In the past week, there has been an excellent Congress held on digital media in Italy, called "Testimoni digitali. Volti e linguaggi nell’era crossmediale" [Digital Witnesses. Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age]. For an insiders view of what the conference was like, check out our favourite priest from the Netherlands – Father Roderick (http://fatherroderick.sqpn.com) However, I’d like to focus this article on the closing address Pope Benedict XVI gave.

In his address, the pope talked about the challenge the world faces with the advent of the internet – the expansion of communication on a global scale and across multiple forms of media comes with the risk of both creating a new divide between those that have access and those that don’t, and also the risk of people becoming lost within the digital world – without a clear moral compass.

The attendees were called by the pope, as we are all called, to bring a human face to these new forms of media to counter the anonymity of the internet – thus helping the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence.

To finish, in the words of Pope Benedict:

“Let us set sail on the digital sea fearlessly, confronting open navigation with the same enthusiasm that has steered the Barque of the Church for 2,000 years. Rather than for technical resources, although these are necessary, let us also qualify ourselves by dwelling in this world with a believing heart that helps to give a soul to the ceaseless flow of communications that makes up the web.

This is our mission, the inalienable mission of the Church.”

We have spoken about computer backups in the past in this column, and there are some things that you just can’t remind people of enough! However, some recent experiences have encouraged this column to be on more than just backup, but total disaster recovery.

Most large corporations have what is known as a “business continuity plan” which basically covers how the business can make sure that it can keep the doors open, even in the face of a catastrophe. Usually, the plan is a mixture of backup, redundancy and preparation: multiple, regular backups of all critical data; extra pieces of computer equipment as spare in case something breaks; and planning and communication to all staff to ensure that best practice is followed.

There is a lot the average home user can take from these plans. With the price of external hard drives so low these days, there really isn’t much of an excuse to not be backing up your critical files and photos regularly. But backing up isn’t just copying to a hard drive. Make sure you follow the 3-2-1 model – 3 copies (1 primary, 2 backups), 2 on different formats (e.g. hard drive and DVD), with 1 copy stored offsite (including online).

Also think about the less obvious outages: what happens if you lose your internet connection? Do you have a backup dial-up modem? How long can your home business run without email? Do you have paper copies of really critical documents in case the digital copies were lost forever? Do you test your backups to make sure they’re “good”?

The best time to plan for a disaster is well before it happens. So we suggest you hop to it!

One of the things I like about the internet is its ability to foster innovation. Sure, there is plenty of not-so-good stuff on there – and some downright evil stuff too – which basically means that the internet has evolved to become a microcosm of our fallen world. But it is often out of such muddy soil that the best roses grow.

Take Twitter. We’ve written about this microblogging technology before, but a lot of people are still struggling to add any real value with the 140 character limit imposed by the site. So, we’re left reading a lot about what people are eating for lunch, or where they’re going on Friday night. However, amongst all this, there have been some examples of how the platform seems to be fostering some innovative and creative ideas.

On the most recent St Valentine’s Day, an online video company organised for the world’s oldest married couple to respond to questions using Twitter. Nearly 5,000 people signed up to “follow” @longestmarried to find out the secrets to the successful marriage of Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher – who have been married for 85 years!

The pair took fourteen questions and provided answers in less than the 140 character limit to share some of their experience and wisdom. The questions included my favourite at #14: “What’s the one thing you have in common that transcends everything else?” (answer: “We are both Christians & believe in God.Marriage is a commitment to the Lord.We pray with & for each other every day”).

They didn’t need to have to find the capability to create a website, or write an extra-long essay – Twitter provided a simple way to broadcast their wise answers to earnest questions. Sharing wisdom like this from incredible people I’d probably never make contact with otherwise is Twitter used well!

With summer drawing to an end, students across the country all drift back to another year of education. However, technology is helping make this return less of a chore with may neat ways the Catholic Geek can get into their education and have fun with technology at the same time. Firstly, what has become a staple for practically any student serious about their study: laptops . There are a great range of basic models available from as little as $700 now, which are all fantastic for taking your notes, writing assignments, and even a occaisional bit of entertainment between lectures. If you are looking for something smaller you can pick up a netbook for even cheaper – a light way of carrying all you need round on campus. However, it’s important to remember to back up your information in case your laptop suffers from an accident – keeping copies of important information on a USB stick or two is highly reccommended.

