Yesterday. 11:30 am. After around 20 hours of work for me since Friday, and more if you count the volunteer who helped out and all the content my wife helped add over this past week, and plenty more hours from several people for the past eight months, the new, updated Lakeview Church website launched! The site is backed by WordPress and customized with a theme courtesy of the volunteer I mentioned, Chris Basham. The site is not 100% perfect (what website isn’t a work in progress?) but it is leaps and bounds ahead of our prior site, and I already spent a few hours tweaking things after it went live, a process that will continue.

Before you critique:

• Yes, the header image of our building (a holdover from the old site) will be replaced. Some areas already have new headers, we’re just waiting for the rest to be finished up.
• Most (if not all) of the pages, including the homepage, are valid XHTML. We checked.
• The sermon podcast feed is coming, we’re working on some technical details of the iTunes listing first, and I already took care of some of the technical issues of FeedBurner redirection (FeedSmith plugin required a few tweaks to forward a separate podcast feed).
• Print stylesheets are on the to-do list but aren’t implemented yet.
• Extended upcoming event information has yet to be entered.
• Some people listed on the site need to be hyperlinked to contact info. I’m researching the best way to do this without exposing them to spam scrapers, whether a contact form or perhaps a solution based on this email obfuscation article. There’s also this WordPress Plugin, which I like but have a few issues with. A combination of the two sounds best; whether I’ll leave this up to someone else or try and tackle it myself I’m not sure of.
• I’d like to add some Microformat markup in several places, using the hCard spec.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but I think we have a pretty good foundation. In addition to the above finishing touches, we can now refocus our attention towards doing something about the Lakeview Worship site, desperately in need of equal attention but still the home of our excellent new worship CD, not that I’m biased or anything :-)

Version 5.0 of the TrueCrypt encryption software was released on Feb. 5th. I ran into this news on Hackzine where they mentioned Mac OS X support as a new TrueCrypt feature. That’s cool, but I don’t use Mac, so what? I’ll upgrade soon, since I’ve been using TrueCrypt for over a year and love it, but what’s the hurry? But at the end of the article, I spotted a blurb about a much more exciting feature:

In the Windows and Linux versions a special bootloader is available that lets you encrypt your entire system drive. It doesn’t look like that option is available in the OS X version.

What? Whole-drive encryption of the system drive is now available in Windows and/or Linux? (Clarification: Only Windows is supported right now.) This I’ve gotta see. I’ve looked at some laptop disk encryption tools in the past, and they’re nice but generally not cheap (whether software or specialized hardware). But open source is better than cheap, and TrueCrypt is already considered to be high quality. It’s written well (important where security software is concerned) and is in active development. The new version also promises significant speed increases.

I’ve installed the new version on my laptop. Do I dare try out the encryption feature? I do have most (not all) of my data backed up, the important stuff at least. Maybe I’ll investigate this through the weekend, make a decision, and possibly try it out. Possibly. Fire is fun to play with and very powerful, but you have to know what you’re doing!

UPDATED after a night’s sleep: Yes, I dared. Before going to bed I started the process to encrypt the entire system partition on my laptop. I don’t know precisely how long it took; it was projecting 2-3 hours left when I went to bed (shortly after starting it) and was done when I got up. The process is slick, I’ll give them credit for that. They require that you burn a recovery disc (and verify it) before you can continue, just in case, and they also verify that the bootloader works before allowing the encryption process to begin. I haven’t used the system enough to know whether there is a significant speed penalty when the partition is encrypted. It seems a touch sluggish but still responsive, but within the normal operating parameters depending on the day! The biggest downside: hibernation is no longer supported. Standby is an option, but the system will not hibernate (if you try, TrueCrypt stops you and provides a helpful message about why it won’t work). I generally hibernate all the time when not using my laptop. I’ll try using Standby for a while and see how happy I am with it. Not sure if it’s a deal-breaker yet.

As a precaution, the boot loader offers the option to, with the correct password, decrypt the entire disk without needing to boot into Windows, if Windows gets corrupted. There are several other handy “rescue” methods in the boot loader (on the hard drive and on the bootable rescue disc). I am extremely impressed with the quality of the thought and effort put into this whole-disk encryption feature, and although I haven’t tried the Vista Bitlocker method, TrueCrypt certainly sounds a bit easier (but it doesn’t integrate with the TPM chip, if one exists). There are options in the setup to set up encryption to work with multi-boot systems, but it warns that this requires advanced knowledge to set up. And, of course, you need a dual-boot system, which I don’t have at the moment.

UPDATE: The new version 5.1 has hibernation support, and version 5.1a Beta actually makes it work on my laptop. I’m back encrypted!

UPDATE on March 7th: Thanks to this comment below, I’ve discovered that Postini has now made two of the three options available for non-profits via web-based ordering!

