Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
+no-so
the
secret life
of a blogger
page 24
religion goes
wireless 1
page 6
contents*
welcome to beta, the girl’s guide to tech. we’re here to
prove that technology isn’t just for boys.
32
Tweeting
secrets?
10 LCD
also inside chair
11 Amazon’s Kindle 2
14 Jargon busters
15 Windows 7
16 That’s what you
12 search
said: reader
Using GPS
responses devices to go
on a global
18 Facebook parents
30 far & near treasure hunt
24 The not-so-secret Father/son stay connected via
life of a blogger
video chat
34 tips for yo momma
8 Math +
exercise
6 Wired
april 21, 2009
Worship
4
personal * beta
life your life to the max
WireD
Worship
Churches transition from tradition to technology
* by jincy gibson
photos by Martin BOULANGER
G
od and the Internet are friends — good friends. According to
Richard Jensen, economics professor at Notre Dame Univer-
sity, “God is the second most sought out reality online. (The
Online, in prayer first reality, ironically enough, is porn.)” And according to the Pew
The Barna Technology study found that
Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit group that researches
38 percent of Evangelicals and 31 percent
the impacts of the Internet, more people search the Web for scripture
of other born again Christians had
than to find significant others or check their bank accounts.
listened to a sermon or church teaching
Churches are merging technology with tradition, from sermons on
via digital recordings available on the
iTunes to interactive scripture study.
Internet, compared with 17 percent of
Incorporating PowerPoint presentations, media clips, and Web links
other adults.
during a worship service provides modern visual components for
40 young and old audiences alike.
35 38% Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines sets the standard
in Iowa for contemporary services: the big screens and rival sound
30
25
31% system to one of a multiplex theatre. Hope is extending services with
satellite worship in40places like NorthBranch in Ankeny to keep up with
20 the expanding congregation.
35
Along with Hope’s satellite expansion projects, a 2,500- seat wor-
15
17% 30
ship center will be built to accommodate the new members as well.
10
Hope focuses on25modernizing its traditional Lutheran repertoire
5
through an Immersion 20 program, a specialized worship service that
0 targets young adults. Immersion meets Thursday evenings to pray on
15
10
5
0
april 21, 2009
6
personal * beta
life your life to the max
Muncie, Ind. shurun. The temple, like Hope broadcasts ogy continues to revive and revamp, so will
sermons from its Web site and uses video its role in worship.
7
personal * beta
life your life to the max
W
dren hen her son reached the age lenging that it will put off younger kids or
of 7, Carrie Scheiner noticed so easy that older children won’t want to
ages 6 that, like lots of other boys participate. She decided that the 30-minute
his age, he would rather sit video had to have something for her 5- to
to 11 are in front of a game system or computer in- 11-year-old target audience to work.
over- stead of being up and active. So the Tampa
resident starting thinking about how she
“Parents, like myself, needed more tools
to help their kids build a stronger founda-
weight. could combine movement with learning — tion in math,’’ she said.
and still make it fun. That’s when she came Scheiner got some help from her neigh-
aer’s up with Exploracise Gymathtics, a DVD that bor, fitness expert Joanne Baizan, to cre-
gets kids moving while they learn. ate the video. Circles, lines, and polygon
math vid- According to the Centers for Disease stretches using arm and leg motions help
Control, obesity more than doubled in the teach children math during the workout.
eo game past 20 years among children ages 6 to 11, Scheiner stars in the video with her two
hopes to going from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 17 percent children, Felicia, 5, and Aaron, 9, and two
in 2006. Statistics show that seven out of 10 Tampa teens. Segments such as “Counting
change overweight adolescents will become over- Calisthenics” and “Pattern Power” feature
april 21, 2009
8
beta* who we are, what we do
9
gadgets * beta
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
go to philippebouletcreation.com
go to core77.com/timex/winners
10
gadgets * beta
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
‘the ipod
for books’
amazon’s kindle 2 shows
improvement over first version
* By Joshua Topolsky
H
aving already handled the Kindle 2 at its launch
in New York City, we had a pretty good idea of
what we’d be getting into after it arrived at the
bunker. Once we actually had a little time to
spend with the device, it really started to sink in how much
those minor tweaks can add up to make a big difference.
