Having RTFA yesterday I think this taught some valuable tips on what NOT to do. For instance:

1) Don't use the same handle for your malicious activities that you do for everything else. Sure it's 1337 and shit to have a recognizable handle, I mean who doesn't wanna be the next Zero Cool, amirite? But it might be a good idea to use a separate identity to commit crimes.

2) If you're going to have your malware freaking *text* you, pick up a few cheap burn phones for your gang to use.

Without this information in their scripts and on the server we'd still be sitting around not having a clue who was behind this.

They literally stand there and say "Welcome to Walmart" as people come in, and "Have a good day" as people leave. They also do merchandise checkins for returns (putting a sticker on it so the customer can take it to customer service) and check peoples' receipts as they leave if they set off the alarm. Granted, I've never actually seen them DO anything about the alarm going off, they just check to see if something on the receipt COULD have set off the alarm and then wave them through.

Well, not as long as their religion and ideals are the same as yours, anyways.

While I would agree in general with your assertion, I've read the first 10 books of The Wheel of Time, twice, and could NOT get through the first 200 pages of Fellowship. It's the difference in the writing style that gets me. Robert Jordan wrote with an almost Southern (U.S.) style of description, very laid back, not thick enough that you need waders to get through. Tolkein's was very stiff and British.

What drove me nuts was when he (Jordan) would describe a character and then bring the character back several books later and you were supposed to remember who it was, what they had done, and things they had said all based on a physical description. THAT was annoying. "Wait, this old, bald dude sitting on the barrel is apparently someone we are supposed to remember since there is so much focused on him... now, which book was he in last time?"

But let's think about this for a moment. The amount of Ibuprofen that a kid would need to ingest to warrant going to the hospital could not possibly have been hidden in a girl's bra and/or panties. If they were suspecting that she had enough to sell or distribute then logically a cavity search would have been more appropriate. Oh wait, she wasn't in a prison. So I guess they either A) Went way, way too far, or B) Didn't go far enough. Hmmm. Which is it?

I work for a school district just outside of Tucson and I can tell you that the rumor of someone with prescription drugs isn't even a mandatory report (i.e. call the police), let alone a physical search of a student. I agree that if there was sufficient cause, a police officer should have been informed along with the parents, but in a case like this the AP, nurse and secretary should all be fired with extreme prejudice. Anybody know where the hell the school resource officer was in this case? Oh, and WTF was a secretary involved for in the first place?

Clearly written by someone without a clue. The so-called "proprietary formats" you are referring to may have been true five years ago, but now any interactive whiteboard software can use lessons created with any other interactive whiteboard software. You may need a plugin or a reader, but it's still usable. There is also talk of creating a standard format to be used by ALL interactive whiteboard software, regardless of manufacturer. Talk in the gov't, not just the industry. And most can now import files from regular document formats as well, and saved as such when done. As far as being used as regular whiteboards when the computer/networks are down, some can. Mimeos (sp?) and Hitachi Starboards are usable as regular whiteboards (hell, the mimeos ARE regular whiteboards with a little bar that turns it into an interactive whiteboard sending the IR signals to the computer).

As far as the teaching theory behind *their* effective use, have you ever actually seen one in use? In the hands of a teacher that knows what they are doing, they can engage the students far more than any other teaching medium out there. Forget powerpoints, powerpoints are for business meetings. Forget overheads, those were last millennium. The power at your fingertips with an interactive board and a computer with access to the internet is virtually unlimited. I once watched a teacher give a presentation on North Korea and I completely forgot that I was there to fix her desktop, I was so engaged in the lesson. She used a ppt as the basis for the presentation but deviated regularly to the internet for media and pictures to augment the lesson, and soon was far beyond the simple powerpoint. I caught myself after a bit and looked around the room and saw that every single student was not only paying attention, but actually seemed to be learning. And if you've been in a high school in the last 10 years you'd find that to be a rare event. And, no, this was not an AP class.

Interactive whiteboards, when used properly (and its not hard to do), can do wonderful, powerful things. Even teach this ADHD computer geek something. I had to literally tear myself away to fix the computer I was working on. But I learned a little bit about the DMZ between N and S Korea that day.