Web Devin’ Fun
Long time no update. The last few weeks have been a blur, filled with many ups and downs, from being too numb to care about anything, to one of the most relaxing and comforting day of my life. Anyways, some quick updatez!
I’ve been working for exactly a month now as the Web Manager/IT Support Specialist for the College of Media Arts and Design school at Drexel University, and it’s pretty cool. Pretty much, my job entails of keeping the website up to date and answer requests from the 15 or so different departments in the college, and my office being located in a building where Graphic Design, Fashion Design, and Design & Merchandising have their labs and classrooms, provide them with technical assistance as well.
While I do know my way around Windows pretty well, OSX is still relatively new to me, so I’m not a pro at that yet; luckily my office-mate is, so he handles most of the technical stuff around here while I work on the website until I get more competent at the technical requests. Still unfamiliar with all the settings, procedures and passwords, hopefully I get better at that, and will be able to troubleshoot things beyond cloning monitors and Fonzing printers. While both students and professors come in and ask for help and may catch me offguard, especially since I’m still not entirely confident in the fixing of solutions yet, it is nice to not be stuck behind a computer all day, and I do get to walk around, reimage machines, change hard drives, and even climb in the ceiling and install security cameras!
There are some parts I dislike, though. Mainly making promo DVDs for the college. For some reason, our department was lumped in with the duplication and printing of DVD/CDs, as well as the creation of the data on the discs. While I’m the most qualified to do it out of our team of four, I certaintly don’t remember how to do it well, so it’s taking me more time than I’d like to do it, and I much rather focus on web apps.
That being said, my favorite part has been making suggestions to improve the workflow and processes that go on behind the scene on the website. I’m currently developing a CMS for the news/events and the departments on the site, as well as a management area for the CoMAD portfolio, which will eventually be a full system where eligible professors and staff can edit the content of their departments and such.
Ideally, I want to automate everything, as I watch my code do all the work for me.
Another app I’m working on is the management of the student-late list functionality, and right now, it involves paper, messy emails, and blog posts. Fuck that. This is project is for use in-house, and will hopefully save our department a lot of time in the future. That being said, here’s an obnoxiously “2.0″ interface, using the names of current and former members of Dark Tranquillity and Ensiferum. 
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I am so ridiculously excited about that interface. It’s shiny and it’s metal.
GL with the new duties. Glad I now have someone to turn to when I need a Fonzie for my printer. BTW, Firefox 3 doesn’t underline “Fonzie.”