Moving on, more and more textbooks are moving into the digital era. While NZ doesn’t directly get great devices like the Kindle (www.amazon.com/kindle) and Nook (www.bn.com/nook), their software versions let you access their libraries on your PC or mobile device. For those who prefer the comfort of paper, www.amazon.com, and the local equivalents www.fishpond.co.nz, www.thenile.co.nz and www.realgroovy.co.nz have a great range of textbooks; often at cheaper prices then the University bookshops. If you have friends in the same courses go in together and save on shipping.

Finally, open to anyone wanting to broaden their education, iTunes U brings a heap of University content freely online – including content from a number of leading Catholic Universities. This makes for an easy way to study while en route to Uni via your MP3 player. Fire up the iTunes store (www.apple.com/itunes) and check it out!

It is Christmas time again? Each year always seem to fly by even faster than the previous one! Before you know it, the Christmas presents will be unwrapped, the tree will start to wilt (do people even have real trees any more?), and we’ll be staring down the barrel of a brand new year.

But it is around this time of year that it is pretty easy to reflect on the losing of Christ from Christmas. While the odd Christmas hymn may sneak into the unlimited airtime “Snoopy’s Christmas” is given in our shopping malls, the focus will be – as it has for decades – on the holiday and the presents and the BBQs…and much less on Christ.

But, rather than lament this, there may be some opportunities to use some of the new social technologies that have taken such a hold on the world this past year to remind people that Jesus is the reason for the season. You can be as subtle or as overt as you like.

Take Twitter for example. This Christmas season there will be of tweets about how good the food is at Christmas, or how hard it is to find the right gift, or how good it is to be off work. Why not tweet that you’re looking forward to Midnight Mass? Or that you’re glad for the preparation time that Advent brings?
Or what about Facebook? You can adorn your profile page with a number of apps to remind people that you remember why it is called Christmas. How about starting with the “Keep Christ in Christmas” group?

None of these need to be over-the-top, or come across as forcing your beliefs on others. Rather take this opportunity to look at what these technologies say about you, and what you believe in this Christmas.

There has been much said about our technologically savvy Pope Benedict XIV – texting the pilgrims at World Youth Day and having an iPod. However, he’s not the only IT-literate one – have you checked out the official Vatican website, http://www.vatican.va? It’s been around a lot longer but is an excellent resource for Catholic doctrine.

If you follow the Saints and Blessed URL you can see all the people John Paul II made Saints during his pontificate which makes for inspirational reading. Following the Resource Library URL takes you to an online Bible (The New American), the Catechism of the Catholic Church (both the full version and the compendium), the Code of Canon Law (covering topics from being a minister of Holy Eucharist to ‘cases to declare the nullity of marriage’) and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. There is a special link for WYD information and one where you can read the letters from our Pope to Chinese Catholics.

To gain access to all the papal documents, follow the Papal Archive URL. This will take you to a menu based on each Papacy. John Paul II was well known for his prolific writing. Here you can read the encyclicals, apostolic letters, homilies, messages, speeches etc that he proclaimed. Among his most popularised writings are the encyclicals Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor. Probably the most ‘famous’ encyclical is Humanae Vitae which was written by Pope Paul VI 1968 and can also be accessed online – well worth a read! And of course, Benedict XVI is just getting started. So go forth and learn more about your faith!!!

Of course, the Vatican site is just the beginning. Do you have any other sites about our rich faith you’d like to see highlighted? Share them with all @ www.catholic.geek.nz. If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about – feel free to join in and let us know!

There is an interesting micro-trend emerging on the internet at the moment. It seems that a number of people are giving up technology for Lent! While that concept is pretty far from being realised by the team here at Catholic.geek, there are plenty who are trying it out anyway!

High among the targets for fasting this Lent are the social networking sites that are becoming so prevalent in the lives of people of all ages. Facebook has over one hundred groups with hundreds of members who are giving up the site for the forty days leading up to Easter. Many participants are changing their profile picture (the little image that represents them on the network) to be a small graphic with the words “I’ve given up Facebook for Lent” or have set their status to something similar.

