Blackboard is a software company/ASP that serves colleges and universities all over the place. One of the features they offer is online testing/grading. Company was founded in 1997, offering online education software since then. Not sure when the testing features were added, but I suspect they are the target of this patent.
I think your missing the point of the book. This is not a propaganda piece intended to persuade corporate IT to use OSS. Rather, it is pointing out that the processes behind the development of open source software may be applied within traditionally closed source institutions.
Case in point. I work for a software company as a consultant/field-engineer. Our product is very broad and offers an impressive API on which to build extensions. Many of our consultants have identified opportunities to build upon our software which don't necessarily fit within marketing's "product road-map", but address important customer needs/wants.
Our solution has been to organize and implement an open source style development community within our organization. Consultants can suggest and develop utilities and extensions for our software which the core engineering team could not (or will not) tackle. The results thus far have been very positive, and we expect to release many advanced features to our customers, at low, or no cost.
In addition, it gives our consultants an opportunity to grow their software development skills in ways that wouldn't otherwise be available to them. Most customers wouldn't attempt to develop the complex extensions that we are working on due to a lack of in-house skills and cost. As such, we do a lot of redundant work for our customers, which limits our growth as software engineers.
In short, this book addresses exactly the type of problems we are facing right now, and I can't wait to give it a read.
In my mind, the real value of this initiative is to provide energetic individuals with the necessary resources to move into a new area of study or to supplement professional training/experience. For instance, I received a bachelors in Industrial Management, and a Masters of Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon. I took a substantial number of technical courses for both degrees, but I didn't get a fundamental grounding in computer science.
Flash forward 3 years, I'm thinking of pursuing a Masters in Computer Science now, but I don't have the pre-requisites for acceptance into a good program. So, I am taking undergrad courses via the internet at the University of Illinois at a cost of $1800 a pop. The course I am taking now is great (data structures), but I'd much rather take it for free. Granted, I get access to the professor and TAs if I have questions, but as yet, the only resource I have used is the class newsgroup, and there is nothing stopping someone for creating such a newsgroup for individuals studying through the MIT program.
Another issue is that U of I is not offering all of the classes I need when I need them. The MIT plan sounds pretty comprehensive; I am fairly certain that all of the classes I need to prepare for a graduate CS program will be made available. This program is a godsend for me, and I plan to make full use of it as long as it remains available...I'm guessing the next time I'm interested in drastic a career change (or I'm just bored stiff and need some intellectual stimulation), I'll have the resources necessary to prepare me to do so.
Think of it, the next time you are sitting around with a bunch of your friends with nothing to do on a weekend, you can all rally together and learn structural geology, or ship power and propulsion, or cell biology, or.... mmmmmmm... education
I have been researching alternative avenues to a CS grad program for a number of months now, and I find this program very intriguing. However, I cannot afford (I am paying for two degrees already) to take a year off to continue my education. As such, the distance learning approach seems to be the only workable solution for me. There is little mention of distance learning either on the web site, or in this discussion. Will distance learning students have access to the professors/faculty to pose questions, participate in lecture/discussions, etc? Or, will the distance degree be more passive in nature?
Economics dictates that if this practice were not profitable, these types of deals would cease to occur. Companies buy other companies for all sorts of reasons; I suspect that Cobalt wanted the inside track on getting ASP on Linux servers. In buying Chili!Soft, Cobalt gets access not only the code, but to the developers who envisioned an implemented the product.
looks to me like Cobalt is making a concerted effort to offer an Intranet-in-a-box. Their Qube server pre-loaded with chili!Soft would provide a nice solution for a company looking to produce an internal site for information dissemination. You may not like ASP personally, but the fact remains that it is a really easy technology to work with and it lets non-programmers or novice programmers create dynamic pages with very little effort.
Looks like Jon is really getting a big media-push for his book. See the following link for yet another excerpt, and an interview with the man.
Disclosure: I work for the company which produces this site. This post is not intended to be shameless self-promotion, if it comes across that way, I apologize.
Let me say it again: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE.
I completely agree with you. I think what is underlying our discussion is really in what the tests are testing. The Microsoft certification exams do not necessarily reflect the exams which will be sponsored by the LPI. If the LPI exams forced the individual to actually perform the tasks in order to learn them (ie test the user's ability to create, monitor and administer processes), would that make this individual a self-learner or a book learner? If the exams required the user to have considerable hands-on experience, would you feel the tests are a good thing?
