Pearl harbor today

We just watched the Memorial Day flag ceremony at Pearl Harbor. Arizona bell ringing is upcoming. We will spend most of the day here.

View from our room

Just got here. This is the view from our room.

Sending Picture to Blogger

Here is a test photo sent from iPad to blogger. This was taken using the photo booth app with the front camera.

Hawaii Bound

Betsy and I are currently in the air headed to Honolulu for a weeks vacation. I will try to blog some of this from my new iPad. Not sure if I will be able to post pictures here or not using safari in the iPad.

10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have - PCMag.com

From PC Magazine:

10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have - PhotoShop Express - Slideshow from PCMag.com

It's time to start blogging about the love of my iPad and all the cool apps I can find. Especially since I convinced my Dad to buy one in order to use the included FaceTime app. So here is PC Magazines 10 apps you should have:

1. Photoshop Express free

2. Epicurious - free

3. Netflix - free

4. Kindle for iPad - free

5. AP Mobile - free

6. Instapaper Pro ($4.99)

7. iWork ($30 for 3 apps)

8. iDisplay ($4.99)

9. TweetDeck - Free

10. Angry Birds - Free

These all look great and I think I will make sure I get all of the ones I don't have currently except for #8 and #9 since I don't really tweet and don't think I need a second display via WiFi.

I also think the USA Today newspaper app belongs on here. That is really a good one.

AT&T envisions the future in 1993

Happy Mothers Day Betsy! Enjoy your iPhone 4...

Apples App Based Internet Approach is Winning

Apple 'Is Killing the World Wide Web' | CFOworld

Apple's app-based approach to the internet was a much more innovative one, he said, and the popularity of the iPhone and iPad meant that the Cupertino company was starting to wrest control from Google, the firm that has dominated the web for many years now.

"Right now Apple is just killing the World Wide Web. Peope are adapting iPads and iPhones at a rate. Apple will do almost 100 million units this year - I mean, the numbers are staggering," MacNamee said.

Apple is also taking the fight to another of its tradtional rivals - Microsoft, MacNamee argues. "This is the year where Microsoft has fallen below 50 percent of internet-connected devices, down from 97 percent 10 years ago," he said.

According to MacNamee, Windows is about to enter a cycle of decline, whereas Apple will come to the fore with the iPad 2. The success of the iPad and Apple's app-focused approach would see the company lead a 10-year cycle of growth for the company and the technology industry as a whole, he said.

Higher Education: The Next Asset Bubble?

Higher Education: The Next Asset Bubble? | The Pelican Post

Many awful facts pointed out in this article:

1. the cost of a private college has soared thirteen-fold over the past 40 years,
2. college tuition has risen twice the rate of inflation and four times the rate of wage growth.
3. the federal government guarantees student loans, when a student defaults the federal government pays the loan originator the balance of the loan plus interest. The government then hires a collections agency to recoup its money and adds a 25 percent collections fee on the defaulter,
4. Student loan debt has now outpaced credit card debt, at $829 billion versus $826 billion.
5. From 2004 to 2005 alone, student debt increased by 30 percent.
6. a majority of undergraduates owe $20,000 in student loans, up 108 percent in a decade,
7. 45 percent of college graduates from the class of 2009 earned less than $15,000 in 2010.
8. 25 percent of all government loans default, 30 percent of community college loans default, 40 percent of two-year college loans default, and for-profit schools have a 43 percent default rate.
9. student loan debt could not be dissolved through bankruptcy

GMail Motion

Yes, it's an April Fools Video:

OpenOffice.org ditches Oracle, establishes Document Foundation - Renames software LibreOffice | TechEye

OpenOffice.org ditches Oracle, establishes Document Foundation - Renames software LibreOffice | TechEye

It looks like OpenOffice will become LibreOffice, unless Oracle does the right thing and donates the OpenOffice name to The Document Foundation who is running the development.

The Great College Road Trip

The Great College Road Trip - Newsweek

Newsweek Magazine (recently sold for one penny) has a write-up about a yuppie family (Mom, Dad, 17 year old son/would be matriculant -- sound familiar?) traveling around New England looking at 6 different colleges for son to be matriculated at.

4 More Years! 4 More Years!

YouTube - President Barack Obama's First Ad of 2012: ""

The world's worst environmental villain?

Student Loans a Bad Idea

WashingtonPost

Quotes from the article:

Save up for your wants. Spend less than you earn. Despise debt — any of it, including student loans — so that you borrow as little as possible.

Student loans are like no other loans. Lenders and debt collection companies can come after federal loan defaulters with a vengeance. Loan payments can be deducted from a borrower’s wages, income tax refunds can be snatched, or the account can be turned over for collection, which of course means more fees added to the loan. Federal benefit payments for defaulters, including Social Security benefits, can be taken. Borrowers can be sued for the entire amount of the loan, and there is no time limit for collection on federal student loans. They are liable for any collection or court costs; and they might not be able to renew a professional license. On top of this, it’s nearly impossible to erase the debt in bankruptcy.

