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, Jim Vanduzer Kevin A. Purcell, Ross Gile, Donald Stratton, Ben Woelk 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 19

COVER STORY - Page 11

May 2007

No 5

by Steve Hewitt EDITORIAL Help us Promote CCMag PRESS RELEASES SCOTT HOWARDS HOTPICS Blog Sites and More FINDING GOD IN TODAYS TECHNOLOGY Salvation Is An Easter Egg INSIDE THE BOX The Best Free Utilities and Applications CCMAG NEWSBRIEF WORDSEARCH WORD Using Bible Software Effectively, Training is the KEY NICK AT CHURCH Whats Different About Business Continuity TECH TALK Windows Performance Tweaks Page 3 by Steve Hewitt Page 5 Page 9 by Scott Howard Page 11 by Steve Hewitt Page 15 by Donald Stratton Page 17 Page 21 by Bob Dasal Page 22 by Nick Nicholaou Page 24 by Dr. J.D. Doc Watson Page 27 by Hal Campbell Page 29 by Walt Wilson Page 32 by Ben Woelk Page 34 by Yvon Prehn Page 36 by Kevin Purcell Page 40 by Jim VanDuzer

Copyright 2007 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.

ACS IDEAS TO IMPACT Doing it Right: Automated Check-in System Advice INTERNET MINISTRY The Edge of Eternity INTERNET SECURITY Avoid Phishing MINISTRY COMMUNICATIONS Are you justified? In your typesetting that is HIGHER POWER WITH KEVIN eBible.com Review HANDHELD DEVICES Are You Ready For The Question? Articles highlighed in Yellow are provided by our partners. www.ccmag.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf 2

May 2007

Christian Computing Magazine

Editorial
Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

Help us promote Christian Computing Magazine

And we might be able to be a blessing in return!

o rant this month, just an appeal. We want to encourage and enable you to let others know about our free subscriptions to Christian Computing. I am motivated to make relationships, cross promotions, etc., in order to get our readership growing. We have continued to hold around 50,000 readers, but I know that there are a lot of people, churches and ministries that would benefit from the great articles, product reviews and advertisements from our sponsors, if they just knew about us.
We want to encourage you to let others know about CCMag. Gene to fit your publication. Pearson, who has served as our copy editor for years, gave me a great What if you are not a ministry, denomiidea about six months ago (I know, I am very slow sometimes.) He sugnation or Christian business? If you let your gested that we create some small advertisements in black-and-white for church or Christian organization know churches to include in their bulletins and newsletters. You will note that in about CCMag, let us know, because we are this article we have created both a color and a black-and-white advertise- working on something special to show our ment that people (hopefully you) will download and use. Keep reading, appreciation. Just drop me a line and let me because we may have a away to show our appreciation to those that help know if you used our ad or were able to let others know in some other way and I will promote us to others. First, let me address those of you that represent a ministry or denomi- let you know about a new service that is national office. We are including a color copy of the ad as well. If you coming down the road from Christian Comhave a group of readers or members that you contact, we would encourage you to let them know about CCMag using one of our prepared ads. If you put our ad in your newsletter, magazine, e-blast, etc., let us know and we will try to do the same in CCMag. We would love to develop some cross promotion with other ministries. Contact me (steve@ccmag.com) if you can help do some cross-promotion. Also, if Visit www.ccmag.com/images/ccmagsmallblackandwhite.tif you would like advertisements in a differThe file is 1.8 MB ent size, let us know and we can create it Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 3

puting. While subscriptions to CCMag will continue to be free, we are developing some new services that will require a charge. However, we are looking for a small group to help test out the new service, and if you can do something to help promote our ministry to others, we will including you in our beta testing. After all, if you are reading my editorial, we KNOW you Visit www.ccmag.com/images/ccmagsmallcolor.tif to download this file. are one of our dedicated readers! The file is 3.6 MB We appreciate all of those websites that provide a link to our site. We simply can not respond by providing a return link. Our magazine is solely supported by our advertisers/sponsors, and we set links to their sites exclusively. However, we would certainly encourage and appreciate sites that can provide a link to our site. We are including a link to a .jpg file in this article as well, in case you have a place to display it.

CCMag Promotions
If you remember, we reserve the right to send you an occasional e-blast with a CCMag promotion. We promised to only send one per month. If you havent noticed, I think the last one we sent out was October of last year (really pushing them on you, huh?) However, I wanted to remind you to watch for them. We Visit www.ccmag.com/images/ccmagbanner.jpg do have three that need to go out in the next month or two. We The file is 18 KB would have spaced them out better, but one that was supposed to go out three weeks ago has had a problem, and two others have been waiting. So, you may see a couple of them go out in the next week or two. All three are promoting some great products and services specifically for Christians that use technology. Remember, CCMag promotions help us meet our budget, as do cross-promotions. Because of one of the upcoming CCMag Promotions, we will get the opportunity to reach out to around 35,000 Christians that might not know about our publications. For more information about CCMag Promotions, visit www.ccmag.com/0906/0906editorial.pdf.

Conclusion
I hope many of you can use click on the ads here in this article and download them for your use. Remember, if you can do so, or if you link to us from your site, etc., please drop me a note and let me know what you have done or are doing. I really need to hear from you, and need to find some readers to try out our new service (for free.) And, I hope to hear from those of you that wish to do some cross-promotion. Contact me and we will work out something that will be a blessing for both of our ministries. Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt Editor-in-Chief

May 2007

Christian Computing Magazine

Press Releases
Announcing Arenas New Collaboration Platform The Community
The Arena Division of Shelby Systems, Inc., announces the public introduction to The Community (http:// community.arenachms.com), a development and social environment created to support and further advance the industry leading Arena ChMS (Church Ministry System). The Communitys blog, forum and file sharing environment will be used for connecting resources and encouraging communication among all Arena users. Nick Airdo of Central Christian Church of the East Valley said, For a while now, Ive realized that it would be more efficient if each church could pool its developer resources so that their work could contribute to serve the whole Church. With the creation of The Community, this dream will finally become a reality. With Arena, the business risks associated with utilizing a shared-source system are virtually gone. The Community offers collaborative solutions such as: Integrated tagging and other search options across all Arena blogs and forums Public and private forums that include topics such as feature suggestions and roadmapping, software and hardware integration, and sports and report management Tips and recommendations for branding your Arena intranet, Internet and check-in designs Free downloadables such as themed check-in templates Search engine-friendly permalink structure Extensibility for plug-in modules and file sharing Technical and Communication blogs that discuss timely subjects relevant to the church world Arena is a browser-based, shared source, web authoring tool that addresses communication as well as church management needs. Arena touts such features as robust metrics and reporting, hosting freedom, integration with ShelbyFINANCIALS, customizable check-in options and a flexible approach to groups. Contact and follow up communications are easy and administratively supervised. Arenas health meter is based on extremely flexible criteria and provides leadership a quick reference if someone is struggling. Simple search features, hover texts and hover pictures, as well as simple drill-downs, help you easily locate and contact people or groups of people. Because Arena is a fully integrated system, it insures your communication methods, content management, and contact management are consistent and connected. In addition to all these features, membership into the shared source community will allow developer level access. This aspect makes Arena unique, says director of business development, Steve Pruitt. The members of the Arena community will be able to participate in true customization. We are excited to offer the collaborative environment of The Community. Arena, a browser-based, shared source ChMS is dedicated to the power of community by encouraging creativity, inspiring connections and enhancing communication. Private demonstrations are available on request. Phone: 888.77.ARENA Email: Info@ArenaChMS.com www.ArenaChMS.com http://community.arenachms.com

Spot Mill Announces Cost-Efficient Media Campaigns To Help Promote Your Church
Spot Mill provides media materials, both in print and in video, that your church can customize with your own name, font, color, and branding. Founded by long-time television production veteran Ray Rodriguez, Spot Mill is a hand-selected team of creative individuals who want to use their talents to help churches have the advantage of customizable media materials that look professional. There are many talented Christians who work to create fantastic media for the world around us. Spot Mill has sought to unite these talents to produce exceptional print and video media, allowing a church who could not normally afford customized media clips and professionally prepared print products to be able to present exciting, theme-generated materials that work together to help churches get their message out to their members as well as their community. With your annual subscription, Spot Mill delivers one fully designed and produced media marketing campaign a month. With your subscription, you will also have access to archived campaigns that you can use anytime you wish. Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 5

Print media includes bulletins, posters, mail stuffers, banners, and much more. Each file will arrive in PhotoShop format, allowing you edit and include your own logos, fonts, texts, colors, etc. Video media arrives as an Adobe After Effects file, which you can also edit to make the video unique for your church. With our customizable packages, we become what you need. You can subscribe three ways, print campaign, video campaign, or a discounted price for both. For more information, visit www.spotmill.com and download one of our demos. Or, visit http:// www.spotmill.com/SpotMill/ Demo%20Reel.html for a sample video that our staff put together in order to showcase some of the work they have done.

Adobe After Affects And Other Software Programs Discounted for Non-Profits from CCB
Consistent Computer Bargains sells Adobe licenses at a discount for 501c (3) organizations. Adobe After Effects is available as a license and Media (CD set) is purchased separately for installation purposes. You can order s little as one license at a time. After Effects CS3 will be available on June 12th. The license price is $349.00 each user. Maintenance for 2 years of upgrades is $108.00 each user. Maintenance can be renewed every 2 years for continued upgrades free of charge. CS2 licenses can be purchased at this time, with Maintenance youll upgrade to CS3 free of charge. Photoshop CS3 is available for $299.00 each license and $90.00 additional for maintenance. Media kits are sold separately to install Adobes licensed software at $35.00 each product and platform. Adobes CS3 Production Studio along with Adobes other video software titles and the new Master Collection will be released on June 12th. The Production Studio will contain Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe After Effects CS3, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe Encore CS3, Adobe SoundboothCS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3 & Adobe Photoshop CS3 Ext. The license price is $599.00, and Maintenance for 2 years of upgrades is $180.00. Adobe offers most software titles, including Macromedias titles at a discount for charities. Consistent Computer Bargains can quote you on any Adobe software youre interested in purchasing. We can assist you in choosing the best collection for the software products you use. CCB has been an Adobe authorized reseller for over 10 years. CCB is strongly committed to providing organizations with special pricing programs and has taken the initiative to make technology more affordable and accessible by lobbying leading software and hardware manufacturers, such as Microsoft and Symantec for special pricing for charitable organizations. CCB will continue to lobby manufacturers for the non profit community. We look forward to serving your organization. Please contact us at: 1-800-342-4222 or visit our web site at: www.ccbnonprofits.com.

