Founder & Editor-in-Chief Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com VP of Operations Michael Hewitt - mike@ccmag.com Contributing Editors Dr. J.D.

Doc Watson, Terry Wilhite, Yvon Prehn, Nick Nicholaou, Walt Wilson, G Will Milor, Jim Vanduzer Kevin A. Purcell, Ross Gile Copy Editor Gene Pearson Corporate Home Office
Mailing address: PO Box 319 Belton MO 64012 Delivery address: 311 Manor Dr. Belton, MO 64012 Phone: (816) 331-8142 FAX: 800-456-1868

Applying Tomorrows Technology to Todays Ministry Volume 18

COVER STORY - Page 8

November 2006

No 11

Small Groups = Big Needs

by Lauren Hunter EDITORIAL CCMag NewsBrief Podcasts and a New Column PRESS RELEASES FINDING GOD IN TODAYS TECHNOLOGY Keep Your Power Charged CCMAG NEWSBRIEF INTERNET TOOLBOX Cool Web Tools for your Ministry INTERNET MINISTRY Web 2.0 - The Second Generation Revolution NICK AT CHURCH Is Your Windows Mobile Device Safe? TECH TALK Tweaking the Windows XP Registry Part 6 Page 3 by Steve Hewitt Page 4 Page 7 by Steve Hewitt Page 12 Page 16 by Ross Gile Page 17 by Walt Wilson Page 20 by Nick Nicholaou Page 21 by Dr. J.D. Doc Watson

Copyright 2006 by Christian Computing, Inc. All Rights Reserved Christian Computing is a registered trademark of Christian Computing, Inc. Written materials submitted to Christian Computing Magazine become the property of Christian Computing, Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Computing Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materials submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publication may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian Computing, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Computing Magazine, or Christian Computing, Inc.

MINISTRY COMMUNICATIONS Page 23 A successful plan for church holiday outreach marketing by Yvon Prehn INFORMATION SECURITY Fun with Encryption? Page 27 by G. Will Milor

HIGHER POWER WITH KEVIN Page 29 Christmas is coming! Gift ideas for your favorite geek! by Kevin Purcell HAND HELD DEVICES Page 34 Sunday School - Not just flannel graphs anymore by Jim Vanduzer 2 November 2006

Christian Computing Magazine

Editorial
Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

Christian Gift Recommendation and a New Column!

ften, I use this column to announce new services that we are offering, and this month is no exception. However, before I delve into what is new at CCMag, I want to take this time to thank my Lord for what He has been doing this last month. I am so grateful for our many outstanding writers who contribute each month to our magazine (all of our writers do so from a heart of ministry and write free for CCMag) I am also grateful for our staff, and for my son Mike, who does so much for us each month. And, I want to thank all of those people who serve in other ways, volunteering their talents to this ministry (such as our proof editors.) God has been so good!
Christmas Gift Recommendations
Kevin did a fantastic job of listing Christmas ideas for your favorite geek (see his column in this issue.) Since I get asked for my recommendations, I am going to make one for the children and teens this year. Check out Dance Praise (from Digital Praise). This would be a great gift for any child, teen or young adult. As well, it would be a great gift to give the youth minister or youth department at your church. Basically, you hook the foot pad up to your computer, run the program and move your feet around the pad as instructed on the computer screen. All of this is done to the sound of great contemporary Christian music. They now have three Expansion Packs? (Modern Worship, Hip-Hop/Rap, Pop & Rock Hits.) All together, they are offering over 150 songs (and over 450 dances).Visit them at http://www.digitalpraise.com/ccmag/. zine. I have been thinking of putting them together into a devotional/illustration book, but for now, I will share some in CCMag. I would be interested to hear your comments about the column. Please drop me an email.

Together We Serve Him,

New Column, Finding God in Todays Technology

Technology and my relationship with Christ are two very important parts of my life. Many times as I encounter technology, Biblical teachings come to mind. This lead me to write some short articles, devotional in nature, and I have decided to include one of them each month in our magaChristian Computing Magazine November 2006 Steve Hewitt Editor-in-Chief 3

Press Releases
Parishsoft Acquires The Catholic Software Company
ParishSOFT, the nations fastest growing church management software company, has acquired the assets of The Catholic Software Company, officials from both companies announced today. According to ParishSOFT President and CEO William Pressprich, ParishSOFT will now be serving the customers of The Catholic Software Company, provider of the ParishOffice and ParishLite parish management software programs. We are pleased to welcome ParishOffice and ParishLite customers, and we will be extending a special offer to them, complete with data conversion, training, and the full resources of our dedicated support team, Pressprich said. We are committed to ensuring that their transition to ParishSOFT is a smooth one. Rob Rhodes, President of The Catholic Software Company, said, I have admired ParishSOFT for several years and am confident they will be a great fit for our customers. ParishSOFT has a very high customer satisfaction rate, and their Catholic-based management software is so intuitive that our users will experience little or no downtime as they transfer systems. According to Pressprich and Rhodes, current users of the ParishOffice and ParishLite products will be invited to join the thousands of parishes that have already made the switch to ParishSOFT. Teams from ParishSOFT and The Catholic Software Company are working closely to ensure a thorough data conversion, and ParishSOFT support has studied the operating conventions and inner workings of the ParishOffice and ParishLite programs to help new ParishSOFT users get up and running as quickly as possible. About ParishSOFT Founded in 1998, ParishSOFT offers a complete suite of church management software and web services that streamline operations, increase stewardship, foster collaboration, and improve communications. ParishSOFT currently serves 2,500 Catholic parishes and 25 arch/dioceses. This is the second acquisition for ParishSOFT, which acquired The Software Library and its Church Management Systems (CMS) products in 2003 to add financial and accounting components to its suite of church management software and web solutions. In January 2005, ParishSOFT announced a strategic partnership with Our Sunday Visitor (OSV), the nations largest Catholic producer of church offering envelopes as well as one of the leading publishers of Catholic periodicals, books and religious education materials. For more information, visit www.parishsoft.com.

vCHURCHES Announces New Layouts And Other Additions!

At no additional cost, customers of vChurches now have new layouts, color styles and the ability to change the background color of your website. Thousands of combinations to create! Here is other great news! vCHURCHES is compatible with Internet Explorer 7.0! Referral Program! Get $50 for every referral that purchases vCHURCHES! vCHURCHES is a member of the MMA, Ministry Marketing Alliance partnering with Easy Worship, Church Art Works, Group Imaging, and Print 4 Christ. Get a FREE $5 Starbucks Card just for telling someone about us. Call us to find out more. Let us by your next Ventidouble-non-fat-half and half-roomy vanilla latte with a extra foam! About vCHURCHES vCHURCHES empowers churches and ministries to create, edit, and control their website presence with ease and 4 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

affordability. Visit http:// www.vchurches.com

StudyLamp Software releases SwordSearcher Bible Study Softwareversion 5

StudyLamp Software has released version 5 of SwordSearcher, a Bible study application for Windows XP, 2000, and Vista.SwordSearcher provides users with a wide variety of tools for Bible study, with an interface that is easy to learn and use, for both devotional and in-depth Christian Bible study. In addition to making Bible searches fast and simple, SwordSearcher includes a unique Verse Guide function designed to make accessing a vast amount of library material as simple as typing in a verse reference or subject. Users can specify any verse reference or passage to study, and SwordSearcher will instantly show every book, commentary, topical, or dictionary resource that references the verse or passage. Version 5 of SwordSearcher implements significant improvements to the user interface and searching functions of the software, with refinements based on rigorous testing by a group of Bible students, pastors, and teachers. Version 5 adds new searching methods for both simple and complex searches. Users can search any individual item, or the entire study library, nearly instantaneously for words, phrases, word forms, fuzzy matches, and with simple or complex Boolean expressions. Additionally, version 5 expands the SwordSearcher study library by adding John Gill's complete Exposition of the Bible, Clarence Larkin's commentaries on Daniel and Revelation, and a comprehensive Harmonies and Chronologies reference. The library includes over 50 resources: Bibles, books, comChristian Computing Magazine November 2006 5

mentaries, topical guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, charts, maps, and illustrations. The SwordSearcher Deluxe CD-ROM is $49.95 and can be ordered on the internet at http://www.swordsearcher.com . An evaluation version of the software is available for free at the same Website.

