Teacher builds computer lab... For free.

I don't normally just link to another blog/article but I couldn't pass this one up. It is a story that needs to be told and spread as much as possible...

Everyone knows that these days technology has become a huge part of education. There are tons of schools using laptops, iPads, digital whiteboards, etc. in the classroom now. Computers are an essential part of getting the younger generations ready to compete in the current and future job market. Without at least a basic set of computer skills there are many jobs that will simply be out of reach to them.

Unfortunately, there are still many schools that simply do not have the budget for a computer lab or other equipment to help their students get a head start on learning to deal with computers. Such was the case at ASCEND, a "small arts K-8 school in Alameda County School District" in California. With no budget for equipment, one teacher took it upon himself to make sure the students at his school had the basic tools they needed to jump-start their education in technology. With the help of donated computers and some Open-Source software (Ubuntu Linux) Robert Litt, a sixth-grade teacher, set up a full computer lab for his student for the grand total of $0.

To read the whole story, check out: "How One Teacher Built a Computer Lab for Free" at ifixit.org.

Donated Computers

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Open Source Operating Systems

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A Free Computer Lab!

Neck/Back Injury, Worker's Compensation, and Other Updates

First of all, I want to apologize to everyone for being absent for so long. I've been meaning to post lately but between work, doctor visits, and family obligations things have been a bit stressful. Why the doctor visits, you ask? Because the human body is stupid. The other day I was at work and had to move around some big rolls of print material to get to the roll that I needed. Over the course of my graphic design/digital printing career I have done this hundreds upon hundreds of times. It is usually a very easy process. The rolls are 54" tall and weigh anywhere from 5 to 80 pounds depending on how much material is left on the roll. You only have to lift them a few inches off the ground to move them so it is usually a pretty simple process. I lifted this particular roll the same way I have lifted countless others. 

Something went wrong this time though. When I lifted it I immediately felt a sharp, stabbing pain in the base of my neck and through my upper back. It didn't really hurt that bad at first, just enough to be noticeable, but I went and sat down for a bit anyway. The pain slowly got worse so the office filled out the incident reports for worker's compensation just in case. I decided to put a visit to the doctor off to see if it would work itself out. Unfortunately, it didn't. So the next day I went to the doctor to get it checked out. They gave me some meds and told me to take it easy for a few days and to come back in a week if it wasn't better. It has been getting increasingly more painful and my range of motion is pretty limited. So I went back to the doctor today and they gave me more meds and are scheduling me an MRI.

While all of this has been going on I've been on restricted duty. No lifting more than 5lbs., etc. So I've pretty much been chained to my desk. It is starting to suck. While my main job is graphic design, I also run the printers and other hardware in the art department. I enjoy that part of the job. It gets me away from my computer for a bit and makes the day seem to go by faster. Now I'm stuck at my desk for a full 8 hours. It is making me twitchy. I'm hoping my neck is just strained or something and will get better soon. I feel like a wuss just sitting around while everyone else is doing the "real work." I even had to ask my boss to come upstairs the other day to load a roll of material onto the printer. He was happy to do it but I still don't like being "that guy."

Other than that things have been going pretty well. Even though I'm still in a financial black hole, I almost have my student loan situation lined out. Once everything is processed I'll be able to go back to school. Sometimes I feel like I'm too old to even bother but it has always been a goal of mine to finish my education. And if I can get it done I'll still have many years left to teach. I know a lot of professors who worked well into their 70's. I'm still a long way off from my goals but as long as I am making progress it keeps me motivated.

I'll try to get back to posting on a regular schedule soon. I got a new phone, and its pretty awesome, so I'm planning on doing a review on it. And of course football season is coming up so there will no doubt be many Fantasy Football posts to come.

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for reading.

A Quad-Core Computer for $130

The other day I was checking out one of my favorite tech blogs, ! ComeAtMeBro-Daily tech news, and came across a post that I just had to share. I don't want to jack the content so I'm just going to post a pic and the link. You should definitely go check it out though. I can easily think of over 9,000 DIY projects I could do with one of these things.

Quad-Core Computer for $130!

To check out the article either click on the photos or this link to go straight to the blog.

Verizon offers 300Mbps Quantum Internet service... Srsly?

So Verizon has decided to offer a 300Mbps internet service in select markets. This insanely fast service option is part of their FiOS offering which is a Fiber Optic "To The Home" service. Fiber Optic delivers a much more consistent connection so high speeds can be sustained instead of just getting speed "spikes" up to advertised speeds like some cable and DSL providers offer.




