I thought this part might be nice to mention, for all you people (like me) who are still WAY outside your comfort zone when it comes to a lot of this stuff. Here are some things that I love about DE that make my life – and yours – a little easier.

To start, I just found out that if any of our clients has a minor problem with a system we’ve set up [*we're not talking about a crash or file recovery issue here, though people!] they can call one of our consultants and ask for help. Well, you probably already knew that part, but this is where it gets good: if your problem is something that we can talk you through in 12 minutes or less, guess what? You don’t pay for it. I didn’t think ANYBODY did that!

Better yet, if you haven’t called over to DE lately, you should give it a try. I was really scared accepting this position because I know that everybody here is some sort of computer wizard. I was totally expecting to get lost in the lingo of the Techno-Elitists, but I couldn’t be more pleasantly surprised.

Here’s one example: After I finish typing this blog, I’m going to download a 1-Up form for my new friend Jon, one of our consultants who pulled a “Wow the DynEdger” with the promise of a “Follow Through” in the coming week while I try and get my home networked to function properly.

I was trying to figure out the name of the “Copy Filepath” application, so that I could write about it, but I was totally drawing a blank. I was using as many descriptors as possible to hopefully jog his memory, when I gave up.

I was in the middle of telling him that I realize I’m not making any sense at all when he said “You’ve got to realize that it’s my job to understand what somebody is saying, even when it doesn’t make sense.” Wow. Not only was that a huge relief for me, but I knew that if our consultants can understand my scattered explanations, they must be lightning-fast at diagnosing our client’s needs.

I think I’ll recommend a hi-five and two bucks for Jon. Thanks so much for making my life a lot easier this week!

Per company tradition, I’m going to do a “Pass the Shell” of my own. Here’s the short list of remarkably handy tricks I picked up this week.

1. Google searching within a website – in the google.com searchbar, you type in the website address and then a keyword you want to search for in the site. For example: to search for vinyl siding at the Home Depot, you would type “www.homedepot.com:siding” in the search bar. That will give you a list of results within the Home Depot websites.

2. The Copy Filepath application. I’ll put a link and some more details for this in my next post. With Copy Filepath, you can right click on a file… even one that’s in a nested network folder and copy the file path. This makes it easier to look for in the future, especially if you’re emailing the link to somebody else. The best part is that, to retrieve one of the files from a file path that’s been sent to you, all you have to do is press the “Windows” plus “r” key and past the copied file path in the bar. Presto! There’s your file. I love that this application is available to our customers almost as much as I love the fact that it’s available for me to use!

3. Google definitions – did you know that you can type “define: keyword” and find a definition for just about anything on the internet? It’s true! If you want to find out what Search Engine Optimization is, you can type “define: Search Engine Optimization” in the search bar and google will give you it’s definition, and a variety of options. This is probably the easiest way in the history of the world of finding out what something is… aside from living with a human encyclopedia. (These are a lot harder to find than www.google.com, though)

There’s going to be a lot more of these as I pick up new tips and tricks. I’ll be sure to pass them on with as much useful info as I can… and most likely, you’ll be able to find these in my Friday posts, because a lot of good stuff comes out during the staff meetings.

ttfn,
storm

In keeping with yesterday’s oven theme, I found out (rather embarrassingly) that the official name for my laptop is “TunaMelt.” I was at a friend’s house last night, trying to connect to Wi-Fi, but he’s got the router set to manually grant each user permission to access the network. In other words, they have to detect your computer and add you as a user – it helps to keep the bad guys out.

When Dan asked me, “are you TunaMelt?,” I was indignant and immediately responded, “Of course not! Why would I be TunaMelt?” Why would he even say such a thing?

Dan showed me the list of users his modem was detecting, and in the end, we concluded that I was indeed Tunamelt. After a good laugh, he suggested “… maybe its because of the color of your computer..” How funny!

We resumed my training today, spending a little bit of time learning about the database (where we store all of our important information), how to work the phones and a few things about our marketing department – which basically consists of |me|.

Here’s what I learned about our database: I think that, technically, the database is our server, but I could be wrong… either way, we call this mega-machine “applecrisp.” I’m not really quite sure why, but just about everything in our office is named according to the ‘Can It Be Found in an Oven?’ Scale. I heard a rumor that, when Bruce first got started consulting (back in the college years), he built his first network server in an abandoned oven. Whether there’s any truth to that story or not… hmmm? I guess we’ll just have to ask the source.

