JoeMerchant writes:Some local schoolboards have already rolled out full remote learning curricula, starting Monday (seems to me there have been plans in the works for years to make something like this happen this fast.) Others appear flat-footed and clueless. We did some homeschooling with our kids a couple of years ago, and the one website that really clicked with us was (shameless plug) https://ixl.com .I know we had a Soylent story just over a week ago asking for alternatives to the ubiquitous (and well deserved first place recommendation) Khan. Now that it's a little less abstract, and looking more certain that the kids won't be returning to physical school buildings until the fall... what do you look for in online learning services?Our criteria were: easy for the kids to self-learn the material as presented, easy to track progress and identify areas where extra instruction might help, clear documentation of subjects covered and relative mastery of each, easy for kids to self-select appropriate subject areas to study, reasonable cost.Khan certainly presents material clearly, and the cost can't be beat, but we found IXL to be superior in the other areas, and when you think about the tremendous number of hours invested by you and your kids in the learning system, the cost isn't really significant ($20/month for one, $24 for two).Has anybody else taken a serious plunge into online learning and found something "better than Khan" for your purposes?[Ed. addition follows. --martyb]See our previous story: Student Privacy Laws Still Apply if Coronavirus Just Closed Your School and take a close look at future provider's security and privacy practices. From the article linked to in the previous story https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/watch-out-for-privacy-pitfalls-if-your-school-is-suddenly-online-only/:Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
canopic jug writes:The FedÂerÂal ConÂstiÂtuÂtionÂal Court of Germany (FCC) has delivered a decisive win for software users and developers around Europe. In a recently-published court decision, 2 BvR 739/17 (in German) from February, it has declared that the Act of Approval to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) is void. The Unified Patent Court has been widely considered to be a shell for bringing software patents into Europe through the side door, in violation of international treaties which prohibit by name patents on programs for computers.
DannyB writes:NASA spent a decade and nearly $1 billion for a single launch tower:"NASA exacerbated these issues by accepting unproven and untested designs."
[20200320_184315 UTC: Update: Made the dept. line longer to better demonstrate space [un]availability.--martyb][20200320_202305 UTC: Added topics: "/dev/random", "Code", "Software", and "Answers" topics to better illustrate their use of space in a story. --martyb]martyb writes:First: Please accept my best wishes to everyone during SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic. Please take all necessary precautions to keep yourself and those around you safe!Second: I should not have been surprised, but I must confess my admiration at how the SoylentNews community came together in support of each other in response to SoylentNews Community -- How has SAR-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) / COVID-19 Affected You? As of my writing this, there are over 300 comments! community++ This is what I had hoped for when SoylentNews started over six years (Wow!) ago, and so validates my giving of my time to this site!Third: (and the focus of this story) our virus roundup stories are... long. An AC posted a comment: thanks to eds:
martyb writes:Please note the official web site for folding@home is https://foldingathome.org. As a free service, folding.extremeoverclocking.com (FEO) provides a variety of reports based on data it gathers from the official site. This story is from an announcement made on FEO.Basically, folding@home is a distributed computing system whereby volunteer's machines are issued "work units" to process and, when they have completed their processing, upload their results back tofolding@home. See the excellent write-up at Wikipedia for more details.tl;dr: When F@H announced they were working on SARS-CoV-19 (COVID-19), the outpouring of support has overwhelmed their infrastructure; their servers are having trouble keeping up with the demand for work units and the subsequent upload of results. Don't give up!
canopic jug writes:The 2020 edition of curl up has gone to an online-only format this year and will not involve a physical meetup. Many other upcoming conferences have already announced either a complete cancellation or a similar move to an online-only edition for 2020.
RandomFactor writes:El Reg has the story on chipmaker Broadcom sueing Netflix for shrinking the set-top box market, which it claims could not be done without infringing its patents.
RandomFactor writes:For those tracking the twisting tale of the NASA Mars InSight Lander's plucky heat probe nicknamed 'the mole' - there is some good news! NASA reports:
[20200319_040606 UTC Updated: Editor's note: The original story was updated subsequent to this story submission; an excerpt from the original submission appears here in a <spoiler> followed by the update. --martyb]An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184308/coronavirus-italy-medical-company-threatens-sue-3d-print-valves-treatments
canopic jug writes:The Signal messaging progam is now the favored messaging program for the European Commission instead of proprietary messaging programs. The decision was made last month, in February, to prefer it for both internal and external communication.
An Anonymous Coward writes:How much is too much? Are these portable computers we carry around that just happen to be able to make phone calls really worth a small fortune? Would you pay over $2000 for a mobile phone that can fold in half?
[20200318_124615 UTC Update: Booster recovery unsuccessful. I have seen no report, yet, on fairing recovery. Successful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites. Also, I apologize for the very late original posting of this story. --martyb]martyb writes:SpaceX will make another attempt at launching Starlink satellites at 08:16 ET today.YouTube live stream.Cf: SpaceX Attempts Fifth Launch of Same Falcon 9 Sun 2020-03-15 09:22 EDT - Aborted.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.