Packing my bloging bags

Well, I'm packing up my bags and heading on over to Word Press. Just felt like a change of scenery, nothing really exciting is happing at Blogger as of late. Come visit me at http://mikefarinha.wordpress.com/

Enjoying summer

This weekend Christi and I went on a picnic with MIS 161 alummni. Dr. Legorreta has set up a type of MIS 160/161 alum group for the students that pass his class, that way we can network with students from prior years. It was fun. The picnic was at William Landpark and about 25-35 people showed up. We all hung out and chatted, it was quite relaxing. After we got back from the picnic we then decided to go to the river cats game. It was fun, but damn it was cold! I always forget how cold it gets there since it is so close to the river. The Rivercats lost 2-8 (I think?). However, I don't recall who they played against. Shows how much of a baseball fan I am!

Graduate School?

At this point it feels like, for me, that graduate school isn't a question of if but rather a question of when. Towards the end of this last semester I started contemplating what to do after I graduate (Something it seems every graduating senior does!). Obviously my first priority will be to put my freshly printed degree (Signed by the Govenator!) to good use in finding me a well paying job. But what about after that? Sacrificing to go to college has done something irreversible to me. I value the educational journey I am going on quite a bit and I have become a big proponent of pursuing an undergraduate degree. I know part of this activism I have is due to the fact that I want to justify to myself that this degree I will be earning, the sacrifice that I have made, is not worthless. But that should be true for anyone who pursues an endeavor they find valuable. However, this isn't the only reason I believe a college degree is something everyone should strive for. Another reason that I believe makes a college education important is that you learn about things you wouldn't care to if not required to do so; and you are taught these various things in the proper manner, not pieced together from various different life experiences. After enduring the college gauntlet you realize, hopefully, that many different things in many different areas of study have many similar underlying themes. It would seem that in having your brain setup to start to recognize these patterns you will be able to learn other topics quicker than if you didn't recognize these patterns, which would make every topic seems like a completely new concept with a completely new foundation. Of course, this isn't something you go and take a class for, there isn't a course called "Learning-the-Foundations-of-Learning-New-Things-During-Your-Life 101" this is something you learn as a by-product of going to college. At least it is something you learn if you take your education seriously while you attend; if college is something daddy is forcing you to do and he pays for it but you don't really want to go then you might not pickup on the bigger picture this educational experience gives you. While there are dozens and dozens of reasons I think college is something worth pursuing I'm only going to list one more so I don't bore you too much! After I graduated high school I knew what I wanted to be, a video game programmer. Why? Because I loved paying video games and from reading all my Nintendo Power and various other gaming magazines I had learned that to make video games you had to learn to program on a computer. This was the one thing I knew about and was the one thing I enjoyed. Obviously I am no longer pursuing a degree in computer programming. I am, however, pursuing a semi-technical degree mainly because of my passion for computers which have become something I am good at. However, my degree is grounded much more in business than it is in the technical areas of study. I am thankful for that because this has opened my eyes to a lot of other possibilities that are out there and given me enough skills to be confident in pursuing which ever one interests me the most. If I had stopped pursuing school the only things I would know are those that are right in front of me everyday, which is an extremely small and narrow view of the world and my potential possibilities. To look at it another way, if I had never played a video game I would have never had the desire to pursue computer programming. But because video games were what was right in front of me everyday and I enjoyed it I didn't think anything else would be more enjoyable. Get my point? The more exposure to different 'things' the better the chance you find that which interests you. Of course there are many people that know from a young age what they want to do and pursue it through its entirety. There are other people who have a life changing experience that set them on a certain path and they pursue that as their life mission. However for the most of us we change our minds every so often. Unfortunately if you don't have a formal college education nor the will to pursue something new you will most likely stay put, and miserable, wherever you are at since it's comfortable. However for pursuing new life endeavors, I believe ones will is more important than a college education. But, a college education will give you the life tools you need and the big picture (or at least a bigger picture) of the world to more easily facilitate a new pursuit and be more successful in doing so than through sheer will alone. So back to my original proposition to myself... What to do after I get my degree and get a job? First I plan to think more about my life and what I want to make of it. Then, unless something major changes or I have some sort of epiphany that leads me down a new road, I plan on taking the GMAT and pursuing a graduate degree of some sort, either an MBA or an MSBA (probably no later than two years after my graduation). Yes school has been the hardest thing I have ever done, yes school has been the most stressful thing I have ever done, and yes school has taken me much longer than I had ever imagined. Fortunately in looking back on the experience and what I have gotten out of it, it was worth it. Very worth it. Sure I would have definitely done things differently if I had the chance to do it over but I have no regrets and am quite satisfied with where I am at now. Perhaps graduate school can be my do over? Now I just need to figure out which type of graduate degree I want, I probably won't be able to answer that until I am away from school for a little while. One last note to anyone contemplating an undergraduate degree. My biggest fear from jumping right into getting a bachelors degree right away was the fact that I felt like I HAD to pick the one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Whatever it was I picked I was stuck with. That isn't the case. Yes college is much more focused on the type of career you will want to pursue than high school is, but it is still just a stepping stone to other possibilities. It will take you quite a while to achieve compared to high school. So get started ASAP. After you graduate you can apply your degree to a plethora of fields, and if you want a more focused education you can pursue a graduate degree which doesn't have the boat loads of G.E. classes you have to take like the undergraduate degree does. For example, If I wanted to get an MSBA in MIS I'll only need 30 more units, compared to the 155 units I have now!!! If you want to read what others think check out these two links:

• Why is college the default?
• College matters... sometimes

About Sacramento State's business program. AACSB.

For anyone who lives in northern California and wish's to attened an inexpensive business college then Sacramento State is a school you should look at. It may not be ranked the best, but it is AACSB accredited which is a voluntary accreditation the school goes through every few years. This accreditation is recognized world wide as a basis for an excellent program in business/management. To quote from their site:

AACSB International accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools, worldwide. Institutions that earn accreditation confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive peer review. AACSB International accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in management education.

AACSB International accreditation assures stakeholders that business schools:

• Manage resources to achieve a vibrant and relevant mission.
• Advance business and management knowledge through faculty scholarship.
• Provide high-caliber teaching of quality and current curricula.
• Cultivate meaningful interaction between students and a qualified faculty.
• Produce graduates who have achieved specified learning goals.

So if a business degree is your calling and you don't have someone to pay $160,000 for your education then you should check out Sacramento State University.

Still Waiting For Greenhouse

Skeptical about man-made global warming? Still Waiting For Greenhouse

GORE'S HOT AIR By KYLE SMITH - New York Post Online Edition: Movies

Al "I helped create the internet" Gore needs to go away ASAP.... GORE'S HOT AIR By KYLE SMITH - New York Post Online Edition: Movies: "His implication that he is our only hope - every ticket bought for this movie amounts to a soft-money contribution to his 2008 campaign - is ridiculous. He and his friends were in charge for eight years. His charts say global warming got worse in that time. The environment doesn't seem to care whether the president is a Texas oilman or the Man from Hope. Global warming hasn't noticed that we got the lead out of our gasoline or that Stage One smog days in Los Angeles fell from 121 in 1977 to zero in 2004. All regulations and taxes to date have done nothing. Does this hint that pollution isn't the cause?"

