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Submission + - CIS Dept. Teaching Inaccurate Info Knowingly

Submitted by Archness1
Archness1 writes: So my CSIS department at school requires all majors to take the intro to computer class to gain access to the middle and upper level classes in their majors. I'm sure many here have painful stories of having to retake the "What is a computer?" class. I have been watching the whole semester as they teach outdated or completely inaccurate information to the students because it is in the textbook. This textbook is a "custom" textbook created by the department. They pride themselves on it and how it helps the students learn. I'm sure that many learn valuable information and skills from this class. Lord knows there are enough PEBKACs. My question to you all is what would you do? I have been contributing small pieces of useful information here and there but the department seems to not care in the least. I am thinking of writing the dean at the end of semester about this.

Comment Re:new plugin for gmail (Score 3, Interesting) 126

by Parallax48 (#31531604) Attached to: 1st Trial Under California Spam Law Slams Spammer

It would be great to group all emails marked as spam by gmail into one folder, group it by spammer (or just main contents of message) and make those emails available to lawyers / forensics experts hoping to do some investigative research and bring a class action lawsuit.

If they simply picked the most "popular" spam message every week and got an award of $1000 per email when they located the spammer (keeping say 10%) it would be a nice profitable business.

Comment Re:Can they have it both ways? (Score 4, Insightful) 307

by Parallax48 (#31529526) Attached to: Google Slams Viacom For Secret YouTube Uploads

Further - they cannot afford to do this sort of investigation on every single one of the millions of videos on Youtube.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/20/every-minute-just-about-a-days-worth-of-video-is-uploaded-to-youtube/

I imagine that they have only had the resources to investigate a sample of the alleged videos well after the fact.
Youtube

Google Slams Viacom For Secret YouTube Uploads 307

Posted by timothy from the when-back-channels-collide dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Reuters: "Google, Inc. accused Viacom, Inc. of secretly uploading its videos to YouTube even as the media conglomerate publicly denounced the online video site for copyright infringement, according to court documents made public on Thursday." As "statements from the corporate counsel's office" go, this post on the YouTube blog is pretty hot reading.
Transportation

Japan To Standardize Electric Vehicle Chargers 240

Posted by kdawson from the twist-of-lemon-please dept.
JoshuaInNippon writes "Four major Japanese car manufacturers and one power company (Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Tokyo Electric) have teamed up with over 150 business and government entities in Japan to form a group to promote standardization in electric vehicle chargers and charging stations. The group hopes to leverage current Japanese electric vehicle technology and spread standardization throughout the country, as well as aim towards worldwide acceptance of their standardized charger model. In a very Japanese manner, the group has decided to call themselves 'CHAdeMO,' a play on the English words 'charge' and 'move,' as well as a Japanese pun that encourages tea-drinking while waiting the 15+ minutes it will take to charge one's vehicle battery."
Earth

US Sits On Supply of Rare, Tech-Crucial Minerals 324

Posted by kdawson from the third-of-a-chip-fab dept.
We've recently discussed China's position as the linchpin of the world's supply of rare earths, and their rumblings about restricting exports of of these materials crucial to the manufacture of everything from batteries to wind turbines. Now an anonymous reader sends this MSNBC piece on the status of the US's supply of rare earths. "China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives, and cell phones, but the US has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation. Those reserves include deposits of both 'light' and 'heavy' rare earths... 'There is already a shortage, because there are companies that already can't get enough material,' said Jim Hedrick, a former USGS rare earth specialist who recently retired. 'No one [in the US] wants to be first to jump into the market because of the cost of building a separation plant,' Hedrick explained. ... [S]uch a plant requires thousands of stainless steel tanks holding different chemical solutions to separate out all the individual rare earths. The upfront costs seem daunting. Hedrick estimated that opening just one mine and building a new separation plant might cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion and would require a minimum of eight years. [But the CEO of a rare earth supply company said] 'From what I see, security of supply is going to be more important than the prices.'"
Star Wars Prequels

Jobcentre Apologizes For Anti-Jedi Discrimination 615

Posted by CmdrTaco from the these-are-not-the-benefits-you-are-looking-for dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Chris Jarvis, 31, is described as a Star Wars fan and member of the International Church of Jediism. Said church's intergalactic hoodie uniform is at odds with the strict doctrine of the Department for Work and Pensions, which may require Jobcentre 'customers' to remove crash helmets or hoods for 'security reasons.' Following his ejection, Jarvis filled out a complaint form and within three days got a written apology from branch boss Wendy Flewers. She said: 'We are committed to provide a customer service which embraces diversity and respects customers' religion.'"
Biotech

Blind Soldier Uses Tongue To "See" 107

Posted by CmdrTaco from the in-the-future-we'll-all-be-robots dept.
Zen found this story about a blind soldier using a lollypop-sized tongue sensor to 'see.' The system actually enables him to walk and read unaided. The guy says, "It feels like licking a nine-volt battery or like popping candy. The camera sends signals down onto the lollypop and onto your tongue, you can then determine what they mean and transfer it to shapes."

Comment Re:How does he know it's unique? (Score 1) 544

by Parallax48 (#31490430) Attached to: Yale Law Student Wants Government To Have Everybody's DNA

The hash collision between the DNA fingerprint of two individuals could be detected as data is added to the system. Those two individuals could then have a second fingerprint calculated to resolve the collision or could simply have a note attached to their file.

Obviously this only works if they achieve the 100% coverage that they are aiming for.

Also, I am totally against this scheme.

Comment Re:Of course being in China, (Score 1) 315

by Parallax48 (#30464276) Attached to: Microsoft Steals Code From Microblogging Startup

If the US starts printing a lot of money, the value of the Greenback will plummet. Investors in the US dollar will sell up and buy Gold, Euros or similar. This will cause the value of the US dollar fall even further. Suddenly everything in the US gets expensive to buy with the now worthless dollar and you have got nowhere.

In some ways the US is extremely exposed because many foreign players have a lot of US dollars that they will sell at the first sign of trouble (some are already doing so).

Comment Re:power consumption (Score 1) 184

by Parallax48 (#28431709) Attached to: Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging

Usually with these devices, there are losses in the primary coil due to the current rushing around, but much less than you might expect - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductor#Stored_energy.

As for the load on the primary increasing as secondary coils are added, see the First law of thermodynamics.
"
The increase in the internal energy of a system is equal to the amount of energy added by heating the system, minus the amount lost as a result of the work done by the system on its surroundings.
"

Secondary coils drawing power are causing the primary coil to do work.

The way this stuff works in practice is that the primary coil makes a field that adds power...to the primary coil. This feedback loop reduces the power consumption of the primary coil. Secondary coils make this field weaker (by drawing power from it). The primary coil then has a lower positive feedback from its own field, so draws more power. This is the principle that makes electric motors draw more power when stopped / under load.

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