Crunch Time (and Prayer Time)

As most of you know, school will be ending for the semester within the next two weeks or so.  With that comes the thing we love to hate… finals.  Now if thats not bad enough add in finishing multiple projects for classes (Enterprise Java, Relational Database Design, etc) and still working two jobs on top of all of it.

What amplifies my stress levels though is that I am due to graduate this semester (finally)  but of course MATC has that nice little policy that says we need to get at least a C grade on all of our IT (formerly the 107 level) classes.  Now I was free and clear until the class known as Relational Database Design came along, now I’m just holding my breath and studying like crazy to make sure I do well on our final exam.

All in all MATC has been one wild ride, I have been here for nearly a decade (nine years) and have one (hopefully two) associate degrees and two certificates to show for it.  I will honestly miss coming here since I have practically lived here for so long…

Website frustrations

Over the past couple of months I have been working on updating my dads website for his business, which is at http://www.booneytunes.net. Unfortunately when this new revision came around I used a template from openwebdesign.org and I now have tons of redundant code on each page. So I email my host (unfortunately Geocities) and ask if they support the use of jsp and servlets so I can convert the site using what we have been doing in class… of course they don’t. They support only the scripting languages like php, perl, and mysql so I was out of luck. I did end up using the php and mysql to store audio files for his recordings using an application called the flam player; a flash based media player.

Portable JEdit

I thought it would be useful to try and install jEdit on my usb drive in case I want to use the same editor no matter where I am. I did a little hunting and found it was quite possible with just a little bit of tweaking.

1. Install jEdit as normal on the drive
2. Copy the .jedit settings folder into the jedit folder
3. create a batch file to set the JAVA_HOME variable and start jEdit pointing to that .jEdit folder.

SET JAVA_HOME = F:\Java\jdk1.5.0_09\bin
java -Duser.home=. -jar jedit.jar -settings=.jedit

the . in Duser.home=. points to jEdits root folder (F:\JEdit) and then -settings tells JEdit to use the .jedit folder for its settings. You can find the .jedit folder on the hard drives (here at school) in c:\documents and settings\%username%\.jedit

For some reason I get random java errors when I load JEdit, but it doesnt happen every time. Your guess is as good as mine with that one, but it works none the less…

Checking Out for the Weekend

Working on Enterprise Java and Relational Database Design in to computer labs at MATC had begin to take its toll. I am one of the many students that occupy their lab from sun up until the building close at 10 pm. The only exceptions to that was when I was work or Friday night.

I have tried to do homework at home but I run into several problems. One big one is that I also work from home on the very same computer. another is all the computer games staring me in the face, then their is the music and other outside distractions. So I just find it easier to work at school… unfortunately.

So this past weekend I went to my parents house in the middle of nowhere, well 14 miles out of Richland Center, and just unplugged. It felt good to sleep in and not have to wake up at 6:30 to catch a bus to go to school, or work on java, or relational database (which I should have anyways) but I didn’t. Now tomorrow morning I’m leaving here at 7:00 to be home by 8:30 so I can work at my job at 9:00.

Back to the grind, but it was nice while it lasted…

Fun with document.lastModified Part 2

Well it appears that the document.lastModified javascript does not work in server side include environment. After initial testing, every time I loaded a page it always gave me the current date, even when I had not modified the page for two or three days.

When I thought about SSI in a more logical manor and how pages were rendered it all made perfect sense. The shtm file reads the call for the include file and then pulls its code into the shtm file for rendering on the page, so page does get modified when the page loads. So I did a little more hunting for a script I could use in the shtm file instead and I finally did find one. The config timefmt is customizable but all I needed was the month, day, and year.

<!–#config timefmt=”%B %d %Y” –>
Last Modified: <!–#echo var=”LAST_MODIFIED” –>

looks like this on the page… Last Modified: March 01 2007

Subversion conversion CONFUSION

I can see how Subversion can be a useful tool in the workplace for keeping track of projects when working in teams and the like.  On the flip side while working individually I dont see the point of subversion at all.  Just have each employee back up their data nightly and be done with it.  Now I know security is a big issue these days but it shouldnt take two lines of code just to get files from the server so you can work on your project.

