Tony Dye

CITRT: The Church IT RoundTable

For all things Church IT related, check out the new and improved CITRT.org.  Please join the CITRT group on LinkedIn.

Business is in the Details

A couple of my buddieshave started a new site focused on helping small businesses.  They give away a lot of their wisdom and learning (not always the same thing) on the site.  Their tag line is so clear and also what sets them apart from many of the academic professionals: "For people making payroll, by people making payroll."  If that's you, or if you're even thinking about a small business, you might want to check them out.  BusinessIsInTheDetails

Oh yeah, they're also on twitter as bizdetails.

Think You Want to Start Your Own Business?

I attended a Business Development Conference Tuesday that was primarily focused on people who want to start their own business.  The negative side of me wants to say that I didn't hear anything that I hadn't heard before.  Well, like the story of the professional athlete who goes to a trainer, he rarely hears of some new technique, he gets to review what he should already know.  That's exactly what this conference did, and it was just what I needed.

The first presentation was titled "Starting Your Own Business" and it was presented by John Hilliard of the Lexington KY branch of SCORE.  About 40 PowerPoint slides, but it was slide number 4 that nailed me.  Ten questions of self assessment.  Here are the questions:

1. Are you a self-starter?
2. Do you enjoy competition?
3. Do you have will power and self-discipline?
4. Do you enjoy making decisions?
5. Are you a good planner?
6. Do you manager your finances well?
7. Are you willing to work 12-14 hour days?
8. Are you physically and emotionally strong?
9. Is your family supportive of your proposal?
10. Do you easily interact with other people.

For the assessment, rate each item on a 1-10 scale, where 10 means "absolutely," and 7 means "probably."  Then add all the point values (max of 100 possible).  Then slide #5 asks the simple question: did you score 90 or higher?  Wow... that requires a pretty high rating on EVERY item on the list.  Hmmm...

I don't think I'll share my score just yet.  How about you?

CLEAR Performance Update

Now that I've had a few days of using CLEAR in a mobile environment, I've learned something that's a bit too simple: Performance is based almost entirely on signal strength.  When I have all bars green ("Perfect Signal"), I consistently get 9.5-10 MBit downloads.  When signal strength drops down to just 2 or 3 bars (of 10), then speed also drops down to 2-3 MBit.

The good news: most of the places I frequent have something very close to that "Perfect" signal.  And, of course, even a 2-3 MBit data rate is not bad when sitting in a coffee shop.

Yup, I'm happy! :-)

Are You Going to Believe Your Eyes?

I've had a few too many "nobody will believe" this type of experiences of late.  Right now I can't think of a single one of them, but somehow I'm reminded of an old story.  Way back in my early days, I worked for a radio station, and occasionally produced/directed for Ludlow Porch.

I don't have any idea why I remember this particular story, and I probably don't even remember it correctly, but I've always loved the punch line.  The story goes something like this.  There was this singer (probably a country singer) who was known by his friends to be a bit of a womanizer, but somehow his wife had stuck by him through the years.  One time, while he was on the road, his wife decided to surprise him by showing up at his hotel.  She knocked on the door a while, and he arrived at the door, barely dressed, and clearly there was a woman in the bed behind him.  Without a pause, he looked at his wife and said, "Now, are you going to believe your eyes or are you going to believe the story I'm about to tell you?"  It's possible there was more to the story, but that's the only line I ever cared about...

Probably not a good idea to use the line in that same context, but otherwise, it's amazing how useful that line is

No Need to Involve the IT Department

Saw this on a website the other day.  “Because {product} is easy to setup and use, there’s no need to involve the IT department or install any extra software on the PC.”

This sounds great from a user or customer service perspective.  Why does it cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand up?  I don't think it's a control thing...

Up and Running on CLEAR

I believe my world changed today.  I'm now living on a Wi-MAX Internet connection from Clear.  Clear, aka ClearWire, aka Clear Wireless, has introduced Wi-MAX into a few cities, with Atlanta being one of them.  The coverage map is great for almost all of my usual hangouts.  I did a little experimenting on the edge of the coverage area earlier this evening, with respectable results, but then I did a little testing at a spot with very good coverage.  Now remember, this is wireless from a glorified cell tower.  Here are the quick results:

 

OK, the upload isn't all that exciting, but quite adequate for 99% of my needs.  For those rare times I need something faster, there are plenty of free WiFi hotspots around.  However, given these results, if nothing changes over the next few days, I'm done with DSL, done with Cable.  The price is quite competitive too!

If you're in Atlanta, Portland, or Las Vegas, and have an interest in this service, please let me know before you buy.

Would I Want to be a LION?

I've been a reasonably happy user of LinkedInfor a few years, and have benefited from the network of over 5 million connections from my 400-ish direct connections.  When I've looked for information on businesses, or tried to find old friends, usually that connection base has worked.  But I keep noticing people who are LIONS, the LinkedIn Open Networkers, and I have to wonder about the value of connecting with just about anyone.  I think I'd rather be a semi-Open networker, if there can be such a thing.

Anyone have any wisdom, for or against, the idea of being an open networker?