blog.stuco.me

I found out from Jim Walton at Church Tech Matters that I can just redirect my FeedBurner RSS feed to the new WordPress blog so that you, my dear readers don't have to do anything. In fact, if you're not subscribed to the FeedBurner feed for this blog, go ahead and set your aggregator (Bloglines, SharpReader, NewsGator, etc.) to http://feeds.feedburner.com/castingmynet .

My new home is http://castingmynet.wordpress.com . Please update your bookmarks and RSS Feed . As I wrote earlier, I've been toying with the idea of moving the blog to WordPress because it's become a far richer tool than Blogger. I was going to ease over, but WordPress has made it so easy to switch. Besides, Brian Glass at Crossroads Community Church just did it and inspired me to hasten the move. I'll keep this blog up for a while I decide what else I need to move over, but basically, the new WordPress site is complete. So long Blogger - you've been real good to me...

Nearly a month after I put my name on the waiting list for a Google Page Creator account, I received an email stating that I had been granted said account. I can't get overly excited about it because in the past month, I've read a lot of reports questioning "why in the world Google is doing this" and "how can this be useful" , but I'll give it spin. So far, I've applied a stock template to it from Google's very blogger-esque selection of styles and changed the layout to 3 columns. The real challenge is to make it something other than a blogging tool.

I have a hosted domain and web package through VizaWeb and one of the many tools that comes with it is WordPress blogging tool. This is the open source package that is freely downloadable from WordPress.org . I've used it on a small blog I post to every now and then and I like it a lot. Last year, WordPress decided to take their blog tool and create a free blogging service on WordPress.com . Yesterday, I created castingmynet.wordpress.com and used the import tool from Blogger to pull all of my posts and comments into WordPress. WOW! It's pretty awesome and it looks really nice. I may be inclined to switch soon.

From Kansas to our door in Texas, we drove through non-stop rain and finally pulled into our driveway at 11:00pm last night. Needless to say we just dropped into bed. An awesome and exhausting vacation is now over and we are returned once again to our regularly scheduled life.

Here's a picture of what the weather in the Twin Cities did just before we arrived and outside right now, it's doing it again. Monday, 7" of snow was dumped blizzard-style and we're looking at another 4-6" tonight. Judging by these pictures, Ian, Trevor and Myles will be able to handle a little more packed powder. Trevor Myles Ian

We rolled into our hotel about 9:30p last night and pretty much fell right to sleep. Hit the ground running this morning and we're finishing moving boxes from Lisa's grandfather's old house into storage. Maybe we can play tomorrow. Quick note about Hotels.com - they stink! Our first time to use them and on our confirmation they put us in a smoking room and their directions to the hotel reflected an old address and street name that had changed 2 years ago. Props to Country Inn & Suites for sorting out the whole mess for us.

We're less that 100 miles from Bloomington, MN and the thermometer reads 22 degrees. We stopped to play in Des Moines, Iowa Stopped to eat in Mason City, Iowa. Crossed the Minnesota state border about 30 minutes ago. All-in-all, the kids have done GREAT!

Stopped off at Kansas City, Missouri to walk around the Historic Market & Steamboat Museum. Lunch at a McDonald's voted the most beautiful in Heartland - somewhere in Missouri. Crossed the Iowa state border about 5 minutes ago. Currently on the phone booking tonight's hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. (Note to Jim: I don't think there's any fun until the Twin Cities - more farmland)

Every now and then along the interstate, we're reminded by handmade signs to "turn or burn", "get right or get left", "REPENT or regret it forever". Religious freedom is one of the things that makes this land truly great. Or is that the problem?

Back on the road again and we've just passed through Emporia Kansas on our way to Kansas City. Can I tell you that I'm looking around in all directions and apart from a couple of farm houses and two antennas, there is absolutely nothing here. Before, when we've made this journey, it's been in the evening and we've often wondered what it would be like to travel it in the daytime. I guess that answers that. Those antennas are really doing there job, though, because I've got a kicking signal to the internet!

I just looked up some directions to a previously-named coffee establishment and on one turn it told me to go East for 191 feet. Now, where is that unit of measurement on my odometer?

We checked in to our hotel last night and I received my username (room number) and password for the free wireless internet, but I can't find the signal anywhere. I guess I'm getting what I pay for - oh well. The ever-faithful (not free) Cingular network, however, is going great guns. I'm currently sampling the continental breakfast and it's pretty good, but I'm heading out into the early Kansas dawn to find a... Starbucks (gasp). More on that later...