Frankly I think svn is just not practicle for this class in any way shape or form, but thats just my two cents.

fun with document.lastModified

My boss asked me to write or find a script that would display the date that the include page was last modified so we didnt have to hard code it any more. I initially thought about using the javascript function document.lastModifed but that returns the date and time.

So I wrote a function that created a new date, and then using the standard methods getMonth, getDay, and getYear. I was recieving some rather bizzare output from the fuction, it was getting something like 0 22 107 when the date was actually Feb 20, 2007.

So I did a little hunting online and I found something nearly identical on the webdeveloper.com forum. The only real difference was that instead of getYear they used getFullYear to return a four digit year. The script now returns text like “Last Modified February 23 2007.” Soon you will see that at the bottom of the majority of the libraries pages after all the changes have been made.

VoIP, VPN, and other fun acronyms

For one of my jobs I work for the company Reserve America, which makes camping reservations for state parks accross the country.  I am also one of the fortunate few who are able to do it from home, which absolutely rocks in this cold weather!  Anyway to get setup for working at home it was and is still quite a chore unfortunately.

First at the start of my shift I have to sign into a vpn owned by their parent company Ticketmaster.  Then I bring up the reservation systems.  One is web based and the other is still mainframe based so it uses a java applet through another vpn to connect to it.  The thing that really annoys me about this one is that the connection times out every ten minutes or so…  Then I have reserveamerica.com up for map access.  I also put together  a web page to display all of my scripts and policies when I need them instead of having to load pdfs left and right.  The final web window I bring up is the kronos time logger I use to punch in and out. 

I communicate with my supervisors using AIM and use an ACD WebUniphi system to take calls.  The agents in the call center use the same system only in the application form, mine is web based.  When all is said and done I have 9 windows open on my task bar and I’m not crazy about it, and of course its not compatable with ie7 so tabs arent an option.  Below is a screenshot of my taskbar while I am working…

 

I’ve been working for Reserve America for about six years now and people ask me how I have lasted this long and I just tell them shear force of will…

Internet in the Middle of Nowhere

This weekend I’m going up to my parents house who live outside of Richland Center, which is about an hour and a half from Madison.  They live on Highway 56 in the country so the only comerial service they could get would be dial up… never even considered.  The only “high speed” option was satellite.  It came with its own dish, signal box and many many many complications.

As with all satellite systems its affected by weather, which in Wisconsin is unpredictable as ever.   Even though it claims to be “high speed” I think dial up could just about beat this system.  I don’t know if it’s due to interfearance from the weather, phone lines and the like or what but I know its not worth the price per month.

As far as support, well my parents call me instead of them for most things if its any idication… but if the connection gets dropped and they do call the company they are always told to unplug the router and wait about five minutes then try again.  After a couple of calls they just stopped calling and have waited for the weather to pass, or reset the system themselves and not bother with the call.

We come from a society of impatient people and I am unfortunately one of those people when working on the computer, so when I have to sit and wait forever to check my mail, or do virtually anything else I just want to scream, and frankly so do my parents!

Updating the Library website

One of my many jobs is updating the libraries website to give it a more unified look along with the main MATC site. Instead of using frames, MATC has decided to use server side includes or SSI’s. Its essentialy a bunch of nested tables with the include tags inserted where the pages will line up the best.

There is a page for the header, footer, menu and the body and when it gets loaded by the browser it gets rendered in one html file even though each page is two seperate files. The main file to this would be inc_page.htm. These names have to match exactly or the include won’t work correctly, and it’s also in this include where you would put the main content of your page. The other file page.shtm is the content file that pulls everything together into one file, and note the s in the extension. That denotes that it is a server side include file.

The cool thing about this is that it can be done right from a program like Dreamweaver since its pure HTML and some javascript. If you want to see what it looks like go to the library home page at http://www.matcmadison.edu/library/library and check out pages like the research guides (I did them ALL), site map, Library Computer Lab, and many others.