I got a notification from my MacBook Pro today that an EFI update was available. I hadn’t booted since last Friday, so that explains the lag in notification since this firmware update was actually released about 5 days ago. Anyway, Apple says the update eliminates Optical Drive noise when system boots or wake up from sleep.

Here is the official Apple text:

Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya…

So after several rounds of the most piss poor, incompetent tech support on the planet, I am telling Time Warner Cable where they can shove it. I don’t entirely blame the level 1 techs that answer the phone because the problem is most likely up at the NOC level, but the lack of transparency is enough to piss me off.

It all started with my personal junk blog being blocked from outside the TWC network. Being a former network engineer and all, I explained to them exactly what was going on – silence. I checked the Network Status page – bleeding red all over. Red signifies unplanned outages. Talked to a few friends who also have TWC and all have been having problems since exactly the same day.

I guess that TWC was attempting some kind of network upgrade or yet another filtering/throttling project and screwed everything up – as usual. I finally had it with their crap service and called AT&T to see what they could do for me. I wasn’t expecting much, but boy was I surprised!

What it boils down to:

• Internet and Phone Services are $5 cheaper than TWC
• I have 3 times the Upstream Bandwidth
• I have slightly less Downstream Bandwidth (but it is dedicated, not ‘up to’)
• No Contract
• Oh, and here’s the kicker – I get 8 Static IPs for FREE!

When all is said and done, I will probably get faster downstream downloads because my bandwidth is dedicated, not shared like a cable network. The 8 static IPs are just the icing on the cake, but it does make a huge gesture toward me as a customer. AT&T is practically saying ‘go a head and host whatever you want from your home, we’ll even give you the static IPs to do it.’ The only way TWC could possibly get me back as a customer is if AT&T messed things up so horribly I had to move back. The chances of that, however, are slim to none.

In summary, TWC needs to be more transparent at the very least. At the very most, they need to hire quality techs and network engineers, not some knock offs that went through some cert mill.

Imagine my surprise when I found out how much this little ‘niche’ segment had grown. I knew that Amazon had gained some market share with the Kindle (various versions) and that Sony had a big market, but I was shocked to see Barnes and Noble’s new entrant to the field. As luck would have it, just a few days from the untimely demise of my Sony e-Reader, I get an email from Barnes and Noble announcing the Nook. Hailed as “The World’s Most Advanced eBook Reader,” I had to check it out. What really caught my eye initially was the cost. It is only $259 brand new. I won’t even get into how much the Sony cost when I bought it. Suffice it to say that $259 is pocket change compared to that. It looks quite nice as well, and it has something the other two competitors don’t: Full Color.

Now, for some, color doesn’t matter. If all you are reading is novels, black and white is fine. If you want to read magazines or newspapers with photos, however, color makes a huge difference. Built in 3G, like the Kindle, allows book, magazine and newspaper downloads to take place just about anywhere. Overall, eBooks cost less than their print counterparts. Best of all, however, is the portability factor of the e-Reader. About the height and width of a standard paper back novel, but only about a quarter inch thick, the e-Reader can fit in places a common book can not. For those that are fans of hot-off-the-press novels, having to buy a larger hard back novel is often a drag. Now you don’t have to.

So you can easily see that an e-Reader is an amazing value if you actually use it. The features are pretty similar across the board with several key differences between them. Which one fits you best is a decision that only you can make. So what is the relative cost difference? Well, as I said before, the new Nook sells for $259. A quick glance over at Amazon shows the new Kindle (not the DX) at the same $259. The Sony site shows two models, one at $199 and the other at $299. So the price difference is very small. I do really like the Nook and Kindle, but I’m pretty used to the Sony. I like the 3G features of the Kindle and Nook, but I want to do some more research on the Nook and see if it is easy to port my huge collection of PDFs over. If the Nook can make it easy to manage both my old library and any new titles that I download, it’s a definite winner. I guess I’ll just have to wait until the Nook actually releases to get my hands on it.

Of course, if Barnes and Noble is reading this, an evaluation unit would greatly aid me in my quest.

