Get a Free Education

Let's say that you've graduated from Podunk University. Now that you've finally graduated, you may find that you are actually ready to learn something. Not that you haven't through getting your degree, but with the workload, you haven't been able to pay any real attention to the subjects that you really wanted to learn.
For some time now, MIT has offered Open Courseware,

"a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world. MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century."

. I've had the opportunity to use the Open Courseware myself, in fact, while I was studying for my degree at Limestone College, I used the Open Courseware to get some 'tutoring' for my Matrix Algebra course, which I was having difficulty with. So you might say that I, at least in some part, have an MIT education. I found the video lecture for that course particularly helpful in getting an 'A' in my own coursework.
Just this morning, however, I was reading an email newsletter that I have been getting since 1999 - Edupage. [In fact, Limestone's remote study program was first brought to my attention by Edupage. Thanks, Edupage!] In there, they mentioned that Yale University will be following in "MIT's footprints", but will be going the next step by offering videos of lectures for all classes on their site. Some of the MIT classes (including the Matrix Algebra course) include videos of lectures, but not all of them. I did indeed find courses that have videos of class lectures to be more useful. It's much more convenient to watch a teacher explain a concept (over and over if necessary) than to go to Borders or Amazon and order a book on the subject.
Kudos to both Yale and MIT for furthering the cause of learning for learning's sake. The Internet is the library of the future, and to know that our highest institutes of learning have put the cause of knowledge before the cause of profits is refreshing. Besides, I can't afford the tuition at either of these fine institutions, and now that I'm almost 40 years old, I find that there's classes I really WOULD like to take.

MIndless Entertainment

What mindless entertainment do you depend upon? Other than the boob-tube, that is... I like to play RPGs on my computer, and have long been a fan of Neverwinter Nights, the Bioware D&D game that allows you to load up secondary modules, created by fans or by Bioware themselves. Fairly recently, they released a module called Infinite Dungeons, which is reminiscent of the old Hack video game. It creates random dungeons, complete with treasures, traps, puzzles, mini-quests and its own built-in storyline about a mad-man and his strange desire to create random dungeons (wouldn't you know).
It's great for a mindless game to play when you're bored, and if you already own NWN, it's a cheap $8.00. It was on sale last month, so I got it for just $7. In any case, if you're a fan of the genre, and you're bored, you might want to give it a whirl. The only bad thing about it is that you have to be online to authenticate the game every time you play it (yet more DRM, sigh...what happens when they can't keep the authentication server up any more? We, the buyers, will lose out...). Aside from that, I have no problem with the game. I'm almost done with the main quest, and from what I understand, finishing that will allow me to control the module even more than the basic customizations it offers when you start.
Bring plenty of anti-death and anti-fear magic into the lower dungeons. As far as the Monty-Hall-esque treasure layout - you'll need it just to survive later on as the battles get hot and heavy...

OMG BORED!

For the past few months I've been busy at work, but not all that busy at home. Which brings me to today's topic: boredom. Sometimes, life is just not interesting. There's still things that mildly interest me, but I just don't seem to have the motivation to learn something new that I have had in the past. I've been relaxing in front of the television, and haven't paid any attention to the wide variety of things that have interested me over the past year.
This really hit home with me the other day as I was playing Solitaire on Pogo. What a completely useless waste of time! I should probably be doing something with my time, but I've never been so committed to any one thing to really make a huge difference. That's the trouble with being a Jack of all trades, that you will never master any of them.
My chess game improved a little bit over the past month, and then took another dive...it's really an up and down thing, as those of you who play know all too well. My photography, while interesting, hasn't sent me on any field trips of late. (Oh, Canon has just released the digital Rebel XTi - and it's practically as good as the 30D - better in some respects....I want, I want...).
God knows why the boredom has set in so, but I should probably try to break it by promising only to spend x hours in front of the television. Speaking of televisions, by the way, we purchased a replacement TV for our Toshiba 55" projection...a 72" DLP 1080p HDTV from Toshiba. It's a HUGE screen, but fits our living room just right.
Let's see, oh yeah - my grapes fruited this year....not many - but my sister in law picked some off the vine, and she and my wife ate them. They said they were good, but I think they weren't quite ripe enough yet. Next year shoudl bring some awesome grapes...I need to do something about the vines, though...

More later (heh, yeah, in 3 more months)

My Gallery Exhibit is up for display!

The Towers Gallery II in Second Life is shaping up. I've submitted my pics there and the gallery exhibit is up (see picture) for people to look at, although the gallery opening hasn't been held yet.

I've also redone my gallery in Second Life, having fun with the new Blender import tool put up by another resident of SL.

A Nice Evening Out

Wow, where did I go after dinner tonight? First, I went down to the gallery (Duke's Diggs) and visited my receptionist to find out who'd been in the gallery today. Then, I stopped into a latex clothing contest at a bar in a seedy part of town and played some roulette (I'm attracted to the roulette table). Then, I visited Clown Town and rode the Teacups and sat for a cup of coffee on the pier with some strangers. One of the strangers mentioned an art walk along the private island, Muse Island, so I headed there to visit it. It turned out that they had open spots for artists, so I found the proprietor and arranged two of my pieces in their gallery on the island, setting them for sale.
Afterwards, I visited Cecilia's, a bar on the island, and listened to a folk artist, Russell Eponym, for the first time. He's an artist originally from the UK, and has a very calming style. You should catch his work.
I did this all in Second Life (www.secondlife.com). Didn't have to leave the house once and didn't need a babysitter at all. And the night's still young. The teacups didn't make me hurl (but did make me dizzy) and I could control the bar's speaker volume quite nicely from my front row table. As the music streamed in from across the world, I was amazed at the possibilities available. I have played SL for only a few weeks now, but some folks are doing amazing things with it.

