juniorkindergarten - Slashdot User

The Effects of the Cloud On Business, Education 68

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 24, 2008 @10:01PM from the more-indoor-classes? dept.

g8orade points out two recent articles in The Economist about the rise of cloud computing. The first discusses how software-as-a-service has come to pervade online interactions. "Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a technology visionary at IBM, compares cloud computing to the Cambrian explosion some 500m years ago when the rate of evolution sped up, in part because the cell had been perfected and standardised, allowing evolution to build more complex organisms." The next article examines how the cloud will force a "trade-off between sovereignty and efficiency." Reader pjones contributes news that the Virtual Computer Lab will be supplementing more traditional computer labs at North Carolina State University, and adds, "NCSU's Virtual Computing Lab and IBM are offering the VCL code as a software 'appliance' for use in schools to link to the program. Downloads are available at ibiblio at UNC-Chapel Hill. The VCL also is partnering with Apache.org to make the software available and to allow further community participation in future development."

Submission + - Funeral Service for a Mainframe

Submitted by

Tr0tskysGh0st

on Monday December 17, 2007 @03:00PM

Tr0tskysGh0st writes: "The University of Manitoba's 47 year old mainframe, Betelgeuse, recently passed on to the great electronics recycler in the sky. To mark its passing, the entire computer science department and many others turned out for a funeral service [boingboing.net] held in the quad. The eulogy, in the form of a poem, was given by the director of Administrative Systems, Marvin Kocay."

Submission + - Microsoft kills off HP legacy drivers 1

Submitted by couchslug on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @08:51PM

couchslug writes: I went looking for drivers for a friend and found this proof that Microsoft can make use of older Windows versions more difficult." http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01080344&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=59270&lang=en "As of July 2007, HP will no longer be able to offer driver downloads or replacement driver CD ordering for Windows 98, 98 Second Edition (SE), or Windows Millennium (Me) for your HP printer, all-in-one, camera, or scanner. Microsoft has stopped providing and supporting certain files related specifically to Windows 98 SE, and this change affects all technology companies. HP, along with other technology companies, is no longer able to use selected components in support of Windows 98SE, which has an impact on our software strategy for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me. HP will continue to provide other selected HP software and applications that do not depend on Windows 98 SE components for the foreseeable future."

Submission + - Microsoft's Hotmail fast becoming a souce of spam

Submitted by

mabu

on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @12:46PM

mabu writes: "In the past Microsoft has taken action against spammers sending junk mail to Hotmail accounts. Now there are reports that Hotmail itself, has been taken over and is fast becoming a source of spam to the Internet at large."

Submission + - Viacom yields to YouTuber who DMCA counteclaimed (theregister.com)

Submitted by

Jason the Weatherman

on Thursday September 13, 2007 @02:35PM

Jason the Weatherman writes: "Two weeks ago Viacom charged Christopher Knight with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a clip from Web Junk 2.0 on VH1 that featured Knight's zany school board commercial. Here's the Slashdot article about it. Two days ago YouTube reported to Knight that his clip was back up and that his account wouldn't be punished. What happened? Knight filed a DMCA counter-notification claim with YouTube: something that happens "all too rarely" according to Fred von Lohmann at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in this story at The Register. "Almost no one ever files a counter notice. That's the biggest problem we've encountered [with DMCA claims on sites like YouTube]. Most people have no idea that right exists." As a result Viacom caved and Knight has his video back. But instead of gloating about his victory, Chris Knight posted on his blog that he holds nothing against Viacom for what happened, wanting this to mean that he and Viacom get to "shake hands and move on and wishing each other well" and that he doesn't want anyone else holding this against Viacom either. What a great attitude!"