Parishsoft Acquires Cornerstone Catholic Software

ParishSOFT, the nations fastest growing church management software company serving Catholic churches, has acquired the software and customer base of Cornerstone Software, officials from both companies announced today. According to ParishSOFT President and CEO William Pressprich, ParishSOFT will now be serving the customers of the Cornerstone software programs that include Parish Management, Religious Education and Ministry Scheduling. We are pleased to welcome Cornerstone customers and look forward to supporting their ministry. 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. James Youngblood, President of Cornerstone Software, will be joining the ParishSOFT staff. He said, I am excited 6 May 2007 Christian Computing Magazine

to join ParishSOFT as I have known and admired them for several years and am confident they will be a great fit for our customers. ParishSOFT has a very high customer satisfaction rate. Their Catholic-based management software is so intuitive and their support so professional and responsive that our users will find it easy to transfer systems and enjoy the benefits of saving time on their dayto-day tasks and improving communication. According to Pressprich and Youngblood, current users of the Cornerstone products will be invited to join the thousands of parishes that have already made the switch to ParishSOFT. Teams from ParishSOFT and Cornerstone are working closely to ensure a thorough data conversion, and ParishSOFT support has studied the operating conventions and inner workings of the Cornerstone Software 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, foster stewardship, foster collaboration, and improve communications. ParishSOFT has 40 staff and continually invests in improving its software and web solutions as well as adding new features and products. ParishSOFT presently serves 2,600 Catholic parishes and 29 arch/ dioceses.This is the third acquisition for ParishSOFT, having previously acquired Church Management Solutions (The Software Library) and The Catholic Software Company. In 2005, ParishSOFT formed 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, contact Michael Cusick, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, at (866) 930-4774 x131 or visit www.parishsoft.com.

Theophilos Bible Software Changes Hands

New owners continue to offer Theophilos Bible software for free while making best-selling Bibles and commentary available for use with software Theophilos Bible Software, LLC (Theophilos LLC), a privately-held USbased company, has acquired the assets of Theophilos Bible Software from author, Ivan Jurik of Bratislava, Slovakia.Jurik released the first version of Theophilos for Microsoft Windows-based PCs in 1997 as freeware and brought dozens of Bibles and reference materials, mostly public domain, classic texts, into the Theophilos format. Since then, Theophilos software has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users all over the world. In addition, the software has been licensed by several Christian publishers as the engine for their Bibles and reference materials including Abilene Christian University Press. The principals of Theophilos LLC have existing relationships with Christian publishers giving them access to contemporary Christian reference materials which they have already begun publishing in the Theophilos format. They also plan to invest in the development of classic reference materials from the public domain. Weve been aware of Theophilos for quite some time, said Jeff Wheeler, vice president, development of Theophilos LLC, Though it isnt as well known to Bible software users as other freeware products, we think it brings some very unique features to its users. Among the special features of Theophilos are: Extensive multimedia capability. Users can attach pictures, video, or audio Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 7

recordings to each verse of the Bible. The CD-ROM version of the program comes with several dozen narrated Bible passages, over 200 illustrations, and several maps. An audio version of the KJV Bible indexed to each verse in the Bible is also available. Special attention to users with vision impairment. Theophilos is compatible with Jaws and other screen reader software and makes use of keyboard shortcuts for most commands, enabling users with impaired vision to more readily make use of the program. Multilingual user interface. The entire user interface, including all menus and error messages, can be translated into another language by the end user. The program can thus be used in the native language of its user instead of in English only. Configuration for 19 languages is built into the program. Custom electronic publishing tools. Users of Theophilos can purchase the Scribe program ($29.99) which allows them to easily convert Bible reference materials of their own into the Theophilos format, to be used alongside the rest of their Theophilos library. The beginning of the year 2007 looks very promising for Theophilos and its users, said Ivan Jurik, author and former president of Theophilos Bible Software. Today the brand is entering a new era under new leadership. Users of Theophilos will immediately benefit from this change as the software becomes more capable in fulfilling their study needs and expectations by offering many widely popular book titles they asked for over the years. Theophilos users have patiently waited for the availability of Bibles like the New International Version, said Wheeler. Were pleased to be able to bring these titles to Theophilos users at affordable prices. The following new add-on Bibles and books are now available for use with Theophilos: New International Version Bible todays best-selling Bible translation ($19.99) New Living Translation, Second Edition a popular, easy-to-understand translation of the Bible ($12.99) Bible Knowledge Commentary a two-volume commentary on the whole Bible from Dallas Theological Seminary ($24.99) Complete Word Study Dictionary, Old and New Testament volumes in-depth explanations for every Hebrew and Greek word used in the Bible (Two volumes, $14.99 each) Robertsons Word Pictures in the New Testament - a six-volume commentary that explores the meaning of key Greek words and phrases of the New Testament verse-by-verse ($19.99) In addition to releasing six new add-ons for Theophilos, the company has restructured its product line so that over 30 classic Bibles and reference books, previously sold as commercial add-ons to Theophilos, are now available for free from its Web site. The free download of the Theophilos program includes the King James Version Bible, Matthew Henrys Commentary and Eastons Bible Dictionary. Over 50 Bible translations and books are available for use with the Theophilos program, most of which are free. Over 20 of the Bibles are non-English Bibles including Greek, Latin, Spanish, French and Russian. Complete product information can be found at the Theophilos Web site: http://www.theophilos.com.

About Theophilos Bible Software, LLC

Founded in 2007, Theophilos Bible Software, LLC is a privatelyheld software development and marketing company. Theophilos Bible software is available at the Theophilos Web site, www.theophilos.com. Further information can be found at the site.

May 2007

Christian Computing Magazine

Scott Howards hotPics

Scott Howard - scottdhoward@gmail.com

Blog Sites and More

t is truly a blessing to share yet another column of sites with all of the CCMag readers. I have really enjoyed the feedback I have received from you and it is a pleasure to serve in this ministry. We are living in a time where more information is available at our fingertips than ever before. However, with so much information it can sometimes be difficult to find the right information.
When looking at different blogs and sites I try to make sure that I keep in mind what I am looking for and if that particular site can serve that purpose. A good blog or site normally has a particular service within their niche and should always be thinking about how they can best serve their readers in that niche. When considering what sites I will share with the readers I want to try to fit them to be able to meet a wide range of needs from the young person who is just getting into Computer Information Systems to the readers who have been working mainframes and programming for many, many years, not to mention everything in between. I hope you enjoy this months selections. http://churchtechmatters.com is a great blog that focuses on the technological needs in the church. Jim Walton, the guy who runs this blog, is a friend of mine and is a very humble man. It doesnt take long to realize that Jim has a passion for networking and bringing together the Christian techies so that we can improve what we do to better reach people for Christ. Church Tech Matters has several features including a wiki, a links section to many good resources and he has a section to pray for tech. I believe that the design of the blog is one aspect that really makes it stand out as it is somewhat simple but yet different than a lot of the other blog themes out there. http://churchvideoideas.com is another great technical blog for the church. Church Video Ideas is a little bit different in that it focuses more on the technology for the visual aspects of the worship time than anything else. Church Video Ideas is run by Greg Atkinson who has a background and a passion in worship. Greg serves as the Technical Arts Director at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, TX. One nice thing about this site is that in the left sidebar you can see the books that Greg is reading as well as the music Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 he is listening to. And if you podcast you may want to check out his latest podcast as well. http://godbit.com is an excellent blog which is ran by a group of web designers to help webmasters get their Christian related sites up to speed with the times. They have a heart for this ministry because so many people see the majority of Christian sites as being outdated. Godbit asks Christian churches and organizations to submit their websites to them and they choose websites that are very good to display on their site so that others can learn how to improve on their site. I believe this is an awesome concept and the guys that have been a part of this ministry have done a great job. There are several other really great features on the site as well including interviews, tutorials, desktop wallpapers, forum, and book reviews. http://digg.com is one site that I know many of you already know about and probably check it out about once a day. 9

At least that is what I tend to do. But I wanted to mention this because I know that there will be newbies out there from time to time and there are a couple features that I would like to bring to everyones attention. First of all, if you have a particular interest within computer technology and dont really care to read about the other technical stuff you can click on the particular topic under technology and then save the link to that section in your bookmarks or favorites. Also, you may want to check upcoming stories when you have time, because many good posts never get to the front page because the person who submitted it doesnt have a lot of friends that use digg. I have experienced this myself in the past, which is why I appreciate the upcoming stories much more now. And dont forget to checkout the digg blog which you can get to from the link at the bottom of the site. http://ubuntuguide.org is a wiki for showing you how to do almost anything and everything when starting off using Ubuntu. This particular site is really only going to be useful for those interested in using Ubuntu either for the first time or for those that already use it but want to learn how to setup or install something. I wanted to squeeze this one in because I am a huge fan of Ubuntu. If you have not heard about Ubuntu yet, it is probably the most widely used Linux operating system in the home now. There is a load of easy to understand information on this wiki and it has been extremely beneficial for me over the last year in learning more about Ubuntu. Ubuntu is free so you can have it sent to you free of charge or you can download it. Just go to ubuntu.com for the latest distribution.

