mateometzger.info

Well, I’ve become one of “those guys” who is going to make you update your bookmarks and/or rss feeds.

There are a lot of advantages of letting wordpress.com host your blog, but there are (in my opinion) even more advantages of hosting your own wordpress blog.

I was thinking about waiting until I have the new site polished and pretty before announcing it, but decided it’s more fun to fly by the seat of my pants.  If you are the type of person who likes RSS feeds, there’s plenty of choices on my new site, and you can just subscribe to the topics that interest you (or just subscribe to all posts, regardless of topic).  If you’re the type of person who comes to visit the site, expect to see lots of changes as I settle in on the theme/layout/widgets I like.

Currently I have several tabs for you to choose from, depending on which info from mateo you are interested in. If you prefer, you can see all the different topics jumbled together.

Without further adieu, you can follow this link to my new home.  I just moved in, and I’m still unpacking, so please pardon any messes.

Filed under: blogging about blogging

a. maze. ing.

My friend Joel just posted this, and I thought I’d share it with you.

==============================================

Incredible Wing Suit Video- Men Gliding at 100+MPH

This is crazy.  Guys are base jumping from cliffs wearing wingsuits, and falling/gliding/flying at over 100 miles per hour.  Incredible!

<some mild language at end of video, be aware>

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

==================================

Filed under: everyday life

Thoughts about My Church

I realize that 90 percent of you (that means 9 of the 10 total readers) already read this on Tim Stevens’ blog, but for you who didn’t…

This blog post came into my Google Alerts the other day, and by the first few lines that came through I thought, “oh great, another blogger talking trash about my church.”  I’m glad I took the time to read it though, because this guy actually seems to *get* it.  Furthermore, he’s writing on the Wesley Report site, which is apparently about “United Methodist News, Life, and Culture”

Check it out and then tell me what you think.

Filed under: GCC, blogging about blogging

Mark Beeson’s Thoughts on Obama

Like my friend Jeff, I don’t harbor any illusions that most of you are seeing this for the first time on my blog.  Also like my friend Jeff, I have a few friends in far-away places that may not see this if I don’t post it.  Again, like Jeff, I just wanted to show my support.

Whichever political side you fall on, please watch and listen with an understanding of what Mark is saying here.  Without bringing any politics into the discussion, he points out what he sees as positive things about the man, Barack Obama.

(wordpress.com will not allow me to embed this video, so hit up that next link, eh? Beeson’s Thoughts from Granger Community on Vimeo.

Filed under: GCC, everyday life , Barack Obama, Mark Beeson

passing the time

What do YOU do while you’re waiting for your Ubuntu 8.10 Release Candidate ISO to download?

I played THIS GAME for quite a while.

(btw, my wife is WAY better at it than I am)

Filed under: Software, linux, the webernets, wifey , 8.10, game, Intrepid Ibex, Release Candidate, Ubuntu

Tired of Giving Microsoft MORE MONEY?

Why not try out the just-released OpenOffice.org Version 3.0?

• It’s a full-featured Office Suite that is fully compatible with documents created in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (including the newer .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats)
• It’s FREE!
• It works in Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX (Intel and PPC), and Linux
• It’s FREE!!
• It also supports version 1.2 of the ISO standard OpenDocument Format (ODF).  Microsoft Office does not.
• It’s FREE!!!
• and much, MUCH MORE!!!
• (it’s free)

Infomercial over.  At the time of this writing, their servers were so bogged down by people rushing to download it that they reduced their main page to plain text on a white background.  Anyone who remembers trying to download Firefox 3.0 on the day it was released will appreciate the ingenuity of this solution, as you can at least get to the download (even if it’s not pretty).  Also because of the heavy server load, download speeds are basically at a crawl (getting around 10 KB/s right now).

Speaking from personal experience, OpenOffice has actually helped me on several occasions as it strives to include features that are not available in Microsoft Office (for example, in the past it was things like being able to publish a document to PDF natively, though MS Office now includes this feature).  There were also some times where MS Office could not open one of its own documents (said there was corruption), but OpenOffice was able to open and save the document (saving the person I was helping HOURS of re-creating the document).

