Ben's Blog is Moving!

... and I *almost* made 500 posts! (495 if you must know).

After over two years of letting Blogger host my blog, I have decided to move my blog to Wordpress. I wish I could say that I'm moving the blog so that I could take advantage of all sorts of cool technologies that will help you learn and be successful, but well, the main reason is that they have better templates. :) All of the posts over the last 28 or so months is fully accessible at Wordpress (and it's even searchable!)

The new address is: http://benbedo123.wordpress.com. Please update your favorites accordingly, as this will be my last Blogger post. If you're using http://www.benbedo.com to reach the blog, the domain name will update itself automatically within a couple of days.

See ya over at Wordpress.

Over, out.

RAM for sale!

I received this e-mail from Keith Simpson, a former student:

Hey Ben, I bought a 1gb memory stick on ebay that's not going to work in my computer. My motherboard will support 1gb of memory, but it has to be (2) 512mb sticks. If you know of anyone that's looking to add more memory to their system, maybe what I got will work in there's. The specs of mine are:
1GB PC2700 333MHz DDR Memory Module for AMD/Intel
I've checked at Best Buy-$126.99
Computer Plus- 79.99
All I want is my money back! $50 will buy this memory module. You have got my e-mail address if anyone is interested.
Keith Simpson
MCP

E-mail Keith @ parman at insightbb.com

The Last Day of School

Here are Liz Heller and Duane Doyle, Career Services and Student Services Coordinators, jamming out to some Guitar Hero on the last night of school.

How could I *not* love this job?

MS Exchange - 12/4/2007

Here are the lyrics to a song by R.E.M. The lyrics are largely irrelevant, but what the hey, I'll post them anyway.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,
an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak,, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing!
Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
(I feel fine)

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.

Good luck guys, I've had a blast with you!! Don't be strangers -- stop by often.

A+ Hardware/Software - 12/4/2007

Since every last one of you clowns did well enough to not have to take the final, today was a very quiet day for me. I got a lot of work done, and Nathan Addison came in and helped me wipe some hard drives in the afternoon (thanks Nathan!)

You guys have about five weeks to relax, and please make sure you that you do. You've busted your tails this quarter. Next quarter, which begins January 14, will be just as intense (just in a different sort of way). I'ts a lot of fun though, and I can't wait to guide you guys to your XP Pro and Server 2003 certifications. These are two classes in my "more enjoyable to teach" list! :)

Homework:

• Enjoy your time off, and rest up for Winter 2008!
• Happy Holidays!
  

Server+ - 12/3/07

Guitar Hero was here when I got here. It must be the last day.

Oh, and Liz Heller rocks.

Homework:

• Eat, drink (but not too much) and be happy! Merry Christmas!
  

MS Exchange - 12/3/2007

It's OOOOOVERRRRRR!!!

Homework:

• I barely gave any homework while the class was going on, do you think I could give it when it's over?
  

Strategies for Success - 12/3/2007

The last day of class.
The classroom is empty.
All students are gone.

Homework:

• Have a safe, happy Christmas break. We'll see you all on January 14!!!!
  

Did Fiber Optics Just Get a Little Closer to Home?

Article here.

Files! Files! Files!

I've done a bad job this quarter of sharing with you Powerpoint slides that go along with our lessons. If you're unfamiliar with this practice, I usually print out these slides and let you do whatever you wish with them (study them, burn them, birdcage filler), but this quarter for some reason, I've just let them fall by the wayside.

Because of this, I'm in the process of uploading all of the files from my three classes where this is appropriate. Since there are so many files, I've sorted them into folders. Scroll down a bit, and they're located on the right.

Enjoy!

If you're in one of my Exchange classes, you'll notice that Chapters 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 are missing. These files are larger than 10MB, and are too big to be uploaded to my box.net account. Sorry!

MS Exchange - 11/27/2007

Tonight we covered Chapters 7 and 8, which dealt with IMAP, POP3 and SMTP servers and requiring their secure use via SSL. Next week, we'll take the final, and

that

is

it.

Homework:

• Study!
  

A+ Hardware/Software - 11/27/2007

Today we covered the last chapter in the book -- Chapter 13, which covers security and preventive maintenance. We learned about users and groups, about file encryption, viruses and spyware and that you're supposed to open your computer to blow out all the dust once a month. OK, maybe that's a little much, but still, blow it out every now and then, good grief people. Just make sure that you're away from other computers when you do it, since pounds of dust can leave one computer and land comfortably in another.

After all that hee-haw, we sat down to take Checkpoint Exam #2. There was only an 18 point curve (compared to 20-30 points in the past), which means you guys did an exceptional job. This is evidenced by the fact that I don't have to see anyone next week for a final!! Woo! Sleep in on Tuesday! (A first for A+ classes!)

Homework:

• Continue studying for your A+ certification. Just because you're finished with my class doesn't mean you're finished, ya know.
• Have a happy holiday! I'll see all of you on January 14.