A Great Quote

This is a great quote from the movie, "The Count of Monte Cristo", the 2002 version. I thought I'd post it because it really stood out to me:

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine!"

Sound Doctrine Conference

I'm currently at the Sound Doctrine Conference, a conference on the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, at the Brown's barn. The conference is about a week long. James Fletcher, Jake Dohm, and I have been running sound in the back. We have a table where all of us are working, and since we all have Macs, it's pretty hilarious to see al four of them lined up on the table. It's been fun, but also really tiring at the same time. I'm SO glad that today the conference ends at 6:00. Here are some pictures we took of our "work station."

James Fletcher's Mac

The soundboard, where we do all of our recording.

The awesome line-up of Macs!

The piano that's right behind us.

The gateway to the good life.

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

Now this is a really funny article I came across about Santa Claus. I know most of you, and I hope all of you, don't believe in him, but if you still do, (yikes!), READ THE TEXT BELOW. Actually, even if you don't believe in him, (hooray for you!), you can still read it. :D

Santa Claus: An Engineers Perspective

I. There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau).
At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per house hold, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

II. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second --- 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

III. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them--- Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

IV. 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance --- this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake.

The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accellerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Updating my RAM

So today, I worked on a fun project, replacing my RAM. For those of you who don't know, RAM stands for Random Access Memory. The easiest way to explain what RAM does is that is makes the overall experience on the computer faster and much more enjoyable.

Anyway, I took some pictures of the inside of my MacBook Pro and thought that I would share them with you.

The RAM.

The SSD (Solid State Drive)

And the entire inside.

Now, my computer is way faster. And it was pretty fun being able to see the inside of my MacBook Pro.

Stand Strong,

Stephen

Smorrs

Hey Guys!
Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Anyway, here's a site for you to check out for a project that my friends started called "Smorrs." I'm part of the project to help, learn, and all that other stuff. So, if you'll be so kind as to click Here, you won't regret it. :)

Follow Me

I haven't posted this in a while, but if you want to follow me, (not that anyone ever would), you

can find me on:

Or you can just use plain old e-mail:

Photo-shoot

So today I went on a photo-shoot, mainly just because I felt motivated by looking at some great photos. And also I couldn't remember the last time I had actually posted pictures I had taken. Anyway, here are the best ones of the bunch:

Yes, this is my dog: Titus Warrior Chief

You guys have no idea how dangerous this was. I felt like I was going to drop this in the water every second. I'm glad no one was looking. :)

This is Grace's goat, who took a keen interest in the camera.

New E-mail

Friends and Family,
I have changed my e-mail address. You can now contact me at sbreagy@me.com. You can still e-mail me using my old e-mail, but it'll just forward to my new one. By the way, just to clear up the confusion, this would be Stephen Breagy the Younger (well duh, cause it's not my dad's blog!) Thank you!

Stephen Breagy
sbreagy@me.com

Steve Jobs Dies

Steve Jobs died today. Here is an article on the subject.

SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Jobs, the innovative co-founder of Apple who transformed personal use of technology as well as entire industries with products such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computer and the iTunes music store, has died.

• 

  By Jeff Chiu, AP

  CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Apple on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 said Jobs has died.

Enlarge

By Jeff Chiu, AP

CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Apple on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 said Jobs has died.

The Apple chairman was 56.

The iconic American CEO, whose impact many have compared to auto magnate Henry Ford and Walt Disney— whom Jobs openly admired — abruptly stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple in August because of health concerns. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

• PHOTOS: The life of Steve Jobs

• PHOTOS: Images of Jobs over the years

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, a former Apple board member, called Jobs the best CEO of the past 50 years — perhaps 100 years.

A seminal business and technology leader, Jobs' success flowed from a relentless focus on making products that were easy and intuitive for the average consumer to use. His products were characterized by groundbreaking design and style that, along with their technological usefulness, made them objects of intense desire by consumers around the world.

He was known as a demanding, mercurial boss and an almost mystical figure in technology circles as well as American popular culture. Author and business consultantJim Collins once called Jobs the "Beethoven of business."

He was one of the figures who made Silicon Valley the capital of technological innovation and related venture capital fortunes.

His creation of iTunes as an online way to purchase music digitally helped transform the music industry and delivered a blow to the standard industry practice of packaging music in albums or CDs. With iTunes, consumers could buy individual songs for 99 cents. The music industry didn't welcome the change at first, but, after waging an intense battle against illegal music downloads, it came to rely on the business model iTunes created.

Jobs' work at Apple and other projects made him a fortune estimated by Forbesmagazine in 2011 at $8.3 billion. He was No.110 on Forbes' list of billionaires worldwide and No.34 in the United States, as of the magazine's March 2011 estimates.