Submission + - What to do about overly broad school board rules? (k12.va.us) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04, 2007 @07:23PM

An anonymous reader writes: My child is starting school today I have been asked to sign a release that I agree to the School Board Rules. I actually read them unlike most parents and would like to ask Slashdot what can be done about rules like Stafford County VA Rule 12:

Computer violations including trespass, fraud, invasion of privacy, and theft of services;...; removal of computer data, programs, software; alteration/destruction/erasure of computer data, programs, software; ... (See http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Stafford/Regulations/ Students/R7_32.pdf)

"Removal" includes copying ANY data to floppy or memory stick, even if a Kindergartner saved their drawing to floppy. "Erasure" includes formatting your own floppy disk. "Removal of programs" includes open source or even saving program that you wrote. When you boot any operating system, you alter the logs, so by turning on the computer you are in violation.... The penalty is suspension of 10 days or less.

A friend reported this to the school board several years ago but received a terse reply about the board using the same terms as other school boards. According to him, the wording has only gotten longer and more restrictive but still includes the same "removal" and "alteration" clauses.

Is there anything I can do other than posting this to slashdot?

Full text of the rule: "12. Computer violations including trespass, fraud, invasion of privacy, and theft of services; unauthorized use of school computer and/or computer network; removal of computer data, programs, software; alteration/destruction/erasure of computer data, programs, software; intentionally causing a computer and/or computer network to malfunction; use or duplication of software in violation of law or licensing requirements; unauthorized access to any portion of computer network, restricted programs and/or computer drives; unauthorized use of assigned computer passwords to gain access to computer and/or network; any unauthorized use of school computer code(s); failure to abide by acceptable use agreement; Minimum of short-term suspension of 10 days, or less, with the balance of any days to be served carrying over to the succeeding school year, and/or loss of computer and Internet privileges to maximum of expulsion. Additionally, the matter shall be reported to the Superintendent and shall also be reported to the Sheriff if the potential exists for criminal charges to be filed."

Submission + - ASCAP suing local bars, clubs for playing music (nwsource.com) 1

Submitted by Seismologist on Wednesday August 01, 2007 @01:49PM

Seismologist writes: The Seattle Times is reporting thisstory about the ASCAP going after local establishment owners for allegedly not paying music royalties. From the article, it sounds like the ASCAP group has "agents" listing in on what the bars are playing over the speakers:

A Seattle restaurant is among more than two dozen venues swept up in a music-licensing crackdown for allegedly failing to pay royalties to play copyrighted music in public. Without a special license, owners of bars, clubs and restaurants could be sued for playing any one of 8 million recorded songs, even from their own CDs. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) says that equates to performing copyrighted music without permission, and the group is going after local businesses that haven't paid them for the privilege.

Submission + - Linux HR Management Systems

Submitted by

dgcrawford

on Friday July 13, 2007 @12:12PM

dgcrawford writes: "A growing, 100-person company I work for is looking to integrate a Human Resources Management System into their Linux computer base. Does anyone have experience with any products that fit this need? Does it interface well with payroll, applicant tracking, maybe even finance and stock or other non-monetary compensation? I realize most of you would look at this from an IT point of view, but how did the system work across fields? And how important/useful did you find this interoperability?"

Submission + - Taser builds a high-tech bullet

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09, 2007 @07:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: Taser claims to have reinvented the traditional bullet. The XREP looks like a regular shotgun round (and can be shot through a regular shotgun at 300 ft/s), but basically is a self contained taser device complete with its own microprocessor and a battery. On impact, the device separates in two parts (which remain connected through a wire) and tries to attach itself to at least two body locations to deliver the electrical charge. Get this: If a criminal tries to remove the XREP, he is likely to either touch more electrodes or touch the booby-trapped wire, which will lock down the hand and prevent it from letting go. Wicked.

Submission + - What's the best Speech Recognition today?

Submitted by StonyCreekBare on Friday April 20, 2007 @11:48AM

StonyCreekBare writes: A client wants to build a kiosk system intended to interact with the user entirely via speech. Speech Recognition is absolutely key to the success of the project, so an excellent speech recognition engine is absolutely key to success.