We're roughly here now (see map) and we just got on the Kansas Turnpike. 20 miles to go before we stop for the night. Either Google overshot their estimated time to Wichita or crows fly faster up North :)

Welcome to Kansas! I would have posted a picture of the sign at the state border, but taking pictures at dusk going 75 is difficult. Here's something amusing, the kids are watching a DVD and Lisa's driving with the iPod. As we cross the Kansas state border, she's singing the word to 'Africa' by... Toto. You gotta love the geographical timeliness of '80's music.

Google Maps told us it would be 2 hours, 19 minutes from Stillwater, Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas. A search for "Wichita, KS" + "indoor pool" pointed us to Orbitz that said there were three such hotels in the area. Based on their descriptions and photos,we chose the Comfort Inn East which has easy access from I-35. Comfort Inn's website had the prices online plus a special rate for "Internet Users" which gave us an additional $10 off the room. A room for 5 at $68 - not bad at all. A little over 2 hours to go on the road to go.

Chick-fil-a was "GOOD" in Edmond, just on the outskirts of Oklahoma City and the kids got most of their wiggles out in the play area. We would have eaten at one of two Chick-fil-a restaurants on the University of Oklahoma's campus, but it's Spring Break and so they're closed. That last sentence was purely for Brian's benefit. It's starting to get colder as we inch North. They say it's in the 30's in Minnesota. Onward and upward!

Oklahoma has a multi-campus Horseshoeing School. James Garner was born in Norman, OK. Nice to know...

How cool is technology these days? I was finishing my last blog post when my sister Jacqueline who's in France (check out her blog http://tangledshadow.blogspot.com - it's very cool) sends me an instant message and we chat for a good 10 minutes. So far in Oklahoma, we've passed lots of cows, horses and casinos. The Cingular Mobile Data service is getting maximum signal strength. ARE WE THERE YET??

It's Spring Break and the family is currently on the road heading to Minnesota on family business. Straight up I-35 - 1,00 miles there, 1,000 back. Thanks to a power inverter and the Cingular Mobile Wireless Data service, we can stay connected to the Internet while traveling 75 MPH. So far, we've used it to find a Chick-fil-a in the Oklahoma City area and I've been able to add a user account for one of my customers. Also thanks to a $180 dual screen DVD player from Wal-Mart, the boys are quite occupied. Much more fun and updates ahead. By the way, the Green Dot is roughly where we are right now.

This week, I went more than 24 hours without sleep trying to resolve an Exchange 2000 issue for a church in Garland, First it was a queuing problem, then it turned into an entire network infrastructure fiasco and ended up with a problem application that was crashing the SMTP virtual server. So in the spirit of 'Git er Dun', I ponied up the $245 for some professional help from Microsoft. THE GOOD - Right out of the gate, my support guy took the problem and was able to gain full control of the server using LiveMeeting over a remote connection from my house (Garland is an hour drive with no traffic). He was checking the settings, making changes and I was getting a distilled shot of Exchange training as I watched. Then my guru showed me how the network was configured kinda screwy (technical term) and that I had to make a trip to the church to manually plug and unplug cables. No problem, happy to do it :) THE BAD - When I arrived on-site, I couldn't reach my support guy, becau...

First there were two, then three, then four and now six! Our Pastor and wife (Brandon and Susan) are on holiday across the pond in Cheltenham visiting his brother Heath and family (Jill, Harrison and Isabelle) for a week. Two things to do while you're there: enjoy chips and curry from the local chippy and bring back some Cheltenham rock (Heath will explain). Does Rob (Shared4U) have any other ideas (besides visiting da`Pool)? Love ya, Rob!

Tuesday: Senseo 1, Starbucks 0, water 1 Wednesday: Senseo 0, Starbucks 0, water 0, ginger ale 2, coke 1 What has this little experiment proven? That I still love coffee and don't drink near as much H2O as I should. Well, that was fun :)

I've been going back and forth between Liberum Help Desk and Ilient Sys Aid Help Desk to manage my incoming IT work for a week. Although Ilient has much more to offer, Liberum is quicker to figure out and get going. Plus, I like the simple interface and the user can easily navigate around. I'll still be looking into the many features of Ilient over the coming weeks and may eventually switch, but for the sake of speed, I'm sticking with Liberum.

