Then this post shows everything that is bad about people in this world …

from the too young child allowed seeming total freedom to do what she wants…

to the father that shouts abuse at a webcam from behind his daughters shoulder…

to the mother that stands off camera and mutters obscenities…

to sites like 4chan and Tumblr that have degraded the usefulness of the internets.

It’s a sad world that brings an 11yr old child to public tears on a youtube video.

The rest I’ll leave up to you to decide.

Nuff said.

Lessons in Hate is a post from: Church Techy

The links will show you that I’m far from the only site talking about internet safety but I do try to make my approach cover all aspects and not just children.

• PRNewswire is a web based press release centre – here’s one of their recent releases.
• i-Safe is a US based non-profit promoting education in internet safety.
• Internet Safety with Professor Garfield – everybodies favourite cat teaches internet safety.
• 180 TechTips does more than just general Tech Tips, they also have a specific section on the internet – 5 min lessons on tech, good stuff.

That’s all for now – enough to keep you going but this section will probably become a regular within my ISS series.

ISS Links is a post from: Church Techy

Those of you that know me from reading here and from Twitter will also know that I’m not in this for the fame or even the fortune. But every blogger wants to know they are being heard.

No matter how small their audience.

We all crave feedback.

I’ve just completed the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog(ger) which is Darren Rowse’s (he of ProBlogger fame) ebook having picked it up to go through the OurChurch.com 31DBBB Project – and I want to publicly thank Paul of OC for his efforts in staging this project.

However, the final day (which was yesterday) co-incided with me thinking about my celebratory 2yr post for the blog and the last days project was all about planning.

What surprised me though was that rather than give me the kick up the backside to do it (and typically I’m an organised planning type of person anyway) for the betterment of this blog – actually turned out to be a much more melancholic thought process along the lines of “should I go on?“.

So I decided on a quick recap to see what have I brought to the world of blogging in the last 2yrs?

• I’ve brought my unique voice.
• I’ve brought a technical view that isn’t always seen in other blogs and this has hampered my blogging. It’s made the ‘niche’ I’m in a very narrow one and I’ve tried – except for the very occasional post to stay away from personal or political or spiritual thoughts. Perhaps that mix would have been better for you?
• Ive brought my willingness to share my knowledge and to continue learn from you.
• And I’m trusting that this allows you to learn as well.

However.

The reality is that in 2yrs most of my posts have averaged zero responses.

• And even when I deliberately try to court controversy (I Am a Criminal) I get very few replies.
• Amazingly, by far and away my most popular post in terms of SEO is my brief spiel about nlite for Windows 7.
• And my most popular for comments (3 Links to Starting on Twitter)was due to the 31DBBB project and this type of post I don’t typically do as I see it as information already easily available.

So for 2yrs I’ve been trying to work this out.

• Trying to understand what folks want?
• Trying to understand what will make folks respond.
• After all, my stats show that you visit here in your 100′s each day.
• The stats further show that I’m getting repeat visitors – which implies I’m saying something you want to read about.

In short – I don’t understand.

And so rather than plan specifically for this blog yesterday’s task leaves me with a weird taste in my mouth.

One that says “give it up Stuart“.

One that says “put it all on your personal blog then no-one will care how infrequent you post“.

So that’s where I’m at.

BUT – I’m extremely thankful for the last 2yrs and extremely blessed to have interacted with some of the folks I have (Lee of Security_FAQs or Greg of TheBetaVersion) and hopefully get to know them a bit.

I’m grateful for the crowd of us that co-write (cough) over at ChurchTechMatters. Even if we don’t write like we should we have formed a community.

I’m extremely blessed and thankful for all the folks on the 31DBBB project – some of whom have been kind enough to comment here or drop me an email or two. There’s over 60 of them but the ones that stand out right now are: Paul at Live Intentionally – Phillip at SynapticLight – Jennifer at JenniferJanes – Jon at BlogOneAnother – Kevin at Campfire Cowboy Ministries – Chris at The Prayer Experiment – Nolan at NolanBobbit – Seiji at The Ignition Point and L.L and Becky and JD and the Coffee Couple and so on.

The reality though is that at this point I just don’t know what’s next for this blog.

For now, I will say this: as and when a subject matter crops up that is right and relevant to the blog I will continue to add them whilst I make my mind up. My Internet Safety Sunday series will continue and my usage of Twitter and commenting on other blogs will also continue.

• Have you any thoughts to add?
• And I mean any at all on the direction of the blog, my writing style (or not), the subject matter, what you like, don’t like, etc?

