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Where Tech meets Church

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I’d barely got my new series of “Internet Safety Sunday” up and running when I was approached by Brightfilter to see if I was willing to review their software.

Of course I said yes and made it abundantly clear that to do it justice I would need an unrestricted version and that it would be totally unbiased without fear of favour. The only pre-deal I agreed to is that I’d let the company see this review first so that they could “respond to it as necessary” – you can see their response at the end in red.

So…

Who are Brightfilter?

They are a Bath (UK) based company that is fairly new (since 2004) to the world of filtering but appear to have made quite an impact already. They provide internet security solutions that “protect children online both at school and at home”.

From information found on their website they only “provide solutions” that meet standards or guidelines published by groups such as: CIPA; IIA; ISPA and IWF. They are also now a McAfee Premier partner.

What do they offer?

The easy answer is to say see the web but in short they offer:

• Family surfing protection and
• Educational surfing protection

Though these two broad sweep categories are far from the complete picture. The first is via a windows application and the second is typically via an appliance such as the McAfee Web Gateway unit.

Reviewing Brightfilter is a post from: Church Techy

Much has been written over the years about having purpose and in particular about having a purpose driven life but I want to look at it from a slightly different perspective.

I’m sure you’ve heard of bucket lists – well put simply a bucket list is a purpose driven list.

Or put it another way a list of purposes.

Now I’m not saying that a bucket list should or even will replace your purpose but two things spring to mind:

1. If you have a purpose already then this can be a great cathartic listing of additional ‘fun’ desires that can help you along the way with your purpose and
2. If you don’t or haven’t yet found your purpose then this exercise could also help reveal your purpose

So how do you create your own bucket list?

First off set aside some time and then start writing down what comes to mind as you read these questions:

- What if you were to die tomorrow? What would you wish you could do before you die?

- What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?

- What will you do if you have unlimited time, money and resources?

- Any countries, places or locations you want to visit?

- What are your biggest goals and dreams?

- What achievements do you want to have?

- What experiences do you want to have / feel?

- Are there any special moments you want to witness?

- What activities or skills do you want to learn or try out?

- What are the most important things you can ever do?

- What would you like to say/do together with other people? People you love? Family? Friends?

- Are there any specific people you want to meet in person?

- What do you want to achieve in the different areas: Social, Love, Family, Career, Finance, Health (Your weight, Fitness level), Spiritual?

- What do you need to do to lead a life of the greatest meaning?

So there you have it – a Purpose Driven Life meets a Bucket List.

• So do you have a purpose?
• What about a bucket list?

Purpose Driven Life is a post from: Church Techy

Security of your PC is down to more than just having an Anti-Virus and/or firewall to protect it.

It’s more than ensuring you follow security best practices – see here or here.

It’s more than not clicking random links sent to you by your mates.

It’s more than running WindowsUpdate on a regular basis – for the record I don’t have it set to auto update.

It also includes ensuring your application software is up to date.

But how do you do that?

Well  let me introduce you to the wonderful world of patch management software and in particular my favourite tool of choice – Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector).

PSI is, yet another app, that is best left running all the time. Initially it scans your PC (mainly for exe, .dll, and .ocx files) and then consults its own database of software signatures. Once this is done it is able to identify the version of software running and advise on whether it is out of date or has a vulnerability. The choice still remains yours to update or not but again PSI makes it relatively easy to do this by providing links to the discussion, the updates etc.

Best of all it’s free to home users.

It has a small system footprint and I can see no sensible reason why you wouldn’t run it or similar software – Secunia even has an online version (OSI not surprisingly) now but this is limited in the extent of its coverage – see here for a comparison chart. Naturally the online one doesn’t cover as much ground as PSI but is good for a quick check without installing anything.

That said – I’ve run PSI for years now and whilst there are other products I have yet to see  one match PSI’s simplicity and ease of use. It even comes with a basic or advance usage for the nerds amongst us.

PC Patch Management is a post from: Church Techy

One of the most annoying aspects of Windows 7 (I find) is that lots of software doesn’t autostart or autorun properly. Let me explain with an example … do you use Piriform’s excellent ccleaner?

Do you use it the same way as I do – by right-clicking on my recycle bin?

If so, are you fed up with Windows 7 asking you for permission to run it?

This is the UAC in action.

Then the answer is that you need to run the item as an administrator and Windows 7 gives us have five options to do that – though not all would necessarily work for all situations and some will still ask you to confirm you are the admin or want to run as admin.

