Archive for 2008-01

Flickr is a site I doubt I could live without. It rocks my world.

Last month, two updates were handed down that improved Flickr even more.

The first update was to Flickr Uploadr, the first-party upload tool that makes adding images to a Flickr account as easy as snapping the shutter. (Okay, almost that easy.) The new version of Flickr Uploadr has improved handling of uploads, adds the ability to title individual images, now allows re-ordering of images using click and drag, and maintains the other features like tagging and groups that were present in earlier versions.

The second annoucement was huge. Stats! I’ve longed to satisfy my craving for statistics from my Flickr account. Finally! In general, I find the stats provide enough information to keep me happy, but we’re not talking depth like Google Analytics. Still, I think it’s all I’ll need to keep track of traffic to my Flickr account.

Thanks, Flickr! Killer upgrades!

Technorati Tags: flickr, upgrade, update, uploadr, upload, tool, stats, statistics, metrics

For quite some time now, I’ve enjoyed the benefits of using OpenDNS on the networks at NCC and at my home. If you are not familiar with OpenDNS, allow me to briefly explain what their service does. Using the web has become quite dependent on the domain name system (DNS). In the very early days, we used IP addresses to navigate the web. Domain names solve the problem of the human factor by allowing text, numerals and hyphens to be used to translate IP addresses into something more friendly.

OpenDNS is a service that allows you to change the route of your DNS requests away from your ISP. This provides a number of benefits, as outlined in the OpenDNS features. You might also be interested in a very simple explanation of how OpenDNS works.

The features I particularly enjoy are:

• Adult-site Blocking - It’s important to have these types of filters in place even when no one on the network intentionally uses adult sites. It avoids embarrassment and potential accountability issues, especially in the work environment. It also is a general measure of security for a network frequently used by kids.
• Statistics - I am a statistics fiend, so I really enjoy measuring network traffic and gleaning useful tidbits of data compiled from my DNS traffic.
• Speed - In both of my personal cases, there has been a noticeable increase in speed of DNS requests when I switched from public ISP DNS to OpenDNS.
• Customization - For the office network, it is nice to have a solution we can paste our brand into.

Since I first signed on, OpenDNS has provided excellent service for me. I’d encourage anyone with a computer and especially anyone who is an administrator for a home or office network to get started with OpenDNS. If you have access to your wireless router, it is simple to apply one change to the DNS settings and have all computers on your network begin using OpenDNS.

For statistics to work on a home network, you’ll probably need to use an application to update OpenDNS with your dynamic IP address. It is rare for a consumer-level ISP to provide a static IP address to a customer. You may be one of the lucky few! If not, there is some additional assistance on setting up a service or application which frequently updates OpenDNS with IP address changes. This option is only necessary if you are interested in recording statistics. OpenDNS has created a web-based service called DNS-o-matic which makes simple the process of updating several services and networks at one. At work, we have a static IP so we do not need to update OpenDNS. At home, I use the INADYN service. The DynDNS updater might be a simpler solution for novice users and also has an option for Mac users.

Enjoy speed and security! This round is on me!

Technorati Tags: opendns, dns, isp, network, administration, security, speed, tweak

I’ve been a long time fan of Mozilla’s award-winning browser Firefox. I’ve heralded the glory of safe browsing and championed the cause of FOSS.

I do still love Firefox. But lately, I’ve been troubled by a single problem: Firefox eats alive my available RAM, occasionally to the point that my machine slows to an unbearable crawl. I’ve researched the problem extensively only to come up with many dead ends on options to repair this. Apparently, many people (and seemingly Mozilla) touts this problem as a “feature” in that it is caused by caching history of the open tabs. If I have 10 tabs open at one, Firefox stands at the ready for any one of those tabs to be selected and will allow faster access if I navigate forward or backward to recently browsed pages.

Of course, the idea is fantastic. But the price to pay for such a feature is costly, especially on my home machine where available RAM is 1 GB.

