Church IT RoundTable

NAB Show Offer

2010-03-09T20:43:06+00:00

I’ve just had an email from Jason Rouse of the “NAB Show Team / Tuvel Communications”.

Who are they I hear you asking? Well you might because it’s the same question I asked myself. Anyway they are an organisation that has the NAB Show as one of its clients.

Well I still don’t know what or who the NAB Show is, but you can see the website is here.However the email goes on to say that they are running two exhibits which those of us in IT / Media / Worship on the techy side may be interested in.

In their own words:

The Technologies for Worship Pavilion offers comprehensive training for house of worship staff and technical volunteers and is the focal point for all things related to worship technology at the NAB Show. In addition, you may be interested in Destination Broadband – the newest broadband-centric exhibit at the 2010 NAB Show. It will be featuring technologies like online video platforms, streaming video, mobile video distribution, and much more.

Technologies for Worship Schedule: http://ow.ly/1fCqd
Destination Broadband: http://ow.ly/14hgA

The reason I’m reaching out to you is because I have a special registration code for you to pass along to your readers, giving them access to the show – a $150 value – for FREE. This special pass includes the exhibit floor, the Opening Keynote and State of the Industry Address, Info Sessions, Content Theater, Destination Broadband Theater and Exhibits. All you and your readers need to do is visit http://ow.ly/13TL9 to redeem or register at http://nabshow.com/register with the code A913.

Let me say this – looking through the schedule of seminars I know I’d love to be there but sadly (short of winning the lottery) I won’t be.

However, if you’re in, near or able to get to Las Vegas then I’d love to hear back from you afterwards. Just make sure you use the code above for a free entry. Oh, and the dates, it’s April 10th to 15th 2010.

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How to Choose an Outsourcing Partner

2010-03-09T13:17:52+00:00

I'm a big fan of outsourcing. Over the years, I've made some really good outsourcing decisions. Unfortunately, I've also made a few that weren't so great. Hopefully I've learned in the process. Here are a few ideas for choosing an outsourcing partner based on my good, and bad, experience.

Much like hiring an employee, there’s a risk with outsourcing also. Choose the wrong partner and you still have a problem, even if you don’t have a long-term commitment to them. Choose the wrong partner for a critical deployment, or for hosting, or moving to the cloud, and you may have a disaster! So, what are some things to look for when choosing an outsourcer?

Here’s a quick list. I’ll elaborate in future posts.

Responsiveness to requests (if they don’t respond well during the sales cycle, don’t expect it to get better when they have your money)
Communication styles – do they match yours? If you have a preference for email vs. phone vs. whatever (Twitter?, Facebook?) will they work with you in the style you prefer?
References. Yup, even more so than for a real hire
Does the outsourcer follow their own model? [do they also outsource to others?]
Do they specialize in your industry, or with your applications? (that’s good) Or do they attempt to be everything to everyone? (probably not so good)
Do they engage with social groups (CITRT, for instance)?
Do they give anything away for free? For instance, do they offer useful whitepapers or other information resources that are valuable to you? Do they participate in conferences that interest you, providing useful information?
Social Media. Do they have a presence on Twitter of Facebook? Do they blog? Who else is listening to them?
Reputation. Slightly different than references, and maybe related to the social media aspect. Is it clear that others look to them as a valuable resource?
Available, but not too eager. A really good outsourcer may not be able to instantly take on a new client. Balance this with the overall responsiveness

That’s my quick list of 10 (I have more). Additions and comments welcomed. Are there times you’d choose somebody who doesn’t fit the above? Probably, and sometimes there are excellent reasons. Just be sure you know what those reasons are! One of the best selections I ever made missed on several of the above points.

Is Twitter “urban” and Facebook “rural”?

2010-03-09T10:24:50+00:00

Image via Wikipedia I was talking to a friend recently about all things social (media, that is). Like most folks, he does not see the value in twitter for his needs. Middle aged, retired, busy. Facebook, he gets. Twitter…not so much. In his mind “I don’t need another inbox, and I don’t spend a lot of [...] Related posts:

What is 'normal' battery life?

I Miss Programming

2010-03-09T01:01:10+00:00

Listening to SecurityNow, episode 236 (around the 1 hour mark), Steve and Leo were talking about the elegance of programming. That really resonated with me since I spent a lot of my career as a programmer. Some of my favorite times were those long hours figuring out an elegant solution to a complex problem.

Those were some really good times. Hey, wait, why did I quit doing programming? Oh yeah...I got promoted. I bet I could fix that!

Lockup problems with Snow Leopard and ADmit Mac

2010-03-08T23:13:43+00:00

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro, and installing ADmit Mac 5, I have been experiencing lots of system lockups. Not sure exactly what the culprit is at this point, but seems to be some integration issues between the two pieces of software. The symptoms include lost of administrative privileges, crashing of Finder, and random system hangs. What seems to be more strange is that the behavior goes away when logged in to a “non-network” account (a local admin account.

I’ve talked to the folks over at Thursby software, the makers of ADmitMac, but they don’t seem to have a solution. I suppose I could be experiencing a hardware issue, but that seems like a less likely candidate.

Anyone else experienced issues with Snow Leopard lockups when using this piece of software?

Wish I had my dslr [Flickr]

