looking out the window

My love for Google

So on Monday Google released Sync for the iPhone. This is kinda a big deal for us at Park Chapel. Because I split my time between Communications and Technology, it is important to maximize my time and resources to get the best possible return.

Enter Google!

This past summer we began to tackle what we offer in the way of web services at Park Chapel. The second step in all of that was to overhaul our website (www.parkchapel.org). We partnered with a company called Speak Creative from Memphis. As a part of this project we decided to migrate our email to Google. The choice was based, in large part, on three major factors. The first is cost....FREE!!! The second was spam filters... FREE (more on this later)!!! The third was administration time and general overall management costs.

Well, our transition has been great! Not perfect, but great nevertheless. Besides minor hicups with outlook, and a few (very few) little quarky bumps, the move to Google Apps has been a wonderful situation. One problem that was kinda sticking out like a sore thumb for me however, was the lack of calendar support for the iPhone. Yes, both Apple and Google support the CalDAV standard but for some reason, Apple doesn't allow you to sync your CalDAV calendars to an iPhone OTA, nor does it allow you to sync via the cable. That meant the only way to keep them in sync was to use something like Nuevasync, a third party Exchange server that provides a free way to sync your calendars and contacts OTA. But who really wants to involve a third party in all of this? Why can't Google Mobile release sync for the iPhone???? This was becoming decently frustrating for me. I was working on it from time to time but the fact is, I didn't have the time to get serious about fixing it. SO, I continue to shell out $100 bucks a year for Mobile Me (a product I think should be free anyway) and I still wasn't really able to do much with it. But Monday that all changed!!!!

As I mentioned above, Google has finally released Sync for the iPhone!!!!! I CAN'T SCREAM LOUD ENOUGH ABOUT THIS!!!! This is huge! By using the Exchange support on the iPhone, Google now pushes email, calendars, contacts, and does a variety of things associated with those services. Oh man! This is a big deal to me! Park Chapel, for the first time, has the ability to keep our mobile devices in sync with what is going on at the office and we did so with..... NO REAL COST!!!! No time managing an Exchange server, no power consumption, no downtime (yet), very little management time.

I've never been an Exchange user or Admin but it seems like all I hear about is problems or about large amounts of time managing them. I love google because they provide lite exchange services for FREE! This is a MAJOR plus for churches. Granted, someone else is hosting your email.... which always begs this question "What happens if [blank]?" Well.... I don't know.... But right now, that is a risk that we are willing to take and a risk that might save other churches a lot of dough if they decide to take the risk as well.

For anyone who wants to take a look at Google Apps from the admin side, let me know. If you need help moving your data to Google or just want to chat about it shoot me an email. It has been great and I reccomend it to EVERYONE.

More to come...

volunteers

Discovering, leading, and building a volunteer team is a tough one for me. Recently I've been discovering the vast... and I do mean VAST.... IT professionals in our congregations... a CFO of a major financial institution, 2 Network engineers who are tasked with managing thousands of users, help desk pros, programmers working on BIG projects with global implications, Web advertisement pros who spend time at the googleplex, and the list goes on...

So here's my delima... Time is so valuable... between kids, spouses, and work... time is short for all. So how do you begin to harness the MASSIVE power that lies within a volunteer base and yet make sure you don't run them over. I understand there have been books written and conference talks given about this subject but how are other people in my shoes doing this? What kind of agendas do you have? Are you doing anything particular to encourage them? How are you gaining buy-in?

So far it seems like the easy way to harness some of the power is to be task driven... in other words... this needs done so track down the people who would know what to do and ask them to join the task. But then what... when the task is over, how do you keep someone connected? What do you do with the server guys while your talking network... or the email guys while your talking intranet....?

Do you have a pattern or practice?

I can say this for sure... They guys I've worked with so far are AMAZING. I am continually humbled by the amount of knowledge, experience, and time they give us. It truly is great!!!

Just another BIG reminder

Who has access privileges to all of your data....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325285,00.html

Macbook what?????

I must admit it looks amazing. It is downright beautiful to be honest... but it is FAR from practical. Though I have not touched a Macbook Air as of yet, and I'm sure when I do I'll want one, but the fact is I cannot imagine spending 2 - 3 thousand bucks on something that doesn't have an Ethernet port.... Maybe if I lived in LA, Chicago, NY, etc... where open wifi might be the norm it would work but around here, in suburban Indy, it just isn't the norm. Don't get me wrong, I really like Apple, and probably wouldn't mind having one laying around, but not for that much money and that little (no pun intended) return.... Just my thoughts....

P.S. If there is one thing Steve Jobs is good at its presentation. He REALLY knows how to launch a product. Hats off to Apple for their effective and powerful communication strategies.

finding time

It has been rough to find time lately. It seems like days are about 6 hours rather than 24. The general frustration of working in Windows and the newness of F1, combined with various other IT tasks that have needed attention and I am spent. Here it is 12:43 on FRIDAY NIGHT **STRIKE THAT** SATURDAY MORNING and I find AJ and myself working on checkin stations, watching Dog the Bounty Hunter, and typing blog entries.... Below is a picture of what we are looking at tonight. 10 Machines, a bunch of drinks, and zebra printers galore...