Jumping from Amazon’s original attempt at an ebook read-
er to its latest iteration isn’t exactly like day and night, but
it’s definitely a positive shift in the experience, though one
that leaves us wondering how they failed to make some of
these choices the first time around.
When you step back and take a look at the device,
it’s clear that the most notable changes have come in
the form of hardware tweaks. Besides the text-to-speech
function, there’s not much you can do on the new Kindle
that you couldn’t do on the old one. Books still cost just as
much to download, and you still have largely the same set
of options when you get them on the device. The buy-in for
Bottom Line: the unit itself is $359 -- not cheap -- and everything you
put on it is going to cost you a little bit more. After a while,
If you travel lightly, that can start to add up, and we’re not convinced it makes
sense for just anyone. Ultimately, it boils down to a ques-
are a voracious tion of needs, because -- like the first Kindle -- the Kindle 2
reader and absolutely doesn’t represent such a sea change in technology that we
think everyone should run out and buy it.
love gadgets, you’ll A lot of people are fond of calling the device an
“iPod for books” as if that’s just what most people want
probably get this or require, and we’re not so sure of that. Still, the Kindle
2 delivers an enjoyable experience with noticeable leaps
device. in usability, and big leaps in industrial design. If you travel
lightly, are a voracious reader, and absolutely love gadgets,
you’ll probably get this device. Is that everyone? No... but
april 21, 2009
THe kindle is available on it’s a lot of people we know- and probably a lot of people
amazon.com for $359. you know, too.
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gadgets * beta
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
21st-century
treasure
* story and illustration by
becky rother
D
igging frantically through the bushes
next to the duck pond, junior Lindsey
Scott and senior Lisa Nicklas get
some strange looks from passers-by.
They have their excuse planned out, though.
“Lindsey lost her car keys,” they explain if
anyone asks.
The ones who listen to her
excuse groan in sympathy.
They
don’t need
sympathy,
though.
Scott’s car
keys are
buried in her
crocheted
purse, safe from
april 21, 2009
12
gadgets * beta
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
hunters
use clues and a gps device to go geocaching
the dirt and bushes she digs through. Renegade,” after his favorite brand of beer.
Scott and Nicklas are actually a two- He says he leaves Rolling Rock beer bottle
person team of geocachers, called “Team caps in each cache he finds.
L Squared,” participating in a worldwide Since the sport’s origin in 2000, thou-
game of hide-and-seek with the help of a sands of caches have been created all over
GPS receiver, clues from fellow geocachers the world. On geocaching.com, there are
– and a lot of excuses. 207 caches within 10 miles of Ball State’s
“We made up this excuse that if some- campus, and around 10 are actually located
one stops us we tell them I’m looking for on campus.
my keys, or we’re on a class assignment “My favorite is near Beneficence in the
collecting data,” Scott said. bushes,” Bacon said. “It’s one of the coolest
“We had people drive by us looking at because people walk past it every day, and
us,” she said, “and it was like they were not it’s never seen.”
paying attention. We really haven’t had a Those who know about the sport, though,
problem with muggles.” say they look for caches everywhere.
Taken from the “Harry Potter” books and “Before you know it, you can’t walk out-
movies, the term “muggles” refers to people side without looking at places,” Nicklas said.
who don’t participate in “It’s very infectious.”
geocaching. Most of the Nicklas and Scott both work at Minn-
time, geocachers try to etrista, and learned about the sport through Geo-
the center’s exhibit, “GPS Adventures: From
avoid attracting muggles’
attention to prevent acci- Tracking to Treasure Hunting.” Minnestrista
caching:
dents or misunderstandings.
Geocaching, also called “the GPS
is hosting the premiere of the traveling ex-
hibit from June 2 – September 3.
using
Stash Hunt,” is “an entertaining adven- “It is always exciting to premiere a na- a GPS-
ture game for GPS users,” according to tional exhibition or program. It invokes a
the sport’s official website, geocaching. higher lever of anticipation for our audi- enabled
com. “The basic idea is to have individuals ence,” Minnetrista CEO Betty Brewer said.
and organizations set up caches all over “GPS Adventures” has also generated device to
interest in the sport.
the world and share the locations of these
caches on the Internet.” Neither member of Team L Squared had
go on a
Participants can visit the site, search for
their city, state or country and find caches
heard of geocaching before the exhibit
opened in June.
