Slashdot Mirror

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that a college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the new minimum requirement for getting even the lowest-level job. Many jobs that didn't require a diploma years ago — positions like dental hygienists, cargo agents, clerks and claims adjusters — increasingly requiring a college degree. From the point of view of business, with so many people going to college now, those who do not graduate are often assumed to be unambitious or less capable. 'When you get 800 résumés for every job ad, you need to weed them out somehow,' says Suzanne Manzagol. A study by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce found that more than 2.2 million jobs that require a minimum of a bachelor's degree have been created (PDF) since the 2007 start of the recession. At the same time, jobs that require only a high school diploma have decreased by 5.8 million in that same time. 'It is a tough job market for college graduates but far worse for those without a college education,' says Anthony P. Carnevale, co-author of the report. 'At a time when more and more people are debating the value of post-secondary education, this data shows that your chances of being unemployed increase dramatically without a college degree.' Even if they are not exactly applying the knowledge they gained in their political science, finance and fashion marketing classes, young graduates say they are grateful for even the rotest of rote office work they have been given. 'It sure beats washing cars,' says Georgia State University graduate Landon Crider, 24, an in-house courier who, for $10 an hour, ferries documents back and forth between the courthouse and his company's office."

Hugh Pickens writes "Jordan Weissmann writes that a task force commissioned by Florida Governor Rick Scott is putting the finishing touches on a proposal that would allow the state's public universities to charge lower tuition for studying topics thought to be in high demand among Florida employers including science, technology, engineering, and math. The hope is that by keeping certain degrees cheaper than others, Florida can encourage students into fields where it needs more talent. For some, it might seem inherently unfair to send dance majors deeper into debt just to keep tuition low for engineers, who are already poised to earn more once they graduate, but task force chair Dale Brill says tax dollars are scarce, and the public deserves the best possible return from its investment in education and that means spending more generously on the students who are most likely to help grow Florida's economy once they graduate. Brill also argues that too few young people consider their career prospects carefully when picking a major. 'We're trying to introduce some semblance of a market dynamic information in an environment where there is none,' Brill says. 'Most students couldn't tell you what they pay in tuition. In economics, pricing is all we have to determine and work out supply and demand. So, when the consumer is completely separated from the cost of a product, then the cost rises.'" Remember when everyone was supposed to become an aerospace engineer and then the industry collapsed in the early 90s?

bsaxon asks: "I am looking for advice on methods that would allow the testing and debugging of different mail server configurations, particularly different ways of handling spam and mail filtering. What are different ways that different mail configurations can be tested? Currently, we have two servers running Linux that check all incoming/outgoing mail for viruses and spam, using software that works with Sendmail. After incoming mail is processed, it is relayed to its final destination, in a mailbox on a MS Exchange server. One server handles the actual processing of mail, and the other server just queues mail when the other server is down or overworked. Basically, I would like to have all mail duplicated, before reaching any filters or virus scanners or blocklists, with one copy continuing its normal route to the production server and the other copy of the message going to the test mail server. Can it be done at the DNS level or through Sendmail or are there other ways that this could be achieved? I am only looking for suggestions that deal with different methods of testing different mail server configurations, not actual suggestions for filtering mail."

Quixote writes "A couple of days ago, there were news reports about a traffic camera near Univ. of Alabama being actually used to checkout passersby by someone at the state troopers' office. Today, there's a news report about 3 people being arrested for 'public misconduct' by the same camera (including one man for grabbing his crotch (don't ballplayers routinely do this? ;)). This story highlights an issue which most privacy advocates worry about: the extension of a surveillance technology to cover areas it was not intended to cover. This camera is a traffic camera: it was installed for monitoring the traffic conditions on the road. Now it is being used to monitor people (albeit the 'monitoring' was for some <ahem> other purposes in the beginning). I will submit that in a public place you have no right to privacy; but this yet another example of something to keep in mind when considering other 'privacy eroding' technologies."

joeljones writes "The New York Times (registration, yeah, yeah, yeah) has an interesting story about two artists who use HTML, Javascript, and other web technologies as their medium. Could be an interesting set of test cases for anyone writing a browser." While we're on the subject of artsy sites, I submit Zombo.com for your perusal. I believe it to be the only web site that claims the infinite is possible.

Found in LWN. Apparently, Microsoft has begun its dissection of the open source community. Eric Raymond has been leaked an internal Microsoft memo regarding open source software. Quite the interesting read. Turns out they even mention Slashdot. This could be beneficial to us in another way, as well: it points out, in no uncertain words, our deficiencies. Consider it the master TODO list, guys. Update!(S) Vorx writes "ZDNet just posted an article about the MS Halloween document. They mention ESR and his role in publicizing it. Seems like more attention is being paid to this article now, maybe some PHB's will start to wonder about MS and Fear :)" Update! (S) David Rysdam wrote to tell us: "I wrote to ESR myself and told him about the brouhaha over here at Slashdot over the "Halloween Paper". I explained that many thought it was a hoax perpetrated on or by him, but that I thought even if he was the hoaxster I didn't believe he'd keep up an outright lie. So I asked him straight: "To the best of your knowledge, is this memo what it purports to be: a leaked, internal, MS communication?" He responded: "Absolutely. I believe it is authentic." So I think we can drop the "ESR is lying" hypothesis." Also, Paul Victor Novarese has mirrored the Halloween Document (with ESR's permission).

Found in LWN. Apparently, Microsoft has begun its dissection of the open source community. Eric Raymond has been leaked an internal Microsoft memo regarding open source software. Quite the interesting read. Turns out they even mention Slashdot. This could be beneficial to us in another way, as well: it points out, in no uncertain words, our deficiencies. Consider it the master TODO list, guys. Update!(S) Vorx writes "ZDNet just posted an article about the MS Halloween document. They mention ESR and his role in publicizing it. Seems like more attention is being paid to this article now, maybe some PHB's will start to wonder about MS and Fear :)" Update! (S) David Rysdam wrote to tell us: "I wrote to ESR myself and told him about the brouhaha over here at Slashdot over the "Halloween Paper". I explained that many thought it was a hoax perpetrated on or by him, but that I thought even if he was the hoaxster I didn't believe he'd keep up an outright lie. So I asked him straight: "To the best of your knowledge, is this memo what it purports to be: a leaked, internal, MS communication?" He responded: "Absolutely. I believe it is authentic." So I think we can drop the "ESR is lying" hypothesis." Also, Paul Victor Novarese has mirrored the Halloween Document (with ESR's permission).