Physician, Heal Thyself!

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!!

Microsoft Support: Worth the Cost?

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.

Chick-fil-A Good:Gross Ratio

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".

Yet Another Starbucks Fav

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

A Cingular Haiku

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 :-(

Web Site Statistics

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 hands out. I signed up to receive an invitation code as soon as their capacity increases. If anyone has a good words to say about Google Analytics, I'd love to hear it.

AWStats is built with Perl and now I'm intrigued. I think a little code-dabbling might be in order.

100

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.

Destination 2006: Granger, Indiana

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.

Super Bowl Barber Shop Talk

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 Dave telling a story that on one Fox Sports trip, they were standing on the tarmac next to the plane with a few minutes to spare and Terry brought out a football and asked who wanted to toss it around with him. That must have been a huge thrill!

Seattle Seahawks
Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen owns the team. You know me, I'm a techie! Say what you want about the "evil empire" now, but 15 years ago I read a biography on Bill Gates (before he was as BILL GATES-ish as he is now) and it went into great detail about his school days friendship with Paul Allen. Before Microsoft, they were the dynamic duo of geekdom and they came up with several microprocessor inventions and businesses to support them.

Now that I've explained my reasons for liking both teams (as weak as those reasons may appear), I still have no clue who I want to win.

Funny... Yet True

Forgotten Lyrics

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... ?