Jesus Geek

My son is participating in the 30 Hour Famine today. It gives me great joy to know that my son would be willing to make a sacrifice like this to raise funds to feed hungry children. All over the world teenagers are making a difference today. Not only are they standing up against hunger, they’re also demonstrating the love of Christ to a lost and dying world.

I love you son and my heart overflows with joy knowing that Christ is doing a great work in and through you.

This is the edited recording of the live podcast I did on Feb. 20th, 2009. It has been edited a lot and those of you who were there might say, “Hey! That’s not how it was!” Personally, I thought the live podcast was a miserable failure for 2 reasons:

1. I didn’t really have anything prepared
2. I tried to put it together too quickly

Still, I think it’s good to put out the bad & ugly stuff along with the pretty and shiny. If you showed up for the live show, thank you. I appreciate your support. I don’t know if I’ll do this again, it’s only the 2nd time I’ve done this (the first one is lost in the Ether).

• Hulu Blog Doing hard things
• Google wants to join EU case against Microsoft
• boxee blog – the Hulu situation
• Spirit Blade Underground
• Classic Yak Podcast

Feel free to leave comments or send feedback to geek{at}jesusgeek{dot}info. Don’t forget that the comment line is back! Call 518-290-0228 to leave a comment.

Jesus Geek is a weekly Christian technology podcast with news, how-tos and a little bit of spiritual know-how hosted by John Wilkerson. Jesus Geek is a member of the My Life Ministries Network: a community of ministries that views the everyday Christian life as a ministry and seeks to encourage Christians in their daily walk with Christ.

Jesus Geek is a member of the Tech Podcast Network; if it’s tech, it’s here. Jesus Geek is also a member of the Christian New Media Group and is released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (55.7MB)

If you’re considering fasting for lent, would you think about giving up soda, bottled or coffee? Then take the money you saved and donate it to a charity. My charity of choice is Living Water International. If you do choose to donate to LWI, would you consider donating to my cause on Facebook, Podcasting for Water?

“Over half of all schools worldwide lack safe water and sanitation, jeopardizing the health and education of millions of schoolchildren. Most of the 115 million children currently out of school are girls. Many are denied their place in the classroom by lack of access to decent toilets at school, or the daily chore of walking miles to collect water.” – UNICEF, 2005

Security is something that should be important to everyone. Unfortunately, although people want to be more secure they may not know how. This week’s podcast features some tips for securing your WordPress installation. While no security measure is 100% hack-proof, these tips will certainly decrease the attack vector on your blog.

1. Immediately after installation, create a 2nd admin account and rename/delete the original one. (via Aburiano on Twitter)
2. Use secure passwords: minimum 8 charcters, contains upper/lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. You can get a randomly generated secure password at http://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
3. Create a separate account for posting to your blog.
4. If your blog has multiple authors, create a separate account for each person with the appropriate security settings.
5. Disable and delete any plug-ins you’re not using (including the WP automatic upgrade plug-in).
6. If you have plug-ins that you use infrequently for maintenance (such as upgrading WordPress) disable them and only enable them when you use them.
7. Make sure you’re using the current version of any of your plug-ins.
8. Keep your WordPress installation up-to-date, especially if the update fixes any security vulnerabilities.
9. Plug-ins usually get upgraded shortly after WordPress does, wait for your plug-in updates to come through and then upgrade WP.
10. Use the WP Security Scanner to check for potential vuilnerabilites.
11. Don’t install old plug-ins. If a plug-in hasn’t been updated in the past 6 months, it might be time to look for a new one that provides the same function.

“News” items mentioned in the podcast:

• Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
• 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners

Feel free to leave comments or send feedback to geek{at}jesusgeek{dot}info. Don’t forget that the comment line is back! Call 518-290-0228 to leave a comment.

Jesus Geek is a weekly Christian technology podcast with news, how-tos and a little bit of spiritual know-how hosted by John Wilkerson. Jesus Geek is a member of the My Life Ministries Network: a community of ministries that views the everyday Christian life as a ministry and seeks to encourage Christians in their daily walk with Christ.

Jesus Geek is a member of the Tech Podcast Network; if it’s tech, it’s here. Jesus Geek is also a member of the Christian New Media Group and is released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.0MB)

This week features an interview with Tim Mead of Seeds for the Harvest, a ministry which seeks to assist orphanages in the Ivanovo region in Russia.

I’m very pleased to have been able to interview Tim before he left for Russia. I had originally intended to wait until next week to post this interview but when I heard he was leaving so soon I quickly changed my mind:

Tim and Karen are preparing to go to Russia for two weeks in February. While there, Tim and Karen plan on working very closely with the Ivanovo Christian Center to continue to work on their move to Russia. The plan is still to move to Russia in June of 2009.

Please consider supporting their ministry. Every little bit counts. Join their cause on Facebook, support them through prayer and if the Lord leads, give financially.

Feel free to leave comments or send feedback to geek{at}jesusgeek{dot}info. Don’t forget that the comment line is back! Call 518-290-0228 to leave a comment.

Jesus Geek is a weekly Christian technology podcast with news, how-tos and a little bit of spiritual know-how hosted by John Wilkerson. Jesus Geek is a member of the My Life Ministries Network: a community of ministries that views the everyday Christian life as a ministry and seeks to encourage Christians in their daily walk with Christ.

Jesus Geek is a member of the Tech Podcast Network; if it’s tech, it’s here. Jesus Geek is also a member of the Christian New Media Group and is released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (32.5MB)

Well, actually I did. You may notice that many (most, almost all) podcasts are gone from the website. That’s because I did a global search and replace that blew up all my podcast entries. I’m in the process of restoring them but it will take some time. If you come across something you’re looking for, just use the contact form above and let me know.

I also took the time to switch from the PodPress plug-in to the PowerPress plug-in. It’s better and I knew I was going to have to eventually bite the bullet. No time like the present.

In this Geek Tweet I give you the low-down on the Amazon Kindle 2.

At $389 it may seem pricey but remember, you’re also paying for a lifetime cell phone subscription that allows you to download over 230,000 wirelessly. The new Kindle 2 is about 1/3 of an inch thick and weighs about 10.2 ounces. It has 25% more battery life than the original Kindle and can hold 1,500 books. That’s plenty of room for your Dragonlance collection!

The Kindle 2 also comes with an exclusive novel from Stephen King.

With the original Kindle still on back-order, it will be interesting to see how orders for the Kindle 2 get filled.

For a more “hands-on” review, check out Engadget’s coverage of the announcement event. They have lots of photos and some video and the weigh in with their impressions.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.6MB)