5/3/07

Today was interesting. I had to install XP clean onto two separate laptops, which was an interesting challenge. It wasn’t too hard, but there was a lot of steps to follow. It became somewhat difficult to keep track of which computer was at what point, especially when one messed up and the other didn’t.

5/8/07

Today’s problem actually led me to mess with my own computer, and improve it slightly. A professor called about disabling a button on his laptop. Whenever he was typing, he would hit the button on accident and lose pages of work at a time.

In order to fix this, Steve downloaded a program called Sharpkeys. This program is a registry hack that allows you to set any key on your keyboard as any other key, or disable it entirely. Steve disabled the problem key and we left.

When I got home, I reset three of my own keys. I turned my “Clipboard” key into a “Pause/Play” for Windows Media Player, and the two Windows buttons were turned into volume up and down.

5/15/07

Today was a day without much accomplished. There wasn’t much to do, so I went with Tanasee to install SPSS on a computer. She wanted to me to try to do it on my own, so I installed it… but incorrectly of course. While I was working on that computer, they asked to have it on another computer as well. While I installed it on that computer (correctly) Tanasee fixed the other computer.

However, it was all for naught. We installed SPSS 15 and apparently the servers were not set up for an install like that yet, so the program ended up not working anyway.

5/17/07

Today was a very good day for me. I felt I actually accomplished the one thing I needed to do before I left, which is good because we don’t have much time left.

I started off the day by cloning a couple of new laptops for a professor. This was quite a bit easier than the other laptops I had to install, because much of the process was completed with cloning. However, I was still unable to complete the task by the end of the day for a couple of reasons, mainly my other tasks.

The new computers arrived on campus, and I helped bring the monitors into Media Services and the actual computers into our room in Edwards. This didn’t take too long, but it was good exercise.

Near the end of the day, while I was unpacking some of these computers, Tyler called Colin for some help. He didn’t know how to access techserv if typing in the IP didn’t work… and I did. I offered to go over to Tyler and show him how to do it so that Colin could continue with his own work.

Finally knowing something another IT professional doesn’t know, and being able to explain it to them… that made my day. It was the kind of experience I’ve been trying to achieve for at least half of a year.

5/22/07

Today was a pretty dull day. Tanasee and the rest of the crew were out doing installations of the new computers we received, and so I was left with little to do. I ended up helping Shaun carry stuff to the surplus box in the loading bay, and then had a hamburger and pasta salad courtesy of Tanasee.

5/24/07

Missed internship due to illness.