2010-03-08T22:36:37+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

sent from my blackberry

Twitter updates for the week of 2010-03-08

2010-03-08T10:45:00+00:00

@kemmeyer "They can't break when they're off, right?" (via @cyberentomology) / Never underestimate the power of creative people. =) #
@mattknisely That's our focus every week. Every week a new story. http://www.watermarkblogs.org/stories/ in reply to mattknisely #
Hanging out at the apple store. Then off to try to find some shoes that actually fit. #
The kroger deli is so slow that time may actually have started moving in reverse. #
@wesbutler do we have clearance to talk about the feedback button on the web? In addition to the tearoff cards in wmnews. Would be great. #
@wesbutler talking about Twitter from the stage. Thataboy. Follow @watermarkchurch and @wordsfromwags. #
@benjordan omm nom nom. in reply to benjordan #
@brookemauritzen @sweetrobb. Best twittername ever. Even better than twitdaddy. in reply to brookemauritzen #
Excited to be headed to LA next week for the church IT roundtable. Still time to register and join us at Saddleback. Citrt.org #citrt #
@lancebauslaugh time to switch to uverse. in reply to lancebauslaugh #
@cyberentomology @wantmoore Coming from Dallas where it's 67 degrees today… not quite as exciting… but there IS In&Out burger. =) in reply to cyberentomology #
I'm what you call a machine gun tweeter. I don't fire off tweets all that often but when I do, you can expect them to come in bursts. #
@matthewjmoore where are you headed? in reply to matthewjmoore #
@rhowell can't wait to hear about your trip to EP. in reply to rhowell #
@suzpeeps I think you're right. in reply to suzpeeps #
@MichaelDell welcome to Twitter. Had a great time at the #eqlconf last week. You have an amazing Equallogic product and team. #
Love this time of year. http://post.ly/R7zU #
Amazed just how much food my children can consume at this place. Good for me, they're eating half my breakfast too. #
1st Saturday of the month is date breakfast with the two big girls. This month they choose Ihop. Rooty tootie fresh n fruty. #
Sitting here holding my breath to see if @kegsalot will actually tweet something. #teamkegsalot #
If you can't trust your church leadership to operate ethically, run the other direction. Don't even play around at a church like that. #
@OneSeventeen yep drobopro is great for backup but I wouldn't use it for primary storage. in reply to OneSeventeen #
@fullerIT just an FYI, doing a national church IT roundtable down at Saddleback next thurs and fri. Info at citrt.org. Love to see you there in reply to fullerIT #
Super excited about #citrt national roundtable next week at Saddleback. Will be fun to meet lots of twitter and IRC friends in person. #
If anyone wants to know why we are building @getshadetree as opensource. It's because churches need to collaborate. Stop building silos. #
When someone else holds the fate of YOUR code in their hands, it's like being held for ransom. #opensource #
So today Apple just decided to pull all wifi scanner type apps from the apple store. And people wonder why "modified open source" is bad? #
@rhowell I just gained 5 lbs thinking about Uno's pizzaria. in reply to rhowell #
After the #eqlconf I felt the need to go look at the arrays. Ooooh pretty blinky lights. http://post.ly/Qn9z #
@kegsalot AND @suspeeps in one day! @rhowell is quite the evangelist! #
@DellServerGeek @sanpenguin Please note that I will be happy to attend any social media event involving doughnuts. =) in reply to DellServerGeek #
@rhowell We'll be praying for your tough ministry over the next few days. =) in reply to rhowell #
Summit men's Bible study this morning @watermarkchurch. 6:30am every Thursday. Get here and learn to lead well. #
@mattvogt ha! Awesome. in reply to mattvogt #
Michael Dell dropped by the EqualLogic conference today. Pretty sweet. http://twitpic.com/16ga51 #
@mattvogt we're not technically gone, I mean I'm still IN Dallas. in reply to mattvogt #
Done w/ 3 days with the Dell equallogic team. Hands down best tech conference I've been to. You've set the bar high for a repeat. #eqlconf #
RT @JasonPowell: Shhhhh, here's the NDA stuff from #EQLconf http://bit.ly/4vjkdk #
About to start a session I can't tweet about. It's probably made from awesomeness and covered in awesomesauce. #eqlconf #nda #
The #citrt gang at the eqlconf including Giancarlo, @jasonpowell and @watermarkgeek http://twitpic.com/16eamf / church IT EQL nerds! #
@bitbud @bamed check out Aruba networks. It's awesome. #citrt in reply to bitbud #
Don't go to downtown Dallas enough. Forget how cool it is. #
@wesbutler Agreed. I'd much prefer a station that is dangerous for the whole family. in reply to wesbutler #
Running late to #EQLConf this morning. Commuting to downtown is not fun. #
@cgreentx Wish we had a better idea what he stood for/against on the issues. http://bit.ly/alqUR1 but yes, perry's not a true conservative in reply to cgreentx #
Had an awesome day with the EqualLogic product team. Confirmed what we've always known… We made the right choice on storage. #eqlconf #
#EQLConf but true that the eql vmware enhancements will require enterprise plus vmware licensing? Say it ain't so! #
@JasonPowell part of why we don't use EQL tools is because we get completely different advice/direction from vmware. No synergy. #eqlconf in reply to JasonPowell #
Really like Vernon Miller from Eql support. Good teacher. Reminds me of a college prof! #eqlconf #
For the record, vmware licensing stinks. Can we please change our licensing model about 50 times between each release? <sarcasm> #eqlconf #
#EQLConf iSCSI initiator and mpio conversation. This is a blackhole for us. We need to understand more of this, especially around vmware. #
SSD is best suited to high random read workloads. Not write workloads. If you are doing around 70% random reads, good candidate #eqlconf #
#EQLConf talking about SSD. Multi level cell (consumer) vs single level cell (enterprise). Write limits much higher in slc. #
#eqlconf this 'boutique' is preaching to the choir! We know and use all of this stuff /via @mellerbeck / feel a sudden nap coming on. #
I think this chocolate espresso tart may kill me. But at this point I don't care. #eqlconf #noselfcontrol #
@SANPenguin all depends on the server. For us memory limits on 1950s keep us running fewer vms. in reply to SANPenguin #
Sound like interesting integration for MPIO between VSphere and EqualLogic coming after vsphere 4.1 is released. #eqlconf #
@wantmoore who needs docs when you have 60 Dell people close enough to hit with a rock. (not saying that I'm planning on throwing rocks. ) in reply to wantmoore #
Can anyone clairify how the HIT kit mpio functionality fits (or doesn't) into a vsphere4 environment? Best practices? #eqlconf #
My tweets are more geeky than normal for the next 2 days. apologies to my non-geeky followers… #
#EQLConf You typically want latencies under 20ms. At least. #
Tcp/ip retransmits should be less than 1%. If not, check defective cables, flow control, bad switch ports, oversubscribed, etc #EQLConf #
@wantmoore not saying anything. I have the right to remain silent. #eqlconf in reply to wantmoore #
Applications like video editing (specifically HD video) create large sequential reads and writes. (yep…no question) #
Sitting in the SAN HQ session at #eqlconf Talking about how to get the most from our storage. #
Praveen Asthana, guru of enterprise strategy for Dell at the #eqlconf #fb http://post.ly/QNT4 #
Brisk walk through Victory Plaza this morning. Fun! #
@jeffsecules ha. We take the train to the zoo also! in reply to jeffsecules #
On train to downtown Dallas for #eqlconf Never ride the train. Feeling so urban today (Mr. Suburbia goes to the Big City.) #fb #
Spending some time on http://www.jointhejourney.com this morning before headed downtown to the #eqlconf #
100 #equallogic customers here at #eqlconf 3 churches represented! #citrt http://post.ly/QIAj /via @JasonPowell #
Again… Omm nom nom. #eqlconf http://post.ly/QHpX #
So the W hotel printed the menu for the Dell event on HP printer paper. That's got to be a breakdown in communication somewhere.;) #eqlconf #
Braised beef short ribs with aspiration. What does that mean? The cow had big dreams? Too bad, he's my dinner now. Omm nom nom. #eqlconf #
Getting ready to start dinner and kickoff of #eqlconf http://post.ly/QHfW #
@GregAtkinson awesome! So thankful. in reply to GregAtkinson #
Enjoying hanging with @paulrhoades at the #eqlconf reception. Lots of geek talk. Perhaps the nerdiest place in Dallas tonight. Love it! #fb #
Just finished drooling over Dell servers. Hope I didn't fry anything. #eqlconf #
Wondering where the ellusuve @JasonPowell is hiding out at #eqlconf in reply to JasonPowell #
@SANPenguin no worries if we have to pay for it. Not a big deal. in reply to SANPenguin #
@mellerbeck yeah but us local guys don't have a room… Thus no access. No big deal, I can always pay 9 bucks or whatever if I need it in reply to mellerbeck #
Any ideas on Internet connectivity for the eql conference? Is it all paid wifi or do we have a passcode? #eqlconf #
Just heard the quote. "spanning tree, the bane of every network person's existance". So true. #eqlconf #
Sitting in the iscsi best practices seminar at the Dell EqualLogic user conference. Looking forward to learning a ton. #eqlconf #
Headed to the Dallas Equallogic conference. #eqlconf #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

2010-03-07T16:34:00+00:00

Rebuilding our wireless infrastructure from the ground up; need APs that are cheap, reliable and full featured; recommendations? #citrt #
I specifically need some APs that support multiple SSIDs, and 802.1Q vlan tagging… did I mention CHEAP?!?! #
Anybody have experience with the Engenius EAP9550 or the EAP3360? #citrt #
Homework and packing today; Homework and moving tomorrow; Homework and unpacking Sunday; Homework and work Monday. Who needs rest? Not bamed #
The guy in front of me in driving and texting. What a moron! #
Tweeting and driving isn't the same as texting and driving. #
We are moved #

Church Techies Biggest Loser #5 Results

2010-03-07T03:53:46+00:00

Friday marked the end of our 5th installment of Church Techie’s Biggest Loser contest. Check out the prior BL1 results and BL2 results and BL3 results and BL4 results

In this round 34 contestants plunked down $25 to join the fun which started October 16 and ended March 5th (4 months)

So who are the biggest losers?