The Ultimate Question - Would you recomend your company to a friend?

An interesting Blog post from Chris Yeh. It is his summary of a book tittled "The Ultimate Question" by Fred Reichheld. Chris' summary seems very thorough. He basically talks about understanding, pleasing, and empowering the customer. There is also a brief discussion of team dynamics and how employees should interact with customers. Very interesting.

Interesting Blogs

Recently I have happened across a series of incredibly interesting blogs rather serendipitously. It started off while I was researching a particular series of books under the banner of "Head First. " I had purchased a book about half a year ago titled "Head First Design Patterns." I didn't get very far before I realized that this book was a little too advanced for me. However after reading the first chapter I was hooked on the style of the book. Now that the semester is over and I work for the DMV web development team I decided to purchase the recent release of "Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML," which ironically turns out to be below my skills! But anyways... The hook their books have is that the format uses a more interactive style of teaching. Instead of traditional books that are analogous to topical lectures, these books use a very interactive and brain stimulating method of teaching. The intro of both books are very similar, it talk about the style of the book and use cool words like "Meta Cognition." It also talks about how your brain tries to prevent you from learning things you think are important so it can focus on things it thinks are important, like being alert for hungry tigers! It then tells you how to "bend your brain into submission" so you can learn the things you think are important. So I was looking at some of their other books and discovered that they were coming out with a book in September 2006 tittled "Head First Object-oriented Analysis and Design" which is a step bellow Head First Design Patterns. In researching the book I came across a couple of web sites that the creators of the Head First series participate in. First I found the JavaRanch Saloon and an interesting thread that ended up discussing how Head First was being used in several high ranking colleges. Then I found myself on another thread that talked about motivation and teaching styles, which was something I got turned onto from my MIS 160 class. From there I somehow found the official Head First site, HeadFirstLabs.com, and then found the authors official blog, Creating Passionate Users. My favorite post in there so far (there are a lot of good ones) is titled Crash course in learning theory, which discusses how people learn best. Then somehow i stumbled across this hour long web seminar about learning which I have yet to watch the full thing. Then I stumbled upon the blog of Ben Casnocha who is an 18 year old entrepreneur that recently graduated high school and is contemplating college. He is quite a remarkable individual, obviously an intellect, but still exploring who he is. Fascinating stuff to read. Finally I found the blog of Chris Yeh, who is a friend of Ben Casnocha. I haven't read much of his blog but decided to post it here just to be complete with these blog listings. BTW, I got the word serendipitously from Ben Casnocha's blog and had to look it up to figure out what it meant. So don't feel bad if you didn't know what it meant either!

You know you are in a bad neighborhood when...

You know you are in a bad neighborhood when the ghetto bird is flying over head. You know you are in a bad neighborhood when the ghetto bird is speaking to the neighborhood on a mega phone. You know you are in a bad neighborhood when the purple house on the corner is a crack house. You know you are in a bad neighborhood when you are the only one on your street who owns your own house... ... I need to graduate and get a job so I can move!

Spring 2006 Semester in Review

The semester is over and I survived... Like I said in an earlier posting, this was the hardest semester I've ever had. This wasn't a normal semester, I was planning on taking only 4 classes (MIS 124, 150, 124, and MGMT 182) but in order for me to take MIS 161 in the Fall I needed to complete MIS 140, 150, and 160 THIS semester. MIS 140 was offered for only one session during the day, Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30pm to 2:45pm, which conflicted with my work schedule. But after Dr. Legorreta informed the class that we had to have all the prerequisite completed in order to take 161 I signed up for MIS 140 class, knowing that it was going to cause problems at work. I lost my job after three and a half weeks into the semester and the stress from that fiasco caused me to score poorly on three of my early tests. That was a wakeup call telling me that these classes are going to be hard! However I persevered and studied hard for my second round of midterms (Why do they still call them 'mid' terms?) and scored decently; I also did all my homework and made sure I understood the majority of the material. The final results were better than I was expecting towards the end of the semester. Check it out:

Spring 2006 Grades - Farinha, Michael T

Course Description	Course ID	Grade	Earned Hours	Quality Hours	Quality Points
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT	MGMT-182 -11	A-	3.00	3.00	11.10
WEB PROG APPL VISL BASIC	MIS -124 -02	A-	3.00	3.00	11.10
BUS TELECOMMUNICATIONS	MIS -140 -01	B	3.00	3.00	9.00
DATABASE SYSTEMS BUSINESS	MIS -150 -02	B	3.00	3.00	9.00
SYS DEV LIFE CYCL PART I	MIS -160 -02	A	3.00	3.00	12.00

Period	Earned Hours	Quality Hours	Quality Points	GPA
This Term	15.00	15.00	52.20	3.480
CSUS	82.00	85.00	253.90	2.987
Overall	144.00	147.00	467.90	3.183

MGMT 182 Despite everything that I mentioned in my last blog post about this class our final deliverable got 170/170! That was pretty impressive, he even stated that our Executive Summary was good! Our presentation that sucked ass IMHO got a 40/50, so thats not too bad. MIS 124 I got the highest grade in the final for this class! That was a surprise considering that I hardly studied for the test. Immediately after the final the class gathered in the hallway and started pissing and moaning that the class was too hard; and apparently a lot of the students were graduating seniors who weren't going to be graduating since they failed this class. I will admit that the final was ridiculously hard, but I only needed to get a 40 on the Final to pass the class. I don't see how these people failed the class unless they didn't do squat on the project. The project was our hands on experience that actually taught us stuff about ASP.NET. The teacher was horrible and didn't 'teach' anything. She just read from her power point slides. Hard class, bad teacher, but the class was passable with mid to moderate effort. MIS 150 This class was a surprise. Professor Tsai must have curved the class by at least 7% because somehow I earned a "B" in her class. I sweated blood in her class, lost sleep from her tests, and skipped other classes just to keep up with her material. Thank God I don't have to take her class again. The lesson I learned from her class was that "You have to please the people that can give you what you want." MIS 140 The class that I "quit" my job over was hard. I'm sure the class was curved, I would have had to probably of gotten a 80 on the final to get an A. However, since I had so many other things going on I had no time to study. Plus the final in this class was cumulative so I would have had to set aside at least 2 to 3 four hour study sessions to prepare for it. I was in the top 5 of the class going into the final so I would have had to suck balls to get a C in the class. I got a 51 on the final, the class average was 52. I ended up getting 421 points, a B in the class. MIS 160 This class was my favorite class of the semester, professor Legorreta was informative and inspirational. I'm glad he doesn't pound on a narrow curriculum but has a broad subject of teachings, including Kouzes & Posner's The Leadership Challenge, benefits of knowing English well, Project Management, System Development Lifecycle, and group forming. Lots of stuff to learn. I don't know why, but some of my classmates didn't like the course because there wasn't a narrow set of material to study for. They were afraid they were going to get a low grade since his grading scheme was so strict. His grading was strict, but also it wasn't. I think the most important thing to get from the class was to not only understand what he was teaching, but embrace it. If you buy into what he is teaching you'll get a good grade. The ideas the professor was teaching were broad, his focus was on turning his pupils from "students to professionals." If you understood this you got a good grade in the class. I got an A. I think Dr. Legorreta did a good job with the class, I plan on blogging more about what I learned from that class.

