Category: Yahoo

Posted on

out of the google net for now

"My goo-goo-googly eyes!"
"My goo-goo-googly eyes!"

How long I have been fighting Google?  I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say that anything I blogged about  Cal Poly San Luis Obispo never made it into their search engine and I checked regularly… plus I have an automated search to do those sorts of things.

Anyway, today is quite a day as one of my less than complementary blogs about Cal Poly appeared on Google. I am not ready to break out the ‘good stuff’… but it might justify some stuffed Greek grape leaf rolls smothered with Greek yogurt and a shot of Ouzo… it is lunch after all.

One does look for reasons why things like this happen? I had thought maybe I got swept up with the sea of ‘conservative bloggers’ being banned… and maybe it was my recipe for bread pudding... a favorite of conservatives world wide that was the real give away?

I look to being banned again, because I am making a good down home southern favorite of the family… Turgoosen! What can be more controversial? Turgoosen is one of those layered bird meals consisting of a chicken, duck (2) and   goose meats bound within the frame of a deboned turkey… and each with it’s own stuffing! It looks like a turkey but slices like a meat roll with rings of stuffing! Just in time for Christmas.

Since all of this trouble with Google, I have become reliant on  BING... the search is better and they don’t hassle me.

Roger Freberg

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behind cal poly’s green door?

behidthegreendoor

We may never know what goes on behind Cal Poly’s very secretive ‘green door.’

I was saddened to learn that our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a California Bill that would close the secrecy loop hole that our public educational institutions have in hiding many of the things they do. Although business in places like the Cal Poly foundation are done , not in Arnold’s smoke filled rooms, but with folks sucking down mineral water and munching crispy creams… it’s all done without the public’s knowledge. The cat has been left in charge of the canary.

In addition, the  Cal Poly foundation — being private — does not have to abide by many of those archaic fairness rules that public institutions must follow. The foundation has a virtual monopoly in campus food service and virtually every other economic activity on the Cal Poly campus. Don’t try to have a charitable tamale fundraiser on campus… they won’t allow the ‘competition.’  By the way, there are no ‘bargains’ on campus… the foundations pricing policies are greedy from a pricey used textbook at the book store ( which they buy back for virtually nothing) to buying a cup of coffee anywhere on campus. They even operate a store in town, so much for not competing with the private sector.

BTW, having been involved in retail pricing and marketing on college campuses, let’s just say that the foundation has a sweet deal with no competition! And in my humble opinion, somebody is making a lot of money…. a lot of money on the backs of students and employees.

So… how is this money being made and where is that money going? Well, thanks to Arnold, we may never know.

Roger Freberg

By the way, for some reason Google likes Cal Poly and this post will not be found there… however, it will be searchable on Twitter,Yahoo and Bing

Posted on

new phones for old

Dad's New Phone
Dad's New Phone

I think the last time I bought a new phone Aladdin was trading in his old lamp for a new one… and I felt the same way about it. My old phone ( a Treo) had great sentimental value to me as it had belonged to my daughter Kristin. The Treo was already getting fairly ‘long in the blu tooth’ but it was a big upgrade from the General Patton era ‘portable phone’ I had been using. Finally, I upgraded.

The htc phone from Sprint takes a bit of getting used to, but I am enjoying it immensely…. especially being able to see full screen versions of Facebook, tweet , watch video and all the typical stuff with 8 gigs of memory. My Uncle Cal ( a physicist by training ) would have loved it.

Now — as my daughters say — I won’t look too ‘hobo’ when I interact with the technophiles in San Francisco this weekend.

Roger Freberg


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How to build a good reputation with social media

Karen giving a Social Media Lecture at Cal Poly
Karen giving a Social Media Lecture at Cal Poly

Our daughter   Karen has always enjoyed the internet beginning with her first ‘Val Kilmer’ fan site  in the 7th grade.  Soon,  her site evolved to a discussion platform for her track and field friends along with publishing a popular web based newsletter. During this time, she encountered many of the troubling issues that face athletes, celebrities and almost everyone who frequents the internet. The same questions came up over and over: how do I make a good reputation?  How do I prevent a bad one from developing?  And How do I get old stuff  ‘off’ that continues to cause problems .

Today, Karen gave a lecture on the impact of social media on reputation management to a Psychology class at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and hoped to answer some of these questions for students. By ‘iclicker’ , she discovered that virtually all of the students were on social media! Consequently, many students find themselves haunted by embarrassing pictures of themselves on the internet and some deeds … well, that they wished others didn’t know about. By example, Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps learned this the hard way.  I am told, Karen offered helpful advice.

It was something to think about…

Roger Freberg

(too bad Cal Poly administrators weren’t around to listen)


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Cal Poly taking another look at their ‘Board of Inquisition’

!00firedoesitagain2
Is the Clown down & out?

Maybe not every minor problem Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has with students, faculty or staff has to end up in Federal Court. I would like to hope that folks can learn from their mistakes, take advice from those who wish to make Cal Poly a better place and , hopefully, avoid stepping into it the next time.

Recently, I blogged about what many have called  “Cal Poly’s Inquisition Board” to ferret out Professors and students who were deemed not “politically correct.”  With the sweet sounding name of ‘Care-net’, Cal Poly was at the threshold of setting up a system whereby students and faculty would be held accountable to anonymous accusations and standards not based on law, but pernicious whim. IMHO, this would be a virtual system outside of union contracts, Cal Poly code of conduct standards and common sense… as well as the law.

F.I.R.E. ( the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education)  recognized immediately the arena into which Cal Poly was entering and wrote a stern and forceful letter in defense of faculty and students at Cal Poly. The result: Cal Poly is reevaluating the Care-net program.

Here is F.I.R.E.’s latest statement!

I was able to find  two cached pages of the ill fated Care-Net that are worth reading.

The only question that remains for those of us with decades of experience in dealing with Cal Poly: Will Cal Poly walk away from initiating a “Board of Inquisition”… or will they work harder to not be discovered?

In any event,there are a lot of folks watching to see the next steps Cal Poly administration takes … thanks to F.I.R.E.

Roger Freberg

UPDATE: F.I.R.E. article on this blog