The Maxson Homepage on the WWW
Google Earth is cool! Here is a picture of the place Cyndi, Kevin, Ronda, and myself stayed at the Outer Banks. We stayed in the condos with the swimming pool in the center of the picture. To the right is the ocean.
[Update 2012-12-26 07:02:19] Put the picture on flickr and changed the image to point there.
I ran across the blog of Dr. Albert Mohler. FOr those of you who don't know, Dr. Mohler is the President of The Southern Baptist Teologicial Seminary.
Here are some links to some recent articles by Dr. Mohler that I found good:
The Born-Again Bank Robber?
I Guess It All Depends on What "Celibacy" Means?
Should Parents Honor a 'Zone of Privacy' For Their Children?
We Need More Faithful Husbands — Not 'Passive Nice Guys'
What Greeting Cards Say About Us
Well, I'm on day three, and gmail has blocked over 400 spam messages with only 2 false positives. I'd say I'm very happy right now.
Thanks Google! and thanks Matt for the Invitation!
I met a guy at work a few weeks ago named Erich Bridges. Turns out he is a big writer for the International Mission Board (and other publications too). Here is a link to a good article of his that was recently published in Baptist Press about the size of houses in America.
Here is a link to another blog with some good discussion on the topic.
While surfing this evening, I came across this article with points on witnessing to a Muslim. I found it very interesting. Here are a summary of the points made:
1. Where did Jesus say, “I am God, worship me”?
2. “Why do you worship three gods? How are you better than idolaters? Repent and acknowledge that God has no equals.”
3. “How can you demean God and say he begets a son? God has no female partner that he should have a son. Begetting is an animal act that is not fit for the holiness of God.”
4. The Bible has so much evil in it: murder, rape, incest, prostitution, adultery. It is immoral. How can you believe it is the word of God?
5. Jesus prophesied the coming of Mohammed: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.” (John 14:16). Why do you not believe Jesus?
6. The Bible has been corrupted. How can you trust it?
7. Your Bible says that God “rested” on the seventh day. Your “god” is weak. The Qur’an says God never grows tired. God cannot be tired! How can you believe in such a weak god?
8. The Bible says not to eat pork, and that men must be circumcised. Why have Christians turned away from the commands of God?
9. Why does the Bible show Jesus drinking wine, and even using a miracle to create wine? Why all this moral decadence?
10. How can you say God did not create evil? Who but God can create?
11. Jesus did not die, neither was he crucified. Why do you believe God would abandon Jesus to such a death?
12. No one can atone for the sins of another. No one can carry another’s sins. When you live sinful lives and trust Jesus to save you, are you not just kidding yourselves?Many Christians have grown up in cultures that are Christian in name only, and too often we let ourselves be dragged down into the godless lifestyle of the atheists and agnostics around us. If you are a Christian who has let sexual temptation drive his life into sin, who has let greed or selfishness or worldliness drive his life away from God, the first thing to do is to turn back to God. Someone who has turned away from God cannot witness to him effectively. If you want to effectively witness to people who pray five times a day, fast 40 days a year, and have large portions of their scriptures memorized, each of us then has an obligation to make sure his own life is in order. Each person must examine himself before presuming to instruct others.
How about it? Are we really christians, or are we just doing what we always have done?
I was reading PersecutionBlog today and came across this article talking about Islamic Terrorism. This ties in, interestingly enough, to a recent Fatwa by US Clerics against terrorism.
First off, let's get something straight: Islam is a violent religion. The Koran clearly states that "believers" are expected to cleanse the world of "infadels." Translation: mulsims are supposed to kill non-muslims.
Along these lines, here is an additional link declaring why the fatwa is bogus.
As Christians, we are to love these people. They are the way they are because they don't believe in the God (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). They need to know that God isn't impersonal. He loves us and wants a relationship with us. That relationship comes after we are made right by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus (Isa), on the cross. He was crucified, died, and rose again three days later.
Christians, if we don't tell, who will?!
I just wanted to let everyone know that in under two days, gmail has blocked over 200 pieces of spam. So far, there are zero false positives. I'm excited.
Missionary Tortured and Sentenced in Saudi Arabia amid Crack Down
A young Indian missionary has been sentenced to one year in prison and beaten hundreds of times in Saudi Arabia, where up to 100 foreign Christians have been detained in recent weeks, a mission organization said Thursday, June 30.
In Saudi Arabia, public expression of any faith except Islam is illegal. The country’s royal family has claimed individuals are permitted to practice any religion in their own homes, but the arrests of Indian and other Christians show persecution, CAM and other human rights groups have said.
Remember our Christian brothers and sisters who are tortured for the cause of Christ.
[Update 2012-12-26 15:12:00] The worthy news link changed. I’ve updated it.
In this articke, Google's Gmail is used as a spam filter.
I have a gmail account, but have never used it (I didn't want to change e-mail addresses, again. But I recently decided to give this a shot. I didn't do it exactly as described, so here is what I did:
1. — I configured every e-mail account I had access to so the e-mail was forwarded to my gmail account. Please note, that this wasn't done in my email client as a rule. I could configure the mail account to "forward to" another e-mail address.
2. — In #1, the forwarding ensured that no mail would be delivered to the accounts. I left my e-mail app alone (yes, it still checks those accounts for mail). However, I ought to configure my client to never check for mail at those addresses again.
3. — I set my gmail account up for POP3 access. I have it leaving the mail on Google's servers. That way, I can search it there if I ever have to.
4. — I then configured my mail client to check my gmail mail.
5. — I undid the configuration of my mail client so my mail is no longer checked by SAProxy (an anchient version that only did ok).
So far, it appears to be working great. It already catches much more spam than my anchient GPL version of SAProxy (alas, it isn't free anymore). But, I must say that SAProxy only did ok. I had to block most spam using black lists.
I'm going to let this run for a week or two and update everyone on how successfull it is.
[Update 2007-03-16 07:49:26] This has worked out so well that I'm still doing it. Plus I get the convienence of webmail with none of the hassles of web only mail.
Ever wonder what was going on inside your printer? Well, Dean Armstrong is a guy who has taken apart several inkjet printers.
I disassembled a broken Epson C80 inkjet printer the other day. They nearly always clog if you don't use them constantly, if you use them constantly but have low humidity, or if you look at them the wrong way. It was a useful exercise, and I learned a few things about the state of printer engineering and how things change over time
I've taken apart a number of inkjet printers, starting with old HP Deskjets from 1990. They used encoders and standard motors too, but the printer was designed to last. Canon Bubblejets from the mid-90's used steppers; and I had always assumed all printers would from now on. The HP Deskjets also used a Z80 CPU; I'd always loved that an ancient processor was still being used in embedded stuff. Keith tells me it's a great processor.
I would have had a huge absorptive sponge too, but it was full of ink.
Makes you wonder if you really run out of ink because you use it all or because the printer wastes a ton of it.