Slashdot isn't supposed to be a site for breaking news. Slashdot is supposed to be a site with news for nerds and stuff that matters. If you look at the date line on the AP and Reuters stories you will see that Snowden was well on his way to Moscow before the news broke. I saw the news on the BBC site and jumped to Slashdot to see if the news was posted here. I saw that this article was in the queue. I was about to send an email to report the updates when I refreshed the page and the article had been published. A tip of the hat to hazeii and samzenpus for posting this new so quickly.
A tip of the hat to Mr. Kapplitt responding to government overreach with a sense of humor. This is fine example of why lawyers work pro bono publico. I'd love to see this case go to trial so that future first amendment cases can cite Mr. Kaplitt's letter.
Intel has a long history of using geographic names as project names because you can't copyright a geographic name. I worked on 'Year 2000 Compliance" at Intel. I thought I was working on Y2K compliance until the legal department sent out a notice that someone had asserted a copyright to Y2K.
I once ran a BBS called "The Stack Exchange" which focused on HyperCard. I receive a nasty call from someone who wrote HyperCard applications for a company called the "The Stack Exchange." I changed the name of my BBS to avoid a legal hassle. If the caller hadn't been such an asshole I would have gone out of my way to explain the name change and to promote The Stack Exchange on my renamed BBS. The moral of the story is that it pays to ask nicely before sending out the cease and desist letter. Jack Daniel's took this approach when a book cover had the look of a Jack Daniel's label. Jack Daniel's even offered to cover the costs of designing a new cover for the book.
1 - The original article doesn't mention the make and model of the tablet computers that the Pocohantas County schools are planning to use for electronic textbooks. It's possible that they will select Android over iOs
2 - iPads have either a 30-pin to USB connector or a Lightning to USB connector. The wired connection can be used to transfer files to and from the iPad.
The article doesn't explain why the tablet computers must have a network connection to be used to read digital textbooks. Is there any reason why the digital textbooks can't be loaded from a hardwired connection and then used when the tablets are offline?
The article also doesn't explain why every student in the entire school must have simultaneous internet access in order to take the online standardized tests. It should be possible to set a computer lab with enough computers to allow every student in a single grade to take the online standardized tests.
The article mentions that there is a highly restricted NSA facility near the school. I'm sure that the NSA knows how to limit signal leakage and radio frequency interference. Perhaps the NSA facility can find a solution to this problem that doesn't require a wireless network.
I value hands on experience much more than certifications when interviewing candidates for any IT job. A certification tells me that the job candidate has the ability to study a body of knowledge and pass a test. A certification doesn't tell me if the job candidate has any real world experience that they can apply on the job. I use a behavioral interviewing technique and ask questions such as:
What approach do you take to troubleshooting problems?
Can you give me example of a problem that you investigated and resolved?
What do you do when you can't resolve a problem on your own?
What do you do when you have to learn how to use a new piece of equipment?
What is your preferred learning style?
The original poster seems like the type of person who is self motivated and willing to learn new skills. This is the type of person that I look for when interviewing a job candidate.
You make a very good point about upgrading software and migrating from an old PC to a new PC. Mac OS X and Linux make it much easier to upgrade software and to migrate to a new computer than Windows. Linux makes most sense as the operating system given the 300$ budget. I have a few aged Dell Inspiron 600m laptops and Dell Latitude d610 laptops that my son used when he needed a portable computer.
I like buying old computers in pair so that I have spare parts in case one computer breaks down. There's nothing like cannibalizing one computer to fix another computer if you want to learn more about computer hardware.
A few morel thoughts about learning how to use a computer and learning about how computers work. If I don't know the answer to a question I know that I can find the answer to a question by asking someone who knows more than I do or by using my computer to find the answer. If your son asks you a question and you don't know the answer to the question you can teach him how to find the answer by using his computer.
Also your son may be interested in learning how computers work or he may only be interested in learning how to use a computer as a tool. My son was much more interested in learning how to use a computer than he was in learning how a computer worked. He wasn't very interested in learning how computers worked until he had an opportunity to take computer science in high school.
FYI: I wrote the original post and the first reply as an anonymous coward. I clearly don't know how to use a computer because I forgot to log in before posting.;-)
If you Amazon won't ship to you, you can usually find an independent bookseller that will ship to you. I prefer to use my local independent bookstore for new books. However, I will also use Alibris for used books and the occasional new book. Alibris has a copy that is listed as shipping from Hampshire, UK. Kennys.ie has a copy shipping from the UK.