The server has its own special room… very much like the walk-in refrigerator at any big restaurant. It seems to be climate-controlled, fairly well-organized, and clearly houses the essential elements of Dynamic Edge. Our server is pretty big (at least, I think so…) I couldn’t tell you what type of RAID backups it makes, but it’s about as tall and a little wider than your average telephone booth; and it has LOTS and lots of buttons, switches and cables.

…And then, there are the tapes.
I always thought that people called their backups “tapes” because humans are creatures of habit and we continue to call things by their original name, even though the mechanism changes dramatically. Like movies, for example. When “cool people” talk about movies, they never call them movies – they always call them “films.” Anybody want to guess the last time they actually put “film” in one of their cameras? Exactly. That’s why I’ve always thought that when people talked about their backup tapes, they meant something else: like a data DVD or an external hard drive. I had no idea there were actual tapes! That they were still being used, and how surprisingly similar they look to an eight track tape…what an eye-opener.

After a good amount of face time with Bruce – asking as many questions as I could think of (in a way that didn’t say “I have no idea what Search Engine Optimization is…”) and a big handful of google searches, I felt pretty confident that I would actually be of some use at the Workshop we put on with Comerica Bank this morning.

This is what you get for assuming you have a good handle on things:
Hours of meticulous preparation had paid off, our handouts were streamlined and beautiful in their super-fly translucent folders and the slideshow Bruce did was very informative and straight-forward… there was only one hitch. During the “breakout sessions,” the part where the attendees interact with one another and I’m supposed to help them come up with some potential solutions to their current website (and business) needs, I was pretty much clueless as to what to say to help out (STILL!) and therefore, bore all of the tell-tale signs of the new employee…. a.k.a., the deer in the headlights.

So maybe there are few things left to learn.

All said, at the end of the day it was an overwhelming success. Bruce told me that, right away, we got two red-hot client leads (whatever that means) and then gave me strawberry Pop Rocks.

I wonder what’s on the docket for tomorrow??

So, here it is! Your first blog to read, my first week at Dynamic Edge and perhaps the first ever exposé into the minds of the SuperTech by a very non html-writing, computer-wiring, software programming person.

I thought Monday would be a day to get my toes wet. No. After eight+ hours of interviews and countless email correspondences, I really should have known better. From my limited standpoint, I can say this one thing: If nothing else, these guys are thorough… very thorough.

A quick summary of my very first day, for your enjoyment:

1. Arrived early after trying to figure out Ann Arbor’s metro transportation. No easy task!
2. Filled out a mountain of paperwork, assuring Thom that I am (in fact) eligible to work in the United States and its territories.
3. Begin training.
4. First homework assignment: Must be able to describe exactly what DE does… (*note to self – google “Dynamic Edge”)
5. Sudden Realization! OMG! We’re doing a workshop tomorrow at Walsh College and I’m supposed to be able to explain to people what Search Engine Optimization is. (*note to self – google “Search Engine Optimization”)
6. Sudden Realization #2… I have no idea what I’m doing!
7. Get new company laptop to use. This eases my frenzy quite a bit, but is more like Christmas morning when you open up all your new toys and then get whisked over a river and through the woods to Grandma’s house… where the food is good, but there are no toys.
8. Lunch, and Getting to know you time with Bruce, Tim and Debra.
9. Ranchero Meeting: This is where they look at all the good things that my new co-workers are doing and decide if they’re going to give them Cow Awards and Honorable Mentions – I’ll describe these down the road when I get one :)
10. Now the real work starts. From 3 ’till 10 we hammer out the slide show, worksheets graphics and half a million details that will go into tomorrow’s presentation. (As it turns out there were actually a full million to-do’s, but we didn’t make it through all of them.)
11. Wonder to self: Did I forget to ask Bruce if we were doing 4-twelves this week? I really should have asked this question in one of my many hours of interviews or copious emails…
12. Debra drives me to my sister’s house where I: eat really fast, shower furiously because there won’t be time tomorrow morning… we’re leaving here at 6:15 a.m., and pass out on the couch where I’m sleeping for the next 5 nights. (In that exact order.)

It’s good. I will survive.

ttyl,
storm