tedd’s blog

We started last Friday (April 25th) at 6:00 pm changing the email accounts to match what the other company wants. There were problems from the start; with all the end user computers. For the most part we had to physically do the changes at their computer, all the computers…

Right now and all day I have been having issues with my computer; it is really irritating me. It is trying to update my MS Office 2007 with SP 1 and right now I do not have the time. I am going to do it tonight. I don’t want to lose this, so I am going to post this…Have a Great Week!!!

Put in a new flat monitor for one of the office worker’s, she had one of the old heavy and big ones - CRT. Helped out with MySQL with one of the guys to print out a report, but was not working quite right. Moved boxes around and customer support.

Cleaned up a UPS (APC backup system) mess with baking soda. The batteries had boiled over somewhat and expanded…it was a mess. I let everything dry over night, because some of the wires got wet. The next day I installed new batteries into the APC backups and put it all back together.

I volunteered to come in on Friday…we moved desks around and set up computers back up. Made a couple of custom length telephone lines. Removed/replaced a hard drive in a laptop and started later in the day installing the necessary programs that need to be installed. The email change over is starting at 6:00 pm tonight, wonder what next week will be like???

I spent most of the day working on a digital phone ($500+) cleaning the coffee (caramel flavor) out of it. I had to take it completely apart and clean EVERY little part – all the buttons and tons more, lots of sugar. When I got done it worked and we put it back in service…

Also moved several computers out of a room, so the contractor’s can remodel the room; carpet, painting, and etc. And other manual labor stuff; moving boxes around… Have a Great Week!

This week I assist and learned about the switchboard. I thought the switchboard was pretty new, but I was mistaken… We had someone come in and work on it – to switch over to the new addressing scheme. There was 3 different areas that needed to be changed and they had success on 2. They have been researching (with the manufacturer and manuals of the switchboard), without success.

The reason is the switchboard is old, at least in the world of technology. Cannot find anybody that has worked on and/or know this equipment yet? It is over 12 years old…

This week was slow; they do not want me to repair any more laptops... I am really working on my Portfolio stuff. I really only have my IT Budget sheet to do, but I have a long way - only from the start. So until next week have a great one and be happy; SMILE!!!

Not too much to talk about this week: I did fix another completely dead laptop and fill out an application for a job. Put in phone (analog) in another room. And as always helped out on issues with the end users.  We were having issues with the program they use…this happen when the program did a major update early this week.

The computer I was working on last week; it was the hard drive, crashed.

Windows XP is here for a good while; I believe it will still be here in 5+ years, probably 10 years.

• People like this operating system.

•   It’s stable and runs great
•   It’s a lot cheaper
•   and tons more…

I know one of these days (within the year) I will change, but I will also have XP (dual boot) for at least another 5+ years.

1        http://vista.blorge.com/2007/10/08/4-signs-windows-xp-is-here-to-stay-longer-despite-vista-existence/

2         http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

The Browser is what I think will at sometime replace the Operating System as we know it today. Everything will be at your finger tips within the browser. I want to do will be on the internet.

• Easier
• Convenience
• Access your information and favorites; anywhere in the world

I found lots of information on this, but most of its a few years old, which tells me they started to do this and they ran into a brick wall or??? One big negative thing is

• Security and lost data, lack of guarantee

1          https://www.youos.com/

2          http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=329

3          http://www.oreilly.com/pub/wlg/4124

Communication skills (team player) over Certifications – I know years ago this was the other way, but I see this more and more every day.  Example: my interview yesterday, they NEVER asked about any certifications I held. Most of the questions (I think all of them) were about my soft skills. The only thing they were interested in was; when am I getting my degree.

After doing my research on this I have come to the conclusion that the only choice between getting a degree or certificate for this career is a degree. There should not even be a certificate offered, without the core classes almost seems useless to get a certificate in Information Technology Specialist.

1                    http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=1696&country=United+States

2                    http://www.nccei.org/newsletter/comskills.html

3                    http://www.iaap-hq.org/ResearchTrends/admins_by_the_numbers.htm

4                    http://www.dbcc.edu/html/departments/careerdevelopment/softskills.html

First thing when I got there (and I get there early); replaced a switch. We took the old switch, which was not very old and troubleshot it some more. Boxed up and sent it back to the company.  Last week we were trying to find a printer (one of those machines that does everything, including able to fax). We found a machine; it will do everything, but it is missing the fax adapter. I spent my free time I searched on the internet, without success…I did find a part # and the part is called a “Fax Kit”.

This week I worked on 2 laptops. One of them was a turn in. I just cleaned it up; I deleted everything that was not suppose to be on it and updated everything. Now for the other one??? We are all puzzled over this one??? I tried several different programs, without success. I saw only 2 directories and a few pages of files, that’s it and we believe the fault may have started with a jumpdrive (a new type - AES Encrypted) issue. This computer crashed and it will not even come up in safe mode or any of the other modes. I changed the BIOS to all the default settings, No Luck. The hard drive might also be wasted…

It is now a few days after changing to the different addressing scheme; we are having some issues with laptops dropping off, printers not being recognized, and other misc hardware issues. It really is just buggy and spotty with the problems of changing the addressing scheme and recognizing DNS.

I went in on Friday night and we got done around midnight. We changed the addressing scheme to match the merge and again we had to physically do this with each computer. Everything went pretty good except we had some problems with the printers. Most of them, we had to cycle (turning them off and on) twice before they would recognize the new address. And now we will see happens???