TestyTim.com

TestyTim.com

Articles by Timothy R. Butler

Timothy R. Butler is Editor-in-Chief of Open for Business. He also serves as a pastor at Little Hills Church and FaithTree Christian Fellowship.

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The Year When the Cheapest Mac was the Best

Apple's M1 Ushered in High End Performance for Average Users

By Timothy R. Butler | Oct 20, 2021 at 1:15 PM

Since its introduction, no one has ever mistaken the Macintosh as the cheap option for computers. Nor would anyone who watched Apple’s launch of its insanely fast M1 Pro and Max chips on Monday argue that the new MacBook Pros are cheap. However, when the dust settles, the previous reigning top Apple Chip — the M1 — will still be the one that created a year when the cheapest Mac was the best Mac and one of the best computers, period.

Continuing on the Journey of the Business of Life

It's Our Twentieth Anniversary of Exploring Ideas, Culture and Technology

By Timothy R. Butler | Oct 05, 2021 at 11:59 PM

Times certainly do change, whether time feels like it is going quickly or slowly. Twenty years ago today, Open for Business went live. It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago. It’s been an interesting and wonderful journey.

Epomaker GK68XS

Minimalism, Sturdiness Make for an Intriguing Keyboard

By Timothy R. Butler | Oct 02, 2021 at 4:42 PM

I shared last week the start of my quest for the perfect keyboard, stopping by the well designed, aesthetically pleasing Keychron’s K2. While less visible than Keychron, Epomaker has emerged as another major purveyor of keyboards suitable for more than just gamers, including the GK68XS — an intriguing board that ticks off a lot of quality boxes.

Keychron K2

So Close, I Wish It Were Perfect

By Timothy R. Butler | Sep 25, 2021 at 12:23 PM

I’ve been on the quest for the perfect keyboard for a while. What I want is relatively simple, if hard to find: a mechanical keyboard that is oriented towards writing, not gaming. My match would be reasonably compact and friendly towards Macs, too. Keychron, as much as anyone, has arisen as one of the few companies interested in ticking those boxes.

The Way to Survive Frustrating Tech Failures (and What that Says About Masks)

By Timothy R. Butler | Sep 15, 2021 at 12:32 PM

I told my friend Dennis E. Powell that I’m starting to believe in Skynet. Over the last week, virtually everything that could go wrong with the technology I depend on for work has gone wrong, as if it has actively turned against me. Having spent a fair number of years wrangling information technology, one thing has always provided a path to survival in those times: redundancy. Redundancy masks problems in the best of ways, much like the physical masks that are such a lightning rod in our culture today.

Fellow Pastors, Weigh Principles Before Writing Vaccine Exemptions

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 24, 2021 at 6:11 PM

Pastors in my Evangelical circles have been increasingly faced with requests to provide “religious exemption” letters to those in our churches who do not wish to be vaccinated. With the FDA’s final approval of Pfizer’s vaccine, employer mandates will likely become ubiquitous and increase the requests for these letters. Should we give them?

Our Best Attempts Stumble

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 18, 2021 at 5:39 PM

Reeling from the horrors of 9/11 two decades ago, we entered Afghanistan to eliminate terrorist camps and also try to build a better nation for the people who had been caught under the Taliban’s control. Was it hubris or hope to think we could lastingly accomplish either goal? I’ll leave that discussion for another day, but this week has reminded us of how even our greatest powers stumble.

I Want Five Stars to Mean Five Stars

Something Has Gone Wrong with the Modern Customer Service Survey

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 04, 2021 at 6:39 PM

It was an innocent — even endearing — touch when I received a delivery today. The delivery person left a sticker on the bag thanking me for my patronage. The sticker depicted five stars, a not too subtle hint at his desire for a five star review. And he deserved it — the items came quickly and correctly and in perfect condition. But, it got me thinking about how weird our view of customer service surveys has become.

RavPower Mini External SSD Pro Hard Drive

It is Better than a Thumb Drive

By Timothy R. Butler | Jul 22, 2021 at 12:32 PM

When the pandemic hit last year, it threw me into a world where I was doing vastly more video editing than I did previously. Anyone who has spent time splicing and dicing video files knows those files can fill up storage devices really quickly and they are a pain to transfer between computers. Enter the new class of tiny, pocketable, external SSDs like the RavPower Mini External SSD Pro.

iCarmaint Portable Compressor

Sometimes I Have More than Just Hot Air on Hand

By Timothy R. Butler | Jun 30, 2021 at 11:46 AM

I nervously hit the buy button and wondered what in the world I was doing. I was ordering a portable air compressor and I was excited about it. I’ll confess I never thought I would get excited about an air compressor, but after a bad afternoon hoping from gas station to gas station only to find their air pumps broken and finally forking out $2 for not-enough-air-to-fill four tires, I wanted to try something different.

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