Grantsmanship Training in Hartford CN

The Grantsmanship Center�s signature Grantsmanship Training Program is coming to Hartford, Connecticut, August 13-17, 2007. The program will be hosted by the Watkinson School.

The Grantsmanship Training Program covers all aspects of researching grants, writing grant proposals and negotiating with funding sources. More than 100,000 nonprofit and government personnel have attended this comprehensive 5-day workshop, which now includes a full year of valuable membership services.

During the workshop, participants learn The Grantsmanship Center�s proposal writing format, the most widely used in the world. In addition to practicing the most advanced techniques for pursuing government, foundation, and corporate grants, they develop real grant proposals for their own agencies.

Upon completion of the training, participants receive free follow-up, including professional proposal review, access to The Grantsmanship Center�s exclusive online funding databases, and an array of other benefits.

Tuition for the Grantsmanship Training Program is $875 ($825 for each additional registrant from the same organization).

To ensure personalized attention, class size is limited to 30 participants. To register online, to learn about scholarship opportunities for qualifying organizations, or for more information, visit http://www.tgci.com/gtptraining.shtml. Or call The Grantsmanship Center�s Registrar at (800) 421-9512.


If you�re wondering why the Grantsmanship Training Program is five days (when other grantwriting classes are shorter)�

� The Grantsmanship Training Program is not a quick overview of �grantwriting.�

� The Grantsmanship Training Program is an intensive, small-group, total-immersion workshop that covers funding research, program planning and proposal writing.

� By integrating program planning into our curriculum when we first created grantsmanship training, The Grantsmanship Center anticipated the increased demand by grantmakers for more accountability, smarter programming, and a stronger, more demonstrable return on granted funds.

� Grantsmanship Training Program participants prepare and critique real grant proposals under expert guidance during the class.

� You can�t get this quality of in-depth training, personal attention and hands-on experience in a two-, three- or even a four-day workshop!

Chron this week: Google Apps

Technology-related articles in this week's Chronicle of Philanthropy

Google Offers Charities Free Software, Help

This article describes Google Apps, which are the Google Mail, Google Docs (word processing) and Google Spreadsheets.

Google Apps, which will be free t nonprofit organizations in the United States, includes e-mail and calendar programs, Internet-based telephone and text-messaging services, and word-processing, spreadsheet, and Web-publishing applications.

More at www.google.com/a/npo.

FCC Offers Educational Radio Licenses

For the first time in even years, the Federal Communications Commisssion in mid-October will accept applicaitons for new, full-power stations used for non-commercial, educational purposes.

More at http://radioforpeople.org

Access 2007 Deployment File Formats

Notes from the Access 2007 help file:

There are four standard file formats for Access 2007 deployed files:

1. .accdb standard file format for Access 2007
   
2. .accde compiled binary file. This strips the VBA source code from the file
   
3. .accdc combined version of Access application file, and a digital signature associated with the file
   
4. .accdr format for running an application in runtime mode.
   

More on signing and creating the .accdc file:

I love this:

Note: Although this feature is also known as "packaging," it does not accomplish the same tasks as the Package Solution Wizard of the Access 2007 Developer Extensions. The feature described in this section packages an Access 2007 file and applies a digital signature to the package that helps indicate to users that the file is trustworthy.

So if I've got this right, I can use the Packaging Wizard (discussion from yesterday) to package and deploy an .accdc file which is a signed version of my access workstation file. Whew!

Microsoft Action Pack Update for July

One reason why I like the Microsoft Action Pack is that it gently feeds you a trickle of the tsunami of new Microsoft products, betas, Community Technology Previews (CTPs), samples, trials, and templates. This months quarterly update is no different and includes a couple of interesting products:

• The 64 bit version of Vista Business
  
• Beta 3 of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
  
• System Center Essentials 2007
  
• Office Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
  
• Windows Server 2003 R2 32 and 64 bit
  

I've been running Windows BackOffice 2003 on my server for what I think is at least two or three years, so I'm contemplating installing one of the straight Windows Servers as a replacement. BackOffice is fine if you want to run Microsoft Exchange, and you want to have some beefed up management tools, but I've never been convinced of its utility over the regular Windows Server product. Exchange is a whole trip in itself, (can you say backup and spam control?) and in small offices that would otherwise be the typical customer for BackOffice, I would normally recommend just going with mailboxes from your internet service provider.