Reflections is a post from: Church Techy

And you’ll likely find that like most folks, your wireless surfing has slowed of recent especially if you’ve had it running a while.

The likelihood is that if you live in a densely populated area or you’ve made internal changes to your living space then either or both these (and more) could impact on your wireless surfing speed.

So what can you do?

• First off you can try changing your wi-fi channel. Most modern routers allow you to do this. It could simply be that your selected channel is now over-lapping or even on the same channel as a nearby neighbour. You could go for the trial and error approach or you could download Netstumbler (a free Windows tool) and allow it to show you all WLANs within reach, their SSIDs, channels and other information. Simply pick the least populated channel of the strongest ones near you.
• Secondly you could try moving the router. Sometimes we add new kit or other equipment degrades and leaks signals that can interfere or we even re-model our living spaces and that can cause problems with signal degradation.
• Another option would be to buy an add-on aerial – these range from simple rubber stick like items to omni or mono-dirctional to homemade “cantennas“. Whatever option you pick will boost the distance / receptivity of your wlan.
• A more involved option would be to install a wireless bridge. This is effectively a second router that can be added in an appropriate location to extend your wlan.

Two other less obvious options you could employ but could well be valid in your situation are:

• Ensure all your wifi kit is using the same standard. Most wifi routers will happily adapt to the lowest common denominator buy why restrict your 802.11n network to the speeds of an 802.11b? It’s akin to buying a Bugatti Veyron and putting a Mini’s engine in it.
• Lastly why not change your passphrase / password whilst you’re in the router control panel. If you use a simplistic one there’s no telling who might have ‘cracked’ it and be using you bandwidth for whatever.

So there you have it.

Six ways you could potentially boost your wireless surfing speed.

• Have I missed any options?
• Is this something you’ve experienced and tried to remedy?

WiFi Speed Boost is a post from: Church Techy

I can think of nobody better than a fellow blogger – Greg Simmons.

Greg has been a loyal reader and commenter at my site almost since it’s inception.

It may be that he’s also a fellow geek (though he’s a self-confessed one and I’ve been labelled one by friends & family) or that he works in the same industry as myself or any number of reasons.

Also, in a similar vein to me he has served his local church for over 20yrs and most of that in some technical capacity.

It may be that my affinity to Greg is to do with the fact that he’s a fan of coffee and getting away to unique locations rather than re-visiting the same old same old.

Greg is also one of my fellow writers at ChurchTechMatters.com.

Whatever the reasons, Greg has made valid and valuable comments to many of my posts that not only enhance the subject but take it in a direction I hadn’t previously considered.

However, right now I feel it is very appropriate to bring Greg to your attention as he is very shortly going to be heading off on a foreign mission. I’ve been on some of these (and hope to again) so I get some of what he’s feeling and going through.

Right now Greg and the rest of the team are in the less than 10 days to go zone and he even has a countdown on his site showing how long is left. They are off to Romania on June 10th and whilst most of their physical and practical needs are already taken care of they would still value your prayers and any donations you can make.

Here’s a little list:

• That their ‘individual testimonies’ are powerful tools
• That flights and journeys go smoothly and without problems.
• Funding – for individuals and the end aim of the mission trip.
• That all paperwork is in order.
• That God gets the glory.

And I’m sure if you ask Greg he’ll happily add any specific requests.

Greg’s personal website is an eclectic mix of everything from technical thoughts to spiritual challenges to ministry opportunities.

Please allow me to thoroughly recommend Greg and TheBetaVersion.org.

Please Allow Me to Introduce is a post from: Church Techy

Do I honestly want to know what you think or am I happy to live on in blissful ignorance? Being the person I am I’ve opted for the latter and am grateful to Paul at OurChurch.com for giving me the opportunity to be reviewed by my fellow bloggers on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.

So onwards then.

To give some idea, I’d really appreciate feedback on the following items (one, many or all), but do feel free to throw any brickbats my way no matter how trivial they may seem to you.

So, layout and design first:

• General layout, font size, width of the text (I want it wider – do you agree?) or blog, readability, etc …
• Colour / graphic elements. Is it too blue? What about the header – I know I need a graphic / specific ChurchTechy logo but I’m grappling with lack of ideas – can you suggest something or better yet design me one?
• Sidebar elements. Is there too much, too little? If so, what should change?
• Would you prefer the “alternative layout” (see bottom of the post for an image and the bigfoot bit would become a CT image)?
• Advertising – I’ve been an avowed anti-adverts person partially because I don’t want to get into the battle of trying to understand them and integrating them but mostly because I’ve not taken the blog that seriously. But if I included adverts would you care? Would you click through if relevant?
• The “more tag” – until recently I’ve been a regular user of the more tag so as to keep the homepage down to size, but of recent have stopped that as most folks land directly on the post page anyway. But I really want to know if you click through when you see the “read more here” tags or not?
• Does the blog display well in your browser of choice? If not, what’s wrong / missing / broken?
• Is it easy enough to find other content?
• Have you noticed the Skribit tab on the right hand side? Would you ever use it? Or should I dump it?

