Disqus - Latest Comments for glenpiper

Re: Public Enemy Number One | Intellectual Takeout

Glen Piper — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 13:15:02 -0000

Not able to get that tenure-track position, eh?
Higher-Ed is a tough business that's only going to get tougher as the contraction continues.
That said, being an adjunct doesn't necessarily confer legitimacy or primacy in debate.

Re: 4 Surprising Perks To Marrying In Your Twenties

Glen Piper — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 14:11:57 -0000

Me 22, her 19, 27 years later still together & going strong.

The author brings up many good points, none better than those of mutual support & growing/building shared history together. While the divorce rate is always going to be the divorce rate, if you go into it with the mindset that marriage is not temporary or disposable, and that it's something that's well worth the hard work & constant attention that it's going to require, then there's nothing better than having that partner who's always there for you.

Re: Huawei Mate 9 International Giveaway!

Glen Piper — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 11:53:21 -0000

Looks interesting. Would be fun to use it and see.

Re: Survivor Millennials vs Gen X ends with highs and lows

Glen Piper — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 13:36:38 -0000

I was really disappointed by how things broke away from Hannah & towards Adam. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, I thought Adam was maneuvering things around well enough to merit the win against anyone; however, that slowly changed as the endgame progressed. David was David (strong/good enough to wiggle & make the moves necessary to be "lucky"), Ken was Ken (below radar, win challenges, and LOYAL to/tight with the right people), but most importantly, Hannah was Hannah -- She kept growing & manipulating, deftly moving pieces when they needed to be moved, and always seeming to get Adam on the wrong side of big votes.

At final tribal, she did the best job, IMO, of explaining -- **really explaining** -- just how & why she did what she did. She laid waste to Adam's claims that she made strategic blunders (in his efforts to suck up to jury members).

The three biggest takeaways I had from Final Tribal: 1) Zeke was wrong: Things have not "evolved" that much & the tenor of the jury (however bitter they weren't) proves that; 2) Hannah carried the day in terms of objective arguments & reasons why she played the best game & deserved the win (Ken had the 2nd best argument, but didn't make it effectively enough from what we were shown - or the jury just wouldn't listen! - and Adam's argument just melted under the examination lights of final tribal); and 3) Adam guaranteed his win, but lost some respect IMO, by letting the jury in on his motivation ON THE VERY LAST ANSWER GIVEN TO THE JURY. A great personal arc/narrative to be sure, made even better by the PRIVATE sharing with Jay & keeping it under wraps from everyone else (i.e., not trying to exploit it for game play). Again IMO, his very compelling non-gameplay narrative simply overwhelmed the jury's ability to vote for anyone else (notice that there was no Reunion checking of votes to see what might have been different if Jay/Bret/some other combo had been in play -- sure it was a sweep, but it couldn't be touched as a topic, else it would ruin the narrative and/or ruin the optics for someone).

While it's certainly a great story, and it's a fitting end to the narrative arc (not to mention emotionally satisfying for Adam, his father & brother, and all the viewers), and it's by no means the first/last/worst time that the best/more deserving objective/strategic player hasn't won, it did leave me a little unsettled.

Re: Fun Sheldon News!

Glen Piper — Tue, 31 May 2016 13:31:57 -0000

Outstanding!!! It's about time that Arthur... er, *you* got the recognition you deserve!

Re: What Professional Sports Can Learn From Ninjas

Glen Piper — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:54:13 -0000

Agreed; there aren't that many, but they still exist. You originally stated that "Those days are gone.", asking "when was the last time you saw a "chubby white guy" playing baseball?" John Kruk may have retired, but his body-type progeny are still finding ways to stay relevant & play in today's game...

Re: What Professional Sports Can Learn From Ninjas

Glen Piper — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 14:41:49 -0000

Agree on the awesomeness that is ANW; however AOHenry, I must offer up Joba Chamberlain as an example of a "chubby white guy" playing ball these days, having done so with the Yankees & my Tigers since about 2007.

Re: reality blurred is 14 today; watch for big changes soon

Glen Piper — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:18:27 -0000

Happy Birthday to Reality Blurred & Congrats to Andy on running the best RealityTV site on the 'net! Can't wait to see the redesign & whatever else the future holds for RB!

Re: 6 Things I Learned While Looking For A Job

Glen Piper — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:30:00 -0000

Top notch! Tracks nicely with what I've been working through during the past 8-9 months, after getting laid off from higher ed after 12 years at the same institution. A fellow X-er, I've learned that it can be even tougher if one has been working in middle management after having made the Dilbertian bargain to become a generalist after starting out as more of a hands-on tech "doer". Even when much good work has been done (and acknowledged) during the time as a middle management factotum, the "less-with-more" mantra/mindset's obsession with "working managers" makes the plight of the "leader-generalist" manager even more difficult when it comes to finding a new gig & starting over.

Re: Stripped on MSNBC!

Glen Piper — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 17:25:47 -0000

Outstanding interview, Dave! I can barely contain my excitement at the impending arrival of _Stripped_'s dowload link in my inbox, even more so now that I've seen the little tease from the interview clip!

Re: Mailbox Monday #51

Glen Piper — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 13:00:00 -0000

That's *very* interesting news about the No 18 top spiral bound Rhodias! I'll have to be on the lookout for when those come back, as I've settled on the "regular" top bound No 18s as my notebooks of choice. (to soak up all the ink from the pens/nibs that I've purchased from GouletPens.com, natch!) ;^)

Re: Online Giveaway: Kaweco Sport 3 Pen Set Sponsored by Fontoplumo

Glen Piper — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:05:07 -0000

The yellow, I believe...

