Ravi Zacharius answers “How can God be good if…?”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=902520087497301262

I love Ravi’s podcasts – check his website:
http://www.rzim.org/ 

Moshe Averick answers Dawkins
http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/The_Design_Argument_Answers_to_Atheists_Objections.html

After the Froyo (Android 2.2) update came out from HTC and Softbank I expected this issue to disappear because moving apps to the SD card was finally officially supported. While there seemed to be improvement in battery life and new camera features after the update, I still got memory warnings even when I moved all the apps I could to external SD storage and had to finess the phone in various ways when I wanted to install new apps. Later on I learned that this is because a part of the OS called the Dalvik-cache is located in a smallish partition which, in hindsite, HTC maybe should have made a little larger.

During the past year I have applied all the over the air updates from Softbank and, as mentioned above, enjoyed some good OS improvements when Froyo (Android 2.2) came out. I kept everything stock because I hoped that Softbank would continue to support this model. I was hoping for tethering support, skype support, Google Voice support, etc. Softbank delivered on the Froyo, but recently I heard that they will not do an OTA (over the air) update to Android 2.3. You can get it on the HTC Dev Center but when I looked closely I saw this,

The following regional variants are not-compatible with this upgrade: Germany (Deutsch Telekom), North America, South America, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Arabic language speaking countries in the Middle East.

Hmmm. I guess it works somewhere, but not in Japan or these other small countries listed?

Now if you upload a graphic named login-logo.png to your wp-content directory the plugin will use it as the logo instead of this one:

I’m not really writing this plugin to share – simply for my own benefit in learning and in customizing my sites. But if it is useful you are welcome to it:
Ray’s Login Widget (version 0.2 .zip archive)

 I want to learn to write widgets and this was a good place to start. I might add some more functionality later but for now you are free to use this if you want to add a login link to your sidebar but DON’T want the default feed and WordPress.org links…

Install:
rays-login-widget.php (this file is archived in .zip format for security reasons)
Unzip the file above to wp-content/plugins dir on your webserver. Activate “Ray’s Login Widget” in the admin console plugins page. Navigate to Appearance|Widgets in the admin console and drag the “Ray’s Login Widget” to a sidebar. Enter a title for the login link. Done.

P.S. I learned from Justin Tadlock’s post here and from the default-widgets.php file in the WordPress 3.2.1 install (wp-includes/default-widgets.php).

1. Download the trial version, use it for this short project then uninstall
2. Pay about $500 for the academic version (but would probably end up with Japanese software)
3. Download a pirate version from a torrent site (OK, this is not the right option for a Christ-follower)
4. Turn to open source alternatives

Option #1 looked good but it only works once per PC and also leaves registry bloat behind after the uninstall. Because I like open source software (always free) and because I happened to know about a great alternative to Illustrator, I decided to go with option #4.

Tools required:

Inkscape

homepage: http://inkscape.org/
download: http://inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

UniConvertor

homepage: http://sk1project.org/
download: http://sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor&op=download

How I did it

After installing the lastest Inkscape (currently at version 48.1) I found that Inkscape imports ai files natively pretty well. I was able to import the Illustrator CS4 file containing the business card template with no problems. I did have to specify the size, so I used a standard Japanese business card size. The file opened up in Inkscape and I was able to edit text and vector graphics. However I noticed that there was no export to Adobe Illustrator .ai format built in. I was surprised because I thought I had used Inkscape to export .ai files in the past. After a quick web search I learned that the .ai export feature was removed in Inkscape version .47. This is because Adobe Illustrator now (since version 10) supports importing .svg files, which are Inkscape’s native file format. This is good news but in my experience some Mac-based graphics designers aren’t too great with handling different file formats. So I was pleased to find that a separate open-source project exists who’s whole mission is to provide a convertor between the various vector-based graphic formats in existence. Not only that, but this project includes a patch script to run on Inkscape 47.x or 48.x which adds the specific functionality I was looking for. The project is called sk1project and the software is called uniconvertor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In times like this I’m reminded