I am not sure that Android would be any better than Sugar. I participated in the buy two get one program so that I could look at the original OLPC XO 1.0 laptop. I was not impressed by Sugar. I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI. OLPC should stick to developing affordable hardware and ask Canonical to provide optimized versions of Edubuntu and Ubuntu for the OLPC XO-1.75 laptop.
I suspect that the first story would have been clearer if Eric Kriss, Peter J. Quinn's former supervisor, had returned the Globe's phone calls. The second article makes it clear that Peter J. Quinn was acting on bad advice from Eric Kriss.
This seems like a typical case of Massachusetts politics. I'm a bit surprised at the thought that the Globe articles had anything to do with Peter J. Quinn's decision to resign.
Finally, there are no stories about Peter J. Quinn's resignation posted at either the New York Times web site or the Boston Globe web site. It will be interesting to see the Globe coverage when it appears.
All we need is an 'Elmer Fud' icon for this section and well be all set!
Apple is actually switching to Intel to smooth the way for a merger with Sun. Sun is going to abandon SPARC technology in favor of Intel technology. Sun is going to stop building low end workstations and ship Intel based Apple computers.
You may want to contact a company that specializes in installing AV equipment in conference rooms.
Take a look at Bontronics for a few examples of conference rooms that were designed and installed by an AV company.
Another option would be to convince CNBC to use your company to film the pilot episode of "Pimp My Conference Room!"
Re:Don't forget lost education....
on
Star Wars Sickout
·
· Score: 1
My son and I decided to pass on the 12:01 a.m. show or any of the the morning shows so that he can put in a full day at school. I am taking a vacation day next Thursday so that I can pick up my son after school and take him to the 3:30 p.m. showing.
"Kroesen's team has made its solar cells bendy simply by making them thin. But this has involved a trade-off. While the best solar cells are now working at efficiencies above 20%, the H-AS cells are only about 7% efficient. The researchers think efficiency is worth sacrificing for a cell that is going to be more generally useful, though they still hope eventually to reach 10% efficiency."
VIBUG started as a Boston Computer Society special interest group. The VIBUG web site has a page listing resources for blind computer users
VIBUG's mission statement is:
"Exchange information and advice among visually impaired computer users.
Expand computer literacy within the visually impaired community--especially the use of computers to overcome limitations of visual impairment.
To further these objectives, VIBUG is engaged in the following activities:
Conducting monthly meetings on the second Saturday of the month at National Braille Press, (88 St. Stephen Street) in Boston. The highlight of each meeting is a demonstration of how a personal computer may be productively used with speech, braille, or large print output. A personal computer is especially useful to someone who is visually impaired or blind because it facilitates access to and analysis of diverse information with remarkable speed, accuracy, and convenience.
Maintaining a tape library of these meetings to distribute to Vibug members and other interested persons."
The original post states that software firewalls were disabled when he ran Windows updates. It does not pay to connect a computer directly to a persistent internet connection with no software or hardware firewall in place.
I make a point to work on new Windows installs behind a NAT firewall. I've found that personal firewall software and antivirus software can interfere with other software installs from time to time.
I generally stick to McAfee products when dealing with Windows 98 and Me. I've had some weird problems with Norton 2004 under Windows 98 and Me. I know some people who won't even touch computers that are running Windows 95/98/Me unless it is to upgrade them to Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
The bottom line, is that we shouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. Computer vendors who build on demand could make sure that all hard drives are shipped with all of the latest Windows updates pre-installed. Computer vendors who ship with Microsoft Office pre-installed should pre-install all the Microsoft Office updates.
I strongly recommend that anyone who has a persistent internet connection install a hardware firewall and anti-virus software. I've seen too many infected machines that were soft targets because they did not have any anti-virus software, any personal firewall software and were connected directly to a cable or DSL modem.
When I was a kid, there were many movies I avoided because I loved the book so much. As an adult, I've come to realize that it's the story that's most important. A movie is just a different way of telling a story than a book is. Book's encourage active imagination. Movies do all the imagining for you. Now I always make it a point to read the book before I see the movie.
My 11 year old son just discovered HHGG and Douglas Adams. He's read the radio script, read the books, and seen the BBC TV show. Each version is slightly different from the others. I fully expect that he and I will both enjoy the HHGG movie because we will accept it for what it is instead of comparing it to the source material.
"The company said it will support the products through their two-year warranty but will not provide service beyond that."
I thought there were consumer protection laws that stipulate the availability of service and support for 7 years from the date of the original sale. Isn't two years a fairly short end of life cycle for a consumer electronics product?