I received an email response from my request for a sales rep regarding Postini at non-profit prices. Here’s what they (in specific, Peter from The Google Message Security Team) said, in part:

We don’t actually have the non-profit pricing available online at this time. We’re working on making the non-profit pricing available directly online. We don’t have a specific timeline for that, but definitely check back with us later!

If you would still like to move forward with the non-profit pricing right now, I can forward you along to one of our direct sales representatives if you are planning on making a purchase of $1,500 USD or more.

So basically, unless we’re over three times the size we are, we have to wait. This is going to leave a bunch of churches and other non-profits waiting out in the cold for an undetermined length of time. Education customers may, in general, have larger email user bases to qualify for direct sales, but that’s just my guess. I hope their non-specific timeline is shorter rather than longer; perhaps they’re working hard on it right now but don’t have it up since the change is such a new announcement. There’s just no way to know yet, given this response. A note of some sort to this effect would be appreciated on the pricing web page, but as much as I like them, Google will do what Google will do. I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon!

UPDATE the next day: My reply to Google went like this:

Thanks for the information and clarification. But you are still saying that if we are wanting to purchase a plan for less than $1500 we will need to wait for online availability, correct?

and Google Rep Peter’s reply was:

You’ve got it exactly. We’re making the $1,500 option available for people who are already planning on paying that much, or need the service deployed either right away, yesterday, or as soon as possible.

If that doesn’t fit your needs, I would recommend sitting tight while we get the Google Message Discovery online purchasing process up. We don’t have a set timeline for it, but it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

This is mostly good news. They aren’t committing to a date, but it seems to be coming soon. When it does, you can bet we’ll be jumping on it like a frog on a lily pad!

Postini, a popular spam filtering service (also filters viruses and has some other cool features) purchased by Google a while back, just dropped their prices “like a rock.” The drop is for business users, but on top of the new price, non-profits and education customers get an additional 66% off! That’s two-thirds, folks! Apparently Google is trying to play the Microsoft Charity Pricing game, and I say let ’em play! (If you’re a non-profit organization not getting Microsoft’s charity pricing, don’t buy any Microsoft products until you learn about it! Ask me for details if you’re too lazy to use Google, or if you want the contact info for the sales reps I use.)

I’m waiting to hear from a Google sales representative to confirm pricing and details, but based on this pricing chart, it looks like the non-profit pricing for their highest level of service will only be $8.33/mo, or less than 70 cents per month, per user. We’re paying more than twice that for our current hosted anti-spam, anti-virus filtering service, and it doesn’t do message archiving! Basic spam filtering would be only $1/year/user, or the mid-range plan adding some security features would go up to a whopping $4/year/user. I sure hope I’m reading these prices right, ’cause if I am, Postini will be getting another customer!

Interestingly, the pricing chart is for Postini as an add-on to Google Apps for your Domain, which has a free premium version for non-profits. The chart is not specifically for the Postini stand-alone service. However, if necessary, that service does let you dual-deliver messages both to the Google webmail interface and to your own email server, so setting up a free account to get the Postini pricing wouldn’t be a humongous deal. However, I’m curious to see what the pricing will be for Postini without going through Google Apps! My suspicion is…it will be comparable. When I submitted a request to talk to them, they replied and said they have a lot of people to contact due to the new pricing. No kidding!

(Hat tip: Jason Powell via #citrt).

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…(OK, the moment I’ve been waiting for)…Event Registration for the Spring 2008 Church IT Roundtable is Now Open! Announced by Jason Powell, it’s on Saturday, April 5th, the day after the MinistryTECH conference. I’ve registered, but I’m not 100% sure I’m going. But I hope it works out! And hope I see you there. The location:

Crossings Community Church
14600 North Portland
Oklahoma City, OK 73134

Map of Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma City

And of course, if you haven’t make sure you check out the official Church IT Roundtable web site.

You still have to actually make your reservations, but a service called TripIt makes it easy to track everything from there on out. Just forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com (no signup necessary) and wait for them to rock your inbox. Well, I haven’t tried it myself yet, but that’s what Joel Spolsky says (approximately), and he’s rarely wrong (and always entertaining). Might be a good way to keep track of your trip to MinistryTECH (April 3-4) and the Spring Church IT Roundtable (April 5); I know I’m going to try it if I end up able to go!

Brett and I had a great time hanging out, eating lunch (thanks!), and taking a tour around Lakeview on Wednesday! Brett is the full-time Church IT staff member located closest to me that I know personally, and I didn’t even realize until Tuesday that he worked at a church (Christian Life Center) that my wife and I drive past on I-70 every time we visit my in-laws! Trying to keep track of where everyone is located when I meet them online or at a Church IT Roundtable or conference is not an easy task, and seems to happen one person at a time for me. Maybe there’s a better way to solve that. I have some ideas, but they’re not fully developed yet.

