Phillip Ellis

Chromebooks in Education Update

May 16, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Technology, Work

Previously, I had mentioned that we were in the process of testing Google Chromebooks for use in Union County Public Schools. Since then, our testing has concluded, and we are preparing the third largest Chromebook deployment in the United States. We will be the largest deployment in the state of North Carolina.

The county has purchased 22,597 Lenovo X131e Chromebooks. This is a monumental undertaking and has required the addition of temporary staff to prepare these notebooks for use next year. We have tested the Chromebooks extensively, including pilots at various locations.

Overall, I believe the county will be happy with the Chromebooks once they overcome the learning curve. After briefly testing the Chromebooks, I washed my hands of most of the testing and our the systems were handed over to our project manager. From there, he has worked to create a schedule and plan for the summer changeover.

From an enterprise standpoint, Chromebooks present a number of interesting issues. For one, the always-on, cloud connectivity means that users are almost always pulling data off of the Internet. Without the proper infrastructure, this can prove disastrous. These metrics are impossible to capture, and makes much of this network utilization gain a mystery.

Due to federal and state guidelines, we are required to filter each and every machine that we own, including when they leave our network. Because of this, we will route the Chromebooks back through our DMZ to our Sophos web filters. The Chromebooks work well enough with PAC files, but not fantastically.

This has likely been my largest task with the Chromebook deployment. I have worked closely with the team here and Sophos to attempt to scale out our filters to support this number of users. We are going to see quite an increase in traffic as we expand our 1:1 initiative from grades six through nine to grades six through twelve.

As the school year draws to an end, I’m quite antsy to see how well this goes. We’ve got a lot of work to do this summer to make this successful, but I’m certainly looking forward to the task. It’s always exciting to do something new.

Pain & Gain, and Beautiful Fraud

May 15, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Entertainment, Finance, Personal

At the recommendation of a friend, we set out to see Mark Wahlberg’s latest movie, Pain & Gain Tuesday night. There’s a great deal at Stone Theaters in Indian Trail, NC to get in for $5. So for me and Sara it was $20 for two movie tickets, two small drinks, and two small popcorns. Hard to beat that for a newly released movie at the theater.

As a side bar, Stone Theaters is incredibly nice. We’ve long visited Stonecrest off of Rea Rd. in Charlotte, but with this new theater being so much closer to where I live, I’ve begun going there for every movie. Not only is it closer, but it’s very nice, from the cleanliness, to the service, to the quality of the theater. I highly recommend it, if you’ve not been there yet.

Now on to the movie. For a review, really all I can ask is what? The fact that this is based off of a true story makes it comedic in a sense, though the fact that these crimes actually took place is a bit disturbing. Ultimately, after reading the actual notes for this case, the movie leaves a bit more to be desired. For one, there’s some pretty large factual differences in the movie, and the timeline of the movie is a bit off. I won’t spoil the story for anyone that plans to see it, but there are discrepancies in how the movie portrays the events.

Overall, it was an enjoyable flick, with some action and comedy sprinkled throughout. It certainly is not one for younger kids and I’m not sure how many people I went with actually enjoyed it. I thought it was decent, not exceptional or anything spectacular, but for $5 it was perfectly enjoyable.

On to my favorite part of the night. I received an email around midnight from Bank of America detailing irregular activity on my account. I had recently made a rather large purchase, though not really out of the ordinary for my account, and not overly large, certainly not enough to cause concern. Regardless, I assumed that’s what the email was about. I checked my account balance briefly, saw that I did have a fairly small charge, and figured I’d check closer today.

Oddly enough, I had forgotten about it this morning, assuming it was not a huge ordeal. I received a text from my mom stating that my credit card had been used in three purchases in Pennsylvania and that Bank of America had called to report the fraud. Now we’re getting somewhere.

So I called Bank of America, went through their rigamarole or proving that I was indeed the one and only Gregory Phillip Ellis. Fantastic. Then the questions began, “Ok, there’s a charge in Pennsylvania for $205 at a Wal-Mart, was that you?” Well, of course not, I’ve never even been to Pennsylvania and don’t particularly see any reason to ever go. She mentioned some other charges made in Pennsylvania, obviously none of them related to me.

So, my card has now been canceled and my account completely removed from association with my online account. I’m not exactly sure how many charges were made or the exact damage, but of course Bank of America and Visa are going to take care of those issues for me, as one would expect them to do. I find it particularly perplexing that both mine and my parents cards were compromised, on the same night, in the exact same state.

