Diary of a Wolfeman

CompTIA Press Room – News has this to say:

Washington, DC, May 20, 2004 – At a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) today, CompTIA hailed US House introduction of the TRAIN Act by Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL) and other congressional leaders. According to CompTIA, the bill will facilitate greater training and re-skilling opportunities through a tax credit for qualified information and communications technology (ICT) training, helping American workers and the companies that employ them stay more competitive here and abroad.

It needs our help to pass, folks – contact you local representatives and urge them to pass this.

Well,after many months of procrastinating, I finally went down to the store and bought myself a little birthday present with the fundage my old man sent me: one of those illuminated keyboards.

Specifically, the Zippy Technologies EL-715 I chose the black frame, and I’m fairly impressed with it so far. It’s what passes for daylight up here in Portland right now, (IE, overcast) so there’s still some light creeping in through the blinds, but I am happily typing now without turning on the overhead light so I can see the keyboard. (If you haven’t figured this out, I cannot touch-type to save my life.) This should reduce some of the eyestrain I have been getting lately while spending so much time at the keyboard hunting for work.

Functionally, there is no tricky software for the keyboard, and the keys are a scissors-type, much like that of a laptop. It is quiet, but still has good tactile and auditory feedback on each keypress. There are a couple of things I would change about it if possible: first, the frame of the keyboard comes up a little high in front, so if you’re like me and tend to hit the spacebar with the sideof your thumb, it can get in the way. Second, the last keyboard I had was laid out a little differently than this one, so I am apt to make some mistakes until I learn the new layout. Nothing big here, folks, just me being picky. But not picky enough to go back to the other keyboard.

Conclusion: a good buy, especially for us cave-dwellers who hate the light of day.

Since I haven’t been getting as much traffic as I’d like to see on the job-hunting side of things lately, I think I’ll take a moment for some shameless self-promotion.

I call myself the Techie From Hell. This is mainly due to my ability to troubleshoot my way through a problem and come to a solution of some sort or another, usually a good one. Much like the Marines, I analyze, adapt and overcome obstacles in my path. I learn quickly and broadly – I often am able to learn enough about my co-worker’s jobs to take over in a pinch, or to speed up my own work by eliminating steps.

I have work experience in the following areas:

• CATV / High-Speed Data / Telephone operations from the distribution plant to the customer.
• Computer networking over LAN, WAN, ATM, ISDN, POTS, DSL, Cable modem, and Satellite.
• Computer repair, configuration and troubleshooting.
• All Microsoft Operating Systems, most Microsoft software suites, Linux (several distributions) and some Mac OS X familiarity.
• Electronics repair, including surface-mount technology (SMT).
• Project management.
• Employee hiring, training and discipline.
• Customer relations.

If any of that sounds good to you, I am looking for an entry- to mid-level job somewhere in the IT industry, but I’m really not being that picky at the moment. Serious email inquiries will be sent a copy of my resume; spammers trying to sell me something will be persecuted to the best of my ability to hound them to the ends of the earth.

Thank you for your time. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blogging.