Dave Mackey

Replaced by InformedNetworker.Com.

admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:30:00 GMT

This blog as such is no longer maintained. If you are looking for information geared towards IT Professionals, try my new site - informednetworker.com.

Storage Array Management and Redundancy.

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 02:28:00 GMT

As a Network Engineer for Collages.Net I handle storage - lots of it. While the figures of yesterday, even on the enterprise level was oftentimes gigabytes or a few terabytes, now dozens or hundreds of terabytes is common-place, even amongst smaller businesses. This has raised new challenges and opportunities for the storage industry. Robin Harris recently wrote an article over at ZDNet entitled Why RAID 5 stops working in 2009. While the title is a bit misleading, the article itself is dead on. RAID 5 is no longer a workable solution for many businesses. For those who don't understand the concept of RAID - let me explain. RAID creates redundancy across storage. It ensures that if a single drive fails the data is still available. One popular method of doing this is RAID 5, which uses a parity method. This means that across all the disks in a RAID 5 array there is parity data. This parity data allows a drive to fail and yet for the data to still be restored. This is accomplished using mathematics. a + b = c. You can solve for either a, b, or c such as a + ? = c, c-a = ?. However, when two drives fail, you are out of luck.

The problem, as Harris points out, is that because of the increasing size of disks it is more likely that you will experience a total failure rather than just a single drive failure. This is created by a number of factors we don't need to look at. What we do need to discuss is the solution. One popular solution is RAID 6. This allows for two drives to be lost before there is any data loss. Good, but as Harris aptly points out, drives will continue to expand in size and at some point RAID 6 will no longer be an equitable solution.

Google (and several other large enterprises) solution to this issue has been to abandon RAID, or, perhaps more correctly - to spread RAID across multiple systems. Thus a unit itself doesn't have a RAID, rather the data is kept on multiple servers - thus even if several fail there are still several remaining.

Unfortunately, these sort of solutions are not available to most corporations without significant in-house development, or the utilization of hyper-expensive third party solutions. There is great room within the industry for innovation in this arena...but I'm tired of writing this now, so I digress.

How To: Buy a New or Used Car.

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:06:00 GMT

Disclaimer: This How To is based on my personal experience. My suggestions may not always be the best route for all individuals, but I have attempted to give a reasonable method for purchasing a vehicle. Buying a car is a big investment. Charity and I have owned four cars - two of which we have till this day. Our first car was a 1993 Toyota Corolla that we paid $1,300 for. It died on the side of the road when I forgot to put the oil cap back on and the oil low light failed to turn on. Our second...(read more)

Google Acquires GrandCentral!

admin — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:41:00 GMT

One of the more innovative companies in existence these days is GrandCentral - a company that seeks to allow individuals to keep one phone number for life. This number can ring a variety of different numbers - all at the same time and is highly customizable (e.g. pass the annoying telemarketers directly to voice mail). Google recently acquired GrandCentral - something which is highly encouraging, as while GrandCentral was free in its beta stages, many of the better features were expected to go premium when the full version was released. With the acquisition by Google I expect the application to be developed at a more rapid pace, to be more widely accepted (no one worries Google is going under, like a startup), and to stay free - forever (probably advertising supported).

Is Google Becoming Evil?

admin — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:49:00 GMT

Google recently received heavy fire for one of their employees, Lauren Turner, support of the "big healthcare systems" against Michael Moore and his recent documentary (?) release, Sicko. Wily Ferret has written an article over at The Inquirer suggesting that Google is no longer the "Do No Evil" company but is rather saddling up next to Microsoft as a major power with a uncouth plan. I disagree. I'm not sure either company has been "so evil", but even less so Google...Still, an interesting read and perhaps the future will prove me wrong.

One of my arguments for "Google isn't evil" would be Google's current push to ensure better healthcare by helping health organizations digitize their records (an excellent move in my opinion).

Water Wars and Wasting Life.

admin — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:41:00 GMT

Today we had our second annual (last year was canceled because of weather) water fight. The first year the girls had beat the guys quite solidly, though we were heavily outnumbered. This year, while there were more guys, there were still many more girls. Still, we felt hopeful and in fact the guys did walk away the victors (though we were only able to play one game instead of two because of the excellent competition). Anyways, its a fun time. I like water wars, though I also like paintball. But water wars are nice b/c you can get wet, its funny, and it doesn't hurt. Paintball ensures that people don't cheat (by claiming they didn't get shot), but it hurts. I'm hoping maybe we can do a paintball game, for those interested sometime in the future. I'd like to use pumps instead of semi-automatics because you can play an entire day for only a few dollars in balls as compared to $20-$30 in balls with a semi.