Truepath Christian Web Hosting Expands Technical Support Availability to Seven Days a Week
Truepath Christian Web Hosting today announced the expansion of its customer technical support from five to seven days a week. By adding email tech support on the weekends, Truepath now provides customers with around the clock coverage. Historically, Truepath has featured personalized customer phone and email support Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. By extending email technical support from five days a week to seven, Truepath takes a stand as the support leader of Christian Web hosts. Our top notch technical staff continually monitors both Web hosting activities and our servers 24/7, said Gil Vidals, President of Truepath. This ensures a quick response to any and all technical problems to provide maximum availability for our customers. In addition to 24/7 monitoring and availability, Truepath offers other important technical support options to customers including: Truepaths proprietary Control Panel trouble ticketing system Do-it-yourself options including a library of tutorials on topics such as applications, OS commerce, B2B and others important issues Hosted Frequently Asked Questions for easy reference An extensive Knowledgebase In all of the numerous dealings I have had with them over the past 7 years, Truepath doesnt just talk the talk, they really walk the walk, says customer Rich Franconeri of stclaresi.com. Their customer service is first rate and is only surpassed by their professional and caring technical support staff. To start experiencing the Truepath difference, contact them today at (760) 480-8791, or visit their web site at www.truepath.com.

Church Management Software

for Windows

VIANSOFT Contributions and Treasurer

Contributions: Membership, contribution statements, receipts, pledges, participation (attendance), committee lists. Treasurer: Budget, income, expenses, purchase orders, print checks. Extensive reports. Visit our web site for complete information and free Trial versions. Easy to use and affordable ($95.00 each). Since 1985, we have provided financial accounting software for congregations and ministries of all sizes.
Vian Corporation 452 West Hill Road Glen Gardner, NJ 08826-3253 Phone 908-537-4642 Email: vian@vian.com Web site: www.vian.com

November 2006

Christian Computing Magazine

finding god in todays technology

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

Keep Your Power Charged

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

was sitting in my office one day and had just turned away from working on my computer when out of the corner of my eye I noticed the cursor moving about the screen and clicking on windows, opening and closing them. It alarmed me at first, because my hand was not on my mouse, yet it appeared as if a ghost was using my computer. I quickly hit the intercom and asked for Kevin, my VP of operations, to come into my office and see what was happening. Kevin had the office right across the hall from my office, so it didnt take him but a minute to come in to see what was going on with my computer. However, you can guess what happened, as soon as Kevin came into my office, the problem ceased, and my computer just sat their with both of us intently looking at the monitor waiting for something to happen.
After a few minutes, I told Kevin it must have simply been a weird glitch, and he could go back to his office. However, no sooner than Kevin had closed the door to his office than my computer began to go berserk, and once again my cursor was moving across the screen clicking and dragging windows while I simply watched in amazement. I was sure someone had hacked into my computer through the Internet or our company network and was operating my computer through remote commands. I immediately asked Kevin to come quickly back to my office to observe the strange happenings on my computer. However, as soon as Kevin left his office to come and verify my sanity, the problem ceased. We then began to ask others with technical abilities to gather in my office to discuss the potential solutions to what was going on with my computer. After several hours of trying to figure out the problem, someone observed that my computer seemed to go crazy only when Kevin was back in his office working on his computer. That was when we also observed that Kevin and I had a wireless mouse, and in our case, the exact same brand. The problem, it seemed, was that the batteries within my mouse were almost dead, and the signal from Kevins mouse was actually being picked up by my computer. When he moved his mouse on his computer, the cursor was also following the same commands on my computer. After changing the batteries in my mouse, the problem ceased. Because the batteries in my mouse were low, Kevins mouse Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 signals from across the hall usurped my mouses power. Many different scripturs talk about how important power is in our Christian walk. For example, John 1:12 tells us, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And the Bible tells us we use Gods power for prayer, for victory over temptation and much more. In fact, I John 1:12 tells us that at salvation, God gives us the power to become His children. We need to be sure to keep our power charged, because if we allow our batteries to become run down, outside forces will begin to take control. Keep your spiritual batteries charged by keeping in the Word, attending church regularly, and mediating on the things of the Lord, or our batteries can become weak, and outside signals will have a negative influence.

Small Groups = Big Needs

ACS Technologies Offers Integrated Solutions to Manage Small Groups and More
by Lauren Hunter

hurches are continually looking for new ways to engage their attenders, communicate their mission and vision, and care for the needs of their church body. More than ever, churches are turning to small groups to provide this effective environment for spiritual transformation and growth. But how does a church go about increasing ministry efforts in this and other areas when perhaps their church has grown in size and there are more members with which to communicate? The trend is for churches to increase the numbers of small groups that are offered as their organizations grow in size and number.
Meeting in groups at churches, in one anothers homes, in coffee houses, and even peoples places of business makes it possible for people to stay connected on a more personal level and for churches to increase ministry impact. Whether a church serves 300 or 3,000, small groups can be extremely effective at drawing people in and caring for their needs. But as the number of small groups increases, so does the need to manage their activity. In order to provide congregations with tools to effectively increase these ministry efforts and maximize small group activities within their churches, ACS Technologies (www.acstechnologies.com) has recently released a new package of solutions that combine Access ACS (www.acstechnologies.com/products/accessacs) online tools and real life ministry implementation. The result is Small Groups Complete, (www.acstechnologies.com/totalsolutions/ smallgroups) a valuable choice for churches that wish to manage and organize small group ministries more efficiently and effectively. For example, when Calvary Community Church (CCC) in Westlake Village, California (www.calvarycc.org/) grew rapidly 8 November 2006 over a period of a few years, the church realized that they were quickly losing contact with its members, both new and old, and were searching for ways to increase communication, encourage small groups participation, and get people involved in outreach at all levels. With nearly 5,000 people in its congregation, and a desire to expand the numbers of its small groups from 115 to 750, CCC came to a point where they realized that its way of organizing small groups information wasnt working. Spreadsheets just werent cutting it any longer; information was nearly out of date by the time updated lists were sent to leaders. Since CCC uses ACS for their church software management, the staff decided to add the company to the list of technology providers to review in order to find the best solutions for managing small groups. After forming a technolChristian Computing Magazine

ogy task force to review all options, CCC selected ACS Technologies Small Groups Complete package because it offered the best tools for small groups management and integrated with their existing ACS applications. The membership information that was stored in ACS on their desktops communicated with Access ACS, the Webbased tool used to perform effective outreach, increase stewardship, manage small groups, and collect tithesall online. We were confident that ACS Technologies had what CCC was looking for: the power of robust, proven desktop applications to run the complete back office while empowering and enabling Web-based tools to allow them to rapidly expand involvement of lay leaders, members, and guests, commented Cindy Streett, product manager for Access ACS. With Small Groups Complete, ACS Technologies was able to not only provide the management tools to keep track of small groups activity, it provided the implementation services to help bring CCCs small groups campaign together successfully. While some companies simply provide the technology tools and send you on your way, ACS Technologies doesnt stop there. With ACS Implementation Specialists, churches can have their small groups processes up and running in 30 days or less. From the initial assessment of needs, to planning, to installation, to training, to the big launch and follow-up, ACS Technologies can do it all. From valuable insights and knowledge gained from the numerous experiences in helping 22,000 churches over the last 28 years, ACS Technologies can be an incredible ministry partner. Access ACS together with ACS Implementation services have allowed us to do exactly what we wanted to dogrow the church, nurture the people and be examples of Christ, says Sam Gallucci, key member of the technology task force for Cavalry Community Church and industry pioChristian Computing Magazine November 2006 9

neer in the CRM field as a former PeopleSoft executive. These tools give us leverage to equip the people with what they need to minister to the internal and external aspects of the church. ACS Technologies Small Groups Complete package provides not only valuable but practical church staff and congregation tools to give churches the ability to monitor attendance and communicate with members, as well as plan activities and create group directories In addition, small group prospects can view potential groups to join by searching online and finding the right leaders to discuss group involvement; staff members can enter new prospects online and assign them to be contacted by the group leaders; attenders can contact other members of their group, update their own records and keep up with meeting times and more. Through these technology solutions, each role in the group can be given the authority and freedom to perform the functions they need in order to build community. Through its core product Access ACS, Small Groups Complete gives church staff the ability to create groups and communicate with group leaders and members to ensure the best match for ministry. It also provides tools to keep tabs on size and location of groups and assist in matching up the right people to the best group. Available services also include online event registration, online contributions and e-mail campaigns for added impact. Another way that churches are going the extra mile to connect people within small groups is to give each small group its own Web page that only their group can see. Groups can post messages, see activities, share prayer requests, find resources, and more all through a secure Web page intended only for the people in that small group. The ACS Extend Platform (www.extendplatform.com/) is a valuable solution to build church Web sites from the ground up, or to use sim10 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

ply for their small groups Web pages if they dont wish to use Extend for their church Web site. In October, ACS Technologies launched ACS Google Gadgets, (visit www.acstechnologies.com/company/news/ article14416.htm for an article by ACS on this feature) created to help church staff, small group leaders, and attenders to stay better connected to their churches. The ACS Google Gadget gives attenders and staff the ability to view outreach assignments; small group leaders can view connections with attenders that need to be made; and everyone can view their events. ACS Google Gadgets are bits of information that can be placed on ones Google Personalized Home Page (www.google.com/ig) to get information delivered where access is most convenient. Gadgets are the first in a series of small bite-sized delivery methods to enhance communications and deliver content where church attenders and staff spend their time. The Web allows us to expand the boundaries of church communication and makes it possible for increased involvement, better communication and enhanced outreach, adds Hal Campbell, President and CEO of ACS Technologies. Overall, people want to stay connected with those they care about. By combining powerful technology tools together with good small groups leadership, attenders can feel like they belong, which is a critical component to having a successful and lasting ministry within your community. Lauren Hunter is a trade writer and public relations consultant specializing in the faith-based and nonprofit technology markets. For additional information, please visit www.laurenhunter.net or email Ms. Hunter at lauren@laurenhunter.net. To access more small group resources including a white paper and full success story on CCC, visit www.ideastoimpact.com/smallgroups.