10

May 2007

Christian Computing Magazine

by Steve Hewitt

want to tell you about a fantastic web solution that will help many churches and ministries make the most of using the Internet to enhance their ministry. ChurchInsight is its name, and I promise to reveal all of the wonderfully powerful, yet easy to maintain features of this service. First, I want to tell you about the company and their mission, because I think the people behind ChurchInsight help you understand why their service is so exciting.
In just a few months, I will be finishing 20 years of writing reviews munity, they also felt led to create ChurchInsight and begin to market this excitfor Christian Computing. I have a history with a lot of companies and ing service to other churches. Of course, they products. Some companies and products have their beginnings because they think there is a great amount of money to be made selling a could have stayed within the borders of the UK, but they soon felt drawn to ministries technology service to the church. Most of these quickly discover that within the USA that requested their services. they have made a very big mistake. So where did a lot of great ChrisThey have now established residence in the tian technology products and companies come from? Most evolved USA and have set up shop in the center of the from Christians who were creating technology for the secular world, and then, because they were Christians, they deWeve been delighted with the service that Endis has provided us. Endis cided to use their talents did a great job in interpreting our design brief, and we now have a website for their local church. that we are able to control and adapt as we choose. We find ourselves not From there, they develonly with a website were really pleased with, but with a sophisticated tool oped a burden to use in our hands...and we are really only just starting to learn what it has to oftheir talents to help other fer in terms of administration, databases, email etc. For a small start up churches with their applichurch with no web design capabilities on staff at all, thats quite somecations, and the rest is thing. Matt Hemsley, CityChurch, Charlotte. www.citychurchcharlotte.com history. ChurchInsight came from some very talented people that created a company called Endis country, right down the road from CCMag. I met with them and prayed with them, and I am in the UK. They created financial software used by banks. Because they were Christians, in 2001 they decided to tithe some of that talent excited about their vision, their burden, and the and create a community-based Website for a local church. Just like services they are providing. Now, let me tell you about what they can provide through many other great companies, I know in the Christian technology comChristian Computing Magazine May 2007 11

ChurchInsight. ChurchInsight does a lot more than just host your site or help you create a Website. They provide the tools to help you create a Website that is a point of contact for your members. Your members will find themselves visiting your church Website more often because you will have plenty of fresh content, opportunities to communicate directly with other members and church staff, take part in discussion forums, and contribute information and much more. Of course, ChurchInsight helps you create and maintain your Website all without the need to know HTML since it is Web based. You simply log into your site and click a Web Office icon to access the administrative area where you can change your content, upload new graphics, video or text, etc.. Authorized users can use ChurchInsights Theme Park to change the colors and fonts used on your web site and, literally, drag and drop components around the page to re-design what the web site looks like, all from within the browser! Once you have entered your user name and password, members will find many features available to them, such as the ability to access the churchs online directory securely. One of the greatest advantages of this is that they will also be able to update their own personal information, which means your church directory will always be current. The service groups family members, yet each can maintain their own updated information such as cell phone numbers and new e-mail address. Another positive, you can also upload pictures! And church members can print out the directory, in booklet form! Since members log in and ChurchInsight knows who is viewing the content it is displaying, it can customize that content in other ways as well, such as with the Calendar. Leaders will have access to some areas of administration, and can put event information in about their specific groups. When a member logs in and checks the calendar, the program presents information that is relevant to them personally. If your church has a lot of small groups and events, this makes the calendar useful and prevents overload. However, ChurchInsight does even more! Event leaders can not only set up events in the church calendar, they can also creChurchInsight is not just for churches. Ministries are finding the benefits of ate banners promoting using their service as well. their events, which can rotate on the home site Jason Phillips, Founder of Revival Town Ministries, USA helping to cross promote ChurchInsight has been a tremendous help both to me personally and to events. Taking this one Revival Town Ministries. We are now free to change the content and style of more step, if your our web site in a matter of moments. As we minister in Africa and India we church has an associacan send updates and launch videos for our partners and friends to view tion with other churches while we are still on the road. ChurchInsight has allowed us to move our using ChurchInsight, web presence to the next level and also gives us much more room to grow these promotions can be in the future. www.revivaltown.org picked up and put in rotation on other church sites! ChurchInsight allows every member of your church to become a contributing editor and submit content. Each area of interest in your church can have their own area, such as youth, senior adults, music ministry, mission organizations, and even small cell groups. There is an exciting Publisher feature built into ChurchInsight allowing you to easily create articles, set up polls, design forms, etc., that can then be submitted for placement in their relevant area of your site. Once placed, each submission can have a set placement date, as well as a date for the material to remove itself from the page; ensuring only current information is being displayed. The results of surveys and forms can be exported into excel format for further use. Of course, communication between members is vital to a vibrant Website. ChurchInsight offers community-moderated Forums that can allow members to comment on published articles, upcoming events, or be as informal as you desire, such as allowing members to post their need for a babysitter. You can have forums that are relevant to each area of your ministry and/or have a forum restricted to specific groups right down to one just for your church staff. ChurchInsight goes one-step further in promoting communication. If you desire, you can set up a service they call Chatter, which is your own church contained instant message service. When a member logs into your site, they will see which other members or staff are on the site and available to talk, instantly! Since only members that are logged into your site can use Chatter, you know that it is secure from outsiders. Are you ready for this? ChurchInsight has a really fantastic eCommerce feature. You can sign-up to use services that are already set up to market Christian books and materials, such as EssentialChristian.com. You get 12% of any12 May 2007 Christian Computing Magazine

thing sold by your church, and the software handles the store, checkout, sale and shipping. You can also market your own products, videos, audio files, or other digital content directly from your site using Digital Delivery. You simply upload the content and sell it from within your site, set your price and ChurchInsight does the rest. Visitors can purchase a product and download it to their computer. ChurchInsight takes 18% to cover their cost for the site, but you dont even have to have an Internet merchant account or payment processor because they take care of everything. What if you offer a music file? You can even allow visitors to listen to a 20-second clip for free to decide if they wish to purchase the song! The money you earn from all sales will be credited against your churchs monthly subscription fee. You can view a secured Monthly Statement to see how your sales are going, and if you sale more than your ChurchInsight hosting fees, you will receive a check on a quarterly basis. Of course there will probably be lots of audio and video content you will want to have available on your site that will not be offered through your eCommerce area. You can upload MP3, Real Audio and Video, Windows Media and QuickTime files using their upload features built into ChurchInsight, or use FTP if you prefer. Visitors will be able to search recordings by date, subject, speaker, popularity or even a Bible reference. A recording can even be linked to an article, so it can be playing together with teaching notes or accompanying presentation slides! In addition, what about your members that use podcasting software to search and download audios files automatically? ChurchInsight has made allowances for that feature as well with feeds automatically generated. More than this, Endis has built a unique service called Payment Groups: these can be used to handle one-off or regular donations; subscriptions (with optional bulk order processing) where folk are automatically removed from the list at the end of their subscription; or event booking that has been used to handle group and individual registrations for conference attendances up to 20k, with multiple options and relevant discounts calculated automatically.

Church Management Software (ChMS) Features

ChurchInsight goes past just providing a fantastic communication and content providing Web service. They also provide many vital ChMS. Their Attendance feature provides a very practical way for a church to gain accurate statistics that can allow church leaders to gain cross-referenced reports and charts, enabling them to have a real understanding of their demographics and areas of need. Each group leader, small cell group leader, choir leader, Sunday school leader, etc., can log in and provide accurate attendance reports, along with any notes about the meeting or an individual. All of the information can be graphed by ChurchInsight to provide the reports needed with drill-down to see who was present or absent at a particular meeting. Click again to send them a personalized mailing. ChurchInsight allows for Integrated Mailings. You can easily create church-wide or small group mailings. Since you have an online directory that members can access and update, you will know that your post or e-mail addresses are accurate. Create your mailing and then combine groups, select specific criteria (such as only send to adults or group leaders for example) and you can even look over the list and add or remove specific individuals. When you are ready to Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 13

send, the list will be set up to send a letter to those that prefer something mailed to them and the list will reflect those that prefer an e-mail. You can then compose your e-mail and send it out, and compose your letter and use mail merge in a word processor to add the contact information into the letter (and/or you have the ability to print labels.) HTML emails include the option to do click-tracking, so you know by name who clicked on which hyperlink in your messages. And optionally all the mailings are stored in the database so you can see who received a certain mailing; or which mailings an individual has received. Keeping track of all of your resources is also important to a church staff. With the Resource Booking feature, you can keep track of what resources are available, such as rooms or pieces of equipment. Each resource can be assigned a person who is responsible for managing that resource (such as the portable PA system.) You can then assign each resource its own calendar that is shared through your Website. Group leaders can then check to see if a resource is available for their specific need (room, video projector and screen for example) and make their requests for those resources. The request goes to a designated resource manager who is notified in order to confirm the booking and if conflicts occur, can manage suggested alternatives. You can even have ChurchInsight provide resource reports, showing who used what resource and when. Reports within ChurchInsight cover many different areas. Mapping reports are available, showing where member of your church or specific group live. Organizational charts will provide you with a quick way to view your structure. Membership reports will let you see which members are regularly involved, and even give you insight into the involvement of people who have not yet become members. Demographic charts allow you the ability to plan for your future. You can even generate Website reports that will help you understand who is visiting your site, how often, what pages are being visited the most, where visitors are coming from, how many login per day, page view requests, etc. The Extensible Database feature with ChurchInsight actually allows you to create extra fields, allowing you to store your own personalized information about each member. For example, you may have a specific discipleship system that you use, and you want to keep track of each members advancements through the steps you have set up. You can set up these fields and maintain this information within ChurchInsight. You can then use a full featured query engine to specify search criteria, allowing you to export the results, create mailing lists from the results, etc.

Conclusion
ChurchInsight is a full-featured Web solution for churches and ministries. It is very powerful. I encourage you to take them up on their free trial and give them a spin. With so many features, it can take a bit of practice to figure out how to take advantage of all they have to offer. However, they also have great training opportunities and are really willing to work with you. ChurchInsight charges a minimum price of $100 per month, giving up to 200 people the ability to login to your community web site. Additional users are charged at $0.50 per person per month, but there are no additional charges for email, for disk space or for bandwidth and no minimum contract period. You can sign up for a free 28-day trial or just listen to a radio interview with one of their customers at www.ChurchInsight.com/Start

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inside the box

Donald Stratton - Donald@PowerNotebooks.com

The Best Free Utilities and Applications

his is a great list of freeware we use regularly. It ignores the applications youve heard about to link to the ones you probably havent.
Some lists of Freeware include a lot of shareware, adware, spyware, demoware, or nagware. The software below isnt going to bug you to spend money, timebomb, put ads on the screen, or do any number of other annoying things. It just works, and it works well. Most of it is open source, ensuring that the developers arent going to change their mind down the road and start bugging you then.

Photo/Graphics Editing - Paint.Net

http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html When I see people suffering through MS Paint or Office Photo Editor, I cringe. Paint.Net is better than any free graphics program Ive seen (ok, the GIMP has more features, but is much harder to use) and even beats out a number of cheap graphics programs from back in the day, providing layer support, quality filters, and a solid plug-in system. About the only thing its missing from being truly powerful is Photoshop plug-in support, adjustment layers, and layer masks. But for the average person who just wants to tweak some photos and do some drawing? Its awesome.

