Take Me In - CC music

In the process of internet stalking a guy I was talking to the other day, I ran into this site - Creative Commons licensed Australian Christian music. And it's a good listen, too!

I love to see this kind of thing - Christians giving away things that bring glory to God.

I don't think we do our best work for the gospel by keeping resources - music, writing, whatever - only for those who can and will pay for them. God's word and his Spirit is freely given, why should the work we do that is inspired by his Spirit be limited in its distribution to only those who can afford it? I am convinced that the best we can do is to seek to share and give to one another those things that are Spirit inspired and bring glory to God.

The beauty of our present technological circumstance is that we can copy, share and duplicate to our heart's content at no cost. It costs nothing to make a copy of this music. It makes it easier to tell others and to give it away.

"At no cost?" I hear you exclaim - "Internet hosting isn't free!" Actually, it can be.

"But how will musicians/authors/creators be paid? We must recoup the investment," would be the next objection I would expect. If they need to be paid (which is quite reasonable - a worker is worth his wage) they should paid up front - a worker is worth his wage.

Most churches have a model for paid ministry, preaching and teaching where pastors/presbyters are paid to do work for the kingdom, not after they have produced a measurable/popular result. To be honest, many churches are even willing to blissfully willing to pay a "minister" who is doing more harm than good. Generally, we do not actively seek to measure the profitability of paying a regular stipend. We don't ask for a profit or even a return on investment (cynical observations about the relationship between Sunday services and motivation to 'tithe' notwithstanding).

Why should we insist that musicians make a product for a profit? I wouldn't be surprised if paying a stipend to musicians and other writers - and freely giving away what they create - would more effectively grow God's kingdom than the current widespread model does.

The other thing I love about this release is the license - CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike - you are free to copy it, share it and reuse it so long as the artist gets attribution and that whatever you do with it is released under the same license. This is something I want to talk about more some other time, but it rocks.

My ranting aside, grab the album - listen to it, share it, use it - it's good music.

Stryper in Guitar Praise?

Wow.

http://kotaku.com/5052781/glory-be-stryper-coming-to-guitar-praise-in-09
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/09/19/stryper-guitar-praise/

Links contain enormous hair and awkwardness.

Tunes

I've not played the game, but I've been enjoying the tunes from http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/castlecrashers.html

Also, there's some absolutely fantastic stuff at http://8bitpeoples.com/

A little bit of __attribute__((always_inline)) goes a long way

Previously, with my SPU programs, I've been relying on heavy, gratuitous use of the param option to set various inlining thresholds absurdly high - the result being large programs that take a long time to compile, but run quite fast.

The alternative is a little bit more precision - working out where the compiler isn't inlining something that would be beneficial to be inlined (i.e. handling sw cache hits) and forcing it to do so using always_inline.

The result? Faster compilation, smaller programs and (so far) programs that are as fast or faster - the compiler generally knows what it's doing when it comes to inlining, there's just some silly little, very hot, cache routines that it doesn't handle well.

Vid to MPEG2

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,harddup \
-srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 \
-lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=15:aspect=16/9:\
acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -ofps 25 -o your_video.mpg your_video.avi
(from http://www.linux.com/feature/53702)

Alternatively, tovid or DeVeDe.

Online presence

What does online witness or evangelism look like? (he asks after a rant)

The key, I think, is in relationship (which, surprisingly, is not unlike effective witness in RL).

An unknown person randomly preaching in a forum somewhere won't be given much credence. A person who is known for there participation, concern, respect and care will likely be given more regard.

It can take a long time to develop deep, meaningful relationships, and even longer when the only interaction is in text in the context of some topic driven forum, but I have ovserved in others that the most effective witness online is from Christians who distinguish themselves by their actions - they stand out as hard workers and as ready to answer questions or help as they are able. Characteristics of personal interaction that are very easy to lose when online.

Where's your internet?

Obviously the wrong place to ask this question, but if you're part of a church and not an internet user in some way, do you actually care about being part of the extant and developing culture in your community? Do you care about being relevant or incarnational or whatever when you are not even prepared to involve yourself in one of the primary sources of information and forms of communication and community?

We, as Christians, must follow culture, be part of culture as it develops. To take a place even in developing it.

If you're an internet consumer only, stop treating the internet like television and get involved. Participate. Contribute. Post comments in blogs, start a blog, answer someones questions, make a lolcat picture. Whatever - just get involved and be part of culture that isn't even new and emerging - these things are well established.

Christianity is not about feeling comfortable in what we are doing or feeling safe or feeling like we are in control. It's about being comfortable and safe and secure and in God, and being prepared to be fools in the world for the sake of the gospel. It's about being vulnerable and open and truthful and able to stand in the strength of God when we are humiliated.

So, get involved. Get out of your depth, don't be afraid to look like a fool for the sake of the gospel. Strive, in faith, to see the kingdom grow.