Movie: Fireproof

We watched Fireproof several weekends ago and really enjoyed it.  I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a movie to go and see.

The movie was very inspirational.  As you walked out of the theater, you saw couples everywhere holding hands.  You felt motivated to be the best husband or wife you could be. I like the Plugged in Review’s conclusion.

One of the ending elements was the showing of Romans 5:8 on the huge theater screen.  I was impressed.

One thing I did notice about the reviews is that numbers and rating don’t necessarily mean everything.  For example, the numerical rating system given by Kids-In-Mind put Fireproof in a category with many other movies that I would probably be offended to go see.  I can’t fault them for the rating because they are probably right from the perspective that you wouldn’t want younger kids to see the movie because they are not ready to handle such topics yet.  But, it would be nice have some sort of rating where you could search for all movies under a certain rating.  I have wanted for a while to write a spider to try to grab that information and build a list of family-friendly suggestions.  Maybe the Dove Foundation would have information that I could use.

Resources

• VideoETA: Information on when the movie will come out on DVD
• IMDb (Internet Movie Database)
• Kids-In-Mind
• Rotten Tomatoes Review
• Plugged In Review
• The Dove Foundation Review

Fun Fact: Error Messages

I just came across an article with a list of the top 13 error messages:

The Thirteen Greatest Error Messages of All Time

My favorite was the Blue Screen of Death picture during the Olympics Ceremonies!

Fun Fact: Computers Applied to Disability

A co-worker pointed this article out to me about Ed Gallagher.  In summary, he is blind and is using Skype to allow a person to remotely guide him.  I was impressed — it is a great use for the technology.

I didn’t see it in the article, but my co-worker was talking about homebound people acting as the guide.  It sounded like they were solving two weakness by getting the two together.  The blind people can’t see, and the homebound people can’t get out.  With the homebound people guiding the blind people, they can virtually do both.

Now, you can have a little fun with this, no offense meant to the people involved.  There must be a lot of trust involved on the blind person’s part.  Just don’t make the guide mad — you may get guided in front of a bus.  The article talks about sky diving.  I can imagine the Internet going out or the computer locking up at just the point when the person was to pull the cord to open the parachute!

Article: Blind adventurer uses Skype as his “eyes” in new documentary

Google Phone Finally

I have finally started to see the first Google phone released.  I am a little disappointed at this point.  I thought there was going to be more competition, but I am not seeing very much.

From Google Operating System, I learned a little about the phone:

• The price is around $200 – $400 (article cited).  This doesn’t seem too bad, but the sad part is that they require a 2-year contract.  That seems to be normal for cell phone contracts, but I thought the Google phone was supposed to be different — more open.
• The Google services looks great.  I use most of the services listed, and it would be nice to have access to those anywhere.  My biggest request of a smart phone, would be to help me keep organized, and these tools would do it.
• The GPS in conjunction with Google maps would be great.

It is locked into the T-Mobile network.  Where are the options?

On another note, I saw some news about M2Z Networks trying to create a free cell phone network.  This would be great if we could get the Google phone on that network!  I thought was interesting that T-Mobile was cited as one of the main ones against it.

Laptop Tracking

InfoWorld introduced this tool: Adeona

Supposedly, the service can help track down a stolen laptop.

Resources

• InfoWorld: New service tracks missing laptops for free
• Adeona