“Win first, fight later.”

Yamamoto Tsunetomo:

“Win first, fight later.”

Who said that quote?

I recal a good quote but can't find the person who first said it. "Win first, fight later." It was a samuri/philosopher dude.

Quote of the Day

Quote Details: Frank Tibolt: We should be taught... - The Quotations Page: "We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. Frank Tibolt"

YouTube - E3 Console Wars

Let the battles begin... YouTube - E3 Console Wars

The Raver

Why not be be a raver.... YouTube - Raver

Motivational and Insparational

Watch this if you need some motivation and insparation! Rocky Training Spoof

Made it... kind of

Well, I made it through yesterday. My test in MIS 150 was much harder than expected, Hopefully I'll get above a 65% on it. I'm not expecting more than a C in that class, I'll be really upset if I get less than that considering that earning my grade in this class was the hardest grade I've ever earned! My biggest problem with her teaching style is that she doesn't teach you the concepts on how things work, she states facts on the topics and gives a few examples. Understanding the why and how is left up to the class. On top of that she has her own way of thinking about problems, In class when she was giving an example of normalization she had us work on a problem as a quiz. After the quiz she did the problem on the board so we can see how it should be done, I got it wrong according to what she put on the board. I argued with her durring class because the problem wasn't explained enough to derive her answer, she thought the way I did the problem was simply wrong. She then assigned homework to practice normalization, in the book it had the same exact problem she did on the board. The answer in the book was exactly how I derived it in class! I brought this to her attention and she simply stated that her way was more 'flexible.' So, in my mind, I understand normalization to the point where I should be able to pass this class. But proving that to professor Tsai is the challenge. On another note, in my Strategic Management class we had a massive team meltdown. We had a major group project due and everyone but one person did their part. One of our team members had to write the executive summary. I emailed the person stating that I would need it by this Sunday at noon, no response. So I figured he was just taking his time doing it, but the day before it was due i still had no response and shot off a flair to my group in the form of an email stating that we didn't have an Executive Summary and I didn't have time to write one (Since I had to study for MIS 150). Thankfully someone in our group took initiative and wrote it. On a side note, an Executive summary is really easy to write, its basically a 1-2 page summary of the main points and conclusion of the paper. So this guy didn't have to do hardly any work, what little work we assigned him he blew off. and didn't respond to the group. But wait, it gets better. I for sure didn't think he was going to show up for the presentation, unless he was in a body cast or something, I've never had anyone in any of my groups completely blow off the team until now. Sure I've had slackers on teams I've been in but never someone who put zero effort into a project. So he shows up to class dressed professional like we all agreed on, then I find out he also blew off his other responsibility of helping with the class brochure. He also had the responsibility of helping creating a simple/professional brochure to hand out to our class to help with our presentation. Whatever effort he put into the brochure he did 30 mins before class started. I wasn't apart of that effort so I don't know exactly what happened with that but I do know he screwed the pooch on that one. Then, the highlight of our presentation was that the girl who put together our power point slide (the same girl who wrote the executive summary at the last minute, and helped me correct the final proof of our paper) she forgot to email it out to everyone. So there goes our presentation. Then to top it off the flake in the group didn't know what he was talking about and was just babbling. It wasn't a pretty site, but I think we pulled off a decent presentation inspite of what was going on. oh well, life goes on. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from others mistakes if you can. So what do I have left to do?

• MIS 150 Deliverable #3
• MGMT 182 at home final
• MIS 140 Final
• MIS 124 Final
• MIS 160 Final
• MIS 160 Individual Deliverable
• MIS 160 Team deliverable 1&2 redo

And then I'm done for the semester. This was by far the hardest semester I've ever had.

D-Day.... AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Today is the day I find out if i'm going to pass or fail this damned MIS 150 class.... for today is my....

D-Day

Steve Jobs at City Council Meeting

I just wanted to tell you what is going on... City Council Meeting

I think I'm getting one of these on my chest...

Penny Arcade! - The Bump

Finally beat minesweeper!

This is my first time ever beating Minesweeper on Expert!

I was studying for my MIS 124 midterm #2 and needed to take a brain break, so I played minesweeper and actually won it on expert.

mingle.com startup

Entrepreneurship blog mingle.com startup

what a pathetic dog looks like

 

Psyco Dogs

I was just looking at some of my digi-pics and thought this was a crazy pic of my dogs...  

Too much school!

There has been so much stuff going on in my life that I don't have any time to sit and write about it. I'm taking 5 classes and here is the low down:

1. Mgmt 182 - Strategic Management: Good class, lots of busy work. I usually spend part of Monday and all Tuesday morning working on assignments for this class. We are learning the fundamentals of corporate/business structures, and what criteria is used in making business & corporate level decisions. Teacher: David Saykally, Above average.
2. MIS 124 - Business Web programming (ASP.NET & XML): Horrible teacher, has a hard time with English and I have a hard time believing she is qualified to teach the subject of web programming. I'm very disappointed as I was really looking forward to this class!
3. MIS 140 - Business Telecommunications: OK teacher, not as bad as people say on www.sacrate.com. Since I have an associates degree in Network you'd think I know a thing or two about the topic, but this teacher has his own twist to a lot of stuff. If you want to pass the class you need to know what he wants you to know. However, in my opinion, I don't believe it is so important for an MIS student to be able to draw a phase-shiftkey modulation nor an amplitude modulation wave form. However professor Sandman thinks differently. The first test I got a 75, but the second test I brought it up to an 89 (second highest grade in the class.)
4. MIS 150 - Business Database Systems: This class is the bane of any Sac State MIS student. There is only one other time I've seen a teacher take a somewhat simple and straight forward subject and twist it into something so difficult to understand that 25% of the class fails each semester. The first class I had this problem was accounting 1 where you needed a 40% to pass the class yet 50% of the class still failed. The solution to that was to take another teacher. However at Sac State only one teacher teaches MIS 150 and that is Nancy Tsai. Let me say first that I think she is an ok teacher, and she has her moments that make the class laugh. Also, she knows her stuff. She knows and understands everything she teaches. However, when she teaches she does a poor job of conveying the concepts of what she is trying to teach. She gives a lot of facts but the class has a hard time comprehending the subject. Her grading scheme is awful, you lose points on everything practically. My first test I got a 64 and my second test I got a 77. I studied my ass of for the second test and was sure I didn't get less than an 84, I was PISSED when I saw I got a 75 (she marked 2 points off a right question so I got a 77 in reality). It looks like I'll pass the class, which is more than I can say for some of my colleagues. The kicker to all of this is that you need to pass her class to earn a degree in MIS, its a rite-of-passage of sorts. This class has been by far the most stressful class I have ever taken in my 8 years of college.
5. MIS 160 - Systems Development Lifecycle: This is my favorite class this semester. Professor Leonardo Legorreta is a great teacher in my opinion. He gets his students excited about the subject and offers up carrier advice that seems helpful. I'll blog later about some of those things he encourages us to do. I also like this class because it IS MIS. This is the class that puts everything else together. Professor Legorreta likes to reinforce the fact that understanding the business is the important objective and is what will help you go further in your career. Great teacher!

Other news: I got a job with the DMV as a student assistant, pay is $8-10/hr. Not much, but it will be an awesome resume builder. I start soon, not sure exactly when yet. Going to a round table discussion called 'business pathway to success' that is put on through the school. I have a group in every class, so if I'm not in class I'm usually meeting with a group... Christi is on spring break right now and doing a fantastic job of painting my kitchen... I'm still not sure why, but she was hell bent on painting it during her spring break, I'd help her if I was on spring break too but I have so many fricken things due and coming due that I have no time for dealing with other stuff. So I figure I owe her something special after this semester is over and I have time to think about it. There is so much more I could write about that has happened, but I just don't have time. I'll try and put a little something up right before finals.

Wired News: VR Games Pit Pets Against Owners

You vs your pet mouse! Wired News: VR Games Pit Pets Against Owners

Titanic: The Sequel

I can't believe they are actually making a sequel to this! Supposedly it will be twice as long as the first. YouTube - Tita Publish Post nic: The Sequel

Expand you vocabulary!

The home page in my browser is the google personalized page. Today when I opened it up I noticed three new word's of the day and felt like sharing them.

coeval: existing during the same period of time; also, a contemporary.

stripling: an adolescent youth.

rusticate: to go or send to the country.

Stress and fear are coeval with worries from professor Tsai's examinations. There are too many stripling's on the beach! In order to vist my parents i have to rusticate.

Update: Apple unveils software that lets Macs run Windows - Computerworld

Baby steps for Apple? Update: Apple unveils software that lets Macs run Windows - Computerworld

Resume Tips

Same deal as my last post. Technical Careers @ Microsoft : No Experience?

Interviewing Tips

Here are some interviewing tips from a guy at Microsoft, probably applicable anywhere. Tim Sneath : The Inside Scoop on Interviewing at Microsoft

OS X W?

A while ago I posted my thoughts about the new Mac running ontop of intel cpu's Introducing the new Mactel Since then there have been hacked ports of Microsoft Windows running on the new 'mactel' machines. In my previous post I speculated that OS X was going to directly compete with Windows. However, the other day I was doing an analysis for my strategic management class on a case study of Apple. The case study itself was 2-3 years old and printed in my text book so It didn't take into account the latest changes at Apple. Basically the case study explains that apple has come back from the dead since it was able to rehire Steve Jobs, however Apple only has about 4% of the PC marketshare. Also, the PC market, while it is a mature market, is also a market in which a company cannot stand still in. So, Apple has to do something to gain more market share. So I had to think about what Apple will have to do to grab more market share. First, what makes someone pick Apple over any other PC? I came up with the following 2 main points:

• Ease of use
• Sexyness/Idealogical

The main purpose of Apple has always been to bring technology to the 'everyday' user. Apple has been known as geniuses when it comes to the user experience. This is why they don't allow other companies to develop Mac's; Apple wants to control exactly what hardware is used so it can completely control the user experience. Unfortunately for Apple, this also makes their hardware much more expensive compared to the generic PC's since they don't have the same economies of scale that all other PC vendors enjoy. This is also why Apple developes their own operating system (aka OS). It wants to control the whole experience, the hardware and the software. Unfortunately Apple is not the greatest OS developer there is, this is why the switched to a UNIX based OS when creating OS X. What they did was take an existing OS that is able to run on their hardware (UNIX has been developed to run on practically any hardware configuration) and then develop their own interface. So what they did was alieviate themselves from developing the actual OS and focus all their efforsts in developing the Graphical User Interface (aka GUI.) In controlling these to major aspects of PC development Apple is able to control their user experience, which is their main competitive advantage. Their second competitive advantage is the image they project, its sexy to be a mac user. Apple has spent tons of money and time in grooming their customers to believe that using a Mac elevates the user to a spiritual level of bliss, everything else is plain, borring and dirty compared to the Mac. However, only the most die-hard people are willing to forego compatibility with the rest of the world in order to atain this spiritual bliss. Then I thought, what is preventing people from switching to using the Mac? The main reasons is compatibility with Windows which is the ubiquitous standard. In the case study it stated that if Apple were to capture just 1% of market share from Microsoft's Windows it would mean a 20%-35% increase in market share for Apple. The PC market is mature and at the point of saturation. Apple isn't going to grab more market share from people who don't have computers, it has to grab market share from Microsoft. In order to do that Apple needs to be compatible with Windows. Here is what I put as my Key Issue for Apple:

Apple’s Key Issue is that it is difficult to convert customers from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS due to incompatibilities between the two operating systems. If Apple can facilitate a one step conversion from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS it can capture market share from Microsoft.

Here is my proposed action:

Apple needs to invest in creating technology that will enable Mac OS X to run any Microsoft Windows software. This will then give Apple users the ability to be ‘Microsoft compliant’ while still able to be defined as a Mac user. As noted in the Apple case study, if Apple is able to take away just 1% of Windows users Apple will increase their market share by 20% to 35% (Keith pg c17), this increase in market share will more than make up for any extreme costs used to implement running windows applications on Mac’s.

So why am I posting this today? Well, I have stumbled upon an Apple rumour that suposedly explains why Microsoft will be delaying windows untill Janurary 2007, to help facillitate Apple creating a GUI on top of Windows. This could have been the main reasons Apple switched to Intel for its CPU, to prepare their hardware to run Windows. There have now been reports that people can get Windows to run ontop of the new Apple hardware, all Apple has to do is implement their GUI ontop of the Windows OS. Once this is done Apple users can run 100% of all windows applications, and through emulation, most of the old Apple software. But now that I'm writing this I realize that it is also doing something else, something potentially HUGE for Microsoft. It is turning Windows into a commodity. By that I mean that Windows isn't a product in and of itself, it will become a product within a product, like lumber, steel, or oil. This could be the first step in removing Windows from the market place. Microsoft would love it if you couldn't by windows directly, windows would just be a licensed product for Apple, or any other company that wanted to 'create' an opreating system with a 'Windows core.' This will also help deflect a lot of the monopolistic acqusations flung at Microsoft. This could potentially give Apple ton's more market share since the major barrier to entry for customers will have been destroyed. Then we will have Apple vs Microsoft as the two main competitors and the public at large will largely be blind to the fact that it will actually be Microsoft vs Microsoft. This is a win-win for both apple and microsoft. This could change the whole market of PC's very quickly. It will definately be interesting to see if this rumor is true. Actually, with the potential benefits for both companies, I find it would be hard to believe this rumor is false!

Variety.com - Inside Move: 'South Park' feeling some celeb heat?

Variety.com - Inside Move: 'South Park' feeling some celeb heat?: "'So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!' The duo signed the statement 'Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu.'"

At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic

"Christian Socialist" wow, is that a new term? This is a very interesting artical to read. At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic ... He began by predicting a big tax increase "to finance the inevitable growth of government that is in the pipeline that President Bush is largely responsible for." He also said many fellow conservatives don't know about the "quite dreadful" traits of the administration, such as the absence of "anybody who does any serious analysis" on policy issues.

Boaz assured the audience that he told the White House that "if there's a rebuttal to what Bruce has said, please come and provide it."

Instead, Sullivan was on hand to second the critique. "This is a big-government agenda," he said. "It is fueled by a new ideology, the ideology of Christian fundamentalism." The bearded pundit offered his own indictment of Bush: "complete contempt" for democratic processes, torture of detainees, ignoring habeas corpus and a "vast expansion of the federal government." The notion, he said, that the "Thatcher-Reagan legacy that many of us grew up to love and support would end this way is an astonishing paradox and a great tragedy."