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot isn't supposed to be a site for breaking news. Slashdot is supposed to be a site with news for nerds and stuff that matters. If you look at the date line on the AP and Reuters stories you will see that Snowden was well on his way to Moscow before the news broke. I saw the news on the BBC site and jumped to Slashdot to see if the news was posted here. I saw that this article was in the queue. I was about to send an email to report the updates when I refreshed the page and the article had been published. A tip of the hat to hazeii and samzenpus for posting this new so quickly.
The BBC and the New York Times also have articles reporting the Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong on a flight to Moscow.
A tip of the hat to Mr. Kapplitt responding to government overreach with a sense of humor. This is fine example of why lawyers work pro bono publico. I'd love to see this case go to trial so that future first amendment cases can cite Mr. Kaplitt's letter. Intel has a long history of using geographic names as project names because you can't copyright a geographic name. I worked on 'Year 2000 Compliance" at Intel. I thought I was working on Y2K compliance until the legal department sent out a notice that someone had asserted a copyright to Y2K. I once ran a BBS called "The Stack Exchange" which focused on HyperCard. I receive a nasty call from someone who wrote HyperCard applications for a company called the "The Stack Exchange." I changed the name of my BBS to avoid a legal hassle. If the caller hadn't been such an asshole I would have gone out of my way to explain the name change and to promote The Stack Exchange on my renamed BBS. The moral of the story is that it pays to ask nicely before sending out the cease and desist letter. Jack Daniel's took this approach when a book cover had the look of a Jack Daniel's label. Jack Daniel's even offered to cover the costs of designing a new cover for the book.
1 - The original article doesn't mention the make and model of the tablet computers that the Pocohantas County schools are planning to use for electronic textbooks. It's possible that they will select Android over iOs
2 - iPads have either a 30-pin to USB connector or a Lightning to USB connector. The wired connection can be used to transfer files to and from the iPad.
The article doesn't explain why the tablet computers must have a network connection to be used to read digital textbooks. Is there any reason why the digital textbooks can't be loaded from a hardwired connection and then used when the tablets are offline?
The article also doesn't explain why every student in the entire school must have simultaneous internet access in order to take the online standardized tests. It should be possible to set a computer lab with enough computers to allow every student in a single grade to take the online standardized tests.
The article mentions that there is a highly restricted NSA facility near the school. I'm sure that the NSA knows how to limit signal leakage and radio frequency interference. Perhaps the NSA facility can find a solution to this problem that doesn't require a wireless network.
What approach do you take to troubleshooting problems?
Can you give me example of a problem that you investigated and resolved?
What do you do when you can't resolve a problem on your own?
What do you do when you have to learn how to use a new piece of equipment?
What is your preferred learning style?
The original poster seems like the type of person who is self motivated and willing to learn new skills. This is the type of person that I look for when interviewing a job candidate.
IBM marketing will never approve a 4 letter acronym when a 3 letter acronym will suffice. ( Deadpan humor mode set on full. )
The IBM research paper is available at http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2012.189.html The paper is protected by a paywall.
The IBM press release is available at http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/39250.wss
I recommend reading the comments on the New York Times article. My favorite comment so far is:
MC - NYC
The Singularity edges closer...
You make a very good point about upgrading software and migrating from an old PC to a new PC. Mac OS X and Linux make it much easier to upgrade software and to migrate to a new computer than Windows. Linux makes most sense as the operating system given the 300$ budget. I have a few aged Dell Inspiron 600m laptops and Dell Latitude d610 laptops that my son used when he needed a portable computer. I like buying old computers in pair so that I have spare parts in case one computer breaks down. There's nothing like cannibalizing one computer to fix another computer if you want to learn more about computer hardware.
A few morel thoughts about learning how to use a computer and learning about how computers work. If I don't know the answer to a question I know that I can find the answer to a question by asking someone who knows more than I do or by using my computer to find the answer. If your son asks you a question and you don't know the answer to the question you can teach him how to find the answer by using his computer. Also your son may be interested in learning how computers work or he may only be interested in learning how to use a computer as a tool. My son was much more interested in learning how to use a computer than he was in learning how a computer worked. He wasn't very interested in learning how computers worked until he had an opportunity to take computer science in high school. FYI: I wrote the original post and the first reply as an anonymous coward. I clearly don't know how to use a computer because I forgot to log in before posting. ;-)
If you Amazon won't ship to you, you can usually find an independent bookseller that will ship to you. I prefer to use my local independent bookstore for new books. However, I will also use Alibris for used books and the occasional new book. Alibris has a copy that is listed as shipping from Hampshire, UK. Kennys.ie has a copy shipping from the UK.
