I continue to wander around counting bars on my iPhone. Northfield has amazing coverage. I get full bars in places were my Verizon phone was completely dead zoned. I had edge coverage downtown and read and sent emails from the Subway over lunch. I’m hopeful that there will be 3G coverage soon. Edge was fine for Twitter and a one or two sentence email but I wouldn’t want to download music or pictures with it.
[podcast]http://www.skoda.net/podcast/cis2230-ep2.mp3[/podcast]
There are no slides for episode 2, please use chapter 1 of the book and follow along. This episode talks about the duties of a system administrator. I also introduce the idea that many decisions a system admin makes will not be based on technology (or achieving the best technical solution.) Many decisions will be based on business needs and my run counter to the best possible technical outcome.
At the end of the day, system admin is about helping people get the most out of technology in order to achieve your organization’s goals.
So I’ve got my phone, it’s registered and working as a phone and I’ve transferred all my iPod Touch apps over. Now I’m obsessed with coverage, wandering around watching the number of bars where-ever I go. I’m not sure why I’m doing this, Verizon coverage in Vermont is not that great. I guess I’m hoping that AT&T will be at least the same, if not a little better.
The upside is that if I can’t make a call I can listen to my iTunes music or watch Futurama. Things I couldn’t do with my Verizon-damaged Razr.
Ethics and some historical perspective here. We have to talk about ethics because as sysadmins you’ll have powers that normal users don’t. Using those powers for self gain and evil will result in criminal charges in this day and age.
We talk about some history in order to provide some context to the concepts of system administration. Why do you need a dedicated system admin when wizards and help screens can get most users by? Well, it stems from the olden days when you had expensive machines and you needed administrative controls to make users share the hardware.
[podcast]http://www.skoda.net/podcast/cis2230-ep1.mp3[/podcast]
[podcast]http://www.skoda.net/podcast/cis2230-ep0.mp3[/podcast]
This is the first lecturecast for system admin. It’s lecture zero because it is the introduction stuff that we typically do on day 1 of lecture. Look for the syllabus and slides in the forums. I’ve got another lecture hot on the heels of this one. I want to keep the segments shorter this semester but post them more frequently.
A teacher in California sold the space at the bottom of exams to advertisers. I suppose I’m no better using Google Ads on my blog and posting materials for my courses. I have not had a student complain about ads on my blog, yet. I don’t know if I would sell the footer on my handouts and exams to advertisers. I suppose it’s a way to generate revenue to cover educational expenses, but what student is going to want to patronize a company that sponsored an exam; especially if the student tanks the test.
I don’t think students would associate good thoughts about a business if there’s a big red F right next to “This test brought to you by the shady corner coffee house“
The other thing to consider is how many students would read the ad. As soon as they figure out that the footer of each page holds something not associated with the test or their grade I’m guessing that most of them will forget the ad completely.
The sample ad in the article was small and text only but, what about something more visually noisy. I wonder if a student could contest the validity of the exam because of a yellow, red, and green graphic advertising a new video game. That could really hamper concentration on the task at hand for some students.
I think I’ll keep my exams and handouts ad free.
I realize there is a time and location setup for CIS 2230. Please do not go to class for lecture. Please go to http://www.skoda.net/smf/ and read the forums for CIS 2230. If you do not have an account on the forums, please register and I’ll put you in the appropriate group so you can get into the course forum.
Please DO attend the labs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Check out the 3 Jan Rooster Teeth comic at http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/home.php
I knew I wasn’t the only one who liked the Empire. I always play them in Star Wars: Battlefront (1 and 2) and I revel in crushing the rebels. Every time I play I always announce to the house that I’m making the galaxy secure from political strife and safe for the citizens of the Empire.
Now that the holidays have come and gone, here’s the return of the standard skoda.net look and feel.
