Archive for 2007-05

We had a great first CITRT-DC yesterday. Our “geek log” registered seven total even after the slackers at McLean backed out at the last minute (something about “working” was the poor excuse…) The good news is, the backer-outers got volunteered to buy lunch on the next round. There’s always a price to pay for being absent.

The discussion went well and we snagged audio of the session. It’s not the best quality, but it works. I edited it slightly for better clarity, but next time we’ll just have to get the raw version right. Props to Dave Clark for thinking about recording the session and getting us rolling at the last minute.

Download the Audio (26MB - MP3)

We managed to snap a few photographs of the group before we dispersed.

View the Flickr Photo Set

If you are interested in the basic pre-session agenda, you can grab the PDF. We basically followed it and only missed one or two of the open discussion topics on the “potential” list.

Download the Agenda (PDF)

Thanks so much to everyone who attended. The conversation was great and it was awesome to connect with such a diverse group. The Long-Distance Award goes to Mike Smith who trekked over three hours (!) from Calvary Assembly of God in Dover, Delaware.

Our next meeting is scheduled for August 24 at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church.

CITRT

Technorati Tags: citrt, church, it, roundtable, washington, dc, national community church, technology, discussion

More Automobiles

More Old Buildings

More Flowers

More Airplanes

More Color

New digs and a new rig.

I recently swapped offices with Heather Zempel, our discipleship pastor, since we are adding another media guru to the staff. Jeremy Sexton and I will work in the larger office in 205, NCC’s original office space prior to the construction of Ebenezers next door.

I also swapped operating systems in a move that should save the media department time and money in the long haul. It was best that we standardize, and so I’m saying goodbye to Windows at work and saying hello to OSX.

My new rig is a quad-core 2.0 Ghz Mac Pro with 2 GB RAM with a sweet 23" Apple Cinema Display. I’ll likely run Coda for web development to begin with. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just go back to Dreamweaver. I’ve had several recommendations of how to approach web development on OSX, but I want to go with the most integrated solution if possible. It seems like Coda may be the answer.

So this PC guy is still a PC guy. But, in the end, I think I’m going to love this new Mac territory. The biggest problems I’ve encountered so far are:

• The delete key doesn’t work when it should.
• There are two delete keys. (I don’t get it.)
• The right-click wasn’t right-click by default.
• The mighty mouse was mighty terrible, so I threw it away. It made the same “ker-thunk” in the real can as a file deleted in OSX does in the digital one. How poignant.
• There is a funny noise when I turn it on and off. (I think it could be intentional, but it’s so crappy, it’s hard to tell if someone really meant to do that.)
• Installing apps is weird, but I’m adjusting.
• I can’t find the Start menu.
• There is this color wheel that shows up and won’t go away when I try to install Photoshop or transfer files. It could be potentially damaging to productivity if this behavior is normal. I’ll try again on “normal Tuesday”—maybe that will help.

The things that are really cool about the Macintosh right out of the box:

• It’s handsome.
• It’s fast (except when installing Photoshop or transferring files.)
• I like the way applications are installed to the disk. Feels much more compartmentalized and rigid than Windows.
• Alt-Tab works the same.

Alright.

View More Images of the Office Space on Flickr

Technorati Tags: mac, pro, apple, OSX, new, n00b, office, work, productivity, computing

Congratulations to Sean Sperte for the (nearly) precise guess as to the contents of the FedEx package:

…that’s gotta be a Mac Pro (and display) “Designed by Apple in California.”

And to Joshua Nemecek for the next-best guess:

I think you’re getting a PC for Dummies.

You guys each win a Mac Pro

picture in digital form sent by me via email. Congratulations!

A bunch of really cool church IT gurus get together every now and then for a roundtable discussion of all things technology. Until now, those gatherings have all been centralized and national. Now, there are CITRT events brewing in decentralized locales all across the country.

My friend Andrew Mitry hit me up a few days ago about getting something rolling here in the Washington metro area. Dave and I were more than happy to join the fray. So we’re planning on having the first CITRT-DC at Ebenezers Coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, May 24 at high noon. These plans are tentative, but we hope to solidify and confirm soon. It is certain enough to mark on your calendar.

What is the Church IT Roundtable? (from Tony Dye)

Temporary Official Site for CITRT-DC

If you have any questions, drop a comment here or email me or Andrew.

Technorati Tags: citrt, church, it, roundtable, local, washington, dc, metro

Two packages are arriving soon. FedEx is helping me track it.

Everyone except Dave Clark is welcome to an educated guess based on all present clues.

Technorati Tags: fedex, track, package, guess

Dear Quicktime,

Please stop installing your useless icons on my desktop, in my Quick Launch toolbar and in my system tray every time I update you. I get really, really tired of wasting my time deleting those stupid Qs as a result of your shenanigans. It might be some marketing ploy by your manufacturer to irritate PC users into getting a Mac, but it really makes me dislike them altogether.

Unsatisfied End User

Technorati Tags: apple, quicktime, icon, PC, crap

Well, I’m a few days late to get this out to our friends here, but Missy and I went for the 20-week sonogram on Friday and discovered that there is a boy brewing in that belly! The sonographer was kind enough to let me sneak a few shots of the experience and he even let us catch a glimpse of our son in 3D. We’re looking forward to getting a lengthier 3D sonogram at 28 weeks.

For now, there are several images to enjoy on Flickr (where else?).

Missy’s Post

Technorati Tags: baby, boy, sonogram, pregnant, mom