Jelizabug - Slashdot User

Submission + - Prof Questions Sink-or-Swim Intro to CS Courses 2

Submitted by theodp on Saturday May 21, 2011 @05:26PM

theodp writes: 'After having taught introductory programming (CS 1) for the past six years,' writes GVSU's Zack Kurmas, 'and having watched many students struggle through this course and the subsequent course (CS 2), I have come to the conclusion that it is absurd to expect students who don't have any prior programming experience to be well prepared to study Computer Science after a single 15-week course (i.e., CS 1). I believe that expecting a student to learn to program well enough to study Computer Science in a single 15-week course is almost as absurd as expecting a student with no instrumental musical experience to be ready to join the university orchestra after 15 weeks.' Kurmas' frustrations are not unlike those voiced by Physics prof Dr. Yung Tae Kim, who argues the up-or-out, one-size-fits-all rigid pace approach to learning set by teachers and administrators is as absurd as telling a toddler, 'You have ten weeks to walk, and if you can't, you get an F and you're not allowed to try to walk anymore.'

Submission + - Best. Geek. Wedding. Invitation. Ever. (createdigitalmusic.com)

Submitted by

kfogel

on Thursday April 14, 2011 @03:45PM

kfogel writes: "Karen Sandler (a lawyer at the Software Freedom Law Center) and Mike Tarantino (a professional musician) are getting married in May. They've sent out the coolest wedding invitation ever: a beautifully packaged flexidisc record where the invitation itself is the record player. That's right: It's paper! And it plays a record! The song itself was written by Mike, is performed by Karen and Mike together, and FTW is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The person who designed the invitations — a friend of the couple's — has blogged about it. It's also made Make Magazine, Mashable, and Geek.com."

Submission + - France Outlaws Hashed Passwords (bbc.co.uk) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06, 2011 @01:46PM

An anonymous reader writes: Storing passwords as hashes instead of plain text is now illegal in France, according to a draconian new data retention law. According to the BBC, "[t]he law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers. This includes users' full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded." If the law survives a pending legal challenge by Google, Ebay and others, it may well keep some major services out of the country entirely.

Submission + - Samsung plants keyloggers on laptops it makes (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

Saint Aardvark

on Wednesday March 30, 2011 @01:34PM

Saint Aardvark writes: "Mohammed Hassan writes in Network World that he found a keylogger program installed on his brand-new laptop — not once, but twice. After initial denials, Samsung has admitted they did this, saying it was to "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used." As Hassan says, "In other words, Samsung wanted to gather usage data without obtaining consent from laptop owners." Three PR officers from Samsung have so far refused comment."

Submission + - U.S. military commissions sock puppet program (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by chrb on Thursday March 17, 2011 @01:39PM

chrb writes: The Guardian and The Telegraph are reporting that U.S. based Ntrepid Corporation has been awarded a $2.76 million contract to develop software aimed at manipulating social media. The project aims to enable military personnel to control multiple "sock puppets" located at a range of geographically diverse IP addresses, with the aim of spreading pro-U.S. propaganda. The project will not target English speaking web sites (yet) but will be limited to foreign languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto. The project will be funded as part of the $200 million Operation Earnest Voice (OEV) program run by U.S. Central Command.

Submission + - Anonymous leaks Internal Bank of America Emails (nytimes.com)

Submitted by euphemistic on Monday March 14, 2011 @06:04AM

euphemistic writes: Reportedly the information Wikileaks was set to disclose about a particular bank back from December, "a massive batch of internal Bank of America emails" has been leaked. While the site hosting it seems to currently be down due to the obviously gigantic amount of traffic interested in this leak, the leak is said to pertain to the Bank of America's improper foreclosure on homes. "The report came from a former employee with Balboa Insurance — a risk management and insurance firm. The employee reportedly corresponded with Bank of America employees and was told to falsify loan numbers on documents to force Bank of America to foreclose on homeowners."

Submission + - Westboro Baptists Stage Fake Anonymous Threat (siliconrepublic.com) 1

Submitted by

lenwood

on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:25PM

lenwood writes: "Last week there was a story on /. reporting that the hacking group Anonymous was staging an attack against WBC (http://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/02/18/2336216/Anonymous-Goes-After-GodHatesFagscom#comments). Turns out that this was a publicity stunt staged by WBC themselves. Anonymous issued a press release disassociating themselves from this."

Submission + - Tolkien Estate Says No Historical Fiction For JRR (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 21, 2011 @03:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: Apparently the estate of JRR Tolkien isn't just over protective of his works, but of himself as well. It's in a bit of a legal spat with the author of a fictional work that includes JRR Tolkien as a character, and in part discusses his works. The estate is claiming that this infringes on Tokien's publicity rights, but if that's the case, would it make almost all "historical fiction" illegal?

Submission + - Shocking Images Show Gulf Bottom Still Dead (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by intellitech on Monday February 21, 2011 @03:09PM

intellitech writes: The Daily Mail is reporting that much of the oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. At a science conference in Washington today, Joye, a professor at the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't. New images from her submarine dives reveal a startling absence of life on the bottom of the Gulf.

Submission + - Paul Haggis Vs The Church of Scientology (newyorker.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Monday February 14, 2011 @02:27PM

eldavojohn writes: It's a lengthy read but Lawrence Wright at The New Yorker has released a 26 page expose on Scientology. In a world where such innocuous sounding words as "squirrels," "security-checked," "disconnection," "contra-survival," "suppressive persons," "clear" and "open season" carry very serious and heavy baggage, director Paul Haggis has exited after thirty four years of membership and massive funding. And now he speaks out at length of Scientology's controversies. From how celebrities were recruited with a 10% commission by a worker at Beverly Hills Playhouse to the current investigation by the FBI of physical abuse and human trafficking, Wright draws surrounding histories and accounts of the Church including Anonymous' crusade. The length of this article reflects the unusually large number (12 cases of physical abuse) of individuals cited as testimony of Scientology Leader David Miscavige's inurement and physical violence. The case remains open as the FBI collects data and testimony — especially in relation to Sea Org. Most disturbing are the disappearances of people that The New Yorker piece enumerates. The piece concludes with the author's interaction with the Church that results in several conflicting foundational statements from its stance on homosexuality (Haggis' original reason for publicly leaving it) to almost all details of L. Ron Hubbard's naval service and discharge. The article ends with Haggis' quote: 'I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don't know why I couldn't.' You can find summaries of the lengthy article and its suspected results along with corresponding reports listing politicians involved with the Church. Copyrighted work, leaked government documents, PS3 encryption keys and everything else has been posted on Slashdot but only the Church of Scientology has forced comments out of existence.

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