The focus in schools is teaching kids. If its not, we have a bigger problem. So, assuming that your school offers even a basic typing/word processing class we need to examine what that class is teaching students.
If the class is there to teach students to use MS Office then sticking with MS Office and having them memorize and regurgitate those patterns to accomplish a task is the way to go.
If the class is designed to teach students to create, modify, and present documents in an educational and professional manner then OpenOffice could be used. Instead of training them what tools to use to accomplish a task TEACH them to LEARN and DISCOVER what tools they need to accomplish a task.
By example: -If I want to do a mail merge in MS Office, I start by clicking the insert menu, then clicking 'mail merge', then clicking..... -If I want to mail the same document to multiple people without retyping each one I should look for a tool or template that will allow me to do this. I would first start by skimming the menu options for some likely candidates, then use help or the software manual to make sure that is the right tool. Once I do that, I will probably have to insert something to tell the word processor where I want names and addresses to appear.
I think that addressing it as a cirriculum and educational issue rather than a cost/philosophical issue will get you farther AND benefit the students. Teaching them problem solving skills rather than task skills will take your students much farther.
I moved across town and entered Adelphia's coverage. Adelphia was charging me $30 less for extended basic and cable internet than time warner. Adelphia also had a better lineup (SpeedTV is like heroin to me) and less downtime on the internet.
Time Warner has great service, but with Adelphia I never had to have the cable repairman come out in the first place.
Excepting cellphones, most devices I see use a readily available round power connector. The transformer is clearly marked with the polarity and electricial info. One can just measure the size and hit up any electronics supplier and find a matching connector.
I can also see it as protection, if you can physically connect up a USB-power only cable to something that isnt expecting power on its USB port then someone will do so and destroy it.
I understand where you're coming from, but I still disagree somewhat.
IT majors may have an interest in computer science, many can write good scripts and utility programs, but they are certainly not (or should not) be expected to know how to design and implement a large program. The inverse is true for CS majors, they should know how to handle large programming projects, but designing networks and PCs is not what they really do or were taught.
My father is a good example, he's currently the top MIS manager for a fairly large company and is approaching retirement. He has been designing and writing code for mainframe systems (mostly AS400's) his entire career. He can talk to me about code design and the nuances of various languages. He can design and implement massive programs, but he stil has to call my brother (a comptuer geek who went on to get an IT degree when it was a new field) or I when his home PC borks up. The PC on his desk at work is a tool to do his job, and it is as far removed from the focus of his task as the guys upstairs in HR and accounting.
"I've met plenty of people with qualifications (computer science degrees, various certifications, etc..) who couldn't fix the simplest problems or don't even have an understanding of the most basic aspects of the systems."
Of course you'll find computer science people who can't fix PCs because computer science is NOT about PC repair. The day-to-day maintentance, design, and setup of end-user hardware, servers, and networks is an IT/IS issue.
A computer science major should be able to outline the concepts of the design and implementation of the software on a computer, know a little bit about the hardware architecture, how the OS handles events, understand the structural differences of programming languages, etc.
CS and IT/IS overlap in many areas, but the two fields are very different and serve different purposes. The difference is as simple as looking which colleges offer degrees, CS is usually part of an Arts&Sciences while IT/IS are part of Buisness. Both are very important and useful, but they are no more alike than a lumberjack and a carpenter.
Re:More useless IPv6 calculations
on
The Next Net
·
· Score: 1
"I know we all hate microsoft, but lets at least try to be objective. Where I work, we are still running a program originally meant to run in win 3.1. Should we be running this program? Hells no. Can we? Yes, the bastard still limps along like a champ."
I disagree. You SHOULD still be running this app. Apparently it does whatever you need it to do well enough to keep it around, so why change it? Your users know and are comfortable with it, if its changed they'll have problems doing thier jobs and any problems will be blamed on the new software.
"CherryOS surfaced as a PowerPC emulator for x86-compatible systems, specifically geared, and sold, to allow Windows users to use Apple's Mac OS X. This is actually kinda cool. Even though Apple Computer could sue your ass off because they have a clause in their EULA disallowing it, it's a really stupid clause and there are a whole host of reasons why someone might want to do this."
I agree, it is not OK for CherryOS to take code from PearPC under the terms of the GPL.
But it is also not OK for PearPC to write software to explicitly violate Apples EULA.
