Archive for April, 2010

Wow, it’s almost May and graduation time. It is hard to believe that it has been two years since I walked across the stage here in Fayette to receive my bachelor’s degree. Now, being in IT at UIU means a lot of added responsibility before, during and after the graduation ceremony. Setting up and configuring the teleprompter, a large powerful projector for the graduation video, preparing a connection for the video streaming, (you can watch the commencement ONLINE for free) and also making sure the wireless network is accessible for our guests. I will give you a behind the scenes look at the technology behind the commencement ceremony around graduation time.

Also with the new month arriving, I will have another ‘Tech Tip.’ That will come your way next week.

With it being just about time for graduation, it’s always fun to look back and remember the day you graduated. I recall graduation at Edgewood-Colesburg High School in 2004. It’s the only graduation ceremony I’ve ever heard of that had a Michael Jackson Moon-walker go across the stage, toilet paper rolls being thrown by class members, and firecrackers being set off. It was pretty intense, lots of fun, and probably slightly illegal. That is why names will remain anonymous.

If you have a graduation memory to share – please post it in my comments!

Sometimes writing a blog can be pretty tricky. Seems like there is absolutely nothing to talk about some days, and other days it seems like you could type forever. Today was one of those days where I thought, “Wow, what should I talk about today?”

Then, my Twitter feed helped me out. A new patent from Apple indicates that a new ticketing system is in the works. My first thought is… well, what is the point of this? After a little bit of reading, I was convinced that this was something awesome.

Imagine shopping at your local WalMart. You get to the checkout and turn on your phone. Load up the iCoupon app and BAM… you just saved 50 cents on your gallon of milk.

Imagine buying a song from your favorite band. Then you find out if you buy an entire album of the band, you get a free concert ticket. Bring your phone with the downloaded album, load up the iTicket app and BAM… there’s your ticket to enjoy the show.

So many possibilities. Here is a full article detailing the information. http://mashable.com/2010/04/16/apple-itickets/

What do you think? Would you use something like this?

Sounds like a great start – especially if they can use this format on other phones as well. Time will tell…

Have a great weekend!

It’s already April, and time for another ‘Tech Tip.’

This month I will focus on something that you could possibly use every day you turn on your computer. If you ever hook up a flash drive, iPod, or virtually any USB device, you will want to read this month’s tech tip!

Difficulty: Super Easy
System: Windows 7/Vista/XP and Apple OSX
Total Approximate Time: 4-5 seconds

Today I will tell you something that I learned the hard way. ALWAYS safely remove OR eject your USB device before you disconnect it. Why? You could damage your device or lose your data if you do not. I used to just pull out my jump drive when I was done using it, and I ended up corrupting the data on my drive. So, today I will show you the super easy process of safely removing or ejecting your USB devices. There are several ways to go about this on every system, but I will just cover one of them today.

Windows 7/XP/Vista:

I’ll show you using Windows 7, but the process is very similar for every Windows operating system.

1)      Find the system tray on your Start Bar -> by default, that would be the bottom right corner of your screen – or wherever your clock is on your PC

2)      Click on the arrow to show all of the icons in the system tray

3)       Find the icon that looks like a USB connection and right-click on it

4)      Locate which device you would like to remove and click ‘Eject’

a) In Windows XP, a window may come up asking which device you would like to remove
b) Find your device and click ‘Stop’

5)      You will then be prompted that it is OK to remove your device

Mac OS X:

1)      Find your device on your desktop

2)      Click and drag your device to the trash can

3)      The trash can icon will “morph” into an eject icon

4)      Let go of the mouse button and you’re done!

So, it’s a pretty simple process, but one that is important to do. Unless you want to lose your data, or all of the songs on your iPod.

Have a great weekend! Thank you to the readers for comments that have been posted! If you have anything you would like featured in a Tech Tip or a question you have be sure to let me know!