Stacy Keach in Des Moines for his part in the theatrical production Frost Nixon at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines through October 5, 2008. He visited the WHO Radio studios and talked with morning show host Van Harden about the performance, golf, favorite leading ladies and recent project.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Principal confirms firearm found on campus
A paper note was issued to students today referencing the firearm incident:
Dear East High Community,I want to make sure you are aware of an incident which occurred at school on Monday September 29th, 2008.
While conducting a routine investigation into another matter, it was discovered that a student had inadvertently left a small caliber target rifle in their vehicle. The weapon was not loaded and was cased. There was no ammunition found. There was no evidence of any sort of threat against a student or staff member.
However, we take any incident involving the possession of a weapon on school grounds very seriously, and students who violate the school district's weapons policy are subject to disciplinary action, which may include expulsion.
I am thankful to our staff at East High School who worked on this situation, and I want to make sure that you heard from us first hand about what happened. The safety of our students is always a top priority. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely
(Signed)
Mike Zelenovich, Principal
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Brandon McHose - Token
Brandon McHose performed the title song from his new CD Token on KXnO's Cotlar & Company, Des Moines, Iowa.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
State school network
You've probably heard of the web sites that let you logon and see how your kid's doing in school. Not in Des Moines's district, but in many progressive communities. Sure, we get a notification in the evening (when it's too late to call and find out why) that your student missed a class, but you can't reply & hope for any further details.
In 2008, I'm floored that our school's in the dark ages when it comes to useful technology. There's a lot that should be going on that isn't, as I eluded to in a a recent business discussion group.
I would propose a state-wide network that connects all able students via connected computers. They logon to the school server every morning when school commences and their entire day is managed within their account. Exercises and assignments, including tests and reports are done through their accounts. School administrators, teachers and parents can watch, in real time, student activity and progress.
Statewide standards can be implemented by massaging the core curriculum components from year to year; teacher performance can be measured and overall accountability is enhanced.
An an excellent example of the benefits of getting our schools on the same page with state and national education standards, all 7th-grade English classes follow the same curriculum and performance standards.
Snow days are no longer non-productive because students are online from home. Teacher in-service days are eliminated. Parent-teacher interaction is maximized, engaging parents, so conferences are nearly eliminated. Teachers spend far less time grading papers. Roll call is automated. School supply costs are dramatically decreased. Layers of administration could be eliminated, and that would undoubtedly save millions.
In our schools, we're so far behind the tech curve and it makes you wonder why.
In 2008, I'm floored that our school's in the dark ages when it comes to useful technology. There's a lot that should be going on that isn't, as I eluded to in a a recent business discussion group.
I would propose a state-wide network that connects all able students via connected computers. They logon to the school server every morning when school commences and their entire day is managed within their account. Exercises and assignments, including tests and reports are done through their accounts. School administrators, teachers and parents can watch, in real time, student activity and progress.
Statewide standards can be implemented by massaging the core curriculum components from year to year; teacher performance can be measured and overall accountability is enhanced.
An an excellent example of the benefits of getting our schools on the same page with state and national education standards, all 7th-grade English classes follow the same curriculum and performance standards.
Snow days are no longer non-productive because students are online from home. Teacher in-service days are eliminated. Parent-teacher interaction is maximized, engaging parents, so conferences are nearly eliminated. Teachers spend far less time grading papers. Roll call is automated. School supply costs are dramatically decreased. Layers of administration could be eliminated, and that would undoubtedly save millions.
In our schools, we're so far behind the tech curve and it makes you wonder why.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Scared of surveillance?
I'm a nut for the Fourth Amendment and I think privacy is an important right that can't be taken lightly. So it's from this basis that I'm inspired to comment on the growing level of general video surveillance by US governments, locally and nationally.
Europeans have installed millions of surveillance cameras they call CCD, a name derived from ‘charge-coupled device’, the actual electronic retina of a video camera.
The US is playing catch-up in major metropolitan areas, implementing their own camera programs. It’s all in the name of security, but some wonder if Uncle Sam is becoming Big Brother and challenging our rights to privacy.
