PTP Blog

Mark got me thinking about this yesterday. We were talking about the potential for Google Apps to provide some real competition to Microsoft. He was of the opinion that unless Google can address the security and ownership concerns, their “Apps” won’t have much traction. I’m sure he’s right about that, but I think that if Google is smart we’ll soon see Google Apps appliances for sale by Google so that businesses can use Google Apps in an environment they control.

Following the announcements that the DOT is halting Microsoft upgrades, and the FAA is thinking about a move to Google Apps and maybe even Linux desktops, a Google Apps Appliance is almost a no-brainer.

Government agencies and really most businesses as well can’t or won’t use hosted services due to security concerns. If Google’s smart and doesn’t build in any phone-home stuff like Microsoft does, a Google Apps Appliance is exactly the product businesses need to get off the Microsoft bandwagon.

And if they do? I’m hoping there’s a non-profit version

I’ve been running version 2 of Firefox since it was released, and I’m really less than impressed.

lately, I’ve found that it crashes/freezes A LOT.  I had to kill and restart it 3 times in less than an hour this morning, in each case starting a new session, not visiting any pages from the last session that could have cause the browser to freeze, etc.  Nothing seems to make a difference.

I’m now typing this from Opera - so far the only browser that I can stand given that I won’t use IE, and Firefox keeps crashing.

Anyone else seeing issues with it?  Makes me think about going back a version until the kinks are worked out with version 2.

last week, PTP moved over to a hosted anti-spam solution with Mailfoundry.

The first week, we were very happy with the service - it reduced spam to almost zero messages over pretty much the whole week.

Today has been a different story - in the last two hours, I’ve seen 10 spam messages.  Granted, 10 isn’t a lot given the volume I was getting prior to move to Mailfoundry, but its still more than I want to see.

I know that some days, you’ll be on the positive side of aggregated spam filtering, and other days you’ll be on the negative side, so things will probably go back to a nice low level of spam in the next few hours.  Still, I’d started to hope that the rest of my life would be close to spam free, and even with Mailfoundry, it seems that won’t be the case.

Last year as part of our COaTI program, I set up an account with ifreebusy.com to demo sharing free/busy information, but it wasn’t until just today that I finally figured out where and how I should be using it.

Often, when we’re doing a COaTI, I find that I need to schedule calls with people who are far busier than I am.  What I’ve done in the past is to ask that they send me a couple of times that are good for them, and then I pick a time that is also good for me.  What I should be doing is asking people to check out my public free/busy calendar and tell me when they want to talk to me based on the calendar.

So, starting today, I’ll be experimenting with how well this practice actually works.  We’ve got a COaTI starting in about 2 months, so I’m sure I’ll get lots of chances to use it.

anyone looked at the database/CRM part of the free zoho online office suite?

The database component isn’t totally free, but interestingly appears to have downloads for Windows and Linux (of all things!) in addition to the online version.

could be pretty darn interesting.

Amanda’s got a question about interesting use of Google Maps by community organizing groups.

I started to respond over there, but think elevating the conversation out of a comment thread is probably worthwhile since I think there are some folks reading here that aren’t reading over there, and I’d really like them (if you’re not sure if you’re included in that them, you are) to weigh in on this.

So this is what little I know on the subject: mapping mashups just haven’t reached into the organizations we know doing anything with GIS.

I think there are a few reasons for that.

1. online mapping tools have only very recently reached a point where you can do interesting things with them.
2. Organizations that do mapping a lot already have a great deal invested in their present toolset and workflow.
3. The advantages of online mapping “mashups” are unclear versus more traditional GIS mapping software.

I’ll expand a bit on each of these points: continue reading…

as part of PTP’s Community Organizing and Technology Institute (COaTI) Program, we use a Drupal powered intranet website to help participants stay connected and share information and resources between sessions and after the program is over.  And lately, I’ve been wondering if Drupal is actually the best tool for the job. 

We went with Drupal because we didn’t really know what was going to happen, and Drupal seemed to give us the most flexibility in terms of being able to do things that we hadn’t anticipated. 

Three COaTI programs in, I find myself thinking that maybe Drupal isn’t the right choice as the program moves forward.  Mostly, this is because the actual usage that has evolved is much simpler than what is possible with Drupal.  I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect that we could do what’s needed with a simple online forum/bulletin board system.

So, what’s needed?  here’s the list I’m working from - anyone who’s participated in a COaTI, please jump in and suggest changes/disagree with me/etc. 

• ability to post questions and get answers from other COaTI participants - past and current
• ability to attach documents to posts
• ability to upload and share images/graphics
• ability to see a list of members along with some information about those members
• connection to email - you can email in posts
• connection to email #2 - posts are also sent out via a listserve, from the listserve you can respond on list and the email is connected back to originating post.

That last requirement is actually the one that has been most important, and its the one that I think only Drupal does (still).

This is filed under the brainstorming category.  Please share your thoughts.

I know that this question comes up a fair bit for many of you - even if you’ve already got a letterhead template set up in MS Word, check out the comments in this tutorial for some details, tricks, and tips that could make your life with letterhead much much easier. 

The tricks here make me want to go and have another look at PTP’s letterhead since multi-page docs get tricky with ours.

Create Letterhead Templates in MS Word from creativetechs

you’d think it would be easy, right?  Format Excel sheets to alternate row color so that its easier to read, especially when you print it out.  And it is easy, once you know how:

Excel: Automatically alternate row colors (dynamically)

Oh, and if you are wondering how long I’ve been wondering how to do this - at least 2 years, and I just now took the time to do the 1 minute google search to find the answer.  Well, maybe this will save some time for you.

Just a friendly reminder to all of you that encryption isn’t always secure:  DailyTech - Convicted Man Sues HP After Encryption Failed to Keep Him Out of Prison

In a nutshell - his laptop was siezed by the FBI.  They either broke the encryption using their own methods, or got help from HP.  Etiher way, the accessed files he thought were secure.

The moral of the story?  Encryption doesn’t equal Security.

Check out security.resist.ca for more information on digital security.