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Comment They broke their website (Score 1) 308

by Clayperion (#32500432) Attached to: Safari 5 Released
As of this posting, Firefox 3.6.3 no longer works going to www.apple.com (but the store still does). Safari 5 allows you to see the home page, but none of the links (iPhone, iPad, etc.) show properly. Nice QC Apple!
Education

Submission + - Most Useful OS for Science Education

Submitted by Clayperion
Clayperion writes: I teach at I high school program for gifted students which emphasizes Math, Science, and Technology. Currently we have two computer labs for the students: A new Programming Lab (all Dell PCs running XP, MS Visual C++, Eclipse, and SolidWorks for programming and CAD) and an old general-purpose lab (all Macs running 10.3, with software ranging from some legacy OS 9 science applications to MathCad). Most of our students eventually pursue graduate degrees in science and engineering, and we would like them have experience with the tools they will find out in industry. As we look to replace the old machines, there has been a push to switch to PCs with XP so that there is only a single platform to support. There are over 5000 machines on the districts network and the IT department is VERY small (less than 10 people), so the fewer hardware and software differences between the machines, the better. Without opening flame war as to which one is "better", I'd like to know what those of you in the science and engineering fields actually use more in your labs (Hardware, OS, Software), so that we can decide which platform to support. It will most likely have to be either XP or OS 10.6 with very restricted permissions to students and teachers, as that is the comfort level of IT and administration, but I'll push for whatever would benefit the students the most.
Open Source

Submission + - New government may put open source in UK schools (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by ChiefMonkeyGrinder
ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes: The new Liberal Democrat/Tory coalition government has pledged to create a level playing field for open-source software. John Spencer looks at the UK failure to put open source in school: "No open source organisation or company exists which can compete with the sheer scale of the proprietary software ICT outsource companies or the scale of their projects. There is no Open Source 'Capita' nor now will there ever be."
Education

Submission + - Most Useful OS for Science Education

Submitted by Clayperion
Clayperion writes: I teach at I high school program for gifted students which emphasizes Math, Science, and Technology. Currently we have two computer labs for the students: A new Programming Lab (all PCs) and an old general-purpose lab (all Macs). As we look to replace the old machines, there has been a push to switch to PCs so that there is only a single platform to support. Most of our students eventually pursue graduate degrees in science and engineering, and we would like them to use the tools they will find out in industry. Without opening up the can of worms as to which one is "better", I'd like to know what those of you in the science and engineering fields use more in your labs.
Australia

Submission + - Australian customs wants to see your porn

Submitted by
ras
ras writes: "Last September Australian quietly added a new check box to the customs declaration form you must fill in when you enter the country. To paraphrase: are you carrying porn?. We Ozzies have only just woken up to it. If you do check a box on the form, you are normally required to hand over all relevant material the customs officials for inspection. In the case of porn, this would include your laptop, camera and memory cards, DVD's, and raunchy magazines. They promise to be discrete."

Comment Re:Sad that this is even being considered (Score 1) 1238

by Clayperion (#32232568) Attached to: Texas Schools Board Rewriting US History
That the Texas school board is batshit insane is not even in question (they are). The problem is that because Texas mandates that all of its schools use the same textbooks, publishers wanting to pander to their largest single purchaser CUSTOMIZE THEIR TEXTBOOKS FOR THE TEXAS MARKET. Unfortunately, this is at the behest of unbiased facts, and these textbooks are then used by the rest of the U.S.. I know it's an urban myth that the Texas Constitution allows them to secede from the nation, but can't we start a "T" party to force them out?
It's funny. Laugh.

Man Spends 2,200 Hours Defeating Bejeweled 2 179

Posted by Soulskill from the wins-complimentary-straight-jacket dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A California steel contractor spent 2,200 total hours over the last three years racking up a high score in Bejeweled 2. He exceeded the 2^31-1 maximum score programmed for the score display, proving that there is, in fact, an end to the game. I suppose congratulations or condolences are in order."
Earth

Japanese Researchers Make Plastic Out of Water 117

Posted by timothy from the what's-kanji-for-boffin? dept.
greenrainbow writes with this excerpt from Inhabit: "The material shown in the picture above is just ice, right? Look again. Elastic water, a new substance invented by researchers at Tokyo University, is a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials. As is, the all-natural substance is perfect for medical procedures, because it's made of water, poses no harm to people, and is perfect for mending tissue. And, if the research team can increase the density of this exciting new substance, it could be used in place of our current oil-based plastics for a host of other things."

Comment Carrot -v- Stick (Score 1) 706

by Clayperion (#31807052) Attached to: Should Kids Be Bribed To Do Well In School?
Seeing as we have pretty much removed the stick, the carrot may be worth a try. Without trying to sound like a curmudgeon....when I was in school (in the 80s) we would have been suspended or paddled for a large majority of things kids get away with in today's public schools. From my personal experience, a HUGE proportion of "under preforming" students just don't take school seriously. While not always the case, this is often because their parents aren't doing their jobs at home. Teacher to parent: "Brian hasn't turned in ANYthing for 2 weeks. If we don't get him to start taking his education seriously, he's going to fail this class." Parent's response: "I just don't know what to do with him. He's always out with his friends, and I can never get him to do his homework." ...grow a pair and take some responsibility. Public schools are faaaaaar from perfect, but they're caught, in that they can only react to external problems...and with a dwindling set of tools.

Comment NAACbP (Score 1) 981

by Clayperion (#31635832) Attached to: Could Colorblindness Cure Be Morally Wrong?
Can't call it a disease...some organization will spring up (maybe the National Association for the Advancement of Colorblind People) and say that Red and Green M&M's are misleading and we should only eat the gray ones.....wait aren't they all gray?
Education

Submission + - Best platform for science education?

Submitted by Clayperion
Clayperion writes: I teach at I high school program for gifted students which emphasizes Math, Science, and Technology. Currently we have two computer labs for the students: A new Programming Lab (all PCs) and an old general-purpose lab (all Macs). As we look to replace the old machines, there has been a push to switch to PCs so that there is only a single platform to support. Most of our students eventually pursue graduate degrees in science and engineering, and we would like them to use the tools they will find out in industry. Without opening up the can of worms as to which one is "better", I'd like to know what those of you in the science and engineering fields use more in your labs.

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