Category: The Tech Biz

Overloaded

If this pandemic did anything to me professionally, it showed me and many others how important the role of technology plays in our everyday lives in this abundantly interconnected world.

Many were given the opportunity to work from home. I did too, but many times I didn’t have a choice. I had to go to the office and take care of a situation.

Now, as we are starting to see real traction on the other side of this my responsibilities have been increased. Responsibilities that sometimes cannot be managed by a single person physically, as it’s impossible to be in multiple locations at a single time. My frustrations were just below the surface until I received an email newsletter that is sent to people in my division, UITS.

This email literally is talking about me

This was how I learned of this happening. I didn’t get an email from my manager, my director didn’t send an email to the department letting them know of this. There were 0 official communications on the subject.

Roughly a year ago my manager asked me how I felt about / if I think I could manage Nursing, but later on told me that Nursing wanted to keep with their current model.

Then about a month or so ago, my printer guy who has also been the IT person for Nursing told me that there was some plan to hire him under my department as the IT person for Nursing. He said that it was all hush hush and that nothing was official yet.

When I received that email however, it threw me into a fit of rage. In the last 6 months I have been named the “Lead IT Support Person” for an entire building and now, whether they want to admit it or not I have to support the entire School of Nursing. Even if we hire that guy, if something happens – the responsibility will fall directly on my shoulders.

So I did what I’m known for. I sent a long email to my director and manager stating my issues and my concerns. I don’t think my director fully understood – but my manager did. When I was young, such things would have gotten me fired from a position, which happened to me several times. But at IU, holding truth to power is many times embraced; and I for one appreciate that.

I’m appreciative for what I have, but I have had to navigate all of this with no increases in wages. IU suspended cost of living wages last year, but they are slated to begin again this year. I’m starting to feel that I’m in a similar spot as to the one I was in around 2017, when I learned that two people who I helped hire for positions based off of mine were earning 13k more a year than I was. It felt like a slap in the face.

All of this has led to costs for me personally, as my energy levels have plummeted. A typical day for me is to go to work and then lay in bed for most of the evening when I return home. Sleeping most of that time. The most recent revelation is that I am in a lot of pain doing small tasks, such as walking to my vehicle, standing up, etc. This pain lasts for hours after the event. I do not know what is going on with me; and it is seriously scaring me. I have reached out to my physicians and hope to do something to start mitigation of this by the time we leave for our first vacation in 2 years.

Technology My Way

Two years ago, my wife and I signed a contract for cellular phones.  It was a basic contract with the only extra being a small texting plan for each of us that added $10 a month to our bill.  It soon became overwhelmingly apparent how much we (the US) doesn’t realize how much it is overcharged for cellular telephone service.  We were paying $75 a month for 2 phones that we didn’t use tremendously.  We didn’t feel like we were getting a good value.

We decided a few months into the contract that once it was over we would re-evaluate the situation, and decide to make a change.

My phone was a smart phone (Samsung Blackjack II), and I soon came to love all the bells and whistles having that phone provided me. I didn’t want to lose the “non phone” functionality I had with this device to save money.

Because of my chosen line of work, I have been privileged to  just about every kind of mobile device you can think of.  I’ve seen all Apple “i” devices, Google Android devices of all shapes and sizes, Amazon Kindles, Barnes & Noble Nook’s, and even some devices from overseas that aren’t sold in the states.

While I enjoy what technology has to bring us, I don’t enjoy the trend of being “connected” all the time.  What really boggles my mind about this trend are the costs.  Instead of just paying for cellular phone service, now for smart devices there are required data plans, and sometimes required texting plans.  The costs of these plans can be equal to or even more than just the basic calling service.

What I have done that has differentiated myself from the masses is by combining the capabilities of a smart phone, with the affordable qualities of a pre-paid cell phone, utilizing an Apple iPhone 3g.

There are many guides online, explaining how to do such a feat with the iPhone.  I found many to be informative and factual.  They all have at least 1 step incorrect however.  Many will tell you to purchase a SIM card and then activate it via AT&T’s website, which is impossible.  I found this out the hard way, but a SIM card is only a couple of bucks, so it wasn’t a huge deal.  Others tell you to purchase a “Go-Phone” and move the SIM card.  This isn’t a good idea either, as this option actually locks the SIM card to that Go-Phone for a period of 6 months.

