kaiyen online

supporting early adopters, or punishing those that go off the reservation?

kaiyen — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:07:06 +0000

A combination of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) “movement” and the rise of widely-used, highly-effective third party communication systems (eg – Gmail over whatever your company/institution is using) has created what I see as a conflict about whether to support people that you’d call either early adopters or ones that have gone off on [...]

the (legal) future of collaborative documents

kaiyen — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:56:56 +0000

Fascinating post about the US v. Lawson case over at the blog run by Eric Goldman (a professor here at SCU Law). It’s actually a guest post by Venkat Balasubramani. I’m not a lawyer, do not have a JD, and am generally often only about 95% informed on things which makes me very dangerous and likely [...]

to the polygon!

kaiyen — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:50:40 +0000

As part of “Project 2012,” the team established an explicit expectation that we all operated as a unified team, and that we were all accountable and dependent on each other. This may seem like something every team should have, but the point was to explicitly state – and collectively agree – that we would operate [...]

orchids and weeds. not your normal garden.

kaiyen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:22:55 +0000

A number of years ago (7?), a colleague of mine at Stanford – Carlos Seligo – introduced the concept of “Orchids and Weeds.” He meant it jokingly at the time, but it has stuck with me ever since. Basically, there are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to technology, support, and adoption. There [...]

not reinventing the beeping noise

kaiyen — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:14:20 +0000

On our 2008 Honda CR-V, we have different beeping, alarm tones for leaving the key in ignition, headlights on, and parking brake on. 3 different tones. On our 2005 Mazda 3, we have a single tone that is used for both the keys and lights. No parking brake. Of all cars, the 2004 Jeep Wrangler [...]

do more with more, more efficiently, in the same amount of time

kaiyen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:43:01 +0000

I loathe the phrase “do more with less.” I abhor it. I loathe and abhor very, very few things in life, and I reserve those venomous verbs for rare occasions. Yet I both loathe and abhor the phrase and the idea behind the notion of “doing more with less” as a management tool or concept. [...]

low on resources – what to do?

kaiyen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:19:23 +0000

In my previous post, I discussed the importance of dollars per capita re: resource shortages rather than simply number of staff or absolute budget. This may be something that all IT leaders have already discovered on their own, but to me, divorcing myself from thinking in terms of absolute budget (well, of course Santa Clara [...]

just big enough to falter

kaiyen — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:12:00 +0000

At first, this post started out as commentary about the challenges that schools of about the same size as Santa Clara University face re: technology, infrastructure, and other needs in relation to the available resources. That, in turn, would lead to some discussion on how to best address such opposing forces. This was fundamentally about [...]

a platform for accountability

kaiyen — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:34:55 +0000

As I have been considering various changes in my approach to management, leadership, and IT in higher ed, I am reminded of the importance of accountability. This is one of the most important parts of a successful team – it is part of the foundation upon which productivity and teamwork rests. In fact, it is [...]

black Friday and beyond

kaiyen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:47:09 +0000

My weekend (and the future): Wednesday: good news: got to leave work early with permission from Dean. bad news: still got dragged into work-related brouhaha a few hours late. Almost made me miss The Muppets. Which was so awesome, it would have been a TRAGEDY. Thanksgiving Thursday: Ate a lot of food. Black Friday: Did [...]

managerial crossroads

kaiyen — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:22:42 +0000

I find myself at a strange intersection in my professional career. On the one hand, I have prided myself on “doing more with less” in terms of what our department has accomplished with a significantly smaller budget than comparable groups on campus (to be clear – the “more with less” motto that is often used [...]

