Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I am at a conference...
I am at a conference at the University of NEbraska-Lincoln and we are talking about blogs.
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I started using Jott...
I started using Jott today. I can't believe I can actually send a message to my blog from my cell phone.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
NETC2008 Conference
I am spending some time in North Carolina at the NETC (National Extension Technology Conference) 2008 meeting. It is an annual conference where Information techniology people from the land grant universities across the US gather to share info, network with peers, etc.
I presented a session on what we use for remote access into computers at offices rather than driving as much. I discussed and demonstrated UltraVNC and it's add-on piece SingleClick as well as a demo on CrossLoop. You can see my CrossLoop badge on my home page.
So far the Conference is going good. There are tours tonight and then we go to the Museum of History for supper and browsing through it. Sounds interesting.
I presented a session on what we use for remote access into computers at offices rather than driving as much. I discussed and demonstrated UltraVNC and it's add-on piece SingleClick as well as a demo on CrossLoop. You can see my CrossLoop badge on my home page.
So far the Conference is going good. There are tours tonight and then we go to the Museum of History for supper and browsing through it. Sounds interesting.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Family
What can I say about the most wonderful family a guy could ever imagine. My wife of almost 35 years puts up with my eccentricities and still keeps hanging on to me. My son and daughter are now grown and both have turned out to be the kind of people I am proud to call my children.
Over the years, my wife has had to almost raise our kids as my previous business kept me on the road a lot and out overnight for many weeks. I have done this for a lot of the years that they were growing up - middle and high school anyway. She has not complained - much - and our children turned out ok, so I owe her a lot for that.
Our son is married and though no grand child is on the way (Ahem - if you are reading this!!) and we don't get to see them as much as we would like, we call back and forth a lot and keep in touch that way.
Our daughter lives with us and will graduate from the University in a little over a month. She is the proud mom of the little guy that I have written about already. She has applied and has been offered a job which is in her field and she is very excited about getting to use her degree doing something she likes.
My job keeps me on the road more than I would like, but it is doing something I know well and from what my clients say, I do a decent enough job at it. I drive quite a bit since the area I cover is about 160 x 200 sq miles. I usually don't have to spend any overnights, but on the occasions I do, I usually get a call from my grandson with the little teary voice asking "Grampa, will you put me to bed tonight?" It is enough to make sure I limit my nights out, that's for sure.
There you have it. Just a touch about the ones I love.
Over the years, my wife has had to almost raise our kids as my previous business kept me on the road a lot and out overnight for many weeks. I have done this for a lot of the years that they were growing up - middle and high school anyway. She has not complained - much - and our children turned out ok, so I owe her a lot for that.
Our son is married and though no grand child is on the way (Ahem - if you are reading this!!) and we don't get to see them as much as we would like, we call back and forth a lot and keep in touch that way.
Our daughter lives with us and will graduate from the University in a little over a month. She is the proud mom of the little guy that I have written about already. She has applied and has been offered a job which is in her field and she is very excited about getting to use her degree doing something she likes.
My job keeps me on the road more than I would like, but it is doing something I know well and from what my clients say, I do a decent enough job at it. I drive quite a bit since the area I cover is about 160 x 200 sq miles. I usually don't have to spend any overnights, but on the occasions I do, I usually get a call from my grandson with the little teary voice asking "Grampa, will you put me to bed tonight?" It is enough to make sure I limit my nights out, that's for sure.
There you have it. Just a touch about the ones I love.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Computers
My day job is installing and working on all kinds of technology. It is what I have done since the late 1980's, however I built my first computer in the early 80's. It was a Sinclair ZX-81.
It was introduced in 1981. Sinclair merged with Timex not longer afterwards and that model became the Timex Sinclair.
I built it from a kit that cost me $99.00. It had 1k (that's right K) of RAM. You connected it to a TV. I built an interface that allowed me to save the programs I wrote or typed in from a magazine to a cassette recorder and then I could restore them back to the computer. It used BASIC only. I subscribed to the monthly magazine and copied most of the programs in them to the computer then to the cassette. The block on the back of the picture is a 64k add-on RAMpack. I bought that plus several pre-recorded cassettes at a close-out for $10 or so a couple of years later. That seems to be my way of buying computers - I buy it and then a week later the price drops by half!!
I then went to the Commodore 64. I became a Commodore authorized computer dealer. I did that part-time while working at several "real" jobs in order to pay the bills. In 1987 I started working part-time for an office supply business that was trying to get into computers. I knew more about computers than anyone there, even though I was just hired as a gopher. Eventually I worked my way into the "computer guy" and quit my day job and started working for them.
Toward the end of 1989 I joined with several other guys to start our own computer business. We sold, installed and supported medical office management software that ran on UNIX. I was the hardware and UNIX support person. We covered all of Kansas, a bit into Missouri and also Oklahoma.
I did that until we sold the business in 1995, then continued to work for the guys who bought the company, doing the same thing I had previously been doing.
