Tony Dye

What's Common Here?

Without using Google, or any other search service, can you identify what's common amongst all these: Edison, Gold, U.S.S.R., Calvin and Hobbes, Hotmail, Panama, Curie, and of course, Google.

Millionaires

Warning.  This is a highly introspective post having little to do with Church IT.  If you’re short on reading time, might be a good one to skip.

Somebody made mention of the book, The Millionaire Next Door recently, and it just got me to thinking.  First, I have to admit, I’ve never read the book, but I’m pretty familiar with the premise: Most millionaires are normal people, living in normal houses, driving normal (perhaps old) cars, and wearing normal (not expensive) clothes.  Hmmm…I qualify for a lot of that.

Somehow, I just wondered what is the definition of a millionaire?  Does it mean having one million dollars cash on hand?  Probably not, although that would certainly be a qualifier!  Does it mean having a net worth of one million dollars?  That’s probably an acceptable definition.  But what about having earned one million, and used it wisely?  That’s probably not going to meet the requirement, but sure is worth thinking about, because many of us will do that in our working lifetime, and probably way beyond.

Am I a millionaire?
Well… I certainly don’t have a million dollars cash on hand.  My net worth, um…, falls a bit short.  But then there’s that lifetime thing.  I’ve been in the “professional” (whatever that means) work place for around 33 years.  Even if I complain (and I shouldn’t!) about “church” pay, I still had a lot of years in the business world where I earned, well, let's just say "respectable" income.  So, plainly, I’ve earned more than a million.

Now, the hard question (for me): what do I have to show for it?  Where did it go?  The first 10 or so years of my adult life, I didn't do at all well managing money.  Frankly, I made a real mess of my finances.  Fortunately, through a series of events, three rather significant things happened in my life, all within a relatively short time period:

1. I started dating the woman who would become my wife
2. I was introduced to Christian Financial Concepts (now Crown Ministries) and Larry Burkett, and learned some very different ideas for financial management
3. I became a Christian (with the previous two items being rather significant factors in my conversion)

Now, as we all know, the moment you become a Christian, everything else in life suddenly all works out and becomes easy, right?  Yeah...didn't quite work that way for me, either.  Well, Christianity, finances, and marriage, are all ongoing projects.  Since this post is about finances, I'll try to stay on that topic.

What CFC, Crown, Ron Blue, Dave Ramsey, and so many others, all teach is pretty simple: live on a budget, spend less than you earn, tithe, stay away from debt, save, plan, and invest.  I bet that same advice would lead someone toward becoming a millionaire.

Maybe I'll get there.  If not, it's still a great trip!

At Last, No More InkJet!

I've previously mentioned my disdain for InkJet printers.  But, I must confess, I still had one at home.  And I hated it.  Well, no more.  It's gone!  Good riddance.

Micro Center had an HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP for $350.  That was just too good to pass up.  Sure, it's not every feature I might want, but for the few dozen pages a week I print at home, it will be great. 

The Other Dolan

Richard Dolan, John's brother, another part of the Viant team, has started a blog.  I'm counting on him doing more technical stuff, but I like his non-tech side too.

(and just ignore all that stuff that starts with things like "Tony told me to...")

Atlanta CITRT: WSUS Discussion

We don't have a date set yet*, but we're starting to plan a WSUS discussion in the Atlanta area, probably late January, at Perimeter Church.  Most likely, Brandon and John, of Viant, will "host" the discussion and demonstrate what's in place at Perimeter.  If you have specific things you'd like to hear about, please post them as comments here, or send me an email.

Justin, what would we have to do to sweeten the pot enough to get you to pay a visit?

* UPDATE: It's set.  link

Some GREAT Service From Dell

The pictures above are mostly the END of the story.  Brandon called Dell for service on a notebook.  Good agent on the other end, asked the right questions (but didn't overdo it!), resolved the real reason for the call -- a bad hard drive.  But that's not where the call ended.  She then asked Brandon something along the lines of "while you've got the notebook in front of you, is there anything else it needs, like screws or feet?"  Sure enough, there was a rubber foot missing.

So...besides the box that contained the replacement hard drive, another box came in.  Shipped overnight, of course.  In that box, inside the protective foam, is one rubber foot.

When UPSes Fail

When do you most need a UPS?  When the power fails, of course.

When is a UPS most likely to fail?  Same answer, unfortunately.

Is there a UPS, with excellent advance warning, that actually lets you know that a battery is failing before it fails?  Or...do we just need to schedule battery replacements ever two years, unconditionally?

Mass Picture Scanning

It's taken me a few years to transition from being "just OK" with digital pictures, to beginning to like them, to absolutely wondering how I ever lived with old-fashioned printed pictures.  But, alas, I have a lot of those old-fashioned pictures.  (at left is only a small sampling)  I'm ready to digitize them all.

Even at $0.19 each, it would cost me many hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars to use a service.  Scanning on a simple flatbed scanner, one at a time, is a painful process.  So, what are my *affordable* options?  Are there document feeder/scanner combinations that are worth having?  A 200 dpi scan would be just fine for my purposes (I think).  Paying a few hundred dollars for a semi-automatic scanner would be a bargain.

Got any great suggestions?

CITRT IRC

I'm trying to become a regular in the CITRT IRC channel.  If you're a Church IT person, it's worth checking out.  Here's Jeffrey's description from itDiscuss, or here's Jason's post that touched on it.  'nuf said?

Update: Justin Moore just posted a more useful overview.  Here it is.

Thanks James H. Mason

Google would make this too easy, so no attempt at a trivia contest today.  On December 26, 1865, James Mason invented (or patented, patent number 51,741) the first American Coffee Percolator.  Every since, it's become easier and easier to have a fresh cup of coffee each morning.

Where would the IT world be without coffee?

UPDATE: Since posting this, I've seen a number of references that the name is actually James H. Nason.  OK, could be.

Perhaps more IT oriented (arguable!), today is the birth date of Charles Babbage, inventor of the "analytical engine."