Business Bankruptcy Attorneys Pietzman, Weg & Kempinsky LLP

My brother is a partner at a law firm in California, Pietzman, Weg & Kempinsky LLP. From their web site "The firm provides clients representation in chapter 11 bankruptcies, out-of-court restructurings, and business litigation matters." He works hard, much harder than I do, and for it, he is well paid, just as any lawyer can expect to be paid well. They just re-did their web site and put it up on the web, and he called and mentioned the site. I told him that I'd take a look at CSS-ifying it, making it look nice in multiple resolutions and stuff like that. I wish I had more time to work on stuff like that, but I'm currently working on stuff for work that's just as interesting, and more beneficial to my career...

It's a shame that there isn't enough time to do all the favors you want to do for everyone. It just feels different when you're doing something as a 'favor' or a 'hobby' instead of for 'work'. Perhaps when I have enough money, I can retire and work on projects for fun, without the stress of my performance actually affecting my life. That's right, work needs to be more like a video game, where if you screw up a project, you can just push the RESET button and start over.

Ack! Help! Another Time Sink!

Found another time sink - ugh. I stayed up until 1 AM last night at a casino. No, not a real casino, but an online simulation of a casino. I was playing as my avatar, Duke Scarborough, in Second Life. The folks at Second Life have given 3D virtual worlds some oomph with their client/server. Of course, the world isn't without its problems, of course. Lag is a problem with large population concentrated in any one area (like a casino running hundreds of simulated slot and video poker machines). But the experience when the lag lets up is amazing. With streaming music and sounds, lighting features, and well-programmed machines and a good casino design, it felt a lot like Vegas. In fact, in some respects it felt even better than Vegas, since there's some things you just can't do reasonably in real life, like particle effects that pop out of the machines when you get a Flush or better in Video Poker.

I spoke with several people in the casino, all of whom had the best things to say about the operator. But after speaking with the operator, he expressed that he didn't want to be featured in my blog. If you log into Second Life, though, I am sure that you'll find this great casino in due time.

It was a much better experience than losing myself in front of the television for a few hours. Log onto Second Life and look me up (Duke Scarborough). I think you'll enjoy the simulation.

$2 Yo-Yo and your childhood

Who didn't have a Yo-yo when they were growing up in the 70's? Yo-yo's were quite the rage in the schoolyard back then. So, when I was browsing in Walmart with my son, and we say the Hasbro Fast 201 Yo-Yo's (released in Feb 2005!?) for only $1.98 each, we picked up two, one for each of us. Back in the 70's, the Duncan Butterfly was the yo-yo to have, but this thing takes the butterfly and gives it strong wings. The yo-yo has a set of 'fangs' inside it that increase side friction to the string, but it's settable by the user twisting the yo-yo to an open or closed position. I was never that good as a kid, but with this sucker, I was quickly doing sleepers and walk-the-dog. If you want to get in touch with the inner child, sometimes you just can't beat a $2 toy.

Cute Joke

A friend of mine, Matthew Martin, just told me a funny joke, and I had to share it.

Descartes walks into a bar, buys a beer and drinks it. The bartender hands him the tab for the beer, a whopping $50. Descartes, in a huff, exclaims loudly, "$50 for a beer? I think not!". *Poof* No more Descarte.

Well, I enjoyed it.....

Chinese $150 Linux mini-PC races OLPC to market

I don't know about you, but I'm sitting here on my computer with only two open applications: An Internet browser and my IM client. 90% of the time when I am at home, this is all that I'm using. Sure, my laptop does a lot more. I use it for web development, and a variety of other tasks. But it cost me $1500. There's a lot of work afoot in industry to put out a cheap computer for the masses that can't afford a nice PC, and I just got hooked up by The Raw Feed to this article: Chinese $150 Linux mini-PC races OLPC to market. There's video available (linked in the article) and it's a very intriguing little box. It does more that just IM and Internet, much more. It has Office-like applications, USB 2.0 ports, Linux, video player software, and a cute little OS front-end. It also has a hard drive and SVIDEO-out, things you wouldn't expect in a $150 computer. I could have sworn on the video the man said it had wireless too (although it doesn't have a built-in screen, so you won't be using it at Starbucks).
Intel and Microsoft don't have a lot to worry about, as the device is certainly lacking in a few departments that would make it silly to depend on such a device for 'gotta-work' applications like the office, but this kind of device is going to be able to reach a strata of people that can't afford a PC right now. (Although shipping a non-SVIDEO output mechanism would help hook up to cheaper TV's on the market).
As long as companies that put out machines like this include functionality on the web such as Flash Player and Shockwave player in the base install, I think that they could sell quite a few of these. I think I might even buy one purely as a curiosity, so their market isn't limited to those who can't afford a full-blown computer with all the fixin's.