Ripiket - Slashdot User

Submission + - Maine district gives iPad to every kindergartener (necn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17, 2011 @02:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: "The Auburn, ME school district spent more than $200,000 to outfit every one of its 250 kindergarteners with the tablets, along with sturdy cases to protect them.

School officials say they are the first public school district in the country to give every kindergartener an iPad. Mrs. McCarthy says the tools give her 19 students more immediate feedback and individual attention than she ever could."

Will this improve low test scores, or be another case where spending more money does not produce a better educational outcome?

Submission + - Should Cyber Vigilantes Be Cheered or Feared (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

snydeq

on Wednesday March 02, 2011 @04:07PM

snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Ted Samson raises several challenging questions in the wake of HBGary, first and foremost being, should the cyber vigilante acts of 'hacktivists' such as Anonymous be embraced? No doubt the alleged HBGary plot is troubling, Samson writes, 'but also troubling is how quickly some members of Congress seek to use illegally acquired information to further their own political agenda.' The underlying message seems to be that cyber vigilantes may have more leeway than those who engage in equally illegal, though decidedly nontechnical methods to expose their targets."

Comment Pure bullshit (Score 1) 482

by Ripiket on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @10:52PM (#35146308) Attached to: Drivers Blamed For Out of Control Toyotas - Again

I read this story earlier on PCWorld. The thing about the investigation that jolts me the most is the implicit trust given to the NASA engineers as if they are the 'experts' on source code. I have respect for them, but who decided that they are the ultimate authority? Also, the claim that they reviewed 280,000 lines of source code is a little bit ridiculous as well. Ask anyone who has done any enterprise coding on big and complex projects and they will scoff at this. There is no way to 'review' that much code and account for every possible circumstance.

I have a feeling that this is just PR material sponsored jointly by Toyota and the US government to spur consumer spending and sweep shit under the rug.

Should they open source the ECU? Just saying...

Penny Arcade On NPR 128

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 29, 2008 @09:14AM from the stuff-to-hear dept.

This morning on the NPR shuffle podcast, they included a segment about Penny Arcade. Seems only fair since NPR did Achewood a few months ago. If they just get XKCD on there, then the universe can rest.

Comment Kindle will never replace textbooks (Score 2, Interesting) 398

by Ripiket on Sunday November 16, 2008 @05:45PM (#25780055) Attached to: On the Economics of the Kindle

As an engineering student, I think this idea is impractical. When I'm preparing for a midterm, I'm usually burning through practice problems at the end of each chapter. The ability to glance at the last few pages of the book (physically) to check my answer, or to flip back a few pages to reread a concept is invaluable. I'm sure I would get annoyed rather quickly with the electronic equivalent.

Now on the other, for light reading. I can see how it's practical.

I would never replace my textbooks with it.

Second World of Warcraft Expansion Launched, Conquered 386

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 16, 2008 @01:46PM from the worldwide-caffeine-shortage dept.

The much-anticipated second expansion to World of Warcraft, entitled Wrath of the Lich King, launched on Thursday, introducing a new continent, raising the level cap to 80, and bringing a wealth of new items, spells, dungeons, and monsters to the popular MMO. Crowds gathered and lines formed outside stores around the world leading up to the release. Massively has put together a series of articles for players wishing to familiarize themselves with the expansion, and CVG has a piece discussing the basics as well. It didn't take long for the first person to reach level 80; a French player called "Nymh" reached the level cap on his Warlock only 27 hours after the expansion went live. Not to be outdone, a guild named "TwentyFifthNovember" managed to get at least 25 raiders to 80 and then cleared all of the current expansion raid content less than three days after the launch. Fortunately for them, the next three content patches are each expected to contain new, more difficult raids.

Comment Re:$14,000 too high? (Score 2, Informative) 575

by SlashChick on Saturday June 16, 2007 @02:08PM (#19533713) Attached to: Smart Car Coming To the US In Jan. 2008

The Smart "pure" model starts out at "under $12,000" according to their site. Also, to test your theory, I went to toyota.com and configured a Corolla. Once I added in an automatic transmission and power windows/door locks (which is a $500 option on the Corolla!), my MSRP was $16,325. I would imagine that the Corolla will still be a more popular car -- but it's certainly not cheaper.

Submission + - big ram laptops? (beyond 4gb)

Submitted by Fubari on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:48AM

Fubari writes: Anybody know when laptops over 4gb might be coming out? Some of the devtools I want to run are just obscene ram-pigs. On the desktop I'm using now (win2003), it sucks up 1.6gb just to boot. By the time I log in and start doing work, it is stretching 2gb.

Move that to vista, add a vm-ware session or two, and I'm worried I'll be pushing 4gb.

I'm torn between buying a 4gb-max laptop now, or some mini-desktop that can fit in a set of luggage wheels. A friend of mine suggested something like this, but my first choice would be something designed to be portable.

Toshiba Touts 51GB HD DVD 236

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 15, 2007 @06:30PM from the i-thought-you-said-it-was-a-good-size dept.

srizah writes to mention that Toshiba plans to launch a 51 GB HD DVD, with a 1 GB advantage over Sony's Blu-ray disc. From the article: Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively."

It's OK to keep AIMing 305

Posted by timothy on Monday July 31, 2006 @04:23PM from the dat's-what-u-think-lol dept.

fooby12 writes "According to the Univeristy of Toronto instant messaging does not hurt the grammar of the people who use it. From the article: "With 80% of Canadian teenagers using instant messaging and adopting its unique linguistic shorthand, many teachers and parents are concerned about the medium's potential to corrupt kids' grammar. But instant messaging doesn't deserve its bad reputation as a spoiler of syntax, suggests a new study from the University of Toronto.""

Microsoft Sued Over WGA 460

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday June 29, 2006 @09:47PM from the phoning-home dept.

Hope Thelps writes "The Seattle PI is reporting on a lawsuit being brought against Microsoft in response to their WGA spyware. Groklaw is also covering the story. Although there are a lot of similarities to Sony's rootkit, the actual harm done is less concrete. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out."

Dueling Network Neutrality Commentary on NPR 390

Posted by Roblimo on Friday June 23, 2006 @12:55PM from the cue-the-banjo-soundtrack dept.

cube farmer writes Wednesday National Public Radio featured a commentary by telecom representative Scott Cleland in opposition to Network Neutrality legislation. Thursday Craig Newmark, the Craig behind craigslist, countered that Network Neutrality is essential for consumers. Who made the stronger case?

The Rise and Fall of Corba 304

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday June 20, 2006 @01:28AM from the always-easier-in-hindsight dept.

ChelleChelle writes "Chief scientist of ZeroC, Michi Henning, has an interesting look at the story behind CORBA a once-promising distributed computing technology. Henning provides more than a brief history, in addition to several reasons pinpointing why CORBA fell short, focusing specifically on the OMG's technology adoption process itself. Most interesting is the final discussion on what we can learn from CORBA's decline, particularly in reference to web services."

Study Says Coffee Protects Against Cirrhosis 261

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday June 13, 2006 @06:31PM from the irish-coffee-all-around dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Good news for those who like both coffee and alcohol. In a recent study of more than 125,000 people an Oakland, CA medical team found that consuming coffee seems to help protect against alcoholic cirrhosis. The study was done based on people enrolled in a private northern California health care plan between 1978 and 1985." From the article: "People drinking one cup of coffee per day were, on average, 20% less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two or three cups the reduction was 40%, and for those drinking four or more cups of coffee a day the reduction in risk was 80%."

It's No Game At Apple 175

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 06, 2006 @12:27PM from the would-be-nice-if-it-were dept.

Mac Observer is running a piece by John Martellaro looking at why Apple isn't into gaming. It's just one man's opinion, but he makes some interesting arguments. From the article: "The reality is that Apple has struggled for a long time to avoid the perception that Macs are toys, and so their principle emphasis is on science, small business, education, and the creative arts. All very grownup stuff. If a market doesn't appear on Apple's main page tab, you can be sure it's a secondary market."

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