Tomorrow is to be the first night the guys begin working through John Piper's new book, Don't Waste Your Life. I've been working a little bit through the book and the study guide. I am a bit scared, honestly. I know that Piper will go deep and it is scary when we are afraid that our lives will be exposed as less than they should be. But I was deeply encouraged by Piper's note in the Preface, "It was not always plain to me that pursuing God's glory would be virtually the same as pursuing my joy. Now I see that millions of people waste their lives because they think these two paths are two and not one." (pp. 9-10).

I must admit, that I probably have some of that wasting in my own life...But if Piper is correct, we have simply been deceived by Satan and sin into thinking that these areas we claim as our own are better than life in God. So, I am afraid (for the struggle) but also looking forward to the struggle as we embrace this study and are challenged in our beliefs and the things we value in our lives.

No, I Don't Want an eBook Reader?

admin — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:34:00 GMT

eBooks were somewhat late '90's. Project Gutenberg was revolutionizing the world of e-texts and it felt as if every book would soon be an ebook. While Project Gutenberg is still going strong (and I am a big fan) readers quickly discovered that a computer was not always the most comfortable to read at (especially in the days were laptops were not nearly as ubiquitous as they are today) and all screens blazed away at one's eyes.

When a friend of mine, Andrew Vogel, told me he had a Sony Reader I laughed. Why would you do such a silly thing I asked him? He insisted that it was different. I borrowed it for a bit and it was. Somehow (I don't know how) the Sony Reader seems as easy on the eyes as a book. There is no backlight - yet the text appears clearly as if it was printed on a page.

Still, I haven't bought one. Why? Well, we'll get to that in a moment, but first let's talk about the salient features of this product which you can also read over at Sony's Reader website.

"Easy Reading" - As I noted above, the greatest feature of this unit over previous portable e-readers is its display technology which is so easy on the eyes. Its difficult to describe - you have to see it. You can get a vague idea by visiting Sony's site and viewing the photos they have there.
"Perfectly Portable" - As opposed to dragging your laptop (or desktop) around. For those of us who carry a laptop around, it might not be that big of a deal...But still you have to boot it up and shut it down.
"Holds Volumes" - One of the great advantages over a text volume is that it can hold multiple volumes in one paperback sized reader. This means you can bring several dozen books and journals along - for fun, profit, or academia - without the bulk.
Other Features - The other features I don't consider very interesting, so I won't rehash them here.

Now that we've talked about why this is a good unit the question is - why won't I run out to buy one? Its quite simple actually.

No matter what I am reading I like to take notes while I am reading. This is very simple with a physical book. I can take along a pen and write in the margins, underline or circle. However, with the Sony Reader there is no method of inserting one's own commentary on the book. So, if Sony wants my business they need to add an input mechanism and this mechanism should preferrably be pretty good at handwriting analysis so that when I go onto my computer I can automatically OCR my handwritten notes into typed text.

Secondly, it needs to tightly integrate with my main computer. I should be able to transfer books back and forth easily along with notes (preferrably wirelessly) and it needs to have some sweet software that allows me to organize, sort, bookmark, and share my information - especially my notes.

When these features become available we will be moving one step closer to less books, more e-texts. Do you hear me Sony?

How To: Using XML in ASP.NET.

admin — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:59:00 GMT

Everyone knows about XML, but our familiarity with actually implementing in applications may vary. I personally have had minimal needs for XML thus far. As a hobbyist programmer I was mainly using SQL databases and the only significant portion of my site using XML was the web.sitemap files that ASP.NET 2.0 provides and I utilize in Visual Studio 2005 to create navigation.

Recently, however, I realized I needed more flexibility to arrange some links than was provided by the navigation controls in Visual Studio and at the same time need a better way than manually entering the links onto a page. This led me to the idea of using a DataList to display XML data in multiple columns. Yes, I could wire up a database to provide the data for this datalist, but I really just need a quick and easy solution...So XML is the way to go.

Anyways, I read some of W3School's tutorials on XML. I also looked at some quickstart info. over at ASP.NET, but still wasn't entirely clear on how to implement this so I figured I'd write a quick little tutorial for anyone who might stumble upon it and need the same.