Its suicidal for PearPC to press the case on CherryOS because the nature of both is to violate the EULA of a 300lb gorilla. This legal copyright, liscencing thing is a two way street. If you want the GPL enforced then you're going to have to stop bitching when the EULA of any other software is enforced.
The whole point of having a VPN and a work computer is to isolate and secure your work data.
By propagating your work data to your home PC (even if it is a more secure Macintosh) increases the chance that something is going to go wrong. The IT/IS people at work gave you laptops so you could work at home on the laptop. They set up a VPN so that you could SECURELY connect and work from anywhere. Is the simple convienience of working on your personal computer worth the risks of bypassing a reasonably secure setup??
I can think of a few problem cases where the benefits won't outweigh the loss. -The first is outright theft. If someone gets your laptop and knows or figures out that they can just jack in, everything is compromised. -I know Mac's are considered more secure, but what happens if your Mac is compromised and is connected to your laptop which is also connected to the VPN?? It'd make a nice straight IP tunnel straight to you losing your job and your company getting pWnZ0r3d. -The last, and most likely, is a file synchronization problem. The whole idea of having everything on your laptop or on the company servers is that you have one copy and know where it is. If you start working on things on your own PC, what happens if you don't save it to the right location?? You polish of a report at home and save it locally, then the big boss asks for it on monday and BAM, you're "..in the unemployment line with all those scumbags!".
In short, deal with it. Don't go monkeying with the company laptop because it isn't your machine and it isn't your data.
Wrong. You should still run anti-spyware (agressive tracking cookies work on all OSs), anti-virus (there are a lot of *nix virii), and anti-worm (most worms use universal protocols to spread). While running a *nix derivative only means that you have the tools available to really secure a system. It still requires that you configure it properly and maintain it with regular checks and updates.
Linux has really taken off in the past few years because it's community has really build a solid OS and good applications. This talk of 'beating' Microsoft is as disenchanting as the elections. It seems as though people are more concerned about thier side winning and the other side losing rather than producing a solid product that does what the consumer needs/wants it to do.
I use KDE at school to work on my CS projects. It'd be killer to be able to use KDE at home on my Windows machine so I didn't always have to make time to stay after class and work in the lab. It wouldn't hurt to be able to work on my Windows based personal projects while logged in at school either.
So can we please stop this pissing match and toddle back to our cubes and start producing a solid product?
Re:Best form of wireless communication ever
on
WiFi Bridging?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html Check out RFC1149 too. It can get a bit messy, but its low maintenance and will work for miles on very little electricity.
Perhaps forced was the wrong word. It seems to me that the powers that be are trying to push the format much harder than other formats.
Take for example laserdiscs, they were introduced and the early adopters bought enough of them to justify some revisions and limited production. However in the long run, video stores and most producers stuck with VHS.
HDTV seems to be getting an all or nothing push rather than dangling a few samples out and seeing if the market bites. When LD failed, they just faded away, what happens if HDTV fails? Will there be a sudden reversion to standard signaling?
At first filesharing and music swapping was for geeks. No one outside of geekdom knew much about it. Look at it now, AOL users are doing it (HA!). The general public has gone from seeing it as a small group of p1r8t3s stealing music, to some sort of Robin Hood analogy fighting the RIAA.
I can't see HDTV DRM being much different. Tivo modifications are not uncommon, I even saw a few how-to books for it at B&N last week. Eventually consumers will clue in and WANT to record HDTV, legally, like they do now with NTSC and a VCR.
The only difference with HDTV is that it is almost being forced out to consumers where Mp3's, DVD's and CD's were slowly introduced and adapted. Even my friends who are usually early adopters haven't said a damned thing about getting an HDTV card, decoder, or HDTV-ready TV. There has been very little chatter about this from the tech media. Yet, the broadcasters, electronic makers,and the government have already started tossing around legislation for HDTV. The point is that DRM is being forced on consumers, so is HDTV.
You have to trick consumers into buying what you want them to buy and the current HDTV and DRM crowds are not being that subtle. Consumers will be revolting ('well mostly they're just rude') as soon as this crap starts to complicate what used to be a simple task.
Egh, no. You have some good ideas, but they miss the mark just a bit. I like that you are thinking a little more in depth about security though.
The glaring issue is 'a server that the units autoupdate from'. This is a problem in general because it is trivial to prevent it from updating itself. This is a problem for professionals because they may have a firewall that prevents it from updating, or prefer to do manual updates. What if an auto-update borks a custom configuration? Who is responsible then?
