Polyhedral SysAdmin

Kid's Board Game Win

2010-04-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

For our youngest boy's 4th birthday, the six-year-old picked out a board game for his brother. He thought long and hard over which game would be most enjoyable, spending several minutes in each aisle of the store comparing toys and games. Then he saw a game that really piqued his interest: "Well," he said, "Simon does like monkeys, and he really likes other animals too." I flipped the box over, smiled, and described the contents to him:So... it's a board game placed in a zoo, where at certain points of the game the players put on animal masks and play hide-and-seek. That decided it, and Daniel could barely wait for the birthday party to show and explain the game to his little brother. The game really does play well, with mechanics simple enough for 6- and 4-year-olds to play together alone when they want. If you have any animal-loving kids, I would heartily recommend this game.

Tabbing with IntelliPoint mouse button

2009-11-05T09:27:00.001-08:00

So I'm a lazy bum, but I need to use the Tab key quite a bit. (And why on God's green Earth can't manufacturers make a keypad with both a backspace and tab key on it? I can't be the only one who does numeric data entry in Excel, can I?) I'm using a Microsoft Trackball Explorer (which I am very disappointed is off the market nowadays, because it fits my hand very well) and I decided to configure one of the buttons (specifically the "Top left button") to pass a Tab keystroke.

There's no IntelliPoint command on the list to pass a Tab, but there is one to pass a specific keystroke. Of course, that won't allow me to tell it to pass a Tab command. Grr...

Maybe this is already obvious to you, but it felt like an inspiration to me: I set up the button to queue a Macro, created a macro (named "Tab" of course), and inserted the special action "Tab" into the macro. Save, OK, and an Apply later, and the button on my trackball passes the Tab command perfectly.

Hooray! (And this felt far better than the only results I could track down via Google, all of which involved hacking the registry.)

Parenting: School Misinformation

2009-08-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, my oldest boy (now six) has started Kindergarten. Actually, I'm amazed at how many people have said "I wish my parents had kept me back a year." He is attending class at Harvest Valley Elementary, which actually seems a good-sized school in the Romoland School District. (Frankly, I'm amazed there are enough kids in the area to support one school, let alone the four in the district.)

Getting him registered for Kindergarten was more tricky than I'd expected; in retrospect it makes perfect sense, but at no time does the district or school reach out to you first. They are totally ignorant of the existence of your child prior to initial school registration... so much for "Big Brother is Watching" or having your kid "forced" to go to school, I guess.

I was dismayed though, with the little information I had once the registration process was complete. I had located the school website on my own, which is where I found the registration paperwork in the first place. At no other time have I heard the school website mentioned. After getting the registration paperwork filed, I was given two single sheet letters, one telling me about the (apparently new) Principal, and the other indicating that school started the following Tuesday, and that Kindergarten orientation was Wednesday night.

Okay, orientation, that sounds good... except that orientation did not include any information on which teacher my child would have, the room he would be in, any of the specifics I had expected. I was informed of the detailed list of critical information my child would have to demonstrate competency over by the end of the year, including a 41 word vocabulary list and lengthy lists of vaguely worded objectives. As much as I appreciate details on what will be expected academically, this part of the process felt unsatisfactory to me.

Well, on Friday a postcard arrived, indicating who my boys teacher and room would be, and reminding that class started on Tuesday at 8. That was, predictably, an emotional morning; first kid off to school for the first time. At that time, there was no chance to see much of anything in the school or classroom, and no time to speak with the instructor. It was much too hectic an environment for thinking, let alone talking. Apparently it was also too hectic an environment to mention when class let out, as that was not mentioned, nor was it listed in the packet of papers from the school. One message to the school office resulted in two calls back, one saying that class ended at 10:30, the other at noon. (Turns out the latter was correct.)

That morning I was given a large packet of paperwork, with many fields to sign and date. I did not expect that, as a parent of a Kindergarten child, I would have to indicate the terms under which a 3rd through 5th grader might be expelled for sexual harassment. (Take a moment, and think about that last clause. Yeah.) The next day saw an even thicker packet of information, finally giving details like a map of the school and calendar. (Finally I had written confirmation that the day runs from 8 to 12.) I was surprised to note that virtually every Wednesday was a minimum day, at Harvest Valley. That doesn't matter for the Kindergarten classes, but will sure matter for next year.

