I do enjoy reading things like this.
Brian Krebs on Safe Online Banking:
An investigative series I’ve been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.
The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.
(Via ★ Daring Fireball)
Shamelessly yoinked from Daring Fireball:
Bob Sheppard is 98 years old and has been the P.A. announcer at Yankee Stadium since 1951:
He did his first Yankees game on April 17, 1951, announcing a lineup that included Phil Rizzuto, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra.
(Originally from NYTimes — The Voice of Yankee Stadium May Retire.)
President Barack Obama. Just wow. Absolutely awesome. A lot of people mentioned some good stuff, & I wanted to highlight some of that here. So here’s some choice bits:
Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov:
The White House’s website was updated today after Obama was sworn in. It looks great, but here’s the best news, from the blog:
“One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.”
(Via cameron i/o.)
Additionally, Jon Gruber at ★ Daring Fireball points out that “For the web nerds out there, the new web site passes the W3C HTML validator.”
Sony’s Amazing Crapware-Free PC:
Ed Bott:
Sony is finally taking on its crapware problem. For the past two months, I’ve been using an astonishingly light and agile Sony VAIO notebook and loving every minute of it. The best part of all was that this machine was absolutely, completely, unequivocally crapware-free, which meant I was able to be productive within a few minutes of unboxing.
Good for Sony, but Bott’s enthusiasm is like being amazed after buying a sandwich that wasn’t spit in.
Absolutely hilarious.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
I’m on a huge Daring Fireball kick recently, it seems. Gruber’s just got me goin’! This time he quotes an article from USA Today reporting on “minimum 50″ grading policies:
Their argument: Other letter grades — A, B, C and D — are broken down in increments of 10 from 60 to 100, but there is a 59-point spread between D and F, a gap that can often make it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up.
“It’s a classic mathematical dilemma: that the students have a six times greater chance of getting an F,” says Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, a Colorado-based educational think tank who has written on the topic. “The statistical tweak of saying the F is now 50 instead of zero is a tiny part of how we can have better grading practices to encourage student performance.”
Gruber goes on to say:
This is so profoundly stupid it’s hard to believe it isn’t from The Onion. That F covers 0–59 doesn’t make it six times more likely that a student will get an F than any other grade, unless test scores are based on random numbers rather than actual performance.
I couldn’t agree more. If that statement by Reeves were true, then many more students would be failing exams throughout all the levels of school. Instead, most students pass at some level, even if it is just barely. Some time after posting, he did edit his post to clarify:
Update: Clearly, when you’re talking about what to do with grades lower than 50, you’re dealing with students who need help. Maybe this “minimum 50″ policy is a good way to do that; I don’t know. What I’m saying is stupid is this Reeves fellow’s argument about it being a “classic mathematical dilemma”.
(Via ? Daring Fireball by way of USA Today)
Fake Steve on the NBC-Zune Deal:
“It’s the first time I’ve seen rats swimming toward a sinking ship.”
(Via ★ Daring Fireball by way of Fake Steve Jobs.)
John Gruber, one of my favorite writers, opines this in reference to this article by Saul Hansell, in a report for the NYT Bits Blog on current negotiations between Apple and the major music labels:
So let’s get this straight. The music labels think we should pay more for a song downloaded from a server that isn’t theirs, over a network that isn’t theirs, because, well, just because. One gets the feeling that, if given the chance, music executives would just hire thugs to mug anyone on the street wearing white earbuds.
Sadly, the music industry is still one of the most corrupt businesses around, seeking to do the most profitable thing in the short term, instead of investing in its customers or striving to create new business models. The looming threat of the truly independent musician to the old world order of the music label makes them grasp even tighter to hang on to what they can. I realize we’ve heard this all before, but when put so frankly like Gruber has, I cannot help but add my own two cents.
(Via ★ Daring Fireball)
