Yeti

I've been having some problems getting this post done. I thought blogger was giving me problems. After some surfing through forums, it seems Firefox 1.07 is the problem. It sometimes has memory leaks, and causes the GNOME desktop for Linux to freeze up. I'll need to upgrade to Firefox 1.5, but I'm just sooo lazy. Linux may be better than Windows in some respects, but in others, it can be frustrating. Reminds me of the Windows 98 days. I guess I'd rather have crashes than Viruses, Spyware, and Adware. I have a 200 gig harddrive on my Linux Desktop. Way too big a harddrive for a computer. In my opinion, most computers don't need more than a 100 gig drive, and could probably do with just a 60 gig, so long as it's a fast one. The larger harddrives should be saved for storage of files, music, videos, etc. Whether you're using Windows, Mac, or Linux OSes, you're going to have to reinstall your OS, or upgrade/update your OS frequently, and issues come up. You'll need to be able to reinstall the OS quickly, without losing any of your files.

On Sunday, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, to see Expedition Everest.

Expedition Everest is awesome. The rollercoaster goes forwards, then backwards, the forwards again, all on different tracks. Throughout the ride, you have encounters with the Yeti.

Just as cool as the ride is the Q-line. It looks like you're walking through an actual Nepalese village.

The view through the Q-line makes the time go by much quicker. You get to walk through this courtyard, a small temple (supposedly to appease the Yeti), an explorers shack, and an exibit showing information about the Lost Expedition with some pictures showing what looks like a Yeti attack. Walking through the Q-line keeps you occupied by setting up the story for the ride.

Nancy liked the ride too. She wasn't too happy with the idea of standing in line for 2 hours -that's what we were told. Luckily, the Q-line is well designed to keep your attention by telling a story, and it really lasting only 45 minutes.

My classes are going really well. I'm looking forward to being able to do three or more classes at a time. Breaking into it again (doing 1 class, then 2 classes), and starting off with a perfect grade is a confidence builder. My studies in skill acquistion have helped too.

Speech Class

This is a picture of me in speech class.

So far, speech class is the only class that's felt like a 'class'. Not to say it's not fun. It is pretty fun. And it's pretty interesting too, probably more interesting than the Operating Systems class. I guess the Operating Systems class doesn't feel much like a class, and the homework doesn't feel like homework. It feels more like playtime. Speech, however, feels like homework. Friggin subjective subject classes. In subjective discipline (sounds like an oxymoron, huh?) classes, the teacher can actually say something like, "I disagree with you, so you get a BIG FAT F!" Even if you've done all the work, put your heart and soul into it, and produced something that most employees at Fortune 500 companies would say, "Huh?"

Objective subject matter (math, physics, etc) is much easier to get an A. Well, you've got to learn the stuff, but it's either right or wrong. If you get the right answers, you get an A.

Like he said in the movie, Stand and Deliver, "Math is the great equalizer." Kind of like the Pullups of school.

I wasn't sure what I should do my first informative speech on, till it hit me on the way home. I saw someone with a W sticker on their car. Ah, yes....The Skull and Bones! America's most successful Fraternity. At the very least, it will be interesting.

Security

I bet you're thinking I was going to talk political again.

Nope. This is worse, way worse. Can you say, "El Lame o". Hey, I couldn't think of anything else to blog. Sue me. And, if you are watching, Mr. Government, watch me care.

Anyway, this is about your computer, and about how to keep yours disinfected, no Trojan Horses up your computer ass, no worms coming out of it, and none of those tick-like creatures - rootkits. Yuck. And, we're going to keep the spys out, as best we can, and cut down on those friggin ads and Adware. If you're a Windows user, you're computer is under constant attack. Far more than with Mac or Linux. Windows has over 90 market share, so it's the one to go after. You you choose to continue with Windows, you also choose to become more educated in security, or choose to be more frustrated.