The question period gave the two a chance to come up with new insults.

"If Bush were running today against Bill Clinton, I'd vote for Clinton," Bartlett served.

Ancient Chineese Secret

Microsofts next big thing?

hello Is it an Ipod Killer? Is it some new robotic arm? A new mini notebook computer? Is this video real?

Bay Area Fight Club fo Software Engineers

CBS 5 - San Francisco Bay Area's source for news, weather, traffic and sports: Inside The Gentlemen's Fight Club

Tips for MS Paint Users

Here are some tips for MS Paint users. flash_0042.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Cory Doctorow: Why DRM is Bad For Everyone - Microsoft Versus

Here's a speech presented by Cory Doctorow to Microsofts Research crew regarding Copyrights, DRM and current technology. It's definately a persuasive speech, but its a good read. Very informative and makes you think. Make some time to read it, its quite long. Cory Doctorow: Why DRM is Bad For Everyone - Microsoft Versus

The end of one chapter.

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been quite busy with school, five classes is quite a bit for me to take on. But at least I have the time to focus on them now. Quite a lot of comotion occured several weeks ago. After informing my boss about my delima with a required class I need to take in order to graduate I was later told that they don't have any room for a part-time employee. They said that I would need to work full time. So, while not quite ready to quit, I started taking 3 hours off of work Tuesdays and Thursdays to attend my class at 1:30pm. Things started getting stresful, all of my classes are very demanding this semester and I had little time to focus on some of the major projects that were near due. Being at work was starting to feel strange. I was told that I had to work full time, but I was rocking the boat by using my PTO to attend class. The third week of the semester my boss confronted me about it along with our HR manager and told me that they will deny future requests of PTO for school purposes. It was an odd situation, this confrontation took place in a secluded meeting room in the back area of the companies executive offices. No doubt the same room they use to fire employee's. In that meeting they wanted me to make a decision right then and there. They asked me what I plan to do tomorrow now that they won't let me take my vacation to attend class. I told them that I was going to attend class. Then they asked me how I plan to do that since they won't give me vacation to attend class. I didn't answer, but gave them the look of 'how the hell do you think i'm going to do it, i'm just going to go.' I wasn't quite ready to make the decision they wanted me to make right then. I bought myself a little time by asking our HR manager if he could check in the IT department for any part time positions i could lateral transfer too. I knew this was a hopless request but I wanted more time to think about everything. I attend class that night and after class was over I contemplated all my options. I knew from when I signed up for that class that either school or work was going to give; and I wasn't going to let school be the one to give. A short term sacrafice for a long term goal. Since I already knew what I was going to do I just needed some time to come to terms with my decision. The next morning I got into work early and was prepared to let everyone in the concrete department know that I was leaving, however they decided to have an out of office meeting that day. I filled out my termination, took it in to my boss and told her 'here's my answer.' She was obviously unsuprised, her response was 'you're leaving today?!' I told her that the company won't let me take my vacation to attend class, and I plan to attend class today. So I walk out on work and risk being fired, or I quite at noon today. So she went and talked with our HR manager and then came to me and said they would let me work my last week and take vacation to attend class. I aggreed. But then I sat there and thgought about it... The one thing they wouldn't let me do, they now are letting me do since I only have one week left. Sheesh, what little respect they have for me. I told them that if they want me to stay another week they can pay me for my full week, pay me out my vacation, and let me leave early for class. I wasn't about to sucumb to everything they want. If they want me bad enough to train someone they can pay me for it, if not I walk. Predictably they'd rather just be rid of me at this point. They acted like they didn't understand what I was asking of them. They were asking me how I plan to get paid in full if i'm leaving early twice next week? They were playing dumb, which suits them well. I'd had enough after a few minutes of that I said I'm done, I don't want to deal with this any more. And that was that. So now I'm a full time student. Which in and of itself is a full time job. Especially this semester taking five classes, all of them hard and required this semester in order to graduate next semester. I wen't to the financial aid office and took out the rest of my loan money which should just barely last me till the end of the semester. At that point I'll have to find some job. Thats about the time I'll start stressing out again. But for now, I'm just enjoying my extra study time. I'm actually able to read my books for class now! I also want every one to know how greateful I am for Christi's understanding and willingness to help me out through this! -Love ya toots!- :-)

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, And Nobody

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Test drive new Google

Here's a link to googles improved search engine. Looks the same but has better results. Google

Things have been shooken up

I didn't get around to posting my previous blog entry until tonight. But I took the plunge, I signed up for MIS 140 and talked to my boss about it. I told her that at least I need to have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. I also told her that if they need to lay someone off they wont hurt my feelings if they choose me. That way I could collect unemployment. My main goal this semester is to spend as much time studying my courses while getting as much money as I can. I figure unemployment benefits would be the best and working part time would be second best. So currently I'm taking 5 classes, i've never completed 5 classes in a semester before... But damnit, i'm determined to get this done!!!!

Its time to shake things up...

Well, I've attended all the classes I've signed up for and they all seem to be classes that are going to be extremely useful. I'm really excited about taking my Strategic Management class and my Systems Development class. The teacher in my Strategic Management class is a part time teacher and full time CEO of a software company in Folsom that purchases failing companies, has his team go in and take over the management positions, rebuilds the company, then replaces his management team with another that will run the company. My Systems Development teacher is quite an accomplished academic who eventually fell in love with entrepreneurship and has helped several companies rebuild. However, the best thing about both of these teachers are that they are genuinely interested in teaching what they know in a way that the students learn as much as possible. Truly the markings of exceptional teachers. As this week progressed I started to realize that all the classes I'm in are class that I want to immerse myself in so I can fully understand everything my classes offer. I was contemplating whether to cut back on my work hours or completely leave my job so to focus on my studies. Then last night as I was sitting through the first class period of my three hour Systems Development class I learned that I also need to take MIS 140... THIS SEMESTER! So I checked sac states website and saw that it is only offered Tuesday/Thursday from 1:30pm-2:45pm. So I sit and think to myself... I work from 6:30-3:30. I have a monthly mortgage obligation. Not all decisions in life are easy to make. In fact most important decisions are difficult to make. You can never be successful unless you are willing to take risks and sacrifice. I want to graduate ASAP! The sooner I graduate the sooner I can get on with my life. After all, one only lives once. So I've decided that I'm going to try and add MIS 140 and not drop any classes. I've never completed a semester with more than 4 classes before, this semester will definitely be the most challenging semester I will ever have.

Google Eats Apple [Fool.com: Commentary] January 17, 2006

The great battle is between apple and google? Google Eats Apple [Fool.com: Commentary] January 17, 2006

Using Virtual Server

Microsoft has given me one of the coolest programs I've used in a long time! A few months ago I read on one of the Microsoft blogs that they were accepting people to sign up to beta test the new Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2. I signed up and downloaded the beta. It took them a couple of days to approve me. After installing it I played around with it but couldn't figure out how to install an operating system on it. That was durring school so I gave up on trying to figure it out fairly quickly. a month later I got an email saying that they were done beta testing and since I was a beta tester they were going to give me a complementary copy! I had to wait a few weeks for the instructions on how to download. I just built my new pc, so I'm currently in the process of getting it updated and configured how I want it. This weekend I installed my copy of virtual server 2005 and spent a little time figuring out how it works. Its supprizingly easy once you 'get it'. So far i've installed Windows server 2003 and windows advanced server 2000 just to see how it works. I'm still learning the in's and outs of the program but so far i have installed my visual studio express programs and file sharing program, Shareaza, to run from win2k AS. Using Virtual Server

Interested in Entrepenuership?

