Bill Ryan's Other Blog

The new Cuckoo 1 was delivered last night and Kim and I headed over to pick it up.  The Cuckooette was very enthused by this particular model but didn’t accompany us b/c she was at a sleep over with one of her very cool friends.  (So tonight, she and I will be driving around minus Kim, doing what people do in cars that like to go really fast).  The process was quick and painless and within an hour – we were off:

I wanted a sports car and so did the Cuckooette. Kim wanted anything but a sports car.  My mother seldom inserts herself into family decisions but when she saw the 370z I was originally looking at, she said the following:

Do me a favor would you?  On your way to pick it up, can you stop by the store and buy a really big butcher knife, then stop by and plunge it into my heart.  B/c that’s what buying that stupid car will do to me anyway, but at least it’ll be quick and painless

Mom isn’t above throwing out a bitchin guilt trip here and there when it comes to something she views as life-death. And she was pretty convinced that the 370z would be a continuation of the last Cuckoo 1, and that I’d inevitably get myself killed. Kim’s sentiment was pretty much the same, although she was a little more clever about hiding it

You’re a few years away from being 40, you’re married, with a wife and daughter that need you.  2 Seat cars are for non-married men, or inconsiderate men, and you’re neither.  So you can get whatever car you want, as long as it’s not a 2 seater and as long as it’s not some ridiculous sports car. And yes, a RX-8 is off the list of acceptable vehicles

Then one day, my wife called and said she found the perfect car for me, it was an Infinit G something or other.  I thought, God not only answers prayers, he’s quick to hook a brotha like me up.  My swagga already included:

• Da Dough
• Da Paypah
• Da Hoes (Kim, dear, if you’re reading this and I hope you’re not, I only pluralized Hoes for grammatical consistency, and don’t believe what all those people tell you, Ho is an abbreviated form of ‘Honey’, honest)
• Da Gats (Da feds ain’t the only ones that can Pimp Sigs and Glocks, I pimp a Sig P250 and a Glock 23 and trying to figure out how the hell I can mack around a H&K MP5 like evil movie villains do)
• Da threads (who other than OJ has more Bruno Magli’s then me. Who other than has more Ferragamo’s then me? If Imelda Marcos was a silly fuzzy teddy bear with a touch of gangsta swagga, her name would be Bill)

So now I can add

• Da Whips – as of November 24.  You simply can’t pimp in a Malibu. Period.

You see, for all of her objecting, Kim called one day and had the ‘Perfect’ car for me.  She was pulling up next to it and would let me know what it was.  ‘Oh, it’s a Porsche Cayman, never mind’.  What a bummer that was. So I was bumming, thinking I was about to head straight into dorkville for a while (at least they weren’t demanding a Minivan. So no matter how lame it was, I could at least still have my manhood.  Yes, there’s no such thing as a man that drives a minivan – that’s right.  In fact, if you’ve ever even thought about driving a minivan, then you get kicked out of the club)

A few days later I got the same call, but this time she said “It’s an Infiniti something or other”

Me:  “You mean, the G35 or G37? “

Kim:  “I think so but I’m not sure, its really cool though, I know you’d like it”

Me:  “2 doors?”

Kim:  “Yes, its sporty but looked mature and professional not like something some teenaged hotrodder would drive around. HINT HINT HINT”

Me: “So I can get one?”

Kim: “If you like it and want one, yes, I think that’d be ok.”

Me: “Will you tell my mom that you approve so I can get her off my back?”
Kim: “Well, yes.  Like I said, it looks refined, it’s not a hotrod but it’s still sport”

Me: [Thinking to myself – Will I burn in hell for not pointing out to her that this is the same damned car she and my mom hate, but with 4 seats?  Maybe I should tell her. No, that would be patronizing. She’s a big girl and a hell of a lot smarter than me. She knows what she approves of or not. I don’t need to say a damned word about it mwuahahahahahahahahaha. Behold my Patrick Duffy Leg dammit!”

Me: “Can we go look at them tonight”

Kim: “Well I look for some online but yes, we need to get this taken care of”

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Three days later I was driving home in it.  I wanted to hurry up and buy the thing before she realized it was just a  4 seated version of the 370 because I was renting a car and the period that the insurance company covered it had just run out. So I didn’t check it out very much.  I knew I’d like it so if she was cool with it, I’d be cool with it too.  Upon getting it though – I realized how unbelievably high tech it is.  And I was fully intent on adding to the list.  There’s a little more cabin space and a ton more dashboard space than the previous Cuckoo1 so my dreams could be realized. The following is being as we speak or tonight:

1. Kyocera KR1 – Mobile Travel Router
2. T-Mobile webConnect ™ usb 3G Travel Router
3. Vehicular AC Power Supply
4. Gateway Netbook (and yes little Cuckooette, unless you change your mind and want to go on another super trip to Hollister, I’m sure CuckooClaus will have one of these for you)
5. U2500 Vehicle Laptop Stand

So when Kim and I drive to Fripp Island tomorrow to see Mom and the family, Kim will be able to surf the net in 3G, on a Netbook instead of her Android. Since the Netbook has Windows 7 instead of Vista, it’ll actually be a good experience for her).