My only complaint about Brett’s visit was that it was too short! I’ll have to reciprocate at some point and we can continue the conversation. This is Brett’s church (I flew the helicopter over for the shot myself; looks great from my Treo’s camera doesn’t it? ha ha, just kidding–it’s from the camera on my Nokia N800! :-D

Yesterday, I was packing up my laptop from the coffee table to take with to work. I had placed the wireless mouse I use into its case and on top of the mouse pad I use, next to the laptop (I pack the mouse after my power cord, which was still plugged in). When I went to put the mouse and mouse pad in my bag, they were gone! I knew I had used them the previous night after everyone had gone to bed. Nathaniel had to be the one who moved them! But where?

After searching every room of the house for about five minutes, I called my wife (on her way to work already) and asked if she had any ideas. None. More looking. I call my mom to see where she was at, since she was on her way here to pick up Nathaniel, and asked if she had any ideas. “Did you check the drawer of the coffee table?”

Duh. No! Of course I hadn’t checked the place Nathaniel constantly puts everything from pens to coasters to remote controls! Sure enough…he’s never moved my mouse or mouse pad before (and knows better than to touch them if he remembers), but apparently that changed. A few seconds later they were packed and ready to go. But who knew moving a mouse and mouse pad five inches lower than their previous location could cause so much trouble, and hilarity?! :-D

(cross-posted to Nathaniel’s Blog)

Is it just me, or do my posts have a lot of “live” themes lately? Well, this one’s different at least. Tomorrow (Wed.), the Worship and Fine Arts staff from Christian Life Center in Dayton, OH are coming to visit the Worship and Creative Ministries team here at Lakeview. Apparently they know each other. Brett Anderson, who I met at the Church IT Roundtable last fall, happens to be the IT Director there and when he heard they were coming, he said, “hey I know the IT guy there, can I tag along?” Apparently they said yes, and after checking with me to make sure it would work he should be showing up with his gang tomorrow to hang out between 11 and 2.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with a nearby Church IT guy for a few hours!

As promised, this post is coming to you from my new Nokia N800. When I received it on Saturday the 19th, I immediately spent the entire rest of the day examining it and testing it in many ways. Like Christmas in January! I was so busy playing with it, I neglected to post about it (and from it). By the time Monday rolled around, I might have posted if it weren’t for my son getting sick from what we thought was some spoiled milk. Tuesday, we discovered it wasn’t the milk: Now I was sick, and ended up working only a half-day before I could muster up the energy to get myself home and crash. Wednesday, I was better but my wife was now sick (opposite end from my son and I). By Thursday, everyone was feeling better but my wife had no energy yet so I stayed home again. Friday I finally made it back to work, and you can imagine I didn’t have much spare time at this point! I also had a bit of homework due a couple of those nights.

As you can imagine, the N800 didn’t get much of a workout at work and wasn’t a top priority at home, either. I even forgot the charger when I left work sick on Tuesday, and was left with a dead battery at home all day Wednesday!

I’ve still managed to give the device a pretty good workout, and it’s a very nice little system that has already been handy to have in my pocket on more than one occasion. The main limitation has been that the system is slow when loading large or complex websites, although it will still handle most of them. The onscreen keyboards (for stylus and thumbs) are much poorer than the thumbboard on my Treo 650, where I can almost touch-type at high speed, but the bluetooth keyboard is a huge improvement (over even the Treo usually) when I turn it on.

The HelpSpot helpdesk software runs a touch slow (pun unintentional but fully intended, I’m sure :-) but otherwise is almost completely normal in the Gecko-based web browser. The response field is not as wide as it could be (there are gray bars on the sides where it could expand but doesn’t), but it’s functional. All AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) appears to work properly. Gmail is also slow but usable. WordPress, at least my heavily-plugin-customized version, runs well except when composing a post, when the text editor is slower than molasses. in January. Switching to the WPhone mobile version is much faster and even easier to navigate on the smaller screen. Supposedly, WPhone is optimized to provide an even better interface on the iPhone than on other mobile devices that support AJAX, but this doesn’t carry over to the N800, although I am assuming the browser is more than capable. It’s probably an auto-detection thing.

There is a Nokia N800 WordPress editor called Maemo WordPy which was a bit difficult to figure out initially due to a poor user interface and one or two limitations that should be fixed in future versions. It will do some cool things (in the latest beta) like upload images directly to Flickr and insert that into a post! However, I am using the web-based WPPhone for this post as I mentioned. Copying and pasting links is not the best experience on this thing, so I am going to cheat and do some hotlinking from my full-sized computer before posting :-) (And a bit of proofreading and editing, it turns out!)

Is it perfect? No. Nothing is perfect when you are looking for a 22″ widescreen monitor on a quad-core desktop that all fits in your pocket! But it makes some good compromises and performs well for what I want it to do, at a (very) reasonable price. (Amazon had it for $231 when I bought mine off of eBay for a bit more with an SDHC memory card and Bluetooth keyboard that Amazon also had for $50.)