Check this site out: http://www.saskschools.ca/~ischool/paasurvey/entre/Content/intr.htm

School Schedule Spring 2006

Here is my tenative schedule for this comming up semester staring on the 23rd. Depending on who my MGMT 182 teacher is I may drop that class and sign up for MIS 180.

Spring 2006 Schedule - Farinha, Michael T

Course	Call No.	Credit	Type	Title	Days	Times	Building	Room
Main Campus Normal Academic Term 01-23-06 to 05-12-06
MGMT-182 -11	23766	3.00		STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT	T	0600-0850PM	ALP	236
MIS -124 -02	23851	3.00		WEB PROG APPL VISL BASI	M	0430-0720PM	ALP	224
MIS -150 -02	23871	3.00		DATABASE SYSTEMS BUSINE	TR	0430-0545PM	TAH	1004
MIS -160 -02	23876	3.00		SYS DEV LIFE CYCL PART	W	0600-0850PM	BRH	104

Power Supply Wattage Calculator - JS Custom PCs, LLC - Custom Built PCs, Laptops and Servers! You Need It We Can Build It!

How much power does your computer need? Power Supply Wattage Calculator - JS Custom PCs, LLC - Custom Built PCs, Laptops and Servers! You Need It We Can Build It!

Carbon TVs aim to overcome the drawbacks of Plasma and LCD - CD Freaks.com

Carbon TVs aim to overcome the drawbacks of Plasma and LCD - CD Freaks.com: "Plasma sets are heavier and usually require specialised installation, however costs have been coming down along with better picture improvement over older plasma sets. However they still suffer from screen burn if abused, consume quite a lot of electricity as well as offer lower resolution compared with LCD apart from the higher end expensive plasma models. If FED or SED displays do start shipping in 2006, they will come in good time with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD hitting the markets as HD enthusiasts will start looking for a suitable TV for their new player if they have not already done so. It will be interesting to see what pricing the sets will be. If they do manage to offer significantly lower pricing compared with even plasma, it may be a major blow to plasma, LCD and rear-projection TV manufacturers."

BREITBART.COM - Study toasts free drinks for homeless alcoholics

I'm sorry, but a study consisting of 17 people which were given a cup of alcohol once an hour and which eventually 3 died and another 3 quit doesn't 'prove' anything. BREITBART.COM - Study toasts free drinks for homeless alcoholics

Woman marries dolphin

**The future of human morality is now** London Free Press - International News - Man bites dog? No - woman marries dolphin: "n a modest ceremony at Dolphin Reef in the southern Israeli port of Eilat, Tendler, a 41-year-old British citizen, apparently became the world's first person to 'marry' a dolphin. Dressed in a white dress, a veil and pink flowers in her hair, Tendler got down on one knee on the dock and gave Cindy a kiss. And a piece of herring. 'He's the love of my life,' she said yesterday."

Semester Grades *Finally*

Ok, I just found out what my grades for last semester are:

Fall 2005 Grades - Farinha, Michael T

Course Description	Course ID	Grade	Earned Hours	Quality Hours	Quality Points
PRESENTATNL SPEAK ORGANIZ	COMS-103 -17	C+	3.00	3.00	6.90
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING	MGMT-120 -04	B	3.00	3.00	9.00
ADV OO BUS PROGRAMMING	MIS -120 -02	A-	3.00	3.00	11.10
LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF BUS	OBE -118 -05	B	3.00	3.00	9.00

So this gives me a GPA of 3.0 for last semester. Pretty good, but I was hopping for something a little better... Oh well, my own fault I suppose.

Going from the Mesozoic Era up to the Stone Age!

I've had my trusty computer now for close to 5 years. Its a good ole 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon T-Bird with 512MB of PC133 SDRAM and a top-of-the-line (at the time) ATI Radeon 8500 that supports AGP x4 !!! Its gone through numerous reinstalls, a CD-R, a DVD-RW, and several hard drives. Its gone from windows 98 to NetBSD, to Mandrake Linux, to Windows 2000, to Windows XP Pro(Pirated) and finally Windows XP Pro(Legit). As far as computers are concerned its a dinosaur. This Christmas I've decided to upgrade. Now, I was hoping to hold out for an AMD 64bit processor, but then they came out with a 64-bit dual core, now they are talking about quad cores. Unfortunately I haven't had the funds to take the plunge into a top of the line PC. So I'm going Budget. I was hoping i could just upgrade my processor however the highest processor speed i can get is a 1.3 GHz. I have v1.0 of my Abit KT7A mobo which doesn't support the Athlon XP's, however if i were lucky enough to have v1.3 of my mobo I could have just purchased a new processor. But I can't. I've done some looking around on the net and came across some new trends that have perked my interest. The SFF (Small Form Factor) PC's which are barebones PCs that are tiny cubes. The cases are so small that the motherboard has to be integrated into them. Some of these PCs can hold their own against top of the line home made pcs and are a fraction of the cost. The advantage is having a small portable PC, but the disadvantage is that you can't expand much. You get integrated sound and LAN and only two slots for expansions. The Shuttle seems to be the most popular SFF. Another trend that seems up and coming (maybe it already came? I'm so out of touch in the PC gaming world...) is the Micro ATX cube cases. MicroATX form factors have been around for a while but now computer case manufactures are emulating the SFF PC's and are making MicroATX cases in the shape of cubes. However since the size of a Micro ATX mobo is still larger than a SFF PC the cube case is also going to be larger. But not too much larger, check out the pic . At first I wanted to get a shuttle, but eventually decided to get a MicroATX. The Case you see here in the picture is actually the one that is on its way to my house right now! The cool thing about this case is that it can hold 3 hard drives and has a built in micro card reader. I 'm thinking that this may one day be my file server sporting a RAID-5 configuration. This link is the only real review i was able to find on this case. I bought this case from buy.com since it was cheaper than newegg.com and had free shipping. I also have an Epox EP-8RGM3I Micro ATX mobo and 1 GB of 400 DDR RAM on its way to my house from NewEgg.com. At first I plan on recycling Christi's old AMD 1700XP until the price of the 3200XP's come down to about $150. Then I'll get that and another stick of RAM. Hopefully I'll get all my goodies before the end of the week!

I hate waiting!

I wanted to post up what my grades were for this past semester, but two of my teachers haven't turned in the grades yet, and casper web is closed for christmas break... What a POS system! Sierra College's system for checking grades is much better. Anyways, The two grades I do know are Coms 103, which I got a C+, ugh... I was hopping for a B, but I did horrible on the exams so I should proabably be thankful it was a C+. In my Law Class I already knew I was getting a B so that was no suprise. So I'm still waiting for Marketing and Programing...