1st – Glenn Kelley – Network Architect – Web Empowered Church – Glenn lost 69 lbs which equates to a 18.90% loss! Way to go dude … you are THE biggest loser :-)

2nd – Scott Reichling – IT Director – Sagemont Church – Scott lost 41lbs or 18.30%

3rd – Josh Jenkins – Communications – New Hope Fellowship Church – Josh lost 24lbs or 9.68%

The pot ended up at $850!! (less paypal fees) ... and will be divided up at 1st = 75%, 2nd = 20%, 3rd = 5%

Total weight lost across all participants = 361 lbs!

Thanks to all that participated in doing their part to make the earth a less massive place to live … we’ll fire up another biggest loser down the road if there’s interest.

% Lost	TOP 10 Losers ;)
18.90%	Glenn Kelley
18.30%	Scott Reichling
9.68%	Josh Jenkins
8.30%	Jeremie Kilgore
6.88%	Joel Wolfgang
6.22%	Shawn Davis
5.70%	Zach Montroy
5.53%	Vivian Medlock
4.76%	Chris Blair
4.63%	Oscar Carmona

Google Voice – Functionality Update

2010-03-06T23:56:45+00:00

Back in mid-2009 I posted about Google Voice as a new tool for ministry. Since that time I’ve had a chance to try new functions and configurations and read what others have had to say about GVoice as a potential tool for churches, ministries and individuals.

So, since July, what has changed? What have I learned?

Changes

Google continues to roll out additional local numbers for more communities.

The SMS functionality has been enhanced. Users can now send the same message to multiple recipients at one time. Simply separate each number with a comma.

Voicemail to text transcription has continued to improve.

New things I’ve learned or discovered

Working with Chase Livingston, another CTM contributor (aka @chaselivingston – why we don’t have a contributor profile for him is still unknown), we have discovered some cool Google Contacts / Voice integration capabilities. Would you like to have a number with selective call acceptance – as in, only the numbers you want to get through are able to reach you? Then Google Voice can do that for you. Here’s the simple method to accomplish that.

First, you will need to spend some time going through your Google Contacts and doing some contact management maintenance. The easiest thing to do is create groups (Family, friends, CTM, co-workers, etc) and add the appropriate contacts to each group.

Next, under Settings in your Google Voice account, select the <Groups> tab and determine how you want calls from members of each group to be routed. This is where you can be really creative. Each group can route to a different number with a separate voicemail greeting. It is also possible to set a group to go straight to a voicemail message.

Then, after spending time cleaning up contacts, creating groups and defining call routing, go to <Phones> under your Google Voice Settings and uncheck every number that you have set up. That’s right UNCHECK all of the numbers.

It’s DONE!

Now, only numbers in your Google Contacts will be routed to the appropriate number or voicemail message. If a number isn’t in your Google Contacts, then that call is automatically routed to the default voicemail greeting for your GVoice number.

Call Widget Goodies

Call Widgets are really cool. Under Settings, go to the <Call Widgets> tab. Here, you will be able to create as many easily embeddable Call Widgets as you need for Websites, Blogs, Facebook pages, anywhere you can embed the code.

Each Call Widget can be customized to route to any number you have set up in Google Voice. Even better, each widget can route to a different voice mail greeting.

I have two different widgets set up HERE and HERE with different routing characteristics and voicemail. In fact, one routes only to voicemail at this time.

So…get going! Play around with the functionality and learn new ways you can use Google Voice for your church, ministry or personal use.

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While the wife is away the men will EAT MEAT! [Flickr]

2010-03-06T23:49:56+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

sent from my blackberry

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:11+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:10+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:09+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:08+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:07+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:06+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:06+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:05+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:04+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:04+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:03+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:02+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:02+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:01+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

roof shingles

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:38:00+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:37:59+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:37:58+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

NH 2010 Storm Damage [Flickr]

2010-03-06T21:37:58+00:00

Golden ~Eye~ posted a photo:

MySQL optimization post 1

2010-03-06T03:16:34+00:00

Well recently after moving MySQL to a remote server – we noticed it simply just locked up.

After peeking I noticed someone changed the my.cnf file around -and thus this is my own quite little slap on the head to that person

The MySQL server has a ton of variables – and depending on how they are adjusted MySQL will work well – or …. just stop all together.

One of the largest issues w/ a bad my.cnf configuration will be seen in I/O workload. If you are running, like we are, InnoDB and MyISAM (as well as I guess I should include Berkeley DB (DBD) and also HEAP for that matter) – there are some variables that will impact memory and I/O.

for InnoDB – these generally do not matter as much:

· bulk_insert_buffer_size

· key_buffer_size

· key_cache_age_threshold, key_cache_block_size, key_cache_division_limit

· read_buffer_size, read_rnd_buffer_size

however – for the case of this writeup – I will list the many that apply to virturally all storage engines.

·         join_buffer_size – A buffer used for full join. If you have large joins without indexes, increase this buffer size to improve the efficiency.

·         sort_buffer_size – A buffer used for the sort result set allocated by each thread. This can speed up GROUP BY as well as ORDER BY queries.

·         query_cache_size – Simply set this variable to a nonzero value to enable query caching and change as needed.

·         query_cache_limit – The maximum size of the cached result set. Keep in mind – the larger result set won’t be cached .

·         query_cache_min_res_unit –This allocates query cache memory blocks with the minimum size set by this variable. Sadly – when the application has a lot of small query results – the default block size of 4K can lead to memory fragmentation… So – with small result sets simply decreasing it to 1024 or 2048 bytes may improve performance.   Conversely – with large query result sets increasing it to 8192, 16384 or more may improve performance.

More to follow later

Looking into testing mysql on a SDD drive soon enough

Features Frustrate, Simple Satisfies

2010-03-05T23:24:52+00:00

What a great line: "Features frustrate, simple satisfies." I first heard this from Kevin McCord -- don't know if it was original with him or not. Every software company needs to hang this as a big banner where all can see. Maybe TV remote control makers, too.

Fellowship Technologies Dynamic Church Conference Promo Code

2010-03-05T13:54:02+00:00

I’m pretty excited to attend my first Dynamic Church Conference this year. GCC has been using the F1 solution 4(?) years now, but in the past it’s been under our Comm/Web team. Starting this January we’ve begun to shift that responsibility over to TechOps and thus I’m learning more about F1 than ever before :-)

And now our partners at Fellowship Tech are offering a special promo code to save you $50 off registration! w00t! Thanks to Curtis Simmons for the heads up...

the deets…

The Dynamic Church Conference (DC10) will be held May 12-14, 2010, at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. DC10 is a three-day educational event focused on teaching users and developers how to effectively leverage Fellowship One. DC10 will educate and inspire churches to impact their ministries through complete utilization Fellowship One.