A year ago, we ditched our traditional phone company in favor of going 100% mobile and we haven't looked back since. Recently, I've been offered at work to pilot an "IT in a Box" strategy where I would work from home or remotely full-time which is a long-awaited answer to prayer. It's not official yet, but until then I've been practicing a couple days per week seeing if I can make it work. Not being tied to a set schedule and forsaking the daily commute is AWESOME, however, the conference calls on a mobile phone are killing my wallet. Last night at the recommendation of a colleague, I purchased a $50.00 Vonage Linksys VoIP Phone Adapter and signed up for the $24.99/month unlimited plan. Vonage makes it so easy to sign up online and within 5 minutes I had broadband phone service. Since the calls are purely digital, I've noticed the improved clarity the sound. Today, I spent almost 3 hours on the phone without any hiccups.

Just caught up via iTunes on the latest episode (Maternity Leave) and WOW! The writers delved deep into the first season to resurrect the abduction of Claire and filled a HUGE gap in the story. Holy smokes that was good TV! And although they had small roles in this episode, you gotta love Eko and Sawyer.

As posted earlier, I am now a single platform Instant Message user - MSN Messenger. If you want to add me to your contacts list, I'm stucoian@hotmail.com

Day 3 - Saturday: Relapsed, but I wasn't paying and it would have been rude to decline :) Day 4 - Sunday: Senseo 3, Starbucks nil Day 5 - Monday: Senseo 4, Starbucks nil Back on the Wagon!

Thanks Derek for suggesting I check out the free version of Ilient's Help Desk. I recall seeing a discussion about it last year and when I linked to your blog, I think it was there I remembered seeing it. And so I downloaded it, ran through the InstallShield wizard and browsed through the options - looks good. I especially like the fact that it comes with it's own web server and database engine. Immediately after I hit the Finish button on the install, I received an email from the Help Desk verifying that it works - impressive. Whatever help desk I end up using, it'll be accessed by multiple organizations so if you have any tips or best practices to pass along, send the my way.

Doing good so far. I had two cups of the Senseo Dark Roast in the morning and that was all for the day. I think the foam that's generated as the water is forced through the coffee pods gives it that almost-latte sensation. I can hang with that.

I've been looking at using a helpdesk and ticketing system to help manage my ever growing task list. Email worked for a good while, but the the added step of putting it on the task list has caused some support issues to lose priority or fall through the cracks completely. With a helpdesk program, customers can log in to a web site and open a support ticket that gets added automatically to my list and keep them updated via email as to the progress. Since the name of the game is "FREE", I've looked at osTicket , Support Logic , PHP Support Tickets , Crafty Syntax Live Help and Liberum . Liberum is my choice since it's very easy to setup, easy for a non-techie to open a ticket and has a very simple yet clean interface.

For a couple of my customers, AOL has been rejecting emails sent from their domains to AOL's customers. I'm in the process of adding PTR records to the DNS and submitting formal requests to the AOL Postmaster to have them added to a White List. So far, AOL has been fairly speedy in rejecting the first round of requests due to erroneous nuances in the paperwork. This link is AOL's conditions for a domain being approved to send mail to their customers and the entry point to start the White Listing process. Read and Heed People!

After more than a year of "on again, off again" relationships, I'm finally saying goodbye forever to three Internet tools: Bloglines - The online RSS aggregator is a great tool, but for me, it slowly turned into a creeping dread. The problem: Too many blogs, too little time. I would subscribe to a ton of feeds and it slowly turned into a blog-clog nightmare. Many blogs that I loved to read would be at best skimmed as the mission was to quickly clear out the (very high) number of unread posts. The Solution: Bookmark blog sites in Firefox that I really want to read and use Technorati/Google Blog Search to find articles of interest. Yahoo Widgets (Konfabulator) - Honestly, I don't have a need for big clocks, partial to-do lists or annoying animations glued to my desktop. They look great, but useless to me. Trillian - This instant messenger client combines AOL, MSN and Yahoo into one program. The problem: Even though I have IDs and screen names with all three IM servic...

