You!  Dropping it. Slamming the lid. Grabbing it by the screen. Spilling things on it. Sitting it on the couch or bed or blanket which covers the fan ports.  Treat your laptop kindly and don’t let it get overheated.  (Heat will slow your computer down, btw).

Lightning and Power Surges. You won’t believe this until it happens to you. When in use, it’s wise to keep your laptop (or PC) connected to a power surge protector (and not a plain powerstrip). When not in use, unplug your laptop.  For PCs, invest in a battery backup from ABS (the kind found in every office store). Not only will they save your bacon, their log reports and reminders will make you aware of just how variable your local power supply really is.

Viruses and Malware. Make sure you a good antivirus/malware program and keep it up to date. These days, surfing the net, downloading files and reading email without good protection is like driving a car without brakes.

What’s the most commonly reported computer problem?  

“Computer Running Slow“

It can be caused by:

Virus, Malware, Adware.
Make sure you a good antivirus/malware program and keep it up to date.

Low RAM
Adding RAM is the single best thing you can do to improve the performance of your computer after you have cleaned the harddrive.

Not enough free space on your harddrive
My daughter’s 1 year old laptop started running slow. Why? Because she had it loaded up with music and photos from her camera when left the harddrive with less than 10% free space. The harddrive uses free space to unfold programs and create virtual memory.

Easy Solutions in order of “what to do first”:

1. Update and/or install good antivirus/malware software (such as AVG Free) and run a scan on your computer immediately.
2. Remove unwanted programs using the Control Panel’s Uninstall Menu. 
3. Move photos and unwanted music off the harddrive and on to DVDs.
4. Look at the number of programs “running in the background” you may have enabled or allowed to be installed. For example, you may have multiple toolbars on your browser that are slowing you down. Uninstall unwanted add-ons using your Control Panel’s uninstall programs feature.
5. Run Disk Defragment and Disk Cleanup (both are found in your computer’s admin tools)
6. Type the word “ram” in your computer’s search box (Vista and Windows 7) to see how much is on your system. If your system has less than 1 gigabyte, it’s too low. Vista and W7 need a minimum of 2 gb of RAM to function nicely.

Last but not least… BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP

Your computer WILL EVENTUALLY blow-up. 

Backup Solutions:
Vista and Windows 7 have automatic backup software built into them. They can be set to prompt you to backup your files. They know to back up email software and your document folders. They can be told to back up anything else.

Mozy.com. An online backup service that costs less than $10 a month (which you’d gladly pay in hindsight when your harddrive crashes and you didn’t have your files backed up). You download a small file from Mozy, tell it what files you want to back up, and it turns itself on and sends your files to a safe online location at regular intervals. Very easy to use.

Set regular reminders in your email program. I use the reminder feature in Outlook email all the time to remember things.

Email extra-important files to your spare online email account. Example: when I was travel to preach or present, I email my sermon/docs to my gmail account “just in case”.  

I’m not big on backing up the entire harddrive, just the essential files I can’t do without. The trick is to actually DO IT.

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Yes, I’m getting older, but “THEY” are also making things harder to see and find!

I have a beautiful 17″ laptop with a high resolution screen, –but darnit if I can’t regularly find my MOUSE POINTER on that screen!!!  Doesn’t help that I usually have 5 windows open at the same time.

“Duh” Simple Solution:

Set the Windows Mouse Pointer to “large”.  (No, it won’t be quite as big as my ridiculous graphic here!)

Open the Windows Control Panel in XP/Vista/Windows 7 and double-click “Mouse”. Then change the pointer mouse ”scheme” to LARGE.  Makes the mouse pointer about 20% bigger, and makes me feel about 20% younger.

Now let me also admit one of my favorite Internet Explorer Features:  the ZOOM option. I regularly toggle my web browser to 125% zoom. It helps on many sites which have been designed with ridiculously small fonts and faint pastel color schemes.  Internet Explorer 8 makes it easy…  I just have to click the lower right zoom icon to quickly make the change.

As you get older, you either…

a) Lose your sense of dignity
b) Redefine what’s “cool”

I have finally decided to “redefine what’s cool” and get a rope for my reading glasses, …even though my wife and kids think it makes me look like a geezer.  Why? Because there’s nothing worse than forgetting where you left your reading glasses, and desperately needing them.

Note to Young Pastors and Young Church Secretaries…  No fine print in the bulletin and newsletters, please. It just makes us annoyed with you, …and jealous.

Speaking of “forgetting”… NPR recently featured the author of “The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain“.  Apparently the latest research says YES, we get more forgetful in middle age, but that our brains are MUCH better than younger brains at certain “higher” functions, like reasoning. Can’t wait to tell my kids. 

The researcher offered some GOOD ADVICE ABOUT REMEMBERING NAMES …something I’m increasingly not good at.  First, she said the problem as we get older is that we don’t process things into memory as quickly as we once did, we need an extra second. So when you hear a person’s name, you need to pause on it before continuing your conversation.

Second, she said that the BEST way to remember a name was to associate an image or sound with it. So next time you meet “Bob” …think “Bob the Builder” or “Bob Bob Bobbity Bob.”  (you don’t say that out loud!)   For some reason, the middle age brain loves those kinds of associations and retrieves them more quickly.

Read the story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125902095&ft=1&f=13

—————-

And Speaking of “BIG”…   my good friend Mike owns a print shop here on St. Croix, and specializes in MAKING BIG PRINTS of just about anything. Check out his Large Format Printing website at www.largeformatprinting.vi  Mike can turn your photos and documents into posters and banners and ship it to you cheap.  His state-of-the-art large format color printer makes it look great.  Tell him, “Neil sent me and said you’d give me a discount.”

I’m what some would call a “power computer user.” Counting my 3 daughter’s computers which I’ve set up for them, I currently own 5 personal laptops and have the free AVG anti-virus  program installed on each. None of them has ever had a problem AVG couldn’t handle. (Each also has Microsoft’s free & built-in  ”Defender” firewall, and again, no problems there.)

Over the years, I’ve used Norton anti-virus, and McAfee anti-virus, and even occasionally paid to extend their free trials on various computers.  I have McAfee running on my business computer. But in all that time I’ve never had a virus or worm with AVG-free on the job, so now I save my money to waste on other things, and install it on ALL my personal computers. Just have to update them each year.

Important Notes on AVG’s free antivirus….

The free version will “expire” every year and send you a note saying you need to upgrade. Of course it will try to get you to buy their “upgraded” version, but you don’t need to do that if you are using AVG free for “personal” uses.  You can just uninstall AVG from your system and then download the LATEST new free version. It’s free, so you’re not messing with them.

AVG’s free license does not permit use of the free version for ”commercial”  or organizational use. Does this apply to a church office?  Yes.  “AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only.”  That said, I don’t think they’d be unhappy with you installing the free version to TRY IT OUT, and then selecting UPGRADE after you’re satisfied and paying them $34.99.  As a software developer and non-thief, I can tell you that this is the right thing to do.

