New Article: Five Things Worth Doing in January

Got a minute? How about less than sixty if you plan for it?

I just released an article for publication of five things to do in January that'll take less than an hour that will go a long ways toward protecting your systems and data all year long.

Click here to read a free copy I added to our website!

iOS 11 Update - What You Need to Know BEFORE Updating

Apple has an advisory on their website (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208136) that using email in iOS 11 may not work, and that they’re working on it.

We recommend you postpone updating until this is resolved if you use email on your iOS device.

UPDATE: Apple released iOS 11.0.1 to fix the issue-- you're good to update!

New Article: Helpful Computer Hacks

A hack is no longer an inept person, but a helpful way of doing things that increases effectiveness and efficiency! Who knew!

I released an article to the publisher of some helpful computer hacks that will likely help every computer user. You can get to a free copy posted on my firm's website by clicking here.

Mac OS Sierra - Caution!

Apple has released Mac OS Sierra (version 10.12), and folks are asking questions!

1. Should I upgrade?
2. Are there incompatibilities with some of the apps I use?
3. How do I un-upgrade?

Here is the answer key:

1. Be cautious! Read the answer to question 2 before upgrading.
2. I've been running it a couple of weeks, and find it mostly good. In our configuration we have found two incompatibilities so far: Bria (our VoIP softphone app) and Thirtyseven4 (our anti-malware app). So, to answer question 2, check with the developer of your must-have apps to be sure there are no incompatibility issues before proceeding.
3. Apple calls it a rollback, and another common term is downgrade. There are steps to do this that work; I recommend Googling downgrade sierra to el capitan to get the steps.

 I'll post updates as I have them.

New Article: IT Security Essentials

IT security is an important piece of the IT puzzle that many in church and ministry leadership don't understand. I wrote a brief article that covers some of the most important, easy-to-fix, and affordable-to-fix issues. The article has been released to the publisher, but you can access a free copy on my firm's website by clicking here!

2 New Articles: Nicks Software & Hardware Picks

I've released two articles to their publisher, one on software and the other on hardware picks. They are available to preview for free on MBS' website; here are the links:

• Nick's Software Picks (2016)
• Nick's Hardware Picks (2016)

New Article: Microsoft O365 - What You Need to Know

I just sent an article to the publisher on issues related to migrating to Microsoft's O365. It includes some good news, details some of O365's limitations, and concludes with a creative way to save money!

Interested? Click here to read a free copy!

New OSes: Windows 10, Mac OSX 10.11 (El Capitan), & iOS 9

Just a quick post about Windows 10, Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), and iOS 9.

Windows 10

• We feel very good about this OS, but have not finished our worksheet on how to configure it yet.
• If you're an MBS client, we recommend holding off upgrading until we complete our worksheet and can thus certify it, which we hope will be by the end of this month.

Mac OSX 10.11 (El Capitan)

• It’s all about the apps; not about the OS (see my article on this topic).
• So far we’re seeing more spinning color wheels (though the color wheel is much prettier!), some crashes, and a problem running Office 2011 in El Capitan.
• The only current fix we’ve found for Office so far is to upgrade to Office 2016.
• At this time we are NOT recommending this free upgrade.

iOS 9.x looks good to go!

I hope that helps!

New Article: OS Version Update: Windows, OSX, Android, & iOS

I just released an article to the publisher about these operating systems. I include a brief introduction to our thinking about Windows 10 too! If you'd like to read a free pre-release version on MBS' website, click here!

New Article: All Data Is Vulnerable

I just released a new article for publication addressing how vulnerable our data is, and some simple steps to improve that. Here's the opening paragraph:

Sony. The US government. The news is often filled with 'the latest' cyberattack. It seems like all of our data is vulnerable. What should we do about it? What can we do about it?

I put a copy of the article on our website, and you can read it for free; just click here!

iOS 8.1

Apple released iOS 8, then iOS 8.0.1, then iOS 8.0.2. And that was good.

Then they released iOS 8.1, and it was very good! I recommend upgrading as soon as you can! And if you've got an iPhone 6 or 6+ or one of the newest iPads, you get to enjoy secure purchase transactions via their excellent Apple Pay app! (see http://www.mbsinc.com/digital-wallets/ for more info on Apple Pay)

New Article about CITRT - The Community of Church IT People

Most people who work at churches and ministries are in behind-the-scenes positions. There is a group of these modern day heroes of The Faith who focus on IT that began gathering as peers in 2006 to and encourage each other. They have formed the Church IT Network, and their impact is huge!

If you'd like to read this article, click here!

OSX 10.10 - Yosemite

Apple released the latest version of their Mac operating system last week, OSX 10.10, dubbed Yosemite. It is the second version of OSX after the big cat series (Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion), and like it's predecessor (Mavericks) is a free update. But is it ready?

A Little History
Mavericks (OSX 10.9) was free, but made a lot of folks unhappy with the file read/write issues it had. Apple tried to fix them, but never did. So we recommended skipping over Mavericks unless you couldn't avoid it ('cause you bought a new Mac) or because you needed to use an app that required it.

Recommendation
Yosemite may be ready, but it's too soon to tell. Files seem to open faster, and that's good! But even though files open more quickly, it seems to use a lot of memory, and so far we've seen some system crashes. Let's give it a month and see if it stabilizes, and see if we can give it a thumbs up.

Update (10/31/2014)
I'm running into the following issues which Apple has not yet been able to resolve:

• Though files open a little faster than in Mavericks, I still see a lot of spinning color wheels that weren't there with Mountain Lion and its predecessors. It has been suggested that the way I connect to the network may be the cause, so I have ceased connecting to our network and only work locally now. Still, the issue persists.
• Apple thought they found the cause in my sound setting bouncing from device to device, but it still happens. I think the issue may be related to me having two Thunderbolt Displays daisy-chained together, but that is an acceptable configuration with Apple.
• Talking with colleagues, the problems they are seeing is printer drivers and some apps.

