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Education

Submission + - Khan Academy for Software Engineering?

Submitted by blaster151
blaster151 writes: Khan Academy has received a great deal of attention recently for its innovative, low-tech approach to knowledge acquisition. It features a vast library of single-topic tutorial videos and (more importantly) presents them as very bite-sized chunks in a hierarchically organized structure. Interactive exercises allow a motivated learner to progress through hundreds of math and science exercise sets, attaining proficiencies in a game-like, flow-inducing manner. Significant chunks of scientific learning have become accessible, free, and less intimidating to the uninitiated.

I'd like to ask Slashdot readers if they see the possibility of creating the same type of interactive, incremental learning system for computer science and software engineering. Could concepts and knowledge be organized into a roughly hierarchical structure to allow learners to start with the absolute basics but progress through concepts like advanced algorithms, database systems, object-oriented programming, multiple languages and platforms, high-level software architecture, etc? What barriers would exist to the creation of such a system and could bite-sized interactive exercises be implemented as effectively as Khan Academy does it for more traditional branches of science?
Censorship

Submission + - #china revolution set to start 2pm Shanghai time (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by h00manist
h00manist writes: Online pages call for protests in 13 cities in China, at 2:00 pm Shanghai time, 1:00 am EST, Twitter tag being used is #cn220. In spite of China censoring Middle East protests, now known as "Jasmin Revolutions", Chinese people are inspired. Instructions for participating are being censored, help re-posting is requested. They keep disappearing, and then popping up everywhere on the net, and being censored again. Yes, I used the google translated version to understand Chinese.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Bans Free Software from WP Marketplace 1

Submitted by mvar
mvar writes: A ban on GPL3 and similarly compatible, copyleft licensed software has been found in the terms of use for Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace. The terms, noted in a posting on open source evangelist Jan Wildeboer's blog, were originally noticed in a discussion among Nokia developers who were evaluating the issues involved with Nokia's switch to WP7; both Nokia's Symbian and MeeGo platforms have been free and open source friendly. The ban, in section 5.e of the terms, forbids any software which is subject to an "Excluded Licence"; it defines that in section 1.l as any licence which requires, as a condition of distribution, that the source code for the application be made available, or allow the creation of derivative works or redistribution at no charge. It specifically names GPLv3 licences and includes the General Public Licnce (GPL) version 3, the GNU Affero GPL version 3, and the GNU Lesser GPL version 3 as examples of excluded licences.
Music

Carl Sagan Sings 183

Posted by kdawson from the billions-and dept.
gijoel writes "Someone with too much time on their hands and access to Auto-Tune has taken clips from Carl Sagan's Cosmos series to make this fantastic song. Watch for the Stephen Hawking cameo."
Google

Submission + - Googles MarissaMayer Deletes Sensitive Apple Tweet (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Google's Marissa Mayer Deletes Sensitive Apple Tweet

Marissa Mayer, the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google, deletes a Tweet in which she linked a satirical article on BBspot ( http://www.bbspot.com/News/2009/07/google-removes-apple.html ) about the whole Google Voice iPhone app removal brouhaha ( http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/07/28/1839241/Apple-Kills-Google-Voice-Apps-On-the-iPhone ; http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/apple-is-growing-rotten-to-the-core-and-its-likely-atts-fault/ ), titled "Google Pulls Apple from Search Results".

In it, an author of the comedy news site writes that Google has removed all search results leading to Apple.com from its index, and redirecting searches for "iPhone" and "app store" to the IMDb.com page for Payback.

Mayer gets quoted a couple of times in the piece as well:

        Google's official explanation for removing Apple from its search results came from Vice-President in charge of search, Marissa Mayer, "Those search results duplicate a lot of the functionality of other sites. For example, people can find cell phones on many other sites. We just think this makes it easier for our users."

Pretty funny for much everyone, but for such a key Google employee to link to that article could be a bit offensive to some (both inside Google and Apple), hence the removal, probably.

TechCrunch : http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/29/oops-marrisamayer-deletes-sensitive-tweet-that-can-still-be-found/

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