This brings to mind an article I read way back in Inc magazine where the author talks about how employees will figure out how game any system that rewards them.
Clemson is just gaming the system, I imagine other schools that change quickly change their ranking probably are doing the same. Even if US News and World Report changes their ranking methodology, I guarantee that schools will simply change their tactics to beat the system agian.
It is very easy to put a one-time programmable ROM on silicon. Intel did something like this on the Pentium 3.
As long as the device syncs with a central server, programming should be easy since only the central server has to maintain the variant list. The device just has to update itself with the 'plays' you have left and count down. It is just like what Apple does with buying music off of itunes, except in this case you only play a set number of times.
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This brings to mind an article I read way back in Inc magazine where the author talks about how employees will figure out how game any system that rewards them.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20081001/how-hard-could-it-be-sins-of-commissions.html
Clemson is just gaming the system, I imagine other schools that change quickly change their ranking probably are doing the same. Even if US News and World Report changes their ranking methodology, I guarantee that schools will simply change their tactics to beat the system agian.
I've been reading Code Complete by Steve McConnell at home and he really hits the nail on the head on how do design and write good software.
He now has a second version of his book out, I highly recommend it as a study on good software.
It is very easy to put a one-time programmable ROM on silicon. Intel did something like this on the Pentium 3.
As long as the device syncs with a central server, programming should be easy since only the central server has to maintain the variant list. The device just has to update itself with the 'plays' you have left and count down. It is just like what Apple does with buying music off of itunes, except in this case you only play a set number of times.