I have not been paid or in any way rewarded for telling you about this amazing product.

Filed under: Software, linux , Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org

Heading Towards Ubercart

For the few of you following along at home, waiting to see what sort of eCommerce decisions we’re making with wiredchurches.com, we’re taking some steps towards using Ubercart.  There were a few driving forces behind this desicion.

• We are leaning towards open-source software in the first place for a couple reasons:
  1. Ease of customization/not locked into a product we can’t tweak
  2. Ability to hire a developer to create functionality we need (esp. a good event registration system)
  3. No yearly license fees

• Ubercart seems to have a majority of what we need built into the core package (others are missing vital pieces)
• I personally loved how they set up the Downloadable Products administration (some major products don’t even have an option for downloadable products yet.  See previous point, and earlier posts)
• Ryan Szrama (one of the developers of Ubercart) found an earlier post which sparked a dialogue that led to connecting with Mike O’Connor of the newly formed commerceguys.com
• In our first conference call, Mike pitched Ubercart well, plus he lives in Jackson, MI which would allow him to work with us in person whenever it would be beneficial

We met with Mike this past Friday.  Since he just lives a couple hours away, he drove down to spend 4 hours crammed into a small meeting room with all of us.  We threw a thousand questions at him, and I think he got a pretty good idea of how complex we want our system to be (he also answered the questions).

That’s it for now.  We’re waiting to hear if Mike is going to run screaming from this project now that he’s met us and knows more of what’s involved.

Filed under: GCC, Software, the webernets , Add new tag, ecommerce, magento, Ubercart, wiredchurches.com

Cora wishes Kem Meyer a happy 40th birthday

Took this video on my phone for Kem Meyer’s 40th birthday blog hijacking.

Filed under: GCC, blogging about blogging, everyday life, videos , birthday, Kem Meyer

IE Tab and FireFox 3

*edit* i’ve noticed a lot of traffic coming here from people searching for “ie tab Firefox 3″ and similar.  if you need the .xpi, just leave me a comment and I can email you the file.

From what I can gather, I was extremely lucky to get the IE Tab extension for FireFox 3 during a tiny window when the download was working.  Everyone I’ve heard from on the issue says the .xpi won’t install for them.  In any case, I’ve got the .xpi on my computer and my wife’s computer, and it’s working great on both, so if you are wanting it, just let me know.

In other news, we’re sort of settling in on an eCommerce solution for the new and hopefully improved wiredchurches.com.  More info on that coming very soon.

Filed under: GCC, Software, the webernets , firefox 3, Firefox extension, IE Tab

web 2.0

This came into my Bloglines from the indexed blog today.  It’s the most concise explanation of web 2.0 I’ve ever seen.

This is what 2.0 Means

Filed under: pictures, the webernets , 2.0, indexed, Web 2.0

The girls brought it at the Leadership Summit

Dana and I have been attending the Leadership Summit (satellite site @ Granger Community Church) yesterday and today, and it has been really great.  I don’t have the illusion that I could add any commentary on the sessions that’s any better than what other better bloggers are saying, but I do want to say this:

While all the speakers have been great, I’ve found that the the two female speakers have brought it straighter and harder than the guys.  I’ve REALLY enjoyed the interviews with Wendy Kopp of Teach for America and Catherine Rohr of Prison Entrepreneurship Program.  Both of these women are INCREDIBLY intelligent, driven, and honest.  They both “gave up” what most would consider amazing careers to follow their passion for helping others.  They were also both open and honest about being females at the top of their organizations and the challenges and opposition they sometimes face because of their gender.  I really hope that both of their programs get a great boost from their involvment in the Leadership Summit.

Filed under: GCC , Catherine Rohr, Leadership Summit, Prison Entrepreneurship Program, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp

Shopify.com and Fetchapp.com

I know most people who glance at this blog don’t give two hoots about all this eCommerce stuff.  To those folks, I apologize for wasting your time.

