Category: Uncategorized

Social Networking via LinkedIn

I’ve been sending out a few invitations via the social networking site LinkedIn lately. This is a web site that’s dedicated to business networking, so it has a job search feature and features that allow you to post your résumé and personal information for other users of the LinkedIn network to see. It’s a terrific opportunity to explore your personal connections and the connections that other people can, in turn, bring you.

Allow me to step back for a moment. What’s the point of such a site? Why bother to formalize your connections at all when it doesn’t bring immediate benefit? It’s not a safeguard at all – to me, it’s a way of articulating connectivity. It’s not about the number of links you have, necessarily — though the higher number of links within your business network, the more likely you are to be able to utilize the system for what it was intended for — but instead, it’s about allowing others to see the opportunities that they can take advantage of.

I have been putting some gentle pressure on friends of mine who are already on LinkedIn for exactly this reason – trying to see and take advantage of the opportunities they can give me. This isn’t at all self-centered, since, through my network, they can take advantage of the opportunities I can give them, whether that’s referrals for services or simply an opportunity to expand the number of people they know.

So, to those of you who have gotten an invite or are already connected to me, consider this a chance to see the kinds of people I know, have talked to, or have worked with. Some of them are truly interesting, astounding individuals.

A Ridiculous Amount of Safety

The New York Times talks today about investment going into New Orleans to protect it from future Category Five hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina has certainly made a few records and turned several million heads; it is the rallying cry for the rebuilding of one of this nation’s most culturally diverse and festive cities. There are competing interests here, but none stands to waste taxpayer money as much as protecting New Orleans from Category Five hurricanes.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale defines a Category Five hurricane as follows:

Winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr). Storm surge generally greater than 18 ft above normal. Complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings. Some complete building failures with small utility buildings blown over or away. All shrubs, trees, and signs blown down. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Severe and extensive window and door damage. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Major damage to lower floors of all structures located less than 15 ft above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5-10 miles (8-16 km) of the shoreline may be required.

— The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
Accessed November 28, 2005

Now, The New York Times reports that citizens of New Orleans are insisting upon a newer, better protection system that will ensure that the city remains intact:

Most Category 5 proposals for New Orleans include devices to close seaward passageways like the Rigolets and gates at the mouths of today’s drainage and navigation canals. Jurjen Battjes, a professor of civil engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and an expert on levee systems, said that approach had worked well in his country. “You don’t want to let your enemy invade deeply into your territory,” Professor Battjes said. “Close your fence at the outside.”

Current levees can be made higher and stronger, and any new system might also include internal levees that would prevent a breach in one spot from swamping large stretches of the city, said Thomas F. Wolff, an associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University. Levees, Professor Wolff said, are known as “series systems,” which he compared to “Christmas tree lights from the 1950’s – when one goes out, they all go out.”

“For Category 5 Safety, Levees Are Piece of a $32 Billion Pie”
Accessed November 28, 2005

We cannot protect against an undefined threat. Much the same knee-jerk reaction was made after September 11th: products to protect against terrorism and an ongoing drive to secure the country against terrorist threats costs taxpayers untold amounts of money that would be far better invested in, say, paying down the national debt.

New Orleans cannot protect against something that is, by definition, destructive. Certainly, the amount of destruction can be minimized, but with global warming a fast-approaching issue, there is no way of knowing when, where, or how badly the next Category Five hurricane will hit. New Orleans is better off investing in sustainable building practices and a sound evacuation plan for situations where major disasters threaten the city. The same can be said for industrialized nations across the globe. Rather than waste taxpayer money working on a flood protection system that won’t work when it’s absolutely critical, restore what’s there and use the money to redefine what New Orleans means in the eyes of the American public.

High Gas Prices Revisited

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks having high gas prices is good. Reiss makes a good addition to my argument (“Slipping Backwards (and not in a good way)”, October 23, 2005) – he agrees that high gas prices promote innovation:

For years, the [oil] industry’s long-term benchmark was $20 a barrel in today’s dollars; to get a green light, new investments needed to be profitable at that level. Now the industry is counting on prices to settle near $30. Some aggressive CEOs believe they’ll stay as high as $40.

The changing outlook opens horizons – for conventional drilling, sure, but also for alternatives. Some new technologies merely produce more crude. But others tap energy supplies that have nothing to do with black pools under the Middle East.

Here’s hoping we tap sustainable fuels this time, rather than finite resources that we can’t restore without millions of years of effort.

Slipping Backwards (and not in a good way)

I am an outspoken proponent of high gas prices. So, therefore, when NWCN tells me that gas prices are coming back down, I get frustrated.