1. By using a keyboard shortcut - however this won’t work for software like ccleaner where you don’t have a shortcut you can run (though you can create one) – press and hold Ctrl + Shift while opening the program.

2. You can right-click the program and select the “run as administrator” from the context menu.

3. Use compatibility mode which you can set to always allow a specific app to run as admin. I find the easiest way to do this is to find the program executable and right-click it, select properties, find the ‘compatability mode’ tab and tick the  box that says ‘run as administrator’.

4. Configure the programs advanced properties. To do this right-click the program (or icon), find the shortcut tab and click on advanced and as with item 3 click on the ‘run as administrator’ box.

5. Finally we can create a shortcut with elevated ‘run as administrator’ status and combine this with task scheduler to run any app in an elevated mode without the UAC popping up. But we’ll leave that one for another time or even another site.

OK – so let’s bring this full circle.

For my purposes I wanted to run ccleaner without UAC popping up – ever. The options that allow me to do this are 3 and 4 above. Option 5 will allow me to set a scheduled task to run in admin mode whilst options 1 and 2 will do this on an ad-hoc basis.

However, options 3 and 4 allow me to set an app to run for any user whatever their level of access.

Windows 7 Tips #5 is a post from: Church Techy

Andrew over @Webstudio13 has written a blog post that, in his own words says:

There is something called “Twitter Etiquette.” There are a number of articles that have outlined what not to do with Twitter, and I have read most of them. Consider this post as a summary of all those pointers.

Some of the points are downright obvious “don’t ignore others” – “don’t defame others” – well at least I think they are; whilst others I just totally disagree with “don’t neglect trending topics”. However the one thing that really got my goat about the article was its presentation of points as accepted facts without any explanation.

Take:

#10. Do not tweet way too less (People forget your existence) and
#42. Do not be reluctant to unfollow people who don’t tweet often

Why?

If your purpose in using Twitter is to learn stuff or follow links to blog posts, etc and not to actually promote yourself or your brand / business then what is wrong with only tweeting once in a blue moon? To my mind this makes the tweets all the more interesting – so long as they are.

#11. Do not only follow celebrities (They are boring)

Why not?

If this is your idea of relaxing then why not? Personally I don’t think I follow any huge names but the few ‘celebs’ (and I use that word guardedly) I do follow all, so far, have something worthwhile to say.

#17. Do not auto follow back everybody and
#18. Do not follow everybody you meet (Be selective)

Why on earth not?

What harm can really come in auto-following someone? Clicking on random links from DM’s is another story though. Or why shouldn’t you follow everyone you meet (not quite sure what is meant by ‘meet’ here)?

It’s your twitter account so do what you want with it.

OK, if you want to build a brand or a business or a huge following then that’s one thing, but if, as I suspect, like most of us on twitter we are just ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s then I don’t get these.

Let’s have a look at some more:

#30. Do not neglect trending topics

Tell me why?

More subjectively, let’s do this by looking at the trending topics right now:

#nowplayingPeople are tweeting their media choice of the moment.
#OhJustLikeMePeople are tweeting things that they’ve discovered they have in common.
#MJis
Liverpool
#imthekindofperson
#idoit2People are retweeting things they have in common.
Justin BieberThe young Canadian R&B/pop singer has a lot of fans who like to tweet about him! His second album, My World 2.0, comes out March 23.
My World 2@justinbieber’s new album comes out March 23 and his fans are excited.
#hcrHealth Care Reform. People are tweeting news about this issue in the U.S.
I’m okay

Not one of those things is even remotely making me want to click on them.

And when Michael Jackson died I didn’t need trending topics to tell me – I’ve got lots of celeb obsessed folks around me that couldn’t wait to let me know. That and even with only a few followers you’re still bound to hear stuff like this.

#34. Do not forget to archive your tweets (Back up! I use twapperkeeper)

Another why?

I can guess some reasons but I’m here to learn from you so tell me why you think I should back up my tweets – don’t command me and expect me to do it blindly -though I know some will.

#43. Do not forget to integrate your tweets with other social media platforms, such as Friendfeeds, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Surely this is only relevant if you’re attempting to build a brand or promote one? Personally I see and use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as three separate entities. I have some crossovers but on the whole different uses for different sites.

It also makes me less ’samey’ and a more rounded individual because I’m not following the same folks across three platforms – what’s the point in that?

#48. Do not forget to install a mobile app to help you tweet while away from your computer
#50. Do not leave your iPhone charger at home when you are going out (It has happened to me three time when I tried to use TweetDeck with an exhausted iPhone battery.)

