A Moment Of Personal Advocacy

Disclaimer for Materials Posted On This Page

February 19, 2007 by Valerie Anderson

All materials posted upon this page are not reflective of any of my clients points of view, nor are they anything more than putting aside a page upon my website to talk about an issue as a unique individual existing along with my professional identity and should be reviewed as a contribution to the Valerie “Serendipity” Anderson Soapbox.  There are additional materials posted on the blog and are designated as such.

Higher Standards For Publicly Funded Science Fairs

June 14, 2007 by Valerie Anderson

I was recently invited to attend a science fair held at a local school with the requirement of rendering some form of an opinion at the end of the viewing period as to whether or not the Fair was, well…fair in its judging procedures.  When we were finished walking around, I had to agree with her that it was more like an art fair than a science fair and after further discussion, we both agreed that the rubric used to grade the projects was too subjective.

Through multiple conversations with a variety of groups and individuals, we were both reassured next year’s science fair would be graded on a more objective grading scale. which has triggered a greater concern about other schools throughout the nation that might not be performing their Science Fair’s up to the highest standards reasonably possible.

Therefore, my request is a simple one with significant impact.  Take a look at this rubrick (or grading scale) and then compare it with the one being used in your school system.  If there is significantly less criteria listed in your school’s grading scale, or even if there is no formal grading scale, consider printing out a copy and modifying it to fit your school’s circumstances.

So Much Reading, So Little Time - The Vitamin You Can’t Always See Traveling Through  the Internet

May 7, 2007 by Valerie Anderson

Each day I scan headlines from no less than 30 different media outlets, review the subject header of multiple email newsletters, and glance around the Internet for 30 minutes or so as a part of my first thing in the morning routine.  I also am lucky enough to have built a career that benefits from my enjoyment of reading as a way to stave off a sense of boredom, so there are always moments of time to read a variety of more traditionally-formatted documents, such as local newspapers in paper format and even a romance novel every now and again.

With so much text-based entertainment available at the click of a mouse button, I sometimes wonder if I am reading the “right” materials, although the word “best” could also be tossed into the mix. But more often than not, I am instead wondering if I am offering up what it is I seek from the publications I consume.  Will these words entertain?  Am I wasting my readers time?  Can I motivate someone to make a change, such as the point of this particular entry?  Should I write a little more preface to this issue or should I begin making my point at this particular point of my scribbles?  These seem to be fairly common concerns amongst authors, so I will move on to the point of this entry.

You may or may not be familiar with what a computer “virus” is and I won’t bore you with the tech that goes into it, but let’s goes back to scanning headlines for a moment.  Whenever you hear about some type of denial-of-service or other computer “attack” including spam, most of these attacks are actually fairly preventable and you don’t have to understand the news articles any further than recognizing the importance of having a  variety of defenses installed on your machine.

These types of programs, such as anti-virus software, spam filters, spy-ware and eraser software are not perfect and even they can suffer from an attack.  But you can definitely give your computer a couple of doses of Vitamin See to reduce the chances of your resources being hijacked and then refocused without your knowledge or consent to harm/infect other computers.

I could have listed a variety of personal recommendations as to which company to go with, but the point of writing this was to encourage everyone to install/have installed/update these types of programs on their computers immediately and then keep it a part of your normal computing habits.  Ask your friends if they have cleaned their machines lately and help them get the task done if they don’t know how to do it.  Google terms such as “bot-nets” and “viruses” and stay aware of the changes happening within this industry.

If you haven’t seen the movie “Independence Day,” the script sets out a scenario in which alien spacecraft were using our satellites to transmit their signals to coordinate a world-wide strike using an insanely destructive weapon.  So the next time you hear headlines talking about an attack via the Internet, ask yourself if you or one of your friends were a part of the event and if it was possible, read, read, read about how you can remove your computer terminal from this equation.

Update to “So Much Reading, So Little Time…”

June 13, 2007 by Valerie Anderson

I saw this headline today and thought it was a good example of what is happening on an instant to instant basis:

Information Week - Fed’s ‘Operation Bot Roast’ Reveals 1 Million Victims