Welecome to Tech for Non-Profits, the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. We feel that non-profit corporations and NGOs deserve the same advantages that technology can bring to for-profit business. To that end, we’ve dedicated ourselves to finding cost-effective ways to bring the benefits of wide-area networks, computer databases, IP videoconferencing and Voice over IP and free and open source software to our clients and friends. Check out our (mostly) annotated VoIP resource guide.

Ongoing projects this month will include our small office PBX using TrixBox and Asterisk. This seems to have gotten off dead center as the past three days it has worked flawlessly with VoicePulse, or internet call provider. I have joined the outreach committee of the Vermont Software Developer’s Association, and we’re working on grant applications early this month to get this group some paid staff. We’re using Backpack for project management on this, and I wrote about Backpack a couple days ago.

It seems to be a personality quirk of ours that our default position is one of optimism and interest when confronted with a new product or new version of an older product. This is especially true if it passes the Five Minute Test(tm), i.e. if I can actually create or do something after fooling with the product for five minutes. The critical juncture is what happens immediately after the five minutes… Does it hold our interest? Does it get incorporated into our daily work? Is it something to recommend to others?

A little about our shop: If you look at previous entries, you’ll see we’ve dated Linux, but are married to Microsoft. We have two Windows XP desktops, 1 Windows XP laptop and a Windows 2003 Small Business Server as our production machines. These have to work every day, and they do. We use these for programming, database development, web development and general office stuff like accounting. We depend on several entities located in cyberspace, including Intermedia.net for our web site and eMail, and as host for a couple production web-based applications, and Logmein for remote access to clients for whom we have ongoing network management or software development projects. Oh, and our ISP, Comcast, (only recently changed from Adelphia).

Comments and suggestions are welcome and are moderated, so they may not show up immediatly.

I’ve been reading Smith on VoIP blog for some weeks now and found it to be informative.

So then I have to ask a few questions when I saw the following entry about advertising rates for his blog.

Product Reviews

Many believe the best advertising does not look like advertising. The best advertising is interactive and informative. Product reviews (hardware, software, and service) are both interactive and informative. Not only do you get a robust product review, I will also work with you to better understand how you can get others within the VoIP blogsphere to review your product.

* Product + $500

So, this means that as a vendor, I could send my box to Mr. Smith, and a check for $500. He’ll review the box. (robustly). Presumably he’ll post the review on his blog Ok….fine so far. But:

1. Doesn’t this represent a conflict of interest? Whose interests are being served here? Certainly not the reader’s.

2. What if there is a superior product that competes with the one reviewed, and he knows that… would he include a dicussion of the superior product even though they hadn’t signed up for a review? In other words, it seems quite possible that the “reviewer” could end up touting a piece of junk, just because the vendor paid for the review.

I dunno….when I find something that actually works as advertised, I’m so happy that I’m willing to praise it for nothing. Happens maybe a dozen times a year. Maybe some people need to be paid to try something, because it is indeed rare to find an item which does work as it should.

Update: Garrett Smith has commented.

I’ve talked about LogMeIn before, it is a web-based remote access application that works through firewalls; and is generally very easy to set up. It replaces programs like PC-Anyware, Windows Terminal Server and similar programs. LogMeIn is available in various flavors. There is a free version which just does the remote access, a “Pro” version for a monthly or yearly fee which inlcudes a file transfer function. There is the IT-Reach version, which combines the functions of Pro with some monitoring and computer management functions; indeed it does such a nice job on the latter that I use it when managaing my own server, (five feet away). The client piece can sit on your workstation with a memory consumption of about 9K of RAM.

Now, they have a new product LogMeIn Himachi which allows you to set up VPNs (virtual private networks) quickly over the web. At first I was thinking…Ok, this means I can map a data drive to my office server over the web, or even print to a printer on my office server when I’m sitting at home. But wait…there’s more!

Since the connections are encrypted, and they go through (most) firewalls this has the potential of being a component that can be used in situations where you would normally have to adjust a firewall manually. In particular, I’m thinking of a Voice over IP connection which requires ports 5060 or 4569 to be opened on the firewall. This means you could potentially have an encrypted phone conversation, that would traverse a local firewall between the home office and laptops in the field.

Himachi allows you to create a local peer-to-peer network over the Internet. You could use this for sharing ITunes (assuming your machines are all part of the registered ITunes 5-count for your installation), or use it for peer-to-peer gaming.
Unlike regular LogMeIn….

Himachi also works with Linux. There is a how-to for setting up the Linux version, and then running VNC to see the desktop.

Over at Debian Admin there is an article about remote server administration for Ubuntu Server. Since Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian, many of the articles there are relevant, and the site is a model for no B.S. practical assistance.

Over at Juice Analytics they have posted a screencast showing how to make “square piecharts” like this one. (Click on the graphic to view full size.) The JA blog is full of ideas and hints on how to use Excel.

Other sources for ideas about presentation graphics, useability, and inteface design:

Edward Tufte’s web site and Q and A Forum

Jakob Nielson’s Web Site – UseIt.Com

No discussion about these topics would be complete without mentioning Kathy Sierra’s site, Creating Passionate Users. A favorite post is A Crash Course on Learning Theory.