Verizon offers 300Mbps Quantum Internet Service

Verizon is offering four different speed packages for their FiOS service. Their "slowest" package offers 50Mbps downloading speed and 25Mbps uploading speed ($79.99/Month). It is the second number that excites me. Anyone that has ever played a FPS or any other multi-person online game knows that if your upload speed sucks your gameplay experience is going to suck as well. With the Fiber option you're going to have rock solid consistent upload speeds so there should be absolutely no worries about any in-game lag.

The other three packages that round out the offering are 75Mbps/35Mbps ($89.99/Month), 150Mbps/65Mbps ($99.99/Month), and of course the beast... 300Mbps/65Mbps ($209.99/Month!).

While any geek would drool all over themselves for this sort of connection, is it really worth it? I mean, as an individual user, do you do enough with your internet connection to take full advantage of it? Personally I think I would be fine with the 50/25 package. That would be MORE than enough for what I do on the interwebs.

But, then again, Verizon claims that on the 300/65 package you can download a 5GB HD movie in 2.2 minutes. And let us be completely honest... That's just really fucking cool.

Backorder Blues - An Update

So I spoke with my sales rep and told him I couldn't wait for the board to get back into stock. We looked at several other equivalent options and I ended up getting a board that was just a bit more expensive, though not quite as awesome as the one I originally ordered, for the same price. My RAM is going to be throttled down a bit but for what this computer is going to be used for it shouldn't really matter. The board is on its way and should be here Friday.

As soon as it gets here I'm dropping it in and getting everything set up. I'm hoping it gets here early enough that I can have it all installed and ready to go by the time I leave for the weekend. Here is a shot of the case awaiting its new board.

I'm not gonna lie, if dude slips up just once, this computer is going to be mine. I have already contemplated re-routing all the monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables between my computer and his. He probably wouldn't even notice the difference since my system is fairly badass as well. And since we share an office and his desk is only like 8 feet from mine, it could easily be done.

I'll keep you updated.

Backorder Blues

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently ordered a computer to replace one here at the office that shat itself. I thought all was well... I got an order confirmation, a shipping notification, and have even been tracking the shipment in anticipation of its arrival.

I get to the office this morning and am greeted by this message (Bold/Italics indicates my edits):

Hi You Poor Bastard,

On checking your order from Friday … I note that the above part shows a back order status because God hates you … I am checking into this and will get back to you with an update or I'll just let you sit there and stare at your monitor helplessly while waiting for an update that will never come … 

Messenger of Satan

So, yeah... Later today I will have a big box of parts with nothing to connect them to. I hope you're all having a better day than I am.

Co-worker's computer crashes, epic frustration ensues.

So I got to work Tuesday looking forward to a short week due to the long holiday weekend. My optimism was short lived though. Shortly after arriving at the office I was informed that one of our design computers had shat itself over the weekend. When I tried to boot it up I was greeted with this:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device

Now, first let me explain why I am the one who was informed of this problem. While I am merely the lowly graphic designer here, I spent over 10 years as an IT Manager/Computer Tech/Network Administrator for various companies.

Tech Support

I mistakenly included this information on my resume. So now I get to take care of all of the little computer issues that come up around here.

I get to work around 8am every morning. The guy who the troubled computer belongs to gets here around 7am. So I ask him what happened. He said he had shut down his computer Friday afternoon and when he got there Tuesday morning and tried to boot it up, the Boot device message came up. It was a little something like this:

Right. Ok, so I go through the various troubleshooting steps. Popped into the Bios to see what was up. The drive was being detected. Kinda. It was showing the wrong capacity and the name of the drive was "@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@". Pretty awesome, huh?

I went through a few trial and error routines and was getting the same result each time. So, not wanting to spend more time on it than necessary I just chalked it up to a dead hard drive and decided to order another one. If I was wrong? I've got an extra hard drive. No harm, no foul. So I order a Solid State Drive, a 2.5"-3.5" adapter, and new cables. Yesterday morning it finally came in so I popped in the new drive, got everything connected, tossed in the Windows XP CD, fired it up and got everything installed and it was running like a champ.

So I get to work this morning and am told to go check out the same computer again. I get upstairs and see this:

...

Ok, so it turns out it wasn't the drive. After more intensive tests I chalked it up to a dying motherboard. Yes, this is the generic tech diagnosis when we have no fucking clue what is wrong. But you know what? Fuck that computer. I hated it anyway. It was too old and too slow. Besides, I have my suspicions that there were more serious and threatening issues here anyway.

Anyway. So today I ordered a new barebones system to put together as a replacement.

It has an Intel i7-2600K processor, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD hard drive, etc. etc. Compared to what it is replacing it is a fucking beast. When I told dude he was FINALLY getting a new computer, he reacted just as I thought he would.

So, yeah, that has pretty much been my week.