I know everyone loves free stuff, especially when it makes you work and life easier. I have a couple tools that I use on a daily (sometimes more) basis that I think are worth sharing.

For those of you that host your own websites, blogs, podcasts, etc you’ll probably want to skip to the next paragraph. For those of you still reading, free quality storage for streaming audio/video, pictures, etc. I’m speaking of Ourmedia.org and archive.org. I’m not sure why they’ve set-up the way they do, but to use one you must register on both. Other than that little difficulty I’ve no problems with this at all (using over 2 months). We are hosting video and audio for our main service, and audio only options for our men’s bible study and student ministry. I like this free option much better than the Google Video, youtube, etc options out there for two main reasons. The first one is ease I can have all my audio options (WMA, RM, MP3) and video (WMA) all on the same site, secondly there is no linking of your videos to other similar videos that may be innapropriate. Thirdly, I know two main reasons, is the user interface and upload tool are super easy and straight-forward.

The other free tool I use is logmein.com. While they do have pay options I haven’t had the need for the additional services that these offer. As the name hints LogMeIn allows you to remote control a desktop from any browser. While there are many tools out there this super easy to use for those non-techies that are wanting remote computer access. Most everyone can remember the simple name, their email address and passoword, and withing a couple keystrokes have full screen remote control of their desktop. Much easier to setup and train than VPN, and matches all the needs my people have had.

A site on my daily read is Web Worker Daily on a regular basis there are some great tips for those of us who consider ourselves techies. Today’s post 6 Things to make your office productive and inspiring is no different. Below is number 6:

A reminder of what you love most. The most common item to find in someone’s cubicle at work is a photo of friends or family, for good reason. But you don’t have to put them in a regular old frame. You can make a mousepad with your dogs, a Warhol-esque poster with your kids, or a mug with your partner. If you’ve money to spare and prefer a high-tech display for your photos, how about a digital photo frame?

I had heard of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) before but never really though anything of it. Today over at CruchGear they had a post about the OLPC interface that had been put on YouTube. My first thought with this is could it be used as a ministry tool. If we took part in this loaded up some of these laptops with the gospel, bibles in their language, the Jesus video, testimonies, etc. Could these laptops go where people can’t, could the seed be planted through technology that people could then followup on, would the cool factor of a laptop in the remote parts of the world be an open door for sharing the gospel just by the curiousity of the laptop itself?

When I actually made the transition from work to career way back in 1998 I never thought I would end up in Church IT. I made the move from grocery store to security company and thought that would be direction I would continue on. My first official hacking took place as an alarm operator, we had to log certain events to keep accurate records (translate-cover our butts for the lawyers). This hacking involved setting up macros that logged the events and included generic comments, my alarm handling was triple that of the closest person. Of course this got the attention of people who said I was cheating the system, but soon I was setting up the entire call center to do the macros (and secure it from anyone else creating macros). This continued on for 4 1/2 more years until I automated myself out of a job and soon our center closed down because they consolidated the centers. After 9 months of searching for similar call center/ data management position (translate-salary) God had a different idea. I then began my work at our church doing everything from Music and Youth and Communications but always Computers. This is where I’ve come to realize I really like church IT and look forward to learning more, reading more, and networking more with others that have this same passsion to take the church of of the dark ages and begin using technology to make ministry happen better.

So how did you get into Church IT?

Sidenote: Really looking forward to Church IT Roundtable, hope they let me come

Got this from CrunchGear. One of the best stories I’ve heard about Walmart in a long time.

So this is fun: In a statement from Wal-Mart today, former Senator John Edwards had a staffer contact the electronics manager in a Raleigh, North Carolina store to try and get his hands on a PlayStation 3. Problem was, later that night he reportedly told a story to people on a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union-sponsored call that his son had ridiculed a classmate about his shoes, which were purchased at Wal-Mart.

Upon hearing the news, the company invited Edwards to visit the local store to check out its electronics as well as its shoes for men and boys. And then they basically said he can get in line with everyone else.

