May06

Google Chrome Web Browser vs Potato Gun = Awesome

Chrome is a web browser (what you usually use to view stuff on the Internet).

Sep27

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Television Series – Awesome

There is a lot of junk television programming out there which is why we watch very little television (a few Discovery Channel and History Channel bits here an there, and Shark Week), but there is one television show that was pretty fun to watch last year: Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network.

Watch more AOL Kids videos on AOL Video

Last year’s season was a huge success, and it’s great to see a show on television that has a moral for each episode. The new season starts this week.

Jun12

Awesome Tour of the New Church History Library

The open house for the Church’s Library is underway this weekend only, and we decided the opportunity was too good to miss. The Library houses old manuscripts, books, etc., from LDS Church History. On display during the open house were some pretty awesome artifacts.

I took a few pictures with my G1 Android Phone, and was glad I had it there because some of the things on display won’t be open to the public (I asked if I could take pictures with no flash, and they said I could, just FYI for all you document preservers out there).

Also, this library is different than the Church History Museum and the Family History Library. The facility is brand new and is across the street from Temple Square (North Side).

Above is a picture of the library. The building has many large windows which offer a great view of Temple Square as well as the Capitol.

We enjoyed seeing a very moving film about Church history and records (didn’t know they could be moving did you?). The film depicted the late 1800′s with a brother Millet who was told by his children that their neighbor, brother Hall did not have any flour or bread for food. You’ll have to watch the movie there to see what happens.

We walked through the preservation room (kind of reminded us of National Treasure) and saw the temperature controlled storage rooms. They said that by lowering the temperature 18 degrees, they can double the life of the documents. They had some rooms in th 50′s and others close to freezing.

We enjoyed seeing the reconstruction/preservation room. They had the old presses there on display, but we also saw that they used the old machinery to fix old books. One of the restorers of the Book of Mormon…ha…ha…he restored copies of the original Book of Mormon was there and was explaining with the aid of a flat screen TV and video what he did to restore one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon printed in 1830 and put on display for us for the open house. It was pretty fascinating, the technique, the old tools as well as modern that he used to put the book bind back together.

This picture is in the same room as shown/mentioned above. The restorer is at the front (sorry, not a very good picture), but you can also see the Capitol in the background.

Here it is, an original copy of the 1830 Book of Mormon. Only 5,000 copies were printed in the first run. The handwriting in the book is by Joseph Smith and addressed to the recipient of the book who is also mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants. This is the book that was talked about in the restoration…ha..ha…room.

One of the neatest things we saw was an actual page (not a replica) of the original transcription page from the Book of Mormon. Absolutely fascinating. Sorry, there was glare from the overhead lights. I tried to move to get it out of the way. The page details Nephi’s interaction with Zoram.

Nov23

Artistic Paris Photos

I had been meaning to post some pictures of our Paris trip that, with a little help from Photoshop and Picasa, we’ve given a more artistic flare.

Some pictures we converted to black and white, while others, we’ve applied brush strokes. It’s interesting to see how changing the color or adding brush strokes can change the tone of the picture.

Adding brushstrokes seem to add a nostolgic feel to the scene and it’s one of my favorites. Rather than a harsh picture showing every detail, it is soft and acts more like a memory, not recording every detail, but capturing the feeling of the moment.

Changing the picture color to black and white adds a professional touch to the picture since there were so many excellent pictures taken back in the day with just black and white film.

The sepia tone adds an almost reverence to the picture especially the picture at the tomb of the unkown soldier.

Some of the effects were just for fun and brought out a unique element in the photo making it distinct and more interesting.

Pictured below are: The Louvre, a street in Montmatre, Notre Dame, The Sacre Couer, walking towards the Arc, the home of Victor Hugo, the Eiffel Tower, a few views from the Eiffel Tower, and a number of views of Montmartre at night.

To see the detail and brush strokes, click on any of the pictures to see a larger version. You can from there click the Slide Show button in the photo album to view full screen.

Related Paris Posts:

Paris Day 1 – The Trip and Arrival

Paris Day 2 – The Louvre, Jardin Des Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Paris, France Video

Jun17

New FireFox Browser Released

The new FireFox 3.0 Internet browser entered the stage as a new release today (June 17, 2008). FireFox is trying to set a world record for most downloaded software during the day.

About FireFox from Wikipedia:

“Forbes.com called Firefox the best browser in a 2004 commentary piece. PC World named Firefox “Product of the Year” in 2005 on their “100 Best Products of 2005″ list. After the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, PC World reviewed both and declared that Firefox was the better browser. Which? Magazine named Firefox its “Best Buy” web browser.”

“…Microsoft’s head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated in late 2004 that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the feature set of Firefox among Microsoft’s users. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but he has commented “so much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?”"

“…A Microsoft SEC filing on June 30, 2005 acknowledged that “competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products.” The release of Internet Explorer 7 was fast tracked, and included functionality that was previously available in Firefox and other browsers, such as tabbed browsing and RSS feeds.”

“…In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla. As a nod to the browser wars, some readers joked about the cake being poisoned, while others jokingly suggested that Mozilla send a cake back along with the recipe, in reference to the open-source software movement.”

Mozilla Firefox. (2008, June 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:25, June 18, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mozilla_Firefox&oldid=220073304

For new Firefox Features, click here.

May28

Autumn’s First Dance Recital

Autumn had her first dance recital. She did a fantastic job. Her group that she is in had dance lessons previously. This was Autumns first time in a dance class.

Highlights below: