2015 Alaska Ministry Trip

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Graceway Baptist Church just finished missions conference week entitled Do Something.  I was challenged to try and do more for missions.  As sat through the Graceway missions trips session where they talked about the past missions trip and an upcoming trip to Alaska.  I felt a gentle nudge to get involved.  The next two nights I had dreams about helping at the youth camp and just couldn’t get it out of my mind.

So, I’ve decided to go and I am raising money for this ministry trip.  Graceway Baptist Church is sending a team of people to go work with our missionaries Jim and Becky Carter at Camp Carmel, a ministry of Wrangell Bible Baptist Church.

Capture

The goal is to go and assist with the Sr. camp as a counselor.  Among the islands and mountains of Alaska’s panhandle live many people who do not know what it means to have a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.   The cost of the trip is $1500 which covers airfare, food and lodging.

So, I’m reaching out to my Facebook family and friends to help me go.  I’m not one who likes to just take handouts so I am offering computer expertise for anyone who donates money to this ministry opportunity.  I have been in information technology for 20+ years and can do just about anything related to computers.  I’m A+, Network+ and Security+ certified as well as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.   So, if you have need of virus/spyware/malware removal, computer troubleshooting or repair labor, training on internet technologies, help with Microsoft Office like Word, Excel or Powerpoint or if you need networking help or assistance setting up a website, I can do it.  I can provide help/consultation on purchasing a new computer, tablet or smartphone.  Do you have hundreds of photos that you would like to get scanned and stored digitally?  I can do that for you.  If you are in the Springfield area I can come to your house or place of business and provide any of the above services.

I also have a truck and can do manual labor for help with this trip as well.  I can haul trash, do yard work or anything else like that.

If you would like to donate to this trip you can do so in multiple ways.  You can donate through PayPal.  You can find me at church and give money there.  You can also give money through my church, Graceway Baptist Church, either in person using an offering envelope or through the Graceway online giving page.  If you give through church just make sure to designate it as Alaska Missions money.  Any method you give through make sure you leave a note if you would like computer help.  You can email me or find my cell phone number through Facebook and we can schedule a time to go over anything you need help with.

Thanks for your time and prayerful consideration of giving to this ministry opportunity.

Donate through Paypal:


 

 

or donate through

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Graceway Baptist Church’s online giving page.

Camp Caramel’s website

  • Taken: 9 February, 2015

Internet Explorer’s Meet your new browser page keeps coming up

Internet Explorer (version 11 in my case) keeps popping up the “Meet your new browser” page every time I opened the application.
Use these steps to stop it:

  1. GPEDIT.MSC from the Start button search bar
  2. Expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer
  3. Double click “Prevent running First Run wizard” (in the right pane)
  4. Set it to Enabled and set Go Directly To Home Page from the drop down.

The Riddle of Strider

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

– J.R.R. Tolkien

Windows network locations can show your email address

Opening Windows explorer gave me a bit of a shock when I noticed a device on my network was broadcasting my full email address.  Shock might be a bit dramatic, but I was concerned for sure.  I’d rather not see something like that being broadcast.  Maybe it only shows up on my home network but I don’t like it.  So, after some poking around I found the culprit in the media streaming options.  To get there go to the Network and Sharing Center.

NetworkSharing2

 

Click “Change advanced sharing options.”
Scroll down to the “All Networks” section and click the down arrow.

Advanced

Click the “Choose media sharing options…”
On this screen you will see the email address that was being broadcast as the name of your library.

email

I took this a step further and decided to turn off the media sharing so the devices don’t even show up.  I’m not sharing anything through these devices anyways.  I’d rather turn on the things I want than have them on by default.  In Windows 8 I was able to just tell the machine to leave the homegroup and that made those devices not show up.  Windows 7 devices still showed up.  To get rid of these I had to stop the actual Windows Media Player Network service.  I first tried setting the service to manual but something else kept starting it back up when I rebooted so I disabled it.

HP Stream 7 tablet mini review

IMAG00155_1

The HP Stream 7 tablet seems like a good tablet. Solid build, good performance and nice screen. At $99 it’s a very good deal. Also comes with a year of Office 365 which is worth $65ish on its own. Full Windows 8.1, 1gb of ram, 32gb of storage (though you end up with about 18gb usable) with a micro SD slot. Can’t speak to battery life yet because I haven’t used it long enough. The only bad thing I’ve noticed so far is the speaker is weak and small and on the bottom edge. This is definitely a nice alternative to a Kindle fire and far less expensive than an iPad (with a much better operating system in my opinion).

