Google Voice for Church - and Personal - use

If you phone my wife during the work day her cell phone will ring.  If you call in the evenings, her cell phone and our home phone will ring at the same time.  If she’s at home she can use the home phone, if she’s out of the house, she catches the call on her cell phone.  If you call in the middle of the night her phone(s) may ring, or you may get voicemail, depending on who you are.  When she’s on vacation, if family members call, her cell phone will ring.  However, if others call, they go straight to voicemail.  If someone leaves a voicemail, she gets an email transcription of their voice message.  When someone texts her she can either read and respond to the text from her phone, or if she’s near a computer, she can read it and respond to it on a computer.

Someday she may decide to change cell phone numbers or we may get a new home number (or do away with it all together).  However, all our friends will never know the difference because the number they dial or text to will stay the same.

It’s all done with Google Voice.  Just about everybody should have a Google Voice account.  When you sign up you can pick an available local phone number.  You then configure the account to handle calls and texts as I described above. 

Think of the advantages of this service for a church.  You can customize voicemail based on who is calling, you can listen to voicemail as it's being entered and answer right then, you can customize what callers are forwarded to what phone(s), and much more.  

And…it’s free! 

Conversation with my Android Phone

I'm sitting at a light, about 4 cars back and decide to call home.

My Android is mounted on the dash, so I reach out and punch the "voice command" icon. At that point, I find myself in a conversation, not with home, but with the phone.

"Please state your command," it says.

"Call home," I command in a clear voice. After all, I'm not interested in calling Nome or somewhere else.

"Did you say 'call home'?" she (a very business like woman's voice) asks.

"Yes," I respond.

She asks, "From which location?" I forgot that I have an alternate home number in there. 

"Home 1," is my reply.

"Next time, say, 'call Home 1," she patiently instructs me. Then, "Calling."

And, finally, the light has changed and, since there is no answer, I drive along wondering if my phone and I can have any other instructive, for me, conversations.

Adventures in Social Networking

So…forums, blogging, facebooking, tweeting, google plussing.  Too many irons in the fire, too many websites to visit, too much background noise.  Time to simplify. 

Google+ is promising but hasn’t yet caught on.  I tired some add-ins that brought Twitter and Facebook feeds into Google+.  Doing that, I ended up with a dissatisfying experience with all three.  It helped me realize one thing though: many of those I was following on Twitter are also posting to Facebook.  I decided to try moving all those connects off of Twitter and over onto Facebook.  Once that was complete I realized I only had a few Twitter follows left and none of them were all that significant to me so I removed those follows. 

From now on, my writing efforts will autopost to Twitter, and I’ll get emails of comments, new follows, etc. but I’m not going to check Twitter because I’m not actually following anyone.

I use Gmail and I’m keeping Google+ alive so if anything happens there, I see the notification at the top of any Google page.  Again, though, I’m not paying any more attention to Google+ aside from that.  Maybe someday it will be worth my while, but not now.

I’m keeping the forum activity up because I find forum discussions much more satisfying than Facebook ones, but, for now, all the other eggs are in the Facebook basket. 

Now, the problem with Facebook is that it’s too busy.  Here’s my solution.  I created some lists and made them favorites.  For instance, I now have a RV-ing list.  I put all my former Twitter follows on that topic into that list.  I created another for News and put a bunch of news sites into that list.  These and several others are in the Favorites section of the left Facebook column.  When something new is added, there’s a number next to that list – so I know something has been posted.

I haven’t tried to divide up my friends, although that may be the topic for another entry here.

Anyway, that’s my current approach.  Anybody have any suggestions for something better?

London/Paris trip

We've recently enjoyed a terrific trip to London and Paris and I blogged the trip on my travel blog.  You will find the entries here.

Printing Mailing Labels from Google Contacts with Word 2010

I've written about this before, but I think I have an approach that uses less steps.  Once it's set up, it's just a three step process

1. Go to your contacts list online – export the mail list to Google.csv format – save to the desktop
2. Open Word, Mailings, Start Mail Merge, Labels (pick the correct label)
3. Select Receipents, Use Existing List, Pick the Google.csv file you downloaded, Comma Separators
• These steps only need to be done the first time
• Insert Merge Field: Name - (on the next line): Address_1__Formatted
• Click on Update Labels
• Save this document -- you'll just reload it next time and skip all this first time stuff
4. Click on Finish and Merge – Edit individual Documents – select all
5. Check out the results, print when ready

Exporting a Google Calendar for a nicer print job -- *UPDATED*

I’ve been working on exporting a Google Calendar so it can be printed. I know Google Calendar has a print option, but the results are anything but satisfactory. The events are truncated and the font is pitifully small. Also, it’s impossible to format items.

