Archive for December, 2008
How I got everything synced
Dec 31st
I have been going through the process of trying to get all my data synchronised across the different devices that I have. Cellphone, Laptop and the Web. I am considering the web as a device because it is like a device that is available everywhere.
So I am using Google Apps which gives me GMail and contact management. I love the web interface and because it has IMAP it easily syncs with outlook on my phone and with Evolution on my laptop.
Contacts
This was an interesting challenge. To sync with Evolution was no big deal, but syncing with Windows Mobile phone was. I tried to use OggSync but for some reason it never worked from my phone. The other option was to sync through the laptop. This can be done, Windows Mobile can sync with Evolution on Linux, however I experienced a lot of pain with it creating duplicate contacts and constantly running into conflicts so I decided to ditch this idea. The last option was to use one of the online sync services out there. I took a look at a few services before finding NeuvaSync. They have a service that looks like an Exchange Server, so using ActiveSync on my device I can point it to that server which in turn talks to GMail. It took about five minutes to get this setup and was by far the easiest option.
Calendar
NeuvaSync also gives me calendar syncing with Google Calendar. It works beautifully and finally makes using Google Calendar worthwhile for me. I had never bothered with it before, opting to use only my phones calendar. But it is nice to be able to edit it online. The calendar also syncs with evolution which is a again a no brainer to setup.
Tasks
I am trying to make more task oriented as I find it hard to know what I am supposed to be doing at any given time. Writing down tasks and just working through the list of priorities makes things a lot easier. I am using the built in task application on my phone and Remember The Milk to manage them online. RTM has an application to sync tasks called MilkSync, you have to pay $25/yr but it is nothing considering the benefits. On the laptop I am using Tasque which is a client for RTM so the data is the same. RTM ALSO comes with a widget for GMail so I can see tasks from there as well, now I have no excuse for not getting things done!
Offline Support
On my phone everything works fine without having to be connected to the net. Bizarelly this is a problem on my laptop. Evolution does not seem to copy the contacts or calendar locally so I can’t use that. And tasque stores everything directly in RTM so there is no local copy of tasks either. I am pretty sure that evolution is supposed to work offline to there must be something I am not doing right there. I am not sure about tasque. I might have to try a new program to get offline support for that one.
Conclusion
Overall I am quite happy. Since leaving dropping Outlook and switching to GMail it has been painful to not have data synced between devices. Using these services has made things a lot easier and at practically no cost. NuevaSync is currently free and RTM is cheap ($25 USD/yr). Everything else is open source and free.
Finding youth to work with
Dec 27th
One of the things people keep asking me is where am I going to find people to train.
I expect that getting this business started is going to take some time because it is very much about relationships and in my experience there are no short-cuts – it just takes time. So here is my game plan. I want to form relationships with existing organisations and people that know of people who could benefit from my help. This involves school, the police, youth workers, churches etc. Of course they are not just going to refer people to me directly with no track record of helping so I am going to have to build some trust. To do this I will have to get involved with an existing organisation working with youth. Maybe to do some mentoring or just general dogs body helping out.
It may not be exactly what I envisaged from the start but I am beginning to see that transforming a vision into reality involves making some consesions and doing things a little differently along the way.
Alice
Dec 24th
I have this passion for programming but I know that other people don’t necessarily get it. So I have been wondering how to make programming fun. One of my friends mentioned Alice a software development environment that makes it easy to for people to create 3D games and animates. Seems like this might be a good tool to use in the sandbox.
I haven’t managed to get it working yet as there is some problem with the version of Java I have on this version of Ubuntu. Once I sort that out I will have a play and see if it something worth using.
The power of community
Dec 24th
The last six months I have had a real change of mindset with regard to communities. I suppose I had been going through the “Every man is an island” stage. For the last six months I have been doing a Discipleship Training School with Youth with a Mission. There were eighteen people on the course (including staff) and we spent nearly all day together every day. One thing I have learnt was that while you can live as an individual, it is much better to live in community. Having your life closely entwined with others enables them to be there for you. It gives you opportunities to encourage each other and just makes life easier!
We were taking things to extreme by most peoples standards. We would often have times when we would write encouragements to every other person. Pulling out the good things that we see in them and building them up. Personally I was so blessed by this. My self esteem was built up – but not falsely, and I become much more confident to do the tasks that we had to do. I wish this wasn’t extreme. I wish that we did this kind of thing all the time.
So where am I going with this? Well one of the reasons I wanted to start this business is that I want to live in community. So I decided the best way would be to move to get myself in a place where I can do that. The business will be planted in a community and its goals will be around working for that community by bringing in work, developing local community based projects, social networks, encouraging and equiping people for life etc. I am not sure how all this will come together at this stage but I want to try and use it as a vehicle for implementing some of the things I have learnt about living in community.
The Sandbox
Dec 21st
One of the goals of the sandbox is to give people a good overview of what is involved in software development and to get people interested in doing it! I am working on a list of things that I think are important to have an understanding of:
- How computers work
- Platforms (OS+Development Frameworks)
- How the internet works
- Basic web development
- Different Programming Languages
The problem is I don’t think this list will sound that exciting to anyone but a bunch of geeks!