Like Norton and McAfee , AVG’s paid version is an annual fee.  Yet if you’ve ever had a virus (and I once did many years ago) you know that you would have gladly paid 3 times as much to save all the aggravation and damage a virus can do.

The Free and Upgraded versions come with other forms of internet protection, anti-phishing filters, and such. But the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox come with those built-in.  Just remember to let Windows update itself regularly to plug security holes.

AVG ’s upgraded anti-virus can also install SPAM protection on your email program. I don’t use this feature because my email provider already utilizes a server-side spam blocker (”Postini” …which is the best).  If you’re using Hotmail, Gmail etc etc, they have free  spam blockers too. But if you’re using a regular email program like Outlook, and get a lot of spam, ‘turning on’ AVG’s spam blocker is a good idea.

AVG also offers “spyware” protection. I don’t turn that on because Vista and Windows 7 have that built in. That said, you still need to becareful what you download, especially if you’re a nOOb when it comes to the internet.

The less you know about all these things, the more this paid protection IS MONEY WELL SPENT.

<>< Neil

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We bought the Olympus WS-400s at Office Max for about $60. It has a built in microphone, two recording quality settings, and 1 gb memory for up to 170 hrs of recording time. This unit is VERY small, -, it’s about 4″ by 1″ -or about half the size of a cellphone. It is very easy to use. Even has a built-in retractable USB plug so you can plug it right into your computer.

It records in the WMA  format (Windows Media Audio). On the high quality setting, a 15 minute sermon is just a 3 mb file. The tiny built-in microphone does a surprisingly good job of picking up the pastor’s voice. He lays it on the lecturn about 20 inches away from his mouth. He simply press the record button just before he starts to speak. The recording playback quality is good enough for the web. (The unit’s own playback quality is small and tinny on its own micro speakers, as to be expected.)  

To post the file at a website, you plug the recorder into your computer, open up a simple FTP (file transfer) program, and upload it to your website. Then, I take note of the file’s web address and paste that address in a file on our webpage. We use Wordpress to create our church site, so it’s all easy.

Now the question is, IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

Two months ago, the pastor asked for my help saying, ”The Consistory wants to start recording the sermons and put them on the church website.”  Our pastor doesn’t write out his sermons, so there is no text to post. 

I agreed to help, saying, “Sure, we can do that, but let’s also agree to revisit this decision based on ACTUAL USAGE STATISTICS. I’m willing to take the time to upload the files and create the links,  but only if people actually listen to them.”  “Fair enough,” was his reponse.

Then I told him this story:

Fresh out of seminary and serving as the Assoc Pastor in a NY church, I was in charge of making sure the services got recorded to cassettes and distributed to the old folks. One Sunday afternoon while delivering communion in a nursing home, I saw a STACK of service/sermon cassetttes on a bedside table.

“Quite a collection!” I said. “Do you enjoy them?” 

“NO” came the reply, “I don’t ever listen to them, too much fuss.” 

 ”Oh, well would you like me to have the Deacon stop bringing them?” 

“No” replied the senior, “maybe I’ll start listening to them.”  

Somehow I doubt she ever did.  She was being honest and polite. I asked several other older members if they listened to the cassettes, and was met with a variety of excuses.  “My hands hurt too much to press the buttons.”  “I’m all thumbs.”  “I don’t hear so well. “   But.. I decided that giving the Deacon a REASON to make that visit …having a cassette in hand, was reason enough to continue the tape ministry.

But posting them on a church website is DIFFERENT than the old cassette ministry.  These were likely going to be sermons for “the rest of the congregation” to hear, if they wanted to hear them. Our church has a fair number of snowbirds, so maybe the stats will go up during the off season as the snowbirds try to stay in touch. And maybe if someone was sick, or enjoyed the sermon and wanted to hear it a second time. Or maybe they wanted to hear a certain quote or reference. Putting sermons on the church website seems to me to be QUITE different than that old cassette ministry. So I’m intrigued to see if we get many “hits” on those files.

But I’m still going in cautiously. Some ideas, EVEN GOOD IDEAS, are often not worth the extra effort. They can be “make work.”  Or, “feel good” efforts that have little impact or importance.  And here I’m speaking to the church web techies:  they can ask you to do lots of little things like this, …and after a while you’re doing so many that it has turned into quite the project. So even with “good ideas” you need to TEST FOR RESULTS.

And that’s one of the cool things about websites, you CAN ACTUALLY MEASURE whether all the effort is worth it.  Even a modest website has controls you can set that can generate statistics of how many time the sermon audio files have been accessed. We’re using Wordpress for our church website, and the stats are right on the “Dashboard” …the control panel.  We’ll use those stats to determine IF and HOW MANY sermons should be posted in the future.

But…there’s one BIG problem with Web Stats:
Typical web stats will only show us how many times the audio file was “clicked for download.” They can’t tell us if the sermon was entirely listened to.

The Dec 20 2009 sermon had 24 “clicks” over a three week period. Our congregation has about 140 people in it. Some of those clicks may be searchbots, or searchers looking for “Advent Sermons” as their keyword. But the remainder, let’s say 12, is not an insignificant number.

 So here’s what I’m going to do…. 
I’m going to EDIT IN a special message half way through one of the next sermons I post. It will say, “We’re trying to figure out if anyone actually LISTENS to these sermons, If you hear this message, call my cell phone now, and I will give you a free gift.”   (It will be a copy of a favorite religious book).

On this page at a later date I’ll let you know how that works out !

Email:  Mozilla’s “Thunderbird” 2.0 

This free robust email program comes from the same group who created the Firefox browser. It’s free because it’s “open source” (many volunteer developers) and underwritten by the Mozilla Foundation, which was created after the final release Netscape.

Wordprocessing:   OpenOffice.org’s  ”Writer”  

Writer looks and functions a lot like Word 2003. This is a good thing because the new ‘ribbon’ interface in later Word releases is a bit confusing. This is not a truncated basic program like Wordpad. Rather, it’s a full featured wordprocessor with all the controls and options you’ll probably need.  Click thumbnail below to see a screenshot.  http://www.openoffice.org

 You can get “Writer” separately or as part of the OpenOffice.org 3’s office software suite.  The suite includes: a fully functional Word-like word processor, Excel-like spreadsheet program, Powerpoint-like presentations program, graphics program, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages (such as Word). It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

The wordprocessor in OpenOffice can be downloaded separately. It can import .doc and .docx files. It can also save in those formats, and many others, including the ability to save your docs as PDFs.  

The OpenOffice spreadsheet program replaces Excel, and their Presentations program replaces Powerpoint. OpenOffice.org is a community of developers sponsored by Sun-Java Microsystems.

