Becoming an IT person

I'm not quite sure if the new feelings I have been getting about helping people solve computer problems is a natural extension of my current job or just how stressful my life seems right now. I can't help but feeling irritated when someone asks me how to perform such and such action on a computer or what to do if their computer freezes. For some reason these questions can make even the closest of friends become the biggest annoyance. I guess luckily I have my fix all solution for all  computer problems figured out: just restart the computer.

How to fix a Mac

While I am far from being an expert on Macs, well maybe not even close to being able to operate one functionally, I have had a fair amount of experience in the last weeks to try my hand at acting like I do. Among the list of things I have had to fix were: a docket that wouldn't allow the user to open their trash can, a server whose FTP services were down, and my own Mac which stalled and wouldn't boot properly after installing an OS update. 

In all these scenarios and the many more I haven't listed I had to spend several minutes of research to find where I was supposed to start. After screening several tech help forums and help guides I then took a few more minutes to implement the change necessary to fix the problem. All in all I usually spent about an hour per problem to insure I wouldn't make any error (and to help remember later on what I did exactly to fix the problem). In every case, and really I can't think of an exception, all my solutions that I tried to use on the problems didn't solve them. I can tell you, though, that in every case the computer ended up being fixed. How, you might ask? Well if there's one Mac secret that I've learned from all my computer fixings is this: restarting a Macintosh will almost always fix the current problem you are having.

I can't tell you how frustrating it has been to see that all my solutions eventually were trumped by just restarting the computer. I now honestly just restart any computer that has some sort of error on it or other. In doing this I have cut down my time from finding the problem to fixing it by ten fold. Too bad this method can't be used in other areas of my life...

My personal website

http://fileserver.art.utah.edu/~rtabet/Russells_Website/Drawing_the_Future.html

Layer 8 problems of other kinds

While my job is strictly supposed to be IT based I still haven't been able to escape office gossip. This is what I believe illustrates layer 8 problems exactly, though this time it's people unable to operate around other people functionally. I have only been at my current job and already am knee deep in gossip that I wish I wasn't in. While the gossip level isn't as terrible as I have experienced in jobs past, I still didn't expect much from a place that has only has 6 employees. I can't wrap my brain around why people can't work together in a strictly formal manner so that no gossip, bad relationships, or just stupid fights have to occur.

People not getting along is the major reason why I have choosen a career that involves more interaction with a computer than other coworkers or people- because at the very least I always have the option of hitting the power button.

Changing pemissions and confidence

The other day my coworker was having problems because she was unable to save a document which wasn't shared to her. I knew from my earlier experiences in the office that this was just a common file permission issue and I knew of the two ways to allow the coworker to rewrite the file. The first way to change permissions on Mac OS X is to go to the file> right click the file> click get info> then click the permissions tab> and then from there use the drop down bars to change the permission per user/user groups. This way is the easier way to change permissions, and also the only way I really knew how to change it without help.

When I logged in as the user who owned the file and went to change the permission through the instructions above, I then was presented with the problem that the file randomly set permissions to everybody can't read or write on the file- including the owner. I was more than frustrated and repeatedly tried to change the permissions via the drop down bar with no success. I knew that my last option was to change it through terminal- an application that allows the user to interact with the computer through a command line interface.

Without any knowledge of how to actually use terminal I had to fall onto my backup plan: my brother. My brother is the person whom I replaced at this job and he's continuing to work 10 hours a week to insure that I don't run into any major problems (and to train me as much as he can before he entirely quits). In about 30 minutes of instant messaging he was able to coach me into successfully changing the file permissions. The list of commands used follows:

cd / (command to change directory to the root directory- shown by /)
cd /example folder (change directory to specified folder which contained the file I wanted)
ls (command to list what directories/folders are located in the current directory)
cd /example2 folder (change directory to where the file existed)
ls (list files once again to insure I'm in the right place)
chmod 777 example.file (command to change mode of file to 7- read and write for user, the user group, and everybody)

Though I was able to complete the task of permission changing I still felt rediculous that it took me so long to do such a simple task and that the coworker had to wait for almost an hour to use the file she needed to use. I don't know if I have high expectations of myself but I still want to feel confident I can fully perform my job duties. I guess the upcoming three month review will determine that.

A Hero for those calling for help

A deep and low moan drifted through my office doorway which were followed by a few angry words. Shivers ran up my spine and my palms started to sweat. I knew this was coming, I had dreaded this moment for several nights. A shrill voice from another room calling for help sounded. I slowly stood up from my chair and walked towards the moans of pain all the while my the my armpits were putting out as much water as a tropical storm.

"Hey, what's up?" I nerviously questioned my coworker.

"I was working on this news article and then it just disappeared. I didn't touch anything and it just disappeared." She lamented to me. "I need it back because I've already spent quite a few hours on it." She rolled away from her desk and motioned for me to inspect the article-murdering computer. I reached out and placed my hand on the mouse as my mind started to fanatically whirl with thoughts.