So, if you have a Mac, go ahead a scroll to the bottom of this post. Move along now. Nothing to see here. If you got a Mac, you're bases are covered.

I'm doing this partly to give you some help, but mostly to keep an online instruction for myself. Maybe it can help you.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Install and run an anti-virus program. I recommend AVG anti-virus. It's a good product, and it's free, but they make you work to get to it on their site.

   1. Also, you'll need to run some adware and spyware scanning too: Ad Aware is the first one to get, then Microsoft Anti-Spyware.

   2. Don't forget to make sure you're up-to-date an all your updates from Microsoft.

2. If you haven't already done so, start migrating your personal files off the harddrive.

   1. Ones that can be 'archived' burn them to disc (CD OR DVD), or put them on an external harddrive.

   2. Keep your primary files, and your day to day use files on a Jumpdrive. (sometimes called 'Flashdrive'). Keep a copy of them on your external harddrive. I recommend getting the biggest one you can afford, perferably a 1 gig drive.

3. The goal is to create you computer into a Operating System, Applications and Programs Machine. You can store whatever you want on the harddrive.

   1. Anything important, keep on an external harddrive, and I don't mean a copy. If you try to keep a running up to date copy, you'll never get around to it. Any daily work could be done on the jumpdrive.

   2. If you can't afford to purchase anything at the moment, create an account at Streamload/MediaMax. You can get 25 gig of free online storage with a 100 Mg of upload a month, so make sure your absolute priorities are uploaded first.

4. Make sure you have restore CD's for your computer where you'll know they are.

   1. If you don't have restore CD's, you'll have to buy a complete copy of Windows XP, or decide if you want to switch to Linux (it's free!). I'll do another writeup someday soonon that someday soon.
      

5. Now, you should have your files completely migrated over to some sort of external storage. Next, make a list of the most important applications and programs on you computer. The ones you can't live without.

   1. Think in terms of what you use the computer most for.

      1. Office work? - If you don't have a copy of Microsoft Office – not to worry. There is a very good solution for that.

      2. Pictures?- There are plenty of free picture editors online. Picasa is one. It's from Google, so hey, how bad can it be?

      3. Audio and Video stuff? - iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player Don't forget; you can use Real Player or Quicktime for audio files (mp3's). If you have very limited space on your harddrive, consider using one as your primary audio/video program. If you have or want an iPOD, you'll need to get use to iTunes. If you use a Pocket PC, like me, you'll need to get use to Windows Media Player. Try to avoid redundant programs. Unless you got a whoopass amount of storage.

      4. Surfing the Internet.

   2. Make sure you have the programs available. Now-a-days, most of them will probably be online for free. If not, make sure you have access to them, somehow. If you like to edit pictures, and you borrowed your friends copy of photoshop, you'll need to make sure he can loan it again.

6. Now, you're ready. If you've followed my advice so far, the most you've spent money in is for a USB jumpdrive. If you've spent extra money, you got an larger external harddrive. And you've uploaded files to your Streamload location.

7. If you're still having problems with your computer being slow, and it's topped out, or at least close, in physical memory, it's probably time to dump your entire system, and rebuild it over again. Think of it as starting fresh.

8. At the first sign of any problems, including consistent slowness:

9. Stick the restore CD in the harddrive, and get it to bootup. You're going to reload the system.

10. Go through the WindowsXP or XP Professional setup procedure. On some PC's, it can take almost an hour. Most, about 40 minutes.

11. Once you're up and running, don't be tempted to install of your programs just yet. It's not ready. You need to:

    1. If your computer came with restore CD's, but they don't have Windows XP SP2 on them, you'll need to update your service packs. You can do it online with the windows update utility.

    2. Once you have XP on, make sure your firewall is set to high.

    3. Keep doing Windows Update until there are no more updates left. Once all the updates are in, reboot the machine.

    4. Install or reinstall Grisoft AVG anti-virus. Once it's installed, make sure to run its update, and do a full system scan.

