First, this weeks podcast will be delayed as I figure out what's up w/ my Sony DA-2 media converter. I use it to get audio into my iBook to record the show. For some reason it's not showing up either through the recording software or Final Cut, since I upgraded to Panther. Short of calling the comment line again, I have no way to get the audio from my mixer and into the iBook. Next, I talked about building a cheap pop-filter to avoid plosive sounds in a previous podcast. This site has directions on how to do it, too. So since I try not to reinvent the wheel, go there for pictures. Mine looks just like that, but w/ a coathanger to hold it in place. Paul

There used to be a commercial on with the jingle "What would you do for a Klondike(tm) bar?" The frozen desserts these commercials touted were pretty good. The problem is that the people on the commercials (as in many commercials) would go out of their way to make fools of themselves for ice cream and chocolate. As I write this I've gone out of my way for something more important to me than dessert. I have a full-time job which pays the bills. I serve for nothing at Churchmedia.net. I do this blog and podcast for no money (okay, the ads did bring in 70 cents last month). What really gets me going, though, is giving my time at my church (usually in the 20-30 hour range). This afternoon I got a call from my wife. She'd been invited on our leadership retreat at the last minute. This meant I had to rush home to help her pack and help our daughter get ready to go to Grandma & Grandpa's house (some 3.5 hours away). They were going to meet me part way so that helped. I drove about 3 1/4 hours round trip so that my daughter could be safe as I go to work for a 1/2 day tomorrow. Then I'll go on the same retreat. Having arived tomorrow night, I'll turn around and come back to help lead a meeting for guys in recovery. Then I'll make the same trip again. "Why?", you might ask. It's simple. At my church lives are being changed. Alcoholics are sobering up; drug addicts are laying down their needles. Marriages on the edge of divorce are being renewed. People without purpose are finding meaning. In short, people are becoming who they're meant to be. Do you know what it's like to be a part of something that helps people in very real, very lasting ways? Do you know what it's like to know that waking up three hours early on your day off helps change eternity? It's unreal. You want to be a part of something like this. Deep down, you know you want to make a mark. I don't know why, but I get to. I've done a lot of things in my life. Nothing, nothing is like being a part of a life changing. People, real people are different--better. What would you do to be a part of something like that? I'll tell you my answer. ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WORLD, even acting a little silly, driving "unnecessary" miles. Paul

This is the picture of the cables before I managed them. Here the cables are after I managed them, but befor I cut the wire ties. Sorry, the pix aren't better, but this week's episode was totally mobile. Paul

I've just upgraded from OS X.2 to X.3 (thanks Phil). The site looked fine in my old version of Safari, but it's formatting is off in the new one as well as Firefox and IE for Mac. Any PC people have feedback? I might need a new template. I'll check on my Red Hat box soon. Paul

Just after I hear about the existance of a new kind of spam, I get some. You see if you're a blogger like I am, you want people to leave comments. I purposely limited this to registered users of Blogger. That doesn't seem to have totally stopped it. I received a comment a couple of weeks ago from a someone who said something like, "Hi, I love your blog, visit my porn site." I deleted it, thinking it was a rare thing. Today, I wake to find four more: two about a certain class of drugs, one on a type of purse, and another on a satellite tv service. I might have to use a different service after all. Paul

This is a mini-episode recorded to the voice mail number (206) 350- "T, No B". Click the title, here, or subscribe to the feed at http://trinitydigitalmedia.com/tnb.xml to download. I'll get the pix up as soon as possible, for some reason they haven't come through my email (from my cell phone), yet. Paul

Tech, No Babel is on the front page of iPassages.com. Welcome to everyone who got here from there. Paul

The next episode is on the air. --The power of "live to tape." --Tech tips for your pastor --Adventures in pseudomag. --Plus the announcement of our new number. Click the link to the right, the title of the post, or here. Paul

I have a love/hate relationship with Audacity, the free audio editing application. I generally love it. Last night I hated it. I do a couple of things to my show before you get it. I ran a noise filter (check), a compressor (check), amplify (check), normalize (oops). It was then that Audacity "lost" one of it's files. Ergh! The show will be delayed. I'm working, but doing this in addition to my day job is getting to me. Paul

