Melanie Reed › Likes

Awesome! - Ayşe E.

start 'em young ;) - Schadenfreude

<333 You're gonna make me cry, D!! - Derrick

omg thats beautiful..................... - VAL D. Zone

Awwwwwwwww - Sparky

Oh how cute! - Bonnie Foster

def cuteness overload... - Robyn Hawk

that's the cutest picture! look at the pup! Close up! :) - Anna Lynn M.

I cannot stop looking at this picture......... - VAL D. Zone

too cute for words. - Call me Bronco

mega cute !! - Peter Dawson

So beautiful :-)) - Anna Haro

Love it. :) - Louis Gray

totally AWWWWW - Morgan Haley

WOW! The best. - Martha

:D - Josh Haley

somebody's jealous? and incredibly cute... - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS

♥♥♥♥♥ - matmazelange

LOVE!!!!! - Laura Lou Who

please adopt me too :) - Irrisolta Confusa from BuddyFeed

It's all fun and games until you need to move your arm. - SuezanneC Baskerville

1UP Suzanne - Josh Haley

i know DynDNS is good (an old childhood friend is one of their lawyers) but i've been using eNom for years now (reseller account where you have to put in like $100 initially, but can then just let that be your renewal money down the road) - i've yet to use the reseller part of my account, but their prices are fair (from what i can tell) and they do offer it all if you want it - Chris Heath

Gina Trapani did the legwork last February to find an alternative to GoDaddy http://ginatrapani.org/spun... Based on that data, I moved a bunch of domains over to Namecheap.com--who say they offer free email forwarding--but I handle my own DNS so I haven't used that part of the service... - Ken Sheppardson

... The transfer process wasn't as smooth as it could've been (had to have their CS folks kick things a couple times), but I don't expect a personal account rep or anything like it from a service with "cheap" in their name. Since the move, I haven't noticed any problems. - Ken Sheppardson

yeah, forgot about that ken... thanks for the reminder - Chris Heath

Thank you, gentlemen, this gives me several good options. - Micah Wittman

I just reg'd a domain with namecheap.com - comes with free email forwarding! All for under 9 bucks. So far, so good :) - Micah Wittman

You could use google. - Todd Hoff

Todd, er, who what? - Micah Wittman

Micah, just saw your post. Yes, I have our NP using Namecheap. And yes, like Todd says you could go with Google (Apps) we use that as well. The MX service works well and use Gapps as our email service - Melanie Reed

Oooh, I see. Not domain registration, but point the MX record for email service. But that only works for google apps which is $50/yr or something, right? - Micah Wittman

Yeah, unless you qualify for grant, ie, educational, etc. - Melanie Reed

I think you can get the standard for free: http://www.google.com/apps... - Melanie Reed

I use google apps for email and there's no fee for my plan. - Todd Hoff

http://www.epayvn.info/2009... It does come with MX service - Melanie Reed

Todd, Melanie - thank you! Me <=== *facepalm* How did I not know they offered a free version. - Micah Wittman

You're welcome and hope it works for you! - Melanie Reed

As a fairly high-touch teacher, I can't say that this prospect appeals. - D0r0th34

I'm certainly not making a judgement about what appeals - I greatly prefer a small-group, high-interactivity approach, all other things being equal. But most big Universities have deliberately moved toward a model where lectures are delivered in a low-interaction way to a large audience. That's an approach where it makes a great deal of economic sense to try to scale to ever-larger audiences, which seems likely to result in a winner-takes-all kind of market. - Michael Nielsen

I'm not sure it was entirely deliberate -- "unmindful" is the word I'd choose. But yes. I just wonder if there's going to be a student/parent backlash at some juncture. Are they really getting what they're supposedly paying for? - D0r0th34

Having talked to a lot of administrators in Australia about this, yes, I think it was deliberate, at least there. A huge chunk of funding comes simply from student-hours taught, and so they try to ramp up numbers as much as possible. - Michael Nielsen

I don't see much evidence of this in the UK but then few UK universities have been effective at putting high quality course materials online or teaching into a wider market - Cameron Neylon

the US certainly has a lot of large-lecture intro courses at big unis, but we have some countervailing pressures to (perhaps?) keep us a little more honest: notably, SLACs, small state schools, and other smaller, high-touch schools. - D0r0th34

Note that some of this is, shall we say, old news. When I attended UC Berkeley (1962-68), undergrad classes were generally either Very Large (200+, frequently 500+), taught by superstar teachers (including most of the Nobel laureates), or Very Small (<40, frequently 20-30), with lots of interaction, taught by combinations of junior faculty and grad TAs. In my fading memory, it worked great...within limits. - Walt Crawford