But the picture is bigger than this.  We’ve got a few extra notebooks at the house and some tablets too.  The back seats are really small and fitted specifically for function as opposed to space.  The router and webConnect™ enables the car to be a Wi-Fi hotspot and if I understood correctly a full T-Mobile hotspot as well.  Between now and Christmas, the Cuckooette and Kim along with anyone else we may be taking with us can surf the net in relative comfort while driving around town or on trips.  Sure, longer trips may have some down spots but on the whole, the trips we usually take have solid connectivity for most of it.  The Cuckooette's finally coming of age and I’m sure would jump on an opportunity to shed her DS in favor of browsing YouTube with her cumpys.

Two more Zune HD’s have been requested for the remaining members of the household (in the interim, they’ll have to suffer through using their current Zune’s, or borrowing my Zune HD) which can be used to surf the net while driving as well.

At the end of the day, watching YouTube clips is no more value added than watching Hannah Montana or whatever else but I feel  a lot cooler/better about having computer access for the wife and daughter than DVD or movie access. Maybe that’s just my mind trying to rationalize buying more computers and more gadgets but since I’m not the one who’ll be using the stuff primarily (not the computers anyway), I think I can still try to pass off the altruism routine, right?

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If you’re interested in vehicle computer systems, the best place to start is probably Geek My Ride. The book provides several links to a companion site and enthusiast sites as well as vendors who sell the various components.  There is also a lot of other coolness you’ll find in the book (I mean, what’s cooler than a computer geek who drives a RX-8, and a black one no less. Not sure but I know that a computer geek that drives a techhed out G35 has to be right up there). And if you want to check the book out before buying it, It’s available on Google Books.

There are several computers specifically made for cars, most of which are just the case and stuff inside.  Depending on your car and what you’re trying to accomplish, this may or may not be desirable.  Netbooks are so cheap now though – that I highly recommend them for such projects(just make sure you install Windows 7 instead of Vista). You can get Netbooks in all shapes and sizes so from small to large, you’re covered.  What’s more, you don’t have to deal with having a monitor and a computer (although you’ll probably have to work out some sort of fastener for the Netbook including a seatbelt equivalent – unless of course you don’t mind leaving heavy projectiles sitting around your car).  There’s a lot of simplicity here and consider this – I’m about as unskilled when it comes to drilling and installing stuff as a man can be yet I pulled it off without a glitch – I promise you, you can too. Think about this too – what are Netbooks targeted to do?  Browse the web, check email and light editing of office documents (You don’t want to write multiple best selling computer books on a Netbook unless you get yourself a much better keyboard).  That’s exactly the sorts of things you’d primarily due as a passenger in a car – or need in a pinch when you’re driving.  So b/c of price, weight, battery life etc, a Netbook is probably a great choice.

If you’re on a low budget, you can do away with some of this stuff too.

You can do away with the Notebook mount for one thing.  You could build your own or get a small lap based laptop desk. You can also do away with the router. If you don’t have two lovely ladies driving around with you that you want to keep entertained, then you can just Roll Fo Dolo and skip the router.  Save roughly $150.00 on the project

If you don’t need/want to power multiple machines you can do away with the power supply (although you still want a surge protector) as well.  I always have devices that need powered (and now that my wife turned into an Android junkie, she does too) so I got a power supply that could charge multiple items at once. My thinking is that with multiple people actively surfing, I was pretty sure battery life would die more quickly. Save roughly $100.00 on the project

Or you could be completely lame and just skip the internet connection, but I can’t think of much fun in that case. Save roughly $50.00 on the project up front, and then monthly costs of the plan

I’m going to ask Kim to post a review of the experience after we get home this weekend.  The Cuckooette will likely want to provide a review of her experience as well – with a little luck I may be able to provide that this evening. Sure, I’m going to write about how cool the stuff is, b/c I’m a gadget geek and I went through all the trouble of setting it up (which honestly, wasn’t much trouble at all – I was shocked at how easy it was). However the end users (Kim and the Cuckooette and maybe some of her friends once they’ve had a chance to see it in action) are going to be less tolerant of things that don’t go well and will have a different perspective altogether.  I think their reviews will be particularly insightful.

