I haven't had a chance to post a blog on here in quite a while due to being overwhelmed with business projects. It's very difficult to keep up a blog even when you don't have anything going on. For a while I'm back at it again...
Today my wife and I started putting up our Christmas decorations. We have two small trees on each side of the front door that have colored over-sized lights on them now. We still have a long ways to go as far as decorating is concerned. It started to rain and was cold so we didn't do anything else outside and the entire inside is still left to do. We have new furniture this year along with a new layout so we are going to have to completely re-think our decorations. Whenever we get more of it done I'll post some pictures in a future blog entry.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
It's Been A While
It's been a few weeks since my last post due in part to a case of Internet burnout. Now I'm recovered and back at it again. My new regional magazine East Central Ohio Magazine comes out in October so I've been looking for sales help. I have an interview with a guy this coming week who has a lot of experience so I'm hoping it works out. Surprisingly I haven't had much interest...this is surprising because I'm advertising these jobs in my hometown where unemployment is very high.
I've decided in the past week to do most of the sales myself. The October issue will have an Autumn/Halloween theme and will include stories about local job losses and what officials are doing to turn things around as well as supplement on November election candidates. I'll be sending out the first issue free of charge to anyone who requests it along with all of the area libraries. I'm pretty excited about this project and hope people are receptive to it. It will give them another option for local information and I think that is much needed.
I've decided in the past week to do most of the sales myself. The October issue will have an Autumn/Halloween theme and will include stories about local job losses and what officials are doing to turn things around as well as supplement on November election candidates. I'll be sending out the first issue free of charge to anyone who requests it along with all of the area libraries. I'm pretty excited about this project and hope people are receptive to it. It will give them another option for local information and I think that is much needed.
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Stress of IT
I just had a project installing a network for an organization over in Westerville that contained both a wireless and hard-wired component. They have a small but growing non-profit organization that works to bring jobs into Ohio and to promote one of Ohio's only growing manufacturing segment, so I wanted to do a good job on their IT project because I think what they're doing is great.
After being in IT for almost 11 years now (wow...that's hard to believe) I know better than to think everything is going to go smoothly on any project. Even very knowledgeable and experienced people sometimes find themselves beating their heads against brick walls thanks to computers and software. This project over in Westerville has one rather large issue that continues to drive me nuts even as I'm writing this. Here's the situation...
I do all of the technical purchasing for this company and bought all of the PC workstations, peripherals, printers, switches/routers, and general infrastructure. For this project I purchased a 2.4 GhZ Linksys wireless router with VPN capabilities. It took me a day or two but I have their wireless network up and running along with surprisingly fast DSL broadband (business class/always on via SBC/AT&T). My problem is the server I purchased from DELL. It's the PowerEdge 2900 and to save money we set up a Windows XP based network in the office and that is where the problem comes in. DELL, being the pain in the ass they are, doesn't support Windows XP (my theory on this is that they don't support it because it only allows them a small profit margin when resold). The only server operating systems they support are the $5,000+ server/multi-client license network systems that we don't need in an office with less than 10 people that is on a very limited, grant funded budget.
To install Windows XP I had to do some research online then download all of the hardware drivers for the server's hard disks then install them from a floppy (I hadn't used a floppy prior to this week in may be six months). So far so good this morning...the XP install seems to be taking. I'm sitting here at their office waiting for it to go through each setup step. I've been two weeks working on this project and all but two days of those two weeks was spent working on this server issue.
Lesson learned....Don't buy a DELL server for a small office network! Just buy a powerful PC and set it up to act as a server...it will be easier and will work just as well for less than 20 people. Big servers are for big organizations (or people who have money to waste on powerful network operating systems with lots of unnecessary "bells and whistles").
So the next time you're computer is driving you crazy....keep in mind that even after 11 years of working with computers almost daily I run into fiasco's that drive me crazy also. Things change so quickly it's a battle keeping up on all of the new practices and standards of every company.
Tom
After being in IT for almost 11 years now (wow...that's hard to believe) I know better than to think everything is going to go smoothly on any project. Even very knowledgeable and experienced people sometimes find themselves beating their heads against brick walls thanks to computers and software. This project over in Westerville has one rather large issue that continues to drive me nuts even as I'm writing this. Here's the situation...
I do all of the technical purchasing for this company and bought all of the PC workstations, peripherals, printers, switches/routers, and general infrastructure. For this project I purchased a 2.4 GhZ Linksys wireless router with VPN capabilities. It took me a day or two but I have their wireless network up and running along with surprisingly fast DSL broadband (business class/always on via SBC/AT&T). My problem is the server I purchased from DELL. It's the PowerEdge 2900 and to save money we set up a Windows XP based network in the office and that is where the problem comes in. DELL, being the pain in the ass they are, doesn't support Windows XP (my theory on this is that they don't support it because it only allows them a small profit margin when resold). The only server operating systems they support are the $5,000+ server/multi-client license network systems that we don't need in an office with less than 10 people that is on a very limited, grant funded budget.
To install Windows XP I had to do some research online then download all of the hardware drivers for the server's hard disks then install them from a floppy (I hadn't used a floppy prior to this week in may be six months). So far so good this morning...the XP install seems to be taking. I'm sitting here at their office waiting for it to go through each setup step. I've been two weeks working on this project and all but two days of those two weeks was spent working on this server issue.
Lesson learned....Don't buy a DELL server for a small office network! Just buy a powerful PC and set it up to act as a server...it will be easier and will work just as well for less than 20 people. Big servers are for big organizations (or people who have money to waste on powerful network operating systems with lots of unnecessary "bells and whistles").
