Whatever

I have a Canon G9 but I absolutely hate Canon’s bundled software (sorry, Canon). I call it “bloatware.” As you install it, you don’t know what to install or not install. Then, when you finally figure out what to install (usually everyone just installs everything), you have 200MB of crap on your system you’ll never use. I’ve had a G3, and now a G9, and both times I purchased a camera I tried installing the Canon software and promptly uninstalled it. I don’t like bloat. I like efficiency. Speed. Lightness of being. So I started looking for a free alternative.

I found it in cam2pc. I’ve been using this freebie for years and it’s never failed me. It does what I want it to do (which is download images and videos from my camera and losslessly rotate them). It does a lot more, too, but I use it for one thing - to download images from my camera quickly and painlessly. If you want to see its other features, check out the cam2pc website. They also sell a more feature-packed version of cam2pc, which I’ve never used, but if it functions as flawlessly as the free verions, I’d highly recommend it.

Download the free version of cam2pc here.

Oh yes, you’ll also need to download the Canon support files (if you have a Canon, that is), found here.

My sister recently asked me to record a two hour gymnastics show for her. She didn’t have the equipment to record it herself. No biggie, right? Well, I haven’t used my VCR in about five years and didn’t have any blank tapes. The show started in 20 minutes.

I have Media Center 2005 on my machine, and I record shows for home use all the time . . . so I decided to record the gymnastics and see if I could create a DVD for her. Everything went smoothly until Media Center spit an error in my face. It read something like, “Your file is too big to put on a DVD, Stupid!”

So, I looked around, found where MCE stores video files, then tried double clicking it. Windows Media Player opened it right up. “Hmmmmmm,” I thought. “I could email her file and all she’d have to do is double-click it!” I now only had one problem left to overcome. How in the world was I supposed to send a 7GB file?

After a period of searching, I decided the best method was to split the file, burn two DVDs and send them to her in the mail.

I searched a bit and found a free program called GSplit. I downloaded it, stuck with the default options, split the file, and all of a sudden three files sat upon my desktop. I couldn’t watch either video file by clicking on them, but when I clicked the third file (a small executable created by GSplit), it magically re-joined the two files and restored them to the original 7GB file.

Thank you GDG Software!

Download GSplit here.

I love this Psalm for multiple reasons.

David prayed earnestly, out of a sincere heart. Do we?

David purposed that his mouth would not transgress.

I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
Psalm 17:3 (portion)

Some say avoiding sin is not simply a matter of making a decision. Being a former addict, I understand the thought process. Yet such thoughts are deceptions, some truth mixed with lies.

Life consists of a series of decisions. Will I swear? I choose. Will I pick up that joint? Will I light it? It’s up to me. Do I have the ability to stop my hand from reaching over to the bottle, unscrewing the cap and drinking? Did I look at the porn out of necessity? Every waking moment we make choices. We can purpose, like David, to not sin. We choose. So often we blame addiction, our partners, unforeseen circumstances, depression . . . we need to be like David and stop blaming everything around us. Our choices are our decisions. Plain and simple.

So often we think the concept of eternal life is only a New Testament concept. I’ve talked about it before, and I’ll say it again - it’s all over the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. David talked about men whose satisfaction and treasure was here - in this life. He contrasted that with his vision of contentment . . .

¹³ Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him! Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
¹⁴ from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
¹⁵ As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

David’s portion was with God. He understood that this life offers nothing. He had an eternal perspective. Do you?

Are you an Internet parent? Do you struggle with how to keep your kids from running into less-than-uplifting material? Struggle no more. K9 (from Blue Coat) filters the bad stuff out. Plain and simple. And even better - it really works. And best of all, it’s free for personal use.

I had doubts about this program. I figured it’d be simple to cripple, especially for today’s Internet-savvy kids. Well, it’s not. And it’s nearly impossible to uninstall if you don’t have your original password and email address. So, if you plan on installing this, do not, I repeat, do not forget your password and email address you use to sign up! If you do, you’ll be in for some serious trouble when you try to uninstall.

If you want to know how it all works and why it’s free, well, visit the Blue Coat website!

Download K9 here.

This testimony tells the story of an arrest . . . typically the testimonies posted on this site tell of a conversion experience. Webster defines the word “testimony” as:

1. an open acknowledgment or
2. a public profession of religious experience.

I think that leaves it pretty wide open.

So, take some time to read Henry’s story of being arrested for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s a good reminder that no matter what the cost, we need to be confidently and openly sharing our faith.

