I’ve intend to write a post here about the entire experience, but until then I wanted to announce that I’ve completed my online masters degree through Harvard University. The degree is a Masters of Arts in Information Technology focused on software engineering so it was quite a departure from my previous Master’s degree in music composition. The degree took a bit longer than I had originally hoped for, but it was a very good experience and I’d highly recommend Harvard’s Extension School to anyone. In the next month or so, I want to follow this up with a detailed look at the classes I took and some thoughts for anyone looking at pursuing the ALM in IT degree.
MIQ
Skydeck used to offer a service that would keep your SMS messages from your phone backed up, but they are now focusing on offering what I’ll call “social caller id” and they have rebranded at Mr. Number. MIQ offers this SMS backup along with a few other nice features. You can send messages through your phone from your computer keyboard, see a list of all your calls and add notes to them and backup the media on your phone all over the air.
I heard about a guy who had someone else install MIQ on his phone without his knowledge. Late at night the perpetrator would log into MIQ and send out inappropriate text messages to everyone the victim knew. It came from his phone, but he had no idea how it was happening.
Numbers Station
A numbers radio station is a signal that transmit some type of code. There are quite a few of these and some of them have been operating for quite some time. UVB-76 is one that transmits from Russia. It has been playing a buzzer sound since the late 90’s and occasionally there are voice transmissions.
Earlier this year it stopped transmitting, but now it seems be back and people are hearing a lot of background noise–almost like there is a microphone left on in a storage room somewhere that everyone has forgotten about. You can listen for yourself here. An archived Russian web page seems to indicate that the station was used to send out military orders and the time they were to be executed.
Plunging Over The Falls
Plunging over the Falls doesn’t automatically make you a decent orator.
Charcoal Bob
Charcoal Bob is a site that lets you plan out your grilling. You tell it what you are cooking, how each item needs to be cooked and when you want to eat. It will give you a schedule telling you exactly when to start, put each item on, turn them over, etc.