The phenomenon is widespread enough to garner attention from some of the mainstream media. The Wall Street Journal has an article talking about parents who are giving up their newly found Facebook addiction for Lent and promising to spend that extra time with their families. Cnet has an article entitled “How to give up Facebook for Lent and keep your friends” which has tips such as writing out birthdays and other events from your Facebook calendar so you don’t forget them!

It is an interesting concept, and one that apparently is gaining more traction every year. What it does say to those of us who aren’t planning to give up Facebook or Twitter for Lent, is that participating in such “movements” is one way to draw attention to Catholic causes. So, try logging in to Facebook today and searching for good Catholic groups to join. Who knows – if enough people join, it may bring that Catholic idea to the front page.

Technorati Tags: catholic, geek, new zealand

About this time last year, we talked about New Years resolutions with your computer. These are still important, and well worth revisiting. However, thanks to the web, I don’t need to rehash them here – go to http://www.catholic.geek.nz/Blog/?p=70 to see last years tips and tricks.

This time round, lets to talk about keeping your PC up to date. Across the board, computer software has a habit of being released with a small smattering of bugs and hiccups in the software. As such, they need regular updating. This is especially important when you’re connected to the internet – unfortunately there’s plenty of malicious people out their just waiting to take advantage of any holes your computer might have in its armour to take control.

Windows users should visit update.microsoft.com and install all critical updates on a regular basis. You can also set your PC to automatically go out and check for updates, and to then install those updates on a regular basis. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525 for some instructions on how to do this

Apple users aren’t immune – check the Software Updater under the Apple menu on your Mac to see if there’s any patches out there for your system.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to protect your computer, Microsoft have some great tips that are well worth having a read through – check out http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx to read more, and remember – security starts at home!

The internet has transformed the way we listen to music. Where once the only way to hear new music was listening to the radio 24/7, and filtering out the chaff, or spending your life travelling from bar to bar to concert, now it’s easy to sample a range of new music and only buy the music you want. The internet allows for a large number (of legitimate!) ways of sampling and getting the music you want.

There’s a plethora of music stations available online. www.shoutcast.com is a superb directory of music stations playing every different genre of music imaginable. Additionally, almost all New Zealand radio stations can be listened to online, and often have additional entertainment available – a great example of this is Radio New Zealand’s podcast classics (www.radionz.co.nz/cfm/programmes/podcastclassics)

When you’ve decided what music you like, you can legally acquire what you want from a range of sources. In New Zealand, an excellent range of music is available from www.digirama.co.nz or the iTunes music store. The only caveat is that most music purchased from these sources have DRM attached to them – so they are limited in how you can use them (for example uploading to your MP3 player). An alternative source for less restrictive music is music.podshow.com – this is a US based site which is a great way of sampling music from up-and-coming artists.

Finally, from a Christian focus, www.parachutemusic.com is an excellent publisher of New Zealand Christian music. With artists like Magnify and The Lads, they are a great source of high quality music – well worth checking out.

Do you have any other tips on online music? Share them with all below by posting a comment. If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about – feel free to join in and let us know!

In 1983, Compaq released the first practical portable computer. The size, however, made the term ‘portable’ a loosely applied phrase – it weighed 12.5 kg and was the size of a sewing machine. It was a huge hit, however – selling 53,000 units in its first year. A new class of computer was born…

25 years on – most cellphones are more powerful then that first portable computer. And portable computers – that’s a whole new world. It is expected that in 2008, the sales of notebook computers will surpass desktop computers over the year for the first time ever. Notebooks are now as capable as a desktop, with a whole new level of flexibility – and with only a small price premium between a entry level desktop and laptop, for basic day to day use, there’s often little reason to forgo the convenience of a laptop.

A new class of laptops has emerged in 2008 as well – the netbook. These are special purpose laptops, shrunk even further, that are ideal for simple tasks like note taking and web browsing – and at the size of an actual A5 notebook – perfect for carrying around. While these are a little small to make it your only computer, they’re perfect if you’re considering a laptop to use alongside your desktop, or for something little to take to lectures at University, or to meetings. Check out http://tinyurl.com/6xmhv9 for an excellent comparison of the available options.

In 25 years, we’ve seen portable computing shrink from a device as big as a sewing machine down to something the size of a notepad. In the next 25 years, what will we see? Come, join the notebook revolution, and find out what the future brings us!