IRC - HydraIRC
http://www.hydrairc.com/ Most people dont use IRC; theyve graduated to AIM, ICQ, YIM, MSN, or some other chatting program. But to get immediate help with an open source program, you often have to sign onto IRC. There is no Windows client better than HydraIRC for connecting to multiple IRC networks simultaneously.

Unzip - 7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/ If you have a compressed file, 7-Zip can probably open it. It brings all Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 15

uncompression under one roof, including those pesky RAR files. Free. Open Source.

Backup/Sync - Microsoft Synctoy

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx Microsoft buries this little gem deep in the professional photography section of their website. It allows you to syncronize files, folders, or groups of folders from one drive to another. I use it to synchronize my My Documents and Application Data folders as well as offload my pictures to an external 60GB 2.5" hard drive. You can choose whether the directories are perfectly synchronized or if one directory should contain more files than the other, in the case of an offloading backup. It took me about a half hour to set up the 6 folder pairs. After that, its just one click: Run all. When its done, my external hard drive is now synchronized.

Anti-spyware - Spybot Search and Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/ Youd be amazed at the number of times Ive come across systems having trouble that have 2 or 3 different antispyware applications running on them. The first thing I do is remove all of those applications. I often hear a user complain, But I paid $30 for that at Best Buy. My response: Sometimes the free stuff just works better. A few weeks later, Ill hear back from them and I hear nothing but joy at how well their computer is running. This isnt rocket science.

Data Privacy - Eraser

http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/ Eraser is one of those apps you dont know you need until you find out youve been burned. Whenever you sell or give away a computer, you should run Eraser on the hard drive to completely wipe away all of the data. Otherwise, the data that used to be there might be recovered... sensitive business information, credit card information, stored passwords... anything you can think of that might be on your computer even without your knowledge could be read after its been deleted. The only safe route is Eraser.

Recover Deleted Files - Undelete Plus

http://www.undelete-plus.com/ If you didnt use Eraser on the files, you can use Undelete Plus to recover them. But INSTALL IT NOW. If you wait until you have trouble to install it, you could well overwrite the very data you want to save.

PDF Creator
http://www.pdfforge.org/ There are a lot of PDF utilities out there. Most arent free or add some sort of watermark or somehow limit what you can do with your PDF files. Not PDF Creator. To create a PDF, simply press the Print button in any application and print to the PDFCreator printer driver. Its open source so its not going to bug you to buy, put ads in your face, or restrict your PDF files.

Text Editing - Notepad++

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm If you still deal with Notepad for those moments you want to view a .ini or .txt file or even just view source in Internet Explorer, its time to step up to a real text editor. Notepad++ loads as fast as Notepad but it has far more features. There is no reason not to install and use it instead of Notepad.

Chat over the web - Meebo.com

http://wwwl.meebo.com/index-en.html Your travels may take you to strange places, like libraries. Inside those libraries, you may find that chatting programs have been disallowed. You may also find Meebo.com hasnt been blocked. Enjoy.

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

Technology To the Rescue, And a Warning To the Paranoid

A ten-year-old boy in PA was on the list to receive a life-saving heart transplant. When a heart became available the hospital tried to contact the boys mother to inform them they needed to rush to the hospital. However, they could not contact her, and, for some reason, the mothers cell phone was not registered with the hospital. When these things happen, time is very critical. The boy was first in line, but if they couldnt contact him within a short period of time, the heart would have to go to the next person on the list. The police were called and they asked Sprint Nextel to ask for the coordinates of the mothers phone. Sprint found her and passed the coordinates to the police who discovered she was in a crowd at a live outdoor jazz concert. They interrupted the concert to find her, and she and her son were rushed away to the standing ovation of the audience. Police are not allowed by law to ask a cell phone company to find you, unless it is a matter of life and death, or if it involves a homicide. For more information, http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&Date=20070509&ID=6872410

How Many Websites Are Trying To GET You? One in Ten According to Google
Recently, Google did an extensive study checking around 4.5 million different sites, searching for malware that could infect computers when these sites were visited. While the actual percentage of 10 percent may seem low, the numbers are staggering. In April alone, Google recorded over 8,000 new Websites that had malware attached. And while it helps to watch where you go on the web, Google reports that many sites that have malware are not aware that their site is infecting visitors. The bad guys manipulating Web server security, put malware in user-posted content. They attach worms to infect a computer with malware through advertising and infect third-party utilities and freeware. This new information may cause businesses to rethink restricting suspect sites since legitimate sites may be just as dangerous. The emphasis will have to fall on scanning computers more frequently, reformatting and partitioning off Internet access computers from computers with vital data. For more information, visit http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/cnet/2007-05-15-google-dangers_N.htm

Extremely Faster Cable Connections Are Coming

Happy with high-speed broadband? It might be fast enough to keep up with your e-mail, but everyone is going to want to push high-def video TV and movies at us down the road. Verizon is working on a new system that is substantially faster, but Comcast may take the prize for the promise of the fastest Internet connection. They recently showed off a new cable modem system that is about 25 TIMES faster than what we have today. Their projection for distribution is less than 2 years away. How fast would it be compared to what we have now? In a demonstration for the press they downloaded the 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica 2007 and Merriam-Websters visual dictionary in under four minutes, when it would have taken a standard modem three hours and 12 minutes. For more information visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18569662/

Google Plans For Online PowerPoint Program

Google has slowly been offering free online programs that attempt to match the same programs as Microsoft Office. They have already released an online word processor, a spreadsheet and a calendar program. This summer they plan to release a presentation program, along the lines of PowerPoint, that will be available for free online. There are several advantages to these programs. They are free, and they are accessed by multiple people across the world via the Internet. The disadvantage is that they are not as powerful as Office, and if you loose connection, or Google goes down, you are out of luck. For more information, visit http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2007-04-17-google-presentation_N.htm Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 17

Microsoft and Adobe Both Offer New Programs That Compete With Each Other
Microsoft has long had a media player, and Adobe owns Flash, a video player for the Web. Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing a program to compete with Flash for video effects on the web. Their new program will be called Silverlight, and will provide a player for users as well as development tools for those seeking to create exciting new flash style graphics and videos for the website. Adobe has announced that they will be creating a program to compete with Microsofts Media Player. Their new program had been code named Philo, but when it is released it will be called Adobe Media Player. Both promise unique features that their competition does not have, however, the end user will be the winner as the competition heats up. For more information in Adobes product, visit http:// www.usatoday.com/tech/products/cnet/2007-04-16-adobe-flash_N.htm and for information about Microsoft, visit http://www.usatoday.com/tech/ products/cnet/2007-04-16-microsoft-flash_N.htm

Credit/Debit Cards May Soon Contain Changing Passwords ON Their Card

Banks have long sought to implement a second password type of security for users when they are using their credit or debit cards. The problem was found in having users carry a second device that would display a changing password that would sync with their account. Now VeriSign has announced they have developed technology that would allow a screen that would display a changing six-digit password that could be built right into the corner of a debit or credit card. This would mean that whenever someone was logging into an online banking site, they would enter the user name and password, and then look at the card for the third code. Hackers that had obtained the first two pieces of information could not enter the account unless they had the card in hand. VeriSign is expected to announce a major banking agency that will begin to issue the new cards later this month, and has already begun contracts with other online financial sites such as eBay and Amazon.com. For more information, visit http://www.marketwatch.com/ news/story/verisign-offer-disposable-passwords-bank/ story.aspx?guid=%7B8166FB26-1646-4B6D-91EB941138004266%7D

New E-mail Scam/Spam Claims New Passwords

Most sites that use passwords, such as online banking, have the ability to send you a new password if you have forgotten yours. I have noticed a large amount of new spam e-mails that claim they are sending me my requested new password. The only problem is that it is not only a scam, but the e-mails require you to click on an attachment to get your new password. Of course, you should NEVER click on an attachment that you are not sure of, and in this case, you can bet the file that is supposed to contain the password contains malware instead.

Cansecwest Security Conference Holds Contest For Hackers To Break Into A Mac OS X Machine, As A Result, There Is A New Upgrade To Quicktime
At a recent security conference, a contest was held with a $10,000 prize for anyone that could break into a Mac OS X. One contestant won the prize by discovering and exploiting a hole in QuickTime. As a result, new versions of QuickTime are now available for people to download. At first it was 18 May 2007

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thought that the bug would only allow access to the Mac, but further study revealed that the Windows version of QuickTime had the same problem. So, regardless of which OS you use, if you use QuickTime (and a lot of applications do) you need to get the update. Some sharply criticized the contest of paying hackers to reveal a security hole, since the industry depends upon disclosure of such security products by programmers when they find them. For more information, visit http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9018419

3D-Printing? Beam Me Up Scotty

Remember in Star Trek they had the ability to beam an object across the universe. While we are certainly a long way away from that type of science fiction, we are a step closer with 3D-Printing. 3D-Printing is actually not new since some 3D-Printers have been around for almost 10 years. However, they have been very rare, and every costly, and only used by high-end technology and manufacturing companies. So WHAT IS 3D-Printing. Well it is NOT printing out a picture in 3D. It is a machine that can receive blueprints of an object, and then create the actual object in plastic. Manufacturers have used it to literally send a part across the nation or around the world for someone to hold in their hand. Here is why this is now making the news. The cost for 3D-Printers is dropping. When they first came out, they ran around $100,000. However, some are now being marketed for as low as $15,000. This means that we might soon see 3D-Printing being offered at our local corner Kinkos. Imagine that you have lost the battery cover to your cell phone, and you could simply log into the cell phone companies site and download the specs to a 3D-Printer and have it in your hand within the hour? SOON these machines might actually be available in a home model, since some companies are planning to release low-cost models within the next two years that will run under $5,000. That may sound high compared to what we would pay for a computer or printer now, but in 1988 when I first started Christian Computing Magazine, I paid $5,000 for a black-and-white printer that would print in 300 dpi, instead of the dot-matrix printers that were out at the time that created letters using 9 dots of ink. For more information, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/technology/07copy.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