Economics: Presidential candidates slip on Econ 101 – Nov. 9, 2011

kaiyen — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:21:48 +0000

Economics: Presidential candidates slip on Econ 101 – Nov. 9, 2011. This is one of the things that has driven me (and lots and lots of other people) insane over the past few years. In almost literally econ 101 (my intro macro and micro classes in my MBA program), supply and demand and Keynesian principles [...]

what to do when students don’t want to learn

kaiyen — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:35:46 +0000

The strangest thing happened to me the other day while helping train some students on a collaboration suite we have at work. The professor had already explained that students would be working in teams, with their laptops, to develop the beginnings of a legal outline. They would use the software/hardware solution – powered by Tidebreak’s [...]

throwing a cement mixer

kaiyen — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:33:57 +0000

[Since I don't get to the definition very quickly...cement mixer curveball defined. I can't find video for it...] I’m a baseball fan. I would not say I’m a “hardcore” fan if only because I don’t have enough time to remember individual OBPS or WHIP for hitters or pitchers, respectively. I do know enough to know what [...]

sometimes you have to put baby in a corner

kaiyen — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:24:02 +0000

Lately, I’ve been either working with people who are less than enthusiastic about developing a meaningful rapport with myself and my department or have been affected by various issues that have made them less collaborative/cooperative. In general, I try to build relationships that will help out in the long-run. That will create allies, that will [...]

cybernudity

kaiyen — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:08:25 +0000

A while ago, I read an article describing what is commonly-called the “NetGen” or “Gen Y” (loosely defined as those born since 1982, though I don’t personally agree with that demarcation) as being very comfortable with “cybernudity.” In general, this means that those that have grown up with computers and the internet as everyday tools [...]

what do I really bring to the table?

kaiyen — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:00:45 +0000

A great many of us, I am willing to wager, want to believe that we are doing something meaningful in life. That whatever it is we do, it is making some kind of difference to someone. It is quite reasonable that the “someone” is one’s supervisor, by the way, and that the “meaning” is in [...]

Monterey College of Law Pilots iPad Programs for Students and Faculty — Campus Technology

kaiyen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:13:58 +0000

Monterey College of Law Pilots iPad Programs for Students and Faculty — Campus Technology. A professor here at the Law School forwarded this to me recently. He didn’t say anything in his message. He just sent the link. I guess I would have appreciated an attempt at something other than saying “I want an iPad [...]

IT is difficult

kaiyen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:50:50 +0000

FYI: I struggled with the title of this post for days. No matter what I did, I felt like I was writing something a 14-year-old would do and laugh about. Very sad. I often start my work-related posts with a qualification that I fully realize the difficulties that face university Central IT. I make my [...]

digital immigrants and natives – 2 way street

kaiyen — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:12:25 +0000

Over the past…7 years, there has been much talk of “digital natives.” Also known as Gen Y or the NetGen and broadly defined as those born after 1980 (though I like to think there are a few from, say, 1978 that, based on how that person was raised and interacted with technology, is more native [...]

half-assed Google products

kaiyen — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:20:01 +0000

[NB - As I have been writing and editing this post, Google already updated their Docs application suite to make it a bit more functional. I haven't done a lot of real-time editing with someone else so I don't know if it's any better, but the point is that this post might be irrelevant before [...]

Use a cell phone supporting 3 way calling to record audio interviews « Moving at the Speed of Creativity

kaiyen — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:58:39 +0000

Use a cell phone supporting 3 way calling to record audio interviews « Moving at the Speed of Creativity. I had never thought about using 3 way calling as a way of recording. Fascinating. Great example of rethinking how to use such a feature.

the disappearance of the life of IT folks..or not

kaiyen — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:35:27 +0000

One of the most common “issues” and topics of discussion among IT professionals in higher ed is our potential obsolescence in the face of the changing student population, the infusion of uncontrolled media, and non-university solutions for connection – IM, Facebook, etc. There are various articulations of this fear, but the gist is that because of all [...]

BBC News – Cisco shuts down Flip video camera business

kaiyen — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:33:33 +0000

BBC News – Cisco shuts down Flip video camera business. This is quite saddening. The Flip was a great idea and a great design. Yes, other cameras with similar form factor surpassed it fairly early on in terms of features, but everyone still had the Flip. We even use it for check out at work, [...]

stuck in an analog world

kaiyen — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:55:03 +0000

Last week, during my budget meeting, I got to “see” a great tool that our finance officer had put together. It was a spreadsheet, true, but anyone that has worked with really complex ones knows that a properly designed sheet that has every reference done just right and provides the right data is as valuable [...]

everyone’s got it all figured out. so why do we still have problems?