So, perusing the web site I saw that Back to School Night will be on a Thursday at 5:30. Okay, so I'll have to arrange to get off work early, no problem... until dropping off the boy this morning I saw the sign outside the school office saying that Back to School Night starts at 5 PM.

I really don't know which is worse: The school giving no information, or the school giving conflicting information. I also have to wonder if Palomar College (where I work in Academic Technology) gives their incoming students a similarly troubling first experience. I hope not, but I expect so.

Fire near Temecula, Twitter a mixed blessing

2009-07-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

So the De Luz fire headed straight for Temecula; I can understand that, it's a nice place to visit. My first touch on the existence of that fire was at work, when a co-worker's wife called from Fallbrook about the smoke there.

Huh, fire near Temecula, which will likely impact my commute home. So I decided to find some information online about this fire; that was at around 4:30 PM. There was an hour old news article that came up on Google, and no real results from a Google blog search. Hmmm, I thought, what about Twitter?

As a matter of fact, the information I found with a search on Twitter for "temecula fire" was fairly helpful; so much so that I saved the search term since I just knew it would be useful later.

Now, if you're looking for news on the fire itself and somehow got to this post, I would suggest you check the info now up on The Californian. Although, I couldn't help but be struck by how well this fire was handled, especially in light of the recent "minimizing" of the local firefighters due to budget constraints, as reported by The Press-Enterprise.

My big gripe in this is about how puerile folks got on Twitter. When I later went back, and looked for results on "temecula fire" on Twitter, a bunch of fools had decided it would be great fun to post links to, well, adult content under the guise of info links. I realize that wanting responsibility in Twitter use is as futile as expecting good spelling from YouTube comments... but it ticked me off.

So, bottom line, good job points to slimly budgeted firefighters, and shame points to tweeting twits.

Twitter and Windows Mobile

2009-06-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a new cell phone, the HTC Touch Pro. Yeah, yeah, I know the Touch Pro 2 is out soon... but I care more about "now" than "soon." Plus, my old PPC 6700 was having issues.

Anyway, I do like the phone. My sister-in-law mentioned she was surprised that I didn't hold out for the Palm Pre, but I am partial to Windows Mobile. The Touch Pro will be my fourth Windows Mobile (or Pocket PC, same difference really) device, so I just don't feel like learning something totally new.

Anyway, I've also recently been getting into using Twitter. (http://twitter.com/DavidTheGray if you're interested.) So I found myself wanting a good app for tweeting, and almost everyone said good things about Twikini. I like the app quite a bit, although I am having issues with the GPS location feature. (Likely this is just issues with the Touch Pro, and not Twikini at all.)

If you're using Windows Mobile, and haven't seen Twikini...

...it looks something like that. Actually, that is the color theme I use... it looks fairly good even in full sunlight on the Touch Pro screen. (Well, as good as anything can on a reflective screen in sunlight.)

Since I'm not always tweeting via the phone, on my Windows Vista computers I've also been using the Twadget sidebar gadget. It's not great, but has worked out better than every other sidebar gadget I've tried. Oh, and for anyone with a Kindle... just use the "Experimental" web browser and you can tweet just fine. However, I'm finding that if I'm not just sitting in front of a computer, Twikini works best.

Blackboard Database Restoration Guide

2009-04-17T16:57:00.001-07:00

So, went to do a database restore from the production Blackboard system to our test system. Had trouble doing what "usually works", so I consulted the official document from Behind the Blackboard claiming to be the Blackboard 8 SQL Server 2005 Database Restoration Guide.

Bunk.

The header had been changed to say Bb8, and SQL Server 2005, but the text was referring to Bb7 and said to use SQL code that was deprecated after SQL Server 2000. Effectively that guide was useless.

So, after much ado, I got a process to work, and wanted to share it. Cheers.

http://daphne.palomar.edu/davidg/BbSQLRestore/

Grade Center's Grade History and tech support glee

2009-04-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

The Blackboard 8 Grade Center's history has actually smoothed the path for handling a technical support issue. Amazing, but true.

Okay, so it's probably an exaggeration to call that issue a "technical support" one, since the student had started a test attempt (for a test comprised of a single essay question) and either navigated away or otherwise killed the test attempt. Ordinarily the resolution would have been to tell the student "contact your instructor to see if they'll clear your test attempt", but when looking in the Grade Center to get details on exactly which test had the locked attempt I noticed a funny thing: There was not a locked attempt, and the test I was fairly sure the student was referring to had no attempt listed.