Update 1:
On the battery life I would say it’s on the low end for a tablet. It’s around 5 1/2 hours of web browsing, email and such. That’s not long compared to many tablets out there but at $99 that’s not bad either. Unless you are a traveler and need longer or you have no life and can spend 8 hours a day on a tablet For the way I use this size of a tablet 5 1/2 hours is fine. And if you were just reading books and not surfing as much that would probably be more like 6 1/2 hours. A Kindle Fire is going to last longer probably closer to 8 hours and an iPad mini is probably 9 to 9 and a half. But each of those costs more, especially the iPad mini which starts at $400 unless you get a previous model which will still be $300ish.

Update 2:
A major issue I’ve found is the headphone jack on this is horrible. It has bad static and a slight buzz. If you are playing music you don’t notice it unless the music gets quiet and between tracks. This only happens when you have headphones plugged in but when you do it’s very noticeable. When you have a low cost device there are going to be compromises but this seems like something you shouldn’t see (or hear) these days. This one is a puzzling issue to me, how HP would put it out like this I don’t really understand. I found a couple of others who reviewed this tablet and mentioned the sound issue to so I don’t think I’ve just got a bad one.  Very disappointing considering I really liked everything else about this tablet.

  • Camera: QCAM-AA
  • Taken: 16 January, 2015

Exchange 2013 auto mapped mailboxes don’t close when removed

I have an Exchange mailbox with several other mailboxes that it has full permissions on.
Exhange 2010 or 2013, I don’t remember which, added a feature that adds the mailboxes to Outlook automatically.
So, instead of having to go to account settings and navigating to advanced settings and manually adding additional mailboxes to open it does it for you.

That’s great except when you don’t want them to or when you remove the full access permissions and it decides to stay in Outlook.

To remove a mailbox that keeps showing up even though you’ve removed the Full access permissions.  Open Active Directory Users and Computers find the users account.  Click on Attribute Editor.  Scroll down the list until you find msExchDelegateListLink and remove the user account you don’t want the mailbox showing up in.

You can also turn off Exchange auto mapping on individual accounts.
This will give Administrator full access on the TheUser account without automatically adding it to Outlook:
(so you will have to manually add the account in account settings, open these additional mailboxes)

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity TheUser -User ‘Administrator’ -AccessRight FullAccess -InheritanceType All -Automapping $false

 

Recipe: Smoked Brisket

SMOKED BRISKET
6 servings

4 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground ancho chiles
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. granulated garlic
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 5 to 5 1/2 -lb. flat-cut brisket with 1/4 to 1/2 -inch layer of fat on one side
Store-bought barbecue sauce

4 cups hickory or oak wood chips, soaked in water for 1 hour
Foil broiler pan (for wood chips if using gas grill)
2 foil baking pans (for brisket)

Mix first 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Rub spice blend over brisket. Wrap brisket in plastic; refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Bring to room temperature before grilling.

Prepare grill for smoking. If using a charcoal grill: Build a low fire in a charcoal grill (you’ll need to light more charcoal in chimney to replenish two or three times during grilling). Drain 2 cups wood chips; scatter directly over coals. Return top grate to grill. If using a gas grill: Heat grill to medium-low. Drain 2 cups wood chips. Place wood chips in foil broiler pan and place pan directly on gas flame. Return top grate to grill.

Unwrap brisket and arrange fat side up in foil baking pan; place pan on grate over unlit part of grill. Cover grill. Insert instant-read thermometer in top vent. Heat grill to 300°F. Cook brisket, adjusting vents and adding more charcoal or adjusting gas levels as needed to maintain temperature inside grill at 250°F, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160°F, about 3 1 ? 2 hours. Baste brisket occasionally with pan juices and add more drained wood chips as needed.

Remove pan with brisket. Wrap brisket tightly in 2 wide sheets of heavy-duty foil. Discard pan and juices. Place in clean foil baking pan. Return to grill over unlit side, maintaining internal grill temperature at 250°F, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of center of brisket registers 190°F, about 1 1\2 hours longer. Transfer brisket in pan to a rimmed baking sheet. Let rest for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours.

Carefully unwrap brisket, saving any juices in foil. Transfer juices to a small pitcher. Place brisket on a work surface. Thinly slice brisket against the grain; transfer to a platter. Brush brisket with some juices. Serve with any remaining juices and BBQ sauce.

Windows 7 problem renaming folders – Could not find this item

My Windows 7 installation started throwing an error every time I created a new folder, renamed a file or tried to move a file.  It would say “Could not find this item.”

Deleting the following registry keys then restarting the explorer.exe process fixed it.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{2112AB0A-C86A-4ffe-A368-0DE96E47012E}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{2112AB0A-C86A-4ffe-A368-0DE96E47012E}\\PropertyBag]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{491E922F-5643-4af4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{491E922F-5643-4af4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}\\PropertyBag]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c}\\PropertyBag]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{A302545D-DEFF-464b-ABE8-61C8648D939B}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{A302545D-DEFF-464b-ABE8-61C8648D939B}\\PropertyBag]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\FolderDescriptions\\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104}\\PropertyBag]

Found the solution here.