kaiyen — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:55:03 +0000

[needs some editing, but something I want to get out] I attended a rather interesting session today at the AJCU-CITM conference on the future of technology and how CIOs at today’s universities needed to respond. We had an article on Gartner’s Predictions for Technology Trends in 2011 addressing the “consumerization” of highly capable mobile technology necessitated a change [...]

the curve of the baylands

kaiyen — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:54:47 +0000

the curve of the baylands Originally uploaded by kaiyen This is the last, non-travel, just-because-I-like-photography photo I took. It’s from 2010, and last summer, at that. Almost 7 months ago. It’s not particularly impressive, to be honest. I like the colors in it, but the curve of the water didn’t turn out the way I [...]

ubiquitous computing: holy grail in reach

kaiyen — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:23:59 +0000

About…6 years ago, we used to make fun of our bosses because he always talked about “ubiquitous computing.” At the time, it was the catchphrase, and was thrown around like it meant something more than just this yet-to-be-realized utopian idea. The idea that computing technology (define that as you wish, but I think most people [...]

Energy Drinks, Even Without Alcohol, May Pose Risks For Youngsters : Shots – Health Blog : NPR

kaiyen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:08:28 +0000

Energy Drinks, Even Without Alcohol, May Pose Risks For Youngsters : Shots – Health Blog : NPR. I was just wondering about this today. I used some energy drinks when I was dealing with serious fatigue with my night MBA classes, but only then. And I have constantly wondered about the long-term effects of that [...]

online scholarship

kaiyen — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:43:52 +0000

The idea of online scholarship has come up quite a bit recently at work. By this, I mean that part of a scholar’s work must, in today’s world, be done online, or at least exposed online. So when you write an article, you tweet about it. You have and maintain a blog in which you [...]

it’s all in the words

kaiyen — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:06:52 +0000

I think that one’s choice of words can really say a lot about one’s perspective on many matters. One can certainly read too much into words – trying to get tone and meaning out of an e-mail is an invitation to disaster and misinterpretation (today, I decided against sending an e-mail and opted for a [...]

an olive branch turned into stifled innovation

kaiyen — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:27:32 +0000

Disclaimer: The Tech Steering Committee Innovation Grants offered by Santa Clara University are a terrific idea in support of those that have viable proposals to move teaching and learning forward. Without these grants, many projects could not even get off the ground. That these grants even exist at a smaller university is a testament to [...]

Jerry Brown’s budget cuts deep, looks to extend tax hikes, reshapes government| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times

kaiyen — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:16:09 +0000

Jerry Brown’s budget cuts deep, looks to extend tax hikes, reshapes government| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times. My first reaction to this is “what! cuts again! this is wrong, this cannot be tolerated this…etc.” And fundamentally that is my reaction. These budget cuts tend to hit education particularly hard (lobbyists just aren’t as strong, let’s [...]

false advertising and hiding the tracks

kaiyen — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:59:25 +0000

Usual disclaimer: IT groups at any university are faced with a tough challenge. Limited resources, usually not quite enough staff to manage too many enterprise-level type services, and a strong, legitimate desire to do things the right way that gets misread as slow response, lack of concern, and or a number of other negative opinions [...]

management and innovation

kaiyen — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:55:21 +0000

A while ago, I posted about how hard it is to be a manager. It was a kind of introspective, philosophical post rather than an in-depth analysis of management. I was doing an off-the-cuff look at the conflict between being a manager and a leader. The two are different, but unless you happen to have [...]

really, I do want to know more about you

kaiyen — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:41:53 +0000

Last weekend was my 10 year college reunion. I have to admit – I was really nervous leading up to the weekend. A little, utterly irrational part of me kept thinking something along the lines of: I’ve never left the bay area I don’t work at a start up or one of the “flashy” name [...]

EDUCAUSE_HULK SMASHES twitter

kaiyen — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:18:43 +0000

A superhero touched down at the Educause Annual Conference last week in Anaheim. Experiences were changed, Twitter was twisted, and everyone was asking… “Who is Educause_Hulk????’ At this year’s Educause Annual Conference, held last week in Anaheim, I got to witness something that, realistically, doesn’t happen all that often anymore. I got to see an existing [...]

In Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks – NYTimes.com

kaiyen — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:18:52 +0000

In Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks – NYTimes.com. I hav to admit that this really surprised me. I have been looking into electronic textbooks for the law school environment. All a part of the move into mobile computing, the rise of the iPad, etc. But this article kid of turns that whole [...]

edupunking law school, part 1

kaiyen — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:35:01 +0000

After a long hiatus from this blog, during which I was basically swamped at work, I return to the idea of how to redefine or perhaps restructure law school to make better use of its faculty, give more to the student, and get away from the traditional models of revenue and federal aid reliance. I [...]

Your touchscreen phone is a petri dish « Boy Genius Report

kaiyen — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:58:59 +0000

Your touchscreen phone is a petri dish « Boy Genius Report.

Obama Job Strategy Backs Two-Year College Funding, Attacks Republican Cuts – Bloomberg

kaiyen — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:41:13 +0000

Obama Job Strategy Backs Two-Year College Funding, Attacks Republican Cuts – Bloomberg. Okay – so I don’t want to comment on the political part of this – not now, at least. Just about everyone has the education system messed up right now. But Obama’s support of community colleges? Bravo.

Go watch The Social Network next week « Boy Genius Report

kaiyen — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:02:53 +0000

Go watch The Social Network next week « Boy Genius Report. I have to say that I have been very torn about Social Network. On the one hand, Facebook, the company, is right here, I have so many friends (well, 5 or 6) that work for them, and I am a little sick of hearing [...]

the conundrum of the blogger

kaiyen — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:31:57 +0000

I have been a very frustrated blogger lately. First, I haven’t been blogging lately at all, so that title might be in jeopardy. Since one becomes a blogger by blogging, it is a title that one bestows upon one’s self by fiat, and…is therefore not much of a title. So I am in jeopardy of [...]

a funny thing

kaiyen — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:19:56 +0000

Something a bit odd happened earlier today. An e-mail had gone out to various senior members of the law school that came from one of the school staff but looked a bit fishy. Had some elements of unsolicited spam in it – “Have you heard the latest on..” and “the biggest scam you’ll find [...]

management

kaiyen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:17:57 +0000

Some things have bad timing. A critical decision, an important meeting, a message that must be sent, a mission that must be clarified. Rarely is there a good time for such things. But we do not get to choose the timing of when we must do that which is our responsibility. That which is the [...]

how do I title this?

kaiyen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:52:21 +0000

I just came back from a concert. Where someone committed suicide. He leapt from the building that serves as the backdrop to the stage, landing just feet away from the lead of The Swell Season. I thought i should spend time thinking about this before posting. Before writing. But this post is about my reactions, [...]

i can’t be the only smart one here…

kaiyen — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:23:38 +0000

quite an ostentatious title, I know. But if you will humor me… Twice in the last 5 business days, I have discovered problems of which Central IT was not aware. Last week, I passed along information that several law school staff and faculty received almost no e-mail over the weekend and that most had almost [...]

edupunking law school

kaiyen — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:50:33 +0000

I have been reading a book called DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education on my kindle. I’m fairly familiar with the overall Edupunk movement, which has primarily focused on moving away from commercial, enterprise level (and therefore expensive) solutions and towards a more DIY, open-source kind of environment. But this [...]

if I were president…

kaiyen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:31:08 +0000

For a university, that is, looking to cut costs in a world where we spend more and more each year to meet basic expectations. Far too long ago, I hypothesized a scenario where a university might choose to outsource strategic decision-making on technology. Let me clarify exactly what it is to which I am referring [...]

outsourcing ourselves

kaiyen — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:36:32 +0000

here’s a thought: why not outsource IT strategy? I’m not talking about IT infrastructure or tools. I don’t mean using Amazon EC2 for computing power or S3 for storage, much less Google Apps for Education. I’m not talking about outsourcing specific services. I mean outsourcing the actual decision-making process that drives our services and overall strategy. I [...]

litl :: webbook – great product, stupid return policy

kaiyen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:00:36 +0000

litl :: webbook. This seems like a great alternative to a netbook, laptop, and the iPad. Bigger screen than a netbook or iPad, smaller footprint than a laptop, and it does crazy flip-over-backwards action, with HDMI out for a TV, and runs on linux. For less than the basic iPad (but no, it does not [...]