In assessing whether government surveillance of ordinary citizens in public view goes too far, we have to analyze whether citizens should have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any give area or circumstance. The constitution provides for the right to privacy, but that doesn’t apply in open areas where you or your personal affects are on display for public viewing, or in plain sight.
The technology is fascinating.
State-of-the-art surveillance units
If you believe that bad things happen in the dark, that a fully transparent government would be a good thing, then 360ยบ full motion video surveillance cameras equipped with bio-chemical sensors, gunshot detectors and infrared & laser imaging have the ability to lift the vale of secrecy, which is only somewhat incompatible with crime -- but a significant deterrent.
But to prevent the abuse of this technology, we have to be watching the watchers too. That has to be a critical element in any blanket surveillance program.
Painting a picture of a crime scene
Imagine three such surveillance units setup in a town square where a theft has occurred. This gives me three camera angles of every square inch of that space, in which the x-y coordinates of every object are stored every 30th of a second. This creates a photo-perfect SecondLife-like virtual space that can be monitored, not only in real time, but generates a recording of the events, in movie-like form, that can be carefully analyzed to get to the actual facts of even the most minor infractions. Having such an accurate record not only identifies the theif, but provides documented proof of innocence for the rest of us.
Also imagine, as a police officer, you type a license plate number or name into the computer system and the system can then begin searching for recent records in its recognition results. It can also monitor in real time and alert the cop if a camera spots the subject in question. Incredibly useful stuff! (But easy to abuse!)
While you’re walking along a sidewalk, you’re out in public view. Anyone that cares to glance can see you. Passersby can possibly hear what you might be saying for the brief moments they’re within hearing range. Knowing this, people generally tend to behave themselves.
There’s no difference between this scenario and the one in which surveillance units are placed. You’re provided no more or less privacy in these public spaces – until a crime is committed. When that happens, the public has a pretty solid record from which to gather evidence to identify the crime, the victim and the perpetrator.
If the aim of surveillance is limited to those elements, and public interest is key with respect to the use and management of the surveillance program, then big brother objections are muted.
On the downside, these kinds of high-tech surveillance eyes and ears can and will be abused. For instance, images of the insides of people’s homes will be captured and recorded. Privileged conversations will be made public. The private lives of citizens will undoubtedly be exposed to a greater extent. There is no question that privacy at times will be compromised as a direct result of general surveillance programs.
The public will want to take greater care in guarding their privacy. The public will also take steps to safeguard surveillance records and prevent abuse.
All in all, general high-tech surveillance programs will keep everyone a little more honest. On balance, I see it as good thing.
And remember that while we, members of the general public, are being watched more carefully, so are public officials. If there's balance like this, and the demarcation between public and private is vigorously guarded, I have very few concerns about pervasive video surveillance in public spaces.
Europeans have installed millions of surveillance cameras they call CCD, a name derived from ‘charge-coupled device’, the actual electronic retina of a video camera.
The US is playing catch-up in major metropolitan areas, implementing their own camera programs. It’s all in the name of security, but some wonder if Uncle Sam is becoming Big Brother and challenging our rights to privacy.
In assessing whether government surveillance of ordinary citizens in public view goes too far, we have to analyze whether citizens should have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any give area or circumstance. The constitution provides for the right to privacy, but that doesn’t apply in open areas where you or your personal affects are on display for public viewing, or in plain sight.
The technology is fascinating.
State-of-the-art surveillance units
If you believe that bad things happen in the dark, that a fully transparent government would be a good thing, then 360ยบ full motion video surveillance cameras equipped with bio-chemical sensors, gunshot detectors and infrared & laser imaging have the ability to lift the vale of secrecy, which is only somewhat incompatible with crime -- but a significant deterrent.
But to prevent the abuse of this technology, we have to be watching the watchers too. That has to be a critical element in any blanket surveillance program.
