31October2008

The Photos page is now linked from the navigation bar, as "Pix."

28September2008

I've added a page with just links to the various slide shows and photo galleries. I would like to link to it from the navigation bar (at the top of each page), but it's too crowded and I don't want to add a third line. Right now, it's linked from the More! page and the announcements on the home page. There's also a new listing of events on the Youth Fellowship page.

03September2008

updates

I keep striving to make the updating process easier. The software (iWeb) that I created the site with doesn't allow incremental updates. If you change anything on any page, you have to upload the entire site to the server. It's not too slow, but terribly cumbersome for making minor updates. It also means that you can only make changes from a computer that has the source code for the web site on it -- no emergency changes from a remote location unless I have my computer with me.

I added web widgets a few months back to allow me to edit this section and the "Announcements" section of the home page just by editing a text file. This was much better -- I didn't have to have the source files or iWeb and I didn't have to upload the whole (35mb) web site every time the schedule changed. Still, it required the ability to access text files on the server, which implies some specialized programs and keys that can only be found on my computer.

Today I changed the widgets so that they can be edited by what's known as a TWiki, which means that I can now update this log and the announcements section using any web browser -- I can even do it from my phone!

wiring

Ann Jordan is officially here, and she's been ensconced in an office created where the library used to be. Of course, that meant she needed a phone, so we started investigating.

As we approach St. Andrew's 50th anniversary, we could do worse than to remember that the physical plant is not the church, but it serves the church community. We owe the plant a little TLC in return, especially as she ages (however gracefully). Evidence of those years of service was clearly visible as we set about getting phone service to Ann's office.

There was an existing line to the library, draped from hooks across the north side of the sanctuary. Looking at it didn't inspire a lot of confidence, but we tested it anyway. It was dead. Worse, the existing wiring throughout the church is so old, complex, spliced, repaired, and adapted the the simple act of attaching test gear brought down the phone line that carries the fax, DSL (internet), and long-distance service -- on a Friday afternoon, naturally. Internet access is vital for (among other things) preparing the weekly bulletin and finding sermon illustrations, so Elizabeth and the office crew spent an anxious weekend without access.

Monday we were able to repair the DSL (though that wiring desperately needs to be replaced, which would speed up the church's internet service). We also strung over three hundred feet of new wiring to connect Ann's office. We also installed a WiFi repeater so that the new office (and the sanctuary) has reliable wireless internet access. (Anyone who needs internet access from the sanctuary should contact me for a password, but reading email on your iPhone during worship is not allowed!)

The wiring that remains is a mess. For decades people have been splicing in new lines, then abandoning them. Ad hoc repairs have been made which work, but which are fragile and unreliable. Phone wiring is just one small part of the plant's infrastructure -- I am sure other parts aren't much neater. If we work diligently bit by bit, though, improving rather than just repairing our infrastructure, it should serve us for another half-century with few major catastrophes.

28July2008

online chat

I've added an online chat page. Why? Mostly just because. The widget that implements it is still experimental, developed by the person who created Mailinator, a useful service that lets you create throw-away email accounts on the fly. Like Mailinator, the Talkinator widget doesn't require any sign-in -- just go to the page and if anyone else is viewing that same page, you can all chat (text only, no talking or pictures). It might be a useful tool for ad-hoc meetings and such. We'll see.

29June2008

your contributions

I'm recovering slowly but nicely from my nasal reconstruction surgery, thanks. Elizabeth is taking great care of me. Meanwhile, Ruthi emailed me some photographs of yesterday's trip to Loaves and Fishes.

That reminded me of the critical role you can play in keeping the site vital. I can't be everywhere -- in fact, I can't really be anywhere while I'm recovering from this surgery. You might think that you're bothering me if you ask to have an event announced, a correction made, or photographs posted. Not true! Just drop those suggestions into an email to webspinner@saumc.org and I will do whatever I can with it. Just be a little patient... I still have to tend to Matthew and Joshua and my day job.

Peace...

--Ron

28June2008

inaugural entry

Does anyone wonder what goes in to making the church web site? I'm not really sure, but I thought there might be some interest so I thought I'd write a little explanation and also create a place where I can post information about the goings on here.

history

First, some history. Shortly after I was welcomed into the St. Andrew's family, I thought that I could contribute to the cause by creating a web site. I run a small internet service provider where I host web and email services for various non-profit agencies. I registered the 'saumc.org' domain on December 26th, 2005 and made some space on a server to host it.

I wanted to create a nice-looking site quickly, and I also wanted to play with Apple's iWeb site creation tool. iWeb did, indeed, let me create an asthetically pleasing site quickly, but it had some limitations. I found that, even to make minor changes to the site, I had to go through a lengthy process of launching iWeb, editing the changes, then uploading the whole site (which grew suprisingly large quickly when I started uploading movies of special events). For the most part, this wasn't a big problem, but I wanted to be able to keep an up-to-date calendar which proved too much of a challenge. In addition, I knew that our well-connected and technologically sophisticated parishioners would want to be able to synchronize their PDAs and smartphones with the St. Andrew's event calendars. Version 1 of iWeb didn't allow any customization of pages, so I created what I thought was a clever little hack to allow the Events page to execute a php script to generate a full calendar from a standardized published calendar file. That meant that I could maintain the calendar using Google Calendar, iCal, or any other standards-based calendar software. In addition, anyone who used a standards-based computer, web calendar, PDA, or smartphone could subscribe and add St. Andrew's events to their personal calendars.

Fortunately, version 2 of iWeb added the ability to add html code to iWeb pages, so I could forgo the clever hack and just include the calendar page as part of the web page. I could also add an interactive map to the Find Us page and make the Announcements on the home page much easier to maintain (if somewhat less pretty).

One drawback to the upgrade to version 2 of iWeb is that it broke a lot bookmarks people had to the site. Worse, I didn't notice the problem for a long time so that people who had bookmarked pages in the site were getting outdated versions, making it look as though the site wasn't being maintained. It's fixed now.

more technical gobbledygook

If anyone cares, the saumc.org site is served from a reused old Dell computer running Fedora Linux and Apache 2 web server software. The server is headless and runs without a windowing GUI -- maintenance is entirely remote using Webmin. Email is handled by the Postfix mail transfer agent. All the server hardware is reused or recycled; all of the software is free and open source. The server farm is connected to the net via a 10 Mbps fiber optic link supplied by Surewest.

Yours in Christ...

--Ron