Yes. It’s a real ticket. From a real school. And someone really needs to go “clean” the laptop. (Not Me Thankfully)
December 8, 2011
Test of @blogsyapp for @mikecane
This is a test using local images from the iPad camera roll and uploading to a wordpress site for @mikecane.
September 9, 2011
Using MRTG to monitor Dell EqualLogic
Alright – if you’re here you likely already know what the Dell EqualLogic is and what MRTG is typically used for. You likely also know that there’s a (free) download from Dell called EqualLogic SAN Headquarters that can give you a ton of good information about your SAN. It has everything from volume capacity, replica capacity, firmware versions and even I/O information for the group(s) you have. Unfortunately, there’s a level of granularity that’s missing from SAN HQ. If you want to know which volume or volumes are getting hammered on a daily basis, which ones have higher read or write I/Os – you’re basically out of luck. The same goes for using the standard Group Manager application.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
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September 7, 2011
HMH Access 21st Century, DEP and You!
Alright, if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Access 21st Century yet – and most of you never will – then here’s a quick rundown.
First here’s the FAQ / Tech Notes page – you’re going to need it.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the developer/publisher. Long story short with this application, is it provides a learning environment (computer based) for at risk kids. And that’s about the extent of my knowledge for what the product actually does. Sorry – I’m a systems administrator, not a teacher so going hands on in depth with the learning environment just isn’t part of the role.
Anyway, there’s a couple important things to know that may very well trip you up if you end up installing this platform for your district.
First: DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT trust the built in database backup utility in the application. I’m not sure what the story is with it – but 90% of the time it fails to provide a backup at all. When it does – you can bet that you’re going to try 9 or 10 times to get it to restore. So, by all means use the utility but have a backup plan! My personal method (after a nightmare of problems with the application today) is to stop the Access 21st Century service and take a copy of the data directory in program files. Yes, its a manual process, but I see no other option. I’ll continue backing up the VM, but these other two methods of app DB backup and data directory backup might be the only way to get the data restored. Speaking of – when you can’t restore the database properly – try this:
April 10, 2011
How To Win The Tablet War Against The iPad
(link via @mikecane)
IMHO this is how you win the tablet war against Apple. Look at that price tag. Now, this is not for a brand new, never before seen device although it is the first time you could buy it WIFI only. The original Galaxy Tab shipped in November of 2010 making the actual device about 6 months old and definitely last year’s tech compared to the likes of the iPad 2, but let me ask you something:
Do you really think the average buyer who walks into a Best Buy looking for an iPad is going to care when they ask the sales person if there are cheaper options?
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