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Submission + - Ken Ham building Noah's Ark in Kentucky, thanks to Bill Nye (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Following up on the Bil Nye and Ken Ham debate on Creationism ((http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/02/04/1731233/watch-bill-nye-and-ken-ham-clash-over-creationism-live): Creation Museum founder Ken Ham announced Thursday that a municipal bond offering has raised enough money to begin construction on the Ark Encounter project, estimated to cost about $73 million. Groundbreaking is planned for May and the ark is expected to be finished by the summer of 2016.

Ham said a high-profile evolution debate he had with "Science Guy" Bill Nye on Feb. 4 helped boost support for the project.

Nye said he was "heartbroken and sickened for the Commonwealth of Kentucky" after learning that the project would move forward. He said the ark would eventually draw more attention to the beliefs of Ham's ministry, which preaches that the Bible's creation story is a true account, and as a result, "voters and taxpayers in Kentucky will eventually see that this is not in their best interest."

Submission + - Camlanta: Police instaling 12,000 Camera's in Georgia's Capital City (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports (http://www.ajc.com/news/news/12k-cameras-to-give-atlanta-police-broader-window-/nd2Sh/) that Atlanta Police plan to have as many as 12,000 cameras installed in the city.

“Atlanta is really on the leading edge of work in this area,” said William Flynn, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deputy assistant secretary of infrastructure protection. “We spend a lot of our attention on preparedness, protection, prevention. This kind of technology is the best use of those efforts and the best use of our resources.

“We’ve even been able to capture a murder on film,” said Atlanta Police Lt. LeAnne Browning, a supervisor at the video integration center where footage from more than 2,700 cameras is monitored.

I'm sure that was of great comfort to the murder victim and his/her loved ones.

Submission + - NYC Teacher: Standardized tests are a critical thinker's dream (wsj.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Many educators and commentators believe that standardized testing is a soul-sapping exercise in rote learning that devalues critical thinking and favors students of higher-income parents who can afford test-prep classes or private tutors.

Not so, according to James Samuelson. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Mr. Samuelson explains that testing is actually good for the intellectual health of students. (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304104504579374651890320212) Testing is also an excellent way for teachers to better understand the particular academic challenges their students face.

Students acquire test-taking skills through discipline, through routine. They also learn how to reason by following a progression of ideas in connected, logical order. But the need for discipline, for routine, would require teachers to cut down on the practice of flitting about from one unconnected topic to another.

Mr. Samuelson teaches at Queens Vocational & Technical High School in Sunnyside, Queens, N.Y.

Submission + - WhatsApp Founder used Nonchangable Airline Ticket to Pressure Facebook (flyertalk.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: In a post on the Flyertalk website (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22387891-post72.html), WhatsApp Founder Jan Koum provides another interesting detail about how he steered Whatsapp into a $16 Billion Deal with Facebook (http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/02/20/1344218/how-jan-koum-steered-whatsapp-into-16b-facebook-deal):

we announced the deal with Facebook on wednesday after the market closed. during the process, we realized there was a chance we might not be able to get the deal wrapped up and signed on wednesday and it could delay. when the risk of the delay became real, i said: "if we don't get it done on wednesday, it probably wont get done. i have tickets on thursday to fly out to Barcelona which i bought with miles and they are not easily refundable or even possible to change. this has to be done by wednesday or else!!!" ...and so one of the biggest deals in tech history had to be scheduled around my M&M award ticket

Comment Data Walls are a way to identify Crappy Teachers (Score 4, Informative) 110

by McGruber (#46312925) Attached to: All In All, Kids Just Another Brick In the Data Wall

My partner is an elementary school principal. Her school has a small "data room", only accessed by teachers, in which she has posted "data walls". Her data walls are actually printouts of very large spreadsheets -- each row is a child, and the hundred of columns represent individual concepts that children have to master. For example, one column might represent "being able to add fractions", another might represent "being able to subtract fractions", another might be "being able to correctly conjugate verbs", etc.

The really cool thing is that these spreadsheets are generated (by software) after the children take computerized tests. Instead of just giving a numeric score, the software will show exactly *which* concepts the child does and does not know.

You would think teachers would love this technology because it would allow them to focus their instruction time on concepts their students have not mastered. Sadly, that's not the case -- instead, many long-time teachers who had always gotten "good" and "excellent" evaluations are suddenly being shown that they are not actually very good teachers. For example, the software can easily show that *none* of the students in a particular classroom have mastered a particular concept, such as adding fractions. If no student in that particular elementary classroom is able to add fractions, then it is pretty obvious that the teacher in that classroom does not know how to effectively teach adding fractions. Hearing that is pretty threatening to a teacher who has taught the same way for two or three decades.