dear university…

kaiyen — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:30:27 +0000

Dear University General Counsel,* I write to ask you to help foster an environment of creativity, innovation, and to engage us in how to push the envelope, rather than present to us the dimensions of said container and the strength of the glue that keeps contents within. I ask that you consider how important innovation [...]

the Groupwise to Google experiment (part 3)

kaiyen — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:40:44 +0000

As I’ve described in two previous posts on my efforts to use Google rather than Groupwise for work e-mail and calendaring (1 & 2), as a connection point for my Android phone, I have run into a lot of interesting behaviors. I’ve had challenges and successes. Right now, I have Groupwise set up to straight [...]

deeply misunderstood…or stuck in a professional rut

kaiyen — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:10:17 +0000

I read through a post by a friend who has been struck by the changes between working at a start-up and now in academia. I, in turn, have been thinking a lot about whether I’ve been painting myself into a professional corner. Making myself irrelevant to the rest of the working world… About 4 or [...]

the limits of outsourcing

kaiyen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:26:25 +0000

In my last post, about approaching outsourcing in higher education from a strategic view that goes beyond simple cost savings or privacy concerns, I talked about how outsourcing should either lower costs, increase value, or do both in order to help an organization develop and maintain a competitive advantage. Defining competitive advantage in higher education [...]

next in higher ed: outsourcing as strategy

kaiyen — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:53:41 +0000

A hot topic for some time now in Higher Education is outsourcing. Generally, this has taken the form of using Google for e-mail. In fact, other than a handful that use Microsoft’s live@edu for e-mail…I can’t think of anyone else doing anything through outsourcing. No storage, no running of Exchange in the cloud, etc. Having [...]

Apple on iPhone complaints: Youre holding it wrong – CNN.com

kaiyen — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:44:54 +0000

Apple on iPhone complaints: Youre holding it wrong – CNN.com. There is no love lost between myself and the Steve Jobs Megalomaniacal empire at the moment. But this is even more stupid than usual for that loose-mouthed, consumer-be-damned moron.

managing by exceptions == anarchy

kaiyen — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:20:03 +0000

Recently, it seems like all I ever hear is how, because there is such great certainty that students or other customers will just break the rules anyway, we should plan for the exceptions, rather than modify and/or enforce actual policy. For instance, since we know that students routinely share account information with each other, we [...]

the new (scarier?) conservative

kaiyen — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:36:59 +0000

The front page of the San Francisco Chronicle a few days back included a story about Carly Fiorina’s bid to oust Barbara Boxer as one of the US Senators from California. Actually, the article is more about how Carla is part of a “new” breed of pro-woman, pro-life voters. This article struck me for a [...]

Does Fiscal Austerity Reassure Markets? – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com

kaiyen — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:14:47 +0000

Does Fiscal Austerity Reassure Markets? – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com. My favorite line from this article is the last one: “But hey, what are you going to believe: what everyone knows, or your own lying eyes?” Krugman spends all this time basically analyzing whether it’s a good time to move away from deficit spending [...]

the land of the lost

kaiyen — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:28:49 +0000

Some organizations are monolithic and distant. Huge, hulking, single-minded set of drones that present an impenetrable barrier to two-way communication. Messages within are often top-down. Big Brother tells you what to do, and all you have is a memory hole at hand. Should messages be top-down, from the organization but emanating out to the rest of [...]

pissing off one group at a time

kaiyen — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:46:38 +0000

With my recent graduation from business school, many colleagues, peers, friends, and family have been asking me what’s next, and how work is going. They kind of go hand in hand (though a negative answer to the latter doesn’t mean that I’m rushing forward to something in the former). At work, the biggest development has [...]

