Where's Powell?

Crud, here I sit exhausted at 3:04am but can't sleep.  Don't you hate it when you just lay in bed unable to sleep for hours!!  I finally got ticked off enough that I came downstairs and figured I'd start bloggin' and hopefully get really sleepy.  So here we go...

A couple people have asked why I haven't posted much in the last 2 weeks.  The reason is I've been swamped in phone stuff.  Our old crappy crusty Executone system is now replaced with a new slick Panasonic TDA200/TVA200 and 85 sweet new phones.

 
So I've been trying to answer the installers questions, learn a new phone system, train staff, and do my normal tasks ... which has meant many long days.  We're nearing full implementation so I'm hoping I can get back to a "normal" schedule soon as I'm way behind on so many tasks...doh!

Aside from phone stuff here's some other tidbits of what's new wit da Powell...

* Last week marked the 1 year anniversary since I gave up drinking pop.  I used to drink several Sprites a day...gotta love those clear drinks!  For many years I've had terrible heart burn ... and it had gotten to the point where I couldn't sleep well at night even after consuming multiple Tums throughout the night.  I gave up pop to actually attempt to loose some poundage and soon discovered that my heart burn occurred less and less.  A year later I rarely have heart burn and have been able to enjoy spicy foods again.  I do drink a Mountain Dew maybe once a month or so if I have to stay up late and find myself really dragging.  Since I don't drink coffee either I'm pretty much caffeine-free...so 1 Mountain Dew will wire me for hours when I really need a kick :-)

* Our test network is finally setup.  6 off-lease GX240's in their own test domain...1 running Server2003 for DC/AD and 5 XP clients.  I like to call it the Opti-Tower (see image)...and yes, it's actually quite stable...more stable than stacking the units on top each other on their sides since they slide very easy.  Some of the first test items will be the AVG Network Edition anti-virus (prior post), Omniquad anti-spyware (prior post), Desktop Authority by ScriptLogic, Microsoft's RIS (remote installation services), and Google's Desktop Search Enterprise Edition.  It's nice to finally have a sandbox to play in without fear of muckin' up production stuff...and this should be a great environment for volunteers to work on various projects. 

* Our Executive Pastor got a new GIGANTO 24" monitor that we hooked up Tues night ... had to up his video card so he could run the insane 1920x1200 rez.  In portrait mode this kinda eliminates the need for a scroll wheel for all but the longest of webpages...like my blog :-)

Then one has to ask ... hmm, how many human heads could fit behind this monitor?

answer = 4  (LtoR are Jason, Dustin, Tom, Ed)

* I've been using Office12 beta/pre-release for over a week now exclusively on my laptop.  So far no major problems...though I did have to install Outlook12 twice before it finally worked.  Transitions don't appear to be working correctly in PowerPoint12 either...but, hey it's not even really beta yet.
The new user interface rocks!  It requires no training to use and actually lets you do typically things faster ... I've even found a few sweet functions that I'd not seen before 'cause they were buried under miles of menus in Office2003.  I can't wait to see the final version.  Granger will definitely be an early adopter of Office12 once it's released.

* Monday I signed the paperwork to get a PRI-T1 (voice) and a second data T1 from SBC.  We have a new SBC rep that goes to GCC...and she got us some great deals.  The 2 data T1's with load balancer (all equipment provided and managed by SBC) for $1075/mo.  Now I'm trying to get Comcast to run us a cable line so we can use a cable modem as our failover ... sadly we can't get DSL in our area 'cause it's all fiber.  Our current failover is wireless broadband but it's $199/mo so dumping it for cable would be a nice savings.

* Tom (aka WiFi Tom) is one of our volunteers and has been doing wifi surveys of our entire facility.  He's got some very expensive software that maps out all sorts of data as he walks around.  It's pretty amazing.  Our location is bombarded with wireless signals.  In our Atrium there are...yes, count 'em...26 wireless signals bouncing around.  Ah, the joys of having apartment complexes near your building :-(  I'll have to remember to post some of the data from his surveys.
Tom already moved a few of the access points around and will be changing channels in the next weeks to try and help with the interference we're obviously battling.

* It's looking like Track-IT is where we're heading with our recent help-desk solution search.  It's not cheap, but it's not as expensive as I was anticipating either.  Approx $4900 gives us the enterprise version with 5 users.  Our 2 facilities guys are looking for a tracking system too so I'm hoping we can whack 2 birds with 1 stone.  Our A/V guys had some interest as well.  I'll be contacting those of you that have indicated you're using Track-IT next week to get some real world feedback...so heads up :-)

Well, I'm still not sleepy...so I'll go try and filter through the 213 items in my inbox...uggh!  If that doesn't make me sleep I don't know what will...

Comments

[Jim Walton]

how many human heads could fit behind this monitor?

Tecnically, I would say it's closer to 3.5. There is some overlap on each side.

[Alex]

You know whats funny, I remember WebCrew where you had to have the website with no srolling. I just thought that was funnny now that your site makes my finger hurt from scrolling ;) only kidding. Nice pictures!

[Rakel]

dang, I don't remember that, Alex. I'm already getting old I guess. :(

[Tom]

I have used TRACK-IT before at our work. We were very unhappy with it. The information it provided wasn't very useful. I think our needs were beyond TRACK-IT scope though. We had over 700 PC to Track. Perhaps for a smaller application it will work better.