A Prayer for the End of the Day

Do you pray before bedtime? I find that it is easy to convince our children to do so, but by the time I am ready to go to bed, I hit the sack and start sawing logs right away. That’s probably not the best mindset to have, I guess.

“Our Father, At the end of another day, we come to you not just by ourselves– but together.

Many of us will readily admit that you have given us again today far more than we deserve. But some of us find ourselves reeling with news that we have not yet been able to understand or even to accept.

So, we come to you together, not only because we know that you alone are to be thanked for our good times, but because you alone are to be trusted in the moments of our loss.

We also admit, Father, that in spite of what we boldly declare in the light, when the sun goes down, we are inclined to worry about things we cannot change or control. So we need your help again tonight to remember with David the King and songwriter of Israel that,

“He who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps. The LORD himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night. The LORD keeps you from all evil and preserves your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever” (Psalm 121:4-8 NLT).

So as we get ready to lay our head on our pillow, please let our hearts also find their rest in you.

In the name of your Son Jesus, “Good night, Father.”

Steve Jobs Is Not Dead

Apparently there was an erroneous report that got out earlier in the month that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Corp., had passed away. It had a wildly detrimental effect on the stock price and was later found to be a prank, not an effort to influence trading of Apple’s shares.

Apple shareholders got a scare this morning when an enterprising “journalist” (day trader?) reported on CNN’s citizen journalism site that CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack. The stock fell as low as $94.65 before Apple rushed forward to deny the report.

Assuming the so-called “citizen journalist” bought shares on the fall, he stood to make at least $6 per share, given that the stock bounced back to the $100 range after the rumors were denied.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet? I guess that Wall Street does.

Google’s Audio Indexer Keeps Politicians on Point

Last week’s reading discussed how you can search in an object-oriented database. Here is a good example. You can take an audio file, put some meta tags in there (like what is in this indexer), and suddenly the video can become a searchable piece of content much like what you would find with textual content on the internet.

Two months ago they released a widget that searches YouTube’s political videos for key words or phrases. You could also skip right ahead to the segment of the video where the words are mentioned.

That alone should have had politicians shaking in their boots. Now Google’s improved upon its product with a site devoted to scanning and indexing the content, including a new search within video and advanced sharing functionality. The updates will also be added to the Google Elections Video Search gadget.

Google Search Knows Where You Are

Is Big Brother watching you or just helpfully directing you to the nearest Starbucks?

Now, when smartphone users enter a search term, Google will return results catered to where they are standing at that moment. Previously, Google’s mobile search results were tailored to the last location entered into the search engine.

With Google intuiting a user’s zipcode when they search for things like “sushi,” “pizza,” or “weather,” it can’t be long until advertisers get in on paying Google so their results appear on the top of the list for that zipcode.

Is there a potential for privacy abuse here or do we really need to know right away where the nearest sushi pizza is located?

A Prayer for a New Day

Here are some really great thoughts first thing in the morning.

Father, thank you for letting us breathe the air of a new day. It’s only by your mercy that we’re here. Only by your undeserved kindness have we opened our eyes, to new thoughts, to fresh choices, and to sense in the darkness around us the wonder of your presence.

We are sobered by the thought that, in your wisdom, you might let us waste this day on ourselves, on unworthy motives, on unhealthy thoughts, or on choices that could hurt and discourage those around us. we realize that by the decisions you allow us to make on our own, you have given us the ability to bring disgrace to you and your name.

But we also find hope in the thought that you may give us the chance to use this day for your honor, and for purposes far greater and better than our own.

So, Father, we don’t want to enter the next moment with unworthy thoughts. Please don’t let us live this day as if we made it, or deserve it. Nor do we want to see ourselves as victims of circumstance, or with a sense of what is owed to us by you or anyone else.

Because of all you have done for us, please help us to use this day to look for opportunities to return kindness for insult, and good for evil– not to try and show ourselves better than others, but to do for anyone you bring into our life as you have so kindly done for us.

Please don’t let us miss a chance to help those who might be in need of an unexpected smile, a helping hand, or anything else that would quietly draw their attention not to us, but to you.

Above all, Father, because you have made the ultimate sacrifice for us, we want, at the very least, to bring a smile to your heart, and to those you love so much– today.