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Online Computer Courses
e-learning System to Hone Job Skills
In a novel e-learning initiative, engineering students of Karnataka's Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will be provided an online learning platform to hone their IT and soft skills to help them fare better in a highly competitive job market.To enable about 150,000 engineering students across the state get on to the virtual platform, the VTU has tied up with Liqwid Krystal, a Bangalore-based leading provider of e-learning solutions that has developed the software to access the skills online."On a pilot basis we are enrolling about 50,000 students of fourth semester (second year) in various under-graduate and post-graduate colleges affiliated to the university for learning the soft skills online," said VTU vice-chancellor K. Balaveera Reddy."Complimenting the curriculum for the degree, these students will be trained for gaining proficiency in English language and communication skills so as to compete on par with their counterparts from Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology in campus recruitments and job interviews."Touted to be the first of its kind in the country, the e-platform, christened "gyanX", will have a select catalogue of online courseware, books and other content for empowering students to learn interactively.The e-platform will be extended to all the 121 affiliated engineering colleges of the VTU, besides 25 under-graduate and 60 post-graduate colleges teaching masters in business administration and master of computer application courses."Our aim is to harness the power of the Internet as a learning delivery medium to make our students much more employable and job worthy.
EMT made hearts race on state time, report says
Columbus -- Kevin Evans, an emergency medical technician assigned full time to the Ohio Statehouse, had one of the cushiest jobs in state government. Paid $33,446 a year, he held down three other jobs, seldom punched a time clock and, with the permission of his supervisors, taught emergency medicine classes and took college courses while being paid by the state. On those days when he was at the Statehouse, investigators found, he spent an average of five hours a day trolling the Internet on his state computer, talking in chat rooms and setting up online dates. During their review of Evans' computer activity, investigators for Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles found that the 39-year-old EMS technician had expertise not only in shallow breathing but in heavy breathing, too.
Just In: Online registration fails on first day of scheduling
Ohio University's online class-scheduling system failed to recognize completed prerequisite requirements for almost 5,000 students slated to register for classes today, blocking seniors and others with priority registration from getting into some courses. A computer program that inputs every student's completed coursework into the online system failed to do so two weeks ago, but the problem was not detected until today, the first day of registration, said associate registrar Patrick Beatty. This blocked students from registering for classes for prerequisites: for example, a student with 100-level Spanish credit would not be allowed into 200-level Spanish because the computer system would not recognize the completed prerequisite. OU computer technicians plan to run the computer program again tonight and expected registration to function normally when scheduling opens at 7 a.m.
May 8th, 2008 07:05 PM
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Data Mining In Law Enforcement
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jcatcw points out a blog entry by Scott McPherson, CIO for the Florida House of Representatives. McPherson condemns the state of data sharing and data mining in law enforcement, saying that the US causes itself a great deal of trouble by focusing more on "antiterror armor and nuke-sniffing devices" than a useful information distribution network. He discusses a few such projects, and how they could have directly affected the events of 9/11. Quoting: "One of those ingenious things that actually worked, Seisint founder Hank Asher's brilliant MATRIX system, remains mired in controversy and politics. Hank showed me MATRIX just a few short weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Using law enforcement data and commercial data, all of the commercial data available in the public domain, Asher's query produced [hijacker Mohamed] Atta's photo -- and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers. It was simple data mining and algorithms, and none of the information was obtained illegally." 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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May 7th, 2008 01:11 PM
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OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Released
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Sean0michael writes "OpenOffice.org has announced their 3.0 Beta is ready for testing. The new version includes some great enhancements, including MS Office 2007 import filters, an improved notes feature, a built-in Solver component, and an Aqua interface for Macs. The site has a complete list of Beta features. Download your beta release from their site." 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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