Six Keys for Setting Up Small Groups Structure

From the ACS Technologies Implementation Team 1. Put it on paper. Write out or draw a structure tree that shows how your groups are organized. If this isnt possible, consider reorganizing your groups. 2. Keep it simple. The structure should be organized enough to function, but simple enough for people to understand. It should make sense, even to people who are not involved. 3. Plan for growth. Consider where your small groups ministry will likely be in two years. Make sure that the structure you put in place now will accommodate the needs you will have. 4. Structure for success. Make sure that the structure you put in place works in conjunction with the expectations you have for your groups and leaders. For example, if you want coaches to mentor and train leaders, make sure that the ratio of leaders to coaches is appropriate (usually no more than 7:1). 5. Define the roles. In writing, clearly communicate the guidelines, expectations, and responsibilities of the people involved in the small groups ministry. Coaches, leaders, assistants, and participants should all know what role they are filling. 6. Allow for change. Ministry needs change. Congregations change. Your small groups ministry will need to change to maintain its effectiveness. New groups will need to be formed. Existing groups will need to split, adapt, or fade away. There should be processes in place for handling these changes. Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 11

NOW you can listen to the CCMag NewsBriefs directly from the CCMag Website (www.ccmag.com)

CCMag NewsBrief Podcasts Now Available On Our Site

For over 10 years, I have broadcast a segment each week on PrimeTime America (Moody Broadcasting.) For several years, we mailed out a weekly newsletter with a text version of the subjects I covered on the broadcast. However, since the magazine is in digital format, receiving two publications was confusing for some. We therefore, incorporated the CCMag NewsBrief into a regular column in our magazine. Because PrimeTime is not broadcast everywhere across the nation, and because some people miss hearing the segment on their radio many have asked us to provide the news in an audio format that they can listen to on the Web. PrimeTime has not given us permission to broadcast the segment I do with them, so Mike and I are now recording our own segment each week, using the same news subjects as I do with PrimeTime. If you would like to listen to our weekly CCMag NewsBriefs, you can do so from our Website (www.ccmag.com.)

Traffic Jams Monitored by Cellular Phone Signals

Traffic controllers have taken many efforts to monitor the flow of traffic including under-the-road sensors, radar systems and helicopters. Cities are trying to help direct drivers around slow areas by using digital signs and providing radio stations with on-going traffic reports. Now, a new system is being tested in Atlanta, Georgia that uses cell phone signals to track the location and speed of cars on the highway to determine where traffic is beginning to jam up. Cell phone companies can use non-GPS technology to track the location of a cell phone twice a second when it is being used, and once every 30 seconds when it is not being used. Presently the cell phone companies can provide the information about cell phone signals by overlaying their information over traffic mapping without revealing individual information about specific customers. However, privacy advocates are already raising red flags that no one should be able to track where you are going without your permission. The resulting traffic information would be marketed to Media outlets and could possibly be offered as a paid subscription service to individual users who would want traffic jam warnings and alternate routes provided. For more information, visit http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227603,00.html

Microsoft Offers 3D Maps of 15 Major Cities

Microsoft, seeking to one-up its competition,Google has started to offer 3D maps of 15 major cities. The new offering is in Beta version, but is downloadable for free. After downloading and installing the necessary software for the 3D maps to work, the program does a quick check of your computer and suggests the level of detail you can handle (highspeed broadband connection is suggested.) I gave it a test drive and found it interesting. Houses look flat, but larger buildings such as churches, hospitals, businesses, airports, etc., do appear in 3D, allowing you to view the building from ground level and circle the building, viewing it from all sides as well as looking straight down. For more information, visit www.msn.com.

Biometric Growth In Corporate America? Move Over Big Business, Elementary Schools Are The Biggest Buyers
How do you keep track of who has set up payment for their school lunch and who has not? This can be especially difficult when two classes rush into the cafeteria every five minutes. Many schools are turning to Biometrics. Before each student gets their lunch tray, they place their finger on a pad and their lunch account is debited. Schools, especially elementary schools, are the biggest buyers of biometric devices. Districts elsewhere in the country use finger scans to dispense medicine, take attendance, check out books in the library or ensure that bus-riding students get off at the right stop. Of course colleges and high schools are using them as well, but security needs are greatest for the younger children and biometrics meets a lot of needs. For more information, visit http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/ 12 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

Read the Review of our LogosGiving Service (Cover Story in CCMag, February 2004)! CLICK HERE (for our PDF readers) or visit www.ccmag.com/0205/0205coverstory.pdf

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1700AP_Biometric_Device.html

Seagate Will Offer An Encrypted Hard Drive

Firewalls and other measures of security are designed to set up a protective barrier between outsiders and your data on your hard drive. Seagate will be introducing a new hard drive that has the encryption built into the drive itself, adding an extra layer of protection. Computers with DriveTrustbased hard drives would prompt users to type in a password before booting up the machine. Without the password, the hard drive would be useless, Seagate officials said. This will be great, especially for notebook computers, because if they are stolen, hackers will have no way to hack into the hard drive without the password. The bad news is that there is no backdoor built into the system. If you forget your password, no one can help you access your data. For more information, visit http:// www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ story/ RTGAM.20061030.gtdrivesec30/ BNStory/Technology/home

Its Time To Say NO To Electronic Greeting Cards

My advice? Dont open ANY electronic greeting cards from anyone, any source. A crime ring working out of Australia figured a way to use legitimate Yahoo greeting cards to spread a keystroke tracker onto peoples computers in order to steal their account information. The card comes from Yahoo, but they do a quick redirect to a site that checks to see if you have the latest updates from Microsoft. If not, they know which doors to go through to install a keystroke tracker onto your computer, then the user is taken to view the legitimate greeting card from the Yahoo site. Granted, you should be tipped because the card does not tell you from whom it is coming; however, it is just a matter of time before someone figures out how to get this kind of malware to work with legitimately sent 14 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

Internet toolbox
Ross Gile - ross@digical.com

Cool Web Tools for your Ministry

A
from my father).

fter being in the web business for 12 years and Im still in awe of what the web can do. A lot of times I catch myself doing old school things like look at my map book in my car for directions because as you know, I never want to ask for directions right guys? Im constantly trying to remind myself that there are better ways of doing things such as going to the web. When my father told me several times that everything is going to computers, he wasnt whistling Dixie (another saying

As you might notice, we have changed the title of this column from Internet for Christians to the Internet Toolbox. I would like to start filling up your tool chest of great tools to make your Web experiences more enjoyable. Preface: A lot of these sites that I found on the Internet came from a free add-on Firefox (www.getfirefox.com) extension called StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com). Their tagline is: Channel surf the internet with StumbleUpon! Discover great websites, videos, pictures and more all according to your interests. What you do is sign-up for a StumbleUpon account and then install the StumbleUpon extension inside your Firefox browser. When you sign-up, you let them know your interests and they will start sending you great web sites with a click of a button. Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation from any of these web sites. Use at your own risk.

