My Media Center Solution...finally.

I know I'm going nuts with the blogging today, but it has been a long time since I put pen to paper so to speak and so a lot of things have happened or have been mulling around in my head for the past little while. Things have been very busy so I just didn't have the desire or the energy to blog about anything.

One of the things that I finally managed to accomplish was the wiring of my house with about 500ft of cable so that my office could have more connections and each of my TV's would have a couple of data connections behind it. I've been procrastinating over this for about four years now, in between trying to figure out the best approach for a media center solution. There are so many way to provide a media center solution, but when you start wanting PVR for live TV as well as the ability to distribute this amongst multiple TV's in the home, you choices narrow down quite quickly. The other limiting factor that many solutions present are the video formats they support. After humming and harring I ended up on the Windows media center and Xbox Media Center extended solution. It is certainly costly between getting a copy of Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, a Tuner Card and a couple of Xbox's, but it definitely works, albeit with a few quirks that I find a little bothersome.

The biggest stumbling block has been trying to figure out why some TV channels aren't de-interlacing properly during the encoding process. I called Hauppauge about my HVR2250 tuner card, and they pointed me to MS's DECCHECK as a way to change to a new codec; the one that comes with PowerDVD for example. The app allowed me to change it, however, that hasn't really seemed to work. Supposedly VMCD is one that is designed for Vista, so I'll have to try that instead when I get a spare moment.

Another bone of contention I have with Windows Media Center is the interface. They've made the classic mistake of compromising usability in preference for a prettier interface. There is no easier way to select a choice from a group than in lists that can be grouped in different ways. The crucial error they made was in limiting the view to just a thumbnails view. Not only does it require resources to view the small pictures, but it adds absolutely no functionality, slows down the listing process and takes away from the productivity. Why is there no option to view it as a simple list? I'm sure there is a plugin I can find that will do the trick. Which of course is one of the bonuses of this product. There is a large number of plugins for the software. Strike that last statement, I just had a student say that you can change the listing view. I honestly haven't had the time to play too much with it, so I'll have to investigate.

The wrinkle in the whole affair is that you Media Center Extenders can't play Xvid/Divx. Oh I can play it locally on the Xbox from the Media Blade, but Media Center won't transcode the Divx or Xvid to the Extender! I find this a little negligent on MS's part, but I've got to think there has been some political pressure from somewhere to have prevented that. Either that or they are planning to kill the media extender idea and focus more on making the xbox a native HTPC device. This  certainly looks plausible based on some of the peaks I've had of the new XBE coming on Nov 19th.

Special Guests

Through a personal 6 degrees of separation thing I ended up hearing about a gentleman, Kevin Ripa, who was coming into town and who had an extensive background in computer forensics. After some introductions and a few e-mails I arranged for him to come in and give a presentation to my first and second years. The presentation was extremely well received and everyone raved about just how much they learned in that brief period of time. He provided some excellent insights as to how many IT people need to get that chip off their shoulder and be honest about what they don't know, or as he put it, "You need to know what you don't know!" He said he couldn't begin to count the number of times he has had to deal with situations where the IT staff, either in their pride, ignorance or both, made his job very difficult or damn near impossible. It was a great lesson for the students. One of the interesting points I took away from the presentation was how hard drives store Adaptives about their individual pattern for reading the platters and tracks as well the negative cylinders or sectors used by the drive to store this information and information from the HD ROM. He also mentioned that the software the hard drives use varies substantially from manufacturer to manufacturer and that some of the bigger companies will have a person who specializes on data recovery for each manufacturer. Considering how often these drives change, I have a feeling this field could have a disastrous affect on one's personal quality of life!

As a result of this talk, and the fact that we discovered the new machines in the computer labs no longer have serial ports, I changed the lab from studying about serial port communication to analyzing the Master Boot Record, Boot Sector and MFT in NTFS. Although I think there are still some essential skills and transferable knowledge to be gained from playing with serial communication, I may finally have to put this technology to bed on a practical side.

Be careful what you wish for...

