RezHall Portal

Posted on by Michael

Well my new pet project is the RezHall Portal. Though not as powerful or integrated (yet) as Summer’s portal, it should serve my needs well. Primarily, I want to utilize the SSO (Single Sign-On) technology to it’s max. To do that down here (by down here I mean in the residence halls), I need a piazza – a central place where students (and the student/pro staff) can login and jump ‘seamlessly’ from app to app.

‘course I can’t jump them into mail, calendar, etc…

But it’s a step. We’ll have a place that they are USED to going (since they’ll have to use it to register their computer for online use, submit a work order, etc…). Like ‘freddies – a one stop shop. A place that, hopefully, they can get almost everything that they need. Then if they actually USE it (with all the other online communities out there … Myspace, etc…) we will finally have a way to communication with residents.

It could be big. It could be the best thing I’ve done here. THAT makes me excited.

Look out PL/SQL Developer…

Posted on by Michael

Well everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Oracle’s SQL Developer.

It’s free! And you can download it here. Today John and I used it to login to Aero, update a package and it seems to work seamlessly.

You still have to:
1. Install the free Oracle 8i/9i Client
2. Copy a valid tnsnames.ora file to the right place

But it’s FREE! And Oracle wrote it.

So, here’s my feedback. I like free stuff – don’t get me wrong. I’ve only played with it for like 10 minutes, and haven’t even tried the preferences – but at first glance it’s not QUITE as user-friendly as PL/SQL Developer. However, the way I work is dictacted alot by the functionality of our current app, so that’s not a big deal. It gave me error messages when there were some, but didn’t say OK! Nice job when compiling with no errors.

With some playing and tweaking, I’m sure it does about 98% of what we want/need … and it’s free. I like free stuff, can you tell?

Anyway – try it, let me know what you think…

Presignups (last update)

Posted on by Michael

Presignups has gone well overall. We’ve had a few little ‘bugs’ which we’ve gotten resolved quickly. I’m very pleased. We spent a lot of time testing and it really helped out. I admit I forgot a few things and that has caused us a tiny bit of grief, but we got them resolved and it’ll never happen again – since next year’s setup will be a copy of this year.

Our total returners are just over 300, with a lot of Reapplicants (students wishing to live on campus, but not reserving a specific room). I think our numbers will continue to improve, though we’ve had doubts here and there over the last few weeks. All in all, it’s been a success with no measurable decrease in applications due to this ‘new process’.

You know, it’s never a sure thing when you move from a very manual process to an online process. It requires a tiny leap of faith. Will people get it? Will it work? Will they remember? I mean we’re dealing with a lot of the same issues, but now there’s all this technology in the way. THIS process fortunately hasn’t been so much like that, and the technology hasn’t gotten in the way.

Presignups is a success.

Cameras ever cameras…

Posted on by Michael

Yesterday Bill, John and I put together 5 cameras. I’ve been out sick, so mostly They put them together and I ‘helped’. These new cameras will replace the last of the CCTV (older technology) cameras on campus – primarily the Parking Lot cameras. The new cameras are all IP-based with little enclosures and mini heaters. It’s a pretty nice setup.

Anyway, so yesterday we set all those up, and that was a pretty good success. We had to do some wire splicing and manually wire a few things, but all is well. Now whenever Telecom gets the chance, we can test them out. Once everything’s in good shape, Public Safety can get rid of it’s huge rack of VCR recorders, etc… Our campus will be on one type of technology with one set of recording hardware. Simplicity and technology – it’s a beautiful thing.

Do humans program machines, or do machines program humans?

Posted on by Michael

I had a kind of revelation. Yesterday I was noticing someone walking around listening to an iPod (or some generic). It reminded me of those self help tapes – like in the movie “What about Bob?” where he repeats “I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful” over and over.

Maybe the reason is struck me as funny is that is seems like the iPods are programming us, not the other way around. You’ve heard the phrase “you are what you eat”. If people, like this person I saw, wore their portal music players 24-7 it seems like they are (probably inadvertantly) “programming” themselves.

It’s a proven fact that the best way to remember something is to repeat it over and over. Remember the old joke about having to tell Ed. majors something 7 times so they’ll remember it? Well it’s kinda the same deal. Besides slowly deafening themselves (hear about that?) we are slowly but surely training information into our brains – via music.

It got me to thinking … how else do we do that? Listening to people, TV, movies, newspaper, blogs, etc… In the end, I guess since I believe the old addage “Garbage in, garbage out”, I’m gonna be more careful with what I “program” myself with each day.