The ThinkPad X31 is rebuilt and back in action. The two times this laptop has been scrubbed, I've been very pleased with the Lenovo's ThinkVantage System Update tool and wish that other computer makers would follow their example. I acquired the X31 last year through a trade for computer services and, like many computers two years or older, the recovery disks are long gone. However, with a bare Windows XP install and generic ethernet driver, I am able to go to Lenovo's website, start the Java-based ThinkVantage System Update and in one (huge) download and a couple of reboots, every latest and greatest driver and utility is installed.

I'm officially in a self-prescribed rehabilitation program to rid myself of a Starbucks addiction. I'm spending close to $10 a day on 2 drinks with a total of 8 espresso shots and am able to sleep fine at night. I'm not quitting caffeine or even coffee, just breaking the chains that keep drawing me to any one of six Starbucks locations within a 5-mile radius from my house (hmm, maybe they have the problem) . The alternative? A Senseo coffee machine that I received for my birthday last year. The dark roast coffee pods taste great and I can get 9 cups of coffee for $3.50 - cha-ching!

My laptop's hosed and I'm rebuilding the hard drive from a fresh format. The funny thing is that a few people I've mentioned that to couldn't grasp the fact the computer repairman's machine is broken. First rebuild of `06!!

Late last year I was working on a big issue that was taking me too long to resolve and when I was nearly at the end of my rope, I called a friend of mine at Irving Bible Church to see if he could help. He earnestly thought about it for a minute and finally confessed that he had no clue, but then offered "Have you called Microsoft Support?" I balked and reminded him of the $245 per incident cost and he asked me how much time I had spent thus far. Good point. My friend spoke further and said that each year he puts the 5-pack of per incident support calls into his budget. "Chances are good that I'll only use 2 or 3 all year", he said, "but it's nice to know I have a safety net. Plus, they're already approved." Never thought of it like that before. Sounds like a solid strategy.

Has anyone else noticed that a visit to Chick-fil-A is more miss than hit when it comes to the quality of their signature chicken sandwich? I remember when they were only in shopping malls and even the early days of their free-standing stores that sandwich after sandwich was always consistently brilliant. There was no doubt. These days, the good ones are still awesome, but the more frequent bad chickies are just gross. Could demand versus supply be a factor? Are chickens not as healthy as they once were? Does Chick-fil-A really not know about this problem? I'm not trying to put down Chick-fil-A because they are one of the best and most God-honoring companies out there and I fully support them. It's just that not knowing whether today will be a good chicken day or not might make me want to "eat less chikin".

Quad Grande Two-Sugar Latte. The addiction grows ever stronger...

End of December Rollover Minutes Expired New Year - Paying Double Inspired by the heart attack I almost felt when I opened the bill for January :-(

Last year I transferred a company's web site from a hosting service to an in-house server using Windows 2003 Small Business Server. So far the switch seems to have been very beneficial, but there haven't been any statistics generated since the site launched mainly because Microsoft's Internet Information Server doesn't come with a web-based statistics reporting tool. After some research, I found a very nice program called AWStats that uses the the very raw traffic logs to produce a series of graphs and charts. It's a free tool so setting it up isn't quite a slam dunk, but it's not as horrific as other Open Source programs I've used in the past. Within one day I had it installed, configured, tweaked and secured. I found out that Google has a similar service called Google Analytics that seems to be most excellent for reporting website traffic and the most effective search keywords. Unfortunately, it's on an invitation basis that I think only Google h...

Did you know that it takes 5 minutes (give or take) to push an average-sized 3-year old 100 times on a backyard swing? Myles wasn't in the mood for talking much yesterday, but I think, collectively, I crossed the 1000 mark.

Church IT Legend and blog buddy Jason Powell is getting together a group of about 20 people who work at, serve in, or have a passion for Information Technology within the local church for a weekend brainiac workshop at Granger Community Church this September. He's calling it a Church IT Roundtable and it's been in steadily brewing for about a year, but now it finally has a date and probably (by now) a registered activity within Fellowship One :-) Think I'm stoked? Oh yeah! It'll be fun to finally meet the people from all over the country I've been communicating with for the past year.

