Dvorak News Blog

Cash-Strapped School District Causes Teacher To Sell Ad Space On Tests

By Uncle Dave Wednesday December 3, 2008

I like the guy’s creativity despite the precedent it sets. What’s next? Product placements in school plays (can schools still afford putting on plays?) to pay for toilet paper in the rest rooms? School desks plastered with ads to pay for the desks themselves?

Ah, remember the good old days of no student left behind? Today it’s all students left behind.

Ads on tests add up for teacher

Tom Farber gives a lot of tests. He’s a calculus teacher, after all.

So when administrators at Rancho Bernardo, his suburban San Diego high school, announced the district was cutting spending on supplies by nearly a third, Farber had a problem. At 3 cents a page, his tests would cost more than $500 a year. His copying budget: $316. But he wanted to give students enough practice for the big tests they’ll face in the spring, such as the Advanced Placement exam.

“Tough times call for tough actions,” he says. So he started selling ads on his test papers: $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final.

San Diego magazine and The San Diego Union-Tribune featured his plan just before Thanksgiving, and Farber came home from a few days out of town to 75 e-mail requests for ads. So far, he has collected $350. His semester final is sold out.

Where is the $200 bbl Oil?

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 2, 2008

40 Comments

Gasoline in the Bay Area as of today.

Canada governor-general returns to tackle crisis — Canada to be Overthrown

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 2, 2008

53 Comments

UPDATE

Canada governor-general returns to tackle crisis | International | Reuters

RallyforCanada.ca – Protect Canadian Democracy — Can someone explain what is happening in Canada. People are calling the situation a coup d’etat. Yes? No?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, trying to prevent opposition parties from defeating his minority Conservative government in a confidence vote next Monday, could move to shut down Parliament temporarily but needs Jean’s permission to do so.

Jean, who is in Prague, will fly back on Wednesday rather than Saturday. She is the personal representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state.

“This decision has been made in light of the current political situation in Canada,” her office announced.

The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and separatist Bloc Quebecois signed an unprecedented deal on Monday to bring down Harper and create a coalition government that would keep them in power until at least June 30, 2010.

The opposition says Harper is not doing enough to tackle the financial crisis.

Speculation is mounting that Harper — facing his worst crisis since first winning power in January 2006 — will seek to shut down Parliament until a budget the government has promised for January 27.

Ottawa says the coalition deal showed the opposition were twisting the rules of democracy. The Conservatives won a strengthened minority in an Oct 14 election.

first rumblings posted here on the blog.

Xbox 360 Kicks PS3 to the Curb — Hard!

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 2, 2008

11 Comments

Apple recommends that users get with some anti-virus software ASAP. We knew this would happen, no?
Nokia N97 released. Will be costly.
Xbox360 outsold PS3 by 3 to 1.
Classical musicians to be voted on with YouTube. The winner goes to Carnegie Hall.
Cell phone use in car is dangerous. No kidding!
Britney Spears still number one in search engine traffic.
Linux now working on the iPhone.
Ted Rogers died.
Samsung unveils cell phone for pre-teens.
Todays show is sponsored by BUDGET Car Rental.

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Has Apple Changed its Position on Viruses?

By McCullough Tuesday December 2, 2008

28 Comments

After years of jabbing Microsoft for the seeming need to run antivirus software on Windows, Apple has quietly posted its own recommendation for similar security with its own operating system. The knowledge base article, posted roughly a week and a half ago, doesn’t go so far as to say the software is necessary but still advocates “widespread use” of more than one antivirus package to minimize security risks.

By using more than one piece of security software, virus writers can’t assume that there will be a particular security suite to bypass, Apple says. In Windows, more advanced viruses already know to look for certain defense suites and will mask themselves or even disable the protection to make their tasks easier. Apple currently recommends Intego’s VirusBarrier X5, McAfee’s VirusScan for Mac, and Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus 11.

The posting isn’t necessarily a reversal of opinions for Apple, though it does reflect an overall softening of its opinions. While one of the first “Get a Mac” TV spots in 2006 made fun of Windows’ susceptibility to viruses and portrayed the Mac as near-immune, the current campaign doesn’t mention this point. The company’s current FAQ for curious switchers also simply says that Mac OS X “resists most viruses” and doesn’t make any blanket statements.