Just food for thought.

Other thoughts in relation to the same topic: They call Americans the biggest consumers, but what’s the byproduct of that? What’s the waste?

Presignups Update

Posted on by Michael

This blog could go in a lot of categories. I chose this one, as it’s an on-going project and will continue to have updates in the future.

Squatting started this morning. “Squatting” for the layman, is the process by which Squatters (upperclass residents eligible to stay in their same room next year) choose to stay in their same room next year. Not everyone who can does, and not everyone can (freshman for example). Squatting began at 8am this morning, and already 16 residents have chosen that option. Things are progressing nicely.

So far the only technical hiccup was a resident who tried to update her music preference, but some data corruption has caused a technical glitch. That having been solved, then diagnosed, I don’t expect (who does) anymore technical issues to occur.

On that note, I’m pleased that we had this little bump. Have you ever written something or set something up and thought to yourself “Something’s gonna break..” ? I think that a lot. I’m a very hopeful person – I’m not a cynic or particularly pessimistic. So why do I feel this way? I guess I don’t really feel this way about life, but I DO feel this way about programming/programs.

It really bothers me if something that I write/configure has NO PROBLEMS. That’s almost scarier than something really wrong happening? What did I forget? What is going on that I don’t know about? Am I a techno-phobic? What’s my deal?

Perhaps the fact that I dislike disappointment so much causes me to guard myself by assuming that something WILL break. Then I’m either right or happy – no way to lose there! But that’s no way to live life. I want things to work and work well. If I applied that thinking to programming for say… Air Traffic Controllers that would be a HORRIBLE philosophy.

So maybe I just need to test more. But then I’d get less done. I mean, we fix 98% of those little hiccups in
Anyway, you get the idea. Perhaps Bill, while trying to open my eyes and cause me to see the ‘bigger picture’, has created a monster. I’ll let you make the call.

Blood Drive

Posted on by Michael

I recently completed an application for the Student Health and Counseling Center. Approximately 4 times each year WOU does a blood drive on campus for 1-2 days. In the past, as with most things, the signup list was done on paper. Well all that is changing.

The application I wrote is not simply technology for technology’s sake. It provides more access to a valuable resource, and more importantly empowers the students to choose and signup to give blood themselves. This application has a public interface for anyone to signup, but requires a V#, name, phone#. An admin module runs the days, timeslots, etc…

It’s a cute little application. I hope it works well for them.

Betta late than nevva

Posted on by Michael

I forgot to mention what I did during my staff deveopment last thursday.

I decided to try to setup and configure an HP JetDirect EX Plus (Model J2382B). I got some useful information, most notably that this model didn’t really function with DHCP, but required BootP. Well who has BootP anymore? Anyway, after some research, a very helpful webpage (it was even on HP’s site – amazing) was found, giving some tools, etc…

Anyway, the original problem was that when the JD (JetDirect) was plugged in, it went through it’s startup mode then seemed to reboot. Then after unplugging the network, the device starts ups, but obviously doesn’t work correctly.

So then I’m thinking to myself: A, the device can’t handle 100Mb networks (it’s pretty old); or B, it’s busted; or C, something else is going on. As mentioned earlier, it was a BootP issue. So the handy-dandy reference site (mentioned earlier) had links to like 4-5 bootp download sites – none of which worked.

After some goofing around and stuff I successfully downloaded a Bootp program, which connected to the JetDirect. Step 1.

At this point I had a laptop and the jetdirect plugged into the 10Mb hub. So then I plugged them both into a 100Mb router – I set the laptop to use the DHCP from the router (don’t worry Travis, it wasn’t on the network…) and the JD should be picking up bootp from the laptop. Anyway, long story short, the JD wasn’t busted, and CAN handle 100Mb, it just couldn’t find a bootp server to tell it who the monkey it was.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we ALL had someone to tell us who we are?

Presignups

Posted on by Michael

Well … testing is complete.

Everything is setup.

Starting Monday morning, current residents interested in living on campus next year will sign into this new tool we’ve finished. They’ll sign a financial commitment, and choose some preferences (including roommates). In a few weeks, those that want to squat (stay in their current upperclass room) will choose that option online. The week after, those left over will choose from the leftover rooms online. One long, smooth process. Here’s hoping.

Nothing is perfect the first time, but I think this will work well. We’ve done the testing. We’re training the RAs and Residents next week. I’m pleased. I hope the tool works well for them. I hope the server it’s all on runs steady and doesn’t puke. Time will tell (as it will for other current events here at WOU).