Tsky Blog

Who turned out the lights?

2010-03-08 (22:25:56)
Gah! Frrnnng! Nnnyyyynnnnggg! The thing about networks is, the really important thing is.. it's supposed to TRANSMIT DATA. Yeah, important thing there - moving data from one location to another requires a medium in which to travel - now for optic fibre networks this is a light reflecting strand within which laser light can travel to signify the binary data. So, you have these cables, they all connect together (and because someone went on the cheap and seemingly smoked crack [allegedly] when they designed and put the whole lot together) and they lose signal at each (and there are a great many) connection point. Then you get the whole lot checked ten years after it's been put in and you find that when it's connected back up it now no longer works.
Welcome to my world, take a ticket and get in the queue - all IT engineers are currently busy working to solve your problem.
So I managed to get it working before the day started properly and I've spent today trying to get the workpacks together in order to start the purchasing process for the stuff we need to try and get the revamp process started in earnest (why does it always start in earnest? surely there's better towns to start in?).
So yeah, anyhow - the new Microsoft tablet thing looks interesting, even though it's only in CGI format at present. I could see that working really well in education especially if it's priced correctly.
Also, skinput systems look really nice, if they get that into a nice crispy package I can see people having little iPod thingies attached to their arm with a video input selection screen displayed on their arm.
Currently looking at new workstations for us techies (our's are about to detonate after their recent workload rebuilding the network and in their previous life as DC's) and PC's for use around the classrooms. Lots of prices are going up again and lots of new Intel chips are coming on the scene with insane benchmarks. I'll have some of that methinks...