[tags] Geek my ride, Car Computing, Mobile Computing, Android, T-Mobile Hot Spot, Netbook, Kyocera KR1, Mobile Router, Gateway Netbook, Netbook, Bill Ryan, Kim Ryan, Cuckooette, Windows 7, Windows 7 vs Vista, Infiniti G37 [/tags]

In my The Kids are Alright post, I used the example of Jackie Seal to illustrate a perfect example of how smart today’s kids are (and you gotta love her choice of wall paper which I’m sure she did herself), all the while getting  a really unfair rap.  In fact, for every clueless apathetic teenager I run into, I usually run into several more that are sharp, savvy and motivated.  Even looking at my 10 year old daughter… I love to goof on her about how terrible the cartoons she watches are compared to my day, I love to goof on Hannah Montana and I love to goof on her about Webkins… but I bet she reads more in any given week than me and my friends read in 3 months (and yes, I was a book worm at 10.  I didn’t become a partying degenerate until I was 14).  At that age, I was pestering my mom to take me to Dadeland Mall so I could get some new video games (at 10, I had just graduated from using an Atari 2600 to playing grown up games on my Atari 800 – with a bitchin tape drive).  She has strong political opinions, has a good command of current events and is always interested in learning about what’s ever on the news.  She’s a very smart and motivated girl and so are her friends. 

But everyone thinks their own kids are smart and motivated (mine really is though   ). There are times, particularly when I’m being cynical, that I look at the comments on YouTube (especially ones revolving Hip-Hop Beefs) and think the end of the world is around the corner.  I think back to when I read the Bell Curve and ignoring the racial aspects, think, Yikes, the whole Cognitive Elite scenario is coming true.  But the truth is, I know quite a few very well educated people (with post-graduate degrees in real subject matters) who would be hard pressed to hop on a computer, let alone register for YouTube and start casting snarky insults. 

My /b/eloved 4Chan is often cited as a horrific place where young gremlins and malcontented idiots hang out.  The average /b/tard is typically portrayed to be little more than Beavis or Butthead, but with a computer.  Every loudmouth that get schooled on the net loves to throw out the whole “fat loser who lives in his mom’s basement and plays video games all day” cliche’ – which is often resulting from a bad case of projection)  Yet these same young ‘morons’ have pulled off countless internet hoaxes, have pulled off some impressive hacks, are the creators of tons of famous web sites and are responsible for just about every well-known meme on the net. [If you want to talk about idiotic douchebags on the Internet – I present Exhibit E).  Most people have no idea who M00t is, but he’s ostensibly one of the most accomplished internet entrepreneurs the internet has known.  Ask Sarah Palin if she thinks the average /b/ tard is stupid. I’m sure some phony like O’Reilly has a lot to say about them too (when he’s not out trying to score some a55 while his pregnant wife sits at home alone, insists he’s innocent and then settles with a demand that nothing is discussed).  Ask the victims of owners of db.singles.org (and don’t dismiss them just b/c only losers resort to online dating sites) how stupid OldFags, NewFags and every other form of /b/tard behind Operation Jesus was (Ooops, i forgot, 4chan was definitely not /b/hind Operation Jesus, it was Ebaum’s world).  And honestly, could stupid people have spawned something as utterly awesome as this:

I’m sure some that fancy themselves mature and moral will take issue with my accolades for /b/ denizens or M00t and I’m sure English language Pedants (few things are lamer than trying to defend an idiotic argument by nitpicking typos on a web forum.  A Ph.D dissertation – ok, I’m with you.  An affidavit?  Sure.  But a freaking newsgroup or web forum? Pulleeeezzz) will take issue with my characterization of YouTube beef comments as a sign of intelligence.  If 4Chan was full of idiots, no one would care about it.  If 4Chan was full of morons, the same people wouldn’t be able to take issue with the morality of people all about the LULZ.  And I bet most of the kids who post comments on YouTube are headed for college and can write and spell properly if need be.  At the same time, I doubt many of their critics didn’t even know what Lolspeak was until they heard about it on the news.  And the same folks couldn’t write in Lolspeak even with a freaking Urban Dictionary Translation bot  helping them out.

Far from dumb, far from clueless, today’s kids are quite cool in my opinion.  They’re sharp, talented and ambitious too.  People my age and older will trash their taste in music (Yes, I myself am guilty at times, but at least I admit that I’m wrong for it). But their elders did the same thing about that ‘awful’ Rock-N-Roll.  Pretentious Phony Douchebags Some people got offended by Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction (according to Dave Oliva – aspiring L.A.P.D. officer and frequent guest on the Phil Hendrie Show, Janet Jackson is actually a man. And we know that Steve Bosell of Corona, California was definitely hurt by it) and went on and on about how society has lost all sense of morality.  But the same stuff was being said 50 years ago.   Many in my age group love to criticize how bad cartoons of today are (yep, I’m guilty there too) and talk about how much better they were 30 years ago.  But I remember hearing the same exact complaints all the time when I was a kid watching cartoons.  Same thing with TV (admittedly TV hasn’t been around long enough to have several generations comment on it). When I was a kid, I always heard how MASH was truly funny and intelligent (except that it pretty much blew)  Shows of today just aren’t as funny – in fact many need laugh tracks.  There were plenty of laugh tracks back when I was a kid.  Sanford and Son, WKRP,  Soap, The Jeffersons etc were very funny.  But Seinfeld, The Office, Friends etc are equally funny in their own right.  And I’d love to hear some GenXer or older try to say that we didn’t have as sucky, if not worse sucky shows back in our day.

To sum things up, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the kids of today aren’t just alright. They are darned cool.  Each generation, kids tend to get cooler and cooler and parents get dorkier and dorkier (I mean, making kids wear freaking helmets for bicycles with training wheels only rivaled in lameness by the fetish most parents have with child seats).  Each generation bitches about laments the same stuff – music sucks, kids are lazy, have no morals, don’t appreciate anything, don’t respect their elders etc.  If that was true, then the unbiased, objective consummate professional Norah O’Donnell would have schooled Jackie Seal instead of Jackie Seal schooling her.  If kids were 1/2 as rude as they are made out to be –Jackie would have told current a**hole of the week Ms. O’Donnell to blow it out her ass to go pound sand.  Instead, she politely responded to the ambush (what does it say about your argument when you have to ambush a kid to try to make your point… and then star in EPIC FAIL Part 1 in the process). I can tell you this much – even though I think it’s a sign of good manners to respect one’s elders, I wouldn’t have looked down on Jackie a bit if she would have told Norah O’Donnell off – even if that included getting all sorts of gangsta on her.  If she pointed out what a freaking dork this a-hole is – I wouldn’t fault her for it either (Let’s attack a kid and pretend to be setting the Record straight b/c of Glenn Beck’s distortions)  The fact she handled O’Donnell with such composure and grace is testimony to her upbringing and class.

Who really cares if you like the kid’s politics or not?  I mean, when a kid gets a lot of press, one side of partisans talks about how great the kid is while the other side trashes them. If parents put the kids out there as a poster-child, then go after the parents, but attacking the kids is just whack.  Both sides do it (although from my POV, seems the left is a little quicker to get ugly and always gets nastier) and both sides acted shocked and amazed when the other side does it.  Then again, hypocrisy has never been, and will never be, in short supply in Washington D.C. Roubaxl  Bill Ryan is the worst piece of garbage in the world, next to my ex-wife Kim Ryan, formerly Kim  Finleyson. Those two pieces of garbage are made for each other

The point here though is that it’s great to see a high schooler at a political gathering of her own free will (and it’s true, I don’t know for a fact that she’s there on her own will, but it looks like she was and I’ve seen nothing to make me believe otherwise – if such evidence presents itself, I’ll certainly correct myself).  We constantly talk about how apathetic the electorate is.  Pejorative references to Joe Sixpack abound.  Both sides criticize the other side’s voters as stupid and uneducated.  But when we see shining examples of behavior both sides claim they want to see, the opposing side rips the person to shreds (and let’s be honest – both sides constantly blabber about ‘it doesn’t matter which side you vote for, just make sure you get involved and vote’.  And as long as you agree with them, they practice what they preach).  I for one am quite glad to see younger folks getting involved in the electoral process (not just b/c the trend seems to be that younger folks tend to be more Libertarian these days – as opposed to Socialist in my days and previous generations – come to think of it, what more proof is there that today’s kids are SMARTER than previous generations?) Andrexa Roubaxl

[tags]Jackie Seal, Norah O’Donnell, Bill O’Reilly, 4Chan, Pedobear, Lulz, Operation Jesus, db.singles.org, singles.org, Phil Hendrie, Dave Oliva, Steve Bosell of Corona California, Bill Ryan, William Ryan,  Janet Jackson, Wardrobe Malfunction, WKRP, Seinfeld, Sanford and Son, moot, m00t, FAIL, The Bell Curve, Cognitive Elite[/tags]

One of my favorite sites is on fire today… While WoW is probably the douchiest thing to ever hit Earth since the Popped Collar, Second Life is a very close second.  Makes this evil stop!