The goal for DC10 is to educate and inspire churches so they can impact their ministries through Fellowship One. Here are a few reasons you should attend DC10...

· Lower Cost… Register for just $249 -- that's less than half the cost of previous years! (Use the promo code IMPACT prior to March 31^st to get $50 off the registration fee!)

· Education focused… DC10 will feature 60 education sessions across six tracks, 40 breakout sessions and a Consulting Lab staffed with computers and Fellowship One experts

· Dynamic Speakers… Check out featured presenters

· Developer Track... Geared specifically to application and web gurus wanting to extend the power of Fellowship One, register now for just $99

· Networking… DC10 Meet & Greet, Networking Lunch and panel discussions offer great opportunities to hear how other churches are utilizing Fellowship One to grow their ministries

Hope to see many of you in Plano this May. If enough of us IT peeps show up perhaps we can have a #citrt meetup :)

[update: just learned Steve Fogg is giving away a FREE registration to DC10]

I miss the olympics

2010-03-05T08:38:00+00:00

I grew up in western New York. About fifty miles from Buffalo. Needless to say snow, and lots of it, was part of my childhood. As a result, the winter sports were a big part of what we did. I think I went roller skating once as a kid. Ice skating? I went every chance I got. I loved it. Cross country skiing? Well, we didn't have to go far, that's for sure. We would walk out the back door onto the

What Makes a Community "Business Friendly?"

2010-03-04T20:27:11+00:00

I was recently visiting a nearby community and had a chance to sit in on a Chamber of Commerce discussion. One of the conversations was around what it takes for a community to be "business friendly."

Tax incentives are certainly in the picture, as is a good workforce, but the discussion mostly moved in the direction of the need for other services in the area, in particular, hotels, restaurants, places to live, and "things to do."

Sadly, we've lost a few businesses in Central KY in recent months. We've also lost a restaurant or two, and some retailers. I've heard some conversations lately by business leaders who were talking about having out of town (or even out of country) guests coming in, and the challenge of entertaining them.

I was also talking with a 24-hour service business who also lamented the lack of 24-hour food services in the area. Their employees manage by bringing in their own meals for overnight. It works, but not one of those things you list as an employee benefit.

Sometimes, a good restaurant can be a very important business tool. A great coffee shop, with wireless, can be pretty valuable too! :-)

Hmmm...how does any of this apply to a community being church friendly? Or, maybe more important, how can a church be community friendly?

Fixing network Priority in Windows : Win7 Update

2010-03-03T16:21:37+00:00

A long time ago, I made a post about fixing network priority in Windows, and I found myself having to do the same task again on my new Windows 7 system. The process isn’t quite as easy to find under Windows 7/Vista. Here’s the updated version:

Right-click on your network icon and go to the “Network and Sharing center” (if the “Network” icon is on your desktop, you can also get there by right-clicking and going to properties)

Click on “Change Adapter Settings”

Press the “Alt” Key to show the menu, and click on “Advanced”, then “Advanced Settings”.

(from here, the process is unchanged)

Move the Wired LAN Connection (By Default, “Local Area Connection”) to the top, followed by the wireless connection. Make sure that any VPN virtual adapters come after these, otherwise the VPN will only use the ones above it. This tends to be problematic if you’re using split tunneling, as it will kill any network connection you have.

Once you’ve applied the settings, open a command prompt and run “nslookup” – it should default to the DNS server for your wired network.

Spying on Staff 2 – Benefits

2010-03-03T14:52:53+00:00

So in part one of this mini-epic I responded to a comment author on another blog. In it, I addressed the, as I see it, flawed thinking in their approach to the use of filtering software or appliances.

In this second post I want to put forward some of the benefits, again as I see it, of why we should spy.

So, without further ado:

Regulatory Issues.

I mentioned in the last post that I won’t enter into a ‘legal or not‘ debate here (happy to discuss the morality and ethics though) as they vary widely from country to country – but in my experience and in my reading up on the matter it would appear that courts generally rule in favor of the employer in a vast majority of cases regarding workplace privacy.

What does this tell me? That the law makers and the governments believe it is right to filter / monitor. It follows then, that as we are meant to be guided by the bible that we should adhere to the ruling practices of our country.

Meet Legal Obligations.

In a similar vein to above, does your country require data to be kept? Do you need to be able to retrieve emails from 2 years ago if so ordered by a court? What about your telephone logs if using VOIP? By filtering / monitoring / logging, and here we are looking at more than just internet usage, you can ensure you meet your country’s requirements.

Investigate claims of abuse

This also could have legal ramifications – but equally could just be a matter of morality especially within a church setup. However, the problem of employees using the internet inappropriately puts you in the same boat as every other company. Put it another way – you’d be foolish to believe your workplace is exempt.

It is becoming an increasing problem – employees abusing their internet privileges by chatting with friends, trading (stocks, ebay, etc), shopping, watching TV or films, and much more. In short it’s a loss of productivity that you, the employer, are paying for. In the case of a church it is ultimately the members that pay.

Increase productivity.

Conversely, by monitoring / controlling your employees access you should increase their productivity. Which simply means (in business terms) increased profits. In church terms in means better stewardship of your resources or doing more for less. It is estimated that approx 75m of every day is used for non-business related activity for each member of staff. Based on a figure of (I believe) £14ph average pay in the UK then that equates to an annual loss of £3,640 per employee! I don’t know about your church but that’s a huge figure here.

Stop confidential material from’walking’.

This comes back to the trust issue.

Sure, we can get staff Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked, but even that is not 100% foolproof. But what if you decide you don’t need that – as it has a set cost per employee in the UK to undergo – what guarantees do you have of any security or peace of mind? What about the data you no doubt keep on the church members and visitors? Are you registered with the Data Protection Register? If not, in the UK, it’s a criminal offence and who suffers – the guy at the top which in this case is the pastor.

The greatest assets in any company is the data contained within it – that applies equally to any church. You need to ensure it is protected and you need to do your best to ensure it doesn’t get leaked to third-parties. Part of this comes from correct access rights within your network but equally controlling what gets out of your network.

So, what else in a nutshell could we say?

How about some bullet points of reasons to monitor?

A computer and its internet connections is church property.
Increase your employee productivity.
Staff not doing their job lowers morale.
Stop confidential matters from leaving the church unintentionally.
Protect the church from lawsuits for sexual harassment, defamation, illegal activity, etc.
Ease maintenance and management of systems.
Reduce troubleshooting within your network and applications.
Reduce bandwidth usage.
Allows you to conduct employee investigations.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. Nothing is perfect and nothing is foolproof but by engaging in monitoring you reduce the liability or the accidental chance of someone doing something you never intended.

I also want to make it absolutely clear here that I am 100% against spying. Most products (certainly the ones aimed at non-business use) seem to espouse the idea that covert investigations are ok. On the contrary, they aren’t and never should be. I’m a huge fan of the ‘let’s discuss it approach’ as in let’s talk through the issues and the benefits / downsides and then if I opt to implement filtering / monitoring you are fully aware that this is the case and can have no grounds for complaint.

My proposed part three may take some more time to create as I investigate current offerings.

