Kassblog

When we had just a handful of data projector/Smart Panel installations, I could call one of our two vendors (BBI Engineering and Audio Graphic Systems) to fix problems that arose. Within the last two years, use has gone way up and we have installed an additional dozen units. Downtime is much more sensitive than before. As a result, I have begun to take ownership over basic troubleshooting and maintenance of the devices.

Basic maintenance is mostly about periodically cleaning the air filters. Otherwise, the units overheat prematurely. At their worst, they may not make it through a lesson before needing to reset. Since our projectors are ceiling-mounted, I need to climb up, remove the filters, vacuum or brush them out, and then put them back in place. For computers, we do this sort of work over the summer. We should now add data projectors to the task list.

Since the manufacturer must complete nearly all repair tasks, troubleshooting is mostly about replacing a bulb and then removing the projector to send it away if necessary. In the past, we could only give teachers a mobile replacement projector, which was a hassle to set up in a room equipped for an installed projector. By purchasing universal mounting brackets that fit our mobile projectors, I can now ceiling-mount a projector to stand in for the permanent unit as it is out for service. In this way, the teacher may continue working with no interruption to the usual setup.

Physically installing the mobile projector is not so hard, but if the replacement is a different model than the original, then you must reconfigure the Smart Panel control device. The good news is that SP Controls makes it easy to download both the configuration utility and the settings file for our projector model.

It turns out that the configuration utility is also easy to use. A normal serial cable connects a computer to the Smart Panel, and then the application can upload, back up, and configure the control panel’s buttons and options. I can even copy one configuration to multiple Smart Panels. Piece of cake.

We are going to begin to distribute iPods with microphones to some students with learning disabilities. Students who have difficulty taking notes quickly enough to keep up with the teacher or who have auditory processing challenges may benefit from being able to replay the day’s lesson, if it involved a fair amount of teacher presentation. I had assumed (erroneously, it turned out) that the new iPods were compatible with the handful of iPod microphones that I had seen out there. Boy, was I wrong. Apple has phased out the control port, rendering unusable existing microphone adapters.

Luckily, there are a sea of castaway iPods from the failed iPod-HP joint venture of 2004. I have purchased three 20GB, fourth generation iPods for about $200 each plus three iTalk microphones to match. This should give us a convenient solution while avoiding technology overkill. Heck, it might even be less tempting to steal!

Unfortunately, this is the cheapest way to get an Apple solution for this use. Xtrememac just introduced what I believe is currently the only microphone adapter that will fit a new iPod: the micromemo. Of course, it only works with the video iPod, the most expensive and largest model Apple makes. At least it attaches via the dock connector, raising the possibility that, one day, someone will make a microphone adapter for the nano, or better yet, how about a USB version for the Shuffle?

This just in: the iTalk has just disappeared from the Griffin web site, suggesting that they are discontinuing the product, perhaps due to lack of stock but also maybe suggesting that they plan to replace it with a new product.

Timing the purchase of new Macintosh computers is a guessing game. The rhythm of our replacement schedule does not always match the release of new products. This is more of an issue for Macintosh than Windows computers, because Apple tends to keep their innovations secret before release and tend to introduce more changes in their laptops than Windows laptop manufacturers.

This time, we have gotten lucky — the timing is just right. Our “lampshade” iMac computers are in their third year of use and will be able to serve a fourth year in our Mac lab next year. As we expand to the Sacramento St. building, the film program will gain a dedicated computer lab, which photography (adjacent) will share. Not only will we be able to purchase a room full of new iMacs, but hopefully Apple will release a second revision of the model by then. Final Cut Pro on Intel should be stable, although we will have to upgrade from HD.

The timing of the new Powerbook is not bad, either. Though we only have three on campus, two are due for replacement next fall, one on the desk of yours truly! I am curious to see whether integrated video chat holds any real value for me. Having invested almost exclusively in asynchronous communication up to this point, I’m not sure how much I will like direct video communication once it’s built in to my device.

For the first time in three and a half years, we lost some equipment to a power surge here on campus. On today, the first day of second semester classes, we found that two printer network cards had stopped working. The weather had been bad over break and we know that we lost power a couple of times, so a power surge seems the likely culprit. We consider ourselves lucky that no other equipment was affected

Are laptop computers designed to fall apart after three years? Three and a half years ago, we purchased a set of Dell Latitude c840 laptops for our science teachers and laboratories. Over the course of three years, some were used heavily and some lightly, as is the case with most laptop installations. This fall, we replaced the computers with newer laptops, as per our customary three-year replacement schedule for laptops. They were experiencing typical third-year hardware faults, and the extended warranties we had purchased had expired. The c840s were migrated into our loaner pool, where they were distributed as needed to students and teachers.

The surprise was how quickly the laptops fell apart in their fourth year. Each time we attempted to use the laptops for a training, most of them had problems. We discarded half the remaining inventory within three months. The problems had nothing to do with the processor speed (1.6GHz P4) or disk size (20-40GB). They were always related to a hardware fault, such as a motherboard failure. Fortunately, we received an in-kind donation of a number of laptops from parents who work at HP and IBM, so we are now able to replace the loaner pool without incurring additional cost to our operating budget. However, our plan to use laptops retired from primary duty as loaners seems unsupported by our experiences.

The three-year problem is a major issue for our proposed student laptop program. If families only had to buy one computer over a student’s high school years, it would be a lot easier to launch a student laptop program. Currently, we face the prospect of charging an annual fee that allows us to purchase two laptops during a student’s career.