Wednesday, July 30, 2008
No, we are not watching you..... really
Apparently a unit on campus decided to install software to record the Internet activity of its staff. As a result, charges have been filed alleging the exchange of child porn against an individual. Now, I have no sympathy for this sort of illegal activity and am downright pissed that an individual would use my school's network to view this smut. I do however take issue with the recording of Internet activity (read: mine) by departments just to do so. If there are allegations or suspicions to be tracked - that is one thing. But I don't want anyone investigating the amount of work time I spend on my blog site or twitter or Facebook and taking screen shots of the content I download. I happen to be a gifted multi-tasker. Right now I am writing this but thinking up content for my next work project. These key strokes are not to be recorded as evidence of my slacking! My mind is working on work stuff - I swear.
Part of my day has been spent assuring the public that no, we do not monitor all network activity nor are we arbitrarily taking screen shots of individual's Internet explorations. But your department may be doing so....
That said, it is only common sense that you not download or upload child porn. Furthermore, you should never engage in illegal activities on your work computer. Nor engage in legal porn activity while at work. It is not appropriate.
Part of my day has been spent assuring the public that no, we do not monitor all network activity nor are we arbitrarily taking screen shots of individual's Internet explorations. But your department may be doing so....
That said, it is only common sense that you not download or upload child porn. Furthermore, you should never engage in illegal activities on your work computer. Nor engage in legal porn activity while at work. It is not appropriate.
Friday, July 25, 2008
My Dear John Letter to Bb
Dear Bb:
It is over. When we were introduced a decade ago by a mutual friend, I thought, let's give it a chance. You know we had a complex relationship. I kept SB on the side because she fulfilled needs that you refused to. You would not touch my legacy system and made integrating my gradebook impossible. When I needed you, you were slow to respond and often cried foul, stating, "You will get that if you upgrade." The false promises and long lonely nights on the phone trying to get an answer from you are over. I found Moodle to meet all of my needs and grow with me as our relationship evolves over the years. I now receive the support of an entire community... a community that cares! Moodle knows how to reach my legacy system. Moodle takes the time to update me regularly on its changes and accepts that I too will change. We communicate in a way that you never could, Bb. I am on my way to a happy and healthy relationship. I no longer need SB as Moodle responds to my expressed desires. I am moving on and so should you. Just return my data, turn off the server, and call it a day.
Sincerely,
That School in the South
It is over. When we were introduced a decade ago by a mutual friend, I thought, let's give it a chance. You know we had a complex relationship. I kept SB on the side because she fulfilled needs that you refused to. You would not touch my legacy system and made integrating my gradebook impossible. When I needed you, you were slow to respond and often cried foul, stating, "You will get that if you upgrade." The false promises and long lonely nights on the phone trying to get an answer from you are over. I found Moodle to meet all of my needs and grow with me as our relationship evolves over the years. I now receive the support of an entire community... a community that cares! Moodle knows how to reach my legacy system. Moodle takes the time to update me regularly on its changes and accepts that I too will change. We communicate in a way that you never could, Bb. I am on my way to a happy and healthy relationship. I no longer need SB as Moodle responds to my expressed desires. I am moving on and so should you. Just return my data, turn off the server, and call it a day.
Sincerely,
That School in the South
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Breaking up is hard to do
As an institution, we decided not to renew our ever-increasing contract with Bb. Instead, we are migrating the entire campus to Moodle and dedicating the funds we previously spent on licenses on development and support personnel. This was not a quick decision, nor was it done in secret. The entire campus was involved in the decision to identify a single CMS and then its selection. We put out formal bids and brought in the vendors. All in all the process to make a decision took a full year. Press releases went out in October and we received a bit of attention for our decision. We then spent the next several months working to migrate off of Bb. Our techies were in contact with their techies non-stop. Our contract ended last month and we did not renew for July 1. Only then does the sales office realize that something must be wrong with our contract. They did not receive full payment!The sales guy was dumb-founded. They never knew we were breaking up. How can they survive with such a flawed corporate structure?