Live Communications Server is the Microsoft VoIP back-end product...something I'm interested in looking at; but was unable to install on my Win 2003 BackOffice server.

The Action Pack is a quarterly shipment to Microsoft Partner subscribers, and is suited for small consultancies or businesses with ten or fewer desktops. You get the full office suite with all the goodies like Visio and MapPoint, as well as all the server operating systems. No development tools--that is for the Microsoft Developers Network Subscription, but so many of those are available as trials and free versions that you can get pretty far without spending a lot in that area.

Ekiga, formerly known as Gnomemeeting, is a Linux based softphone/videophone. (A newer version is also available for Windows). They've thought of everything... STUN, H.323, SIP, a directory, NAT traversal, you name it.


I'm using version 2.03 that was in the stock installation of Ubuntu Feisty. After a couple hours of fiddling, (at least 30 minutes of which was finding out that my microphone was switched off...) I've been able to make test voice calls to what sounds like their Asterisk server. Looking around, it says they are up to about 2.09, and if you want it work full-screen, you have to compile from the source code.

Access 2007 Packaging an Application

Now that the Access 2007 runtime is available, it is time to start working with Access 2007 again for client deployments. The first order of business was to start up the Developer Extensions.

The Microsoft Access 2007 Developer Extensions are available as a free download from Microsoft.

By default these are installed in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\. I changed this to add a folder Acc2007DE so I could find them, but even then couldn't figure out what was supposed to be happening.

Turns out that the Developer Extensions are are a COM add-in, consisting of:

Package Solution Wizard - this is similar to the older package wizard with Access 2003.

Save as Template - Allows you to save an existing database installaton as a template. Note that this is not the same as saving a database design as a template!

These appear under the round Microsoft Button in the upper left-hand corner of the Access Window.

(my screen shot programs don't appear to be able to deal with the dropped-down menu, so you'll need to use your imagination. )

In the following screens shots, click on the image to see a larger version.

If the Developer option does not appear under the button, do the following:
1. Click the button
2. Choose Access Options
3. Choose Add-ins
4. At the bottom of the screen choose Manage COM add-ins, then GO
5. You should get a screen showing the currently available add-ins. Like this:

Ok, so let's try the Package Solution wizard. Here is the first screen.

I changed the destination folder to F:\Access Install Packages.

The Package Solution Wizard asks for several parameters. Since I usually install an Access application off of the C:\ root, I chose System Drive (All Users) for the location plus the folder name in the Root install folder, and thent the actual folder name uner the Install Folder. The actual install location will show up in the Example install location field.

You can use the third option under t he section regarding the Pre-installation requirements if you want to install the Access runtime on a computer which does not contain Access 2007. To include this in your setup, you'll need to point to to a locall copy of Accessruntime.exe which you can download from the Microsoft web site.

Note under the Example Install Location, that the installed version of the program will have an .ACCDR extension, as opposed to the normal Access 2007 extension of .ACCDB.

The Acccess 2007 help files include a subset of subjects, called "Developer Reference"

Salesforce for nonprofits - Database Alternative

Salesforce is one of the most popular web-enabled databases, and it's gaining adherants among nonprofits. Accessible from any browser, customizable in myriad ways -- and available to nonprofits for no fee through the Salesforce.com Foundation (up to 10 seats) -- it's a powerful tool. But how can a database with a name like Salesforce be used by the nonprofit sector? This webinar will explore the functionality and community of Salesforce. We'll look at how several nonprofits, from a group of more than 1500, use Salesforce to cultivate and recruit donors, manage their electronic communications, and more. If you are looking for a new CRM solution, or just want to know more about Salesforce, this webinar will be a great starting point.
Presented by Rob Jordan, Idealist Consulting

Register now at http://nten.org/webinars.

Quick Introduction to Windows XP Embedded

Introduction To Windows XP Embedded
A five minute video introduction to working with XP Embedded.

Target Analyzer
creates an XML file which describes all the hardware
Runs from XP
16 bit version runs from DOS

Component Designer

Import the results of the Target Analyzer. Example shows about 200 hardware devices in the snapshot
Create a custom component for an application

XPe ships with 9000 device drivers, 3000 operating system components
If not included, you can import an .inf file for a device driver. You can then use this just like any other component

Component Database Manager
This tool is used to manage the database of components and check in new components

Target Designer
Select a design template (like "information appliance")
Checks all dependencies.
Builds the target image.

The difference between a built XPe image is that the operating system that is built is built in a bootable form (not "installable" form).

More webcasts here.

Access Runtime is Back!

The Access 2007 runtime is available again. I had some problems installing this over the previous version. If the installation seems to hang up try deleting the existing version and then reinstall.

Access 2007 file formats are different, and new, and not entirely backward compatible.
Here is a help file which explains how they work.

New Dell Lines

Comrades!

Dell's new "services and systems for small business" adds a new line called "Vostro". Maybe it is because I just enjoyed "The Hunt for Red October" on DVD with Sean Connery and Sam Neill, but the the name sounds like shades of the 1950's and the cold war. Dell was never one for particularly attractive designs, the units even look a little bit like something designed in the former Soviet block, relentlessly unadorned and practical..and actually more attractive than the standard designs for desktops a few years back. Still, I wish they'd hire the Apple designers.

Apparently the features of units for small business include:
1. Tech support delivered from the U.S.
2. Elimination of all the shovel-ware that they used to put on the hard drive.
3. Software to allow Dell technicians to log into the machine remotely.

And yet, Latitude and Optiplex live on. So does this mean the death of the Dimension? and the end of the Dell Precision?

Health Care Innovations and Disruption

Two items related to health care:

1. There is an interesting discussion which is a follow-up of a Paul Krugman column on health care. This may be behind either a registration log in, or the Times "Times Select" subscription. I was jolted this morning when buying a copy of the physical paper that the price had gone up a quarter from $1.10 to $1.35. Ouch. Still, considering it is maybe an hour of informed reading, plus an hour of the crossword puzzle for the Spousal Unit, it is pretty cheap entertainment.

2. Over at Changemakers there is a series of competitions for funding of disruptive changes in health care. There are some very interesting projects, from all over the world.

Building a Windows XPe Test Environment

Back in May I worked through a Microsoft Virtual Lab online that created a test target environment for a Windows XPe device.
Today, I'm attempting to build my own version of a target device using Microsoft Virtual PC, following instructions from MSDN, How to Demonstrate Windows XP Embedded.

Continuing with the "virtual" theme, I was pleased to see instruction for creating an image on a Microsoft Virtual PC.
If you have never used this, it is available now as a free download, and it is great for trying things out without trying to scrounge another PC someplace. An essential developer's tool, Virtual PC can be used to try different operating systems, (including non-Microsoft O/S's), program builds, simulated client environments, virtual networks with multiple workstations, you name it.

But back to Windows XPe. I'm a newbie, so there were several non-obvious issues that I noted in the MSDN instructions.

The procedure describes using the Windows Preinstallation Environment. This is the equivalent of a DOS boot disk with a bunch of command-line utilities that you can use to prepare disk drives, copy drivers, and so forth. Windows PE has been around awhile, it appears to have been initially designed for use by "white box" computer system builders who wanted to configure hardware before installing Windows. So, essentially what you are doing to prepare the virtual PC is the following:

1. Create a new virtual PC and virtual hard drive for the embedded XP application.
Be sure the networking setting is set for "shared networking".


2. Boot this new virtual PC using the first CD from the Windows XPe Evaluation Kit. This CD 1 contains the boot image for Windows PE. It will boot up the virtual PC and come to a command line with X: as the drive letter. The X:, in this case refers to the CD drive NOT the disk drive that you created for the virtual PC. This is because�you have to partition and format the virtual drive, per the instructions above in the MSDN article.

3. The article then describes the process of running TAP, the "Target Analyzer Tool" which captures the configuraton of the hardware that you are running on. This creates a file called devices.pmq

4. You need to get the devices.pmq to your host machine, either by running TAP with the output switch or copying the file to a share. This is a little confusing in the instructions; here is how I interpreted it.

a. Create a folder on the host machine called C:\Windows Embedded Images"

MD "C:\Windows Embedded Images"

b. Share this folder with a name XPe

NET SHARE XPe="C:\Windows Embedded Images"

c. On the virtual machine, Map the Z: drive to the shared folder using the IP address of the host machine as the server name.