Anyway, here’s my work around solution. (This an update to this post)

1. Download and install Mozilla Sunbird. (note: Sunbird is no longer being updated, but you can still download it here.
2. Go to your Google Calendar…under “My Calendars” click on settings
3. In the calendar settings, get the ical "private address"
4. Open Mozilla Sunbird -- select "File, Subscribe to Remote Calendar"
5. Enter the private address - the Sunbird Calendar will now populate with the Google Calendar Data - enter your username and password when prompted (note: edits you make will now be automatically changed on your Google Calendar - it's two way - if you don't want this right click on the calendar name on the left, properties, mark it "read only")
6. Click on View, then select month
7. Edit the events to suit
8. Click on File, Page Setup, switch to landscape
9. Click on Print, insert a title if you want, change to the monthly grid layout
10. Print it

You now have a nicer looking printed calendar than you have if you print directly from Google Calendar.

Note: If all this sounds too complicated check out my post on WinCalendar.

Check out these Google Calendar related posts.

Inserting a Google Calendar in a Wordpress Blog

There are other ways to do this, but this is, I think one of the best.  The result is a page on your Wordpress website with a full sized Google Calendar.  You'll find he instructions here: http://falcon1986.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/insert-google-calendar-iframe-into-wordpress-page-update/ -- check out the results here: http://www.alvinnazarene.org/index.php/church-information/calendar.

Picasa Web Albums - it's complicated

This is a vent and not a "how to" post.

For years I have had both a personal and church Picasa web album. I managed both from the Picasa3 software on my home computer. I'd just sign in to either my personal gmail or my church gmail account.

When they came along with a nifty Google Apps feature, I signed the church up -- works great, letting us use gmail and other features with the church web address.

Then, they decided to do a bunch of merging of services. The lines between a regular google account and a google apps account were blurred.

One result is that I somehow ended up with two church picasa albums web accounts. The thing is that I never knew which one a new album would end up in. Then, once it was in a particular account I couldn't get access to it. Sometimes the same album ended up in both web albums.

Today I spent a couple of hours trying to resolve the issue once for all. I finally managed to on purpose log into either of the two accounts. I then migrated all the albums in the old pre-google-blurring-the-lines account to the new setup. I had to delete several albums because they were duplicates.

Now I have an empty web album and one that *should* work okay. I made a graphic with just the church web address and put it as the lone "picture" in the old album to help people find their way.

All this done having to constantly log out of one and into the other and then back because Google decided to blur the lines between regular accounts and apps accounts.

Then, I had to go through my church web pages and change the links to the photo album.

I'm not going to try to explain how I did it because (1) I'm still not sure I understand the process and (2) I'm not sure I did it right.

Again...just venting.

Electricity, forums, and internet misinformation

I've been reading about electricity. Now, I'm not an expert on electricity, although I guess I've learned more than the average person in passing several FCC exams on my way to my Amateur Radio Extra class license. Still, I make no claims to knowing about electricity.

The thing that started me down this line of thinking has to do with using in Europe a simple multi-outlet power strip with plugs for our USA 110 outlets.

Most electronics these days, like phone and laptop chargers are built for 110-240V~50/60HZ operation. That means that aside from the plug being different, the device is just as happy being plugged into a European outlet as being plugged into an American one. You can use the right plug adapter and it will work just fine, no transformers or other converters necessary.

I want to know if its okay to take along an American power strip, plug it in using the adapter, and then plug the devices into the power strip.

As I surf around the internet looking for answers I find more "junk" answers than reliable ones. On one forum the question is asked and a thoughtful reply from someone with a degree in electrical engineering is given. Just use a cheap power strip without lights or surge protectors (in other words, with no electronics of its own) and it will work just great.

In that very same thread people give dire predictions of smoke and destroyed equipment. They say the wiring isn't sufficient for 220 and the EE replies that, actually, higher voltage means lower current - the wiring will do just fine. They ignore him, as though he never posted, and conclude, "Well, I'd never take that chance."

