PC Technician Best Practice: General System Cleaning During Service Call
One of the things I find interesting during second in-home break/fix calls, or a recent follow-up of another technician, is how lazy PC technicians have become when it comes to a general cleaning.
I have been in the business for quite a while, and I am amazed at how much positive feedback from after service surveys when doing a general system cleaning I receive, such as using compressed air and/or some sort of cleaning wipe. Read more
Field Engineer Network Tools at The Home Depot
For those field engineers and technicians who may be starting out and building a bag of tools, you may be surprised to find that The Home Depot has a great selection and decent prices when it comes to various network-related tools and products.
I’ve shopped at The Home Depot for quite some time, and although I hate their business practice of using self-checkouts, I was amazed to find that the prices of much of the IT tools and products they carry, from ordinary patch cables to a tone generator, are reasonably priced. In addition, convenience and availability makes The Home Depot a competitive choice. I cannot tell you how many times I have relied on them when I have needed to pick up last minute hardware for a job.
In this article I will go over some network-related tools that The Home Depot carries and some reviews on each of them.
15 Seconds of DSC Fame
I listen to the Daily Source Code podcast with Adam Curry. In DSC episode #529, Adam was troubleshooting his Internet and WiFi connections. As he had access to the telco closet in his building, Adam kept describing a wiring harness that he did not know the name of, which is a 66 block.
I thought it would be no big deal to call-in and leave a message, especially as that is what we promote on the Stockcarzone podcast, listener feedback. Boy was I wrong. Leaving feedback via voicemail is easier said than done. I definitely have a new appreciation for all the Stockcarzone listeners, and anyone else who puts themselves out there and leaves feedback. Not only did I feel rigid when I called-in, I ended up sounding rigid.
I was so nervous. So much so, that Adam had a little fun with my call. So to highlight my 15 seconds of DSC fame, at the bottom of this post you can listen to the clip from DSC episode #530.
Outsider’s View into the Record Industry
In the past year, I had a rare look into the record industry during a VOIP install project which included two major recording labels. Without divulging too much as to who the labels were, this article sums up some of the thoughts about what I saw from an outsider’s view.
Prior to the rollout, I was curious about what kind of portable media players I would find in employees’ workstations. Instead, I saw nothing but CD-based listening systems, almost like it was taboo to have any music in digital format.
