Error:

ERROR: 1064  You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual
that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to
use near 'ALTER TABLE user ADD column Show_view_priv enum\('N','Y')
 CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT ' at line 1

I first try to uninstall and reinstall sqlserver but it will not uninstall cleanly. Finally I have to both use apt-get and manually remove some directories to get back to a clean install:

apt-get purge mysql-server
apt-get purge mysql-common
rm -rf /var/log/mysql
rm -rf /var/log/mysql.*
rm -rf /var/lib/mysql
rm -rf /etc/mysql
# and then:
apt-get install mysql-server --fix-missing --fix-broken

Then I get a clean (re)install of mysql and it started up.

11:21 am: The last screen in the sign-up process tells me that it will take up to 30 minutes for them to setup my account. In the age of 5 seconds attention span, “do it now” mentality, I am already unhappy. In this specific instance, I actually need to schedule a conference with a customer *now*. Not happy.

11:28 am: “Receipt for you WebEx order” email arrived. Which tells me please allow for 30 minutes for my account to be setup.

12:12 pm: “Welcome to WebEx” email arrived. (that’s 34 minutes later) saying I can start using WebEx.

12:13 pm: Trying to log into WebEx using my email address as the user id, which was *repeatedly” mentioned in all the emails so far, no luck.

12:14 pm: Trying to reset / retrieve my password, no luck. At this point it is cleared that something else is wrong. Signed on to their online chat to ask for help.

12:15 pm: Oh you are an existing customer? Please call our 800 number.

12:16 pm: Called 800 number, someone picked up, determined that “something is wrong, your account is invalid”, and transferred me to another department.

12:21 pm: after waiting for a few minutes, the call dropped. (We will *not* blame WebEx for this one, it could be just the cell service).

12:21 pm: Call back, since it was “something to do with my account”, I navigated to billing and not tech support. Waited and waited.

12:29 pm: Agent picked up, “oh you need to talk to “service” and transferred me again. More waiting.

12:40 pm: Can’t wait anymore. Hung up. Went to get lunch downstairs.

12:50 pm: Eating lunch at my desk, called back to 800 number, navigated to “tech support”, and, yes you guessed it, waiting in the queue.

12:57 pm: Someone picked up. “Oh you don’t have a user name” he says. “Funny I thought it was my email address” I replied. He asked me to pick a user name, (not in the form of an email address), created my “account” and away I go. I asked why did the system from the first sign-up screen keep telling me that my email address is my user name?

He couldn’t explain. Seems like perhaps there is a truly manual step involved in the WebEx account setup process, and someone is suppose to type in a user name for me.

Wait — this is not over !!!

10:35 am THE NEXT DAY: I got an email: “Your meeting center user name and password” is created. That is about 19 hours later. And that it seems is in response to the customer service rep’s setting up of my user name when I was on the phone with them.

Recap

If I had simply waited, perhaps 19 hours later I would have received my actual user name? What is the actual rules for user name? Email? or username? What exactly is the sign-up process? I really would like to know.

By the way, I tweeted my dissatisfaction on twitter to @webex. Someone responded several times, but nothing actually happened.

Irony

The irony is that I was a very early user of WebEx back in 2000 when they were starting out. I have used it extensively in a global start-up. Everything was first rate. This experience makes me want to go run to dimdim or gotomeeting.

Loneliness is failed Solitude

I find the most value at the conference not at the workshops and how-to sessions, but the more general education related sessions. Day 2 KeyNote by Sherry Turkle, Henry Jenkins and Marina Bers was great. Turkle presented her latest thought on the importance of Solitude. This frankly scares me. She has pointed out with our new constantly connected, constantly fed (with information) environment, would teens (and adults) know now to be alone? Not knowing the value of solitude, when one creates, and engage in deep self development, teens will be increasingly dependent on shallow casual interactions. Their phones become the center of their lives. They move from “I have a feeling; id’ like to make a call” to “I want to have a feeling; I need to make a call.”

Turkle ends with an encouraging note — Do not use the word “Addiction” when talking about this connected world. Addiction implies that we want to get rid of the cause. We will not and cannot get rid of the Internet.  While many people falls into the fallacy that we are stuck with the current state, the Internet is actually very young. We can learn to live with it.

Referencing Thoreau, she encourages us to not live thickly – “Just because we have the net we do not have to live thickly”.

Side Note: A funny moment at the start of her presentation, when Turkle says “you know when I say phone, I don’t mean phone”. Of course, she meant the smart phone/device that is used for texting, running apps connecting to facebooks, and seldom for realtime phone conversation.

2.0 is a Business Model, not a Pedagogy

Jenkins pointed out that the participatory culture is not new. Facebook is not the first social network. While Jenkin’s studies often reference the fan fiction culture, there are many more examples. A “good” participatory community is not a pure consuming community. The “hanging around” group consume content, but also communicate with each other. The “Messing about” group contributes with self-expression and self-actualization. The “Geeking out” group tinkers and create for the community. A participatory community allows experts and beginners share a common interest and help each other.

“Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready, and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.”

BYOB for No Ceiling Computer Science Education

Brian Harvey gave a short presentation on Day 2, and a long one on Day 3 on BYOB, the CMU developed variation of Scratch that has list of lists and “procedures” which turn Scratch into almost visual Scheme. Given these new first order data object, one can program much more advance concepts using BYOB.

Technically BYOB is brilliant and I can’t wait to use it. Politically they are working hard with the core Scratch team to find a way to incorporate BYOB into Scratch. Harvey is extremely sensitive to no wanting to split the Scratch community into the beginners and the advanced users. I hope they find a way to do this as BYOB clearly is a good thing.

Useful Software Finds

By talking with different people in different disciplines, often from different parts of the world, I found a few new software and web projects that are of interest:

• Animationish — flipbook type of desktop app
• mind42 – a free online mind mapping tool
• prezi — a web based and desktop presentation software with a twist

Since then, I slowly saved money and traded up for the latest in model. Remember the casio that also play music? Then a fancy Casio that has a 1/100th second timer, which I used in all my high school advanced Physics classes. Then the HP 27S that does financial and statistical calculations, too much of a geek to use a 19B even for my MBA classes.

How far we have come? When was the last time you used a physical calculator? I use my iPhone most of the time, or use Google. Next generation of children may never have to use one. But for my generation, that was my very first personal, electronic gadget.

A candle is beautiful. “Beauty means not the best-looking things, but the best-acting thing.” A candle is beautiful because its functioning elegantly and efficiently rests upon a wide range of universal laws. The heat of the flame melts the wax while drawing upward currents of air to cool the wax at the edge, thus creating a cup for the molten wax. The pool of wax remains horizontal because of “the same force of gravity which holds worlds together.” Capillary action draws melted wax up the wick from the “cup” at the bottom of the wick to the flame at the top, while the flame’s heat trggers a chemical reaction in the wax that sustains the flame.

Faraday said the beauty of the cancel lies in the intricate play of scientific principles upon which it depands, and in the economy with which it knits them together.