I feel that they would serve a good purpose. I know that when I approach a new subject, I find it much easier to get started when I have a plan of attack. Of course the Linux self-learner has some structure forced upon him/her (ie find a computer, install Linux, start configuring Linux), but then what? It's difficult to identify what administrative skills are really necessary for a multi-user system when the machine you are working on is essentially a workstation. If I wanted to learn how to become a sysadmin, my home system would not give me the kind of experience necessary to get a good feel of how a multi-user production system (eg a dialup server for an ISP) behaves.
Anyway, I think that I don't really disagree with those who have posted arguments in favor of real world experience; I do feel that there is a place for a certification system which could provide new entrants with guidelines for learning administration/development/etc. skills. Not to mention creating instant credentials for the young job hopeful.
I wouldn't send them off to take the test. However, I would send them off to study and work towards establishing a base of knowledge until they get to the point where they could take the test. A structured learning program works better for some people. Linux is becoming a viable career path and individuals who would like to get a background in linux without a good idea of where to start would probably benefit a great deal from this program, or one similar (I have not read enough to endorse this particular curriculum).
It will give some newbies a place to start, and a goal to shoot for. I know that as a not-so-newbie-but-still-struggling, I have a hard time figuring out what to tackle next.
Here is an link to the description of the "1a" exam (I think it's already been/.'d)
See the following link from the President's web site containing the full executive summary of the plan. Page 28 specifically deals with the scholarship plans.
There is also mention of setting up "meaningful" internship programs for college and promising high school students (I noticed a comment somewhere about the need to start the process earlier in a childs academic career). Please remember that this is a proposal, no details have been made public (i.e. eligible schools, amounts of scholarship, years of service required, etc.). I think this is an admiriable idea, and we should support efforts like these. If you have strong feelings regarding the implementation of this plan, WRITE YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!!!!!
For those of you outside the United States, if you think this plan would help out technology in your country, WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. For those of you living where your views will not be heard by the powers that be, MOVE/SEEK ASYLUM!!!! -la
It's called the back button. Also available using Alt(-), or backspace. Use it. No one is forced to watch anything on the Internet, that is why we like it here; freedom of choice is a beautiful thing.
For immediate release...Redmond, WA. (12-Oct-1999) Microsoft has joined the race to provide "digital credentials" for use with medical related information. Built as an add-on to their recently released Passport service, Microsoft is said to be interested in taking a percentage of each user's health to sustain BG into the next millenium.
At least the editors have maintained their ethical standards by printing an article where they were named liable in an intellectual property lawsuit.
Quite the contrary to an article I saw in the Chicago Tribune (i think, don't hold me to it, since I couldn't find the article, but the facts are correct) article yesterday describing ABC's decision to pull a story which shed a negative light on Father Disney.
I still like my big monitor and keyboard, though. The WWW on a palm-sized screen seems to lose some of its flavor.
Very true, but I wouldn't mind being able to download the latest slashdot headlines and read them on the train on my way into work, as opposed to reading them for the first 45 minutes I am at work. I can live without the icons.
my name is larry, i'm 23 y/o, and i programmed COBOL for two years (i'm not proud of what i did, but it paid the bills)....no one has seen paper wasted the way it is done in a mainframe shop. everyone in the department literally had reams of paper from the line printer on their desks, sometimes 8-10 feet high. at least with the apparent shift to online reporting mechanisms (there seems to be a healthy market for web front ends to mainframe systems), the mainframe shops of the future may save a few trees.
trans- \Trans-\ [L. trans across, over.] A prefix, signifying over, beyond, through and through, on the other side, as in transalpine, beyond the Alps; transform, to form through and through, that is, anew, transfigure.
meta -/me't*/ or/may't*/ or (Commonwealth)/mee't*/ A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X.
both definitions from dictionary.com
btw the name transmeta was almost supplanted by Interpseudo, Megareference, and PrestoChango!!!
The nice thing is that if you wanted to steal the credit cards information, you couldn't just snag the creditcard number. You would have to know the algorithm for generating these numbers, as well as the pin (which could be snagged from the transmission)! So you would have to watch these purchases over a period of time, and only then would you be able to pretend to be the card owner.
Acutally, the secureID also requires you to synch the card with the secureId server. Even if you could discover the algorithm, you would need to monitor sufficiently many transactions to ensure that your implementation was reasonably synchronized with the server (or convince the sysadmin to synch your app). See this for details from the vendor
Slashdot Mirror
Blackboard is a software company/ASP that serves colleges and universities all over the place. One of the features they offer is online testing/grading. Company was founded in 1997, offering online education software since then. Not sure when the testing features were added, but I suspect they are the target of this patent.
As I'm reading this article, what ad pops over my screen? Of course, a solicitation for Verizon DSL service. They're watching.