New Phishing Scheme Looks like Windows Activation Window

There is a new Trojan horse program out there that looks like a legitimate Windows activation screen from Microsoft. If you get infected, the screen will pop-up and tell you there is a software-licensing violation and will ask if you want to activate the software. It ONLY gives you two options, yes or no. You cannot activate your task manager or do anything other than pick one of these two choices. If you hit NO, your computer will shut down. If you hit yes, the screen will ask you for billing or credit card information. If you give the information, it is assumed it will be stolen. The Trojan horse program is called Trojan.kardphisher. For more information, visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/ 2007/050407-trojan-impersonateswindows-activation-to.html

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wordsearch word
Bob Dasal - bdasal@wordsearchbible.com

Using Bible Software Effectively

The key is TRAINING!
astors and Bible teachers can maximize their study time by becoming Bible software POWER USERS. How? TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING! WORDsearch (WSB) is the only Bible software company offering LIVE online comprehensive training and its FREE!
Six times a day and four days a week, Steven Ward, WORDsearch Training Specialist, conducts one hour online training sessions for WORDsearch 7. The training teaches how to unleash powerful study tools in the software to enhance ones study as they explore the Truths of Gods Word. The CROSS-books library offers more than 950 resources at very affordable prices. The library includes Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, atlases, maps, word studies, sermon helps, to name a few. Just the Basics II (Online Training) Personalizing your Search Using the Six Dynamic Searching Techniques Powerful Topical Searching Greek and Hebrew Words searches Advanced Training (Online Training) Use your verse list like a Pro Note Collection Methods Maneuver the Bookmarking Window Advanced Search Techniques Use the Word Processor feature to the maximum Desktop Training (Online Training) How To Setup Your Program For Desktop Creation Creating Desktops Grouping your books to work together Effective Desktop creation Search using custom desktops Desktops for Preaching and Teaching The Dos and Donts of desktop creation Church Staff Training (Online Training) Over the 2 hr. course we will cover: Use WORDsearch 7 and all of its features. Personalize Your Library Search Using the Six Dynamic Searching Techniques How to Download New Versions of Your Books Use Each Icon In The Book And Bible Windows Get The Most Out of Topical Searching Learn helpful Tips and Tricks. Focuses on your Church Curriculum And much more! To sign up for the FREE training go to www.WORDsearchBible.com and click on Training. 21

Testimonies
I have had WORDsearch for some time, but never realized the capabilities the program had until I took the online training with Steven Ward. I felt like I was in an actual classroom rather than a net meeting. Thanks for providing this training on a no-charge basis. That is unbelievable in todays world. I can truly say that my experience with your organization over the past years has been nothing but good. - Roger D. Plaster It is awesome that WORDsearch provides free training. How innovative, and helpful. I will surely recommend WORDsearch to my family now that you have provided this very useful training program! Dorothy Boehm

Training Opportunities
WSB training is comprehensive and equips the user in the effective use of the software in preaching, teaching and personal Bible study. Steven Ward has helped pastors, youth ministers, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, and all interested in the study of the Scripture to unleash the power of these programs. Below is a list of training courses available with a brief description. Its best to attend Just the Basic courses first. The courses are designed to provide the best over all understanding of the programs (WORDsearch 7, LESSONmaker and Bible Explorer) and their functionality. Just the Basics I (Online Training) WORDsearch 7 (or Bible Explorer 4) features. Personalize your library Downloading updated versions of your books Using the program icons Christian Computing Magazine May 2007

nick at church
Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Whats Different about Business Continuity?

any of us in IT focus on the quality of our system backup or, at least we intend to. System backups are essential, but are they enough? What if the process of recovering from a disaster will be lengthy? Like with Katrina? Or 9/11? Thats when well need more than a disaster recovery strategy. Well need a business continuity strategy.
Make certain the backups are working properly (theres almost nothing worse than finding out they havent been working properly when you are in disaster recovery mode), and Keep you familiar with the process of restoring files. This will help protect your team if disaster strikes.

Rarely Needed
Some never think about this need, and many who do arent willing to underwrite the cost. And though the cost can be minimal, we in church and ministry management strive to focus as much of our budget on program as possible. Thinking about the kinds of disasters that require a business continuity strategy, we usually figure that the odds of one affecting us are slim. The problem, though, is that those kinds of disasters are often when our communities need us the most! Increasing the likelihood that well be able to minister in those troublesome times can make a huge difference in the lives of many.

Business Continuity Strategy

Simply put, a business continuity strategy helps ensure that well be able to continue doing what were supposed to while were recovering from a disaster. Our firm recommends: Take a tape (or other media if youre not using tape) off-site every week, preferably the one following the day when your team usually does the most database and accounting updating. For churches, we recommend taking the Monday night backup tape. Each week bring in the last tape taken off-site and exchange it with the current weeks tape. This is probably the simplest and least expensive business continuity

Disaster Recovery Strategy

Good backups are a way to be certain we can recover from a disaster. This is an IT strategy essential. We should be backing up our data often and testing our backups to be sure theyll work when we need them. Heres what our firm recommends: Backup your entire system every night. If your backup device doesnt have enough capacity to do that: Backup your data and system files every night. Backup your program files whenever they change, or at least monthly. Test your backups every night by configuring your system to do a full verification of what it just backed up by comparing it to the source files. Review the verification logs daily to make sure all is well. Test your backup monthly by restoring a folder branch. This will:

strategy you can employ. In a worst case scenario, you will have to wait for new hardware to restore the backup, which might take two or three weeks. A larger strategy includes copying your data to another location so it can be accessed securely over the Internet. That location should be in a different part of the country. This should be done for your database and accounting system, and might also include other critical data files. The key for this step is that the location your database and accounting system is copied to should be able to run them for you in a hosted mode until youre able to restore that functionality in-house. Anything less is disaster recover, not business continuity. When Katrina hit, church members and staffs evacuated in all directions. Very few had a plan that would allow their staffs to access their database and accounting systems while they were dispersed throughout the country. Yet those members who were able still wanted to contribute, vendors still needed to be paid, and staff still needed paychecks.

How About You?

Do you have a business continuity strategy? While we pray that youll never need one, the reality is that you might. And being a good steward may require that you had one in place when disaster hit. Nick Nicholaou is President of MBS, a consulting firm specializing in ministry computer networks, operational policies, and CPA services. Since 1986 Nick and his team have served many churches and ministries in the U.S. and beyond, and he speaks often at conferences. You can reach Nick via email (nick@mbsinc.com) or phone (714/ 840-5900). You may want to check out his firms web site (www.mbsinc.com) and his unofficial blog at http://ministry-it.blogspot.com.

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

tech talk

Windows Performance Tweaks

ack in the olden days, we had to be concerned about what were called system resources. Because of an architectural limitation in Win9x, two system memory areas were seriously limited (a measly 64KB each) due to the 16-bit restriction of the operating system. While this is no longer a problem in NT4/2000/XPmemory heaps are basically unlimitedperformance can still be affected by certain system processes. By turning off unneeded features, you can improve performance.
shadow effect under menu and desktop items. Show shadows under mouse There are several visual effects operating on your computer that are pointer creates a shadow effect really not all that noticeable or important, and under the mouse pointer. Show turning them off will improve your computers translucent selection rectangle performance a tad. First, right click on the displays a translucent highlight on My Computer icon (or just press Windows an object when you select it inKey + Pause/Break). Second, click the stead of it being solid. Show winAdvanced tab and then the Settings butdow contents while dragging ton in the Performance area. Third, click does what it says, but whats the the Adjust for best performance option to point? Slide open combo boxes turn off everything in the list below (Fig. 1) or slides menu options in and out of Custom if you want to leave some on, and the menu bar. Slide taskbar butthen click OK twice. tons also does what it says. Heres an explanation of these sixteen Smooth edges of screen fonts options. The Animate Windows when minimakes screen fonts easier to read, mizing and maximizing option slides the winbut theres really little difference. dow in and out of the task bar. Fade or slide Smooth-scroll list boxes does menu items into view slides the Start menu that, but I find no difference. Use options in and out. Fade or slide ToolTips into background image for each folder view slides ToolTips in and out of view. Fig. 1 Improving performance type also does what it says. Use Fade out menu items after clicking fades by disabling visual effects. common tasks in folders displays out a menu item will after you click on it. this area at the left of an Explorer Show shadows under menus creates a 24 May 2007 Christian Computing Magazine

Turning off Visual Effects

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window. Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop places a highlight on the icons label (which is kind of ugly, so you might want to leave this on). Use visual styles on windows and buttons does such things as turn dialog boxes from gray to white.

Turn Off Indexing

As the boys and girls at Microsoft tell us, The Indexing service uses the Cidaemon.exe process to index files. The Cidaemon.exe process builds and updates the Index catalog. Additionally, the Cidaemon.exe process typically uses lots of pagefile space and lots of CPU time. For better performance, you might want to turn this off. First, open My Computer (Windows key + E). Second, right click on each drive, click the General tab, and then Properties. Third, uncheck the Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching option and click OK.. Fourth, in the box that pops up, verify that the Apply change to [drive letter]:\, subfolders and files option is selected and click OK. Reboot when all drives are completed.

Switching to Classic Start Menu

I know the new Start Menu is pretty and all that, but its also a thief. Besides, I think the Classic Start Menu is more efficient anyway. First, right click on the Start button, select Properties, Start Menu, and then check Classic Start Menu. Second, as an added boost, click the Customize button and check only the following options: Display Administrative Tools, Display Run, Enable dragging and dropping, Expand Control Panel, Expand My Documents, and Expand Network Connections. Click OK, but dont close the Start Menu properties box just yet. Third, click the Taskbar tab; uncheck the Hide inactive icons box. BTW, if you dont like the fact that XP puts all the same type of open windows into one group in the taskbar (I hate that!), uncheck Group similar taskbar buttons. Click OK to exit out of these screens.

Cleaning Out the System Tray

A big performance thief is the System Tray (by the clock in the lower right hand of the screen). Its amazing how much stuff is running on our computers these days. Moral of story: get everything you possibly can out of the tray. The best way to do this is in the applications options. If that fails, use the msconfig utility. First, press Windows + R, type msconfig, and press Enter. Second, click the Startup tab and uncheck anything you do not want to start with windows; the fewer things the better. However, if you dont know what something is, leave it alone. Third, restart.

