At The Mercy Of Cloud Storage

I'm a big cloud services user. I have cloud storage accounts with a net of nearly 100GB of free space. I use a lot of the space for archives, but lately I've been using Google Drive to keep my school documents available no matter I am. And today that system failed.

Early this morning, apparently before a major Google services outage, I had saved a document I needed to print for a class later in the evening. When I got the school, and opened up my browser with the intention of printing the document, I discovered I couldn't get to Google Drive. So no homework. It was frustrating. Class started in a few minutes and I would have to turn in a late assignment because of this failure, and the failure wasn't all Google.

Luckily I had the original still in a Word document, and I was able to print it out and failure averted. But what if I didn't have a second copy? So now, I need to back up my cloud storage in multiple places in case one is off line. That seems redundant and painful.

It's also a lesson in why local applications can be important. About a month ago I removed all the cloud storage apps I had on my main machine. Dropbox, Box, SkyDrive, Google Drive, and a few more. Each of these has a cached version of my file on the local hard drive. But my thought was why do I need a local copy. The whole reason for cloud storage is so I can get it off my local storage and free up space for things, like movies.

The dilemma then is are you willing to keep cached versions of files on your local system or totally trust that the files will be available 24-7.

You could write a recipe on If This Then That (IFTTT) that copies from one service to another. But that seems so backwards and broken.

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You Can Blame Or Act On Education Failure

Look at how many kids are forced into remedial courses at the college level. Our current #Education models are failing.

— Laura(@GOPrincess) September 11, 2012

I'm in no way criticizing Laura for her statement. But it got me thinking about what the statement really means. I hope to start writing more on Educational issues, and especially education and technology. But let's start here.

Earlier, Laura says that when she was in school she excelled, and felt frustrated that she had to listen to teachers dumb down the class. I can see that happening, I saw it happen. But wouldn't a better solution be to get rid of "grade levels" and start an education system based on ability, not disability.

There will be many who claim that system won't work. I ask if you have tried it? Why wouldn't it work? If I'm an exceptional student I should be able to move at my pace and not be held back because of the "group". Or, if I'm a student who needs extra help, I should be in a class setting that gives me more attention.

Imagine a school, or schools, where one teacher could handle 20-30 kids all at the same level, and 2-3 teachers helping those who need more attention. Imagine the level of education our children would graduate with.

Grade levels, no student left behind, remediation; these are all things from an archaic education system that is dysfunctional and not producing results. It's not good enough anymore to graduate everyone for the sake of psychology.

The question is why haven't we done this? What is holding us back? Where are the road blocks? I can't be the only one who has thought of this. And if it's being done, it's not visible enough.

 

Photo by Serge Melki

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Why Don't We Use Career Managers?

Just throwing this out there for discussion

Generally a professional sports athlete hires a manager to negotiate contracts and details with teams the athlete plays for. Why? I know not all athletes do this, but why do the majority of professional athletes hire managers?

Why don't people with specialized talents hire managers to negotiate their employment contracts? Let a manager find new and improved career opportunities. Let a manager help you become the best you can be in your career, your skills, and your salary/benefits.

Is the role of an employment agency similar? My experience has been agencies aren't interested in you beyond the current placement need.

Would a career manager get in the way? Could they help you? In your career, would an advisor, coach, manager, have helped get you a better position?

There is some great discussion on this topic happening on Google+ (http://thom.ws/OBLbN9). Check it out, or start your own discussion below.

 

Photo by lrargerich

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LogMeIn For iPad Has Nasty Security Flaw

I've been a LogMeIn user since the Hamachi days. Several months ago I installed the iPad version of LogMeIn. I was really excited, and have used the application numerous times with success. I remotely connect to an iMac which is my main computer.

A few weeks ago I was poking around the settings and noticed the blank screen mode was set, but the computer I was logged into was till wide open. I'm sitting in front of the host PC, logged in through the iPad version of LogMeIn. I turn the feature on and off, and also turn the remote keyboard off too. I see a message that says it's disabled, but guess what, it's not!

This whole time I'm thinking the screen was blanking every time I connected to my remote computer the screen remains fully open for any one to see what I'm doing. I know, I should have taken the time check and make sure the screen really went blank. Surprise, it doesn't.

This is a serious security hole if you ask me. If I am trying to connect to an office computer, or a personal computer, I would expect the host (remote) computer to blank the screen during my session, if the setting is turned on.

There are many complaints on LogMeIn forums and disgruntled blog posts, none of which have a solution. I see many cases where LogMeIn says they will fix this problem that has persisted for what looks like years. There also appears to be a problem with people getting their money back when they discover this problem. Purchased through iTunes, of course it now becomes Apple's problem. LogMeIn feels their owe you nothing.

My Windows friends apparently don't have this problem. I'm so glad they are getting what they paid for.

LogMeIn for crying out loud, please fix your broken software. We paid you for it, and it's an advertised feature. 3, 4, 5 years is long enough to come up with a solution.

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Review: ParkerPlanner For iPhone

Review of the iPhone app ParkerPlanner, http://parkerplanners.com. The review is in the video.

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