Looking for PHP Invoicing

I'm not to a point in my business where I need invoicing capabilities.   I've been looking at several options, Bamboo was the first.  It's a nice simple package built on a CodeIgniter framework.  Please let me know if you have a suggestion for another package.

StoreMoreStore with Volusions

This site was a challenge, turning a company which has done everything on paper into an online business. StoreMoreStore is a storefront for a very successful business geared around selling sorage furniture to goverment and medium to large businesses. They recognized that the small businesses were lacking, primarially due to the fact that the small businesses owners like to buy online, making purchases simple. The Idea around this site was targeting the small business ownere with equipment they might need for organizing business supplies and files.

in reference to: http://www.storemorestore.com/ (view on Google Sidewiki)

Part II The Elusive Power Point

When you are the person behind the computer during a meeting or worship service. The person behind the scenes (maybe even at the back of the room) who is pressing the up arrow and following along with the words of the song or an outline of a sermon. Usually it’s a no brainer, press the up arrow at the right time. But it’s being prepared for those unexpected turns, like the worship leader decides to sing a chorus one more time.. what are my options.

Preparation is the one of the keys to success. Now knowing which key to hit is important, and it’s part of preparation, we will cover that later. When I talk about preparation is knowing what slides are in the deck, reviewing them before anyone starts talking. The best way to do a good job is knowing your options. I suggest also you print out the slides in the deck on paper to have at hand. Make notes, and even ask your worship leader where there might be some sway. He/she might not know, but might have a good idea. Knowing the slide numbers is also very important, as I’ll show you later in this blog. During a slideshow you can hop around, but you need to know where to hop.

Knowing the keys, the keys on the keyboard. Here is a list of slide show keys and I’ll go into more detail later:

Ø F5 Begin the slide show

Ø Esc End the slide show

Ø B Black Screen show\hide

Ø W White Screen show\hide

Ø N Next slide

Ø Up arrow Next slide

Ø P Previous slide

Ø Down arrow Next slide

Ø 01 on number keyboard Slide 1

Ø 12 on number keyboard slide 12.. for each slide

Knowing the number of the slide, if you need to hop just type in the number of the slide… Here’s a great example… The service is running late, the worship leader during the hymn says “last verse”, but the slide is on the last line of the first verse and there are two more verses in between, do you press N N N N? No, you’ve got your printout with slide 34 being the start of the last verse, just type 34 on the numeric keypad. Simple, and you look like the pro!

Next time – Timing for an automatic show!

Help me with Power Point-- Part I

Years ago I visited a church where they had an overhead projector and a lady at the front switched through the cells (sheets) with lyrics of the songs or the words of the hymn being sung. The pastor on certain Sundays would even use it for his outline. At the time I thought, well this is really cool because people are standing and looking up instead of looking down at a hymnal. Power Point was a brand new program and it could print out the slides, which in turn you would use a thermostatic copier to make the cells for the overhead. Later this church upgraded to a slide projector, and a person would actually use an early version of power point with colored backgrounds and make a more professional slide by taking a picture of the screen with a 35mm camera and printing the slides. Not bad and really high tech. Then came the LCD Projector, the one device which made it so you could actually project the image directly from the computer onto the screen with no transfer. So is that all that changed?
In this article I want to touch on the fact that now with the automation of power point you can actually do a lot more than move the slides forward and backwards. With the overhead you always had the option of jumping to a different slide, there was an order, but it was loose, literally. If you happened to drop the slides, you would have to identify the next one (which could take time). If you wanted to have a hymn sing, it was easy (just alphabetize all the slides in a box). Then came the slide projector, the service became much more ordered because you could only move forward and backwards. If you wanted to change the order, you would either have to backup or jump forward several slides. What's new? Many people today think that power point is very much like that old slide projector (except no need to make the 35mm slides). In the next part of this blog series I hope to show you how you can maximize your performance during a presentation. How to loosen up and go with the flow rather than getting embarrassed because the worship leader felt he should sing the refrain again (this happens a ton!).