In 2000 they moved me from the Midwest to Florida to become the Regional Service Manager. That lasted until August 2001 when I went back to Kansas.
That takes me to doing what my current job is Technology Support Specialist for a State University covering the western third of the state.
More in a later post. I don't want to bore you too much at one time.
It was introduced in 1981. Sinclair merged with Timex not longer afterwards and that model became the Timex Sinclair.I built it from a kit that cost me $99.00. It had 1k (that's right K) of RAM. You connected it to a TV. I built an interface that allowed me to save the programs I wrote or typed in from a magazine to a cassette recorder and then I could restore them back to the computer. It used BASIC only. I subscribed to the monthly magazine and copied most of the programs in them to the computer then to the cassette. The block on the back of the picture is a 64k add-on RAMpack. I bought that plus several pre-recorded cassettes at a close-out for $10 or so a couple of years later. That seems to be my way of buying computers - I buy it and then a week later the price drops by half!!
I then went to the Commodore 64. I became a Commodore authorized computer dealer. I did that part-time while working at several "real" jobs in order to pay the bills. In 1987 I started working part-time for an office supply business that was trying to get into computers. I knew more about computers than anyone there, even though I was just hired as a gopher. Eventually I worked my way into the "computer guy" and quit my day job and started working for them.
Toward the end of 1989 I joined with several other guys to start our own computer business. We sold, installed and supported medical office management software that ran on UNIX. I was the hardware and UNIX support person. We covered all of Kansas, a bit into Missouri and also Oklahoma.
I did that until we sold the business in 1995, then continued to work for the guys who bought the company, doing the same thing I had previously been doing.
In 2000 they moved me from the Midwest to Florida to become the Regional Service Manager. That lasted until August 2001 when I went back to Kansas.
That takes me to doing what my current job is Technology Support Specialist for a State University covering the western third of the state.
More in a later post. I don't want to bore you too much at one time.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Photography thoughts
I am currently taking a photography correspondance course from the New York Institute of Photography. It was a bit expensive, but it seemed like they had a lot of good lessons and information that could help me.
I consider myself a photography enthusiast. I have been taking pictures ever since my grandmother gave me her first Brownie box camera. (How I wish I still had that one!) I was probably around 12 years old or so and even though it didn't have a flash, it was mine.
I now have a Canon 10d digital camera that I bought used from ebay. I decided that spending $500 to find out if I really had (or could acquire) the talent and inspiration that is needed to bring out the things I have in my mind was better than $2000 for the newest model with all the bells and whistles.
I am learning some things. Some I have picked up from the correspondance course, some I have figured out by looking at what I had taken and how it could have been done better.
I have been asked to provide some photos for the University I work for in their publications and news departments. I don't know if I will ever get anything published, but I am sending things in to them when I can. That has helped get me into thinking more about what they could use and less about just taking pictures of things just because I think they are pretty.
My long range goals are to get through my course, start asking around to see if any friends would model for me and eventually start a photography studio that I can use to take maternity and newborn pictures.
I really enjoyed taking pictures of my grandson when he was a baby. Mostly I took the monthly series of portraits, but every once in a while I would just start photographing him just doing whatev
er babies do.
Isn't he a doll. I even like his little elf ears. He is three years old now, and he is my buddy.
More on him in another post, I think.
I consider myself a photography enthusiast. I have been taking pictures ever since my grandmother gave me her first Brownie box camera. (How I wish I still had that one!) I was probably around 12 years old or so and even though it didn't have a flash, it was mine.
I now have a Canon 10d digital camera that I bought used from ebay. I decided that spending $500 to find out if I really had (or could acquire) the talent and inspiration that is needed to bring out the things I have in my mind was better than $2000 for the newest model with all the bells and whistles.
I am learning some things. Some I have picked up from the correspondance course, some I have figured out by looking at what I had taken and how it could have been done better.
I have been asked to provide some photos for the University I work for in their publications and news departments. I don't know if I will ever get anything published, but I am sending things in to them when I can. That has helped get me into thinking more about what they could use and less about just taking pictures of things just because I think they are pretty.
My long range goals are to get through my course, start asking around to see if any friends would model for me and eventually start a photography studio that I can use to take maternity and newborn pictures.
I really enjoyed taking pictures of my grandson when he was a baby. Mostly I took the monthly series of portraits, but every once in a while I would just start photographing him just doing whatev
er babies do.
Isn't he a doll. I even like his little elf ears. He is three years old now, and he is my buddy.
More on him in another post, I think.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Starting out
While I am not much at putting random things down in writing, I will need to decide which way I want this to go. Do I make this about my photography, my family, my work? At this point, I am not sure. I will have to see where my remblings take me.
I have debated about starting this for a quite a while. My biggest decision was whether I would keep it up. I hope to conquer that fear by adding this to my Google Start page so that I will see it on a regular basis.
Here's to blogging!!!
I have debated about starting this for a quite a while. My biggest decision was whether I would keep it up. I hope to conquer that fear by adding this to my Google Start page so that I will see it on a regular basis.
Here's to blogging!!!
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