Category: Knoxville

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Busy May

May is almost over and I’m not sure where it went. Work has been going ok, the UT Libraries version of the new UT web templates should be ready in the next couple of weeks. Then the long and probably painful process of converting the libraries over to the new templates can begin.

On a personal note, I spent most of May getting the family finances in order. Cashed in some stock and paid off all our credit card debt, which was a sizable sum. Next on the agenda is looking at buying or building a house. Building on the land we have now is one option, or we may sell our current place and move a bit closer to work.

Anybody want to buy a Mac mini or a couple of Pentium 4 Windows XP machines? The only computer we ever turn on at home anymore is the laptop, so I’m on a mission to get rid of our desktop machines and reclaim some cash.

But for now we’ll be taking a break and headed to Arkansas for Memorial Day. Should be a nice change of pace.

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Library Podcast… file extension issues

I’ve been working on putting a podcast up for The Commons at work. Which is a little harder than it sounds. First I had to figure out podcast RSS feeds. The University of Washington has a good site for that.

Then there was an issue with the .m4a file that GarageBand saves podcasts as. .m4a is not an official MIME media type, which means it’s probably not going to be in the Apache mime types. At least it wasn’t for the library web server. And it might not hurt to add .m4v as well.

AddType video/mp4 .m4v
AddType audio/mp4 .m4a

MPEG 4 has various (and mostly interchangeable) file extensions, although .mp4 is the only official extension. But Apple has popularized .m4a and .m4v into what appear to be defacto standards.

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Work Work Work

Well I’m starting to get settled in at Hodges. Still waiting on keys to my office, which may not matter since I may be moving offices anyway. Still don’t know quite what I’m doing yet, but I do know I’m the only person in Hodges whose sole job is designing web sites. That probably means I’m going to be staying busy.

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Potentially headed back to Knoxville

I’ve applied for a job in Knoxville. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is, you think I want everybody applying for it? 🙂 It does tie in my web design skills and library background nicely and I hope I get the job.

I’ve tried the PhD thing twice now, once at UT and currently here at Missouri. It’s really not for me. But if nothing else comes along I’ll finish out my assistantship here and possibility even finish the PhD if I can keep myself motivated that long. But I’ve determined academic research isn’t for me, I’d rather be out there doing something.

Stephanie is applying for jobs both here in Missouri and at UT. So who gets a job where and when determines who moves back to Knoxville first. But we’ll both be in Knoxville eventually along with Lisa and all the critters.

Wish us luck. 🙂

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Knoxville gets an Apple Store

Where do you think an Apple Store would you in Knoxville, Tennessee? Probably somewhere at in Farragut right? Maybe Turkey Creek, there’s lots of high end stores out there. Nope, Knoxville’s Apple store is in West Town Mall.

Cheers to Knoxville for getting an Apple Store. Wonder what the chances are of Johnson City getting one are? Something about a snowball’s chance comes to mind… 🙂

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First day of teaching

Well, my first day of teaching is over. Considering that I haven’t taught anything in nearly a year and a half, I didn’t do too badly. I went much faster than I should have, but the first chapter was mostly fluff anyway. I’ll slow it down for Thursday. Maybe I’ll have fewer students Thursday, the room was a bit crowded today.

Speaking of teaching, check out ratemyprofessors.com. Pretty interesting what students will say. Doug Burgess at ETSU was great when I was an undergrad and apparently still is. He’s the primary reason I was a history major, and one reason why I got a masters and am working on a Ph.D. He even has a cookbook.

There was only one professor from SIS that was rated. Hopefully if my students rate me here I’ll do better than that.

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KFAR strikes back… and wins

First off, my sincere apologies to Ghost and the KFAR crew. I dug up old and incorrect information in my post yesterday, so much for my librarian skills. Ghost left some comments correcting me, which I encourage everyone to read.

Basically, the window to apply for a low power FM license is closed. So that ship has sailed and KFAR must fly a pirate flag to broadcast. And by the way WDVX is not a low power FM station.

It appears as though the deck is stacked against KFAR, they would like to broadcast legally, but they can’t. And I still think the raid was politically motivated, as 100 watts of transmitting power can’t interfere with much. Maybe a mosquito 2 inches from the transmitter is inconvienced.

So I stand corrected and firmly back in KFAR’s corner. Play on, I’ll be listening.

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