19 more days of school!
...or 4 more class sessions and 2 finals depending on how you see it, I prefer the latter to the former.

So what's left?
- A presentation in Finance about the Adidas acquisition of Reebok (in Keynote of course)
- A final paper for Knowledge Management (regarding the Newton community -- need to finish it up, 1/4 done!)
- A final exam for my Finance Class

Then a small break for one week, and then I start again - way! (sarcasm)

Well... I think that I have explained this many many many times in face-to-face situations, but I feel the need to educate all of you, online, on the correct use of the word MAC (and for that case Mac).

I keep reading things like:
"Go down to the MAC lab"
"Use a MAC, they are better"
"I use a MAC at home"
"MACs suck"

Now - english 101 for you:
MAC does not equal Mac (i.e. Macintosh computer, made by Apple)
MAC is all in capitals because it is an acronym!

MAC means Media Access Control when you are refering to computer hardware (see here)

quetion: So when is it appropriate to type "MAC" and mean "Apple Macintosh"?
answer: When all of your sentence is all in capital letters of course!
example: "I LOVE MY MAC!"
Incorrect: "our MACs run MACOS 9"


So please, please stop sounding like a dumb ass!


-- this has been a public service announcement

OK, this is probably one of my biggest pet peves.
I don't know why this bothers me this much, but it does!

So here it goes:
The standard for database languages is SQL. A lot of people that I talk to pronounce it SeeQuel.
No! No! No!
It is pronounced Ess Queue El (and it is official!).
SQL = Structured Query Language.
SQL comes from SEQUEL (structured english query language), a predecessor to SQL.
SEQUEL is indeed pronouned SeeQuel (as in a sequel to a series) but SQL is pronounced Ess Queue El.

Now, seequel did not become ess queue el until 1987. So, if you are a database professional and you are in your late 40s or 50s, then OK - I will cut you some slack, BUT if you are younger, if you started your database carreer after 1987 - please call it Ess Queue El, otherwise you sound like a dumbass.

Check out the wiki

Aaarghhhh! Need to RTFM

I had my 3rd (ever) Keynote presentation last night for my Knowledge Management class.
Most of my other team mates either don't care what presentation package I use (so long as things get done), or get really uncomfortable because I am not using powerpoint. (sidenote: all throughout my undergrad carreer and my grad carreer I used PPT).
Not last night though...my team mate actually liked Keynote. The presentation mode really hit a high note. Unfortunatelly it is only available for Mac and windows users cannot take advantage of this awesome app.

Who knows, apple switching to Intel, Windows booting on a Mac, Linux booting on a Mac, Virtualization....maybe Apple will make Keynote for Windows some day

A while ago I discovered that I can get Free DVDs from my school (and public) libraries.
I wanted to see Season 8 of Starget SG1, but since I do not have extended cable, and I am a poor college student...well... I could not afford to buy the DVD set. So I did the next best thing - see if the library has it! My library did not, but partner libraries did!
With great degree of happyness I order it!
wait...wait...wait....5 days later - request unfilled (aka rejected)
So I wait a week and re-order
wait...wait...wait....5 days later - request unfilled (aka rejected)
WTF?!?!?!
So I wait one more week, re-order
wait...wait...wait....5 days later - SHIPPED! YAY!

I got the notice today that the DVD is ready for pickup.
I go and there is only ONE disc! maybe there are more....nope

I wonder what happened! I hope they dont ask me for more than they gave me because I will be very confused...

For the last few months I have been attending various Symposia that the Department of Computer Science has provided for a long time.
I largely avoided those when I was an undergrad because I could not handle the overload of computer science information that was thrown my way because of the courses that I was taking.

Now that I am in management, and I need a break from management, I got and attend CS lectures.
Today's was interesting - it was about P2P networks

Have a look at the abstract

I have always wanted a happy medium between management and hard core computer science theory.
IT might be the answer...

This is a public service announcement for all students, young and old -
Please learn to present! No more bowing down and preaching to the powerpoint.
LOOK at your audience!
Don't overload your powerpoint with text
Don't kill me with bullet(points)

One of the many resources online: presentation zen

Please check it out!

34 more days to go until the end of the semester!
(and then another one starts...can't wait to be done)

Starting my final paper this Thursday and finishing a rough draft by this weekend.
Then I am finishing tworough drafts of presentations for two separate classes by this weekend as well.

Must...find...time...to....have a life!

TurboTax was easy - taxes are done - waiting for my refund.
Better to have Uncle Sam owe you, than you owing Uncle Sam
Doing taxes on my own was less daunting than I thought

It's time to do my taxes...
Like a typical procrastinator, I got the software (TurboTax) - installed it and waited.
Then I tried to do my taxes, filled out my general information....got to the W2s...and I freaked - for no reason - just got intimidated.
So tomorrow is the rematch! Taxes - I'm coming after you...with revenge!

Being in Management School (doing my MBA now) is quite different than being in a school of Math and Science (got my BA in computer science).
In Business school you read "cases" - sort of like Aesop's tales, but for business students and no fuzzy, furry animals. Well... I have decided to roll my own!
I have never written one before, but I am going to solicit help from the wonderful faculty that teach in my college.

As mentioned before, I am thinking of doing a case study regarding communities of practice with a focus on the Apple Newton community.
The Amiga community was also an interesting tangent, but I do not know much about them since I never really owned an Amiga - just the emulator

Working on several things these days.
1. Presentation on the "Knowledge Roles and Skills" aspect of Knowledge Management - Info Systems related
2. A paper describing the success of KM in the Apple Newton community - Info Systems related
3. A presentation on the Adidas/Reebok merger (must beat Nike!) - Financial Management related
4. Still following along (from a distance) with Classical Greek 102 (rough grammar outline is done, gathering more materials, already spoke to professor about next semester )


Still trying to create that Russian Grammar reference that I started two years ago (Боже мой!)

I just noticed that "House of the Dead II" came out to DVD.
WTF?! House of the Dead was such and awful movie! Why would anyone pay to produce another one