On another forum a person links to pictures of how he's done it for years. No power strip, just one of those little multi-outlet blocks with a plug adapter. That way he plugs in three chargers at once, using just one outlet and plug adapter. Again, others warn against it - ignoring the fact that he works for the State Department and has done it for years in multiple countries without a problem.

Some cautious soul says, "don't do it - you might accidentally plug something in that's only 110/60Hz." Of all the things to worry about - including being run over because you stepped into traffic that drives on the "wrong" side of the road - they're worried about that!

Okay, enough of that - what all this brings to mind is how easy it is to give and receive misinformation on an Internet forum. If we were around some people for 10 minutes we'd realize that they might be well meaning, but we'd never take their advice about some things. If we were around others that same 10 minutes we'd know that they know what they're talking about, especially on certain topics.

On one hand, then, we need to be careful who we allow to influence our thinking, especially when we've never even met them in person. On the other hand, as "opinion-givers" we need to be careful we don't state with certainty things that we actually know little about.

As someone in good humor and fine sarcasm said: "It has to be true, I read it on the Internet."

Verizon has an update for the Droid X

Verizon has released the Android software upgrade from version 2.3.340 to 4.5.596.  I suggest that you dial *228 and update roaming/towers before you start.  I hadn't done that in awhile when I first tried the update it just sat there spinning.  Once I did the update roaming deal, it went right on through with the process which took about 15 minutes for me.  Rather than me typing it in, just read the documentation on how to do this directly from Verizon.

Once the installation was finished my only real problem was WIFI.  The Droid X would connect to my home network, but there was no throughput.  Ultimately, I had to change the settings on my router from WPA-Personal to WEP.   Then, of course, I had to change the settings on two laptops and a Nook.  The XP laptop, in particular didn't like the change but I finally got it going.  In my internet searching I found that lots of people are having WIFI problems with this update.  Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.  As it is, I can connect to a WEP WIFI or a non-secure WIFI, but, for instance, at church I won't be able to use the WIFI because it needs better security than my home network. 

Posting with Windows Live Writer

Since I do a lot of writing for the Internet I wanted to find a way to streamline publishing and I think I’ve found an answer in Windows Live Writer.  It’s a free download and it’s made exactly for bloggers. 

I have to add that I spent a few HOURS trying to get Word 2010 to do it.  It’s supposed to, but if it doesn’t work right off, there’s pitiful support for unexplained errors.  I was able to get it to recognize my blog but there are some weird problems with categories that chokes it. 

I gave up and went to Windows Live Writer and after just one bump in the road, I got it going and am writing using it right now.

For the person who hits the same bump, here’s the deal:

• You want Live Writer to download your site theme so you can see what your post will look like as you write it and you are using Wordpress.
• However, the download times out…no theme downloaded.
• Here’s the problem: you have a static front page.  Live Writer is doing a temporary post, looking at your front page to see it, and then downloading the theme.  Since it isn’t seeing the temporary post when it goes to the site, it times out and gives up.
• Solution: temporarily change the front page to show new posts. (Settings>Reading) 

I got a lot of help on this at: http://drupal.org/node/742468

Trying iGoogle again

I played with iGoogle in the past, but decided it didn't work for me, so I forgot about it. Today, I decided to take another look at it. There it was, all my previous settings still in place!

I spent a few minutes adding some gadgets and arraigning things. I now have a page with my Gmail, Facebook feed, Twitter feed, Google Calendar, and my Remember the Milk to do list all in view. I added another tab for news and another for my contact list.

Once that was done, I removed Facebook and Twitter tab apps from the top of my Firefox and added the iGoogle page. I hope it will be less distracting when I work. Before, every time someone posted to the Twitter or Facebook feed, the tab would change colors and I'd have to stop to see what they said. I couldn't bring myself to remove Gmail - maybe later on, I may be too addicted to email to hide that one too!

So, I have pinned tabs for just Gmail, my favorite forum, and iGoogle. I may not get used to it and go back to more tabs, but for now, I think it'll work.

Google Docs - Android - OCR

This video shows how to do a quick and surprisingly accurate OCR with a paper document and even off an iPAD. Using the Android Google Docs app you can take a picture of a document and send it to your Google Docs account. Google Docs will automatically do an OCR on it.

I think this can come in handy in meetings where you are given paper documents that you'd rather have in electronic format. You can also use it to scan in business cards to be added to your address book.

