Early this month I had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans, Louisiana for work. Our goal was simple, set up computers and networking equipment at our new center at Jackson Barracks. I had never been to New Orleans before, so I was excited to go!

It had been over 7 years since I had flown on an airplane (I need to travel more), so I was looking forward to flying again.  We (Network Admin, Paul and I) took off on a Monday from the Cedar Rapids airport and arrived in Dallas – then finally to New Orleans.

Upon arrival, I was very happy with the weather. It was only 20 degrees in Iowa, but it was well over 60 degrees in New Orleans. It felt great. I considered wearing shorts, although the locals were all bundled up because it was cold for them! I even saw my first palm tree (again, I need to travel more)

Jackson Barracks of course is a military base, so we had to go through security in order to have access to the UIU campus there. After a chat and ID check, we were ready to go meet Miss Vicki (center director, Vicki Melton). Unfortunately, the furniture was not assembled, so my job of setting up computers had to be put on hold. Luckily, this gave us some time to explore New Orleans (or, so we thought). We saw the French Quarter, Bourbon Street and the New Orleans Superdome, where the Sugar Bowl and BCS National Championship were going to be hosted while we were there. I should mention, an emphasis should be put on the word SAW. We received a call that the COX cable guy had arrived, so our exploration was cut short. It was time to work.

Our work went smoothly, but we had to wait for furniture and other items to come into place, so it was a long night of work on our last day, but it was still a good time and a successful trip.

 **My apologies, this picture came out very blurry on my phone**

I’m hoping to go back down again soon, to see the sights! Miss Vicki has offered a tour to Paul and me, so we will be back!  Although I didn’t see any gators, and we were short on time – I enjoyed my trip to the “Big Easy!”

As we head into the holidays, I receive quite a few questions regarding ‘what should I buy my techy friend?’ In this post, I will compile your holiday gift guide – for your technology needs. First, I’m sure there are some poor college students reading this blog (trust me, I was there once). You may be looking for something really cheap, yet thoughtful for your friends or family. How about FREE?

Google Docs – FREE

Google Docs is a no-cost solution to your office needs. Microsoft Office is a very common paid software, but how about your show your loved one this FREE alternative solution to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more! Collaboration is simple and you can import your existing documents with no problem. You may be asking, how is this a gift? Well, you can keep a running blog with your family on what you’re doing at school, they can read it and add comments. It’s a great way to keep in touch without actually starting a blog website for ALL to see. You can designate if the documents are private, or if you’d like your family to be able to edit. More on Google Docs later…

Amazon Kindle Fire – $199.99

This tablet is a great way to get the tablet you always wanted, without paying $499 or more for an iPad. It can’t do quite everything that an iPad can, however it is a great starting point. It’s great for web-browsing, reading books and magazines, and also playing games. It’s definitely worth looking into!

iPod nano – $129.00

This iPod is really cool. It’s literally perfect for any music lover in your life. It’s small enough to strap to your arm while you work out, but holds enough music for almost anyone’s music library. It comes in all different types of color too! They even make wrist straps for it, so you can wear it as a watch! Sure, it’s a nerdy watch, but still really cool. Carrying around your music library all day can come in handy!

Amazon Prime Membership – $79.00 membership

Amazon Prime is an amazing deal. I shop at Amazon.com all the time. With an Amazon Prime membership (if you’re a student you get a year FREE!), you get FREE two-day shipping on almost all products, FREE release date delivery on video games, DVDs, and books AND you get unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows! If you live in Iowa (or many other states), you do not get charged tax on any of the items. This means you can order pretty much anything from Ramen noodles to a new television with NO tax, and it is shipped to your door in 2 business days! That is quite the deal. On top of that, they recently added a Netflix-type service to stream movies and TV shows. All of that is included! This would be a great idea for any shopper in your live, and maybe you can help them save money with this too!

Of course, in this season of giving, there are so many items to list, but I’ve listed some of the hot items this year, along with an economical gift idea for those that are short on cash.

Right after break, on January 3^rd, I will be flying down to the new Jackson Barracks location in New Orleans. I’ll base my next blog post on my experience on the military base and I look forward to sharing pictures and thoughts from my trip.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!

Wow, it has been a looong time since I’ve blogged! My apologies to my followers! Of course, the start of school is the busiest time of the year for pretty much everyone at UIU, including the I.T. department. We actually reached an all-time record in the amount of tickets that were created in August/September. It was overwhelming at times, but I’m happy to say that now in the middle of October, I think we’ve cleared out the tickets that were created a few months ago at least! Unfortunately, more tickets have some in since then, so we’re still buried deep now.

