Separating the wheat from the chaff in an online, accredited graduate program is harder than it sounds, particularly as a result of all the degree mills that have popped up lately on television and the Internet. Get Educated has more information on the importance of accreditation in their FAQ:

The six regional accreditation boards are: MSA–Middle States Association; NASC–Northwest Association of Schools & Colleges; NCA–North Central Association of Colleges & Schools; NEASC–New England Association of Schools & Colleges; SACS–Southern Association of Colleges & Schools; WASC–Western Association of Schools & Colleges.

If you hope to become licensed engineer you may have to attend an engineering degree program that is accredited by the Accrediting Board for Engineering Technology (ABET).

This post is a short guide to ABET accredited undergraduate schools that offer online MS degrees. The list is filtered from Engineering Degrees Online from US News and World Report by taking online the colleges that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and then again by those that offer majors of interest to myself.

• Auburn University Graduate Outreach Program offers degrees in Software Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering.
• Colorado State Continuing Education offers courses in Computer Science, Engineering Management, and Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.
• Columbia University Video Network offers programs in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Industrial Engineering in Operations Research.
• NC State Engineering Online offers programs in Engineering with a required concentration or Computer Science.
• Drexel offers degrees in Electrical Engineering, Engineering Management, Computer Science, and Software Engineering.
• University of Florida EDGE offers programs in Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering.
• University of Texas at Arlington Distance Education offers programs in Computer Science and Engineering, and Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering.
• Finally, there is Georgia Tech Center of Distance Learning, with programs in Industrial Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

WordPress, out of the box, only provides two visibility modes for blog posts: public and private. Public posts, of course, are visible to anyone, while private posts are visible only to the author of that post. For users who want a subscription-style post visibility in place of these coarse categories, the Post Restrictions plugin comes in handy. This plugin utilizes the roles capabilities of WordPress 2.0 to offer subscription-style posts, much like that of premium articles offered by by the Wall Street Journal or Morning Star, and available only to registered users of your blog.

This allows you to write personal posts accessible to only those close to you with registered accounts, while maintaining a professional web site to anonymous passerbys. As a result, over the next few months you’ll see the number of posts on this web site trimmed significantly. They haven’t been deleted — they’ve just been moved to the subscribers-only section.

It’s the final day of another DragonCon, and that’s a good thing too — all of us are pretty much exhausted from the events of this weekend.

• In “Mythbusters: What’s Next?”, Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara return to tell us about upcoming Mythbusters episodes, including episodes on “ninja myths” and other favorites.
• In “How I Learned to Stop Pirating Software & Love the GIMP”, Carey A. Oxler gave a tour of free resources for the digital artist, including software, books, tutorials, and communities. Featured products included GIMP and Inkscape. The panel also introduced me to ImagineFX, a fantasy and sci-fi digital art publication.
• Dean Haglund concluded the afternoon for Adam and I, where we learned about his Chill Pak product line, as well as a few other inventions up his sleeve. Unlike other actors, I’ve always found Dead to be down to earth and friendly with his fans.

Though the third day of DragonCon started off with a few misses, the day ended well with some interesting panels that made the long drive worthwhile.

• The “Star Wars Celebrity Hour” panel featured Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kiran Shah (Ewok), and Matthew Wood (Voice of Grievous). Shah also starred in Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal.
• Joined Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Paul Dini as they talked about Lost stories and shared tales about the creative process in “Lost: Stories from the Story Room”.
• In “How Not to Get Published”, Bruce Gehweiler, Gary Hayes, Phil Nutman, Teri Nutman, and James Moore took a seriously lighthearted look at mistakes beginners make when working towards their first publication. Though the panel focused primarily on fiction writing, the topic covered echoed many of my own experiences while working on technical publications.
• The returning Webcomics panel brought with it Jennie Breeden, Bill Holbrook, Erin Lindsey, John P. Lotshaw, and Kara Knepton. New this year, the Webcomics panel presented the “Uncle Fred Awards”, in honor of Fred Lasswell, creator of “Snuffy Smith” and an early web comic pioneer.
• Ningage-ryu, a Japanese martial arts style with its roots in the early 1300’s, continues to live. Grandmaster Musashi used sword, walking stick, and his empty hands to do some amazing things.
• Obsidian Entertainment provided an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming sequel to one of the best-selling role-playing games of all time in this “Neverwinter Nights 2 Preview” panel. Chris Avellone, Shane DeFreest, and Josh Sawyer, walked fans through every aspect of the game’s progress.

Adam once again joined me for our third year in a row at DragonCon, Atlanta’s largest mixed convention, covering gaming, sci-fi/fantasy literature, movies, and film. This year brought with it an entirely new panel dedicated to Podcasting, the MythBusters cast, and the producers from Lost.

• Kevin Sorbo (Captain Dylan Hunt), Steve Bacic (Telemachus Rhade), and Brandy Ledford (Doyle) kicked off Saturday with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda Cast Reunion. The actors talked about their experiences on the show, future projects and endeavors, as well as some of the politics that led the eventual cancellation of the series.
• The developers of Anarchy Online shared their thoughts with a loyal online community in this well-received panel. Anarchy Online is published by FunCom, makers of The Longest Journey.
• In “Mythbusting for Fun and Profit”, Tory Belleci of the MythBusters tells the story of how he ended up on the popular science series. Tory also wanted to let everyone know that most of his IMDB profile is entirely fabricated. This panel was sponsored by the Space & Science programming track, and I hope to see more from this track in the coming years at DragonCon.
• The Babylon 5: Cast Q&A became full quite quickly, and as a result, Adam and I hopped next door to listen to performances by Lisa Furukawa. Lisa Furukawa Ray is a Japanese-American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Utilizing her talents in contemporary and classical music, Lisa’s performances and recordings display a fusion of Japanese folk, alternative pop, and electronica.
• I had so much fun with Dean Haglund and Gary Jones at last year’s DragonCon, that attending this panel was a no-brainer. Boldly going where no comedians have gone before. Gary and Dean traveled the universe in this “Improv Enterprise”, with the help of audience suggestions and the occasional doomed audience member in a red shirt, to make the universe a safer and dare we say, more hilarious place for all mankind.
• Just days before the event, I had the opportunity to watch Serenity, the conclusion of the cancelled Firefly science fiction television series, often described as “cowboys in space”. Alan Tudyk (Wash) and Summer Glau (River) of the series joined us in this Q&A session.