Musings of an Internet Junkie

Since my contract with Verizon would be up in May, I started looking around at various carriers and their phones during the past several weeks. Due to my location, Verizon does not provide EVDO coverage until I drive approximately nine miles south of town. I thought if I were to stay with Verizon, I would be limited to voice and text only plans due to my location. However, after speaking with a sales rep, I was assured this was not the case. Yes, I would not be able to take advantage of MMS messaging but I would be able to have a data connection at my location, albeit a bit slower. After speaking with the sales rep I decided to stick with Verizon and upgrade my old RAZR V3c phone to the new Samsung SCH-i760.

I have only had approximately six (6) hours to play with it but I already love it. Want a wonderful device with Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g, and of course 1xRTT/EVDO built in. It is also a Wndows Mobile 6 Professional device, although Verizon saw fit to remove the Live integration for some reason, most likely due to their continuous need to profit from their subscribers in every way possible. As I play with my new gadget further, I will post up a more detailed review.

Although I have had it now for quite some time, I never reported on my other interesting gadget I obtained through a deal on eBay. I have always been interested in embedded Linux devices, especially the Sharp Zaurus series of PDA devices. When I first saw a new Sharp Zaurus SL5000 I immediately fell in love with the PDA and its hidden slider keyboard concept. However, I never got around to purchasing one or its upgraded siblings the SL5500 and SL6000. Then I came across an eBay auction for a Sharp Zaurus C860 PDA. Although Sharp discontinued the Zaurus line in the US, they continued to develop the line in Japan for quite some time and came out with a PDA line which resembled tiny convertible tablet notebooks. Here is a picture of the C860.

It is a very hackable device and there is an excellent following on the Internet which is still developing, upgrading and pushing the limits of what these devices are capable of. Although the device only runs a 400MHz processor is is more than capable of playing multimedia files, surfing the Internet, running office suite tasks (i.e. word processing, spreadsheets), developing code, hacking, and even running security audits.

Well, after careful consideration and reviewing the current options available for online Computer Science degrees, it appears as if I will be staying with Baker College for the time being. My current job involves quite a bit of travel and the threat of travel which leaves me no room to take traditional classes at brick-and-mortar schools. One would think in this day and age more universities would offer their Computer Science degrees online.

I kind of get why there are not very many four-year engineering degrees online yet, and even then, technology in simulation software is catching up and allowing almost anything done in labs for four-year engineering degrees to be done via a workstation now. With that argument out of the way, it seems to come down to investing the time and money into setting up the online degree for such a small return as mentioned in the April, 2003 Prism article “Can Distance Education be Unlocked”. So why is there such a lack of online Computer Science degrees?

It appears, for the moment, that I will be withdrawing from Baker after this semester is completed. Since I began with Baker back during the Summer semester (2007), I have been asking whether or not the Bachelor of Computer Science degree is considered a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts degree because I would like to continue on, or have the change to continue on, to graduate school after I graduate. I finally received my answer from the advisers which stated the degree is considered neither a BS or BA in Computer Science and I would need to check with any graduate schools I am interested in applying to whether the degree would be accepted.

I would much rather attend a school which has a standard degree recognizable by any accredited institution. It appears my search will continue in seeking true, online Bachelor of Science degrees in either Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or Computer Science. So far the only other school I have found offering this has been University of North Dakota and unfortunately their lack of communication turned me off of them the first time I was accepted and planned to attend. However, if they are still the only ones out there, I may have to re-apply. One would think in this day and age, more schools would be offering accredited engineering and science degrees online.

After numerous attempts, I took the plunge this year and have returned to school. Since I am currently a full time employee in a job position that requires frequent travel, I have registered with Baker College to seek a Bachelor of Computer Science degree. This not only allows me to take classes on my schedule from any location that has Internet access, but also allows me to gain a four-year degree in something I have always been interested in learning. Now if only more schools would come into the 21st century and open up their four-year programs to online learners.

I am not sure how many of you follow Google’s research, acquisitions, and partnerships but wife of Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, is a cofounder of 23andMe a software start-up dealing in genetics and personalized medicine. Google also has financial investments in the company. (Davies, 2007)

Davies, K. (2007, June). 23andMe: The Google Genome Connection. Bio-IT World, 6(5), 6.