According to our newsletter that was sent out by the help desk, we still have over 800 service requests or open tickets to respond to or resolve. That is not a small number!

Other than that, I also took on several new responsibilities this fall – presenting at UIU Professional Development Day and adjunct faculty by teaching a Wellness Strategies course! Those two items, coupled with the Master’s program that I am studying made for a lot of late nights (and less blog posts, sorry).

In my next post, I’ll talk a little about Google Docs – which is what my presentation was about this week at UIU professional development day. It was a lot of fun to present, and I’m hoping the people that attended had a good time, and learned something as well!

As August hits, students start moving in here on the Fayette campus! We’re currently really busy in the I.T. department preparing for the first day of class. This means, updating everything to Office 2010, making sure everything is working in the labs and classrooms, and completing requests from faculty as they return to campus. We’re also getting close to hearing lots and lots of questions from the Fayette students, both new and returning. So, I have compiled a list of questions that are usually asked – and answered them of course! Hopefully this guide will help you as you return to UIU this fall!

I forgot my password! This one is simple to fix… contact our Help Center! Their friendly staff will help you reset it so you can log in to the computer, myUIU, or your @peacocks email! Their extension is 5876 or you can reach them by email helpdesk@uiu.edu or online chat at www.uiu.edu/helpcenter They also are on Skype at uiu_it_helpcenter

What ‘techy’ things should I bring along to UIU? A computer is not ‘required,’ but it will definitely help! We do not have any restrictions on what you can use, so feel free to bring a Mac, PC, or Linux machine. No problem!

Is the Internet free at UIU? Yes, wireless internet is available around campus for students via X-wires. Connect to UIUWireless for the student network. Ask the help center or OSD for the password to connect. Then, follow the on-screen instructions. It’s that easy! In the dorms/student housing, you can also connect with a wire via an Ethernet cable, which can be purchased from the UIU Logo Store in the Student Center.

How do I connect my iPad, Xbox, PS3, Wii, etc. to the wireless? Contact X-Wires at 866-989-9473 or support@xwires.net

What software should I buy? Definitely pick up Microsoft Office 2010. It is available at a discounted rate at www.theultimatesteal.com if you use your @peacocks email!

Where can I print? All of our computer labs feature printers that students can use.

Where are the computer labs located, and when are they open? Check out www.uiu.edu/it for the list of labs!

One of the computer lab computers is not working! Contact the help center at extension 5876 or other ways listed on www.uiu.edu/helpcenter

How do I set up my smartphone with UIU email? Contact the help center at extension 5876 or other ways listed on www.uiu.edu/helpcenter

What if my personal computer breaks or gets a virus? The university works closely with Heartlanding, and they are located in the UIU Professional Building to help with your computer problems.

If you have any other questions, feel free to comment below, or you can always contact our Help Center! Have a great school year!

It’s summertime! Along with summer, comes time to purchase a new computer for school, or perhaps a software upgrade. Today, I will provide some links to great deals for new software and equipment!

First, if you’ve been on an Upper Iowa campus, you know that we predominantly use Dell computers. If you are a student, faculty or staff member of UIU, you can check out www.dell.com/uiu for discounted prices on new computers!

As I’ve reported earlier, if you purchase a qualifying PC with Windows 7, you can get yourself a FREE Xbox 360! Can’t beat that! For more information, see your local retailer, or check out www.dell.com/xbox

For the Mac lovers, check out Apple’s education store at www.apple.com . For a limited time, you get a $100 gift card to use in the App Store with the order of an Apple computer. Again, this is for faculty, staff, and students. This is a great deal if you are looking for some software, or some fun apps for your iPad or iPhone. Although, I’m a little disappointed with this offer. They used to offer a FREE iPod with the purchase of a Mac for their back to school promotion! Not this year I guess…

How about some software for your new computer? Check out www.theultimatesteal.com if you are a student and purchase the new Office 2010 suite for only $80. There are other deals on that site for upgrades to Windows 7 as well. Keep in mind that this software is only for the Windows operating system. Faculty and staff should contact me directly if you would like to purchase Office for a discounted rate.

And finally, if you are looking for great prices on pretty much ANY electronic, check out my favorite places to shop online: www.newegg.com or www.amazon.com

Always keep an eye on www.uiu.edu/it for more deals! We are currently starting to upgrade the entire university to Office 2010 - so make sure you stay up to date with us! Students, check out www.theultimatesteal.com to purchase, and staff/faculty should follow the link on www.uiu.edu/it

Hope that points you in the right direction. If you have any questions or would like to know if discounts are available for anything else, please leave a comment!

Now… go spend some money! Have a great weekend!

