Online Classes and Online Cheating

The number of college students taking courses online is surging, creating a dilemma for educators who want to prevent cheating.

Do you trust students to take an exam on their own computer from home or work, even though it may be easy to sneak a peek at the textbook? Or do you force them to trek to a proctored test center, detracting from the convenience that drew them to online classes in the first place?

The dilemma is one reason many online programs do little testing at all. But some new technology that places a camera inside students' homes may be the way of the future - as long as students don't find it too creepy.

This fall, Troy University in Alabama will begin rolling out the new camera technology for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world.

The $125 device, made by Cambridge, Mass.-based Software Secure, is similar in many respects to other test-taking software. It locks down a computer while the test is being taken, preventing students from searching files or the Internet. The latest version also includes fingerprint authentication, to help ensure the person taking the test isn't a ringer.

But the new development is a small Webcam and microphone that is set up where a student takes the exam. The camera points into a reflective ball, which allows it to capture a full 360-degree image. (The first prototype was made with a Christmas ornament.)

When the exam begins, the device records audio and video. Software detects significant noises and motions and flags them in the recording. An instructor can go back and watch only the portions flagged by the software to see if anything untoward is going on - a student making a phone call, leaving the room - and if there is a sudden surge in performance afterward.

The inventors admit it's far from a perfect defense against a determined cheater. But a human test proctor isn't necessarily better. And the camera at least "ensures that those people that are taking classes at a distance are on a level playing field," said Douglas Winneg, Software Secure's president and chief executive.

Troy graduate students will start using the device starting this fall, and undergraduates a year later.

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Apple Sells 1 of every 7 notebooks in US

Apple got help from the update to its MacBook laptops to push its share of the laptop market in the U.S. up nearly two points in May, to 14.3%, a research firm said today. According to NPD's data, the laptop "bounce" was 14% month-over-month.

The May boost put Apple's laptops in fourth place, behind Hewlett Packard Co., Toshiba Corp. and Gateway Inc., and moved its combined laptop-desktop sales share from 11.6% in April to 13% last month. In retail-only, Apple showed a slightly smaller increase, from 9.6% to 10.8%.

NPD collects its sales data primarily from retail point-of-sale sources, and excludes most online and all direct sales.

Desktop sales, meanwhile, continued to stagnate, although there too, Apple has an advantage.
Desktops sales are declining, but [Apple's] are declining a little less than others. Apple's desktop machines -- the all-in-one iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro -- accounted for 10.4% of all desktop sales in May, a small increase from April's 10.2%.

Laptop sales are hitting a couple of plateaus that even Apple won't escape. ASPs [average sales prices] have flattened out, and are pretty stable now month to month.

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Top 100 Best Places to work in IT

Computerworld gives an excellent article about the 100 Best Places to work in IT. These are rankings for 2007.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9024364

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Apple wins in Google Vs Microsoft

Who's winning the slap fight between Microsoft and Google? Perhaps Apple.

For full article please visit
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/06/12/apple-microsoft-google-tech-cx_bc_0612microsoft.html

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Google Urges for H-1B visas increase

Internet search giant Google on Thursday urged the US government to raise the number of H-1B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers.

In Congressional testimony, Google Vice President of people operations Laszlo Bock cited the emigration of the parents of company co-founder Sergey Brin from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1979 as evidence that admitting foreign workers into the country benefits the U.S. economy.

"We opened our doors to Sergey's parents -- a mathematician and an economist," said Bock.

"Our educational system served Sergey well -- he attended the University of Maryland and Stanford University.

Our free market economy supported Sergey and Larry's entrepreneurship and rewarded it when they proved that they could turn their idea into a successful business."

Bock said people were Google's most vital competitive asset and without these talented employees and others, the company and high-tech industry as whole would not be the success it is today.

Krishna Bharat, a native of India joined Google in 1999 through H-1B visa, and was one one of the chief creators of Google News and is now its principal scientist.

Bock said without Krishna and many other employees Google "will not be able to offer innovating and useful new products to our users."

