The Life and Times of Chris Carson

Late Friday night with the help of Jeremy I jailbroke my iPhone, and for the past 2 days I’ve been loving it. So, if you have an iPhone (or an iTouch) and you think it’s missing a couple features, read on. First, I’ll tell you about 4 apps that I think are worth crossing over for, and then, just incase I convinced you, I’ll tell you how to do it.

Ok, so, why should you jailbreak. Apple has a crazy lock down on their devices, which can be a really good thing, but when the device is missing something that you really want, that makes for irratation. So, here’s what you can get that might make you want to liberate your phone.

Qik: This is a video app that let’s you not only take video, but upload it to the tubes on the internet at the same time. Awesome. This overcomes the lack of video taking capabilities as well as the demelia about what to do with the video once you have it. You can even hook your twitter account up to it so that once you start taking video you tweet that you are as well as a link to what you’re tweeting, which means that your twitter buddies can be watching what you’re doing in almost real-time. If you’ve got an iTouch, then this probably isn’t a big deal since your lacking a camera to begin with, but if you’ve got an iPhone then this is the money-app.

Backgrounder: Do you hate that you can’t run apps in the background? I did. Ha. But sersiouly, I did. Backgrounder changes all that. This app will let you run the apps that you really like without taking away the other parts of your phone that you can’t use while you’re using that one particular app. For me, the best part about this app is that I can run a chat app (Fring) in the background.

Pushr: This is another one that is useless if you’ve got an iTouch, but if you don’t this solves the problem of what to do with your pictures on your phone. Sure, some of them go to Facebook Mobile albums and other go to BrightKite, but there are those that you don’t really like spending the time emailing, but you’d like to have on the web somewhere. Also, if you’re like me, you don’t sync you iPhone with your computer much, so you don’t really access those pictures much on the computer. This app let’s you (only when your on WiFi) upload your photos to Flickr. That’s easy to do with email or something else if it’s only one picture, but when you’ve got 70 something it’s a pain. Pushr changes that, and let’s you connect with Flickr in a really easy way.

Categories: I had like 30 game apps installed on my phone, but is was annoying to try to find a place to put all those since I rarely used them. There were also apps that I used very rarely, but I really liked having installed on my phone so they were easy to access at those rare occassions. It’s annoying though to keep having to rearrange those apps to make room for new more important apps, but categories solves that. Instead of 3 screens getting filled up with game apps, now I’ve got one icon that’s like a normal folder icon that lets you keep all those apps in one small place.

So, maybe that didn’t convince you, but maybe it did. If it did, go download QuickPwn and have your i-whatever jailbroken in like 40 seconds. The first time I tried I didn’t use QuickPwn and the thing froze and I thought I bricked my phone. Fortunately it was fine, and then I found QuickPwn and now things are great. The instructions are simple, and they tell you how to do everything step by step including putting the phone in DFU mode. And remember, if at anytime you are unhappy with your jailbreaking, you can restore the phone to its original factory settings with just the click of a button in iTunes. Just make sure that if you do jailbreak that you don’t update you phone to a new firmware without either restoring first or waiting until the jailbroken version of that firmware is out. Also, if you’re looking to unlock your phone so you can use a different carrier, then you’ll have to talk to someone else. I use AT&T.

Let me know if you’ve done it and you’ve got some great apps that I missed.

Update: I figured I should add a picture of my second page screen with some jailbroken apps running on it. Here it is…

I’m attempting to make this blog a little less political than my last one, but I read this today, and thought that it was very interesting. As someone who openly says whom I will vote for (Barack Obama), I sometimes take a bit of heat in evangelical communties - mostly because of abortion.

Donald Miller is someone who I really like to read and listen to, and he’s recently been volunteering with the Obama campaign. He said the prayer at the DNC one night, and I thought it was great. I guess he too was taking a bit of slack for working for a pro-choice guy and he published a blog post today explaining how he reconciled this and a couple other issues. Here’s his take:

As for the issues that bring the most heat.

On abortion: I am a pro-life voter, but do not believe John McCain’s plan on the issue will work. McCain’s only stand on the issue has been a recent switch to a pro-life position, and a promise to continue the attempt to criminalize abortion through the Supreme Court.I believe this is an empty promise, and anybody who understands our judicial system would know this. Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court (our most conservative Judge, many feel, and the pro-lifers greatest hope for the plan to criminalize abortion) has stated that Roe V. Wade “is the law of the land” and has been backed up in precedent by the Casey case. He does not believe it is plausible to overturn both rulings. Of course it is possible, but it would take a judicial miracle and the appointment of even more conservative, activist judges. This is the only way the overturning of Roe V. Wade will happen. The continuation of rhetoric about being pro-life but not having a realistic plan has tired me of the Republican Party. As more and more evangelicals walk away, I hope Republicans will stop giving lip-service to this important issue. My hope is they will realize they are going to lose more and more votes until they are willing to engage in a bipartisan effort to make progress with comprehensive legislation that is realistic and actual. 

