Part of what I do involves managing Pearson PowerSchool, our Student Information System (SIS). One of the common annoyances teachers have had in years past with PowerSchool is opening it’s gradebook. The gradebook is a Java application that requires logging into PowerTeacher and downloading a JNLP file every time you want to open it up if you’re on a Mac (as all of our staff are).
At the beginning of June I wrote about the ebb and flow of client work all coming in at once. I wrote the following thinking it wouldn’t prove true:
I look forward to testing the theory in another 6 weeks.
Watching this video has made me want to buy a Tesla vehicle just to support the amazing efficiency and new technology they’ve created to build their cars. It’s like watching a work of art create a work of art. There’s a huge similarity to Apple’s videos about how they build technology. I think if Apple did build cars this is exactly how they would approach it. Very impressive.
Just saw Tonx’s new site design and jumped to the new ad above. This is another great piece from Sandwich Video and I’m a huge fan of Tonx. I’ve been a subscriber for about 6 months and everything about the video succinctly conveys what Tonx is and why it’s great.
Exactly a year ago I was halfway through the most insane summer of my life (thus far but hopefully forever). Courtney and I had been living with my in-laws for a month and a half while our house was being built (FWP, I know). I was working 7 days a week at a minimum of 12 hours a day and driving an hour each way to and from work. I felt like there was no end in sight and we were barely going to be able to open school with any of the necessary technology on time. I was doing so much that I’d never done before thus the work was the learning and the learning was the work. There was an abundance of frustration trying to make things work that I didn’t know how to make work and advising vendors on things I had little to no expertise with all while thinking about the next ten things that I needed to get to. And yet I perservered and somehow was able to only use a minimal amount of shoestring and duct tape to get it all done.
On episode 45 of CMD + Space Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett shared that the 512 Podcast would be ending in it’s current form after two more episodes. Myke mentioned that they’d be working on a show he’d been wanting to do for about 3 years now. On episode 65 of the 512 Podcast (out today) this show was revealed to be The Prompt, 5by5’s newest show. I reached out to Stephen to find out how he got started with 70Decibels and find out about the transition of the 512 Podcast to The Prompt.
Ever since I started “making technology work” I’ve held a side business of my own. I started performing in-home technology support when I was 17 and my side work has an ebb and flow to it. It’s ranged from single handedly supporting a school on my two days off while I worked at Apple to just being on-call and supporting a handful of clients when something broke. The side work always seems to come and go at just the right time for me to be able to provide the level of support that I expect if I’m charging for it. For the last two years the latter has been the extent of my side business due to the needs of my day job.
Note: This is a repost from my previous/personal website. This was originally written in February of 2013. There is a reason I’m re-posting it here. A future post will reveal the intentions.