NET USE Z: \\192.168.0.102\XPe

You may have to supply a name and password for this, (actually, this is a good thing..); I had to use my admin name and password to get in.

d. On the virtual machine drive C:, copy the devices.pmq to the shared folder

COPY  C:\ devices.pmq Z:

After completing this portion of the instructions, I continued on with the discussion of the compnent designer. This is one of the tools included in the Microsoft Windows Embedded Studio

1. Go to File Import, and choose the devices.pmq


The import function takes a few minutes to run. (10 or more). Once it is completed and you close the import dialog, you'll get a first look at the component tree with the imported devices shown on the right.




Photo: c:\componentdesigner.png

2. Ok, moving right along the next step is to "finalize" the component.


This screen shot matches the one in the MSDN article.

3. Saving this file (from File|Save) creates an sld file.

4. Now the sld file needs to be imported into the Windows XPe component database using the Component Database Manager. This step is described in the MSDN document.

Finally, you get to build the Windows XP image using the Target Designer. This is where the components are chosen for the Windows image. Of course, the componet that you've just created needs to be added, as it contains all of the information about the target hardware.

The instructions say you should update the User Interface Core Component, but as this wasn't added yet, I first added this manually. My guess is this would get added if you updated the dependencies before this step. By changing these, you have the opportunity to manipulate the user environment, similarly to the way you can set options using group policies.

Then, when you do the Dependency check, hundreds of components will be added. This step takes several minutes. When it completed, it showed that there were 10430 components included.


When all dependencies are resolved, you then build the run-time image. This took about 3 minutes, resulting with an image of 129.0 mb compressed, and an estimated uncompressed size of 179 megs. Not something that will fit on a floppy disk!

Doesn't this look familiar?

As part of the process of installing this on to the virtual machine, the instructions call for using the Microsoft Resource Kit utility RoboCopy. This is XCOPY on steroids. Not only does it copy files and directories, but it preserves any attributes and settings on the files and directories. I did the copy. Occasionally it would stop because it claimed the network connection was down. I don't think think so�.as it copied from the the same physical machine. But in the end it looked OK.

This shows the result of the copy operation, and the root directory of the target machine. Recall that this is a command window within the Windows PE Environment (the graphic backround image), appearing in a virtual PC (the title bar and toolbar). Let's see if the XPe image will boot!

The first boot agent starts. This writes the registry, installs system security, registers components, registers class installers, installs hardware devices, in short, completes the process of installation. Once configured, it forces a reboot again, and Voila! We're into a session of XP embedded.

Network Monitoring Tools

Nice thread over on the TrixBox forum which suggests a summary a network monitoring tools, mostly open source.

Embedded Hardware and Software Resources

Beginner's (that's me!) Information:

ASIC
Application Specific Integrated Circuit

FPGA
Introductory information for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
http://www.fpga4fun.com/FPGAinfo1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array
http://www.fpgacentral.com/
http://www.openfpga.org/

Programmable digigal logic chips.
Are "volatile", program has to be reloaded when the unit is turned on.

Article/Blog about working with FPGA development kits
http://svenand.blogdrive.com/archive/11.html


CPLD
Complex Programmable Logic Device (technology of the 1980's
More complex than a PAL, less than an FPGA
Non-volatile mmemory
Useful for providing "boot loader" funcitionality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPLD

Microsoft Windows Embedded Developer Center
Articles and resources from the MSDN library regarding Windows embedded.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/embedded/default.aspx

Embedded Technology Journal
http://www.embeddedtechjournal.com/

Nuts and Volts Magazine
http://www.nutsvolts.com/

Circuit Cellar
http://www.circuitcellar.com/

Grantsmanship Training: Troy NY 9/17-21

The Grantsmanship Center�s signature Grantsmanship Training Program is coming to Troy, New York, September 17-21, 2007. The program will be hosted by the Commission on Economic Opportunity for the Greater Capital Region (CEO).