I am surprised to see a FUD based article from Apple Insider. I think this information has been on Apples support site for a long time and just recently updated. The fact that there have been very few computers affected makes it one of their biggest selling points and it would seem like a bad idea to promote this now. Still, I have to chuckle when I hear Apple sales people say it will “never happen”. I think that’s just irresponsible. Even so, if there has been a change, I hope Apple will offer better options than either Symantec or McAffee which are notorious resource hogs. Maybe AVG will get on board.

Thanks to Mr. Justin

Unemployed woman finds unique method of self promotion

By McCullough Tuesday December 2, 2008

21 Comments

Kelly Kinney has been out of work for two months despite her two bachelor’s degrees. But Kinney isn’t one to play the victim. When paper resumes didn’t work, she put hers on post cards. When that didn’t work, she put it on a T-shirt.

Kinney, a Santa Clarita resident, was in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, walking the streets wearing her resume T-shirt with extra copies of her resume on hand. She also wears her resume to the supermarket and the mall – to anyplace, in fact, where she might get a job tip. Her employment search is frustrating but she maintains a smile and realizes there are forces outside her control that keep her from getting a job. “It’s the economy definitely,” she said.

Kinney should know. One of her bachelor’s degrees is in economics.

“The job market is oversaturated. We created jobs that we didn’t need and got rid of jobs we needed. It’s going to take some time for the economy and job market to correct,” Kinney said. Kinney, 29, moved to Santa Clarita in October 2007, running from winter weather in Dayton, Ohio. She kept her job as a marketing manager for Rexarc International, a manufacturing company. Her job allowed Kinney to work remotely for one year. She expected that she would find a new job within that year. Three years of experience and her education proved to be a scarlet letter at interviews, Kinney said. “Sometimes I’m overqualified. Sometimes I’m under-qualified,” said the holder of a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

The idea itself sounds like a good small business opportunity.

Actor apologizes for exposing himself —
on the fracking radio!

By Eideard Tuesday December 2, 2008

17 Comments

Torchwood actor John Barrowman has apologised after exposing himself on a live BBC Radio 1 show.

Barrowman undid his trousers after being goaded into it by the presenters of the Switch programme on Radio 1 on Sunday night, prompting the corporation to issue an official apology.

Though only one complaint was received about the incident, a BBC spokeswoman said the show had “overstepped the mark”…

During Sunday’s show, presented by Nick Grimshaw and Annie Mac, Grimshaw asked Barrowman: “You’re famous, we’re told for getting your willy out in interviews. Is this going to happen today?”

Barrowman responded by saying he was going to “get it out”, amid shouting and laughter.

He was later heard to say: “I didn’t take the whole thing out, but I got my fruit and nuts out.”

Cripes!

BitTorrent at war with VoIP? Hardly!

By Eideard Tuesday December 2, 2008

20 Comments

The Internet is close to a meltdown, according to The Register. The culprit, according to author Richard Bennett, is the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent, which introduced a new type of file transfer with its most recent alpha version. BitTorrent clients have long been using the TCP protocol to facilitate file transfers, but now uTorrent is moving to UDP, a protocol that is very popular for streaming media, VoIP and other real-time transfers. This will essentially lead to torrents eating up all of the bandwidth available for VoIP, according to Bennet, who calls uTorrent’s UDP transfers a “net-killing feature.”

Of course, the same argument was made when UDP-based VoIP connections and video streams became popular — and the Internet hasn’t ceased to exist. The truth is that uTorrent’s UDP implementation could actually be a step toward alleviating congestion problems. Bennet, however, decided to ignore this and instead serve up nothing more than a thinly veiled rant against net neutrality.

Bennet’s piece is based on a belief that UDP traffic is “aggressive” and uncontrollable, whereas TCP is the nice and proper protocol that can be easily managed. This notion ignores the basic fact that P2P developers, in order to make the protocol work at all, need to implement TCP-like functionalities on top of UDP, one of which includes congestion control. You simply can’t operate a P2P client that eats up all of its users’ bandwidth, much less build a successful business model on top of it.

Worthy of analysis and discussion.

Anne Coulter’s jaw wired shut after fall

By John C Dvorak Tuesday December 2, 2008

76 Comments

Anne Coulter’s jaw wired shut after fall | Seattle Times Newspaper — How did we miss this story?

Hard-right firebrand Ann Coulter, who fell a few weeks ago and reportedly broke her jaw, is having her jaw wired shut, according to the New York Post. She will have it unshut in a few weeks to record the audio version of her book “The New Ann Coulter.” No word from Coulter.