    5. Install or reinstall Lavasoft's Ad Aware. Update and run it.

    6. Install and Update Microsoft Anti Spyware. Run it. When it's done, reboot.

    7. Install and run Firefox. Use Internet Explorer only when necessary. Use Firefox for all other web surfing and other Internet activities.

Now your set to install your software. I'll give some recommendations on that in another post.

OnGoings
Schools going well. Something feels just plain wrong with homework being fun. Speech is a challenge for me.
My time management resolution, well, ....hasn't happened yet.
Chocolate has called my name to much.
My hip has prevented me from really exerting myself, so you can take a wild S.W.A.G (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) at how much working out I've done.

I am learning a lot on computers, and fast too.

Highland Games

Nancy, Shelly, Bob, and I went to the Scottish Highland Games today. The picture above is the different clans marching in. I'm part of Clan Cambell. Cam Beul means curved mouth in Gaelic. I guess it's appropriate for me, as one side of my face has slight nerve damage, making my smile go a bit sideways. Nancy is part of Clan Gunn. Evidently, Clan Gunn is direct Norse decent, so Nancy actually does have more Viking in her than she thought. I could actually be part of Clan Tavish, but Tavish is suppose to be part of Clan Cambell anyway. I prefer to be of Clan McBubba.

I love bagpipe music, and was able to hear a lot of it today.

I'm eventually going to get me a Kilt. This would be my tartan:

I could wear a Black Watch tartan, but from looking around, it might be disrespectful to do so, since I've never been in the military, especially the Scottish military.

I got to watch some of the different Highland Game events.

This was the hay toss. They were trying for 30 -something feet. I didn't see anyone make it. Most of the guys who compete are also Powerlifters, or Olympic Lifters. Some even compete in the World Strongest Man competitions.

This guy sat out the competitions:

Scissors

New post on DannyT Land.

Liberty

In today's modern society, it's easy to forget the princples that created this country, primarily Liberty. If you'll click on the Liberty link, you'll see a definition. What stands out to me is #2: freedom from unjust or undue governmental control.

The problem is, the more we ask government to help us, the more control they have. Basically, we asked the goverment to assume more control, the control is not undue. It may be unjust, but we still asked for it.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

I'm willing to bet most of you greatly agree with Mr. Franklin. I really like this quote:

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.

Carl Schurz (1829 - 1906)

Read my previous post. Sounds a bit like what I think Google is trying to do.

Freedom can be inconvenient:

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), to Archibald Stuart, 1791

Most of those were said in a different era. An era where tyranny was how most governments work.

I bet by now, you think I'm going to complain about Mr. Bush. I don't need to do that. He does a good enough job. I'm talking about something else. Something insidious.

Indentured Servitude

I'll not bore you with detail about indentured servitude. I'll let you click on the links provided to learn more. Basically, it boils down to; party A owes party B big bucks, but party A has no money, so he or she works for party B until the dept is paid.

Can anyone say Visa? Master Card? Mortgage? The United States of America has become a nation of Indentured Servants. We owe, so we work. Credit is 'party B'. We do jobs, and work with people we can't stand because we owe. We keep buying more stuff to stifle our tension and anxieties, even if just for a short time. We're willing to pay 25% more for an item we put on credit. Most of the time, it's actually way more than 25%. If you purchase a meal for $50 on your credit card, even if you're paying more than the minimum, it can take years to pay down the full amont of the meal. That meal can actually cost you about $350 in the long run.

We have become servants to the credit companies. The own our servitude for years to come. If you actually were able to add up how much money is taken out in credit, that much actual cash, paper money, doesn't exist. There is no way everyone could ever be able to pay off credit bills. There just isn't enough money in circulation.

We no longer have Liberty. Just ask the collection agency.

My hip is much better today. It's almost gone, as though it had a flu or a cold.

