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Saturday, May 24, 2008
A moose on a bike
If you had been driving along man-o-war around 2:00 to 2:30 today you would have seen a Moose on a bicycle. I finally got my bike today. First time I have been on a bike since I was 17 and got hit by a car.
I bought a Globe City 7.
(zoom courtesy of georgegarnercyclery.com)
That’s what it looks like (click on the image to zoom, if you are so inclined). I added a water bottle holder (silver) and a water bottle (blue). I also added a wireless speed-o-meter that keeps track of the time of day, speed, average speed, maximum speed, individual trip distance, etc.
I rode the bike home from the shop. It was 2.24 miles. I averaged 7.9 mph, maxed out at 19.1. I am NOT 17 any more!
I think I need to get the handles raised about 3-4 inches.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Final grade in one class
Well, I took networking and database management this past term at University of Phoenix. I’ve gotten my grade for the database class.
I guess that means I did all right. Now waiting to for the networking class. Going in to the last week I had a 96.7% (yeah, kinda funny that I would be lower in Networking than in databases). However 24% of the grade is scored the last week. So, I could have a 76% or a 97.4% or anywhere in between.
I guess I’ll know in the next day or two.
Taking these two classes during this time in my life was exceedingly difficult. First, there was a lot of work. Second, my groups were less than ideal. Third, there were a number of outside inconveniences including Pascha and a job related trip to Florida.
I am a little nervous about my networking grade. I would hate to lose my 4.0.
Ah well, time will tell, and now I am in my next to last class - IT Risk Management. Should be a fun class. After last term, it should be much easier and much less stressful. P
Comments:
Matsu on 05/15 at 04:04 AM said:
You wrote, “...my groups were less than ideal” about the two classes you just completed. WOW! Was that ever a challenge when I got my degree from UoP online.
There were some unbelievable free-loaders in the program and they got credit for just being thrown into a group, whether they did anything (and most did nothing) or not. But, I wasn’t willing to take a low grade because of them, so the students who cared about their grades and doing good work ended up carrying the work load of the students who didn’t care and didn’t do hardly any work. I guess that’s the nature of group projects.
Congrats on your high scores, especially deserved given the circumstances you were under when you earned them.
Moose on 05/15 at 10:00 AM said:
Matsu,
Thank you. You know… I remember the same issues at Asbury. I don’t think this is a UoP issue, per se, but a group dynamic issue as you have stated.
Part of the problem with me is that by doubling up on classes I change groups. I’ve done this a couple times, so I am with people at the latter stages of the degree that I have no clue about.
Additionally, everybody else in the class does have a clue about and has requested to either not be in certain people’s groups or have requested to be in other groups. Thus, you end up with the strong students working together, and schmucks like me being stuck with the free-loaders, as you called them.
This is the price I pay for finishing a 14 month Masters in less than a year I guess.
Again, thanks for the congrats and for reading my blog.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Network Solutions having issues….
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Friday, April 11, 2008
700 MHz - the gold mine of the FCC - and Google doesn’t get any.
Google has a nice blog article ( http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/cone-of-silence-finally-lifts-on.html is the URL ) on the spectrum auction that went on in jan/feb of this year. This was for the 700MHz auction that Google promised to bid at least $4.6 billion for if the FCC would put 4 “open platforms” as part of the auction. The FCC agreed to 2 of them. (That information can be found here: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2007/07/our-commitment-to-open-broadband.html ) Even though FCC only agreed to 2, Google still bid more than the $4.6 billion minimum they said they would.
Here are a few highlights that I think are interesting…
“Google’s top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called “C Block” reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important “open applications” and “open handsets” license conditions. “
“But it was clear, then and now, that Verizon Wireless ultimately was motivated to bid higher (and had far more financial incentive ( http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2007/07/restoring-competitive-balance-to.html ) to gain the licenses).”
I believe that Verizon and others ended up paying $19,120,378,000 for 1090 licenses. They were the ones back in July/Aug/Sept appealed the FCC’s open device and open platform order that the FCC agreed to with Google for the minimum bid.
For those of you that are not aware, the 700 MHz spectrum is the one that U.S. television stations are required to abandon by February 2009. The 700 MHz spectrum is (according to this washington post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032000048.html) is ideal for wireless broadband services. “They travel 3-4 times further and penetrate obstacles such as buildings more easily than wireless signals in higher spectrum bands.”
FCC information on the auction can be found at their web site (Auction 73) at this location: http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=73. It covers TV channels 52-69 (see http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/data/bandplans/700MHzBandPlan.pdf ) for the Band plan.
https://auctionbidding.fcc.gov/auction/index.htm?CFID=3628486&CFTOKEN=99789402&jsessionid=wTGjH1jc9NTpGJ5HLyMv0MZWn3m90l15hjtDLJVT9TJbNNrk286L!-1946843305!-1095684957!1207935996278 <-- go here for the full results.
Oh, and FYI, Lexington went to Cavalier Wireless and Frontier Wireless. And, if you sort by amounts, Lexington went for a higher amount than Louisville did.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Many years to Arthur C. Clarke
May his Memory be eternal…
Perhaps his remains can be placed in Clarke Orbit (His greatest contribution to technology is creating the conceptual framework for geostationary satellites—machines that would remain in the same spot above the earth and act as relay stations for signals from the ground, covering a wide area. He published a paper about the concept in 1945, which was ultimately realized two decades later. The orbit into which geostationary satellites are placed is now known as the Clarke Orbit.)
Also known for his books - see list here: http://www.clarkefoundation.org/acc/bibliography.php
Clarke was an inspiration to me as a writer. He blended scientific expertise and imagination together seamlessly. Monday night on “The Big Bang Theory” they had a segment at the beginning where they were hooking up X10 to various items. They then, by touching a button on the laptop sent a signal around the world and to the stereo. When it came on, what was playing was the opening music from 2001: A Space Odessy (1968) and the four geeks jumped around mimicing the scene… it was very funny and reminded me of the thorough and complete genius of the movie and of Sir Clarke (and Kubrick).
One of Clarke’s desires was for man to “discover” extraterrestrial beings… too bad he did not get his wish.