I think your missing the point of the book. This is not a propaganda piece intended to persuade corporate IT to use OSS. Rather, it is pointing out that the processes behind the development of open source software may be applied within traditionally closed source institutions.
Case in point. I work for a software company as a consultant/field-engineer. Our product is very broad and offers an impressive API on which to build extensions. Many of our consultants have identified opportunities to build upon our software which don't necessarily fit within marketing's "product road-map", but address important customer needs/wants.
Our solution has been to organize and implement an open source style development community within our organization. Consultants can suggest and develop utilities and extensions for our software which the core engineering team could not (or will not) tackle. The results thus far have been very positive, and we expect to release many advanced features to our customers, at low, or no cost.
In addition, it gives our consultants an opportunity to grow their software development skills in ways that wouldn't otherwise be available to them. Most customers wouldn't attempt to develop the complex extensions that we are working on due to a lack of in-house skills and cost. As such, we do a lot of redundant work for our customers, which limits our growth as software engineers.
In short, this book addresses exactly the type of problems we are facing right now, and I can't wait to give it a read.
In my mind, the real value of this initiative is to provide energetic individuals with the necessary resources to move into a new area of study or to supplement professional training/experience. For instance, I received a bachelors in Industrial Management, and a Masters of Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon. I took a substantial number of technical courses for both degrees, but I didn't get a fundamental grounding in computer science.
Flash forward 3 years, I'm thinking of pursuing a Masters in Computer Science now, but I don't have the pre-requisites for acceptance into a good program. So, I am taking undergrad courses via the internet at the University of Illinois at a cost of $1800 a pop. The course I am taking now is great (data structures), but I'd much rather take it for free. Granted, I get access to the professor and TAs if I have questions, but as yet, the only resource I have used is the class newsgroup, and there is nothing stopping someone for creating such a newsgroup for individuals studying through the MIT program.
Another issue is that U of I is not offering all of the classes I need when I need them. The MIT plan sounds pretty comprehensive; I am fairly certain that all of the classes I need to prepare for a graduate CS program will be made available. This program is a godsend for me, and I plan to make full use of it as long as it remains available...I'm guessing the next time I'm interested in drastic a career change (or I'm just bored stiff and need some intellectual stimulation), I'll have the resources necessary to prepare me to do so.
Think of it, the next time you are sitting around with a bunch of your friends with nothing to do on a weekend, you can all rally together and learn structural geology, or ship power and propulsion, or cell biology, or .... mmmmmmm... education
I have been researching alternative avenues to a CS grad program for a number of months now, and I find this program very intriguing. However, I cannot afford (I am paying for two degrees already) to take a year off to continue my education. As such, the distance learning approach seems to be the only workable solution for me. There is little mention of distance learning either on the web site, or in this discussion. Will distance learning students have access to the professors/faculty to pose questions, participate in lecture/discussions, etc? Or, will the distance degree be more passive in nature?
here
actually i'm only 5. my mom says i'm really smart.
Economics dictates that if this practice were not profitable, these types of deals would cease to occur. Companies buy other companies for all sorts of reasons; I suspect that Cobalt wanted the inside track on getting ASP on Linux servers. In buying Chili!Soft, Cobalt gets access not only the code, but to the developers who envisioned an implemented the product.
looks to me like Cobalt is making a concerted effort to offer an Intranet-in-a-box. Their Qube server pre-loaded with chili!Soft would provide a nice solution for a company looking to produce an internal site for information dissemination. You may not like ASP personally, but the fact remains that it is a really easy technology to work with and it lets non-programmers or novice programmers create dynamic pages with very little effort.
What a great game that was. Don't forget Hunt the Wumpus!!!
Offtopic: Speaking of the TI-994a, this was a great machine, my first exposure to programming.
Looks like Jon is really getting a big media-push for his book. See the following link for yet another excerpt, and an interview with the man.
Disclosure: I work for the company which produces this site. This post is not intended to be shameless self-promotion, if it comes across that way, I apologize.
Funniest fatal business move.
I can't believe this is really happening.
Let me say it again: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE.
I completely agree with you. I think what is underlying our discussion is really in what the tests are testing. The Microsoft certification exams do not necessarily reflect the exams which will be sponsored by the LPI. If the LPI exams forced the individual to actually perform the tasks in order to learn them (ie test the user's ability to create, monitor and administer processes), would that make this individual a self-learner or a book learner? If the exams required the user to have considerable hands-on experience, would you feel the tests are a good thing?