Coalition government proposed in Canada

By Eideard Tuesday December 2, 2008

61 Comments

Jack Layton, Stephane Dion, Gilles Duceppe announcing coalition

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

Opposition parties in Canada have joined forces to try to topple the minority Conservative government less than two months after elections.

The Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois say the government is failing to tackle Canada’s economic problems. They intend to use their joint majority to vote against PM Stephen Harper in a confidence motion due next Monday.

If Mr Harper loses, Canada’s Governor General would call a snap poll or ask the opposition to form the government. Constitutional experts say Governor General Michaelle Jean may favour the second option as the country has had an election so recently.

It would, however, be an historic decision as Canada has only had a coalition government once before – in 1917…

The prime minister could try to ride his luck and let the confidence vote go ahead on 8 December, or he could try to stave off defeat by asking the Governor General to suspend parliament until 27 January when the government is set to table its budget.

The tension is palpable. :)

Of course, the object lesson of multiple parties forming a ruling coalition is so terrifying to U.S. pols, I would expect intervention by the CIA at a minimum.

Gay Bible seems to perturb Christians

By Eideard Tuesday December 2, 2008

52 Comments

A gay version of the Bible, in which God says it is better to be gay than straight, is to be published by an American film producer.

New Mexico-based Revision Studios will publish The Princess Diana Bible – so named because of Diana’s “many good works”, it says – online at princessdianabible.com in spring 2009. A preview of Genesis is already available, in which instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.

The film studio said it would also adapt and direct the revised Bible as a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament, once it is completed.

“There are many different versions of the Bible; I don’t see why we can’t have one,” said Max Mitchell, who directed the science fiction comedy Horror in the Wind, in which an airborne formula invented by two biogeneticists reverses the world’s sexual orientation.

“I got the idea for the Princess Diana Bible from Horror In The Wind,” he added. “After the world becomes gay, religious people create The Princess Diana Bible, which says that gay is right and straight is a sin. Then they burn all the King James Bibles…”

But Mitchell said: “There are 116 versions of the Bible, why is any of them better than ours?”

Har! I look forward to the mini-series. The Bible is well suited to comedy.

Bill Clinton Mentioned for Hillary’s Senate Seat

By hhopper Monday December 1, 2008

64 Comments

CNN Politics.com

(CNN) — After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration.

Former President Bill Clinton has been mentioned as a possible replacement for his wife in the Senate.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.

That means the scramble begins to replace Clinton on Capitol Hill. Among those mentioned to take her seat as New York’s junior senator is her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Found by Jay.

Woman (I think?) Almost Kills Baby with Diluted Formula

By hhopper Monday December 1, 2008

40 Comments

Geri Moss with Ladamien

TAMPA – A Bay Area 5-month-old is a lucky guy after being brought to the hospital last week with a condition called water intoxication.

Ladamien Barton’s mom says she wasn’t getting enough cans of baby formula through the WIC program, so she was stretching it out.

Directions say mix six scoops with eight ounces of water, but mom Geri Moss said she was mixing four scoops to 14 ounces of water instead.

She didn’t realize that was a no-no until Ladamien developed seizures and couldn’t breathe.

“He was off in a daze, he wasn’t following my hand, he started screaming,” Moss recalled. “He curled up in a ball. I went to lift him up but he stopped breathing. As soon as he stopped breathing, I put him on his back and started doing CPR.”

“Another hour he would have been dead,” offered UCH pediatrician Dr. James Orlowski.

Ladamien?!

Found by Cristina Fischer.

Microsoft Market Share Lowest in 15 Years

By John C Dvorak Monday December 1, 2008

9 Comments

Black Friday turns out well for retailers. So far so good.
The Josephson Institute says todays teens are cheaters and thieves.
Microsoft marketshare lowest since 1993.
National free wireless may be coming to you soon.
Online poker might be crooked. Hackers are the reason.
SF Mayor to do 7½ hour speech on YouTube. Cripes!
Yahoo up and down and up and down.
Apple to save the Netbook!
Todays show sponsored by Budget Rent A Car. Click here for 10-percent off.

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New Stock Market Insight on Bailouts

By John C Dvorak Monday December 1, 2008

16 Comments

Here is the eighth conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz. This was recorded the day after “black Friday”: and after the Citibank bailout… new insights for anyone who invests in anything. What to do? This chat is not produced and is presented as-is for anyone who wants to listen in.

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