What do you think? What topics would you teach to a group of late teens to get capture their interest?
Applications I use
Dec 20th
I just came across this post talking about what applications the writer uses, like him I want to keep track of them in case (well for when) I next re-install. Currently I am running Ubuntu 8.10 but am thinking of trying out the latest release of OpenSUSE I would also like to give Nexenta as the ZFS file system sounds great!
Part of the plan
Dec 20th
I have spent some time making up plans for this business I want to start. Here is the run down.
Get a bunch of kids who have no bearing in life and have had trouble with school. Spend a couple of hrs a day with them, teaching them the basics of software development. I am preparing some short modules that I hope will be fun and they can take and use to get started with the learning process. I call this ‘the sandbox’. It is a time to play around, dabble with some technology and with a bit of luck, and encouragement, catch a bit of the passion that comes with it.
I think the sandbox time will last a few weeks. The people who have got some motivation and are interested will be welcomed back to continue learning with a more in-depth teaching class, but again just a couple of hrs a day. This will consist of more advanced concepts along with exercises to complete and material that encourages them to look for their own answers and develop their own solutions to problems
At the moment I am working on a curriculium for how this will work. The more advanced part of it I think I know what I am doing – that sounds wrong I know. But getting people interested, passionate and wanting to learn? I am not sure how exactly to go about that! But it should be fun to give it a go 
I have a dream
Dec 19th
Over the last few months God has been developing a dream in my heart. I want to share this with others as I work through exactly what it means and how to apply it in my life.
The dream is to start a business whose focus is on others. Initially I want to focus on encouraging and developing young people who do not complete school or are otherwise challenged in the area of qualifications and work skills. I can relate to people in this situation as I left school before I finished, spent some time at a technical institute and also left that. Finally I found my niche in computers and I have spent the last eight years working with software and honing my skills.
I hope that I can use what I have learnt to inspire others and help them to avoid the mistakes I made.
Next steps
Dec 8th
This weekend we said goodbye to DTS. I didn’t think it would be as hard as it was, as I have been looking forward to getting on with life and the things God has placed on my heart to do. But when it came to saying goodbye to the first group of people leaving, the realisation that this time was over hit home. I have absolutely loved my time on DTS and have learnt so much that I don’t even know how to express in words. As a group we have really grown together and have a deep and genuine love for one another. This has been a totally unique experience in my life and something that I really wish could last forever. However life moves on and we all have things we have to do so it is unrealistic to think it could be any other way. I am just grateful for the time we had.
One of the things I have been hoping to get out of my time on DTS was to figure out how I should be using my life. I have felt the need to do something which makes a difference in peoples lives but struggled to understand how that fitted with what I would consider my strongest talent – creating software. As I asked God about what I should be doing I felt he wanted me to use this talent to help other people and also to be a bridge for me into new things. Over the course of the last two months I have been continuing to seek God about this and my thoughts have become much clearer as to what I need to do.
I have become convinced that businesses primary purpose is to serve those involved – clients, staff and the community. Business is also a great way to do something which can grow and have a large and effective impact. So after much thought I am going to start a business whose primary aim is to serve the community. It will be a software company that spends much of its resources training primarily high school drop-outs in the art of software development and then employs them in the business.
Mission Statement
To equip young people with skills that will enable them to become valuable contributors to the marketplace and local community.
There are two key points here. Firstly that they will be trained in skills that are marketable and valuable. I have spent the last 7yrs honing my skills and in the process I have learnt a lot about software and how to make myself valuable in whatever workplace I am in, this is some of what I will be able to teach. Secondly they need to become valuable contributors to the community. This will not just be training and a job for these people, but also a time where we can share together about life our problems, how we deal with them and so on. I want to be able to understand where they are at and also impart some of the things I have learnt.
I know that this is going to be extremely hard, In fact I am sure it will be the hardest thing I have ever done, but the potential impact is considerable. I know it is a worthwhile endeavour and I believe it will be successful – but even if it isn’t it still has the opportunity to impact peoples lives for the better and I believe that is Gods heart and so whatever the cost to me it is a risk I am willing to take.
So this is a brief overview of my general plan for the next five years. I have already talked to a few people who can see potential partnerships for various aspects and I am hoping some more people will come along for the ride!
Some travel news. I am going to be in NZ for a month from mid January for my sisters wedding. After that I go to the states for a month – going snowboarding at Lake Tahoe, meeting up with some friends and so on. Will be back in the UK mid March.
But before I get started with that I have a one month contract in Farnham – an hour south west of London. It was pretty amazing how I got this job, I uploaded my CV to a job website and 5mins later (literally) I got a phone call from an agent. Turned out I had precisely the skills they wanted and the introducing paragraph of my CV impressed them enough that they decided to take me on for a month (which was all I am available for) even though they wanted someone for longer. I am so thankful for getting something so quickly – now all I need is a place to stay!
Till next time.
