So I have had this hosting provider since 2005 and they have been bought out a couple times.  Some of the pluses though include the fact my email is hosted in Exchange, unlimited disk space, and supposed unlimited bandwidth (found that today).  I have never had any issues at all requiring extensive customer support until this past week.

Starting last week Windows Live Writer stopped posting correctly to my blog.  It had happened intermittently previously and I figured it was another glitch.  After the issue didn’t clear in 24 hours to the support console I went.

Date	Type
09/15/2011 12:10 AM EDT	Ticket Created
09/15/2011 12:10 AM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Subject:	Problems with libXML2
Customer Quote:	Earlier this year I started using XMLRPC to post content to my blog. Start in July I had incidents where posts would have the tags brackets(<>) stripped off. I ignored it figuring it was a glitch when it started working a couple days later.  Starting about the middle of last week though this issue has become permanent. While I was normally easily able to work around it, the work around fails when I am posting images.  Have there been any changes to the server configuration recently?  I know it was not caused by a site configuration change because 3 other sites all exhibit the same behavior that are not used as frequently.  Currently this is still just in the annoyance category, but as I start needing to put more pictures in content its’ going to increase on my ladder.  All assistance I could find online pointed to server configuration with PHP version and libXML version issues.  Thank you,  TMM
09/15/2011 4:00 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 7:53 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 8:51 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 9:50 AM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM
Subject:	[P08757884000000000] Problems with libXML2
Comment:	Hello,  Thank you for contacting Support.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In order to further investigate on your issue, please get back to us with the following information:  1) Exact steps to duplicate your issue.  2) URL of the page.  3) WordPress username and password.  Thank you!  Sincerely,  Kaila Pearson  Customer Support
09/15/2011 9:19 PM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:	Drupal User Info:  Username: TestUser  Password: URL: http://www.the-minuteman.org Full URL varies based on post title, it happens when content is published or sent as a draft to the server. Reproduction steps below show how to make it appear on the front page.  Reproduction steps:  1) Configure Windows Live Writer for an “Other services” blog and point to http://www.the-minuteman.org  2) During configuration tell it to identify the blog theme.  3) At this point configuration will hang because the post displayed on the front page website (http://www.the-minuteman.org) is incorrect. For example I get the following:  pThis is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (1eb91935-d1da-4e9a-85fd-82ce1220f24d – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)/p  This should actually be:  <p>This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (1eb91935-d1da-4e9a-85fd-82ce1220f24d – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)</p>  But the tags were stripped, and the inner text passed through as part of the blog post text.  Alternatively, you can skip the theme detection and attempt to post to the blog through Live Writer. The content within the post will exhibit the same loss of tags.  Draft posts can be open and viewed from this listing:  http://www.the-minuteman.org/admin/content/node  For some reason the tags are being stripped off and every piece of information I have found points to server configuration, not blog software.
09/15/2011 9:30 PM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/15/2011 10:54 PM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM
Subject:	[P08757884000000000] Problems with libXML2
Comment:	Hello,  Thank you for contacting Support.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Could you please get back us with the exact URL where you are trying to login to Drupal admin page, so that we can assist you further.  Please reply to this email with the requested information, so that we can assist you further.  Sincerely,  Riley Malson  Customer Support
09/16/2011 12:26 AM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:	This is not tied to my Drupal web browser interface but the XML-RPC interface that different external programs use to post content.  The symptoms of the failure are visible on my blog. Here is an example post that failed.  http://www.the-minuteman.org/content/2011/September/15/failed-test-post-TMM
09/16/2011 12:27 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 12:41 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 12:41 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 2:31 AM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:	Hello,  In order to further investigate, could you please get back to us with the Drupal admin login details.  If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.  Sincerely,  Mae Silva  Technical Specialist
09/16/2011 8:24 PM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:	Here is the primary user account information:  Username: TMM  Password:
09/16/2011 8:44 PM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/16/2011 9:49 PM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:	Hello,  Thank you for your reply.  I have checked there is no error logs to investigate further on this issue. Since Drupal is the third party application I suggest you to contact the vendor of the application.  If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reply through Support Console. We are available 24×7.  Sincerely,  Neville Kodner  Technical Specialist
09/17/2011 1:26 AM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:	I have investigated the drupal forums regarding this issue and I have gone one step further and mirrored my site on to a local development server I use for updates.  The mirrored version of my site, a fresh copy of files and snapshot of the database, placed within my test environment works as it should. I fail to see how this is my blog software or site configuration when I can turn the problem on and off by placing it on my test server here or uploading it to Powweb.  Not to mention the fact that it was running reliably at the beginning of August and I have not done any changes to configuration other than unrelated module updates. The issue also has seemed to come and go, finally becoming permanent over the past week. I initially ignored it thinking it was a glitch because it would come back later.  All information I have been able to find regarding this type of issue online points again to the web services host, not the drupal software.  My test server is running PHP 5.3.2  Apache 2.2.14  SQL Version 5.1.46  Here is the exact error in the Drupal forums:  http://drupal.org/node/415566  Here is a similar issue in the Drupal forums:  http://drupal.org/node/347298#comment-1209085  http://drupal.org/node/347298#comment-1295684  I’m confused though since you guys are running 5.2.17 and the issues reported were with 5.2.8. However this has turned on and off entirely on it’s own on your servers with my altering absolutely nothing in the configuration or settings within my blog. Meaning something changed in the hosting configuration.  There are no error logs because it is a function erroneously stripping out data that it should not. Drupal gets a result from a function call that it thinks is correct but is in fact wrong.
09/17/2011 1:28 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/17/2011 1:37 AM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:	Hello,  Thank you for your reply.  We support PHP version 5.2.17, Apache version 1.3.33 and MySQ version 5.0.45.  If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.  Sincerely,  Ariel Danson  Technical Specialist
09/17/2011 1:42 AM EDT	TMM contacted PowWeb
Customer Quote:	Has your supported versions changed since June? Something has changed and it doesn’t appear to be by my hand. I created a virgin test site and it is having the same problems.  I have been using Windows Live Writer since January without issue until about the middle of last month.
09/17/2011 1:42 AM EDT	Updated Ticket: Work in Progress
09/17/2011 1:46 AM EDT	PowWeb contacted TMM (Resolved)
Comment:	Hello,  Thank you for getting back to us.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We have not changed the supported version recently. Please reinstall the application or contact the application provider to fix the issue.  Thank you!  Sincerely,  Aden Nelson  Technical Specialist