What to do when you Get a New computer... Which files to move

Many people ask the question: "What files do I need on my new system". Now hopefully you've kept the original CD's for your software. Setting up software on a remote system, while not impossible, is quite difficult. The best way to set up your Microsoft office, or your Adobe Acrobat, is to use the original setup files which are on the CD when you purchased the software. Of course we are talking simple, there are many other ways of doing this, but I recommend a clean or fresh start to that new computer. Now you need to migrate those data files, or should I say the files created by the applications. If you don't know the extensions, you should start the program and check out under file, save as. Usually this should list out all the extensions it supports, with most of the default formats towards the top of the list. These are what you want to find on your hard drive.. Now the first place to look is c:\documents and settings\Your logon\My documents. This folder is probably everything you need unless you have a pesky habit of saving things on your desktop in which you would replace my documents with desktop.
Now it's worth noting, there is a lot more than datafiles which could and should be transferred. Goto the C:\documents and Settings\ Your Name. This has a few other folders which you might consider moving.

If you've customized your start button, make sure you look at the 'Start Menu' Folder. If you have a list of favorite links from your browser, check out the 'Favorites' folder. And of course those #$*#& Cookies. Well not all cookies are bad, actually some are really useful, like the ones which remember you when you've been to a website before, Check those over and move over the ones you recognize. If you don't recognize them, leave them out.

Now it's time to check out your configuration on your new computer. Make sure the files are there before You get rid of your old computer.

I know that this is common sense kind of stuff, but it doesn't hurt to put it down in writing.

Moving to a New computer

By far one of the biggest questions people ask me is how to move from one computer to another. Well this is my quick list of ways to migrate from one system to another. So here is my top 5 ways to migrate that old data to a new computer:

1. Floppy Disk Method - This is the old school way of migrating your system. All you need is a single Floppy disk, and you simply copy one file at a time. Now if the file doesn't fit, you need to find a simple File Splitter program to chop that file into smaller parts, then copy each part one at a time on to your new computer. You only need on disk and about a year of free time.
2. Using Backup - Microsoft has had a backup option since Dos 6.5, and it's usually not a bad Idea to back up your system every once and a while. If you have a few files to back up I would just copy them onto a CD which is actually easier. Backup can keep track of when you update files and make changes, but It's not a very good option if you don't have a tape drive. This isn't a bad option if you use it with Step 5.
3. Copying Data files to CD - Now I personally like this one, Cd's are cheap and it's not bad having all your sensitive records backed up on optical since you never know when that Next big EMP will hit your neighborhood. But this method takes some time, and it really takes some thought in organization, I've often put sensitive data onto a disk, only to loose the disk among the hundreds of other sensitive disks.
4. Remove the Hard Drive - This is a great option if you are buying a new computer with lets say an extra SCSI or IDE space and you don't need the old computer. This is actually highly recommended if you have sensitive personal information on that hard drive. Don't give away your credit card and bank accounts when you donate your computer to the local Good will. This option doesn't work well if you are buying a new computer with a different type of Hard drive, like SATA. The cables for some reason don't fit (that's a joke). Sata is a totally different technology.
5. 1GB Key chain - Now this option will cost you about $45 bucks but now that's not bad. Most data files are smaller than 1 GB, so it will only take you a few Tries and you'll have your system backed up, very similar to the Floppy disk method.
6. USB to USB Data Link Cable - This is a great option and cost about $45 bucks, but it's not a bad thing to have around (like a jack and spare tire for your car). The software does it all, You install the CD in your new computer and into your old computer, and plug the cables in. Start the the 'Data Link' programs and walla! you have a little point to point network for moving files between computers.
7. LAN to LAN Transfer through a hub or router - Now today in the 'Modern Home' we are seeing a growing trend of people actually having more than one computer. Many people are actually networking their houses, so keeping that old computer is a real option. Simply share the drive with your home network, you could essentially keep the data on the old computer and use it on the new computer.

Now, the next big question: What files do I need to move?