To me, there’s only two possible theories. Either the person used a magnetic card reader on some device in this town that I visited, using my Bank of America card to pay. This is unlikely, because I rarely use my card, and it seems that the card would have been used closer to home. This seems pretty much like a database infiltration and dump. It’s disappointing to me, though not surprising, that Bank of America would not alert their customers of a database intrusion in a timely manner.

However, these are only my assumptions and my possible assumed disappointment is negated by the fact that Bank of America alerted me to these charges, is taking corrective action, and made sure that my card was denied any further charges that evening. For that, I’m certainly thankful.

Learning on the Fly

May 14, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Finance, Personal

I’m always intrigued by ways to make more money. Honestly, there’s probably not many people who are not intrigued by this. I assume we just go about it in different ways. If you have money, and savings, perhaps you go the route of the stock market, CDs, or savings accounts that present a decent APR (which, sadly seems to be too difficult to find, and much too low due to the fantastic lending interest rates).

Unfortunately the low lending rates lead to other problems. Our savings aren’t increasing at the rates they previously did, and our ability to get debt inducing loans is much easier. Personally, the best savings interest rate I’ve been able to find is about 1%, through Barclays Online Savings.

Savings accounts aren’t sexy though. Not that I need my money to be sexy, but earning 1% on $10,000, yields a whopping $100 a year. That’s easy money, and it’s free money. It’s FDIC Insured, so you’re exposed to absolutely no risk at all, as long as the bank and the FDIC do not simultaneously fail. If they do, there’s more than likely going to be concerns that are much greater than money.

Last year, I used Sharebuilder and made my first foray into the stock market. It was certainly an interesting learning experience, and at the time, showed me my tolerance for risk and losing money was not very high at all. I sold a few stocks at the first sign of a downward swing, including selling Sprint (S), which I bought for $2.34. Today, Sprint trades for $7.24 and marks probably the biggest regret I’ve got when it comes to trading. However, it’s always easy to armchair it and say I should have kept it, but the truth is, at the time, there was no clear indication Sprint was on the verge of having competing offers for purchase.

I dabbled a bit with a Roth IRA through Vanguard’s Star Fund (VGSTX), and purchased some individual shares in Bank of America (BAC) and Cisco Systems (CSCO). All three of these moves produced money for me. Being young and inexperienced, I sold all three, including the Roth IRA, willing to accept the penalty on the earnings. Through my employer, the State of North Carolina, I receive a fantastic retirement package, so there’s not a huge loss in not having a Roth IRA. My earnings on BAC and CSCO were fairly small, but it did amount to a few hundred bucks, and I felt happy with having made some money and getting out of the market.

Fast forward to 2013 and a different mindset has taken over for me. I’ve found that I really like the earnings growth and potential of the market. In general, it is possible to grow your income 7-10% a year through the market alone. This presents a fantastic option, one that is clearly much better than the 1% I receive in a savings account, though there is also a much greater risk. This risk, however, can be mitigated with some solid research and planning.

I began my latest plunge into the market using TradeKing. From a price and customer service standpoint, TradeKing blows away Sharebuilder in every measurable aspect, and if you’re interested in getting started with the stock market, I certainly would recommend TradeKing. My decision making began the same way it did last time, to simply find a stock that could produce growth. Initially, I found Activision (ATVI), most well-known for the Call of Duty series. Most likely, this was not the greatest investment decision ever, but I did, in less than two months, produce a 2.5% gain, which is greater than most savings accounts will produce in a year.

I sold ATVI and shifted my focus to dividend stocks. Since then I’ve purchased shares of General Electric (GE), ConocoPhillips (COP), Ford (F), and Duke Energy (DUK). Overall, in just a few months, I’ve produced, collectively, another 2.3% on these investments in unrealized gains. I’ve gone from short-term positions to looking at long-term positions that produce income growth through the usage of dividends. At present, my dividend yield is at around 3.7%, which is pretty substantial growth for a year. With an average risk, or beta, of 1.0, I’m minimizing my potential for losses in the market, while maximizing my potential for earnings through dividends and reinvestments.

