From the article: The school spent $25,000 on the ID system.
Leaving the 'tracking' issue aside (I'm sure hundreds will do it more justice than I can) this is a prime example of why we spend more and more on education with worse and worse results.
How does this system help students learn? It doesn't. Oh, it'll make sure they show up, but ~$10.00 in paper and pencils will do that, too.
The only benefit that I can seeis that teachers will be relieved of a two minute task. Resist the urge to add up a year's worth of minutes--most lessons are on a day-by-day schedule, and those minutes aren't going to help. Plus, there's now a scan-in monitor who has to make sure that the right student is wearing the right ID.
I've always found it really dubious that the Times lets him report on the Mac since he's not exactly what you'd call a neutral observer.
Actually, that's a trend in reporting. Minorities demand to be assigned to stories involving their particular minority group. Since Mac users are more of a minority than most minority groups, this would fall right into line with that method of assigning reporters.
(In all seriousness, I'm not sure if the NYT has adopted that model of story assignment.)
... if students can share with professors, they should be able to share with other students as well.
I should think so. This is oddly top-heavy.
How is it going to cut down on traffic if students are using Lionshare for class AND Kazasterwire for their friends?
Perhaps another reason "PHBs" might be heading to other sources than the IT staff is because the IT staff treats them with such contempt?
Or maybe they don't trust IT know what they're doing. When Sobig went around, my IT Director wanted me to disconnect our Macs from the network. I'm going to go to this guy for training?
At first I thought that we needed a word for the IT version of a "PHB". Then I realized we already had "MCSE".
I love it when the first paragraph of a serious article contains the sentence, While there is no Star Trek "Tricorder" in sight, the physical infrastructure of molecular biology is becoming more sophisticated and less expensive every day.
It reminds me of some friends of mine who were constantly challenging each other to slip odd words or phrases into their serious work.
"Hey Carlson, I bet you can't work "Tricorder" into your next paper!"
Geek Eye for the Average Guy? It seems like we need a term for the opposite of geek (I'm not ready to concede 'average guy', though you could make an argument there.) Preferably, it'd be a single syllable word, like "gay" or "straight" or even "geek".
I'm going to suggest "mug". It seems to have gone unused since the 40's--"Hey, you mug!"--so we might as well dust it off. Plus, it suggests "Muggles".
Is it coincidence that Philly, Balto, and NYC (and the others?) have large art schools?
Art students havethe skills and access to the kind of equipment and materials to pull something like this off. (Although, to undermine my own point, I don't think that they need to be 'inlaid.' It could just be mashed down.)
How many "Andre the Giant has a Posse" stickers have you seen? This might be a higher tech version of that.
The thing that surprised me about broadband is that it is not just "more stuff faster"; it allows you to work in a completely different way. E.g., I used to make backups of all the share/freeware I downloaded. Now I toss them when I'm done, because it would take me longer to find it in my disc catalog than to find the newest version on the net.
The always-on connectivity is at least as important as the speed. In fact, if I had to choose between the two, I'd probably drop the speed first.
Somehow I think slashdot readers are smart enough to find Sony, Philips, Matsushita, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, NEC, IBM, LG, Thomson, RCA, or Toshiba websites without the useless plethora of links.
Darn Skippy! Some of us use lynx after all. That's a lot of down-arrows to get to 'Read More.' Damn GUI-using muttermuttermutter.
While the Do-Not-Call list does protect you from unsolicited calls from private groups, it does not protect you from non-profit groups (such as charities).
I always thought the DNC list was misguided. While telemarketers are annoying, they are nowhere near as annoying as those hangup calls you get from a computer trying to figure out if someone's home. If they just banned those I could live with the TMs.
Now, since telemarketers have to eat too, they're going to try to do more work for 'charities', they may even set up their own. The net effect will be just as many of those damn annoying hangup calls that fill up my answering machine (or did when I plugged it in.)
Um, as a mathematician I can understand why I might be hired to sell
hotdogs, but to justify undefined claims?
Thank you! IANAM, but I was scratching my head over that claim. Were we supposed to think they were compiling it mentally? Sheesh, next we'll hear that the other teams were composed of Brain Surgeons and Rocket Scientists...
Re:Smarter Virus Writers
on
P2P Spam?
