Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have spotted that I’ve recently become disheartened by Mozy.

Until very recently they’ve been a service I’ve been happy to recommend to anyone – whether the free 2Gb account (with extra ¼Gb for every four users you sign up by an affiliate link) or indeed the unlimited $4.95pm account.

However several technical support queries have made me re-evaluate my stance. To the point where I’ve “restored” almost 12Gb of data and I’m seriously considering switching to a competitor.

To me, a service is good so long as you don’t have issues – but when you do you want that issue to be treated with respect, courtesy and in the case of a technical query by people that at least appear to be able to read. OK, so not everyone gets it right first time every time. I know that. I too work in support.

However, I at least take the time to try and understand the issue with 100% clarity before making assumptions.

I also ensure I’ve fully read any call notes and checked my own in-house FAQ or database for similar or common or known issues.

Additionally I try to make an educated insight as to the users state of mind and their actual problem based on the notes – not on what I think the notes say.

Only then do I contact the client and discuss exactly what it is I think they are saying and check if it’s been lost in translation between them logging the issue and the helpdesk operator transcribing it – well then I take the time to ask pertinent questions.

My latest issue with Mozy is that I clearly stated: “In Mozy and in Windows (and yes, I did tell them several times what my precise OS version is) I have the ‘view hidden files / folders’ turned on but I can’t see a particular folder which is usually hidden by the OS“. Additionally I noted that I could right click from Windows Explorer and use the “add to Mozy Backup” option but that the files / folders selected never showed up in any backup / restore.

So the last thing I expect is for them to teach me to suck eggs and

• tell me how to turn on view hidden files / folders in Windows and
• the same for within Mozy

No, I expect them to have worked that out from my carefully worded support ticket which already included that information and much more besides.

Additionally I don’t expect them to then presume they’ve fixed my fault and close my ticket, twice. If I did that in my job I’d expect the verbal rocket I’m almost certainly going to get.

So today, sadly, I have to say I can no longer recommend Mozy.

If you use them and have no issues – then excellent. If however you end up having issues, then lets hope you are capable of fixing it yourself.

Which is what I ended up doing.

• Do you use Mozy or similar?
• Am I being too harsh?
• Am I being too lenient on them?
• Which cloud backup service do you use?

Come on, have your say as it’s only hearing from customers that make companies sit up and take notice.

I’d barely got my new series of “Internet Safety Sunday” up and running when I was approached by Brightfilter to see if I was willing to review their software.

Of course I said yes and made it abundantly clear that to do it justice I would need an unrestricted version and that it would be totally unbiased without fear of favour. The only pre-deal I agreed to is that I’d let the company see this review first so that they could “respond to it as necessary” – you can see their response at the end in red.

So…

Who are Brightfilter?

They are a Bath (UK) based company that is fairly new (since 2004) to the world of filtering but appear to have made quite an impact already. They provide internet security solutions that “protect children online both at school and at home”.

From information found on their website they only “provide solutions” that meet standards or guidelines published by groups such as: CIPA; IIA; ISPA and IWF. They are also now a McAfee Premier partner.

What do they offer?

The easy answer is to say see the web but in short they offer:

• Family surfing protection and
• Educational surfing protection

Though these two broad sweep categories are far from the complete picture. The first is via a windows application and the second is typically via an appliance such as the McAfee Web Gateway unit.

This blog has just completed it’s 2nd full year and I thought it appropriate to share some thoughts.

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 (more…)

I’ve been away for a few days – nine in total.

I had precisely two bits of “tech” with me as I was more than happy to shed the need to connect. In reality, I could have reduced the tech to one – my iphone as it has a GPS built in and thus makes my Garmin surplus. Well not yet it doesn’t – that is not until the battery life improves and the accuracy gets locked down.

But I digress.

In the nine days we were away as a family I seriously used my tech once – and that was the GPS when we did a day of geocaching around Saundersfoot and Caldey Island.

Other than the very rare phone call or text message I checked my emails once a day at the most.

