Linux.com

NewsVac: News from around the Web

• New group makes broadband a national priority 1 month, 2 weeks ago
  
  Federal Communications Commission commissioner Jonathan Adelstein joined tech policy pundits, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists Tuesday to launch a new initiative aimed at making broadband a priority in the U.S.
• Linux in Education: Concepts Not Applications 1 month, 3 weeks ago
  
  One of the biggest arguments used against Linux in grade school level education is that we aren't teaching kids to use the applications they'll use in the "real world". As the Technology Director for a K-12 school district, I've heard that argument many times. After all these years, I still don't buy it.
• K-12 schools’ cyber safety declines 2 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  CDW Government announced the results of the 2008 School Safety Index, the national benchmark on the current status of public school district safety. Measured on a scale from zero to 100, the national cyber safety average this year was 38.6, down 25 percent since 2007. This year’s Index finds that NAC is emerging as an essential IT tool for K-12 school districts, with 57 percent using NAC to view and control who and what is on the network. Rural districts lead NAC adoption at 60 percent, followed by suburban districts at 54 percent and urban districts at 45 percent.
• $100 laptop program's new president 3 months, 1 week ago
  
  "This week, with orders for its laptop having failed to meet expectations--and the plunging dollar driving up the computer's purchase price--the One Laptop per Child program installed a new president...."
• LinuxCertified Announces Linux Device Driver Development Course 3 months, 3 weeks ago
  
  LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, today announced its next Linux Device Driver Development Course class to be held in South Bay, CA from May 19th to May 21st.
• Schools fear being frozen out 3 months, 3 weeks ago
  
  The planned £4.5bn schools IT revamp today faces a barrage of criticism.
• Business IT Grads Have No Trouble Finding Jobs 4 months, 1 week ago
  
  While the economy crumbles, jobs are plentiful for graduates of business information technology programs. They are seen as good employment prospects because they have IT skills as well as business knowledge. Meanwhile, BIT program enrollment is down sharply.
• IT job strategies: Vendor vs. generic certifications 4 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  IT pros are divided on the value of brand-name certifications. On the one hand, vendor-neutral certifications seem a better fit today’s world of commoditized products. Then again, a Red Hat certification certainly appeals to majority of Linux-friendly employers.
• Nigerian Patent Suit Still Dogs OLPC 4 months, 3 weeks ago
  
  A potential $20 million problem for the group behind the "$100 laptop" isn't going away easily.
• OLPC: A Lost Cause 5 months ago
  
  OLPC is a lost cause. It's amazing how an otherwise interesting project with headline-grabbing mission could spiral out of control with disastrous results. The project has always had noble intentions. I can't fault them for that. Anytime an organization is giving back to the community and contributing back to society is a good organization in my book. However, the management is ludicrous. Not only did they not realize the magnitude of the ramifications for changing their mission, but they couldn't pinpoint their ultimate desire either. The latest is their search for the CEO to run OLPC as a non-profit business, similar to Microsoft. Great aspirations!
• Educating Tux: Case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world 5 months ago
  
  "However, the experiences by schools that have gone this route are a mixed bag. Let us investigate some and see what lessons there are..."
• Online university program covers device engineering 5 months, 1 week ago
  
  The University of California, Irvine Extension has launched a Device Software Engineering studies program and announced an online course called "Linux Driver Primer." Beginning March 31, the course will explain how to develop and write code for Linux device drivers and develop Linux device frameworks.
• Why the '$100 laptop' project is under siege 8 months ago
  
  In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled an idea for bridging the technology divide between rich nations and the developing world. It was captivating in its utter simplicity: Design a $100 laptop and, within four years, get it into the hands of up to 150 million of the world's poorest schoolchildren.
• Stallman: students should be taught to share with the class 9 months, 3 weeks ago
  
  "Richard Stallman, in receiving an honorary Doctorate from Italy's University of Pavia, brought back memories of the basic primary school principle that students bringing cookies to class should bring enough for everyone .... "
• Lessons to Learn from the OLPC 10 months, 1 week ago
  
  Whether you're impressed with it or not, the XO-1 is having a major impact on notebook design. It's development has brought outside-the-box thinking and cost-consciousness to a level that we rarely see in portable computing. There are a number of lessons that can be learned the from its unique design and we can already see that some of these concepts have been noticed by manufacturers. From the article, "The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is by no means a success yet, but its development has taught us a great deal about mobile design and what people want from a laptop. Their XO-1 notebook was not developed with the American consumer in mind- it is intended for children in developing countries- but any time that this much effort is put into designing a laptop (especially one this small and inexpensive) it is going to have an impact on the industry."
• More News