Windows Hot Tips 3 and More

Windows Hot Tips 3 covers all the tips and other stuff presented in my column from January 2004 to January 2007 (including graphics). Order yours today (it will be greatly appreciated). Like its predecessors, it makes a great quick reference because its divided into sections, each of which contains related tips. There are two other booklets in this Hot Tips series, Windows Hot Tips 1 and 2. A single copy of each is $6.50 (sorry for the rise in price, but printing costs demanded it). Bulk prices are: $6.00 for 2-9 copies of the same title and $5.50 for 10 or more copies. If youd like to help with costs (not required), add 50 cents for any number of booklets you order. Docs Giant Utility Collection on CD is still 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 for your faithful support. God bless.

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Hal Campbell - hal.campbell@acstechnologies.com

ACS Ideas to Impact

Doing It Right: Automated check-in system advice from a church that made the move
ransition is often easier when you get advice from someone who has been where you are going. When it comes to making the move to an automated check-in system for preschool ministry, Liberty Baptist Church (LBC) of Hampton, VA, is a church that has been there. The church began making the switch several months ago, and they have learned valuable lessons worth passing on to churches that are beginning the process.
For LBC, a congregation with roughly 500 kids attending their preschool and childrens programs, the decision to switch to an automated system was two-fold. Security was considered first. With their previous process, only photo IDs allowed them to identify a person. This approach, however, did not help them match parents with their children. Beth Leffel, director of preschool/children at LBC, said, What we really love (about the new system) is that you match the child with a pickup label, so if you dont have that pickup label, you cannot get the child or you have to go through another process of identification. On the technical side, ACS proved to be the best choice. We were already using ACS, and Checkpoint fully integrated with ACS, says Justin Greene, director of finance and IT at LBC. It was kind of a nobrainer to get a system that fully integrated with our database. This made for a smooth transition. After deciding to use an automated system, many preparations had to be made before the Sunday-morning debut of the system on January 7, 2007. The first step was informing the congregation of the coming change. We started in November letting people know that it was going to happen, says Leffel. Next, LBC sought to prepare the preschool/children ministries workers to assist the families as they learned the system. The church offered them two training days. Leffel notes, The more people that know and understand the system before you get started, the better. LBC also used the system prior to January 7 as a way of working out any problems that they might encounter. However, Leffel said that Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 more than one would have been better. We actually did a trial run on the Friday before for a Mothers Morning Out just to make sure that everything was good to go, she says, but I would start it with your weekday programs first. She says attendance is usually lower and it is easier to troubleshoot problems that parents may have. LBC set up a kiosk with multiple computers. Leffel said, We have a total of seven: one first-time guest computer, two help-desk computers, and four self-checking-in computers. Directing the flow of people to and from the stations was also essential. To manage the traffic, the computers were placed in a line so families could get to them swiftly and move on. There were also directions posted above each station with step-by-step instructions for how to check in and wastebaskets below each computer to dispose of the peeled labels. Having several workers in place in the beginning to help families learn the system was a key element in LBCs success. The first month we had people at each computer station and then help-desk people, says 27

Leffel. Then the second month, we just had maybe one person per two computers. Now we have one person for all of the computers, so if you dont know how to do it, theres still someone to help you out. As LBC tried to move families quickly through the check-in lines, they discovered that much of their family information was outdated. We had some long lines in the beginning because we didnt have up-to-date telephone numbers and such, says Greene. Leffel suggests giving the process some time. It may take a minute and a half at first for each family. Now I feel like it takes about 45 seconds, so we cut that in half. Once the ball has been rolling for a while, Leffel offers two pieces of advice. One is to keep the help desk. This way, if there is a problem, a family can avoid troubleshooting at a station and slowing down the line. Also, it is good to have a priority computer for teachers and volunteers with children. This will allow them to move quickly through the line so that they can move on to where they are serving. All in all, the switch to a fully-automated system has been a good one for LBC. Theyve even found a few unexpected benefits along the way. Their teachers no longer have to take attendance or collect attendance rolls. They also have current information on the families involved. And these are just added perks that came with accomplishing their main goal: a more secure church. For solutions used by LBC, visit: www.acstechnologies.com/products/people_suite for check-in software, member management, and attendance-tracking ideas www.lbcmin.com to learn more about this church

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Internet Ministry
Walt Wilson - waltccm@aol.com

The Edge of Eternity

And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then, finally, the end will come (Matthew 24:14 NLT)

istorically, we have thought of this verse in the context of a two thousand year time line. But is that what Jesus, the Creator of bits meant when He said this? We are, after all, the first generation in all of recorded history to hold in our hands the technology to reach every nation on earth.
Some rightfully point out that only one billion people are on the Internet and that leaves out over five billion. If all progress were to stop that would be true but technological advances are about to accelerate exponentially. You might remember as a kid playing the game about doubling your money each day starting with a penny. In the course of a month, the amount is staggering. So it is with technology. Moores law was just the beginning the first few pennies if you will. In looking at the trending and the nature of the projects in R&D in Silicon Valley, there is an acceleration taking place that I have not seen in my 45-year career in the business. By all appearances, mankind is on the cusp of a rapidity accelerating era of change unlike anything we have ever seen. In years past one could see the movement and direction of technology. It was just a matter of time until it arrived. What is happening today are developments so advanced they are more extreme and propel us to a position that few imagined possible. In Starbucks these days, we are actually talking about uploading a persons consciousness into a computer. Ray Kurzwell, inventor and futurist observes that we are the species that goes beyond our potential. Merging the human with our technology is the next step for man. At the current rate of progress information technologies are doubling in power every year. Doing the simple math says that in ten years our capacity will increase by a multiple of 1,000. Over the years I have learned to put away skepticism regarding technological development. Sometimes the wildest, seemingly illogical ideas actually lead to the invention of things that were previously Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 thought to be impossible. There are those who will elect to opt out and choose to remain in their intuitive linear view since true exponential change is too hard to comprehend. Now let me confess that after 4 million miles on American Airlines and a former private pilot, Im a guy still amazed and thrilled at take off. Not to mention that with God, all things are possible. He created bits as part of the natural landscape for a purpose and expects us to use every communication platform to share the Gospel, including digital technologies. Exponential explosion of anything, especially technology, never appears to be significant in the early stages of development. Just like doubling your penny on the first day. Mapping the human genome illustrates this point. It was scheduled to be a 15-year project but after 7 years into the project only 1% of the work was completed. Even scientists doubted the work would be completed on time and perhaps not for many generations. However, if you double at the rate of one percent every year over 7 years, you arrive at 100%. The project came in right on schedule. 29

Read CCMags Review of our LogosGiving Service! CLICK HERE (for our PDF readers) or visit www.ccmag.com/0205/0205coverstory.pdf
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Christian Computing Magazine

The human race now stands at the 1% mark in technological development and rapidly accelerating. But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Daniel 12:4 Kurzwell predicts that by 2027, consciousness will be uploaded to computers which, when added to calculating speed and memory will move us to places where computers will surpass humans in intelligence. One of the questions I like to ask myself is what is the logical or natural path of the technology were looking at? Are we looking at the future? Consider a simple $10 calculator. Does it contain a mathematical intelligence and calculating speed greater than a ten year old human? Given exponential advances Kurzwells observations could well be true. He states, Moores Law is just the beginning. By 2050, youll be able to buy a device with the computational capacity of all mankind for the price of a refrigerator. many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. So where are we at the with computing power being applied to communication technology? The opening shots have been fired for broadcasters and cell phone providers with IPTV, IPRadio and IPTelephony. With the addition of music and movies, (business model arguments aside) it becomes apparent that all forms of communication and entertainment move to the Internet. That means presentation of the Gospel in all forms of voice, written word, and video are rapidly becoming Internet based. With all forms of communication moving from atoms to bits it is clear where we are headed. Are seminaries and churches traveling this road with us as we accelerate the spread of the gospel, exponentially, using the tools we have before us?

Lets summarize:
1. Jesus, the creator and sustainer of all things, visible and invisible gave us bits for a purpose, which includes digital communication of the Gospel and ministry to those searching for Him. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Col 1:16 2. Scripture tells us that just before the end of this age the entire world and every nation will hear the gospel. Did Jesus mean an event, rather than a two-thousand year journey? And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come Matt 24:14 3. Scripture tells us that in the final days knowledge will increase But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. Daniel 12:4 4. We are the first generation in all of human history to hold in our hands the core technologies to reach every man, woman, and child on earth. Every nation every moment every day. 5. Nanotechnology will merge computing power with the human body to increase human intelligence. (View this as being like a pacemaker, stint or a hearing aid.) 6. Man is at the one percent mark on the exponential curve in computing power, processing speed and communication technology to create higher levels of human intelligence Given all we know and can see happening around the world, politically and technologically, we may also be the first generation in all of human history to be standing on the edge of eternity.

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Information security
Ben Woelk - ben.woelk@gmail.com

Avoiding Phishing
Matthew 10:16 reminds us to be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves. Safe computing requires wisdom.

n my last article I talked about armoring your home computer to protect yourselves from your online adver saries. However, your attacker is as likely to come after you through social engineering as they are through malware. Just as our computers have vulnerabilities, we too are susceptible to attack!
Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering attacks are attempts to trick you into revealing private information. Successful attacks may result in identity theft and loss of funds. Social engineering attacks take a number of different forms, including phishing attempts; work at home scams, and Nigerian 419 schemes. Attackers often take advantage of current eventsas evidenced by a recent headline Phishing Scam Exploits Virginia Tech Tragedy. Millions of people received emails containing a picture of the gunman and a link to a malicious website that attempted to install spyware on their computers. At this point, you enter your account and password information, which is captured by the person who sent out the phishing attempt. Phishing emails used to be easy to recognize because of their poor spelling and grammar. Now, phishing emails are often indistinguishable from official correspondence.