Anthonares: "The P.I.G. to Science": Bethell's Evolution Misunderstanding

Anthonares: "The P.I.G. to Science": Bethell's Evolution Misunderstanding

Revealed: the pill that prevents cancer

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology: "A growing body of evidence in recent years has shown that lack of vitamin D may have lethal effects. Heart disease, lung disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis are among the conditions in which it is believed to play a vital role. The vitamin is also essential for bone health and protects against rickets in children and osteoporosis in the elderly."

BREITBART.COM - Abortions in Spain rise by 72 percent in 10 years

BREITBART.COM - Abortions in Spain rise by 72 percent in 10 years: "Abortion was decriminalised in Spain in 1985 for certain cases: after rape, in the case of malformation of the foetus and if the pregnancy represents a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman. The report said 95.7 percent of abortions were carried out for the last reason."

I hope you all had a....

Merry Christmas

eBay: Epox Shuttle EX5.Micro PC.AMD2100+,120gb,512mb,dvd/cdrw (item 8740182760 end time Dec-21-05 20:11:01 PST)

*Is this my next computer?* Tune in tomorrow to find out! eBay: Epox Shuttle EX5.Micro PC.AMD2100+,120gb,512mb,dvd/cdrw (item 8740182760 end time Dec-21-05 20:11:01 PST): "Current bid: US $225.00 (Reserve met) (PayPal account required) Time left: 1 day 6 hours 3-day listing, Ends Dec-21-05 20:11:01 PST Start time: Dec-18-05 20:11:01 PST History: 6 bids (US $49.99 starting bid) High bidder: mikefarinha ( 14Feedback score is 10 to 49)"

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day: digerati

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day: digerati: "Word of the Day for Tuesday December 20, 2005 digerati \dij-uh-RAH-tee\, plural noun: Persons knowledgeable about computers and technology. As high tech spreads outward from Silicon Valley to American society at large and people spend more and more time in cyberspace, the journalist Paulina Borsook steps back to look at the digerati and their view of the world. --Michiko Kakutani, 'Silicon Valley Views the Economy as a Rain Forest,' New York Times, July 25, 2000"

King Kong - A Tragedy

About a month ago Christi and I got two free movie tickets through Albertsons. We used them last night to go see King Kong. If I were to describe the movie in one word it would be 'overwhelming' and 'fantastic' would be a close second. Yeah, it was long (180 minutes) but like Peter Jackson's last movie, Lord of the Rings, it was directed so well that the length didn't seem to be an issue. IMO it just added to the depth of the story to make it more involving. It has been a long time since I saw the original but from what I remember, comparing the two, this one seemed to spend a lot more time on Skull Island than the original one, proportionally. Which is a good thing. From what i remember of the old one was that the first half of the movie was good and the second half was boring. The first half being on Skull Island and the second half being in New York, of course I was probably 10 years old or younger and my attention span was about as long as ... Um... Something really short... Despite the fact that this movie was completely stunning, there were some parts in the beginning that seemed overly dramatic, probably due to the fact that we didn't really know the characters that well to have deep feelings for. It felt kinda odd to me, but I also missed the first 10 minutes of the movie since nature was calling. But that's just my opinion, those parts may be more meaningful when rewatching it thus adding to the movies longevity. Now I don't want to give away too much, but there was one part that I remember from the original that I was hoping would be reproduced in this remake, how Kong killed the T-Rex! Thankfully Peter Jackson didn't disappoint! Before Christi and I went to see it I told her that she would cry, she didn't believe me. She also didn't believe me when I told her the movie was 3 hours long. Sufficed to say, she cried for almost the last 40 minutes of the movie and 10 minutes before the movie ended, since she knew how it was going to end, couldn't watch anymore so she waited in the lobby for me. She just seems to have a thing for big hairy animals... *wink-wink* Of course, she also has cried each of the four times we've watched the movie Elf. So assuming she was going to cry while watching King Kong was a no-brainier. But I'm glad she sat through as much as she did, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if i had to watch the last half by myself. Love ya toots ;-)

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist... 12/14/2005

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist... 12/14/2005: "Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist Date: December 14, 2005 Contact: Meg Sullivan ( msullivan@support.ucla.edu ) Phone: 310-825-1046 While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left. These are just a few of the surprising findings from a UCLA-led study, which is believed to be the first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly. 'I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican,' said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. 'But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are.' 'Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left,' said co‑author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public"

Sac State Fall 2005 - Completed

*Deep Breath* I did it. I finished another full semester at Sacramento State while working full time. This is only the second time I have ever done this before, and actually completed one or the other. My first attempt to work full time and go to school full time resulted in me quiting Earthlink because I was falling behind in my classes and they wouldn't let me take at least a leave of absence (With out pay) to focus on school. About 3-4 months after i quit i found out that they closed down the roseville call center so they could outsource to both inda and the philipness, and all the employees got like a $3-$4k severance pakage plus cashing out their vacation hours. Ah, but that was the past... no regrets, right? Anywho... I completed my OBE 118 - Law final, got a 92.4% which gave me an 86.8% in the class, so thats either a B or a B+. Not to bad. Professor LaRacco is an excellent teacher! Today I finished my MIS 120 final, going into the final i had a 97%, but thats not counting my homework #3, so there is still 200 points between that homework and my final that i don't know about. But I have a feeling I'll be able to keep my A in that class! For my Communications 103 class I have everything turned in, i really have no idea how I did. I'm going to assume that I'll probably get a B in that class, but it is possible that i might get a C... I really hope i don't though. I actuall really enjoyed this speech class, the main purpose of this class was to teach how to prepare for speeches and went into detail on how to give persuasive speeches. I never in my life thought I would actually enjoy a speech class! Professor Linda Patterson is another excellent teacher! Finally, my Marketing class, MGMT 120 I have no idea what i'm going to get either a B or a C, we are turning in our final group paper tomorrow, that alone is worth 200 points! I really don't like Prof. Hodges. Probably the second worst teacher i have ever had in my life, I learned absolutely nothing in my marketing class. Despite how much I loathed Professor Hodges, and Professor Clarke from my first Accounting 1 class(Yes, my first Acct 1 class, I had to retake it because I failed), Sac State has a lot of excellent teachers teaching their upper division Management and OBE classes. I really have learned a lot about contemporary organizations and i guess what you could call 'best practices' in working in business. I am disapointed, so far, of their MIS teachers. MIS is my concentration so I'd like to have some really good teachers. I've only had four teachers so far, and really only two of those four were actual classes required by the concentration. the other two were general requirements for the business degree core. I'll reserve final judgement until i graduate, but i'll have a better feeling of the MIS teachers next semester. Three of my four classes next semseter will be MIS. One other thing that disapoints me are the general ed teachers at Sac State. Almost all of my professors at Sierra College were excellent teachers, especially my Computer Science teachers, however the G.E. teachers at Sac State seem to fall in the category of tenured teachers who don't want to teach anymore, but don't want to put the effort in to find another job. Then they tell you that if you don't pass their class its your fault. They seem to have little desire educate and just want to go through the same motions they have gone through for the past 20 some odd years. Nothing in college is more rewarding than completing a class and actually feeling like you learned something useful and enjoyed learning it. **Don't let me even start on the quality (or lack there of) of text books teachers require you to buy at Sac State** So now I have my break from school until late January, I have already picked my classes, but I might juggle them around by adding and dropping when the semester starts, we'll see. Despite not going to school my weekends will be pretty hectic until after the new year due to the numerous familly events that are required this time of year. I do have one house project I would like to complete this winter, that is to install a ceiling fan. There is currently no mount for a fan and no electricity, I'm going to have to run wire and install a mount. I don't look forward to it, but I need to get it done since I already bought the fan 3-4 months ago! This is enough blogging for me tonight, Christi is crying for me to help her create a Christmas CD, label, and cover that she wants to hand out to her staff as gifts. Until next time.

