Category: Interests

Strangely enough, this is could be a combination of Academic and Professional with a bit of wood working, motorcycle riding and miscellaneous commentary threw in.

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Interests

Political Correctness

This post started from this simple thought “at what point does being Politically Correct infringe on Free Speech”.  That thought has grown considerably and this day before Thanksgiving and I begin to wonder at what point to being Politically Correct, for fear of offending someone, begin to infringe on other rights?  Please feel free to read on and please, feel free to be offended.

So I get the usual range of emails from folk that I pretty much consider spam.  The topics vary but here’s a sampling:

  1. If you love Jesus you will forward this email to everyone you know and Jesus will love you back!  – Now this one was sent by a cousin.  She happened to catch me in a particular mood and I responded to her email explaining how my personal belief system (I do believe in God BTW, just in case you want to know) has nothing to do with forwarding an email.  Wouldn’t you know it, I haven’t got another email from that cousin *ever*.  I guess Jesus still loves me, but she doesn’t.
  2. Pictures of Obama at a service of some sort where the National Anthem was being played and he didn’t have his hand over his heart.  So I have mixed feelings about this, it goes against how I was raised.  However, he showed more respect by standing, hands clasp in front of him, than most people at ball games who take the time to order a beer, don’t remove their hats and chat with their follow fans.  I’m just saying, don’t throw the stone if you don’t follow the rules.  Even then, “land of the free” carries a lot of meaning…which is where this general entry is going.
  3. And then there’s the one’s about gun control and how we are going to wake up one morning and the president is going to have signed some treaty that requires all US citizens to hand over their guns (based off of this article).  OK, sounds ludicrous, but I suppose it could happen, don’t see how (think Appalachia here folks — I’m from Appalachia, I can use the stereotype!) not to mention Montana and Texas, how about Louisiana and let’s not forget New York…)  I hope you see where I’m going here.  Besides, my idea of gun control is hitting what you aim for and, as my Daddy always said, “make sure you know your target, and never pull a gun on someone unless you intend to use it”.  Following those simple rules, I’ve never shot something I didn’t intend to (yeah, this is a call to those hunters that “accidentally” — not saying accidents don’t happen — shot someone, you didn’t make sure you knew your target didn’t ya?  You were excited and fired blindly at some noise) and I’ve NEVER pulled a gun on a person.

The most recent one I got, which got me on this topic (I know long winded way to get here wasn’t it?) was about Professor Wichman from Michigan University, this was from 2006 and it’s still going around the internet.  The story from Snopes is here http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp.

Basically, there was a cartoon that depicted Muhammad as a terrorist and the Muslim student center was in protest over it.  In response, Prof. Wichman sent a letter saying he was offended by the fact they were offended.  He further went on to say that if they didn’t like the values of the west (1st Amendment) that they should feel free to return to their Ancestral homelands.

I’ve got to say, I agree with him.  I remember the cartoon and I remember the outrage caused by the cartoon.  So, here’s my thing, I will defend your rights to believe how you want to believe (or not believe), but if you don’t return those rights the systems falls apart.  This is a *great* country, not without flaws mind you, but a great country.  You have a right to freedom of speech, a right to freedom of religion (and by definition, freedom *from* religion), however, as a friend pointed out you do NOT have a constitutional right to NOT be offended.

Now, the way I see it, you can stay in this country, enjoy those rights.  But, if you don’t like this country, if you don’t want to extend those same rights to your fellow country(wo)men, then I’m sure you can find another place to live.

Wow, that felt good to say.  Understand, I don’t have a problem with your religion, believe how you want, but when you start being offended because of a cartoon and justify killing based on your religion, I have a problem with that.

And, for the record, I have a problem with an individual joining the military then going on a shooting spree because they don’t want to be deployed (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/).  Regardless of religion, if you don’t believe in the military, DON’T JOIN! Now, here’s the real kicker, and there is no way to know if this is the case or not.  But, if this individual wasn’t investigated because of Political Correctness, as many journalist have claimed (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.smith13nov13,0,2728617.column) then being Politically Correct is overrated.  If this person wasn’t investigated further due to a fear of offending someone by racial or religious profiling, then Political Correctness is at fault in the deaths at Fort Hood.

So, I pose to you, at what point does being Politically Correct infringe on not only the rights to Free Speech, but other rights as well?  I hope someone has the answer because I know I don’t.

–ServerGoon

Categories
Interests

reflections ala IM

I have an account on most of the major IM clients.  Most of the time it sits there idle, sometimes family will use it to contact me and sometimes friends will banter back and forth.  And, on some occasions there is the appearance of some heavier material.

