Want to Work With Me?

February 9, 2012 in Desire2Learn, GeorgiaVIEW by Ezra S F |

There are a bunch of new positions which were just posted. We need analysts, database administrators, and an operating system / hardware specialist.

The list:

We have a great team. So you should come work with us.

Contact me if you are interested or want to know more. (Staff directory and search for ezra)

Square Peg, Round Hole Outlook

February 8, 2012 in Uncategorized by Ezra S F |

Requirement: Boss wants an email on the 14th of the month and day before last weekday of the month with a status update. This is so the boss can combine and submit the information on the 15th and last weekday of the month.

Reoccurring Outlook calendar entries can apparently take only one pattern. There is no way to make one calendar entry for multiple patterns. I cannot make one for say both the 14th and 28th or even worst the 14th and last weekday.

There is no concept of day before last weekday or day. At first, I looked at setting the reminder for the 28th, which could be the day before the last day of February in a leap year and last day of a non-leap year. However, it would be as many as 2 days too early for most other months.

Reluctant Solution: Set the entry for the last weekday and the reminder for 2 days prior. I get the reminder in time even if the date is not ideal.

 

Off the Wagon

February 7, 2012 in Desire2Learn by Ezra S F |

Definition for interesting.

in*ter*es*ting

Just a month into a year of wanting to blog more, I missed a whole week. Like most resolution failures, I just got busy. Thankfully this was not a daily or weekly resolution. I have time to catch up. Maybe like my reading goals, I should push to get ahead so I can not worry about missing a week.

Desire2Learn swooped in to go over administration with us. We are learning a new culture from them very different than we are used to with Blackboard. Desire2Learn is also learning a new culture from us, because we are not the same as their other clients. We have strange preferences that make things more difficult thanks to auditors, aka more secure.

It will be interesting two years.

Guess I better go ahead and buy this teeshirt.

Last year we picked this product. It took over seven months just to negotiate and sign the contract. My head feels about to explode over learning a new product, new database, new operating system, and new company’s idiosycracies.

Green Pier

February 6, 2012 in Uncategorized by from Flickr |



Green Pier, originally uploaded by Ezra S F.

Last week, I was in Mexico Beach, FL. Here is a perspective shot I took underneath the pier on a walk on the beach. The colors were a bonus.

Easy

January 26, 2012 in Hardware by Ezra S F |

Work gave me a new computer. An internal group does the initial setup and hand it off to me to do the rest. This has been the easiest setup I have had ever. (It would be easier on a Mac.)

At my previous job, I would get CDs with the operating system and other software and install it myself. Letting someone else install this for me was a test in professionalism for me. With my third machine, I no longer care that I am not in control and even rationalize it as more efficient.

After work and dinner I started installing some of the software I like to use. Chrome, Tweetdeck, and instant messengers automatically synchronized by pulling my data from my account. Lastpass, Dropbox, and Keepass gave me easy access to setup accounts. I dreaded having to find my various configurations, credentials, and data files to get everything working.

Still, I put away the new toy after lunch because email mysteriously stopped downloading. A window asking for my password (the one workstations said I would not need to enter at work) was hidden going through the Alt+Tab list. Windows 7 is waaaay different from WinXP. Of course, I had been using WinXP for 9 years. Change is hard. Change is good. (Maybe.)

Information Diet

January 24, 2012 in Facebook, Twitter by Ezra S F |

Do we consume too much information? I might. Lately I have thought about reducing the amount of following I do. Typically I hit this point when I realize it takes me all weekend to catch up. To be fair I reach this point by getting all caught up over a long weekend and seeking out new stuff.

  • 40% the blog or news feeds (over 100),
  • 40% Facebook friends (remove over 250),
  • 40% Tumblr following, (remove 45),
  • 40% Twitter following (remove 100),

Then there are the potential stoppages:

  • Stop following tags on WordPress.com, Tumblr, Blogspot, Flickr.
  • Stop using some social media sites entirely like Google+ or Diaspora.

Given my social preferences, I have lots of time to spend online.

Stories

January 23, 2012 in Election, Psychology by Ezra S F |

Those who enjoy thinking are mentioned at the end of this quote from Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion as most vulnerable to being persuaded by a story. Reading Oscar Wilde is fun if only because he puts in so many entertaining quips from his characters to comment and persuade the reader. I feel transported back to college where my friends were challenging my ability to keep up with the craziness of who did what, when, how to who.

Stories work so well to persuade us because, if they’re well told, we get swept up in them, we are transported inside them.

Transportation is key to why they work. Once inside the story we are less likely to notice things which don’t match up with our everyday experience.

For example an aspirational Hollywood movie with a can-do spirit might convince us that we can tackle any problem, despite what we know about how the real world works.

Also, when concentrating on a story people are less aware that they are subject to a persuasion attempt: the message get in under the radar.

Two sorts of people who may be particularly susceptible to being persuaded by stories are those who seek out emotional situations and those who enjoy thinking (Thompson & Haddock, 2011).

Drew Westen at Emory University has a good New York Times piece on how President Obama failed to keep up the grand story he built transporting people into building a better America during the campaign. He needs to resume telling it or start a new one to convince the American public he should be elected for a second term.

Flared Near Sunset

January 21, 2012 in Photography, Uncategorized by from Flickr |



Flared Near Sunset, originally uploaded by Ezra S F.

Guess I was feeling good about heading home for the weekend. Happily it was not already dark.

Weekly Roundup for Jan 20, 2012

January 20, 2012 in Quotes by Ezra S F |

This is my first attempt at something like a weekly roundup like I said I should try in To Blog Or To Share?. Hopefully I can maintain it.

  • Martin Luther King Jr on education:
      • Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking… We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.”
  • More quotes:
    • Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
    • I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
    • Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
  • Apple to announce tools, platform to “digitally destroy” textbook publishing

SC Not The End

January 17, 2012 in Election by Ezra S F |

It bothers me that some news media personalities claim former Governor Mitt Romney only needs to win in South Carolina to wrap up the nomination. He needs 1,144 delegate votes to win outright. He has 6 to 13 depending on which estimate one uses on how Iowan delegates will be distributed. He has 7 from New Hampshire. If he wins South Carolina, then he will get 13-25 more delegates depending on which congressional districts he wins. That would put him at around 26 to 46 delegates. With 2-4% of the needed delegate count does not sound wrapped up to me. It sounds like a long way to go.

UPDATE 2012-JAN-22: Santorum is now the winner of Iowa by 34 votes and will split the delegates with Romney due to the closeness. Gingrich won South Carolina. Thursday the statements about Romney wrapping up the nomination changed to “the winner of South Carolina traditionally wins the nomination”. Now they are saying nomination is a toss up with three winners of three primaries. Added to it is Florida has more expensive markets for running TV adds, so Mitt should handily pick it up.

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