My answer to these two – get a life and stop worrying about the online aspect of it.

It will still be there when you do get battery power.

Dis-connect for a while.

Talk to those near you that you love or love you.

Sadly this brings to mind a tweet I’ve seen only this morning:

I love “couch time” with my beautiful wife on Sunday mornings! We’re talking about our up-coming anniversary!

No names, no pack drill and I’m not picking on them but the point is why are you tweeting this? If you love that person enough to talk with them then put down the phone / laptop / whatever.

What annoys you about articles like this and am I as guilty as some of the points I’ve raised?

Sunday Rant. Why or Why Not? is a post from: Church Techy

This looks awesome and I want one.

However it isn’t available until Q4 2010 according to the makers (22moo) website and although I’m not a huge gamer I can see where and how this could be of benefit even to me.

Some of its features are (will be):

• Styling to compliment iPod/iPhone with optimized design for ergonomics and comfort
• 2000mAh Lithium-ion Battery for additional power for your iPod touch / iPhone
• LED showing charging state and capacity
• 8-way D-Pad with 6 buttons
• Built-in Stereo speakers
• Highly sensitive omni directional Mic
• 3.5mm audio headphone jack

No idea on price yet but I guess it’ll be in the £15 to £35 range and I’ve submitted my name for a review of one – will see what happens there.

Game Bone is a post from: Church Techy

If you work with networks in any serious way then you will almost certainly have come across WireShark by now  (or Ethereal as it was formerly known).

Anyway, Laura Chappell who writes a well known blog “Inside Laura’s Lab” has now come out with a book to help us network techy types make the most of WireShark.

In her words:

Laura Chappell’s Wireshark Network Analysis book is filled with tips, tricks and techniques for new and experienced analysts, this will be a must-have book.

Get your book from the usual places or direct from WireSharkU or ChappellU and use this code: 998nws35 to get a 35% discount. The discount is valid until March 29th 2010 and only works on the two listed sites.

WireShark Book Discount is a post from: Church Techy

I recall a day, not too long ago, that there used to be a fair number of “rescue” tools out and about on the market.

My preferred go to tool of the day was FProt.

These days I didn’t know of one until AVG (yes, them of the free Anti Virus) released their latest product – the AVG Rescue CD.

But what does a ‘rescue CD’ do? In simple terms it is a stand alone, self-booting CD (or USB stick) that contains Anti Virus, Anti Malware and more besides. AVG have gone a step further though and added a few extra tools into it to make a truly versatile product.

In their words:

The AVG Rescue CD is essentially a portable version of AVG Anti-Virus supplied through Linux distribution. It can be used in the form of a bootable CD or bootable USB flash drive to recover your computer when the system cannot be loaded normally, such as after an extensive or deep-rooted virus infection. In short, the AVG Rescue CD enables you to fully remove infections from an otherwise inoperable PC and render the system bootable again.

Apart from the usual AVG functions (malware detection and removal, updates from internet or external device, etc.), the AVG Rescue CD also contains the following set of administration tools:

• Midnight Commander – a two-panel file manager
• Windows Registry Editor– simple registry editor for more experienced users
• TestDisk – powerful hard drive recovery tool
• Ping – to test the availability of network resources (servers, domains, IP addresses)
• Common Linux programs and services– vi text editor, OpenSSH daemon, ntfsprogs etc

I’ll certainly be adding it to my repertoire of tools to take when I visit friends and relations that have infected machines.

What tools do you use?

AVG Rescue CD is a post from: Church Techy

Not sure how long this has been around, but Nmap (the free and open source utility for network exploration or security auditing) has now gained a graphical frontend.

Zenmap may not look like much, but it does make life easier for those afraid of the command line. It allows for interactive creation of Nmap command lines and saving of scans historically for comparison, etc. The main benefit here is that zenmap now makes Nmap more accessible by both beginners and advanced users alike.

Nmap Goes Graphic is a post from: Church Techy

I like to do this occasionally and give out some stats that aren’t usually seen by others. Today’s episode is browser usage for accessing this site.

It’s not surprising that as this blog is mostly aimed at technical issues that the top 3 or even 5 browsers are those that are newer ones on the market or recognised as being used by those that are:

• clued up about security or
• nerdy or
• recognise some shortcomings in IE or
• some other reason

Whatever the reason(s) for using the browsers the above chart breaks down this way (%ages rounded up/down):

• Firefox – 40%
• IE8 – 28%
• Chrome – 13%
• Safari 4 – 9%
• iPhone – 5%
• IE6 – 2%
• IE7 – 2%
• Opera 9 – 1%

The only other thing that surprises me is that there aren’t any other browsers used – that or the analytics doesn’t recognise them as separate entities and lumps them under another category. For example, is the iPhone the only mobile browser to have accessed this site? On the face of the figures UI have to say yes but experience says it’s more likely to be a mix.

Browser Stats is a post from: Church Techy

The church I attend has two websites.

One a full blown ecommerce site which has been up and running for the past year or more to support the christian book import business we run and the second which is nearing completion, is for the church itself.

Last night I had the pleasure to introduce the backend of the new site (it’s Wordpress) to two of our church members who will be doing the updates, postings, etc for the site. It was a humbling experience as one easily forgets just how much one knows, or how much what I do day to day is a core part of me until two keen but relatively unskilled IT peeps sit down for some training.

I personally don’t see Wordpress as being a tough product to utilise and had even restricted the users via the capabilities plugin so that they only see the bits they need to see. Still, the proverbial “rabbit in headlights” springs to mind!

However the really interesting aspect of the evening was when one of them questioned why the site looks so plain. I didn’t try to defend that view (as I agree) but simply said that this is what the pastor wanted. Then a little later the reality behind that comment came out. This lady said ‘when I was project manager for my company’s website we just told the developers to do this or that and that was it” … she then mentioned that they’d paid £30,000 for their site.

Ding! Well that’s what you can do with 30K, here’s what you get for £200.

But as another reality check I then went to one of the big US church websites (no names, no pack drill) and said we could do this type of thing if we had the money (and other factors but won’t go into that) but then I clicked through to the internals of the site and the other lady there spotted it straight away – how similar that is to ours!

Ultimately, there are only so many ways you can present data and throwing money at a project isn’t always the best stewardship of our resources. Nuff said.

Reality Check is a post from: Church Techy

In the days of old when the O/S of choice for most day to day stuff was XP the only real challenge (for me at least) was twofold.  How to reduce the initial install size and how to automate as much of the mundane tasks as possible.

Then nlite appeared on the market and this allowed for taking an original XP install CD and integrating service packs, security patches, tweaks, etc and effectively automated the process of (re)installing XP. And as most know, this was a semi-regular event in the owner of a windows based PC.

Whilst nlite went on to release vlite for Vista this tool doesn’t work flawlessly with Windows 7 and there are only vague rumours of a proper Win7, it still leaves a gap in the market. That gap has now been, ably so it would appear, taken up by RTSe7enLite.

In their words:

You can add wallpapers, Icons, themes, integrate updates, drivers, remove components, unattended installation settings, tweaks, bootable ISO creator, etc.

I can see a usage – maybe you can too?

Windows 7 nLite? is a post from: Church Techy

Greg Davis asked the question on his blog: “do you have friend standards”? Specifically he was talking about the criteria we use to select our friends on twitter.

I posted a comment that said I don’t have any real hard and fast rules but I decided I ought to clarify what my thinking is (and if it helps you, then great) and the few I have are these:

I’m likely to follow you if you tweet:

• about God or your faith (and not just my God/faith)
• about my job – IT, security, networks..
• my hobbies & passions – gadgets, rugby, cricket, IT, media, church tech..
• other stuff that interests me – self help, study habits..

I’ll also likely follow you if you appear to be someone that will interact with their followers and not sit aloof and only tweet, never reply and never thank when assisted.

On the other hand, I’ll probably not follow you or unfollow you if you tweet:

• about the same one thing all the time, e.g get 1000’s of followers here type
• >10 tweets at a time (why?)
• spam
• porn

And that’s about it.

I’m happy to have folks I follow that aren’t the ultra clean we christians would like or sometimes expect fellow brothers or sisters should follow. Why? Simply because we are called to be ‘in the world’ so I can’t do that if I don’t allow those who oppose my views. Secondly we are called to be ‘not of the world’ and I do that by not bitching, by not gossiping, by not using language I shouldn’t, by … well you get the picture.

What about you?

Do you have twitter friend standards?

Twitter Criteria is a post from: Church Techy

I enjoy using twitter, I really do. More than this I love interacting with folks and hopefully getting to know them a little more. I’ve even managed to make a few friends that I would be happy to call upon directly or them me, if needs be but …

… I confess, I really don’t understand what (if indeed anything) I am doing wrong in my usage of twitter.

I took stock of a recent day’s usage and my twitter day consisted of a few RT’s; a few posts of my own thoughts and close on two dozen (I didn’t count that close so it could be more) responses I made to individuals that were of a helpful nature or in a manner to induce a reply or start a conversation.

Now, I accept folks are busy or have a reason to not reply or even don’t see the @’s but then what are they doing on twitter? Anyway, can you guess how many replied, continued the conversation, thanked or even just acknowledged me?

Well, no, it wasn’t quite zero but one!

One person took the effort to respond.

One person took the time to utilise <140 chars to converse with me.

The most stunning aspect (at least to me) is that the one person that did reply is a well known sportsman (in rugby union) and is a man amongst men. He’s a world famous name and probably revered as a god in his own country (New Zealand) – which not unlike mine is fanatical about their rugby. And what’s more, he took time to chat not just reply once.

I’m honoured – but I am thoroughly baffled and confused as to why nobody else could be bothered.

Am I getting it that wrong?

Am I a twitter fail and should just terminate my account?

Any clues folks?

Twitter Fail is a post from: Church Techy

How seriously do you take your role as a tech volunteer (whether paid or not) within your Church?

Is it just something you do because you can?

Or is it because you feel called to the role or even because you were asked (probably by the pastor) to do it.

Or do you do it because you feel “called” to the role and this is your vision?

The reality is that it shouldn’t matter which caused you to be where you are – however I have found that with the few christian techs that I know in person it does make a difference.

The difference tends to come out in one of a few ways that I’ve spotted with the biggest being in our attitude towards security.

By it’s very nature the job we do day to day as techs tends to be one of secrecy with the security of the data we watch over either through backups; website maintenance; network maintenance; etc. Security should be the very watchword of our existence.

Because of this professional day to day nature I’ve seen the complete opposite attitude when out of our work role. We get careless or slipshod or believe that it doesn’t matter when dealing with our church role. Unfortunately I’ve even seen professionals be like this on a day to day basis. I work under tough security conditions daily – to just tell you what clearance I might have would be against the conditions of that security and so I do understand that a relaxation of our attitude can sometimes (inadvertently) go a step too fat the other way.

The point I’m coming too though, is that you are probably like me. When you leave work you want to forget about it, you want to kick back and chill and not worry about day to day restrictions. Does this chilling and kicking back then transfer into the work you do for the church?

I know I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past and have let things slide either in myself or in what I let the users I serve get away with.

But quite a few years ago I made a decision that even if it costs me personally I am going to stand up and be counted.

What about you?

Are you being counted?

is a post from: Church Techy

How seriously do you take your role as a tech volunteer (whether paid or not) within your Church?

Is it just something you do because you can?

Or is it because you feel called to the role or even because you were asked (probably by the pastor) to do it.

Or do you do it because you feel “called” to the role and this is your vision?

The reality is that it shouldn’t matter which caused you to be where you are – however I have found that with the few christian techs that I know in person it does make a difference.

The difference tends to come out in one of a few ways that I’ve spotted with the biggest being in our attitude towards security.

By it’s very nature the job we do day to day as techs tends to be one of secrecy with the security of the data we watch over either through backups; website maintenance; network maintenance; etc. Security should be the very watchword of our existence.

Because of this professional day to day nature I’ve seen the complete opposite attitude when out of our work role. We get careless or slipshod or believe that it doesn’t matter when dealing with our church role. Unfortunately I’ve even seen professionals be like this on a day to day basis. I work under tough security conditions daily – to just tell you what clearance I might have would be against the conditions of that security and so I do understand that a relaxation of our attitude can sometimes (inadvertently) go a step too fat the other way.

The point I’m coming too though, is that you are probably like me. When you leave work you want to forget about it, you want to kick back and chill and not worry about day to day restrictions. Does this chilling and kicking back then transfer into the work you do for the church?

I know I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past and have let things slide either in myself or in what I let the users I serve get away with.

But quite a few years ago I made a decision that even if it costs me personally I am going to stand up and be counted.

What about you?

Are you up for being counted?

Service or Security is a post from: Church Techy

I see many posts out there that are lists of the “top this” or “top that” and all of them purport to be the top list for that category.

The question I always ask myself is what makes this list the top and by what criteria has the list been achieved. For example, Kent’s list of the Top 100 Church Blogs is one such listing. At the bottom he does attempt to explain the criteria for the listings but phrases like “200 well-known blogs are selected” leave me wondering by who’s measurement or criteria.

