Shocking isn’t it.

But let me step back a second and explain.

According to the many terms and conditions (T&Cs) I’ve agreed to down the year I, and most likely you, are indulging in alleged criminal behaviour. Let me give you an example or two.

- Have you ever bought a CD and then copied t to tape or even your MP3 player? Yes. Then you’re a criminal.

- What about your iPhone / iTouch. Have you jailbroken it? Then yes, you’ve just broken the law again.

- Ever bought a DVD? Then ripped it to place on your media player? Guess what? … You’re a criminal.

But in reality, occasions like this are highly unlikely to get you arrested, let alone face a judge or fine. These are some of the many absurd ‘restrictions’ that companies place in their T&Cs.

But, I digress.

My main reason for this is to reveal that I ‘jailbroke’ my iPhone. There are any number of reasons I’ve done it but to obtain “pay for apps” for free is not one of them.

And here’s one of those reasons: WiCarrier.

Simply put, it displays the name of the WiFi network your iPhone / iTouch is connected too. Why is this so necessary when I can drop into settings and see the same name there? It isn’t but it does make life that one step easier and adds to my security at a glance that I am actually connected to the local coffee house’s network and not some hacker hotspot.

If you want this tweak then fire up your Cydia app and search it out – install and job done.

What about you?

Are you a criminal too?

I promise I won’t hold it against you.

Today is day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Our task is simple (yeah right) … analyse other blog(s) in the same niche as mine and discuss!

Paul has set the challenge as a series of questions to trigger the thoughts:

1. What is your niche?

This one is easy and matches the elevator pitch I had to create for day one. My niche is “Tech ‘stuff’ in Church”. By Tech, it could encompass anything from Computers to Sound to Media to Arts to Back Stage control and so on – in short, if it has tech of some form in it, then there is a possibility I’ll touch on it at some stage (no pun intended) but primarily I focus on computing.

2. What site(s) did you analyze?

As I’m not aware of  any other blogs like mine that cater for the same eclectic area as I do that would also be considered successful I am struggling with this one. The one I did know is now a multi-author site of which I am also one of said authors cf: ChurchTechMatters.com so it seems a little self-serving to promote that.

However, I have decided to pick on one I do frequent Read the rest of this entry »

As part of the 31DBBB challenge we’ve been challenged to write a list post as list posts are succinct and hit the reader right where they are at.

So, keeping in mind that this is a tech blog, here’s my list post for today’s part of the challenge:

• Run a computer workshop.
• Run a “Parents Internet Safety” class.
• Run a “Youth Internet Safety” class.
• Find a local church that doesn’t have a tech volunteer and volunteer.
• Learn some new tech or software purely to help your church.
• Take one section of your church and find a way to make tech more useful to them.
• Offer to train non-christians on better, safer, more effective use of their tech.

I hope these prove of some use and certainly some of these I’ve undertaken and others I plan to.

What other tech ministry ideas do you have?

I’ve just committed myself – friends say it should have been done years ago – but all jokes aside I’m in for the challenge.

Paul Steinbreuck over at OurChurch.com has challenged his readers, a lot of whom are also bloggers, to take up the 31 Days to a Better Blog process.

Well, I’m not sure I can guarantee to do all 31 days as and when required even though Paul is structuring it to not roll over weekends. But I will commit to completing all days sooner rather than later. I’m not worried about getting the added incentives that Paul is throwing in of a free silver hosting package to all that do all 31 days, but I am looking forward to the added benefits that hopefully this will bring both myself as a blogger and to yourselves as readers.

Anyway, this is to say that some of my regular content will likely be different over the next month or so as I commit to this… what about you?

There’s still time to join even though it started yesterday!

I’m not usually a person who falls easily into scams or attempts by others to obtain more money for a product than it is realistically worth.

But this one got me.

If I asked you what NOH means, would you know?

What if I said it was on a website that sells products?

Still no idea?

Well that’s ok, because you won’t be alone. I asked my contacts and friends via facebook and twitter and whilst I had some excellent guesses and some fun ones, not one of them was right or even close to being right.

First, a bit of history. I was probably the first keeper (read maintainer) of text speak acronyms (as they’ve become known) on “teh internets”. It was an ascii document full of smilies in all varieties, TLA’s such as IANAL, and it even had some ascii art in it. You’ll see the linked doc has my old, now defunct, email address and is from Feb 8th 1994 but I’d been maintaining it for a couple of years by that stage.

