The latest craze in community college education appears to be online classes whose "content" is provided by the book publishers. From several of these courses, it appears that the publishers are sending their books to the lowest bidder and having them come up with slides and test questions. Then, the community college just has to hire someone to oversee the class and ask questions from students. Of course, the book is required reading, and without the book, you are likely to fail the class.
Why?
The tests are primarily about regurgitating exact quotes from the book. The exam authors don't actually understand the material and only take random snippets from each chapter and ask about them. Therefore, an understanding of the concepts is not enough to pass the test - you must have basically memorized entire passages from the book. The exams and "lecture slides" are also riddled with errors, as is to be expected when you ask an unqualified person to write them.
The database is the cheap part. The Expensive Part is maintaining the records in the database, dealing with conflicts, educating staff on this new system they must now use, ensuring they are not violating any laws with the implementation of the system, etc.
Your provider is taking steps on their own to ensure that their customers are following the rules. Imagine if you are a carrier who often works with multi-state corporations who have a huge number of phone numbers allocated to a global system, this might get unruly pretty quickly, and it would be much easier if you just accepted anything they sent you.
Now imagine that you are an enormous phone company (ILEC) that sells service to many, many smaller phone companies (CLECs), and with number porting, the phone numbers keep changing. It's expensive for the ILECs to keep track of a master list. Therefore, they just let the phone traffic pass without checking caller-ID info. I'm sure there is something in the agreement about the maximum acceptable number of robocalls blah blah blah but it's like a maximum acceptable number of rat turds in your chocolate bar. You would prefer that to be zero telemarketer robocalls.
Maybe these CLECs have some sleazy salespeople who are willing to hook up known offenders to get their sales bonuses. Maybe the CLEC is having trouble paying their bills -- easier to say I'm Sorry for the Robocalls" months/years later than to go out of business. Plus, with the regulations, the ILECs may not be allowed to disconnect the CLECs for sending mass robocalls if there is also real people's phone lines that could get disconnected. They must issue notices and warnings and all that.
Nobody wants grandma's phone to get cut off because her sleazy phone company was allowing telemarketer robocalls through. The fines and investigations put forth by the FCC are clearly not effective. The FCC is a slow moving dinosaur, and when they make a change, there are always unexpected repercussions. Therefore, Ajit is trying to squawk loudly in hopes that the ILECs will at least put some kind of a check system in place.
Can you imagine... police departments suddenly responding to a constant barrage of complaints from freaked-out people hearing these drones overhead. All it would take is for one evil actor to shut the whole thing down. It seems like an incredibly bad idea to depend upon drones.
Listen, you're hiring a person who works in another area, and you're unlikely to see each other very often. This means that whatever goes wrong with her computer, she will need to be able to reach out to a local company to have it fixed. I would see what support there is in her city for computers, and buy whatever they support. For example, if she was familiar with Apple, and there was an Apple store she could take it for issues, I would suggest you do that. If she's familiar with Windows, and most likely the Microsoft Office suite, and there is a Microsoft store in her city, I would get her one of their computers directly from the store, so she can take it there when she needs help. Since she is only one employee, that is probably the most effective option. Otherwise, you probably want to make sure she has access to a local tech support company who can help her. It would probably work best to pay them to procure a computer for her and have them set it up for her. You might be able to help when she's connected to the Internet (via Splashtop SOS or TeamViewer or something like that) but the local tech can help her get connected.
Choice of computer - I would purchase something that has accidental damage protection, because the manufacturers like to blame it on the user's negligence, whether it was their fault or not. I would also get one of the business edition computers, which is repairable, like some of the Dell Latitude, HP ProBook/Elitebook, and Lenovo Thinkpad series. The business edition computers seem to be better engineered than the consumer editions. You need not know what is an easily repairable computer -- you just ask the tech person what computer can have it's RAM and storage drive replaced, and go with that one. It will be heavier than the ultralight computers, but it should be a reasonable 4-5 lbs.
The other thing you should do is to ensure she has good Antivirus software installed, and that you pay for her subscription so it never expires. I know that Antivirus software is somewhat of a joke these days, but it's getting a little better. If it is hooked up to a web "console" that allows you to manage her antivirus, then it is easy to continue to pay for it. I use Bitdefender for home use, but there are a lot of other good software programs.
Finally, you'll need a way to collaborate, and if she is already used to Microsoft Word / Excel, you might as well get her an Office 365 subscription. This way, she stays on the latest version of the software, and she can save files to a shared OneDrive folder. Ideally, she will never really need to have her computer backed up because everything she is storing goes into OneDrive. You could use another service - or even set up your own shared folder using NextCloud on your own server, but the focus should be for her to use something she is familiar and comfortable with. Make sure whatever file sharing service you use handles VERSIONING, meaning that it keeps old versions of files, as a primary defense against ransomware.