I ended up going to an AT&T store with my old phone after our contract had expired, and requested to switch to pre-paid.  It was that simple.  I then just moved the SIM card to the iPhone and voila!

While I can’t access data services when most iPhone users can, that doesn’t bother me.  What makes me happy is knowing that I’m paying 8 times less for basically the same service as they are!

It’s been a little bit over a month since I went pre-paid, and I’ve only spent $11.30!  With VOIP options such as Skype and TextFree, I only need to  use my “paid” minutes when I don’t have a wireless connection.

And that, my friends, is how you have  your cake and eat it too!

Day One

My first day as a student at IU was exciting, exhausting and fulfilling.

I first worked my job at Technology Services at KSoB.  I then rushed over to McNutt for my other job with UITS/TCC.  When I arrived and started to settle in, I received a call asking me to go to Read due to some staffing issues.  So I rushed over to the other end of campus as quick as I could to fulfill this request.

When I arrived I was in shock.  Whomever had worked there last had left the supply cabinet unlocked, and all of it’s contents inside unlocked.  We keep a radio, laptop, hubs and other supplies in it.  Someone could have simply walked in and taken them without worry.

The consultant that should have been there arrived about 30 minutes late, he’s obviously a underclassmen, he didn’t show any sense of responsibility.  We had many tickets and a few appointments to go on as there are many people around campus having problems connecting to IU’s network.  We called many people and were able to resolve the issue on the phone, or close the ticket because the issue had been fixed.

Printing was also basically down across the whole campus.  The printing system was migrated to a new system without any time for testing that is normally done.  Basically what was once many was migrated to a few and all hell broke loose.  As I write this printing is down again.  I hope this issue gets resolved soon, as I genuinely feel bad for these students who rely on university printers.

It was a good, hard and hot shift, but we were productive.

I then rode my bike over to Ballantine Hall, where my American Studies class is.  I arrived almost an hour early, so I had time to relax from the fast paced day I had.

I was amazed to find that my class is very small, only about 10 students!  The topic of this class is how the computer changed history and culture.  I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting class.  Since I’m the geek that I am with regards to computers and history I think it’s the perfect fit for me.

After class I caught the Bloomington Transit, the city’s public bus system.  I get to ride it free since I’m a student at IU.  My bike and I rode over to Wal-Mart where Rachel and Amelia were waiting on me.  This is a better alternative than Rachel packing her up and driving back to campus to pick me up.  I haven’t rode the bus since I was in middle school!  The one thing I can say is bus design has changed significantly since then.

Once we got home, I basically crashed from the days’ activities.  I hope I can keep up the pace.

Today is going to be a whole new adventure that I will update you on tomorrow.

Just What I Needed

This fall is going to be interesting…

The schedule for my job with UITS came out over the weekend, which has me working at Briscoe, McNutt, Foster and the Information Commons.  While this is great where my working life is concerned, it’s horrible for my academic life.  I have classes at Ballantine Hall and in Swain East.  They are on the opposite side of campus.  For those of you that don’t know,  the IU campus is quite large.

To make matters worse, on two of those days I will get out of work 15 minutes before my class starts.

To try to expedite my travel I’m currently working on solutions to get my bike on campus.  With my bike on campus, I think I can cut down the travel time significantly.  Since I live a good trek away, biking to campus isn’t really an option.  I’ve got some options to figure out.  I’m going to either leave my bike on campus during the week and take it home on the weekend, or take it with me each day.  I’m going to test whether my bike will fit in our car tonight, if not we’ll have to order $300 worth of gear ( a hitch and hitch mounted bike rack).

I haven’t seriously rode my bike in about 10 years, which invokes something else, a more active lifestyle.  I’m sure I’ll be really sore for the first couple of weeks, but after that I’ll in much better shape.  Something I need to do.

I also need these items:

I’ve got my eye on particular ones, but I’m still trying to find the best item for the price.

I had thought about these last minute things coming up, I just never realized it would be so exhaustive and expensive.