I tell you this to let you know that I do acronyms. I get them. I understand them and I’ve seen most of them already. If I don’t know them, then google is but a click or two away. But NOH had me thoroughly foxed.

When I saw it in the context it was in it was laid out this way:

Product Name Model NOH Get FREE blah - where ‘Model’ was a combination of letters and numbers.

Later on the same page it repeats the black boldened text but this time it is non-bold and nothing else on the line.

So would you then expect, as I did, that the NOH was simply an extension of the model?

Maybe you wouldn’t, but I haven’t found anyone yet that understands what it meant out of context or even in.

But I do know now.

After I purchased said product.

It means “Newly OverHauled” as in refurbished or second hand.

Last time that one gets me and I hope this goes some way to helping others.

Icon courtesy of icons.mysitemyway.com

I love free and I like ScriptLogics stuff – however most of their stuff is not free so I tend not to visit too often.

Today though I’ve taken some time to see what their latest products are and guess what, they’ve released it as free. The latest (?) tool in their armoury is “Privilege Authority” which is sub-headed as ‘Users Need Rights Too‘ and I agree.

Privilege Authority is designed let the Windows network admin establish what aspects of Windows “users can manage without making them local admins. By defining elevation rules within Privilege Authority, user privileges are automatically elevated for specific actions that currently require administrator access”.

Sounds good to me and I can think of at least two uses for it already.

I see many posts out there that are lists of the “top this” or “top that” and all of them purport to be the top list for that category.

The question I always ask myself is what makes this list the top and by what criteria has the list been achieved. For example, Kent’s list of the Top 100 Church Blogs is one such listing. At the bottom he does attempt to explain the criteria for the listings but phrases like “200 well-known blogs are selected” leave me wondering by who’s measurement or criteria.

This is not to bash Kent’s post, but of those top 130 (there’s a bonus 30 there) I read maybe 5 of them. Not that I think my opinion matters in this… but what I really dislike about the whole idea of lists is the very subjective nature of them.

So, with that firmly in mind here is my listing (no top anything) of Church Tech Blogs that I read and find have value to me.

Hopefully one or more will for you too:

1. ChurchTechMatters.com – CTM has gone from being a one man show by Jim Walton to a place that has a group of christian tech bloggers aged from 15 upwards. CTM’s breadth and depth of content has taken the site to a new dimension and whilst articles aren’t regular, they are all of top quality (NB In the interests of full disclosure I am one of those writers).
2. 8Bit Network – like CTM, 8bit is a group of church tech bloggers but unlike CTM they update frequently and are targeted across 5 specific areas from Web to IT to Media. The inspiration behind 8Bit is John Saddington (aka human3rror) and if you can cope with high traffic, high volume sites then these are a must add.
3. Tech, No Babel – in their own words, “TNB is your weekly source for church video, graphics, and tech news, perspectives tips and tricks“. Paul has an interesting blog and like myself will post on any subject close to his heart at the time; be it personal or a tech tip. He used to do a weekly podcast but hasn’t done so for a number of years now – though the archives are still available.
4. ChurchIT Help is run by Barry Buchannan and was one of the first christian tech blogs I ever read. Since then Barry and I have struck up an online friendship. Like most personal blogs his topics are widespread but alas he hasn’t been active for some time on the tech blog. These days he puts his time into his daily tech toon but does occasionally post an article.
5. ChurchTechToday is written by Lauren Hunter and is a must read for myself. Lauren writes on her desire to “help churches do ministry better through internet-related technological advancements, whether it’s through using church management software, online newsletters, or cutting-edge social communities to spread the Gospel“.
6. Jason Powell – Jason’s site is written from the perspective of a full time Church IT Director. Being a self titled blog it can cover every aspect under the sun but mostly good tech stuff and other bits that relate to the CITRT.
7. The Beta Version – Greg is, like me, an IT professional and whilst this blog isn’t purely about tech, it is very much about the Church, his role within in it and how he works that out.

There you have it, just some of the many I read.

Enjoy.

Do you have any you care to recommend I add to my regular reading list?

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. Read the rest of this entry »