Android gains web marketshare at expense of iOS « Boy Genius Report

kaiyen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:51:52 +0000

Android gains web marketshare at expense of iOS « Boy Genius Report. Eric Schmidt celebrates by running over an ATT cell tower…

fighting complacency

kaiyen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:57:57 +0000

I had a conversation with a classmate of mine recently, discussing various issues of interest at our school, the university at large, and educational technology in general. We quickly moved from the specific – technology that we have seen implemented ourselves – to the general. We spoke, essentially, about how one must approach educational technology. [...]

the endless pursuit of…complacency

kaiyen — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:54:29 +0000

This is a post about differing perspectives on technology and support of student learning here at SCU, so I must preface things a bit. Any administrator at any academic institution, especially in “these tough economic times” (a phrase that I am so sick of…yet I use here in this post) has to make tough decisions [...]

tips for Capstone

kaiyen — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:12:55 +0000

In my recent review of Michael Fern, my professor in the final course in the MBA program (known as Capstone), I mentioned a few tips on surviving the class. I thought they might merit a post on their own. So here they are… 6 person teams – The most important part of the entire class, [...]

where is Apple going?

kaiyen — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:11:36 +0000

Companies compete on the basis of cost or value advantage over other products. Either they make a product at a lower cost than competitors (often at the expense of value), or they offer more value (which is measurable to an extent, but is more than just the difference in willingness to pay or WTP). A [...]

see what has become of Bill Jobs. I mean Steve Gates. I mean…

kaiyen — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:24:36 +0000

Maybe a week ago, the market capitalization of Apple exceeded that of Microsoft for the first time in history, dislodging the latter from the lofty perch that it has held for years and years. To me, the significance of this is more about a “popularity bubble” that I think Apple is experiencing. There are a [...]

Review: Michael Fern, Management, Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business

kaiyen — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:23:58 +0000

Management 619: Something or Other but known as: CAPSTONE At a glance 3 unit course offered every quarter but summer Workload: Ridiculously Heavy Teaching Style: Discussion, case-based Interest in students: Very High Relevance to outside world: Ridiculously High Overall Professor Rating: 4.5 Overall Course Rating: 5 Note: Since this is the last required course in [...]

BP Increased Oil-Capture Rate to 10,500 Barrels a Day Update3 – BusinessWeek

kaiyen — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:57:25 +0000

BP Increased Oil-Capture Rate to 10,500 Barrels a Day Update3 – BusinessWeek. About 1/2 way into this article, the COO of Exploration and Production at BP says that they hope to capture “90-plus percent of this flow.” I realize that by now they must know to be a bit safer in their estimates, but in [...]

Higher Ed Tech Talk: OMG the OS is the Internet

kaiyen — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:52:55 +0000

[link removed because 1) it was a while ago and 2) don't want to piss off the original poster....] A short time after the iPad came out, someone at another university (a CIO, I think) posted that “OMG, the Internet is the OS!” The gist is that he had a revelation that with such a [...]

the Groupwise to Google experiment (part 2)

kaiyen — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:25:03 +0000

So back in part 1 of this experiment, which was quite a while ago, my goal was to see whether I could effectively use Google mail, calendar and contacts as a direct replacement for Novell Groupwise, which we use at Santa Clara. ”Effectively” doesn’t mean that all of a sudden all of my e-mails come [...]

thoughts on Specter

kaiyen — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:24:53 +0000

Yesterday, “Democratic” Senator Arlen Specter lost in his state’s primary to a Tea-Party-affiliated (the line between Tea Party and anti-establishment is blurry, IMO, especially when you consider that it was founded on opposition to the ARRA stimulus package, specifically). This is a bit of a tough situation to really assess, but is nonetheless important. First, Specter has [...]

a stadium for santa clara…

kaiyen — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:07:25 +0000

Measure J here in Santa Clara in the upcoming fall elections covers the building of a new sports stadium in the city. This would be the new home to the 49′ers, a well-known, established football team with a loyal following that would certainly come down the peninsula for games just as they currently head up [...]

Adobe Upgrades Software to Help Defend Against Apple (Update1) – BusinessWeek

kaiyen — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:19:46 +0000

The article linked at the bottom of this post is a more balanced version of what I’ve read on sites like boygenius report, which was much more anti-Apple. I will look for the little tidbit that Adobe’s CTO wrote later, too, which is quite interesting. The two quoted sections below frame the entire discussion, I [...]

