: Some people have found the lectures boring, but thus far I have really enjoyed the class. Unfortunately, I am so overloaded with work that I simply do not have time to do the assigned readings. Maybe if things let up (which they won’t) I will be able to do some catch-up.
        4. Biblical Law in Christian Perspective with Cathy Wright: My “J” course which includes a hefty exegesis paper (which is due very soon. So far I haven’t enjoyed this course as much as some of the other, but I haven’t given up on it yet either.
        5. Christian Theology with Beilbe: This course is very enjoyable and we haven’t even gotten to the good stuff… enough said.

I would write more (as if I do not already have enough, but I know that if I don’t post this now it will never get done…

I would like to introduce my current and newest development project photoFusion. PhotoFusion is a image gallery application using many of the newest technologies such as php5, sqlite, xml (using php5’s simpleXML), and AJAX.

The application will support photo organization by albums, general tags, and category tags (which will allow category specific tags such as name tags, location tags, and others). User’s will be able to search for pictures containing certian terms in the description or tags. User’s will also be able to comment (in a cool web 2.0 fashion) on photos.

The administration interface will include many features (eventually) which will go well beyond the common-place features offered by traditional image gallery applications. I don’t have it completely mapped out yet, but I am seeking to create something that is powerful, intuitive, and “cool”. I like the image upload features offered by facebook, and I may even implement a similar java-based solution. Java, being client-side, offers many advantages when browsing for and uploading photos.

The development process is still very early, and I will not have very much time to develop until mid-August as a result of being at camp, so your input will definitely be taken into consideration in the creation of this software. I may even be willing to work on this project with someone if anyone is interested. I don’t have big dreams for this application as of yet (the main reason I’m doing it is to stay fresh and to learn new technologies), but who knows.