The report also highlights another distressing fact about student loans. Twenty-three percent of borrowers kept default and delinquency at bay by postponing repayment of their student loans through deferment or forbearance.

A deferment allows borrowers to stop making loan payments if they meet certain criteria, such as an economic hardship. Lenders may also grant a forbearance that gives borrowers permission to stop making payments for a set period of time. But forbearance is generally a more expensive option than deferment because interest continues to accrue, even on federal subsidized loans.

Here’s the moral of this story, the authors of the study say. Their research confirms that far more students than generally recognized begin to pay off their loans but then have to resort to repayment options that increase their overall debt.

Link to the study: Delinquency: The Untold Story of Student Loan Borrowing

USNWR: Best Colleges | Find the Best College for You

Best Colleges | Find the Best College for You | US News Education

Georgia Tech #35 (out of state tuition = $26,926 total = $35K per year ranks 514th for in-state)

U of Florida #53 (in state tuition = $5,020 going up to $5,700 next year about $15K total per year ranks 714th)

Northeastern #69 (tuition = $36,792 about $46k total per year ranks 145th)

College daze: The insanity of the application process - The Washington Post

College daze: The insanity of the application process - The Washington Post

Newest Company eNewsletter

I am the author of he front page articles and the Americas regional news:

http://www.tscprinters.com/cms//template/tsc/Newsletter.html

Mantle clock instructions

http://www.clockworks.com/hermlequartz.html

Eric's Solo & Ensemble performance on marimba

Quote of the Day -- Cost of College

Instapundit

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: In response to yesterday’s post on Rick Perry’s $10,000 B.A. proposal, reader Steve Schroeder writes:

While visiting with old college friends on New Years’ Eve we did a back of the envelope calculation on the cost and value of our BA degrees in Accounting from 1981. We attended a small well regarded Midwestern liberal arts college from 1977 to 1981. Tuition, room and board was between $3,000 and $4000 per year so around $16000 for our BA. As entry level accountants in public CPA firms we earned a salary of around $17,000 per year. So we earned in salary an amount equal to the cost of a BA degree in our first year of employment. Now that same college, which my youngest daughter is looking at attending costs $42,000 per year. If she earned her BA in Accounting it would cost her $168,000. Her possible first year salary as a CPA? Not even close to $168,000. Maybe around $45,000. What a change in 30 years in the value of that BA in Accounting.

Indeed. Many degrees have seen a similar decline in their return on investment. It’s because the return has (more or less) kept pace with inflation, while the required investment has run wildly ahead.

Dremel Dog Grooming

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0

MSE 2.0 is not officially released but is available for download via Microsoft here

With MSE 2, Microsoft is evolving this product in a few meaningful ways. Setup is as simple as ever and retains the same basic UI of its predecessor, with the same Home, Update, History, and Settings tabs.



New features include:

Windows Firewall integration. MSE 2 integrates with the built-in Windows Firewall and will prompt you to enable this integration during Setup. This way, MSE can include firewall monitoring as part of its overall PC health monitoring.


New protection engine. The MSE antimalware engine has been updated to offer enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.


Network inspection system. MSE 2 now helps protect against network-based exploits.


Other improvements. MSE 2 includes other important, if hard-to-find, changes. You can specify that CPU usage not exceed a certain limit (the default is 50 percent) during scheduled scans. MSE 2 reports when definitions were checked in addition to when they were updated so that you can be sure it's working properly if a long time has elapsed between definition updates. The real-time protection functionality offers more fine-grained control. You can now auto-remove quarantined files after a specified interval, though that option is disabled by default. And Microsoft now allows you to opt out of Microsoft SpyNet, the online community that ensures that MSE stays up to date; I don't recommend doing this for obvious reasons.

One feature, enhanced protection from web-based threats, was removed very late in the beta. According to Microsoft, this feature was removed for performance reasons.

download the new version.

$200K in Student Loans for a BA from Northeastern?

My Very Costly College Education | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy

Yikes! I'm an NU grad and left with my BS in 5 years and $1,200 in student loans. I lived at home while at school and away from home during some very lucrative co-ops. I drove a beat up 10 year old car that finally died during the last weeks of school. I also worked close to 30 hours a week flipping burgers at a Ground Round restaurant for the first three years at NU.

Makes all that sacrifice seem worth it when I left owing $198,800 less than Kelli Space. I hated writing all 12 $100 checks to pay off my student loan. I can't fathom what it must feel like to try to pay off $200K of student loans.

Here's a hint: there is no such thing as "good debt." Debt is debt. You are a fool if you are not carefully considering how you will pay off each and every dollar of your debt before you acquire it.

Black Dog Sheds

Dyson Groom tool home

Best Friends Responds to Obama Praising Michael Vick

When the President Calls About the Vick Dogs | The Best Friends Blog

Obama recently called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles to praise him for giving Michael Vick a second chance and telling him "what a great arm" Vick has.

The president and co-founder of Best Friends is still waiting for Obama to call thanking him for rescuing the dogs that Vick had fight, electrocuted, stabbed and tortured.

Read the link above, and here is their Christmas Video: