My Cluster Map and My Ego

Last year about this time, I added a Cluster Map to my blog. I didn't do it as ego trip, but as a demonstration in workshop I was doing, but things have changed a bit. Since adding it, I've become attached to it. I get a kick out of watching new dots pop up in exotic and out of the way places.

Yesterday I receive an email that was a blow to my ego. It seems that once a year, the Cluster Map fairy comes along and sweeps up all the dots on your Cluster Map and takes them to Cluster Map heaven.

But they are not gone forever. I can visit them through the statistics on my account page and they won't leave me with a barren landscape, because my current map will stay as it is until the next time it updates. It updates when the number of hits since the last update reaches 10% of the numbers currently on the map.

So my ego is intact for a while, and I'll say, "Hi and bye." to my clusters before they slip off on their journey with the Cluster Map fairy. RIP little Cluster buddies...

Facebooks TOS - Nothing Nefarious

So what's the big deal? Terms of service are written in legalese and we hardly ever pay attention to them until someone point out something that sounds nefarious. The changes that Facebook made were no big deal when you really understand them. Without them, they can't do what they do. Let me explain.

If I send a message to my friends, Facebook can't send it to them unless I grant them a license to do so. So I grant them nonexclusive rights to everything I put up. (Note to self... Don't write the great American novel on Facebook.)

So why do I have to grant them this right forever? Simple! If I leave Facebook and my friends stay. The message stays on their page. If they don't have rights forever, every time someone leaves, everything they ever did anywhere with anyone would have to be deleted.

What Facebook and just about everyone else does is that they write in legalese and people don't understand the language or intent. Why don't the write in plain English. Simple again. LAWYERS! Nuff said?

BTW - If think Facebooks desire to have rights anywhere in the world is extreme, read some other Terms of Service out there. They have rights anywhere in the UNIVERSE!

Gray Squirrel Chronicles - Plan C

The rope was a flop and my funnel failed. So it's time to call in the pros. Yesterday, after it looked as if my Rube Goldberg solution wasn't going to cut it, I called the Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey Township. They are a wonderful animal shelter that services the area. It's a great place to take the kids! They even have a camel that has been successfully predicting Superbowl winners!

I've been supporting them with small donations for a number of years now. So I called them up and asked if they would be kind enough to lend me a humane trap. They told me they would put me in touch with Mark, their animal control officer. In less than an hour, Mark called and asked if he could drop it off the following day.

Can you imagine that? They are going to come to my rescue and they asked if I minded waiting a little. Heck, I would have stood on my head waiting. I can't say enough good things about the folks at Popcorn Park!

Mark arrived at high noon; very appropriate for the show down at the Wolinsky fireplace. Here's the video of what transpired.

Gray Squirrel Chronicles

The day before yesterday, I heard a sound that I had heard only once before and it didn't make me happy. I immediately recognized it as a squirrel who had managed to get through the screen on our chimney. He was now sitting just above the flue scratching in a vain effort to get out.

Next came the fun part, namely trying to get him out humanely. Plan A was a long shot, but it was the easiest to do. I climbed up on the roof and dropped a rope down the chimney in the hope that the squirrel would climb out on his own. Twenty-four hours later he had neither scaled the heights nor hung himself. It was time for Plan B.

The efforts started about 10 AM today with no success. Rather than write about an effort that I know is going to be a long adventure, I decided to film the efforts some of the efforts. Here's the unsuccessful Plan B. (Plan C coming later)

Open Source and Education

I just read an article in Datamation by Matt Hartley in which he takes the educational community to task for not being quicker to adapt Open Source software. I tried to leave the following comment to it, but kept getting a message to "Enter a properly formatted email address." I was able to find a feedback form and left the comment there, but I don't know what will come of it, so I have to vent here.

Take a few minutes to read Matt's article and then you can read my thoughts below.

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Matt, you may know Linux, but you have a lot to learn about the educational system in this nation and more specifically, the state of technology education. I've been working with educational technology and professional development since 1980. The reality is that the state of technology literacy of teachers in this country is abysmal. Technology integration and professional development is woefully underfunded and ignored.

Change in education is slow. It only took 25 years to move the overhead projector from the bowling alley to the classroom. Windows came out in 1985 and teachers still don't have a clue about it's workings, let alone how to use technology effectively with as a teaching a learning tool.

Yes, Linux is free. Yes, Linux is secure. Yes Open Office handles Windows documents. Yes, yes, yes, but until someone figures out how to come up with the money and time to bring teachers up to speed with the technology they have been using for the past 20 years, the answer will be no, no, no.

Linux might be the best OS to ever be built, but "build it and they will come", just doesn't work.

So who pays for this?

Two weeks ago, I was giving a workshop for the some of the folks in the Delaware Department of Education. It was just one workshop in a series of workshops over the next two months. Since I agreed on a flat rate without charging for travel or food, I decided to stay at the Days Inn - Dover. It was located near Dover Downs, near loads of shopping, plenty of restaurants and only ten minutes from where I would be giving the workshop.

The stay was unexpectedly pleasant. The room was clean and comfortable. The staff was friendly and professional, there was free wireless Internet, more in room amenities that some four star hotels, and a free full breakfast that included Belgium waffles, all for $63!

Now I'm back to give another workshop. Having had a good experience before, I opted for the same hotel. As before, I booked online through CheapTickets.com, but when I arrived, they have some difficulty finding my reservation. After some digging, they found it, but it appeared that I had made the reservation for the wrong day. They had me down for the following day.

I said that I thought I had double checked the date, but it wouldn't be the first time I booked for the wrong dates. Heck, I've even managed to book myself into two different hotels for the same stay. The clerk double checked and read through the reservation, indicating that I had booked online through Orbits and paid with my MasterCard. The first thing that struck me as odd, was that I never use my MasterCard. When she read the last four digits, I realized that indeed I had NOT used my MasterCard, because the card number was not mine. Nor was the address on the reservation mine. Obviously, something was amiss.

The clerk was very accommodating and apologetic. She switched the days, but was not able to do anything about the card. She suggested that I call Orbitz when I got into the room and straighten things out.

I wasn't overly concerned about the situation, because I had a room and since she didn't take my card, I knew there was no way I could be charged for an extra night.

When I got into the room, I pulled out the paperwork I had printed out and packed away before I left home. It showed that I had made the reservation for the correct day and used my Visa. It was then it struck me that she had said I made the reservations through Orbitz, but unless CheapTickets.com is associated with Orbitz, that too was wrong.

So here I sit in a motel room, comfortable and warm, secure in the knowledge that all of my documents are in order, but puzzled about who will pay for what. Will I be charged on my Visa? Will someone else be charged on their MasterCard? Will someone else who booked with Orbitz with my exact same name arrive tomorrow looking for the room I took today? Will he get a room? Will we both be charged? Will the motel get their money? Did CheapTickets.com goof? Did the Days Inn reservation system goof?

I don't know who pays for what, but I'll let you know if I find out anything more, but until then, I'm still pleased with the service and the professionalism of the Days Inn staff and will see what happens when I come back for the third time next month. For now, I think I'll walk across the street to the Olive Garden for some soup, salad, and bread sticks.

Out with the old and in with the new...

Late last year, our friends Buddy and Debbie, decided to build a new house. There was one small problem. They already had a house on the property. The solution was simple. Tear down the old and build the new.

Here's video of the old house being torn down,



and here's a slide show of the progress of the new house week by week, starting today and working back to January 15.