Today In College Football Programs Setting Money On Fire: Clemson Has A Giant Slide

If you think college football players should be paid real money for their labor, then I’ve got one question for you, tough guy: Where’s the money to pay them with going to come from, huh?

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If you think college football players should be paid real money for their labor, then I’ve got one question for you, tough guy: Where’s the money to pay them with going to come from, huh?

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Kristaps Porzingis Was Ready To Scrap

The Knicks took on the Suns last night, and despite losing this matchup of dysfunctional defenses, Kristaps Porzingis posted 34 points (including a perfect 4-of-4 from the arc), eight rebounds, three blocks, three steals, and the feistiest moment of his brief career. In the third quarter, Porzingis stumbled over a defender and was intentionally flung to the ground by the Suns’ Marquese Chriss. He did not take that lightly:

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The Knicks took on the Suns last night, and despite losing this matchup of dysfunctional defenses, Kristaps Porzingis posted 34 points (including a perfect 4-of-4 from the arc), eight rebounds, three blocks, three steals, and the feistiest moment of his brief career. In the third quarter, Porzingis stumbled over a defender and was intentionally flung to the ground by the Suns’ Marquese Chriss. He did not take that lightly:

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The Case of the Main Website (Part 1)

Recently I was asked to join a committee at work regarding the creation of an intranet site.  This was an idea that had been smoldering for a little while around campus, but came to the fore with the redesign of the main website.  It’s an event I had seen before.

Previously it was a slightly older design with the page divided into sections as was the style at the time.  The new redesign is now more in vogue with current aesthetics, with a large background picture and different parts scrolling in the foreground over top.  It looks nice, it’s hip, it’s in-fashion, but it hasn’t proved all that functional for those of us already on campus.

This event begs the question:  Exactly who is the target audience for educational institution’s main website?  In times past, the root site was seen as a first stop for those on and off campus, whether they were affiliated or not with the institution.  It contained information for prospective students, parents, alumni, and the like, but also had links for current members of the community to internal resources.  It was one site to serve dual roles, but is that what it should be for?

With the rise of the Internet to something we all use and take for granted, the focus what a main website should be for has changed.  The root website has now essentially been turned over to the Marketing Department as a recruiting tool.  There may still be token links to internal resources and information, but the focus has now shifted sharply toward advertisement.  I don’t think this is a bad thing, but it has left out a sizable population.

I can remember the days–and maybe where you are they still do this–where every lab computer had its web browser homepage set to the root university website.  Everyone started their Internet adventure there.  With the handing over of the site to Marketing this is now a superfluous gesture that only adds more steps between the user and Google.  Hence the need for an intranet starting point.

Now comes the big question:  What goes on an intranet portal?

The Case of the Home Network (Part 2)

Last time I went through the journey of getting my house setup with a full network our dwelling.  When I left off, my new dual-band cable modem from Time Warner was sufficiently strong enough for a decent signal to reach from the basement on one end of the house to the second floor on the other.  Technically then, I could have stopped right there.  But, I have two Wireless N-class routers and another WRT54G.  I can’t just let them go to waste!

My first idea centered around sharing my iTunes library to the network, and, more importantly, to have it available to an AppleTV connected to the television.  My master iTunes library is hosted on a Mac Mini that uses my 32″ television for a monitor when needed.  Most of the time however, it boots at 5PM when I get home form work, shares my library with the house, then shuts itself down at 1AM after I’ve gone to sleep.  In the past I’ve tried to watch movies with it directly, and while it works it isn’t the ideal setup.

When my workplace rotated out some of our AppleTVs from deployment, I took one home and connected it to the network.  Adding this device made things easier to stream from my library.  However, I didn’t like that both the Mac Mini and the AppleTV sat next to the TV, literally one on top of the other, but had to communicate via the wireless router downstairs.  It seemed rather inefficient to have it setup like that, and also put two heavy bandwidth-using devices on the network.  I could make thing simpler.

Using one of the TP-LINK routers I connected both the Mac Mini and the AppleTV to the former device via ethernet, and disabled both of the latter devices wifi.  Now content could be streamed between them, and it never had to leave the router’s internal network.  This not only made media sharing quick, but it gave a nice signal boost to anyone sitting on the couch with their iPhone, iPad, or laptop.

The second TP-LINK ended up on the second floor in the master bedroom.  This soaked the entire second floor with a strong wireless N signal, boosting the modem in the basement.  Now every floor has it’s own wireless router blasting radio waves throughout the house.

As for the WRT54G, currently it isn’t deployed.  Actually right now it still sits, unplugged, in my wife’s office in case the wireless card in her computer suddenly fails.  It should be fine, but an open box item is still an open box item.  I want to give it just a little more time before I proclaim it perfect.

When the day does come I will likely redeploy the Linksys to the garage, and push with wireless signal outside the house for when I am working in the garage or yard.  I have an old MacBook that I keep in the garage to look up information when I’m working on one of our cars or something along those lines.  So a little signal boost out there couldn’t hurt.

I think now I’m finally happy with the way things stand with the network.  I have solid, fast signal throughout the house.  More importantly, my wife’s office is set and working as it should be.  The question is, can I leave things alone for a little while…