Interestingly enough, a reader wrote us and asked us if children should be loved, and if so, how they should be loved. Well, none of us here at truthsaves.org has children (not quite), but we think Scripture gives clear direction on loving them.

Read the article here.

Here’s a new Christian poem from mamarocks.com. It’s called Lord, Forgive Me. When we plead with God for forgiveness, He listens and forgives.

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

I know I talked about imgburn in an earlier post, but I think imgburn deserves its own post.

I recently wanted to start burning DVDs because my new camera takes excellent video and CDs no longer seemed a reasonable way to organize my backups. So, I tried burning a DVD with XP, and, needless to say, it didn’t work. While XP has efficient CD burning capabilities, it lacks DVD burning capabilities. So, I started looking through my software for Cyberlink (which came with my Dell when I bought it). Well, I couldn’t find the product key, so I started looking online for a free alternative. And I found it. It’s called imgburn (if you hadn’t figured that out already).

I love this program. Even DVD dummies like myself can figure it out. And if something seems confusing, check out the forums on the imgburn website. I personally found the guides section of the forum to be particularly useful. And don’t forget, it can burn CDs, HD DVDs and Blu-ray disks as well.

So, forget about the commercial bloatware (like Cyberlink) and instead choose simplicity and elegance - choose imgburn.

Download it here.

We’ve finally posted another outline. We’re sorry that things have been moving slowly. I hope to accomplish a lot with the site in the next few days. I have a number of outlines and testimonies I’d like to post. We still want more testimonies and articles and we’d love to hear from you.

Besides the image of God’s glory, there are images of sieges, of an outcast vine, of divine love, of sexual promiscuity, of a cooking pot, of shepherds, of dry bones that gain flesh and live, of a new temple, and of future blessings. Jesus undoubtedly has in mind Ezekiel 34 when He spoke of being the Good Shepherd in John 10. Ezekiel gives us visions of God and visions of Satan, visions of destruction and visions of hope, extended imagery of patience and stupidity, and promises of a new covenant and a new time of peace.

Read the overview and outline of Ezekiel here.

Do you want to edit video without purchasing a commercial program like Sony Vegas or Pinnacle? I do. Do you want to burn DVDs that’ll play on your standard DVD player but cringe at the thought of installing a massive, bloated program like Cyberlink PowerDVD on your PC? Yes, please.

OK. No problem. Download Virtualdub (read about it here) and the proper codecs and you’ll be in business for the video editing part. Visit the Virtualdub forums for answers to your burning questions (no pun intended) or post a question in the comments section and I can try answering it (not that I’ll actually be able to).

If you really want your video to be playable in the standard DVD player, please compress it using the xvid codec. Of course you could use DivX, which a lot of people do, but it’s not free like xvid (at least the pro version isn’t). There is a free version of the DivX codec with limited functionality, but who wants something that only half works? Not me.

Once you’ve edited your video you now want to burn it to a DVD. So, you try to do it, but quickly come to the conclusion that XP does not have built-in capabilities for burning DVDs. So, you’re too cheap to buy any commercial software, so where do you turn?

Easy. You turn to imgburn. It’s easy to use, user-friendly, simple, straightforward . . . oh, and did I mention that even my mom could use it (sorry, Mom). Download it, throw your blank DVD in, burn the files, and voila! if you encoded them correctly (with xvid or DivX), you’ll have a DVD that’ll play in most standard DVD players.

If for some reason you got an error when trying to burn your DVD, you might need to upgrade the firmware for your DVD burner. I had to. Mine’s a Lite-On DVD/RW SHW-160P6S. I found the firmware by googling the Lite-On website, navigating to the “downloads” section, then to the “firmware” section, then selecting my specific product. I downloaded it, installed it, re-booted, and all of a sudden I could burn DVDs.

So, to recap, you’ll need:

Virtualdub
xvid or DivX codecs
imgburn
some blank DVDs (I recommend Verbatim)
a possible firmware upgrade

Lamentations is a series of five theological laments centered on the fall of Jerusalem. The book presents the justice and holiness of God in dealing with sin, the compassion of God in dealing with us (3:22, 32), the faithfulness of God (3:23); and the goodness of God to those who wait on Him (3:25).

Read the overview and outline of Lamentations here.

⁷ One who is full loathes honey,
but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.
Proverbs 27:7 (ESV)

For one full of God and His Word, sin appears disgusting. For those starving for His love, even the most vile cesspool might look inviting.