From October 1999 to October 2001, I worked as the sole computer professional for the Athletics Department at San Diego State University, centered in a lab at Student Athlete Support Services (SASS). My primary job was to administer and supervise the computer lab and associated computing systems for the department. I was also responsible for going out on calls around an extended network of PCs, Macs, and laptops, spread over three buildings, throughout the Athletics Department. You name it, I did it, literally.
A short list of experience I developed there includes just about all aspects of system and network administration and programming: crimping CAT5 cabling and installing network hardware; diagnosing, tearing down and rebuilding PCs from scratch; installing and backing up Windows and Mac operating systems; developing a system of security permissions to secure public lab workstations from getting trashed; "Ghosting" workstations for easy replication and restoration; computer virus prevention and cleaning; server and network installation, administration, security, and maintenance; database design; and system utilities programming. I also occasionally did some tutoring and was available to students who needed help with computer science, math, statistics, physics, writing, and the life sciences.
During my time there, I relied heavily on low- and no-cost solutions. I carried out computer repairs using a stockpile of parts scavenged from old machines. I set up a departmental Linux server, including an Apache web server, print server, database server, and file server, using all free, open source software.
Server security came into play here as I had to deal with attempts by hackers to access the system, and I implemented such measures as the "ipchains" firewall, HTTPS (secure, encrypted HTTP), and Tripwire, SSH secure shell, along with native Linux measures (tcp wrappers, etc.).
Where I could find no adequate free software available for our purposes, I programmed my own. For example, I created a pretty cool GUI-based print accounting server that required users to log onto a credit-based system, in order to control runaway abuse of printer resources.
Using a C++ back end and a GTK+ graphical user interface, I programmed an application I named "SPA" (Samba Print Accounting) to access an mSQL database running on the Linux server. The system would accept all print jobs submitted, via Samba, by any of the department's NT or Mac workstations. These print jobs were then reprocessed by a shell script that identified and renamed them based on application and document name, time and date of submission, and workstation ID. The back end would periodically poll the print spool, discover newly-added jobs, parse their contents which were stored as HP PCL (Printer Control Languge) and extract information about the document such as document type and number of pages.
SPA would then display this information, along with the document identifier, in a list window on a print station PC. The user would identify their print job, and enter username and password and this information, as well as printing credits remaining would be validated against information stored in the database, and the document would be sent to the printer. You can view a PowerPoint presentation I delivered about this project in a seminar here.
NCAA rules for athletes include such things as a required amount of study time during the week. Before my arrival, the department had been using a system of physical time cards and a time clock to track these hours. Of course, this meant someone had to collect and tally hours from all the time cards at the end of the week. Just the sort of tedious, inefficient, error-prone thing that a computer should be doing instead. This time, I designed and programmed a system that could be accessed from any of the networked lab workstations, providing plenty of access points for students to log in and out. For this, I programmed a Visual Basic back end and GUI application, interfaced with an MS Access database running on an NT server.
This application allowed students to log in and out by simply supplying their username and password at any lab workstation. The application also allowed them to view their total hours for the week, so they could be absolutely certain not to make the dreaded mistake of studying too much. On the other hand, advisors, coaches, and instructors could enter the secured Access back end to generate reports that I'd designed to present all sorts of statistics based on the tracked information. In fact, advisors used this information, as well as information stored by the SPA print server, to present to school administrators to lobby for, and eventually receive, increased lab resources.
I also designed the original web page for Student Athlete Support Services. Although it has subsequently gone through additional revisions by the Lab Assistant I trained to replace me, you can visit it here. My goal here, as with most other websites I've designed, was a combination of visual impact and informational simplicity, with a focus on ease of presentation, access, navagation, use, maintainability, and maximal browser compatability.
When the NCAA Championship Tournament came to the Cox Arena, I helped set up and administer a network computer center there for use by members of the national press.
In the final months of my work at SASS, the Athletics Department moved a number of its offices, including SASS and the computer lab, into a brand new building. The lab also got a slew of new workstations for the new lab, all running Windows 2000, and the department finally moved into the technological mainstream in style! I supervised setup of the lab, as well as installation, troubleshooting, and configuration of computers, printers, and network hardware throughout the building.
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