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Submission + - Why children should NOT be taught to code (davidbuckingham.net)

Submitted by XxtraLarGe
XxtraLarGe writes: David Buckingham gives an argument that runs counter to the modern "Everyone should learn how to code" consensus that seems to be rampant in today's education circles. Buckingham writes"...programming was a means of teaching logical or ‘procedural’ thinking, especially in the context of mathematics. The argument depends upon assumptions about learning transfer – the idea that learning in one context will automatically transfer across to others. Yet there is no convincing evidence that learning computer programming enables children to develop more general problem-solving skills, let alone that it will ‘teach you how to think’, as its advocates claim."

As an adjunct who teaches computer programming courses, I'd tend to agree. What do you think? Is Buckingham off the mark?

Submission + - Wizards of the Coast ban sex offender from Magic, allow drug dealer (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Andy Smith
Andy Smith writes: Possibly the biggest controversy to ever hit the world of Magic: The Gathering is the banning of top-eight player Zach Jesse, a convicted sex offender who was 'outed' by another player. Adding some flavour to the mix is that another top Magic player, Patrick Chapin, is a convicted drug dealer. Rather than banning him, though, Wizards employed him as an intern and added him to the Magic Hall of Fame. This raises the issue of companies over-ruling laws that should, in theory, allow time-served criminals to step back in to society and rebuild their lives.

Submission + - There Is No Honeybee Crisis (theglobeandmail.com) 1

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: An article today claims that there is no longer any Honeybee crises, and that the deaths of the Honeybees previously was a one-off, or possibly non-cyclical occurance (caused by neonics or nature — the debate is still out). The data used is that from Stats Canada which claims "the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high [in Canada]." Globally, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization says that "worldwide bee populations have rebounded to a record high." However, many corporations and pro-environment groups have much to gain by creating a panic about Honeybee deaths, and as such continue to publish stories claiming the situation is dire.

Comment Re:Few Hackers Smart Enough to Take Advantage of i (Score 2) 157

I see this all the time too. PubKey authentication only, Fail2Ban and no root logins help to keep the log clutter to a minimum.

After finally weening myself off of using the root account locally I now just lock root completely. "sudo passwd -l root". Doesn't disable root so "sudo su -" still works but you can't login directly as root when the password is locked.

Although there is less traffic in the logs now I still get some entries before F2B kicks in and I find some of the non-root attempts very amusing... oracle, admin, ftp, PlcmSpIp, zhangyan

Some are obvious service user account attempts and some are just weird!

Submission + - The Lone Gunmen are not dead (comicbook.com)

Submitted by He Who Has No Name
He Who Has No Name writes: It may have been one of Slashdot's most memorable front-page gaffes, but apparently there's no harm and no foul — because the Lone Gunmen are set to ride again in the X-Files return. Comicbook.com reports, "The Lone Gunmen, the X-Files' trio of conspiracy theorists, are set to appear in Fox’s six-episode event. The three characters were played by Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, and Bruce Harwood. Haglund, who played the gunman “Ringo,” confirmed his and his compatriots’ return on Twitter today." We'll see how see how series creator Chris Carter handles their apparently greatly-exaggerated demise, and whether the explanation used in the print comics comes into play.

Submission + - Belgian government phishing test goes off-track

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: An IT security drill went off the tracks in Belgium, prompting a regional government office to apologize to European high-speed train operator Thalys for involving it without warning. Belgium’s Flemish regional government sent a mock phishing email to about 20,000 of its employees to see how they would react. Hilarity and awkwardness ensued, with some employees contacting Thalys directly to complain, and others contacting the cops...

Comment Re:Summary (Score 1) 250

by just_another_sean (#50161821) Attached to: On Being Pro-GPL

Hi, I was the original submitter. My summary was terse and simply contained a one line description of what I understood the article to be about and a quote of the last two sentences about pitting licenses against each other and the line that says "My name is Christopher Allan Webber. I fight for the users, and I'm standing up for the GPL.".

I agree that they took some editorial liberty and made it sound more controversial than I felt it was but I was still happy to see it posted as Christopher seemed to think it wouldn't get noticed and seemed peeved he wasn't able to respond to the talk at OSCON.

It was also the last talk of the night, and there was really no venue to respond to it ...
But it needs a response... even if the only venue I have at the moment is my blog. That'll do.

Submission + - New York Judge Rules Against Facebook In Search Warrant Case

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Last year, Facebook appealed a court decision requiring it to hand over data, including photos and private messages, relating to 381 user accounts. (Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, among other companies backed Facebook in the dispute). On Tuesday, Judge Dianne Renwick of the New York State Supreme Court ruled against Facebook, saying that Facebook has no legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of search warrants served on its users.

Submission + - 19 Year Old's Supercomputer Chip Startup Gets DARPA Contract, Funding (theplatform.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 19 year old Rex Computing founder,Thomas Sohmers, and his small team have been in the process of locking down the architecture to round out the final verified RTL by the end of this year. Rex Computing will be sampling its first chips in the middle of next year and will move to full production silicon in mid-2017 using TSMC’s 28 nanometer process. These efforts, aided by recent funding and a DARPA contract for development will push them toward full-production chips.

Submission + - Pro GPL (dustycloud.org)

Submitted by just_another_sean
just_another_sean writes: Christopher Allan Webber, recently returned from OSCON, shares his thoughts on the GPL and why he dislikes people pitting one type of software licenses against another.

There is no reason to pit permissive and copyleft licensing against each other. Anyone doing so is doing a great disservice to user freedom. My name is Christopher Allan Webber. I fight for the users, and I'm standing up for the GPL.

Comment Re:Popping the popcorn (Score 1) 262

by poetmatt (#49921791) Attached to: Julian Assange To Be Interviewed In London After All

There is no US analog, because the US has no legitimate interest here. We're only involved because our government is more than happy to roll over for the MPAA.

There is no "Sexual fraud" here, and there is historical evidence of both the US being willing to break international law as needed for MPAA interests alongside the evidence that the swedish prosecutor is refusing to follow standard swedish procedures which were openly supported by Assange.

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