Thanks to Jim Walton for reminding me of a conversation I had at the Barber Shop this week. I was sitting in the chair on a Tuesday afternoon and the question of the week was asked of me for the first time this year - "So, who are you pulling for in the Super Bowl?" Now, let me tell you that I don't follow football all that much unless it involves the local team . In fact, I had no clue who were contenders this year until after the Conference Finals were over. So I answered that I really hadn't decided, because I had no affiliation nor affinity with either team. But then as I sat semi-dozing off to the drone of the clippers, I realized that I did have connections with both teams... Pittsburg Stealers Terry Bradshaw used to play for them in the 70's (or was it early 80's?) . Aside from visiting our old church a few time about ten years ago, Mr. Bradshaw until recently owned a jet (or part of one) for which my Brother-in Law was his dedicated pilot. I recall ...

I want to be in the light as you are in the light Lead me into the presence of the Father I will follow right behind, true love I will find All I want is to be in the light of love All I want is to be in the light Is there such a thing as a man of peace? If there is, then a man of peace I want to be I will need your help if I'm ever to be that If I'm to lay down, lay down, lay down Then I'll lay my life for my brothers and sisters I will need your help, Jesus I need your light Forever shining bright Before DC Talk sung it, Charlie Peacock recorded "In The Light" on his 1991 album "Love Life". I had forgotten the original so much that when I heard it tonight, I found myself singing it the way DC Talk had taught me - the notes and cadence are much different. Also different were the lyrics (above) that DC Talk had left out. I wonder why... ?

http://www.filmfodder.com/tv/lost/ A must-read companion to watching the highly addictive TV series. Each new post in this brilliant blog is a very in-depth summary of the last episode along with the authors' observations and theories. The comments (hundreds per episode) are priceless!! The blog is so good, you could even skip an episode (NEVER!) and just read about it on Thursday.

I don't have your email address and I'm not sure if you would see my reply comment, so I'm going to use this blog in it's purest form - to communicate with you :) Keystone Church is at www.keystonechurch.com. The website is by far the primary way the staff communicates with the membership and visitors. The guys that maintain it are maniacs at keeping the content and information fresh. As far as outreach ministry to the homeless or orphaned, we have partnered since our inception with Christ's Haven for Children in Keller. As Keystone is a little more than a year old, I don't believe there is an internal ministry organized for that purpose (Trey, correct me if I'm wrong) . But naturally, as we grow and God draws more volunteer-leaders with various burdens, talents and passions, then there will be a number of outreach ministries that Keystone will be involved in. Feel free to shoot me an email at stuartcowen@gmail.com and when you and Kelly visit, Lisa and I...

This time two years ago, we were a two-vehicle family with finance payments of around $1,000 per month. As of November 2005, we still have two fully-functional, perfectly running vehicles and we owe $0 - Zip, Zero, Zilch. There's nothing magical to this success and we still have a long way to being completely debt-free (including the home mortgage), but we systematically paid off Lisa's minivan after 5 years and, with the help of our buddy Dave Ramsey , I saw the folly of keeping my SUV payment. I sold the Isuzu Rodeo, paid off the note and am currently driving a purple (yes purple) Ford Ranger that's been in the family for 12 years, but runs like a champ. Lessons learned: We will never again have a car payment. We will always save and pay cash for a car. We will always buy used from a private-party sale (better deals) Because: A car is not worth 5 years of debt. New cars are not worth the amount of depreciation 5-minutes after the sale. People really don't care what yo...

It's amazing how effective short yet creative bedtime stories can soothe savage beasts and over-tired 3-year olds. Myles was getting pretty upset with me tonight because I wouldn't turn on the light and read a book for bedtime, but the light was extra stimulation we really didn't need. So taking a cue from the Master "Totally Made Up Story" Teller (that would be Lisa), I whispered three very short stories where Myles, the key character, was a brave knight, a policeman and big bear hunter. In less than five minutes he was calm and seconds later, sleep had K.O.-ed him for the night.

I'm not usually a "doom & gloom" person, nor am I saying that they sky is falling (yet) , but for those of us who can't live without our Blackerry mobile email devices, February 24 could be the day when Research in Motion's legal luck runs dry and they're forced to cease sales and wireless email service in the United States. Let me say again, I'm not panicking, but should the hammer fall, other means of getting email pushed to a different mobile phone must be considered and I believe that the hour of decision has to be well before then. A little background. I've been using various incarnations of the Blackberry for years, even before it was a phone. Despite many of my colleagues in the IT business ditching theirs in favor of a more tranquil email existence, it's been very successful for me and I've learned to play the "keep `em guessing" game well as to my digital availability. So what is the other option? A Windows Mobile device...

