Install updates. Install updates of ALL installed programs. Please.

I cannot stress enough the importance of installing updates. But how does it come that this concept is so counter-intuitive? Because it's not related to the material world.

I recently had a sad event happen where the power supply burned up for my 12" Powerbook. So, what could I do? Well, what I'm about to document here is my little journey into getting back on my feet. The reason why I did this & not simply try to buy a new power supply is that a) my wife & I are about to make an international move, so time is short where we are, b) I didn't have time to wait for a power supply, since I had some pending projects that needed to get finished & I needed to get the hard drive out, so that I could get to those projects & c) I didn't have access to another Mac to connect my Powerbook hard drive to.

So, here we go!

This is a fantastic article that will help us all to keep things in perspective. Burnout is probably the number 1 cause for people not being able to stay the course. Let's be more aware of this issue, not only for others, but for ourselves, as well!

As the password database (both in my head & in an encrypted file) grows, I increasingly worry about the responsibility which is behind. Not only that someone else could get access to these passwords, maybe suddenly the Internet stops working (at least at home), my computer stops working, the hard drive refuses to read the database file; maybe I'm in holidays, sick or otherwise occupied, and in this very month a significant security update should have been made for [replace this with concerning server or website]; or worst, my heart stops beating and someone else is trying to take over my heritage because he desperately needs access to [server/website].

Originally Posted on 26/06/2007 by Kevin Colyer

I was reading the Crit 07 report and was interested by the part about proposing an IT Symposium "a gathering of IT specialists that can come together and work on a common project – an IT project/infrastructure that will serve the mission as a whole".

Originally Posted on 18/06/2007 by Alex Costa

Hey! I've been testing some OpenSource and Free software for using with Videoconferencing equipment and I was wondering if someone here have tested, tried or successfully used any of the following software.

Xmeeting - for Mac computers

Ekiga - Formerly known as Gnome Meeting ( for Linux and has a beta for Windows)

Originally posted on 06/06/2007 by Sindre Vaernes

I think I vaguely remember when the service first started, but I did not pay much attention. Now I just read an article where Deutsche Telekom has made an investment in this company, so maybe there is something to it after all. I signed up but haven't really been able to test anything yet.

They are supposed to offer some competition with Skype, etc. Following is an excerpt from the news article I read:

With the death of our national leader in December 2007 and with the loss of the original YWAM IT website over a year ago, I started thinking about how I am managing the communication assets for YWAM in my country. I realized that if anything would ever happen to me, there would be no way (or an extremely difficult way) that my leaders would be able to recover a myriad of important things, like several YWAM Latvia websites, email accounts & other confidential services.

I'm subscribed to a few different graphic design blogs, & the latest series of posts has revealed something that could be quite a good little resource for those of us who are designing websites. In addition to the other very important theory points that we need to keep in mind, even for web design, there are also some points about usability, which I find vital to good web design. Check it out & let's try to improve our communication!

50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory

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So, then I'll try to start to get the first few folks into a discussion here...
I'm wondering if someone here is using Asterisk or any other PBX as phone system on their base, ministry, or even for their personal phone lines. Actually, I don't even know if there is another OpenSource PBX besides Asterisk. But that isn't so much my issue at the moment, anyways. Many times ideas, like this one, are born out of a mix of I'm annoyed about something for whatever reason, I want to learn something new, I have that awesome sweet idea (that at the end often isn't possible or way too complicated), I'm curious about something, and sometimes maybe because I'm a little bored (yes, that can happen, even if it sounds impossible being bored and being in YWAM).