I'm surprised I even remember how to blog it's been so long. This term has been one of the busiest since my first year although I think I'm over the hump now that the midterms have come, gone and been marked. Fortunately I don't have too many students in my second year class and I made a small change that has eased my stress considerably. About a three weeks ago I was giving them a lecture and noticed than almost none of them were listening. When you have a small class it becomes especially apparent when a few have phased out. All my classes are contained in labs with computers, which, along with their laptops, provide a limitless opportunity for distraction. I considered going hard core, making them switch off their machines and forcing them to pay attention to what I had to say, but opted to give them what they wished for; a self directed approach to the lectures. The course is laid out such that moving it into more of a blended distance learning paradigm wouldn't be that difficult, so I thought what the heck. I gave them all the choice of my either lecturing or leaving them to do the reading, assessments and questions and coming to me when they have questions. I said I would commit to being in the classroom and online for the lecture and lab times, and available to answer any questions they might have or for doing a whiteboard session. They chose this route unanimously.

So now I don't have to actually give a traditional lecture to my second years. I'm not too sure how I feel about it all as I really only get a couple of them coming to me for questions. However I don't think that under the circumstances that is unreasonable since only half of them ever paid any attention anyway.  In the past I might have taken offense to this, but having been teaching this group for the past couple of years now, I know it is just the way they are. Nothing I do now will help them become auditory learners or increase their attention span. However this has eased my workload considerably and probably my frustration as well. It's incredibly deflating when you've spent a bunch of time preparing a lecture, demo and slides only to have half the class pay attention. To put it in perspective, some of this group aren't even able to follow along when going over the solutions to a midterm they  bombed. Nevertheless, they are all good natured and like to have fun, so I'm just here for them when they want it.

The interesting aspect to this little experiment is watching to see if they have the discipline to keep up the work without my whipping their behinds into it. I've established a fairly rigorous & structure schedule for them, so the framework is certainly there for them. I'm also looking to see how introducing this hands-off approach  will affect will affect my reviews and their ability to stay on track. Do they have the discipline to keep this up? I thought long and hard about it, but think that in the end it will probably be much easier for them since they now have the lecture time to focus on the coursework that is due. As it is I keep hearing about the ridiculous number of projects they have due in the next couple of weeks and how they are not sure if they are going to be able to do any of my coursework! What I find really sad about that statement is that my course is the one with the most relevance to their field and career.

As they say, "You can bring a horse to water........."

Cisco Cert Exams need to be revamped

After a week of reading, taking notes, lab work, I wrote the cisco academy exams and hands-on skills, followed by the CCNP ISCW cert exam. I've been doing these certifications and exams for quite a long time now and thought while sitting here at the Calgary airport I may as well jot down a few observations and thoughts I've been mulling around as a result.

I just took a look at a  mock testing exam someone sent my way from Pass4Sure. Having just written the ISCW I was able to note that almost every question on this mock test was identical to what was on the certification. I was amazed! Someone, I think from China judging by the language on parts of the screenshots, had actually screen captured all the exam questions including parts of the testlets. I went through the exam to see how their answers matched to mine, and noticed a couple of the testlets were way off, but for the most part, the answers were fairly accurate. So, what does this mean? Well for starters, it definitely lowers the credibility of the cisco exams at the CCNA & CCNP level. The CCIE still holds its value due to the lab exam, but the written only parts for the rest of the cert exams have now been relegated to nothing more than a formality.

Although the cheat exams are not a new concern, I really haven't spent a any time thinking or caring about it until recently. As an instructor at a cisco academy, I think certificates and diplomas from accredited cisco academies are now almost a must have for students without previous networking experience. I believe this provides an employer with some substantiation as to the credibility of the certification designation for a potential employee. Obviously, if you have 5+ years of experience in the networking field, that will speak for itself, but for younger up and coming network engineers, the lab work and hands-on skill testing at an academy is invaluable. I discussed this point with a colleague who mentioned that in his CCNP classes, it is often painfully obvious the difference between students that obtained their CCNA after going through an academy program and those that followed a quick and easy do-it-yourself approach. Now this by no means means that you can't do it at home if you are a motivated individual with a good study plan and access to the hardware, but at the intro level this doesn't seem to be the norm.

So, lets focus on this for a moment. Most academies that I have talked weight their hands on skills much more heavily than the chapter and final assessments that are part of the cisco academy. As instructors, we are all aware that these assessments are readily available on the Internet if you know where to search, so we have to find ways of assessing the true knowledge of our students. Hence why we turn to hands-on practical scenarios that test concepts as opposed to the silly process of memorizing the default options or menu items in the cisco graphical configuration manager.  I found the ISCW exam to be riddled with very questionable pedagogical value. If cisco do not improve this, then their certifications will, and some would argue already have, relegate their intro and intermediate certifications to a laughing stock.

