mark0 writes "Getting a fair-price refund from Amazon or Asus after declining the Windows XP EULA appears to be a thing of the past. In contrast to reports from the US and the UK from earlier in the year, Amazon simply refuses and provides information to contact Microsoft. Asus is offering US$6. Despite being confronted with publicly available information about the real OEM price of Windows XP Home Edition being $US25-US$30, Asus replies, 'The refund price for the decline of the EULA is correct in it being US$6. This price unfortunately is not negotiable. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please be assured that it is not ASUS intentions to steer you away in any which way.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Registration is now open for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop: "Developing a Strategic Technology Plan."

DATE: January 22, 2010
TIME: 9:00- 3:00 (Coffee and Registration start at 8:00)
PRICE: NERCOMP Members: $130, Non-Members: $255
LOCATION: Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center, Southbridge, MA

DESCRIPTION: Explore the strategies and tactics needed to develop an effective technology plan that supplements and supports your institution’s strategic plan. Avoid several common errors and focus instead on the desired end result: a technology plan capable of addressing the academic and administrative demands that will challenge your institution in the next 3 to 5 years.

• Utilize best practices to understand the key elements of an effective IT Strategic plan.
• Understand where technology plans go wrong
• Learn how to get “buy in” from key constituents (faculty, students, staff)
• Review and discuss actual examples of IT plans
• Develop strategies to get executive approval of your final plan. 

For a full schedule and registration information, please go to: http://www.nercomp.org/events/event_single.aspx?id=5923

Registration is now open for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop "Angel User Group."

DATE: January 22, 2010
TIME: 9:00am-3:00pm (Coffee and Registration start at 8:00am)
PRICE: NERCOMP Members: $126, Non-Members: $251
LOCATION: Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center, Southbridge, MA.
DESCRIPTION: The ANGEL User Group SIG gives users of the ANGEL Learning System a forum for networking and sharing ideas. Outcomes for the SIG include:

• Network with ANGEL users at other institutions
• Hear the latest developments related to the Blackboard/ANGEL merger from Blackboard/ANGEL representatives
• Learn about how other institutions are customizing ANGEL
• Hear how one ANGEL institution is handling faculty development
• Learn how one institution is using ANGEL tools for online exams

For a full schedule and registration information, please go to:
http://www.nercomp.org/events/event_single.aspx?id=5887

Vigile writes "The new Colossus SSD comes in capacities starting at 256GB and going all the way up to 1TB in a standard 3.5-in hard drive form factor. This larger size was required because the drive actually integrates not one but four Indilinx SSD controllers and three total RAID controllers in a nested RAID-0 array. All of this goodness combines to create an incredibly fast drive that beats most other options in terms of write speeds and is competitive in read tests as well. Using some custom 'garbage collection' firmware, the drive works around the fact that TRIM commands aren't supported in RAID configurations to maintain high speeds through the life of the SSD."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HASTAC Scholars are at it again! Check it out and join the conversation.

http://www.hastac.org/scholars

Are current grading and assessment techniques keeping up with how students learn and what they need to know? How can digital media be used to develop new grading and assessment strategies?

The latest HASTAC Scholars Forum is up and running, and this time we're exploring the possibilities of new evaluation and assessment strategies in light of what digital media can now offer, the kinds of skills and knowledge students need, and the ever-changing landscape of education and academia. What's your strategy for grading today?

Grading 2.0: Evaluation in the Digital Age recognizes that, as the educational and cultural climate changes in response to new technologies for creating and sharing information, educators have begun to ask if the current framework for assessing student work, standardized testing, and grading is incompatible with the way these students should be learning and the skills they need to acquire to compete in the information age. Many would agree that its time to expand the current notion of assessment and create new metrics, rubrics, and methods of measurement in order to ensure that all elements of the learning process are keeping pace with the ever-evolving world in which we live. This new framework for assessment might build off of currently accepted strategies and pedagogy, but also take into account new ideas about what learners should know to be successful and confident in all of their endeavors.

How do we better align grading and assessment techniques so that they are more in line with how students learn today? The traditional 'teach to the test' evaluation paradigm continues to produce a classroom experience that focuses on specifically 'testable' results. That testing paradigm is also disconnected from all of the creative, production, remixing, and networking skills that students are developing through their everyday engagement with new media. Another issue is that the traditional assessment system tends to measure students individually and via multiple-choice and written-response questions. As teaching practices evolve to include more team-based projects that involve the use of smart tools to solve problems or communicate ideas, it will become increasingly difficult to assess students in the traditional ways. Furthermore, current widely-used tests are not designed to gauge how well students apply their knowledge to new situations.

In addition, how can digital media be used to develop new grading and assessment strategies? There is clearly a great amount of interest in developing new technologies, and new forms of pedagogy, to better reflect grading, peer interaction and learning in the digital age -- we look forward to hearing your thoughts!

