Thunderbird 3 and Lightning

A 'problem' from my ISP saying that I've got too much e-mail prompted a look around to see if there were any good archive extensions for Thunderbird.  I'd looked a long time ago and not found anything that was really close to what I wanted.  I read the feature was in version 3, so decided to upgrade.  I use thunderbird because it the only e-mail client that seams to support IMAP properly.  Using IMAP, instead of POP3, means that my webmail client has everything in it when I go to look at my email somewhere else.
The upgrade itself was smooth enough, but I was rather surprised that it started all new folders and downloaded all my e-mail again.  Still not to worry - that is a one off process.
Not all the changes in Thunderbird are immediately obviously useful.  The main one you will see is the combined in-box, sent, deleted, spam/junk, archive folders - if you have more than one account.  I haven't got used to this yet.  Its especially annoying when I try to empty junk or deleted folders.  The folder must be opened and each deleted folder cleared separately, this is true for the others as well.  The 'tabbed browser' approach, rather than separate windows make it consistent with the browser which is a good thing, and the buttons for reply, forward etc. are an excellent idea.  The search capabilities have been improved and with them comes the penalty of indexing.  Indexing is intrusive and stops the client responding while it is occurring.

As to the archiving - I will be looking for an extension.  The message is move to the archive - no problem.  It is not put in a year folder - as suggested by the documentation, neither is its source folder structure respected, so I will just have one enormous archive.  Not as good as it should be.

One oddity I have noticed - the address book and the message filters do not open in tabs but are still put in separate windows.

One problem I've had is the constant requests for my IMAP password.  This has improved with the 3.0.2 upgrade, but is still occurring. 

I've tried Sunbird in the past - to try to get a calendar - like Outlook and Lotus Notes.  It was OK, but a bit clunky and I wasn't sure that the development was occurring.  Now I have installed Lightning.  The pretty calendar view that is on the extensions webpage is accessible from a small icon that appears to the right of the tabs - which is not immediately obvious - and the the calendar opens in a tab.  I haven't tested it with outlook yet.  That will come next week - so I may add to this review then.

btw - the picture is NOT the thunderbird logo - its just my sense of humour

Song Projection Software - a review of some available packages

This artice was originally published on 20 Feb 2010.

I will make updates and note them here as the project progresses.

A Christ Church we have a new projector and now also a new laptop - with Windows 7 64-bit.  We decided that our ageing SongPro (version 3) also needs replacing.  As the new SongPro (version 4) is expensive we decided to look at alternatives.

Requirements
To project songs on to an external projector, and manage the projection from the laptops screen.
To re-order songs (start with the chorus or verse 1 for example) without editing the text.
To display the copyright license (CCL number)
To import our Songs of Fellowship words.
To display video on the projector and retain control from the laptop screen
To manage song lists (orders of service)
To report on usage

Desirable Features
To display Bible and Liturgy in the same way as songs
To display notices in the same way as songs and auto cycle through them
To take a webcam feed to the projector
To play a DVD from the Laptop to the projector
To display power points
To display open office presentations
To provide some 'branding'

Of course all these pieces of Software must also run on our new Windows 7 Laptop.
What follows is a review of each of the pieces of software I have tried. There is a matrix of features and tests at the end.

SongPro3 (we are using on the old system)
SongPro 3 is a fully featured environment.  It is reasonably easy to use and provides most of what we need. Some of the finer controls are fiddly - you have to know when to right click and what to do with the subsequence menu. The major issue with SongPro is stability.  Too often it cannot cope with the simplest tasks.  Powerpoint integration almost always causes a restart to be required.  We have taken to running powerpoints from windows, but even this can cause SongPro to hang. Some of the 'features' have never worked reliably.  Screen blanking is the most obvious.  Blanking the screen is unreliable, but worse, un-blanking it is even more unreliable.

Openlp.org
Openlp.org starts in full screen mode and presents 4 columns - Media Manager (the song library and Bibles, presentations, video and audio are here), Preview, Live and in the final column Order of Service and below it the Theme Manager.
Orders of service are set up by dragging from the Media Manager across to the Order of Service n the far right.  The preview and Live Screens can be adjusted to make this easier.  A button is also available.  Tool tips are provided when the mouse hovers over a button.
Openlp.org performed well in the display test.
Import is available from CCLI SongSelect - files and website (both are untested by me)
Export is only to an SQLLite Database.

General look and feel and usage is good, but there remain questions about reordering
 verses and there does not appear to be a way to get from verse 1 to 3 without showing verse2.
I cannot find anything on usage stats.
There are tools that can be added, but they are not compatible with Windows 7 64-bit.

Openlp.org occasionally fails on shutdown - this is annoying but doesn't appear to affect subsequent operation.

EasiSlides
Initially additional work was required to get this package to run on Windows 7 64-bit.  The software opens in three columns, with the available songs, bibles etc. on the left above the Worship Service (order of service). Followed by a preview and live column.  Its primary purpose is to provide interleaved languages, a feature I have not tested.  The interface is richly featured, clear and largely intuitive for the service operator - it is the clearest one I have evaluated.

