Server Goon

I’m a Master’s student in the College of Education.  The area I’m in is Technology in Education.  Part of the requirement for several classes (or so I’m starting to gather) is having a blog.

Well, I already have a blog, I like it, I like the name, so I’m starting a separate “category” within the blog for Technology in Education.  Anytime you want to see what’s new in “Technology in Education”, at least from my viewpoint, you can visit http://blog.servergoon.com/categories/TiE.

Welcome to my musings and feel free to comment.  Please note that I have all comments on approval.  So, I’ll be looking at them for true content as opposed to some spam bot.  What this means to you is the comment has to pass my version of the Turing test which means “meaningful, constructive comments” vs “wow, great post” or “get cialis now! here’s how”.

–SG

Ok, so I guess I should first apologize for all my readers who have been abducted by aliens.  I’m sorry you’ve had a horrifying experience, I hope you recover.  I’ll make a list of where to get the materials needed.

Sometimes you come across a site that is just too good not to share and to me, this happens to be one!  http://stopabductions.com/

I just wonder about their claims of “Only four failures have been reported since 1998.” Makes me wonder how they know there weren’t more.  After all, if mind control is being used, you wouldn’t know you were abducted right?  So, following that logic, would that mean we are dealing with the inept aliens?  They aren’t following the procedure manual and clearing memories like they were supposed to?

Oh crap, what about the ones that ARE following the manual?

Damn, damn, damn, excuse me, I gotta go get some materials….

So, my son was telling his mom (my wife) about this poem.  It was something simple and I didn’t hear it all, but when you read the first word of every line it had a hidden message.  Reminded me of something I found a while back and thought I’d share it.  The poem goes like this

So, do you see the message?  Continue reading Kids these days…

I realized it’s all about the journey while riding the motorcycle earlier this year.  I’ve said it several times and agreed with it, but it wasn’t until recently that it really hit home.

I was returning home from visiting a friend in South Carolina.  I had a route all planned out and was cruising along enjoying the ride.  I had a purpose.  I was going to head over into the north eastern tip of Georgia (never been there on a motorcycle)  then head north into North Carolina to Deals Gap and  The Tail of the Dragon.

Well, needless to say I made a wrong turn somewhere along the way.  I don’t know when I realized this, but I think it was when I saw the state line for North Carolina.  I started to get a little worried, but the beauty of the scenery, the call of the open road, the wind surrounding me somehow kept me from stressing out.  I thought about it a bit, knew I was heading in the general direction I needed to go and decided to let it all go. *Man, what a feeling*

When I stopped to fuel up, I got out my atlas to plot a new route to my destination.  Along the way I found some beautiful road (64 and 28) that was clean and twisty, met some interesting people in Cashier, North Carolina (the “heartbeat of western North Carolina” the gentleman said with a grin) and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Even now, when I’m not on such a long trip, I find motorcycle riding very therapeutic.  When I’m feeling stressed about work, I can hop on the bike, pick a road and after a while the worries just disappear because at some point along the way I remember it’s all about the journey.  The destination will always be there, but it’s how you get there that matters.

Even now as changes are occurring at work it helps me to put things in perspective.  So, as Queen would sing “get on your bikes and ride!”

… God help us all.

Ok, I just happened across this story and I find it ludicrous that someone would even think of this.  So, here’s the link and my comment about it.

http://www.higheredmorning.com/new-grad-cant-find-job-so-she-sues-college

You have GOT to be kidding me!  Maybe she should try developing a personality and take some responsibility.  As it is, I KNOW I wouldn’t hire her.  She might sue because she wet herself when someone didn’t lead her to the bathroom.  What would be interesting to know is what kind of jobs is she applying for.  I bet they’re all jobs that require years of experience and a degree… well by golly she DESERVES to be handed that job.  God forbid she should actually work up to a position!