Colorcombos You give them a color you like and they will give you other colors that go with it. www.colorcombos.com Buttonator quickly make really cool web site buttons. www.buttonator.com Curvy Corners easily make curvy corners to your site without graphics. No image editing required. www.curvycorners.net CSS Photo Shuffler shows you how to how to swap photos without using flash. http://iamacamera.org/sandbox/ photoshuffler

Joomla Resources
The last two months, I talked about Joomla. Here are some more sites that can help you get started with Joomla CMS: Joomla Extensions Here is where you find add-ons to your Joomla Site http://extensions.joomla.org Joomla Help This site has all kinds of reChristian Computing Magazine

Creating Web Sites

PixelMill Find really cool templates for your next Website. www.pixelmill.net Open Source Web Design More cool free templates. www.oswd.org 16 November 2006

sources to help you setup your Joomla Site. http://help.joomla.org

Utilities
NameWidget quickly see if a domain name is available. www.namewidget.com Google Analytics a free comprehensive hosted web stats program you will be able to see on a globe of where your site visitors are coming from. www.google.com/analytics Domains by Proxy Protects your contact info when someone looks up the owner of your domain via Whois. www.domainsbyproxy.com PHPLive Add a real-time chat to your web site without a monthly fee. www.phplivesupport..com Browsershots Test your site over 15 browsers on this one web site. www.browsershots.org Amberjack Create an online site tour of your web site easily. www.aberjack.com Thunderbird E-mail This is the companion E-mail program from the developers of Mozilla Firefox. This is my e-mail program of choice and its FREE! www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird

Travel Sites
FlightAware Track flights in real time. www.flightaware.com Farecast Predicts future airfares may save you $$$$$.. www.farecast.com

Computer Training
Lynda.com Learn how to work with all the popular web designing tools from your computer at your own pace. Learn programs such as Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop to name a few. www.lynda.com I hope you can use one or more of these sites as you surf the internet or create your next web site. If you have site that you have Stumbled Upon, please send it my way and I may add it to a future article. My e-mail address is: ross@digical.com.

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Internet Ministry
Walt Wilson - waltccm@aol.com

Web 2.0 The Second Generation Revolution is Underway

he dot-com revolution is back. Big business is tuning into new technologies and tools now fueling a second generation of dot-com fever among teens, college students and the Silicon Valley elite. Oil companies are social networking online, investment banks are posting to Web wikis, and Tupperware is mashing up web applications to analyze consumer data.
After the collapse of Internet start-ups in the nineties, there has been a long silence. Suddenly, start-ups are again gaining large corporate clients for their social networking software and web services. Those established but young companies like Google carry a higher market capitalization than many of their large and long established customers. Heavies like IBM and Microsoft looking to get in on the web 2.0 revolution are now joining in. The Web 2.0 revolution hitting corporate America allows tens of thousands of employees to easily share and access data, videos, personal profiles and other information on the Internet. It provides the connectivity and applications base to make connection easier than it has ever been. It builds teams that may be in other buildings or other countries. It makes data personal. It connects people of common interest and mission. Does this sound like something the church should be looking into? Many of the technologies now hitting the corporate world had their start as consumer applications like Friendster, Wikipedia and Google Maps. Social networking was until recently confined to the youth market with sites like MySpace where people can create profiles and form links to their friends profiles to create a small group. With these emerging applications from companies in Silicon Valley, employees can manage relationships with colleagues as well as customers. Large companies are seeing the benefits of adding the element of social networking to their business. Transaction is always strengthened on the basis of relationship. Does this sound like something the church should be looking into? In the same way that social networks became part of the consumer 18 November 2006 web, business social networks are becoming a part of the corporate enterprise. Visible Path, located near San Jose, California, counts some of the worlds largest financial institutions and energy companies among its customers. Social networking taps into peoples need to interact, collaborate and meet each other in an unstructured way. Corporations are beginning to measure the value of relationship building on retention of customers and growth of the bottom line. Does this sound like something the church should be looking into? Wikis are changeable web pages whose content can be edited and modified by users. Palo Alto, California based SocialText which sells wiki software to corporations has moved the market from toys to serious corporate application. How serious? Ikea and Nokia use SocialText corporate wikis and the Oxford University Press uses similar software from JotSpot. A big advantage of these new web 2.0 applications is ease of use. Mashing allows employees to combine things that used to be viewed as dissimilar. If there is a need to Christian Computing Magazine

move Google Maps, for instance, the user can drag the map to a new location without the full page reloading. Mashing enables a user to connect information from multiple sources into a single page a YouTube video, playing on MySpace or an overlay of Craigslist rental data on Google Earth. With the introduction of mashups, wikis and social networking, more companies are showing a strong interest in the suite of products being offered by Web 2.0 technology developers. Tupperware sales reps now get real time pricing, inventory and product updates. The back office function to make this happen is now accomplished with relative ease. Hilton Hotels and United Way are using similar platforms. OK, so we see the revolution is again moving full steam ahead. It has passed the development stage and is now being used by major multinational companies. Corporate leaders recognize that relationships, ease of operations, accessibility of information, social networking, and connecting employees and customers are all essential to growth. These are the very things essential for the growth of the church. Most of our potential customers are in emotional and spiritual pain but believe that church offers no answers. We should be about connecting people and providing help to those in need.

How are we doing?

Here are some measurements as reported in the Facts and Faith newsletter: 27% of all U.S. churches make no use of the Internet 12% of Protestant pastors never use Internet 94% of church websites are inwardly focused Only 46% of churches provide staff email Only 23% make use of e-mail prayer chains Only 18% have an e-mail newsletter Only 2% of U.S. churches offer a way to donate online. 0% report using social networking software Ill let you decide if were keeping the pace or falling further behind. In the November issue of Wired Magazine the lead story on the cover is entitled, The New Atheism No Heaven. No Hell. Just Science. It raises the question will the church become irrelevant?

CCMag Tip - Word Reference Tools

Most people know that they can run spell checker in an MSWord document by pressing the F7 function key. However, did you know you can get an internet connection to many available reference tools by placing your cursor on a word and then clicking Shift+F7 at the same time? A pop-up window appears on the left side of the screen and you can use the scroll bar in that window to find a recommended word or connect to the internet to search other reference books on line. Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 19

nick at church
Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Is Your Windows Mobile Device Safe?

ost of us carry cellular or WiFi devices that can send and receive text messages, instant messages, or email. These have been fairly well protected because of the variety of operating systems they run. But some mobile operating systems are beginning to see some vulnerability.
PDAs & SmartPhones
We run mobile devices on various operating systems (OS), the three most prevalent being Palm, Windows Mobile, and Symbian. Until recently these were rarely able to connect to the Internet, but in the last couple of years that has changed dramatically. Now nearly every mobile device can connect to the Internet and can communicate via text, instant messages, and email. Whether your PDA connects to the Internet via WiFi or cellular technology (this includes cell phones), it is vulnerable. formation (social security number, driver license info, passwords, etc) which can then be harvested and used for identity theft. The new term, smishing, is derived from the tech-term SMS (Short Message Service) and combining it with phishing. Mobile device users are beginning to get smished with text messages that warn them theyve been signed up for a service that will be charged to their phone bill unless they unsubscribe. Clicking on the unsubscribe link in the text message loads a trojan horse or worm, turning the device into a zombie (zombies are computers or mobile devices that have malware running on them which allow them to be controlled and used by someone other than the owner).

The Threat
Years ago we learned that we need to protect our computers from people who want to ruin our day. We have come to be thankful for the programs that protect us from those threats (McAfee, Norton, and more). A couple of years ago the protection industry warned us that one of the next frontiers for malware writers would be PDAs and cellular phones. That warning is becoming reality. Malware is the term often used to refer to the class of programs that include viruses, Trojan horses, worms, rootkits, spyware, and more. To date, there have only been a handful of malware threats found that target mobile devices, but that is likely just the beginning of a trend according to industry experts.

Recommendations
With the threat of malware for mobile devices on the horizon, warn your users of smishing schemes such as the one mentioned above. Also, look to your antivirus software provider for software that can protect your devices from infection. We would all rather be busy building The Kingdom than cleaning viruses from mobile devices. Christian Computing Magazine

Smishing
There is a current threat which you should warn your mobile device users about. It is a variant of what we often see on our notebook and desktop computers and which we refer to as phishing. Phishing is a method for getting unwary users to share their personal identification in20 November 2006

Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson@nctelecom.net

tech talk

Tweaking the Windows XP Registry - Part 6

ressing on, in our what will be a seven-part series, well add a few more Registry tweaks to our bag of tricks: how to disable the recycle bin properties option, hide the Run as... option from the context menu, add a context menu option to move or copy to a folder, control the Always Use... option in the Open With selection box, and remove programs listed in the Open With selection box.
Disabling the Recycle Bin Properties Option
This tweak enables you to restrict access to the Properties option on the Recycle Bins context menu. First, launch RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer. Second, right-click in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value, type NoPropertiesRecycleBin, and press Enter. Third, double-click on the new key and type either a 1 (restrict access) or 0 (for allow access), click OK, and reboot. ers by adding two new context menu options: Move To Folder... and Copy To Folder... After the Registry edit, just right-click on a file or folder, click one of the new options, and then navigate to the destination you want using the Copy (or Move) Items dialog box that appears. These new options are also added to the File menu. First, launch RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystem Objects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers. Second, right-click on ContextMenuHandlers, select New > Key, type Copy To Folder, and press Enter. Third, in the right pane, doubleclick on the (Default) entry just created, type {C2FBB630-2971-11d1A18C-00C04FD75D13} in the Value Data box, and click OK. Fourth, repeat steps two and three, using the values Move To Folder and 21

Hiding the Run as... Option from the Context Menu

This setting enables you to restrict the ability for users to have access to the Run as... service when right-clicking on executables files and shortcuts. This also disables the Shift key override feature. First, launch RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Second, right-click in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value, type HideRunAsVerb, and press Enter. Third, double-click on the new key and type either a 1 (restrict access) or 0 (allow access), click OK, and reboot.