Using your Android as an Internet radio

I enjoy listening to traditional Southern Gospel music and I've been pleased to find a nifty option using my Droid X (Android) phone. Here are the key components:
1. An Android Phone (of course!)
2. An unlimited data plan
3. A car radio with an auxiliary in port(or earphones)
4. A cable for connecting the Android to the radio (Radio Shack has 'em)
5. An App such as TuneIn Radio

Using TuneIn Radio, find a station you want to listen to. I'm been enjoying www.allquartetsradio.com -- it's an internet station that plays exclusively Southern Gospel quartets. There are other stations and you can find them easy enough via Google or using TuneIn Radio. If you like a more country gospel mix, you'll want to check out www.kjic.org - the folks there are some of the finest I've ever known.

Start the stream, plug the Android audio to the car radio, and you're in business. It's not satellite radio, but then again, you're using your unlimited data plan so there's no extra charge.

It works great anywhere you have 3G or better.

Syncing folders with Dropbox

I use Dropbox all the time. It's one of the finest services out there and it's free! When I got it, I moved many documents into the Dropbox folder, changed shortcuts, and changed the default save path for some of the programs I use. Some files, though, need to stay right where they are for their programs to use them.

There are some other solutions out there, but this is the hands down winner as far as I'm concerned. Install it and start using it...that's my kind of program! If you use Dropbox you want to install Dropbox Folder Sync. Then, you go to the folder that resides outside of Dropbox, right click on it, and select "Sync with Dropbox." Done!

As always, let me add that if you don’t have a free DropBox account account and use this link to sign up, you’ll score some additional storage for me.

Using Google Forms to Create a Contact Website Form

I wanted a simple "Contact Us" form for a couple of websites and found just want I wanted here.

Go to your Google Docs account and create the form. When you are finished with the form, click on "More Actions" and edit the confirmation to add a link back to the website. Also under "More Actions" grab the embed code.

Follow the instructions from the linked website to set up email notification, paste the embed code into the web page, and you are ready to go.

The form will spit out information to your Google Docs spreadsheet and you'll receive an email when it is updated.

I think it's a nifty way to add a contact form to a website.

Mambo - Tinymce - editing problems

I've been on the phone with a friend who is trying to edit a website I set up years ago using the Mambo platform. He would log onto the site and go to the editor, but when he tried to insert an image he'd get an "object not found error." He was using Chrome so I thought there was some kind of issue there. He doesn't have Firefox installed, so I sent him to Internet Explorer. On IE he had even worse luck - just a blank page. I went through all my browsers and was able to log in and edit with all of them. I did a Google search and found a hint that reminded me that I had to solve a similar problem a few years ago. Are you ready for the solution? He was going to "domainname.com" instead of "www.domainname.com." That was it! Even though Chrome would let him into the editor, it choked when it tried to open up the image insert popup. IE wouldn't even let him get that far. Adding the "www" fixed it in both browsers! That's one of those two hour problems that must drive phone techs crazy!

Embedding a Picasa Web Album Slideshow In A Wordpress page

After my successful transition of my PastorScott.com website to Wordpress I decided to do the same with our church website, AlvinNazarene.org.  The transition went pretty good, although some parts of it took longer than they should have.  It was mostly little stuff, like changing link colors and setting things up so users can edit their pages but not others.  Somewhere along the line I decided to include a Picasa web Album slideshow on a couple of pages.  I wanted the text to wrap around the slideshow, so I spent some time trying out different plugins and searching the Internet for tips on accomplishing the wrap around.  Finally, I had it all working to suit me and I felt that the slide shows added to the site.

The next morning, I remembered that I'd forgotten one of the most important aspects of web design: checking the pages in different browsers.  I use Firefox most of the time, and that's what I used during the design process.  It looked fine in Chrome but to my dismay, my precious slide shows didn't show at all in Internet Explorer 9.  An internet search reveals that this is a problem many people have encountered.  I think the problem is with some default security settings.  Obviously, my website visitors aren't going to diddle with those settings just to see a slideshow they don't even know exists on the page!

I noted that the Google Calendar displays - it's in an IFRAME so I decided to try that approach.  Sure enough, I was able to embed the slideshow that shows in Internet Explorer as well as the other major browsers.  The wrap around idea, though was lost.  I just couldn't get it to work right.  I moved the slideshows to beneath the text and decided to call it good. 

