The Joys of Technology

Christa tells me over and over how much she doesn't like technology. My usual response is that she just better get used to it because we are getting more and more reliant on technology, whether she likes or not.

We do not have an iPad, an iPod Touch, DVR, BluRay and many of the other cutting edge technologies in our home. We are content with an HDTV and a DVD player. We seem to be getting by just fine.

A few months ago, after much thought, I upgraded my phone and got a "smartphone." This of course meant a "data plan" which means that I need to spend extra money for the phone and the plan.

So far, I have enjoyed having the phone and the plan. I have discovered lots of applications through my phone that have helped me to be more organized in work and life. I especially found a task list program that works really great!

Two issues within the last two weeks:

• While getting ready on a Sunday morning, my phone slipped out of my hands an landed screen down on the floor. The glass now looks more like a spiderweb...but the phone still works. Not wanting to drop the money for a new phone and too cheap to by the insurance, I used some packing tape and the phone still functions.
• When upgrading from a free to a paid version of my To Do list application, I did not know that my doing the upgrade, all of the tasks that I had thus far would be deleted. I tried to remember the 68 tasks that I had in there before. I got up to 59...so we'll see what I foget to get done in the next few weeks.

Oh the joys of technology!

Technology Frustration

I certainly wouldn't want to encourage people to pray for a machine, but perhaps you could pray for Linda and I. We are having issues with our printer and I think it is time that we get a new printer. We received our current printer in 2007 as a donation to the church. Since I have been the pastor, it has served its purpose, but we have also had some issues with it.

This last week, we have struggled with getting it to print anything. Through some investigative work, with the help of the Fond du Lac Cartridge World folks, we were able to figure out that we were haviung issue with the printer head. The replacement did not work either. We are stumped.

I think this may be the time to upgrade. I will be doing some shopping this afternoon. We have a lot of printing to do Friday and I hope we can have something new working by Friday. Outsourcing printing can get expensive!

Where Does It End?

I read this article yesterday and found the headline to be a little misleading. It seemed to imply that somehow Google was going to work help supply information to the NSA. It's not hard to make that jump when you read articles about how Google tries to continuously increase the access it has to information about us.

The article is really about Google would like the NSA's help to ward off cyberattacks on their information.

It still causes me to think about all of the information that we have out in cyberspace and who has access to it. I wonder where you draw the line between personal information and what the public should know. *sigh* I continue to struggle with the idea that as we create more and more things to make our life "easier" and "simpler", it seems to only get more complex and confusing.

Website and Networking Updates

I will be the first to admit, that as much as I try to be at the leading edge of technological trends, that is not always the case. Since I began as a pastor in July of 2009, I have trying to think of ways that we can move the Oakfield and Tabor churches forward in the areas of technology. In talking with the Oakfield Lay Leader, I got connected with a young man who does technology work for the Oakfield School District.

We met for lunch today and he provided me with some wonderful information as we look at website hosting opportunities and possible ways to network the office. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can get a new website started for both churches. Linda and I will also hopefully be able to share files on a server as well as share the same printer. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

New Office Computer

I am typing today's entry on the new lap top that was purchased for the pastor of the church. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have this new resource in my work. I have been able to take all of the church files that I have spread over various computers and flash drives. With it being so compact, I can take it to both churches as well as to any meetings that I might have.

This computer has a fairly strong internal wireless internet card installed in it. It is powerful enough that it actually picks up the wireless signal from our house across the street. This means that I have internet access in the office. Yippee!

As you can see the computer comes with a camera as well that I took advantage of. Thank you to the church councils of both churches for authorizing the purchase of this computer. They managed to order from a place that gave us a significant discount on the computer.