|
|
There is an entire universe of technology out there for users to navigate. Among the hundreds of choices for the same type of product, sometimes a simple example is the best place to start.My job as a Local Support Provider is to support the users and computers of Cohen Hall and classrooms in SAS Computing. Penn's IT environment is the most diverse any IT worker could ever encounter. Most 'corporate' IT shops deal with a fixed architype of computers and software. Such is not the case in SAS Computing, where I support Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS and numerous other client applications. I am often asked to support the home computing requirements for my clients, but unfortunatley, am not always in the position to do so. The better position I am in to access information, the better I can help my clients fulfill their technology requirements. A laptop best suits the purpose for my mobile role around campus. I could use any computer in SAS Computing to access my files and data, but a laptop along with AirPennNet wireless provides seamless access to the online services I need. Preferences aside, I purchased an Apple MacBook Pro 17"(MBP) from the Penn Computer Connection. The reason for choosing the MacBook Pro was for power and versatility. The MBP is capable of running Microsoft Windows and Linux. To test and adapt to a changing IT environment, I need a computer that can run both supported operating systems. To run all of my various operating systems and programs, I needed a laptop with power and room. That lead me to load my MBP with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Bigger and better options are available now, but Apple tends to refresh their product line every six months. When I purchase any Apple product bigger than an iPod Nano, I buy the Apple Care extended warranty. Apple Care is well worth the additional cost and will pay for itself the first time it is used. Productivity Suites... Microsoft Office is the predominant productivity suite for Windows and Mac users on campus. The University's license agreement with Microsoft do not preclude the cost-prohibitive cost associated with obtaining Microsoft Office. A license for either version can be obtained from the Computer Connection for under one hundred dollars. Microsoft Word and Powerpoint are the mainstream applications in the office suite. Everyone that does any kind of document processing will come across a PDF file at some point. PDFs need software to view and edit documents formatted as such. Adobe's 'Reader' application is freely available for viewing PDFs on Windows and Macs. Editing PDFs is usually done with Adobe's signature 'Acrobat' program. Acrobat is not free and even with the University discount, is an expensive program. Apple Mac OSX comes a built-in 'PDF Printer'. That gives me the option to send any document to a virtual printer that creates a PDF document instead of a printed sheet of paper. PDFs can be viewed on Mac OS X with the built-in program, 'Preview'. Adobe Reader is not even installed on my MBP. Microsoft Word is a very large and complex program. As such, it takes a significant time to load and occupies a great deal of system resources. All of this effort is made for features I do not use on a regular basis. If I am going to work with text, I will use either 'TextEdit' on the Mac or 'Notepad' on Windows. Both of these programs are basic plain text editors, which run quick and simple. If I do need to perform some work with text that reuires the use of MS Word, I just copy and paste the text into Word. I also use a plain text editor to create and edit web-pages. The predominant HTML editor is Dreamweaver, but like MS Office, Dreamweaver is not free or cheap. Web Browsers... Mac OS X comes with a built-in web browser called 'Safari', which is more than adequate for most tasks. The 'standard' browser in use around campus in Mozilla Firefox. I use Firefox for most of my web-related tasks. Firefox is free, very scriptable and can be customized numerous numerous different ways. There is an off-shot of Firefox called 'Flock' that comes with plug-ins for all of my 'Web 2.0' services like 'del.icio.us', and 'Flickr'. Firefox/Flock are cross-platform with Windows and Linux as well. That commonality allows me to easily move my settings across each operating system from computer to computer. The Opera web browser has come into recent favor with as a new update to Firefox, 3.5, did not work properly after release. E-Mail... "The tie that binds us..." I receive scores of e-mail every day detailing the various facets of my duties in Cohen Hall. The SAS FacStaff cluster is the predominate e-mail system in use for SAS. The IMAP service is the default and only way to access e-mail outside of a web browser on facstaff. Faculty and staff have a number of choices in how they access their e-mail. The traditional approach is to use a client application installed on a computer. More and more systems are using web browsers as the way for clients to access their e-mail. Web-Mail is much more versatile than a traditional client application. My e-mail application of choice is Apple's 'Mail.app', the default e-mail program that ships with Mac OS X. On the Windows side, the Mozilla foundation offers 'Thunderbird' a complete desktop e-mail application. Microsoft also has it's 'Outlook' program as a part of the Office suite of application. Gadgets... The most helpful gadget is my 16GB USB thumb-drive. It is there I keep my data and items available for use. Small items like documents, scripts, and programs are great for the thumb-drive. I do not keep too many programs on there as often. The programs I use are freely available online and Penn has one fast Internet connection. There are some occaisions where the thumb-drive is not as uselful. I cannot use it to backup my laptop, or even my user profile. An external USB or Firewire hard drive is what's called for in those situations. I have a Western Digital 'MyBook' 500GB USB/Firewire external hard drive. The 500GB capacity give enoughspace to backup all of my data, using the Time Machine utility of Mac OS X. A second smaller USB hard drive is kept as a safeguard for very important data in my bank's safety deposit box. A 16GB iPhone 3G is a my primary cellphone, which can be connected to AirPennNet and syncs with Mail.app on my laptop.
Page last updated, September 18, 2009
|