Here are the steps for embedding a Picasa Web Album slideshow in a Wordpress page:
1. Go to the album you want to embed, and start a slideshow of it.  Grab the URL.
2. In the page or post edit mode, HTML view on Wordpress, enter this code:

<div style="margin-right: 22px; text-align: center;"><IFRAME SRC="URL OF SLIDESHOW" TITLE="Slideshow" width="600" height="500">

<a href="URL OF SLIDESHOW">Slideshow.</a></IFRAME></div>

Note to add: stay in the HTML editor - if you switch over to the Visual editor it will break your IFRAME code.

That should do it.  You can check out the results at alvinnazarene.org.

Building a website with Wordpress

Wordpress is primarily a blogging platform.  However, it can be used for a more basic website too.  I've just moved my pastorscott.com website to Wordpress.  In my case, I have access as an administrator to a server so I did the full installation myself.  If you are on hosted web space most web hosts offer Wordpress to their users.  Once installed, it's easy to set up.  I'm using the out-of-the-box Twenty-Ten theme with a custom photo at the top.  I've also done some minor tweaking to the style.css file to make links look the way I want.  However, instead of blogging, I just sat up some static pages and some blogroll links.  More work than setting up Wordpress was making my many pages of devotional archives match the new "look" of the website.  I ended up copying the style.css file to the devotionals directory and working from there.  If you look at it, you'll see that the pages look a bit different but feel as though they're very much part of the website.  Anyway, if you have the responsibility of maintaining your church website and want a fairly easy yet professional looking site, you might want to consider using Wordpress as your platform.

Browser automation with iMacros

I'm a fan of iMacros from Iopus.  I use it with Firefox but there are also versions for IE and Chrome.  Basically iMacros will automate web activities.  I use it as part of writing my daily devotional blog, letting iMacros fill in some of the blanks that have to be filled in each time.  I've also used it to check the camping reservation system for last minute cancellations when I want to go camping but they have no vacancies.  And, I have an iMacro to check air fares on a future trip I'm planning (saved $30 just the other day)!  Firefox and iMacros work together beautifully. There are professional versions, but I'm happy as a clam with the freeby.  I go to the website, start the recorder and do what I'm there to do.   After that I save it as a bookmark.  The next time, all I have to do is click on the bookmark and watch as the macro navigates it's way through to it's conclusion.

Some more robust add-ons aren't worth the learning curve, but I think this one is and I recommend it to you.

Keeping your Android church friendly

You're sitting in church, enjoying the service.  Then, just as the service reaches a quiet, contemplative moment, your Andriod phone cuts loose with your "Who let the dogs out" ringtone.  Oh man, you've forgotten to silence the phone again!  The Android app "Silent Time" will keep regular church attenders from becoming the unwelcome center of attention during the pastoral prayer.  Using the app you can set the phone up to go silent by day and time.  I use the app to schedule silent time during weekly church times and overnight each night.  It's a popular and free app and one church attending Android users will appreciate. 

Moving blogs - a lesson learned

As mentioned in a previous post, my General Writing blog has been, I think, somewhat frustrating to my readers.  For instance, some folks are interested in my Rhapsody of the Seas series or my adventures RVing and have no interest at all in my thoughts about the Bible inerrancy debate.  Other are interested in my Tech side but don't care for some of my other interests.

I've had folks subscribe to that blog and then, after I've done several posts on, say travel, have unsubscribed, commenting that the blog is no longer relevant.  As a fix, I started two new blogs: this one, and one on travel.  My intention is to leave the Miscellaneous blog for theology and the like.

So, I did it.  I exported the entire Miscellany blog and then imported it twice, to each of the "new" blogs.  I then deleted all the posts from each blog that didn't fit that particular blog.

So far, so good.  Then, I went to the original blog and started deleting the posts that now appeared elsewhere.  Big mistake.  What was I thinking?  There are back links all over the internet to the original posts.  Search engines still link to the originals.  People who followed those links ended up with a "page not found" message.

I still want the three blogs (plus my main, Daily Devotionals blog), but I decided I'd better keep a copy of the posts in their original location.  A small problem. The new blogs are at blogger and the old blog is a WordpressMu. I don't have administrative rights on any of them and when I tried to export from blogger and import to Wordpress I ran into a plugin problem. At first I thought I was stuck, but then I found an online Blogger2Wordpress utility. I ran the export files through it, and then was able to put the posts back into the original blog.

Lesson learned: don't move posts if you can't leave a redirect. It's better to have them posted twice than it is for readers (and that's what we want, right?) to end up at dead end "file not found" pages.