I went to class tonight. Wouldn't you know it- I studied the the wrong things, and even did the wrong quizzes. I even had to do a presentation. I'd read the schedule wrong, and wasnt' prepared for class at all, but I impressed myself by actually pulling it together. I even winged a presentation. Not too bad of one, I think. Even when I was nervous, tired, had to pee really bad, and was on a bad attitude day, I just kept thinking, "I can handle it." When I was in High School, I wish someone had told me that was all there was to confidence; I can handle it.

I took a few pics today, but most of them were in class, and I don't think it would be the best idea post them here. At least till after finals.

Back to politics, for a moment; I'll stand on Patrick Henry's words before I believe one or Mr. Bush's. Or Kerry's. Or Hillary's.

Watching

Patriotic Americans are not happy, even those who support Bush. The NSA spying makes us feel squwigy. We can't quite explain it, but it just seems to go against our principles of Liberty. It seems a bit too much like secret police, Nazi, KGB. Probably because it IS something those organizations would do; not America.

Don't fool yourself. This type of thing has been going on for quite awhile. In the 70's, the headlines read, "CIA Spying on America's Home". Back then, we did wire taps looking for pinko commies. Now, it's for 'terrorists'. Bush supports this type of surveillance by saying it's his duty to defend Americans. My reply, "Mr. President, we appreciate your principle of protecting us. We don't like how you're doing it." At this rate, you'd get the idea that Bush is trying to get Hillary in office.

I have no doubt that Reagan, HW, and Clinton used this type of surveillance. We're pretty sure that Nixon did. But, in the hands of a person with poor management skills, like Bush, I don't trust it. Surveillance will continue, and probably increase. But, my question is; "Who's watching the watchers?"

There needs to be some sort of oversight organization to monitor this surveillance, and I don't trust the goverment to create it. So, I encourage the technology community to do surveillance on these watchers. Let's find out just who is watching us, and we can watch them.

Which brings me to my main point: Google. I believe Google's unwritten mission is to make sure all information is equally available to everyone. Information is going to be readily available, but if the goverment (or worse, advertisers) has primary access to it, it WILL be abused. The only way to insure that information isn't abused to to make it available to everyone. That means WE get to watch what's going on in government just as much as they watch us. If they're going to monitor us, we should be able to monitor them. And we will.

So, Mr. President, go ahead. Watch us. Just don't bitch when we start watching the watchers. The lesson here is: If you piss off a nerd/geek/hacker, your life will be put on complete public display.

So, for a start, make sure you're aware of the Executive Orders.

Other News

If you've been reading my blog regularly, you'll remember the tree that was hit by the truck. I'm willing to bet the driver got a lawyer, held his boss at fault for sending him out in a too tall truck, and held the city at fault for having limbs hang too low. The City of Winter Park cut the tree limb off, along with a few others, just in case.

I'm able to move a bit better now. As the pain calms down, I can tell it's my left hip, not my back that hurts. When I was a gymnast, I flew off Horizontal Bar one day, went out way past the mats, and landed on the concrete right on my hip. Since then, I've had off/on difficulties with it, once a year or so. Sometimes it's gone for a few year. Doing really difficult, dangerous, and high effort stuff doesn't bother it. Turning to get the soap in the shower, getting up out of the car, putting on a rollerblade is how I've irritated it so far. I'd probably be okay if I joined the circus - as long as I didn't take a shower or get in a car.

My classes are going well, so far. But then, I've only had one class of each. Time to study.

Cubeville and Pain

Sometime on Wednesday, I was getting up from the drivers seat of the car, and I felt a twinge in my back. I had that before, and knew I was going to have back issues the next day. Thursday was uncomfortable, and by the time my speech class came around, I couldn't find a position that didn't hurt. By the next morning, it was worse. I barely got through training my clients, and by lunch time had difficulty walking. Even after using the over-the-counter pain med cocktail, it wasn't getting any better. I had to call into work.