All things equal, what value can a University or College deliver to the student population? Furthermore, what time period is required to deliver that value? Who decided that four years was the nominal length of a college education? Why was this decided? What is the primary purpose of a college education? How does it benefit the student? Can we successfully reduce the overall time period to deliver the education and experience that college student seek and still adequately prepare them for the workforce? What will be redacted from the current four year structure? All of these questions are very important as we venture into a tough economic climate in which wages are falling and the cost of education is rising. Students need to be prepared adequately, at the lowest cost, and then released into the workforce. So, I’ll ask again, should college really take four years?

There are two common ‘camps’ that voice their opinions for this question, though the interests that ride the under currents of higher education are far more in number. The first group declares that college is more about the experience of ‘finding ones-self’ through study over a period of time. They believe that the four years is necessary for a person to fully grow into an individual and be prepared for life. Work is a secondary but still important focus. The second group proposes that the purpose of education is to bestow upon the student the intelligence, wisdom and skills necessary to become a productive member of the workforce. It is by this productivity that the person contributes to society in general, and it is by the day to day social interactions with others that they discover and edify themselves. While it is very important to define yourself as an individual and develop a wholesome life ethic, it is more important to support yourself and family while doing so.

Pulling from my own college experience at a private Catholic university, I will say that I am equally torn between the two camps. I was blessed with one of the best college experiences, from a social perspective, that anyone could ask for. It was far more fun and exciting than most will ever get. It was the people that I dormed with that made this possible. At the same time, it was very expensive and took a long time. The skills I use daily in my profession were mostly self taught and learned through experience. Very little of my formal schooling has contributed to my overall career. I will admit that my career is not a typical one and that you can not really take classes to do what I do. The point is that school can only offer so much. Most of your value as an employee or entrepreneur will come from experience, not from theory. You would think with what I just said, I would fall in the first category of people, but the cost and time involved to get my education was not at all ideal. At the same time, I would not want students to fly through a condensed one year version of college just to become robots in the field. Balance is key with anything.

The majority of my amazing social experience came with the last two years of college and the first year of my graduate studies. After that I was too busy with work to really socialize heavily. That said, I can easily see a world where an undergraduate education takes only three years to complete. Much to the chagrin of the educational institutions out there, I will say that there is a good number of unnecessary or otherwise redundant classes that students are forced to take every semester. Under the guise of a ‘fully rounded’ curriculum, I feel that these are like the filler in hot dogs – good for no one but may add some flavor. I can also see an undergraduate education taking only two years to complete. Looking back over my coursework and curriculum, if I trim out what I consider the fluff, I can condense the time into two years. Is this practical for everyone? Of course not, but for those who want this avenue, it should be available. A graduate degree, for the most part, takes only two years to complete. I will admit that it is very specific and targeted, but why should the undergraduate degree be so broad? Along with truncating the overall length of the undergraduate program, I think that some reorganization of the school year is due as well.

Most colleges and universities work with in the traditional fall and winter semesters, with some additional classes offered over a very condensed summer schedule. Why not split the school year into three or four equal segments and let the students decide which to take. I can easily see trimesters instead of semesters. Each with a full class instead of squeezing the summer schedule. This will also increase the overall utilization of facilities, utilities and staff within each university. It is more efficient! It just makes more sense to me. I won’t even get into what the K-12 segment needs to do in order to fix the problems plaguing education as a whole.

I hope, at the very least, that this opens up dialogue with respect to higher education. I would like to see efficiency go up and costs go down. After all, if you want to run like a business, you can’t just pick and choose which parts you emulate. Let’s improve the bottom line, but not at the expense of the student. Let’s still give them the world class education that is expected of an American university but with 21st century methods. It is definitely possible, we just need to acknowledge the problem and address it accordingly.

To read the original Newsweek article that sparked this blog post, go here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/218183/page/1

I will say that this book is very readable and not boring. I believe the entire novel takes place in the space of 10 hours, so that means the progression within the novel is pretty fast paced. Yet again, the pages are stuffed full of symbology, ancient history, conspiracy theories, religion, government agencies, fringe ’sciences’ and the token lunatic antagonist.

