As I mentioned in a post earlier today we rented the Veterans Memorial Arena (although we did not use the entire arena) for our Easter service so we could have everyone from the two campuses and all of the services together at one time (I saw people Sunday that I had not seen in years).
While I was editing the pictures I thought I should also give out a note about some incredible help from Casting Crowns. They had a concert on Saturday and not only loaned us some of their equipment (so we didn’t have to drag it out from the church and set everything up fresh on Sunday morning), but their production crew stayed around and manned (womanned too) the equipment. They had their cameras set up and even had some guys on stage getting close-ups. It really looked awesome.
I personally am thankful that as a part of getting everything ready they gave backstage passes to some of our media guys. Because of that I was able to lock up the church building early. Who wants to drag rehearsal late when you could be hanging out at a concert pursuing necessary reconnaisance.
This Saturday, Disney on Ice (actually not a reference to cryogenics) will be performing Finding Nemo. I doubt they would have been a amenable to us using their equipment.
Next week we will be across the road at the baseball grounds for a Suns game. Our choir is singing the national anthem, our preacher is throwing out the pitch (potentially his shoulder), and Barlow Girl will be performing after the game.
The following week VeggieTales will be performing live on our stage.
In other words, it’s getting a bit busy around here.
Published on
April 19, 2006 in
Techie.
The 103 Inch TV (via Gizmodo) going on sale this Christmas is huge.
So, I ran through some math to figure out the real dimensions. Let me know if I am wrong.
- Diagonal length is 103 inches
- Aspect ratio is 16:9 (for every 16in across there are 9in up)
- Digging back into my old high school math I pull out the Pythagorean Theorem
- I take a few minutes to admire it (it has been a long time old friend)
- Okay, so c = 103; (a*a) + (b*b) = (103*103)
- I was always too lazy to write down the problems I did in my head, so the answer is 90in x 50in (I think).
What does that mean to me? That means the TV is about the width of a Full size bed (aka. double bed), and a little longer than a California King size bed. (bed size chart)
If I pull the ceiling fan out of our bedroom I could use that hole for the power and video then anchor it into the ceiling joists above the bed. Then, stick a High-Def camera under a sky light and sleep under the stars without having to be outside.
Rumor is that it will take more than a half hour to warm up and will cost a year’s wages (depending upon on whose year it is). That is quite a coincidence, because it takes me more than half an hour to warm up in the morning and I would probably be in recovery for a year once my wife found out how much I spent on that TV.
Honestly, this isn’t for the typical home user. This is more like what you would find attached to the ceiling of a big sports arena. I use that example since I happen to have a picture here I was working on for the web site. It is from our Easter service at the Veterans Memorial Arena here in Jacksonville.
I know there are a few churches out there in need of this, but oh what a hit on the budget. Especially if you have one of these 
Update: This just in! It weighs 400 lbs.
When we finish our satellite campus we hope to set up a direct video link between it and our main campus.
Does anyone know of any good systems for handling this?
In the past we shot the video with a high definition video and burned it to CD then projected it in high definition so that it was almost as though the preacher was really standing there on stage. They are using different facilities now and due to service time differences the preacher is able to speak there live right now.
We are willing to pay for a full and proper system, but we want good quality at a good price (Duh, as though we want a Logitech web cam for $80,000, right?).
We will have a pretty good connection. The central campus will have 3 T1 connections and the satellite campus will have 1 T1. According to the service provider there will only be one hop to the local junction and then one hop to the other campus.
It will be done in off peak hours while there should be nobody else using bandwidth on at least the satellite campus (perhaps a little on the main campus, but there is more room for that here)
What do we need to do this properly?
Published on
April 13, 2006 in
Techie.
I just upgraded to Firefox 1.5.0.2 and I only had trouble with 1 extension: Undoclosetab.
This is the most useful extension and only matched by the tabbrowser preferences extension in being the most necessary.
The version available is “not compatible,” but thanks to the comment by cichy in the undoclosetab comments I was able to repair the most recent version.
Simply download a recent copy of the undoclosetab.xpi file.
Open the file with winrar or 7-Zip (I selected the 7-Zip File Manager)
Edit the install.rdf file by changing the number between the maxVersion tags to say 1.6
Save the file and access the xpi with Firefox.
To save you the hastle I have done that and uploaded it here to OSM.
Undoclosetab.xpi hacked fixed for Firefox 1.6
Apparently this works with many of the extensions which fail in upgrades simply because the extension site does not have the most recent file which just needs a version change. (I am not sure that sentence made proper sense, so I am going to bed.)
Bonus: To enhance the function of undoclosetab I like to change the number of tabs it remembers.In the Firefox address bar type:
about:configIn the “Filter” box start typing
undoclosetab.cache (the setting will appear long before you finish typing it out)
Double-click on the undoclosetab.cache setting and change it from 3 to something a bit higher. I typically set it at about 10. Too many tabs in cache would probably add more memory drag, but it is often worth it for the added benefit.
Published on
April 13, 2006 in
Techie.
iTunes has revolutionalized the way people crumb up computers and networks.
Most people don’t understand compression and storage properly so now they have a new program handed to them that allows them to rip their CDs to their computer and keep music for their iPods. Everybody seems to get iPods. Around February I started having people ask about how to use the iPod they received for Christmas followed by questions of “How much can I store on 60GB?”