There are a few problems with easislides:
Some screens drop off the right hand side of the monitor on my test screen, but not on the projector.  This was the only piece of software that did not faithfully reproduce the preview screen on the monitor, although the problem was not apparent on the projector.
There also seem to be problems with the importer, although I'm still trying to build the files to import the words.
Some of the less obvious features are difficult to find, and will require instructions to be produced.

SongView
SongView has a very simple interface.  It does not appear to allow the preparation of orders of service. The Help does not appear to function.  It does however have the widest range of import options available, but the export is limited.

OpenSong
Starts with the tag line 'Church Lyrics and more'.  The 'more' includes Bibles (KJV)  and a 'Slides' feature, which looks remarkably similar to the Song Editor, and an image feature.  It is quite basic and has a rather 'old fashioned' look and feel, with help information for each function appearing in a bar at the top of the windows form.  The help information itself is extremely basic.  Import seems to be only from the CCLI website, but a message informs you that the site has changed and the function is currently broken.  The version I have is 1.5.1 (2007r2).

SNAP Projection
SNAP has a friendly looking crocodile for a n Icon.It has no songs provided.  Lists of songs can be managed. and songs typed into the system.  There does not appear to be an import / export function.  Powerpoints can be displayed, although this has not been tested.In single screen mode there was some difficulty removing the display.  There were also frequent failures (GPF's) during testing.

The following matrix summarizes the features:

	Openlp.org	EasiSlides	OpenSong	SNAP Projection	SongView	SongPro 3
Feature
Windows 7	Yes	Requires modification for W7 x-64 – applied OK	Yes	Yes*	Yes	?
Help	by .pdf	Yes		by .pdf	Not working?	Yes
Import SoF CD	No, but from the CCLI website	No, EasiSlides format inc XML or Access	An importer is required and can be downloaded	No	Yes, via the supplied RTF files
Service Order	Yes	Worship Lists	Yes, via sets	Unclear whether there is more than one	No	Yes
Verse order and repeat	No	Not directly, but the capability is attached to the song and does Not require the words to be edited.	Yes, by presentation order	No	No	Yes
Bible Display		Yes, but only small set of versions supplied – No NIV	Yes	No	Yes, NIV included	Yes
Usage Stats	No	Yes	Yes, song activity log	No	Yes	Yes
Branding / Styling	themes	Yes	Yes, by presentation order	Yes, via backgrounds	Yes, via Backgrounds	Yes
Display Preview	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes
Screen Blanking	Yes	Yes	No	Yes – test screen	No	Yes, but Non-functional
Video Camera Display	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Video File Display	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
DVD	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Embedded PowerPoint	Not tested	Not tested	No	yes, Not tested		Yes – some versions of ppt

Conclusion
That brings me down to two - EasiSlides - the favourite and Openlp.org - if I can get the import from the CCLI website working.

Blood River - Tim Butcher

ISBN 978-0-099-49428-7
The book is sub-titled A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart.  It is the story of one man's obsession.  Tim Butcher was obsessed with the Congo.  I knew next to nothing about it, and bought the book because it looked like an interesting story.  His obsession is not just with the Congo River, but also with the question "What is wrong with Africa?"  The Congo has gone from a Belgium colony, made famous by the film "The African Queen", to probably the most failed state in the world today.  It is a huge country in the middle of Africa, and the river flows across it from east to west.  Tim decides to re-create Stanley's (Sir Henry Morton) journey across Africa, down river from the source on lake Tanganyika to the Atlantic ocean.  The current state of the Congo meant that the journey is even more dangerous than it was when Stanley tried, and (just) succeeded, and claimed the Country for the Belgian King.  There are any number of groupings of 'rebels' - we'd call them terrorists anywhere else.  The government is only in control of a small part of the country and to do anything there are government officials to get approval from, and to pay bribes to.  Bribes are the only wages many of them get.  The only real 'authority' lies with the U.N. peace keepers and aid workers - who seem to spend most of their time behind closed doors - or better concrete walls.
The book is split into chapters with sketch maps of the parts of the river that each chapter deals with.  Tim sounds like a real expert on Congo history - he may possibly be the only non-resident in the world with such a knowledge. In each chapter we get not only the story of the people who he meets but also some of the history of the area.  Almost all the histories involve massacres of some kind.  It has to be said that they do rather merge into one as you read through the book.  There are one or two that stand out as being unusually horrific even by Congo standards.  There are time when he has weapons pointed at him, and when he is in fear for his life.  The contrasts between these people, the aid workers, and some remaining missionaries, and a few locals is one of the great high lights of the book.  There are many people struggling to make their own and other peoples lives work better in a situation that can rightly be described as hell on earth.  Their stories are fascinating and leave you wondering why they bother and how they can stand the strain.  Then there are those who are there for power and money.  Some of those are even helpful to Tim.

Perhaps the most telling passage for me is a few paragraphs on a conversation with a peace keeper from Malaysia. His country was colonised and brutalised, but after independence it is now developing - "we even have a Grand Prix".  While Africa, and in particular the Congo is going backwards. So you cannot put all the blame on the European colonists.  No solution is offered, but paths are suggested in the last chapters.  If you think you have a solution then after reading the book you may well change your mind. 

It is not a page turner, not for me anyway.  I had to stop a number of times - just to think a little about the horror and the squandering of human life.

Did he succeed in recreating Stanley's journey - you'll have to read it to find out ...