Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Another great quote

Reminds me of the 'Sunscreen Song', but contracted for the Twitter generation.

Live with intention.

Walk to the edge.

Listen hard.

Practice wellness.

Play with abandon.

Laugh.

Choose with no regret.

Appreciate your friends.

Continue to learn.

Do what you love.

Live as if this is all there is.

-Mary Anne Radmacher

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Dearth of Curiosity

A brief conversation with an old friend tonight reminded me...

She's working at a new charter school now; nothing but the best. New technology, nutrition plans to combat the let down after lunch, no desks, etc. She was so enthusiastic!

But I've mused before about how absent curiosity seems to be in schools that are otherwise well resourced. No pedagogical excess can overcome a dearth of curiosity. But a driving curiosity can lead to a fascination with learning that trumps suboptimal learning conditions. Indeed, what passes today for an impoverished educational environment would have been a luxury to the peers of Newton, Leibniz and countless others whose discoveries form the foundation of today's science curricula! Lavish the Internet on idiots and you end up with idiots!

What a tragedy! Anyone can now indulge their curiosity to nearly a limitless depth, for free, 24/7, from home, and avail themselves of knowledge formerly reserved for the bourgeois. Perhaps getting an education would be more desirable if it was hard?




Sunday, September 05, 2010

Real Poetry

Thanks to my parents I had an excellent education. (I own the meager results.)

I came across a poem by Shelley by accident this morning. It spoke to me about the futility of desire for fame or riches. The author advises us to relax, enjoy the ride; it will all be lost in the end anyway.

An education could be wrapped around this poem. At least I found it. Better late than never.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.


A further analysis can be found here and here.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Totaled

We've seen more and more cases where perfectly fine PCs get totaled by malware. The analogy to a car being totaled is apt: You slide into a barrier on ice in your 2002 Camaro at 10 MPH. No injuries, airbags don't deploy; the fender's messed up, front suspension too, the engine mounts go a little whacky. Fixable, right? Not!

The insurance guy says your car is worth $5K and the repairs will be $6K. Your car has just been totaled.

Think about the similarity to PCs but apply 'Internet Time' and 'Moore's Law': PCs change far more rapidly than automobiles. I need to remind customers all the time that the $1K PC they are buying today would have been $5K a few years ago - if it was available at all. Add in the cost of labor: probably not accelerating in this economy, but a good technician still bills out at $80-$110/hr.

How much can you afford to invest in that old 'PC Clunker' when it gets into an 'accident' with malware? (BTW: malware isn't the only malady: OS updates, hardware failure and abuse may be more familiar if less less likely threats.)

I assess the damage across several dimensions:
  • How old is it?
  • Is there important information still on it?
  • Is the software installed on it recoverable? (i.e. do you have the rights and/or media, keys, codes, updates, configuration details, etc. available to make a new PC work like the old one.)
  • How well did it perform before the crash?
Do you want to spend the cost of a new PC costs fixing up an old one? Not unless there are compelling reasons. For example: your old software won't work on Microsoft's latest OS (which is all you can find,) or the additional time and cost to configure a new PC is intolerable if not impossible. We wear-in PCs like old shoes. Sometimes, you just can't find one that fits as well.

We estimate that migration of all the stuff from an old PC to a new one can take from two to four hours - that adds hundreds of dollars to the equation. Your mileage may vary, but the pain is real.

What can you do to avoid having your PC totaled? Keeping it well maintained is a good start: update antivirus programs, safe surfing practices, store copies of the software, license keys and summary of significant configuration changes you've made in a separate place. This is like the little book you have in your glove compartment that records when you got oil changes and factory recommended service. It's a good idea for your PC too.

We recommend that important PCs use backup imaging software like Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition and Acronis True Image. Both are available for under $100 and allow you to capture everything on your PC to a USB hard drive. On-line backups are fine for data - and may be OK for DOCs, databases and photos - but getting your programs and the functionality of a finely tuned PC back is just as important, if less emotional. You won't appreciate all that stuff until it's gone!