In this case I made a statement, sent it and after the fact I thought, “yeah, that’s really it.  Isn’t it?”.  It was a revalation that came out of a simple conversation but upon reflection I realized it held more.

The following conversation took place via text messaging.  The friends name has been changed to protect their innocence.  Well, with this friend, not innocence, but a sense of respecting his privacy.

Friend1: it’s funny.. the tech program does seem to provide a much greater sense of accomplishment than my masters program did
Friend1: it just feels like there’s a lot more substance there
ServerGoon: I was thinking of the learning process for me this quarter it was “here’s what you got to do, here’s what you need (materials) to do it. Now go do it. Oh, and if you have to learn something extra along the way, do that too!”
ServerGoon: as opposed to the class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), TEST class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), TEST
Friend1: yeah
Friend1: it’s definitely for adults hah
ServerGoon: personally, I was a little irked that he assigned aspects of web site design that involved Flash, podcast, etc.. technologies that some have not had a class in yet, but hey, that’s life. Sometime you don’t always know what you need to know when you start a project.
Friend1: well, it’s also indicative of when you have an instructor rather than a professor, i think

“Sometime you don’t always know what you need to know when you start a project.”

I look back at that statement and realize that’s where the learning comes into play for me.  It’s not sitting in a lecture covering what was supposed to be read.  It is being told here’s the end product, here is some material to help you along the way, the rest is up to you.  I feel fortunate that I was able to spend some time and pick up what I needed to know (mostly) to complete the projects and I feel for those poeple that are learning multiple technologies at the same time, that can be very rough.  But as my friend said “it’s definitely for adults hah”.  Speaking of which, I’ve got a project due and I should be working on it instead of writing about this.  But this was one of those moments that I thought I should share.

–EdTechGoon aka ServerGoon

Categories
Interests Professional

Server Consolidation

With the looming server consolidation and subsequent reorganization I’ve decided to ramble a bit and share my thoughts and concerns.

I work in an educational environment with a distributed IT model.  Seems years ago (I wasn’t here, so I’m going on hearsay here) the university had a centralized IT model and the level of service the individual departments received was unacceptable.  So, individual departments hired their own technical staff, set up their own services and continued to serve their clients (faculty, staff and students) as best they could.  The Centralized IT structure provided infrastructure service (email, phone, internet, etc) and some departments chose to go with their own email and/or calendaring solutions.

Well, it seems as if the cycle is to continue and the mode of operation for this university is to go back to a centralized structure.  Now, I’m on the outside of that structure, so I don’t have insider knowledge as to what is going to happen (which is a concern to me and I would think everyone in my situation).  I can see the benefits of a centralized IT providing university wide services; mail, calendaring, web hosting, internet and phone.  I can even see the benefit of a central IT structure setting down rules and guidelines concerning what security standards must be met in order to “stand up” a server on campus.  I’m even fine with meeting those standards, but I’m concerned about the ability of a larger structure, concerned with university wide services, to provide the support and service for those smaller specialized applications used on a departmental basis.  Those concerns aside, I’m still willing to work with the centralized IT, I’m still willing to see what advantages can be provided by a consolidated bargaining unit when it comes to purchasing hardware and software.

When talking about server consolidation — and when talking consolidation let’s not forget the subsequent consolidation (read reduction) of work force — the buzz words seem to be “economies of scale”, and “providing better service by providing specialized expertise”.  I’ll be the first to admit I’m stretched between multiple projects most of the time and I rarely have time to become an “expert” (that may be the subject of another rant) in any one area.  However, when the centralized IT talks about expertise, they are also (once again, this is from my viewpoint from outside the structure) talking about limiting what services are provided.  The focus seems to be on Oracle DB services and MicroSoft server products.  Needless to say, this is a concern to me.  I’m more of a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) person myself.  Now we’ve been guaranteed there would be no “reduction in service” but when you have staffing that doesn’t allow you to support what’s running “out in the field” how is that possible?

These are just a few of my concerns, and they’re not to the point of keeping me awake at night… yet.  But as I work on providing a list of servers and the services they provide these concerns come to the forefront.  I have an investment in my area and I have an investment in the services I provide.  I almost feel as if I’m providing a hit list of sorts, betraying my department by providing information that will eventually lead changes, changes that may not be fully welcome.

I see the security concerns, I see the concerns of a CIO that may not fully know what all technology is being used on campus.  But I am also keenly aware of the concerns of my fellow coworkers and department.  I’m aware of the services we provide because that service wasn’t offered centrally.  And most of all, being the selfish being that I am, I’m concerned about what my job will look like in the coming year.

Of course, after writing this, I may not have to worry about that…