I don't like feeling this dibilitated. It does suck. But, at least I know it won't last too long. In a few days, it will calm down, and I can 'rehab' it, so-to-speak. It happens about once a year, but this one really took me down.

Other than my back, the communications class went well. I think this class might be a wee bit more difficult than my Operating Systems class. I forget how much busy work can be involved with school. The thing I like best about going back to school? This time, I don't care what the other kids think of me.

Oh, wait,....I didn't care the first time around.

Nevermind.

The difference for me this time, I think, is purpose. When I'm studying in my subject, it doesn't feel like studying; it feels like I'm playing. I think that's a good sign. I'm enjoying the learning the same way a kid would love playing with tonka toy dumptrucks in the sandbox. And soon, I'll get paid to play with my toys.

I don't yet have a vision for what I want to be doing in a few years, after I graduate. Technology can swing is so many different directions, so fast. Right now, I try to keep up with the up and coming trends, demands, interests, and stuff like that. Some trends I see right now are:

• Complete user controlled content - Satelite radio, iPod, iTunes, Video and Podcast downloads. People will have more control of when, where, and how the experience content. TV networks will lose ratings if they keep to a 'watch at this time' schedule. New musicians will become popular through iTunes, with free music.
• Less emphasis on the CPU speed, and more emphasis on FSB (Front-side Bus) speed. The fastest processors are still limited by the FSB speed. Other things need to catch up on speed before the real speed of the current crop of processors can really be experienced.
• As some of the Linux Distributions improve, and readily work on Laptops, it will gain in popularity, especially among the lower income users. Second hand hardware, and Linux Fedora, Ubuntu, and SuSE are really good alternatives to Windows and Mac OS. The fact that they are free, and come with a complete office suite, internet browser, etc, make them a hard thing to beat. You might not see a whole lot of new linux programs this year, but you should see current popular programs creating a Linux version.

Somehow, I'd eventually like to be involved in helping low income people get access to the internet with their own computer. I really liked the MIT "One laptop per child" initiative, but. Recycled hardware and Linux will give many people reliable internet access. It might not be part of my future job, but maybe I could do something toward that type of volunteer work. I'm sure it's out there.

Cubeville, here I come.

Entertainment

Todays Blog brought to you by:

If your computer is slow, increasing memory will give it a boost. I like how 18004memory.com makes it easy to find the right memory for your specific computer.
Okay, commercial over.

I'm curious what I want to do with my education. By the time I finish school, several new technologies will be available. It would be nice if I could create something. I do think the future of computers and technology is primarily with entertainment and news. Security will be another hot issue.

Uh oh. I feel another ad coming on. I...I can't stop it. It's just too big:

I'm sorry. Couldn't help it. Just had to get that out.

Time to study.

Some Days

Some days, I just can't think of what to write about. Seems to be that way lately. Not quite writers block, but annoying anyway. I'll post more. Hey, at the very least, I'll throw and ad up, or two.

This is a picture of the monorail station at the Ticket and Transportation Center for the Magic Kingdom. Can you tell when this picture was taken? Was it 1972, or 2006?

Luckily, some things don't change at Disney. Here's to hoping the Haunt Mansion remain as timeless.

Speaking of The Haunted Mansion, most who know me know that I'm a Haunted Mansion (HM) collector. Not sure how and why that came to be, but that's pretty much the only collector thing I do. I have a pretty basic collection, and when I have enough to take care of a few commitments and some left over, I might pick up another few trinkets.

I have kept my client list down lately, not doing so much on marketing. Mostly, I think, because I wanted to be sure I had time available for classes. Now that I have the classes, I can do a bit more marketing. I'll keep my training limited to the mornings.

