Desktop Replacement Program 2008

The year that I started a Crossings I implemented a program to replace every heavily used PC on a regular basis. In the past they would order single computers when they either died or they became too slow for the person using the PC.

Currently we are on a 3 year rotating basis for CPU's that are worked on everyday. We just ordered our 2008 batch and needless to say I'm pretty pumped about them. This year marks we will be replacing the last set of computers that were here when I started. It is a momentous occasion and I have the leadership of Crossings to thank for supporting our endeavor to keep our hardware current and useful.

If you look at my track record you fill find out that I am not brandcentric. The first year I ordered Dell because they were the best, cheapest computers for what we were looking for. The next year's model ended up being HP's because we got a better price for what we were looking for. This year we are back to Dell. Some of you might be rolling your eyes by now but the way I look at it: We order desktops once a year and from year to year a new model will be out by the next time we order. So, were are not completely standardized but we have gotten our desktop models down to 3 for the workstations that are used on a daily basis.

The computers that are still alive and kicking when they are replaced go to the bone yard to be frankensteined and used as check-in stations or other various tasks.

the 2008 model specs...

• Optiplex 740
• AMD Athlon x64 x2 2.9 GHz processor
• 2GB RAM
• WinXP Pro Sp2
• Dual Head DVI/VGA video card with 256 MB
  
• 17" Monitor with adjustable stand
• DVD +/- Optical drive
• Includes speakers

All together a pretty good computer that will be smoking for the next 3 years.

Power Tools

In my spare time I attempt to remove myself from the information technology sector and look for other interests and hobbies. One of those interests that I partake in is working with power tools. I'd like to call it woodworking but I don't feel right about putting the things that I slap together on a level as high as that.
The Monday after Easter our wonderful church gave the staff a day off. Since Jennifer didn't have the day off with me I had to find something to occupy my time until she got home.
All of the houses in our neighborhood are pretty much the same and I noticed that my neighbor next door had constructed a shelf for his wife in the two and a half feet of wasted space between where the fireplace juts out and the wall of his house. I thought to myself we have that same nook and it could be used as a storage space for our gardening stuff. So, I made some rough measurements, sketched out a prototype, and went to Lowes and picked up some lumber.
(a funny side note is that I forgot that my rope which is usually in my car wasn't in there so I used a singe bungee cord to affix the six 10 foot pieces of lumber to the top of my car. only by the grace of God did it all make it to my house unscathed.)
My favorite part of this project is the fact that no holes were drilled in the masonry of the house. I used dowels to fit between the bricks and wedged the rest of the wood around. So, when we leave we can take our shelves with us.

Materials used

• 4- 1 5/8" x 6" x 10'
• 2- 2" x 4" x 10'
• 1 - 7/16" dowell rod
• wood screws

Tools used

• Good old fashioned hammer
• Skill Saw
• Drill (various bits)
• Saw horses
• Clamps
• Tape Measure
• Pencil

Adobe CS3

If your church does any heavy creation of any type of publication you are probably using Adobe Creative Suite (hopefully). Praise the Lord Almighty that Adobe offers a Non-Profit licensing model because it is not cheep.

We kept needing different pieces of the CS3 family on the evolving needs of our organization. Check out the matrix of features that each package has. We just got the mother load version that has everything that is CS3. I just loaded to the workstation that we ordered for your new graphic designer. The software itself comes on 4 DVDs! That's right I said DVD not CD. The just the software load itself takes up 17.5 GB of disk space.
I'm glad that we ordered the most honking sweet workstation on our network (aside from our new Exchange 2007 server) to run this puppy.

All that to say, I can't wait to see what this software can do!

GO ADOBE!!!! YEAH!

ministryTech

This was the first year for the ministryTech conference. We had a great group of men and women that came from across the entire country. The three things that impacted me in order of greatest to least are as follows...

1. Networking - Getting to know the other people at churches across the nation and building relationships with them to send and receive information was priceless.
2. Key note speakers - the speakers that they had lined up for this conference were incredible. They were able to relate things at a much higher level than I usually live my life in which gave me perspective on what I am really doing everyday.
   
3. Peer-to-peer sessions - The peer to peer sessions were fantastic as everything else was but some of the topics were far longer than we had time for.

Overall I am planning to attend this conference again.

Linux test

Well I lost my drive on my laptop at home. While I waited on the restore disks from Dell I decided to see how Ubuntu would load to my Dell E1505 Laptop.

I've played with Ubuntu server on several occasions but it was only in a VM test environment and I didn't do much "work" on those loads. I thought that loading it at home would force me to figure things out.

I've had it loaded for several weeks now. And there are things that we like a ton and things that we really miss.

Things that we miss...

• iTunes - I can connect to my iPod G5 with the native music player that shipped with my linux flavor but it doesn't connect up to iTunes.
• Everything that I did with Windows is available with Linux but it takes me a while to find it. We are not the most patient people with searching for the stuff we are looking for.
• Office is nice but still just a little different.
• specific drivers aren't officially offered for linux on my dell.
• Sonicwall Global VPN client not actually offered for Linux. (it is nice b/c I can't work from home, but then again I can't fix stuff from home now).
  

Things we love...

• Simplicity
• Quick boot
• Quick shutdown

I plan to reload my laptop with windows and possible it will be a dual boot. Ubuntu is nice but not exactly what we need.