Why am I against low gas prices? A few reasons, though don’t expect these to be well-explained:

  • Gas fails to reflect “true cost”. “True cost” is my name for what is usually coined “social cost“, or the actual, social consequences of the manufacture and sale of a particular commodity. A good example from the Wikipedia article linked to above:

    Negative externalities (external costs) lead to an over-production of those goods that have a high social cost. For example, the logging of trees for timber may result in society losing a recreation area, shade, beauty, and air quality, but this loss is usually not quantified and included in the price of the timber that is made from the trees. As a result, individual entities in the marketplace have no incentive to factor in these externalities. More of this activity is performed than would be if its cost had a true accounting.

    The same can be said for the production of petroleum; we don’t consider the loss of precious natural resources or the pollution cost in refinement (not to mention social consequences that stem from refinement, the economic costs required to transport petroleum, etc.). If these were accounted for, the cost of gasoline would be much higher.

  • Low gas prices promote fuel-inefficent vehicles. Keeping gas prices low offer no disincentive for the purchase of sport utility vehicles or other cars with very low MPG ratings (sports or “exotic” cars in particular); certainly, while those who can afford an SUV can likely afford higher gas prices, keeping those prices low isn’t likely to make people think about the amount of money they waste on gas instead of taking a number of measures to lower fuel cost.
  • Low gas prices only prolong our dependence on oil. Now, I’m not one of those “we must abolish oil usage yesterday” freaks, though I do believe that we have to conserve our natural resources as best as possible for future generations. The development of alternative energy, whether that be biodiesel, electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, or fuel cell vehicles, is a worthwhile exercise in preserving our children’s future. It doesn’t matter where the solution comes from; fuel/electric hybrids are a great first step for transportation, but they are not the end-all of energy problems. They are also only one of many possible solutions.
  • As long as the “panic mentality” of high gas prices is maintained, no progress in bettering the world can be made. The issue of high gas prices affects far more than cars. It also has direct impact on the overall costs of running businesses, the ability of groups to cope with emergencies, and, rather indirectly, the development of community. That last point is a rather interesting one — so long as we can travel far on low gas prices, we aren’t as likely to pursue options that develop community: carpooling, living closer to an urban center, reducing the amount of distance between us and our everyday destinations (work, the grocery store, the bakery, the mall).

I admit, I drive a hybrid; I do this because of some of the reasons above, but also because I like to keep my costs low (and driving a hybrid car does, in fact, help me do this). I hope I will continue to drive hybrids as my primary vehicle for as long as I can drive.

Graduate School Updates

I thought I’d post an update to my musings on the future done last month. I’m scheduled to visit Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) on November 5th to take a look around. My running questions list for these guys so far is as follows:

  1. What is sustainable business?
  2. What sort of impact do you envision BGI graduates having upon the practices of a non-sustainable business?
  3. Upon graduation, what jobs do BGI graduates usually take?
  4. Does BGI routinely create MBA students that are as well or better prepared than MBA students from other schools?
  5. How well does BGI prepare students to challenge the perceptions of business leaders and innovators?

I have basically ruled out Teach for America as an option for future work. I realized that, while I wholeheartedly support the social vision and ideology that Teach for America represents, that I have heard a lot of stories about Teach for America students who are not well supported or prepared for their work. I applaud their efforts, but such a program doesn’t fit who I am.

I am, at some point this fall, going to attend an information session for Evergreen’s Masters in Teaching program. I haven’t figured out exactly when yet — it depends upon my ability to fit it into my work and class schedule.

Class Progress and Musings

The last two couple of weeks in Student Originated Software have consisted of a lot of stress where it didn’t belong. I think part of this is because I’m still very overwhelmed from summer, but another part of it has to do with my own level of personal engagement with the material, which, at least for some portions of the class, is nonexistent.

I’m basically feeling like I’m getting nothing out of specific parts of the program other than a lot of frustration. I’m just plain not interested in the programming component, which is what I’ve realized over the last couple weeks, but the object oriented analysis and design, seminar, and project stuff is interesting. I’m actually in the middle of trying to chase down the possibility of submitting a software development project on behalf of the Writing Center, which I could get really excited about.

I think I could very well be a very engaged member of SOS, but I’m also feeling like there’s way too much on my plate academically — I’m only enrolled for 16 credits, and I’m not happy with my own engagement and interest in the program which is being clouded severely.

It’s a great program, but I need a little less academia in my life right now in order to pull this quarter off. I haven’t even started to consider whether I’m remaining for the entire year or not. This is dependent upon whether programming continues to be a central part of the credit allocation or whether it becomes an integral part of the projects. I think I’d do a lot better at the programming side of the program if it were self-driven.