EqualLogic User Conference – Day Two Recap

2010-03-03T14:13:03+00:00

I could have titled this post “Why my brain is full”, or “My experiences drinking from a firehose”. That’s how I feel after yesterday. Day two of the EqualLogic user conference was wall-to-wall information overload.
As I have said before, I am usually underwhelmed by conferences. All smoke and no fire. But this was NOT the case here.
We started the day hearing from Dell’s leader in enterprise strategy, followed by sessions on networking, VMware integration, Dell’s HIT kit, ASM for Windows, ASM/VMware edition, MPIO, solid state drives, and many others.
The only complaint I heard from attendees was that the sessions were so back-to-back that we didn’t have time for a deep breath (or brain reboot) before running to the next topic. Crazy good stuff.
A highlight for me was my final session covering the top 10 questions that come up in EqualLogic support and how to solve them, led by Vernon Miller. He’s a great teacher in my opinion and it reminded me of sitting in a college classroom. We covered a lot of ground on what might seem like basic topics, but things we’re all likely to encounter at some point.
The only area for improvement could have been the lunch session led by an outside storage consulting firm. Really good, brilliant guys, but the topic of iscsi trends was too heavy for a lunch session and was telling most of us what we already know to be true… that is “iSCSI can be fraught with pitfalls if you make bad choices.” But most of us haven’t experienced that BECAUSE we are already on EqualLogic.
To conclude, day two was a big success. Dell has done a great job and continues to confirm what we already know to be true, that we made the right choice on storage. So now my brain is still full and we still have another day to go. Time to get off this Dart train and get educated. Wish me luck.

EqualLogic User Conference - What Makes a Good iSCSI Switch?

2010-03-03T05:40:38+00:00

I hear this often when people are first getting into iSCSI storage, “What switch should I get?” Here’s what I jotted down from Dell EqualLogic engineers today at the EqualLogic User Conference

iSCSI Best Practices session

NOTES

port buffering ... want inbound and outbound

shared vs dedicated buffer architecture … dedicated obviously better but more $

make sure switches do flow control in BOTH directions in/out

minimize spanning tree

use rapid spanning tree mode on interswitch links

Trunking - also called ISL, LAG, PaGP, LACP

Best Trunking is 1:1 network capacity
Acceptable trunking is 70-80% of network capacity
So if you have 2 arrays w/ 3x1Gb links, you should have 6Gb between switches (1:1)..or at min 6Gbx.7 (70%)=4.2Gb=5Gb between switches

Trunking < Stacking < Chassis Switch

What makes a good switch???

Buffers = 256K per port (guaranteed) [128-256K ok in 3 or less array setups]

flow control ... at min need receive … both directions best

Check for oversubscription in backplane

for non-stacking switches .. best if they have at least 2 10Gb "uplink" ports

Katharion is now GFI Max MailProtection

2010-03-02T18:13:01+00:00

In case you missed it (I did), Katharion (hosted anti-spam solution) has been acquired by GFI, and now has the name GFI MAX MailProtection.

Details of the new hosted email security offering can be found at http://www.gfi.com/hosted-email-security, and the press release of the Katharion acquisition is at
http://www.gfi.com/page/27788/gfi-software-acquires-hosted-email-filtering-company-katharion- (yes, with a trailing "-")

The VMware Factor

2010-03-02T17:59:44+00:00

One of the big takeaways from the EqualLogic sessions this morning was just how many of us are using VMware. During the tools session, the question was asked, “How many of you are using hyper-v?” Of probably 40 people in the room, not a single person. No one. Nada. Zilch.

However, almost everyone in the room was using VMware. Why does this matter? Well, for one thing, we all have gotten different answers over time from vendors about what is best for our virtualized environment. We are all learning the hard way the best practices for deploying iSCSI initiators (VMware says to use their initiator instead of Microsofts, etc), how to do MPIO (right now using the Vsphere MPIO option for round robin seems to be the only solution), etc.

What is clear is that this is a moving target. The rules are changing constantly and new tools are coming from VMware and from EqualLogic that we will need to think through. With anything there will be tradeoffs. What I would love to see happen is a combined effort from VMware and EqualLogic to prepare a consistent message about best practices. Certainly documents exist today about best practices, but if they are more than two months old, are they the best resource today?

Hoping that the sessions dedicated to VMware this afternoon will answer some of these questions. And I’d hate to be running a session in the same timeslot as the VMware ones, because I gotta feeling that the VMware sessions will be standing room only.

Want a Super-Easy Complex Password?

2010-03-02T17:27:22+00:00

We all know that "good" passwords are complex, not easily guessed, not dictionary words, and never written down. How about a password that is so good that even you don't remember it, yet you have no problem entering it? Sound like a contradiction? Take a look.

Here's one simple password. I don't "remember" it at all, yet I could re-enter it pretty quickly every time. 1@qWaSzX How about 8&uYhGbV? Or 09*oiUkjHmnB.

Do those look sufficiently complex and un-guessable (and un-memorable)? Yet, they are so easy to reproduce. Here's the hint:

The above implies: 2#wEsDxC, or 3@eWdScX, or XcSdWe@3

Just "walk" the keyboard, alternating the shift key. For a longer password, use three keys in a row. There are plenty of similar options if you think about it for a minute. Does this simplicity make it easier to crack? Perhaps...but not until password cracking programs understand the patterns.

Want to mix it up just a bit more, and still keep it simple. Prepend or append some simple word, even "password!" :-)

Older Password Guidelines Post

Dell Strategic Focus in a New Era

2010-03-02T14:42:47+00:00

A few notes from Praveen Asthana’s Keynote…

Dell is focused on Open, Capable, and Affordable solutions. Many vendors try to do one or two of these, but very few if any are able to do all three. In the 2010s Dell hopes to lead in the Virtual Era. Dell wants to have a holistic approach that creates efficiency across the spectrum of devices (from handhelds to clients), be open, and create a world class customer-tailored solution… meaning specialized sales people who have deep knowledge of products. Also working towards not changing account representatives every six months. (This is huge in my book!)

EqualLogic is currently up to 14,000 customers. Dell claims 50& less time to manage, is 50% less expensive, and has a longer than expected useful life greater than 5 years. EqualLogic is at the heart of Dell’s transformation.

Why?
1) Own intellectual property
2) Software is important
3) Great channel partners
4) Virtualization changes everything
5) Continue a holistic solution focus

Dell still remains customer focused. They want to be a solutions company but not lose focus on the customer.

EqualLogic User Conference – Day One Recap

2010-03-02T12:59:14+00:00

Sitting on the train into Dallas this morning for the second day of the EqualLogic conference. An unusual experience for me to be blogging from a train. Actually rather unusual to BE on a train in the first place. Usually my five mile commute by car to the office is just to my liking.
Here are a few thoughts about my experience at the conference kickoff yesterday.
1) Dell has done a great job with making this about the customer. They are obviously here to listen and learn.
2) Dell is passionate about their products. This is huge in my book. They love what they produce and want us to be successful and feel the same way.
3) The ratio of Dell employees to customers at this conference is amazing. They have made a huge investment in the number of people here. Probably 100 customers and 60 Dell employees. Greatness.
4) We are being challenged. Many conferences feel like a waste of time. This one doesn’t. I plan to learn a ton today.

Well, the train is almost to my destination, so time to wrap up this post. More posts later today.

Discouragement

2010-03-02T12:07:22+00:00

Yesterday was probably the most discouraging day I can remember. It had its victories and accomplishments-- and a couple of great conversations, but a couple of issues were so overpowering that I truly felt like I wanted to quit-- my job, my family, everything!