First: Paypal. You simply sign up, fill out a form and they generate some code which you can paste into your website code. Paypal has several competitors, such as Google Checkout. Most are very similar. If you’re a non-profit, they take a certain percentage of every transaction (typically 2.5%), plus a per transaction fee (typically 30 cents a transaction). This is pretty standard for all creditcard transactions. To learn more go to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donate-intro-outside

There are many other web companies willing to set you up with a “Donate Now” button, but while their transaction fees are competitive, they often ALSO charge you a one-time set-up fee of anywhere from $50 to $250. Paypal doesn’t charge a set up fee for non-profits.

I made this button for the soup kitchen website I help maintain.

 The second option I want to recommend is www.NetworkforGood.org. This non-profit company offers two ways to let people donate to your cause: 1) Immediately through their webform, or 2) Through a custom form you can get from them (for a setup fee). The first time YOU go to their website, you need to perform a SEARCH for your organization. Look for the “Support Any Charity” option on their Home page.

There are similar non-profits on the web. Wouldn’t it be great if your DENOMINATION created an organization to manage this process to save costs and support things like missions?

To create a direct link to your donate now page at their website, you’ll need to register for their free option . They’ll need your organization’s EIN tax number and will send you a password. When you get the password, go back to their site and complete the registration. Their instructions will give you a link address to which you add your EIN number to the end of the address. That’s your donate now link you can post on any website or send in an email.  When somebody clicks that link, they are taken directly to your non-profit’s info at the NetworkForGood website, and a creditcard form that can be filled out on the spot.

When people click that link, they are taken to Networkforgood’s website where they see your organization’s name and mailing address data, and a Credit Card Donation form on the screen for them to fill out.  Very easy. [You could sign up and pay for a "custom" donate now page, but it's not cheap and has a monthly fee as well. The 'free' option works fine.]  When you donate through their form, Networkforgood sends a check to the organization you want to support. They know the mailing address, because every 501-3c’s  mailing address is a matter of public record.

Sounds simple, and it is, but the first time I saw this, I had to test it, so I sent $5 to an organization. And sure enough, about a week later they got a check in the mail from Networkforgood with my name on it as the donor. You also have to pay attention to their options for “organization” sign up.

TRY IT OUT !   Go to www.networkforgood.org and look down the right side of their Home page for the “SUPPORT ANY CHARITY” search box. Start there and search for your organization. When you find it, click it’s name and note the page URL that opens up. That’s what you can send others to -to make their donation.

Of course, Networkforgood.org collected 2.5% of my donation plus transaction fee. But any CC processing will do the same. So for example, if you make a $100 donation, Networkforgood sends $97.20.  UPDATE:  the rate is now 4.5% if you do not sign up as a “customer” and pay their registration fee and montly maintenance fee.  See my “COMMENT” below for details about this, and why CC processing charges are going up.

Why your organization should accept Credit Card donations…

My instinct is to say, “Do I REALLY need to explain this here in the 21st Century?”  But yeah, we probably still need to explain it to some people.  Here’ s my explanation:  Credit and Debit cards are a fact of life. Many of us CHOOSE to manage our spending with these tools. We pay our bills online because it’s convenient and manageable. And the immediacy of paying through a “Donate Now” button allows us to follow through on our desire to be good stewards.  Trying to remember to send a check later in the month is not good stewardship.

There is no shame in giving people an option to respond to real needs. And some organizations have a real need to handle contributions VIRTUALLY.   For example, three of the four non-profit websites I work with belong to organizations that have FAR FLUNG groups of supporters. Our “members” don’t congregate on Sundays to put money in a basket.  

My church, for example, doubles in size every Winter with snowbirds. Our website is one way for them to keep in touch during the off season, and the Donate Now button allows them to support various fundraisers that pop up during the year when they are not physically present.   Most of them WANT TO SUPPORT these efforts. And giving them a convenient “Donate Now” option helps them feel connected across the distance.

Rather than be embarrassed by creditcard donations, -or thinking that they somehow cheapen the giving of gifts (as some old-fashioned folks will say), donating via creditcard is as an opportunity for people to RESPOND to NEEDS in a way that’s IMMEDIATE, and in a manner that’s CONVENIENT to them.  When someone comes to our soup kitchen website, we are ALREADY implicitly asking for their support. And God knows we need it… in any amount, as soon as they can donate it.

And before anyone decries the “cost of creditcard transactions,” consider the other costs:

• The cost of an envelope, a check and a postage stamp.
• The time and cost of accounting for checks
• And cost of losing potential donations because well-intentioned givers DO forget!

It has been said that churches should not be encouraging the use of creditcards, especially these days when so many people have abused their credit. My response to that is that we should not be encouraging the abuse of cash and bank accounts either. Stewardship is more than asking for money, among other things, it’s about helping people manage their finances so that they CAN contribute. That said,  I would suggest that we ask members to ONLY use their DEBIT cards, so that they are not financing their contributions.

If you discover OTHER ONLINE OPTIONS that are easy to implement and not very expensive, please leave your comments here below.

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But nowadays, just by looking at the names, it’s nearly impossible to figure out whether an AMD “Turion” is faster than an Intel “M” Processor.  And even within the Intel line it’s not always easy to know which chip to pay for. For example: Is an Intel 2400 @ 1.83 ghz faster than a Intel Core2 T5500 @ 1.6 ghz?  Yes, but only by a smidge. But didn’t you expect the 5500 to be faster than the 2400? It’s not!  

Knowing Your Processor’s Speed Matters…

Reason #1 It Matters:
They are charging EXTRA for allegedly “speedier” processors. You might think the Intel T7300 is worth $50 or $100 more than the T5370, but you’d be wrong. They both test at nearly the identical speed.

Reason #2 It Matters:
People are expecting “Desktop performance” out of laptops these days. And a lot of inexpensive notebooks are coming out with sub-par processors. You want to know… especially if you like to have multiple programs open at once, are a power user, or gamer.

Reason #3 It Matters:
The notebook market is flooding with inexpensive $500 or $400 laptops, and even a $350 “netbooks.” And not all of them are created equal. You may be sorely disappointed with the speed of that laptop, depending on your expectations. Rather than save $100 and be disappointed, know what you’re buying.

Reason #4 It Matters:
People will pay extra money for an allegedly ‘faster’ processor, then skimp on RAM, when in fact, you’re better off getting the maximum amount of RAM and saving a few dollars on a slightly (apparently) slower processor.

HOW TO KNOW:
“Benchmarking” is how the computer industry determines the “real world speed” of a processor. One of the better processor comparison charts I’ve found is at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html  Click that link to see how the processor you are thinking of buying (or already own) compares to other processors.

But PROCESSING ISN’T EVERYTHING!
RAM matters, as does something call the L2 Cache (which is like additional memory that your computer/processor can use to speed up your computer’s performance).

And “GHZ” or “gigahertz” as a measurement of a processor’s speed STILL MATTERS too, inspite of what some salespeople are saying. In general, a 2.0 ghz Dual Core processor IS FASTER than a 1.8 Dual Core Processor. But it gets murky when you’re comparing INtel to AMD because AMD chips do not tell you their ghz.