Each day Google finds itself unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1B visas, he said adding it will encourage Congress to significantly increase the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas to "reflect the growth rate of our technology driven-economy."

Bock said Google is not the only Silicon Valley company to benefit from immigration. "In fact, Google is just the most recent story for immigrants in Silicon Valley. Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and many other companies were all founded by immigrants who were welcomed by America".

Over the last 15 years, foreign nationals have started 25 per cent of US venture-backed public companies, accounting for more than $500 billion in market capitalization and adding significant value to our economy, he noted.

"Hiring and retaining the most talented employees regardless of national origin essential to US ability to compete globally. Companies like Google will benefit from improving our policies towards non-US workers including in the area of H-1B so that we can continue innovating and growing."

Bock said some 8 percent of Google's U.S. employees are in this country on a six-year H-1B visa because the company's "need to find the specialized skills required to run our business successfully requires us to look at candidates from around the globe -- many of whom are already in the U.S. studying at one of our great universities."

"We are not the only ones recruiting talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians. We are in a fierce worldwide competition for top talent unlike ever before. As companies in India, China and other countries step up efforts to attract highly skilled employees, the US must continue to focus on attracting and retaining these great minds," he said.

In the knowledge-based economy companies depend primarily on their employees for their success. "America's edge depends on the ability of US companies abilities to innovate...and that ability to innovate and create, in turn, depends on having the best and brightest workers," he added.

The H1B visa programme allows foreign scientists, technologist and engineers to work in the US for six years.

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Light with out wires

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team has figured out how to wirelessly illuminate an unplugged light bulb from seven feet away.

For full article:-
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/06/08/mit_team_lights_it_up____without_wires/

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Apple's new Mac Book Pro

Apple has rolled out the latest MacBook Pro featuring Intel's Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa chips, along with a larger memory capacity, new graphics cards and Led-backlit screens.

Three new MacBook Pros are currently available: 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz models with a 15in screen, and a 17in model with a 2.4GHz CPU.

The 15in models are the first MacBook Pros to use an Led-backlit display. The new screens are brighter, have a longer life span and are more power efficient. The 17in model will use the conventional LCD display.

Led-backlit screens are less hazardous to the environment because they lack the mercury found in their conventional counterparts. The switch to the mercury-free displays is a key part of Apple's environmental strategy in the coming years.

The new MacBook pros will use Nvidia's GeForce 8600M GT cards. Apple claims that between the new chip and graphics cards, the latest MacBook Pro is 50 per cent faster than the original Core Duo model launched in early 2006.

Storage and memory have also been upgraded, and the laptops will now support up to 4GB of Ram and will ship with hard drives as large as 250GB.

The 2.2GHz 15in model will cost $1,999, while the 2.4GHz 15in and 17in models will retail for $2,499 and $2,799.

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$199 PC

Asustek's PC is only $199 and it's small in size.

To read a comprehensive article about the PC
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132622-c,thinandlightnotebooks/article.html

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Apple iphone is ready to arrive on June 29th

The much awaited Apple iphone has its release date on June 29th, 25 days from today. It is slated for the price of $499(4 GB) and $599(8 GB) with a 2-year contract from AT&T (cingular).

Yahoo! Tech lists Coolest features and Biggest obstacles of Apple iphone. Please click on the link below to read the article:-
http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/12908

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Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Steve Jobs

Mr. Bill Gates - Chairman of Microsoft Corporation
Mr. Steve Jobs - CEO of Apple Inc.

These two great entrepreneurs met together in a conference. They had a discussion about their trade memories, barbs. Wall Street Journal covers the whole discussion and says 'Two of the Luckiest Guys on the Planet" truth ain't it.

Read the full article at:-
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2007/05/when_worlds_collide_gates_and.html?nav=rss_blog

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Spam king arrested

You might have heard of spam, and of course you might have been a victim of spam. But you might not heard about Spam King. You might have received thousands of spam mails from this Spam King.
Mr.Soloway, 27, is considered to be the Spam King and he was arrested at last.

To read full article about why he was arrested and what he was called "Spam King" , click on the link below:-

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1873105.ece

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