That my life belongs to you

In times like this I will not fear

Everything is in your hands

When the Earth shakes

I’ll be ready for Your call

For I know You will guide me through

When the Earth shakes

I will serve You all the more

For I know in You I stand secure

When I’m alone I’m not alone

You are always there for me

When I’m confused You give me peace

You give me strength so I can lead

To this point we have sent 10 tons of supplies in 4 trucks to various places in northern and eastern Sendai. We now have key contacts at churches, refugee centers, and even made two stops at a Buddhist temple where many homeless families were staying temporarily. Young James went up with the second team and took 2 tons of supplies with one of the leaders from our church in Yokosuka and a driver from the church in Shimada. Thank you for your prayers for him – I watched closely on the GPS and prayed a lot while he was in Fukushima and Sendai. The land north of us is totally devastated, especially along the coastal areas where the tsunami hit. He shared with me that in the worst hit areas it is getting dangerous. Because of lack of food, shelter and basics, there is looting and even talk of murders and other crime. There are still many places which have not received relief and it has been two weeks since the 9.0 earthquake and 30+ ft high tsunami.

Through a providential connection two days ago, I found a church in Setagaya Tokyo which was in contact with an old-folk’s home in the northern part of Sendai which was low on food. They had received no supplies since the earthquake and there are 70 residents and 50 care-givers living in the rural facility. I was able to call my friend Keisuke and Pastor Rick Justus who were just then making a delivery in northern Sendai and direct them to stop by the old-folk’s home with much needed food and supplies. Please pray for the residents and caregivers there as I hear some have the flu now. We want to bring masks, rubber gloves, adult diapers and other needed supplies in the next truckload.

This Saturday P. James Coble from Yokohama will be leading team #4 into Sendai. They will stop at Yokosuka Church, where we have collected another 1 or 2 tons of food and supplies to load. The week following we are hoping to set up a base camp in central Sendai on the property of a local church which was wiped out by the tsunami. We are negotiating now to buy a small prefab house and bring it up to the property for the pastor and his wife to set up a base for relief efforts and ministry in the community. Today I found and rented a covered two-ton truck for one month. Once we set up the base we hope to begin regular deliveries up to this base an others that we have already established. Also providentially a man in my church has offered the use of his 4-ton truck with crane to help us set up the prefab and move old damaged containers to the base camp site to use for storage. We have the beginnings of a good long-term plan but need lots of prayer!

In Yokosuka our local FM radio station has been to the church to interview James, Satomi and me after he came back from his trip to Sendai. He is praying hard about possibly taking a semester off of college since it looks like it will be months most people have shelter in the affected area. Even in Yokosuka we are still living with daily aftershocks, many of them in the M5 or M6 range. We are also facing radiation and rolling three-hour power blackouts which are scheduled now to last through August. At least we now have gasoline and the panic buying of bread and other staples has stopped for now.

The kanji character for crisis is 危機 which means danger + opportunity. Please pray for us to have the love and peace of God to meet the danger part fearlessly. The opportunity part is obvious. This is the reason why we are here – God wants to show how much He loves Japan and we are privileged that He wants to use us. Thanks for all your prayers, love and financial gifts. You are our partners – expect to hear good news from Japan because God is here.

Together for Him,
Ray in Yokosuka

Give to Japanese local churches through Every Nation U.S.A.
(These are local churches in Japan that I am directly connected with and who are working now to establish relief efforts)
http://www.everynation.org/japan

Missing Person Locators

Person Finder (multilingual)
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Red Cross Family Links page for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (multilingual)
http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/Web/doc/siterfl0.nsf/htmlall/familylinks-japon-eng

Google Earthquake Crisis Response

Google has set up a great information page for the earthquake here. Also you can donate to the Japanese Red Cross at this page. The Red Cross in Japan is still assessing the situation but if you feel you need to give money now, that is one place to do it. It should eventually be put to good use.
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

This page has many useful links such as:

• Warnings and advisories
• Disaster message boards
• Transportation status
• Blackout information

The Japanese version of the above page is here.
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html 

Softbank announces free messaging and free WiFi spots

Japanese:
http://mb.softbank.jp/scripts/japanese/information/kinkyu/detail.jsp?oid=537231423

English:
http://softbanksucks.blogspot.com/2011/03/softbank-temporarily-makes-wifi.html

Before/After Satellite Photos from ABC News Australia

hover mouse over each picture to see the change:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm

Video Archive of Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

http://earthquakes.videohq.tv/