Huh. Well, then it hit me; what if the instructor had already been contacted, and already cleared it. Dang, this could turn into a whole exchange of emails on this topic, what a drag... oh, yeah, such a thing would show up in the Grade History list... sure enough, there it is, test attempt cleared by the instructor a good hour and three quarters BEFORE the student emailed for help from tech support.

So, the moral of this story? Grade History: good; assuming a student actually has a problem when they call for help: not so good.

Bb Learn app for iPhone

2009-03-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it's out. Rather than repeat myself here, let me just refer to my write-up and podcast segment over at the Palomar Academic Technology podcast site: http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/Pod/pod09101.htm#BbFeature .

I do have two problems with the iPhone app already though:

There is no way to force a refresh of the data (which automatically updates no more frequently than once an hour).
The View buttons that try to take you in Mobile Safari right to the piece of content in a Blackboard course don't always work correctly. If you already have a session in Safari open and logged in to Blackboard, then the links work fine. If you don't, the links take you to a log in prompt, then to the default course entry point instead of to the actual piece of content.

Hopefully these issues can be addressed in the near future. Hopefully.

Bb and IE 8

2009-03-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's release day for Internet Explorer 8; I've installed it on a couple computers and noticed crisper page loads than I'd come to expect from either IE7 or IE8beta. However, it's still not (and likely never will be) on the Blackboard 8 user compatibility matrix. But...

Someone mentioned to me today that Google Chrome (which also does not appear on the compatibility matrix) loads the Grade Center very quickly compared to IE7, and that spurred me to test the Grade Center in IE8.

Using a training course on our system with 2082 students in it, I've timed the Grade Center's grade grid load time in the past. For such a massive roster, the grid needed somewhere between 24 and 27 seconds to load in IE7. In IE8, it takes between 5 and 8 seconds to load.

Does this mean that instructors using IE7 should upgrade to IE8? Not necessarily, as it's always a safer idea to stay with a browser/operating system combo that appears on the user compatibility matrix. Does this mean that I will be using IE8 whenever I go into the Grade Center from here on out? Unless I find some truly unexpected bugs (and I have used IE8beta with Bb8 for several months now without finding such), the answer is not only yes, but hell yes.

OMG! Bb WYSIWYG XML FTL!!1!

2008-12-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Heh, yeah it's a sad commentary that the subject line of this post is actually what came to mind when troubleshooting a problem with a Blackboard test this morning. For anyone who can't comprehend such acronymic drek, let me expand that: "Oh My God! Blackboard 'What You See Is What You Get' eXtensible Markup Language For The Lose!"

Okay, so that's still not much more understandable; let me explain. (No, is too much. Let me sum up.)

The problem reported was that students trying to take a final exam in Blackboard while using Internet Explorer were being "routed into a loop" and therefore unable to take the test. (In fact they were being treated to one of those useless Blackboard error code pages.) My first guess was correct; extra code on the test page was executing in IE while not in other browsers. The test consisted of True/False questions, and when I went to modify a question (using Firefox, as IE would obviously not allow me in) I was astounded. There was the equivalent of over a printed page of XML code prefacing the single line of displayed question text.

Judging from the code, it was copy/pasted into Blackboard from Microsoft Word. Word, in its perpetual attempts to be helpful, tried its best to include code that would preserve all the meta-information about this text in the form of XML code... with some unfortunate results. (Actually from what I can tell, this code would have been fine in a standard page, but the interaction with the Blackboard test layout in a Blackboard frameset was sad.)

I can't claim this is a Word problem, really; I can't claim this is a Blackboard problem (although it sure would be nice if their Visual Text Box Editor had some automated way to strip out code); in fairness I can't even claim this is an IE problem (the program is unable to execute the invalid code included on a convoluted page). But it causes quite a problem, that's for sure.

So, what's the fix? Tell the faculty to go in and manually strip out all the XML code. (Yeah, that's going to happen right away.) Otherwise... have the students for this term's exam NOT use Internet Explorer.

D&D Tiny Adventures - What's Special About That?

