As a main component of my masters program I decided to take an independent study route for three credits. The result was a 43 page report titled "Health Care Operations Management from an Industrial Engineering Perspective". To introduce the motivations and brief lessons, the following is from the report's conclusion.

While the issues rage on in health care, like any other political issue, I still have faith in the process. One of the most gratifying aspects of industrial engineering is that improvement can be found in any system, and the process of searching, analyzing and solving problems is a continuous cycle. The acknowledgement of this process eliminates the hope of a hero solution and that the future relies on only one decision.

Read

http://dropoutnation.net/ http://viniciusvacanti.com/2010/11/01/6-things-you-need-to-learn-to-build-your-own-prototype/ Watch

Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/ http://blog.ted.com/2012/08/21/the-20-most-watched-ted-talks-to-date/

Overview of Hadoop in six parts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8DRKd4SKWo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQOKOl6lKJM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNzvkS5MrGU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77BdUwF

An article from the New York Times has been making some waves in my online circles in the last week. I disregarded the article as a provocative rant of retired academic who gets to publish his nonsense by the weight of his resumé. However, reaction commentary continued all week from various sources but they all suffer from permanent academia syndrome.

Links

Google I/O 2011: Learning to Love JavaScript - YouTube.com SQL vs NoSQL in Google App Engine - YouTube.com Chrome Packaged Apps - code.google.com Books

How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes - Peter D. Schiff, Andrew J.

I write quite a bit of stuff about college. It has been almost ten years since high school and I can just see the light at the end of my education tunnel. My journey has been long due to a number of choices and mistakes. I would classify many of my mistakes as a result of bad/non-existent advice and ill defined goals and objectives. Ten years and now I "think" (hope) I have them figured out. Today I read educationismylife.com/go-to-college/. I felt it lacked constructive elements. The post sought to address the problem of unemployed, educated youth and restructure its cause not from economic circumstances, but to the sub-optimal decision making process in choosing university/college as the next step from high school. It mentions the monetary reward of skilled-labour occupations like welding and how well it competes in earning power versus a four year engineering graduate. The post also mentions the dilemma between dreams and reality when it comes to career aspirations. I as well wanted to build spaceships early on but have learned valuable lessons in compromising dreams and reality on my way to an industrial engineering degree. The post has good ideas but is short and lacks coherence. It however, is a great catalyst for my thinking process and I have devised a framework that could have helped me produce a more practical and efficient education strategy coming out of high school.

Source: MIT/Harvard - edX Source: Stanford/Princeton/Other - Coursera MIT and Harvard just launched their online education network. Within the last year Princeton and Stanford launched theirs. Both harness cheap online networking technology to beam lectures to computer screens, host communication forums and automate standard examinations. This is all very cool. Knowledge has always had a free and open privilege to it, that is harder to collect these days with rising tuition and decreasing degree utility (read: no jobs). So I ask the question? Is this a new movement or just a reinvention?

Source: NYtimes - Bruni: The Imperiled Promise of College

I have less educatedly written on this topic and its nice too see I am not too crazy.

My Talking Points:

Discussion of the gap between the outcomes of people of the 60s/70s/80s, and the kids (me) of the 00s/10s. How the old "just get there" college mentality is somewhat responsible for people picking low prospect majors.

Blog - Education is My Life

Blog - Paul Zizka Photography

News - Hacker News

Video - BigThink

Search - MillionShort

I have asked this question. These answers are funny and maybe true.

Source: http://pixelstech.net/article/index.php?id=1335686357

Recently I saw somebody asked a question in a forum, the question is "Which programming language should I learn first?". Then someone answered this question. His answer:

Depends.

To program in an expressive and powerful language: Python To get a website up quickly: PHP To mingle with programmers who call themselves “rockstars”: Ruby. To really learn to program: C.

Cue Doorbell. I flick on outdoor lights and open the door. A cute college girl in jean shorts, cowboy boots and red lipstick stands on the other side. In my head I am thinking what kind of scam is it this time. I frequently get college types selling magazines for "college scholarship points" or some amazing stain remover that you have to buy now cause they are leaving tomorrow to scalp the next town on the list. It is hard for me to not listen to their spiel, especially when they are easy on the eyes. "Is this Erica's house?" "I am sorry, it is not." "Argh, I can't seem to get the right one. Sorry to bother you." "No problem, have a good night." I close the door as she walks away down the driveway and begins a phone call. I leave the yard lights on as ladies don't feel safe tromping around in the dark. The deadbolt clicks into place and I go to resume reading a book. I can't concentrate. This thing breaks up my evening solitude in the most unexpected way.
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