Now please don't confuse what I think about the cert exam questions with the material and skills you are expected to learn and master as part of the requirement for a cert such as the CCNP/CCVP. My issue and opinion is that the cert exams do not fairly assess proficiency. I have studied much of the CCNP curriculum backwards and forwards from having to teach it, but when I come out of the cert exams I almost feel ripped off in how little opportunity I had to demonstrate my grasp of the material.

I'm sure cisco have recognized these issues and are working on solutions, but here is my 2c. DYNAMIPS!  Building on the fact that the testlets appeared to be where the Pass4Sure exam was weakest, more simulation certainly appears to be attractive. I must also confess that I enjoyed the testlets. Granted they were fairly simple for the most part, but they were the questions I felt assessed my skills more fairly. The config type questions were probably the next best, but I think simulations could achieve the same assessment objective. So why not shorten the written section to about 20 or 30 GOOD individual questions or ones based on testlets/scenarios, and then tack on a 2/3 hour practical simulation? I realize the marking now becomes an issue, but I'm sure an assessment tool, similar to an improved version of what is available in packet tracer, could be developed. I suppose some would argue that this would increase the cost, but then and again my daughter's Royal Conservatory Grade 1 Music theory exam cost about $125 and that is manually marked! However, more importantly, I believe this would dramatically improve the credibility of the cert exams. Look at the respect the CCIE still garners! Although it is partly due to the shear quantity of knowledge and understanding one has to attain, I believe the prestige still comes from the fact that you have had to demonstrate your skills in a complex and challenging proctored hands-on skills assessment.

Well the plane is about to board so I'll end it there. Certainly some food for thought.

Another quick Social Networking Optimization

Made a quick foray into REDDIT. I thought it would be a great intermediate point to track articles I read, but not necessarily ones I want to share on GReader or bookmark on DIIGO. However I discovered I was limited to submitting articles every 9 mins. So I decided to forget that idea.

In order to maintain some semblance of productivity, I'm trying to discipline my reading and information gathering time during a day. Friendfeed is a part of my personal learning network, but I find the noise a little too much right now. I went through a major hiding spree a while ago, and although it trimmed the feed down dramatically, I'm still finding a very high Signal to Noise ratio. As a result I'm likely going to cut back even more on who I subscribe to and whose friends of friends I see. I find that I still get a lot of what I need news wise from GReader. I find most of the usual A-list FFeeders just regurgitate information I would have come by anyway, and most of the comments are just fluff. I do wish there were more people I connect with in my real life community using Friendfeed. I would probably find the comments at that level to be much more fulfilling. Maybe I'll try using FriendFeed as part of one of my classes this fall. I'll have to think about it.

Municipal Fiber

I thought I would write down a few points made at the BC Broadband conference on Municipal fiber while it is still fresh in my mind. I certainly don't need to redefine the idea of municipal fiber and the concept of Fiber to the Home (FTTH). There are so many resources on the topic that I couldn't possibly do it justice.

However one thing that came out loud and clear from the conference was that open access to the last mile is a recognized problem and something ISPs and CLECs are beginning to move into their agenda. Although I have been evangelizing the need for fiber to the home for the past decade, the options and designs on how to make this a reality are still viewed as being immature at this stage. However I feel that with some of the measures being taken by municipalities like Coquitlam and Kamloops, we may start seeing some solid movement on this front. Most municipalities I have dealt with still refuse to see the vision and grasp the necessity of why it is so important to initiate a municipal fiber infrastructure strategy for the community. If there is no champion to take on the charge within the city, then it is almost impossible to make anything happen.