We will be covering a wide range of topics, including:

Technology & Assessment
Assignments & Pedagogy
Can everything be graded?
Assessing the assessment strategies
Current strategies and experiments

Please help us think through these questions, experiments and strategies by logging on now: http://www.hastac.org/scholars. Please note that you must be a member of the HASTAC community to participate. Everyone is welcome to join - simply register here (http://www.hastac.org/user/register).

Registration is now open for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop, "Getting on the Assessment Bandwagon: Interpreting Results from National Surveys."

DATE: January 22, 2010
TIME: 9:00- 3:00 (Coffee and Registration start at 8:00)
PRICE: NERCOMP Members: $128, Non-Members: $253
LOCATION: Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center, Southbridge, MA.

DESCRIPTION: When asked to assess the effectiveness of their services, many information professionals develop home-grown assessment methods. Instead, administering existing, well-run national surveys on your campus often delivers the assessment bang you need in less time and at lower cost. This interactive SIG will help you differentiate between several major national surveys and become skilled at interpreting their results.

By deeply engaging with several national surveys, participants in this SIG will:
- Become familiar with the goals and methods of these surveys
- Learn to effectively interpret survey results through hands-on practice
- Compare the results of multiple surveys to more deeply assess your organization’s services

Recommended articles distributed prior to the SIG will explore ideas raised by SIG speakers and participants.

For a full schedule and registration information, please go to http://www.nercomp.org/events/event_single.aspx?id=5890

Registration is now open for NERCOMP's upcoming workshop:
"Geo-everything: Map Mash-ups, Geotagging, and Interactive Learning"

DATE: January 22, 2010
TIME: 9:00- 3:00 (Coffee and Registration at 8:00)
PRICE: NERCOMP Members: $129, Non-Members: $254
LOCATION: Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center, Southbridge, MA

DESCRIPTION: Are you looking for ideas to incorporate interactivity into the classroom, a website, or your own research? Join us for this hands-on session as we explore how to create map mash-ups, geotag (adding coordinates to photos and maps), develop interactive maps, and investigate mobile mapping applications which engage your users and foster critical thinking. Bring your laptop and join us as you develop your own mash-ups from basic to impressive interactive maps all within one day.

This session is designed to appeal to participants that are interested in learning more about incorporating Geo-everything concepts within the classroom, research, and work environment. Whether you are new to these concepts or experienced, this session will provide hands-on examples which can be adapted for your own applications.

For a full schedule and registration information, please go to:
http://www.nercomp.org/events/event_single.aspx?id=5889

xchg writes "When Google first announced that the company would be pursuing development of two distinct operating systems, many questioned Google's motivation. 'Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, have downplayed the conflict ever since, asking for time to let the projects evolve. And a few days after Chrome OS was revealed, Android chief Andy Rubin said device makers "need different technology for different products," explaining that Android has a lot of unique code that makes it suitable for use in a phone and Chrome has unique benefits of its own. But Brin, speaking informally to reporters after the company's Chrome OS presentation on Thursday, said "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time," citing among other things the common Linux and Webkit code base present in both projects.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

alphadogg writes "Attack code has been identified that could be used to break into a PC running older versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. The code was posted Friday to the Bugtraq mailing list by an unidentified hacker. According to security vendor Symantec, the code does not always work properly, but it could be used to install unauthorized software on a victim's computer."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

jamie writes with this snippet from the UK's Independent: "The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. ... [The study] found that there has been a 29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008, the last year for which figures are available. On average, the researchers found, there was an annual increase in emissions of just over 3 per cent during the period, compared with an annual increase of 1 per cent between 1990 and 2000. Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000 and resulted from the boom in the Chinese economy. The researchers predict a small decrease this year due to the recession, but further increases from 2010."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