Brazilian Prostitues Blog

Not safe for work... also it looks like its written in portugese. Bruna Surfistinha (The Surfer Girl)

Quick Folowup Update

This weekend sucked. I didn't get everything I wanted accomplished, here is what I still have left to do:

• Meet one more time with my Marketing group, I was working a little on the paper that is due Wednesday, its obvious that our outline we came up with isn't the greatest.
• Watch my last TV class, Which I plan to do durring my lunch break at work. Then study for my final which is at 5pm tonight!
• Study for my MIS 120 (VB.NET Programing class) final which is tomorrow.

So, its not too much left. The biggest thing is getting our marketing paper together to turn in on Wednesday. Its worth a huge amount of points. 200 to be exact. Thankfully I'm finished with all of my work for my Communications 103 class, and I finished my homework for MIS 120. Once I'm completely finished with everything I plan on sitting down and writing a reflection of this semester, because I know my blog is just soooooo interesting to read! You know how I know? because of the large volume of comments i recieve on my blog... *dripping sarcasam*

Last hurrah for Fall '05

Well, this will be my last weekend of my Fall 2005 semester that I'm going to be working on assignments & studying.

• Meeting with my group in my marketing class to go over our last paper due on Wednesday.
• Complete my homework assignment #3 for my programming class
• Study for my final on Tuesday for my programming class
• Watch my last 2 TV Courses for my Business Law class
• Study for my final on Monday for my business law class
• Do my final self evaluation for my communications class (This might also include my final presentation self evaluation too)
• Complete my outside speaker report for my communication class

Sheesh... Now that I look at the list it looks like a lot more than I initially thought... It looks like I'm going to have a busy weekend... *grrr*

Oldest Person in the world.

Hey, check this out! The oldest person alive shares my Birthday, coincidence? I think not! Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com: "By Tim Castle LONDON (Reuters) - A 116-year-old Ecuadorean woman was declared the oldest person in the world on Friday, lifting the title from a U.S. woman previously thought to be the oldest person alive, Guinness World Records said. Maria Esther Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to Guinness World Records. 'We only told her yesterday she was the new Guinness world record holder,' Kate White, brand manager at the records publisher told Reuters. 'We hadn't heard of her before.' 'She's in very good health, she's got good sight, is able to read the papers and watch television, and doesn't walk with a stick,' White added. Capovilla was born in Guayaqull in western Ecuador on September 14, 1889, and lives there today with her daughter-in-law and son. She had five children, and has four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren."

This is awesome!

You can't read the full books, but google now lets you search their collection of books at http://books.google.com/. Check it out!

Turn a $60 wireless router into a $600 wireless router!

How come I never knew about this???? *This post is for Computer Dorks only* I have my little trusty Linksys wireless router sitting by my computer sharing my connection to my laptop and Christi's computer. It does its intended purpose well, however I just found out that it can do a WHOLE LOT MORE! You can install linux on it and configure it as if it were a $600 router. Here is a link to the firmware you can use to complete this upgrade for the WRT54G. Once school gets out next week I'll spend a little time fooling around with it to see if I can turn it into a VPN server, that would be awesome!

Divorced Eye for the Young Guy - Drew Taggart - MensNewsDaily.com™

Young Man, Let me share my thoughts on the kind of woman you need… Divorced Eye for the Young Guy October 18, 2003 by Drew Taggart Here’s a joke… DON’T stop me if you’ve heard it before… When I was young, I wanted a woman to love, marry and together, build a life. I met someone and she was creative, artistic and an accomplished classical musician; Truly a free spirit. So free spirited she found another man, actually several…">Divorced Eye for the Young Guy - Drew Taggart - MensNewsDaily.com™: "Young Man, Let me share my thoughts on the kind of woman you need… Divorced Eye for the Young Guy October 18, 2003 by Drew Taggart Here’s a joke… DON’T stop me if you’ve heard it before… When I was young, I wanted a woman to love, marry and together, build a life. I met someone and she was creative, artistic and an accomplished classical musician; Truly a free spirit. So free spirited she found another man, actually several…"

Blogthings - Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Blogthings - Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

New York Post Online Edition: gossip

New York Post Online Edition: gossip: November 23, 2005 -- AL Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" star, found out the hard way not to mess with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who chided Franken as if he were a delinquent schoolboy at Time Warner Center on Monday night. Scalia, following in the footsteps of Karl Rove and Bill Clinton, was the guest at Conversations on the Circle, a series of one-on-one interviews with outgoing Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine. The A-list crowd included Michael Eisner, Jack Valenti, Mike Wallace, Tina Brown, Harry Evans and Stanley Pottinger. Scalia, a conservative who believes in a strict reading of the Constitution, is the scourge of liberal Democrats because he led the court's 5-4 majority in voting to stop the vote recount in Florida in 2000. When Pearlstine opened the floor for Q&A, Franken stood up in the back row and started talking about "judicial demeanor" and asking "hypothetically" about whether a judge should recuse himself if he had gone duck-hunting or flown in a private jet with a party in a case before his court. Franken was clumsily referring to the fact that Scalia had gone hunting and flying with Dick Cheney before the 2000 election. First, Scalia lectured Franken, "Demeanor is the wrong word. You mean ethics." Then he explained, "Ethics is governed by tradition. It has never been the case where you recuse because of friendship." Time Warner chairman Dick Parsons later told PAGE SIX: "Al was not quite ready for prime time." Franken was a "Not Ready for Prime Time Player" on "Saturday Night Live" long before he began hosting a radio show on Air America. The confrontation with Scalia didn't seem to weaken Franken's interest in running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. Franken discussed his possible candidacy afterward at the cocktail reception overlooking Columbus Circle. "I think I got under his skin a little," Franken humbly told us. Scalia had earlier explained why he voted to allow flag-burning, but not nude dancing, and why the 1964 N.Y. Times v. Sullivan decision — which said the press could not be held liable for wrongful reporting on public figures unless it was guilty of "actual malice" — was wrong. "I don't think that's what the founding fathers intended," Scalia said. When Pearlstine noted that Scalia had been confirmed by the Senate 98-0, Scalia said, "The two missing guys were [Barry] Goldwater and Jack Garn," both of whom were on death's door. "Make it a hundred!"

'tis the season

Christmas time is coming. I can't believe it this year, a week before Halloween stores started putting up their Christmas decorations. Talk about bastardizing a special holiday. Most stores aren't even wishing people a 'Merry Christmas' anymore, instead it's now 'Happy holidays.' Hopefully people will always remember that Christmas time is the time to show 'good will towards men' but the 'why' is what is being lost.

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! "It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

There is only one reason Christmas exists, a particular event in human history... Anyways, check out this link for some fun Christmas cheer Thanks for the link John.