黑料正能量

Tag Archives: information technology

My “portable computer” weighed 30 pounds

January 13, 2015 – 2:35 pm

In the mid-1980s, when Pat and I were executives in the denominational offices of the Mennonite Church, this advisory was issued about computers in our offices: 鈥淲e do not anticipate any time in the future when having several computer workstations throughout the building will not be sufficient.鈥� It was assumed that personnel could reserve a

I.T. in higher ED: In the end, it’s about people

January 13, 2015 – 2:29 pm

As a UNIX systems engineer at Virginia Tech, Josh Akers 鈥�07 is charged with 鈥減rovisioning鈥� a few dozen 鈥渆nterprise systems鈥� at university, while also 鈥渁dministrating VMware infrastructure鈥� and supporting operation of 鈥淎dvanced Research Computing clusters.鈥� 鈥淎nyone in the field would know what I鈥檓 talking about,鈥� said Akers, who majored in computer science at 黑料正能量. But

黑料正能量’s own techies

January 13, 2015 – 1:51 pm

As a work-study student on 黑料正能量鈥檚 helpdesk in 1999, these were Jason Alderfer鈥檚 tools: 鈥淎 telephone and a legal pad.鈥� 聽A couple times a day, Alderfer or another work-study student would check the phone and write down the messages 鈥� who had called and what their problem was 鈥� and then either go fix the

WCSC internship evolved into career

January 13, 2015 – 1:01 pm

Matt Eshleman 鈥�02 began working for Community IT Innovators 13 years ago, during an internship for his Washington Study-Service Year (now Washington Community Scholar鈥檚 Center). From providing IT support at a nursing home and teaching computer classes, Eshleman rose through the ranks as a systems administrator, systems engineer, and team lead to his current role

The one and only John Fairfield

January 13, 2015 – 12:56 pm

This is a man who spent much of 1970-71 in Belgium鈥檚 national library absorbing British computer research. He was learning French too in Brussels, so that he could use French to teach math, physics and economics at a Congolese mission school. This is a man who lived with his wife in a mud hut for

Dwight Wyse: computer pioneer

January 13, 2015 – 12:53 pm

Fresh out of college, Dwight Wyse 鈥�68 took a job as accounts payable clerk at Eastern Mennonite College about the time the school鈥檚 first computer arrived. The year was 1968, and the computer was a massive IBM 1130 that filled up an entire room in the new Science Center. The computer, purchased with a federal

From local threesome to national Jenzabar聽

January 13, 2015 – 12:50 pm

It all started in a corner of 黑料正能量’s old administration building in 1980. Two employees began tinkering 鈥� on their own time 鈭� with ways for colleges and universities to manage their administrative affairs with a new technology called computers. The employees 鈥� Dwight Wyse 鈥�68, the school鈥檚 director of business affairs, and Mark Shank,

Former Jenzabar men co-own VistaShare聽

January 13, 2015 – 12:46 pm

As a teenager in the mid-1970s, Daryl Myers 鈥�84 didn鈥檛 know anyone who owned a computer in his town of Lowville, New York. But he took his own money, trekked to a Radio Shack store and bought a TRS 80. 鈥淚t was really just a calculator on steroids,鈥� he laughs now. It had no games,

I.T. at Choice Books

January 13, 2015 – 12:43 pm

Most IT specialists have two jobs, the one they get paid for and the charitable roles that inevitably arise when folks discover that you know something about computers. Delbert Wenger, class of 鈥�86, acknowledges both responsibilities with good humor. He is an information systems administrator and accountant at Choice Books central office in Harrisonburg, and

Helping people do good work better

January 13, 2015 – 12:41 pm

On his Messiah College application in the early 鈥�80s, LeVon Smoker checked computer science as his major (with a pen鈥攖he online application being years in the future) 鈥渙n a whim,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淐omputers were new, I thought it would be fun, and not a lot of people would be doing it.鈥� Since his graduation in

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