So if you’re comparing an “Intel Dual Core T6400 @ 2.0 ghz” speed to an “AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+” how do you know which is faster, and which is worth the extra money?? –You look it up, that’s how, and you’d discover they are nearly identical in performance, but not in price!)

My Best Advice: 

1. Compare your processors using a benchmark chart and not the salesman’s opinion. See the link above.

2. Always get the MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF RAM your laptop can handle. You’ll be glad you did.

3. All video chips are not created equal! For gaming and multimedia use, pay attention to the Video Chip they put in the laptop.  Rule of Thumb: If they offer an Nvidia graphic chip…get it. It’s likely better and faster than the less expensive “Intel Express” chips.

4. Stick with Dual Core, rather than the older style single core processors. Yes, they still sell laptops with single core processors.

5. Keep your Computer in Tip Top Shape: The longer you use any computer, the slower it will get. It’s the nature of the beast.

a. Uninstall unneeded or rarely used programs using your Control Panel’s Uninstall Programs feature.

b. Turn off unnecessary processor/memory users, such as Photo Gallery software and special Printer features (HP, for example, gives you the option to NOT install their extra features).

c. Defrag your harddrive every couple of months (click Programs, then Accessories then click Systems.

d. Keep your anti-virus and spyware programs fully up to date. Nothing slows down a computer like nefarious software.

e. Buy the larger harddrive if it’s not too expensive. The more free space you have, the faster your computer will stay, -as you begin to fill up the harddrive.

f. For laptops, -turn than off when not in use so that they don’t overheat. Don’t set them on the couch -it will smother the fans. Clean the air ports.

What is Facebook? 

Facebook.com is the world’s largest  “social networking” website. It allows users to create an online profile, then invite “friends” who are also on Facebook -to come visit their profile and leave messages on your “wall” of messages.  It’s a powerful new kind of message board. You control who your “friends” are, who can see your info, etc.

Churches are creating online Facebook profiles which church members who are on Facebook can visit and leave messages. Or a church can create a “Facebook Group” where regular messages and discussion posts can be viewed/made.  When your members become “friends” of your church on Facebook, they can not only receive/see/respond to messages that you post on your church “wall”,  they can also see the names of other members who have become friends, and contact them if they wish. 

From the church’s point of view…. There are two important things to know about Facebook:

1)  Facebook is not passive. It TELLS YOU when a “friend” has commented on your wall. And it ALERTS your friends when you post new messages on your wall. It alerts them/you not only through messages on Facebook, but via your email. In other words, it’s a fast and pro-active way to communicate with members.

2) Facebook is networking software. When a friend signs up to follow your church page, they can see your other friends who are also following your webpage, click on those friends’ names and initiate a “friends request” with that person …and start networking with each other!  In church terminology: this is a connectional medium that promotes fellowship BETWEEN MEMBERS.

Some people update their wall with comments on a daily or weekly basis. And other people can leave responses to your updates. Furthermore, when you log onto your profile, you see what your friends are saying about themselves, and you can go visit their wall to see the messages others are leaving for them.  Only those you have invited can view your wall.  Facebook allows you to upload pictures and albums to your page, and you can send private messages to your friends on Facebook.

Facebook helps you find friends in several ways: 1) You can use Facebook’s search feature to find friends who also use Facebook. 2) Facebook looks at your profile information (High School, College, and where you live), and makes suggestions to you of people you might want to invite into your friends group.  3) Facebook looks at who your friends’ friends are, and suggests you become friends with them. So for example, if you invite your pastor to become your friend on Facebook, Facebook will tell you who your pastor’s friends are, and then you can invite them to be your friend too. This particular feature would allow church members to befriend each other quite quickly. And of course, you can turn down requests and be as private as you like.

___________________________________________

Face(book) the Facts: 

Fact #1  The Church is a Social Network, and Facebook is social networking technology.  Like the phone, the printed newsletter, email and Sunday announcements, Facebook allows you to get the word out, share your lives, and stay in touch over distances.

Fact #2:  As a church leader, it’s your mission to communicate and network effectively.  Increasingly, church leaders must use MULTIPLE ways to stay in touch with their parishoners. And increasingly, you must go to where the members are. Facebook is one good way to do that for free, and the results are almost immediate.

Fact #3: Many of your church members are already using Facebook. And many more will be joining the service in the years ahead. It’s a phenomenon, not a fad.  Originally designed for college kids to stay in touch, there are now more adults than kids using it, and more everyday. In fact, people are signing up and using Facebook faster than any other web application. As of Spring 2009 there are 200 million Facebooks users around the world, 60 million of them in the U.S.  Two-thirds of all Facebook users are out of college and the 35+ age group is fastest growing group of users.

Fact #4:  People are sharing much more than information on Facebook, -they are sharing their lives. For years we have encouraged members to share their lives with each other, to stay in-touch beyond Sunday morning. Facebook is a powerful and fun way to do that.

——————————

Many church leaders have already begun to use Facebook to connect with their members.

Jim, a pastor in Nashville emailed me this comment:  “At our last staff meeting, I asked my staff how many were on Facebook. Every hand in the room went up, except mine and the janitor’s.  Then the janitor chimed in, ‘I’m on MySpace instead of Facebook.’  (ed: MySpace is like Facebook) Boy did I feel old.  That afternoon they showed me how to get a Facebook page. Now we share notes with each other almost everyday, and have invited church leaders to follow our conversations.”

Steve, a small church pastor in North Carolina, ”facebooks” his daily life, including what he’s doing that day at the church. And his members and friends follow him. He includes photos of events the day they happen, and friends and members leave comments and encouragements. Steve is a musician as well and many of his members follow him to learn about local music events and new music.

Becky in Rochester works at a large church where over a 100 members follow each other’s lives on Facebook. “We don’t know where it’s going but it’s been a positive thing.”

Lisa in Canada wrote to say their Youth Group Facebook Page is “indispensable” to their group, as “kids don’t use email or check it, they are on Facebook.”

____________________________

Here are the Facebook features that make it a powerful application for church leaders:

1. Once you create a profile page, you can add written “comments” to your profile page as often as you like.  Many people update their daily. Some not so often. The Comments section of your profile is called your “wall.” You can also add photos. Facebook makes it O so simple.

You can create a personal profile, or you can create a profile just about your church.  Then church members can be ‘invited’ to follow your church page -and will get an alert everytime you post a message on the church’s Facebook page.  Many churches use this approach so that they aren’t following and reading the pastor’s personal facebook page.

2. Once on Facebook, you search for and “add friends” who are also on Facebook  –granting them access to read your profile and your “wall” comments. Once they accept your “invitation” to become a friend on Facebook, they can leave comments on your “wall,” and you on theirs.