Adding a Context Menu Options to Move or Copy to a Folder

This cool little tweak enables you to easily copy and move files and foldChristian Computing Magazine November 2006

{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13} . No reboot is necessary.

Controlling the Always Use Option in the Open With Selection Box
When you double-click on a file that is not currently associated with a particular application and then select the Select the program from the list option in the dialog that appears, the Open With selection box then appears, enabling you to specify a program with which to open the file. Youll also see the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file option. If you would like to deactivate this option to prevent someone from incorrectly associating a file, heres how. First, launch RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\openas\command. Second, in the right pane double-click the (Default) entry and edit the last portion of the Value Data from OpenAs_RunDLL %1 to OpenAs_RunDLL %1 %2 and click OK. Third, click on the Desktop and press F5 for the change to take effect. The Open With dialog box will still display the option but it will be grayed out. The next tweak also involves the Open With selection box.

Removing Programs Listed in the Open With Dialog Box

If you would like to remove specific programs from those listed in the Open With selection box, it involves a simple tweak of the Registry. First, launch RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications. Notice the list of applications under this key. Click on a several of them and youll notice that many have an empty string in the right pane called NoOpenWith. This means that there are already several applications that dont appear in the Open With box. Second, for any other applications you wish, right-click on the application key in the left pane, select New > String Value from the context menu, type NoOpenWith, and press Enter. Third, restart Windows for the change(s) to take effect.

Docs Booklets and CD

There are now four booklets in my series: Windows Hot Tips, The Wonder of Word, PowerPoint for the PowerUser, and the latest, Windows Hot Tips 2 (WHT3 will come out in January). A single copy of each is $5.00 ($4.50 for 2-9 copies of the same title and $4.00 for 10 or more copies). If youd like to help with shipping costs (not required), add 50 cents for any number of booklets you order. Docs Giant Utility Collection on CD is postage paid at $14 (2-5 copies $13 each, and 6 or more copies $12 each). Send orders to: MicroManuals; PO Box 235; Meeker, CO; 81641. Thanks again, and God bless.

CCMag Tip - Re-assigning envelope numbers in Donarius

At this time of the year most churches give out new offering envelopes. Over the years with people moving you probably have many unused numbers so its time to re-assign them. However, many people want to keep their old number. What should you do? Suppose you have 150 people who use envelopes 1-200. (so you have 50 unused ones). You want anyone with numbers 1-100 to stay the same. The others will be given a new number, using the available ones in the range 1-100 or the numbers 101-150. To do this in Donarius, just click on Church Envelopes and enter these re-assigning instructions: 1-100 => same, 101-200 => 1-150 Click on Re-assign #s and you are done. Then print labels for each box of envelopes by clicking on Print Box Labels. Learn more about Donarius at www.donarius.com. 22 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

Ministry communication
Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com

A successful plan for church holiday outreach marketing

s we were discussing promotion for the Christmas Eve service at our church, our worship pastor said, Yeah, even I came to church on Christmas Eve before I was a Christian. His words are a reminder of the incredible opportunities we have to connect people with Jesus through the events we host during the holidays. Read on for ways to make your holiday outreach successful.
It has to be a team effort
You cannot create any one holiday outreach communication that will be effective in involving people in your holiday activities. It doesnt matter how great your outreach marketing piece looks, how flawless the printing, how inspired your slogan, no one piece can carry the weight of assuring a good turnout for a Christmas event. This is not to say that these things dont matter, because they do, but the key thing to remember is that no one printed or emailed piece will do it. It takes a team of efforts in both publications and in preaching. One message from a variety of sources, repeated a number of times in a number of ways will result in effective turnout. Here are some procedural tips on how to go about achieving success in your marketing efforts. 1. First, spend time in prayer asking God to impress on your heart the seriousness and the privilege of our opportunities during this time of the year. Remember, this might be your one opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus with visitors and relatives. The eternal destiny of people can be decided at your church this holiday season. Challenge yourself to go beyond a nice little devotional thought to make your congregation feel good at Christmaspray for fire in your soul as you prepare. 2. Based on your time with the Lord, as a ministry team, decide what you want your Christmas message to be. Come up with one overall theme and a slogan that summarizes it. This is crucial, because you want all of your advertising, publications, and preaching to Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 reflect that one theme. You may change the medium that you use, but your core message must stay the same for maximum retention and response. 3. Select graphics, colors, images to portray that theme and use them consistently throughout all your advertisements. People often say to me, If I keep saying things the same way, my audience will get bored. Wrong. Audiences dont get bored, audiences get confused. Great advertising campaigns always keep a core message the same for a lengthy period of time for it to have impact. Think about the Got Milk? campaign for a great illustration of this. 4. Decide on a variety of ways to communicate your message; use and repeat as many as you can. We live in a time of multi-channel communication where we need to use different ways to reach different age and interest groups. Communicate your message through postcards, bulletin announcements and inserts, invitations, web page entries, email blasts, verbal reminders, phone calls, whatever you can. 5. Youve got the team tools, now recruit 23

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the rest of your team: your people. For any holiday outreach to be really successful, every person in the congregation has to be convinced that THEY need to be the ones inviting their friends, praying for them and working hard to get them there. Remember it isnt your job to get folks there; your job is to equip the saints so they can do the work of the ministry.

It has to be a timed effort

1. Space out the message in your preaching and comments. Start as soon as possible. I am recommending to our music pastor, based on his comment, that he start saying things like, As I look ahead to Christmas, I remember what it was like before I knew the Lord, and then follow up with comments on how important it is to think about the people in their circle of friends who are in a similar situation. 2. Continue to encourage and challenge your people to invite their friends. Remind them to pray for their friends and remind them to attend. Give them the tools youve prepared, postcards, invitations, door-hangers and have them get them out there. 3. Be sure that you prepare materials that you give out at the Christmas events themselves that explain everything that is going on at your church. It will have a very negative effect on the gospel message if guests cant find the bathrooms, coffee or are confused as to where to take their kids for child care. 4. Dont forget that this is a fantastic opportunity to let guests know about what else will be going on at your church following the holidays. In addition, ALWAYS include a gospel presentation, either one written by the pastoral staff at your church or one of the tasteful tracts by the American Tract Society (www.atstracts.org) or from your denomination. Also, for some gospel presentations by a variety of churches, please go to my website, www.thelionsvoice.com. To illustrate the importance of these pieces, let me share a story. Some church leaders were asking me how they could get more of a follow up response from people who attended their huge Christmas outreach. They did a fantastic job and yearly put on an almost Broadway quality Christmas playbut seldom

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had much follow up response from people, in terms of coming back to the church, nor did they know what effect the play actually had on people coming to know Jesus. When I asked to see what they gave to people at the event to both explain the gospel message in printed form, how they got information to follow up, what they gave out to let people know what their church did on a regular basis and to invite people to events the coming week, all I got was a blank stare. Uh.we dont give them anything, was the reply. What? I said, rather incredulous, while wondering if they lived in a community where perhaps mind-reading chemicals were distributed in the water, because if you dont tell people these things in print, digitally and verbally, there is no way other than mindreading for them to find out. We dont give them anything because we dont want to be pushy at a festive event. Oh, my, was my reply and we then went on to discuss more effective communication methods. It isnt being pushy to share with people the greatest gift of all, salvation in Jesus and it isnt pushy to let them know the valuable events hosted by your church that will help them grow in their Christian faith and live a meaningful life. Many guests who come to holiday events do not know what churches do on a regular basis. A simple insert or invitation that says something like: We hope you enjoyed our Christmas program and we would love to have you come back for and then list your regular services and programs. People are looking for ways to find friends and meaning in lifebut they wont know about what your church offers if you dont tell them. The holidays are a demanding time, but a great time to welcome people into the kingdom of God. Be sure to spend time daily praying for strength to everything the Lord wants you to do as we celebrate His birth. For great gifts for church communicators, consider two of my books, Ministry Marketing Made Easy, available from www.amazon.com and my latest release, The Heart of Church Communications, available from www.thelionsvoice.com. These will inspire and help you be more effective in your church communications during the holiday season and all year long.

