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Comment Wow (Score 4, Insightful) 388

68% of primary and secondary teachers are concerned that their pupils have a better understanding of computing than they do. Moreover, the pupils reinforced this finding with 47% claiming that their teachers need more training...

Polls are great, but just imagine what it would be like if we lived in a world where there was actually a way to measure who knows what...

Comment Re:Free? Where is the money coming from? (Score 2) 703

The big difference is college isn't legally required. The only students who will go are those who want to go, and colleges won't be inclined to let kids slip through with a D-minus-minus just to get them through the system. The reason people graduate HS practically illiterate is because you can't force someone to learn. Make it optional, and require passing grades to stay in, and the problem is solved. If you don't pass, you don't get to go. If you fail, you're disqualified from the free program. (I would imagine. Didn't actually RTFA.)

This won't single-handedly solve all the problems this country faces with regard to education, but I think it's a great idea.

Comment My kid does magic tricks... (Score 1) 135

... that involve me turning around for up to 30 seconds. It's cute. The lesson here is, if you let your machine out of your sight for a while, don't be surprised if it comes back rooted. Isn't rule #1 of computer security always "If you don't have physical security, you don't have security"?

What exactly is the vector here? Give someone a thunderbolt hard drive and hope they plug it in and hope they run a firmware update while the drive is connected? Oh no, this could affect potentially dozens of people per decade! Outside of very targeted attacks, who will get hit by this? And if you think you are targeted, the solution is simple: don't have anything but the power cord plugged in when updating firmware. (Which is how you are supposed to do it anyway.)

This isn't exactly a drive-by download.

Comment Re:Starivore? (Score 2) 300

They're called hybrid words

Just a few favorites from their list of fifty...

Automobile - a wheeled passenger vehicle, from Greek _ (autos) "self" and Latin mobilis "moveable"
Biathlon - from the Latin bis meaning "twice" and the Greek _ (athlon) meaning "contest"
Claustrophobia - from the Latin claustrum meaning _confined space_ and Greek _ (phobos) meaning "fear"
Dysfunction - from the Greek _- (dys-) meaning "bad" and the Latin functio
Genocide - From the Greek _ (genos) meaning "race, people" and the Latin c_dere meaning "to kill"
Geostationary - From the Greek _ (g_) meaning "Earth" and the Latin stationarius, from statio, from stare meaning "to stand"
Hexadecimal - from Greek _ (hex), meaning "six", and Latin decimus meaning "tenth"
Metadata - from the Greek _ (meta) and the Latin data meaning "given" from dare
Monoculture - from the Greek _ (monos) meaning _one, single_ and the Latin cultura
Nonagon - from the Latin nonus meaning "ninth" and the Greek _ (g_nia) meaning "angle"
Quadriplegia - from the Latin quattuor meaning "four" and the Greek _ (pl_g_) "stroke", _ (pl_ssein) meaning "to strike";
Sociology - from the Latin socius, "comrade", and the Greek _ (logos) meaning "word", "reason", "discourse"
Television - from the Greek _ (t_le) meaning "far" and the Latin visio meaning "seeing"
 
... but I agree, "starivore" is right up (down?) there with "staycation". :-)

(All Greek characters replaced with '_' so Slashdot won't shit all over itself. Unicode? WTF is that? It's only 2015!)

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