Whenever someone posts a comment on your “wall,” you get an email notification.  (That’s nice because I have my email program open all the time and don’t keep Facebook open on my computer like some people do)

3. Now here’s the “kicker”…  When you accept someone as your “friend” on Facebook (granting them access to your wall -and you to theirs), Facebook AUTOMATICALLY suggests NEW FRIENDS you might want to invite to follow your profile/comments page –selecting from your friend’s “friends list.”   So if you have a friend who’s already connected to 10 other church members, Facebook will suggest them to you, and you can click “invite” to send them a request to be friends. ((This is what they mean by “viral” marketing. You don’t have to go out and do it, Facebook does it for you by looking through your friend’s friends list.))  This means that you can accumulate church members following your site VERY quickly.

My experience on Facebook…

Setting it up was quick and easy, …which is probably why Facebook has been growing fast among babyboomers.

It’s fun, but can get a little overwhelming at times. Some people leave comments all the time. And the more friends you have who you are “following” (seeing their every comment on your wall), the more you have to read, the more they can clog your wall with comments. Fortunately, you can turn off some comment features.

Facebook also has some features which you may want to deactivate, and which some of your friends OVERUSE. One of the things that makes Facebook popular is its “applications.”   For example, I have this one pastor friend who’s young daughter is always sending her mom “facebook gifts” such as pictures of hugs, and “splashing her” …and these items not only appear on her wall, but on mine as well because she’s my “friend” and I am “following” her. So when I pull up MY wall, I’m always seeing those comments. Fortunately, you can DEACTIVATE friends comments and some features. 

Eventually Facebook will have to give its users more controls over what things appear on your wall. But this is the nature of the beast right now… it’s designed to show you what’s going on in the lives of your friends, and to see what your friends are talking about. It’s definitely NOT a one-way church newsletter.

Oddly enough, I “facebook” with my own kids and friends who i see ALL the time!  ….in addition to following old friends I’ve reconnected with.  One of the interesting phenomenons about this technology is that people will post comments about their personal lives that they would otherwise maybe not mention in conversation. Several pastors I talked to said they have learned quite a bit about some of their members’ NEEDS because of this phenomenon. But you also read mundane stuff, which reminds you that your friends and family members are out there living their lives, –and willing to let you be part of it. It’s a privilege of sorts.

Facebook’s original intent was to let people separated by miles and years to stay in touch which each other. I’ve reconnected with some old friends, and that’s been very nice. This is a great feature for church members who move away and want to stay in touch with their “old” church friends.

Where is this all headed? 

We in the church have entered an era where can communicate immediately without the cost of postage, secretarial time or use of a copier. This is a godsend to those who need to communicate important information on a regular basis.

We are in an era where MANY methods must be employed, and not a limited few, and many of these new technologies “REMIND” you of new content, or can have their content delivered to the device of your choice.  Some people live by email, others by cellphone. Web-based applications such as Facebook and Twitter understand this, and their applications allow for people to receive updates via the method of their choosing. For example, if I sign up to read your Facebook postings, I can opt to get them by email. If my pastor is on Twitter and I have signed up to receive their “tweets” (messages) on my phone, others can sign up to receive those tweets via email. If I sign up at your church website to “follow” your website, the website can alert me with an email to new content at the site.

The technology of this new era improves on the past. It is quicker, can be more timely, and in most cases is free. It is also “two-way” in that email and Facebook allows for response and immediate feedback, and methods such as Facebook facilitate networking between members outside the building.

We are in a period of experimentation. Churches and church leaders are beginning to use Facebook with great intentions. And as the technology grows and changes, things will only get better for those who believe they have a message worth sharing, and for those who are seeking NEW ways to listen to the lives of those they are in community with.

Neil MacQueen, Copyright 2009.
www.sundaysoftware.com
www.sundayresources.net/neil

Postscript:
Understandably, some people have concerns about connecting with other people on the web. And some social networking sites are not for Christians.  But fortunately, Facebook seems to be taking the HIGH ROAD. It has numerous controls, and seems to understand that it cannot alienate the mass of people who want a safe place to connect with friends.  People who can view your information and leave comments are not anonymous. They can only be “invited” to your content, and they can be uninvited.  It will be interesting to watch how this and other networking technologies evolve.  And Christians should speak up so that these services stay church-friendly.

This blog article is brought to you by www.sundaysoftware.com  Check out our great Bible story software and Bible games for kids! Neil MacQueen is a “techie-pastor” who writes about tech subjects for church staff and anyone else who wants to know.

Getting content from your computer to your phone, or from your phone to someone’s email is not only EZ, it can be a lifesaver.

The other day a friend EMAILED me ELABORATE DIRECTIONS to her home. Problem was, I needed those directions on my cellphone to take with me in the car. So I forwarded that email from my laptop to my cellphone.   Then yesterday one of my programmers needed to have me look at a screenshot right away, but I was away from my laptop, so I told him to “send it to my cellphone as a multimedia text message.”

And frequently, I take photos with my camera phone and want to put them on my computer or send them to someone else’s computer.

Here’s how you can send a TXT Message or Photo from your cellphone to an email address:

1) In your cellphone’s text message program, type the email address of you want to receive your text message into the “to:” field and press send.  That’s it!  (If including a photo, remember to attach/insert it).

So for example, if you wanted to email me from your cellphone to my email address, you’d type my email address in the “to:” field…  TO:neil@sundaysoftware.com  It really is that simple.

Since I often send photos from my cellphone to my laptop, I have created a contact in my cellphone’s directory named “Email Neil” -and put neil@sundaysoftware.com as the email address, –leaving the phone number field blank. The cellphone software, sees that the phone number field is empty and uses the email address. Nice.

www.sundaysoftware.com

Here’s how to send Email from your computer to a cellphone number:

(They will receive it as a text message on their computer)

You just need to know the following:

1) the person’s cell number
2) the specific email address of their cell service provider (such as “txt.att.net”)

Then…
In your email program you create a ‘new’ email, and in the “To:” line, type the person’s cell phone number, –followed by their cellphone provider’s specific email address. If like me, you need to forward an email to your own cellphone, you just click ‘forward’ on that email and type in your own cellphone number, -followed by your cellphone provider’s email address.

So for example, if you wanted to send me an email from your computer to my cellphone, you’d send an email to 6145278776 @txt.att.net  (because I use ATT)

_________________________________

Below is a list of the email ”gateway” addresses for different carriers. 

I’ve listed the top three most popular first. Note: if you’re sending a Simple Text Message (”txt” or “SMS”), the address is slightly different on some cell carriers than if you’re sending a “Multimedia Message” (MMS) which would include a photo, for example.

Note: do not include the ‘bracket’ [ ] in the email address.

AT&T
Text (SMS): [the 10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
Multimedia Text Msg (MMS): [the 10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net
Example: 2225557777@mms.att.net

(I’m not really sure you need to include the txt. or mms.  anymore with ATT. I usually don’t and their servers seem to know exactly how to handle my email coming into the phone. Might be true for the other services too. Try it out.)