2008-10-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, I pretty much made a Facebook account just so I could try out the application "Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures"... and it really is quite fun. You get some very minimal choices, and there is a bit of story element to each adventure, which (as advertised) is tiny. You dump your character after level 10, and get to start on a new "Generation" of character.

Okay, all well and good. At generation 6 you unlock a new class/race thing, the Genasi Swordmage. Doubtless this has some implications for those who are using D&D 4th edition; I'm not. (Heck, I never did pick up the 3.5 ed books; I don't play at the moment. *sigh*) The Genasi Swordmage has an ability you can trigger whenever you like on an adventure... on his next encounter that requires a d20 roll, he can force it to be a ten.

Gee, that's SOME special ability there. Just what I'd want to have if I'm worried about my next roll... "hey, GM, can I please be average?" "What? No, I don't know what my next roll will be for, but... I want to be average!"

The whole concept behind D&D is that you're playing heroic adventurers... but your special skill is to be average. How overwhelming.

Bb8 Test Evaluation

2008-10-29T16:34:00.001-07:00

Sometimes faculty ask me how to evaluate their tests in Blackboard. I don't mean "how to grade students", since that's pretty automatic (saving essay questions). I mean they're looking for help with "how well is my test being answered" issues, typically with a segway into "what needs improving in my test".

There actually is a component in Blackboard that makes this relatively simple. Once students have taken a test, and you've dealt with all the grades, and you're ready to start evaluating the effectiveness of your test questions... go into the Grade Center.

Then go get a sandwich, since it takes so long for the Grade Center grid to load. Sheesh...

Okay, next click the "double chevron" button next to the column header for that test column. (Up in the teal header bar, that is.) Pick "Attempts Statistics", and... voila. You should see all the questions from your test, with breakdowns of how students answered them. Now all you have to do is figure out what to do about the 78% of students put "C" for that question, when the correct answer was "A".

All you need is love?

2008-10-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

On the commute home tonight my mind was doing one of those unfocused association things; disecting phrases and thoughts and putting them together in different ways. Often songs from the playlist will spark something, but I think what kicked off this chain was a simple window sticker in another car:

"Faith. Hope. Love."

Fair enough... and the greatest of these is love. This reminded me of a quote from a church newletter I read:

"Remember, God loves you and so do I."

Truth be told, there are people I can't bring myself to tolerate, let alone love. So... I'm going to suggest this:

"Jesus loves you; if I don't, that says far more about me than about you."

Blackboard 8 Grade Center and Extra Credit Hell

2008-08-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

I actually like the changes made between every prior version of Blackboard's Gradebook and their (new with version 8) Grade Center. Even the bugs are exciting and new, rather than the old, familiar bugs that faculty are quickly forgetting about in the glare of learning the new interfaces and quirks. (Bear in mind that the Gradebook hadn't changed appreciably in a decade of use.)

That being said, the bug associated with Grade Center's handling of Extra Credit columns is terrible! In the old Gradebook, instructors added a column, worth zero points possible, and then gave students points in that column. Simple, easy, and the totaling column counted the extra credit properly.

Now with Grade Center, if an instructor does the exact same thing... the Total column does NOT add the Extra Credit, but ignores it instead. (Actually this is true of any column with zero points possible.)

There is a work-around, but... it's incredibly frustrating to explain to an instructor that they have to do extra work just because Blackboard's Quality Assurance guys missed such an obvious trick.

To make the Total column include the zero points possible columns, go to the Modify Column screen for the Total column. (Personally I'm enjoying the little "double chevron" buttons, although I find it hard to remember they exist sometimes.) Scroll down to section 3 of the screen, and change the radio button from "All Grade Columns" to "Selected Grade Columns, Calculated Columns and Categories".

The screen will change, and then in the newly appearing "Columns to Select:" box you can choose each of the columns from your Grade Center and click the little "arrow in a circle" button to shift them into the "Selected Columns:" box at the right of the screen. (Please note that you can click the first column, hold the Shift key, then click the last to select all the columns in that box on the left.)

This next step is not actually included in any of the documentation I've seen yet on Grade Center (and so I'll need to ensure it IS included in mine from now on): Make sure the "Calculate as running total" settings is set to "No". If you leave running total on, you will still be ignoring the zero point columns!

Now just Submit this bad boy, and your Total column should be including the zero point columns, both manually entered grades and those from tests, assignments, and discussion boards.

