I guess it depends on what kind of criminals they would be snitching on. Dropping charges of a little ping bombing in order to track down a serial killer would be a fair trade. "I know someone who did worse, but I won't talk until you drop the charges," seems to be the universal way to get away with anything anymore.
With that said, it would have to be a pretty major thing these kids would be snitching on to get away with what they did. Maybe two of the kids testifying against the rest so the DAs can know that someone got punished for the crime. That's how the legal system works anymore: As long as someone takes the fall and the victim is satisfied, then it doesn't matter if some or all of the criminals got off.
Could very well be. I'm from a rather sleepy little town and tech jobs are at a premium here. I'm not saying that anyone majoring in CS, CE, or IT will absolutely be jobless, I'm just saying that I feel a bit insecure in my ability to find, keep, and progress in a job in that field.
To segue' back to the topic: I think those tech degrees do need some more original classes. Learning programming languages is good, but the trends change and in ten years, we might not be using C and PERL anymore. Even the things I learned in Computer Science and "Work outside the code" classes may change. It's a fast paced world, and those kinds of degrees will need skills that set the person apart as well as give them staying power.
I wonder that as well. I'm a college student myself, and college has changed from a place to go to gain a true mastery in your field to something that every teenager feels they must do if they want a life after school. This is true though: Without college, you are faced with a more difficult lot in life as alot of jobs out there that can support a family require the paper.
I felt obligated to change my major from something I love to do (Computer Science) to something that is more stable (Education), due to the fact that programmers and sys admins are a lot that are finding themselves working at McDonalds for years after college while waiting for that job to come up. Florida has a teacher shortage, and a job is almost guaranteed for me when I'm out...
Don't get me wrong. I love teaching too, and I have a passion for the field I want to teach (English and/or Computing), but having to change your major because of the job market makes one feel dirty.
This kind of information is avilable anywhere really. You could run a google search and get a tutorial on creating a spam cannon server. If someone wants to become a spammer, they can do it without the class.
The attractive aspect here is that these students will know the tricks of the trade when it comes to spamming, and you know what they say: It takes a thief to catch a thief.
Would I pay the 300USD pricetag (Which is the going rate for a 3 hour course at my school, plus books) to take this class? No. But the same is said by many students about Archery, Chess, Basket Weaving and many other classes that are seen as electives.
Like the Galactica after the Cylon attack (The old series... not this new crud on Sci-Fi), the bittorrent world will move on after the destruction of it's centralized community.
As the article said, new sites pop up all the time, and a new site will rise up as the new SuprNova. I admit it's a pain right now that SuprNova is gone, but that is what happens when you walk the illegal (or legally gray) path; you hit bumps.
This machine is obviously geared toward getting Linux "Out there" to people who are Lin-curious but not confident enough to fly solo on their primary PC, and also I suspect Wal-Mart is trying to reach the power-user market by offering a machine without the costs of Windows involved.
This is all well and good. If you have $500 to burn and want to experiment with a proprietary version of Linux, this is your bag. For the rest of us, I'd suggest visiting your friendly garage sale or used computer depot for a good solid 750mhz PC to throw Fedora on for grandma and grandpa who are Lin-curious. Power Users that don't want to give Microsoft their share of PC sales cash have options. Build your own machine even.
So this leaves this option kind of in the air. The only reason I would see to buy it, would be to get a fully functional system, format, and install Gentoo.
Nice try, but not quite home-calibur Linux <b>yet</b>.
The horrible thing is that this joker will probably have net access between rapings. Alot of prisons (especially minimum and low security), allow the inmates some form of internet access. A hypothetical situation here, but he could get online, pull this list off of some offsite file dump, and sell it again and again.
While I'm not saying this guy would be dumb enough to do this, I do wish to state that if the punishment is to fit the crime, he should have gotten the same treatment that most hackers do: From sentencing until $X years later, you cannot touch or interact with a computer.
As a potentional victim, I would find this more acceptible, on top of a much higher fine, in lieu of jailtime.