Verizon
Text: [10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
MMS: [10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com
Example: 2534567890@vtext.com

Alltel
Text: [10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com

Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)
Text: [10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
MMS: [10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Boost Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 5234567890@myboostmobile.com

Nextel (now Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 2534567890@messaging.nextel.com

T-Mobile [10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net

Virgin Mobile USA
[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com ]]> http://sundayresources.net/neil/2009/06/11/how-to-send-email-to-your-cellphone/feed/ 1 http://sundayresources.net/neil/2009/03/25/your-pastor-the-twitter/ http://sundayresources.net/neil/2009/03/25/your-pastor-the-twitter/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:42:58 +0000 Neil http://sundayresources.net/neil/?p=88 There’s a relatively NEW form of communication spreading rapidly over the internet and cell phones. It’s called TWITTER (www.twitter.com) and every pastor who believes in staying in touch with parishioners should CONSIDER using it.  

Is it hype? Nope, it’s a tool that I think is BETTER SUITED to what a PASTOR is trying to do –provide timely appreciated communication for free in an immediate and concise way, (rather than how some people are using twitter to blog the inane events of their daily lives). 

A twitter is a text message you broadcast from  your cellphone or laptop to other cellphones or email inboxes who have signed up to “FOLLOW” your “tweets.”  It’s not spam, it’s an “opt in” system.  

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, enforcing a discipline on preachers heretofore unheard of!

Update:
Since I first posted this there have been many reports of churches and pastors using Twitter in their ministry. Recently, I read about a pastor who Twittered scripture excerpts from 90 Psalms over the 90 days of summer to his members who had cell phones. It was a creative way to encourage people everyday, and help them stay connected during summer travels.  What a GREAT idea. 

Here’s why and how Twitter works:

Twitter is a text-message “broadcast” service that Time magazine calls “the next killer app.” Pastor signs up for a free account online. Then during the day or week, when the pastor has some noteworthy information (aka “a tweet”) to pass along to the members, he or she creates a short TEXT message on their cell phone or computer and sends it to Twitter via text message or via the Twitter website.  Twitter.com then broadcasts that short text message to every member who has signed up to “follow” the pastor’s twitter messages. 

• Daily Prayer Requests and Bible Verses
• Weekly Congregational News
• Reminders about meetings and special services

Messages can be delivered to cell phones, or via email or to their instant messaging box, –whichever form they prefer. But we’ll bet MOST will want them sent to their cellphone. “Followers” can respond to, or ignore twitters, or opt-out at any time.  No response to a twitter is necessary.

A “tweet” is limited to 144 characters, so the message must be kept mercifully short. It’s like an electronic postcard to your members. And you can send as many as you want, as often as you want. It’s free.

Pastors can have MULTIPLE twitter accounts for different purposes if you use the web interface to tweet. (if you will be using your cellphone to tweet, you can only create one acct per phone number). Here are some uses:

• Pastor Bob’s Daily Bible Verses
• Prayer Requests
• Bob’s Meeting Reminders
• Bob’s Bible Study Announcements
• Bob’s Staff Reminders
• Daily Reports from the Mission Trip

It’s easy to sign up, easy to use, and easy to follow another person’s twitter. You label your twitter account with your name, so other people can find you using twitter search, then you simply advertise that name to your members.  “Get my weekly updates on your cellphone!  Send the text msg ’follow Pastor Bob’ to 40404.”

• Bosses are using it to remind co-workers of important meetings and schedule changes.
• Kids are using it to announce weekend plans.
• News organizations are using it to broadcast immediate news on subjects of your choice.
• If you’re working with young adults who live with their cellphones 24/7, you should especially take note.

If you’re an “old fashioned” pastor who doesn’t use their cell phone much, or doesn’t text message, you can still tweet over your computer to those who DO use their cell phones and send/receive text messages everyday. Just sign up, and bookmark the twitter.com page to send your messages from there.

Did I mention all this is free?

<>< Neil

______________________

How to Twitter:

1. You need to go to www.twitter.com and sign up.

2. Next, go into your twitter ’settings’ options on the website and add your mobile phone number and follow their verification instructions.

This will allow you to broadcast text messages to your followers using your cellphone.

To send out a twitter to your “followers” on your cellphone all you need to is type a txt msg on your phone  and send it to the following recipient: “40404″ (twitter’s U.S. text message number). Twitter will see it’s coming from you and broadcast to your list of followers.

3. Next, you need to INVITE friends and members to follow your Twitter by doing the following:

Invitation the hard way:
Send your would-be followers to twitter.com to sign up, and then tell them to ’search’ for your name on twitter and click ”Follow”. That’s it. Now they’ll get all your text messages on their computer when they open twitter, or on their phone if they signed up to receive cellphone text twitters.

They can sign up their mobile phone to receive ‘twits’.  They can also download free mini-applications to their computer to place pop-up twitter windows on their computer desktop that opens everytime someone they are ‘following’ sends a twitter.

The easy way to Invite people:
Tell your would-be followers to simply SEND a TXT MSG on their phone with the following info:

• In the recipients field, type 40404  (twitter’s txt address)
• And in the message field, type “follow username“  (give them your username!)
• Press send. Now they’ve signed up to receive all your tweets.

  This automatically signs them up to receive your “tweets” without having to go to the twitter website and create an acct.

Here’s how YOU send ‘updates’ to your friends and “followers”…

Using your cellphone, type “40404″ in the recipients field, then type a message and press send.  Twitter will see your incoming phone number and know it’s you, and route your message to your list of followers.

or… log-in to your twitter.com account online and type an update msg in the “update” text field and press “send.”

 _____________________________________________

Why it’s time:

1. Effort
Sending an old-fashioned bulk mail newsletter requires that someone spend hours collecting information, typing, editing and formatting it. Then it must be duplicated, folded, labeled, and SORTED for bulk postage purposes, -and taken to the post office. Whether you’re a large or small church, have volunteers or paid staff doing it, it’s a lot of effort. And in many churches, it means that timely information isn’t getting out on time, or as often as the church would like. Whereas an email newsletter only requires some basic formatting, then you press SEND.

2. Waste
Most printed newsletters end up in the trash. Most people don’t read them thoroughly, or they forget what’s in them too quickly and throw them out. Yes, they may read your email news with about the same care! …but you’re spending less, getting it to them in a timely way, and you can send follow-up reminders at no charge.

3. Timeliness
Email newsletters are received in a matter of minutes. Old-fashioned newsletters can take a week or more to create, and days to arrive in member homes. Bulk Mail is at the mercy of the postal system. And if your members are spread out across zipcodes it can take over a week in some cases for someone outside your church’s area to receive your newsletter.

4. Limitations
Printed newsletters get sent once a month due to the effort, time and cost of sending them. Email newsletters can be sent as often as you need. Most email news services allow unlimited number of “sends” during each month’s subscription to their service. In most cases, the email newsletter rate is based on the size of your list, not the frequency.

