Orange County School Board Chairman Keith Cook needed a speech to give to the graduating class of Orange High School. So, what did he do? He did what any dishonest student would do: he stole one from the Internet. Cook didn’t steal from just anyone, he had to plagarize a speech by Donna Shalala, the former secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Cook did, however, change a few sentences in his version. You know: to be on the safe side.

What really gets stuck in my craw is that the guy can’t seem to figure out what he’s done wrong. Check out these quotes:

“It was a mistake on my part, and I apologize to the students and parents at Orange High School if they thought I deceived them. That was not my intent.”

or this one:

“I work very hard in the community to have a good reputation as someone who could be trusted or be a man of his word,” he said. “I think there is room for anyone to make an honest mistake.”

(These quotes (just to be sure they’re not mine) come from the Raleigh News and Observer)

This isn’t an “honest mistake.” This is cheating, plain and simple. This man is in charge of the school system’s ethics policy? When confronted with it, he hides behind his years of service, though any kid caught doing the very same thing could be suspended.

Keith Cook is at best a dumbass and at worst dishonest. The integrity of Orange County School System has been compromised. If Cook knew what was good for him, he’d resign before voters turn him out on his ear on November.

Does anyone have any shame anymore?

It’s Hallie‘s second birthday today. We’ve had fun tearing open presents and playing with them.

Hard to believe this girl is the same one we first met two years ago today.

Saw this gem of a job on Monster.com today:

The world’s largest commercial real estate firm is seeking a Network Administrator experienced with Microsoft Exchange 2000, Windows 2000 Server and all Microsoft desktop operating systems. Must be able and willing to work on all aspects of IT, from server maintenance and Active Directory to customized applications at the desktop level to printer and cell phone troubleshooting. This is a challenging and exciting opportunity for a candidate who wants to make a big difference in the daily operation of a great organization!

We are currently looking for a Network Administrator with the following characteristics:

• Willing to travel between Raleigh and Charlotte offices
• Ability to communicate with diverse groups (written & verbal)
• Proven track record via verifiable experience or certification
• Ability to manage change
• Great under pressure
• A+, Net+ and/or MCSA a plus
• Research and documentation skills
• Ability to think outside the box

It is the Network Administrator’s primary responsibility to ensure continued up-time for end users through preventative maintenance as well as disaster recovery.

As professional high achievers, our successful employees are competitive, proactive, self-motivated, excellent listeners, speakers and written communicators. If you are looking for a dynamic environment, excellent growth opportunities, competitive earnings and a comprehensive benefits package, we encourage you to send your cover letter, resume and salary history to …

Okay. Not bad, you say. Sounds like a good opportunity, right? But then you look at their salary offering: $25k to $30k.

Excuse me? The company wants an expert at Windows administration who’s also skilled at application development (and cellphone troubleshooting of all things) and preferably vendor-certified with a “proven track record.” For your efforts, you’ll receive wages that make working at Burger King seem like a step up. And, oh, by the way: you’ll be schlepping between Raleigh and Charlotte because we’re too cheap to hire someone for each office.

And this, remember, is the “world’s largest commercial real estate firm.”

My friend Gerry sent me a great article on Microsoft and innovation (or lack thereof). The article’s called Microsoft’s Sacred Cash Cow. Give it a look.

Among the things I’m going to miss about Garner is the cheap gas! South Saunders Street south of the Beltline has the cheapest gas in town. At the Racetrac gas station about a mile south of 440, unleaded is selling for $1.84 per gallon. In other areas of Raleigh, it’s averaging about $1.97. Ouch!

The phone hasn’t exactly been ringing off the hook at MT.Net headquarters, at least for job offers. I was thinking the holiday weekend was gumming up the works, but no nibbles came in for my resume yesterday.

I’ve got a few small consulting jobs on the way, though, which could help tide things over. Maybe I should just jump back into consulting with both feet and make something of it? I prefer that course rather than depending on someone else to make a move for me.

My personality is such that I prefer to take control of my destiny. Striking out on my own beats striking out with someone else.

I’ve been noticing a lot of the spam that makes it by my ASSP Bayesian filter-based anti-spam application has been using text from sites selling school essays. The spams will quote a large swath of text from these essays to fool the spamfilters into thinking its legitimate text.

Now all I need to do is to figure out how to use that text to detect spam. Putting it into the spam-text database probably won’t work because the text is too generic. It’s easy for a human to find the source of the text (hint: Google), but how would I create an app to automatically identify the swiped text as essay text?

Ahmad Chalabi, until recently Our Man In Iraq, reportedly told Iranian officials that the U.S. was reading its mail. The dude has been buddy-buddy with Iran for far too long, and he’s strung the U.S. along the whole time.

Iran has been responsible for a large number of terrorist events in the Middle East. Thanks to Chalabi, we may see many, many more.

I thought this was funny. The Pros and Cons of John Kerry’s Vice President Choices. A little light political humor.