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I guess it depends on what kind of criminals they would be snitching on. Dropping charges of a little ping bombing in order to track down a serial killer would be a fair trade. "I know someone who did worse, but I won't talk until you drop the charges," seems to be the universal way to get away with anything anymore.
With that said, it would have to be a pretty major thing these kids would be snitching on to get away with what they did. Maybe two of the kids testifying against the rest so the DAs can know that someone got punished for the crime. That's how the legal system works anymore: As long as someone takes the fall and the victim is satisfied, then it doesn't matter if some or all of the criminals got off.
Could very well be. I'm from a rather sleepy little town and tech jobs are at a premium here. I'm not saying that anyone majoring in CS, CE, or IT will absolutely be jobless, I'm just saying that I feel a bit insecure in my ability to find, keep, and progress in a job in that field.
To segue' back to the topic: I think those tech degrees do need some more original classes. Learning programming languages is good, but the trends change and in ten years, we might not be using C and PERL anymore. Even the things I learned in Computer Science and "Work outside the code" classes may change. It's a fast paced world, and those kinds of degrees will need skills that set the person apart as well as give them staying power.
I wonder that as well. I'm a college student myself, and college has changed from a place to go to gain a true mastery in your field to something that every teenager feels they must do if they want a life after school. This is true though: Without college, you are faced with a more difficult lot in life as alot of jobs out there that can support a family require the paper.
I felt obligated to change my major from something I love to do (Computer Science) to something that is more stable (Education), due to the fact that programmers and sys admins are a lot that are finding themselves working at McDonalds for years after college while waiting for that job to come up. Florida has a teacher shortage, and a job is almost guaranteed for me when I'm out...
Don't get me wrong. I love teaching too, and I have a passion for the field I want to teach (English and/or Computing), but having to change your major because of the job market makes one feel dirty.
Education needs a revival.
This kind of information is avilable anywhere really. You could run a google search and get a tutorial on creating a spam cannon server. If someone wants to become a spammer, they can do it without the class.
The attractive aspect here is that these students will know the tricks of the trade when it comes to spamming, and you know what they say: It takes a thief to catch a thief.
Would I pay the 300USD pricetag (Which is the going rate for a 3 hour course at my school, plus books) to take this class? No. But the same is said by many students about Archery, Chess, Basket Weaving and many other classes that are seen as electives.
Like the Galactica after the Cylon attack (The old series... not this new crud on Sci-Fi), the bittorrent world will move on after the destruction of it's centralized community.
As the article said, new sites pop up all the time, and a new site will rise up as the new SuprNova. I admit it's a pain right now that SuprNova is gone, but that is what happens when you walk the illegal (or legally gray) path; you hit bumps.
Carry on, brave nomads.
This machine is obviously geared toward getting Linux "Out there" to people who are Lin-curious but not confident enough to fly solo on their primary PC, and also I suspect Wal-Mart is trying to reach the power-user market by offering a machine without the costs of Windows involved.
This is all well and good. If you have $500 to burn and want to experiment with a proprietary version of Linux, this is your bag. For the rest of us, I'd suggest visiting your friendly garage sale or used computer depot for a good solid 750mhz PC to throw Fedora on for grandma and grandpa who are Lin-curious. Power Users that don't want to give Microsoft their share of PC sales cash have options. Build your own machine even.
So this leaves this option kind of in the air. The only reason I would see to buy it, would be to get a fully functional system, format, and install Gentoo.
Nice try, but not quite home-calibur Linux <b>yet</b>.
The horrible thing is that this joker will probably have net access between rapings. Alot of prisons (especially minimum and low security), allow the inmates some form of internet access. A hypothetical situation here, but he could get online, pull this list off of some offsite file dump, and sell it again and again. While I'm not saying this guy would be dumb enough to do this, I do wish to state that if the punishment is to fit the crime, he should have gotten the same treatment that most hackers do: From sentencing until $X years later, you cannot touch or interact with a computer. As a potentional victim, I would find this more acceptible, on top of a much higher fine, in lieu of jailtime.