Another Sign of the End Times

Before I realized that they no longer existed, I used to misquote Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78, "First kill all proofreaders."  When I see things like this on May 27, 2015, I despair.

Most programs have spell checkers.  Is it possible that "familiy" is a term of art in the music/entertainment industry?  No.  I don't think so.

More likely those who write the content are as oblivious as me, ignoring whatever marks indicate a misspelling.  A number of links to the full article have the same error, although the article itself has family spelled correctly.

AppInventor Hands-on Exam

At the end of each semester I give a hands-on exam, which, among other things, allows the students to demonstrate that they can actually write an app using AppInventor.  It is difficult to know if the homework assignments were done by the student or someone else.

In fairness it must be said that a hands-on exam is fairly stressful, but I do provide sample problems for practice.  From half a dozen apps a student has to choose one.  Within minutes I can tell who will do well: their level of anxiety drops.  I can almost hear them think, oh this is like the other one, but with some differences.

I've come to expect that there will be a few students who'll rip through the exam about as fast as I can.  Then there are a whole bunch who struggle a bit, but eventually get it.  And then their are the others who were in class with their eyes open, but apparently didn't get it, didn't come for help, and don't get it, whatever that "it" might be.

Some will rip through the exam about as fast as I can.  There will be a group which struggles and eventually get something close to right.  And then there will be the others who were in class, with their eyes open, and don't seem to have a clue.

The students had to send me their app as an attachment in email.  The timestamps says it all.  Look at the gap after 3:56:

I try to have the students show me their app prior to submitting in case they overlooked a requirement or were on the wrong track.  I've found it useless to have them call me over if they don't understand the problem.  Those who don't understand the problem either don't realize that they're misinterpreting the instructions or they're in the sad contingent who're just waiting for a respectable time to leave.

There was one student, bored while waiting for me to give her app a once over, spent the time enhancing her app.  The requirements for the app she chose only ask that she create an app which would allow the user to choose a club and display the name of the club and the maximum occupancy.  The "listpicker" looked normal.

The results didn't.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed grading here app and gaving her full credit.

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Rent in Ecuador's Eden For $600 or Less

I've amused myself looking at overseas retirement offerings.  Retirement means older people and older people mean preoccupations in this approximate order:

1. Cost of living
2. Language and and expat community
3. Availability of health care
4. Transportation (more important as they get older)

Right behind those seems to be life style things: golf, swimming, sailing, potential for extra income

Considering my lack of life style, disinterest in golf, swimming, sailing, talking to people, and going anywhere, my first concern is Internet speed.  (This will probably change as I race toward my dotage.  Of course, if my legs aren't the first thing to go I might never realize that I can't talk to anyone and my health is already in the toilet.)

Just a short while ago, intrigued by International Living's come-on, "Rent in Ecuador's Eden For $600 or Less":

In fact, when the Ecuadorian tourism bureau decided to market the country as "The Land of Eternal Spring," I'm convinced it had Vilcabamba in mind. With temperature highs averaging between 74 F and 79 F and lows never dropping below the mid-50s F, it's tough for me to imagine a more ideal climate.

an online search and several links later my browser got to http://www.vilcabamba-hotel.com.

This caught my eye.

I can see where this would give Jewish retirees pause. Put the 3 words "gas" and "showers" and "Jews" together and all sorts of warning bells go off.   "Gas showers" probably means gas heated showers, but you can see how if might give pause to those of a certain religion.

A click on the VILCANET link produced a blank page for about a minute.  Maybe I hit them just as they were experiencing a DDOS, but Ecuador's Eden will need upgraded communication services before it's worthy of the name.