   First, let's create a new website and call it XMLSandbox. On the default.aspx page lets drop a XmlDataSource control and a DataList control. Then lets add a XML file. In the XML file lets add some sample data like so:
<famouspeople>
<famousperson>
<name>Abraham Lincoln</name>
</famousperson>
<famousperson>
<name>Napoleon Bonaparte</name>
</famousperson>
</famouspeople>
    Great. Now, we could have formatted this information differently, more like the web.sitemaps:
<famouspeople>
<famousperson name="Abraham Lincoln" />
<famousperson name="Napoleon Bonaparte" />
</famouspeople>
    However this is a bit messier than the first instance. If we had gone with this second instance it would have been quite easy to implement the DataList, we would have just added an ItemTemplate:
<ItemTemplate>
<%# eval("name") #>
</ItemTemplate>
    But because we chose to do it this way we need to add an XSLT file which tells the XML parser to interpret the element name as an attribute (in effect reading it as if it was the second method).
    So we add an XSLT file and enter something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="navigation">
    <famouspeople>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="famousperson" />
    </site>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="famousperson">
    <site>
      <xsl:attribute name="name">
        <xsl:value-of select="name" />
      </xsl:attribute>
    </site>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
   This tells the XML parser that the element "name" should instead be interpreted as the attribute "name" (staying the same simply for consistency sake).
   To make this all actually work we have to tell the XMLDataSource to look at the XML file for the data and the XSL file for the
schema (that is, method to interpret the XML file) and then tell the DataList to use the XMLDataSource as its data source. Once this is done the application should run.
   Feel free to ask me questions, but I don't know any more about XML then you do. I am largely indebted to the DataGrid or Repeater thread over at VelocityReviews for the idea of using the DataList to perform this function and to Raj Kaimal for my understanding of how to create and implement an XSL file (sorry Raj if I butchered your examples). If you have questions about XSLT files you may want to start by reading Raj Kaimal's article, "Using XSLT files with the New XMLDataSource control."

Don't Waste Your Life, by John Piper.

admin — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:19:00 GMT

I've been looking for a curriculum to use in youth group during the small group time. Its hard preparing two lessons in a single night, especially when there are so many other responsibilities in life. Finding a curriculum that would give some flow is always a major help. One of the individuals whom I respect most amongst modern writers is John Piper. A conservative, evangelical, charismatic pastor he leads Desiring God Ministries. He is probably best known for his manifesto of the same name, Desiring God. I highly recommend it (it took me several years to read, not because I am a slow reader but because of the depth of the material).

Anyways, Piper recently wrote a book entitled Don't Waste Your Life and his ministry has started an entire campaign centered around it. While I haven't read the book yet, I decided that it would make a good basis for the guy's group (we can always disagree with what he says and discuss that as well, should the occasion arise) and ordered a group package from Desiring God Ministries. The package arrived today and I must say I am impressed. While I received a special "phone-only" discount, the price still was extremely low. For $70-$80 I received ten copies of Don't Waste Your Life with an additional ten copies of the study guide (which is as hefty as the full volume). Then I received the small group kit which includes an additional copy of each book and a DVD with ten fifteen minute sessions on it. Wow. Now that's what I call quality.

See, thats one of the things that drew me to Piper in the first place. If you are an individual and you want to learn about God but can't afford to buy resources, Piper allows you to request his materials (a few at a time) for free. Now, even when he asks organizations and individuals to pay - the quantity of material is still great for the cost.

I'll let you all know how the book is and how it works as a guy's youth group kit.

Dysfunction and Vomit.

admin — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:41:00 GMT

I'm not a perfect person. In fact, one of the things about myself I most often write or talk about is my Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the co-morbid (occurring at the same time) depression. I struggle with both of these on a regular basis. I also happen to be an introvert, which means I recharge when I'm not around people. Its not that I don't enjoy being around people, I just can't always be around people. So, as I said, I'm far from perfect.

That said, I still get this deep nauseous feeling in my throat when I think about dysfunction. Why? Its not so much because I mind standing besides others as they battle their dysfunction, and as I have had others do for me. Its because of the simple volume of it. Its one thing to stand aside another individual, its another when so many become them. How to react? How to handle this volume? Finite mortals that we are, we find ourselves outpaced, we cannot handle it ourselves.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Express Edition.

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:25:00 GMT

Today I was talking with Kevin Clough, a developer at Collages.Net (where I work as well). We were discussing Microsoft's software and how it was extremely useful (we are both .NET programmers, though professionally I handle networks - not software design) but that many open source advocates still wouldn't use it (both of us are open source fans and utilize significant amounts of open source software ourselves). I noted that one item hampering even larger adoption of Microsoft products (except for some open source purists, who would never convert) is while the development tools have been made free (through the Express line) one still has to shell out over $700 for a license of Windows Server 2003. This is far too much for a hobbyist (oftentimes). At which point Kev remarked, "That's why they should make Windows Server 2003 Express Edition."

Wow. What a light bulb. It makes sense. Many other Microsoft products have gone "Express" in order to attract the hordes of developers who cannot afford to shell out for the full application. These applications attract individuals who are hobbyists or part of small companies and cannot afford the costs of the true enterprise applications. Yet these applications are full-featured enough to handle many of the development tasks facing the hobbyist/small business. Microsoft previously had been losing many of these individuals/businesses to the open source and commodity markets. Now they have a way to scoop developers in early and then begin to reap the profits as the businesses grow and expand. Its a win-win deal.

However, in general, Microsoft's free tools have been in the development arena. A significant (arguable) exception is SQL Server 2005 Express (and MSDE before it). While it does include a development environment, it is also technically a runtime, production environment. So, my suggestion to Microsoft - give us an Express Edition of 2003 R2 and soon to 2008.

