Republicans not welcome…

At the Wausau Wisconsin Labor Day Parade.

Organizers of the Labor Day parade in Wausau say Republican lawmakers aren't welcome in this year's event.

The Marathon County Central Labor Council sponsors the Sept. 5 parade. The council includes about 30 local unions from the Marathon County area.

Ah, tolerance for opposing viewpoints.  That’s what I like to see.

Higher Education Bubble Update

The title is blatantly stolen from Instapundit

I have commented on the idea of a higher education bubble before, unlike Instapundit I don't believe there is a higher education bubble - I believe there is a bubble in specific fields of study (i.e Lawyers, MBAs, and some (many) of the social sciences), but there is a shortage in others such as engineering and that the educational system will need to be retooled to address them.

This is happening. Apart from for-profit schools and schools such as Western Governors University, The New York Times points out today (link later) a new set of collaborative universities that are beginning to develop. Courses are being developed in conjunction with and at the request of students. Personally I think this is a good direction to be moving in.

The next step should be the elimination of traditional degrees in favor of Educational Competencies, i.e. instead of having a degree in business you would have a competency in retail management. Strings of competencies could be strung together into a meta-grouping of some sort, and not just classwork should count. Field experience should be quantified and noted also by eikther the educational institution or some sort of professional organization (although that runs the risk of "guilds" developing ala Heinlein's "Starman Jones").

WGU Week 21

So, it's the second day of week 21 of my first term. Had my weekly call with my mentor yesterday and had to tell her that since I have taken this job my schedule has been thrown off a little. Not going to complete Windows 7 this term. I'll have to get it very early next term. Officially all I have to complete are the two math classes and I am good for the term, but I still want to get the Project Management class knocked out also.

Other than that not a lot to report. The new job seems to be validation of Wireless Applications on various Android devices that T-Mobile is adding to it's line-up. They didn't make me sign an NDA or anything but common sense is don't talk about work in detail so I won't be. All I will be offering is general impressions as time goes on. Impression so far both the company I am contracting thru and this contract specifically are a good deal. At this point I am very happy this fell into my lap.

New Stephenson Novel Releases 9/20

Titled “Readme”, it seems to be a technothriller kind of in the vein of “Cryptonomicon” rather than a sci-fi offering. 

This ends our special news break.

While in the Geek realm – I watched part of Revolution OS, a movie that explores the rise of the free / open source software movement, last night.  The one thing that really stood out is that Richard Stallman is kind of an egocentrist.  I don’t disagree with a lot of his ideas regarding free software, although I do disagree with his idea that any restriction on access to software source code is unethical, but man is that guy annoying.

PSA–Google+ Users be sure to log out

Heard on the This Week in Tech podcast.  There is apparently a bug in Google+ that allows a Google talk user to intercept your IMs if they log into Google talk on the same computer where you had an active Google+ session if you just close the browser tab without logging out.

Full details here.  Google thinks it is pretty unlikely that many users will encounter this issue but better safe than sorry.

(Note:  Google says that the bug is fixed but since it is still be reported as active today take some basic precautions)

Blast From the Past–MMM MMM MMM

I wonder how many of those kids are still singing this song?

Some WGU News

First off, Texas just partnered with WGU to create WGU Texas.  Texas was already part of the consortium that created WGU but I think this is important because Texas is the counties second most populous state and give Gov. Perry’s calls for decreasing cost and increasing access to education I think this might drive some expanded course selections at WGU.

Second, there is a rumor floating around that WGU may be creating a new Masters in Networking.  Not sure what it would entail but I think that is a pretty interesting development.

In these troubled times…

When the world seems to be crashing down around us, instead of panic and despair we should just ask ourselves “What Would Don Draper Do?”

 

 

complete flowchart

Around the Moronosphere 8/5/2011

Ace of Spades – weighs in on killing off Peter Parker.

Hot Air – Good News Everyone (Professor Farnsworth reference here)

Slashdot – West silent about China’s 5 year long cyberwar.

more importantly the real reason for bandwidth caps is revealed:  Internet Eats into Time Warner Cable Porn Profits

The Art of Manliness – How to Throw a Tomahawk Like a Mountain Man.  Hey you never know when Jeremiah Johnson may attack.

Marketwatch – Once again environmentalists f**k it up, “Buy Local” may not actually be good for the environment.

Filmdrunk – Mila Kunis tells off reporter in Russian

Finalists for the top Science Fiction and Fantasy titles

At NPR.  Includes:

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Back in 2005 I posted a list of the “Top 20 Geek Novels” only 3 of those novels are not on the NPR list

9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)

10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)

20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

So if you had been reading my blog like you were supposed to back then you would already have a good start on this current list; but you weren't and now you are all a bunch of unread churls aren't you? Well? Aren't you? (Sorry blog bitterness is leaking out)

Around the Moronosphere

Bring the Heat Bring the Stupid – Classic SEAL recruiting film “Men With Green Faces”   My recruiter was one of the SEALs in the film.

NY TImes – Spider-Man gets new secret identity – “

On Tuesday Marvel announced that issue No. 4 of its Ultimate Comics Fallout series, to be released on Wednesday, would establish a new alter ego for Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a teenager who is of black and Hispanic descent, and a rare person of color playing a major role in a mainstream publisher’s comics.

Times of India – China downgrades US debt

That’s all folks.  Slow day today.

Someone was popular at Comic-Con

WGU Week 18

Been awhile since I did one of these so I decided to catch up.  Last time we talked I had just started the Windows 7 class (ABV1) and the Speech class.  Soon after that I got the speech class transferred in, so I moved on to the 2 math classes.  I also had my mentor open up the Networking class because I had applications in for a couple jobs which required the Net+ certification.  I pretty much put all my attention on that class.  After studying for a couple weeks I passed it and am now back on Windows 7.  I have completed the computer based training and am now reading the textbook and doing those labs.  I finish this class by the middle of August.  I am also still working the math classes and have started on the project management class.  I should be able to finish it by the end of August also.  After that we will just have to see.  There are 3 business management classes I have to take.  I may try and knock those out. 

Around the Moronosphere 8/1/2011

Legal Insurrection – Boehner is lying, help me prove it by crowdsourcing the debt ceiling bill.  I paraphrased.

This Ain’t Hell – AF to cut leadership training for LTs.  It’s a cost cutting move.  In related news Army and Marines are too no longer issue those expensive rifles.

Mail & Guardian – “Plus size” Brazilian women somehow find the courage to live despite the fact that stores don’t carry clothes in their size.

NY Times -  PA joins list of states with school testing cheating scandal.  Damn George Bush,  This is all his fault!

Times of India – “Doctors and engineers appearing for an entrance exam for clerical posts reflects the job scenario today.”  Not a good sign in my opinion.

Xinhuanet – Chinese workers to be downsized due to rising labor costs.  Replacements are robots.  Hasta la vista baby!