I plan to continue investing as the year drags on, and I plan to stick with this plan for the foreseeable future. The way I see it, investing is a fantastic way to grow income, especially when stocks with solid foundations are chosen. I continue to diversify my holdings and looking for ways to minimize my risk, while maximizing my earnings potential. To that point, my next investment may be in telecommunications, with Verizon (VZ) or AT&T (T). I’ve also considered, very heavily, getting back into the technology sector with Microsoft (MSFT), or Intel (INTC). All of these companies pay dividends and have a history of success, though the dividend yield for VZ and T are much greater than MSFT or INTC, and therefore are most likely in the lead for my next investment.

Disclosure: I am long COP, DUK, F, & GE. I have no positions in ATVI, BAC, CSCO, INTC, MSFT, T, VGSTX, or VZ, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

The Good Life.

May 11, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Personal

I just scrolled through my iPhone photos, and there’s a lot of smiles to be had. I’ve kind of been going down memory lane a lot lately in my conversations. I don’t post much about the past, because quite frankly, who cares? But if you’ll oblige for just a few minutes, and a few words, I’d like to take a short trip to a few years ago.

Summer 2010 was one of the largest turning points in my life. It’s odd how a large part of your life can be impacted by such a short period of time. Certainly, one can make a mistake that alters their life forever, but generally I’ve lived steadily, never bouncing too high or falling too low. In college, I’d done both. I met a lot of people in college, about none of which I keep up with anymore, but for four years, we certainly had fun. By the summer, I was taking my last few classes, and I hit my personal low. Graduating college is an amazing accomplishment, and I’m thrilled I was able to do it, but something about it felt so hollow. It may have been because about a month earlier I’d finally gotten rid of the worst thing that ever happened to me, and it seemed nobody wanted to hire me at twenty-two, and my prospects for meeting anyone pretty much went out the window.

Things were set in motion that summer. Things that haven’t stopped since. If you believe in luck, then the last three years are nothing but an amazing roulette wheel for me. By October of 2010, I’d landed a job with Union County Public Schools. I graduated high school there. I certainly never anticipated I’d make a living working there, but alas, that’s what happened. Now it came to my attention pretty quickly that working women seem to enjoy trying to find someone for you when you’re single. That wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea, as I’m not the best guy when it comes to meeting people. It just isn’t my strong suit, and I always just played everyone’s invitations to meet someone as jokes.

Somewhere along the line, in 2011, I let my guard down. I was right on the verge of being promoted within my department and moving to our central office. Maybe it was my older age, maybe it was intuition, or maybe I just didn’t care anymore. Sara’s mother told me about her. And then she told me about her some more. She showed me a picture, and this piqued my interest. But still, it felt weird for me, and nothing something I was comfortable with, so I acted on nothing, and I wasn’t planning on it.

Then, there’s October 2011. It’s hard to believe this all stems from Summer of 2010, but it does. Without that period of time, I have no idea where my life would be, but I know for a fact it wouldn’t be what it is today, and I’d have missed out on the absolutely amazing people in my life now. On October 1, 2011, I received an e-mail from Sara’s mom. This seemed fairly ordinary, as I still routinely mailed back and forth with people from the school location I worked at when I first began my job.

However, unlike any other e-mail I’d ever received, I got a phone number. I think, if through work, or any other avenue, you can win over a girl’s mother, you’re probably a pretty decent guy. This made me feel good, like maybe nice guys do eventually get ahead.

So I texted Sara. A lot. And we met at Olive Garden for lunch. I don’t remember the exact date, though I know it was in Fall, because Georgia was playing that day. Maybe that’s why we did lunch. Maybe I wanted less pressure. A lunch isn’t a date, it’s just lunch, and it didn’t feel so hard. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind, but I went through with it, and met her that day.

I was fairly certain she’d never speak to me again after that lunch. For probably the first time in my life, I was absolutely relaxed with a girl. I was myself. It may have been because I was finally of the age where I didn’t care. I wanted to impress her, certainly. But I also wanted to just be me and see where that got me. In past relationships, I never felt comfortable just being me. If you know me, being myself means I was acutely sarcastic, witty, and took most of the lunch with a tone that probably would make most people run for the hills.

Not Sara though. We texted on and off for a while. We hung out some, but never anything solid. I was wishy washy. My last relationship made me think I’d prefer to just go at this world alone for a long time. I wasted Sara’s time. I provided her with no reason to talk to me. I gave her no incentive that I’d ever come around. I’m certain she talked to other guys and looked for a relationship elsewhere.

