Geek - Childrens Ministry Online

Gmail hack: Scheduled emails

Geek, Ideas | 2

I love Gmail. I’ve been using it for almost a decade. I remember getting an invite from a...

App of the Week: Casey’s Contraptions

Geek, Ideas | 0

Honestly, this is probably one of the most brilliant apps for kids I’ve ever seen. Sure,...

App of the week: Onlive Desktop

Geek, Ideas | 4

I’ll probably get blasted from Mac fanboys for even suggesting such an app, but I felt it’s worth writing about and many should find it very helpful.

A friend of mine, who happens to work for Apple, introduced me to Onlive Desktop as a great iPad app. When he showed it to me, I thought… this is amazing! Genius actually. Honestly, I’m surprised that it took as long as it did to get an app like this on the iPad. What am I talking about? Onlive Desktop virtually puts Windows 7 on your iPad… kinda.

I know, I know… the first mocking question: Why would anyone put Windows 7 on your iPad? I’ll get to that in a minute.

Google Calendar, Contacts Mail and the iPhone

Geek | 5

As I write this, I’m expecting Jonathan Cliff to write a comment saying I’m making this too complicated and that I’m doing this all wrong, but I thought I’d share some of the technology frustrations I encountered today and how I fixed them.

One of the greatest leaps in technology in recent years was the ability to share my work calendar with my wife. No longer did we have to have long conversations of when I might be available, but instead, she’d just make appointments on my calendar for me.While I was on a PC, there were some good syncing apps between outlook (what I used) and google calendars (what she used). When I switched to a Mac, it got hard again. Then when we switched to Google Apps at Gateway, all was well. However, now my wife uses her iPhone 90% of the time rather than her computer.

For the past 18 months (at least), Sara has had an iPhone and she’s had access to my calendar and all has been well. However, for the past 2-3 months, she’s not had access to my calendar. I’m not sure what happened, maybe Apple or Google changed something.

Don’t let SOPA return!

Geek | 0

A few months ago, SOPA and PIPA were shut down because Americans showed policy makers that we value freedom. If you missed that post, you can read it here. It was one of the most successful campaigns and the bills were totally shut down as policy makers pulled their support.

However, the Obama administration is still voicing support of SOPA. Wired noted recently that:

“The White House did say that it wouldn’t endorse a bill that endangers freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks, or negatively affects the DNS system. On the other hand, it says elsewhere that “combating online infringement” — not protecting free speech — is a governmental priority “of the highest order.”

I got an email from Fight the Future yesterday stating that:

What is the White House working on exactly? Just the other day, the administration sent a letter to Congress to demonstrate their support for new internet censorship legislation.

Augmented reality glasses: coming soon

Geek | 0

I saw this today on a bajillion people’s facebook feeds.

Sure, there are many downsides to this kind of technology. With these, we’ll become the multi-tasking addicts we’re already becoming comfortable with as it is. However, if you look around, most people are wandering around the city goofing off with their phone, looking for directions, checking in and listening to music… these augmented reality glasses just put it all on a more convenient screen.

Here’s what I’m seeing though. Remember when the bluetooth headsets became really popular and everyone was talking hands free as they walked down the street. It quickly became a social turn-off.

Printing bliss

Geek, Ideas | 0

Last week I posted about my search for the perfect wireless laser printer. I got a couple of good recommendations, but I got an email response from someone with some pretty compelling reasons for picking up the HP LaserJet Pro P1102w.

I got it last night and I’m in love. I call it printing freedom because I can print from just about anything I care to print from. iPads, iPhone, Macs and PCs.

App of the week: Glo

Geek, Ideas | 0

A couple of weeks ago a co-worker was sitting next to me during a staff small group meeting and he was looking up a scripture passage. Instead of YouVersion (which is a great app and I highly recommend), he was using something different. there was something amazingly refreshing and different about the layout. He told me about it and I downloaded the free “lite” version. It’s the Bible app “Glo.”

If you have a iPad, I highly recommend the app. Here’s the best way I can describe how it is different from all the other Bible apps.

In search of the perfect printer

Geek, Random | 2

Okay, I need a little help from some fellow tech geeks. I have a 6 year old Dell laser printer which has been a fantastic little printer. I was using a wireless printer server for about 3 years until it crashed and burned a few months ago. I could never get my mac to print wirelessly, so I always had to email stuff to the PC and print from there. I’ve been setting aside some cash and I think I have enough now to get what I want. So, here is what I’m looking for and I’m hoping that someone can tell me what I could get.

App of the week: Keynote Remote

Geek, Ideas | 4

A sure fire, no miss app for me that has saved my hide on many occasions this year has been Keynote Remote. If you use a mac personally or use macs for presentations at church or other speaking opportunities, I’d highly suggest investing in this very useful app for your iPad, iPod or iPhone. I’ve found myself in situations where the remote clicker I needed to use for a presentation could not get a clear line of site with the compter or perhaps I was too far away from the compter to get an appropriate signal to control the slideshow.