What features should be included in this version? In my mind it should mainly be a application server. Thus it doesn't need to include functionality such as Active Directory, Distributed File System, DHCP, etc. etc. It also doesn't need advanced application capabilities such as Network Load Balancing. But it should include the uncrippled ability to run applications and IIS 6. This would allow developers to install SQL Server Express 2005 and IIS 6 on the server and run a full web or application server. It also might well include DNS (though not essential).

This could then be used by developers to set up small deployments at their homes or small businesses - or to create virtual instances on Amazon's EC2. Of course, there is a downside - not for Microsoft directly as for its resellers. Companies that make their bread and butter from dedicated hosting, virtual private hosting, and shared hosting could find significant market share disappearing as users begin configuring their own servers. Microsoft would also probably need to forbid hosting companies from using the Express Edition software, otherwise many hosting companies might begin deploying ee (I'll use small e's to differentiate from Enterprise) for hostees rather than the full editions.

What do you think? What features would Microsoft need to include in this base bundle? What features wouldn't be needed? Would Microsoft ever go for this? Would it be a good idea or bad idea for Microsoft? Has the current Express line been a success or failure? How would your hobby/business change if Microsoft did release an ee edition?

A Future for W.R. Hutsell's VGA Civil War Strategy Game.

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:50:00 GMT

When I was a child I played the shareware version of W.R. Hutsell's VGA Civil War Strategy Game. Eventually I saved up enough money ($10) to purchase the game. For hours on end I would play and replay. The game stuck with me. Eventually I wrote Mr. Hutsell and requested permission to create a website for his game, he not only gave me permission but also allowed me to sell all of his games and keep the profits. Wow. That doesn't happen every day. This went on for some time, eventually with his permission I began giving the games away, and so they are to this day.

But the games are becoming outdated - not because they aren't still entertaining, but because they were written for DOS and haven't been updated since. So I talked to Mr. Hutsell about rewriting the games. He sent me the source code. Now the problem was that I couldn't perform graphic design, but just within the past several days I listed a job on several freelance sites. Now a development team from Serbia has bid on the job and sent me some sample work - that looks excellent. I have accepted their bid and am awaiting their response. Hopefully I will be able to post some of the impressive concept art very soon.

Online Backup - The Proverbial Fountain of Youth.

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:41:00 GMT

Buy a tape library. Buy tapes for your tape library. Buy a SCSI card for your server. Buy expensive backup software such as Symantec (formerly Veritas) Backup Exec. Load tapes, backup servers, pull tapes, clean drive, insert second group of tapes and repeat, ad nauseum. The challenge for Network Administrators everywhere has been successfully backing up their companies data. Not only is this expensive and difficult task - it is also utterly repetitive and boring. In recent days some of the pain has been relieved by Disk to Disk backup, which is then augmented with Disk to Tape backup for disaster recovery purposes.

Smaller businesses can oftentimes use removable hard drives from companies such as Iomega to perform these backups (e.g. the REV drive). But for larger businesses the choice has largely still been a combination of disk and tape. Disk provides the advantage of random read and writes but lacks the portability of tape.

Online backups have long been the golden dream for Network Administrators. They offer a secure, off-site, pain-free method of performing backups and generally include advanced features such as incremental backups, bit-differential backups, multiple version restores, and centralized management. Still, the difficulty has been in the pricing. My favorite traditional service has been Mozy Pro, but this service quickly becomes uneconomical for larger businesses. Licenses run $3.50 per computer per month while space runs at the more reasonable $0.50 per GB per month. But still, this leaves a mid-sized company with a decent amount of storage (say 500 GB) paying $250/mo., not including licensing fees.

Other alternatives have included Carbonite, which offers more space at a lower price but fails in the features department. Streamload's MediaMax is an attractive service but they seem to be advancing developmentally slower than a snail. There backup software has been stuck at Beta 6 for longer than I can remember. Still, they do support large files and their prices are very reasonable.

Amazon S3 is probably looked upon most fondly. Not strictly a backup medium rather it is a more generic storage medium. It lacks almost any features besides the very basic file handling functionality but numerous vendors are working on various applications - including remote backup applications for S3. Still, none have yet reached a large level of proficiency and while some features are excusable one that is not is Amazon's 5 GB limit per file. Maluke's S3 Backup intends to circumvent this limit in the near future by spanning across buckets files larger than 5 GB but there process in this area has been too slow for the current need.