Occasionally, I listen to the Leo Laporte's radio show from Los Angeles over the Internet. One of his sponsors is a great web hosting company called VizaWeb and, because I needed a web host a few months ago, I decided to purchase a basic plan from them. Later, I found out that VizaWeb is based in Minneapolis , but they lease their servers and data center space from another company called The Planet in Dallas . Today, I met the husband of a Ministry Assistant at one of the churches I work with - he works at The Planet.

That's how long Casting My Net has been on the Internet and I thought it would be a good idea in the middle of the blogging year to set this ship back on a more meaningful course after an extended excursion into the shallower pools of randomness (like you hadn't noticed). To get you acquainted, my name is Stuart Cowen and, as my bio states, I am married to Lisa, my beautiful bride of thirteen years. We have 3 growing boys: Ian 8, Trevor 5 and Myles 3. I am an IT (Information Technology) Professional in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of North Texas and I make my living as a Database Administrator for a very well-known company, but it's my "on-the-side" work of providing computer and technology services to local churches that gives me the most joy and purpose out of what I do. In this blog we discuss family life, Christianity, cool computer technology, and enhancing the mission of today's church through creative, yet sensible uses of technology. And if you enjoyed t...

A year ago this month, I decided to bite the $80 per month bullet and invest in GPRS wireless service for my laptop - the Cingular EDGE network. It's a service that uses a PC card with an antenna to traverse the cellular airwaves so that you can connect to the Internet from anywhere that you can use a cell phone. I use it to connect to church and ministry customers' networks and perform remote administration - the cost is a justifiable business expense (Oh, yes it is). The speed? It's about 3 times faster than dial-up, not terribly fast, but capable of meeting my needs. Fast forward to December and Cingular announced that they had launched their new 3G network called HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). On the website, it boasts speeds of 400K-700K with bursts up to a full megabit (translation: way fast). The bonus about this service is that it runs alongside of the existing EDGE network and is automatically available to EDGE customers. All I needed was a new HSDPA ca...

I've been waiting for a package to arrive at my house since Thursday - FedEx is the carrier. While I'm sure that FedEx has some measure of 'method to their madness' , the online tracking tells a very comical story. Here are the travels of my goods... so far. Fort Worth to Dallas Dallas to Fort Worth Fort Worth to Dallas I live in Euless The most direct route between Dallas and Fort Worth runs right through Euless. FedEx has 27 hours to meet the delivery deadline and I'm wondering how many times my package will pass by before .

I stole this from the Shared4U blog and Rob says... I nicked this from ants blog Click here and watch the Vid Like he says.... it's hilarious .. sorry for the theft ant ...but then again I am a scouser :-) ... and technically, so am I :-) :-)

It's been dry for months here in North Texas. So dry so that grass fires have been keeping every fire department on their toes. You may have seen reports of our more larger grass fires on the news in your area (I know it made the BBC World News) . So last night around midnight, we hear the most welcome pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof. It rained quite hard for a few minutes and then slowed to a steady pour which lasted for the next 15 hours . Nothing like a good soaking on the parched and thirsty land. Image stolen without permission from Jason Elam and Aaron McClung Design . I know Aaron and I think he'd be cool with that :)

EverNote is one of those "less is more" tools that combines a simple idea with a few thoughtful features wrapped in a great looking interface. It's probably the best and easiest-to-adapt-to note-taking tool for the computer I've ever used. Other note-taking software titles have been too difficult to navigate or too flexible in their organization that the hierarchy gets too deep. Before Jim Walton at Church Tech Matters turned me on to EverNote, I had come full-circle back to the lo-tech, but very trusty spiral notebook. EverNote is like the spiral notebook in that it's a never-ending "tape" of one-time notes. You type something and it's automatically timestamped and saved. After a comfortable pause in typing, another blank note is generated awaiting your input. Combined with a simple convention of titling notes, the search function is especially powerful as it groups together the notes that match your criteria as you type . The program runs in the ...

