« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
Looking for recommendations on offsite network monitoring services ...
...something that will check that certain web portals are available from offsite (OWA, Sharepoint, Help Desk, HVAC, etc) VPN is up, and even another layer of exchange connectivity apart from Postini.
Some suggestions I've gotten already via the Church IT IRC channel:
dyndns.org
mon.itor.us
internetvista.com
montastic.com
websitepulse.com
Other input?
Think you have data storage issues?
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University physicists and computer scientists are part of a national project to create the most powerful telescope ever constructed. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will capture a 10-square-degree field of view - 3,100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's - and will include the largest digital camera ever constructed with 3,200-megapixels [that's over 3 Gigapixels!].
On Jan. 3, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope partnership announced a $20 million gift from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and $10 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. It is estimated that $389 million will be needed for the telescope's construction.
"In just its first week of operation, LSST will survey a volume of the universe larger than all previous telescopes combined," said Shipsey, who also is a member of the project's camera construction team. "Over 10 years it will continuously search the universe for change and evolution, making an unprecedented 3-D movie of the universe - the greatest movie ever. the telescope will produce 30 terabytes of data per night that dedicated data facilities will process in real time. "LSST will catalog 10 billion galaxies and 10 billion stars, creating 60 petabytes of astronomical image data, which is equivalent to 100 million CDs, and a 30-petabyte database," he said. "Analyzing this data in real time and making it available to the public is an enormous computing challenge."
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is designed to be a public facility. The database and resulting catalogs will be made available to the community at large with no proprietary restrictions. A sophisticated data-management system will provide easy access to enable simple queries from individual professional and amateur users, as well as computationally intensive scientific investigations that utilize the entire database. Read full article.
Thanks to Tom Templin for the heads up on this.
I went shopping recently to get some new "fun" diet stuff for the fridge. What diet am I on? I'm just basically watching calories. It's mind blowing how many calories are in the foods you would normally eat. Currently I'm trying to keep my calorie intake under 1200 per day vs. the "recommended daily allowance of 2000"
I can totally tell my stomach has shrunk in the past weeks as I don't have to eat much to keep away the hunger pains :-)
Here's my current typical routine:
So here are a few of the items I picked up at the store that have some nice flavor but low to no calories:
A few people have asked what my weight goal is. I hadn't really made one yet. I believe I was 175 back in college when I was pretty lean ... so I guess that's where I'm aiming currently. I've eventually get to the doctor for a checkup and get his thoughts. It's been at least 5 years since I've seen a doctor ... geepers, I'm past due.
If you hadn't heard ... we have a 24/7 Church IT chat room you're invited to join. You'll find IT geeks hangin' out in there all hours of the day and into the midnight hours. It's a place to ask questions, blow off some steam, and get to know other IT peers. Last night there was a rather long discussion on HP switches and leasing strategies ... started by your's truly :-)
Setting up an IRC client might not be your cup of tea ... so here's a VERY simple way to join in the chat room via a simple website.
- Head over to www.mibbit.com
- Select the Server 'Freenode'
- Type in a Nickname you'd like to use (you might have to try a couple if the one's you want are already in use)
- Type #citrt in the channel box (citrt = church IT round table)
- Hit connect and now you're in the chat room.
That's it ... you're golden Jerry, golden. I'd maybe recommend keeping mibbit open all day and just check back through the chat threads from time to time to see if you missed anything 'good'. There are often some great after hours threads so perhaps let it run overnight and check the threads in the morning. This is just another resource to try and further resource each other. Church IT can be a lonely place, here's yet another way to connect with your peers :-)
For those wanting to use a real IRC client, Justin Moore has a great write-up on IRC tips-n-tricks
Here's what someone recently said about the chat room:
" ...In my short time participating in the chat room I've learned way
too much, and feel more connected then my year of lurking around the
blogs and the bi-monthly Talkshoes ..."
* NOTE: IRC can be addictive. This is NOT intended nor should it be a distraction from your day to day tasks!
Tony Morgan recently posted the following IT position opening on his blog ... if you or someone you know might be interested please contact Jennifer at the below link.