Conan O’Brien to Host Talk Show on Time Warner’s TBS (Update1) – BusinessWeek

kaiyen — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:07:58 +0000

Conan O’Brien to Host Talk Show on Time Warner’s TBS (Update1) – BusinessWeek. I am still upset with NBC for the way they handled the entire Conan situation, and will not watch any episode of Leno ever. So while I am sad to see Conan go to TBS (they don’t yet have a established record [...]

the GroupWise to Google Experiment (Part 1)

kaiyen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:02:05 +0000

So the university at which I work uses Novell’s suite of applications for e-mail, calendaring, systems management, and storage. For a while now, I have been contemplating how to stop using the GroupWise (e-mail and calendar) client, which is terrible on a Mac, and move to a different set of tools. At the same time, [...]

Apple Tastes Own Medicine, Gets Sued For Multi-Touch | Android Phone Fans

kaiyen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:25:01 +0000

Apple Tastes Own Medicine, Gets Sued For Multi-Touch | Android Phone Fans. Dear Apple: Suck it. Sincerely, Someone that truly likes your products and design emphasis but thinks you’re way too arrogant.

Novell bets on Google Wave to replace its struggling GroupWise platform « Boy Genius Report

kaiyen — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:21:30 +0000

Novell bets on Google Wave to replace its struggling GroupWise platform « Boy Genius Report. This is one of the most…amazing things I’ve read in a while. I would normally say “exciting” because it is also that. But it’s so exciting that it’s amazing. I won’t lie – I’m not a big fan of Groupwise, [...]

the sanctity of our electronic data…

kaiyen — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:59:39 +0000

NB and caveat: I say “we” a lot in this post. I do not mean the “we” that is my organization and/or the university at which I work. I mean academia in general. There has been a lot of debate – everywhere, but especially in academia – about outsourcing. Lately, this has been e-mail. The [...]

why not blame apple?

kaiyen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:18:30 +0000

This is a post I started…a while ago so it’s sad that I’m only getting to it now. Anyway… Over the last few months at the viral and national marketing level, there has been a “war” going on about ATT’s 3G coverage. This has been fueled mostly by disgruntled iPhone users that aren’t getting the [...]

I used to day dream

kaiyen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:55:27 +0000

Now I merely fantasize. No, I don’t mean anything like that. Get your mind out of the gutter. Before, I used to day dream, at least occasionally, about other schools calling me up someday asking how we (and, arrogantly, I) had managed to do something really cool. About being asked to deliver a keynote at [...]

Amazon is dead. Wait. No it’s not.

kaiyen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:41:56 +0000

Amazon’s stronghold on e-book pricing crumbles, will renegotiate with Macmillan and HarperCollins « Boy Genius Report. There has been so much talk about how the iPad and iBooks store has been destroying Amazon. Specifically, its ability to negotiate rock-bottom (and below-cost) prices for ebooks because they had such a dominant position in the field with [...]

Review: Judith White, Management, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

kaiyen — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:19:52 +0000

Management 713: Introduction to Sustainable Development At a glance 1 unit course first offered Fall 2009 Workload: Heavy final paper Teaching Style: Discussion Interest in students: High Relevance to outside world: High Overall Professor Rating: 2 (though this might be because this was the first time the course was offered) Overall Course Rating: 3 (should [...]

foreground

kaiyen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:12:51 +0000

foreground Originally uploaded by kaiyen There is a really great spot north of the Golden Gate Bridge, to the eastern side, that offers a really spectacular view that is not photographed nearly as often as from, say, the Marin Headlands. Not that it’s inaccessible or anything. It’s on the grounds of Fort Baker. This particular [...]

Google fights the man…again

kaiyen — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:38:14 +0000

Google phone to be called ‘Nexus One,’ will not be sold through carriers | ITworld Personally, I don’t think this is a good idea by Google at all. It’s not like ATT or Verizon have not crippled phone features in the past in order to make them more…compatible with their networks. VoIP? Oh bad…bad idea…

more thoughts on Google diaspora

kaiyen — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:19:18 +0000

A few days ago, I wrote about my thoughts on how Google is going nowhere in particular, and everywhere in general. I was being generally being pretty fair about it, but the fact is that with all the power and personnel that Google has, why are there still so many items disconnected? No integration, having [...]