No. 24601 writes "A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave, due to a diagnosis of depression, lost her health benefits after her insurance provider found photos of her on Facebook smiling and looking cheerful at parties and out on the beach. Besides all the obvious questions, how did the insurance company access her locked Facebook profile?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We've mentioned the tantalizing possibilities of augmented reality here several times, including Microsoft's stab (using scene recognition) at an information overlay for cell phones, and some display technologies that could make a Terminator-style information overlay on the real world possible without even looking down at a screen, including both glasses with microdisplays and contact lenses. An anonymous reader points to this two-part review of several cell phone apps, in which the writer has "tested several mobile augmented reality browsers and their ability to find places to eat and function as a tourist guide by identifying tourist attractions in London," writing, "This is the first review I have seen where all the browsers have been compared together; what's interesting is all the browsers use different data sources, and so either miss popular locations or give the wrong location."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hugh Pickens writes "Increasingly, the military is deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, as eyes in the sky to scan the ground for targets and threats, especially for missions that are too dangerous for manned aircraft. Now Live Science reports that a new robotic spy plane called 'Ion Tiger' will harness alternative energy to make it more covert and longer lasting than battery-powered or engine-powered UAVs. A 550-watt, 0.75 horsepower hydrogen fuel cell will power the Ion Tiger with four times the efficiency of a comparable internal combustion engine and seven times the energy of the equivalent weight of batteries. When Ion Tiger took flight in October, it exceeded any demonstration of electrically powered flight so far, flying 23 hours and 17 minutes. 'And it carried a 5 lbs. payload to boot — enough to carry, say, a day-and-night camera,' says researcher Karen Swider-Lyons, head of the alternative energy section at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. 'No one has come close to flying 24 hours with a significant payload before.' Another big advantage is the Ion Tiger's reduced noise, heat and emissions. 'Think about lawnmowers or chainsaws — they're really loud,' says Swider-Lyons. 'It's hard to spy on people when they know you're there, so you had to fly them at high altitudes to keep them from being heard.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After the report last week that Brazil's e-voting machines had withstood the scrutiny of a team of invited hackers, reader ateu writes with news that a hacker has shown that the Linux-based voting machines aren't perfectly safe; he was able to eavesdrop on them (translated from Portuguese) by means of Van Eck phreaking.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "recombu.com has an article examining ten things mobile phones will make obsolete, including phone booths, wristwatches and handheld games consoles. It's interesting to see how many devices have been absorbed into mobile phone technology, and it raises the question: are we better off having everything in one device? The author poignantly concludes that while it's great to have so much power at our fingertips, it does mean that some of us will rely on mobile phones for even basic mental tasks, which is great until the battery runs out." See also Isaac Asimov's The Feeling of Power.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "I was put in charge of an aging IT infrastructure that needs a serious overhaul. Current services include the usual suspects, i.e. www, ftp, email, dns, firewall, DHCP — and some more. In most cases, each service runs on its own hardware, some of them for the last seven years straight. The machines still can (mostly) handle the load that ~150 people in multiple offices put on them, but there's hardly any fallback if any of the services die or an office is disconnected. Now, as the hardware must be replaced, I'd like to buff things up a bit: distributed instances of services (at least one instance per office) and a fallback/load-balancing scheme (either to an instance in another office or a duplicated one within the same). Services running on virtualized servers hosted by a single reasonably-sized machine per office (plus one for testing and a spare) seem to recommend themselves. What's you experience with virtualization of services and implementing fallback/load-balancing schemes? What's Best Practice for an update like this? I'm interested in your success stories and anecdotes, but also pointers and (book) references. Thanks!"

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CWmike writes "Microsoft is, predictably, not all that impressed by Google Inc.'s demonstration of its upcoming Chrome OS. 'From what was shared, it appears to be in the early stages of development,' a Microsoft spokeswoman said. 'From our perspective, however, our customers are already voicing their approval of the way Windows 7 just works — across the Web and on the desktop, and on all sizes and types of PCs — purchasing twice as many units of Windows 7 as we've sold of any other operating system over a comparable time.' But neither were potential rivals who make Linux and instant-on operating systems. Chrome OS claimed 7-second boot times and the ability to run Web apps within another 3 seconds, which failed to impress Woody Hobbs, president and CEO of Phoenix Technologies, a long-time BIOS software maker that has re-invented itself with a Linux-based instant-on OS called HyperSpace. 'Instant-on is about being able to access your Internet applications in one second. Seven seconds is too long,' Hobbs said. 'There is no such thing as "cold boot" for today's mobile PCs such as netbooks and smartbooks. You should be able to use your netbook like you use your smartphone — a press of a button and you are "on."' Mark Lee, CEO of DeviceVM Inc., said Google's favoritism towards its own browser and Web apps could rub some users the wrong way, especially those outside of the US. 'In China, users prefer Baidu, not Google,' Lee said. DeviceVM's Splashtop platform boots into Firefox within seconds and uses Yahoo or Baidu as default search engines instead of Google."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week has been filled with games that are worth your time and money. Classically trained gamers will enjoy the newly multiplayer-enhanced New Super Mario Bros. Wii, while Left 4 Dead 2 is a great entry into the co-operative gaming space, and the God of War Collection is a great look back at games that feel current and fresh.

We also talk with the CEO of Square Enix about bridging the gaps between the East and West, and give up some thoughts about why DJ Hero didn't find a large audience in the United States. Welcome to the week in gaming.

An anonymous reader writes "After the ikee worm that displayed a picture of Rick Astley on jailbroken iPhones, the first malicious iPhone worm (Google translation; original, in Dutch) has now been discovered in the wild. Internet provider XS4ALL in the Netherlands encountered several of such devices (link in Dutch) on the wireless networks of their customers and put out a warning. After obtaining a copy of the malware it was discovered that the jailbroken phones, which are exploited through openSSH with a default password, scan IP ranges of mobile internet providers for other vulnerable iPhones, phone home to a C&C botnet server, are able to update themselves with additional malware and have the ability to dump the SMS database as well. Owners of a jailbroken iPhone with a default root password are advised to flash to the latest Apple firmware in order to ensure no malware is present."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.