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Information security
G. Will Milor - blackisle@tampabay.rr.com

Fun with Encryption?

t some point over the last three months I lost my presence of mind and took yet a third job, teaching at the Keller Graduate School of Management. Now heres something Ill enjoy, teaching graduate students the basics of information security, being entertained by well written papers on vulnerability assessment, malware control, identity management, all that interesting material. Yup, theres the stuff dreams are made of. Boy, a little more of this, some aspirin, and I wont know if Im in my study or at Disney World. How good can it get? Then I started preparing my class on encryption. Are we having fun yet? Im not really sure read on.
As I start the class, I make it clear to my students that mathematics, particularly higher math, and I do not mix well. I needed math to get through my undergraduate program at Cal State and it almost killed me. To graduate with a computer science degree one needs three semesters of math beyond calculus. Ive made the claim for years that anything beyond geometry has the capability to sterilize frogs at 50 yards and should be treated with a great deal of respect. There have been classes where I hand out heavy gloves to my students, warning them that math burns can be painful, hard to heal from and could cause serious emotional conflict. So beware, because everyone knows that encryption and mathematics are not distant relatives, they are brother and sister. Dont read on unless you are properly protected. The good news is that cryptography, to be enjoyed or used, does not take any mathematics, honest! I can see that some of you are now putting those heavy gloves back in the drawer. Very good, you wont need them at all. And Ive found a great little tool for those of you interested in secret writing that not only handles the classics, Caesar Ciphers, Playfare (my personal favorite), Vgenere and a whole host of others, but also has some of the new algorithms. So, just for laughs and giggles, I Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 decided this might be something my readers would enjoy. Before I send you off to download this free tool (for those of you not interested in my banter, drop to the end of the article and download away) a quick word about encryption. I became interested in it while serving in the Army. I worked with some folks who used the Playfare cipher and when they showed me how you could take a few lines of a message, make it totally (to my eye) unreadable and then turn it back into English with the possession of the password I thought, wow, thats too cool. I started to fool around with it, got some books and did a little studying. I read The Code Breakers by David Kahn, a rather thick volume that is packed with all the stories and interesting background about 27

codes, ciphers, intrigue and secret writing down through the ages. Its a definitive work on this subject and probably only available through your local library. For an example of one of the stories that intrigued me, steganography is the process of hiding a message in some object. Like taking a microdot and hiding it as a beauty mark on a ladys face. Today steganography is the process by which messages or data is hidden in a digital picture. To me this is fascinating. 2000 years ago steganography was accomplished by tattooing a message on the shaved head of a slave (or anyone who would be the messenger). This person was then sent (after a reasonable period of time needed to grow the hair back) to the denied area, where his head was shaved again to reveal the message. This history lesson brings up so many questions, issues and jokes it falls under the category of stranger than truth, but its entertaining (at least to me and a select few that seem to frequent the same haunts as I do). Id love to know what they did with this individual after the message was revealed. Life expectancy couldnt have been very good for these folks. Anyway, with all the stories and methods I was reading about cryptography I became interested and found that passing encrypted notes and messages was a lot of fun. When I earned my computer science degree I gravitated to the notion that using a computer to do the hard work would make it even more fun, so I started fooling around with basic programs that did the work for me and left me with the fun part, passing messages that only the recipient and I could read (this wasnt true, but I was nave back then). Now, about a million years later, Ive found a tool that wraps everything into one package and is a great little educational tool for those interested in the craft of secret writing. Im not going to spend a lot of time teaching you a class on cryptography, but I do have a comment or two about CrypTool, the program that Im recommending. There are three types of cryptography that I spend my time on in class, symmetric algorithms, asymmetric algorithms (you had to see that coming, right??), and hashing functions. Without too much detail, symmetric encryption is based on one key to encrypt and decrypt your message. The key is the thing you keep secret while the algorithm is the process that uses the key to scramble up your message. Dont get too hung up on this, for anything we do the key can be a password, pass phrase or hairy long number. Asymmetric encryption uses two keys, one to encrypt and one to decrypt (this is a special cryptography case and right now I dont want to devote pages to an explanation theres a great explanation in CrypTool). Hashing is a mathematical function which takes any data, text, even a program and turns it into a number (of fixedlength). Every time you hash that thing, if nothing in the thing changes, you will get the same number. Its primarily used to ensure that what you receive is the thing that was sent (hashing is also used to protect passwords). For verification the sender hashes whatever it is being sent and sends you the hash. Then they send you the thing, whatever it is (database, program, message). You hash it with the same function and youll get the same number. Its more complicated than that, but this will have to do. On some download sites you see hash values next to the program download. Once you get the program on your hard drive you can use the same hashing function, compare the hash values and if they are the same you know youve got a program that hasnt been messed with. Hashing is good for a lot of other things too. O.K., here it is folks, Im running out of wind. The tool is called CrypTool and it comes to us from Germany. Among other places this little jewel was developed at Darmstadt Technical University and it was developed originally for learning about cryptography. You can google on CrypTool or go straight to the site with http://www.cryptool.com . The site is run by the Technische Univeritat Darmstadt, just south of Frankfurt and Main (if youre at all interested). Once downloaded, you find a number of tools bundled inside along with a whole mess of information on cryptography. You can encrypt and decrypt in a number of classic and modern algorithms. Theres a tool to encrypt entire files with the new Advanced Encryption Standard, which replaced the Data Encryption Standard not too long ago. There are hashing functions, public key cryptography and a number of simple cryptanalysis routines in case you want to try your hand at breaking some simple ciphers. Ive had a lot of fun with this program (not sure about my students) and if you have any interest in this field at all, I think you will too. Enjoy.

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Higher Power With Kevin Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org Purcell

Christmas is coming! Gift ideas for your favorite tech geek!

hristmas is coming. By the time you read this it will be just weeks or days until the Christmas shopping season gets underway. So, let me give you some buying tips for all of the technorati on your shopping list. That means your favorite tech geek for those of you who dont spend most of your life on the Internet.
Software You Can Legally Give Away
We all know about the software industrys attempts to keep us from pirating their software. I am sure I speak for all of us here at CCMag when I say we dont think Christians should be copying and giving away their software. (Unless, of course, the creator/distributor gives you permission to do so.) As far as I know, the following list of software is freely distributable to others. If you have questions, consult the maker. When in doubt, dont. But you can still point them to the free downloads in that case. Again, more on that later. The idea here is that we are making a Christmas card out of a burned CD containing free software that you can legally download and give away. Here is a list of some great programs along with the places to find them. e-Sword - A free bible study tool with a lot of content. You can do a comprehensive study with this free package and never miss the more expensive solutions. Go on over to www.e-sword.net and download the basic package and then make sure you 29

Remember the days of your youth when you would make a big card out of gold painted macaroni glued to red or green construction paper? Your mother really deserved an Oscar for acting like it was worth so much more than the new dryer dad bought her. In the days of modern computing, the gold painted macaroni cards are back, only this time mom wont not need an Emmy to make you think she actually likes your gift. Im talking about a homemade gift you can create on and for the computer. How about a project of creating a CD of freely downloadable software that the geeks on your Christmas list might actually want to use for more than a decoration on the fridge? If they are computer geeks, they will love this, especially if you know that they are going to be buying or receiving a new PC under the tree this year. The programs you place on this disk will help make their computing experience more enjoyable.

How can I give such a cheap gift?