Anyway, I posted because what the article calls a "data wall" is not really a data wall.

Comment AOL's David Shing, Professional Nothing (Score 4, Interesting) 123

by McGruber (#46201989) Attached to: AOL Reverses Course On 401K Match; CEO Apologizes

On Gawker, Sam Biddle points out that while AOL claimed it couldn't afford its old retirement plan, it is able to afford "Shingy," who Biddle describe as a "professional nothing". Shingy's job title is "Digital Prophet," which means "he's gloating about the fact that he has a make believe job at AOL, unlike most tech charlatans, who try to conceal it":

This Man Is Representing AOL on Live Television

Comment wjwlsn's comment (Score 2) 30

by McGruber (#46195351) Attached to: CmdrTaco: Anti-Beta Movement a "Vocal Minority"
The comment that wjwlsn posted to the WaPo blog at 1:05 AM EST sums it up well:

Look, you have to understand something: Slashdot discussions generate interesting content by allowing tons of garbage to be posted, mixed around, and evolved. Part of the evolution comes from the interactive nature of community discussion, and part of it comes from the moderation process. For this evolution process to work properly, you have to be able to see a lot of posts at once, all in one shot. You need to be able to see some contextual information about the people posting comments. When you post your own comments, you need to be able to quote or link to other posts easily. When you want to moderate, you need to be able to do it in place, at the comment you intend to moderate.

Beta breaks all of these vital features; without them, the nature of Slashdot discussion changes completely. People will read fewer comments because the new layout hinders rapid seeking, scanning, and comprehension of potentially valuable posts... all while making it much more difficult to skim past the stuff that doesn't interest you. When people read fewer comments, they post fewer comments. When the total number of comments starts to drop, the exploration of the discussion space becomes much less thorough. Potentially valuable or interesting discussion paths will be missed. Those rare, but highly sought after gems of insight and wisdom borne from the cesspool of chaos will become much more scarce.

You want to know why people hate the beta so much? It's because it kills the evolutionary discussion dynamic that makes the community what it is. There's nothing else like it, and many of us do not want to lose it.

(Adapted from my original post on Slashdot:http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4761849&cid=46192975)

Submission + - 25% of Charter Schools Owe Their Soul to the Walmart Store

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Among the billionaires who helped Bill Gates pave the way for charter schools in WA was Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The Walton Family Foundation spent a whopping $158+ million in 2012 on what it calls "systemic K-12 education reform," which included $60,920,186 to "shape public policy" and $652,209 on "research and evaluation." Confirming the LA Times' speculation about its influence, the Walton Foundation issued a press release Wednesday boasting it's the largest private funder of charter school "startups", adding that it has supported the opening of 1 in 4 charter schools in the U.S. since 1997 through its 1,500 "investments." But as some charter school kids have learned the hard way, what the rich man giveth, he can also taketh away. For the time being, though, it looks like America's going to continue to depend on the tax-free kindness of wealthy strangers to educate its kids. For example, while it was nice to see the value of Shop Class recognized, the White House on Monday called on businesses, foundations and philanthropists to fund proposed "Maker Spaces" in schools and libraries. Hey, when the U.S. Secretary of Education turns to corporate sponsors and auctions to fund his Mother's afterschool program for kids of low-income families in the President's hometown, don't look for things to change anytime soon.

Comment Re:I'll keep saying (Score 0) 175

by McGruber (#46187563) Attached to: How Adobe Got Rid of Traditional Stack-Ranking Performance Reviews

Stack Ranking only works on a short term basis where you want to trim the fat.

Regarding the next performance ranking time at Dice, when someone will need to be scapegoated for the Beta Clusterfuck:

Who will Alice Hill "stack-rank" into unemployment: samzenpus, Soulskill, timothy, or Unknown Lamer?

Or all four of them?

Submission + - HP finally provides actual evidence of Autonomy Executives' Fraud (wsj.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Nearly 15 months after HP booked a massive accounting charge related to its $11.5 billion purchase of Autonomy, a new audit finally provides significant evidence (http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140203-706362.html) to backup CEO Meg Whitman's claim that Autonomy's executives engaged in a "willful effort" to mislead HP's shareholders and management (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/11/20/1651233/meg-whitman-says-hp-was-defrauded-by-autonomy-hp-stock-plunges).

