Unless you have been trying really hard not to notice, you almost definitely know that World Youth Day (WYD) 2008 is coming up and is going to be held in Sydney. For those not in the know, the event was started by Pope John Paul II in 1984. Since then, literally millions of young Catholics from nearly every nation on Earth have embarked on a pilgrimage every three or four years to meet with each other and the Pope and to learn, grow and celebrate their Catholic faith.

With WYD ’08 being so (relatively) close to home, nearly 4,000 Kiwi Catholics are heading across the ditch to Australia for the event which will be held from July 15-20 this year. One of the ways that the Church in New Zealand is preparing to support pilgrims connecting with each other ahead of, during and after the event is Connect.

Re-launched in May, Connect aims to act as “the online hub for young Catholic New Zealanders”. The new portal is running on the Spoke Framework – a shared platform that services many Church sites already. The portal’s features include frequently updated content, daily reflections, photos, news releases and links to other sites. Connect also “connects” by using a blog, YouTube channel, Flickr site and social networks like bebo and Facebook and brings them all back together on one site. In this way, Connect is being set up as a linking site that can bring other popular flavours of the internet together in one place, and then build a community around that.

While the new Connect site was born out of a need to prepare for WYD ’08, it is built for all young Catholics in NZ. So, even if you aren’t attending WYD, there’s sure to be something there for you.

As I write this, petrol has just topped $2 for the first time ever, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of prices abating. As a result of this, and its flow on effects to other commodity prices, there’s now a financial impetus to match the moral imperative for being ecologically aware. Naturally, as one would expect, there’s a group of geeks that are at the forefront of these initiatives.

Websites like EcoGeek (www.ecogeek.com) and Treehugger (www.treehugger.com) offer a vast swath of advice and information on how to reduce your footprint on the planet – and in many ways save money at the same time! From maximising your fuel economy (turn your engine off at the lights if you know it’s a long light phase), to instructions on how to make your own mini efficient vegetable garden. There’s lots of suggestions on how to reduce your energy bills too – ideas like the use of energy saver bulbs (more expensive initially but a lot cheaper in the long run), to the use of rechargeable batteries (again, there’s a bit of an upfront cost, but you’ll never need to buy AA Energizers again!)

For those who really want to go all out ecological, there is the extremely geek friendly Toyota Prius. This gets great mileage out of the box, plus has all kinds of cool gadgets inside. Plus, they’re easily hackable to make the mileage even better – http://tinyurl.com/2aflck is an excellent example. There’s even a company in Auckland that’s set themselves up dedicated to the sale of Japanese imported versions – www.cleangreencar.co.nz.

So, go on – join the EcoGeek revolution!

Ever wondered just how you can really keep up with all that is going on on the internet? I recently wrote about how browsing the web through a different web browser can really change the way the internet looks. Now let’s look at another way.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is when websites issue a “feed” of any kind of information to anyone who would like to subscribe. Such feeds are released in a way that notifies “reader” software that there is new information to view – very similar to the way the Associated Press and Reuters inform their subscribers of new news. So, basically RSS is the modern version of the news wires that revolutionised early journalism.
Since it’s inception in the late 1990’s, RSS has taken the internet by storm. We are now at the point where almost every major (and a lot of minor) websites offer their latest news and updates in an RSS feed – and nearly always for free. Wherever you see the little orange icon with white waves, or the acronym RSS, there will be a feed waiting for you to subscribe to.

In fact, most modern web browsers now include RSS feed readers built-in. So, you can browse to the NZ Catholic website in Mozilla’s Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon beside “National News” and Firefox will prompt you to subscribe to the feed using its “Live Bookmarks” functionality. Doing so will add a bookmark to your favourites that will be updated regularly as new stories come to light.

Google offers a free online reader that can offer a more pleasant reading experience. So, if you would like to be updated when stories that interest you develop, check out your favourite sites and look again for the RSS feeds that are almost certainly there.