Painting a picture of a crime scene
Imagine three such surveillance units setup in a town square where a theft has occurred. This gives me three camera angles of every square inch of that space, in which the x-y coordinates of every object are stored every 30th of a second. This creates a photo-perfect SecondLife-like virtual space that can be monitored, not only in real time, but generates a recording of the events, in movie-like form, that can be carefully analyzed to get to the actual facts of even the most minor infractions. Having such an accurate record not only identifies the theif, but provides documented proof of innocence for the rest of us.
Also imagine, as a police officer, you type a license plate number or name into the computer system and the system can then begin searching for recent records in its recognition results. It can also monitor in real time and alert the cop if a camera spots the subject in question. Incredibly useful stuff! (But easy to abuse!)
While you’re walking along a sidewalk, you’re out in public view. Anyone that cares to glance can see you. Passersby can possibly hear what you might be saying for the brief moments they’re within hearing range. Knowing this, people generally tend to behave themselves.
There’s no difference between this scenario and the one in which surveillance units are placed. You’re provided no more or less privacy in these public spaces – until a crime is committed. When that happens, the public has a pretty solid record from which to gather evidence to identify the crime, the victim and the perpetrator.
If the aim of surveillance is limited to those elements, and public interest is key with respect to the use and management of the surveillance program, then big brother objections are muted.
On the downside, these kinds of high-tech surveillance eyes and ears can and will be abused. For instance, images of the insides of people’s homes will be captured and recorded. Privileged conversations will be made public. The private lives of citizens will undoubtedly be exposed to a greater extent. There is no question that privacy at times will be compromised as a direct result of general surveillance programs.
The public will want to take greater care in guarding their privacy. The public will also take steps to safeguard surveillance records and prevent abuse.
All in all, general high-tech surveillance programs will keep everyone a little more honest. On balance, I see it as good thing.
And remember that while we, members of the general public, are being watched more carefully, so are public officials. If there's balance like this, and the demarcation between public and private is vigorously guarded, I have very few concerns about pervasive video surveillance in public spaces.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Olive Court now closed to Hawkeye Tailgaters
For years, football fans have parked at Iowa City's Olive Court and passed a ball, grilled brats and enjoyed a beverage. But the former owners say they're tired of cleaning up the mess.
Sheryl Neuzil is quoted on KGAN's web site as saying they parked 700 cars every home game for a fee of $25 per car. That comes to $17,500 per home game. At that rate, six home games per year generates $105,000.
Were they really tired of it or did they see much higher dollar signs by selling it off to a developer? KGAN: "Neuzil signed a deal Wednesday and 31 condos will be here next fall."
She said she was sorry it happened, but "...that's the way it goes."
The "it" being business, I imagine.
Sheryl Neuzil is quoted on KGAN's web site as saying they parked 700 cars every home game for a fee of $25 per car. That comes to $17,500 per home game. At that rate, six home games per year generates $105,000.
Were they really tired of it or did they see much higher dollar signs by selling it off to a developer? KGAN: "Neuzil signed a deal Wednesday and 31 condos will be here next fall."
She said she was sorry it happened, but "...that's the way it goes."
The "it" being business, I imagine.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Filenames
I like complaining about the way media professionals misspeak regarding the Internet, not really understanding how it works. They'll skip the "." between the "www" and the domain name and say, "w-w-w-c-n-n-dot-com". Or they think they have to refer to a slash in a web address as a "backslash" (clearly a regular old "slash").My other big pet peeve is putting spaces in filenames. This would've been unheard of back in the DOS days, when filenames were limited to 11 characters ('mypost10.txt', for instance) and when spaces were simply not impossible. Filenames were also not case-sensitive. But today, with long filenames, people try all sorts of crazy things, like long desriptions, complete with caps and spaces and bizarre characters. And while most technology supports long filenames, not all are fully friendly to them, most notibly web browsers and email programs.
Case in point: when you upload a file that has spaces contained in it, diffrent programs treat the spaces differently. In some cases, the space is replaced with a '%20'. But not always. In the graphic above, you see the URL, which is sent via email, is showing has a filename that clearly has a space, but the hyperlinking stops before the end of the URL, causing a click to result in an incomplete address.
