You are looking at posts that were written in the month of December in the year 2007.
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JimmyC
So I read in the NY Times today that Harvard is going to increase financial aid
to middle class families so that they would pay approximately 10% of their income. The fact is, Harvard can do this because they have a $35 Billion endowment. This is fantastic news but raises the question about why it costs so munch in the first place. It costs $45,000 per year to attend this school and those like it, and those like it. Think about that - if my three (3) children wanted to go there it would mean that either I would have to save or they would have to take loans for $540,000. Over a half a million dollars!!! Now I’m not saying its not worth it - or am I. I just don’t get it.
Why does it cost so much - this is the average for top quality schools in the US. You have the information - the stuff they learn. The teachers - the way that its taught. The tools - facilities, classrooms, labs, etc. The dorm rooms and social/athletic stuff - not even that big of a deal. I’m amazed.
I guess the endowment will help. And I suspect it proves that it really doesn’t cost that much to attend these schools. From another article in the times a few weeks back:
Officials said the policy would cut costs by a third to 50 percent for many students and make the real costs of attending Harvard comparable to those at major state universities.
This will make it even more competitive to get into Harvard, unbelievably hard. Imagine now all of these upper middle class students - who have not even tried anymore - applying. Interesting shake up. My kids, at this point, are smart enough to go to any of these schools. Will they mature in a responsible manner, study hard and have the grades to continue on that path - I have no idea, only hope for the opportunity. But this does change things as I had always ruled out Ivy League as an option.
I love reading Walt’s tech column in the WSJ, not just because he is also a Mac fan but also because he always has a positive and enlightening approach to most subjects, even techie ones. Today I found his weblog and this is a great article on a positive situation in Israel and Jordan. Here Walt talks about the fact that the peace process between the two countries is working and it is possible for the people of both countries to not only get along but work together: Peace in the Mideast, With Great Cellphone Coverage . I think this is wonderful and a model for the possibilities. I wonder if it’s possible for cooperation someday as there is in Asia between Japan, China and the other countries in Asia who for centuries were sworn enemies. Japan is the economic powerhouse and the countries around have learned from them, trade with them and now are on equal ground. Would you call Korea Jordan? I’ve written here how most of these Arab countries are simply extensions of kingdoms. How I feel that the borders are fabrications and simply the result of previous empires leaving - England, France, Rome, Persia, Greece - all built these borders. Are there really Jordanians, Palestinians, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Israelis? Or are these people from ancient times in kingdoms that replaced empires, countries created out of convenience or voids. Foreign countries drew these lines after world wars. We do know there are Persians, Arabs and Jews, Kurds, Hindus, etc. These are cultures that could be countries; but that’s another topic.
What I can say is Walt hit the nail on the head - a border is just a crossing and it can be a gateway to discovery and possibilities when your perspective is positive. Thanks Walt for stepping out of the box, tapping your experience and shedding some light and love.
Myspace.com Blogs - Video Blog 1 - charanis MySpace BlogÂ
Here and on myspace - first video blog entry.
Short Article on Anthony Charanis: The Mort Pye Scholar’s Teacher - NJ.com: Scholars
Anthony Charanis is my second cousin - or something like that. He is my Dad’s cousin. He is the son of my great uncle - Peter Charanis. My dad is also a Peter Charanis, I’m a James Charanis - named after my grandfather, Anthony’s uncle. And my middle name is Anthony.
Dad, my Dad, often speaks fondly of his Uncle Peter - how brilliant he was. He also jokes about being a kid around him - as he always “gave books” for presents. Now here lies the dynamic - Great Uncle Peter was “the smart one” and my grandfather knew that from the start. Its sort of a family whisper. My Grandma Sophie was a bit crazy - a true Spartan - and therefore made my Uncle Peter’s family uncomfortable. My grandfather was a successful furrier. How Grandpa Jimmy supported Peter through college and maybe even bought them their first house. It can be misunderstood though - some family members might think its boastful but it really was about brotherly love. Imagine two boys coming to America on a boat as pre-teens. Its a bit of a mystery really - I’ve heard stories from my Dad. And from Anthony’s sister Alexandra who lives in Greece and minds the family home in Lemnos during the summers. We went to visit her 12 years ago before Maia was born. A short visit made an impact. Maia’s middle name is Alexandra.
Congratulations on a great career Cousin Anthony. You have done a good thing. Even if I wouldn’t have been in your class - I’m a deep thinker but not a good student. If I had gone to Rutgers (and I almost did) I would have audited one of Uncle Peter’s classes - but wouldn’t have survived one, I think. Its all good though. Family is family. Come to think of it - I came so close to meeting Uncle Peter, and I didn’t and I wish I had. I remember when he passed away - I missed my chance. I am my father’s son though. My this was a rambling rant.
VMWare Fusion On Mac Delivers My Best Windows Experience Ever - The Apple BlogBanter on the use of Win XP under VMWare - still have to buy Windows XP and I am looking to hear details on that purchase vs. Vista.
I have to consider virus protection and whether we really need a virtual machine. The good news is I rarely go to my PC for stuff anymore. The biggest issue I have is really with Safari, Why won’t Apple make this thing work with all websites. Like Wordpress for example!! That’s another topic to rant on.
I will probably buy Maia a MacBook after MacWorld January 18.
They usually come out with new products then and drop prices. I’ll
probably also replace our family PC (for Daniel and Sophia) with a
mac-mini running both OS X and either Win XP or Vista - the Mini isn’t
much but I can replace the PC CPU and still use the monitor, mouse and
keyboard from the old PC. While BootCamp (free with mac) lets you boot
in Windows (purchased copy), Parallels or VMWare Fusion lets you run
both at the same time.
One thing to consider is how you are introducing the MS Windows safety problems for Internet and networking when you install these. Take the new release of Parallels Pro 3.0 - they bundle software to help with this. By the way - not so great reviews of Parallels - seems like the readers at AppleInsider prefer VMWare. They also point out that it is better to “sandbox” your Windows VM to protect the computer. Kinda makes me want to simply use Boot Camp on and only run Windows without any network connections.
10.5 OS X Leopard file moving bug:
I got my latest copy of Macworld today - if you want a great overview
of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) its a good set of articles. Apple OS X is
10.0 - each point release is code named. There won’t be a 10.6 until
they come up with a new big-cat. In the mean time they did release a
10.5.1
It fixed the file transfer issue. It had something to do with
specifically “moving” not copying the directory or files. This isn’t
something I do often - I usually copy and then delete in two steps, so
it never happened to me. In fact, I didn’t know you could do it in
one step, apparently if you hold down the “command” button while
dragging and dropping it moves instead of copies. Basically -
Leopard’s Finder had a glaring bug in its directory-moving code,
leading to horrendous data loss if a destination volume disappears
while a move operation is in action. It was wrong right down to the
underlying UNIX code the OS is built on.
More details at places like AppleInsider and MacNN forums.
AppleInsider had an article on Nov 6:
“It appears that Leopard’s Finder (as well as Finder versions dating
back to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther) fails to check the integrity of the
directory copied to the destination drive before deleting the source
directory from the source drive. Therefor, if a directory move is
interrupted partially through the move process, the Finder assumes the
move was successful and deletes the original directory from the source
drive, leaving a directory with only partial file contents on the
destination drive.”
Yuck!
It was fixed, however,