Today, however, I discovered what may be the solution. For some time now there has been a backup provider entitled IBackup which has offered expensive, high-end remote backup capabilities. What really makes them unique is their aim at the enterprise. While most backup services are more aimed at consumers, IBackup has sought to offer the services enterprises would desire. For example, they are able to perform online, pain-free backups of SQL Server and Exchange - two notoriously troublesome applications when it comes to backups. So what? They are still expensive. Correct, but there is a lesser known alternative created by the same company and appearing to be built on the same basic infrastructure - iDrive. This service is aimed at consumers and small businesses but a careful review of their Terms of Service (ToS) on my part (note: I'm just a network guy, not a lawyer) seemed to suggest that they put no restrictions on who could sign up for the service as long as the service was used legally. I spent some time chatting with one of their representatives who informed me that they didn't recommend the service for more than 200 GB for practicality sake (backing up across the internet) but at the same time, didn't state that one couldn't try. Yes, the software doesn't include the advanced granular backups of IBackup, but it does offer the space that the other services don't. I downloaded the app and gave it a try. The interface is pretty decent - similar to Mozy Pro, better than Carbonite. It began uploading at a speed of roughly 4.5 MB per second, and this was with me throttling it back on my end. We'll see how it does with the several hundred GB of data I am throwing at it.

I don't know if they can make this a profitable model. Will they change their licensing to prevent actual unlimited uploads? Will they be able to turn a profit by allowing a few companies to use large amounts of bandwidth that actually costs them money but having lots of smaller customers that don't use up nearly their available allotment? I know, personally, that by offering a service like iDrive they have interested me more in iBackup, and I would consider purchasing additional accounts of both iDrive (for additional computers) as well as licenses for iBackup (to handle granular, always-online applications).

Overall Rating: 4.9/5.
Reasoning: Has everything you could possibly want, except perhaps the track record that says, "Hey, we aren't going to realize this is unprofitable in two months and restrict the program."

Dave Meets Ubuntu - Episode 1.

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:22:00 GMT

I tried several times downloading and installing Wubi - a unsupported installer for Ubuntu Linux that creates Ubuntu within a file instead of creating a partition. It appears there were some issues with the earlier Wubi installer in Windows Vista and Windows 2000 Pro - the two OS'es I attempted to install on. But the latest update worked.

I booted in. The interface wasn't too hard to get used to. I downloaded the latest updates. Okay - so far so good. I played some solitaire, tried some blackjack and chess. Looked at the different applications that were available to me.

Now it was time to boot up Firefox. I moved over to CBS's Innertube where I ran into my first problem - Flash wasn't installed. No biggy. I clicked on the link to Adobe's website and downloaded the installer. Double-clicked - nothing. After several tries I ran it in the terminal where I received several textual prompts. Hmmm...This is not friendly.

Okay, that's done. It wasn't very friendly, but still doable. I click to watch an episode but am confronted by a message telling me I need RealPlayer. Okay, makes sense. So I download the bin file. Double-click - nothing happens. What is a bin file anyways I wonder (vaguely it seems that I remember it is simiar to an exe).

I do a Google search. Some Ubuntu forums and wiki articles come up - try two fixes but neither works for me and both require accessing the terminal. I try navigating the terminal using the DOS commands - dir, cd. That doesn't work either. Would be nice to have some help here that told me the correct Linux based commands. I decide I want to actually watch something so I restart into Windows Vista.

So far thats around three strikes for Ubuntu. Its not bad, but the install process is definetly one of my largest complaints thus far.

Community Server 2007 SP2 and Minh Kha on Licensing.

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 02:12:00 GMT

Community Server 2007 SP2 was recently released. I suppose I should upgrade soon. But I am moving away from CS because of Telligent's licensing scheme, and the continued lack of some features that DotNetNuke offers. While CS is still faster than DNN, it also lacks many features - one still has to dig into templates far too often. But mainly its the licensing that has me rankled. You can read Minh Kha's post on the topic which gives a pretty good summary of my thought as well.

The Photo Walls.

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:39:00 GMT

As a teenager one of the things I loved about my youth group at the First Baptist Church of Westerlo led by Rev. Bob Sheldon and a slew of volunteer leaders were the photo walls. In our youth room the walls were canvassed from floor to ceiling with pictures of us - caught by the leaders everywhere with humorous and encouraging captions underneath. It served several purposes. It helped us rejoice together in the good times we had shared, it gave us a feeling of ownership in the church, and it gave us a way to not look like a loner when we were standing all alone.

When I became a youth leader it was one of the first things on my mind, and we have kept up the tradition that Pastor Bob and the other leaders first taught me. Tonight was our second night within the last two months were we took the time to paste up hundreds of new pictures, write captions, and generally make our walls colorful. This is a youth group activity and takes around two hours each time we do it. Its a lot of fun. Besides writing the captions we constantly joke with each other, eat some chocolate chip cookies, spend a minute or two in prayer, and throw wads of damaged construction paper.

I am so thankful for Pastor Bob and the other leaders who sowed so much time into my life as a teenager...and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a youth leader. I love teaching teens, but they also bring more joy into my life than seems imaginable.