If you want to send me anything (mp3 questions for example), drop me a line at technobabelhost@gmail.com . Thanks Paul

I'm working on level right now (hurry up audacity!). I hope to have the link up soon with the feed update early tomorrow. Paul

The current episode of "Tech, No Babel" is in the can. I just need to tweak it a bit and edit the xml file, etc. Should be up some time tonight. Paul

This is a rough cut of a video I'm working on. There's too much b-roll. The opening isn't done and there is no music, but you get the idea. It's a quicktime movie of about 22 meg using the Sorenson3 codec. Click on the title of this post to view it. Paul

This is my friend Darrell's blog:just me

I think we've got all the files back up. I had to totally change servers, somewhat by surprise (I knew it was coming, but didn't know when). I'll see if I can't get a new episode up soon. Paul

Well, we're back up and running. I'll get the podcasts back up real soon. Server problems. Thanks for your patience. Paul

If you just stop by or read the feed for the tech stuff, but the church God stuff irks you, read no further. This is a heavy-duty spiritual entry. Today started pretty rough. I have to be at church on the days I'm directing at 5:45 am. I walked out of my house and stepped in dog doo. I changed shoes, got to church, only to realize I'd done it again. I did final practice, run-through, and first service with little problem. Right between first and second service, I ran into a familiar face. I'd been praying for her for some time. Nicole was hired by my wife (who does that sort of thing for our church) to watch the three year-olds (of whom my daughter is one). I knew she had a church background, but something hadn't clicked for her. Our church isn't like most churches. We reach out to people who don't like church, using the arts, drama, video, etc. A single service takes LITERALLY hundreds of man-hours (and woman hours too) to produce. I knew she'd love it. She went with a friend to the service. Afterward, they had a spiritually significant conversation. It was then that she decided she was ready to take the courageous step of asking Jesus to be in a relationship with her and lead her life, realizing that she didn't like where her control had taken her. Afterward, she felt ashamed that she hadn't taken time to clean up her spiritual house before asking God to move in. She called this afternoon while my wife was asleep, recovering from a migraine. She reluctantly talked to me about her concerns. I told her more of the good news that it's not about what you do. Jesus just wants a relationship with you. To continue the metaphor, don't be ashamed because your spiritual house was so dirty you couldn't clean it before Jesus moved in, just accept His offer to help you clean it up. She said I'd helped. It's a feeling like no other to know that the one and only Lord God of the Universe used your efforts. Paul

If you have questions or comments, you can leave a message on our voice mail comment line. It's a Seattle number, so keep that in mind as long distance charges will apply, unless you use your cell or some other service. Call anytime, day or night, it doesn't ring a phone, but goes directly to voice mail. The number is "206-350-T, No B" or "206-350-8662". Paul

Episode 4, a more off the cuff episode, is online with "Lessons Learned from Norman Rockwell" and "Making a Pop filter for less that $3". Click the title above or the link to the right to download, if you're not subscribed via my RSS feed. Paul

I nearly minored in programming in college (if Existentialism hadn't been offered only at the same time as Discrete Math, I would have). As such I have a good handle on programming basics. I've been hand-coding my RSS feed from almost the beginning, but I can't get iTunes to work for the life of me. As such, I might be switching to Loud Blog for my blogging/podcasting. My hosting is about to change, so we'll see what happens then. Keep me in your prayers, too. Paul

I've decided to use the "Creative Commons" license for all of the content on this site. That means you may feel free to distribute my content to your heart's content as long as you use it in it's entirety, don't charge for it, and give me credit. All fair use rights still apply. For more information, click the "Creative Commons" chicklet on the bottom of the page. More content to follow soon. Paul

I was called into church last night to do some emergency editing, so the podcast didn't get done. Hopefully I can do it before the weekend. It might be a little shorter and rougher. We'll see. Paul

As part of my effort to get more content to you, I'll be trying to add a short daily tip to the feed. This one was recorded about a month ago, so pardon the audio quality. Click the link above for "Using .PNG files in Powerpoint". Paul