Fixing X Windows after Upgrade to FC4

Thanks to this post, I’ve managed to fix a rather severe display problem under Fedora Core 4 by downgrading X Windows to the version included with FC itself. The steps:


rpm -qa | grep xorg > download.txt
pull the correct file names off the FC4 CDs with the lower versions, then:
rpm -Uvh *.rpm --oldpackage

Fairly straightforward – the hardest part was finding the proper files, which actually consisted of just going through all four CDs and doing cp ∗xorg∗ /root/fix, then running the above RPM upgrade command from that directory after weeding out the RPM files not listed in download.txt.

Warning: There Are Still Stupid People In The World

Whatever you do when you drive, don’t do this:

The Seattle Times reports that a woman test driving a car drove it into a pool in an apartment complex this morning:

Witnesses said the woman had arrived to look at a red Buick Riviera that was being sold. With the woman behind the wheel, the car careened westbound out of the parking lot, went through two chain-link fences and down a slight embankment before it came to rest in the condo swimming pool, they said.

NWCN elaborates a bit:

The woman, who has an instruction permit, started the car and somehow mistook the gas pedal for the brake, police said. The car jumped a parking stall curb and bolted out of the parking lot, driving over a telephone utility box and glancing off a tree before crashing through a chain link fence and diving into the pool.

Sigh.

Can’t Sleep: Musings on The Future

Lying in bed and not being able to sleep, I found myself quite preoccupied with the future and what was in store for me over the next couple years. I decided to organize my thoughts somewhat.

I organize this by academic year because I know that I intend to continue in academic life for a few more years after my graduation from Evergreen.

Short Term: 2005-2006
I am currently working on a dual BS/BA at Evergreen in Computer Science and Writing, respectively. If I decide to chicken out on the Computer Science curriculum after Fall quarter, I have one program I really want to take — A Novel Idea, which is a full-immersion novel writing class that would finally give me no excuse but to work on the novel that I’ve been kicking around for so long. Of course, if I drop out of the Computer Science curriculum, that’ll lock out some of my future choices, which will make everything else significantly easier in terms of academic planning.

I also need to sign up to take the GRE and the GMAT, though I also need to do some assessment testing to see what path makes the most sense. Doing both the GRE and GMAT will leave my options open down the road so that I have those scores when I choose to go to graduate school.

I’m glad that’s a when, not an if. At least that part is settled.

There are other short-term choices I need to think about, such as applying for the Assistant to the Director position in the Writing Center come Spring Quarter (which I will definitely be doing).

Two Years Out: 2006-2007
If I’m not in the Assistant to the Director position, then this will be an interesting transition period where I will likely find another job while I plan my next step into graduate school or other work.

Three Years Out: 2007-2008
At this point, there are several options which all seem to me quite interesting, but I’m not sure how many are practical. I know I need to be doing one of them to be happy with the way my life is going by this point.

  • Graduate School: Business
    This one is really appealing to me because I have always been interested in business and the way businesses operate. I’ve taken a number of business programs at Evergreen which I enjoyed, which really makes this appealing. I also have a huge interest in sustainability, so the ability to combine sustainability and business (via an MBA through Bainbridge Graduate Institute) would be great. I’m not sure how this would fit into my life versus a normal MBA with no sustainability focus, however.
  • Graduate School: Creative Writing/Writing
    Writing has always been and continues to be a part of my life. My job at Evergreen’s Writing Center has been the best job I’ve ever had, hands down, and being immersed in that culture has allowed me to perceive writing from many different lenses. I can see myself still being a very active part of writing culture as a novelist or short story writer. I would also not be adverse to returning to the world of writing centers through a role as a director or educator.
  • Graduate School: Teaching
    For some people, this one makes no sense given what they know about me. However, I’m interested in how education can mold and influence future generations and how they interact with the planet and society. Changing the minds of children for positive means can change the future for the better. I believe in effecting change however possible; this is also why a sustainable MBA focus would be good for me, since that, in and of itself, is changing the way businesses think about the world.
  • Graduate School: Computer Science/Computer-related field
    Of everything so far, this one, right now, feels very unlikely. However, I keep in mind that my foray back into computer science next quarter is intended to allow me to determine once and for all whether computer science (or computer-related disciplines) is something I wish to pursue as a long-term commitment. There are no concretes about this yet at all. I put it here because it may still be a viable option.
  • Teach for America
    Of everything so far, this one is the one that feels like the biggest leap. I’ve always been interested in Teach for America and its philosophy of extending education into places that need quality teachers, but I’ve never really considered whether this is something I would fit into. It’s something that has crossed my mind numerous times and that would be very enriching for me if I chose to do it, but it would also delay my graduate school plans (which would still be in place after my two year commitment to the program, more than likely).

This may shift depending on whether I rule out Teach for America as an option I want to pursue.