The Company noted the PlayStation3 is an extremely popular item this Christmas season, and while the rest of America’s working families are waiting patiently in line, Senator Edwards wants to cut to the front. While, we cannot guarantee that Sen. Edwards will be among one of the first to obtain a PlayStation3, we are certain Sen. Edwards will be able to find great gifts for everyone on his Christmas list – many at Wal-Mart’s “roll-back prices.”

I have to hand it to Wal-Mart on this one. That’s pretty sweet of them to basically put the smackdown on Edwards like that.

After making a comment on Tony Dye’s Spring Roundtable Challenges post I wanted to follow it as I had invited it to come to warm, sunny, Florida. Now who wouldn’t want to come here? Way back I had started using a little tool website called Cocomment, found at you guessed it, www.cocomment.com, which allows you to track the conversations of posts you have commented on. Here’s a quick list of features:

Track

coComment keeps track of all the online conversations you’re following in one convenient place, and informs you whenever something is added to a conversation.

Share

Publish your conversations to your blog in a click, or send them to your friends via email.

Explore

Check out the top commenters, what articles and posts are generating the most comments, who’s commenting on the same conversations as you.

Find the full list here

So you’ve probably heard the saying that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, did you know that was actually biblical? It is look up Luke 6:45, which says pretty much just that, don’t believe it look it up. I think it’s amazing that we like to either/or God, he can have this or He can have that. I’ll do what you want or say you what you want, but not both. Dear God “I love you so much” but don’t expect me to go talk to that person they certainly aren’t cool enough for me to talk to them, I don’t care that they are broken and hurting and look oh so lonely. Of course I’ll give twenty bucks for that needy family but don’t expect me to share God’s love with my coworker, class mate, or family member, what if they get mad? God wants both from us, but not only wants and expects, but deserves both our words of love but the actions that prove it. As I’ve learned at times the hard way, if you can’t glorify and honor God while you’re doing something IT IS SIN! How do you worship?

Not sure how everything is going on for you but I know most of us are having the times of life, right? I’m not sure if you’re having drama at home, school, work, with friends, or just dealing with stuff, OR if you have the best family, friends, job and pets. Either way I think God wants us to be having the time of our life right NOW! In Isaiah 43:18 He says, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.” Pretty much this was saying all the great things God has already done will be nothing compared to the Kingdom he will establish WITH US! I don’t know about you but that’s pretty cool, so forget about the good and the bad of the past because God has a plan for us in the now and future. So live for the future, right? WRONG. Psalm 49:20 says it best, “We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long. last long. Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.” and to make sure we understand “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:34. So it’s true we can’t live for future and we can’t dwell on the past, what do we do? First, we stop worrying, God tells us “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out-plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Now while I relatively recently had a post stating I am alive, it was only in reference to the fact I hadn’t posted in a while. Last Sunday on the way to church my wife were in an accident that makes the saying “I am alive” much more meaningful. Our SUV was hit on the drivers rear by a larger SUV which caused us to spin and tip over, after sliding into the curb, we then flipped over another full time landing on the passenger’s side. Amazingly through all of that we spun around a telephone pole, a huge cement power pole, and large pedestrian walk/don’t walk pole, and only rolled over a plastic cable box. And even more amazingly(Grace of God) we walked away with matching tiny 1/4 inch cuts on the exact same spot on the bottom of our left feet. We took that as God’s little way of making sure we knew he was in control of it all, through all that could have happened and all the places and ways we could have been injured we got miniscule little cuts. The EMTs were amazed, the highway patrol was amazed, the firemen were amazed, and the countless others who stopped and saw were amazed that we walked away for the most part untouched, what time and place to easily show God’s grace, we are so thankful and amazed.

Got a call today from Fellowship Technologies, said they saw me in the blog world and didn’t have any of my info. They asked if it would be okay to send me some info via email about what they have to offer. One I was floored that somebody actually saw me in the blog world, Two I was impressed by their courtesy in asking if it was okay to send me some info. Impressed.

On a similar note seen over at Scobles blog, Google send blogger aspirin.

These are the small things that are huge to the little people.