The Democrats have proposed comprehensive legislation called the 95/10 initiative that aims to reduce the number of abortions that take place in this country by 95% within 10 years. While Barack Obama is a pro-choice candidate, he supports this and similar legislation. This is the only proposed and realistic strategy that can move us around the cultural impasse that is breathing hate and anger into the Christian community. 

While Barack Obama opposes late-term abortions, he has made promises to the National Organization or Women to make progress in a woman’s right to chose. I wish Obama were more strong on this issue. Still, I do feel he will accomplish more than John McCain, as John McCain has only recently taken this position and offers no legislation and no plan.

This is a very debatable issue. There are facts on both sides that seem to refute any argument made. But I have had to do the research and take a position and, for now, this is my position.

Gay Marriage:

This is not an issue I think much about because I am neither gay nor married, but I understand the evangelicals desire to protect the sanctity of marriage and define it as an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman. I agree with both candidates on this issue as they both oppose gay marriage but protect constitutional rights for domestic partners. In order to oppose civil rights for homosexuals, you would have to change the constitution which I think is dangerous. I agree with McCain and Obama both on this issue as they have stated the same position.

On other issues that are no less important although less heated such as the economy, globalization and trade, the environment and energy, I support Barack Obama’s positions over John McCain’s.

But let me make something very clear. I don’t dislike John McCain. I think he is a good man and a drastic improvement over Republican candidates in the past. I do wish he were a Christian, or would talk about faith, Jesus, Redemption or the Cross. Barack Obama does, very often, and very unashamedly.I am uncomfortable with the idea of a truly secular man in the White House, a man who has no church, no pastor, does not read the Bible and may not even pray. John McCain seems like a good man, but a secular man. I want our next President to talk and listen to God.

So, that is my position, and I will be talking openly about these things on the road. I sincerely appreciate your objective ear. I think people are more important than politics, and I refuse to “vote my identity” rather than vote on the issues. Therefore I won’t get into heated arguments that have no end. I doubt any of you want to do that either. Thanks so much. I don’t intend to keep up the political posts on this site, so don’t worry. We will get back to normal soon.

Sincerely,

 

Don
 

I think I agree with him for the most part, but I’m interested to hear what you think. I know some of you are still on the fence and some of you are on the opposite side of the fence for these very reasons. Any thoughts?

I heard we weren’t suppose to call him that since he’s 21 now… too bad.

Anyway, the Pens regular season starts this Saturday against the Senators in Sweden. Don’t miss it.

And don’t forget to get your daily dose of The Pensblog and Empty Netters.

I recently stumbled across a great cultural site called GOOD Magazine: http://good.is. I was first intrigued by their great design sense, and then a really interesting story about required reading for English classes, and the script of Freaks and Geeks was on their list. I thought that was awesome. Then today I saw that they were letting you name your own price (down to a dollar) to recieve their mag in the mail. That was a great offer I couldn’t pass up. I really don’t know much about the mag, but I think if you’ve got a dollar to spare this could be a good gamble.

If Radiohead Can Do It, So Can We by Good

In case you somehow missed this, or in case you haven’t watched it 50 times yet, here’s the best SNL sketch since “The Best Look in the World.”

We didn’t sleep too late. 
There was a fire in the yard. 
All of the tress were in light. 
They had no faces to show. 
I saw a sign in the sky: 
Seven swans, seven swans, seven swans. 
I heard a voice in my mind: 
I will try, I will try, I will try. 
I will try, I will try, I will try. 

We saw the dragon move down. 
My father burned into coal. 
My mother saw it from far. 
She took her purse to the bed. 
I saw a sign in the sky: 
Seven horns, seven horns, seven horns. 
I heard a voice in my mind: 
I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord. 
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord. 
He said: I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord. 

He will take you. If you run, 
He will chase you. 
He will take you. If you run, 
He will chase you 
’cause He is the Lord. 

‘Cause He is the Lord… 
Seven swans, seven swans, seven swans, 
seven swans, seven swans…

If you know anything about Western PA, you know that high school football is a big deal.

I got some new books today that I’m really excited about. Culture Making by Andy Crouch and Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. Check them out, and let me know if you’ve read them. I’d love to converse about them.