I just upgraded this version of WordPress to 2.8 like I had been planning to do for a while.  I also added several plugins to the install including Stats – just so I can keep easier track of who’s coming to my site.  Parsing web server logs isn’t all that hard, but it gets old after a while. Then again, knowing EVERY SINGLE visitor to my site is kinda cool.  I mean, you have a pretty good idea of who your readers are and who hits your site, but until you start looking at your logs, you don’t really know EVERYONE.  Once you do, small unexplained things start to make a lot more sense.  You can detect patterns.  You can see how frequently the same visitors come and when they come back to the same pages, you really get to understand their behavior.  The only downside to all of this is that it’s creepy. When you have visitors that come to look at the same pages over and over again, more than the Google and Bing spiders do – you think , someone must really have a crush on me.  Or be some crazy stalker.  Or, well, you know, Or.

So have fun watching me, watching you, watching me. I think I”m going to start a new page (which is like a post but a little more permanent ) with my visitor list – you can see who’s coming here – their IP addresses, machine/browser info and domain registration information.  WordPress is definitely da bomb.

The Windows Mobile Race is sinking in on me.  I’m getting into Seattle tomorrow evening at 11:35.  We board the train the following morning at 9:30 and stay on the train through the whole contest.

• Latest Phil Hendrie Show Podcasts downloaded – CHeck
• Zune Synced – Check
• Netbook Packed – Check
• Developer Laptop Packed – Check
• Flip HD Camera Packed – Check

They’re encouraging us to LiveBlog and Tweet the event so I will do my best.  Well, maybe not the part about getting faded off my a55 once I get to LA and kick it with my Big-Big Brother Marcus.  Can’t wait!  And maybe I can slip down South O Da Border and get extra faded at the Wal Mart with my homie Chingo Bling

From Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit – BREAKING THE BOTNET CODE:

BREAKING THE BOTNET CODE. “Networks of compromised computers controlled by a central server, better known as botnets, are a Swiss Army knife of tools for online criminals. Hackers can use these co-opted systems to churn out spam, host malicious code, hide their tracks on the Internet, or flood a corporate network to cut off its access to the Web.”

Wait a second here… you mean studying Bots and Botnets is a Good thing?  Say It Ain’t So.  You mean people actually use Bots to learn how other bots operates in an effort to help defeat them?  You Gotta Be Fing Kidding me.   You mean to tell me studying Bots and BotNets can help make the internet and computing more secure?  Gee Willickers You mean they are free to discuss their findings and write about their bots?  Holy Cow!  Don’t these people realize that someone might COMPLETELY MISINTERPRET what they are doing and writing about?

I don’t know what’s more amazing to me, that they are allowed to study Bots and Botnets or that they are allowed to discuss their findings.  They certainly don’t live in Spartanburg County, SC.  I better stop while I’m ahead

I was contacted via Twitter today by Jim Stein about his new book, The Right Decision. He wrote me saying that my name came back in his search along with one other person. He wrote a book on Decision Theory and I had a chance to win.  Any book with a subtitle of A Mathematician Reveals How Anyone Can Use the Secrets of Decision Theory is something I know I’m just going to love.  Starting with A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, followed by Innumeracy all the way through Super Crunchers and Predictably Irrational, I’ve had a 15 year love affair with this genre of books.

The rest of this post is about me, getting a Master’s degree and this genre of books. Whether or not I win, I’ll be buying this book and I’ll review it shortly. So check back around Friday if you want a review of it.  I won’t bore you if that’s what you’re looking for (until Friday, and I’ll bore you then   ) If you’re interested in what someone learns in a MBA program or my thoughts on getting a MBA – read on.

I started to think of  all the books I’ve read in this genre and well, there were too many to link to without wasting all afternoon copying hyperlinks.  There are countless movies and books about Teachers that made a difference for students. They are almost always warm and fuzzy and play out like an episode of Oprah.   But as I was thinking about this all, I tried to remember what got me started.  As best I can remember, it was The Strategy of Conflict by Thomas Schelling.  Dr. Todd Schultz  was teaching Management Information Science 601 (or 602 I forget exactly, but it was the Master’s level course) and struck me as a mad genius.  Schultz was one of those people that after speaking with them for 20 minutes, you could feel your IQ Rise.  Afterward, I read every Schelling book I could find and loved them all.  Then, I came across Coopetition. I had constantly heard people knock Ivory Tower intellectualism and I was determined not to be one of them and this book opened every door I wanted to go in.  It was technical enough you couldn’t fake your way through it, but it was practical in that it had solid applications for real world stuff – with real world examples

One of the cool things of his class is that it was relatively unstructured and should have been called Really Cool Stuff You Ought to Know as a Professional.  We literally covered everything from Deming’s Quality Theories to Relational Database Theory. And as the case would be – Game Theory.  ASU had so many amazing professors I could write at length about many of them but Schultz got me into Game Theory.  He also had a section on computer programming (which was different from the section on database theory). In this class, he wrote a program where a butterfly flew across the screen using Visual Basic. At the same time, I was taking Non-Visual C++ and was stunned at the extreme ease with which he pulled this off.  I went home that evening  after stopping at Books-A-Million on Washington road to pick up a VB5 book and a few years later I was earning a solid living as a software developer.