5. The Cost
Email newsletter services, such as www.iContact.com or www.ConstantContact.com, charge by the size of your email address list. IF you have up to 500 email addresses on your list, it can cost as little as $10 per month total. I use www.emailbrain.com for my company. It has a slightly lower rate, but I pay for X number of sends per month. You can easily change to a different service should you need to. Many email newsletter services offer a 10 to 20% discount for non-profit organizations. Contrast that to the bulk postage rate you’re paying now of $40 per 200 pieces of mail a month, -not including copying costs or staff time. 

A few years ago, one forward thinking church thought they’d get resistance to switching from a postal newsletter to email, so they did this bit of sales job:  At the top of every email newsletter they printed this notice:  “This month’s email newsletter savings was donated to ________ mission project. To date, our switch to an email newsletter has allowed us to give $X more for mission. Please forward a copy of this newsletter to your friends and family.”  –Nobody complained.

After I first published this post, a pastor in a 300 member church told me this story. He ran a half page “ad” in their printed newsletter for two months which read, “We are thinking of switching to an email newsletter instead of a print newsletter. If you think this is a bad idea and would still like to receive a printed newsletter , call us now at….” He got two phonecalls in 2 months, one from someone who thought it was a great idea. When they switched, several people complained, but none of those people could remember seeing the “ad” in the newsletter. Several months later a member of the church passed away, and the pastor sent out funeral details in an email newsletter. He said it was one of the best attended funerals in recent memory, and there were non-members who attended because someone had forwarded the pastor’s email to them.

6. The Old Folks are Online
According to 2009 Pew Internet Research, 74% of people age 64 and older have an email address.  Those who don’t have email addresses might appreciate your help to get them get one. Those who don’t have one or don’t want one can be sent a copy of the email newsletter in the mail.

7. Email Newsletters give you feedback
Most of the popular email newsletter services offer you tools to TRACK who’s reading their email newsletters, what links they’re clicking on in the newsletter (such as that link back to your church website mission page). No more GUESSING if they’re reading it. It’s sophisticated, and it’s included in your email subscription service.

8. Email Newsletters can drive people to your website
Church websites can be a wealth of information & community building, –if only you had an easy way to get people to go there. A LINK in your email news can do that.

Try these:

Vertical Response email marketers offers free email newsletter services to non-profits up to 10,000 emails a month. And they have a great training website that walks you through everything. www.verticalresponse.com/non-profits/ 

You can also look at www.emailbrain.com, www.iContact.com, or www.ConstantContact.com for features, pricing and details. Each is a reputable company offering a discount to non-profits and a free trial so you can experiment with their tools and email to a select group.

My ol’ Dell 6000 laptop, which I paid $1200 for 5 years ago, was stolen on 12.28.08. It was ready to be retired anyway. I had been using a newer desktop computer for the last two years, but really needed to “get mobile” and unleashed from my desk. As I type this, I’m sitting on the back porch.

Note: I will UPDATE this article in ONE YEAR from now.

My new $500 Gateway 7317u has a dual core 2.0ghz Intel processor with THREE(!) gigabytes of ram and a 160 gig harddrive running Vista Home Premium. Very nice screen quality and excellent keyboard for a laptop. They don’t make this particular model anymore but similar deals are to be found. Just be sure you’re getting a newer dual core Intel chip, lots of extra RAM, a decent sized harddrive (160 is good), the screen looks good, and the laptopcase/keyboard feels substantial. It also have a 5type SD slot, 3 USB ports, good speakers and a lightscribe CD/DVD burner. Yeah, I couldnt’ believe it either!  Some of the cheapie laptops they advertise are substandard machines, so beware.

At $500, I figure this thing only has to last me 2 years. That’s $20 a month, or less than a dollar a day for the convenience of portable computing. At this price, this laptop is truly ”disposable” (though of course, if it doesn’t ever break, I’ll keep using it, and then dispose of it properly at the end of its usable life).   At $500, I can also afford to have it stolen, or dropped.

This is my first Gateway …which is now owned by Acer (a decent computer company). Gateway’s used to be butt-ugly, but this thing is very nice looking…and feeling. Which to me is somewhat important.  Online tech support is offered, and I have a one-year warranty.  Yes, I like to take my chances, but I’m pretty good at figuring out problems.

Dell and HP are offering similarly priced laptops. I would never buy an HP, and I’m sure some people think they’re great. I do like Dell’s, but this Gateway beat their current offerings, especially with the 3 gigs of RAM. That’s what you have to look for: DEALS with GOOD components and configurations.

At the end of this year I’ll report on how well this laptop is holding up.

<<<<ONE YEAR LATER>>>>

February 2010 UPDATE:

In December of 2009 I purchased a new Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows 7. In needed to be able to test my company’s software on W7. I have given my one-year old $500 Gateway to my youngest daughter. She plays the SIMS on it, and uses it for Facebook. Still working great.

There were two things I didn’t like about the $500 Gateway, which I assume OTHER inexpensive laptops will also have:

1.  Cheap keyboard. Sometimes the keys would pop off due to a cuff or daughter’s bracelet, or errant hand. Also… My spacebar broke and I had to glue it back on. Not a big deal, replacement keyboards are only $20 for this laptop. However, I fixed the keys myself with some super glue.

2.  HOT!  The cooling fans weren’t the strongest, or at least, the design made it run too hot.  We had to buy a cooling pad to rest the laptop on our laps. Don’t have this problem with my new Dell, it’s very cool by comparison.

What I didn’t mention in the original post above was that I purchased TWO ADDITIONAL IDENTICAL $500 Gateways for my two college daughters at the same time I bought one for myself. I did this, in part, because their laptops were junk, and so that if they had problems, we would have the same laptops and I could help them.  A year later they still report NO problems, though the heat was a bit much. Curiously, my one daughter’s laptop runs cooler than the other two.

So, I’d say the $500 laptop experiment, so far, is a great success. All three machines are still running well a year later. I expect them to last another year, which is pretty good for a laptop that gets the kind of ABUSE which me and my 3 kids can dish out on them!  And when you consider that our daughter’s LAST computer purchased 4 years ago cost around $1300, the $500 laptop looks pretty good.

This truth applies to your best computing intentions as well.

I routinely copy photo files from my camera’s memory stick to my laptop.
I routinely burn DVD backups of my files and photos.
But about once or twice a year I DELETE something I WISH I hadn’t.

And recently, a burglar stole my laptop before I had the chance to back up some photos I had pulled of the memory stick and put on that laptop.

Fortunately, you can RECOVER FILES from a memory stick you thought you had deleted. And if needed, you can also UNDELETE files on your computer that you think you’ve lost. All you need is a free copy of RECUVA from www.recuva.com This powerful little FREE program can save your memories, your sanity, and maybe even your marriage     There are other similar programs, but they cost money.

