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Comment My suggestions (Score 1) 452

by b1gb1rd (#25345249) Attached to: How Should I Teach a Basic Programming Course?
Don't listen to those Apple fan-boys and their precious frameworks. PHP is very suitable for students, quite similar to and compatible with the teaching transition to C++. I am currently enrolled in an Introduction to C++ Programming class. I'm acing the class. Most of the students have no idea what they are copy and pasting and ask many stupid questions on our discussion forum. I think the biggest hurdle you're going to face is keeping the students interest at this level. They don't care to understand the statements if it doesn't connect to their cell phone or MySpace. There isn't really a good way around that. My instructor sets minimal expectations for lab assignments and keeps the "rewards" coming in the form of 1000-point grade scale. I think his online discussion forum is probably his best asset in assisting the students. He gives great lectures, but everyone just does the labs and goofs those off.
Security

Two Black Hat Talks On Apple Security Cancelled 125

Posted by kdawson from the can't-say-that dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Two separate Apple security talks have been nixed at the last minute from next week's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. The Washington Post's Security Fix blog reports that Apple researcher Charles Edge was to present on flaws in Apple's FileVault encryption plan, but asked Black Hat to cancel the talk, citing confidentiality agreements with Apple. Then on Friday, Apple pulled its security engineering team out of a planned public discussion on the company's security practices — which would have been a first for Apple. 'Marketing got wind of it, and nobody at Apple is ever allowed to speak publicly about anything without marketing approval,' a Black Hat spokesman said."
United States

Dell Tries To Trademark "Cloud Computing" 130

Posted by kdawson from the head-in-the-clouds-or-perhaps-some-other-orifice dept.
Ian Lamont writes "The Industry Standard reports that Dell is trying to trademark the term cloud computing . The phrase entered the tech lexicon years ago, but Dell's application (serial number 77139082) was made in early 2007 to the US Patent and Trademark Office, apparently in connection with data center products and services that it was promoting around that time. A quick search of Google News indicates that Dell itself did not use the term in press releases or discussions with indexed English-language media sources from 1996 to 2006. Dell is not the first company to attempt to trademark this term: The Standard notes that NetCentric, a company that provided 'carrier-class Internet fax technology,' also gave it a shot in the late 1990s, but was rejected."
Privacy

"Mobile Plate Hunter" Cameras Raise Questions 580

Posted by kdawson from the mission-creep-meets-big-brother dept.
The Washington Post has a story on "Minority Report"-style license-plate scanners that mount on police cars. They are the size of softballs, cost $25K, and can scan and run thousands of plates a day through the local Motor Vehicle Administration database. The easy mission creep these devices encourage is summarized in the article: "Initially purchased to find stolen cars, a handful of so-called tag readers are in use across the Washington region to catch not just car thieves, but also drivers who neglected or failed their emissions inspections or let their insurance policies lapse. The District and Prince George's County use them to enforce parking rules... 'I just think it makes us a lot more effective and a lot more efficient in how our time is being used,' [a senior detective] said." The article doesn't mention what happens to the data on legal plates. Suppose the DHS decides it wants a permanent archive of who was where, when?
Music

Brian May, Rock Legend, Publishes His Thesis 198

Posted by kdawson from the eyes-just-like-a-laser-beam dept.
A year ago we took note when Brian May, guitarist for Queen for the last 30 years, submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. in astrophysics. The news now is that the thesis has been published. You, too, can read all about the population of tiny asteroids and space dust that cause the Zodiacal light. The completed thesis appears as the book "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008), available at Amazon for $71.96. May was awarded his Ph.D. last summer and accepted a position as chancellor at a British university in November.
Portables (Apple)

iPhone Tethering App Released, Killed In 2 Hours 434

Posted by CmdrTaco from the and-they-wonder-why-we-jailbreak dept.
tjhayes writes "The iPhone App Store released an application called NetShare that allowed the iPhone to tether a laptop to the internet. It was priced at a $10 one-time fee. After being available for approximately 2 hours, the application has disappeared from the apps store. What exactly are AT&T/Apple trying to accomplish here?" They are trying to prove what is wrong with DRM, and demonstrate why hackers want to jailbreak the iPhone.
Government

Senate Passes Bill Targeting College Piracy 157

Posted by Soulskill from the since-colleges-don't-have-anything-better-to-do dept.
An anonymous reader brings news that the College Opportunity and Affordability Act has passed in the US Senate and now awaits only the President's signature before becoming law. Hidden away in the lengthy bill are sections which tie college funding to "offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity." The EFF issued a statement expressing concern over the bill earlier this year, shortly before the House of Representatives approved it. We discussed the introduction of the bill last November. The Senate vote was 83-8, with 9 not voting. The full text of the bill is available. The relevant section is 494, at the end of the general provisions.

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