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I’m starting a new category, that goes along with my blog post Yes I will lead. The new category is called Skills You Should Know - SYSK. Little bits of information that through my experience aren’t something that you may not necessarily use every day, but may someday save you a ton of trouble.

Today’s topic is vi. Vi may be the only editor installed on a new unix based system, and a few commands will get you to the point where at least you can edit a few files before installing something a little more user friendly such as pico (or nano).

Vi has two modes, command and insertion. It was designed this way because sometimes the keyboard you would be using might not necessarily have all the keys we take for granted today, especially when it comes to the arrow keys. In command mode you can move the cursor around with the arrow keys or hjkl keys. To do an editing, you’ll need to switch to insertion mode. Vi defaults to command mode when it is started.

i - Switches to insertion mode
<ESC> - Switches to command mode

In a nutshell, you’ll start the editor with a file:

vi somefile

Once the file is open, you’ll press i to switch to insertion mode. Make the changes to your file. Press <ESC> to switch back to command mode. To exit you’ll press the following (these all start with the colon):

:wq - Write the file and then quit
:q! - Quit the file without saving the changes. A great way if you mess up and just want to not save your changes

These preceding commands should at least get you started. For more info, you may want to visit the following pages:
vi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vi Cheat Sheet
Mastering the VI editor

Tags: RC Tips, SYSK, Software by Mr.Rcollins
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Keeping track of inventory can be a difficult, and it seems like every four months someone is asking about what product to get to use for inventory control. I created a simple database in Filemaker Pro to keep track of our inventory. Why Filemaker Pro?

• We already had it.
• I didn’t need anything that fancy.
• We also had FMP Server and FMP Unlimited (version 5.5) so I could easily publish the database onto the web, that way it can be updated from anywhere with a web connection.

I’m not a big fan of using barcodes on our equipment. Our asset tag numbers are only 5 digits long, it doesn’t take time at all to easily type them. We do use a barcode reader when inventorying new equipment. It cuts down on errors when entering serial numbers or MAC addresses. The barcode reader can read the barcodes right off of the box.

To enter new equipment, we use a spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet is filled out, it is imported into the FMP database.

I don’t track help desk requests along with hardware. We have approximately 700 machines, and it’s very rare that a piece of equipment will have one hardware failure, let alone multiple failures that need to be tracked.

Tags: Hardware, RC Tips by Mr.Rcollins
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I was thinking about my blog post from last week, contemplating on how I should be more positive. People using technology in schools are already facing enough of an uphill battle without me picking on them.

Stealing Alvin’s Efficiency Tips idea, I want to post little tips, tricks, ideas to help the technology support staff in the education sector. Some of my ideas may seem to be esoteric (such as learning vi), but others should have more common appeal (imaging machings). There are conversations that happen on the Technology Coordinator’s listserv that also need to be condensed and posted.

Does this seem like a good idea? What about also creating handout sheets to help with professional development?

Tags: RCTips

Tags: Professional Development, RC Tips by Mr.Rcollins
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