Coincidence?
Just the day before our pastor spoke about how one of Satan's schemes is getting us to the point of wanting to quit and how to deal with it. I sat there thinking, "I've never wanted to quit... that must be as low a feeling as there is. I'm glad I've never felt that!" Little did I know what I would deal with the next day!

I was so overwhelmed with the feeling that I didn't want to spend time or talk with anyone. I kept to myself. I took myself out for a meager dinner-- alone. I came home and read, then went to bed at 8.

Today I hope to keep in mind whose team I'm on (the Lord's) and get over it. I work for him, live for him, and love for him. And really, he has blessed me so big! That feeling was way out of line!

The Bible says "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the ...spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12, NIV) When things seem that overpowering, recognize they may not be from your own thoughts or feelings... they may be from unseen dark spiritual forces.

For those who deal with that level of discouragement, now I get it. I'm so sorry you deal with that. God loves you; he loves me. He has great things in store for us! And even though there are situations in our lives we wish were different, he cares. The key, I think, is to remember that, and to press on.

Spying On Staff

2010-03-01T23:42:06+00:00

John over at Church IT has put up a short post about “Monitoring Your Church Staff’s Internet Usage“.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I’m a wee bit passionate about protecting your own equipment and in helping guide your children down the path of healthy surfing and computer use. So you won’t be surprised to know that I’ve added a comment or two.

Today, the following comment was added:

I just don’t know about actively monitoring staff or employee computers. It seems like spying. I’ve always found that having everyone sign a computer and internet agreement policy and then locking down everything that wasn’t email or internet browsing through the router was plenty. There’s no reason to spend any amount of money or time installing monitoring software. It makes people feel like you don’t trust them and they don’t really work anyway. If you just have to see what your staff has been doing on the web most routers keep a log of every site visited and with what computer and at what time.

Well I was going to type up my reply on John’s blog but it started getting a little long, so instead I’m answering it here.

Initially I have to say that this approach by the commenter seems very narrow or naive. But please don’t get me wrong – I’m not trying to belittle the author of the comment but address the issues raised. It may be that they’ve never really thought through the process or indeed are just reacting to the idea of a big brother type approach.

My first response has to be that trusting the staff is not a good approach to good stewardship or our church resources – be that time, staff, kit, money, whatever. Let me put it this way. Do we really know everyone on staff that well that we can trust them 100% not to do something they shouldn’t? Secondly, I don’t see it (and nor do I promote it) as spying or monitoring usage but rather giving the user peace of mind if they inadvertently click on a dodgy link. And by dodgy I simply mean it could download malware, a virus, an advert to something unsavoury or even a disguised link to a site we wouldn’t want to be visiting.

The issue of trust is a strange one to bring up as a defence for not using control methods – as christians we shouldn’t judge our fellows but the bible (to my knowledge) doesn’t say we should trust everyone. There is a difference. Trust is earned, it is not a right. This goes equally for the pastor as it does for the children’s church worker who only uses the computer once a week. If anything, I would have to argue it applies even more to the pastor than others.

If there is software or hardware available to aid this process then we are acting unwise to not use it.

My second response in to spy or not is to ask what could happen if we don’t? I won’t attempt to address legal issues or ramifications in this post as they vary from country to country and possibly state to state in America. However general principles are likely to be the same. It is almost certain that as an employer (and because it’s a church it is unlikely to be excluded here) that there is some form of expectation on them to be able to identify criminal activity that originates from within their place of work.

Does your country require employers to maintain logs? Well then there’s another valid reason to “spy”.

The next issue to address, though not directly raised by the comment, is abuse. Abuse is also a very emotive word so let me clarify – by abuse I mean doing something on the computer issued by my employer that is not in line with their business. Let’s look at some statistics:

Non-work related Internet surfing results in up to a 40% loss in productivity each year at American businesses. – Gartner Group
85.6% of employees use office email for personal reasons.
- NFO Worldwide
70% of all web traffic to Internet pornography sites occurs during the work hours of 9am-5pm.
- Sex Tracker
92% of online stock trading occurs from the workplace during work hours.
64% of employees have received politically incorrect or offensive emails at work.
- Business Week
30% of American workers watch sports online while at work.
24% of American workers admit to shopping online while at work.
Employees use company high-speed Internet access to visit sites such as Broadcast.com and MP3.com more frequently at work than they do at home because of the high-speed Internet access at work.
-Nielsen Ratings
30 to 40% of Internet use in the workplace is not related to business.
- IDC Research
37% of workers say they surf the Web constantly at work.
- Vault.com
People are spending more time surfing the Internet at work than they are at home, mainly because home Web connection speeds pale in comparison to the faster connections that companies give their employees.
- ZDNet Interactive Investor, 2/18/00
77.7% of major U.S. companies keep tabs on employees by checking their e-mail, Internet, phone calls, computer files, or by videotaping them at work.
- American Management Association
63% of companies monitor workers’ Internet connections and 47% store and review employee e-mail.
- American Management Association
27% of companies say that they’ve fired employees for misuse of office e-mail or Internet connections, and 65% report some disciplinary measure for those offenses.
- American Management Association
Misuse of the Internet among employees has become a major concern, especially within the last few years.
- Computer-Monitoring.com

None of those really make for pretty reading.

Ok, so remove the pornography ones. Let’s say we trust our church staff that much; or should we?

A 1996 Promise Keepers survey at one of their stadium events revealed that over 50% of the men in attendance were involved with pornography within one week of attending the event.
51% of pastors say cyber-porn is a possible temptation. 37% say it is a current struggle -
Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, 12/2001.
Over half of evangelical pastors admits viewing pornography last year.
Roger Charman of Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Ministries reports that approximately 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography and compulsive sexual behavior.
In a 2000 Christianity Today survey, 33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit Web site. Of those who had visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites “a few times” in the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week.
29% of born again adults in the U.S. feel it is morally acceptable to view movies with explicit sexual behavior
- The Barna Group.
57% of pastors say that addiction to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation
- Christians and Sex Leadership Journal Survey, March 2005.

Sobering isn’t it?

If pastorscan suffer this, then how much more do we mere non-pastors suffer the same temptations? You could argue that most of your church staff are female so this wouldn’t apply … well think again as an ‘Internet Filter Review’ survey revealed that 10% of adults admit to surfing for porn and of that 10% over a quarter (28%) are female.

I’m hoping that you are all starting to see why I believe so passionately in filtering or guiding. We have to accept that we live in a flawed world and that we are also flawed – some of us more so than others. After all, we came to Christ recognising we were flawed.

In my next post (hopefully) I’ll cover some of the benefits of filtering so that if you need it, you can go off and comfortably debate the issue and be armed with good reasons why we should.

Emotive words like “spying” are good words to use for stopping us from implementing policies and methods to guide; so I’m hoping to provide you with good reasons to start ’spying’ – if the above hasn’t already convinced you. Maybe in another post I’ll cover some of the ways you could do this – and preferably for free. And with me, free doesn’t always mean just because it’s the cheapest.

Calibration and Mall Security

2010-03-01T23:34:44+00:00

I’m in Memphis this week for some meeting at Shelby Systems while Donnie attends the basic Shelby training as part of his ramp up at Faith. Last night we picked up a rental car and the Memphis airport. While driving to the hotel I noticed the compass on the dash said CAL. Being a bit of a geek I knew that meant the compass in the car had not been calibrated. The upshot is that means the car is very new and I’m one of the first renters, the downside is that CAL was going to drive me nuts knowing that the car wasn’t doing something I know it could do – namely showing me what direction I’m going. I know my GPS tells me the direction but it’s the principle of the thing.

