Friday

Before I made it into the foyer of our new building, I was met at the door.  Today would be busy.  First, a question about setting up email on a smartphone immediately followed by a request to help get things going in the computer lab.

Once the Macs were turned on, logged in, and running, I went to my office to start the day.  Frankly, I don't remember the order of things.  This is a basic rundown of my day...

I got a printout from our bookkeeper for the 2010-2011 E-rate year regarding our wireless bills.  I spent a long time culling through the printout in order to determine which phone payments were ineligible (Pre-K is not eligible for E-rate in Arkansas), which part of the remaining bills were ineligible (the staff pays a portion of the phone bill for their phones), and which part of the bill was ineligible due to equipment purchases (the cost of the phones is not eligible).  Once all THAT was done, I jumped on USAC and started my BEAR form (probably one of the most aptly-named forms ever).  Actually, it wasn't bad.  Really.

I talked on the phone for an hour with a district regarding several issues they have, and we made a list for me to look at once I can get on-site: Auto-flat-forwarding in Groupwise, Google Apps, server specs, iPhone configuration utility, and a hose of thngs that I wrote down but can't remember just now for inclusion in this post.

I emailed our KEY guy about additional keys that need to be made for our building.  He is out of pocket until after the holiday.

I took a message from a Verizon E-Rate rep about our 2009-2010 Alltel/Verizon reimbursements (or lack thereof) and HIS people were out until after the holiday.

Did I mention I had jury duty earlier this week?  Well, I have to call on Monday to see if I have it again NEXT week.

I checked the timer on the parking lot lights.  The timer is messed up and we've talked to an electrician and our architect about it.  Seems to me this would be an easy fix.  But, then I'm just the tech guy, right?

I installed Vineland-II on a laptop that was then used in a workshop on Friday.  During the day, I checked in on the workshop to make sure things were going well. At one point, I realized that some additional software needed to be installed on the instructor's machine.  In a lab of computers, the one at the front, away from the other machines, tends to get overlooked when rolling out a software install.  that's what had happened here. Easy fix!

I served as mediator between a school and ADE regarding Cognos printing.  Well, I did that until I put the two people in direct contact with each other. I don't mind serving as go-between on issues, but there comes a point where having the parties talk directly to each other makes more sense.

I still have to install the new server at the office.  I have to figure out when *that* is going to happen. UGH.

I also had planned to help a school set up a new server, but with jury duty killing the day we had set up this past week, it looks like they are going to turn in a ticket to DIS.  This is one of those times when I wished I had been able to help.  At the same time, I hope it shows that we state techs have so much going on that it takes SEVERAL agencies just to keep the schools up and running technologically.  While on paper it may seem as though there is "duplication of services," the simple fact is this: There is no duplication, rather there is a multi-facted system of support.  In short, it takes a village to help our schools, and each member of that village brings different skills, perspective, and resources to the table.

We finally received a credit on our local/long distance bill from AT&T for E-rate in 2010-2011 up to this point.

I met with the Director, Assistant Director and several content specialists regarding some of the summer inservices coming up.

I posted new target testing information (guidelines and other documents) to the target testing web site and edited various web pages to make the new info easier to find.

I used a trick I found online to reset the battery on one of the Flip UltraHD cameras we have. It would not charge the battery.  Here is the fix that worked: Remove the battery pack, plug the camera into the computer, once seen as a device put the battery back in (yes, while plugged into the computer), eject the device from the computer, plug the camera back in, watch the battery start to charge!

I posted several modules related to Common Core on the TIE web site for use in summer professional developments.

I helped several people obtain their SPIN so they could sign up for/log in to the IDEAS portal.

Talked with a Verizon rep regarding several phones having network-connectivity issues (read, phones showed NO service).  The fix? Remove the battery and reboot - twice.  Man, I have come to HATE these Samsung Fascinate phones.  They are junk compared to the Motorola Droids we had prior to changing over.  I am more patient about phones than anyone else on staff, and even I am at my wits end. For the record, I have contacted our account rep and am sending a list of phones and issues to her after the holiday.

I have been working on an E-Rate PIA request regarding Pre-K facilities in my service area.  We do not count Pre-K students in the overall student counts sent to USAC, but a simple statement to that effect has no weight evidently.  So, I get a list of Elementary schools and have to say whether the Pre-K program is inside the building, has its own building or both/neither.  I have no idea what difference it makes.  But, I play along as best I can.  All this for plain old telephone service, long distance, and cell phones.  Really?  You'd think after all these years, basic Priority One requests would just "happen."  Nope.  Welcome to hoop-jumping 101.

Throughout the day, I answered emails, telephone calls... Oh wait, I forgot about this:

A school called to say they had received a letter from a nearby university's legal council regarding "hacking" of their library web site.  In the letter, the school was accused of having three different IP addresses attempting to access the online library system.  TWO of those addresses didn't even belong to the school  The 3rd one was the router from the school, which means a computer on that campus was trying to.  The campus? An elementary school. So, who would try this?  ow about a former university student trying to get into the library through his/her previous account? Yeap.  Now, the main issue I have is the fact that this became the school's problem. Maybe it's just me, but if someone is trying to "hack" the univ's system, that is the univ's issue, NOT the schools.  Besides, had the univ actually, um, CALLED the school to talk about it first, the whole thing would have been cleared up in two seconds.  Let's just say the district's legal council will most likely be sending a response.

At the end of the day, I updated some of the software in the computer and shut the machines down for the weekend.