Meeting an Apple Evangelist

As technology director for FLEC, I never stop learning and growing. From subscribing to various tech magazines, to attending the yearly Florida Education Technology Convention, to our membership in the Southern Union Education Technology Association, we do our best to stay plugged in to the latest tech knowledge. That's why when I heard Guy Kawasaki was coming to Orlando, I grabbed the opportunity.

Guy worked for Apple in the 90s evangelizing people about the Macintosh computer (I use a Mac and PC at home, by the way, but prefer the Mac), and has been rated one of the top ten bloggers in the world. His talk was focused on entrepreneurs hoping to build their business, but was also filled with practical tips on using email effectivly, and pointers on networking.

I met a lady that night, Linda, who offered me one of Guy's books! During his talk I sat on the front row, and after his presentation asked him for his autograph, and shook his hand. I came away from the evening enriched, inspired, and motivated to do the best job I can for the staff and students at FLEC.

Cleaning up the rack

One of fun jobs of the FLEC Technology Department is keeping more than 300 computers running smoothly. These PCs all connect to our network via Ethernet cables. No wireless here, yet! Over time, the nest of wires in our switching room had gotten out of hand, and needed to be dealt with. Let me show you.

Yikes! Is there a family of mice living in there?


That's me, modeling my new hairdo.


Warren from Outsource to the rescue!



Fixed! No mice were harmed in the re-wiring of this switching room.

The end of an era

Windows 3.1 at FLEC is no more. Yesterday we finally took our oldest PC out of service. The circa 1993 Packard Bell PB430A computer had been happily humming along in Mrs. Sheffield's kindergarten class for many years, but had recently died a dusty death. Its 33 MHz Intel processor, 8 MB of RAM, and 170 MB hard drive will be laid to rest, replaced by one of 50 newer Compaq EVO machines donated by Florida Hospital.

Now, lest this ancient machine lead you to think our other equipment might be outdated, let me assure you that most classroom computers do run XP, and our slowest machines run Windows 2000 on 1.3 Ghz processors.

Here it is. Should we put it in a museum?



These are some of the newer EVOs that were donated by Florida Hospital. Thanks, Herb!

FLEC Technology Blog 1.0

Welcome to the FLEC technology blog! This is an effort to keep our department plugged into the latest technology tools, to serve as an example to teachers and staff as to what's possible with blogs, and to give us a way to communicate the exciting things that go on behind the scenes. I hope you enjoy reading, and learn something along the way.