I talk to the @#$%&*@ customers man. You know, the ones that take a loaner laptop on a trip to some far away state and need to give a presentation in 1 hour but have no idea how to log into the laptop.
So, what would you say you do here?
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Author Archives: Hoosier
Interest only mortgages
Coming from someone that’s leaving a job in the financial industry and seems to have a good understanding of how the markets work, he sure seems risk averse.
But, to offer my two cents: The banks are in the business to make money and they are going to try to make the most money possible in the shortest time, interest only products have got to make the balance sheet more attractive. Think about it: customers are choosing to delay payment even more on a huge debt (in this case $211,000), so the total interest paid is much bigger than a traditional mortgage, boosting profits for the bank.
I agree with the post 100%, if you can deal with the risk, take the plunge and flip the property for a profit before you have to pay any principal. But, my pessimistic ways would give me an ulcer if I knew we were going to have our mortgage payment double in 3 years. And, the bottom has to fall out someday, having what equity you gain tied up in the next property you buy when that happens is going to hurt.
Filter bypass punishment
I’m not sure how to react to this post on boingboing.
For one, the student did (probably) violate the AUP he (should have) signed at some point. But, if the filtering software really is that bad, can you blame him for trying to bypass it? Judging by what he’s doing now, I’d say he’s on a path to a career in computer support….
Illini
I can’t say it any better than Ryan already did.
Where’d I put my checkbook?
$179,000? Sure, just let me find my charge card. With metaphors like this:
How could anyone resist? (Via Jalopnik)
Carnival of the Recipes
This weeks Carnival of the Recipes is up, I’m going to have to try the pickled eggs (pictures of the product) and the meatloaf cake (ugh, UNC sucks, Go Illini!).
Mozilla Firefox dropping .zip builds
Chase says Firefox is dropping the .zip builds. The comments on that post alone ought to be enough to get them to bring them back.
I’ve been using them since I discovered that the unattended/silent install didn’t work as advertised. They claimed to have fixed that bug, but I haven’t had time to look at it yet. I’ve gotten addicted to the easy plugin install method of just copying the contents of the previous plugins folder over to the new install and going on.
I’m handling this update using the low tech method mentioned in the forum thread: Install in new directory on one machine, copy directory to server, treat like a zip build.
That works for now.
Movie Reviews
For some reason, the wife and I have been on an odd movie kick:
- Last week, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
What can I say, besides “we are the knights who say ni!” and “It’s only a flesh wound!” 9/10 (assuming you like that kind of movie) - This week, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
The newest version of the classic stoner movie, with many of the same gags, updated for today. If you watch Airheads or Fast Times at Ridgemont High every time they are on, you’ll like this movie. Personally: 5/10
Next up, Life of Brian.
Ticketing Systems
Are there any good ticket systems out there?
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More computers make students learn?
One of those subjects that make me twinge: computers in classrooms can’t replace teachers. Students don’t just magically learn better or faster because they get more time with technology? I’m flabbergasted.
I’ve got to be careful here, since technology in the classroom pays 100% of my part-time job (and my full-time job probably wouldn’t exist if college students didn’t need access to computers and the internet). The part-time job is at a smaller k-12 district in east central Illinois dealing with the behind the scenes part of delivering the internet to the desktop, with Linux based web proxy servers, email, and other infrastructure.
In my limited direct dealings with teachers, I’ve noticed that some are able to use new tools better than others. Dealing with change is something we all have to do, some grasp it, become inspired and move forward. Others look at it as an obstacle and curse it. Most of us are somewhere in between, embracing what we like, dealing with what we must and resisting that which makes us uncomfortable.
There isn’t a magic box that we can place in the classroom to instantly transfer knowledge to students, there will always need to be an instructor who knows the material and is willing to transfer that knowledge to students using methods that keep the students interested. This isn’t always going to happen, some humans just have no interest in science (or math or english or wood shop or…), but we can hope that one instructor finds that at least one way to connect with one student.