Dan Brown, yet again, does an excellent job allowing the reader to figure out things just before characters in the novel do, patronizing the reader into reading further. All in all I will say that it was a good entertaining read and a decent piece of fiction. If you really liked his other two more prominent novels, which I listed above, then you will probably like The Lost Symbol.

Most people are probably familiar with Apple’s OSX and Microsoft’s windows, but fewer are familiar with Linux in general, even if it is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution today and rightfully so. In about 5 years, Ubuntu has gone from a fledgling Debian derivative, to a full blown force of its own. The last iteration of Ubuntu, 9.04, code named Jaunty Jackelope brought more internal or ‘under the hood’ improvements and refinements. Expanding on the functionality and speed improvements, 9.10 adds a little more in the way of GUI enhancements and user experience improvements. 9.10 also looks to cloud computing with the inclusion of Eucalyptus, yet another excellent open source project.

I have been using 9.10 since the Alpha releases, and the current Beta is running well. There are few minor issues here and there, but that is expected with Beta software. I can’t wait until the 29th to get my hands on the final release version. I am excited to put it through its paces and see where the Ubuntu developers have put the most effort. The desktop version (beta) is excellent and the UI polish is very evident. Also noteworthy are the significantly reduced boot up and shut down times. They are very noticeable. I have also installed 9.10 beta Server Edition on one of my personal web servers and it has run flawlessly since the beta released. I am very satisfied with that. I’m eager to see how much uptime I can get on the final release version.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how Mark Shuttleworth is making on his goal to surpass Apple OSX in functionality and UI polish in ‘three years.’ Although I love Mac, I am hoping he succeeds. You can never have too many competitors in the market, and getting large software vendors to start releasing for the Linux platform (or truly multi-platform apps developed in a language like…oh…say…Java!) is always a good thing. We’ll see how it all lays out on the 29th.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it.

Ernest

Prologue

I won’t say that it was by a miracle that you are able to read this now, but the odds against me were seemingly inexorable. If you are reading my original printed copy instead of a published copy, please make sure my story gets out to as many people as possible, however you can. I took extreme risk writing my story under what can only be politely described as ‘the watchful eye of the Vatican.’ It’s not that the Vatican has time to monitor each and every priest who writes about sensitive topics so much as it is about damage control due to the recent spat of lawsuits against a few misguided souls within the clergy. Regardless, it was only by the aid of a close friend and his loaning to me of an old yet reliable laptop that I was able to put my story in writing. In the end, I was able to complete my task, hopefully preserving my story should anything happen to me. I do not believe that anyone is wise to my act, but the Vatican has far reaching eyes and ears. One can only hide so much when living within the confines of Vatican property, especially a priest. Then again, can you blame an organization with more land, real estate and liquid assets than any other on earth for being overly cautious? I believe that information should be free and that no one can dictate who has access to that information. It is in that spirit that I tell you my story.

VMware has made several very significant enhancements to this product. Foremost, you will notice that we have finally added the ability to create Virtual Machines! Additionally, we have designed a new user interface including a library for you to access your recently used VMs. VMware Player now supports installing VMware Tools into your guest operating system to give you all of the powerful features that make it easier to work with a virtual machine including Drag and Drop, Cut and Paste and Unity!

We hope that you enjoy evaluating this VMware Player Release Candidate and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

Feature Highlights:

• The ability to create Virtual Machines
• Aero support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests!!!
• OpenGL support for Windows guests (give Google Earth a try!)
• New User Interface including a Virtual Machine Library
• Windows 7 support (as a Host and Guest OS)
• Automatically download and install the latest VMware Tools package
• Multiple Monitor Support
• Print from your VM without installing printer drivers. Virtual Printing courtesy of our friends at ThinPrint.
• ALSA Sound support on Linux hosts enables multiple VMs to play “music” concurrently
• VIX API support will let our coding fans write applications that can interact with their VMs

Check out the announcement at http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/player