Many thanks to MSExchange.org for this in-depth article where I distilled the following quick-n-dirty tutorial. Scenario 1 - Person Deletes an Email and Empties the Deleted Items Folder Step 1: In Exchange System Manager, verify that the 'Keep deleted items for (days)' option in the Limits tab of the Mailbox Store properties is populated with a number. In Exchange 2003, the default is 30 days. Step 2: In Outlook, click on the Deleted Items folder, pull down the Tools menu and click on 'Recover Deleted Items...'. This will show all of the permanently deleted emails going as far back as the number of days specified in Exchange (Step 1) . Scenario 2: - Person Deletes an Email using Shift-Delete, Bypassing the Exchange Recovery Folder Step 1: Close your eyes, meditate on Scripture, pray and drink some herbal tea. Step 2: Calmly tell the hasty, yet beautiful user person that their email has gone to a better place. Step 3: Next, check out Microsoft Knowledge Base Articl...

See, this is why I love the Internet. If you have a computer problem, no matter how obscure, somebody in the digital vastness has been there and has shared or will share the solution. Such is the case with my Media Center predicament a couple of posts ago. The Lowdown: A friend of mine is an independent graphic artist (and a darned good one) who shares office space with another business which has a server on a small domain. Desperately in need of a PC upgrade, my friend found a Gateway (specs posted earlier) with two 20" widescreen HiDef monitors. The whole setup cost less than $3,000.00 - not bad and very nice looking. It also came with Windows XP Media Center (MCE) 2005 which, as we've learned, cannot participate on a domain. Even Microsoft says "Nope, not gonna do it!" Never say "Never"! After an hour of research, I found a brilliant individual who has it all figured out with published instructions . The steps were fairly tricky, but the premise was gen...

Trevor got glasses yesterday and follows in the footsteps of his near-sighted father and older brother. Isn't he handsome?

First, Gateway's GX7022E is a sweet Intel Dual Core 3Ghz, 2GB of RAM, 320GB of SATA storage media monster at a very decent price. The best PC I've seen from them in years. However, their decision to stop packing tangible Recovery Disks in the box in favor of "U-Burn 'em Yourself" from a hidden partition on the D drive wouldn't be so bad if the Create Recovery Disk utility actually worked and Gateway's support wasn't so deplorable. I've been hearing these sorts of complaints and other horror stories about Gateway's Customer (I Really Don't) Care department. Guys, you've always come so close to getting it right - shame. Next Microsoft... I was fine with all the various editions of Windows XP (Home, Professional, Tablet and Media Center) and I'm even good with the fact that Home Edition will be desupported at the end of this year, because it's exactly like Professional without the ability join a domain network (still not sure why...

114-95 Final. Oh yeah, it was the Milwaukee Bucks :)

The Men's Ministry at Keystone Church is having a b-ball outing at the American Airlines Center to see the Dallas Mavericks whoop the Milwaukee Bucks. At least that's who I think they're playing... Hey, I'm a computer guy not a sports nut! Anyway, tonight's going to be much fun and I will get into the game (always do). I'll also get to meet some guys from Keystone that I don't yet know and that's always a good thing. Right now, I'm standing at the train station waiting to hook up with the guys on the Trinity Railway Express in 5 minutes. The train is awesome. I live just 2 minutes away from a station and it drops off right in front of the stadium.

The madness started on June 24, 2005. Good Times.

Lisa came home with a new laundry detergent the other day and it made me do a double-take. "all mighty?" , I read. I then saw the tiny "small and" tucked between the two words of the "all Small and Mighty" product. So is this marketing designed to stir up controversy that might result in selling millions to the edgy, shock-starved college "gotta-do-my-laundry, man" crowd? Probably not. Anyway, they know their place - the 'a' is lower-case.

I have and probably will continue to have a Blackberry or some sort of full-keyboard email/phone device. I love the fact that I can send and receive emails from my primary email account no matter where I am. In the past, a few of my friends have text messaged me and, because of the full keyboard, I have had the tendency to reply with all the wordiness of an email. Recently though, I've discovered how quickly the Blackberry can tap out a much shorter SMS message (which, by the way, stands for SHORT Message Service ) and how much more appreciative people are of my new-found brevity. It even works better while driving - just kidding :) cya l8r - k?

Hey! Lisa told me a few weeks ago that someone she worked with in Camp Keystone was reading (and was quite amused by) my blog, but I didn't know who YOU were until yesterday. Sorry if I seemed pre-occupied when we passed each other, but I was trying to herd my little "Band of Brothers" upstream through the exiting crowd. Thanks for your kind words and I hope you keep reading.

A day for doing around-the-house projects.