So the next time you're computer is driving you crazy....keep in mind that even after 11 years of working with computers almost daily I run into fiasco's that drive me crazy also. Things change so quickly it's a battle keeping up on all of the new practices and standards of every company.
Tom
Thursday, May 17, 2007
New Albany
Yet again the powers that be in Coshocton have prevented me from getting involved there so I'm giving up on that. I'm going to do what I do best and just try to make things more entertaining for people who are there through my websites.
Now I'm going to focus most of my civic efforts towards New Albany. I'm going to have to work my way in though because there is a lot of active talent in this area already. Should be fun and won't require nearly the commuting expense anything in Coshocton would have. I might join a zoning committee first....we're anti-Wal-Mart in this area!
Tom
Now I'm going to focus most of my civic efforts towards New Albany. I'm going to have to work my way in though because there is a lot of active talent in this area already. Should be fun and won't require nearly the commuting expense anything in Coshocton would have. I might join a zoning committee first....we're anti-Wal-Mart in this area!
Tom
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Business Indecesion 2007
Anymore it seems like I get an itch to change my business every year and this year's time has arrived. I'm dropping fundraising and several other services I offered and I'm moving into website development full-time focusing on municipal and community related sites. Fundraising became too time consuming for a one man operation to handle while still bringing in sufficient revenues. I also didn't like doing it because groups were constantly having to back out of deals when funding fell through resulting in significant amounts of lost revenue.
Now, I'm doing something I like that has been making money for me the past two years. I'm also doing band websites and managing myspace pages for people in addition to my website work with communities. If you know anyone with a small organization in need of website help send them to me. I use open-source software and would rank myself at nearly expert level with most open source Content Management Systems.
Lastly, good news. I got an interview for the Director of Regional Planning job in Coshocton County but don't think I landed it. I'm just happy they took the time to interview me. It's on step further than I've ever made it in the past around there.
Tom
Now, I'm doing something I like that has been making money for me the past two years. I'm also doing band websites and managing myspace pages for people in addition to my website work with communities. If you know anyone with a small organization in need of website help send them to me. I use open-source software and would rank myself at nearly expert level with most open source Content Management Systems.
Lastly, good news. I got an interview for the Director of Regional Planning job in Coshocton County but don't think I landed it. I'm just happy they took the time to interview me. It's on step further than I've ever made it in the past around there.
Tom
Monday, April 30, 2007
My Weekend
My wife was off of work both Saturday and Sunday, which is rare when you're an ER Nurse, so we had a 2 day weekend like regular people. It was great to have nice weather on a weekend when both of us were off to enjoy it.
Saturday we slept in and then went up to Mansfield to go through the old Ohio State Reformatory with a few of my friends and had a great time. We didn't see any ghosts by the way. Check out their website if you've never been there before. They've done a lot of things to refurbish the building. They have a gift shop in one section and what they've been able to do with it is impressive...
http://www.mrps.org/
Sunday we slept in again and then headed to Hoggy's for dinner. Sunday is "cheat day" as far as our workout/diet plan goes so we get to indulge in what everyone else usually eats all the time. It's a nice change from high protein healthy stuff. After that we went over to Easton so I could buy some cologne and to walk around in the nice warm weather.
On the way home from Easton we went through the Starbucks drive-thru and then did a little bit of yard work. We're planning a patio out back and also starting a project to build a small "wall" around the side of our front yard flower bed using natural stone.
Overall it was a great weekend.
Tom
Saturday we slept in and then went up to Mansfield to go through the old Ohio State Reformatory with a few of my friends and had a great time. We didn't see any ghosts by the way. Check out their website if you've never been there before. They've done a lot of things to refurbish the building. They have a gift shop in one section and what they've been able to do with it is impressive...
http://www.mrps.org/
Sunday we slept in again and then headed to Hoggy's for dinner. Sunday is "cheat day" as far as our workout/diet plan goes so we get to indulge in what everyone else usually eats all the time. It's a nice change from high protein healthy stuff. After that we went over to Easton so I could buy some cologne and to walk around in the nice warm weather.
On the way home from Easton we went through the Starbucks drive-thru and then did a little bit of yard work. We're planning a patio out back and also starting a project to build a small "wall" around the side of our front yard flower bed using natural stone.
Overall it was a great weekend.
Tom
Thursday, April 19, 2007
My Message
Today MyCoshocton.com went live, which is the video and reader contributed content section of my website EastCentralOhio.com. I started my site initially to prove a point and that point is that any individual can make a difference in their community whether those in charge let them or not. The site is enormous and it's written in a programming language that I didn't know the first thing about when I started putting it together. I taught myself how to operate the entire thing while adding my own content. I've had a few new sign-ups recently but it's still not to where I had hoped it would be at this time. I'm still plugging away and I guarantee that eventually it will reach the level I'm picturing in my head.
You can also improve your community by taking steps on your own. You don't need anybody else to help you initially and once people see that you're serious about making a difference help will "come out of the woodwork". I've met several very intelligent and motivated people with goals very similar to mine when it comes to the Coshocton area.
Don't be afraid to take steps on your own. If you're determined, willing to work at things, and have patience things will work out in the end.
Tom
You can also improve your community by taking steps on your own. You don't need anybody else to help you initially and once people see that you're serious about making a difference help will "come out of the woodwork". I've met several very intelligent and motivated people with goals very similar to mine when it comes to the Coshocton area.
Don't be afraid to take steps on your own. If you're determined, willing to work at things, and have patience things will work out in the end.
Tom
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