Unlike tech rival Bill Gates of Microsoft or business leader Warren Buffett, Jobs did not make a practice of public philanthropy. While he may have made anonymous gifts to charity, he did not publicly embrace Gates' and Buffett's call for the wealthiest Americans to pledge to donate half their fortunes.

Jobs was married to Laurene Powell Jobs, 47. He had four children, three with Powell Jobs. A fourth child, Lisa, had an early Apple computer -- a predecessor to the Macintosh -- named after her. though the family succeeded in keeping the children out of the spotlight and largely unknown to the public. He was Buddhist.

Apple, and a re-boot

Jobs dropped out of Reed College to build computers with high school friend Steve Wozniak, creating what became the Apple I computer in 1976.

With sales lagging by the 1980s, Jobs was ousted from the company's leadership in a 1985 boardroom coup led by then-Apple CEO John Sculley. He returned in 1996 after Apple bought his technology start-up, NeXT, for $400 million. Within months, Jobs took over as Apple CEO for the ousted Gil Amelio and led a major corporate turnaround.

Five years later, with the release of the iPod personal digital music player, Apple had leaped from computer maker to become the leading consumer electronics giant worldwide.

Millions of its computers and gadgets were produced in Asia and sold to U.S. and worldwide markets, making the company one of the most recognizable and beloved brand names ever.

Once on the brink of financial abyss, Apple had a market value of $350 billion — not far behind No.2 Exxon Mobil — by the time Jobs resigned as CEO in August 2011.

After his forced departure from Apple, Jobs bought what became Pixar from filmmakerGeorge Lucas. The digital animation movie company has produced box-office hits including Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney bought the company for $7.4 billion in 2006. Jobs held a 7.3% ownership stake in Disney.

Health concerns

He was known for creating a culture of secrecy at Apple that fueled intense media speculation about the company's next product. Jobs himself introduced major products with flair at highly anticipated events that proved to be one of the company's best marketing tools.

Jobs didn't hesitate to level caustic comments at competitors, particularly Microsoft in earlier years and later Google, which he ridiculed as evil, mediocre and lacking in taste. His skewering of Microsoft was parodied in a series of TV ads featuring the characters "Mac" and "PC."

Jobs was known for firing employees in profanity-laced tantrums and reducing some subordinates to tears. Yet many of his top deputies at Apple and Pixar worked with him for years.

Jobs is listed as an inventor or co-inventor on 313 Apple patents, including the iPod's user interface.

Though he brought simple, elegant technology to the masses, the reclusive Jobs was often uncomfortable around people and rarely spoke publicly. On rare occasions when he spoke with reporters, Jobs offered few or no personal insights.

Jobs' reluctance to appear publicly led to questions about his health, as did a dramatic loss in weight and gaunt appearance.

Jobs was diagnosed with a form of pancreatic cancer in 2003. He informed Apple employees in 2004.

"No one wants to die," he said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. "And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."

Jobs' status as a corporate star put him on the covers of Time, Fortune and Forbes.

"Jobs led an enormous cultural shift of the businessman as a creative, even artistic, force," says Alan Deutschman, author of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.

"When Jobs first came on the scene, it wasn't cool to be in business," Deutschman says. "Through the 1970s, the Dow hardly moved. Being in business was seen as being a total sellout. But Jobs was young and glamorous, and gave business that image. Now, young people aspire to be in business."

The early years

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955, to unwed parents. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Calif.

The young Jobs contacted William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, to ask for parts for a class project. Impressed, Hewlett offered Jobs a summer internship.

Upon graduating from Homestead High School in Cupertino, Calif., in 1972, Jobs briefly went to Reed College in Portland, Ore. After a stint as a video-game designer at Atari, Jobs trekked to India in 1974, where he embraced Eastern culture and religion. Shortly after that, he lived in a commune in California.

In 1975, Jobs began hanging out with the Homebrew Computer Club and a friend from high school, Steve Wozniak. Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak — the "two Steves," as they became known — co-founded Apple Computer in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976.

By 25, Jobs was a millionaire. Jobs' first go-around at Apple was highlighted by the creation and introduction, in 1984, of the Macintosh, a revolutionary personal computer with an inviting graphical user-interface and mouse that popularized PCs for the masses.

The influence of the Beatles ran deep to Apple's core, too. Jobs presented a Mac toYoko Ono, wife of the late John Lennon, and was ensnared in a long-running trademark lawsuit with the music group's Apple Corps label. It was settled in 2007.

In a 1996 interview in San Francisco, Jobs offered a glimpse of his hopes to mirror the success of Walt Disney and George Lucas. "Computers are commodities with a six-month shelf life," he said. "Classics like Snow White and Fantasia are passed from generation to generation."

Wozniak said Apple is a reflection of Jobs' creative daring.

