Point of Disgust

Two scandals of education that involve me indirectly:

Tonight there was a report on 60 Minutes about the fraudulent activities involved behind the parent company of a number of professional development colleges like ITT, U of Phoenix, and Sanford-Brown. I had actually been contacted a few weeks ago to possibly teach at one such school. I wasn't offered a job, but I think that if a job were offered now, I defintely would not take it. I may be a poor and lowly freelance adjunct, but I can at least say I have my integrity.

Meanwhile, the student government at SLU has been rocked by a corruption-theft-bribery scandal involving a few of the undergraduate senators and an improperly purchased iPod. I was tickled by that breaking news story as I have grown to despise SLU's student government. SLU has invested them with way too much power and responsibility. In the past it has led to ill-conceived and costly programs and proposals; now we are seeing illegal behavior result. At least this means that the student government will likely be preoccupied with the fallout from this scandal to screw anything else up on campus.

Why Should I Love You?

I like music and computers, so I like to stay abreast of the latest in electronics. The other day, Apple, which has dominated the mp3 player market so far announced two new products: the iPod Shuffle and the iMac Mini.

The Shuffle doesn't look very impressive at all. It has no LCD screen, a built-in rechargable battery, and no other features like FM radio or voice recording. I bought a similar flash drive player about 6 months ago which is far superior to the Shuffle in every way. The only good thing about the Shuffle, as far as I can tell, is that it is inexpensive (flash memory drives are way too expensive).

Far more interesting, I think, is the iMac Mini, not so much for what it is in and of itself, but for the trend that it might spark. The Mini is basically a full computer is a very little box. You supply all the peripherals like the monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc. and just plug them into the machine. This makes the Mini extremely portable, and one can place it in places where one might not expect a desktop computer to go. Best of all, though, it is cheap. Without all of the frills, the Mini is priced at $499-$599.

I'd really like to see other computer makers imitate what Apple has done with the Mini. I'll probably be needing to get new computer in a year or two, and I would probably prefer to get something like the Mini. The Mini could spark a new trend in which computers are far more modular than they are currently.