Strong ride today

First stop, the tranquil coast of the Mediterranean

Next the fields of Tuscany.

Any finally some peach farms in south georgia.

Turns out all these were taken right around the corner

MOOC

MOOC. Massively Open Online Course. The wave of the future for education? I am not sure. But if you have 5-10 hours of extra time a week and want to refresh your memory or learn something new, this is a prime time to take advantage of some of the greatest minds in the world for FREE.

I had in mind a long winded post discussing the pros/cons of the online vs traditional education, I decided just to give the reader's digest view.

• I know for certain that all colleges fear the wave of online education, and those that can are starting their own initiatives in this area.
• Multiple tenured professors from the Ivy leagues are taking part in this movement. 
• With so many start-up rich with infused venture money they are desperately trying to differentiate, thus its a buyer's (student) market.

While each class is different, most have a weekly lecture lasting about an hour, and a weekly quiz which is graded almost as soon as you hit enter. Most have rich forums in which other students and the professor are very active at answering questions. Of course you can stop/replay any lecture you want, and since not everyone lives in your time zone, people seem to ask/answer questions all day long.

Most of the classes offer 2 formats, an audit, where you can just watch the video lectures, but don't takes the tests or able to join the forums, or a track where you take test, get graded, and at the end will receive a certificate of your grade and how you scored against your peers. Some are offering college credit, and Georgia Tech is now offering a complete masters in computer science.

Two interesting approaches are becoming even more common. Prior to taking the class you are encouraged to taking a pre test just to make you aware how well prepared you are for the class, the other which I found most helpful is during the lecture, the professor will ask you to solve a problem before he/she shows you how to solve it. It forces you to think about what you would need in order to solve the problem, thus you are more likely to pay attention to the remaining lecture.

The big MOOCs today are

https://www.coursera.org
https://www.udacity.com/
http://edx.org

Here is a 20 minute video where Sebastian Thrun (tenured prof at Stanford explaining why he left).  I strongly encourage you to watch, even you only a small  interest in MOOCs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkneoNrfadk

Below is a screen shot of me answering a question on a test, so if you happen to take the same class, the answer to question 1, quiz 1 of Computational Biology is 6. Of course since a computer generates the questions and scores it, its very unlikely this will even appear on a future quiz.

Our viewers

Agreed

Works for me

Pho

Vietnamese soup, made with beef broth, noodles, cilantro, basil, lime, tripe and optional hot sauce. Eaten awkwardly with chop sticks and a spoon. Pho is Vietnamese for slurp, just kidding. Delish

Wicked

Looks like a duck

99 bottles of beer on the wall....

My little duckling

One of us is in heaven

Ballerina spotting

Trying out for the nutcracker

Not for the timid

Apricot Jalapeño Margarita

Automation

This weekend I had the chance to install a new Internet controlled thermostat and write some programs for my new Sylvania Hue Web controlled light bulbs, in which you can change the color and intensity via your phone.
Just before bed I hear Cindy: "why is it is so fringing freezing in here and your office lights are blinking purple, you are going to scare the cats"

Spotlight: Kitchen

I love when people are passionate, especially when their passions align with mine. Kitchen is a restaurant right around the corner that specializes in classic dishes. All the cocktails and entrees that have survived the fads in cuisine is their specialty. Each dish is dated when it was first mentioned in a recipe. Most are from the 1800s.

I had a pesto pasta, and Cindy had 1/2 baked chicken.

The cocktails were turn of the century, no foo foo drinks.

It was a place that made its living on great tasting classic recipes. We will be back.

911 Margaritas

Jalepenos marinating in tequila, like Mexican limoncello!
Just wait a few days and use in a margaritas.

More bike porn

Upright handle bars and $1000 wheels....amateur

Sunday walk

Today we walked over to Cambridge. View from south side of the river looking toward MIT and the reverse view looking back at the city.
Seemed like everyone was out today, and speaking another language.

Good to know that kids do lemonade stands here too!