·
· Score: 1
Maybe its just that the virus writer is actually starting to follow the kinds of ideas that geeks often toss out. "Oh yeah, if I was making a virus I'd have it..."
I've wondered if he read Slashdot. I know I would if I were him.
Anyone know if the FSF has expressed an opinion on this?
It's implied:
This use is somewhat controversial. Advocates of the GPL and the
Free Software Foundation interpret the GPL more stringently to disallow the use of proprietary modules. On the other hand, Linus Torvalds has stated that proprietary loadable modules are acceptable.
(emphasis mine) That's from section 7 of the article, BTW.
Wonder if they'll ultimately be forced to release this code?
"The privacy implications of this are staggering," says some guy who gets inflammed by things. "People could figure out all sorts of patterns about your life. Why, if they observe you going to the pet store, they could actually figure out that you likely own a pet! Next thing you know, you'll be getting subscription offers for pet magazines. Nobody needs that."
Actually, that's the problem--to do what you describe would be very hard in real life, but the internet equivalent is realtively easy. Tracking you down and following you around all day would be tough, but building a profile on you based on your posts would be easy.
Internet-based things have a way of leaking over the boundries of their metaphors. E-mail becomes primarily junk mail. Bulletin Boards have messages that never come down. There's not much you can do about it, but it is something to keep an eye on.
We went from a user centric network to a faster IT centric network.
That's the thing about IT that makes me nuts. The whole point of IT is supposed to be to enable the actual workers do their jobs better/faster/stronger, but in practice it usually amounts to making life easier for IT.
The supreme irony is that (at least for small to mid-sized companies) IT usually consists of some guys with an MSCE who don't want to deal with anything they aren't familiar with (i.e., non-MS) even if it would ultimately make thier lives easier. Case in point: my CIO migrated our email server from a unix box to an XP server--just in time for Blaster.
Telling your mistress that you signed a deal for a score of flying gasstation is not as cool as telling her you just signed a goverment contract to develop an airportable selfdeploying P2P network with cellular jamming capability.
Does that really impress Norweigan women? 'Cause, if it does, I'll be on the next SAS flight.
Slashdot Mirror
"Any comments/ suggestions would be wonderful."
OK: Don't park in my neighborhood. Or, alternately, hook up a webcam and wirelessly upload images to a server, so you can see who stole your iBook.
NUSE?
Nahhh...
From the article: The school spent $25,000 on the ID system.
Leaving the 'tracking' issue aside (I'm sure hundreds will do it more justice than I can) this is a prime example of why we spend more and more on education with worse and worse results.
How does this system help students learn? It doesn't. Oh, it'll make sure they show up, but ~$10.00 in paper and pencils will do that, too.
The only benefit that I can seeis that teachers will be relieved of a two minute task. Resist the urge to add up a year's worth of minutes--most lessons are on a day-by-day schedule, and those minutes aren't going to help. Plus, there's now a scan-in monitor who has to make sure that the right student is wearing the right ID.
I'm going to get one, just so I can use it to customize a Versalaser case!
I've always found it really dubious that the Times lets him report on the Mac since he's not exactly what you'd call a neutral observer.
Actually, that's a trend in reporting. Minorities demand to be assigned to stories involving their particular minority group. Since Mac users are more of a minority than most minority groups, this would fall right into line with that method of assigning reporters.
(In all seriousness, I'm not sure if the NYT has adopted that model of story assignment.)
They're suing to get the information released. The requested documents are what they'll win if they win.
What information? I mean, they must have some idea of what they're suing for. Flight records? Radar data? What?
I'm missing something--what are they actually suing for? It would be helpful to know what they expect to get if they win the FOIA suit.
I should think so. This is oddly top-heavy. How is it going to cut down on traffic if students are using Lionshare for class AND Kazasterwire for their friends?
Perhaps another reason "PHBs" might be heading to other sources than the IT staff is because the IT staff treats them with such contempt?
Or maybe they don't trust IT know what they're doing. When Sobig went around, my IT Director wanted me to disconnect our Macs from the network. I'm going to go to this guy for training?
At first I thought that we needed a word for the IT version of a "PHB". Then I realized we already had "MCSE".
It reminds me of some friends of mine who were constantly challenging each other to slip odd words or phrases into their serious work.