I am not sure that Android would be any better than Sugar. I participated in the buy two get one program so that I could look at the original OLPC XO 1.0 laptop. I was not impressed by Sugar. I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI. OLPC should stick to developing affordable hardware and ask Canonical to provide optimized versions of Edubuntu and Ubuntu for the OLPC XO-1.75 laptop.
The headline of the first story is Romney administration reviewing trips made by technology chief.
The headline of the second story is Review backs trips by technology chief with a sub-headline of "No conflict found for aide."
I suspect that the first story would have been clearer if Eric Kriss, Peter J. Quinn's former supervisor, had returned the Globe's phone calls. The second article makes it clear that Peter J. Quinn was acting on bad advice from Eric Kriss.
This seems like a typical case of Massachusetts politics. I'm a bit surprised at the thought that the Globe articles had anything to do with Peter J. Quinn's decision to resign.
Finally, there are no stories about Peter J. Quinn's resignation posted at either the New York Times web site or the Boston Globe web site. It will be interesting to see the Globe coverage when it appears.
Apple is actually switching to Intel to smooth the way for a merger with Sun. Sun is going to abandon SPARC technology in favor of Intel technology. Sun is going to stop building low end workstations and ship Intel based Apple computers.
Take a look at Bontronics for a few examples of conference rooms that were designed and installed by an AV company.
Another option would be to convince CNBC to use your company to film the pilot episode of "Pimp My Conference Room!"
My son and I decided to pass on the 12:01 a.m. show or any of the the morning shows so that he can put in a full day at school. I am taking a vacation day next Thursday so that I can pick up my son after school and take him to the 3:30 p.m. showing.
"Kroesen's team has made its solar cells bendy simply by making them thin. But this has involved a trade-off. While the best solar cells are now working at efficiencies above 20%, the H-AS cells are only about 7% efficient. The researchers think efficiency is worth sacrificing for a cell that is going to be more generally useful, though they still hope eventually to reach 10% efficiency."
I think this type of material could be very useful to provide electricity in places that do not have access to a reliable electrical grid.
How many watts are needed to run a a phone, a refrigerator, a radio or a computer?
I noticed that there is no personal firewall software on your list. Do you have a personal firewall that you recommend to your customers?
VIBUG started as a Boston Computer Society special interest group. The VIBUG web site has a page listing resources for blind computer users VIBUG's mission statement is:
"Exchange information and advice among visually impaired computer users.
Expand computer literacy within the visually impaired community--especially the use of computers to overcome limitations of visual impairment.
To further these objectives, VIBUG is engaged in the following activities:
Conducting monthly meetings on the second Saturday of the month at National Braille Press, (88 St. Stephen Street) in Boston. The highlight of each meeting is a demonstration of how a personal computer may be productively used with speech, braille, or large print output. A personal computer is especially useful to someone who is visually impaired or blind because it facilitates access to and analysis of diverse information with remarkable speed, accuracy, and convenience.
Maintaining a tape library of these meetings to distribute to Vibug members and other interested persons."
There's a nice explanation of SPAM and the Internet on the Official SPAM Home Page.
I hope that a partnership between the public sector and private enterprise will help to drive down the costs of access to space.
Early aviation development was partially funded by the public sector when the United States Post Office subsidized airlines by implementing air mail.
I hope that the government will use private spacelines for all launches of non-military hardware.
I make a point to work on new Windows installs behind a NAT firewall. I've found that personal firewall software and antivirus software can interfere with other software installs from time to time.
I generally stick to McAfee products when dealing with Windows 98 and Me. I've had some weird problems with Norton 2004 under Windows 98 and Me. I know some people who won't even touch computers that are running Windows 95/98/Me unless it is to upgrade them to Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
The bottom line, is that we shouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. Computer vendors who build on demand could make sure that all hard drives are shipped with all of the latest Windows updates pre-installed. Computer vendors who ship with Microsoft Office pre-installed should pre-install all the Microsoft Office updates.
I strongly recommend that anyone who has a persistent internet connection install a hardware firewall and anti-virus software. I've seen too many infected machines that were soft targets because they did not have any anti-virus software, any personal firewall software and were connected directly to a cable or DSL modem.
My 11 year old son just discovered HHGG and Douglas Adams. He's read the radio script, read the books, and seen the BBC TV show. Each version is slightly different from the others. I fully expect that he and I will both enjoy the HHGG movie because we will accept it for what it is instead of comparing it to the source material.
I thought there were consumer protection laws that stipulate the availability of service and support for 7 years from the date of the original sale. Isn't two years a fairly short end of life cycle for a consumer electronics product?