The new audit by Ernst & Young LLP determined that Autonomy had significantly inflated revenue in 2010: Autonomy had booked deals that were unlikely to be paid for, booked deals prematurely before they were closed, and even claimed transactions where there were no end customers. HP also found errors in the accounting of certain expenses such as employee commissions and bonuses.

HP has refiled Autonomy's financial statements for 2010. HP's restatement lowers Autonomy's revenue for 2010 by 54% and also shows a decrease in operating profit by about 81%.

The Slashdot community has previously discussed the fallout from HP's October 2011 purchase of Automony in several stories, including:

HP Chairman Raymond Lane Steps Down
http://slashdot.org/story/13/0...

HP Not Giving Up On Autonomy
http://slashdot.org/story/13/0...

Why Bad Directors Aren't Thrown Out
http://slashdot.org/story/13/0...

UK Serious Fraud Office Probes Autonomy With ... Autonomy!
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

Is HP Right? Autonomy Salesperson Shares Internal Emails
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

Autonomy Chief Says Whitman Is Watering Down HP Fraud Claims
http://news.slashdot.org/story...

Meg Whitman Says HP Was Defrauded By Autonomy; HP Stock Plunges
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

It's too bad that CEO Whitman squandered $11.5 billion on Autonomy instead of following Edward F. Molten's September 23, 2011 advice that she make a
deep and long commitment to open-source technology: "Could Open Source Investment Save HP?" http://news.slashdot.org/story...

Submission + - An open letter to the management of Slashdot. 14

Submitted by onyxruby
onyxruby writes: I have been watch for some time now as Slashdot has started beta testing a new version of the website. As you are well aware the new site would constitute a complete change to the look, interface and functionality of Slashdot.org.

Change happens, and for those of us who work with technology for a living it is the only constant. Change is a process and in and of itself is not a bad thing when it offers improvement. Unfortunately the change that has been offered negatively impacts the look, interface and most importantly the functionality of Slashdot.
Many people have had trouble reverting back to the classic interface. The new interface simply does not offer the functionality of the old. Things like statistics, comments and layout are very difficult to find. You have a community that lives and breathes data and want to know their data. How is my comment ranked, how many people responded – it’s really all about the dialogue. Can I get the information that I want in a readily digestible format?

As you’re well aware the new site does not offer the very thing that people come here for. This in and of itself is not why your community has organized a boycott of Beta. The boycott was originated because the new version will be implemented whether the community wants it or not.

I want to explain why this change has gone down people’s throats about as well as Windows 8’s Metro interface. The reason has absolutely nothing to do with the interface and everything to do with the perception that the editors and management of Slashdot appear to have.

The message that has been consistently handed down is that we are “your audience”. We are not your “your audience” we are your product. People do not come to Slashdot for the news stories, there are untold other sites that provide those as well as professional and original writing about them. People come here for the community of insiders from across the industry.

Please respect the community and stop what you’re doing. You have commented that you don’t want to maintain two code bases. Your community works in the industry and understands this, which leads many to suggest you abandon the new code base entirely so that you are only maintaining once code base. Tell us what your trying to accomplish and I would imagine that a wide range of experts would be more than willing to help you meet your goals.

Submission + - A Modest Proposal, re: Beta vs. Classic 19

Submitted by unitron
unitron writes: Dice wants to make money off of what they paid for--the Slashdot name--, or rather they want to make more money off of it than they are making now, and they think the best way to do that is to turn it into SlashingtonPost.

They should take this site and give it a new name. Or get Malda to let them use "Chips & Dips".

Leave everything else intact, archives, user ID database, everything except the name.

Then use the Beta code and start a new site and give it the slashdot.org name, and they can have what they want without the embarrassment of having the current userbase escape from the basement or the attic and offend the sensibilities of the yuppies or hipsters or metrosexuals or whoever it is that they really want for an "audience".

Submission + - /. Beta comments don't work, users upset. (slashdot.org) 4

Submitted by magic maverick
magic maverick writes: Since the new /. Beta came to light, many /. users and commentators have tried it out. However, they are almost universally condemning the new commenting system. It simply isn't as good as the so called Classic system. Some users, however, haven't a bad thing to say. Mainly because they haven't had a chance to even use the new system. It simply doesn't load. One user, Magic Maverick , who lives in a third-world country with crappy Internet, had this to say:

I come to /. for the comments, but with the new Beta, I can't even see anything! It just says:

''Shazbot! We ran into some trouble getting the comments. Try again... na-nu, na-nu!

It seems like the "developers" need to take some advice from people who actually know what they are doing. I'm happy to help explain what graceful degradation means if they like...

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