The whole scheme is complex. Coding things on a general PC is easy and memory is almost free.Putting an SSH server, the key storage, and the maintenance code into hardware is expensive and very complicated. Running such things as software on the router is less hard, but would be much slower than in hardware.
I don't know who said it, or if I figured it out on my own, but it bears repeating. Security does not mean that something is safe. Security increases the amout of time, money, and resources that must be used to gain acess. At present security is only secure because the requirements to break it are *currently* out of reach.
Kent State just announced thier FlashNotes website. I go to school there, email me at fiveonethree@yahoo.com I would be more than happy to come down and help you sort out your options.
A bit of opinion on the project. This is not a good idea. Its one more tool that studnets will rely on to memorize information isntead of taking time ti THINK about thier subjects and really LEARN the material.
I still have my AOL email address from over 10 years ago when my family frist got on the internet. My parents still use AOL, it's ideal for them, email and basic internet and nationwide dilaup numbers.
My account was the master account so it can't be changed or deleted. I stopped getting legitimate email there 3 years ago, and blocked all incoming mail last year.
It'll be nice to reactivate it and start using it with a real mail program again. I'm kinda hoping some old friends might start banging away at it.
The point is, AOL is now expanding. You have your basic mom and dad AOL users, but you have the 'normal' functionality for power users that want something more but have to keep the family online too.
If he ever wants to work anywhere he'll need to learn now that appearance and sociability matter almost as much as actual skills. He won't be working alone in his career and will have to get along with others.
Gifted kids aren't easily lied to, so you'll either have to be brutally honest or really sneaky. Tell your student outright and honestly that hes unkempt and a change in appearance and attiude will help the others. Plan B is to wrap it up as a social experiment, 'change your appearance and see how others change'. The other option is a job skills lesson, 'prepare for an interview and subsequent internship'.
Slashdot Mirror
The focus in schools is teaching kids. If its not, we have a bigger problem. So, assuming that your school offers even a basic typing/word processing class we need to examine what that class is teaching students.
If the class is there to teach students to use MS Office then sticking with MS Office and having them memorize and regurgitate those patterns to accomplish a task is the way to go.
If the class is designed to teach students to create, modify, and present documents in an educational and professional manner then OpenOffice could be used. Instead of training them what tools to use to accomplish a task TEACH them to LEARN and DISCOVER what tools they need to accomplish a task.
By example:
-If I want to do a mail merge in MS Office, I start by clicking the insert menu, then clicking 'mail merge', then clicking.....
-If I want to mail the same document to multiple people without retyping each one I should look for a tool or template that will allow me to do this. I would first start by skimming the menu options for some likely candidates, then use help or the software manual to make sure that is the right tool. Once I do that, I will probably have to insert something to tell the word processor where I want names and addresses to appear.
I think that addressing it as a cirriculum and educational issue rather than a cost/philosophical issue will get you farther AND benefit the students. Teaching them problem solving skills rather than task skills will take your students much farther.
If you overlay two pr0n images on just one woman each would the resultant display on this qualify as girl-on-girl??
I moved across town and entered Adelphia's coverage. Adelphia was charging me $30 less for extended basic and cable internet than time warner. Adelphia also had a better lineup (SpeedTV is like heroin to me) and less downtime on the internet.
Time Warner has great service, but with Adelphia I never had to have the cable repairman come out in the first place.
Excepting cellphones, most devices I see use a readily available round power connector. The transformer is clearly marked with the polarity and electricial info. One can just measure the size and hit up any electronics supplier and find a matching connector.
I can also see it as protection, if you can physically connect up a USB-power only cable to something that isnt expecting power on its USB port then someone will do so and destroy it.
I understand where you're coming from, but I still disagree somewhat.
IT majors may have an interest in computer science, many can write good scripts and utility programs, but they are certainly not (or should not) be expected to know how to design and implement a large program. The inverse is true for CS majors, they should know how to handle large programming projects, but designing networks and PCs is not what they really do or were taught.
My father is a good example, he's currently the top MIS manager for a fairly large company and is approaching retirement. He has been designing and writing code for mainframe systems (mostly AS400's) his entire career. He can talk to me about code design and the nuances of various languages. He can design and implement massive programs, but he stil has to call my brother (a comptuer geek who went on to get an IT degree when it was a new field) or I when his home PC borks up. The PC on his desk at work is a tool to do his job, and it is as far removed from the focus of his task as the guys upstairs in HR and accounting.