There are a number of excellent solutions, but you are not present to train her on Linux or Mac or ChomeOS. Therefore, buy her what she is already familiar with, and encourage her to NOT use it for non-work purposes.
Have you heard that new WaveNet TTS generator from Google? It is damned impressive, and significantly less robotic than the voice that was presented as the results of CereProc attempting to transform his voice into a TTS engine. Even if he uses CereProc for day-to-day speech and dubs over it with WaveNet before the clip airs, it would be significantly more impressive.
If you visit a security conference, you will find that most of the attendees are using Chromebooks. They are much more secure than your typical Windows or Apple device. Another issue people often have is that they re-use the same password for multiple services. One of the services gets compromised, and the attackers use your credentials to access your email account, and thus other services. Set a unique password for each account. Save those passwords in a password manager. Enable the 2-factor authentication feature on your email account.
Firewalls will not protect you against modern threats. Antivirus will only protect you against some of the modern threats. I also suggest you also consider taking an internet security class, to avoid common pitfalls. Most modern issues can be avoided by educating yourself against common attacks, which often involve social engineering.
Is it possible that the Boeing planes have a longer lifespan than the other manufacturers, and the planes you were flying in were older than those other brands? It may also have to do with what airline you fly most frequently, as some airlines purchase more Airbus than Boeing.
Even Webster's says "a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system." The guy had the password, so he did not illegally *gain* access to anything. He used his legally obtained access to maliciously disable computer systems, so they would probably charge him with "intentionally accessing and exceeding authorized access to a computer." News sites that describe this activity as "hacking" are misusing the term.
Realistically, there are many, many companies running industrial control systems on Windows PCs older than Windows 7. The issue with this group's management is that they made a decision, whether conscious or unconscious, to not spend an appropriate amount of resources on their network's security. When I refer to resources, I mean security software/hardware and either a cybersecurity consultant or a dedicated staff member with appropriate experience and credentials. Their bid to produce the show to Netflix should have included a line item to cover data security for this project. Security also means keeping backup copies, so they were failing on all sides of the security realm. This garbage about keeping audio and video files separate probably means that the studio is still pinching pennies on their security consultant.
Why reinvent the wheel? If you really need this, you are probably employed at a place that can afford quality enterprise software. You can use Globalscape MFT with a DMZ host providing reverse proxy services, and enable FIPS 140-2 compliant mode encryption. It's not cheap, but it works great! You can even use workflows to run multiple antivirus engines on each file to ensure it is as virus-free as modern antivirus software is able to discern.
If you are extremely concerned about personal security, your best bet is to avoid computers all together. If you must use a computer, remove the hard drive and use a Linux distribution on a bootable CD or DVD. Run an "owncloud" server on your own hardware, on your own Internet connection, to allow file transfer.
Having dealt with eBay on a bad purchase, it seems strange that anyone would prefer purchasing something from eBay at the same price, especially if they have to jump through hoops to perform the pricematch. For items that are more likely to be counterfeit, like memory cards, it is actually more advantageous to purchase them from a reputable retailer, and extremely difficult to prove to eBay that you received a counterfeit item.
Reasonable 6-8 hour battery life, definitely less than $200 on eBay ($100-130) and you can crack it open to upgrade the storage to a larger drive, like 256GB. Hardware is fully supported with GalliumOS.
Runs all your normal Linux software just fine, including Netflix streaming. Supports a FHD external display via HDMI port.
Clearly, the OLPC model is a very successful idea, with impressive results. Maybe invest in a language translation, so that they can understand what the programs do? Or a language learning software, so that they can learn a language that the computer uses?
If they could be used by veterinarians, that would be a good starting place. There are fewer laws/restrictions regarding equipment used in a veterinary practice.
My wife is a veterinarian (graduated UC Davis) and has found that expensive stethoscopes are not as helpful as having significant experience with your stethoscope. She has used an inexpensive device to pick up very faint heart murmurs and other issues that others were not able to detect with their expensive devices. I would suggest that consistency is the most important aspect of creating these stethoscopes, so that if a physician develops a significant amount of experience with one, they could switch to another device without much trouble.
Can we please replace ubiquitous terms like "can power a light bulb" with the precise voltage + wattage or amperage that they were able to obtain from their energy source, in addition to the time it was able to sustain this energy output? Maybe also mention the mass and density of the substance providing the energy?
