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Comment: Re:Better than you think (Score 2) 253

by matmota (#43366491) Attached to: Automated System Developed To Grade Student Essays

Is it the Algebra module for Moode? http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/question/type/algebra, https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB/component/10326, https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=98670

I worked nine years on such a system, called "ActiveMath" http://activemath.org/ then and now "Math-Bridge" http://math-bridge.org/, where I designed and implemented precisely the exercise system that does the answer evaluation: http://matracas.org/escritos/#exercise_system_report

There you can apply different tests to the student's answer, and one common use was to first check for the exact correct form, like "1/2", with a "syntactical" comparison of the expression tree parsed from the textual input. You would get the "Correct!" feedback for that one.
Then you could compare it "semantically" with the expected answer, which sent the expression to a Computer Algebra System for simplification in a specific context (set of simplification rules, depending on the task), so if you answered "2/4" you would get the feedback "That's correct, but not fully simplified. Please give the irreducible form.".
The exercise author can include any number of such classifier expressions to catch different forms of the correct answer, different half-done answers, and wrong answers, giving adequate feedback for each.
Feedback is not just text, but a complete "exercise subgraph" that could be entire sub-exercises intended to correct the misconception corresponding to the wrong answer given by the student.

Comment: Re:Originally designed for mobile phones??? (Score 1) 213

by matmota (#41823615) Attached to: AMD Licenses 64-bit Processor Design From ARM

There was an article on The Register some months ago on ARM development history (can't seem to find it now), and if it's to be believed they were investigating a series of mysterious crashes in the prototype ARM CPU, and in debugging they found the power on their dev kit wasn't actually connected to the chip - it was running entirely on leakage current and if there weren't enough 1's going into the chip to provide current, it wouldn't have enough power to run.

I think you mean this article, "ARM creators Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber Part Two: the accidental chip":
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/03/unsung_heroes_of_tech_arm_creators_sophie_wilson_and_steve_furber/

Comment: Re:Wow. I could write a book (Score 1) 568

by matmota (#39563813) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Why Aren't Schools Connected?

What do you think of that initiative in the US to have all textbooks be digital in five years?

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/30/apple_others_challenged_to_make_digital_textbooks_a_reality_in_five_years.html

I guess books could be loaded on the devices, not needing internet access for most functions, but still I'd like to know if you have some take on this.

Comment: Re:Unit 1 should have been offline since February (Score 1) 769

by matmota (#35477360) Attached to: Japan Battles Partial Nuclear Meltdown

I had no idea that Japan used two different power grid frequencies.

I searched for the reason behind it, and while I could not get any good results from Google, following the leads from the Wikipedia image you linked brought me to the page on "utility frequency" where it says how it happened:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#Standardization

This originates in the first purchases of generators from AEG in 1895, installed for Tokyo, and General Electric in 1896, installed in Osaka.

AEG being a German company had its generators produce at 50 Hz, while the USA General Electric delivered 60 Hz.

Comment: Cluster them by laptop usage. (Score 1) 804

by matmota (#34708548) Attached to: Should Colleges Ban Classroom Laptop Use?

What some professors do now at the University of Saarland (Germany) is to define three zones.
If you want to use the laptop for taking notes in class, you sit in the first rows, and if you want to do whatever else you sit in the last rows way back.
In the middle there is a DMZ without laptops at all.

The idea is to avoid getting distracted by flashy graphic stuff happening before you when you want to pay attention.

Comment: Re:Viva La Libre Office! (Score 1) 648

by matmota (#33735424) Attached to: OpenOffice.org Declares Independence From Oracle, Becomes LibreOffice

More or less: in Spanish, "libertad" means "freedom". The word for the adjective "free" is indeed "libre", like in French. In Italian "freedom" is "libertà", and "free" varies with grammatical gender and number: masculine singular is "libero", while femenine is "libera", and plural is "liberi". (Well, while I'm at it, in Spanish the plural form is "libres", and I guess in French it might be the same)

Comment: Re:Hooray for freedom (Score 1) 747

by matmota (#33589162) Attached to: HDCP Master Key Revealed

Your grocery store CCTV analogy to network packet inspection would be more accurate if the store demanded to put cameras in your home, not just in their premises.

The in-store measures you mention are analogous to inspecting the packets my computer interchanges with their servers and limiting the amount of concurrent users, which they can do without bugging my communications with other people.

(I realize that you say that "society in general" might not care about it anyway, not necessarily that you would agree with it.)

Comment: Re:Do they resolve to cn or are they seperate? (Score 1) 116

by matmota (#32793680) Attached to: ICANN Approves Internationalized Chinese Domain Names

Before the Hanzi Chinese CCTLDs were approved by ICANN, when the only way to use them was to install CNNIC's "Official Client-end CDN Software" in your computer, the registration of a .cn domain name with Chinese characters automatically gave you the version with the Hanzi Chinese CCTLD.

You can read it here in English: http://cnnic.cn/html/Dir/2005/10/11/3218.htm
It's in the answer to the third question.

I don't have any confirmation, but I don't see why they would change their policy.

Comment: Re:Epic Fail (Score 1) 128

by matmota (#32213902) Attached to: NIST Releases Updated Handbook of Math Functions

The first thing I did when reading these news was to visit their website and look for a license, until I found the copyright notice you mention. Epic fail indeed. I wanted to do some processing of this content. As it is, it's no more useful for me than functions.wolfram.com, which might or might not have less content but is nicer looking anyway.

As I saw OpenMath in your post I got curious about you and clicked on your homepage link, but it says "This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.".

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