"I've met plenty of people with qualifications (computer science degrees, various certifications, etc..) who couldn't fix the simplest problems or don't even have an understanding of the most basic aspects of the systems."
Of course you'll find computer science people who can't fix PCs because computer science is NOT about PC repair. The day-to-day maintentance, design, and setup of end-user hardware, servers, and networks is an IT/IS issue.
A computer science major should be able to outline the concepts of the design and implementation of the software on a computer, know a little bit about the hardware architecture, how the OS handles events, understand the structural differences of programming languages, etc.
CS and IT/IS overlap in many areas, but the two fields are very different and serve different purposes. The difference is as simple as looking which colleges offer degrees, CS is usually part of an Arts&Sciences while IT/IS are part of Buisness. Both are very important and useful, but they are no more alike than a lumberjack and a carpenter.
640k used to be enough too.
"I know we all hate microsoft, but lets at least try to be objective. Where I work, we are still running a program originally meant to run in win 3.1. Should we be running this program? Hells no. Can we? Yes, the bastard still limps along like a champ."
I disagree. You SHOULD still be running this app. Apparently it does whatever you need it to do well enough to keep it around, so why change it? Your users know and are comfortable with it, if its changed they'll have problems doing thier jobs and any problems will be blamed on the new software.
"CherryOS surfaced as a PowerPC emulator for x86-compatible systems, specifically geared, and sold, to allow Windows users to use Apple's Mac OS X. This is actually kinda cool. Even though Apple Computer could sue your ass off because they have a clause in their EULA disallowing it, it's a really stupid clause and there are a whole host of reasons why someone might want to do this."
I agree, it is not OK for CherryOS to take code from PearPC under the terms of the GPL.
But it is also not OK for PearPC to write software to explicitly violate Apples EULA.
Its suicidal for PearPC to press the case on CherryOS because the nature of both is to violate the EULA of a 300lb gorilla. This legal copyright, liscencing thing is a two way street. If you want the GPL enforced then you're going to have to stop bitching when the EULA of any other software is enforced.
The whole point of having a VPN and a work computer is to isolate and secure your work data.
By propagating your work data to your home PC (even if it is a more secure Macintosh) increases the chance that something is going to go wrong. The IT/IS people at work gave you laptops so you could work at home on the laptop. They set up a VPN so that you could SECURELY connect and work from anywhere. Is the simple convienience of working on your personal computer worth the risks of bypassing a reasonably secure setup??
I can think of a few problem cases where the benefits won't outweigh the loss.
-The first is outright theft. If someone gets your laptop and knows or figures out that they can just jack in, everything is compromised.
-I know Mac's are considered more secure, but what happens if your Mac is compromised and is connected to your laptop which is also connected to the VPN?? It'd make a nice straight IP tunnel straight to you losing your job and your company getting pWnZ0r3d.
-The last, and most likely, is a file synchronization problem. The whole idea of having everything on your laptop or on the company servers is that you have one copy and know where it is. If you start working on things on your own PC, what happens if you don't save it to the right location?? You polish of a report at home and save it locally, then the big boss asks for it on monday and BAM, you're "..in the unemployment line with all those scumbags!".
In short, deal with it. Don't go monkeying with the company laptop because it isn't your machine and it isn't your data.
Wrong. You should still run anti-spyware (agressive tracking cookies work on all OSs), anti-virus (there are a lot of *nix virii), and anti-worm (most worms use universal protocols to spread). While running a *nix derivative only means that you have the tools available to really secure a system. It still requires that you configure it properly and maintain it with regular checks and updates.
The *nix/MS 'battle' is getting old. Really old.
Linux has really taken off in the past few years because it's community has really build a solid OS and good applications. This talk of 'beating' Microsoft is as disenchanting as the elections. It seems as though people are more concerned about thier side winning and the other side losing rather than producing a solid product that does what the consumer needs/wants it to do.
I use KDE at school to work on my CS projects. It'd be killer to be able to use KDE at home on my Windows machine so I didn't always have to make time to stay after class and work in the lab. It wouldn't hurt to be able to work on my Windows based personal projects while logged in at school either.
So can we please stop this pissing match and toddle back to our cubes and start producing a solid product?
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html Check out RFC1149 too. It can get a bit messy, but its low maintenance and will work for miles on very little electricity.
another exciting episode of Questions That Were Answered in 1950.