Some of the points made at the conference were as follows:

• More freedom is required to work around the Rights of way and building access within municipalities
• Municipalities should not put themselves in the position of competing with service providers. That being said, provision of the layer 1 infrastructure is not classed as competing for services, but rather enables access to clients for ISPs & CLECs to offer competitive & advanced broadband services.
• We need a more competitive network and telecom services market place.
• It is not enough for a municipality to just provision the fiber with a 'build it and they will come' strategy. In order to be successful, there must service providers willing to commit to offering the advanced high speed services. In my opinion, High Speed broadband is not the ADSL & Cable Modem speeds we have today, but more along the lines of 100Mb/s to the home.
• A Municipal fiber strategy is hard to justify if the business case focuses only on local businesses and schools. HIgh density multi-dwelling units are the easiest to start with. Nevertheless, there are a lot of tangible un-quantifiable benefits of a municipal fiber infrastructure strategy that a business case can't address.

A productive broadband conference

I'm here at Vancouver airport having just spent the past couple of days attending the BC Broadband conference. I'll be honest, I hadn't really known about Open Source Solutions before this event and I must say it was well worth the visit to connect with some of the small ISPs in the province as well as the decision and policy makers of Network BC. As is always the case with these events, you end up hitting it off with peers you would never have had the opportunity of meeting otherwise.

On Tuesday morning I spoke on a panel for municipal fiber. I actually didn't realize I was supposed to present until the afternoon before which didn't leave a lot of time for prep; especially since I was busy 'networking' until the wee hours of the morning on Monday. Having attended a number of conferences in the past decade, I really can't emphasize enough the doors one can open at these post conference soirees. They are great opportunities to communicate in a more relaxed environment and sometimes off the record.

But back to the presentation. I definitely can't say it was the best spiel I gave, but I'm hoping I managed to cover most of what I was hoping to get across. Hindsight is always 20/20 and you always look back and think of additional points you would like to have made or had expressed more eloquently. One of downsides to not being prepared. Nevertheless I think the most important aspects were brought to light between the four of us on the panel. I'll save my thoughts and summary of the points made for another blog post. I'm looking forward to engaging some of the contacts made at the conference over the next month.

On a personal note, I ended the evening attending the Iron Maiden concert. I've, always enjoyed their music, but this was my first opportunity to see them live. Words can't really do the experience justice, Spectacular performance, effects and artwork! They are as tight as they ever were and Bruce's voice is still going strong.

BC Broadband Conference

Just been invited to participate on a panel at the BC Broadband Conference in Vancouver on June 2nd/3rd. Any of you that know me have probably heard me rant on Network Neutrality, and now I may get a platform to throw some opinions out in a more public forum. Most of my opinions are based on information I receive from blogs and articles from the Bill St. Arnaud, Michael Geist, Benoit Felten, Pipe International and other national and international Muni-fiber initiatives. I'm humbled to be offered a position as a panel speaker at this event as I don't feel I have quite the credentials to stand up next to some of the others who have managed, or will be managing, their own fiber initiatives, but I will certainly contribute in any way I can. In fact I'll do whatever it takes to raise the awareness of just how lacking we are with high speed technology in this country.

Ok, can't help but rant. Last mile access needs to be managed by a neutral party or utility upon which service providers can deliver their services in a competitive environment. Besides the fact that we don't need the equivalent of two driveways coming into every home and business, service providers can not possibly deliver cheap high speed bandwidth if they have to bear the full financial burden of upgrading their infrastructures to support the next generation services. Therefore unless communities and carriers start working together, the incumbent carriers will have to leverage their existing infrastructures with band-aid technologies in the same way that ADSL leverages the use of their old copper POTS network. Either way it is the consumer who is going to lose out by being the recipient of a technologically inferior or really expensive service

Presentation at BCSCTA

Last Friday I had the pleasure of presenting at the BC Science Teachers Association Catalyst Conference. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was in the block for the breakout session of the conference. I suppose you could argue it either way in terms of the audience expectations for the first session, but either way if there is going to be an organization problem with the setup and audio video it is going to be in the first session. But fortunately it all went very smoothly for me. I provided a handout to go along with the presentation since I learned from many past experiences not to try and jam all the information into the presentation and torture via Powerpoint. I spent a lot of time prepping for this presentation over the past couple of weeks.

A lot of my information I gleaned from sources such as Clarence Fisher, Will Richardson and Karl Fische. In fact if you read through my presentation you'll see many references to their blogs. I find these guys inspirational in their commitment to utilize technology to its fullest potential in the classroom. They are true pioneers in this industry. I also gathered awesome material from actively participating in the social networking world with applications such as FriendFeed, Twiiter, Last.FM, Youtube, Furl etc...