So, I was heading down to South Carolina on Friday June 12, 2009 on my motorcycle when just outside of Ripley, WV it started to rain.  Now I had raingear, but it was stowed neatly in the backback I had strapped onto the back of the bike and covered with a waterproof sack.  Since I was getting soaked, I decided to pull over after a couple of miles to see if it would pass.

I pulled into a gas station off of I-77, parked under the canopy and went inside for a coffee.  As I stood outside sipping coffee and watching the rain a group of Harleys pulled in from Michigan and a few minutes later a guy with his wife from Zanesville, Ohio pulls in on a Yamaha Venture Royale (if I recall correctly).  I chatted a little and the Harley riders decided they were heading to a local bar for some grub while waiting for the rain to pass.

Bill (the guy from Zanesville) and I chatted for a bit more waiting for the rain to pass.  We discovered we were both headed the same direction as as the rain slowed to a bearable drizzle Bill asked if I wanted to ride along.  Now, since I was headed the same direction and it’s always nice to have someone else along should things go south on a bike, I agreed.  Besides, Bill and his wife seemed like nice enough folks.

We pulled out onto 77 and headed south towards Charlotte, NC.  Now Bill stated that he only rode at about 5MPH over the speed limit which I soon discovered meant 80MPH.  We cruised along, stopping for gas about every hundred miles or so until just north of Charlotte.  At the last stop before we parted, Bill decided he was going to listen to the radio instead of the tape deck on his bike (yep, it had a tape deck).  This, ended up being the cause of our departure.

As we continued on down the road, Bill and I were following a truck hauling a wrecked car on a trailer.  Bill switched lanes to pass the truck as a piece of plastic came flying back the road at me.  It was at this point I thought “CRAP! this guys losing parts off this car and I’m gonna get hit by something” and a split second later thought “Hey, that piece of plastic looked familiar”.  Well, I goose the bike and get past the truck in time to see Bill pulling over to the berm.  I follow suite (somewhat ahead of him) and he pulls up along side and tell me his wife said something fell off the bike.  Hmm… I glance over and sure enough, the plastic cover for his tape deck is gone.  I point it out and he just stares for a couple of seconds then says.

Horse tits!

Yeah, really, that’s what he said.  Now me, I would have said something that sounded really close to that, followed along with several other words that would get bleeped on daytime TV.

Maybe he’s trying to be a good person, not cussing and all.  Maybe he just has an aversion to using stronger language.  I can respect that.  But then why use something that close?  Why not “Donkey Nipples” as ShootMeNow suggested when I told him the story.  Or “poppycock” or any other variety of euphamisms?  My dad has a saying (well, okay, my dad has a whole bunch of sayings) and I don’t think a one of them could be mistaken for a swear word if said fast or around background noise.  And really, in the grander scheme of things, does it really matter?  I suppose not, but if you are going to go to that level of effort to not cuss, why not avoid similar sounding phrases?  Me, I doubt I’ll ever have that level of control…. especially when I got back and found that little plastic cover in pieces all over the four lane.

I recently went on a motorcycle trip.  Nice trip down to South Carolina to visit a friend of mine.  480 miles from my house to his without incident, without problem, and with a whole bunch o’ wind and pavement beneath the tires.

It was a much needed vacation for me, some time alone to reflect and think.  It was also a nice start to what I believe will become a yearly ritual for me.  Be it for a week or an extended weekend, a long motorcycle ride each year seems to be in order. But that’s another story.

During my time in South Carolina, my friends wife saw a couple of motorcyclists do the customary hand out to the side “wave” as we were heading into Columbia, SC on the “slab” (4 lane divided highway).  At that point she asked “Why do they do that? They’re clear across the four lane!”.  At the time I didn’t have a good answer for her, but as I pondered the question during my ride home, I came up with a theory.

Biker’s wave because we all share a common interest.  Bikes.  We know that no matter what the other guy is riding, he enjoys the same joy of being on the open road on two wheels.  As you pass folks in cars, you have no idea what they might do for a living,  what they like on tv, what hobbies they might have.  All you know about that person is that they are heading to a destination in a car.

