Stu's Blog

Every once in a while this comes around. If you want a decent commentary set, this is a good price. You get the full 59 volume WBC (Word Biblical Commentary) with the 35 volume Preacher’s Commentary together for $399. The WBC usually goes for about $600 so this is a good price. If you don’t have Logos, you can d/l the engine for free here: http://www.logos.com/support/downloads/ldls. Get the WBC from RCS here: http://www.dxcart.com/cart/?id=8698&code=NLEPECD.

The June 6, 2011 issue of eWEEK contained the article “IBM: 100 Years of Innovation.” The article preceded the 100 year anniversary of IBM later this month, which in the world of tech translates to at least a millennium (think dog years). Whatever you think of IBM (devil personified, inspiration for the rogue computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, other?), they have had a remarkable run. A defining ethos has to do with character, values, and principles.

I recall reading the book Father, Son & Co: My Life at IBM and Beyond a number of years ago and the one thing I remember most was a story of the younger Watson learning a life lesson from his dad. They had just used the restroom at a hotel and after washing their hands, dad wiped down the splashes on the sink that junior had left. Dad said (near as I can recall), “You always want to leave the place better than you found it.”

Thomas J. Watson Sr., the guy who started it all, built the company on a few core values. From an new book, Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company comes this quote: “Since its early days, IBM has been operated based on a set of core beliefs. IBM would distinguish itself with its respect for the individual, its pursuit of excellence in all things and its commitment to providing the best customer service. These values were baked into the core DNA by Thomas Watson Sr., who built the near-failing organization of 1914 into an industrial giant with staying power. And that DNA has taken hold in millions of employees over the course of 100 years.”

IBM has had its ups and downs, made big bets some of which paid off hugely, experienced near-death in the late 1980′s, had a succession of CEO’s, and is still going strong.

IBM seemed to lose its way in the 80′s under John F. Akers. This was their near-death era. They brought in Louis V. Gerstner Jr. who “quickly slashed headcount and spending, and reset the company’s focus on the customer.” Gerstner was not there for too many years. It reminds me a bit of when a church loses its way, is seriously heading downhill, and a turn-around interim comes in and does the necessary surgery. There may be blood on the walls, upset and angry people, but the patient (church) is saved from bleeding to death. Someone has to have the courage to make the hard decisions (and a few enemies), and that takes some character.

Next up was Samuel J. Palmisano, who continues to be the chairman and CEO since his appointment in 2002. He came on board and quickly established several values that have defined IBM for this era: “dedication to every client’s success; innovation that matters-for our company and for the world; and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.”

My point is that character and values matter. IBM is no church (well, some might beg to differ) but at least some of its leaders led in a principled manner and IBM is still here and still strong.

One of the hardest things for older churches is to have the courage to act on their principles in the face of decline and/or opposition. It kills me to see leaders hesitate to act on what they are convinced is right. We of all people should be fearless. Or maybe we lost sight of the hope we once held. Then, losing our way, we lost our character too.

This is very cool…

See more of the artist’s work: http://csismn.com

I bought a used macbook about a year ago. I’m a diehard pc guy – there are ten pc’s vs one lonely mac in this house. Actually, I really don’t like pc’s except for Thinkpads, and the vast majority of my consulting has to do with Linux servers, but I am in the habit of using a pc to connect to the server, do email, browse the web, keep the books, study, etc. I’m a big fan of Logos and the mac version is almost up to snuff with the pc version. I use Finale which is available on both pc and mac. I’m weaning myself off of MS Office by forcing myself to use Open Office and Thunderbird. The one stickler is BibleWorks. There is no mac version nor is there any likely hood of a mac version ever emerging. I decided to try something and I am pleasantly surprised how well it works.

My used mac came with a copy of VMware Fusion, ver 2.0.5. This is not the latest so the current version may even be better. I created a vm of winxp, updated to sp3, and installed BibleWorks 8. This works fine as-is and enables my favorite bible program on my mac. But coolness is still coming! VMware Fusion has “Unity” mode. This integrates the windows apps into the mac desktop environment. You can even lock the BibleWorks icon in the dock. Now I can click the dock icon for BibleWorks and it first starts up the winxp guest and then BibleWorks. This same trick could be used for any windows software. The user experience is very close to a native mac app. There is a performance hit, but this is acceptable for me. I am running out of reasons to avoid switching to a mac. I still have one issue – flash. Why macs have to heat up when watching flash videos is a mystery. Maybe Adobe and M$oft have something going on.

For a tongue-in-cheek video on why someone might abandon mac’dom and return to pc’gehenna, see this:

In another life, I write code. Lots is throw away code. Useful but short lived. For those who think the previous three sentences are in code, I’m referring to computer programs. I don’t often write lengthy multi-page programs. I write a lot that run a half a page to a page, but mostly I write very short programs, often just one line long, or sometimes one long line. I may have a repetitive, tedious, and error prone task to do, and if I can write a one-liner that does it correctly, even though I’ll never use it again, I will do so.

I love the elegance of a well crafted one-liner. One can pack a lot of stuff into one line if one is creative. And when you can make it look good, even beautiful, no make that elegant, well, there’s something really satisfying in the endeavor. Of course there are pithy one-liners that have nothing to do with code, though you might be right in suggesting that compressing a lot of meaning into a few words is a kind of codifying. Putting words together in an elegant and compact way that expresses something substantial is both an art and a craft. One-liners done well can express significant values, persuade one to belief and action, and can overwhelm a book full of words.

C.J. Mahaney recently blogged an article titled “Keep Reading.” A colleague rang me up the other day and we began talking about it. I had recommended a book titled “How To Read A Book (in programming the preceding might be called a circular reference) by Mortimer Adler and my friend had just picked up a copy when he read Mahaney’s article. Mahaney quoted a bit of an old post by John Piper titled “Quantitative Hopelessness and the Immeasurable Moment” where Piper said:

What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99%.

Thus the power of one-liners. You too can reduce an entire book to a sentence. That was said tongue-in-cheek as this is not a post to critique reductionism. Actually, I’m in favor of one-liners. I also forget much of what I read. I’m lucky to get one good sentence out of a book sometimes and get it lodged somewhere in my memory so that I can actually recall it and use it later. Since I ran across three gems in the space of two days, I decided to post them. I especially love it when there is a bit of humor in the one-liner. I must confess that some of this is going to go a bit over the one sentence rule, but I believe it stays within the spirit of the challenge. Here they are.

The first one is from a book dealing with difficult people in the church.

When attacked by dragons, our normal response is to become upset or defensive, and when we feel threatened, we usually wind up dousing the fire with gasoline.¹

This next is from Calvin’s Institutes (3.9.4) speaking of those who are not overly concerned with this life and have their hopes fixed on the next (of which he approves highly):

I confess, indeed, that a most accurate opinion was formed by those who thought, that the best thing was not to be born, the next best to die early.²

This last is from the famous pitcher turned preacher Billy Sunday. Sunday was really famous for his one-liners. This was supposedly offered near the end of his colorful life:

“I’m against sin,” he once said. “I’ll kick it as long as I have a foot. I’ll fight it as long as I have a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I have a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition.”³

I wish I could write like this. Maybe I can a little bit, even if it’s mostly in code.