My goal was to try and open people up to the possibilities of social networking in education. These applications are certainly still not quite there yet for mainstream users, but I can finally see the seed of what will make this facet of the Internet more accessible. The presentation was well received, and I ended up talking and meeting with some very interesting folks.

All this has certainly consumed a fair amount of time, but I'm slowly figuring out how to streamline my use of the technology. As is always the case in this field, just when you think you have a system figured out, another shakedown of the field occurs and you have to re-adjust. Nevertheless, I'm now finding the technology in the social networking arena is spiraling on a saner course. Educators who utilize social networking technologies are certainly going to have to just jump in and adapt the technology to their style. Although there is no right or wrong way to do this, I believe there are enough resources out there to classify some best practices and learn from the successes and failures of others. There are many enthusiastic teachers who have led the way and are willing to share this information with the rest of us.

Facebook chat is online for me

Just fired up Facebook (while not procrastinating..:)..) and noticed Facebook chat is now available for me. Most people are probably going, "oh yay! Yet another IM tool" However this is a bigger deal than you might realize and in my opinion will be a major draw for facebook.

Why is it I have accounts with Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Gizmo etc etc...?

 Because I have different groups of friends in each.

So what is it that facebook has that none of these apps have?

My social network.

All those non-techy people who usually look at me with that quizzical smirk when I start talking twitter & RSS have, for whatever reason, been drawn to Facebook. Most are probably passive visitors. If someone posts something on their wall or sends them a message, then they receive an e-mail alert and consequently log in to Facebook to check it out. A few others are hooked on Scrabulous, Chess, some other weird app, or use it as their online photo album. Nevertheless, the fact that I can now chat with a lot of these people without having to poke them, message them or write on their wall is extremely attractive. Of course after the initial fad wears off many of these people will end up as someone who I just see online and never talk to, but the very fact that I now have the opportunity to engage in conversation with people who I haven't talked to in eons, and would never pick up the phone to chat with, is kind of cool. It will certainly add another dynamic to my procrastination!

If Facebook allows people to take advantage of the social demographic they have built within that environment they will have a very big future ahead of them. Unfortunately, I just haven't seen any strong indicators they are going to allow people and developers the flexibility they need to develop some truly exciting interactive and life streaming apps.

However, I'm reminded of the reach of my Facebook social network daily even among those I interact with on a regular basis. I often post a message to my personal twitter account, which automatically updates my Facebook status, and is usually about something that probably wouldn't come up in regular discussion with most of the people with whom I associate. Nevertheless, I almost always get some comment during the day referencing that message. Just today I had someone say: "so how ya feeling? Saw you had a couple of late nights marking there?". See how the language has changed? It is is no longer "I heard", but "I saw". As social networking moves beyond the techies and the youth and into the mainstream crowd who, when asked, would never have time for that techie stuff, even this asynchronous form of communication via twitter and micro blogging will allow for an unprecedented awareness of those around us.

I like to take the optimistic perspective of the socially interactive web (hey I didn't say social networking!) and truly believe in the potential of this technology to enrich our lives in both work and play.

OSTEC Silicon Vinyard Awards

Went to the silicon vinyard awards tonight and saw a keynote from Paul Kedrowski. The common thread that I've noticed between many of these VC's, from keynote speeches to podcasts with the likes of Robert Cringley, is that these guys have an incredible ability to simplify the complex.

Paul talked about the qualities that make up the entrepreneur. The importance of optimism and the ability to pursue the quest for a questionable answer to the right question as opposed the definite answer to the wrong question. It kind of messes with your mind when you first hear it, but the more you think about it the more it begins to make sense. To be successful as a start up you must have the ability to look at things from a different angle as opposed to following the 'herd'. I heard this great joke today that illustrates this point perfectly:

"When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the drivers side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'its open!' His reply, 'I know. I already got that side.'"

Sometimes the most obvious solutions are just a small step away.

I'm also on the board of ORIC and would certainly be doing an injustice if I didn't congratulate Peter Haubrich for the Member of the year Award tonight at the OSTEC Silicon Vinyard Innovation Awards. He has worked tirelessly to make ORIC what it is today and the future is certainly looking very bright. I'm excited to be part of a such an young and innovative group.