Do the happy dance! (And don't forget to feel scorn for the Bb QA guys who overlooked such a buggy subsystem.)

Just don't get me started on how I feel about the whole "Grade Center can drop the lowest test score" debacle...

Bad Spellers of the World, Untie!

2008-08-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, seriously folks. Your word processor, email editor, web browser, these all have spell checkers. So there's no good excuse for any formal communication to contain a mis-spelt word, right?

Please remember that, just because all the words are correctly spelled, this doen't mean the statement makes sense as written. "You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means..." Or, proof your work!

Oh, and if I see one more formal memo go out with "your" in place of "you're" (and, yes, I realize a formal memo oughtent to have a contraction in it in the first place, but believe it or not I'm not really a stickler for this kind of thing) I think I may make a critical failure of my SAN check.

A Yellow Wood

2008-04-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay in leaves no feet had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.

I've always wondered about The Road Not Taken, because of what seems to me a begged question; where am I going?

If it doesn't matter where you are going, then certainly, take the road less travelled. If, however, you want to get to a specific place... take the road that leads there. I realize this is overly literal, but I don't feel it strains the analogy too much.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --I took the one going my way, and that has gotten me where I was going."

9>8, and Headdesk!

2008-02-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, so a student calls up for technical support.

"I can't log in. When I log in, it says I'm not enrolled in any classes."
ME: "So, you can log in, but it says you are not enrolled?"
"No, I can't log in."

What?!?

Much later...
ME: "Can I get your nine-digit student ID number so I can find you in the system?"
"Uh, yeah..." and gives me a five digit number.
ME: "That's only five digits. Your student ID is nine digits long."
"Uh..." and gives me three more digits.
ME: "That's eight. Your student ID is nine digits. Are you sure you know your student ID number?" (This is important, as the username for the system IS that nine-digit number!)
"Yeah. That's it..." and gives me a different eight digit number.
ME: "Again, that's still eight digits."
"No, that's my number..." and gives me yet another eight digit number. "So, can you find my name in the system?"
ME: "...no."
"Oh, I don't have my number here, let me call you back."
ME: "Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Do you have our direct phone number, or were you transferred here from somewhere else?"
"No, I have to go find my number. I'll call you back."
Click.

Ugh.

Later, the phone rings. Guess who?
ME: "Okay, so what is your nine-digit student ID number?"
"Like I told you before..." and gives me a nine-digit number, which bears no resemblence to the previous sequence of numbers.
ME: "Okay, here you are in the system. When you log in, just use your nine-digit student ID number, and the same password you used when you enrolled in classes using our enrollment system."
"I don't have an account for the enrollment system."
ME: "Yes, you do. I can talk you through the process of setting your password there, okay?"
"Okay."
ME: "First, start a web browser."
"..."
ME: "Are you at a computer right now?"
"No."
ME: "Fine. I'll just give you some instructions to try later, shall I?"

Now, I ask you, when you have a problem, do you try to make it impossible for someone to help you? If your car engine is making a funny noise do you park it in your driveway, walk to the bus station, and take the bus to your mechanic, then ask him for help?

I guess I just assume too much...

Sheesh.

Christmas Pi

2008-01-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

So Daniel, my four-year-old, picked out a cool gift for me this Christmas: a Pi T-shirt.

Now, I like the shirt, and I like that he knew I would enjoy it. But most of all, I loved when he sat down with me and explained what the shirt meant. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Daniel, I really like the shirt you got me for Christmas. Thank you!
DANIEL: Yeah. That's pi.
ME: I know. It's really cool.
DANIEL: Pi is a number made up of a whole bunch of numbers.
ME: Yes, it's a number between three and four. Do you know what it means?
DANIEL: It's a number that tells you how big a circle is.

Now, I don't know about you, but... I think that's an incredible answer to "what is pi?" for someone who is four.

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas...

2007-12-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

My wife and I decided we wanted to get a Wii for Christmas this year; if you aren't groaning or laughing yet, you obviously haven't been shopping for a Wii since the start of November. Anyway, my holiday quest for a Wii ended last night, in a GameCrazy.

Congratulate me on my new Xbox 360.