"He helped it achieve incredible things in music, smartphones, tablets and retail, while still making great computers," said Wozniak, who said he and Jobs occasionally talk.

Leander Kahney, author of Inside Steve's Brain, said Jobs reconciled conflicting personality traits into an eclectic business philosophy.

"Jobs embraced the personality traits that some considered flaws — narcissism, perfectionism, total faith in his intuition — to lead Apple and Pixar to triumph against steep odds," Kahney says. "In the process, he became a self-made billionaire."

The Civil War Tour - Day 1

Sorry for not posting in so long everybody! We were on a Civil War Tour which was put on by our good friends, the Horns. I learned a lot and had a great time. Because we were gone for a week, it's too much to put in one post. So I'll do a day by day overview in separate posts.

On the first day of the tour, we went to Fort William McHenry, which, for those of you who don't know, was the fort that was fired upon by British ships. It was here that Francis Scott Key wrote the famous "Star Spangled Banner". Mr. Horn talked about how the war of 1812 ties into the Civil War. This was helpful as we saw God's providential hand in America's history.

We then went to the U.S.S. Constellation, which just showed us how a frigate ship would look like back then.

Then, we went to Arlington Cemetery. This is where Robert E. Lee's house is located. It also is the grave to 300,000 military casualties from each war, ranging from the Civil War to military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is also the location of the tomb of the unknown soldier. The inscription on the grave is"

HERE RESTS IN
HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD

There is a soldier who patrols the grave 24/7, no matter the weather.

At the end of the day, we were all pretty beat. It was POURING at Arlington so we were all soaked. We were thankful for the long bus ride home, which gave us time to contemplate what we had learned, and also to have some good fellowship.

If you want to see the pictures from the tour, you can view all of them here.

Discerning History

This is the link to a website for a company I am working with called "Discerning History".

Click Here.

Mountains

Sorry everyone for not posting in so long!

On Tuesday morning, my dad, Grace, Shea, and I, went to spend 2 days with our friends in the mountains. We had a great time! Anyway, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Steve Jobs Prank Calls Starbucks

This video was taken a while back when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. Enjoy!!!

My First Podcast

This is my first podcast! I'm counting on ya'll to comment and let me know what you think so I can see if I should pursue this or not! :) Enjoy!

Click Here to Listen.

This Is War!

Microsoft Buys Skype!

Here is an article on the subject:

If you were Microsoft, how would you spend $8.5 billion to acquire another company? Apparently, the house that Gates built figures a VoIP outfit like Skype makes sense, as the two companies announced the acquisition on Tuesday morning.

Skype has announced that they will be acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion in cash, with an agreement approved by the board of directors from both companies. Skype has been through two owners in the last few years after being acquired by eBay in 2005 and then by investment group Silver Lake less than two years ago. Could the third time be the charm?

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a joint press release. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

"Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers," explained Skype CEO Tony Bates. "Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype's plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate.”

Bates will come along for the ride as president of the new Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer as part of a new business division. The new unit’s immediate plans include support for Microsoft’s Xbox and Kinect as well as Windows Phone and other Windows services, including Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live. Microsoft has stated they “will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms” as well.

Skype has had a wild ride since being founded in 2003, and has taken a considerable amount of heat in recent months for its latest Mac client. Despite bringing parity with the Windows version, the user interface and design has been widely panned by users, with the company promising to address the issues over time.

Sorry!

I'm sorry for not posting in so long. We have been so busy!

Anyway,

On Monday, Mom and Dad went on vacation to the Biltmore for their 20th anniversary. We had Casey Burton come over and watch us, and we had a blast!

Today and Tomorrow, I will be going with Erik Woodard and Joshua Horn up to New Market, VA to shoot some footage for a project they are working on.

To view Joshua Horn's post on our last trip, click Here.

Stand Strong!

Stephen B.

Weighing the Evidence Trailer

Civil War Quiz Bowl

Last Saturday, our friends, the Allens, hosted a Civil War Quiz Bowl at their house. It was a great way to see God's providential hand during this time of history. There was also food, music, and a great time of fellowship with friends. Here are some pictures of the event:

Joshua Allen, with his 3rd place prize

Mr. Allen, Me, Allie, and Katelyn

Kristen, Allie, and I helped out with the slides

Apple Fanboy's Dream Car

http://hacknmod.com/hack/the-apple-fan-boys-dream-car/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+hacknmod/qjUG+(Hack+N+Mod)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

FOX Rejects “John 3:16” Super Bowl Ad

I received this article and thought it very interesting:

As FOX Network puts the finishing touches on its advertisement lineup for the February 6th Super Bowl — arguably as popular a part of the evening as the game itself — one thing is certain: just about any thing will be permissible in the way of sex, sleaze, and crude humor. Apparently, however, one type of ad will not be permitted: those promoting positive values and faith in God.

