Saturday, July 06, 2013

It's more important to have a story than a fact?


Daily Report: Snowden Trained as Hacker While With N.S.A., Résumé Says

(Related)
NY Times Story on Snowden Way Off the Mark
The current NY Times story on Snowden is such garbage. Snowden was a systems administrator with the keys to the kingdom. He had root access to servers and other devices whereby he could enable, disable, bypass and gain access to most anything stored on those devices. He was no master hacker or elite for anything.
He just happened to take classes in hacking and other IT topics.
If Booz had enabled proper change and release management procedures as well as separation / segregation of duties per standard, foundational IT activities, this would never have happened.


For my CS students...
… what if I told you that right now, by using VirtualBox, you can download a free Virtual Machine featuring a full, free version of Windows XP? It’s absolutely true – you can download Windows XP.
… You can use this system to not only test out what your website looks for people running older versions of Internet Explorer (IE) on an older operating system, but you can also use it to test applications on XP if you’re an application developer, or to run older programs that only run on Windows XP. The version of XP gives you a temporary use license, but if you need to use it longer, you could always reinstall it or activate it with a valid XP license you may have already purchased but aren’t using on any of your computers anymore.
… At the Virtual Machine download page, you’ll need to choose the options to download a Windows OS Virtual Machine, and choose which version of IE you want to test.


For all my students. Automating citations so I don't use my automated flunking machine...
When the time comes to write a paper, one of the biggest pains can be citing your sources.
… First, you need to make sure you are backing up what you are stating with proper facts. Second, your professors need to make sure you aren’t plagiarizing, and backing up your claims with sources can go a long way towards making this happen.
Thankfully, the Internet makes this arduous part of the paper writing process a little easier. The following websites streamline it a great deal. Of course, you are still going to have to do a little work, but these websites will help you learn how to cite sources in the quickest way possible.


For my amusement...
Google has released the latest version of its MOOC software Course Builder. New features include a WYSIWYG question editor (so you don’t need to use Javascript to build a course).
… Textbook publisher Cengage Learning has filed for bankruptcy. The New York Times has the Chapter 11 filing for your perusal. [Even charging those outragous textbook prices? Bob]


See what happens when you practice what you love?
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?

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