Nintendo, I love your games (Zelda rocks!), your interoperability (the GameBoy Advance/GameCube connection is still kinda cool), and your innovation (the motion controls of the Wii are amazing). But I wanted some new video game choices this year, and I just wasn't able to get them from you. Maybe next year.

I felt a good deal better about my decision to go 360 when, just during the time I spent in line to check out at GameCrazy, half a dozen other people stopped by the store specifically to ask if there were any Wii in stock... I was not alone, clearly. (For anyone in the Hemet, CA area there is a rumor that the San Jacinto GameCrazy will save a Wii for you at the store when the shipment comes in if you purchase an extended warranty. But you have to inquire in person... or so I'm told.) Best of luck to all those other searchers; I'll be at home playing Assassin's Creed and Bioshock.

Trapped in my brain

2007-11-30T08:14:00.000-08:00

Ever have a sentence stuck in your brain, and it just won't go away? Well, today I do:

I saw a saw in Arkansas that could out saw any other saw and if you ever saw a saw that could out saw that saw, I want to see that saw saw.

But, what the heck, I went with it. I used the saw theme in conjunction with my departmental podcast submission for this week.

Half-Keyboard!

2007-11-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, I received a new keyboard today...

It really isn't all that bad to type on, excepting the keystrokes that typically would confuse my fingers even on a normal keyboard. After I've typed with it for a bit I'll give a better review.

Lawsuit, Huh

2007-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Apparently I was defrauded by the apartment complex I lived in several years back. It looks like for the last eleven months I lived in the Archstone "Club Pacifica" complex in Escondido, CA they were deliberately overcharging for water.

Huh.

Looks like I'll be getting a settlement in the thirty dollar range. Sweet.

Meh or Treat

2007-11-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, so my Haloween time was rather... meh. I still haven't replaced my busted glasses, but at least I found my last pair, which are working okay.

Work is hitting the doldrums times; support requests don't really come in after the tenth week of the semester, and we surely aren't going to apply any system updates until the winter break hits. We haven't even had anyone threaten to blow up the campus in quite a while...

On the up side, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For some reason I am really looking forward to decorating the house this year. (Of course I would never dream of putting up anything before Thanksgiving. That really should be a law somewhere...) I believe I will also put up some sort of decorations in the office; pics will just have to follow. (Hey, this will give me something "productive" to do, given that I have to work the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Huzzah!)

I'm older than I've ever been...

2007-10-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

...and now I'm even older.

It's my birthday... gollum, gollum.

I can't say I like the present I gave myself today though; while cleaning the lenses on my glasses the bridge snapped right in the center. Given that my optometrist doesn't open until Monday... I'll be living with the stereotypical geek cred of scotch-taped glasses for the weekend. (And, given the speed with which their glasses providers work, likely the next month.)

Fortunately I've got a good suply of Tylenol to help combat the inevitable headaches from malplaced lenses.

All Clear

2007-10-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Oh, so the dog doesn't really need to check our building... the Campus Police visually inspected and didn't see anything. (Presumably there weren't any large alarm-clocks hooked to dynamite or anything of the sort. Sheesh...) Back to the office...

Oh... Nevermind... Almost.

2007-10-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, the bomb dog did his sniffing in every building except the Library.

No bomb found yet... but since my office is in the Library I'm still in limbo.

Another Bomb Threat

2007-10-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

This time the threat caused an evac of my office on Palomar College... and just when I was getting ready to post a "ho-hum" nothing going on post.

"At approximately 10 a.m., the college received a call saying that a bomb had been placed in the area of the cafeteria. As a precaution, emergency measures are being taken. The cafeteria, Student Union, and Library are being evacuated and are off limits until further notice. Students in that area are being notified to the best of the college’s ability. People in other areas of the campus can remain where they are."

From what I'm told the bomb-sniffing dog from San Diego Harbor Transit Authority is currently inspecting the buildings, although I don't know if the dog is Polly, Shazaam, or Oscar.

Information handling is much better this time around...

Bomb, Redux.

2007-09-19T10:18:00.001-07:00

Once again, a bomb threat was called in to campus. This week it's in the "O" building, which is the gymnasium and other P.E. environs.

Once again, the way our department found out was by students asking the lab personnel if our lab would be closing due to the threat.

The San Diego Harbor Patrol bomb-sniffing dog is en route though... oh joy.

Bomb?

