Hanging Out in Google

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of joining several folks in a Google Hangout as part of a presentation to a group at the Arch Ford Co-op.  While I was in Hope, we had folks connected from all over the country to talk about Google Apps and the various add-ins that make it fun to use, great for real-time collaboration and more.

Much of the day Wednesday, I worked on various projects and provided tech support via phone and email to several schools - some of which were not in our service area.

For example, I worked with a tech regarding E-Rate and web hosting in conjunction with scoring rubrics for their RFP. We came up with a few ideas, and ultimately reached out to other techs in the state for more information, sample rubrics, etc.

The key takeaway for Wednesday: No matter what business you are in, no matter what position you hold, it is vital that you (and by YOU, I mean ME as well) be willing to lend a hand, offer advice when asked, and know when to say, "I don't know, but let's work together to find out."

Troubleshooting and Workarounds

(image from colourbox.com)

Spent part of the day today working at one of our early childhood sites.  The teacher had two main issues to be addressed: the IEP program (SEAS) was acting erratically and she had a computer in another classroom that needed to be able to print to the multi-function imager in the main classroom.

I upgraded Adobe Reader, which is what the IEP software is based on. We had switched her to Firefox earlier because IE was having issues with SEAS (computerautomation.com). In my opinion, the folks at SEAS need to get away from using Acrobat forms online as their primary tool. It's an ugly mess.  In any case, I updated java as well, just for grins.  The issue with Firefox appears to be that the program wants to open the PDF but it also wants Reader to open the file. Either way, it's ugly.

So, I switched her back to IE until that breaks. Not pretty, but it works.

The other issue was supposed to be straight forward: install a printer that resides on the network.  Popped in the CD, ran the install, and came to a screeching halt.  The installer acted as if I didn't have permissions to install, but never quite came out to say that.  I checked the user permissions, and this user is a local admin on the machine.

Time to regroup.

I opened the CD and found the 'CLIENT' folder. Inside, I found the various flavors of printing languages.  I opted for PCL6 since that is what we usually run.  In that folder, I found my friend, SETUP.  I ran it without incident. After printing a test page, I confirmed that everything was working as planned.  Why I had to run the setup for the specific language, I have no idea.

I spent a pretty nice chunk of time on the phone with one of the area school techs. One of the services I provide is that of sounding board. I have to say, it is a great feeling to know that the people I work with in varying capacities trust my input and insight. I think it is partly due to my ability to think of ideas and possible solutions in ways most folks never dream. Some would say, "Thinking outside the box." I prefer to call it, "Thinking outside of the ballpark."  That is, sometimes, I approach problems from such a wild direction that the ideas actually make sense once they are brought to light.  Naturally, this is not foolproof. There have been plenty of times where the "idea from left field" flies very far foul.  I am very blessed that the folks I work with often see those mistakes as "learning opportunities" and/or discovering ways NOT to do something.