So maybe I’ve been spoiled by the company I work for by the fact that we think customer service is a big deal.  Ownership of a problem is a big deal.  Making sure the customers problem is solved is a big deal.  Getting to root cause is a big deal.  Notice how it was marked resolved long before anything was actually solved.  Very quickly they blamed it on third party software without any actual proof.

This company has totally shifted the blame for the problem from them to me. Ignoring the fact that this has happened on two independent Drupal installs who’s configurations haven’t changed.  No single individual took lead to deal with this problem and just bounced it around.  I’m stuck copying and pasting the source code from WLW into the submission form in Drupal.  Any pictures I want to submit become an arm twisting game of getting the URL correct to point to the image if I’m uploading it.

I just checked, I have prepaid 2 years of hosting starting in Nov 2010.  That gives me a year to come up with a new hosting solution and a solid game plane for site and email migration.  I will actually probably move earlier because I pay per month for my Exchange hosting and if I can find it cheaper, that’s money back in my pocket that I haven’t spent yet.

In the past I was more than happy to recommend Powweb to friends but given the first time I really had a serious issue and support utterly face planted.

If anyone has any input on what the problem might be, here’s an example of what happens when I submit through WLW currently.  I have disabled the TestUser account, and regenerated a new site password for myself since they think this issue is resolved they no longer require access.  Keypass makes stuff like this much easier to handle.  I am NOT going to close this ticket until I find a resolution to this problem.  WLW worked without issue from January to the beginning of August.  At which point I had a few flaky issues, but they always came back.  Then last week it died permanently.

I am going to continue posting new content, I won’t be putting many of my own pictures up except through my photo gallery.

So I am all ears on good hosting providers that support PHP, MySQL, and Exchange services.  I’ve got time and if I move early I’ve got some side sites that can live out there that can die around November 2012.  I know I could host myself, my bandwidth out in BFE though isn’t that great and I hate general IT maintenance with a passion.  So fellow bloggers, what would you recommend.

Recently there have been a couple posts regarding higher education and student loans on a blog I frequent.  The wife and I having both recently graduated from a four year university thought we would provide some extra input about our observations.

I graduated from Washington State University with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  Starting salary  for a BS averages about $60K, MS $71K, and a Ph.D. $88k nationally.  The 5 years it took me to earn my degree cost approximately $90K total.  I could have taken a job as a CCNA immediately out of high school and made about $30K per year.  So, for 5 years in school, I spent approximately $90,000 and also lost an additional $30,000 plus raises for gained experience, figure at the end it would have been about $34,500.  So combining the opportunity cost, and the actual cost of my degree I’m in the hole approximately $250,000 dollars for my engineering degree.  Though I also am a little bit further off than most since I also had my CCNA, we could use a lower salary in the $18,000 range and it still comes in  at $185,000.  Using the average BSEE salary,  it would take me 14 years before I broke even with my earning power as a CCNA because of the debt.  This approximation does not take into account full promotions, it just assumes an annual 3.5% pay increase per year.

Comparing the MSEE and the BSEE, the advantage of the MSEE is not very apparent. It takes 18 years for the MSEE to equal the total income from the BSEE.

This doesn’t even include some very basic things a BSEE could do to have a great advantage over a MSEE such as passing his EIT.  If the MSEE wanted to get his professional engineering license, he would be at minimum 2 years behind the BSEE.  This is because a 4 year apprenticeship is required.  But so far only a professional science degree has been covered, what about other science degrees.

The above would still hold true except now you have a new problem.  Finding a job to go with your degree.  Engineering jobs are usually in demand, before graduation I had multiple offers on the table, while jobs for Animal Science or a Biological Sciences degree not so much.  The wife got two Bachelors degrees from WSU, one in each of those fields.  She got the second degree hoping it would provide more job opportunities and didn’t require a lot in extra classes.

She spent an extra year in school getting the second degree, another $18,000.  In the end becoming a certified nursing assistant landed her a job, approximately $500 in a certification.  She has two degrees that she is unable to use.  She still has all that debt from her schooling though that is not actually working to increase her earning power.

I had another friend that went to school for a degree in business.  I know she aced her way through, but again no demand for a job.  Business majors are a dime a dozen, and what can they actually produce?  I know that overcoming the opportunity cost curve in her present state will be difficult.

I have another friend who got a degree in Oceanography.  He knew going in it would be difficult to find a job, however at the time the future employer was “The Department of the Navy.”  CNET though threw a wrench in that, he finished the degree anyway.  He’s now enlisted in the Coast Guard, hoping to use the degree but doesn’t look likely currently.

From the above a couple lessons can be learned.

1. Unless you know exactly what you want to do, going to college is NOT smart. 
2. Get a degree in something practical that aids in you becoming productive.  Productive means producing product.  Business is not really in that list. IE get a degree in a professional or technical field.
3. It is better to work while going to school if possible and avoid debt at all costs.  I actually had an internship, but as an engineering intern I got paid.  Many friends in business school were interns for free.  WTF!?  The reason they told me was because there were so many applying that supply just swamped demand.
4. Certainly getting a masters degree immediately after a bachelors isn’t the smartest move.  If you can’t get a job that is an option.  However you may want to reevaluate the demand of your field and possibly study a different subject.  Doing it piece meal while working is considerably more economical.
5. Engineering, accounting, anything that is a Science degree is preferable.  Arts degrees are NOT going to help you with employment. 
6. Justify the costs, make sure your degree is going to provide you with something usable at the end.  If your reasoning for going to college is, “Because that’s what you do after high school,” you are going to forever be someone’s slave.
7. Find someone who works in the field you’d like to enter and get their input.  A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from other peoples mistakes.
8. Don’t get so lost on your goal that you miss warning signs that trouble lays ahead.  The wife’s original goal was to become a veterinarian.  There were some strong clues to start looking at different degrees before she was so far down the path she couldn’t change course.  She rationalized them, wanting her goal, and in the end got doubly burned.  This also goes back to justification.  To get her DVM it would have been approximately $130,000 on top of her undergrad costs.  A DVMs average salary is about $40,000-$45,000.  That’s $220,000 in debt to make $40,000 a year starting.  That is a HUGE red flag, remember you’re paying interest on that debt, and you aren’t going to make it all disappear overnight.
9. Remember colleges are a business, when you hear things like, “No one is hiring people with Bachelors degrees.” They’re lying, how else do you think they keep people going to school forever?  Again, seek people in industry and get their input.  Do not believe what the college advisors or counselors say.  Again find a mentor in your field, who’s input will be unbiased.
10. Maximize the difference between what you are earning now and what you will be earning at the end.  The larger the difference, the better the return on investment.  Education is an investment, and you can invest poorly.

Do not take this as I am anti education.  I am anything but, to me education and learning is a life long process.  However I think the role of college in learning and education has been warped and twisted beyond something useful.  I did learn a lot in the process of getting my degree, however over half of my time was spent on things that were truthfully useless and did not contribute to my goals.  They certainly aided in keeping me in the school for longer, with me paying tuition. 

Which leads me to my final rant.

I graduated with 152 credits, minimum is 120 to graduate, minimum for a BSEE is 145.  Why so many?  Because the college’s extra requirements, (classes that do not pertain to the subject), and then still meeting accreditation requirements for engineering.  Engineering fields have hard technical accreditations, that’s why the degrees are valuable.  However to meet that accreditation, many different classes are required.  The school then to “round” the student says we want you to take these classes as well.  Most of those rounding classes are politically correct garbage.  The bare minimum for the EE degree can barely be squeezed into a 4 year program.  You usually average about 18-19 credits a semester.  All engineering fields are extremely high, while other programs are about 15 credits a semester.  To put that in perspective, an engineering student takes one or two classes a semester more than a non-engineering student.  It is on the verge of becoming a 5 year program, but if that happens the school will loose funding.  WSU then adds another required general class.  To make the program remain 4 years, they will trim the value of credits for EE specific classes, but the altered class will still require the same amount of time.  A good example was my power lab, 2 credits, 6 hours a week in lab.  As a lab it’s weighted differently, but by hours it should have been 3 credits.  They did the same to other classes.  Overall my college experience was late nights, long hours cramming, doing homework and labs.  Remember those extra classes a semester, remember the professional degrees have real classes, not basket weaving.  They took lots of time and effort. 

It’s obvious college is nothing more than about making money, and the student is the one who’s pocket is being picked.  If you want to keep your money and come out a head, you need to have a plan and understand the game.

Update: If you are a veteran using your GI bill, to get the most out of it, try and major in something related to your MOS.  For example a buddy of mine was an Ex-Nuke and had worked in the WSU steam plant after he left the Navy.  He went back to school and graduated at about 36.  His major was computer engineering, however he also took a lot of classes pertaining to power and controls systems.  He will make up the total cost after about 8 to 9 years.  The degree allowed him job opportunities he wouldn’t have had otherwise, and the prior experience was still included.  His degree choice also didn’t make him have to start over.  Maximize on your experience, again look at the professional degrees and find a field that will let you use your military experience and training, it can actually put you at a higher pay grade than just having the bachelors.

Warning, especially if you have kids:

Image courtesy of Robb Allen found via JayG

Via Ry, I stumbled across this set of blazing stupidity.

Let’s set the scene first:

Volusia
County School officials stand by a Deltona High School nurse’s decision
to refuse a student his inhaler during an asthma attack, citing a lack
of a parent’s signature on a medical release form.

Yeah, but I mean how bad was it really?

He said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of
his locker last Friday. The inhaler was still in its original packaging
— complete with his name and directions for its use; however, the
school took it away because his mother hadn’t signed the proper form for
him to have it.

Ok, so we have positive authority that this medication was prescribed to the individual named by a medical doctor.

He was taken to the nurses office in need of medical attention, more specifically medication prescribed to deal with his condition.  The nurses response to the situation:

“As soon as we opened up the door, we saw my son collapsing
against the wall on the floor of the nurse’s office while she was
standing in the window of the locked door looking down at my son, who
was in full-blown asthma attack,” Rudi said.

So the attack was bad enough to cause loss of consciousness, yet the nurses response was to lock the door keeping the child in need of medical aid out.  Further the school while depriving the student of his life saving medication did the following, or I should say didn’t:

Selesky could not explain why 911 was never called.

“I understand if you can’t give it to him call 911,” Sue Rudi said. “Why did you not call 911?”

Here’s my problem with this whole statement, they can’t give him medication.  They can not hand him medication and say, “Take this.”  That does not mean they have legal right or cause to prevent someone from taking prescribed medication.  Parent signature or not.  The school does not have need, nor cause to be briefed on all medical issues surrounding a student if the student is capable of management on his own.  The school is not a medical doctor with training and ability to determine if the child does or does not require medication.  That is up to 3 different people, the child, the parent, and the doctor.  The school is not in that loop and has no business in that loop.

So what term comes to mind, Willful Negligence.

This whole incident fits to a T the definition of Willful Negligence.  They did not call 911 despite the individual exhibiting signs of respiratory distress up to and including a loss of consciousness.  The school actively sought out and withheld medication that could have prevented the condition from worsening.  The medication was obviously prescribed to the individual and their was nothing indicating that the medication was intended for any other individual.  Their actions, or inaction depending on your view, directly contributed to the loss of consciousness by the student and the aggravation of his condition.  Their inaction could have also easily resulted in death had the mother not arrived when she did.

This is your public school system.  This is how they treat your most precious gifts.  They do not care about your child, they care about you being a good cog in their bureaucracy.  How dare you give your child life saving medication without you going and telling them it’s OK.  Your child isn’t yours to them, your child is theirs, to let die like a laboratory experiment so they can feel good about making sure people go to the administrators for the medication required by a 17 year old.

I hope that woman lawyers up, because that school is responsible as well as the nurse and there is no doubt in my mind regarding negligence.  My wife would only have to utter one word if that had been my kid and it would have been world war 3 in there.  Rule 1 on my list of dealing with a man, “Never fuck with a mans family.” That includes stupidity, such as being willfully negligent, which might kill his kid.