world-wide
that others have created. “When [the exhibit] opened... we were “treasure
Each cache contains a logbook, where curious as to what the fuss was about,”
geocachers who find the cache can sign Scott said. hunt”
their names or geocaching.com profile The two decided to investigate the activ-
names, and sometimes geocachers leave ity. using clues
toys or small, inexpensive trinkets. “We actually spent a Saturday when we
Junior Nathan Bacon says has been were supposed to be working geocaching,”
from
geocaching “pretty hard-core” for about a Nicklas said. geocaching.
april 21, 2009
year. He has a personal profile on geocach- “It’s really fun,” she said. “You have a lot
ing.com, and goes by the alias “Rolling Rock of really fun adventures.” com
13
software * beta
always something new to discover
jargon
busters Thinking about buying a camera but
confused by terminology? Here’s some tips.
14
software * beta
always something new to discover
microsoft’s
savior?
the good, the bad and the ugly:
the recently-released answer to vista
is already drawing criticism
Windows 7: The good ning and non-running items use the same, fixed icon, I
I
t’s one of the more maligned features of Windows know exactly where to go each time. No more hunting
7: The new Taskbar. People either love it or hate it. and peeking through tiny icons with unreadabe text.
There simply is no middle ground on the subject. Windows 7: The bad
Personally, I fall into the former camp. The new The new Taskbar is truly a quantum leap forward
Taskbar is, for me at least, a revelation. Finally, the in UI design. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for
fundamental object-oriented interface concepts the revised Explorer UI as a whole. For example, some
I’ve been pining for have been realized in Windows. features, like the Status Bar, are holdovers from the XP
The Taskbar now behaves the way I’ve always felt it interface; the new Details pane, first introduced with
should have behaved from day one. Vista, makes this mechanism almost entirely redun-
First, there’s the consistency factor. I no longer have dant. So why keep it?
to make that awkward mental leap from where I click Likewise, the revised task panes on the left side
when I want to start a program to where I click when of the Control Panel. Either display them all the time
I want to access a running instance. With Windows or not at all. This “now you see me, now you don’t”
7, these are one in the same. In fact, the difference behavior is confusing and inconsistent, almost like
between running and non-running applications has someone decided to make the initial Control Panel
become irrelevant. If I want to use Word, I click on its experience less Vista-like in an effort to fool the latter
icon (or use its jump list). It doesn’t matter whether it’s platform’s detractors. Just plain dumb.
already running. The actions I take to use Word, Excel, Windows 7: The ugly
Outlook, or any other application for that matter, are Who designed the default Windows 7 color
now consistent across virtually all operation contexts. scheme? The pale, washed-out blue tinge of the new
Then there’s the issue of consistency. I no longer Explorer toolbar is awful, as is the similar background
have to hunt through my Taskbar entries to find a for the task panes in Control Panel. An arbitrary
running instance of a program. Each Taskbar item change that serves no practical purpose other than to
remains exactly where I left it, making it easy to find differentiate the product from Vista while offending
frequently used applications. And because both run- all those who hate subtle, washed-out color schemes.
that’s what
you said write to us at response@betamag.com
to me by Makeover Madness
online classes so I could learn
from home. I’ve gotten some
Forget it. If this really was a
ploy on the part of the labels
weird looks about not being to displace Apple as a ma jor
accident. I am absolutely in shock that
you guys chose to dedicate a “normal” college student, outlet, I think they’ve suc-
four entire pages to digital but college is college and it’s ceeded. It’s a shame. All I
I flipped makeovers. In this day and what you make it. Thanks for
sharing about this!
really care about is compen-
sating people for their music-
age, girls get enough grief
through about not being supermodel
skinny- and now you’ve given
Erica Martin
Evart, MI
which I can do myself.
Rachel Green
16
web * beta
www dot betamag dot com
“It’s like he is right there with us. The only downside is that every
time we talk it gets harder and harder to hang up.”
