RSS Feed

I have had a few people complain to me recently about my RSS feed not working. This is due to the fact that I recently transferred all of my RSS traffic to feedburner at the request of most of the people currently complaining. Please check your RSS readers settings and refresh if necessary. New RSS feed url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheCapsWay

Im In!

This series starts next week at Fellowship Church in Dallas. Looks like its going to be good.

They Dont Make A Van

I had somewhat of an epiphany over the weekend. Mercedes-Benz does not make a van. I had this sudden realization while offering my opinion of a technical budget submitted to me but a customer I am consulting for. They had budgeted a significant amount of money to install some very specialized and expensive tech in a multi-purpose room in the auxiliary section of the building. This is all well and good, except when you do not wish to hire full-time tech people to operate the equipment in the room. Their response to my critique was this; “If we have the money, why shouldn’t we spend it on tech.” Despite the overwhelming excitement that came over me hearing this from a financial person, the point is this: When you need a utility van, don’t go to the Mercedes-Benz dealer looking for one.

What An Awesome Team!

I just want to take a moment to be thankful for the team I work with. For those of you who don't know, I worked an epic 93 hours last week. Some would say that must have been "hell", but I would say it wasn't. And that is all thanks to the team that I work for. By boss, but more importantly my friend Wes, was with me every step of the way doing everything he could, even when it was just a one man job. One night later in the week the Senior Pastor and his wife took us out to dinner to show their appreciation for all the work we were doing. And that's what makes the difference. When you work 93 hours, and no one notices or cares, that's what makes it "hell".

Why 93 hours you ask? Well here is the short story and to-do list for last week:

1. Final prep and media for the Iron Sharpens Iron conference that weekend. (all 12 videos and countless powerpoint presentations.)
2. implement final leg of new lighting rep plan after weeks of CAD design revisions. (i.e. take down every single fixture and put them back up the right way, then reprogram the congo from scratch)
3. Final prep to launch new sermon series that weekend. (New intro video and graphics)
4. Sit through 2 hour staff meeting no one cares about (I'm not bitter)
5. The usual weekly tasks
6. PM on all the lighting gear (replace gels and bulbs in lights, replace broken sockets in the worthless strand fresnels, and rest the lighting racks, dust everything, clean filters, you get the idea)
7. Fix the outlook control system once an for all
8. Continue to work on resolving the Crestron control system issues.

None of this could have been possible without the help and support of the rest the team.

Excellence Or Perfection?

I wish I could take credit for this post linked below, but I can't. My boss Wes, and I have been talking over the last few weeks about how to raise the bar, and not cause problems doing so. In the process we have started creating training programs, rewriting our crestron control software to better fit our needs, and reworking some of our standards and procedures to make things run smoother. However in our discussions the same question continues to come up. At what point are you obsessing over something and straying away from excellence and heading toward an un-realistic pursuit of perfection. Then out of the blue this morning, a new post appears in my RSS feed list from the awesome Mike Sessler, the author of the Church Tech Arts blog. His post "Perfection or Progress?" is by far the best post on the subject I have read to date. So for all of you that are also having the same issues with excellence, i encourage you to read Mike's blog. Here is the link: http://www.churchtecharts.org/Blog/archives/454

Chruch Tech Arts At Its Best

This video was sent to me a few days ago following a conversation about what the next step toward "perfection" should be in our respective applications. The video was filmed at Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas not long ago. The team at Fellowship did a wonderful job putting this together and and finished it with near perfect execution. Enjoy the video!

Live Version:



Post-Production Version:

I Need Help!

Alright people, here is my problem.

I have searched high and low for the one piece of technology that does it all. You know that one thing that keeps track of your calendar, does the chores your wife asks you to do before she nags you about them, accepts phone calls from the people you do want to talk to but conveniently ignores those calls you don't want to answer (that way you really can blame it on your phone) syncs seamlessly with Microsoft exchange for email, contacts, and calendar, will freeze time so you are never late to work (no fast-forward though because that would be bad. we all know what happened in the movie "click"), run any application no matter what device it was originally designed for, and it must have a touch screen, play music, and not cost 4 million dollars. Now I know that I left a few requirements out but I didn't want to make this a 20+ page post.

But seriously, I currently own a blackberry pearl and love it. Only problem is, it doesn't have WIFI, and the useful software apps are few and far between. I am not married to my blackberry at all, I simply have not run across a device that I was convinced did everything the blackberry did and more, without introducing more problems. I have thought about the iPhone, but no one that I know who owns an iPhone knows anything about it other than it looks cool and was the next best gadget that everyone was buying so they had to have it. I cannot find anyone to talk to that owns an iPhone that I can really talk to about the stuff I care about. Not just the GUI but also its advanced features and how it really compares to the blackberry and others. Before you write me off as an idiot, I will tell you that I have been able to find more than enough apple fan boys that can do nothing but drool over the thing. But that isn't what i need. I need someone that will get over the fact that it is an apple product and tell me more than what it can do(I can find more than enough information there), but also what it cannot do.

What I really want is a device that will do everything my blackberry does, (Email, phone, calendar, contacts, extra apps, ect..) and will run some industry specific apps. I used to own a PalmTX handheld before it was stolen from me, and I used it to run several sound and lighting applications. This was awesome while I was at work, but also meant I had to carry my Palm along with my phone and any other tools that I needed to work on a given project. That is a lot to have on you at any given time, especially if you are up in the catwalk when you are not really supposed to have that stuff on you in the first place. I have recently discovered some software apps that run on the iPhone and the iPod touch and will not only run new and improved versions of all my old software, but also run new apps that will allow me to directly control my lighting console and any other DMX device directly from my iPhone or iPod touch using the built-in WIFI and other protocols. The simple solution would be to buy and iPod touch and keep my blackberry and continue to live my life. However, then I would be right back to carrying 2 devices with me all over again. Therefore the better solution would be to get an iPhone. Problem there is I am not sure that I will like it, and that I am unsure of how it will handle everything I throw at my blackberry as well as the added load of my industry applications.

So now do we all understand my problem? I would be glad to own an iPhone if I knew it was the right device for the job.

BTW, sorry to everyone that has been mad at me for not blogging enough. I promise to make it up to you!