However… I KNOW there are some people reading this who have experience doing this kind of thing, so to you folks I ask: Have any of you used shopify.com?  I stumbled accross it the other day, and so far I’m in like with it.  I didn’t find it earlier because it’s a different kind of solution than I had been searching for.  It’s fully hosted and charges monthly fees+transaction fees.  Nevertheless, I really like how easy and clear everything is.  I’m still looking under the hood to make sure it can do everything wiredchurches.com needs it to do.

One BIG thing it does that I L.O.V.E. is fetchapp.com, which is more or less a plugin for shopify (though it has an API to work with any site) that makes digital download products a breeze!  I’ve emailed briefly with one of the developers, and I’m excited about the potential here.

Filed under: Software, ecommerce, the webernets , fetchapp.com, shopify.com

After Research, bad news :(

Well apparently there was/is a lot of confusion in the Magento community regarding “Virtual Products” vs. “Downloadable Products.”  While the roadmap and the buzz seemed to indicate that they were going to be basically the same, more research shows that the developers had to split “Downloadable Products” out of the 1.1 release as it was not yet ready.  “Virtual Products” are simply products that do not require shipping (perhaps an event registration).  The developers say that “Downloadable Products” are high on the list, and should be in the next release.  They may be too late.

Filed under: Software, ecommerce, the webernets , ecommerce, magento

Magento 1.1 Production Release! (aka, more eCommerce blather)

I’ve been geekishly excited with anticipation for this day.  Magento 1.1.1 is finally available.  (this means digital downloads are now an option with Magento) I’ve narrowed the field of Open Source eCommerce solutions down to Magento and Ubercart (powered by Drupal).  Either of these look like they will suit our needs, and I’ve had some contact with an Ubercart developer who may be willing to jump on board and help us, but I’m still clinging to Magento’s VERY impressive admin panel.  Oh my.  Decisions, decisions.

Filed under: Software, ecommerce, the webernets , Drupal, ecommerce, magento, Magento 1.1, Ubercart

Change (null) to 0

I was googling and  looking through forums trying to find how to set a (null) field to be 0 in MySQL, and for some reason had a really hard time finding it (maybe it’s just too basic for most people).  In any case, i’m posting the (very simple) solution here in case I need to find it again quickly, and in case it can help someone else.

UPDATE `TableName` SET `FieldName` = 0 WHERE `FieldName` IS NULL;

That’s all folks!

Filed under: MySQL, Software , howto, MySQL, null

Microsoft Popfly

Well, I tried using Microsoft Popfly on a tip, and it looks pretty cool, but I was not able to save any of my projects (getting error codes).  Anyone else used it with success?  It looks like a lot of fun, but it’s only fun if it works!

Filed under: Software, the webernets , mashups, microsoft, popfly

More eCommerce Fun

After much searching, tinkering, installing, re-installing, re-re-installing, etc., I’ve sort of narrowed down some options that look like really good possibilities for open-source, fully featured eCommerce solutions.

Magento: Very obviously an extremely professional product.  Though relatively new, it’s got TONS of support and buzz.  Right now I see two drawbacks: it looks like it’ll take a good bit of tweaking and designing to make it look REALLY good (it looks “just good,” though professional, out of the box), and it does not yet support “virtual products” (aka digital downloads).  For the first, we’ve got a crack team of website gurus here at GCC, and if they ever feel over their heads, we can hire some outside help to get it up and running.  For the second, the Magento team promises that virtual products will be an option in the next release, slated for sometime this July (and the alpha I tried out does indeed have it as an option, just not a working option yet)

PrestaShop: Looks very, VERY nice out of the box, was EXTREMELY easy to use/customize.  Probably wouldn’t need any outside help to make it look how we want, with plenty of flash (the aesthetic, not necessarily the technology).  Downsides: it’s currently in Release Candidate 4 for the stable 1.0 version.  Hopefully that means full stable coming very soon.  Downloadable product size limited to 7MB, so we’d be restricted to users downloading PDFs with links/passwords to actual product.  Also, on my first run (today), the whole backend/admin panel suddenly stopped working.  Not sure what’s going on.  Time for one of those re-installs.
*update* before even posting this, I checked again, and was able to get to it.  I blame our lack of good connection here at work, as it had been timing out

Drupal with Ubercart: Actually has pretty much everything we need.  TONS of free modules, ability to have calendar with workshops scheduled, final releases of the software, all the options we are looking for.  Drawback: it just doesn’t seem as professional as the other two.  Oddly enough, it seems like a CMS that has an eCommerce layer on top of it (hmm, wonder why that is).  Things are relatively clearly laid out…. it just doesn’t FEEL as nice as the others (we’re talking admin panel here).  The store itself should be pretty easy to make it look nice.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION: Has anyone used any of these, and can provide feedback/advice on the good, bad, and ugly of using them in production?  These seem to be three of the top dogs in the open-source eCommerce community, but are there others that are so amazing that I simply must check them out?  Let me know!

Filed under: GCC, Software, the webernets , digital downloads, Drupal, ecommerce, magento, open-source, PrestaShop, Ubercart

my friend is famous

hey! my friend Kyle is famous! he’s the guy on the left in the picture in this blog post.
Wait, if he’s famous because his picture is on Jeff Bell’s blog, then does that mean Jeff is famous?

hmm………

….

Hey! My friend Jeff is famous! He’s the guy in the header of this blog!

Filed under: GCC, pictures , elkhart, GCC, granger community church, Jeff Bell, Kyle Shoemaker

w00t!

I finally got though (at 12:05pm PST) and got my official Firefox 3 download! I’ve been running the release candidate for weeks, and I hear that this is pretty much the exact same thing, but hey, it’s official now.

If you’ve never used Firefox, I would encourage you to go to www.getfirefox.com and take it for a spin! You just might like it! (and if it’s any help, Bill Gates WON’T like it that you’re not using his browser)

Filed under: Software, the webernets , firefox, firefox 3, firefox download day

Hoping It’s a Good Thing

Firefox 3 was released today at 10am PST. It’s now 11:10am PST, and all Mozilla sites are unreachable. I’m assuming and hoping that this is because so many people are downloading it that the servers can’t respond to more requests.

Filed under: Software, the webernets , firefox 3, firefox download day, mozilla

my wife is cool

for so, so many reasons, but I’m just going to link to one right now.  She is a great photographer, and a tasteful photoshop-er.  Here’s a sample… click the picture to see more!

I especially like her “click here” links to the before-and-after pages.

Filed under: everyday life

trying out kyte.tv

(for you RSSers, there’s an embedded video in this post)

Filed under: everyday life, videos , Cora, kyte.tv, video

Downloadable Video on WiredChurches.com

I’m pretty pumped.  A project I’ve been a part of is finally a reality!  It was fun to be a small part of this project with a team that worked really hard to get this done in a short amount of time.

We’ve got downloadable video available through wiredchurches.com now!  We’re offering up the highest quality we’ve got to share, so for some of the older videos, that means 640×480 resolutions (or standard tv resolution), but for several of the newer ones, we’re offering the full high-definition 1280×720 video.  In less geeky terms: It’s really cool.

Here’s a little promo page for the videos, but there are more available than what’s linked to there.

*edit* promo page expired, but go here for downloadable goodness.

Filed under: GCC , downloadable video, wiredchurches.com

Working Music

I’ve been searching for a while for good music to work by, and just some new music to listen to in general. The other day on the way back to work I swung by the library to graze the CD section. I got 5, but the two that I’m going to have to go buy now are “Let It Be… NAKED” (the re-release of The Beatles “Let It Be” album with all the orchestra stripped out (as it was originally recorded)) and The Afters album “Never Going Back to OK.”  I’m really digging their style, and it’s some good music for blocking out distractions and working like crazy.

Coming to the close of one big project, and trying to to some major stuff to tie up another project by the 16th.  Good times, good times.  I can’t stress this enough: I’m loving my job.

Filed under: GCC, everyday life , The Afters, The Beatles

Firefox 3 Download Day

I’m a big fan of firefox, so I thought it was cool they’re planning a cool event like this:

They don’t actually have a launch date yet…. but isn’t it fun to get in on the ground floor?  I’m posting a badge on the left, and I’ll update as more details become available.

Filed under: Software, the webernets , firefox, firefox 3, firefox download day