Caveat: A few too many Very Large classes were taught by faculty who were only superstars in their own minds. But back then, we had Fybate Notes, so 90% of students in the dud courses just read the lectures rather than seeing them "live" (if reading from your own years-old lectures can be considered live). - Walt Crawford

Cameron - How does funding in the UK work? Do Universities get paid per student? If so, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't upward pressure on class sizes, leading to massive low-touch classes where there's not a whole lot of difference between sitting in a lecture hall and watching on a screen. - Michael Nielsen

Dorothea - something interesting about the leading SLACs is their (typically) enormous fees: essentially, you pay for what you get, a nice individualized, personal learning experience. It's a completely different economic model than the massive Universities cramming 500 or 1000 students into a hall, and probably one that's a lot more immune to the kind of thing described in the original post. - Michael Nielsen

absolutely. the small state schools are the compromise option: more individualized than the big schools, less $$$, less breadth of subject matter, arguably less prestige, sometimes less quality (though for the most part I don't agree with that; there's no more deadwood at a small state school than at Big Research U). - D0r0th34

it may be worth remarking that from where I'm sitting, our small state schools are kicking butt and taking names in undergraduate research compared to our two Big Research Us. Coincidence? I think not. - D0r0th34

The model reminds a lot of the MAGIC group: http://maths.dept.shef.ac.uk/magic... "The MAGIC group runs a wide range of postgraduate-level lecture courses in mathematics, using Access Grid videoconferencing technology." - Dan Hagon

I have been arguing for people to stop lecturing altogether: http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog... Lectures in 2009 make no sense. They are a relic of the past. But as lectures disappear, I don't think the role of the "teacher" will also disappear, it will just transform. I hope we will go back to a form of apprenticeship. - Daniel Lemire

Daniel, Amen! - Melanie Reed

Michael, funding is per student up to set maximums, beyond that no more money and there are hard limits annually on how many places are available to bid for. So there is pressure to be efficient and maximise numbers but it isn't open ended. Also very few general courses in UK, most are subject and stream specific so most have relatively small numbers. Maximum I ever taught was 120,... more... - Cameron Neylon

Cameron - thanks for that! It's very interesting, and suprises me. On your last point, the original post was talking about "superstar teachers", and it's clear from context that he meant teachers who are extremely good as teachers, not researchers. (His argument is a standard one in economics about winner-take-all markets like music, sport, etc: superstars with even a slight edge in the... more... - Michael Nielsen

Yes, but you need to create an impression that such people exist and deserve to be promoted first. Which means they need profile, for teaching, outside their own institution. I would guess this is most effectively kicked off by a few "famous" researchers doing some hard work on teaching and then that provides a known niche in which others can also excel. I couldn't name a single person... more... - Cameron Neylon

In the US, Richard Muller has become well known for his course "Physics for Future Presidents", largely off the back of scaling technologies (iTunes etc). When you have the means to scale lectures, it creates a winner-take-all situation, and you expect a market for superstars to emerge. E.g., the record player / gramaphone really helped create the current winner-take-all situation in music, turning it into a far more star-driven market. - Michael Nielsen

My sense of what is happening at UF is rather like Cameron's last comment -- the so-called "superstar" teachers come from the ranks of researchers, not those who solely teach (per their contract -- the "lecturer" position). In fact, greater kudos are granted to researchers who can also teach than are given for teachers who also do research. - Mickey Schafer

Michael, I rather like that notion of scalability...it's interesting and a different way for a teacher to consider "students" -- more in the sense of audience. In my recent conversations with non-academics, it seems that their use of the web is not this far-flung ambient surfing that many who hang out here are accustomed to. Instead, they have "go-to" places; and would prefer that major... more... - Mickey Schafer

Awww, that was nice (and those look good)! - Trish R

Ima send my professor a gift too after schools over to let her know she has made a difference in my life . Never forget that . - Caroline from iPhone

How NOM is THAT? We won't know until tomorrow. :( - Josh Haley

Nice to see some of the other Haley children. Zoe gets all the attention (cute tho she is). Happy Birthday, Sarah! - Spidra Webster

Much love to birthday girl. - Derrick

HAAAAAAPPPPPYYYYY BIIIIRRRRTTTHHHHHHHHDDAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!?!!!!!!!!!1!1!1!!!111 - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

Spidra, Sarah has to approve the photos I post of her and then she rarely will consent to the taking of the picture. Zoe has no choice. Going to chill the 'cake overnight, so we did Blue Bell ice cream with the turtle topping. - Trish Haley from iPhone

I can understand that. - Spidra Webster

Happy Birthday Sarah! Oooh that cheesecake looks yummy! - Charlotte M

Happy Birthday Sarah, what a lovely name you have :-) - Sarah Slaven

Happy Birthday Sarah!!! - AJ Batac

Happy Birthday, Sarah! You could be your mommy's twin! - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE

I found myself at Orange Grove and Colorado the other day and was GOBSMACKED at all the stands that are up for the parade. I meant to take a picture. - Derrick

Yeah, they set them up early. Too early, IMO. They used to set them up just a week before the parade, but then one year, there was heavy rain and they were still setting up on NYE. Since then, they start putting them up S-L-O-W-L-Y right after Thanksgiving. - Admiral Anika

Gosh, they are seriously making me want to pick up the flute again. They're playing songs I used to know by heart. I should infiltrate. - Admiral Anika

Anika. :) Founding member of the Indianapolis Flute Club! You still have your flute? - Melanie Reed

No. The flute I used mostly was the one my mom used when she was in marching band. Then I got a used one, that was passed down to my sister when she started in band. I think she still has it, but she lives in France. - Admiral Anika

Cool! what make was it? I used to have an Armstrong french student model and my last one was the Gemeinhardt pro open hole french - Melanie Reed

Both were Yamaha's. - Admiral Anika

Snow is our friend. it often slows down unwanted mail. keeps us home from where we don't want to go. Allows children of all ages to play in it. Encourages self-sufficiency and preparedness. And it looks lovely while it prepares the earth for another harvest. Snow... brought to you by a really wonderful God. :) - Melanie Reed

You do have a point Melanie. but shovelling it - despite being great exercise - is a pain in the buttocks! - Nathalie, Dreamer of FF

Nathalie, now that's where we've all taken the wrong path. We're not supposed to shovel. God didn't invent shovels...men did. You see now where it all falls apart? We're supposed to take our fire-hearth repose sipping hot chocolate watching with grins as it melts...and never, ever answering the phone (unless its someone needing help of course) - Melanie Reed

Would it help if I put Godiva Liquor in the hot chocolate?! lol - Melanie Reed

We also got iPhone (not 'the Iphone" or 'iphones', just 'iPhone') It's way better than those communicators on TOS were. - Alex Scrivener

I bet you never thought we'd be getting 32nm processors! No one saw that coming... - Mitch

And we have electric Pez Dispensers. Why do you hate progress, Chris? - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF) from iPod

We have the new pepsi logo but is he grateful? Nope. - Mitch

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch... EDIT: wait, wtf? This video isn't available to me in my country because of copywright?? NOW I'm angry! - Schadenfreude

Man-o-man I wish this wasn't so true. (Dear stealers of our future, RT this poke, pal) - Micah Wittman from iPhone

Do not forget we support the War machine which enslaves us to that parasitic country. Perhaps if those resource were taken for Humanities benefit instead of innocent peoples destruction. Dunknow how they ever got this enslavement thing going??? I never voted to slave myself to them and their violent ways, did you vote for this??? - ThatDBD

Micah, it does sorta make a profound statement doesn't it? - Melanie Reed

That page is about as clear and specific as I can imagine anyone asking for. - Matt Cutts

Latitude used to use lack of history as a selling point. DNS is a hidden service once it's set up. How will users be alerted to any changes in the privacy policy? BTW, I do appreciate the clarity of the current policy. - LogEx

I like the double kind. - Glen Mistletoe

one of mya favorite is "to each their own" and the other is "this too will pass" - Cihad KOL

What the bleep do we know - mariamaqdalena

"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time." -Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon - Rob Haas

Probably something from the Simpsons, Arrested Development, or Futurama. Though "Twist!!!" from 30 Rock has been going through my head frequently while I've been in the beginning of Dragon Age. - Andrew C

But if you want something a little more traditional, there's a great one passed along by Dan Barber, when he was working for David Bouley. A co-worker said of their boss: "The qualities that mark Chef [Bouley] as a lunatic-genius are his absolute fearlessness, and his profound, unabashed enjoyment of his own strangeness." - Andrew C

Tough choice. Too many. But this popped into mind: Ours is an age where ethics has become obsolete. It is superseded by science. It's deleted by psychology, dismissed as emotive by philosophy. It is drowned in compassion and retreats before relativism. The usual moral distinctions between good and bad are simply drowned in a maudlin emotion in which we feel more sympathy for the... more... - Melanie Reed

mine is "well behaved women rarely make history" - Marissa

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." -- Yogi Berra - Andy Bakun

"Every man dies, not every man really lives." - William Wallace, Braveheart - Beau Liening

"Quotations are for people who are not saying things worth quoting." - Jemm

If we do not do what we must do, what we must do does not get done. Volunteers - Jennifer Dittrich

"Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice" Carl Spackler - Steve

"Why so serious!" XD - Korhan ERTOK - コルハン

Would song lyrics count? My favorite is "If I'm dreaming, don't wake me tonight." It's from the Icehouse song, "Crazy." - Mol, Santa Claws

