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Life Technology

Whatever works …

Marco Arment has written a blog post entitled Whatever works for you and I recommend that you read it. This blog post really piggybacks on a lot of overall ideas he posted about there.

I’ll admit that I’m still a raging Apple fanboy, and I primarily use the stuff coming out of Cupertino, but my approach to what others use for technology is increasingly coming around to what Marco is talking about. I just don’t have the time nor the energy to argue about technology choices anymore. I have a family to occupy my energy and much better things to focus on.

The other aspect of things is that there is just a ton of “good enough” technology out there to get work done with. If you buy almost any Windows PC available today with the intent of looking at stuff on the web, you are going to be fine. Yes, there are things I would do to just clean things up and make it a better experience, but they are minor. Heck, even the newest Celeron chips are not as terrible as they used to be.

I choose to pay more for what I consider to be a superior computing experience which Apple provides for me. I have a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, and Airport Extreme … and they all work together flawlessly. My wife has a MacBook, iPhone, and uses the same Airport Extreme while at home. For us, it “just works”, but if you don’t want to go that route then more power to you.

However, I also take it a step further and still support people using whatever technology they decide to use. Sometimes this means taking a crash course in a new technology I’m not familiar with, but that can be part of the fun. I’ll try and make almost anything work as best I can, but when the chips come down, I will let them know my opinion if they ask for it.

In closing, I agree with pretty much everything Marco says. Honestly, use what you want and enjoy it. It is pretty amazing what we can do with even the cheapest of smartphones today, or the least expensive laptop available, so DO something with it.

Categories
Life

After Some Thought

So I was able to read through the feedback given after my talk at the 2011 Chippewa Valley Code Camp and I now have some random thoughts after my first real talk. I’ll present it here just for fun.

  • I was really, really nervous and it came through too much. This one might be mitigated just through repetition of this same situation, but I might need to keep myself a little more distracted and maybe run through the talk a few more times to keep myself from showing how nervous I am.
  • Self deprecation is really what I do, it is how I talk with people. It is part of how I judge what a group is like and how I’m going to go from there … but not everyone likes it. Might have to be something that I just keep going with even in face of some resistance.
  • Need to bring more practical information on the “HOW” or at least balance it a little bit better with the “WHY”. I could talk about the WHY all day, and there is a place for that, but a little more HOW would not hurt me.
  • On the plus side, some people found that I was funny. Need to tell Laura that one.
  • Going to need to stress to people that I don’t use PowerPoint … running Keynote at the moment. On the flip side, if they are noticing the transitions, then maybe it is time to simplify things down a little bit.
  • Practice, practice, practice, practice … practice?
  • Where is the line between over-practicing to the point of mechanical and practicing too little to the point of stumbling? Need to explore this in my mind more.

Overall, I’m happy with how it went. I have a lot of work to do to clean up not just this presentation, but my presentation skills overall. The main thing is that I need to find my voice and how I want to approach my audience and then build from there. Thanks to everyone to came to the talk and provided the feedback, it was very appreciated.

I have a place to work from. Time to clean it all up.

Categories
Life

Things I’m Thankful For

On the night before Thanksgiving (here in the United States at least), I thought I’d take a quick look at some things I am thankful for.

This time last year I was working for Apple in Milwaukee, living in a rented house 40 minutes away from work, working shifts at a mall, and my wife and I had recently found out that we were expecting our second child.

Zip ahead a year and I have much to be thankful for, and partly because of how much has changed in just a year. Looking back, the only things that have been constant is my faith, family, and my 1996 Toyota Corolla.

I think I’ll stick with that for now. Over the past year a lot of things have changed, but those are the main things I am thankful fore. I honestly can’t believe that Laura puts up with me every day, and I am amazed at how she manages to keep our lives in order at home even with two young boys who require her full attention.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Categories
Technology

Technology and FERPA in Higher Education

I stumbled upon this article about the end of the use of public wikis at Georgia Tech for educational purposes due to worries about FERPA violations. To say that this article scares and saddens me is an understatement, and not just because I work in IT in higher education.

The limiting of what an educational professional can and cannot use in a classroom is troubling in itself, even when there can be very good reasons to do so. The limiting of technology use that can increase collaboration and technical skills over the threat of a violation because of a piece of legislation is terrifying.

Does Georgia Tech’s legal counsel have a point? Sure, and it is something that FERPA has enabled as everyone in higher ed continues to walk on eggshells over the new regulations. It is an example of the unintended consequences of legislation, especially ones as far reaching as FERPA.

Much of what FERPA was enacted to accomplish is good, but when it stifles the use of good technology and teaching methodologies, then you need to think is it worth it.

Needless to say, care has to be taken with how students are being seen in the public when using school sponsored technology mediums. Here is a good article about some thoughts on Social Media and FERPA.

Categories
Technology

Google’s Ridiculous Opt-out Data Gathering

Source: Greater choice for wireless access point owners

Alright, Google, this is just ridiculous. I’m going to pick on Google here because that’s where the announcement is from. Here’s the gist:

If you want Google to NOT gather your location data attached to your wireless access point (via their Google Street Cars), then you need to append “_nomap” onto your SSID. That’s right, you need to opt out of Google driving down the street and gathering information about the location of your access point.

Why in the world is this not the other way around!? You should have to OPT-IN to allowing Google to gather this information. Have a person append “_map” to the end of their SSID so that Google has permission to gather information about you.

I just don’t get it. I just don’t.