Practice Safe Computing

Safe computing practices are the best defense against phishing. Here are a few safety tips: Never click on links directly from an email. Type the address into the address bar or go to the institutions web site and navigate to the correct location. Use File/Properties to find out which website you are really on. You can check the properties from the file menu or by right-clicking on the web page and selecting Properties. Look for the proper symbol to indicate youre on a secure web site. Secure web sites use a technique called SSL (Secure Socket Layer) that ensures the connection between you and the web site is private. This is indicated by https:// instead of http:// at the beginning of the address AND by a padlock icon which must be Christian Computing Magazine

Phishing
This article deals with one type of online scamphishing attempts. Future articles will discuss other types of online scams. Phishing is a common technique used in identity theft. Weve all received phishing emails or instant messages that appear to link to a legitimate site. These emails and web sites are designed to capture personal information, such as bank account passwords, social security numbers and credit card numbers. Losses to phishing attempts are estimated to be as high as $500M every year. How Phishing Works Phishers send out millions of e-mails disguised as official correspondence from a financial institution, e-tailer, ISP, etc. You receive the phishing attempt in your email. After opening the email, you click on the link to access your financial account. Clicking on the link takes you to a web site that looks just like a legitimate site. 32 May 2007

found either at the right end of the address bar or in the bottom right-hand corner of your browser window. A padlock appearing anywhere else on the page does not represent a secure site.

Browser Helpers and other Software Solutions

Although avoiding phishing attempts is typically a matter of following safe practices, there are a number of browser helpers available to help warn you of suspicious web sites. Browser helpers normally work as another toolbar in your browser. Use one or more for your protection: The Netcraft Toolbar displays information about a web site including whether it is a new site (typical of phishing) and which country hosts it. If youre visiting a United States banking site and the Netcraft Toolbar displays a Russian flag, youre probably at a phishing site. The Netcraft Toolbar also works like a neighborhood watch community, blocking access to member-reported phishing sites. Its available from http:// www.netcraft.com For PayPal and eBay users, eBay Toolbar now includes a new feature: Account Guard. Account Guard confirms that you are really on eBay or PayPal and warns you when you try to enter your eBay or PayPal password on a spoofed site. It also blocks known spoof sites. Its available from http:// pages.ebay.com/toolbar/ accountguard_1.html Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 also provide limited protection by denying access to many known phishing sites.

Useful Links
Phishing Scam Exploits Virginia Tech Tragedy (http://www.informationweek.com/ storyshowArticle.jhtml?articleI D=199100863 ) Online archive of phishing attempts (http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/) FTC Identity Theft Site (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/ microsites/idtheft/) Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 33

Ministry communication
Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com

Are you justified? In your typesetting that is

ight up there with the church office battle concerning people getting information in on time, is the disagreement over whether or not written publications should be justified, meaning that all the type lines up cleanly in columns. With desktop publishing you now have the ability to both justify your type or to have uneven line widths, which is referred to as rag right. The factors that go into making this decision are actually more complex than you might imagine and do have a powerful effect on the communication success of your church publications. Read on..
Where the type-setting term justification came from
In the church when we hear the term justification, we dont usually immediately think about typesetting. In the church, justification means we have been made right with God. How did this term come to have anything to do with typesetting? Actually, quite a bit. The term has a very long history. When the medieval monks were copying their manuscripts, to help them be sure their page looked good, they would inscribe on the thick vellum very thin guidelines. Most were for the horizontal baseline of the letters on the lines across the page, but there was also a vertical guideline on each side of the page. Starting was easy, ending consistently was a more challenging chore, but it was considered an act of devotion to God to make your lines came out right or to justify them. This was simply the way things were done for hundreds of years. When Gutenberg invented the printing press, he based the look of his manuscripts on the best practices of the time which meant justified type. Now Gutenberg couldnt hand adjust the width of the letters to make them come out right because the letter blocks were all a consistent width for each letter. His solution was to place thin strips of lead in between letters and words to justify his type. The monks justified their works; Gutenberg and the publishers that 34 May 2007 came after him followed suit. Typesetting is craft with a long and venerable history and our eyes and reading habits become accustomed to reading books that look a certain way. Even into the days of photo typesetting when the typesetter no longer had to add thin strips of lead or perform laborious calculations to make their them come out right most typesetters still justified their publications.

Why it changed
People began to analyze communications. With the volumes of materials being created in the twentieth century, the creators wanted to make certain that their materials were being read. Legibility and readability studies began. These studies were undertaken because typesetters now had options. In addition to setting justified type, type could also Christian Computing Magazine

be set allowing the words to be placed with their natural word spacing, no extra spaces between letters or words. The words themselves looked much better, but the line endings were no longer justified. This way of setting type resulted in an uneven or ragged right edge and the term commonly used to describe it was rag right. Studies showed that setting type rag right actually made the material easier to read. Most people dont actually read word by word or letter by letter; most readers take in a group of words at a time and by setting the type rag right this allowed the spacing between and within words to be regular, expected, and easier to read and comprehend. Additional studies have shown that the sometimes uneven spacing that results from justified type is especially difficult for people with dyslexia to read.

So why do many people still prefer justified type?

Everyone has a much deeper graphic arts education than they are aware of. For years people have read justified type and the type of most formal publications and certainly any reproductions of manuscripts from the past are all justified. Subliminally, justified type for many people means that the content is formal, serious and to some, more spiritual. Though most people have no idea of the history of type and the spiritual roots of justified type, when these same people see church publications with set type in anything other than justified type it just doesnt seem right. That preference doesnt matter much when you are purchasing professionally typeset books and Bibles, but things become complicated with desktop publishing because though type can be justified automatically in any program, some programs do it well and some do a really poor job. The first result of a poor job of justification are what are called rivers of white. These are the large blank spaces between words that form a river of white when viewed as a paragraph or page. The second result of poor justification is called laddering. Laddering is when there are three or more hyphens in a row. The hyphens at the end of the line form a little visual ladder.

What to do
You can control some of this and some you cant. Some of what makes good or bad justification is simply in the programming of a particular pages layout software, with the software most often available to church desktop publishing, e.g. MS Publisher or Word, not being the best at professional justification. With Publisher or Word, your justified columns will look best if you dont have more than two columns per page. With three or more, laddering and rivers of white are hard to avoid. If you have three or more columns per page, your publication will look much more professional and be easier to read if you set your columns rag right and not justified. The justification of type is only one small area in the large and fascinating world of typography and its an area in which few who do publications work in the church are trained, but it is one that has as huge impact on the professional look and usefulness of your publications. To help in that, from many years of teaching and writing about typography in ministry publications, Ive put together a 35-page book, Church Communications Typography. It contains book excerpts, articles and reprints on traditions, tips, and suggestions to make the typesetting of your print and online, digitally-created church communications professional-looking, readable, and effective. Its a $3 download from www.lulu.com/yvonprehn. You have my permission to make copies of it to share in your church for anyone working on publications with the purchase of one download. Christian Computing Magazine May 2007 35

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

eBible.com Review

unique online Bible Study site, eBible.com, seeks to combine the study of Gods word with Web 2.0 style social networking. The result is a simple to use tool that is most useful for quick Bible reading, simple study and interaction between other students of Gods word.
eBible is run by Godspeed a ministry that first started developing bible study via a mobile device called the Godspeed eBible Device. They then moved to software for the PDA, which is still available at www.ebiblepda.com. But with a desire to reach as many people around the world as possible to bring them together to study the Bible they started the web site, says Mark Sears of Godspeed. When you first go to the website you will find a clean, simple interface with three major tabs for searching. One is the Bible tab which allows you to search for a passage, topic, word or phrase in the Bible. Click the Search Bible button and you are taken to either a passage or a list of passages with your topic, word or phrase. Under the Search Bible button is an advanced search link which allows you to hone your search much like you can in traditional Bible Study software. Choose which translation and part of the bible to search. For example you can search for grace in the English Standard Version and only in the Epistles. You can also exclude words, require all words, or seek an exact phrase. The second tab is for searching the library, including commentaries, bible dictionaries, and topical studies. The P in the yellow circle next to 36 May 2007 the second entry in the adjacent picture indicates that Hayfords Bible Handbook is part of the premium version which requires a $99 per year fee. The following are part of the free service: King James Bible Commentary, Matthew Henrys Concise Commentary on the Bible, Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Commentary and Bible Dictionary, Smiths Bible Dictionary, Naves Topical Bible, and What Does the Bible Say About. Bible translations accessible via the free version are The Message, KJV, Spanish Reina-Valera, NCV, NASB, Italian Riveduta, ESV, NKJV, and HCSB. There are no extra translations in the pay version. The final tab on the home page is for bookmarks. You can create your own bookmarks which link passages and topics. Or you can search the communitys bookmarks. If you search for salvation it gives you a list of passages that the community says relates to that topic. The first passage in my Christian Computing Magazine

