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The thing I like about having a "real" job, is that it forces me to focus on what I am doing. 

Even the Johns Hopkins gig is helping me focus — teaching Java and their Web Design courses.

The problem with WyzAnt, is finding the right students — for several weeks I've been trying to convince someone that I just wasn't the right tutor for them. The student wants to learn how to do the cool, fun websites like Wix.  Well, I can learn how to do that, but is that the best use of my time?

I end up prepping more than I'm teaching.

So yeah, I sent him on to someone else, which I've been trying to do in email for two weeks.

First thing in the morning, I check my email.  This morning the computers were pretty busy. 

I had several emails stating that I hadn’t had work from students.  That means sending an email to the parents asking if I can help.  One student is stuck, but I knew that I’ve been sending her consistently more helpful hints.  Another one was sick.  Yes, I usually get responses back pretty quickly.

I also had several emails with progress reports.  I sent them on to the parents with personal comments.

I have a new student starting on Wednesday, so I sent that student a welcome letter.  Those are pre-written but do have to be tweaked before they are sent out.

Through out the day I’ll get emails.  Some telling me that I have something to grade, some return from the above emails, and some asking me for help.  When I’m out and about, I try to have a device with me that will allow me to answer all of those emails, at the very least, a note that says I’ll get back to them by the end of the day.

Doesn’t take long to fill up my 4 hours a day.  Yes, I’m restricted to 28 hours a week, so I typically budget 4 hours a day, if I go over, I save those hours for a light day, or a day off.

If students need more help then an email, I usually set up a time I can be in my office to work with them, so I’m on a wired network.  I have a virtual white board, and can either phone or Skype them.  It has always worked well. 

So if you are thinking of having a student take a course at Johns Hopkins, you can see I give personal attention.

It's funny.  When people ask me where I work these days I don't always remember that I do.

Partly because it's limited to 28 hours, and I work from home, I don't think it's a job.

One of the reasons I'm posting about it today, is that I'm finding it's a great place for students to come for extra.  Extra technology if it isn't offered at their school, but technology isn't the only subject.   They offer just about every subject your student would want.

They have a great summer program.  One of them is on a college campus — I'm not involved with it.  They also have an online program.

Here's why it's great for your kid.  There are instructors for each course who are assigned a small group of students.  We contact the parents on a regular basis.  The computer spits out a progress report and we send it out.  We also get a no-contact email, so I immediately contact the parent and let them know that the student hasn't done work.

I almost always get assignments right away – Johns  Hopkins CTY isn't cheap.

The great part is that we offer an AP program both summer and throughout the school year, so your student can take and pass an AP course.

Check it out.  http://cty.jhu.edu/

Best yet — I'm getting to write courses with them.

Since the latest password scare on EBay, I’ve decided to start a specialty service to help people manage their passwords.

For an fee, one hour minimum, I’ll come to you, or meet you at a local Starbucks, and show you how to manage your passwords.

It’s a bit time consuming to start, but I can make it very easy for you to do and maintain.

My solution works on all platforms, but especially PCs.  The most venerable.

Contact me at kathleen at kweaver.org and we’ll get together.  I do take credit cards even (through PayPal).  Something I can also show you how to set up.

(Dallas area)

I have been blogging since February 2003.  I started with Movable Type, and self hosted.  That was hard, because every time there was an update, especially a security one, I had to stop what I was doing and update the software. 

I went to @typepad when the Movable Type people came up with the service, and I pay pretty good money to keep my blogs there.  I didn’t have to run updates, they had cool design tools, and it was easy.  I’ve even urged other people to use it. 

However, while I can export my posts, there is no utility to easily get to my data. 

Now it is 2014 and there are cyber pirates hijacking sites.  They suffered a DOS attack a few weeks, and I’m mad as I should have been backing up my data.  I have all my other data backed up.

I also should be self-hosting right now, as I am job hunting, hosting full websites for others, and need to show off my capabilities.

So now instead of working on the new project, I’m having to deal with this.

I’ve got an Iomega ix4-200d cloud server, but it doesn’t to the cloud with my router “pout”.

Great little device, Lenovo bought them, and they have been using both the software and the hardware to come up with their own little devices.  I got one of their smaller units from Donor’s Choose for my students.  Used it to back up their software.

Anyway, it had a disk file, and I replaced it with a 3 TB, because it was cheaper.  Then I got the smart idea to replace all the 1T with 3T.  I figure if the hardware dies, I’ll just buy a diskless one and go on.

Well, I forgot it was set up with RAID 5 – or at least I didn’t take that into consideration. 

I’ve had to pull off the data off, reformat, and rebuild everything.  Fortunately it has a script for that – called Factory Reset.

I do keep all that data backed up so pulling the data wasn’t hard.

Working quite well now: With RAID 5, I have 9 T of data.

This is the one I have and note  it is the 4 TB, they are used.

This is the one that is in my classroom:

I would buy anything from the whole line: iomega storcenter

After teaching for 22 years, the stress with dealing with urban teenagers got to be too much, and I am moving on. Not adverse in dealing with a smaller group of teenagers and especially teaching only computer science. In fact, ran into a guy who wants me to teach at a local community college. Not sure they can provide a full time job.

There are several jobs at Microsoft that would be a perfect fit, one of those is based in the suburb next to the one I live in. I would love to work at Microsoft, and wouldn’t mind being based in another city.

There are also a copy of jobs at Nordstrom that would be a perfect fit, and again, I would be willing to have my work site based in another city.

Really would like to based in Dallas and travel. We live in the almost perfect house, in almost the perfect neighborhood.

I am playing with Azure, and so far, the hardest part is wrapping my head around the fact it is practically free for BizSpark members.

I got talked in a BizSpark account 2 1/2 years ago.  I have used it for Windows Phone App development and as a teaching tool.

The pay as you go plan is great, but you have to remember to turn your machines off.  Sort of like home?

http://www.drecathletes.com is up and running there.  Freely admit it took three tries, but I there!

So if you want someone who can do Azure, I am your girl.

Windows Phone 8.1 with an XBox music account.

It’s pretty cool.  It took a while, and doesn’t always work well in my noisy truck, but once you have going into XBox Music and let it index your collection and once Cortana gets to know your voice, it’s pretty awesome.

Push the search icon on the phone, say “Play Margaritaville” and Jimmy Buffet comes on and sings his song. 

Works better with artists:  “Play Paul Simon” and a random Paul Simon comes up.

(By the way, my cousin suggested I should help with that.)

I’ve got a better deal but this is new and just out. 

Buy Office 365 Personal for $6.99. Get a 1-month subscription including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive cloud storage, and Skype PC-to phone world calling for 1 PC or Mac, plus 1 iPad or Windows Tablet. Buy and Download today!

Disclaimer:  I am shilling for Microsoft as always!  Updated.