We enjoyed, as a family, getting away from the TV, from the computers, the Nintendo DS, the xbox, the … well you get the picture.

It’s good to detach, de-stress and recharge (oh look, a tech play on words).

Whilst I don’t think we need to go as far as committing Seppukoo it is important that we identify the distinction between real life and online.

Equally it’s important we take time to detach ourselves from the addiction that online life can so easily become.

Don’t get me wrong – there is great value in our online personas and one hopes that the person I meet online is the same as the one I’d meet in real life.

There is great value to be had online and great stores of knowledge to be tapped but let me ask this:

For those of you, like me, who are over 40 – how much did you rely on technology as a child?

My fear is not that we over-utilise the tech or get caught up in it (though that is a genuine concern as a parent) but it’s what being online might be doing to our creative selves.

I refuse to let my two youngest (the same for the eldest but he’s an adult now) ‘play’ with or via tech all the time. I make them ((horrid dad that I am) go outside or build something with lego or play a game with cards or … again, you get the point.

I come across so many young children these days that are listless or agitated or hyper or angry or bored or … and whilst I don’t have any facts to back it up (do you?) I do have a very strong belief that most if not all of this is caused by being too connected.

Or as I’ve seen it said – hyper-connected.

Let me ask you this:

• Are we sometimes too hyper-connected?
• Do we not spend enough time away from technology?
• Have you ever passed up opportunities in real-life due to your online activities?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one so please dive in and comment – especially if you are a first time commenter or vehemently disagree with me.

I want this to happen but at the same time I’m not sure I want to hear what you folks really think about this blog!

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.

How seriously do you take your role as a tech volunteer (whether paid or not) within your Church?

Is it just something you do because you can?

Or is it because you feel called to the role or even because you were asked (probably by the pastor) to do it.

Or do you do it because you feel “called” to the role and this is your vision?

The reality is that it shouldn’t matter which caused you to be where you are – however I have found that with the few christian techs that I know in person it does make a difference.

The difference tends to come out in one of a few ways that I’ve spotted with the biggest being in our attitude towards security. (more…)

Greg Davis asked the question on his blog: “do you have friend standards”? Specifically he was talking about the criteria we use to select our friends on twitter.

I posted a comment that said I don’t have any real hard and fast rules but I decided I ought to clarify what my thinking is (and if it helps you, then great) and the few I have are these:

I’m likely to follow you if you tweet:

• about God or your faith (and not just my God/faith)
• about my job – IT, security, networks..
• my hobbies & passions – gadgets, rugby, cricket, IT, media, church tech..
• other stuff that interests me – self help, study habits..

I’ll also likely follow you if you appear to be someone that will interact with their followers and not sit aloof and only tweet, never reply and never thank when assisted.

On the other hand, I’ll probably not follow you or unfollow you if you tweet:

• about the same one thing all the time, e.g get 1000′s of followers here type
• >10 tweets at a time (why?)
• spam
• porn

And that’s about it.

I’m happy to have folks I follow that aren’t the ultra clean we christians would like or sometimes expect fellow brothers or sisters should follow. Why? Simply because we are called to be ‘in the world’ so I can’t do that if I don’t allow those who oppose my views. Secondly we are called to be ‘not of the world’ and I do that by not bitching, by not gossiping, by not using language I shouldn’t, by … well you get the picture.

What about you?

Do you have twitter friend standards?

Andrew over @Webstudio13 has written a blog post that, in his own words says:

There is something called “Twitter Etiquette.” There are a number of articles that have outlined what not to do with Twitter, and I have read most of them. Consider this post as a summary of all those pointers.

Some of the points are downright obvious “don’t ignore others” – “don’t defame others” – well at least I think they are; whilst others I just totally disagree with “don’t neglect trending topics”. However the one thing that really got my goat about the article was its presentation of points as accepted facts without any explanation.

Take:

#10. Do not tweet way too less (People forget your existence) and
#42. Do not be reluctant to unfollow people who don’t tweet often

Why? (more…)