This is not to bash Kent’s post, but of those top 130 (there’s a bonus 30 there) I read maybe 5 of them. Not that I think my opinion matters in this… but what I really dislike about the whole idea of lists is the very subjective nature of them.

So, with that firmly in mind here is my listing (no top anything) of Church Tech Blogs that I read and find have value to me.

Hopefully one or more will for you too:

1. ChurchTechMatters.com – CTM has gone from being a one man show by Jim Walton to a place that has a group of christian tech bloggers aged from 15 upwards. CTM’s breadth and depth of content has taken the site to a new dimension and whilst articles aren’t regular, they are all of top quality (NB In the interests of full disclosure I am one of those writers).
2. 8Bit Network – like CTM, 8bit is a group of church tech bloggers but unlike CTM they update frequently and are targeted across 5 specific areas from Web to IT to Media. The inspiration behind 8Bit is John Saddington (aka human3rror) and if you can cope with high traffic, high volume sites then these are a must add.
3. Tech, No Babel – in their own words, “TNB is your weekly source for church video, graphics, and tech news, perspectives tips and tricks“. Paul has an interesting blog and like myself will post on any subject close to his heart at the time; be it personal or a tech tip. He used to do a weekly podcast but hasn’t done so for a number of years now – though the archives are still available.
4. ChurchIT Help is run by Barry Buchannan and was one of the first christian tech blogs I ever read. Since then Barry and I have struck up an online friendship. Like most personal blogs his topics are widespread but alas he hasn’t been active for some time on the tech blog. These days he puts his time into his daily tech toon but does occasionally post an article.
5. ChurchTechToday is written by Lauren Hunter and is a must read for myself. Lauren writes on her desire to “help churches do ministry better through internet-related technological advancements, whether it’s through using church management software, online newsletters, or cutting-edge social communities to spread the Gospel“.
6. Jason Powell – Jason’s site is written from the perspective of a full time Church IT Director. Being a self titled blog it can cover every aspect under the sun but mostly good tech stuff and other bits that relate to the CITRT.
7. The Beta Version – Greg is, like me, an IT professional and whilst this blog isn’t purely about tech, it is very much about the Church, his role within in it and how he works that out.

There you have it, just some of the many I read.

Enjoy.

Do you have any you care to recommend I add to my regular reading list?

7 Church Tech Blogs is a post from: Church Techy

I love free and I like ScriptLogics stuff – however most of their stuff is not free so I tend not to visit too often.

Today though I’ve taken some time to see what their latest products are and guess what, they’ve released it as free. The latest (?) tool in their armoury is “Privilege Authority” which is sub-headed as ‘Users Need Rights Too‘ and I agree.

Privilege Authority is designed let the Windows network admin establish what aspects of Windows “users can manage without making them local admins. By defining elevation rules within Privilege Authority, user privileges are automatically elevated for specific actions that currently require administrator access”.

Sounds good to me and I can think of at least two uses for it already.

Privilege Authority is a post from: Church Techy

I’m not usually a person who falls easily into scams or attempts by others to obtain more money for a product than it is realistically worth.

But this one got me.

If I asked you what NOH means, would you know?

What if I said it was on a website that sells products?

Still no idea?

Well that’s ok, because you won’t be alone. I asked my contacts and friends via facebook and twitter and whilst I had some excellent guesses and some fun ones, not one of them was right or even close to being right.

First, a bit of history. I was probably the first keeper (read maintainer) of text speak acronyms (as they’ve become known) on “teh internets”. It was an ascii document full of smilies in all varieties, TLA’s such as IANAL, and it even had some ascii art in it. You’ll see the linked doc has my old, now defunct, email address and is from Feb 8th 1994 but I’d been maintaining it for a couple of years by that stage.

I tell you this to let you know that I do acronyms. I get them. I understand them and I’ve seen most of them already. If I don’t know them, then google is but a click or two away. But NOH had me thoroughly foxed.

When I saw it in the context it was in it was laid out this way:

Product Name Model NOH Get FREE blah - where ‘Model’ was a combination of letters and numbers.

Later on the same page it repeats the black boldened text but this time it is non-bold and nothing else on the line.

So would you then expect, as I did, that the NOH was simply an extension of the model?

Maybe you wouldn’t, but I haven’t found anyone yet that understands what it meant out of context or even in.

But I do know now.

After I purchased said product.

It means “Newly OverHauled” as in refurbished or second hand.

Last time that one gets me and I hope this goes some way to helping others.

Icon courtesy of icons.mysitemyway.com

The Mystery of NOH is a post from: Church Techy