When you pass a biker, you know at least one thing.  They ride.  Now, you might meet that person in another situation and have nothing in common, but while you are on that bike, you share the road and a passion.  In fact, you might not even like that other person.  But, chances are, if you happen to be stopped along side the road, scratching your head and looking at your bike, they will stop.  They might not be able to help, but they will stop, because they share that common interest.

Of course, some don’t wave.  Maybe they’re shifting gears, didn’t see you or are just too afraid to let go of the handlebar.  Or, maybe, just maybe,  they don’t share that sense of brotherhood or their sense of brotherhood is only with those that ride the same kind of bike.  Those folks are the minority.

I hope that helps explain to those non-bikers out there why we wave.  In the mean time, keep the rubber side down and see ya’ll in the wind.

As conversations tend to go around me (in some twisted and illogical pattern) we ended up with discussing bear scat.

Ah, now I remember, the conversation started with the camera mount I recently bought for my motorcycle.  I bought it with the intention of using it on my road trip this coming weekend.  After all, what better way to share your riding experience with other folks than with pictures.  Well, my coworker suggested that the camera would serve a dual purpose when I was going the “Daniel Boone National Forest” since they would be able to tell what happened to me when they found the camera in a pile of bear scat.

This of course reminded me of a joke which is really the purpose of this post.

=======
A wilderness guide is giving his charges some essential
information about hiking in the woods.
"When hiking, let the bears know you are coming by wearing
little bells on your clothing. Also, carry some pepper
spray just in case.
"It is also helpful to learn to recognize bear droppings or
scat.  Black bear scat is tubular and often contains the
remains of seeds, grass, and other plant matter.  Grizzly
bear scat contains little bells and smells like pepper spray."
=======

I had a meeting today.

I know, exciting stuff, I can barely contain myself.

The highlight of this meeting was explaining to another “IT” person why a port number was important for a particular product.  After the third time telling him, I finally gave up and said “I really don’t know why it needs it.  It is a commercial product and we have two options on how to use it.  One is port numbers and the other is a wild card DNS entry.  You wouldn’t give us a wild card DNS entry seven years ago, so using port numbers is how it’s set up.”

Honestly, I was ready to take out a pen and paper and draw a picture out for this guy.  That is if I could keep from strangling him first.  And it really comes down to it not being how he would do it “in his world”.

Buddy, I hate to tell you this, but it’s not your world. It’s not even my world.  It’s our world.  I’m so frustrated because this guy is basically holding up our ability to move forward on a project.  He’s the one the held it up seven years ago and he’s doing his damnest to hold it up this time.

He even went as far as to suggest how to do it another way, possibly a better much cooler way, but when asked “Great, when will you have that programmed and ready?”  I didn’t get an answer.

Oh well, another day, another PITA.  Guess we’ll see what the security guys have to say about it.

So, I was wasting some time reading this article about the Fibonacci Sequence.  Interesting enough I suppose, I’m not going to argue the validity of article.  However, as I was reading the comments I noticed that several people were referencing wikipedia as a source to validate their argument.

Now, I’m not a researcher, but I work with folks that their primary job is to help people with research.  And, I’m quite certain that every single one of them would be screaming “wikipedia is NOT a PRIMARY resource!”".

Come on folks, even the idea behind wikipedia should tell you that.  ANYONE, and by anyone, I mean anyone with internet access, can access and add to wikipedia.  Of course, there are people out there reading through perhaps checking the validity of what’s being posted, but really, there are limits to what can be checked.  Would it really be that hard to try to find an article from, oh, I don’t know, maybe an encyclopedia, that stated the origin of the Fibonacci Sequence?

I suppose the joke “of course it’s true, I saw it on TV” will soon be replaced with “of course it’s true, I read it on Wikipedia”.  And there starts the downward spiral….