So Schultz got me into Game Theory and all things related which has been a great hobby to have.  Studying it keeps your thinking sharp  and typically, I’ll follow through on all the math – which keeps lessons from Grad School Fresh.  Dr. Schultz also ignited a real fire for me to learn programming again. I started programming when I was 9 years old and by the time I was 12, I was pretty into it.  My high school didn’t have much in the way of computers so I got a little behind there and by college, I was way behind.  Grad school forced me to become really computer literate really fast. And before long I was way past needing to know things a power user could handle – I had to start writing code. At the time it was largely Lotus 1-2-3 Macros (which believe it or not was a pretty sought after skill once upon a time).  I had decided to take a few programming courses at the undergrad level during my last two quarters in grad school and they had really turned me off.  It was 1996 and Windows was well established as the norm. Writing green screen programs with a really lame C, C++ compiler with an even lamer debugger was not great marketing as far as that goes.  Seeing a butterfly fly across the screen launched from a button on the other hand, was awesome.

The computer science guys really looked down on VB back then (I guess that’s never changed) and I couldn’t understand why at the time.  They were writing basic programs to balance a checking book – taking 4 weeks to do it and offering really lame features and I was able to do it in a night using the Excel object library. And I could do all sorts of amazing things they couldn’t dream of. Anyway, I decided to split the difference and learn Java.  Java was/is very cool and it allowed me to land a job using Oracle as the back end and Java as the front end.  Shortly afterward I got to write my first program for a mobile device using Java.  And the rest is history. 

This leads to my inevitable lecture on “Should I get a MBA”?

This matters b/c even back in the early 90s, the market was saturated with MBAs. While most of my class mates were cool, I definitely picked up a vibe of “young punk” from a lot of folks.  I was the youngest person in the program until close to the end when there was one younger person than me.  So the MBA started getting a connotation as being a degree for one of 3 types of people:

• Engineers, Accountants, or similar professionals who were about to move into management
• College kids who majored in subjects with little market value, who couldn’t find a job and weren’t sure what they ultimately wanted to be when they grew up (sound familiar?)
• Disgruntled losers who didn’t play well with others.  Typically very dysfunctional people who couldn’t get coworkers to follow them or listen to their ideas.  So they decided "I’ll get a MBA and then I’ll beat people over the head with my credentials when they don’t take me seriously”

This wasn’t my assessment btw. This is what I heard from several head hunters who I had talked to.  They went so far as to say that a MBA without any work experience was actually a minus. They said the perception was that young MBAs were typically people who wanted to go straight to the top without paying their dues and asked for too much money.

Nepotism got me my first real job and while I’m eternally grateful for it, I knew I was only hired b/c of my mother’s friendships.  Being deeply in debt though and not having many career options was depressing and didn’t do much for one’s self-esteem.  Landing my first programming gig was like dying and going to heaven. Even though I was the only one on the team without a Ph.D or M.S. in computer science, I was still happy. And I hit it off with my team mates that I was treated as a kindred spirit. All of this thanks to Dr. Schultz.

Anyway, I write this b/c so many people ask me about getting a MBA that I’ll have something in writing I can point to. They ask and are always surprised by my answer.  In general, my answer is NO. 

Everyone loves saying how it’s not money or power behind them wanting a MBA but in most cases, when you cut through the BS, it is. Sure, you’ll hear “I just always wanted a Master’s degree” or “I just want to learn more” and sometimes you’ll find it to be true, but very very rarely.  For the record, there’s nothing wrong, IMHO with wanting more money or power and getting more education to get there. I think it’s noble actually so am shocked by people’s seeming embarrassment over it. 

But my main reason for recommending against it is this. Most people think Master’s == More money or Promotion.  It doesn’t in most cases.  Mine hasn’t earned me a single penny, nor has it gotten me hired or promoted.  I’ve heard the counter argument about going to a top tier school for your MBA and well, it’s hard to argue with it to some extent. On the other hand, a top tier school is probably going to run you close to 100k to get your MBA (going up every year) and that’s not including time and opportunity costs.  I’ve met so many people seriously disappointed after getting their MBA b/c they really thought things were going to instantly change – and nothing did change. Or they got a meager raise. Most people got a congratulatory email from the boss – and taken out to lunch. Many have told me though that it backfired. The Boss without a MBA took it as a threat and coworkers viewed it as them trying to cut in line .

