I've resisted posting this here, but enough people who I thought would have known about it already have asked me "hey, what's that toolbar you're using?"

It's called ObjectDock.

Stardock describes ObjectDock as "a program that lets you organize your short-cuts and running tasks onto an extremely customizable dock that sits on your desktop." Personally I don't think that description does justice to the utility.

If you're like me and have just a slight case of mac-envy, ObjectDock will do the trick. I won't install any utilities that are intrusive (like WindowsBlinds) and this one is completely safe -- so go ahead and downloadObjectDock. You're going to love it.

Then, if you want to spruce up your icons a bit, you can check out the ObjectDock gallery of icons on the WinCustomize site.

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Following up on the RSS forum thread I posted in ChurchCrosstalk, I'm happy to say we're now using that same free RSS library to
Podcast our weekly message -- for FREE.

With this new feature we also released a new theme for our web site which goes with the start of a new series. I love being able to synchronize changes like this. It just makes everything more alive.

I'd also like to thank Terry Storch who originally told me about podcasting at C3 (not too long ago but long in internet-time).

Now, if only Rob at Mars Hill Bible Church would start podcasting (for free) I'd be set.

Do you podcast? If not, why?

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I don't normally get too into motivational speeches by famous pastors, but I wish everyone could have heard what pastor Bill Hybels just poured out from his heart this morning at the 2005 Leadership Summit. He opened the conference with a message that focused on the circumstances surrounding several Biblical leaders (Moses, Nehemiah, David). As Moses saw a beating which stirred him into action, God later confirmed his passion in saying “I am concerned about their suffering”and chose Moses for the task of rescuing His people.

Is that passion stirring in your heart for something also the concern of God? This is your Holy Discontent and, if you embrace it, it will allow God to do his work through your life.

My short summary of pastor Hybels message is completely inadequate in describing this truth, so if you ever have the chance to hear this message you will better understand and be moved.

I'll take his advice and follow the example in those Biblical illustrations. I'll feed my Holy Discontent for high priced software for the Church and rely on God to handle the rest of the story. “Come, let us rebuild...the gracious hand of my is God upon me...” (Nehemiah 2:17-18)

Contact me if you want to get involved in this project.

Check out Kem Meyer's blog for an excellent summary of each session from the summit. (Thanks Kem!)

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Open source stock photography? “No way” you say. Yeah way. How did this one ever get by me for so long? I'm always on the hunt for good and cheap (err, free) photos for various projects. Jeremy, our graphics/layout artist, has introduced me to morgueFile.

MorgueFile contains hundreds of thousands of high-quality images for free! And would you believe you can use them in commercial projects without any permission? As they put it:

“Yes, all images are really free and they can be used in your commercial projects without permission or credit from the photogrpaher. Although selling prints, selling the images directly or claiming the photo is yours is prohibited.”

Besides the other sites linked on morgueFile, have you found any others that you'd like to share?


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We've been going through the book of Nehemiah at church, and as usual, I'm able to relate his wall with a building project of my own. A few years ago I got involved as an usher at my church. One thing quickly lead to another and I was soon asked to use my experience to program a scheduling system for our ushering team...

As I got more involved, I was saddened as I discovered the sad state of software and sharing amongst the Church. I prayed, and am thoroughly convinced that God planted a vision within me. Since I have a fairly deep dislike for money, but really enjoy giving, it made a lot of sense to me: open-source church software. It's a tall order and has its complications, but I have come to discover this vision is shared by others involved with church IT across the nation.

This week I returned from my vacation and received some bad news. A software collaboration deal I was helping to shape had fallen through due to complications with legalese. Before I left for vacation it seemed we would soon have an excellent framework (written by another AZ church) from which to develop ministry-based software that could be shared freely with the world. Needless to say I was more than bummed.

Then my disappointment turned to excitement as I got word that Microsoft had announced that their CRM was skipping v2.0 and would instead move to 3.0 and incorporate many sought after changes. I just finished watching two TechEd webcasts covering the upcoming features. I'm now in the process of recasting my vision and will report back shortly.

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