2007-09-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, things are "interesting" (as in the Chinese proverb) right now on campus at Palomar College. There was a bomb threat called in, as reported by our campus newspaper. (Because of truly bad page design, you have to scroll down the page to see the article.)

Of course, much of the information in that article is incorrect. For example, campus has NOT been evacuated; rather some students were herded to evacuation points (while others in the building where I work, the Library) were not. Even those students were told, at alternate times that they could not leave, that they must leave (but as some parking lots were closed they couldn't take their cars), and that they were free to leave but may not be allowed back on campus.

In all of this, the campus is not officially closed, and classes are not cancelled. (Some students and faculty were unable to attend, but... no, no, the class isn't cancelled.) As a staff member, I was told NOT to leave - even for lunch - which has just made my day... great.

And, mind you, most of this information was discovered by either asking passing police officers and searching the Internet. Very little information has been officially released to employees by the college.

Oh, and can you guess just how much work is getting done in this environment? Yeah...

Easy Server Install

2007-09-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

So, we're adding an additional application server to the production Blackboard system at work. Physically installed the server in the rack today, and it went in like a dream.

The PowerEdge 2950, a 2U Dell server, was not too heavy to carry alone (although I did have someone else to help me mount the dang thing on the rails). Once in the rack, he set up the wire management... while I ran back to the office. The PE2950 does NOT have PS2 ports, which our KVM requires, so I had to rustle up a PS2-to-USB adapter.

So far, so good. Now comes the fun part: configuration.

Second Verse

2007-09-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

...same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Had a power outage at work yesterday, when I was thankfully not working. (My shift runs Wednesday through Saturday 6 am to 5pm, usually.) This is not too atypical, being in San Diego County where SDG&E both overcharges for power and has insufficient power distribution installed. However, yesterday the issue was due to an aged and insufficiently powerful transformer on campus. (Apparently when they added the new, three story, multi-million dollar building they opted not to upgrade the already old and over-stressed transformer.)

Now everyone is behaving as if we've never had such an occurance before, even though we average one a year.

Yes, no one had any idea how to find flashlights, no one knew who to contact for assistance (when elevators shut down mid-floor) or who to contact to find out if the campus was closing or not. But no one EVER knows these things.

Every time we have a power outage there is this flurry of emails, announcements, and resolutions to do better next time... And every time the "next time" rolls around, it's all a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Personally, I not only have a rechargeable flashlight plugged in right next to my desk, but... I "know where my towel is." If only we could reach that level of preparedness on an institutional level... ah well, back to my lunch break.

Pride in Workmanship

2007-09-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a cable installer from Time Warner did finally show up, to hook up two cable boxes in my home. He did a great job, both in the work done and in the manner he conducted himself.

Not only did the guy call when he arrived outside my house, he was immediately ready to work. (I compare this with the twenty minute prep time the first cable installer needed, and, of course, the lack of arrival of the appointment last week.) However, he took one look at the cable that was already installed for my cable modem and decried the work done as highly unprofessional.

Nice to hear my opinion confirmed, I guess.

This installer hooked up two new cable connections, one at either end of my house; and he firmly and cleanly tacked down all the cable. All this in less than half the time the original connection needed.

More importantly to me, he had a really good attitude while doing this, in spite of the triple-digit temperature outside and my four-year-old wanting to keep "helping" and asking questions about his tatoo. (Actually that part was cute... I doubt the guy expected my wife to come down on the side of "yeah, he can have a tatoo some day if he really wants one.")

Anyway, I've got cable again, after over four years without. I wonder how long it will take before it dominates home life?

(Un)Professionals

2007-08-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

I'd finally decided to re-join the cable TV-watching society with Time Warner Cable, after having been without cable (or any other form of TV broadcast) for over four years. The install was requested, scheduled, and confirmed online, and I was the proud possessor of a confirmed installation 1-4 p.m. yesterday. Yeah, right.

I'd finally gotten through all the red tape in the purchasing department, and my request for a Dell (really Motion Computing, but Dell re-sells to us at a better price than the manufacturer will) Tablet PC. The request hit the Dell site July 28, but I didn't sweat it; it would get here when it got here, and Dell is usually quick. Not this time, boyo... the estimated delivery date is now advancing to the current date each morning.

Why are businesses so okay now with the idea of failing to serve the customer?