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search for salvation was Deuteronomy 1:9. Next to the passage was a link for study and one for save. Click on the study link and it takes you to the passage in context where you can read the surrounding verses. In the Study Browser window you will see the search box at the top right below links to the Bible, Library and Bookmarks. Under this is a title bar with the chapter you are currently viewing and next to it is a link that opens the Bible Outline window left of your passage and all with hyperlinks for quick navigation. Below the title bar is a drop down box where you can change the translation. Next to this box is a link which displays a Parallel window with any of the available translations you choose from a drop down box. You can keep adding more parallel versions. Instead of scroll bars, there are a pair scroll arrows at the top right side of the bible window. Mouse over the up arrow and without clicking the passage moves up. Mouse over the down arrow and it moves down. I wish traditional Bible software had this feature. The entire interface is neat and efficient. Everything you click happens immediately. While reading the passage you can right click it to find links to available commentaries or a link to bookmark the passage for later study. Clicking the view commentary link shows a small box which displays the text of the default commentary right next to the verse. It has a drop down arrow which allows you to change to one of the other available commentaries. Again, changing between them was nearly instantaneous. Most locally installed Bible programs are not this fast. The primary reason for this is the software used to power the site. It is run using AJAX and Ruby on Rails. Those are both very new web programming interfaces that make the web perform more like locally installed software. Google Mail and Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Googles new online Word Processor, both are examples of this kind of programming. (see http://rubyonrails.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX, and http://docs.google.com/ if you are more interested) So what sets this site apart from other online Bible Study sites like BibleGateway.com, BibleMaster.com or bible.lifeway.com? The primary thing is the social networking functions of the site. When you search to the eBible.com front page, there are four areas below the search tabs (and the reminder to pay for the subscription based version). On the right side are links to Featured users and Top users. You can click the pictures (blurred in the picture to hide identities that may not want to be in CCMag) and it takes you to their profile. There you can learn more about them, including their website, church, age, favorite bible verse and even testimony among other things. If you like what you read, you may then add them to your community. The most helpful thing though is viewing their bookmarks and notes. If you find a prolific user they might help you to gain a lot of insight. I clicked on one of the Top users and found that this person had dozens of bookmarks. The most popular topics are listed with larger and bolder font to show that there are more bookmarks on this topic than the others. You dont have to pay to be a top user. The person with the second most bookmarks is not a paying customer. If you find a person who really is helpful, then not only can you add them to your community, but you can also subscribe to their bookmarks via RSS. Either subscribe to them generally so that all their bookmarks will show up in your RSS reader, or you can subscribe to their bookmarks on a particular topic, like death or faith. As an avid RSS fan, this has real promise to me. If you are not familiar with RSS, it stands for Really Simple Syndication and works like a link collector putting feeds in a single place where you can quickly read content from a web site that is updated often. See the Wikipedia article for more on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss. My favorite RSS reader is actually a web service called Bloglines (see www.bloglines.com). The other two areas below the tabs and the reminder to upgrade to the pay version are the links to Popular topics and the Latest notes on the left. Again, the larger text is for topics that have more bookmarks. And below that are the latest notes added to verses. Finally, one of the coolest new features that eBible is offering is the ability to spice up your site. If you use a WordPress blog (see http://www.wordpress.org) to do your blogging, then you can add a plugin which will allow you to add bible study capabilities to your site. If you go to my site at http://www.kevinpurcell.org/archives/126 then you will find that I have the verse John 3:16 in the text of this blog entry about eBible.com. Mouse over the reference and a tooltip style window pops up with the text of John 3:16. Also you will find a link to study this passage which takes you to eBible.coms Study Browser with the verse in its context. You can study it there. Also in the popup are links to related topics like Christ, faith, God, Jesus, and love. I love this functionality. As of this writing, this plug-in is a beta. But it is simple and works. You simply load the plugin into your WordPress plug-in folder, activate and customize it 38 May 2007 Christian Computing Magazine

via WordPresss options panel and you have automatic bible study on your blog. You can choose between the different translations to display. You can choose whether you get the popup like my site has or just to make it a hyperlink to either the quick view page where you just see the bible verse or to the bible study browser which you saw above. Also available is a snippet, which will replace the verse reference with the actual text of the verse. Will this site replace a full-featured bible study package with hundreds of available resources? No. But if you dont own a bible package and have simple needs, then eBible.com is a great resource. If you are away from your computer and want to do some quick and simple Bible study, this might do the trick as well. But the real advantage of this is the social networking aspect and the ability to easily incorporate it into a WordPress blog. Social networking sites are what are hot on the Internet these days. If eBible.coms community grows and their offerings get a little more complete, then this could become a great and useful site. The interface is so neat and simple. If they offered access to a few more commentaries with a little more meat to them as well as some original language tools, then Id enjoy using this for my basic bible study. Im just not yet ready to get rid of the programs on my own hard drive just yet. But if the web truly does become the locale for most of our productivity, with Googles Docs and Spreadsheets, and PIM, eBible.com might have the inside track to completing the online office for most Sunday School teachers. Sears says, we are just beginning with eBible.com and they hope you will pray that God uses their service to help build Gods kingdom. Their goal is not to replace traditional Bible software but rather, to see millions of Christians come to eBible.com every week for a quick passage or topic search and they end up staying to explore and go deeper into Gods Word. They also see this as a kind of virtual water cooler for Bible study. Sears and Godspeed hopes that, since the Bible is not only meant for personal study but group study, eBible.com can be a place where people in the worldwide body of Christ work together to help disciples themselves and one another. If you are looking for a more traditional site without all the social networking, give www.BibleGateway.com a try. It has more Bible translations and the IVP New Testament Commentary series. It has fewer total works available than eBible.com but it is entirely free. Comparing Bible Gateway to the free version of eBible, they are very similar. If you dont use a WordPress blog, then Bible Gateway might be more useful. Their process of incorporating their site into your blog is more complicated but works with almost any site out there. Another great option is http://bible.lifeway.com/crossmain.asp. It is sponsored by Lifeway Christian Resources and has comparable offerings in Bible translations, commentaries, dictionaries and topical studies. But it also has word studies via Strongs and devotionals and other literature. The interface is a little more cluttered and the main page has a bunch of ads for resources you can purchase. This may be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. But give them all a try.

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handheld devices
Jim VanDuzer - jimv@laridian.com

Are You Ready for THE Question?

f you have kids you know that sooner or later youre going to get THE question. They all ask it, so you might as well prepare yourself for it with something better than, Ask your mother. As parents we all dread the thought of having to give the explanations and the reasons for making the right choice, having to explain about the long term and legal implications of the commitment involved. But we all know that its better to have a plan than to be blindsided by the question on the way home from school one day.
So, when your dearest, innocent child asks, Dad, can I have a cell phone? are you ready to give them an informed answer? What? You thought I was talking about something different? Come on, this is a tech column after all. There are a lot of issues that go into making the decision as to whether or not to get your child their own phone, such as how old is old enough, do they pay their own way, how much do they get to use it, can they do text messaging? These are things that you and your spouse need to discuss. One of the first issues is whether or not your child needs a cell phone (I can hear your spouse heaving a huge sigh of relief in the background, but, wait for it) or whether or not a PDA would work better. There are many children who would benefit from a PDA who do not need to be connected to the wireless. My son is one of those people. A few years ago he was classified as gifted with a learning disability. Before we could pull our hair out and put on our sackcloth the counselor told us that many of our presidents were classified the same way. (At which point not only did we put on sack cloth, but we showered ourselves in asheswho wants their children to grow up to be President in this day and age?!) But I digress. Our son, Ill call him Bobby (cause thats his name) is now allowed to carry a PDA to school. I loaded up an old Palm device with a spelling dictionary from Franklin, a calculator and some really cool games. We talked with his teachers and laid out the rules up front for Bobby. He was allowed to use the PDA in class as long as he wasnt playing any games. If the teacher told him to put it away he had to immediately. My daughter has since sought (and received) permission to use her PDA in some of her classes. She uses the Bible in Bible class (and other classes at her 40 May 2007 Christian school), she uses a Spanish/English dictionary in Spanish and she uses a scientific calculator in math and science classes. There are a lot of programs available that replace the different things that your child needs to have in class: dictionaries, calculators, Bibles, etc. If this is something that would benefit your child my advice is to talk with your childrens teachers before you purchase the device. Some schools and some teachers may not allow these devices to be used in class. Okay, maybe the PDA isnt for your child. Or maybe it is, but you want them to be connected too. This can still work for youerthem. Either a PocketPC Phone Edition or a Smartphone can do most of what I just described with the added benefit of being able to connect to the wireless. Keep in mind though; cell phones may be even more restricted in your childs classroom. Make sure to check with the teachers. (It may help to explain to the teachers and your child that the phone can be turned off and the PDA still be used.) My wife and I dealt with the cell phone issue last summer with our daughter. Jessica is 14 and wanted to get a cell phone. Christian Computing Magazine

Since she already has a PocketPC we were looking at a simple cell phone for her. I, being the techno dork (my daughters term), thought it was a great idea. My wife, being always practical, didnt see the need. My wife and I reached an agreement that we could both live with. Jessica could earn a cell phone. We would pay for the phone and her basic service. If she wanted anything extra like texting she would pay for that. What did she have to do to earn the phone? Well, hopefully when I tell you, you wont think that were cruel and unusual parents like she did initially. My wife and I are both fans of literature (more so a few years back when we actually had time to read). We both kept our Norton Anthology textbooks from college. Jessica had the summer to read through my wifes edition of the Norton Anthology (thousands of pages, hundreds of pieces of literature). She then had to write a paper on her favorite piece from poetry, plays and short stories. If she stuck with that and completed it by the end of the summer she would get a cell phone. She did. And she learned to appreciate different authors and types of literature (in fact just yesterday she started in on my copy of the Norton anthologycompletely on her own). And my wife has since appreciated my daughter having her own cell phone. It has come in handy. How you make this decision and what you do with your children is your call. This was what worked for us. If were talking about your toddler you will more than likely not want to spend a lot of money on it. Hi-C and milk do not make good lubricants for cell phones. Besides, prank calls from a toddler can really run up your cell phone bill. Firefly (www.fireflymobile.com) makes a phone that allows the parents to control incoming and outgoing calls. It only has five buttons (your kids can explain to you what they do). Ive heard rumors of kids in my kids school who have these, but Ive not seen them. Our kids school has a no phone in school policy. They can bring them to school and leave them turned off in their lockers or purses. Other schools in the area have more strict rules. Youll want to find out from your school district what their policy is. The recent happenings at Virginia Tech highlight the extreme usefulness of having cells phones readily available. Text messages were able to go through even when the phone circuits were jammed. And for better or worse pictures and videos were available long before the news cameras were on the scene and in some cases were available in places where the TV crews did not have access. Adding a phone to your plan isnt that expensive (its what your kid does with it that can run up the bill). Most cell phone companies have some sort of family share plan. We have several thousand minutes on our Cingular plan because of their roll-over option. Jessica has yet to run through those, but shes trying. (Actually, shes really good about how she uses her phone, free nights and weekends help.) You can get phones for free when you add a line to your account; unless you want a Smartphone. Smartphones tend to cost a bit more, but keep in mind that it may keep you from having to buy separate calculators and dictionaries. Only you know your child well enough to know if they will be responsible enough to carry this sort of device into the school. Only you know if your life would benefit from your child having a way to get in touch with you and vice versa. But trust me; sooner or later you will get that question. Many of you probably already have. Thinking back to when I got my first cell phone in 1995 its pretty incredible how far the whole industry has come. It used to be a luxury, now its almost a necessityor at least is seems that way (have you ever left your house in the morning and forgotten to take your cell phone with you?). Unlike many moral issues there is no biblical right or wrong in this discussion with your child. The question becomes more one of whether or not its worth it to your family and to your child, and can it be used as another opportunity to teach your child responsibility. This ambiguity doesnt make the decision easier. Thankfully, God is more clear about the moral issues that your children will be asking you. I cant really help you with those in this column, but thankfully we have a Father who truly does know best and who, in Jesus Christ, has already answered THE question!

Christian Computing Magazine

May 2007

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