The Grantsmanship Training Program covers all aspects of researching grants, writing grant proposals and negotiating with funding sources. More than 100,000 nonprofit and government personnel have attended this comprehensive 5-day workshop, which now includes a full year of valuable membership services.

During the workshop, participants learn The Grantsmanship Center�s proposal writing format, the most widely used in the world. In addition to practicing the most advanced techniques for pursuing government, foundation, and corporate grants, they develop real grant proposals for their own agencies.

Upon completion of the training, participants receive free follow-up, including professional proposal review, access to The Grantsmanship Center�s exclusive online funding databases, and an array of other benefits.

Tuition for the Grantsmanship Training Program is $875 ($825 for each additional registrant from the same organization).

To ensure personalized attention, class size is limited to 30 participants. To register online, to learn about scholarship opportunities for qualifying organizations, or for more information, visit http://www.tgci.com/gtptraining.shtml. Or call The Grantsmanship Center�s Registrar at (800) 421-9512

Unreview: HP OfficeJet K5400

After working with a crippled HP c2000 OfficeJet printer for almost a year, I finally gave up, and purchased an HP OfficeJet K5400. I still have a LaserJet 2420 for black and white, but I found I was missing having color. So far the color inkjets surpass the laser versions, at least in my price range.

The K5400 was selling at Staples for about $175.00. I was so tickled that they would recycle the old printers for $10.00 each, that I went right ahead and followed the salesperson's recommendation for the replacement. At the same time they attempted to sell me a separate warranty, a USB cable, and extra ink cartridges. Had I bought all those, I'm sure I would have spent over $300.00.

This is a "conventional" (i.e. not photo) printer, with 4 ink cartridges. Still, the photo printing is acceptable. The version I bought, which may acount for the difference in price between Amazon and Staples, includes a duplexer and a network interface. I plugged the printer into my hub, and it went out and got a network address from DHCP.

One thing I wasn't used to: the printer actually takes almost 20 minutes to set itself up to align the print heads. I guess hardware is getting dumber, and software is getting smarter.

It is amazing all the disposible junk that comes with the printer, by the time you've unwrapped the ink cartridges and the printer heads.

The sticker on the printer advertises that it is "cheaper than a laser". We'll see.

Trixbox and VoIP Update

I have done an extensive hoeing out of the VoIP Resource Guide, if you thought it was getting a bit long in the tooth, there are new items and I've deleted a lot of the old stuff. But, to cut the chase, here are some Stuff That Works:

• Trixbox 2.2 - implementation of Asterisk
  
• Polycom SoundPoint IP320/330 Phone
  
• IDEFisk Softphone for IAX2.
  
• Voicepulse for SIP and IAX termination to the regular telephone network.
  

The above are components that I've been using recently. Just today I ordered another Polycom phone, and a Sangoma A200 FXO card to replace my Digium X100p card. The difference between the Polycom phone and the Grandstream B100 phones in sound quality is noticable, and the general fit and finish of the Polycom phones is outstanding. Of course they cost twice of what the Grandstream phones had cost.

Other things highly thought of:
At the Boston Trixbox seminar, people spoke highly of Aastra phones, and Rhino interface cards. M0n0wall, the open source firewall was also recommended.

Unsolved Problems:
I was really happy with Gizmo for awhile, but have never been able to get it to register with my Trixbox server. I fiddled, but always given up.

And, still looking for a QoS solution for my home router, so that when I'm on the phone, and am casually surfing the web, it doesn't destroy the conversation mid-word.

Monthly Introducation July 2007

Welcome to Tech for Non-Profits, the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. Part lab-notebook, part brain-extension, it is a repository for new and half-baked ideas that we run across as we provide software and database development, network support, and R&D for a growing list of clients in education, health care and non-profit organizations.

Occasional features include Tech Friday, which may include code(!), our (mostly) annotated VoIP resource guide, Stuff That Works for hardware and software items that have passed the Five Minute Test, and Chron This Week, which is a synopsis of technology articles of interest in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Topics on grantwritng and fundraising appear as we seem to have one or more grant application in progress most of the time.

The emphasis this month will be on open source telephone systems, specifically TrixBox, as we are implementing our own small system.