"It's been about six months since we first tried to fill this key leadership role on our team at NewSpring. We are hoping to identify an IT Director to lead our computer technology team and help design and implement technology solutions for our rapidly growing ministry. This is going to take a unique individual with a combination of leadership and technology skills. Here are some characteristics of the person we’re looking for:
- Loves Jesus and the mission and vision of NewSpring Church.
- Has the capacity to manage the church’s IT infrastructure including all network, hardware, software and help desk functions. This includes planning, purchasing, training, security and user support.
- Familiar with the challenges of managing IT functions across multiple locations.
- Has leadership and project management experience. Though this is a hands-on role, we need someone who can lead the team and drive our technology strategy for the future.
- Likely has a degree in computer science, information technology or a related field.
- At least 5 years of experience in the IT field preferably in a leadership role.
- Appropriate Microsoft certifications demonstrating capacity to oversee these critical functions.
As always, we'd prefer to find someone who is already engaged in our ministries here at NewSpring; however, for this particular role, we're also open to "outside" candidates. Is it you? Or, do you know someone who is wired for this role? If so, contact Jennifer and request an application."
Tony was a great guy to work for while he was my boss at GCC ... I mean he hired me so that right there gives him some street cred right? ;-)
For the first time in many (too many) years I'm seeing sub 200 lbs!!
Yup, I was very excited this morning when I hit the scales and saw this ... told Kim and ran to grab the treo and take this photo :-)
So today I hit the magical 15lb lost mark ... wahoo!
Wow, I can't believe a year ago last Friday I was in the delivery room with my wife heralding the arrival of our third child. What a crazy year it's been ... I'm so thankful to God that Ashlee has been a rather easy baby compared with our first 2. The transition from 2 to 3 kids has been challenging, but significantly better than I was expecting :-)
Here's a couple pics from the bday party Saturday ...
Thanks to Mrs. Nancy for the sweet cake!
Hmm, how about I grab the flame instead of blow it out??
Ahh, my first piece of cake!
I see people using this fork like thingy to eat with ... guess I'll try to.
Big brother to the rescue.
Forget the fork ... it's chow time!!
Don't mess with me when I'm eatin' cake!
Time to ride my red moose. Cya
Ok ... I'm lazy ... and why recreate the wheel right? I'm lifting the following info straight off Tony Dye's blog rather than type up something similar ... and yes, I did ask ;-)
Date: Saturday, April 5, 2008
Time: 9-5, with check-in before, and maybe coffee/social time starting as early as 7:30. Perhaps an informal dinner afterward, off-site, pay-your-own-way.
Location:
Crossings Community Church
14600 North Portland
Oklahoma City, OK 73134Attendance: we're guessing that we'll have about 100. If we get a lot of early registrations, we'll figure out how to raise the limit.
Registration: In the works, probably opening near February 1. Expected cost will be $35 or less, which will include lunch and snacks.
Host: Michael Foster
Moderator: Jason Powell
Room setting: Retrying some variation of the "at the table" vs. "in the room" concept we used last year in Houston, but we'll attempt to step it up a bit to give more opportunities to get to the table. How? We don't know yet! Expect power, WiFi, and audio in the room, somehow or another.
What about vendors? *IT* people from vendors are welcomed, just like any other IT person. Vendor marketing teams will have their chance during MinistryTECH.
There's a good chance some of some goodies or door prizes from the non-ChMS vendors.
Kem gave this to me Monday and I've just got to share ... this is an exceptionally well done illustration on network security. It uses fun characters and data flow paths to present something rather complicated in a fun and easy to understand way. Brilliant!
You can download your own copy here courtesy of XPlane.com
I was going to google something on my blog this morning and was shocked when my feedburner was showing 1159 subscribers. Wha?! Had I missed the important milestone of 1000 subscribers?
I logged into feedburner and verified that yesterday it was only at 957. Hmm.
Unless feedburner made a big change in how they count subscribers I'm going to assume that this is an anomaly. I doubt there was a sudden surge of people wanting to all subscribe to my blog yesterday ;-)
update: many others are seeing inflated #'s as well.
Recent Comments