SimpleTicket Downloads
Alexander Muse , January 30, 2006
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Architel released SimpleTicket this weekend. Our open source trouble ticket system was written using Ruby on Rails and is available for free on SourceForge. More than 111 people have downloaded the source code in the last two days. It will be interesting to see if it becomes popular.
Mash Pit II @ Architel
Alexander Muse , January 29, 2006
The second Mash Pit, hosted by Chris Messina, was held at Architel today. Alex blogged about it here. What is Mash Pit?
What is MashPit? The idea is simple: a single day of hacking by a small group (10-15) of people. The morning is used to discuss what human problems they want to solve and the afternoon and evening to actually build something. The idea is not to build something completely from scratch, but to ‘mash-up’ various Internet applications to build something new.
Mash Pit was a great follow-up to BarCampDallas held the day before at our offices as well. Here are some photos from the breakout sessions:
Simpleticket source code released!
Alexander Muse , January 28, 2006
The demo at BarCampDallas went great and we released the source code before lunch. Check it out here: SimpleTicket Source Code
New architel cards?
Alexander Muse , January 27, 2006
What do you think? I don’t like that the logo is aligned to the right. Also, Scott does not like the green. Thoughts?
Support Workflow
Alexander Muse , January 26, 2006
Ever wonder who you should be working with? Here are some general guidlines:
- Tactical, day-to-day, issues should be conveyed using the trouble ticket system.
- Escalation of tactical issues should be addressed to Andre Griffin.
- Strategic, long-term, issues/projects should be addressed directly with John Ross.
- Escalation of stratigic issues/project should be addressed to Kevin Marvin.
Not happy with your escalations? Talk to Scott Ryan. You can reach everyone by simply dialing 214.550.2002 and ask for the appropriate party.
SimpleTicket launch at Architel
Alexander Muse , January 26, 2006
We have been doing internal testing of our new trouble ticket system this week. Our plan is to demo SimpleTicket at BarCampDallas on Saturday, release the source code that night and then roll it out to our clients over the next few weeks (one at a time). What can you expect to see?
Once you login for the first time you will never have to do it again. Please give us both your office number and cell phone number. Here is the login screen:
Next you will sent to the ‘create ticket page’ – this will be the default screen you will see each time you click on the ‘trouble ticket’ icon on your desktop. Here is what it looks like:
The idea is to provide enough information in your ticket to avoid a length call from an Architel technician. How? We previously gave instructions here. But in three simple steps: 1. tell us what is wrong, 2. tell us what you are being prevented from doing and 3. give us a couple of times we can work on your system (with or without you present). Then you are done!
With the new SimpleTicket system you have a few more options. You will note on the right column that you can ‘view your open tickets’ – by clicking on this link you will be able to see all of the open tickets you have entered. You can also dig down into the tickets and read what our technicians are doing about your issue. If you don’t see any activity you know that you should give us a call or send us an email. Here is what that screen looks like:
Finally, you can look at all the other open or closed tickets submitted by others at your company. You can even add entries (i.e. comment) on their tickets. For example, say you know what the issue is with another users PC and can help them explain the issue – you can do so on the ticket. We hope you like our new system – it has been a labor of love.
Blackberry, Viable or Not?
Alexander Muse , January 23, 2006
The Supreme Court rejected BlackBerry patent appeal. MSNBC suggests, ‘Action could doom RIM’s e-mail services.’ Our project manager, John Ross, asked the question today, ’should we continue to recommend BlackBerrys as a viable solution?’ The answer?
We believe that RIM’s BlackBerry service will continue to be offered without interruption. We do; however, have serious doubts about RIM’s ability to survive this fight. Everything should be resolved by February 1st – according to the article.
Email running your day?
Alexander Muse , January 23, 2006
Verne Harnish, one of the founders of YEO, wrote an interesting article titled, ‘New Year’s Resolution: Stop Doing Email.’ His point?
Email is killing focus and effectiveness.
His strategy is to bypass email for the first 30 minutes of each day. Instead, focus on the ong thing that will drive your business to the next level. The rest of the day is easy if you know that the first 30 minutes of your day were spent accomplishing a great deal.
Read the full article here.
IT Mythbusters – Dallas IT Support
Alexander Muse , January 21, 2006
PC World had some interesting IT myths they wanted to bust. They were interesting enough to reblog here:
Magnets can erase your data: The only magnets powerful enough to scrub data from a disk drive platter are laboratory degaussers or those used by government agencies to wipe bits off media. “In the real world, people are not losing data from magnets,” says Bill Rudock, a tech-support engineer with hard-drive maker Seagate. “In every disk,” notes Rudock, “there’s one heck of a magnet that swings the head.” Want to erase data from a hard drive you plan to toss? Don’t bother with a magnet. Overwrite the data that is stored on the media instead.
Cell phones can bring down a plane: “I’ve never experienced a navigational problem that could be traced to a cell phone,” says one veteran pilot who didn’t want his identity revealed. “From everything I’ve read, cell phones and most avionics shouldn’t conflict. So why do flight attendants make you put away your gear before takeoffs and landings? “That’s more for making sure [we] have people’s attention and for [individual] safety,” he says. “If I have to hit the brakes and abort a takeoff, I don’t want a laptop flying across the cabin.”
You must eject the USB device before unplugging it: When you unplug a USB device without first “stopping” it in Windows (accomplished by clicking the Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar), your PC makes a bing-bong sound and usually pops up a message scolding you for the move or warning that what you just did can delete data saved on USB storage devices or damage hardware. We’re cautious about unplugging a device while it’s still writing data (an action USB flash-drive makers always warn against) because doing so can cause major damage. Case in point: One PC World editor unplugged an external USB hard drive that was doing some activity in the background; he lost all his data and damaged the drive itself. If you wait until the device stops writing data and then pull the drive out, you’re unlikely to experience serious problems. Although Windows takes you to task for such rashness, even Microsoft downplays the peril. The company told us that any damage will “depend on the USB device, but in general [unplugging a USB peripheral] shouldn’t affect the system.”
You must shut down Windows before shutting down your PC: Don’t touch that switch! According to Microsoft, if you turn off your PC without first shutting down Windows, your hard drive could become more fragmented, files could become corrupted, and you could lose data. Maybe Microsoft’s warning holds some water, but we wouldn’t worry about straining the system or harming Windows. We ran 30 iterations of an informal test, turning off a pair of systems running Windows XP without first shutting down Windows. Each time we left documents open in Word, Outlook, and Quicken. And we left our Internet connection up and running. After we turned each PC back on, we ran Symantec’s Norton Disk Doctor and the Windows disk checker to see if the hard drive had suffered any ill effects. We reopened the applications that we had left running and reconnected to the Internet. Problems? Disk Doctor found no disk errors, and our files were intact–at least up to the last time they were saved, but not always to the point of the last edit made. Outlook recovered without a glitch, and so did Quicken. (We didn’t check disk fragmentation because some hard-drive experts told us that defragging today’s faster, bigger drives has little to no effect on performance.) If you’re uneasy about just switching off the PC, change the Power Options settings. From the Control Panel, open Power Options, click the Advanced tab, and under ‘Power buttons’ select Hibernate. Now whenever you push the power button, Windows will save itself in its current state. Turn the computer on later, and Windows will pop up, just as you left it, in a lot less time than the system would take to boot.
Architel uniforms – IT support in Dalas
Alexander Muse , January 19, 2006
This morning we issued new uniforms to the Architel staff. The uniform? The Architel white button down with khaki pants. Check it out:
What do you think?