If we could get this going in the description/abstract, that would be really great.
About 23 years ago, I participated in a robot challenge for kids to build a mars robot. It was a lot of fun, and nobody was saying "but this could replace jobs that humans do".
This project will produce robots specifically designed to replace low-paid workers. Why not have a competition for robots that builds hospitals in areas that are affected by plague? Or deep-sea exploration?
Thanks for the info on Keysight. I don't use test equipment, but I know that it is an oft-overlooked portion of HP that closely resembles the original company.
What they call HP now seems to be more of a brand sticker.
Now that Comcast is using existing internet cable boxes to offer wifi to other Comcast customers, I think they should have an even cheaper option to allow eligible people (not just those with children) access via WiFi for a one-time fee of $9.99. This would ensure that people living in close proximity have a chance to get online, especially if they don't have a consistent living arrangement. Part of the cost for Comcast is actually producing a paper bill to mail to these folks, and processing payments... so if there was no monthly payment, Comcast would probably be effectively saving money.
It's a shielded room or Faraday cage. I can't believe this drivel made it to the front page -- there are thousands of these rooms, worldwide. We had one in my high school, to run spark-gap radio demonstrations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
A cursory image search of "american flag letters" leads to some pretty pathetic examples. If someone was putting that sign together pretty quickly, the Obama O is significantly more professional looking than the alternatives, assuming you didn't have time or skills to draw / create your own. Seems like a stretch to assume that the image choice represented some partisan statement. You could just as easily say that the person was trying to show that they believed Snowden to be a "true hero" when compared with Obama's track record.
As a fastmail subscriber for many years, I can say that it is significantly more reliable than Gmail, with some excellent features for handling volumes of email. You can either forward your email to a fastmail email address and reply using a different email address, or you can use them as your DNS for your domain (more complex than most users are comfortable with). Their spam filtering is excellent, and having the ability to check your email from any web browser is definitely a plus.
I have tried some other email providers, such as 1and1, Gmail, GoDaddy, hosting it on my own server, etc. After switching to them, I haven't looked back. I also find it useful to use their webdav server to backup my calendars. This works well from both Outlook and Apple Mail applications.
Slashdot Mirror
The latest craze in community college education appears to be online classes whose "content" is provided by the book publishers. From several of these courses, it appears that the publishers are sending their books to the lowest bidder and having them come up with slides and test questions. Then, the community college just has to hire someone to oversee the class and ask questions from students. Of course, the book is required reading, and without the book, you are likely to fail the class.
Why?
The tests are primarily about regurgitating exact quotes from the book. The exam authors don't actually understand the material and only take random snippets from each chapter and ask about them. Therefore, an understanding of the concepts is not enough to pass the test - you must have basically memorized entire passages from the book. The exams and "lecture slides" are also riddled with errors, as is to be expected when you ask an unqualified person to write them.
The database is the cheap part. The Expensive Part is maintaining the records in the database, dealing with conflicts, educating staff on this new system they must now use, ensuring they are not violating any laws with the implementation of the system, etc.
Your provider is taking steps on their own to ensure that their customers are following the rules. Imagine if you are a carrier who often works with multi-state corporations who have a huge number of phone numbers allocated to a global system, this might get unruly pretty quickly, and it would be much easier if you just accepted anything they sent you.
Now imagine that you are an enormous phone company (ILEC) that sells service to many, many smaller phone companies (CLECs), and with number porting, the phone numbers keep changing. It's expensive for the ILECs to keep track of a master list. Therefore, they just let the phone traffic pass without checking caller-ID info. I'm sure there is something in the agreement about the maximum acceptable number of robocalls blah blah blah but it's like a maximum acceptable number of rat turds in your chocolate bar. You would prefer that to be zero telemarketer robocalls.
Maybe these CLECs have some sleazy salespeople who are willing to hook up known offenders to get their sales bonuses. Maybe the CLEC is having trouble paying their bills -- easier to say I'm Sorry for the Robocalls" months/years later than to go out of business. Plus, with the regulations, the ILECs may not be allowed to disconnect the CLECs for sending mass robocalls if there is also real people's phone lines that could get disconnected. They must issue notices and warnings and all that.
Nobody wants grandma's phone to get cut off because her sleazy phone company was allowing telemarketer robocalls through. The fines and investigations put forth by the FCC are clearly not effective. The FCC is a slow moving dinosaur, and when they make a change, there are always unexpected repercussions. Therefore, Ajit is trying to squawk loudly in hopes that the ILECs will at least put some kind of a check system in place.