On the one hand, my education was priceless to me. It was a lot of work but not having a business undegrad degree but me at a big disadvantage in the marketplace.  I could actually read the Wall Street Journal and understand it. I truly understood why the Fed mattered and what the Fed did.  I now realized that the demonization of Speculators was very pernicious. I understood why Japanese cars were notably better than US cars (although there’s really no such things as a car made in the US and US Made cars have gotten very close to their Japanese counterparts).I can’t even really measure the impact b/c so much of my thinking changed. I mean, it was in 1995 that I started making a point of trying to read each book on the  Business Book Best Sellers (the Top 20).

Reading every single book that makes the top 20 (whichever index you want to use) is hard b/c some books are longer than others by a long shot, so I’ll have them all read and then a few new ones come in and I get behind. I’ve gotten way behind several times but never less than 10.  Over a career of book reading – that’s a lot of Books. The Kindle has really been a huge help in that regard and I’m going to get a Nook as soon as it finally comes out.  The Cuckooette has been wanting a Kindle for a while now and she’ll probably be getting one  as long as she keeps practicing her Cello for at least an hour a night (hint hint hint dear – I really want to buy you one – so make it easy for me!). 

Anyway, on the whole it was something I’m very glad I did and for me, it was something I needed to do. On the other hand, I don’t know if I’d do it again if I was 22 yrs old now.  The main thing though is that I wouldn’t under any circumstances take out student loans to pay for it. And as programs get more accommodating they also get more expensive.  Heck, when I went to University of Miami working on my 2nd Master’s, it was 36k a year for graduate studies.  That’s peanuts compared to what a lot of programs cost and well, I loved University of Miami too – but the ROI on the 100k I spent while I was there wasn’t value added.  Therein is a hint for people seeking an answer to this question.  Assuming the salaries you hear of are 100% legit (they aren’t – many of the people in the population they use already had high paying jobs before getting their MBA – they inflate the salary ranges dramatically), remember that it’s all or nothing. What I mean is – if you stop for ANY REASON and don’t complete the program, you don’t get the degree. You don’t get partial credit for showing your work – so you can end up taking out a lot of money in loans and not having a job to pay them  back.   You don’t want to ever be in this situation – just ask Dave Ramsey!

Without getting into the gory details, the Bot that shall not be named, and all others have been temporarily deactivated. I do apologize for the inconvenience but I kind of have to – have to in the Tony Soprano sense of the phrase   I’m confident however that I’ll have this resolved and will be able to have all the bots up and running within the next month.

• If you have any code updates or contributions, Source Control is still active. I’ve turned off all the statistics so when you go there, you won’t see stats about your contributions for now (I do have them internally and will be glad to give them to you if you desire).
• I can’t accept new contributors until I turn things back on.  Yep, it sucks but my hands are tied.  I wish I was one of those kids with a “Life is going to be fair” guarantee when they were born, but I didn’t get one.  If someone drops out though, I’ll be glad to stick you in their slot if you’re interested.  I’ll do this on a straight first come first serve basis just to be fair/safe/ yada yada
• In the interim, I’ll use the downtime to get some important things accomplished. The small stuff includes the Exchange server and porting the databases to Sql Server 2008.  But I’ll have the new Speech Server up and running to. That means when you come back, you’ll be able to send calls to the Bot that shall not be named, you’ll be able to receive calls and SMS messages from the Bot that shall not be named, you’ll be able to send/receive emails with the Bot that shall not be named, and much more.  I’m even going to get an “As Seen As TV” graphic for the project just b/c that’s how I roll
• Please don’t post any snarky questions or god help me, snarky comments about this on this blog.  You can send them to me privately or post them in the Forum over at CodePlex – make sure you only post in the private forums for now.
• Please feel free to contact Kim and tell her that as wonderful as she is, she’s being cruel.  Keeping a Cuckoo from a fast car is just plain mean. And the Big Cuckoo and Little Cuckooette both want to the 370z!

I got the bad news on Friday, but my beloved RX-8, aka the Cuckoo1 is a goner.  My insurance agent called me and said that there was some serious damage done to the suspension of the vehicle.  While everything looked cosmetic, he said the suspension was a big deal and would pretty much ensure that the car was never ‘back to original form’.  He said this would greatly affect resale value but more importantly, it would be unsafe (b/c amazingly enough, he said that cars of this sort tend to be driven really fast.  Go figure     ):

Here, you can see the little guy with a dinged front fender.  Behind me, you can see the F250 (driven by a completely innocent victim in all of this) pinning in the Pontiac Solstice. Amazingly, no one was hurt, and there were no air bags deployed.

