In the "About friggin' time" section of this blog, today Apple updated their MacMini line of computers so that it can now handle DUAL MONITORS. Significance? For $600 churches can now have a Mac running in their worship center. Couple that with ProPresenter, and this is now a SWEET, INEXPENSIVE setup that will actually work.
Thank you, Apple, for FINALLY making something decent and affordable for venues!
Wednesday afternoon I had the opportunity to hang out with Todd Breiner, CFPB Middle School Pastor - along with several volunteers and students in the CF Students Middle School Venue. I was blown away...
Several of their volunteers approached me about using our old Standard Definition video equipment. "Sure, why not. We may still sell it. I may take it back, but have fun until then." Well, evidently these guys have turned a 200 person Middle School venue and turned it into a living, breathing production facility using scraps from all over CFPB. Unbelievable.
What are they doing? Five cameras. Some manned. Some static. Plus Alpha/Chroma keying lyrics/notes on top of camera... all this for middle school students. And they are still pushing to do more. Incredible.
How do they run this? Who makes all this happen? Evidently the CFPB Middle School Ministry has 40+ media volunteers every week. I'm hoping to swing by a worship service this weekend. Can't wait to see the creativity of these kids realized.
If Middle School wanted to go High Def, they could not afford five cameras. They could not afford a HD Switcher/Scaler... or the cabling involved... Instead of limping into HD and putting together a weak production, Middle School decided they were going to be KING of STANDARD DEFINITION and go overkill with old equipment that still functions.
Lesson Learned: Sometimes, quantity trumps quality. And there's nothing wrong with resurrecting old gear! CFStudents Middle School, way to go!
Love 'em or hate 'em, it's President-elect Obama. Romans 13:1. And that's all I'm going to say about that...
Check it. Watching the Election coverage Tuesday night I saw one of the coolest things I've ever seen on TV. Will.i.am "beamed" into the CNN studio circe Star Wars' Princess Leia ("Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope...")
Check out the footage below...
Awesome. Check out some of the behind the scenes footage...
It's an exciting time to see what is technologically possible...
I cannot even start to tell you how many man-hours I've wasted on this problem. I've blogged it. I've twittered it. I've talked to multiple tech support people. I've yelled at people. I've been yelled at by my bosses... This is one of the two biggest technical guffaws Christ Fellowship has experienced this year.
Evidently several brand new MacBook Pros at CF Multisite venues would not connect to a brand new Samsung projector. Why? Because of the stupid friggin NVidia graphics card. To come to that conclusion took me 40-60 business hours and probably over 100 total man hours.
Well, months after I've resolved the situation on my end - the nice people at Nvidia finally got their act together and acknowledged the problem... which now allows for Apple to develop a system to fix the problem...
And here we are, Apple is finally offering a Nvidia graphics repair program. CFWK, CFDT, and CFR venues with a MacBook Pro - your laptop could be affected! If you are noticing or experiencing any issues with your laptop not working with your projector or screen, please let me know and we'll figure out how to get the problem resolved.
Microsoft Apologists... you know who you are... go ahead and defend this video. Please. Help this make sense to me.
We're one week into the Uncovering Revelation Online Small Group, and I've spent Monday AM analyzing the numbers. (Google Analytics, you really are my hero!). This is my first online small group since 2000 (through eBeliever.com) and I was excited to see how well the first week was received. Being a huge numbers guy, I love data. Stats, for the most part, were solid.
There was one stat, though, that shocked me.
This past week, UncoveringRevelation.com had 32 visits from iPhone users. 2 visits from iPod Touch Users.
So wait, you can be anywhere and involved in an Online Small Group through your iPhone? Really, hadn't anticipated that.
Stuck waiting for the Metrorail to take you Dwntwn? Go to Small Group.
Waiting in the Doctor's Office? Go to Small Group.
Bumper to Bumper on I-95? Go to Small Group.
Show up early for a MTG at your office? Go to Small Group.
Coffee break @ Starbucks? Go to Small Group.
Thanks to Apple for creating simple technology allowing people to connect to a Small Group WHEREVER they are!
Interested in Online Small Groups? Check out UncoveringRevelation.com, Christ Fellowship's current Small Group curriculum.
Side note: I did have five visits from Blackberry's this week. I can either infer that there are more iPhone users than Blackberry users at this point, or that iPhone users are more "spiritual" than Blackberry users. You tell me.
Just got a twitter from Jeff Berg, the genius behind Planning Center. There's an update coming on Monday to Planning Center.
So, for ALL OF YOU who actively use the website, before you call me freaking out that Planning Center is different... Check out Ministry Centered's blog where they talk about the update.
Christ Fellowship-ers, after reading the blog if you need me to explain anything to you let me know. Everything will be normal until Monday (when the update hits).
Thanks, Ministry Centered, for creating the best tool we use to produce, administer, and organize CF worship services.
Yeah, I hear you. You live in the coastal SouthEast United States... and the fact that it's Hurricane Season means that you are sitting on the edge of you seat making sure you are not living WITHIN THE CONE OF DEATH.
Thank you to Weather Underground, for creating an iPhone Interface so that those of us stupid enough to live in Hurricane Alley can keep track of all of the CONE OF DEATHS CONES OF DEATH around us!
Check out i.wund.com - on your iPhone, of course.
Thanks to Janis R for the grammatical correction.
So tonight was the Christ Fellowship Academy open house, and there was a small, short program in the worship center. So, after a dozen calls to the cell phone, I commit to helping them produce it.
While setting up the show in ProVideoPlayer, I had a thought... this would be a great time to play around with some iPhone software.
What you are seeing here is a screen shot from my iPhone. The iPhone is VNCed (Remote Accessed) to my laptop, which is located in the studio control room.
Let me say this in layman's terms.... I can control software on my laptop from anywhere in the worship center, even though that laptop has to be tethered to projectors in the control room. Yeah, that makes me excited! I got to sit at the light console, able to mouse-click through a presentation file in a completely different room, and was able to hit the lights for the video when it came time. Plus, I could easily communicate with the sound person (since I wasn't stuck in the control room).
How'd I do this? Using iPhone software called Teleport. Teleport is the most expensive iPhone software I own (a whopping $25) but the ability to get into the control room while not in the control room... priceless.
Teleport is still buggy. It loses connection occasionally (especially while starting to connect), but the pros strongly outweigh the cons. There is another iPhone VNC software called Mocha, that comes in a free and ultra cheap ($6) version. Several features (graphics, limitations in typing) were worth me paying the extra $ for Teleport.
Thank you, Apple, for once again making my life easier.
But it's not always about Apple. Stay tuned this wknd for how Microsoft is making an impact at our Downtown campus. I guarantee, it's not what you think.
I know, I know. Sometimes you just can't get enough of Jeff's Blog, and you want to read it when you're on the go. You don't have the jingle to buy one of those fandangled iPhones everyone is talking about... but you still want access.
I'm happy to announce Run with God is available in a mobile version. Yes, any cell phone with a builtin web browser (Blackberrys too!) can now read a graphically slimmed down version of the site. Just point your browser to m.runwithgod.com - and you're set. Enjoy wherever life takes you.
But wait, there's also an iPhone version of the blog as well. Maybe you don't want to load the entirety of Run with God, instead just load iPhone version at m.runwithgod.com and get the newest updates in the chaos that is my life in Miami.
Seriously, though, this is why I love RSS. Cause your content can easily take any shape you want it to, and can be distributed easily through practically any method. For you blog-heads out there, check out 
MoFuse.com - a free service I heard about just today. In practically no time I was set up, and by doing a simple CNAME record change pointing m.runwithgod.com to mofuse.com's address for me, I was done. I say "simple CNAME", but chances are you don't know what a CNAME record change is, so you'll have to trust me, simple.
Thanks, MoFuse, for an entertaining (and beneficial) product!
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