Tuesday

NOTE: This was actually created on Tuesday, January 4, 2011.  I don't know why it never posted.  Gotta love technology...

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Wow, you would think by now that I'd have some cool, creative naming scheme for my daily entries.  No such luck, my friends!

Tuesday started off with setting up the CIV room for a small conference between our co-op and a handful of others.  That was followed by a weird phone situation in which I had managed to connect the wrong extension for one of our offices.  That was readily fixed, though.  I love our new phone system layout: go into the tech closet, move a jumper from one extension to another and voila!

We've got a big Common Core preso here on Friday, so I set up with triple-wide room so that the computer image would be displayed on three projectors at the same time.  The units we have feature a "piggy back" option and I think it may be time to look into making that a permanent feature.  As it is right now, I come out of the presenter's station into a 4-way splitter.  The signal is then split between the three rooms by cables running across the floor.  It looks ugly.  I am generally more of a "function over form" kinda guy, but this setup is starting to make me cringe a little.  I'm adding the changeover to my 'to-do' list!

The Director asked me to help with some half-fold note cards, so she and I worked together to get the right feel and fit.  That was pretty easy to do in Publisher.  I'm not a pro at Publisher by any means, but simple things are fun to generate when the program makes it easy to handle.

Evidently, there are going to be after-work aerobics classes on the third floor.  This means that I needed to install a DVD/VCR attached to the big screen TV we brought from the old building.  Easy peasy.

I fielded several 'helpdesk' phone calls from a couple of the area schools.  Once of these regarded login issues with the Ideas portal.  I offered to call the AETN helpdesk to get the logins fixed, but the administrator said she wanted to see how far she got, but that she would employ my assistance if she hit any snags. 

Another phone issue came up regarding several machines showing a BSOD.  The only way to power down was to unplug the machine from the wall.  After a bit of conversation, we determined that several folks had left their computers on during the two-week holiday and that power surges during that break mostly likely contributed to the BSOD.  (A snarky aside: perhaps someone was lighting fireworks too close to the school, thus sending the computers into a tizzy... /re: thousands of birds falling from Arkansas skies/)

I helped that same tech with a wireless issue - namely, we downloaded the Linksys WAP54G setup spftware so that she could find wireless devices on her network and manage those from her office without needing to physically visit each one.  It's nice in theory.  The problem is that the software doesn't give enough time for the units to respond during the initial launch.  The software then only sees a handful of units at a time.  It is a bit frustrating.

After the PIA review with USAC for E-rate, I received a letter extending our refund request deadline.  I now have to submit a BEAR form in order to get my discounted funding from our phone bills.  I've never done BEAR before (we usually just get the discounts and do not fuss with reimbursements), so that is adventure unfolding before me.