You might think this is a cheap gift. But I promise you that these programs are great and recipients will love them. This is not meant for your wife or your kids; this is for those people that you would normally just give a card or a new frame with pictures of your kids. And if you throw in the computer too, you can even give it to someone really love, like your husband or wife. He or she will love the computer and enjoy the software too. At the end we will talk about an option where you can give them the software alongside a really nice, affordable tech gift as well. This way the programs are a bonus. (More on that later.) Christian Computing Magazine November 2006

give them a link to the Yahoo Group for e-Sword where they can learn how to download and install a ton of free content that is also legal. The group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eSword/. Take a look at the CCMag archives for more information about e-Sword. We had a nice review of it in last months edition which you can read here: http:// ccmag.gospelcom.net/back%20issue/BI0906.htm#article7. OpenOffice.org - Its the name of a web site, but it is also the name of an office suite alternative to Microsoft Office. It does everything Office does and some say it does it better. You can also import and export Microsoft Office files if you need to share them with others who use the MS behemoth. The money you save not buying MS Office can go a long way to buying that Christmas PC for your loved one. Find it at www.openoffice.org. Paint.net - Like OpenOffice it looks like a web site. But it is actually a program built on Microsofts .net architecture. Currently it is in a beta version 3, which is very stable. Imagine if you married the Paint program that comes with Windows and a high-end photo editing program like PhotoShop, then youd get Paint.net. And it is free from www.getpaint.net. The GIMP - Another free image editing program that got its start under Linux, but now runs on Windows and MacOS. Surf on over to http://www.gimp.org/ and download the program. It is as powerful as Photoshop at a much better price. If your loved one wants to really get into the digital dark-room, then The GIMP is an amazingly powerful start. Mozilla - Internet Explorer has finally come out with version 7 which Ive tested and is much better than version 6. Over the next few months, everyone who has Windows XP will be given a chance to download 7. Everyone should do this. But, I think a better alternative, that is also free, is Mozillas Firefox browser. Many people think that it is faster and safer. Not sure if that is true, but why not throw it into the disk. Go on over to www.mozilla.org and download it. And make sure you search for the Mouse Gestures add-on and put it on the CD as well. Along with Firefox, get Thunderbird, which is a great mail and newsgroup reading package comparable to Outlook Express. Microsoft has no plans to let Windows XP users download the new Windows Mail program that will come with Vista. That is a real shame because Outlook Express is getting grey at the temples and is starting to look sick under the weight of all the spam it lets through. Thunderbird really does the job. And you can add an extension called Lightning which gives Thunderbird rudimentary calendaring features. Ive replaced the behemoth Outlook with this combination and Im quite happy. If you use a Pocket PC like I do, then you can get a shareware extension called BirdieSync that allows you to synchronize your PocketPC with Thunderbirds Address Book and the Lightning Calendary/ToDo functionality. While at Mozzilla, hunt around for the other free downloads they have and throw them on the CD as well. They have a project called SeaMonkey, which is meant to replace Outlook also, as well as a WYSIWIG Web Authoring tool. They all work great and are easy to use. With the thousands of extension and themes you can customize it like crazy. Avant Browser - If you have an IE lover on your list, give them an add-on that gives you some of the functionality of Firefox, like tabbed browsing and mouse gestures, but on IE. Go to www.avantbrowser.com and throw that into the package. Mouse Gestures for IE - Again, if your loved one loves IE show them some love and help them make it better with the Code Projects Mouse Gestures for IE. If youve never used Mouse Gestures to control your computer, then you deserve to try it out. With this add-on and the new IE 7, even a Firefox lover might be tempted to stick with Microsoft. Find it at www.codeproject.com/atl/MouseGestures.asp. Opera Browser - While were on the subject of free web browsers, try Opera. It was one of the first to offer tabbed browsing. Ive not used it in a long time, but it is now free. Audacity and CDex - If you have an audiophile (someone who likes to do audio) on your list, then they need some software to edit audio. Audacity is a nice program. If this person also loves to rip their CDs to MP3 format, then give them CDex as well. They can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net and http://sourceforge.net/ projects/cdexos/ respectively. There are a ton of other CD Ripping programs. But CDex is simple and does the best job in my opinion. But for the sake of being complete throw in your favorite too. Make sure they dont mind you distributing it before you put it on the CD. 7-Zip - A lot of people send each other files that have a .zip extension. Most of you know that this is a compressed file containing other files like documents or pictures or whatever. Windows allows you to open zipped files, but Explorer is not as elegant as some of the better programs like WinZip or WinRar. Those cost money. 7-Zip is free. Alternatively you could also give them a link to download a great Explorer replacement called PowerDesk from VCom. Give them 7-Zip and a link to PowerDesk at http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_free.html which again you cannot download and give to them directly. Well talk more about how to give them the links in an easy to use format. 30 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

VLC Media Player - Another media player that not only handles MP3s but also DVDs and other movie files is VideoLan Media Player, also known as VLC. It is free, plays almost anything you throw at it including DVDs, and works great. Find it at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. CDBurnerXP - If youre recipient doesnt have a CD burning solution then they can use the free CDBurnerXP. It is a great little app and handles many of the burning solutions that big brothers Nero Burning ROM and Roxie Easy Media Creator can handle. Find it at http:// www.cdburnerxp.se/. ImgBurn - Along with CDBurnerXP, ImgBurn handles all your disk burning. If you have ever downloaded one of the free distributions of Linux or the beta version of Windows Vista, then you probably got an ISO file. If you didnt know what to do with it, then ImgBurn could have helped. It takes an ISO file, which is a copy of the contents of a CD, and burns them to disk so you can use the contents. This is great for backing up disks that might become damaged. You can get this one at http:// www.imgburn.com. PDFCreator - Adobes PDF format is the default for online documents. If you want to create them you can either buy Acrobat Pro program from Adobe which costs hundreds of dollars or you can install PDFCreator. It will install a virtual printer driver. Create your doc in whatever program you are using and then print it via this virtual driver. Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/ pdfcreator/ to get it. Microsoft Windows Power Tools - Windows Power Tools (http:// www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/ downloads/powertoys/ xppowertoys.mspx) are a collection of unsupported programs that help make Windows a little better. The most useful of these is TweakUI, a little program that no Windows machine should be without. Go get all of Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 31

them and put them on the CD. Below are some programs that you either are not allowed to distribute or that I am unsure of. The way to handle this is to create a document file in your word processor and make the links live. If you use Word, Works, WordPerfect or OpenOffice Writer, then they will become active links by default. Otherwise find the help file in your program to learn how to do this. Save the document in the folder you create to house the above files with a title like More Free Software ReadMe.doc. The person can open the file and read about the great programs and click the links to download them themselves. Heres the list. AVG Antivirus - Todays Internet surfing computer user must have an antivirus package. Its like wearing a seatbelt. It makes life a tiny bit inconvenient, but its a small price to pay for must have protection. Find the free version of Grisofts AVG Antivirus at http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1. It will scan your hard drive, memory and every piece of email you receive or send. Dont get confused with the pay version which has a few more bells and whistles. An alternative is Avast Antivirus which can be found at http:// www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html. I works much like AVG. Windows Defender - While were providing some security, why not paste a link to Windows Defender in the file. The link is http:// www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=435BFCE7DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en. This is a nice anti-spyware package from Microsoft. Going to MS for security feels a little like paying that mafia guy for protection. MS made Windows inherently unsafe. I dont think it was planned in order to make you pay for a security package like Windows Live which is not free. Vista is supposed to help alleviate much of this and the new IE7 has helped. Still, using their tools to make Windows XP safe is a little ironic. But Defender does a decent job and is free. If you like it, you may want to try the Live security suite, which is about $50. Ive heard it is actually quite good. AI RoboForm - If you use the same user name and password for every Internet site that requires logging on, then you deserve to get your info stolen. A great way to stop this from happening is to use a safe password manager like AI RoboForm. It saves all your passwords in a safe place. That way you dont have to memorize them and you can use different ones. If you password protect the program with a good, secure password that contains at least 8 characters with both letters and numbers that are random instead of using actual words, then a hacker wont be able to get your passwords. The free version limits the number sites you can save. But if you save the ten most important sites, then you can just remember the rest. What I did, before I bought it, was use the program to save the passwords that needed to be strong and therefore harder to remember. Then I used my memory to save passwords for sites I frequently used but didnt worry about someone getting, like my local papers site which doesnt keep any personal info but wants me to login for some reason. If your loved one likes the program, they can buy it, like I did. But you can give them a link to the free version which is at http://www.roboform.com/. iTunes - If your loved one is getting an iPod this Christmas, then they will need iTunes. It comes on the CD in the box. But even if they arent, I think iTunes is the best MP3 player around. Get it from www.itunes.com. If you hate it, as many do, then put your favorite free media player on the disk or as in the case of iTunes, you can put a link to download it in the document file. 32 November 2006 Christian Computing Magazine

Creating the Disk

Now, once you collect all these resources, and any others you can find that allow you to download and redistribute for free, then put them in a single folder on your computer. Open your burning software and create a data disk with these programs. If you do some research you can even find some free software to make a menu that will pop-up automatically when the person puts it in the drive. One example is a program like CD AutoPlay Gen 2, which you can get at http:// www.logiccode.net/. It is only a trial version, but it will allow you to start itself up to 15 times before it requires you to buy it. For our purposes here, we wont go into that much detail. Now burn the disk (or create it in CD AutoPlay) and slap a nice label on it that tells the recipient that this is their wonderful gift in lieu of a card. Make as many copies as you need. I promise you, that if the person you give this to is truly a geek, then he or she will thank you sincerely. Who wouldnt rather have a disk of free software over a card they will likely throw away after Christmas anyway. Sure some of them will already have some or all of these, but not necessarily all in one place where they can conveniently install them.

