23 Apr
I just found this awesome software that teaches young people to program in a 3d environment. It’s called Alice. This is a great way to start learning the fundamentals of programming. If you have a private school, you can easily add a basic computer science class with Alice. It’s free and there are a lot of instructional materials available online. If you’ve ever had an itch to start programming, give Alice a try.
16 Jan
After searching through a maze of help documents from Google, I found this link that lets you choose which calendars get pushed to your iPhone/iPad/iPod
http://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect
It allows you to check off the calendars you want to appear in your Calendar app.
8 Nov
Here are a few of the tools that I use to manage and create PDF files since Windows doesn’t have native PDF support. If you’re on a Mac, you can use the built in PDF functions via your print menu.
Let me know what PDF tools you like that I have forgotten or overlooked.
29 Oct
ChurchDrop.com just featured a great tutorial on how to create your own iPhone app for your church. It’s practically free with a new web app called AppMakr. Read the full article here.
AppMakr is a free service that allows you to basically drag and drop an app into creation. The base cost to get your app to the iPhone is $99.00 for registering as a developer with Apple. There also may be some other costs associated with rebuilds of your app as well. Compared to what used to be over $1,000, this is a fantastic way to save money and get your church on the iTunes store.
18 Oct
Imagine all of your precious data stored on your laptop in the hands of an unsavory individual who has just stolen it when you went to get a refill on your non-fat, extra foam soy chi latte’ at the coffee shop. Until recently, there wasn’t really good way to find and retrieve your laptop without paying for expensive software.
My buddy Austin introduced me to this awesome open source (free) software for Mac, PC, Linux and Android called Prey. It’s a fantastic way to track down the crooks who stole your prized possession. You can enable your webcam remotely, log their latest IP address, triangulate their position to report to the police, and much more. Prey also offers a feature to turn off the computer, lock out certain data (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc), see what files have changed, and even give your nemesis a personalized message saying, “This is a stolen laptop which belongs to Me. Please contact me at: your@email.com to resolve this situation.”
I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t put this on their mobile devices. It’s not only available for laptops, but more awesomely, Android devices. This means that the punk who stole your smart phone isn’t really that smart when you track him down (with police assistance of course). There’s no risk to downloading Prey because it’s completely free. If you wish to upgrade to some more awesome features, there is a nominal Pro account fee structure.
28 Jul
I’m sure you’ve wanted to be a spy before at some point in your life, especially if you love tech as much as I do. You could sneak around with encrypted files that rogue regimes want badly. Then, when you’re captured, you fight to the last breath without giving them your super-secret password and the world is saved. Psych. You’re still in your church office!
As much as we all would love to know about encryption, it is a very scary and cumbersome topic for us common folk. But thanks to one of my favorite programs True Crypt, it’s easy to hide and encrypt any data you want without even being somewhat of an expert on encryption.
I’ve seen many a church accountant backup their Quick Books files on a thumb drive without ever encrypting their data. This could be bad for a company or a church if that data gets into the wrong hands. So, in order to help you protect your files, I’ve put together this simple screencast to show you how to use True Crypt. You’ll be up and running within 5 minutes!
True Crypt runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux! Woo Hoo!
