Blog Pirates and Other Miscellaneous Blog Adventures

I am back on line after a crazy week of “suspended” status by my former hosting company, Bluehost.com.  I have never had my blog suspended so I called up customer service and asked about the status of my account and any sorts of problems.  The ominous answer given to me was that I had inserted [...]

Finally ….Sensible Green Nuclear Technology

Finally, someone has spent the time to create a sensible nuclear, green energy source that can be mass-produced.

The Guardian reports today that nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed [...]

Google Phone is Almost Here!

The first mobile phone powered by Google was launched last week, ready to do battle with Apple’s iPhone for the top spot on many people’s Christmas gift list.   The long-awaited smart phone, the T-Mobile G1, which was unveiled at a press conference in New York, will go on sale in the US next month [...]

Solar as Alternative?

I am beginning to look into solar options but I live in Illinois (never really known as the land of the uninterrupted sun) so I wanted to find out how to calculate whether an investment in solar makes sense in Chicago.  I learned that the total solar energy available to the earth is approximately 3850 [...]

Google Maps and CTA = Excellent Public Transportation Directions

Alright Chicago — way to link up with Google!
Chicago Transit Authority riders can now plan their trips using the Google Transit Web site, Mayor Richard M. Daley and CTA officials announced Tuesday. Through a new partnership with Google, mapping and directions for CTA bus and rail services are available in 11 languages on the Google [...]

I-Phone Joins the Suits

Apple made a major announcement today –  they will begin offering  “enterprise” support for the iPhone – meaning direct support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync!

One of the most requested corporate features is support for Exchange, Jobs said. To meet the demand, Apple licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync protocol for connecting the iPhone’s e-mail client directly to an Exchange [...]

It’s a New Year — Can You Go Without?

As our new warehouse ministry center gets closer to opening and I begin a long transition from staff to the marketplace as CEO of a social network for sports fans, I was reminded this week that while
technology has made so many things better, we are beginning to get caught in a mobius trap [...]

iPhone – Is it worth it?

It retails for $500….It has lead to a huge increase in Apple’s stock price since the announcement of the iPhone in January. The hype around Apple Inc.’s upcoming iPhone is abundantly clear. So is the hysteria. But is it worth it? Will the gadget – which triples as a cell phone, iPod media [...]

Ministry Travel: Ensure the Lowest Fares

(Yahoo) Have you ever bought an airline ticket from ministry travel only to see the price fall in the enusing weeks and your frustration rise as you try to manage costs? Now there is something you can do about it. 
Few customers realize it, but many airlines will give refunds if they cut the price after you have [...]

Tech Tip: Gmail Attachment Upgrade

Gmail just upgraded the maximum attachment size from 10 MB to 20 MB. While Gmail in the past let some larger (10+Mb) files, they have now increased the sending size to 20 MB in one message. This may still not work for the folks at the other end as the are few mail providers [...]

Tech Tips: 99 Email Productivity Tips

When people read out a phone number, they use “phone rhythm.” No one has to explain “phone rhythm,” we all just seem to do it automatically, “…713…555…12…34″. Similarly, when we answer a phone call we all say, “Hello.” No one taught us to do that, but somehow we all seemed to pick it up.
So why [...]

10 Most Commonly Used Passwords

Top Ten Common Passwords
Is your password DOA? Is it so simple anyone can crack it? Well, no matter what the experts say, the vast majority of us are likely to choose a password we can remember. Unfortunately, cyberthieves know this weakness all too well, and try to hack into accounts just by [...]

Are You an Omnivore or a Mobile Centric?

(Pew Internet) A new study released this week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project called “A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users”, showed that fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones – and most use both. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for [...]

Tech Tip: 500 Free Fonts – Check it Out!

I am a big fan of freeware and shareware. So I was doubly excited when I saw a Lifehacker post talking about 500 free fonts available to all folks to use. As I checked it out, many of the fonts are very creative and would fit nicely with many of the things we [...]

Free Media Sources

At Park Community Church, a contemporary, non-denominational church of about 1,250 urbanites (20-45 year old) in Chicago, we are always looking to find the right way to express ourselves in our 8 minutes with God daily devotionals, in HTML emails, on our website and in print. Many times, we search and search for the [...]

Today’s Tech Tip: Music in Powerpoint Presentations

TECH TIP FOR POWERPOINT:
At Park, we use a lot of Powerpoint presentations as we meet with our leaders in order to share our vision to reach 1% of Chicago with the Gospel. Many people want to play music in their Powerpoint presentations. Usually, inserting music only works slide by slide. So how do you [...]

Today’s Tech Tip: Tables in Word

Do you have to create tables in Microsoft Word but not sure how to do it? Well, Microsoft has made it quite easy with a simple WYSIWYG command, using Word’s automated formatting and its very helpful ability to create tables from plus signs and hyphens. Here is all you need to do when you [...]

Today’s Tech Tip: Organizing Your Outlook

Did you know that you can read an email, then change the subject line to better organize your emails? This little trick has helped me greatly over the years.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say I receive an email from someone that has a subject line that reads “re: your last [...]