Can you imagine ... police departments suddenly responding to a constant barrage of complaints from freaked-out people hearing these drones overhead. All it would take is for one evil actor to shut the whole thing down. It seems like an incredibly bad idea to depend upon drones.
Listen, you're hiring a person who works in another area, and you're unlikely to see each other very often. This means that whatever goes wrong with her computer, she will need to be able to reach out to a local company to have it fixed. I would see what support there is in her city for computers, and buy whatever they support. For example, if she was familiar with Apple, and there was an Apple store she could take it for issues, I would suggest you do that. If she's familiar with Windows, and most likely the Microsoft Office suite, and there is a Microsoft store in her city, I would get her one of their computers directly from the store, so she can take it there when she needs help. Since she is only one employee, that is probably the most effective option. Otherwise, you probably want to make sure she has access to a local tech support company who can help her. It would probably work best to pay them to procure a computer for her and have them set it up for her. You might be able to help when she's connected to the Internet (via Splashtop SOS or TeamViewer or something like that) but the local tech can help her get connected.
Choice of computer - I would purchase something that has accidental damage protection, because the manufacturers like to blame it on the user's negligence, whether it was their fault or not. I would also get one of the business edition computers, which is repairable, like some of the Dell Latitude, HP ProBook/Elitebook, and Lenovo Thinkpad series. The business edition computers seem to be better engineered than the consumer editions. You need not know what is an easily repairable computer -- you just ask the tech person what computer can have it's RAM and storage drive replaced, and go with that one. It will be heavier than the ultralight computers, but it should be a reasonable 4-5 lbs.
The other thing you should do is to ensure she has good Antivirus software installed, and that you pay for her subscription so it never expires. I know that Antivirus software is somewhat of a joke these days, but it's getting a little better. If it is hooked up to a web "console" that allows you to manage her antivirus, then it is easy to continue to pay for it. I use Bitdefender for home use, but there are a lot of other good software programs.
Finally, you'll need a way to collaborate, and if she is already used to Microsoft Word / Excel, you might as well get her an Office 365 subscription. This way, she stays on the latest version of the software, and she can save files to a shared OneDrive folder. Ideally, she will never really need to have her computer backed up because everything she is storing goes into OneDrive. You could use another service - or even set up your own shared folder using NextCloud on your own server, but the focus should be for her to use something she is familiar and comfortable with. Make sure whatever file sharing service you use handles VERSIONING, meaning that it keeps old versions of files, as a primary defense against ransomware.
There are a number of excellent solutions, but you are not present to train her on Linux or Mac or ChomeOS. Therefore, buy her what she is already familiar with, and encourage her to NOT use it for non-work purposes.
Have you heard that new WaveNet TTS generator from Google? It is damned impressive, and significantly less robotic than the voice that was presented as the results of CereProc attempting to transform his voice into a TTS engine. Even if he uses CereProc for day-to-day speech and dubs over it with WaveNet before the clip airs, it would be significantly more impressive.
If you visit a security conference, you will find that most of the attendees are using Chromebooks. They are much more secure than your typical Windows or Apple device. Another issue people often have is that they re-use the same password for multiple services. One of the services gets compromised, and the attackers use your credentials to access your email account, and thus other services. Set a unique password for each account. Save those passwords in a password manager. Enable the 2-factor authentication feature on your email account. Firewalls will not protect you against modern threats. Antivirus will only protect you against some of the modern threats. I also suggest you also consider taking an internet security class, to avoid common pitfalls. Most modern issues can be avoided by educating yourself against common attacks, which often involve social engineering.
Is it possible that the Boeing planes have a longer lifespan than the other manufacturers, and the planes you were flying in were older than those other brands? It may also have to do with what airline you fly most frequently, as some airlines purchase more Airbus than Boeing.
Even Webster's says "a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system." The guy had the password, so he did not illegally *gain* access to anything. He used his legally obtained access to maliciously disable computer systems, so they would probably charge him with "intentionally accessing and exceeding authorized access to a computer." News sites that describe this activity as "hacking" are misusing the term.
Realistically, there are many, many companies running industrial control systems on Windows PCs older than Windows 7. The issue with this group's management is that they made a decision, whether conscious or unconscious, to not spend an appropriate amount of resources on their network's security. When I refer to resources, I mean security software/hardware and either a cybersecurity consultant or a dedicated staff member with appropriate experience and credentials. Their bid to produce the show to Netflix should have included a line item to cover data security for this project. Security also means keeping backup copies, so they were failing on all sides of the security realm. This garbage about keeping audio and video files separate probably means that the studio is still pinching pennies on their security consultant.
