What's the deal with banks? Often when I visit the bank there is a long line of patrons waiting to do their financial business. As my heart sinks at the prospect of waiting in line for untold amounts of time, a glimmer of light shines through. I see the ATM with no one using it. Sometimes there are one or two people there, but always much less than the line for the tellers. I've never really understood this. Do people enjoy waiting in line? Does the half-hearted smile from the teller keep them coming back? Do people not realize that there is a faster way? Are they afraid of the robot who eats their checks and spits out cash? What do you do at the bank (or are you extra lazy efficient and do direct deposit)?

Now that we've looked at a few of the major Open Source programs I thought I'd give a little summary. Here is why I like open source...

It's free
    And not just free as in cost, but also free to change. Anyone (who knows how) can look at a programs source and make sure it's not doing anything annoying or stupid.
It can be very good
  Some (Firefox) are much better than the closed source version. Some (Open Office) are good enough to be a viable alternative. Others (Linux) can be a matter of preference.
It makes me feel good
    Having a computer and good software can help kids in school, help people get good jobs and in general help in life.  Anything that can lessen the gap between the rich and the poor is a good thing in my book.

Check out this site for a list of good open source programs that covers most everything you do on a computer.

If you are on a mac, try this list.

I watched an interesting movie last night called "Who Killed the Electric Car?" You may watch the video here. If you don't feel like watching all hour and a half I'll summarize:

• California mandated that car companies sell electric cars.
• Car companies made some cars and leased them to a few people.
• Car  and oil companies lobbied to get the mandate removed.
• After the leases were up for the cars, the companies took the cars back and destroyed them, despite the fact that the owners loved the cars and there was demand for more cars to be made.

I've never been much for conspiracy theories but it is clear that car and oil companies are very scared of changing. Now they are pursuing hydrogen as the fuel of the future, despite the fact that there is no guarantee that hydrogen will ever be a viable alternative.
The movie does end with a glimmer of hope in that hybrid cars have done very well and should be able to move from being more gas than electric to more electric than gas and from there to go fully electric.

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We at Monk Development launched Sermon Cloud a few weeks ago. It's a great tool for churches because it's a quick easy way for them to get there sermons on-line and available. It's great for everybody because it's a simple way to find good sermons on any topic or passage. It's still relatively small (about 1,200 sermons on file), but it's growing quickly. Here are some of my favorite sermons.

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This is funny: http://www.ie7.com