Attention Politicians: Guaranteed Way to Lose My Vote.

admin — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:29:00 GMT

There is one guaranteed way to lose my vote in the upcoming elections. There are many other issues that I will waiver on, compromise on, but I join with Rev. John Piper when I state - the support of abortion by a candidate excludes them for me as a potential option, just as if they supported the murder of children or adults for any specific reason. Here are a number of quotes (pulled from a Focus on the Family newsletter) from several prominent politicians revolting against the forbiddance of partial...(read more)

The Church and Conflict.

admin — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:11:00 GMT

     I don't like conflict. In fact, I struggle significantly in dealing with conflict. Mainly because I hate anger. When people get angry I withdraw. Some people think of anger as a way to motivate others to perform better. This doesn't work with me. If you want me to shut down - get angry at me. Anyways, all this means that it is a struggle for me to enter into conflict because people get angry during conflict, yet I see conflict as an essential and healthy part of being a Christian and part of a Church Family.
    Oftentimes we leave churches when conflict arises. We are uninterested in dealing with the pain and discord that comes from disagreements about worship music, anger over differing parenting styles, differences in theology, or arguments over who gets to use what portion of the facilities and when. We want to find a better church - and end up hopping from church to church for the rest of our lives. I think, however, that church is supposed to be different. Not that we have to find the most dysfunctional church that we can, but rather that once we become committed to a church, once become a party of its "local body" we understand that it takes significant reasons for us to withdraw from this body and insert ourselves into another.
    When we have arguments and disagreements in the church we can respond in one of three ways:

We can remain silent and allow other's to decide on practical and theological issues.
We can withdraw from the church and find another group that better agrees with us.
We can dialogue and debate the issues, working through the mire of relating with people of different worldviews.

In most circumstances, I think it is the third that God has called us to practice. Painful, but effective. Through conflict we learn many lessons that we perhaps would not learn if we continue to avoid conflict such as:

Our response to conflict and how to modify it to better love others.
Learning to enter into dialogue with others rather than shouting matches.
Evaluating our own belief systems and modifying them as necessary.

As Americans, especially, we love our independence, but I believe that the Christian who walks into a room and reads his Bible without entering into communion with his fellow believers will eventually be led astray. He deceives himself into thinking that he is capable of understanding all that God has spoken, that God has not led other's and taught other's what we have not been taught. Kyle Strobel in his excellent book Metamorpha suggests that there are three aspects of the Christian life and that we must emphasize all three rather than any one. Namely, Scripture (the Word of God), the Holy Spirit (the presence of God), and the Christian Community (the body of God [Jesus]).

How To: Bring OpenOffice.Org Mainstream.

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:44:00 GMT

There are several open source projects which are looked favorably upon as "success stories." Largest amongst these are Linus Torvald's Linux and Mozilla Foundation's Firefox. Amongst lesser-known (by the general populace) but up-and-coming applications include Sun Microsystem's OpenOffice.Org.

I've been using OpenOffice.Org for around four or five years now, oftentimes as my primary word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application. I remember 1.0 and 1.1 and the humongous steps forward that were taken in the 2.0 release. Its been a great ride and OpenOffice is quickly moving forward to become a major competitor to Microsoft Office and Corel's Office Suite. Still, market penetration hasn't been extremely rapid and I think this is largely centralized around several facts that I'd like to illustrate in hopes that they can be corrected and perhaps bring OpenOffice even more into the mainstream.

First, and most importantly, OpenOffice should recognize that the average consumer doesn't care about ODF versus Microsoft's formats, they just care about successfully communicating with others. One of the first questions the many people I've ported to OpenOffice ask me is, "Can people who have Microsoft Office open it?" I tell them yes and then have to explain how to Save As... a document. I know we hate to admit it, but might it be better for our general users to allow them when they first install to select the default they want their application to save in? Perhaps even to default to Microsoft Office format and only ask in advanced installations?

Secondly, we face a difficulty not so much in core features but in the extras. Microsoft has done well in this arena, providing thousands of graphics and templates to assist individuals in creating documents and presentations. Yes, I know there are thousands of free and open source graphics on the web that user's can get - but a user oftentimes doesn't recognize this. To them, clicking search in Microsoft Office and pulling up clipart means the clipart is locally on their computer, their is no recognition that Microsoft is searching both local resources and their online website. All they know (or care about) is having images right now that are quality and in quantity.

I think this issue is relatively easy to resolve. Initially I had thought that Sun should establish a site similar to Microsoft's and integrate search just like Microsoft into the OpenOffice suite. But as I was writing a comment to this affect on the Gull FOSS blog I realized this wasn't the best methodology. Rather, OpenOffice should create a open standard that would allow sites to offer their content integrated into OpenOffice. Perhaps an XML standard that would allow a URL to be added to OpenOffice, similar to RSS that would include tag and image/template url information. OpenOffice could select the best of these resources to automatically include with the install - and then users could add/remove sites from the list as they desired. I am sure there are numerous open source clipart/resource sites that would jump at this opportunity.