Why reinvent the wheel? If you really need this, you are probably employed at a place that can afford quality enterprise software. You can use Globalscape MFT with a DMZ host providing reverse proxy services, and enable FIPS 140-2 compliant mode encryption. It's not cheap, but it works great! You can even use workflows to run multiple antivirus engines on each file to ensure it is as virus-free as modern antivirus software is able to discern. If you are extremely concerned about personal security, your best bet is to avoid computers all together. If you must use a computer, remove the hard drive and use a Linux distribution on a bootable CD or DVD. Run an "owncloud" server on your own hardware, on your own Internet connection, to allow file transfer.
Having dealt with eBay on a bad purchase, it seems strange that anyone would prefer purchasing something from eBay at the same price, especially if they have to jump through hoops to perform the pricematch. For items that are more likely to be counterfeit, like memory cards, it is actually more advantageous to purchase them from a reputable retailer, and extremely difficult to prove to eBay that you received a counterfeit item.
Reasonable 6-8 hour battery life, definitely less than $200 on eBay ($100-130) and you can crack it open to upgrade the storage to a larger drive, like 256GB. Hardware is fully supported with GalliumOS. Runs all your normal Linux software just fine, including Netflix streaming. Supports a FHD external display via HDMI port.
Maybe the original anonymous poster actually does have an issue with sending spam from their server ...
Clearly, the OLPC model is a very successful idea, with impressive results. Maybe invest in a language translation, so that they can understand what the programs do? Or a language learning software, so that they can learn a language that the computer uses?
If they could be used by veterinarians, that would be a good starting place. There are fewer laws/restrictions regarding equipment used in a veterinary practice.
My wife is a veterinarian (graduated UC Davis) and has found that expensive stethoscopes are not as helpful as having significant experience with your stethoscope. She has used an inexpensive device to pick up very faint heart murmurs and other issues that others were not able to detect with their expensive devices. I would suggest that consistency is the most important aspect of creating these stethoscopes, so that if a physician develops a significant amount of experience with one, they could switch to another device without much trouble.
Can we please replace ubiquitous terms like "can power a light bulb" with the precise voltage + wattage or amperage that they were able to obtain from their energy source, in addition to the time it was able to sustain this energy output? Maybe also mention the mass and density of the substance providing the energy? If we could get this going in the description/abstract, that would be really great.
About 23 years ago, I participated in a robot challenge for kids to build a mars robot. It was a lot of fun, and nobody was saying "but this could replace jobs that humans do". This project will produce robots specifically designed to replace low-paid workers. Why not have a competition for robots that builds hospitals in areas that are affected by plague? Or deep-sea exploration?
Thanks for the info on Keysight. I don't use test equipment, but I know that it is an oft-overlooked portion of HP that closely resembles the original company. What they call HP now seems to be more of a brand sticker.
Now that Comcast is using existing internet cable boxes to offer wifi to other Comcast customers, I think they should have an even cheaper option to allow eligible people (not just those with children) access via WiFi for a one-time fee of $9.99. This would ensure that people living in close proximity have a chance to get online, especially if they don't have a consistent living arrangement. Part of the cost for Comcast is actually producing a paper bill to mail to these folks, and processing payments ... so if there was no monthly payment, Comcast would probably be effectively saving money.
It's a shielded room or Faraday cage. I can't believe this drivel made it to the front page -- there are thousands of these rooms, worldwide. We had one in my high school, to run spark-gap radio demonstrations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
Ready? I'm gonna capture this on Smell-O-Vision, so hold yer farts!
A cursory image search of "american flag letters" leads to some pretty pathetic examples. If someone was putting that sign together pretty quickly, the Obama O is significantly more professional looking than the alternatives, assuming you didn't have time or skills to draw / create your own. Seems like a stretch to assume that the image choice represented some partisan statement. You could just as easily say that the person was trying to show that they believed Snowden to be a "true hero" when compared with Obama's track record.
As a fastmail subscriber for many years, I can say that it is significantly more reliable than Gmail, with some excellent features for handling volumes of email. You can either forward your email to a fastmail email address and reply using a different email address, or you can use them as your DNS for your domain (more complex than most users are comfortable with). Their spam filtering is excellent, and having the ability to check your email from any web browser is definitely a plus. I have tried some other email providers, such as 1and1, Gmail, GoDaddy, hosting it on my own server, etc. After switching to them, I haven't looked back. I also find it useful to use their webdav server to backup my calendars. This works well from both Outlook and Apple Mail applications.