Advice for Apple MacBook Video Out: Mini DisplayPort

Apple is a great company with excellent products, and I am a loyal customer. One main criticism would be the lucrative monopoly Apple has in changing specialized video outputs of new products every few years.

iPod Video Out: Earlier versions of the video iPod allowed for many brands of adapter cables to connect and watch videos on a TV. In 2007, Apple locked the TV Out feature of video-capable iPods, preventing users from outputting iPod content to their TV sets with former adapter cables. Customers are now limited to 2 iPod video adapter cables for $50.00 thru Apple which carry the necessary computer chip. In 2008, Apple locked the charging function of new iPod models, preventing users from being able to charge without an Apple brand cable or docking station.

MacBook Video Out: Apple laptops formerly provided several video output options. As of 2009, all new MacBooks provide only the Mini DisplayPort video output. This is profitable for Apple as most folks will purchase adapters directly thru the company. Unfortunately, Apple only provides 2 video adapters for MacBooks at this point (VGA or DVI). The TV adapter cable only works with HDTV and will not work with older technology. This will encourage most folks to eventually upgrade to HDTV.

I contacted Apple Customer care to see if the company will provide any other video adapter options for the Mini DisplayPort in the future, but there is no news at this point. As for blogs and online forums concerning Apple video outputs, there seems to be some disagreement on what’s going on out there. It usually takes time for 3rd party companies to catch up with new technology.

I explored online and came upon some great options. The sites below offer more options than Apple currently for adapters/cables and at lower prices.

As for charging newer iPods, check out: http://www.handhelditems.com/ipod-touch-apple-ipod-touch-chargers-c-4_5289_5314.html

For Mini DisplayPort Video Output to a Monitor or Projector, you will need the following 2 items:
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Female Adapter Cable for $12.12.
VGA Monitor Cable (Male to Male) for $4.89.

For Mini DisplayPort Video Output to an older TV (RCA inputs), you will need the following 2 items:
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Female Adapter Cable for $12.12.
VideoSecu PC Laptop Mac Computor to TV Presentation Converter, VGA to Video VGA2TV 1L7 for $18.89 (unit requires a USB Power Adapter).

For Mini DisplayPort Video Output to HDTV, you will need the following 2 items:
PTC Premium Mini-DisplayPort Male to DVI Female Adapter Cable for $6.95.
DVI to HDMI Cable 6ft Male-Male for $1.99.

I hope this is helpful to you. Best regards.

Can a Woman be President But Not a Pastor?

David Julen wrote a Biblical Recorder article in March, “Can a woman be president but not a pastor?”: http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/post/2009/03/09/Can-a-woman-be-president-but-not-a-pastor.aspx.

My friend, Ted Manby, published an excellent response, “Handling the Bible properly on culturally hot topics”: http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/post/2009/04/14/Handling-the-Bible-properly-on-culturally-hot-topics.aspx.

Guinness on Schaeffer

Check out Justin Taylor’s recent interview with Os Guinness on the 25th Anniversary of Francis Schaeffer’s death: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/05/interview-with-os-guinness-on-25th.html.

I also recommend Guinness’ book review of Frank Schaeffer’s memoir, Crazy for God: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/marapr/1.32.html.

Making Singleness Better

A new article on The Briefing, Making Singleness Better, is well worth the read.

The column begins: “There are those who say that singleness is better, but unfortunately that is not the experience of many who have been single long-term. Tim Adeney looks at why, and what we can do to love and serve the single people in our churches.”

You can also read some of my thoughts on singleness at: https://joshberrus.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/some-thoughts-on-singleness/

Sobering Thoughts on Twitter

Nicholas Carr, author of the book The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google and the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? recently wrote a sobering blog post: Twitter dot dash.

Here are some highlights:

“Twitter unbundles the blog, fragments the fragment. It broadcasts the text message, turns SMS into a mass medium. And what exactly are we broadcasting? The minutiae of our lives. The moment-by-moment answer to what is, in Twitterland, the most important question in the world: What are you doing? Or, to save four characters: What you doing? Twitter is the telegraph of Narcissus. Not only are you the star of the show, but everything that happens to you, no matter how trifling, is a headline, a media event, a stop-the-presses bulletin. Quicksilver turns to amber.”

He goes on:

“The great paradox of ‘social networking’ is that it uses narcissism as the glue for ‘community.’ Being online means being alone, and being in an online community means being alone together. The community is purely symbolic, a pixellated simulation conjured up by software to feed the modern self’s bottomless hunger. Hunger for what? For verification of its existence? No, not even that. For verification that it has a role to play. As I walk down the street with thin white cords hanging from my ears, as I look at the display of khakis in the window of the Gap, as I sit in a Starbucks sipping a chai served up by a barista, I can’t quite bring myself to believe that I’m real. But if I send out to a theoretical audience of my peers 140 characters of text saying that I’m walking down the street, looking in a shop window, drinking tea, suddenly I become real. I have a voice. I exist, if only as a symbol speaking of symbols to other symbols.”

Challenge for Young Leaders

No generation has arrived. Every generation has gains and losses. I pray our generation will be prayerful, teachable, Scripture-centered, seeking counsel from ministry leaders who have paved the way, learning from history, and making greater strides for Christ in the decades ahead.

I recommend the following article by Nathan Akin: A Call for Foot Soldiers in a Great Commission Resurgence: The Positives and the Pitfalls for Young Leaders. A brief outline is below.

Positives of Young Leaders:
1. Energy and Creativity
2. Theological Renewal
3. A Missionaries’ Mindset
4. Expectancy

Pitfalls of Young Leaders:
1. Pride and Ageism
2. Follow through
3. Capitulation to Culture
4. Isolationist Attitude
5. Neglect of the Spiritual Disciplines

Self-Forgetfulness

Here are some thoughts from John Stott on Self-Forgetfulness:

“If you look at yourself in the mirror, and listen to yourself on tape, or do both simultaneously on videotape, I fear you may find that you continue to look at yourself and listen to yourself when you are in the pulpit. In that case you will condemn yourself to the cramping bondage of preoccupation with yourself just at the time when, in the pulpit, it is essential to cultivate self-forgetfulness through a growing awareness of the God for whom and the people to whom you are speaking . . . I know actors make use of glass and tape, but preachers are not actors, nor is the pulpit at a stage. So beware! It may be more valuable to ask a friend to be candid with you about your voice and mannerisms, especially if they need correction. An Indian proverb says ‘He who has a good friend needs no mirror.’ Then you can be yourself and forget yourself.”

The Apostle Paul Wanted Books

During Ligon Duncan’s sermon at The Gospel Coalition conference he quoted Spurgeon’s sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13 where Paul asks Timothy to bring him his books/parchments.

Here is a section from Spurgeon’s sermon:

“We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them. Even an apostle must read. . . . A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle!

He is inspired, and yet he wants books!

He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books!

He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!

He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books!

He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books!

He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, ‘Give thyself unto reading.’ The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, ‘Bring the books’—join in the cry.”

Baseball Player – Josh Burrus

I thought I was the only Josh Berrus in the world, but found out today that there are over 40 guys on facebook with my name (with a slight spelling difference such as Burrus and Burris). One of them is a minor league baseball player. Pretty cool.

Joshua Von Burrus (born August 20, 1983 in Marietta, Georgia) is currently an outfielder for the Mississippi Braves in the Atlanta Braves farm system.

See more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Burrus