I feel that they would serve a good purpose. I know that when I approach a new subject, I find it much easier to get started when I have a plan of attack. Of course the Linux self-learner has some structure forced upon him/her (ie find a computer, install Linux, start configuring Linux), but then what? It's difficult to identify what administrative skills are really necessary for a multi-user system when the machine you are working on is essentially a workstation. If I wanted to learn how to become a sysadmin, my home system would not give me the kind of experience necessary to get a good feel of how a multi-user production system (eg a dialup server for an ISP) behaves.
Anyway, I think that I don't really disagree with those who have posted arguments in favor of real world experience; I do feel that there is a place for a certification system which could provide new entrants with guidelines for learning administration/development/etc. skills. Not to mention creating instant credentials for the young job hopeful.
I wouldn't send them off to take the test. However, I would send them off to study and work towards establishing a base of knowledge until they get to the point where they could take the test. A structured learning program works better for some people. Linux is becoming a viable career path and individuals who would like to get a background in linux without a good idea of where to start would probably benefit a great deal from this program, or one similar (I have not read enough to endorse this particular curriculum).
It will give some newbies a place to start, and a goal to shoot for. I know that as a not-so-newbie-but-still-struggling, I have a hard time figuring out what to tackle next.
/.'d)
Here is an link to the description of the "1a" exam (I think it's already been
happy reading.
See the following link from the President's web site containing the full executive summary of the plan. Page 28 specifically deals with the scholarship plans.
There is also mention of setting up "meaningful" internship programs for college and promising high school students (I noticed a comment somewhere about the need to start the process earlier in a childs academic career). Please remember that this is a proposal, no details have been made public (i.e. eligible schools, amounts of scholarship, years of service required, etc.). I think this is an admiriable idea, and we should support efforts like these. If you have strong feelings regarding the implementation of this plan, WRITE YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!!!!!
For those of you outside the United States, if you think this plan would help out technology in your country, WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. For those of you living where your views will not be heard by the powers that be, MOVE/SEEK ASYLUM!!!!
-la
It's called the back button. Also available using Alt(-), or backspace. Use it. No one is forced to watch anything on the Internet, that is why we like it here; freedom of choice is a beautiful thing.
check out Garage.com.
the site is dedicated to matching VC with developers/companies with new ideas. (any chance of getting a finder's fee??) -la
For immediate release...Redmond, WA. (12-Oct-1999)
Microsoft has joined the race to provide "digital credentials" for use with medical related information. Built as an add-on to their recently released Passport service, Microsoft is said to be interested in taking a percentage of each user's health to sustain BG into the next millenium.
At least the editors have maintained their ethical standards by printing an article where they were named liable in an intellectual property lawsuit.
Quite the contrary to an article I saw in the Chicago Tribune (i think, don't hold me to it, since I couldn't find the article, but the facts are correct) article yesterday describing ABC's decision to pull a story which shed a negative light on Father Disney.
I still like my big monitor and keyboard, though. The WWW on a palm-sized screen seems to lose some of its flavor.
Very true, but I wouldn't mind being able to download the latest slashdot headlines and read them on the train on my way into work, as opposed to reading them for the first 45 minutes I am at work. I can live without the icons.
my name is larry, i'm 23 y/o, and i programmed COBOL for two years (i'm not proud of what i did, but it paid the bills)....no one has seen paper wasted the way it is done in a mainframe shop. everyone in the department literally had reams of paper from the line printer on their desks, sometimes 8-10 feet high.
at least with the apparent shift to online reporting mechanisms (there seems to be a healthy market for web front ends to mainframe systems), the mainframe shops of the future may save a few trees.
trans- \Trans-\ [L. trans across, over.] A prefix, signifying over, beyond, through and through, on the other side, as in transalpine, beyond the Alps; transform, to form through and through, that is, anew, transfigure.
/may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ A prefix meaning one level of description higher. If X is some concept then meta-X is data about, or processes operating on, X.
meta -/me't*/ or
both definitions from dictionary.com
btw the name transmeta was almost supplanted by Interpseudo, Megareference, and PrestoChango!!!
i saw on msnbc or some other cable show last night that all of the shuttles have been moved into hangars and should be safe from the storm.
The nice thing is that if you wanted to steal the credit cards information, you couldn't just snag the creditcard number. You would have to know the algorithm for generating these numbers, as well as the pin (which could be snagged from the transmission)! So you would have to watch these purchases over a period of time, and only then would you be able to pretend to be the card owner.
Acutally, the secureID also requires you to synch the card with the secureId server. Even if you could discover the algorithm, you would need to monitor sufficiently many transactions to ensure that your implementation was reasonably synchronized with the server (or convince the sysadmin to synch your app). See this for details from the vendor