"Hey Carlson, I bet you can't work "Tricorder" into your next paper!"
In Soviet Ru... oh, nevermind.
There are downsides as well: tougher administration, increased chance that any particular vulnerability will be present in your organization, etc.
I'm going to suggest "mug". It seems to have gone unused since the 40's--"Hey, you mug!"--so we might as well dust it off. Plus, it suggests "Muggles".
Art students havethe skills and access to the kind of equipment and materials to pull something like this off. (Although, to undermine my own point, I don't think that they need to be 'inlaid.' It could just be mashed down.)
How many "Andre the Giant has a Posse" stickers have you seen? This might be a higher tech version of that.
I just had to point out this:
Followed soon by:
--
All I know is that this ignorant American figured out how to post a sig only once!
That's what you neocon/conservatives would like, after all. Just like Britney Spears says
The thing that surprised me about broadband is that it is not just "more stuff faster"; it allows you to work in a completely different way. E.g., I used to make backups of all the share/freeware I downloaded. Now I toss them when I'm done, because it would take me longer to find it in my disc catalog than to find the newest version on the net.
The always-on connectivity is at least as important as the speed. In fact, if I had to choose between the two, I'd probably drop the speed first.
Somehow I think slashdot readers are smart enough to find Sony, Philips, Matsushita, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, NEC, IBM, LG, Thomson, RCA, or Toshiba websites without the useless plethora of links.
Darn Skippy! Some of us use lynx after all. That's a lot of down-arrows to get to 'Read More.' Damn GUI-using muttermuttermutter.
While the Do-Not-Call list does protect you from unsolicited calls from private groups, it does not protect you from non-profit groups (such as charities).
I always thought the DNC list was misguided. While telemarketers are annoying, they are nowhere near as annoying as those hangup calls you get from a computer trying to figure out if someone's home. If they just banned those I could live with the TMs.
Now, since telemarketers have to eat too, they're going to try to do more work for 'charities', they may even set up their own. The net effect will be just as many of those damn annoying hangup calls that fill up my answering machine (or did when I plugged it in.)
Um, as a mathematician I can understand why I might be hired to sell
hotdogs, but to justify undefined claims?
Thank you! IANAM, but I was scratching my head over that claim. Were we supposed to think they were compiling it mentally? Sheesh, next we'll hear that the other teams were composed of Brain Surgeons and Rocket Scientists...
Maybe its just that the virus writer is actually starting to follow the kinds of ideas that geeks often toss out. "Oh yeah, if I was making a virus I'd have it..."
I've wondered if he read Slashdot. I know I would if I were him.
There's a good overview of Sobig.a through e here
Anyone know if the FSF has expressed an opinion on this?
It's implied:
(emphasis mine) That's from section 7 of the article, BTW.Wonder if they'll ultimately be forced to release this code?
The GPLed source is here
"The privacy implications of this are staggering," says some guy who gets inflammed by things. "People could figure out all sorts of patterns about your life. Why, if they observe you going to the pet store, they could actually figure out that you likely own a pet! Next thing you know, you'll be getting subscription offers for pet magazines. Nobody needs that."
Actually, that's the problem--to do what you describe would be very hard in real life, but the internet equivalent is realtively easy. Tracking you down and following you around all day would be tough, but building a profile on you based on your posts would be easy.
Internet-based things have a way of leaking over the boundries of their metaphors. E-mail becomes primarily junk mail. Bulletin Boards have messages that never come down. There's not much you can do about it, but it is something to keep an eye on.
We went from a user centric network to a faster IT centric network.
That's the thing about IT that makes me nuts. The whole point of IT is supposed to be to enable the actual workers do their jobs better/faster/stronger, but in practice it usually amounts to making life easier for IT.
The supreme irony is that (at least for small to mid-sized companies) IT usually consists of some guys with an MSCE who don't want to deal with anything they aren't familiar with (i.e., non-MS) even if it would ultimately make thier lives easier. Case in point: my CIO migrated our email server from a unix box to an XP server--just in time for Blaster.
Telling your mistress that you signed a deal for a score of flying gasstation is not as cool as telling her you just signed a goverment contract to develop an airportable selfdeploying P2P network with cellular jamming capability.
Does that really impress Norweigan women? 'Cause, if it does, I'll be on the next SAS flight.