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Conspiracy
Now here is a conspiracy theory that makes sense to me.... and plays into my increasing hatred of MS and the ill-effects of the MS-Google wars
http://valleywag.com/5023117/is-microsoft-after-yahoos-paid+search-patent
http://valleywag.com/5023117/is-microsoft-after-yahoos-paid+search-patent
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Oh the huge manatee
As an IT professional, I concern myself with the Web interface of various institutions, including my own. I have no great feelings with regard to the present state of my institutions main Webpage. It is fine. Not fantastic. Not terrible. Just fine. That said, I deplore the state of the system's Webpage. It is very much akin to the embarrassment a kid feels when his/her mother shows up with Mom Jeans and big hair. Since I try to pretend some aspect of anonimity in this blog, I will not show you the terrible Web site. Just know it is worse than you think.
I will share with you a cool system Web site... one that I feel is an exemplar and have encouraged my system to mimic (I actually recommended that they hire this same firm, but they claim to be close to releasing a new and improved Web environment... I am so not holding my breath.) Here is the cool site (http://www.ulsystem.net/). It belongs to the University of Louisiana System and was developed by Covalent Logic.
I will share with you a cool system Web site... one that I feel is an exemplar and have encouraged my system to mimic (I actually recommended that they hire this same firm, but they claim to be close to releasing a new and improved Web environment... I am so not holding my breath.) Here is the cool site (http://www.ulsystem.net/). It belongs to the University of Louisiana System and was developed by Covalent Logic.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Interesting Article on Web 2.0 and how it will impact my life
IT departments become Web 2.0 gatekeepers; 41% of execs stumped about mashups by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Corporate technology departments are becoming the primary gatekeepers of Web 2.0 purchases–it used to be the business types–but could use a little education on concepts like mashups. According to a report by Forrester Research, IT departments are now in control of enterprise Web 2.0 deployments and the usual cast of mashup, social networking, blogs, wikis, blogging [...]
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
I can't believe they pay me to do this....
So as part of my responsibility to communicate effectively with our user community, I am now spending part of my day officially and for work purposes on Facebook. I was already there and I had even made up a viral marketing character posing as a student. Now I have our organization's page in Facebook. I have placed my first ad and I am eager to have "fans."
I must say that I am flabbergasted by the ad policies held by Facebook. Apparently Facebook's Ad Team is the world's chief employer of English majors who specialize in grammar (as opposed to the interesting English majors like myself who love theory and lit crit). My first attempt at an ad was rejected because:
1. I used the @ symbol to represent the word "at"
2. I failed to include the mandatory "." at the end of my ad's sentence
3. Facebook did not recognize my organization's logo as relevant to the ad.
As someone who loves to creatively market, these rules suck. For instance, I could not write "get the 411 on...." as the tag line of my ad. This is not allowed as it is improper numerical usage and poor grammar. Who in Facebook, aside from the Ad Team, pays attention to grammar? It is Facebook! You know, the home of a generation of txt mesgrs. Bizarre.
I must say that I am flabbergasted by the ad policies held by Facebook. Apparently Facebook's Ad Team is the world's chief employer of English majors who specialize in grammar (as opposed to the interesting English majors like myself who love theory and lit crit). My first attempt at an ad was rejected because:
1. I used the @ symbol to represent the word "at"
2. I failed to include the mandatory "." at the end of my ad's sentence
3. Facebook did not recognize my organization's logo as relevant to the ad.
As someone who loves to creatively market, these rules suck. For instance, I could not write "get the 411 on...." as the tag line of my ad. This is not allowed as it is improper numerical usage and poor grammar. Who in Facebook, aside from the Ad Team, pays attention to grammar? It is Facebook! You know, the home of a generation of txt mesgrs. Bizarre.
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