Can a *different form of energy* wean *country* from *current mainstream form of energy*???
Well then, I stand corrected by someone who knows. Learning by being told I'm wrong sucks, but at least I'm learning. Thank you.
Perhaps forced was the wrong word. It seems to me that the powers that be are trying to push the format much harder than other formats.
Take for example laserdiscs, they were introduced and the early adopters bought enough of them to justify some revisions and limited production. However in the long run, video stores and most producers stuck with VHS.
HDTV seems to be getting an all or nothing push rather than dangling a few samples out and seeing if the market bites. When LD failed, they just faded away, what happens if HDTV fails? Will there be a sudden reversion to standard signaling?
At first filesharing and music swapping was for geeks. No one outside of geekdom knew much about it. Look at it now, AOL users are doing it (HA!). The general public has gone from seeing it as a small group of p1r8t3s stealing music, to some sort of Robin Hood analogy fighting the RIAA.
I can't see HDTV DRM being much different. Tivo modifications are not uncommon, I even saw a few how-to books for it at B&N last week. Eventually consumers will clue in and WANT to record HDTV, legally, like they do now with NTSC and a VCR.
The only difference with HDTV is that it is almost being forced out to consumers where Mp3's, DVD's and CD's were slowly introduced and adapted. Even my friends who are usually early adopters haven't said a damned thing about getting an HDTV card, decoder, or HDTV-ready TV. There has been very little chatter about this from the tech media. Yet, the broadcasters, electronic makers,and the government have already started tossing around legislation for HDTV. The point is that DRM is being forced on consumers, so is HDTV.
You have to trick consumers into buying what you want them to buy and the current HDTV and DRM crowds are not being that subtle. Consumers will be revolting ('well mostly they're just rude') as soon as this crap starts to complicate what used to be a simple task.
Egh, no. You have some good ideas, but they miss the mark just a bit. I like that you are thinking a little more in depth about security though.
The glaring issue is 'a server that the units autoupdate from'. This is a problem in general because it is trivial to prevent it from updating itself. This is a problem for professionals because they may have a firewall that prevents it from updating, or prefer to do manual updates. What if an auto-update borks a custom configuration? Who is responsible then?
The whole scheme is complex. Coding things on a general PC is easy and memory is almost free.Putting an SSH server, the key storage, and the maintenance code into hardware is expensive and very complicated. Running such things as software on the router is less hard, but would be much slower than in hardware.
I don't know who said it, or if I figured it out on my own, but it bears repeating. Security does not mean that something is safe. Security increases the amout of time, money, and resources that must be used to gain acess. At present security is only secure because the requirements to break it are *currently* out of reach.
Kent State just announced thier FlashNotes website. I go to school there, email me at fiveonethree@yahoo.com I would be more than happy to come down and help you sort out your options.
A bit of opinion on the project. This is not a good idea. Its one more tool that studnets will rely on to memorize information isntead of taking time ti THINK about thier subjects and really LEARN the material.
I would except you don't have an email address listed. Drop it to fiveonethree@NOSPAMNO.yahoo.com and we'll talk.
Whom would I contact to get that? I am temporarily unemployed (literally between jobs) and could use some work.
I still have my AOL email address from over 10 years ago when my family frist got on the internet. My parents still use AOL, it's ideal for them, email and basic internet and nationwide dilaup numbers.
My account was the master account so it can't be changed or deleted. I stopped getting legitimate email there 3 years ago, and blocked all incoming mail last year.
It'll be nice to reactivate it and start using it with a real mail program again. I'm kinda hoping some old friends might start banging away at it.
The point is, AOL is now expanding. You have your basic mom and dad AOL users, but you have the 'normal' functionality for power users that want something more but have to keep the family online too.
If he ever wants to work anywhere he'll need to learn now that appearance and sociability matter almost as much as actual skills. He won't be working alone in his career and will have to get along with others.
Gifted kids aren't easily lied to, so you'll either have to be brutally honest or really sneaky. Tell your student outright and honestly that hes unkempt and a change in appearance and attiude will help the others. Plan B is to wrap it up as a social experiment, 'change your appearance and see how others change'. The other option is a job skills lesson, 'prepare for an interview and subsequent internship'.
Go buy an RX-7 or RX-8. Those come with two doritos in a pringles can.
I'll be back later to explain the joke unless someone else does first.
We won't know for sure until someone shoves that piece of toast up thier asses now will we?
It's akin to trying to play old DOS games in XP.