San Francisco - The Most Spiritually Oppressed City in America

I'm in San Francisco this week for a technology conference. The conference is downtown, and there are lots of people who are homeless or just beaten down by life. Monday I drove throughout the city and was surprised to see that it's not just a downtown problem-- it's city wide!

Most locals probably believe it's because of the fair weather; that it attracts those who don't have a home. But I live in a place with fairer weather, and have been to other places in the country with fairer weather. And it's more than about the homeless. It's about people who look as though life has been very hard on them-- it goes beyond poverty. I've never seen as many people who are beaten down by life-- anywhere!

As I thought about it I remembered some Bible verses (Daniel 10 and Ephesians 6:12, for example) talking about how demons of various strengths and ranks have rule over geographic areas. San Francisco is the strongest real-world evidence of that. I think there is high-level spiritual oppression here. This is a city where wickedness (which I define as those things that are done which are contrary to what God has communicated as good and right in The Bible)-- where wickedness rules.

To my friends who call San Francisco home, I will be praying for you with a new emphasis:

• For your focus on and dedication to walking with God,
• For your protection from the enemy, and
• For your impact on those around you and on your community.

VMworld 2012

VMware announced some exciting developments in their platform here this week! Following are some of my notes:

• VMware is focused on an annual update strategy. This year they announced vSphere 5.1.
• They listened to their customers and have simplified the licensing that was introduced with vSphere 5.
• They introduced Horizon Suite, which includes Octopus, ThinApp, AppBlast, Horizon Application Manager, and Horizon Mobile.

I'm especially excited about the Horizon Suite. I saw it manage Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices very nicely and with full IT policy strengths. It uses Active Directory user-based policy management, which means a user's experience will be the same on all of his/ her devices! Very nice, indeed.

VMware continues to lead in virtualization.

Windows 8 Professional Testing

Clients, readers, friends--  and even family often ask me if they should upgrade to the newest OSes.  Windows 8 has folks talking, and now that it is a finished version I'm about to begin testing it.

A Bit of Perspective
I don't have high hopes for Win8, but will give it my usual objective attention. Why don't I have high hopes for it? I've been in IT long enough to have seen a Microsoft workstation operating system (OS) pattern:

• DOS 3.x - great operating system
• DOS 4.x - an operating system IT avoided
• DOS 5.x - great operating system
• DOS 6.x - an operating system IT avoided
• Windows 3.0 (and 3.1) - great operating system
• Windows 4.x - an operating system IT avoided
• Windows 95 - great operating system
• Windows 98 (and ME) - an operating system IT avoided
• Windows 2000 - great operating system
• Windows XP - great operating system
• Windows Vista - an operating system IT avoided
• Windows 7 - great operating system
• Windows 8 - we'll see!

New Article on Telecommuting

A couple of months ago I blogged about how telecommuting can work (http://ministry-it.blogspot.com/2012/06/telecommuting-can-work.html). It's such a strategic issue that I decided to expand the post and turn it into an article.  After releasing it to my publisher I added it to our company's website (lots of free articles there).  Here's the link:

    http://www.mbsinc.com/telecommuting-can-work

We're Looking for a New Software Vendor

For more than fifteen years we have recommended folks buy their software from Consistent Computer Bargains (CCB). They have helped many churches and ministries, and we were glad to help them get started and flourish. I have written many articles recommending them.

Unfortunately, our recommendation of them must stop, and we are now looking for a new software vendor to help churches and ministries.

The problem is that CCB decided to start competing with us. That in itself is not a problem; there are many churches and ministries looking for good IT help. But they never called to talk about changes they were making; they just did it and let us hear about it from our clients. Yes, our clients began getting calls and emails soliciting their business and even making statements like, "What would it take for you to turn to us instead of MBS?".

I am greatly disappointed that CCB has chosen to end our friendship. We know Jesus loves them, and so do we. But we can no longer refer anyone their way.

We are actively looking for a new software distributor that will help churches and ministries with software purchases. Dell has stepped in and is covering a lot of that ground for us, and doing it for less than CCB was! But there are a few items they can't help with. If you know someone we should talk with, please let me know!

Post Update: I've updated the story in a post worth your reading. The quick link is http://ministry-it.blogspot.com/2012/10/ccb-totally-forgiven.html.

MBS' New Dell Rep

Dell has assigned us a new rep, and he sounds like he's going to be great for our clients and colleagues to work with!  Here are his contact details:

     Adam Earhart

     (512) 513-0945

     adam_earhart@dell.com

We'll be updating the MBS Spec Sheet soon with updated quotes, etc.

Mountain Lion Impressions So Far

Early this week I upgraded my 11" MacBook Air (mid-2011) from it's native Lion to Mountain Lion.  Here are my observations after four days.

Interesting Differences

• Software Update now launches the App Store's Updates page
• iChat is gone; replaced by Messages
• Notifications-- probably something many like; but I turned it off for everything except FaceTime
• PowerNap (I disabled it)

Positive

• Improved graphic quality of display resolution and Dock
• Faster system startup time (about 40%)

Negative

• Lots of spinning beach balls throughout the day
• I've had to force quit applications a few times
• I've had to hard restart my computer twice
• Slower shutdown time

Overall, I think it's okay.  I recommend waiting, though, before upgrading to avoid the spinning beach balls and required restarts that reduce productivity.  Perhaps those issues will be resolved with version 10.8.1.