Review: Hiking around Bishop’s Peak in San Luis Obispo, CA

kaiyen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:22:53 +0000

On a sunny late morning in mid September, I set off towards Bishop’s Peak in San Luis Obispo, which is a decent-sized hill/mountain/whatever featuring a number of trails up, down, and around. Most start off pretty steeply, then either fall off or, if you’re headed to the peak, almost 1800 feet higher in elevation from the [...]

Giant iceberg heading towards Australia – CNN.com

kaiyen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:33:38 +0000

Giant iceberg heading towards Australia – CNN.com. This is pretty bonkers. Not only is the satellite photo that shows the iceberg…kind of boggling, but check out these quotes: “We pulled out the binoculars that we use for work on the seals and, sure enough, it was a huge floating island of ice So…they could see [...]

The myth of “faux friends” « Feral Librarian

kaiyen — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:01:35 +0000

The myth of “faux friends” « Feral Librarian. Another excellent post from Chris on the topic of the “destruction” of real friends and friendships because of Facebook and other sites. What steams me about this is that…this is an article that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education. There are a lot of dumb people [...]

does anyone know where google is going next?

kaiyen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:22:16 +0000

Honestly, does anyone have any clue as to what google is doing, or what its priorities are in terms of products and services? There, I got to the point. So now allow me to preface…I know that Google is working on a ton of things at once and that none of them are easy. It’s [...]

Review: Hiking at Los Osos Oaks State Preserve (CA Central Coast)

kaiyen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:04:16 +0000

While visiting my wife at her workplace down in Templeton, in California’s Central Coast region, I took some time to do some hiking. First stop was the Los Osos Oaks State Preserve, which might actually be in Morro Bay rather than Los Osos. It’s pretty close, I think. Quite accessible from the Templeton/Paso Robles/Atascadero area – [...]

get to the point!

kaiyen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:23:37 +0000

After thinking a great deal about the way in which I write, and the sequence of ideas that precede the manner in which I put words to “paper,” I have come to the conclusion that I need to work harder on how I write. I think that I need to focus on getting to the [...]

what is a “disruptive technology?”

kaiyen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:47:03 +0000

The other night and throughout Educause, people have been talking about “disruptive technologies.” Because I’m getting my MBA, I think back to disruptive technologies in terms of products and markets. For instance, the transistor was a disruptive technology. However, many manufacturers of radios considered it a process change – they put them in their existing, big [...]

google apps…and what the heck is wave?

kaiyen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:32:39 +0000

So far, after just 1 day at Educause (and pre-conference day, actually), there has been quite a bit of talk about campuses that have gone with Google Apps for Education, and about their latest product, Google Wave. The talks about Google Apps have gone in 2 parts, it seems. 1 – migration to e-mail was [...]

the oppression of the iPhone

kaiyen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:32:01 +0000

Here at Educause 2009 in Denver, I’m finding myself once again feeling left out because I don’t have an iPhone. An application with all of the program information (you don’t have to pick up one of the paper booklets, perhaps) is available, and everyone I talk to just keeps asking me if I have an [...]

grass

kaiyen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:23:26 +0000

grass Originally uploaded by kaiyen It’s funny how one can get so bored with the same thing that he or she starts seeing it in whole new ways. As I’ve mentioned before, I walk to and from work most days. I bring the camera along, but I have also mentioned before that it’s not exactly [...]

obsolecense of my…coffee maker?

kaiyen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:35:55 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write about how the commoditization of so many different things that we use on a daily basis has changed our expectations of reliability. For instance, I find myself thinking that if I get a good 4 years out of something, then that’s amazing. Even with cars, I think of something 5 [...]

teach me how to fish

kaiyen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:22:51 +0000

Mere moments ago, I was meeting with some of the administration at the business school where I am pursuing my MBA, and found myself stunned by a statement. For the most part, I am very happy with my education here. Most of the faculty I’ve had have been very solid to great most of the [...]

preaching to the choir, making us not want to go to church

kaiyen — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:31:39 +0000

I am taking a class right now about developing sustainable products and methods in business. This goes from management to organizational design. On the face, it is an extremely interesting topic and I applaud the SCU Business School for having a course dedicated just to this topic. Unfortunately, it’s a terribly-designed course. First, while it [...]