We should still be using short, descriptive filenames without spaces.
DMPS: $14,500 per pupil
I'd put Des Moines' school district budget at $385M, from the State of the Schools speech last fall. That's wildly outdated today. Board member Jon Narcisse said [on WHO Radio] on August 2 that the budget was $415M this year. Plus he said the district had tapped its $20M reserve. Assuming that's accurate, I'll adjust my figures and restate the cost per pupil is now $14,500 this year or $80 per day, assuming 30,000 kids still attend school in the district. $80 per day! With a student-to-staff ratio of 6:1, that's like paying each of the 5,000 district staff members an annual salary of $87,000 to teach your kids.
If you could entrust three competent people with 18 students and say, "go spend 180 days with these kids, secure the needed resources, and teach them what they need to know," would it cost $261,600? For that, you could build the classroom, feed and cloth the students, equip them each with notebook computers, fully loaded with world-class educational software.
If you think you're being fleeced, you probably are. But at some point, we have to stop blaming the leaders we choose and begin to take responsibility as members of the community -- citizens and media alike -- or ineptitude and greed continue to flourish.
If you could entrust three competent people with 18 students and say, "go spend 180 days with these kids, secure the needed resources, and teach them what they need to know," would it cost $261,600? For that, you could build the classroom, feed and cloth the students, equip them each with notebook computers, fully loaded with world-class educational software.
If you think you're being fleeced, you probably are. But at some point, we have to stop blaming the leaders we choose and begin to take responsibility as members of the community -- citizens and media alike -- or ineptitude and greed continue to flourish.
Friday, August 29, 2008
$70 per student per day
I was reading a welcome message by Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring (http://www.dmps.k12.ia.us/schoolboard/1sebring-index.htm) and her State of the Schools speech entitled. "EDUCATING DES MOINES. THEN. NOW. TOMORROW." (http://www.dmps.k12.ia.us/schoolboard/1stateoftheschools07.pdf) from October of '07.
From these two sources, I retrieved some facts that paint a picture. Here, let me help you with that brush.
The budget for school year '07/'08 was $385,500,000.00 (that's 385-point-5 Million dollars). There are 30,000 students and 5,000 staff. That seems like a lot of money and a lot of staff, doesn't it?
I think so. I'll break the big numbers down into the most singular form possible for context and to help us get our mind around what they represent. Let's start by figuring the per-student dollar figures. It's $12,850.00 per year and $71.39 per student per day for 180 days. There's a 6:1 student-to-staff ratio.
It takes the Des Moines Public School District more than $70 per day, per student, to teach the three Rs. Amazing!
Another way to look at this, in somewhat equivelent terms, each member of the school staff could be paid $77,000 to handle six kids for 180 days per year. That actually seems pretty doable. And you wouldn't need actual teachers; just teaching facilitators. Each TF could pay a monthly fee and get all curriculum materials via a teaching server on the Internet. Student logins, attendance recording, testing, etc., all done by computer, with you as their facilitator/principal/custodian/cook.
Imagine that you're one of the TFs. You'll have to hold class at your house because you (and 4,999 others) are receiving the balance of the annual school budget to take care of all six students' educational needs.
You're gonna have to buy a few things, like computers, desks, supplies and internet access, but you could still perform OK in an average house. No bussing required because the students probably live within a block or two.
Might want to install a basketball hoop.
HOT LUNCH PROGRAM
You don't have to buy their lunch (unless they can't afford), because the district doesn't have to. You do have to prepare lunch though. That's OK because the $210 per week the students bring you to make lunch will easily cover all the hotdogs, hamburgers, mac & cheese, tader triangles and fish portions you'll be needing. Really, a pan of boiling water and an oven are all you really need to cook school-like food.
From these two sources, I retrieved some facts that paint a picture. Here, let me help you with that brush.