There is no spoon! - ★ Soner Gönül

"The thing is this if you buy a rubbish car what you are saying is "I have no interest in cars." If you have no interest in cars you have none in driving. If you have no interest in something it means you're no good at it which means you must have your driving licence taken away." - jeremy clarkson - - Korhan ERTOK - コルハン

"They must find it difficult... Those who have taken authority as the truth rather than truth as the authority" - Fatih Turul

The one at the forefront of my mind right now is, "You have to get THROUGH some stuff to get TO some stuff." and I heard it from Myron Golden. Helps me remember that there is a reason it feels like I'm fighting my way through the underbrush of life...the clearing is right up ahead somewhere. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

"I'm casting Magic Missile... I'm attacking the darkness." - Jimminy

"They're not communists, mother. They're.... Republicans." - The Manchurian Candidate, the one from the 50's-ish. - teh Dork Knight aka Kenny

'If you don't dream it, you can't do it' - no idea who said it though. - Kol Tregaskes

"My brother once told me, if you don't sweat it's not rock and roll." John Denery. - Kendra <3 Three Lions

I am prolly butchering this, but here you go: "The human trait that makes the angels cry, is our propensity to criticize another person's way of enjoying themselves." - Morgan Haley

I'm also fond of: "Not everybody gets to be an astronaut when they grow up" - Morgan Haley

Want a Helping Hand ,, look down at the End of your Arm ... - johnpiercy

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength: pushing down and pulling up." - Booker T. Washington - Eoghan Sullivan from iPhone

I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I heard this interesting one on Prairie Home Companion this past weekend: "If if's and and's were pots and pans, there'd be no trade for tinkers." - Mark Jepsen

Corollary: "If if's and but's were candy and nuts, what a wonderful Christmas it would be." - Mark Jepsen

Opinions are like @ssholes .. Everyone has one - johnpiercy

"Leeroooooy Jenkiinss" - Leeroy Jenkins - FIR

If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass every time he jumped. - Morgan Haley

Macbeth: Come what come may,Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. (1.3.156-7) - Nif (•̪●)

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to meet a Prince .. (you will also have a face full of warts when you meet the Prince ) .. - johnpiercy

It's time for some amnesty considering everyone jacked up the prices in the game all the way down. This is like the guy in the Bible who went out and beat his fellows for the money they owed him after he had been forgiven his debt. - Melanie Reed

There's a very simple solution, save rather than borrow. - Richard A.

how do you save if the money is already gone into paying your existing debts? and i mean debts like utilities and food and medical expenses, not toys and vacations. - Joe Silence is not dead

Avoid debt in the first place is the simple answer. The more complex answer is I don't know. Luckily I have not been face by that problem. - Richard A.

"Saving" listens good but the game is rigged wages are stagnant, costs of neccessary things is rising, energy is out of control and banks have a license to steal, we are all one illness, one layoff from living in a box under a bridge - welcome to America 2009 land of the banksters home of the hedge fund - WarLord

Richard: how do you avoid debt when what you NEED to survive is more expensive than you can afford nearly all the time? the answer is, you become homeless and eventually die of preventable illness and/or malnutrition. this is happening more and more. the "simple answer" is total bullshit. - Joe Silence is not dead

Richard I agree with you given all things even. But many of us have faced unprecedented hardships and (not a few financial betrayals) and in those cases, yes, we were trying to avoid debt - Melanie Reed

amen, Melanie. - Joe Silence is not dead

I'd love to get to the point of avoiding debt, if these card companies would let us pay down our debt. I agree with Mark, how do you change terms by over 20% after the money is borrowed? Sounds like the mob to me. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Richard, that's obviously the preferred choice. What I'm challenging is the notion that credit card companies should be entitled to exorbitant profits while claiming hardship in other areas. No other form of lending allows the lender to legally change the terms of the arrangement, and also to apply the changed terms retroactively to existing debt (made under a previous set of terms.) - Mark Jepsen

I live in Switzerland, so for health services I was covered by one insurance, and don't have many costs, for uni I went in England so don't have the massive US fees and for other things I don't have that many financial constraints yet. - Richard A.

And WarLord has a good point. Economically, capitalism has a problem in that there are not to many capitalists...but too few. ;) It's wonderful to cite the irresponsible spenders and say "aha" there's the problem! But capitalism would not survive if only the rich bought the goods and services that are produced. Indeed the rich get richer because they create the climate to spend. Given a... more... - Melanie Reed

Mark, I hate being in debt so I avoid it as far as possible. As to lending it's not a bad idea to discourage people from taking loans when they don't need them so keeping interest high is practical. The drawback is when you have legitimate needs for that loan. There needs to be a different set of loans for the different needs people have. That exists doesn't it. - Richard A.