Friday, August 06, 2010

Post catch up

Well it's been almost two week since my last entry. Quite a different two week actually, as work place is alot more quieter now with the kids being on their school holidays... 5 week of bliss. Although the work we have been doing has been quite repetitive, yet it is a job that should be useful once it's completed.

We have basically been moving over to SpiceWorks network management system and away from SharePoint. I have yet to come to terms with the new software, but it is alot more powerful, plus custom made plugins (or Widgets) can be added. We have spent the majority of the week going around the work placement and creating an item log (Assett) for every piece of equipment that we deal with. There are well over 800 items, and they all have to be typed up and kept up to date. Fun...

Apart from work I have been working on my programming, and am slowly beginning to understand methods around problems I face. I also learned - thanks to Dean :) - about variables within functions, classes, or global, and how they affect one and another. From learning this I could see errors appearing before I actually wrote the code.

We have been thinking about a way to randomly place objects that correspond to certain parameters within a chart. We have thought of several solutions, but Dean is convinced he has found the right method for us to work upon. I believe his judgement, but think I will struggle to keep up when it comes to actually writing the code.

Weekend has arrived once again so I must crack on with my programming. Going to work on getting my code shortened, and also commented well, as well as add or repair some more features to extend my knowledge.

On an off topic note: Bought Starcraft 2 and love it!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Figured it out...

Managed to get my script working with some help from Dean! VBS doesn't accept 'Format'. Instead, I have now used Date(Now()) & Time(Now())

Works fine on local printers. Just need to do the big test - All the printers on the network.

On a good note: Last day of the school term, which means work will be a hell of a lot more quieter over the next 5 weeks :) - Hopefully get a lot of work done aswell to improve the performance of our network. Especially the virtual side of things.

Saturday I will be spending some time doing more programming. Need to get my Excel manipulation to work correctly, as well as experiment with using code to create graphs, which I should have done last week.

Saturday

Saturday has now come, and I am currently worknig on the Excel manipulation project, but finding it hard to concentrate today. Mostly due to celebrating last night, as well as a few hour of playing five a side football. Can't let it get in my way though, gotta get this work done!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Scripting...

Currently working on a script that pastes print queues into and Excel sheet, then saves the sheet as the current date. Seems to work the excel part fine, but errors when saving.

Here is what I have:

objExcel.ActiveWorkBook.SaveAs _
"File location" & Format (Date, "YYYYMMDD") & ".xls"
objExcel.ActiveWorkBook.Close

Seems to error on 'Format'

I will post my findings once I figure out what the problem is

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It's been a while...

Well, I haven't posted anything for a good year or so, and I believe I have changed so much within this time.

No more dissapointing people or myself with missing close targets, or trying too hard and getting knowhere. I now feel like I am improving constantly, as well as keeping (or trying) many members of staff happy within my workplace.

Becoming a technician doesn't sound that hard. Change a few mice here, replace a few keyboards there, well there's a hell of a lot more to it than people may think.

For starters one of the most enjoyable aspects for me within this job is cabling out new rooms, or expanding the infrastructure. This, in most cases, contains having to climb through narrow spaces, or under stage area where it's pitch black, or scrambling through roof tiles. Although anyone can throw cables through a roof, I have to make sure that the cabling suites the rooms best needs, or the best method for getting area's access via cables.

I'm no expert, but I do believe I have a good enough know how, and can do the job with little issues.

Putting up Smartboards and projectors can be challenging, but fun. I'm quite a hands on person. One of my downsides though, is that my learning seems to revolve around this method aswell. I cannot seem to learn very well just by being shown or told... I have to try it for myself.

I have also ran my own club after school teaching kids Web Design and Photoshop Elements. This was another great learning experience as I was managing the classes, as well as monitoring the kids, and also getting kids involved and excited about their work. A fantastic feeling, and I would seriously think about teaching others, but the 3 years or so at university doesn't appeal to me.

I have just retook my English GCSE and hope to achieve atleast a B, and in September I will be retaking my Maths. Although I believe there are better courses out there that would suite my needs better, I believe that maths and english are the most important.

I would love to do an MCSE, or something along the lines, and hopefully my workplace will contribute to this type of training. Not sure when exactly, but for now I am busy enough without it!

Currently doing a programming course (MCVB), which I am getting through steadily. You will notice me placing my code in here to show examples and maybe get feedback. I am hopefully starting to do some advanced Flash animation with Tom over the holidays, but that will also depend on time, but hopefully will evolve after some time into 3D modelling?

Will also be learning SilverLight and possibly the new Microsoft Exspressions software.

So... A little more about me then. I work Full time within a school as an ICT Technician. This job includes cabling, general electrical maintennence around the site, CCTV, component level repairs on PC's Laptops and monitors, Poster design, scripting, support for software such as: Macromedia products and Microsoft Office products, networking, virtualisation, and a boatload of other things. Not as simple as people think.

I am taking an MCVB course at home, and also do some one on one training with Dean. Will be doing some Flash work, as well as Maths, and potentially an MCSE...so very busy lifestyle!

Other interests: Cooking, gaming, space, movies, drawing

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Summative Report

Where am I now?

I have come from a 2 year Higher National Diploma in Interactive Media. The course has learnt me basic and advanced web authoring techniques, as well as print work, web accessibility and standards. I have progressed steadily through the two years and have enjoyed the course thoroughly. I have not learned everything that I originally thought I would be learning, and I do still feel that this was the wrong course. Hopefully I have learned enough to get me into a full time work placement

Where am I going?

I will be looking for a web and print based job in the Wakefield area. Hopefully more web design work, as I still feel inexperienced when it comes to print work. I have been thinking about taking a graphic design course in a few years time but this will most likely depend on where I am in life at that time. If a job is unavailable to me then I will be going into full time work elsewhere and do web design or print design freelance. I have already got some freelance experience and I enjoy it.