Online MBA vs traditional MBA, round 3

According to an article on MSN from Business Week on the best business schools in US ranks the University of Chicago School of Business as #1. Interestingly enough, the bulk of classes offered by Cardean University/ Ellis College of NYIT for their online MBA program were developed and done in conjunction with the University of Chicago School of Business. #10, Columbia University, is also where some of the Cardean/Ellis classes come from.

File under: online MBA programs

Oil companies to consumers: "Thanks for taking it up the arse"

Nothing makes me happier than knowing that my $3 a gallon for gas was helping Exxon Mobil to reach record-breaking profits . Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And then to read that they are expected to exceed it next quarter. It makes me weep.

File under: Exxon Mobil makes you its bitch

Help captive by our own country - the US-Mexico border fence quandry

I'm not sure what is more troubling in this Washington Post article regarding the new border fence between the US and Mexico.... are they trying to keep people out or keep us in? Cause I tell ya - being fenced in here is terrifying.

And a $1.2 billion downpayment....downpayment...implying that the cost is actually more! Insanity. This government knows how to waste money like nobody else.

I agree with Mexican President Vicente Fox, how incredibly shameful this is...

File under: trapped in the US - a new horror film

people are so weird...

overheard:

person 1: what did you have for dinner last night?

person 2: tofu organic lasagna... and then i was still hungry and we had some reese's puffs cereal so i ate that

why would one bother with the organic tofu lasagna only to follow it up with reese's puffs cereal? just a thought

file under: weird thought process?

Most expensive addictions? or not...

According to an article on MSN, courtesy of Forbes, the top 5 most expensive additions are:

1. Alcohol
2. Smoking
3. Drugs
4. Overeating
5. Gambling

In reading this article and looking at their list, I notice a glaring oversight. Sex. Surely sex, including pornography, is one of the top 5 most expensive addictions. The article says that there is not enough statisitical evidence to know for sure - and I assume this is because prositution is illegel so they can't possibly know its effect on the economy. Yet, drugs were illegal the last time I checked and they seem to have enough statistical evidence for that one. Getting an idea of the economics of sex addiction would be fairly simple - the information regarding the amount spent in the porn industry each year is easily accessible and a fine starting point. I suspect the truth of the matter is that no one wants to print that America is full of sex addicts. Apparently it looks better to say we are full of drunks, smokers, drug abusers, gluttons and gamblers.

File under: what about sex?

Will my popcorn be cheaper?

Apparently, charging famine prices for popcorn at movie theaters just does not bring in enough money these days.

A recent article says that advertisements will soon start appearing on popcorn bags at movie theaters, which leaves me wondering....will my popcorn be cheaper?

File under: fatty foods, famine prices & advertisements

Note to music & movie industries: stop releasing rubbish and we will start buying again

According to the Washington Post, music companies are still suing people for downloading crappy music. It's funny that both the music and film industry believe that illegal filesharing & downloading are what's to blame for poor sales in each industry. If only they would realize that they have been consistenly putting out crap for the last few years, which is the real problem.

Here's an idea - why don't they offer "official" file sharing sites that offer the media in a low-quality format. They can say if you get your product anywhere else then you can be sued, but not if you get it from this official site. Then have an official pay site where you can pay for high quality products. Now, get this - if people get the freebies and decide that the media is not crap, then I suspect they will pay for a quality item - be it from a retail outlet or an online pay site. But of course, they would never do this because they don't want tangible proof that what they are releasing is crap and that they are to blame for falling profits.

In the meantime, they are still fucking themselves. For instance, here is what I do....I purchase cds used online from half.com or Amazon, rip the tracks, then resell. Guess what - the music industry is not getting any of that money from me. Now, where there is a band that I really like, for instance The Corrs, then I will go to Best Buy or another outlet and purchase a real copy, this being the only time the industry gets my money. As for movies, I hit up the rental stores when they are having those lovely 4 for $20 sales on previously viewed items. Sometimes I keep the movies, sometimes I re-sell them online. Again - movie industry not getting my money...except when I buy a film that I actually think is quality, such as District B-13 or V for Vendetta.

When movies & music get better, I'll start buying more. Until then, the music & movie industry can weep for the loss of my money.

File under: the MPAA and RIAA are idiots

Office shenanigans

I hate nosy people that make up an excuse to come to your desk to ask you an unnecessary question while making eye contact with your computer screen, because they in fact did not have a question, but just wanted to see what you were doing.

I'd rather them ask me and let me tell them that I am looking at the PostSecret website, as it would waste less of my time and be a tad bit less annoying.

file under: office annoyances

Questions & answers for online degree skeptics

Considering getting an online degree? This article on AOL.com answers some common questions on doing just that.

file under: online degree programs

Prestigious university optional

Warren Buffett doesn't care where you went to school. Other CEOs concur.

