What You Need to Know About White Space Wi-Fi - PCWorld Business Center

What You Need to Know About White Space Wi-Fi - PCWorld Business Center

This new free spectrum capacity authorized by the FCC earlier this week is a VERY BIG deal for all the reasons listed enumerated in the story.

We may have to wait for a couple of years for equipment to be available, but strategic deployment in rural areas may be the the best approach to filling gaps in in areas with spotty broadband coverage. Also, perhaps a new business model for suburban neighborhood deployment will be possible which could put a real dent in the revenues of cable and DSL providers, unless they choose to use it themselves to extend their services. I suspect Google will continue to be an active supporter as they move more into the telecom business.

We all receive various messages in our inboxes that may appeal to our personalties, beliefs and our politics. This one arrived from a friend I respect.

I also agree that this description of education is what we should expect in our high schools.

If you find fault or praise for this school principal's credo, let's read your comments.

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This speech was [allegedly] given by a new HS principal in Florida.

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.

I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values -- e pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness. Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America 's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f-word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

Gulf May Have Avoided Direst Predictions After Spill - NYTimes.com

Gulf May Have Avoided Direst Predictions After Spill - NYTimes.com

More opinion that the Gulf is recovering much better and faster from the BP mess than predicted when the well was still gushing oil. Nature has effective ways of repairing itself even when the situation is overblown by the media and the scientists they often feature who hold extreme opinions.

"...Separately, scientists are arguing heatedly about how fast a large plume of dispersed oil more than a half-mile below the surface of the gulf is breaking down and how great a threat it poses to sea life.

Yet as the weeks pass, evidence is increasing that through a combination of luck (a fortunate shift in ocean currents that kept much of the oil away from shore) and ecological circumstance (the relatively warm waters that increased the breakdown rate of the oil), the gulf region appears to have escaped the direst predictions of the spring.

While its findings were disputed by some, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported several weeks ago that the oil was breaking down and dispersing rapidly, probably limiting future damage from the spill.

And preliminary reports from scientists studying the effects on marshes, wildlife and the gulf itself suggest that the damage already done by the spill may also be significantly less than was feared — less, in fact, than the destruction from the much smaller Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989..."

My New Smartphone

I took the smartphone plunge. My old Motorola phone had a cracked glass face so I decided to upgrade to a new DROID2 from Verizon about a week ago.
This thing is a very powerful device but I'm just beginning to learn how to use it. I chose Android because I want to remain with Verizon Wireless and because I'm an inveterate Google user. The ability to manage Gmail and Calendar using the new and improved slider keyboard is so convenient. I have set it up to use Google Voice for calling and voice mail.
Android 2.2 (upgraded to 2.2.2 on Friday) is a powerful operating system and I particularly like the voice actuated search and calling tools in this Android release. Future software upgrades can only include improved capabilities.


I debated waiting for Verizon's 4G LTE roll-out and the powerful phones that will surely follow, but that's likely two+ years away in Vermont so I decided on the DROID2.


Since I have a MiFi hotspot device that has a few more months to run on its two-year contract, I'll hold off on activating the WiFi hotspot feature on the DROID2.

Bacteria are eating the oil plume in the Gulf - SmartPlanet

Bacteria are eating the oil plume in the Gulf - SmartPlanet

More good news from the Gulf of Mexico. The oil plume is being eaten voraciously by bacteria according to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The catastrophe seems to have been avoided. Everyone should be pleased with this result...except many researchers depending on grants to measure the extent of the expected long-lived catastrophe.

L.A. teacher ratings: L.A. Times analysis rates teachers' effectiveness - latimes.com

L.A. teacher ratings: L.A. Times analysis rates teachers' effectiveness - latimes.com:

An extensive value-added analysis of teacher effectiveness using student performance results in elementary schools in Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school district, identifies marked differences in the quality of individual teachers. That in and of itself should not be surprising, but the fact that a newspaper rather than school authorities conducted the analysis is disappointing.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, teachers' union leaders have have called for a boycott of the LA Times rather than deal with this analysis constructively!

"...Nevertheless, value-added analysis offers the closest thing available to an objective assessment of teachers. And it might help in resolving the greater mystery of what makes for effective teaching, and whether such skills can be taught.

On visits to the classrooms of more than 50 elementary school teachers in Los Angeles, Times reporters found that the most effective instructors differed widely in style and personality. Perhaps not surprisingly, they shared a tendency to be strict, maintain high standards and encourage critical thinking..."

But the surest sign of a teacher's effectiveness was the engagement of his or her students — something that often was obvious from the expressions on their faces."

"...Value-added analysis offers a rigorous approach. In essence, a student's past performance on tests is used to project his or her future results. The difference between the prediction and the student's actual performance after a year is the "value" that the teacher added or subtracted.

For example, if a third-grade student ranked in the 60th percentile among all district third-graders, he would be expected to rank similarly in fourth grade. If he fell to the 40th percentile, it would suggest that his teacher had not been very effective, at least for him. If he sprang into the 80th percentile, his teacher would appear to have been highly effective.

Any single student's performance in a given year could be due to other factors — a child's attention could suffer during a divorce, for example. But when the performance of dozens of a teacher's students is averaged — often over several years — the value-added score becomes more reliable, statisticians say.

Google's Android 2.2 Voice Actions Feature

Inspired by Star Trek!

Stimulus Spending and Effectiveness

Because I have trouble believing this, should I then believe that the real unemployment rate suggests that the Stimulus worked or didn't work?

"The stimulus has saved or created about three million jobs and is on track to save an additional 500,000 by the end of the year, according to a new report by Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers."

Official Google Blog: Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal

Official Google Blog: Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal

After much opposition form many quarters, including the NY Times, Google defends it's agreement of principles with Verizon to move the 'net neutrality ' discussion forward. Wireless is where net neutrality and regulators should remain hands off for now. Limited spectrum, explosive growth, fierce competition and rapidly changing technology all favor very limited involvement by regulators.

The large question is how does net neutrality play out on the international stage? America has long been the innovator with Internet development. We should do nothing to impede that.int

Pew Research - 21 % of Americans Don't Use Internet

Twenty-one percent of Americans do not use the Internet. We live in an 80/20 world in so many ways. Yet, over time Internet usage will rival POTS household penetration (mid/upper 90 % range). Soon, too, I think.

 TechCrunch states:

"...This isn’t just people who do not use broadband (which is 66 percent of American adults). It also includes people who don’t use dial-up (another 5 percent). These people don’t use the Internet at all. That is like not using the telephone.
The number is a bit inflated because a third (34 percent) of these self-described non-users live in a house with Internet access or have family members who use the Internet regularly. They just don’t think the information on the Internet is relevant to their lives (48 percent), are uncomfortable with computers (60 percent), and are not interested in getting online (90 percent)."