Thirdly, the website for OpenOffice.Org needs to be redesigned. The site has taken significant steps forward from its original forms back in the 1.0 days, but it still is too complex for the general user. A consultation with the Mozilla Foundation may be in order. Mozilla has mastered offering content is a streamlined, yet detailed manner. One area that is especially important is the separation of the development section of the website from the public presentation side. This has been heightened to some extent, but still needs further work.

Fourthly, OpenOffice needs to continue to work on the Add-Ons architecture. One of the great advancements Mozilla Firefox had over Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 was its ability to include add-ons - and those of a centralized repository. OOo Extras was okay back when it was just us geeks, but if we expect mom and pop to utilize OOo we have to give them a streamlined and automatic centralized interface like Mozilla.

If Sun is able to advance OOo in these four areas we can expect much more mainstream penetration. I install OOo on people's computers whenever possible, helping them move to this environment, but I could do ten times moreso and with less switch-back by the users themselves if these additional features were added. What do you think? Is my list comprehensive enough? Are these features in the work? Am I off-base on one or more of the features?

Automatic Text Display for Voice (for Deaf/Hard of Hearing).

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

I have a wonderful older lady who is very hard of hearing. Even when she has her hearing aid in it is a significant struggle to successfully communicate with her. This results in her oftentimes being isolated from conversations - even though it is evident that she would love to be a part of them.

I am wondering if such a device as I am about to describe already exists. If it does, I would love to hear about it, as I am interested in purchasing one for her. If not, I hope someone will read this post and consider it a worthwhile task.

I am thinking of a small device - perhaps the size of a cell phone, pocket calculator, etc. that would be able to "listen" to audio occurring on the fly and create a text translation of it, preferably with some capability to distinguish between multiple voices - otherwise if there are more than two people in the conversation it would become extremely confusing.

I know the technology for this already exists. We already have technologies such as Closed Captioning (CC) that provides translation of television shows, applications for our computers that allow us to speak and have the words typed in our word processor, and applications that will translate our voice mail messages into text messages or emails and send them to us.

It seems like a pretty simple device that would use basic technology but could greatly enhance conversation for the elderly who are hard of hearing and for whom even hearing aids seem to have little effect.

A device similar to what I am speaking of is iCommunicator. But this device requires too many parts (a headset for a single speaker, a wireless receiver, and a computer to run the software). All this needs to be consolidated into one commodity (e.g. $199) device. Robert Scoble has written about a software application for cell phones that might be a partial solution for this issue. Personal Captioning Systems, Inc. has some software that appears to be heading in this way, but the site is somewhat scant on details and examples.

Where Am I Writing From?

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 06:39:00 GMT

Its 2:39 a.m. - far past my bedtime on Friday (oops, Saturday now) - so where am I? I'm at my house. So why the title of this post? Because of where I am as far as Operating Systems go. Right now I am running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. For those who aren't familiar, that is the latest Linux distribution from Ubuntu.

I downloaded the latest Wubi installer - an application that makes it a cinch to install Linux side-by-side with your Windows install without needing to know technical details about partitioning, etc. This was the first time Wubi worked for me. I had tried previously installing it on a Windows 2000 Professional Edition and Windows Vista OS but both times it had given me error messages when I attempted to boot into the OS. But here we are.

First impressions? Well, the installer was a bit simplistic. Microsoft has taken significant steps forward in making their installer look friendly and aesthetically pleasing. Some work in this area would be nice - and then fall back to the basic GUI if you can't correctly detect the video card, etc.

The installer was also a bit confusing. As a developer/network engineer I know about things like Perl, PHP, and vim but to the average user the list of applications whizzing by would have been extremely confusing. I can't remember where, but recently I read a review of Ubuntu and the author was noting that one of the largest obstacles still preventing mainstream adoption of a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu is the complexity that still exists in some areas - such as naming and descriptions of applications and updating of those applications. I agree. I'd be scared if words like "DHCP" where skipping by me on the screen and I didn't know what they meant.

Boots up. I log in (after a few tries, I forget my username and password in the fifteen minutes the OS took to install). The interface is sleek and aesthetically pleasing - I like it. So here I am. I like it and will probably play around with it more.

The idea that fascinates me most is running VMWare and then having Windows as a virtual layer inside of Linux. Hmmm...

The Elder Generation.

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:26:00 GMT

Marko Oestreicher, from Youth Specialties, recently posted a video of The Zimmers performing a music video on his blog. What is unique about the Zimmer's is that the lead vocal is 90, while many of the other members are even older. While being a heart-warming and entertaining music video I also think it has some important lessons to teach us as well.