We checked into the hotel and then ran out to grab a bit to eat. On the way back from eating Donnie suggested I go ahead and calibrate the compass. To calibrate the compass in a GM model car you select calibrate on the dash board menu and then drive in circles for it to calibrate it. I’m not joking, look it up in any GM manual. On the way back to the hotel we found an empty mall parking lot and gave it a go.

So I started driving in circles, slow enough that I didn’t make Donnie sick. First I tried small circles to the left, then larger circles to the left, then small circles to the right, then larger circles to the right and finally I did some figure 8’s. All the while the dash kept reading, “Drive in Circles”.

5 minutes later I finally realized that the zone must not be set. In order for the compass to calibrate you have to know what zone you are in so the compass can calculate the magnetic north based on your longitude and latitude and let you know your direction in reference to the magnetic north. How do I know this? Like I said, I’m a bit of a geek. Because of that inherent geekness I also happened to know that Indiana is in zone 5 and that Memphis, TN is also in zone 5 as it is almost due south of Lafayette, IN. So, I set the compass zone to 5 and started driving in circles again.

By this time mall security had noticed something odd with a car driving round and round and round in their parking lot. I completed my first circle after setting the zone and the dashboard displayed those magic words, “Compass Calibrated” and the letter SE appeared in place of the CAL. Also at this time a mall security vehicle appeared next to ours.

The mall officer rolled down his window and asked what we were doing. I explained we were from out of town and our rental car compass needed calibrating and to do that we had to drive around and circles and that the empty mall parking lot behind our hotel seemed like a reasonable place to perform said calibration. His respond, “I’ve always wondered how you do that.”

He wished us a good evening and said he was glad his boss didn’t notice us and sent us on our way. I’m not sure what that meant but I’m glad our compass is calibrated. I don’t plan charge Enterprise for the services performed.

EqualLogic Conference Day One

2010-03-01T23:09:06+00:00

Just arrived at the Dell EqualLogic conference here at the W hotel in downtown Dallas. looking forward to almost two full days of learning about how we can better leverage out EqualLogic storage and VMware platforms at Watermark.
First up, we are sitting in the session on best practices for iSCSI networks. Lots of great information on the basics of networking and switching. Then more information on planning for your environment. As with any technology implementation, there are many infrastructure and security implications, which is why it’s great to sit in a room and be forced to think through these things.
For example, are we using switches with large enough buffers? Is flow control turned on? Have we deployed jumbo frames on ALL switches in the chain? Have we scaled our switching correctly?
I’ve got a feeling that after this evening my brain may already be full. Either way, I’m excited to be here and looking forward to the next few days. You can watch the tweets from the conference by following the #eqlconf hashtag.
More updates to come.

LinkedIn Presentation for Stanford Rotary

2010-03-01T20:24:47+00:00

First a huge apology to the members of the Stanford Rotary for mistakenly calling the group the Lincoln County Rotary! Hopefully I've corrected all references.

Today I did a very brief presentation to the Stanford, KY Rotary regarding LinkedIn. My basic premise is that YOUR connections in LinkedIn can be a great service to others who are job hunting, or otherwise trying to meet people in the area. Actually, I gave three reasons, with helping others as the middle purpose.

Three good reason to be ACTIVE on LinkedIn

Be findable. Be easy to find – both you and your business or other organizations. {unless there’s a reason to hide!}
Help friends who are job searching. YOUR network can be their life-saver
Search out information on companies, or people, who you might want to do business with

For anyone who might be interested, here's the word document with notes and handouts:
Download LinkedIn4StanfordRotary

Site update

2010-03-01T19:04:04+00:00

I’ve added two pages where I’m keeping a list of IP cameras and mobile devices known to work with Wowza.

Logging Actions in your ExpressionEngine Add-ons

2010-03-01T15:00:16+00:00

I've recently given some thought to a piece of EE that I have never had a great need for. Control Panel logging. Out of the box, ExpressionEngine logs certain actions that are performed in the CP saving the Site ID, Member, IP Address of that member, date/time and the action performed. This can be very useful when trying to figure out when something happened and who may have done it. It can also help see how many people might be logging in under the same account from various locations (IPs). This is all great but quite limited considering the number of actions for which this occurs.

Redirect Helper Lite Updated with CP Logging

2010-03-01T15:00:01+00:00

Today I published an article that walked through utilizing the Control Panel Log in ExpressionEngine and recording with certain actions were performed in your add-ons. To display how this might be used I have updated my Redirect Helper Lite module with such a feature. Now when any redirects are added, modified or deleted the action is recorded to the Control Panel Log along with the standard info of the data/time, Member info, and site ID. If you're a code diver you can check out the mcp.redirect_helper_lite.php file for the changes near the top of the file.

Changes – The Blog Falls Behind

2010-03-01T14:20:51+00:00

So I’ve been at my new job with PC Help Services for a couple of weeks now. And this blog hasn’t been updated, nor moved to a new address (this one should redirect for a while). Don’t worry it’s coming, just have to figure out where to move it and have some time to update it! Been busy, you know, working… :-)