This may be better served as a tweet, but still a great deal that I wanted to share. Check out this link for more information…

Click Here for Information on Getting a FREE Xbox 360 When You Buy a Windows 7 PC

Apple usually runs a promotion over the summer where you get a free iPod when you buy an Apple. I’ll keep an eye out for that as well.

Here is my first ever video blog – or vlog for short. In this video I show off the new Google Docs App for Android – and specifically show off a really neat picture to text feature. Check it out!

I’ll have a new post coming at you soon! I’ll be talking a little about the new Google Docs app for Android. It’s a video blog, and I should have it posted in the next few days!

In the meantime, it’s almost commencement time – and I encourage you to check out my blog and pictures from the commencement setup last year! We’re busy setting up for commencement this year, and I thought you may be a little bit curious about what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ with IT on commencement day!

Check it out HERE! Be sure to click on the pictures to make them bigger. The quality isn’t the greatest, but you can still see how it all works…

And lastly, congratulations to the class of 2011!

If you have multiple computers or own a smartphone – you’ll want to pay attention to my blog for April. Did you know that there is a VERY easy way to share files between all of your devices? That’s right, it doesn’t matter if it is Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone… they all work with Dropbox. And that’s just the start of the features available to you. Best part – it’s completely FREE.

Basically, Dropbox is your own personal folder that is out in the cloud. Cloud is a pretty popular buzz word in technology right now. The cloud simply refers to resources that are available on the Internet, from just about any Internet connected device. For example – I can store pictures from my vacation last summer in the cloud (via Dropbox) and be able to see them on ANY computer or device around the world. I can also share a link with my friends, so they can see the pictures as well. It’s a fairly complex process, but very simple to use.

So, how do you get started? First, you should get a username and password for Dropbox by going to their website at www.dropbox.com. From there, you can install the application on your computer or on your phone. You are entitled to 2GB of space out in the cloud. You can have more, but then the application is no longer free.

From there, it is very simple. It’s acts as a folder on your computer. Just save to it, or drag files into it – then, it uploads them automatically. That’s right, it automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected. And, since it is out in the cloud – Dropbox backs up your files, and you have virtually no risk of losing your important documents ever again!

This is a very impressive and powerful tool to use. In the past, you had to email yourself or set up a personal network in order to share files between computers. Now, it’s available to you, across all platforms completely FREE. Now, that’s powerful technology. Not only powerful, but very simple. Try it out, you’ll be glad you did! Click on the Dropbox logo above to get started!

I’ve been blogging for over a year now! Looking back at this time last year, I see that I blogged about the newly released iPad. I threw together some comments on whether or not I thought it was a good buy. In the long run, I never bought an iPad. I decided I would wait until they added a camera, because I see a lot of value in being able to chat with others by just holding a tablet. Well… Apple has now announced the iPad 2 and it has two cameras! Find out more about the Apple iPad 2 by going to www.apple.com

So, let’s take a look at my lists from last year and see if the iPad 2 is worth my purchase now… I will put my comments in red.

What I like:

-       It’s basically an iPhone with a HUGE screen. Bigger is always better when it comes to screen size. They decided to keep the same screen size, and opted to not upgrade to the new high resolution retina display, which is in the iPhone 4. That’s kind of unfortunate, but it’s still a high quality screen.

-       You can use ALL of the current apps in the app store on the iPad This is a huge plus, but there are well over 65,000 apps for the iPad alone now… that doesn’t count all of the apps you can download for the iPhone on top of that. I’d say I’m set there.

-       I’m not much of a book reader, but being able to read books from a digital library on the device sounds pretty awesome. Plus, the page turning animation is sweet. Nothing new here. But, they did add iMovie and GarageBand to the iPad. I will definitely purchase those two items of software.

-       Unlike my iPod touch that I own, you can buy a data plan from AT&T so you have access to the internet ANYWHERE that you can get coverage. This is a great option to those that are interested. They also have Verizon options available. I will stay clear of this though, because I can just wirelessly tether it to my Android phone.

What I don’t like:

-       Unlike the iPod touch/iPhone, the screen doesn’t display in a TRUE widescreen format. This is still true – see my comment above.

-       No Flash support. Any flash based websites simply will not show up! This is a HUGE issue for the common web surfer This part is still pretty unfortunate. But, other than a few Facebook games that I like to play, I’m not missing out on a lot. The amount of apps that replace the need to go to certain websites certainly helps

-       No built in webcam. How sweet would it be to have a Skype video call on one of these?? Problem solved with the iPad 2.

So, there you have it. I’m very excited to get my hands on one next Friday! This will certainly be a device that I will use quite frequently, I’ll update you on my impressions in the near future!

Students: Have a SAFE and FUN spring break! I’ll be here… working. And waiting for the iPad 2…