Story here on MSN, courtesy of CareerJournal.com.


file under: school reputation not necessary

Note to experts in various fields: Please use credible sources, as there will always be someone that knows where you swiped your information from

In the book publishing community, specifically the self-publishing sector, Dan Poynter is considered a bit of an expert as the author of The Self-Publishing Manual. I take issue with the fact of him using biased resources for his information. In his free "Publishing Poynters Newsletter" from October 15, 2006 he list the following under ParaResources:

15. TOP 25 RADIO TALK SHOW HOSTS.
1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Bill O'Reilly
3. Don Imus
4. Michael Savage
5. Sean Hannity
6. Laura Ingraham
7. Glenn Beck
8. Dr. Laura Schlessinger
9. Neal Boortz
10. Al Franken
11. Mike Gallagher
12. Mancow
13. Howard Stern
14. Bill Bennett
15. Opie and Anthony
16. Ed Schultz
17. Michael Medved
18. Randi Rhodes
19. Jim Bohannon
20. G. Gordon Liddy
21. Diane Rehm
22. Larry Elder
23. Michael Reagan
24. Tammy Bruce
25. Tom Leykis

What he doesn't do is footnote where he got this list of the "top 25 radio talk show hosts." I saw this list printed in the conservative, Republican-leaning "magazine" by the name of "NewsMax." I hardly think they are an authority to be quoted. It's possible that they got the information elsewhere, but I do not remember reading that the rankings came from an independent, unbiased source. At least he didn't charge anyone for this tripe.

file under: credibility - an endangered species

NYC doesn't heart fatties

From the Washington Post...

NYC to Restaurants: Get an Oil Change

In what could be a bellwether move, New York City's Board of Health yesterday took the first step in requiring restaurants to sharply limit the amount of trans fat in their foods.

Trans fat--a.k.a. partially hydrogenated vegetable oils--has been found to significantly increase the risk of heart disease. Public health advocates have likened it to bacon grease in your kitchen sink and lead in paint.

Americans eat, on average, six grams of trans fat a day. A single fast-food meal can contain as much as 10 grams--far higher than the American Heart Association recommended limit of about 2 grams per day

Under the suggested rule, NYC restaurants would have six months to switch cooking oils and shortenings and 18 months to limit trans fat to less than half a gram in the rest of their menu. Pre-packaged food in the original packaging would be exempt.

NYC wants to make mandatory a policy that city health officials have been asking restaurants to adopt voluntarily for the past year. Chains such as Wendy's have stopped using trans fat. Kraft Foods now sells trans fat-free Oreos. But NYC officials say most restaurants have ignored their pleas.

The Board of Health is also considering a requirement that restaurants list the calories in its food on menus and menu boards. The proposed rule would apply only to establishments that already publicly offer calorie information. In practice that means many of the large chains, including McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Online MBA vs. traditional school MBA, round 2

Okay, okay, I admit it…I too was a traditional school snob. So, I took my time gathering information on various online schools. I looked for reviews from others, I looked for news articles, I googled the names of the schools plus words like "scam" and "not accredited" to see if I got anything. Much to my dismay, I got no hits on those searches. I did learn about how some people were unhappy with University of Phoenix classes, as apparently, according to something I found on a message board, the postings for the class are not in real-time. I am assuming this means that messages are delayed in showing up when posted to the class, but I do not know for certain.

In deciding that I was finally fed up with the "education" I was receiving at my traditional school, I had to figure out what I wanted from an online program. I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to actually get what I was paying for; meaning I wanted to receive a quality education for my money. Yet, I did not want to spend $2000 per class. I wanted to finish as soon as possible, as I had been taking 2 classes at a time at my university and after 1.5 years was tired of making no progress. I didn't want to have to pick up any undergrad pre-reqs that I might be missing (I was an English/Journalism major for my undergrad). I wanted to be able to piggyback my classes to finish quickly. And I wanted as many of my already taken classes to transfer as a school would allow. Also, I of course wanted to make sure it would not be a useless degree from a useless hack of a school that would get me laughed out of every job interview.

Some of the online programs that I evaluated:
Regis Univ
DeVry
Univ of Phoenix
Cardean Univ / Ellis College of NYIT
American Intercontinetal
Strayer Univ
Capella Univ
Colorado State Distance MBA program
Georgia WebMBA

More info on online MBA programs here:
Distance MBA profiles on BusinessWeek.com website.

file under: online MBA programs

Bush = Hitler, it's not just a coincidence

Pentagon: Red Cross met Gitmo detainees

How interesting, since Hitler also allowed the Red Cross to meet with some of the Holocaust detainees. And we saw how the Holocaust turned out...

Traditional schools vs. online schools

Round One

I started my MBA at the same school where I received my undergrad, against my better judgement. Truth is, I valued life experiences more than classwork and ended up with an embarrassing undergrad GPA as a result, despite my intelligence, and did not have many options for places to get my MBA.

When I started the MBA program, I fully expected the work to be challenging and possibly even difficult...I was wrong. One of my first MBA classes was an finance class, which was supposedly taught by the best professor in the MBA program. I purposely waited a couple of semesters so I could, indeed, have the best professor. The third class meeting he played us a movie....a MOVIE! I had paid almost $800 for the class, to be taught finance, and was instead shown a movie that I could have rented at Blockbuster for $5 or so. That was when I decided to investigate other programs.

My pathetic undergrad GPA was still a handicap in my quest for a new school, so I did the unthinkable....I looked up online programs. I know, I know, there is such a stigma attached to getting a degree online...much like the stigma attached to getting your GED instead of a "real" high school diploma.

"Sticker price shock" was waiting for me when I began looking at the individual schools. I was paying around $800 per class at my state university and the online programs were asking for around $1800 per class. Outrageous! Then I found an online program affiliated with several Georgia state schools called the Web MBA. It was cheaper than the other online programs and would have the name of a "real" school on it...and best of all, their admissions standards were low enough for my undergrad GPA. Yet, I was worried that a school in Georgia would be no more challenging than a school in Tennessee. So, I decided to keep researching the online options and signed up for another semester at Middle Tennessee State University.

file under: online MBA programs