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Comment Re:Headline misleading (Score 1) 437

I personally think that the whole cheating thing can be avoided by having a test bank of questions that is open to everyone, and which is sufficiently large that it is less effort to actually learn the principles, etc, rather than memorize the answers to 100,000+ questions for a specific course.

Let everyone download it.
With modern technology, you should be able to generate unique tests for each student, with each question identified by numeric code. Dump it into the scanner for a score.
If it is still an issue increase the number of test questions to 250,000 or more.
obviously the test bank could be inspected for grading the tests in situations where you are not doing multiple choice.

Unix

Submission + - Just $699.99 for the rights to that code! (groklaw.net)

yorugua writes: Oh no!!. But yes... Surely you felt something was missing all this time, don't you? Something you checked every day on. Something that could came back to haunt you. Now it is real!. SCO has appealed. I don't speak much legalese, so here are some words from Groklaw: "Plaintiff, The SCO Group, Inc., hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from the Jury Verdict entered in this action on March 30, 2010, the district court’s evidentiary rulings at trial, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law dated June 10, 2010, Memorandum Decision and Order Denying SCO’s Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law or, in the alternative, for a New Trial dated June 10, 2010, and the Final Judgment entered on June 10, 2010." . So according to IBM's ^H^H^H Goklaw's PJ, "They're appealing everything, in short, or they'd like a new trial. Because three trials isn't enough when you're not having fun. Speaking of which, I confess. I'm so sick of SCO I could spit.". So, if you got hooked up by FIFA's World Cup and were wondering what to focus your attention on, then get those $699 ready to buy your rights to that code! Or are they just buying more time?
Iphone

Submission + - Adobe to sue Apple over Flash cross-compiler ban (itworld.com)

sopssa writes: "IT World reports that Adobe intends to sue Apple "within a few weeks," citing sources close to Adobe. Not only did the recent iPhone and iPad licensing change ban Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone cross-compiler, but also Novell's MonoTouch which lets you compile C# and .NET apps to the iPhone. "Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs". Lee Brimelow notes in his blog post that "What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D."."
Medicine

Submission + - DNA cancer codes cracked by international effort (news.com.au) 1

Enigma23 writes: As reported on news.com.au, scientists from the International Cancer Genome Consortium of 12 institutes around the world will today release the first DNA profiles of some of the most prevalent types of tumours. While the story asserts that "A new era of cancer treatment has dawned" I'm a bit more sceptical, given that gene therapy and immunotherapy are still very much in their infancy at the current time.

Submission + - Library of Congress to Archive All Tweets (loc.gov)

mjn writes: "Continuing their recent push to archive more digital content, the U.S. Library of Congress announced a deal with Twitter to archive all public tweets, dating back to Twitter's inception in March 2006. More details at their blog. No word yet on precisely what will be done with the collection, but besides entering your friends' important updates on the quality of breakfast into the permanent archival record, the deal may improve access for researchers wanting to analyze and mine Twitter's giant database."
Earth

Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn 819

Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."

Comment Re:If you are worried about it... (Score 5, Informative) 791

There are paints you can get which have metallic dust incorporated into them. This will act as shielding. You can also go with a "Luster Dust" which would give a metallic sheen to your current wall color. Or even a straight metallic wall paint. There is also metallic wall paper.

see also Force Field Wireless for paint additive, although you could also experiment with various metallic powders on your own.

Ditto Storm windows with metal frames and screens. Apparently prefinished flooring also contains metallic powder which can reduce wifi signals. The new double pane windows also have metallic coatings that can reduce wifi.

Normal cell phone reception would have to come from the side of the building opposite where the transmitters are located.

Security

Submission + - What to do with a pwned router? 2

Headbonk writes: So say that theoretically you live in a big apartment building where lots of people have wireless networks... When scanning for networks you find like 10 different network names. Lets say that one day you notice a new unsecured network that still has the default network name set from the wifi router manufacturer. Say you also discovered this router still had the default administrator password set for the config pages? Assume that there are enough people and networks in the building that you can't figure out who the unsecured router belongs to.

What is the correct thing to do here? From a security standpoint and or an ethics point of view? You could turn on encryption, but that would just make the outer stop working for the people whose network it is. It would be a pain in the ass for them and there's nothing preventing them from just reseting the router or buying a new one thus going back to the same situation as before. Is it right to get involved at all? Does it even matter since the default settings of wifi routers include a firewall and the unsecured wireless just makes them vulnerable to their neighbors (like you)? Is there a right "good citizen" thing to do here to help protect the people who connect to that network?

Comment Re:Solution For College's Bad Network Policy? (Score 2, Informative) 699

The Client Security Agent appears to be another bit of Microsoft Madness

Which appears to require MS Windows.

Given the the classicly high rate of computer infection among teens, this could be make sense for the school administration. Of course, it might be easier if they just required everyone to just get a Mac.

Comment Re:Google moderate safe search (Score 1) 678

Oh, and build up her self-esteem. That is the critical factor in teen girls getting into situations they're not ready for.

In this regard, get her something like a rubics cube (if she is interested in it). Just being able to do something the grownups can't does marvels for the self esteem.

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