Monthly Archive for August, 2009

A look at the new English translation of the Roman missal

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has posted a side by side comparison of the new English translation of the Novus Ordo1 Mass.  The hope for this translation is that it will be truer to the original Latin.  This is a very good thing as it brings the English words closer to those being said in the many other local languages of the Church.  There will, however, be a great deal of kicking and screaming over this.  Some will scream that this doesn’t go far enough.  Some will see this as going backward, and some will simply oppose change from anything to which they have grown accustomed.  Like seemingly everything in the Church today, there will no doubt be a loud debate once these changes start getting implemented, but in the long run I hope people will cool down after they get used to it.  (h/t American Papist)

1Fancy Latin phrase for “New Order” referring to the liturgical changes to the Mass introduced by Pope Paul VI in 1969 after the Second Vatican Council.

The Google Voice iPhone app saga goes to the FCC [Updated]

USA Today is reporting (via MacRumors) that comments are being filed with the FCC regarding Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app in the iPhone App Store.  Apparently, Apple is not the only company facing questions.  Google may have some questions to answer on the related subject of the crippled version of Skype on their Android operating system.

Why: Consumers who use Android, the Google-developed operating system for wireless devices, can’t use Skype, a leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. A pioneer in free Internet calling, Skype allows you to talk as long as you want without draining cellphone minutes.

Android users get Skype Lite, a watered-down version of the original that routes calls over traditional phone networks — not the Internet. As a result, long-distance calls are still cheap or free, but cellphone minutes are gobbled up every time a Skype Lite call is made…

…Google’s explanation would seem to suggest that T-Mobile requested the block on Skype, but the carrier says that’s not the case. “T-Mobile has not asked Google to block that service,” says spokesman Joe Farren, referring to original Skype [sic]. – USA Today

In both of these cases, it is clear that neither the carriers nor OS providers want to take the blame.  Maybe the FCC can break this problem open and make progress, but as stated before, “consider me skeptical.”

UPDATE: Apple says it acted alone in rejecting the app.  Something still smells fishy here, but if this is the case, bad Apple!

cnet: CBS to run video ad in magazine this fall

This is pretty cool but could turn out to be as annoying as greeting cards that play music.

The September 18 issue of the Time Inc.-owned magazine will feature the first video ad to appear in print, George Schweitzer, CBS marketing president, said Wednesday at a press conference at the company’s headquarters here.

The ad will be launched in partnership with PepsiCo to promote Pepsi Max soda and the TV network’s Monday prime-time lineup. Not everyone will be seeing it: the ad will appear in a magazine insert sent to subscribers in the New York and Los Angeles areas–an edition without the video chip will be sent to subscribers elsewhere and show up on newsstands.

“Measure twice, cut once”

In a story on NewsOK.com about the pending construction of the Devon Tower, Oklahoma City’s first legitimate skyscraper, I found this quote refreshing:

[Klay] Kimker, Devon’s vice president of administration, said he learned from construction of Liberty Tower that if one doesn’t have time to do things right the first time, then that person will face spending even more time fixing mistakes once the task is done.

You might be thinking, “what is so interesting about common sense like that?”  Unfortunately, I don’t think this is common sense any more.  In a time when any time after right now is late, proper planning is usually one of the first areas to get cut off the timeline.  Unfortunately, I’ve been a part of many projects with a “do it fast, fix it later” mindset.  So it was nice to read that the idea of taking your time and getting it right isn’t completely forsaken.

Deposit checks digitally via the iPhone

The MacRumors iPhone Blog reports on a feature in the new USAA Mobile banking app for the iPhone that allows for depositing checks digitally by photo scanning them.  This is one of the most useful features of an iPhone app that I have seen.  Check out the video below.