Office Upgrade
My Labors Have Paid Dividends
Anyone who has followed me for a long time knows that my office/desk is a mess. Occasionally, it gets beaten down to more manageable dimensions and the Summer of 2010 is one of these scheduled events. Alas, a leisurely sort through and disposal of excess paperage was not to be, because today was the day Everett Tower was supposed to be getting new phones. Internet phones. Which means they needed access to the RJ-45 jack on the wall. The one in the corner behind the desk. The desk which hasn't been moved since about 2002. Not that this office has a lot of room in it to begin with. It was apparently some sort of a utility closet with a window. (grin) I say that because the door has a return spring, something that a normal office door does not.
Anyway, I figured there were two options, both of which I planned for. (1) Clear out the pile of papers on the desk and the pile of CD-ROM and DVD disks on the top of the disk storage unit that lives on the board over the monitor. That way the desk could be swung out if it had to be moved. (2) The network cable actually comes over onto the front of the desk where it plugs into a surge protector. If the new system can plug in there, we don't have to move anything.
This is from several years ago...
Either way, I planned to make an extra trip in today and try to intercept the IT crew as it came around and find out what they wanted. Except no one knew when they were going to come by. Anyway, so I went down the hall to bug some people and naturally around 2pm there was some commotion in the hallway as a sort of flying crew carrying Cisco boxes began to knock on doors. Ah-ha!
Turns out that Option 2 was completely acceptable. Also turns out that the redoing of WMU's phones has been going on for a couple of years already -- and they're using Cisco phones and well established hardware and software. Good, because I know some people who have been having a miserable VOIP experience. Anyway, after the phone booted up -- I know, I know, every damn thing has to boot up these days -- and they corrected the dummy number from having a prefix "3" to the proper prefix "7" AND got my name spelled correctly in the directory, a real advantage of having a speaker phone and someone installing this in real time, the thing is installed.
And yes, I wanted it in the "front" of my office on the "Tower of Computers", because that way I can catch the phone just inside the door, instead of coming all the way around my desk if it's ringing and I'm coming in from the conference room next door. Also, the message light -- which had been the bane of my existence the entire time we used the old system, because the old system didn't like me very much -- is no longer hidden behind the seat of the chair when I come into the office.
I thoughtfully provided a prompt so you can actually SEE where the phone is in the cacophony of imagery here. (grin)
So... progress. We hope.
Now on to more productive uses for my time!
Dr. Phil
Anyone who has followed me for a long time knows that my office/desk is a mess. Occasionally, it gets beaten down to more manageable dimensions and the Summer of 2010 is one of these scheduled events. Alas, a leisurely sort through and disposal of excess paperage was not to be, because today was the day Everett Tower was supposed to be getting new phones. Internet phones. Which means they needed access to the RJ-45 jack on the wall. The one in the corner behind the desk. The desk which hasn't been moved since about 2002. Not that this office has a lot of room in it to begin with. It was apparently some sort of a utility closet with a window. (grin) I say that because the door has a return spring, something that a normal office door does not.
Anyway, I figured there were two options, both of which I planned for. (1) Clear out the pile of papers on the desk and the pile of CD-ROM and DVD disks on the top of the disk storage unit that lives on the board over the monitor. That way the desk could be swung out if it had to be moved. (2) The network cable actually comes over onto the front of the desk where it plugs into a surge protector. If the new system can plug in there, we don't have to move anything.
This is from several years ago...
Either way, I planned to make an extra trip in today and try to intercept the IT crew as it came around and find out what they wanted. Except no one knew when they were going to come by. Anyway, so I went down the hall to bug some people and naturally around 2pm there was some commotion in the hallway as a sort of flying crew carrying Cisco boxes began to knock on doors. Ah-ha!
Turns out that Option 2 was completely acceptable. Also turns out that the redoing of WMU's phones has been going on for a couple of years already -- and they're using Cisco phones and well established hardware and software. Good, because I know some people who have been having a miserable VOIP experience. Anyway, after the phone booted up -- I know, I know, every damn thing has to boot up these days -- and they corrected the dummy number from having a prefix "3" to the proper prefix "7" AND got my name spelled correctly in the directory, a real advantage of having a speaker phone and someone installing this in real time, the thing is installed.
And yes, I wanted it in the "front" of my office on the "Tower of Computers", because that way I can catch the phone just inside the door, instead of coming all the way around my desk if it's ringing and I'm coming in from the conference room next door. Also, the message light -- which had been the bane of my existence the entire time we used the old system, because the old system didn't like me very much -- is no longer hidden behind the seat of the chair when I come into the office.
I thoughtfully provided a prompt so you can actually SEE where the phone is in the cacophony of imagery here. (grin)
So... progress. We hope.
Now on to more productive uses for my time!
Dr. Phil