So, upgrading from Mavericks is probably okay (check out your printers and third-party apps for compatibility, though). But if you're on Mountain Lion or Lion, I suggest waiting this out for a bit to see if it improves.

Update (11/19/2014)
I've installed 10.10.1, hoping for significant improvement. The same issues persist, but I've also seen enough of a pattern to identify another. Preview often crashes when opening PDFs, and sometimes cannot print. Opening the same files in Acrobat works without error. I think they may have broken Preview...

Update (4/21/2015) - Go For It!
The update to 10.10.3 seems to have solved most issues, and I think folks can finally move forward! Files that open with native Apple apps, like Preview, open at a reasonable speed now, and that is key. Files that open with non-native apps (Microsoft Office, Adobe, etc) take longer than I'd like, but I think Yosemite is finally good to go!

OSX Mavericks (10.9.x) Still Problematic

Last November I blogged about Apple's newest and free operating system: Mavericks. I recommended waiting before implementing this version of OSX (click here to read that post).

Mavericks' third service pak is out (10.9.3), and the problems when opening files still have not been resolved. If you have a Mac and are considering upgrading it to Mavericks, I recommend not doing so unless there's an app that you really need and that requires Mavericks. Otherwise you will be frustrated by many spinning color wheels/ beachballs. And it doesn't matter if the files are local (on your computer's hard drive) or on a network share.

If you're buying a new Mac that has Mavericks on it, it's probably not worth the time and energy to reinstall the OS and go back to Mountain Lion (10.8.x), so I recommend just going with it.

So, I'm sorry to say, it looks like Mavericks may be the Mac equivalent of Microsoft's Vista-- an OS worth leapfrogging.

OSX 10.9 - Mavericks - Not Ready Yet!

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I’ve only run the update to Mavericks, and haven’t yet tested a system that had a clean OS install. To be fair, I'm hearing from some that it's great. But I and many others in IT have seen issues with it to the point where I'm recommending waiting on this upgrade. The results just aren't consistent enough yet.

There are a couple of rough edges to it; one that’s not a big deal and one that, for network users, is a big deal.

• Not a Big Deal: I have to keep re-selecting my Time Machine Drive from a list of available drives. 
•  A Very Big Deal for Network Users: Communications with SMB-mounted network volumes is much slower. Some routines that I run are taking 4-5 times longer since the upgrade. The problem seems to be with conflicts between the new standard imposed in Mavericks to use SMB2 as default with other drivesto which it's connecting. One suggested workaround is to use CIFS instead of SMB, which reportedly forces it to use SMB1. I'm still testing this...

A Mavericks Tip: Some like having the menu show on multiple displays (for those who use them). However, the way it works is a distraction for me because the Dock keeps moving fairly unpredictably between displays. I turned that feature off by going into System Preferences, then Mission Control, and then removing the check mark for Displays have separate Spaces. That change requires a restart to become effective.

So, I recommend waiting on Mavericks for now, and will post a subsequent blog post and comments to this post when it looks ready. 

New Article on Software Recommendations

Our team has had the privilege of serving many hundreds of ministries nationwide as network engineers and consultants. In those roles we have found that some software works better in church and ministry offices than others. We have also found that some software seems to be more trouble-free than others.

Click here to read this article about our recommendations!

How to Set an Early End to Your IT Career

While at a conference this week I spoke with a church about needs their current IT vendor weren't meeting. The main issue was that the vendor will not support any workstation platforms other than Windows. I suggested they talk with the president of that firm before making a change in case they were working on a solution they hadn't yet announced.

One of the key issues those of us in IT focus on is the rapid change of technology. But we cannot limit ourselves to any single platform or software solution for very long if we want our opportunities to serve to grow. We must constantly look for trends that are meaningful to our clients and, anticipating them, have solutions ready when our clients request them.

I have said many times when speaking to IT groups that restricting oneself to a platform or software solution is a sure way to put a horizon on one's career.

My path went from DOS to Windows to Mac; from landlines to cellular to Palm PDAs to Blackberry to Android and iOS; from Everex to Compaq to HP to Compaq (which HP then bought) to Dell and Apple; from AmiPro to WordPerfect and Lotus 123 to Word; from standalone computers to Novell NetWare to Windows Server to our private cloud. You get the idea.

If you're in IT, I encourage you to look at your client base, get a pulse on where they're headed, and begin researching and testing solutions they'll be asking for so that when they do, you'll already have expertise in that space.

Church IT Round Table was Awesome!

Every time I attend a CITRT event I am so thankful!  Last week was the national event in Phoenix, hosted by Christ's Church of the Valley (in Peoria, actually); here are some of my takeaways:

• Incredible relationship building with peers.
• Great opportunity to serve my peers by sharing information, processes, and encouragement.
• Solid time of learning hi-tech details that will help on some items on our project board.
• Terrific times of worship and challenge from CCV staff.

The next national event is October 21st - 23rd this fall at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, KS (actually in Leawood, KS), and I strongly encourage you to go if you are involved in church and/ or ministry IT at any level.

The event to watch is http://www.churchitnetwork.com/, and the Twitter hashtag is #citrt.

Quick Review of Mountain Lion & Windows 8

I just released a new article for publication that is a brief review of these two new operating systems. A preview is available on our website at http://www.mbsinc.com/mac-osx-10-8-windows-8.

Mountain Lion: Thumbs Up!

When I blogged early last month about Mountain Lion, I had reservations and cautioned adopting it too early.  Apple has released a number of updates including a service pak, and it seems to be stable now. I recommend going for it unless you do some research and find that one of the apps you rely heavily on advises not doing so.