Q: How can this be? How can you un-delete a file? 

A: Because “deleted” files on harddrives and flash drives aren’t actually gone, they’re just tagged as “deleted” so that the operating system can copy over their location IF and WHEN the space is needed. All you need is a utility program like Recuva which can ‘untag’ those deleted files.

RECUVA easily and quickly recovers files from your memory card or harddrive. It has two modes: regular scan and deep scan. On my camera’s memory stick, the regular scan recovered 50 files  The deep scan of that flash stick found 155 photo files! 

The last time I used Recuva was when my laptop was stolen. I had dutifully deleted ‘old’ photos off of my SD memory card, thinking they were safe on my laptop, and with every expectation of burning them to DVD from my laptop. Alas, the burglars didn’t get the memo. Luckily, Recuva found all the photos I thought I had lost. Lesson learned.

Recuva can also permanently and actually delete a file on any drive. So if you’re giving your computer to someone and want to get personal info and photos off of it, use a true deletion tool like Recuva. Merely deleting them or putting them in your Windows Trashcan won’t do the trick.

Bookmark this article, someday you’ll be glad you did!

<>< Neil

Addendum:
The burglars also stole a box of CDs I had sitting out. At first, I thought it was the box of all my backup CDs and DVDS, and I freaked. But upon taking inventory, I realized they had only gotten my old audio CDs. But the lesson has been learned: a backup isn’t a backup if it’is sitting out where it can walk off or burn up. I now keep my backups in another location and I’ve started to store ‘essential’ backups online, as well as on DVD. Somewhere, however, a bandit is listening to my CCR, James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg collection and it ticks me off.

I turned on my computer this morning and all it did was BEEP BEEP at me. No startup. No screen. Just “beep beep” -then it shut itself down.  All sorts of worst case scenarios started to go through my poor head.

After my heart started again, I Googled the problem using another computer. I typed “my computer goes beep beep and won’t start.” Seems that happens a lot because the web is full of beeping help.

So I clicked the link to http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm  and learned that Motherboards are designed with beep Morse Code, ie, the combinations of beeps tell you what’s wrong.

They listed all the TERRIBLE THINGS that the beeping indicated “could”  be going wrong, but their first suggestion was to ”unsnap my memory chips from the motherboard and snap them in again.”  Sounded too easy. I was sure I was going to have to spend 3 hours on the phone with Dell only to discover my harddrives were fried.

But it worked. I unsnapped the memory card and snapped them back in. Hit the power button and away she went.

I don’t know why it worked, it just did. The chips weren’t loose. Apparently the motherboard had just developed “electrical vaporlock” during a recent power outage we had,  and unsnapping the chips broke the lock. Computer booted right up.

Which brings up something every staff person in a church (or any computer user) should know:

you don’t have to wait for the church techie to solve your problem,
=you just need to get to the right website.

__________________________________________________

PCHELL.com is a great site. http://www.pchell.com/   Everything from hardware problems to do it yourself virus removal.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/techsupport is a good “fix it” website written in plain english.

The better computer companies also have websites full of useful info. Dell.com’s “Forums” are filled with people posting their problems, and others -including Dell technicians, posting solutions.

Problem #2

My daughter’s new laptop has a broken DVD drive. I called Dell, but their phone system is crazy. So I went online and used their “Tech Support Chat.”   They were quick and very helpful. They even had me download a small file that allowed them to REMOTELY CONTROL the laptop so they could run some tests. This is the second time I’ve had to use Dell Online Chat to help with family computers, and it’s the only way to go.

It’s such features as Dell Chat and their ability to remotely access my computer which keep me coming back to Dell.  Buy your computer at a store like Best Buy, and you’re stuck going to their store to get things fixed.

Horror Story Alert: A friend took her computer into Best Buy to fix her HP’s built-in webcam which was still under warranty. They came back saying she had all these viruses and they could remove them for $149 !!

…I told her I’d do it for free. When we got the computer back, she didn’t have viruses, she had some spyware and ‘malware’ which any one of a number of free utilities was able to nuke. The GeekSquad was just trying to drum up business.

Vista Commercial: 

The more I use it, the more I like the Vista operating system. It is MUCH more HELPFUL than XP is in figuring out problems, such as internet connectivity. 

My computer with the BEEPING problem was an XP computer, and the problem was hardware, not operating system. But we’ve been having “power and internet issues” on all three of our computers here at our new place, and the VISTA laptop we have with us has been MUCH more intuitive and helpful than the XP computers. 

Go to www.faxzero.com and follow the prompts.

(You can also use internet based fax services to send and receive faxes over the internet, –allowing you to dump your fax machine, stop wasting paper, fax from any computer anytime, and never run out of fax toner/ribbon again. Just Google “internet fax services.” They’re reasonably priced.)

Why am I suggesting this service? Because sometimes I need to use it myself!

Sometimes you’re away from your fax machine.
Or… you don’t own a fax machine.
Or… your fax machine is broken.
Or… you forgot the little phonecord that plugs your computer’s modem into a phoneline that would allow you to send a fax (in this day of wireless and broadband who carries a phonecord anymore?)

[Yes, your computer has fax software in it -look in your Windows/Programs/Accessories area. But unless you have an old fashioned phonecord connecting your computer to the phoneline, you cannot send to a fax to a phone number over the phoneline using that software!]

Fortunately, there are numerous internet sites that allow you to send faxes through their website interface. They even allow you to ATTACH DOCUMENTS.  FaxZero.com offers what I need. They take your contact info and document and fax it for you. It’s all done through their magic servers.

www.faxzero.com asks you for your contact info, and for the info/fax number of the recipient. You can attach up to 3 files to the fax as well. And you can send up to TWO free faxes a day.  When they receive your fax, they email you asking you for confirmation. Click ‘confirm’ in that email and they send the fax. They even send you a confirmation that the fax process has been completed.

How can they offer this for free? They place an ad on the fax you send (big deal), and probably collect the fax number you’re sending to and sell it to fax spammers (another no-big-deal since every fax number is already part of the public record and gets junkfaxes sent to it already, bahhumbug).  So I only use it to send faxes to businesses, not friends!  (For example, I needed to fax a document to Verizon Wireless. )

“OK SMARTYPANTS… but what if I need to fax a copy of a document…. say, a copy of my insurance card?”

Easy…. I take PHOTOS of the documents with my camera or phone. Then I either email the picture to myself on my laptop, or connect my camera or phone cable to my laptop, then select “attach” on the fax menu at faxzero.com and browse over to my camera/phone files and select the picture of the document. This may seem strange to you, but did you know that ALL faxes are graphic images? They aren’t text at all. They are TIFF files (an old image format). The faxzero service is converting your cover letter and any images you attach to TIFF file formats anyway, –just like your machine would do, if you were using it.

BTW…photographing your license, insurance card, creditcards and other valuable documents is a VERY GOOD IDEA.

<>< Neil