Re: Alarm Tunes 2 Is Here And We Have Some Copies To Give Away

Glen Piper — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:58:47 -0000

I'm always up for trying a new clock app...

Re: Top 10 best alternative Twitter apps for iPhone and iPad

Glen Piper — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:40:33 -0000

TwitRocker2!

Re: Win WrestleMania DVDs and other Tough Enough swag + reality blurred

Glen Piper — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:35:00 -0000

I'd like to win b/c I'm a fan of both pro wrestling and reality blurred. And also, because Stone Cold said so!

Re: Was The iPad Predicted In 1994? (Video)

Glen Piper — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:18:55 -0000

Love the PowerBook Duo & Duo Dock, with portrait display on the director guy's desk!

Re: Is the iPad really what students need?

Glen Piper — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:58:28 -0000

While you bring up some good points, I think that the iPad is *precisely* the type of device that is needed for general student use. Granted, my experience comes from 15+ years on the end-user support side of the higher-ed house, along with being a gadget/gear-head & Apple fanboy, so my perspective is just a touch different than yours, Robert...

Re: point #1, what the iPad brings to the part for textbooks is the integration with searching, linking, & interactivity, esp. for examples. Many of the textbook publishers have been putting their content online & in their own CMS-like systems; if Apple can co-opt that, & leverage the iPad into the mix, then the student has a very compelling device at their fingertips. Also compelling is the promise of app developers to write apps that allow students to interact during classtime, as well as hooking into CMSes in intuitive new ways.

Re: point #2 - *Some* students need computers that bring high-horsepower functionality to the table. All students need textbooks, communications, CMS, etc. Certain disciplines need specialized subsets of high-horsepower computing power (e.g., design, programming/engineering, scientific modeling, etc...). However, discipline-specific requirements have always been the case, so such being the case now shouldn't be held against the iPad as a solution for the wider issue. The iPad is not, and never has been, positioned as a replacement for "full-blown" computers - i.e., it's not meant to do all things well; rather, it's meant to do a narrow subset of things very well. In the ed market, it looks like that subset will include: content delivery, communications, & TBD (depending on app development)...

Re: point #3 - I agree. I think the iPad will help the transition/move away from static textbooks.

Re: Budgets & software "currency" - this is something I deal with on a daily basis (part of the day job is running campus software licensing & provisioning the academic software load...). Budgeting to keep things current is definitely a challenge (almost as challenging as keeping everything playing together nicely is for my techs!). Honestly, though, what keeps us running "outdated" software more often than not, is the fact that textbooks tend to lag behind a bit (or, at least, my faculty's adoption of new textbooks lags behind... ;^) ).

A last point to keep in mind, re: the iPad's place, esp. wrt the question of "Is it a replacement for a 'real' computer?". In order to get a new iPad up & running after buying it, you need to connect it to a computer running iTunes. Iow, it's not positioned in the market as someone's only computer; rather, it's a low(er) cost device that is meant to augment one's work/school/overall life by doing certain tasks in new, efficient, effective, and fun ways.

And that's pretty cool!

Re: Apple customer service

Glen Piper — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:26:33 -0000

First, that's been happening a *lot* with Time Capsules - it seems to be an all-to-common thing, this dying right at the 18 month mark. I gotta think that they'll figure it out...

Second, I've been pleased myself with AppleCare recently, as they've been great in handling some problems with my iPhone. 9 months old and the iPhone just died. AppleCare rep talked me through the normal stuff (working in IT, I have a low tolerance for crappy support attitude & processes...), listened to me, and then set up my appt at the nearest Apple Store. There, they swapped it out for a new ("refurb" - looked like new & could've been new...) iPhone. Less than a week later, the new phone developed a dead pixel. One call to AppleCare & a visit to the Apple Store later, they swapped out the screen/display for a new one. Color me *very* impressed with Apple's customer support processes...

Re: The Great Bible Giveaway

Glen Piper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:02:57 -0000

You can't win if you don't enter.
You can't enter if you don't comment.
So, I'll comment already...
;^)

Re: Not dead yet

Glen Piper — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:39:45 -0000

True dat.

I've got some photos I need to process, both from around Holly's first birthday, and then from a recent weekend when Holly & Hammie helped us dog-sit a 9 month old, 60 lb. Boxer puppy. That was an interesting 26 hours at Schloß TB! ;)

Re: Not dead yet

Glen Piper — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:35:43 -0000

You rock, Frank -- even for one of them backwards North Cackalackians! ;) (Haute South, indeed! Though I do miss me some pulled pig & sweet tea...) That you're down there doing battle in the SWD gives hope, Frank, 'cause I know from my 12 years down there just how bad it was, and I can only imagine what's gone down in the past 7 years...

Re: Not dead yet

Glen Piper — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:21:07 -0000

I know what you mean. I can't stay away from it myself (obviously...).

Re: Autumn or Fall?

Glen Piper — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:45:38 -0000

I agree. I've always preferred Autumn, if only because it sounds better/more literate. Problem is, it also can sound a bit more pretentious. But I'm generally ok with that, as I like to use the big words I spent my parents' money to learn over all those years in school. ;^)

Re: Reunion Day - pt. 1

Glen Piper — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:31:33 -0000

Yep, that would, indeed, be the place.

Re: The title goes here

Glen Piper — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:07:51 -0000

Thanks TK, I appreciate that. I always try to be honest in what I write here, though sometimes I know I err too far on the side of smart-assedness. In all seriousness, though, it's a tough line, being honest while not (unnecessarily) antagonizing or being offensive. It makes the writer's job much more difficult, even as it ends up making the reader's job more pleasant.