Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wednesday - I am anxiously awaiting 130 final assignments in my Information Systems classes. For this assignment the students have to evaluate Internet access and hardware necessary to create a home wireless network. They have to evaluate cable, DSL, and satellite Internet connections; two wireless routers; two laptops and two desktop computers; two wireless printers; and two 500 gigabyte network disk drives capable of being accessed by all users on the wireless network.... and then select their system and justify it... All assignments are to be turned in either in class at 9:45AM or 12:45PM or left for me in something called the digital drop box by 1:00 pm for the 50 on-line students............... I also have two final papers for my two graduate strategic experience teams and I am on a dissertation committee for a student in the Education Leadership and Policy Analysis Department of the College of Education and I am reading her dissertation. Her final defense of her dissertation is on the 19th. Starting tomorrow at 1:40 PM my students, all of them, will be taking their final exam on-line through our on-line course system called Blackboard.....they have to take the two hour exam sometime in the week starting this Thursday and ending next Thursday... It all seems like a lot of work.....but it is the end of the semester after all.... I am anxious to see if my students can create a reasonable paper evaluating that wireless stuff and make reasonable assumptions when selecting their system......predictably, some will and some will not....

As Kurt Vonnegut would say, HIHO....... He also said that mirrors were leaks into the universe .... and he used the * as a symbol for ass hole......I like to have an * or two in my passwords...... I probably should not have told the world that but I did and that is that..

By comparison, Matt will start chemotherapy tomorrow... I think I have the better deal right now........ please continue to pray for him and his family.

Remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of someone else... love, john
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16 comments:

nbta said...

I'm glad I don't have to take your test! But I do wish I knew the info that they're suppose to know. So anyway, don't be an * and lean more to the compassion side of things!

7:12 PM
quig said...

Thanks Mark... that is great advice, I will do my best...

8:04 PM
Dennis and Marie said...

Unlike ntba, I thought your asignment sounded very interesting. I hope your students chose DSL as their carrier as I think it is better and safer than Cable.
Dennis

10:30 PM
nbta said...

Hmmm. Must be an east TN thing...I had DSL here at the house for quite a few years and spent most of my time trying to learn patience and stay online. After I switched to cable, I haven't had any real trouble. For now, I use DSL at work due to the package cost that was offered...but glad to get home to use cable and get things done a bit quicker on line.

8:03 AM
Roz Raymond Gann said...

Yes, this is a joyful season for those in education. I am "playing hookey" from grading a huge stack of papers on Confucius' relevance to modern China.

8:47 AM
Dennis and Marie said...

I guess you, nbta, must be transfering very large files to really notice the published "twice as fast as DSL" speed. Of course even the published speed for cable only works when your shared line is not being used by many people. (isn't this fun!)

9:06 AM
nbta said...

Actually Dennis, I have more people online at home and only me at work. I do most of the heavy publising at home...because DSL is slower. My computer at work is a much better computer than the one I use at home...so, I would still imagine that it must be an east TN thing since most of my DSL diehards (which I was one of them)in middle TN have needed to change to cable due to the problems with DSL. So going back to John's original post..have compassion on the students who might have a different experience using cable/dsl/sat. Yes...this is fun! BTW, I use both PC and Mac...and the experience between DSL/CABLE is the same with a Mac.

9:28 AM
quig said...

I want a Mac.... So far, they, the students, have made a range of choices with mostly good reasoning... I have cable from Comcast (ususlly I call it Comcrap but that is because of the lack of duel DVR and no Turner South)... And I have no complaints... Cable was offered at our house before DSL so it won..............prior to that, our maximum top speed connection was about have the speed of the modem because of the poor quality telephone lines.... I hear many people are gettin packages like Michael got from the Embark - the phone company... I am a little skeptical of a company that has a green paper folded airplane as its logo... thanks for all the chatting....

4:32 PM
quig said...

make that Embarq not Embark..oops!!

5:26 PM
nbta said...

John, As a Mac user for over 8 years and a PC user for longer...PC wins in my book unless you're going to work alot creating graphics or music.
Most of my friends are diehard Mac folks....but most of my friends are in the music business. A few years ago I would say go with a Mac, but not now. If you decide to do it...I'm sure you'll like it...but I think you'll wonder why you changed at times!

6:07 PM
quig said...

Thanks Mark....I appreciate that perspective and since you are a user of both, it is important information... I am at least a year away from that choice and I will gather more information before making that decision. However, what you have told me is extreemly valuable.

6:38 PM
Mark Quigley said...

Internet connections, whether cable or DSL, really vary from location to location. I've had both here in CT and really never had a problem with either. I don't know if cable "is" faster in the end, due to the nature of cable being more of a community network than when you are on DSL. With a cable modem, if your neighbor is doing something that's utlizing all the bandwidth, then you will be affected. That doesn't happen with DSL...your connection is essentially dedicated to the central office (what happens after that, I'm not sure).

So, if you have good luck with cable where you are, stick with it...same goes for DSL...but if you have problems with one and don't have problems with the other, I'm not sure it's necessarily correct to say one is better than the other based on one location...

But, if it's better for you, then it's better for you....

And, Dad, as far as the Mac goes............Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! :)

9:20 AM
Dennis and Marie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
4:00 PM
Dennis and Marie said...

Hi Mark,
I liked your response, and loved your Nooooooooooooooo.
Dennis

4:02 PM
quig said...

I have only saved the first $5 toward my next laptop, so I am taking in all of this advice... Thanks nbta Mark.... Thanks Dennis... Thanks son Mark....

It looks like the Mac is out..

bye the way, as of now, none of my students have selected a Mac in their projects...

7:08 AM
quig said...

oops, that should have been "by" not "bye"

7:09 AM

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