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Comment RSS (Score 1) 2254

THANK GOD I moved to RSS for keeping up with /., the new UI blows, I can't find an easy way to expand all the stories on the index. Who the thought it would be intelligent to collapse certain stories so you have to click on the titles and reload the page to read themt? I mean, if it was really long, then cut it off and put in a "read more after the 'jump'" link. The reason I stayed with the old design was to read all the stories and decide if I wanted to read comments. That and I could just scroll down the index without having to do a crap load of clicking.

Well, Google Reader to the rescue. No souped up CPU usage and crap JavaScript coding to slow my browser down.

Now, if someone can explain how to expand all the stories on the index page so that I can get that fixed, that'd be great. But until then, RSS only for me.

Comment Re:Beat me to it. (Score 3, Insightful) 467

Right on. Most CS students are unaware that they have signed on for math, set theory, relational algebra, etc. They mostly think that they're going to learn how to program games and become rich.

There's also the other subset of CS students who are forced to take beginning CS classes due to their major. Bioinformatics for instance. They really don't have the head to figure this stuff out.

I would say that 95% of the CS students I have taught in lab or tutoring were in above their heads and 60% either switched majors or failed. Some of them failed the CS intro to programming 3-4 times before they figured it out.

You may not realize it, but the 90/9/1 principle applies to CS as well. 90% won't get it, 9% will get through it, and 1% will go on to Masters or PhD.

So, the best way to teach CS students about Linux is to wrap it up in a series of lectures that include different OSes such as Windows, Linux, Mac OS, DOS, etc. That's probably the only way to get them interested (most will gravitate towards the pretty ones).

Biotech

Deleting Certain Gene Makes Mice Smarter 259

An anonymous reader writes "Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found. Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects they'd explored and learn to navigate mazes better than regular mice, suggesting that RGS14's presence limits some forms of learning and memory."

Comment Attention to detail is key... (Score 1) 684

I was a TA for my university's CS department for a few years. There was this one semester where two students decided they were going to cheat off each other in Intro to Programming.

They might have pulled it off since they were in two different classes and had two different TAs doing the grading.

Except one of the berks decided he wasn't going to change anything in the copied project, not even in the file headers where the other student's name sat staring at me...

yeesh

Censorship

UK's National Portrait Gallery Threatens To Sue Wikipedia User 526

jpatokal writes "The National Portrait Gallery of London is threatening litigation against a Wikipedia user over his uploading of pictures of some 3,000 paintings, all 19th century or earlier and firmly in the public domain. Their claim? The photos are a 'product of a painstaking exercise on the part of the photographer,' and that downloading them off the NPG site is an 'unlawful circumvention of technical measures.' And remember, the NPG's taxpayer-funded mission is to 'promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media [...] to as wide a range of visitors as possible!'"
Cellphones

iPhone Users Angry Over AT&T Upgrade Policy 789

All is not sweetness and light in the wake of the Apple WWDC kickoff announcements, especially concerning the evolution of the iPhone. Reader Hugh Pickens writes: "AT&T will offer the new iPhone 3G S when it debuts later this month at a cost of $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, but only to new customers and those who qualify for the discounted price. AT&T subscribers with an iPhone 3G who are not eligible for an upgrade — those not near the end of their two-year contracts — will have to pay $200 more — $399 for the 16GB model and $499 for the 32GB model. 'This is ridiculous and slap in the face to long-time loyal iPhone customers like me who switched from T-Mobile and the only reason was the iPhone,' writes one unhappy iPhone customer. 'We have to mount a vigorous campaign to change this policy. Call your local AT&T and ask for the manager and complain. Send e-mails and post in forums everywhere.' The issue is spurring heavy debate on support discussion forums, with some customers supporting AT&T. 'The option you have is to honor the contract you freely committed yourself to,' says one forum member. 'If you want to upgrade early then you will have to pay full price with no subsidy discount. You can't blame anyone but yourself for your predicament.'"

Comment Re:DiVx brought this up years ago. (Score 2, Interesting) 275

The difference between this and with Circuit City's Divx fiasco is physical media. Those people who were sucked in by CC's idiocy at least have the hardware that can be hacked or made to work in some way. If I can recall correctly, your player was able to play normal DVD as well as gold and platinum Divx discs.

With digital media and DRM you have to rely on finding a software solution. But there is no physical media.

Security

Hackers Breached US Army Servers 209

An anonymous reader writes "A Turkish hacking ring has broken into 2 sensitive US Army servers, according to a new investigation uncovered by InformationWeek. The hackers, who go by the name 'm0sted' and are based in Turkey, penetrated servers at the Army's McAlester Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma in January. Users attempting to access the site were redirected to a page featuring a climate-change protest. In Sept, 2007, the hackers breached Army Corps of Engineers servers. That hack sent users to a page containing anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric. The hackers used simple SQL Server injection techniques to gain access. That's troubling because it shows a major Army security lapse, and also the ability to bypass supposedly sophisticated Defense Department tools and procedures designed to prevent such breaches."
Graphics

Five Nvidia CUDA-Enabled Apps Tested 134

crazipper writes "Much fuss has been made about Nvidia's CUDA technology and its general-purpose computing potential. Now, in 2009, a steady stream of launches from third-party software developers sees CUDA gaining traction at the mainstream. Tom's Hardware takes five of the most interesting desktop apps with CUDA support and compares the speed-up yielded by a pair of mainstream GPUs versus a CPU-only. Not surprisingly, depending on the workload you throw at your GPU, you'll see results ranging from average to downright impressive."

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