After trying several modifications to Firefox, none which were successful, I decided to start casually browsing using Opera. The reason I looked to Opera was because of one particularly bad experience with Firefox. Quite by chance one day, I was using Firefox with about eight tabs open. Suddenly, my computer started acting up and I checked the system. Firefox was hogging a tremendous 610MB of my available 1,024. Yikes! I really needed to get to what I was working on faster than it would take to clear the issue by rebooting Firefox, so I pulled up my Program List, opened Opera and within seconds was browsing through the information I needed. Firefox whirred away in the background, trying to figure where to get more RAM to do its deed.

While browsing with Opera, I noticed how responsive the application seemed. In fact, web pages loaded faster. At first, I thought it just seemed that way as I was miffed at Firefox for going 20 mph in the fast lane of I-95. But indeed, even over time, Opera responded well. I opened the same tabs in Opera, navigated around for an hour or two and checked the system status. Opera was using a mere 59MB of RAM while Firefox still hogged over 300MB. I was impressed with Opera.

Today, I dual-wield the browsers. I still use Firefox daily. I cannot live without it for web development. In fact, I recently commented to a friend that if I was left with the option of a single browser and three plugins, I’d choose Firefox and the Web Developer Toolbar, Firebug and the HTML Tidy Validator. Together, they are a brilliant development platform. But for casual browsing, I’ve started turning very often to Opera. It’s fast, light and gets the job done. The UI takes some getting used to, but I’ve found everything I need.

If you battle the Firefox “memory leak”, I’d encourage a visit to opera.com. The browser is free and it’s a great alternative to Firefox. Opera also comes in tiny packages for your mobile device. And Opera Mini is a great product for accessing the web using more traditional mobile phones.

Technorati Tags: opera, mozilla, firefox, browser, slow, speed, switch

Today, I had the honor of leading worship for World Vision at their chapel service. It was quite an experience and the set went really well. They had planned a great service to start the year in reflection, prayer, worship and scripture. Stacy, one of the vocalists at the Georgetown location of NCC, works for World Vision and sang with me. Their facility on I Street NE is awesome! The colors are wonderful and there are scriptures and other positive messages on almost every wall. It is always fun to get out of the NCC office for an hour and experience something different—especially seeing another ministry and have a few brief moments immersed in their culture. I met many friendly people and enjoyed hearing testimonies of how God is at work through World Vision.

Happy New Year! It’s the season to reflect on the past and for vision of the future.

I’m busy tidying up projects from 2007 and preparing for the year to come. It seems every year I get into something new. Last year, it was photography. And getting into it changed my perspective on everything. The timing of that was perfect! Andrew arrived in September and his dad had a few months to get good enough with the camera to snap some cool shots of the kid. I’ve learned so much from photography—I’ll be shooting for the rest of my life!

This year, I want to really narrow my focus even more. I had the same goal in 2006 and truly ramped up my skills in web development. I also intended that year to produce a better practice regimen for music, but due to poor prioritizing of my personal time, I failed to really take my musicianship to the next level. In 2007, Missy and I felt God nudge us to serve at Georgetown. That was tremendous for me musically as I now lead worship, organize music and guide the band each week. But it hasn’t really spawned a good practice schedule for me personally. So I want to commit to developing musically in 2008. Of course, I’ll continue to focus on web design and photography.

If there is any gift I would like to establish in my life, it would be a better sense of financial planning. The normal family budget, savings and retirement plans are fine. But I really want to learn about money and investing. We took a Crown course this summer through an NCC small group and that really re-energized me toward focusing on our finances. I want a portion of cash to work harder for us and I’d like to “play” a bit in the stock market. My wife will tell you that the area I’m most private about is our financial life. But I will probably find a mentor or two who can help me grasp some of these concepts and invest wisely. I spent two years as a business major and six years working for a regional bank, including experience in commercial banking. And yet I feel like I am at square one as I look at this stuff! It should be fun to watch those financial channels on TV that I am so used to skipping blindly past. My dad and brother are also into the market, so I should have some good company along the way.

Other goals this year:

• Get a business license
• Buy Invest in a Nikon D300 and Nikon 28-70mm lens
• Redevelop this site
• Teach what I know about web development and music

Blessings to all of you in the new year. I pray for health and peace in your life.

Technorati Tags: new, year, goals, future, photography, music, web design, finance, money, investing