If you are on a Windows domain in your workplace and your Systems Administrator hasn't disabled the ability for you to change your password, then you can take control of your own security issues (or insecurity as the case may be) and change your password with relative ease. Here's how: Press the Control, Alt and Delete keys at the same time. Press the 'Change Password...' button. Type your old password in the first field. Type a new password in the second field. Type the new password again in the third field. Press OK. That's all there is to it - Consider yourself empowered.

Playlisted and mixed-up on the iPod, because the state of "chill" is not coming naturally today.

From Thanksgiving until the New Year, Lisa and I started watching Season 1, Episode 1 of Lost and got caught up with Season 2, Episode 9. Now we're in sync with the rest of the world and ready for Episode 10 (which aired last night), right? Not quite... 'Prime Time' in our house is bath, jammies, goodnight stories and bed. 'Mommy & Daddy Time' doesn't start until 9:00 or 9:30 - Lost is on in the Central Time Zone from 7:00 until 8:00. Problem. Solution: record it! Another problem: No blank video tapes. Question: When in the World did Video Tapes become totally EXTINCT?? I went to a grocery store once known to stock blank VHS tapes only to find blank DVD's and squatty VHS-C tapes (what the??). Then I went to Radio Shack to find some. Slam Dunk? I think not. With the blank stares the staff gave me, I might as well have been speaking Klingon when I said the word 'video tape' (although, these dudes probably would've understood Klingon). Trey ,...

I'm copying a lot of files at work today to create a standby server in Colorado. At one point, I had so many of these "Copying" windows open that it looked like a horizontal ticker-tape parade. On another note, Big Brother is back from vacation. Looks like my employer has shut down access to GMail due to the potential of "non-work related communication/activities." And their point is...?

'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' - Bueller...Bueller...Edition is being released again on DVD January 10! This time it'll have all of the Bonus goodies that the first DVD skipped in 1999. We don't have a large movie collection in our house (15 titles at the most), but I will definitely have to sacrifice a few days of Starbucks to own this. If you attended public high school in the mid-Eighties and you saw this movie, you absolutely cannot deny that Ferris Bueller was your hero. SAVE FERRIS!!!

They're made of a Hopen, a Hamar in the middle, a Lade underneath, a Hagalid for support and maybe a Tubevo for extra comfort. If you guessed IKEA , you're right. If you're really clever and guessed that our 8-year old bed bit the dust yesterday prompting a mad dash to the IKEA store in Frisco and a near all-nighter trying to get it assembled - then go ahead and give yourself some extra points! As we cruised the aisles, we were getting giddy trying to pronounce the names they give each product, hence the confusing intro.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Kicked off last night with a keynote from Bill Gates . CES is where all of the newest and coolest gadgets, TVs, computers and just about anything else that has a chip in it are showcased (or rumored about) . I had three blogs lined up that I was going to scan throughout the four-day event, but so far, only Engadget is delivery the fury of news I was looking for . If anyone knows of another active blog focusing on CES, drop me a comment.

I'm reading through the bible this year (that's the plan, at least) and on this third day in 2006 I should be starting Genesis 8, but I find myself "In the beginning..." And so I'm reading through the Days of Creation and in the sidebar of my mind I'm imagining how spectacular it must have been and if Peter Jackson ever decided to do a movie about Genesis, that it would be an IMAX experience like no other... but I digress. Picking up steam toward the end of Chapter 1, I swing the doors open on Chapter 2 and STOP!!! Never before had I read Genesis 2:1 quite like this and it challenged and changed my view of the universe. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (NIV) That's it. By the end of day six, the heavens (the universe as I understand it) and the earth were completely done. Scientists keep telling us that the universe is ever-expanding. Or is man's grasp of the universe the thing that is ever-expanding? You see, ...

Call it a resolution, but I'm calling it a reaquaintance. Three years ago I put aside a regular gig as rhythm guitarist in the church worship band "only for a season" (we thought) as rehearsals were at 7:00am on Sunday mornings and my wife was having to get our newly-expanded family ready for and transported to church by herself. Although Lisa is truly a Super Mom, we decided it best that we all arrive at God's House together as a whole family unit. In short, the blessing of that decision far outweighed the sacrifice. Today, a layer of dust has settled on the softshell case, the callouses on my fingertips are completely gone, and my chops are, well let's say choppy at best. We're also not at the same church anymore and I have no plans to return to a band environment, but that's OK - it'll just be nice to get to know my Old Friend once more.