Twitter updates for the week of 2010-03-01

2010-03-01T10:45:00+00:00

I'm waiting for Dudley Do Right to come out and save the day. #olympics #
When Canadians say "I'm Sorry" to me, I usually just agree with them. =) #
Wow… this is just getting embarrassing. Stay WAY classy Canada. #
Canadians… you know how to make love in a canoe. Stay classy Canada. #
Best thing about the Russians… they have some awesome music. Festive Overture = one of my favorites #
The Russian national anthem is classic. Powerful, strong, ominous… distinctly communist… #
@tlphipps @jasonpowell @dsinclair Wish I could, but I have a meeting from 11-4 and the EQL conference is eating up the next 2 days. in reply to tlphipps #
When your twitter timeline is frozen… well, it's kinda useless. #fail #
Twitter doesn't seem to be updating this morning. Weird. #
Headed off to @watermarkchurch this morning. Praying for @jpokluda as he wraps up the "life is too short" series. See you at 9,11, or 530. #
@JasonPowell yeah boo is right. It's 62 in Dallas today. in reply to JasonPowell #
Lots of laughs in our house around this classic Beaker moment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT7pT6zCcA #
This Macbook Pro Crash update brought to you in part by Colonel Panic. #
I make a great dragon chasing a bunch of princesses. Lots of fun in the Miller house. http://twitpic.com/15i59j /via @shannonjmiller #
How important is open source to your church? Why or why not? #GetShadetree / this is going to be a game changer. #
I've lived with a half-working MacBook for a few months. The cobbler's children have no shoes. Time to get some shoes. #
Decided last night to rebuild my MacBook. Going to just apps from scratch and avoid reloading problems. #
Yes… It's finally come down to this. #fb http://post.ly/Pe3G #
Hanging with a bunch of Dell storage guys learning about equallogic auto snapshot manager for Sql. Sweet stuff. #
Summit @watermarkchurch this morning. Working our way through the book of Matthew. Awesome stuff. #fb #
@Kris10Dell Looking forward to using the hashtag #EQLConf a bunch next week. EqualLogic rocks. in reply to Kris10Dell #
@jshiflet Yeah for the most part… I mean, data services are kind of a commodity. It's never been down, so that makes me happy. =) in reply to jshiflet #
dear @getsatisfaction. No one answers your phones. It's 9:30 on the west coast… Traffic must be awful in San Fran today. #
@jshiflet TW Telecom in reply to jshiflet #
@cmgurley Well, we're running Vsphere4 with an EqualLogic SAN backend over a redundant core switching network.. so… ummm.. YES. =) in reply to cmgurley #
Careers in Motion ministry from CBS news. If you are out of work, we are here to help. http://tinyurl.com/yhp98qv (via @WatermarkChurch) #
Excited to be going to the EqualLogic User conference in Dallas next week. Great geeky storage discussions FTW! http://bit.ly/bsCccJ #
Another Sneak Peak at Sessions for the Dell #EqualLogic User Conference http://bit.ly/96xt0p (via @SANPenguin) – Can't wait! #
This morning I tried a "loaded baked potato scone" Hard to even describe except to say "amazing" Fluffy, hot from the oven. just… wow. #
Holy smokes… the coffeeshop @watermarkchurch is now selling fresh pastries that they cook fresh here each morning. So long weight loss. #
@cmgurley saw your tweet about @watermarkchurch and SQL. If you ever wanna throw in with us, we've got lots of SQL database needs! in reply to cmgurley #
Take a sample of 20 ppl in your church, if from that group 1 outsider is led 2 Christ in a year. Happens in only 4% of US churches. #
Staff prayer with the team @watermarkchurch. Matt 15, is the grace of God through Christ enough for you today? #
@dszp Unless you are already neck deep in keepass and lazy… but I probably should play with @lastpass anyway =) in reply to dszp #
Best tech tip of the day. Use dropbox to manage your keepass password database across machines… passwords from anywhere. #
@darylhunter running a Microsoft product on an apple platform… I'm generally surprised when Entourage works for me at all… =) in reply to darylhunter #
RT @marksnewton: New blog post: National #CITRT (http://bit.ly/c26YUP) – If you are a church IT leader, you want to be there. #
cranking out some work at Topz in Addison after a great lunch meeting. Thankful for Starbucks wifi which is next door. =) #

Ski PITTSBURGH!

2010-03-01T09:41:48+00:00

At least someone enjoyed the snow...Skiing in Oakland, and Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh during the Snowstorm of 2010.It's an amazing vid!You can see the University of Pittsburgh's Dorms in this Pic, this is up by their Physics building. Never thought anyone would ski down these stairs!

Half Mute?

2010-02-28T02:36:17+00:00

For anybody designing the next great TV remote control device, I’d like a “half mute” or “semi-mute” button. As long as TV stations, or their advertisers, continue to have way-too-loud commercials, I want a way to quickly turn down the sound, then return to where I was when the real program returns. True mute is too much – I just want less sound, not “no sound.” Make sense? When can I run out and buy one?

Mike Warnke on Ustream

2010-02-27T05:16:40+00:00

Short and sweet this one.

I’ve been up all night – no not willingly as I’m at work and in 4hrs I’m attending a men’s breakfast. I’m going to try and get a decent enough seat so that I can stream the speaker live on ustream.

We have Mike Warnke over from the USA speaking – for those that don’t know Mike he was the number 1 christian comedian for a number of years. Anyway, he’s a good guy, funny and has a unique perspective on life.

Please feel free to stop by and watch my ustream – it’ll tweet when I go live but I’m not quite sure what the URL will be but you can try this one or just watch my twitter stream at about 10am UK time.

Tracking Website Changes

2010-02-26T18:16:03+00:00

If you've already have a good way to keep up with website changes you care about, this post is not for you, you can go do something more productive.

In conversations, I often hear something along the lines of "I wish I'd known they had updated their website." Who "they" is doesn't really matter here, the point is that a site had an update that somebody cared about, but that somebody didn't know about the change. How do you look for changes to a website without going to the trouble of actually looking at the site every day?

Of course, Google Alerts are great for finding information about anything, anywhere, and they touch on the purpose well. To some degree, you can use a Google Alert for a website address and that helps, but it's not quite the purpose.

That's where ChangeDetection.com comes in. Formerly URLminder, I used them many, many, years ago to anxiously await updates to SlipStick.com and make sure I didn't miss anything about Exchange or Outlook.

ChangeDetection makes it easy to get an email (daily or weekly) letting you know a site you care about has changed. They even have an option that lets you specify any change, or only "significant" changes, which is my typical preference. It's not just for home pages, you can specify ANY page, and ChangeDetection will keep up with it for you.

At the moment, I'm only monitoring 19 pages, but that number varies from time to time, sometimes heading toward 3 digits.

If you need a way to keep up, without watching, you might want to give it a try. There are some interesting options for webmasters, too, to encourage someone to monitor your page.

Whoa.. I have a blog

2010-02-26T17:52:17+00:00

Who knew…

I know, I know.. apparently not me.. =p

Apple Non-profit Discounts? Yup!

2010-02-25T17:31:26+00:00

I periodically get asked, “Can you get Apple non-profits discounts?” Short answer: Yes! Here are some options to save $ on your Apple purchases.

Willow Creek Association – If you/your church is a member of the WCA you have access to special Apple pricing via the WCA Apple store. Discount has been 10% across the board.

Apple Account Rep – If you do enough volume, Apple will assign an account rep to your organization. I don’t know what the volume level is, but it’s worth checking into. Sadly the Apple Worship Team was axed last year that catered to us churches … so it’s now harder to find out who your rep is if you don’t already know. These reps are able to offer some very aggressive pricing as well as financing options you won’t find elsewhere. To get hooked up with a rep at Apple contact Brian O'Neal boneal at apple dot com and he'll get you to the right person.

Your own Apple Store – If you have an Apple Account rep you can have them create an Apple store just for your organization. Nifty eh? Like the WCA store, we've been getting a 10% discount via our GCC Apple Store.

CDW – At times we’ve been able to get some good discounts from CDW when purchasing a quantity of Apple gear. I’m sure other vendors that sell Apple could do similar if you push them :-)

Apple Store Refurbs/Clearance – This is not really a “special discount”, but it’s certainly a good option to pursue. I know several churches that buy all their Apple gear off the refurb site with no regrets. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals?mco=MTM3NDkyNzc

What options have you found to shave $ off your Apple purchases?

So I Got a Ticket, Now What?

2010-02-24T18:41:29+00:00

Yup, I got a ticket Sunday. Believe it or not, it was my first ticket ever. I've had two previous warnings, and I remember each of them very well. For each of those two warnings, I really should have received a ticket. However, this particular ticket, IMHO, should have been a warning, or perhaps nothing at all.

I was in a 55MPH zone. I had my cruise at 60, and was letting it be in control. OK, guilty, I was intentionally going 5 over the limit. For that, I have no argument, I'll pay the fine, end of story. But, that's not the story.

I was stopped by a trooper who was coming North on the same road I was going South on. Facing me, as we were both moving, his radar reported me doing 71. So, he did the right thing, he stopped me. I have no argument with him or what he did. My argument is with the radar.

So, how do you argue with a radar?

I got the ticket about 3 hours from where I live. I'm tempted to go to court just to see what happens. I think I'll take the $153 (in cash) fine amount with me, but I don't want to admit to something that I'm so confident is not true.

Darn. Should I just give in and move on?