As you know, my mother and wife hated the Cuckoo1 ever since they realized how easy it was to do130 mph or to break 100mph down I-85,  ,I got him.  Well, even though this was not related to my driving or any failure of the car, I can’t get another one.  I guess technically I ‘could’, but not without really angering my beloved wife and wonderful mother.  So far, I’ve resorted to every form of bribery and coercion I know but there’s no bending. My mom insists that Kim “sign off” on whatever the new car is.  And Kim has ruled out all 2 seated vehicles.

The short list of replacements were:

• Another RX-8
• A used Lotus Elise or Exige
• A Used Porsche Cayman
• A 350/370z

At first Kim was lukewarm but open to the Lotus or Porsches.  We got so far as the Porsche Dealership and kicking it in the Caymans.  But the lack of a back seat was a deal breaker, especially since we just adopted another daughter (that makes one two legged daughter, 2  4 legged daughters and 1 four legged son).  Kim’s stated objection is that a 2 seat car is what adolescent or unmarried males drive, ones without families.  I have a family and am married, hence it’s not an appropriate choice for me.  I countered simply that we have a wonderful family vehicle.  But her real reason is that each of the 2 seat cars is fast, and corner well, and stop quickly (which by male logic means “safer” right?  And what family guy wouldn’t want a safe car).

The daughter is infinitely cooler more reasonable on this issue. She has approved each of the above vehicles and has been a loyal ally in the “Convince Mom and Grandma Carole” effort. (As such, a direct Quid Pro Quo was put in place with me directly handling communication with Santa to make sure such generosity is properly awarded).  Testimony to how cool mature, level headed and reasonable she is, she told her mother that I deserved a Ferrari or a Lamborghini – at a minimum a Maserati. Sadly, even if her mother capitulated on the 2 seat aversion, financing would be a bit of an issue with the latter 3 vehicles, but at least it shows a really great outlook on the issue.

Kim is very keen on a few SUV’s.  She had a Mountaineer (which was without a doubt one of the ugliest and most unpleasant to drive vehicles ever created) which she hated and for years, that kept her anti-SUV.  But with the dogs and daughter heading into teen years (a daughter who has a whole bunch of friends), Kim things a SUV is our best bet. We’ve agreed on a narrowed down list of:

• Toyota FJ Cruiser
• Land Rover

We all went shopping yesterday and everyone really liked the FJ. The upside of it is that it’s cheap enough that I can really trick it out (tricking it out meaning, onboard computers (a tablet and a laptop), hot spot, wireless broadband and some advanced AV Stuff).  I’m thinking of going the Hoss Route, although I’m nowhere near as smart or talented as old Hoss (I mean, the only thing cooler than a guy with an .ashx homepage is a guy with a completely tricked out computer system in his Expedition).

Tonight we’re going shopping again.  Kim said she’s probably green light an Infiniti G35/37 is they had a rear seat (and they sort of do).  Another Jaguar XJ is a possibility too and she said she’d at least entertain a test drive in a Corvette (which is going to be me and the Young Cuckooette speeding safely driving around without wife b/c there’s no back seat. From there, the plan is to have Young Cuckooette convey to Wife what a safe and ‘family friendly’ vehicle the Corvette is.  If that works, then it’s only a quick step to having Wife convince mom and viola’!

I need to make up my mind quickly so I should know something by Thursday at the latest.

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For anyone that’s been married a long time, I need some advice.  I know that if I come home in a 370z I’m going to pay for it (and I don’t mean sending money to the bank).  That was my initial plan – you know, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission or however that goes.  I have a wonderful wife who’s nothing short of an angel and I don’t want to take advantage of her benevolence.  I mean, even if she got mad at me, it’d last a whopping hour or two. But that’s why I won’t do it.  So how do I pull off the 370?  The Young Cuckooette is 10000% on board –she loved the look of the car, and she thinks it’d be cool getting dropped off in it. Her mom’s car is nice but kids aren’t impressed with sedans no matter how nice they may be.  They are impressed with Big and/or Fast.  She loved getting dropped off in the RX-8 and the 370 scores even higher in the looks cool category. Democratically then, 2 out of 3 should be enough to push through the vote.  Rumor has it that the dogs are all voting with Kim, so that changes the calculus to 4 against , 2 for.  But I should be able to bribe them with some bones and a steak if necessary. Besides, I was the primary advocate in getting both of the two female 4 legged kids – so they should remember that

Stay tuned, same CuckooTime, Same CuckooChannel – and if me and the pri

ncess can pull it off, we’ll see a picture of me and her tooling around in the 370 before long.