Days would go by without talking. Then they turned to weeks. Months. I’d scroll through my phone, see her name, and wonder what could have been. Sometimes, as if someone was guiding me, I’d stop on her name and send her a text. We’d talk a while, then out of the blue, I’d just stop. There was never a rhyme or reason, I just never was sure what I wanted. I never wanted to drag someone else into a relationship with me, especially when I was never sure what I wanted.

Summer of 2012 came. Two years from when I had graduated college. Two years from overcoming obstacles in my life that I thought were greater than me. I talked to Sara again, and again, and again. There were no gaps this time.

Probably the moment that won me over was when I was sick. I’m almost never sick, and this particular day I used a sick day at work. Mind you, I’ve only used two sick days in three years, with one being a funeral. There’s a knock on my door, and it’s Sara, knowing I’m sick. Not only did she come over, but she brought freshly baked, homemade cookies. I don’t think any girlfriend in my past baked me anything, ever. I was absolutely astounded, especially considering we weren’t even in a relationship.

Summer came to end and Sara went back to Appalachian State University. Distance can be a killer, but we kept talking. We made plans. We attended a Georgia football game together. By this time, I felt like I loved this girl, but I could never tell her that. It wasn’t long after the game that I told her we were “basically dating”, which was apparently not acceptable. Basically isn’t good enough. And she was right. There was me, right at the tip of a relationship, and I was still scared to jump in headfirst.

We did though. I put the demons of my past behind me. I gave a relationship a chance, and my life hasn’t been the same since. We haven’t dated overly long, but it feels like we’ve been together for years now. I can see a change in me. I’m just generally happier, and I can see the future more clearly again. Things that I thought mattered most, don’t really matter. It’s all about the people you have around you, and I couldn’t ask for a better person to navigate this world with.

So I’m living the good life again. Maybe it’s because I was guided to someone great. And I’m starting to believe again, that just maybe, good things do happen to good people.

“Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

Boone.

February 3, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Personal

So I took a nice weekend trip up to Boone this weekend to see Sara. The weather had always been kind of questionable, but in the end it looked like they’d only get a few inches of snow at best. None the less, I decided to take the Toyota FJ Cruiser instead of my Tacoma, mainly due to the fact that the FJ is a hardcore 4×4, compared to my two-wheel drive Tacoma. Good thing, I’m pretty sure Boone got a blizzard, as it quickly turned into a winter wonderland. That said, it was pretty fun. Boone does a pretty good job of keeping their roads maintained and clear, at least during the day. I’m sure they were pretty rough last night. All day today it was a quality 27 degrees with 35 mile-per-hour wind.

We had fun though, but we always do. It’ll take a little more than five, or six, inches of snow to keep me from hanging with her! Alright, well, it’s time to start the week.

Damn Good Dawg

January 4, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Personal

Now a two-time consensus All-American, Jarvis Jones has had a long road back from 2009. He was told by Southern Cal team doctors that he would not play football again, at least not for them. In 2009 Jones suffered an injury against Oregon. The injury, a routine hit, caused a mild case of spinal stenosis.

Today, Jarvis Jones declared for the NFL Draft. Jarvis Jones has been the epitome of what it means to be a junkyard defender. Last year he led the SEC in sacks at 13.5. This year, Jarvis had 14.5 sacks, eclipsing David Pollack for the single season school record. Jones also became the single season leader in tackles for losses.

Most draft experts have Jones as the top linebacker in the draft class, and some, like Mel Kiper Jr., have Jarvis as the best available player in the draft. Bulldogs fans would certainly agree. There were games this year where Jones simply took the game over and single-handedly put the ‘Dawgs in contention to win. Most notably, the games against Missouri, and the then third-ranked Florida Gators.

Jarvis Jones may have started as a Trojan, but he finished as a damn good Dawg. There were games this year and last, where the only reason I wanted to see our defense on the field was to see Jarvis Jones line up and make a play.

Chromebooks in Education

January 4, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Work

In the last few years Union County Public Schools has rolled out a 1:1 initiative from 6th grade to 9th grade. As with any good school system, we’re constantly testing new technology to put in the hands of our students. Whether that’s iPads, Windows 8 tablets, or Chromebooks, we’re always looking for new ways to get technology to our students. After all, at the end of the day our goal is to make sure these students are well prepared for the global economy that awaits them.

We’re not very far into this testing phase, but I did want to make at least mention the few issues we’ve had. I’ve reached out to Google’s Enterprise Support regarding the problems I’m about to describe, but I’ve yet to hear about any possible resolution, or even if these are known bugs.

Enrolling the devices seems pretty simple… when they’re first delivered. However, I attempted to “powerwash” the computer and then re-enroll it into our enterprise. Enrolling the device means it becomes managed by our domain and we can set policies to control the laptops. Powerwash is the term that Google uses to describe resetting the machine back to the factory state.

To get the devices to re-enroll, I had to turn off OS verification and boot the laptop in developer mode. I then took turned OS verification back on and booted the laptop back into verified mode. That’s not good when you consider a mass deployment and needing to refresh these machines each year. This is not a major ordeal if you just take the laptops out of the box, enroll them in your enterprise, or have them automatically enroll. It is a major ordeal if you plan on powerwashing these computers each year.

The other issue we’re currently encountering is that users in a sub-domain are not affected by any policies. I would suspect this has to be a known bug, but I’ve not found anything on it. Because of our set up, we have multiple Google Apps domains. We have our main UCPS domain, along with a student sub-domain. In Google App’s Chrome OS settings, you are able to specify different settings for these different subdomains, but the settings seem to only apply to the primary domain.

This is just some of what I’ve encountered in very limited testing. If and when I hear back from Google’s Enterprise Support, I’ll add to this so as to not leave this post incomplete or without the correct information.

View from the Lincoln Memorial.
Sara in the US Capitol.
Washington Monument.
US Capitol.
White House.
Lincoln Memorial.
Predator Drone in the Smithsonian.
The Metro.
Botanic Gardens.

Here are some of my favorite images from our trip.

Washington D.C. – Sandwich City

January 2, 2013 / No Comments / Posted in: Personal

I don’t remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of the women in the District of Columbia obviously lack the skills to make sandwiches. That’s the only explanation we could come up with for the lack of real food in the nation’s capital. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good sandwich as much as the next American, but it’s a food I’m capable of making, and not necessarily something I want to spend $15 on.

We spent four nights in this proud city. Washington D.C. This is where it all happens, the magic that is our country, or lack of. For me, this was my fourth trip. I’m big on history and I’ve long been proud of many of the things this city, and more importantly, this country have accomplished through the avenues established here. Our daily lives are indirectly orchestrated from this powerful city.

As beautiful of a place as it is, it’s really a sad place once you get on the inside. For one, I’m not really sure what anyone eats. Sandwiches everywhere. Everything is priced out of this stratosphere, just in case you forgot where you were. If you were expecting a please or thank you, someone to hold the door for a woman, or even a general smile, then look elsewhere. I’ve never seen more homeless people in my life. I’m not talking about the “homeless” that live in Atlanta, or Charlotte, or any other typical city. I mean people that are truly homeless, living on park benches and by Metro stations.

There’s pleasantries. The architecture and the city itself is absolutely gorgeous. To me, there’s very few cities like this in the world. Yes, the world. If you can’t appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into the design of the city and the buildings, then you’re not looking at the right things. Destinations like this are getting to be rare, and the District provides some absolutely breathtaking views.

We must have walked a thousand miles the first day, though this was by choice, as Washington has one of the most robust public transportation systems in the world. Have I mentioned that this is a first-class city yet? We toured the U.S. Capitol, a number of the Smithsonian’s, Arlington, Union Station, and more. We saw the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights. Amazingly, these documents still exist. Even more amazing than some paper existing this long is the fact that these ideas are still the backbone of our nation.

We must have seen nearly everything Washington D.C. has to offer. From the Lincoln Memorial, we overlooked the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol in the distance, with the famous Potomac River to our backs. Where else can you see so much in one spot? With some of the most awe-inspiring buildings within frame, and some of the most powerful buildings in the world mere miles away, there is no greater feeling.

Even though we were both thrilled to get home, I have no doubt that we both enjoyed D.C. To me, there is no city as powerful as Washington. There is no place so full of secrets and seeped in history, a city that has defined, not just our lives, but the lives of so many citizens of the world. This is where it happened, where the deals were made, the treaties signed and broken, and the declarations of war that have dominated our history books.

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2012 / No Comments / Posted in: Personal

A time for giving and relaxing, I hope that everyone has a joyous Christmas. It certainly no longer has the allure of waking up at 2 A.M. as a five year old, wondering where Santa Claus is, but it’s always a great time of year.

Sara and I will be driving the 6 and a half hours to Washington D.C. tomorrow for her Christmas present, so we’ll see how that goes, should be fun, and I’ll try to put some pictures up about it.

Have a great day!