When a computer is set up we redirect their “My Documents” folder to a network drive which is backed up nightly. This way they can let other people in their department access certain files more easily and if a computer dies we have not lost the important files. Besides, who wants to run regular backups of scores of desktops?
iTunes places its music in the “My Music” folder by default, that just so happens to be on the network drive. At one point we had 90GB of personal music being stored and backed up. It is now regular practice to make sure that iTunes is set to keep its library on their computer (with a warning that should the computer die we are not responsible to make sure their music library is rescued). Doing this has saved us many more gigabytes of space on the drive and lightened up the data load on the network.
I had neglected to keep up on the iTunes sweeping for a while, but the other day I found 2 more users storing their files on the network. The one storing 15GB has had her music moved to her computer, but the one with 16GB has a bit of a problem. She only has 17GB of space on her hard drive!
Do you allow iTunes in the office?
Is it getting stored to the network?
What do you do about those people on a slightly older computer that works fine for everything else (2.4GHz is not a problem for word processing and email, but 30GB drives are a bit out dated), but not for huge music archives?
Do you have a policy about it?
Any training and education for users?
By the way, I also dislike iTunes from a user perspective. It is just a horrible piece of software to work with unless you are into using the iTunes music store and an iPod.
We print our own ID cards in house using a Zebra P330i card printer. These encode the magnetic strips for the electrically restricted access doors (we have both magnet locks and electric strike plates).
It is great that we are able to produce professional level ID cards directly. A new employee (or ministry leader) comes into my office, smiles for the camera, I enter their information, and I hit print. about 30 seconds later I am either punching a hole for a clip or lanyard, placing a magnetic plate to the back instead of the old style stick pin, or placing it in a special badge holder that makes it easier for staff to wear the badge and still use it.
Unfortunately the printer has had some problems. I’ll demonstrate on Yoda.
Continue reading ‘Problems with our Zebra P330i Card Printer’
Published on
April 12, 2006 in
Techie.
So far we have had 2 computers cause us some horrible headaches with the Macromedia (um, Adobe) Flash Player 8.
I install Flash 8 and it runs while logged in as an administrator, but when logged in as a restricted user it is not recognized.
I bump up the regular user’s position to administrator level and it works, drop them back and it stops.
I go into \Program Files\Internet Explorer\ and select explore.exe and do “Run as…” with an administrator powered user and Flash will work in the window opened that way but not in one opened in the normal way.
We tried to narrow down conflicts and did a special check for malware. We made sure XP was fully up to date (it was) and still no go. Then the problem arose on a second computer. Of all the computers running here with similar settings, 2 have the problem (as of right now).
It took a bit of searching, but we found a solution from Macromedia (well, Adobe).
Problems running Flash Player 8.0.24.0 ActiveX control after installation when logged in as Restricted User on Windows
It requires registry edits, but at least it works.
Published on
April 10, 2006 in
Techie.
One of my biggest frustrations with Firefox is that it can really hog your memory. I sat down at my work computer this morning and noticed it was really slow. It was using 230MB of the 512MB I have on this computer (Since I use this machine for more than the few apps I originally did I really need to bump up the RAM).
I had done some surfing on it Friday and checked some cameras on Saturday and then left it up all Sunday so that by the time Monday rolled along I had a serious leak issue. I did the usual. I bookmarked important pages I had up and copied a few addresses to the clipboard then I closed Firefox. But Firefox was still running in the bcakground so I hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc and did an “End Process.” On restart I had a clean slate.
You can read more about it from cybernetnews.com
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.
It dumps much of the memory being used by Firefox out of RAM and to the disk where it is just held in Virtual Memory. Your RAM usage drops to a very low number until you bring the window back up. It will increase, but not to the level it was before.
This is not a perfect fix. You still get burdened in the Virtual Memory, but your precious RAM is freed up. This is also very useful if you are about to do something RAM intensive. You can minimize Firefox while the other program is doing its job (perhaps editing audio for a podcast), and then bring it back up.
You may just want to install one of the Session Saver extensions and close Firefox out every once in a while, and you may need to do some changes to the Firefox cache as well.
Tim Challies has posted his thoughts on blogging from the perspective of the book of Proverbs. Blogging and the Wisdom of Solomon (Not to be confused with the book known as the Wisdom of Solomon)
He elaborates on them in his post, but I will list them here.
Think before posting.
Avoid the foolish.
Help the foolish.
Know when to walk away.
Watch what you read.
Be humble.
Avoid the arrogant.
Mind your own business.
Don’t be a troublemaker.
Examine why you write.
Be careful what you teach.
Be a friend.
Meditate upon what you write.
Walk with the Lord.
Do these look as dangerous to you as they do to me?
Image how much quieter the blogosphere would become if everyone became this radical?
It was Edward R. Murrow who said “Just because the microphone in front of you amplifies your voice around the world is no reason to think we have any more wisdom than we had when our voices could reach only from one end of the bar to the other.”
The same idea stands in the blogging world, only now we have a cheap and easy platform for dispersing our ignorance. This is a reminder of how a godly attitude should be evident in our words online.
Thanks Tim.
While I have never liked the term “unchurched,” it is the best way to easily describe two contractors doing some work in the church recently.
While we were working in the Worship Center, a staff member stepped in and informed one of them that there was a burning bush near their truck and they needed to move it.
The contractor looked at me and asked “Does that mean something spiritual?”
Nope.
As we walked out to see what was hapening there was a large group gathered joking about whether they should take their shoes off or if anybody received any messages from the bush.
Because this was not a supernatural experience the bush did burn up. The guy with me leaned over and said “Uh oh, I think that is where I threw my cigarette.”
It has been dry lately.
Update: 20 minutes after posting this it started raining and when I left the church building around 11:00PM it was pouring hard.