Ball State junior Corey Cole
Far
&
Near
video chat gives father, son a new
relationship
T
he person junior Corey Cole looks they wanted to talk to their families on the
up to the most is more than 7,000 phone instead of only being able to talk to
miles away, sleeping in a steel them over e-mail.
container in Iraq. Cole’s father, “I honestly don’t know if my mom would
Randall Cole is serving a second term in have been able to stay upbeat and stable
Iraq as a Sergeant First Class soldier. The without this organization. It’s like he is right
distance between the father and son has there with us,” Corey said.
not changed their closeness, however it has But even video chat doesn’t compare to
changed their means of communication. In- the human interaction Corey once had with
stead of talking to his dad in person, Corey his dad.
has adapted technology to “The downside is that every time we talk
Corey gets the opportunity to talk to it gets harder and harder to hang up. We
his dad once every three to four months are only allowed 45 minutes for each call,”
on the phone and receives e-mails regu- he said.
larly but what he loves most is seeing his Having a long-distance relationship
father through Freedom Calls Foundation with his father has provided challenges for
video chat. FCF is a non-profit organiza- Corey, although he feels like it has contrib-
tion that maintains a satellite network for uted to growth and change in his life.
video chats to military camp sites around “It is hard having my dad in Iraq while I
the world. The organization is supported am in college. Sometimes I just need to talk
by private donations such as Cisco, FedEx, to him and I can’t. But I have been able to
Miva, Polycom, and more. stand up and take control a lot more situa-
FCF originated when the director tions since he has been gone,” Corey said,
april 21, 2009
received reports that soldiers were rack- “It has made me realize how unselfish I
ing up $5,000 in cell phone bills because have to be to help my family and others.”
30
web * beta
www dot betamag dot com
FACING PAGE TOP: Juniors Corey Cole and Amanda Boger wait for the FCF satellite connection which can sometimes take
up to fifteen minutes.
FACING PAGE BOTTOM: First Sgt. Soldier Randall Cole shows son Corey and his girlfriend around his steel container in Iraq.
april 21, 2009
THIS PAGE: Juniors Corey Cole and Amanda Boger prepare to talk via video chat.Boger is close to Cole’s family and plans
to go with the family to pick him up from the airport when he returns home.
31
web * beta
www dot betamag dot com
shhh...
your secret is safe
with secrettwitter
* by ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ
popular
T
twitter.com rue confessions are submissions in April 2008, the Web site has
users no longer restricted to logged close to 24,000 nameless decla-
reality shows, chapels, rations, all untraceable down the I.P. ad-
@cnnbrk diaries and drunken phone calls. dress, according to creator, Kevin Smith, a
@barckobama Now, any Internet user with something to 21-year-old graphic design student in West
@britneyspears get off her chest can unburden herself Virginia.
@aplusk via SecretTweet, a Web site that accepts Smith estimates 600 secrets are submit-
@jimmyfallon anonymous submissions into a public Twit- ted daily. “The fact that anyone can use the
@nytimes ter stream. site to express what’s on their mind with-
Submissions range from off-the-cuff out fear of being socially rejected makes
musings to scandalous revelations. For people feel comfortable,” he said.
beta example, a recent entry read, “I shoplift in Not all of the submissions get the green
follows every single store I shop at,” while another light, however. Smith screens for spam and
@jjgibson2 simply said, “I frequently think of leaving confessions to crimes. Everything else is fair
@beckyrother it all to do escort work.” Other confessions game and separated into two streams -a
@sncope are darker in tone, such as, “I secretly feel a safe-for-work version and an unabridged
@junkama twinge of joy when I see co-workers I don’t edition.
@alinewton like go out for a smoke. I am glad they are Smith said SecretTweet was inspired by
@vinnelopes shortening their lives.” PostSecret and has recently begun accept-
april 21, 2009
@lmbraman Since SecretTweet began accepting ing advertising to maintain the site.
32
gadgets * beta
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
33
!
gadgets * beta
yo
technolgy makes the world go ‘round
mma !
mo question:
how do i import digital
photos to share with my
friends and family?
popular
(and safe) answer:
photo sharing
sites
* flickr
* photobucket
* kodakgallery
* picasa
ONE TWO THREE
Plug in the camera Create an account Click on the option
cord and plug the with a photo sharing that says “share.”
USB side of the cord site. After logging You can e-mail your
into the USB jack on in, choose “Upload photos, post them to
your computer. Click pictures.” Then a blog or copy and
on the import photos choose the pictures paste a hyperlink to
option. you would like to send to others.
share with your loved
ones.
don’t forget!
Use this page to record usernames and passwords.
site site
username username
password password
site site
username username
password password
april 21, 2009
34