Time Warner could have contacted me (email or phone) to say that the installation workload was too high that day, or that someone called in sick, or just plain "sorry, we can't make it today". Instead three phone calls, a cumulative hour and a quarter on hold, and quite a bit of frustration latter, I hear the installers knock off at 7 p.m. (and this being 7:30), so could I reschedule for tomorrow? They didn't know, by the time my "confirmed time window" expired, what the workload looked like?!?

Dell could have done some contacting of their own, but at least the progression on the computer "assembly" is documented on their website. They do provide a link there for "why is my order taking so long?" which points to a blog post from nearly a month ago saying that there are production delays on certain models of laptop - none of which are the model of tablet I was ordering. C'mon guys... if you're going to make up a reason for the delay, at least make it context sensitive.

There's nothing wrong with telling your customers the truth! I would prefer to hear "sorry, can't make it" than be left in service limbo. Maybe I can find some professionals who are willing to be.

I Love My Car

2007-08-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Back in late May I started payments on a new car, and for the first time in my life we've finally got two cars in the household. After quite a bit of research online, and a previous visit to a dealership, I'd decided on a 2007 Toyota Yaris.

I got the two door hatchback, and I had some doubts. I'm 6'4" tall, and tip the scales around 290 lbs., so a "little butt-bucket" (as my Grandfather would have called it) seemed like a questionable choice. But when I visited the dealership and got to sit in the car, I thought... "this could work."

It did.

I've had the thing for three months now, and put in over 3800 miles in it (and with about two-and-a-half hours of commute time four days a week, that's actually below my average for a summer) I'd like to think I've got the hang of it. And, I am quite comfortable, to my own amazement.

On one occasion I've had to haul some luggage, about a weeks worth for one person, and had to flip down the back seats, but that ended up giving me way more room in the back than I needed. I've also had my four-year-old son in a booster seat in the back before, and there was more than ample space for me to twist in through the passenger door and buckle him in.

I also love one feature that intrigued me on first viewing this car's configuration: the driver-side glovebox. There are actually three glove boxes, two on the passenger side, and one behind the steering wheel where the spedometer (and etc.) usually are. The instruments are mounted above and centered in the dashboard area, and once I got over the initial feeling of "wrong-ness" about having a blank panel behind the steering wheel, I found myself loving the new configuration.

Now, when I go back to driving our other car, the speedometer feels totally out of place, and I lament having my own space for storage.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that my Yaris gets around 37 mpg, which is what drew it to my attention in the first place. (And I still value that point, even if the cost of gas has dropped back to what feels reasonable again... until it goes up again, that is.)

So... hooray for my car.

Oh, Hi

2007-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

They say writing doesn't begin until the thousanth word, and I'm going to assume similar applies to blogging. Suffice to say I intend to litter this blog with miscellaneous musings, undirected rants about whatever comes to mind, and whatever else happens to catch my fancy.

I doubt I'll end up doing any clever, like Shamus Young with his DM of the Rings, nor do I think I'll end up with a product, like Fear the Boot (a podcast with significantly active forums). I just plan to rave on about stuff... you know, stuff like things. Yeah.

So what decided me on starting a blog, other than a likely mistaken feeling that someone in the world will ever bother to read any of it? I just had to blow off some steam...

Dealing with technical support calls at a community college has its share of inherant frustrations, and one of the most irritating is when the calls aren't really supposed to go to technical support. But my heart went out to this poor student... no names, of course, but this fella had been sitting on hold with an enrollment problem for over 40 minutes when he tried sending an email in to the tech support mailbox.

Now, we don't handle the enrollment support; don't even have the permissions to do so, so I couldn't do a dang thing to help him out. I emailed back to let him know this... the dude thanks me for the help. Help? I couldn't do anything... but at this point I realize this guy's been on hold on the phone with this enrollment problem for over an hour; still waiting.

Just out of curiosity I look up the hours of operating for the enrollment office - they close in less than five minutes. So I email them back this info, and give them an email address to send to in the enrollment office, in the hopes that someone can get back to them on Monday. Eventually they write back, saying they're sending an email and thanking me again.

Dang. At this point I just feel so bad for them that I had to vent.

Plus, I'm sure this kind of things goes on all the time, and no one ever hears about it. I don't have a solution; I'm not suggesting that anything can or should be done; but I feel for the students.

Okay, break is over, back to work.