I started class tonight. I was late. That sucked. Really sucked. I'm rarely late to work mostly because I have a routine that keeps me on schedule. When things that aren't part of my routine, I can get out-of-sync, and wind up late. One of those things that really suck about ADD, I guess. Makes us seem aloof or even arrogant. I missed a turn in the dark, and wound up ten minutes late. Had I not missed the turn, I would have been on time. The professor had just started on some material. Luckily, I knew the material already. My first thought was, "Oh, we're reviewing?" But, it was new material for some.

Part of the class involves using Linux. Luckily, I've been using it, as you can see below. Linux and Unix aren't too different, from what I can tell, and I've used Mac OS X, but not NetWare. I'm hoping to get my hands on .....

Oh God. I've gone and geeked out.

More Fedora

These are a couple of shots of my current Fedora Linux desktop. To use Windows -now-a-days, you have to be a security expert. Home users should go with Mac, or Linux. Don't get me wrong; Microsoft Windows is a good product. But, it's so popular it gets the most attacks, viruses, trojan horses, and rootkits. If you have a desktop, I recommend installing Fedora or Ubuntu Linux.

Update

I've been a miss at keeping my blog postings regular. That's pretty bad, seeing as how I wanted to do more Blogging this year, and try to make somewhat of an income from it, even if just to fill up my gas tank here and there.

New Years Eve, we went to our friend Sherrie's home for a party. I had fun. Got a little drunk -I think most people would call it tipsy, though- and had fun.

Danny Before Drinking

Danny Drunk

I sang, "I left my heart in San Francisco."
I may not have sounded good at all, but at least I looked good doing it.

At the request of the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, NSA, the Pope, and leaders of the five major religions, Nancy doesn't drink. But she had fun anyway. All the above should still be worried. Very worried.

We spent New Years Day like most everyone else; doing nothing. Recovering. On Wednesday, we went to Disney- Magic Kingdom, and had dinner at the Crystal Palace. If you'll click on my flickr badge, you'll can find the pictures of Nancy hugging a few of the Plushy fetish people.

Lastnight, we saw Brett play soccer. It was cold, so very cold. Stephen came to the game, and to see me. I had a good time seeing them again. I miss them.

Resolutions and Predictions

I was going to rehash the year, but Nancy did a good job of it. Read it here:

NancyWD’s Blog

My Resolution – I only have one resolution: Practice good Time Management.
I know how to manage my time, and when I do, I do well. When I do plan my time on a weekly basis, I get a lot done. I get a momentum going, and get better each week. The problem is when I don’t plan, momentum the downwards direction twice as fast as upward. It seems the laws of gravity, momentum, and friction apply to more than just our physical surroundings.

Predictions
I have lots of these, so I’ll put each one in a category.

Economy

The economy will pretty much continue as is, for quite a while. While it seems were in a slow economy, it’s still fairly stable nationally.

In the future, economic ups and downs will be retained in smaller areas, much more regionally. Because of the world economy, the other regions will have only small bumps in economic change. More likely, economic problems will happen mostly in specific cities, and outlying areas, but as close as sixty miles away will have a economic booming city.

Cities will fight more for growth, and citizens will fight against it. They will have up/down cycles, and the citizens of cities will become more transient in nature. Mostly people will move as much as every five years.

Construction and housing will react to this, and move with the cycles. As construction companies become more agile, they’ll move with the economic trends. Construction companies will become larger, more national, and more general. Like Microsoft, larger construction companies will buy smaller ones. Construction workers will need to be portable.

In 2006, we will see some areas continue the housing surge, and some areas start to back down. We will also see an outcry against the oversized homes. Buyers of oversized homes will examine their purchase, and frequently decide to downgrade. Toward the end of 2006, the trend toward oversized homes will stop.

Politics

The divide between conservatives and liberals will become greater, but both will begin to agree against President Bush’s domestic policies. Whether or not people agree about Iraq, and how the war on terror is being fought, they adamantly do not like the idea of the National Security Agency spying on us. We will see hearings, probably closed-door, on past warrents Bush signed, and reasonable cause questioned.
While many people agree with his principle, more and more people do not agree with Bush’s practices. Even many Republicans call him the “Fake Republican President”.