"Ok, it might be that she closed the file accidently. Does this program autosave? What do I do if it didn't save it? What if it was the operating system glitching? I don't know what to do if this Apple computer crashes." I felt like a ER doctor trying to save a patient and that any small error would be certain tradegdy, but then my eye caught something sitting in the corner of the screen. With my hand on the mouse I glided the cursor over to an icon sitting on the docket. There in front of my cursor was the minimized document that she thought she had lost. I clicked on it and the document spread across the screen.

"Oh, thank you Russ, you are a savior." She said to me.

"You're very welcome." I noblely responded back. I turned around and proudly strod out of the room enjoying the sighs of reliefs from my coworker. I looked down at my shadow as I walked back to my office and could see a cape flapping gallantly behind me. I returned to my work, grining ear to ear with as much confidence as a super hero because truly I had saved the day.

First days of work

What is the best way to train a relatively inexperienced IT person to fully be capable of providing a small company with all the technological needs they may need? That question was left up to the two people who had my job prior to my hiring. They had concluded that, with the two short weeks that they had to train me, the most efficient way of training me would firstly just be allowing me to sit down, read, and absorb as much information I could gather from Wikipedia. Beyond that they hoped that anything more specifically pertaining to my job they would just teach me as the need aroused.

So, on the first day, I started my haphazard research with a general list of terms I should research on Wikipedia that they sent me via email:

"Greetings!

Read these articles:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

and familiarize yourself with everything here:

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_Layer
7. http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/

Yours,"

I opened the first link in email and read through the first paragraph of the article. I sat back and thought about what I had just read, realizing that I hadn't a clue what it meant. I then attacked the first paragraph another time, this time clicking on the first hyperlinked term to better understand what was being said. When I was brought to the article about packet-switched internetwork I once again stumbled upon several terms I didn't quite understand the meanings of. So I continued my process of clicking on terms I need to know to understand the context I was attempting to read and dug into the subject furvantly.

My reading session was eventually interupted by my coworker who reminded me that it was lunch time and I should take a break. By this time I was buried about thrity links deep and had only managed to progress to the third paragraph of the first term that was suggest to me. By the end of the working day I was exhausted and unsure of how much I actually learned through all the reading I had done.

The next work day came and I started my reading again. I read the first paragraph, sat back, and thought if I could summarize what had been said:

"Internet Protocol is the standard of communicating data through the internet which, um, it uses addresses and data encryption to send packets?" I guessed to myself. This time I was able to just quickly browse through a hyperlink to reestablish what I learned from the day before. I got close, much to my surprise. I finished reading the rest of the article about Internet Protocol that day and felt pretty confident I understood the jist of it.

Only on the third day, when I started on the second recommended article, that I started to feel like I was actually learning something as I was able to skip many hyperlinked terms because I already understood their definitions. Even after several days of tediously reading through articles on the web I still had little to boost my confidence that I will be able to do my job satifactorally- I guess my three month job review will be the truest test.

Holzer's site

Please change your beliefs. Again the message scrolls across the screen. Simple and strikingly odd at first the message slowly becomes more convincing with each pass it makes across the screen. What first was a random phrase is now much more an imperative- clicking the scrolling text is less of my choosing than it is a forced command. This is just one feature that caught my eye while browsing the front page of Holzer's adaweb.com/project page. Holzer's site is a strong demonstration of the power and characteristics of the web medium, such as the commanding effect that printed text has. 

Holzer's project is simply amazing as she uses the power of the text to continually keep the reader engaged and following the many links of her site. Holzer, with the use of the web medium, is able to make old trueism and often nonsensical paragraphs be considered as incredibly wise insights. It's simply odd how a old trueism transforms from suggestions to a clever idea when put into text. Of course, the transformation of the trueisms into the web medium changes them into a more temporal form which destroys some of the lasting effects that the phrases may have. But at the same time putting the project onto the web allows Holzer to extend her audience far beyond what she could cover if she were to transfer her messages to displays set up at a single location. 

Inaugural Post

The name of this blog comes from a programming inside joke which programmers use to refer to user related problems (meaning the source of the problem is from the person using the computer rather than the computer itself being the cause). It's only until recently that I learned about this joke and it's meaning as I have been trying to teach myself how to program and how to use Linux. My need to learn both programming and Linux stems from my new job as an Information Technologist at a small, local newspaper. All of the learning I am required is quite the daunting task for me since I have really had no real qualified experience with IT related jobs prior to obtaining this new job.

Because of my lack of experience it is most often that I am the source of my problems at work- or in otherword user related problems. Therefor this blog is about all the layer 8 problems that I am the source of. It's from my frustration that the idea to blog about my experience of both the slow learning process and stress of a new job. I hope to detail both my new discoveries, the pitfalls that I may befall, and hopefully the success I have over this semester while maybe offering some new information to the readers of this blog.