And now some thoughts about the content:

• Are my posts too technical or too dumbed down?
• Do I come over as patronising?
• Am I covering the topics that interest you?
• If not, what’s missing?
• Do you like my use of graphics? I decided about 6 to 8 months ago to start using them in every post – should I do more, less?
• I know this is a technically aimed blog but of the posts you’ve read are they aimed right for you? Would you care if I included off-topic posts? Please also tell me if you are a technical or non-technical person?
• Are my posts too long? Or should I offset those by including shorter ones?

And a final area of thoughts comes under other:

• Does the site load quickly?
• Do you like the use of the IntenseDebate plugin?
• Would you like more options to register for commenting?
• What about my ‘About‘ and ‘Vision’ (EDIT: no longer present)pages – are they useful? Do you ever read these things? Are they missing anything or do they have too much/ little in them?
• If I didn’t have a tag line (mine’s “Where Tech meets Church”) would it matter?
• Anything, and I mean anything else?

Click for larger version

Thanks for taking the time to read this request for a review and I do hope you take the time to consider and answer as many of my queries as possible.

If you only have the time or patience to answer just one point then that too would be as useful as answering all the points. Finally, if you want to address any of the points in greater length then do feel free to use my contact me form.

Blog Review Time is a post from: Church Techy

However, unlike previous days where the emphasis is on going to other blogs, sharing links,commenting, etc – today is all about utilising forums.

The opening line of the task states “Join a form that relates to the topic of your blog and spend 10-15 minutes participating in it“.

Well for my part I grew up in forums. I’m an ex BBS SysOp. I’m an ex Usenet junkie. I was a member of CompuServe. I was a member of CiX. I’ve IRC’d. I’ve participated in forums that now no longer exist. And I still do – so rather than join anymore, let me link to a few of the ones I do participate in.

• ChurchTechMatters – this first is a little self serving as I am one of the moderators and writers on the associated blog. It’s a fairly small setup at the moment but has the potential to be much bigger and what’s more has the ability to answer most technical questions from IT to MultiMedia to Policies to .. well, take a look and feel free to ask a question.
• Karls Forums – this forum had a strong technical aspect to it and was built on the back of its owner amassing a large collection of drivers and providing timely help in the original Tiscali forums. I was a very active member assiting Karl and the few other technical minds there but tragically Karl died a few years back and the ethos of the forum changed – even though it has been continued by his wife – and I am no longer as active as once I was.
• WindowsSecrets – this forum was originally Woody Leonhard’s forum but after years in the bit wastelands it has been rebranded and now sees new life under the WindowsSecret banner.
• Petri – started by Daniel Petri an IT ‘expert’ from Israel. The forums are an overflow of his original IT Knowledgebase which can still be found at his parent site.

Like most forums, the support knowledge is only ever as good as the folks offering their time for free. And like most forums they all have their share of problems with trolls, time wasters and flame wars – but if you can get past these then you’ll find great resources at these places. And who knows, it may even be myself that answers your question.

However, one thing I have never done in any of these forums is use a ‘sig’ to point back at my blog or even reference a blog post. Also my local avatar at each of these sites does not link back here – so perhaps I should start editing these to include a link and also start pointing folks at some of my articles.

Let me finish with a few questions about this:

• What technical forums do you use / hang around?
• Do you link your avatar?
• Do you link to posts?
• Any other forum statergy?

Technical Forum Use is a post from: Church Techy

Dave Fleet has written an easy to read reference post that covers all the basics of getting started on Twitter. The linked post is part of his 101 series.

Chris Brogan shares how he derives value from Twitter.

Getting Started This last link isn’t exactly a ‘how to’ or 101 but is a link to Twitter’s very own support page. This sub section specifically covers the ‘getting started’ aspect. I particularly recommend you read ‘The Twitter Glossary” and “Frequently Asked Questions“.

Do you have any other good introductions or suggestions for newbies to Twitter?

3 Links to Help Get Started on Twitter is a post from: Church Techy