For my Ethical Hackers. This is one of
those hacks where we want to know exactly what happened and how to
avoid it in the future. Some tips: Cut the Internet connection.
Remove the “open all doors” feature. Log all commands entered.
Prison
Computer ‘Glitch’ Blamed for Opening Cell Doors in
Maximum-Security Wing
Florida prison officials say a computer
“glitch” may be to blame for opening all of the doors at a
maximum security wing simultaneously, setting prisoners free and
allowing gang members to pursue a rival with weapons.
But a surveillance video released this
week (see above) suggests that the doors may have been opened
intentionally — either by a staff member or
remotely by someone else inside or outside
the prison who triggered a “group release” button in
the computerized system. The video raises the possibility that some
prisoners knew in advance that the doors were going to open.
It’s the second time in two months
that all of the doors in the wing opened at once, officials say,
raising questions about whether the first incident was a trial-run to
see how long it would take guards to respond.
… Miami-Dade Corrections Director
Tim Ryan acknowledged to the Herald that the circumstances
around the door-release were “suspicious,” and said officials
were investigating whether any staff members were responsible for
opening the doors or if a problem lay with the computerized system
that controls the doors. The latter system is reportedly part of a
$1.4 million security upgrade installed at the prison by a company in
Alabama named Black Creek
Integrated Systems.
The control panel for the system
generally features a group-release button that allows guards in
minimum-security facilities to release inmates simultaneously for a
head count, the Herald reports. But it’s generally not
used in maximum-security settings, since inmates are kept
one-to-a-cell and aren’t allowed to interact with one another in
common areas.
… But the correctional facility in
Florida isn’t the only one to experience a problem with its
electronic doors. Last April, just a month before the first Florida
incident occurred, a correctional
facility in Maryland had a similar problem when the locks on 500 cell
doors disengaged simultaneously at around 12:20 a.m. on a
Saturday morning.
A computer malfunction was also blamed
for this failure. Officials at the Montgomery County Correctional
Facility where it occurred said no inmates tried to escape, but about
20 police cars were called in to secure the perimeter of the facility
during the hour it took to fix the glitch and secure the doors.
Three days later, however, the locks on the cell doors disengaged
again.
Just because the RIAA has kittens
whenever they hear the word, does not mean BitTorrent is always used
for evil. The sync tool is probably the most interesting way to use
it.
File Syncing With BitTorrent
Sync
BitTorrent, Inc. — the company behind
BitTorrent — recently released BitTorrent Sync. BitTorrent
Sync works differently from standard BitTorrent clients. it’s
entirely private — you install the client, choose one or
more folders to share, and then link it up with other computers.
Files anyone places in their copy of the shared folder are all
automatically synced with all other copies of the shared folders.
In this way, BitTorrent Sync is a lot
like Dropbox. Unlike Dropbox, it doesn’t store your files in a
centralized server online — it just syncs them between computers
you own or computers your friends own. This means that it offers
easy file sharing over the Internet and, unlike Dropbox, you
can sync an unlimited number of files as long as you have the
space on your computers for them.
… It’s a great way to roll your
own Dropbox-like service and share files across the Internet without
trusting them to a central server or being limited by the
size of your cloud storage account.
Well, we're not number one, but this
does suggest places where I can find out how they teach my
subjects... University of Colorado at Boulder was number 33 on their
list.
2013
Academic Ranking of World Universities
ARWU
2013 Press Release: ”The 2013 Academic Ranking of World
Universities (ARWU) is released today by the Center for World-Class
Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Starting from a
decade ago, ARWU has been presenting the world Top 500 universities
annually based on transparent methodology and reliable data. It has
been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and
the most trustworthy one.”
For my students.
For my students. See what others
think, collaborate on your own projects.
– is a web-platform for visualizing
and sharing networks of thought – and opening reasoning and action
to collaborative learning and iterative improvement. DebateGraph is
already being used in over 100 countries and helping people reason
and learn together more effectively in many different fields.
DebateGraph is free to use, and there’s no limit to the
number of people who can collaborate.
Something amusing every week...
… Louisiana is
boosting
the funding for its new Course Choice program, which allows high
school students to receive credits for classes taken from a variety
of vendors, including for-profit companies. 4000 students have signed
up so far.
… South Korea is
moving forward with its plans to use digital textbooks
throughout the country. According
to the Yonhap News Agency, the education minister says that
“social studies and science textbooks are being developed for
third- and fourth-year students of elementary schools and first- or
second-year middle school students.”
… The Department of Education has
approved a competency-based degree program at the for-profit Capella
University, reports
The Chronicle of Higher Education. ...award degrees based on
demonstrated
competencies rather than credit
hours. [This could be important in the “Age of
MOOCs” Bob]
… Pearson says
that it released
the wrong grades for 4000 students in Virginia.
Ooops.
… Students at Chelsea High School
in New York had to retake their Regents Exam as
McGraw-Hill
lost the original copies of the tests. They
“fell off a back of a truck." Ooops.
… According to Amazon’s
Textbook Rental Terms and Conditions, students who rent textbooks via
its subsidiary Warehouse Deals cannot
cross state borders with their books, or they face being
charged the full purchase price for the book. More on this silliness
via
Inside Higher Ed.
… Khan Academy has
introduced “Learning
Dashboards,” which developer
Ben Kamens calls the “biggest change to Khan Academy yet.”
The dashboard tracks student progress and makes recommendations about
what videos/exercises to work through next.
… Edublogs’ Sue Waters
has released the annual “State
of Educational Blogging” report, which contains loads of
interesting information about the numbers and the uses of blogging in
and out of the classroom.
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