Archive for May, 2010

Wow, what a busy start to the summer! I’m a little behind on my blogging, but staying busy with lots of other things. Graduations, weddings, work – you name it, and I have it going on in May. But finally, it’s time for a short blog.

I’m looking forward to the end of the work day today, as my co-worker Kevin and I will be riding our motorcycles across the countryside to Gunder, Iowa. It has been almost a year since I’ve had the world famous Gunderburger. If you haven’t heard about, seen, or tasted the Gunderburger, you need to do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s the most delicious ONE POUND of fresh ground beef you would ask for. Here’s a link to the Irish Shanti – home of the Gunderburger.

And of course, a picture… and no, they do not force you to wear the ridiculous cheeseburger hat.

Next week I will give you the June edition of Travis’ Tech Tip. If there is anything you would like me to feature, please leave me a comment.

I’ll have more on my busy summer in the coming postings. Thanks for reading! Later be…

Half way through May, and commencement is complete. *sigh* But, I can’t breathe easy yet, because this starts the busiest time of the year for the IT department on campus. We have a LOT of work ahead of us as we prepare for students to arrive in the fall. More on that later…

But, I promised a ‘behind the scenes’ look at commencement.

First, we start out with 2 laptops, which pretty much run the show.

1 laptop runs the teleprompter software and 1 runs the video on the large projection screen that OCM creates.

There are many wires, which can be seen in this picture. I get my fair share of crawling around on the floor to get this done.

After the wires are run, we test to make sure the teleprompter monitors are working.

As you can see, the text is upside down and backwards. This will be fixed with the mirrors that are placed above the monitors.

We then test the height/visibility of the teleprompter. Matt Cowley is shown above testing.

Here is what the screen looks like while looking into the mirror/glass from the podium.

After we have it set to our liking we attend the practice sessions. Our Registrar, Holly Streeter is seen here asking us to adjust the teleprompter.

As you can see, there is a lot of fine tuning involved in the technology for the commencement ceremony. And this was only the teleprompter part. In this picture you see the lift that I got to ride up to the ceiling on to mount the projector with the assistance of our awesome Facilities Management workers. After that is focused and aligned we’re ready to go.

Listening to the radio at work is something that I do every single day. Being the music lover that I am, I love to have a wide variety of music to listen to at any given moment. Rather than sit here and debate on CD/mp3s vs local radio or satellite radio – I’ll go ahead and give you my choice at work: Internet Radio.

I won’t even list out a platform or difficulty for this tech tip. You just go to a website and you’re off and running. I often hear people say – “Yeah, I’m listening to Pandora.” Well, I’m here to tell you today that Pandora is pretty worthless compared to my personal favorite – Slacker.

www.slacker.com

Slacker radio is much superior to Pandora. They work essentially the same way, but Slacker has premade stations already made to your liking. With Pandora, you type in an artist you like, and you get similar artists. Well, what if I’m listening to a Pandora station with all country artists, and I want to hear some rock? I have to go through and make an ENTIRE station again. That’s terrible. With Slacker, you can just select a genre and you are on your way.

Slacker is setup the same way as Pandora in other ways – you can favorite or ban a song, and create your own station. You can also browse stations that other people have made. One of my personal favorites is ‘One Hit Wonders.’ Everything from ‘Mmm Bop’ to ‘Tubthumper.’ Certainly brings back memories!

Slacker is easy to pick up and play – no hassle. Just sign up for an account and you’re off and running.

Even better – grab the App for your phone! They have iPhone/iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry AND Windows Mobile apps. You can truly listen and take your stations anywhere. Oh, and have access to premade stations. Can’t beat that!

Check it out today! Next week I’ll show you some behind the scenes work at the commencement. Congratulations to those that are graduating, and best of luck in the future!

From one UIU graduate to another: Be Peacock Proud!