Technology

Things are headed in a very certain direction:
1. The PC will be integrated into the Cell Phone/PDA, and other external parts will give it Home PC functionality
2. Software on the PC will become less. Web services and online software like a web version of MS Word will increase in demand. A PC will need to keep only a few programs. The webbrowser will be most important.
3. Systems that are small, cheap, and continuously provided internet will become popular. Operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux) will focus on simplicity, small design, and multi useful – it will need to be able to convert instantly from cellphone to desktop.
4. Windows Vista will probably be the beginning of the downfall of Microsoft. This doesn’t mean that Windows Vista is not a good product- that remains to be seen. But, Vista will need higher requirements for hardware, and most people are tired of having to upgrade their machines every two years.
5. With outdated Window machines, consumers will convert to free Linux systems, and continue using these ‘legacy machines’. Linux will increase in popularity, especially the Fedora and Ubuntu distributions.
6. The Linux community is making a special effort to get into the mainstream consumer, and lower income consumer. With more people becoming familiar with that systems, it will carry into the workplace, then the home.
7. Google will produce their own low cost PC, with a Google Linux Distribution. It will become the best selling PC.
8. Apple will pretty much remain a fixed commodity, unless the provide a PC version of MacOS. If that happen, you’ll see a hugh conversion to Mac, and Microsoft will fall behind.
9. OpenOffice will replace Microsoft office fairly quickly.
10. The iPod will have more competitors, but will continue to dominate the market. The novelty of the video pod will wear off, as far as watching action or dramatic TV episodes. But, Video Podcasting will take off. People will begin producing their own video content, news shows, talk shows, expose`, etc. The video iPod will have a market. I’d bet my money on companies that will provide software, services, and deliveries of Videocasting.
11. The cellphone will become the center of everyone technological life. It will become much more than a cellphone. It will become everyone’s portable connection with the entire world, at their fingers.

Education

Our education system is out of date, and cannot properly teach our children well enough to prepare them for the future. It not the education systems fault either.

Our society still runs it’s schools on agricultural/industrial age models, not today’s information age. Our schools have no other model to go by, and the examples provided by other countries aren’t much better. How the education system will look in the future is an unknown, but something has to change.

1. The K-12 age/grade system must go. It hold back the kids who can excel in a specific area, and is too fast for other kids. In the future, each kid will not be in a specific grade. They will be at different levels at different stages of the educational career.

2. The large structure model for schools is too costly, to encumbered, and cannot deliver material efficiently. The classroom, itself, will go away.

In 2006, you’ll begin to hear serious examination of the education structure in the USA. News, talk shows, possibly even congress will get in on the discussion. It may even be a serious point in the next presidential election. Personally, I’d go with whichever side is willing to try something different.

News and Newspapers

Blogs, Podcasts, and Videocasts will put a serious crunch on the current news media, especially newspapers. People will be able to find the news specific to them, and read, view, or listen to it at their convenience (education should take note of that). Newspapers and Magazines with an online presence will have to become free to compete.

The online blogs, podcasts, and videocast will increase in popularity. Super camera cell phones will allow anyone to become an instant video news reporter. People will compete for online popularity. Some will do well enough to make a full time income with it. In 2006, expect to see a lot of these pop up, and three Indies will come out on top.

In 2006, the newspapers will show discontent with online providers, and lawsuits will rage back and forth. In the end, just as predicted, the Fourth Estate will die a slow death.

New Raves

A hot new job this year will be time management consultants. For a reasonable fee, a time management professional will be able to help you reach your goals by proper planning. They will be your “Personal Time Coach”. This will become a fast growing online franchise, and actually produce pretty good results. Other accompanying products will emerge. Time Management will be the key to success in the knowledge worker age.

Now you see my purpose in working on better time management.