As young(er) individuals - whether leaders or teens - we sometimes view the older generation as nothing but an obstacle to be bypassed. Stereotypically we accuse them of being "set in their ways" and "opposed to change." We sometimes see no positive value in them. Now before those who are older begin agreeing too heartily with me on this point, it is also worth noting that many of the elder generation look down upon the younger as inferior in many ways and disregard their opinion and abilities - seeing them as purely disruptive, sinful, and lazy. What this music video reflects is the need for inter-generational understanding. We must work to reach out across our generations and enter into the conflict that will necessarily result from differing worldviews/cultures to reap the benefits at the end of the conflict.

GameSecretary.Com Gets a Small Facelift.

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 00:26:00 GMT

I'm a programmer (and a hobbyist at that), not a designer. But, I know that perception is a big part of utilization. If my site's look absolutely horrible people are unlikely to use them. So, I've been spending some time working on the interface. There are several main additions:

1. ASP.NET AJAX - Its not heavily implemented at this point, though I intend to continue to add it in. Right now it occurs when you read some of the quick tips (they start out minimized) and with the login panel. Rather than always having a login panel on the screen, now it is only displayed when you click the "Login." navigational item.

2. New Font - Tepid Monkey Font Designs, created by Brandon Schoech, is a collection of over forty font designs that excellent and free. I discovered his "Eager Naturalist" font and have entirely fallen for it. I've removed the old GameSecretary logo (which was decent) and replaced it with just the simple text "GameSecretary.Com."

3. New Layout - I've redesigned the way some of the pages display. This should give a more aesthetically pleasing design.

Okay...This is a bit like pulling teeth for me, but I'm going to keep at it. If you have suggestions for ways I can make the site more aesthetically pleasing, let me know. I am also in talks with some designers to get assistance in the interface design as well.

Men, Women, and Marriage.

admin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:56:00 GMT

Michael Smalley, founder of The Smalley Family and Marriage Center, wrote an article entitled, "A Husband's Biblical Trump Card?" which seeks to deal with the difficult texts in Scripture which discuss submission within the marriage relationship. I thought one quote within the article was especially insightful:

"Often times spouses are resistant to this idea of being a servant because they fear the other spouse taking advantage of them. But this is a lie straight from the evil one himself! Just think back to a time when someone loved you unconditionally. Are you there? How did you respond to that person? Did you take advantage of him? Probably not, because most people, when served by unconditional love, return the favor! In a healthy marriage, mutual submission feeds on itself and turns your marriage in to something truly special – the kind of marriage God wants."

StumbleUpon acquired by eBay - a Good Thing?

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:58:00 GMT

StumbleUpon has been a favorite of mine for some now. You've never heard of it? Well then, I'll explain. StumbleUpon allows users to "tag" websites. For example, if you are visiting this blog you might tag it "blog", "programming", "computers", "dave mackey" etc. In a sense tags are preferable to strict categories because one item can be in multiple categories. One is then able to define topics one is interested in (e.g. "computers", "search engines", "cars", "movies") and then "Stumble." When one stumbles a random website appears that has been tagged by others with your defined topics. You can give the site a thumbs up or a thumbs down and StumbleUpon will attempt to match your preferences with that of other users, over time refining which sites it displays to you. Its great fun - and a horrible time waster.

StumbleUpon's innovative usefulness has been evident by the massive amount of growth it has been experiencing. Recently this growth prompted an acquisition by eBay, the company best known as the way to buy or sell stuff on the web. eBay's portfolio also includes Skype, an extremely popular VoIP solution. With this acquisition it would seem that eBay is embarking itself for a bit of an arm's race with Amazon. Amazon is the other major retailer on the internet, but they have already embarked on a journey to make themselves about much more than products. Their product portfolio includes Alexa, a popular website ranking and search engine tool, as well as developer utilities such as S3, their distributed, remote storage solution.

In any case, this seems like a very wise move for eBay, but will it be good for consumers? I hope so. We will have to see how eBay plays their hand. From a financial perspective StumbleUpon is a gold mine. While they can continue to use advertising to support StumbleUpon they can also integrate eBay ads that reflect the tagged interests of the consumer into the stumbles - encouraging users to purchase eBay products through the auction and perhaps charging an additional fee for a "premium" spot in StumbleUpon results.

Consumers probably won't mind an occasional eBay auction appearing in the results if it is related to their topic - the key will be whether eBay can quickly determine the correct balance between their financial income and user's comfort. If they can't, then the acquisition by eBay could be a bad thing.

On the positive side for consumers however is a fresh infusion of capital into StumbleUpon and the public exposure that will come from being affiliated with eBay. eBay has a very large user base that it wants to have "stuck" to it, and using StumbleUpon and Skype as peripheral services is a great way to accomplish this. Furthermore, the financial resources of eBay are much deeper than StumbleUpon's and should allow for more rapid refinement in areas such as algorithms for ranking and anti-spam measures.