The budget for school year '07/'08 was $385,500,000.00 (that's 385-point-5 Million dollars). There are 30,000 students and 5,000 staff. That seems like a lot of money and a lot of staff, doesn't it?
I think so. I'll break the big numbers down into the most singular form possible for context and to help us get our mind around what they represent. Let's start by figuring the per-student dollar figures. It's $12,850.00 per year and $71.39 per student per day for 180 days. There's a 6:1 student-to-staff ratio.
It takes the Des Moines Public School District more than $70 per day, per student, to teach the three Rs. Amazing!
Another way to look at this, in somewhat equivelent terms, each member of the school staff could be paid $77,000 to handle six kids for 180 days per year. That actually seems pretty doable. And you wouldn't need actual teachers; just teaching facilitators. Each TF could pay a monthly fee and get all curriculum materials via a teaching server on the Internet. Student logins, attendance recording, testing, etc., all done by computer, with you as their facilitator/principal/custodian/cook.
Imagine that you're one of the TFs. You'll have to hold class at your house because you (and 4,999 others) are receiving the balance of the annual school budget to take care of all six students' educational needs.
You're gonna have to buy a few things, like computers, desks, supplies and internet access, but you could still perform OK in an average house. No bussing required because the students probably live within a block or two.
Might want to install a basketball hoop.
HOT LUNCH PROGRAM
You don't have to buy their lunch (unless they can't afford), because the district doesn't have to. You do have to prepare lunch though. That's OK because the $210 per week the students bring you to make lunch will easily cover all the hotdogs, hamburgers, mac & cheese, tader triangles and fish portions you'll be needing. Really, a pan of boiling water and an oven are all you really need to cook school-like food.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Smartphone Start-Ups Have a Friend in This Fund - NYTimes.com
Smartphone Start-Ups Have a Friend in This Fund - NYTimes.com
This could be something. iFund invests in select startup companies that write applications for the iPhone. To give you an idea of popularity of these apps, Apple's iPhone App Store has served 60 million of then since the store's launch last month. Blackberry maker RIM (Research in Motion) sees this trend and will announce a yet-to-be-named fund specializing in developers of applications for its smart phone.
Are we paying attention? One thing we don't fully appreciate about hundreds of millions of smartphones in users' hands is that they have eyes, ears, know their location and are connected to the Internet. Developers can leverage these assets to unimaginable ends -- with potentially questionable aims, possibly creating a transparent world or the mother of all big brothers.
This could be something. iFund invests in select startup companies that write applications for the iPhone. To give you an idea of popularity of these apps, Apple's iPhone App Store has served 60 million of then since the store's launch last month. Blackberry maker RIM (Research in Motion) sees this trend and will announce a yet-to-be-named fund specializing in developers of applications for its smart phone.
Are we paying attention? One thing we don't fully appreciate about hundreds of millions of smartphones in users' hands is that they have eyes, ears, know their location and are connected to the Internet. Developers can leverage these assets to unimaginable ends -- with potentially questionable aims, possibly creating a transparent world or the mother of all big brothers.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Gannett 2Q profit falls by 36 percent
I don't believe the paper's decline is because of any perceived liberal bias, dittoheads. Fewer readers get their information from print because there are so many free and instant sources -- including this web site. 1. Local delivery audiences are dying off -- literally; and 2. local advertisers don't understand how to market to an audience that's obviously shifting to online sources. Consider that a typical newspaper reporting staff today is comprised of two-thirds online content producers.
That's telling. And it lends a lot of credence to the Craigslist argument in the comment section of this story; my baby boomer mother uses it.
And partly because...it's the economy, stupid.
This is an awkward time for traditional media, but I assure you that "liberal bias" is nothing more than a branding campaign aimed at the feeble-minded.
That's telling. And it lends a lot of credence to the Craigslist argument in the comment section of this story; my baby boomer mother uses it.
And partly because...it's the economy, stupid.
This is an awkward time for traditional media, but I assure you that "liberal bias" is nothing more than a branding campaign aimed at the feeble-minded.
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