A Bonus Gift Idea

Many of the free software downloads mentioned above come with what is called a portable version. For example, OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and others have a version that will run from a USB Thumb Drive. If you want to give your loved one a nice gift, but dont want to go so cheap as to only give them a burned, homemade disk, then buy a thumb drive with 512 MB or more free space and download the portable applications from http://portableapps.com. The person will be able to take this little drive anywhere and have their software, configured the way they like, with them no matter where they go. No more dragging a laptop around. If you know that you are going somewhere with publicly accessible PC or a friends house where you are sure you can plug your drive into a USB port, you can run these apps and not worry about messing up their system or worry about carrying yours with you. And if you are giving this to someone whos always messing up yours, then it is the gift that brings great returns.

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handheld devices
Jim Vanduzer - jimv@laridian.com

Sunday School Not Just for Flannel Graphs Anymore

teach the college and career-aged Sunday school class for the church that I attend. Beginning in September of 2005 and ending in June of 2006 we went through the book of Genesis. I was able to use much of the material that I used when I taught through the book in Russia for this class. After we finished Genesis, the class wanted to go through the book of Revelation. So, beginning in September we started the book of Revelation. Being the kind of person that I am (Gadget Freak I think someone called me at one point) I, naturally, decided to use as much technology as possible for this class.
As Ive been thinking of what makes sense to use I thought that it might be a good idea to use this article to share with you some of the things that Im doing. Im sure that some of you also teach Sunday school classes. Here is a summary description of what I do in a typical week for my Sunday school class. At the beginning of the week, hopefully Monday, but it doesnt always work out that way, I begin reading through the passage for the next weeks lesson. Having PocketBible on my HP hx2750 makes it easy to read through the passage in a number of different translations. (My top three are the ESV, the NLTse and the NIV, but since I have almost every modern and many not so modern translations I usually look at other ones depending on if I want to see it more literally or as more of a paraphrase.) I also begin marking the text using underlining and different color highlights and making notes on different versesall from within PocketBible. One of the cool things is that I can do this almost wherever I am: waiting to pick my kids up at school, waiting for a soccer game to start, driving down the interstate (just kidding!), you get the idea. PocketBible (as do other PDA Bible software packages) gives me the ability to carry a reference library with me wherever I go. 34 November 2006 Once I feel that Im familiar with the passage, I begin looking at commentaries. Again, having PocketBible with me makes this something I can do anywhere. I can even highlight in my reference books. And this becomes important when I start pulling my notes together. In PocketBible I can copy and paste the highlighted portions into a Word document. (I actually use TextMaker (http://www.softmaker.com/ english/tmp_en.htm) on my PocketPC, but if you dont have that, Word works almost as well.) Sometime during this time I also pull dead trees off of my bookshelf and start looking at them, because unfortunately, not all of the texts that Im using for this study are available on my PocketPC. As Im going through those I do a similar thing as highlighting the text on my PDA, but this Christian Computing Magazine

time I use a No. 2 Stylus (for those of you who may not be familiar with a No.2 Stylus, it is a piece of wood that has lead in one end and a little piece of rubber at the other end). Toward the end of the week I begin pulling all of my notes and quotes together. From the PocketPC I simply Providing Church Administration & Software Solutions copy the document to my desktop computer and open it. The Purpose of C.A.A. Ministries is to provide church All of my notes are right there. Then I go through my leaders and staff with an easy-to-follow administrative other commentaries and type in the passages and notes program that builds Christian relationships, increases that I marked or wrote in the margins. I create this docuministry objectives and creates a church family bond ment using MS Word. Because Im a visual person I tend between all members and visitors! to look for artwork that goes along with the passage. This was fairly easy with Genesis and only a little more difficult The ultimate answer to... with Revelation, but I have a collection of art that matches the passages. I can easily put these in my notes in MS Church Management Software Word. This note file becomes my source document for my lesson. Outreach Ministry Management Software Our Sunday school class is a discussion format (as op Telecommunications Administration posed to a lecture format). So, my next step is to take my notes document and create questions that will capture the Church Website Services central theme(s) of the passage and generate discussion. I use Word to do this as well. As I develop my discussion Office Administration Solutions questions I also include the notes that will help me answer the question. I keep the notes separate by using different Click on any of the bullets above for specific fonts (the questions are in black and bold and the answers/ information, or visit www.caaministries.org notes are in brown). Once this document is done and or call toll free 1-888-598-8934 proofed I convert it to a PDF. This allows me to easily post it onto the class web site and still retain the formatting. This file is also emailed to some of my co-leaders and to one of the girls in our class who has hearing loss so that they can all prepare beforehand. (Unfortunately, beforehand isnt until 9:00 pm on Saturday night sometimes. Im trying to get more than a week ahead on my notes, but having a hard time getting to that point.) After the leaders guide is finished I go back through and strip out the answers/notes. Having the answers in a different color makes this easy to do with Words search and replace feature. This is now my class handout. I mentioned above that the leaders guide is posted to the class web site. The church has a web site and we have space on it for our class. I post the leaders guide online each week so that if someone in the class misses a week (<tongue position=cheek> which they never do, we always have 100% attendance for every class<tongue>) they can go online and easily catch up, not just with the questions but with the notes. It also helps people fill in gaps if we dont get to cover every question thoroughly. I have all of my notes from Genesis online and all of the ones to this point in Revelation. (Feel free to take a look at http://www.faith-focus.org/ignite.html.) The next thing I do with the leaders guide is export it to html from Word. I take this file into TextPad (http:// www.textpad.com) and add it to the html file for the class; in this case Notes on Revelation. With some minor hand editing I add in the tags for Laridians BookBuilder. When the file is tagged right I run it through BookBuilder and create both a PocketBible (PocketPC) and MyBible (Palm) version of my notes. (BookBuilder is commercially available so that anyone can do thissee http://www.laridian.com/.) This file is a cumulative book of the lessons to date. There are several people in our class who use PDAs and this allows them to have a reference book on their PDA for the class. All of the verses are linked and its easy to follow along during class. This usually goes online on Saturday as well. Which brings me to Sunday. Dont tell anyone, but I dont teach from my PocketPC. Ive found that in a discussion formatted class its much easier for my eyes to jump forward or backward on a sheet of paper than to scroll up or down to find the note Im looking for. But I do keep PocketBible running with my leaders guide and a Bible in split screen so that I can easily jump around to various passages. Thats pretty much how the lesson comes together and how it gets out to the students. Weve also started some things to help build community in the class. Our church is in the beautiful Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. There are over Christian Computing Magazine November 2006 35

a half dozen colleges within a half hour of the church. (I drive 25-30 minutes to get there myself.) That means that quite often its an hour drive from school A to school B and with everyones schedule being so different its hard to create a sense of community for the group. Weve done three things to help with this. We use Google for all of them, but there are other ways to do this online as well. First, we have a blog. On Sunday afternoon I go through my notes and play back the class in my head. I turn that into a synopsis of the class and post it on our blog space (http://ignitefaith.blogspot.com). This allows those who missed the class to know what actually went on in the class and also allows for further discussion on the class. (This is new for the class, so if you visit the blog you may not see a lot of discussion yet.) It also allows me to post thoughts or notes that come up through the week related to the class. The second thing weve done is create an email group using Google Groups (http://groups.google.com). Everyone in the class with an email address (about 95% of the class) is on this list. Everyone on the list can send an email to one email address and have it broadcast to the whole group. We use this for prayer requests, announcements, classified type items, etc. To me, this has done the most to bring the group together. Finally weve started using Google spreadsheets. At first I didnt see much of a use for these, but the more I use them the more useful I realize they are. We keep our address book online in a Google spreadsheet. Anyone that has been invited to share the spreadsheet (and thats the whole class) can go on and edit their entry in the address book. We also keep a snack and setup schedule online. If you forget when youre scheduled for snacks or setup or if you want to sign up for another date you can simply pull up the spreadsheet and view it or add to it. Were currently working on a prayer request spreadsheet. The thing that is nice about these is that anyone with access to the spreadsheet can make changes, even if someone else is viewing the spreadsheet at the same time. (I was on one of the spreadsheets the other day watching one of the students put in his contact information.) These technologies are all simple to use and make some of the aspects of running a Sunday school class easier. They also help to build community within the class. It helps that most of the students in my Sunday school class grew up using computers and cant remember not having an email address, but this can work for any group of people that is willing to give it a try. `In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul says that Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelist, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. I dont see Gadget Freak in that list, but it must be there in the Greek or something. God has given us many different things with which we are to equip the saints for them to do the work, not all of them are spiritual gifts. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how you can help equip the saints around you. (And if you have other techno gifts that youre using in your part of the Church, feel free to let me know!)

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