Following last year’s media furor over a Focus on the Family-sponsored pro-life spot during the Super Bowl featuring Christian football phenomenon Tim Tebow (left) and his mother, FOX has put the kibosh on wholesome advocacy ads with the potential of offending any viewer with an opposing viewpoint.

Specifically, the network has rejected a 30-second spot from the Christian apologetics group Fixed Point Foundation advertising its website, lookup316.com. The goal of the site, as its main page communicates, is to offer a “message of hope” base on the well-known New Testament scripture John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The ad itself features a group of men and women viewing a televised football game in a living room. As the crowd cheers a play on the field, the camera focuses in on a player with the Scripture reference “John 3:16” written over the black under his eyes. When one of the group asks his buddy what the phrase means, someone reaches for a cell phone and says, “I’ll look it up,” as the ad fades to the website Lookup3:16.com, and the phrase, “A Message of Hope.”

Larry Taunton, executive director of Fixed Point, explained his group’s reasoning in producing the ad for the big game. “If I had 30 seconds to say anything I wanted to an audience of millions, what would I say?” He wrote on the organization’s site. “I put this question to my friends. As we considered the question thoughtfully, we concluded that we would want to deliver a message of hope.”

Taunton emphasized that the spot “advertises no products, asks for no money, promotes no political platform and doesn’t even mention the sponsoring organization. It has a simple, yet direct message: Hope . . . ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.’”

But after Fixed Point had worked for months to shoot the spot and raise the millions needed to air it, FOX pulled the plug, explaining in a prepared statement: “As a matter of company policy, Fox Broadcasting Company does not accept advertising from religious organizations for the purpose of advancing particular beliefs or practices. The Fixed Point Foundation was provided with our guidelines prior to their submission of storyboards for our review. Upon examination, the advertising submitted clearly delivers a religious message and as a result has been rejected.”

Taunton commented on FOX’s decision, noting that “it seems one can advertise just about anything else. Few movie trailers are deemed too violent or beer commercials too sexual for primetime. But religious messages, particularly Christian ones, well, that’s just too controversial.”

While the Alabama-based group won’t be able to air the ad nationally, it is planning to run it locally on Birmingham’s Alabama’s FOX affiliate, during the time the network reserves for local advertising. “We believe that Super Bowl XLV is an opportunity to encourage football fans to look up John 3:16,” Fixed Point said on its website. “After all, John 3:16 is part of the culture of football,” referring to the number of football players, such as Tim Tebow, who have taken to wearing the scripture reference on their eye black, as well as the longtime tradition of fans in the seats holding large signs bearing the phrase “John 3:16.”

Said Taunton, “We want to generate a conversation about what this verse means and does it offer authentic hope — which I think it does.”

From - The New American

Oops!

I said in my post on the Mac App Store that I had not figured out a way to uninstall it. I received a piece of information from Jordan Pirch which I thought would be helpful. Here is the link he sent me:

http://lifehacker.com/5730473/you-can-uninstall-the-mac-app-store-but-its-not-supported

Thanks Jordan!

Victory

Abigail Constance Breagy

My Sister, Abigail Constance Breagy, was born on January 12th, 2011, weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches long. Sorry for not posting sooner. Here are some pictures!

The Mac App Store

The Mac App Store is here! It came out on January 6th, 2011. Here's a quick review on it.

On opening day, I was surprised where Apple put it on their Home Page (see the image below).

Anyway, to get the Mac App Store, you'll have to do a Software Update.

Once all that's done, a box pops up telling you you need to restart your computer. When you do that, you'll see the Mac App Store icon in your Dock to the right of the Finder icon. When you open the App Store, you'll see five headings up top: Featured, Top Charts, Categories, Purchases, and Updates.

Featured is where you'll find the "New and Noteworthy", "What's Hot", and "Staff Favorites".

Top Charts is where you can see "Top Paid", "Top Free", and "Top Grossing".

Categories is where you can see all the different categories of apps. For example, Photography, Games, Productivity, and so on and so forth.

Purchases is where you can see all your purchases. If you log in to the app store with your iTunes account on another computer, you can download them there as well.

Updates is exactly what you'd think it would be for. Showing you if any of your downloaded apps need an update.

When you download an app, the App Store will ask you for your iTunes username and password. When you do this, a transparent icon of the file you want to download will fly up and right into your dock.

Each app has a progress bar that tells you how much of the download is completed, which is really nice.

For those who want to uninstall the Mac App Store, Apple's not much help with that. As far as I know, there is no way to uninstall the App Store from your computer. You can however remove it from your dock just by dragging it off.

Anyway, just a short review on the Mac App Store. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!

Thanks!

Stephen B.