Planning Center

It is always slightly encouraging to me when a piece of technology goes down. Don't get me wrong, I actually loathe failure, especially when it is on something mission critical, but often we don't remember how much better things have gotten until we lose a tool that we use regularly. When Planning Center went down this week {read this} it was a reminder of how important it has become in our service planning work flow. It was a reminder as to how much technology can really streamline a process that otherwise can take a LOT of time and energy. It was a reminder that SAAS can be good and bad. It was a reminder how important redundancy is. And last but not least, it was a reminder as to how much I love technology and the role it plays in advancing God's news of redemption.

For the record we LOVE planning center. It isn't flawless but it gets better all the time. If you haven't had a chance to look at it you should. planningcenteronline.com

Upgrade Vista to XP

I thought this was funny.... For some reason I NEVER see this stuff about upgrading from Leopard to Tiger... hmmmmmm

click here

quick look

So, it due to injuries, business, and all together laziness, I have been basically absent from my blog as of late. Now it is time to get back at it and I figure the best way is to just give a quick look at the past few weeks which have proven to be fairly packed with good stuff.

Thanksgiving
As noted before, I was trying to act like Bob Sanders on Thanksgiving morning and tackle a guy twice the physical makeup (faster, skinnier, younger, and way more smarts than I) and snapped a couple fingers pretty bad. I am working on getting images of the xrays (it seems my doctors office is trying to go paperless when possible and just might be able to send over digital pictures of the xrays.... more to come on that later). Good news is, my cast came off just in time to head to Chicago.

Chicago
I've said here before that I am not an IT guy by trade. I should clarify that statement a little... Fact is, I'm mostly a guy who really likes technology, LOVES tackling problems it brings, and sees the amazing possibilities it brings to the Kingdom. But the fact still remains I have a lot to learn... and when I say that I don't mean I am like Ed up at Granger who "has a lot to learn" but is ridiculously smart already... I mean I HAVE A LOT TO LEARN. That is why I was REALLY happy the folks at Apple offered a FREE little get together in Chicago to dig a little deeper into Leopard Server. I was able to go mostly at the expense of Indiana University as super volunteer Chris is a developer for their flavor of the Sakai Project and therefore decided to send him up. It was GREAT to hang out with Chris and seeing a long time friend Colin (see below). I know Apple isn't the enterprise mega-ship that Microsoft is, but what I do believe is that Apple has a deep commitment to quality products that are new, fresh, and innovative (or an innovative spin on existing solutions). This has been shown again through their Leopard Server product. For all of you Microsoft guys out there who are looking for ways to integrate macs you should give Apple a call (If you need contact info let me know). I am REALLY looking forward to moving our servers to Leopard ASAP. We'll see how it plays out!

Old Friend
This one is kinda linked to the Chicago rant but is worth mentioning on its own. Every now and then in life you run across a friend that is a friend for life. You know, the kind that you can go weeks, or months without talking to (and in some cases years) but when you see them it is just like old times. I had the chance to surprise my old friend Colin at his ad firm. I took a cab from the hotel and intended to give him a call and say hey, but the call didn't happen. So I just thought I'd show up and walk in to his office. Problems was, the office was id card entry only. So I waited on the the sidewalk, in the COLD until I saw him coming and just said hey... He was surprised for sure... enough with the fluff. The point of all that is to say that it is GREAT to see old friends, even if it is only for a few min. On a side note, Colin is an art director for Schafer, Condon, and Carter.... Ever heard of Rock Bottom restaurants? Yeah... that menu is his work... Maxum Boats.... his too. He's pretty dang good.

Network
Last but not least... Yesterday I got an initial quote from our local Eli Lilly network engineer Daryl (man this guy knows his stuff) on our new switches. What I like about our volunteers here, especially Daryl, is their cost minded thinking. I don't believe that just because we have the money means that we should spend it, and they don't either. I like that.... So, Daryl looked around, evaluated our needs, looked around some more, did his homework and came back with Belkin. That's right, Belkin. I would not have thought about Belkin but I think he is right. For us, right now, I think they are going to rock. They are not Procurve or Cisco but we aren't a massive operation either. I like the prices, I like the features, I think I just like them all together AND he came in significantly lower than I had thought he would. Combine that with the possibility of FREE (yes free) fiber and termination, I think we are in business. We will however, be cutting it REALLY close to our check-in go live for F1. To be honest,it is going to be REALLY close.

Shew... that was a lot. Hopefully it didn't bore you too much.... :-)

help desk and a great pulled pork sandwich

Fairly random eh? The question is, "How do these two fit together?" Well, on the way to have lunch with SUPER volunteer Chris downtown Indy, I was thinking about help desk stuff. How to track it, how to receive requests, how to keep up with inventory, etc... So here is what I'm looking for; a solution that is fairly light, both on features AND price (I don't need it to do everything, just a few things); a solution that emails requests; something that tracks inventory and machine profiles (we let our users have admin privileges, and they install unknowns, so I need to know what is supposed to be on a machine so that way when I realize that they actually shouldn't be running World of Warcraft, it is OK to remove it) and that is pretty much it. Any ideas???? Something SA AS would rock!!!! But I am willing to install something as well...

(The pulled pork sandwich was so good, I felt an obligation to post a picture of it)

Power Outage part 2

Looks like all of our power will be out here at Park Chapel from 10pm until further notice.... Seems we have a transformer that feeds our building leaking coolant oil. I don't know much about transformers other than I liked the movie... I am told however, that this is a bad scenario. So... it looks like I'll be in around 6am to hopefully get everything powered back on and running properly assuming that the power is back on...

**UPDATE**

After a call from Steve, our facilities guy, this morning around 6:15 I was able to come in and restart everything and all signs say that we are up and running at 100% SWEET!