Key requirements are Speaker Independence, and a large vocabulary, with a great deal of flexibility for recognizing arbitrary speech. The system needs to interact with arbitrary speakers on a walk-up basis.

I have built a reasonable "Proof-of-concept" prototype using an L&H / Windows based system. I was quite pleased with the overall performance of the system, and believe an optimized system could do even better. My goal is not so much to improve the recognition performance (although there is room for improvement), as to improve the system reliability and to have more control at the system level.

There seems to be two candidates to supply the system. Microsoft and Nuance.

The Microsoft Speech SDK has the unfortunate circumstance of being innately wedded to Windows, and all the other viable systems (such as L&H, and Viavoice) seem to have been acquired by Nuance. Microsoft's system seems to require a lot of training to perform well, which is unacceptable. At least the L&H system is truly speaker independent. I would greatly prefer to use a Linux or BSD solution, if viable, so that requires a *nix compatible solution.

I have seen some other systems, mostly proprietary systems for telephony applications. e.g. Sprint, to name one. I hear about other systems such as Sphinx from Carnegie Mellon, and a system from Phillips, both of which I do not know much about and do not know anyone actually using.

What are Slashdot users experiences with the various systems available? Have I overlooked any good candidates? What is the "bleeding edge" in reliable speech recognition? Am I going to be forced to use Windows?

-Stony

Feed Hubble Space Telescope Reveals The Aftermath Of 'Star Wars' (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Thursday April 19, 2007 @03:12PM

Astronomers have used the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to obtain the first direct optical images of the aftermath of a recent titanic explosion that took place in a star system 5,000 light years from Earth.

Submission + - Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring released

Submitted by

AdamWill

on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:05PM

AdamWill writes: "Mandriva is proud to announce the release of Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Download the hybrid live / install One or the purely free / open source software Free. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring includes the latest software (KDE 3.5.6, GNOME 2.18, Firefox and Thunderbird 2.0) and several major new features: Metisse, the most innovative accelerated desktop technology; open source telephony with WengoPhone; Google desktop applications including Picasa and Earth; updates and improvements to many of the Mandriva configuration tools, and the brand new drakvirt for configuring virtualization; significantly improved hardware support, including greatly improved graphics card detection and support for several common laptop memory card readers; and a brand new desktop theme. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring is available in the full range of editions, including the freely downloadable One and Free, as well as the commercial Discovery, Powerpack and Powerpack+. For more information see the Spring product page and the Wiki page, where you can find download and installation instructions, the Release Tour, the Release Notes and the Errata."

Submission + - Mars Surveyor killed by software update

Submitted by Fysiks Wurks on Friday April 13, 2007 @05:21PM

Fysiks Wurks writes: According to a CNN report [ http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/13/mars.surv eyor.ap/index.html ] the Mars Surveyor which was launched in 1996. Inadequate procedures were blamed allowing a software update, containing errors, to be uploaded. The surveyor became conflicted on suffered an emotional (i.e. battery overheated) breakdown.

And that's why I always wait a few days before applying OS patches.

Submission + - ExpressVu Bullies Online Forum re: Future Products

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed on Friday April 13, 2007 @02:16PM

Freshly Exhumed writes: Canada's largest satellite television provider, the ExpressVu division of Bell Canada, has removed all of its advertising from online forum Digital Home Canada over site administrator Hugh Thompson's refusal to delete a thread that contains factual information about an upcoming ExpressVu receiver. Even when confronted with questions about whether that thread's information is or is not accurate, Bell executives refused to discuss their objections and instead pulled all their advertising from the site. This would be akin to a large U.S. tech forum having all its IBM or Microsoft advertising pulled at once under mysterious circumstances.

Feed U.S. Government Contractor Injects Malicious Software into Critical Military Com (schneier.com)

From feed by bsfeed on Friday April 13, 2007 @01:52PM

This is just a frightening story. Basically, a contractor with a top secret security clearance was able to inject malicious code and sabotage computers used to track Navy submarines. Yeah, it was annoying to find and fix the problem, but...

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