billso.com

I’ve finished the maintenance cycle and there are a few minor changes.

I’m using a different theme. Let me know if you like it.

Much of the content that was in the left sidebar is now in the right sidebar.

The menu along the top border is gone. Most of the links can be found in the right sidebar under “Pages”.

I’ve archived the course pages for my Spring 2007 IS 7010 and IS 6100 courses. The content of those pages is still available, but it will take an extra click to reach these archived pages from the default http://billso.com/7010/ and http://billso.com/6100/ pages.

I have not posted course pages for my Fall 2007 courses. They’ll be available by August 2007.

The tag cloud now lists only the most frequent tags that I’ve used. The old tag cloud listed every tag.

The Honolulu Advertiser ran an article this morning about Mobi PCS, the only locally-based mobile carrier in Honolulu. Mobi plans to expand to the neighbor islands, as its flat-rate business model gains traction among island residents. The service makes sense for locals who rarely travel outside the state, as Mobi’s mainland roaming plans are expensive and have very limited data support.

The article does include this interesting chart. If I worked for HawTel, I’d be worried. Many of these users either dropped their HawTel landline service or never had a HawTel residential landline in the first place.

I enjoy reading Peter King’s Monday column on si.com. By the third screen, he’s off on a tangent about Starbucks, airlines, his kids, or driving.

Here’s an example. Read more from Peter King here.

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

Eyewitnessed at the Pilgrim Shopping Plaza, Verona, N.J.:

Woman in late-model minivan, just in front of me, begins to turn right into a row of parked cars, looking for a parking space. She slams her brakes suddenly, causing me to slam mine. The reason: Another woman, this one in a tan Audi, is driving slowly down the row, right in the middle of the row, with a cell phone pressed to her ear. The Audi women is not paying attention, until the minivan woman leans on her horn continuously for a full five seconds. Now the minivan woman puts her car in park and, with her van cutting off the Audi, gets out of the car. I’ve never seen this before. Audi woman looks steamed.

“GET OFF YOUR *&%#ING PHONE! GET OFF YOUR &^%#ING PHONE!” minivan woman yells while walking to the window of Audi woman. Audi woman’s window is closed. Good thing. Minivan woman would slug her in the jaw if the window were open.

I find myself cheering on minivan woman. Where’s the enforcement of the cell-phone laws in some states, the ones that mandate users not be holding the phone while driving?

Minivan woman yammers some really good Jersey language at Audi woman, and I never hear Audi woman because she never opens her window. She looks like one of those people in a Southwest Airlines commercial. (You know, the ones that ask, “Want to get away?) Minivan woman gives her a middle-finger salute, shakes her head angrily, and I back up to give her room to back up and let Audi woman slink away, phoneless.

Go get her, minivan woman!

I encounter drivers like “Audi Woman” once in a while, but my solution is less confrontational than “Minivan woman’s” approach. There are times when drivers should hang up their mobile phones and just drive. AAA was warning drivers and legislators about mobile phone use in 1991.

I’m upgrading this blog’s server software to WordPress 2.2 on Monday, May 21.

I’ll back up the blog files, install the upgrade, and reinstall various features like the widgets on the left side of the page, and the menu on the top of the page. I may make some changes in the themes, too.
I must also archive the Spring 2007 course pages. I’m not teaching any courses this summer, but I do have students signed up for IS 6100 and IS 7010 in the Fall 2007 term.