Feb

29

Anti-Malware and Blackboard Vista

Filed Under Blackboard Vista | Leave a Comment

Tier1 support was contacted by a student to report a problem with a quiz. Some sort of anti-malware software complained about code in the quiz. Tier1 support replicated the issue. Their software identified it as belonging to MyWebSearch. Very bad news.

Tier2 support suggested the student remove the MyWebSearch toolbar. Tier1 escalated to Tier3 who claimed that because Tier1 and the student both saw the issue, the malicious code must have been inserted into Vista by the instructor. Tier3 also escalated it to me… Tier4.

From the email conversation, no one looked at the quiz in question despite Tier2 and Tier3 both having the access (and Tier2 being involved in instructional design).

*headdesk*

Instead of providing my own equally valueless speculation, I got a copy of the quiz and looked at the HTML. Eventually, I used WinMerge to compare the problematic quiz and a previous quiz side-by-side.

Turns out the difference between the two is the use of WebEQ Java applets. (The problem-free quiz used GIF images instead of applets.) I think the anti-malware software of the student and Tier1 both reacted to the Java applet. Here is one of the items used.

<applet code=”webeq.Main” archive=”/path/to/jar/WebEQ2Applet.jar” width=1899 height=40 align=middle><param name=eq value=”<math> <mrow> <semantics> <mrow> <mi>f</mi> <mo stretchy=’false’>(</mo> <mi>x</mi> <mo stretchy=’false’>)</mo> <mo>=</mo> <mn>2</mn> <msup> <mi>x</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup> <mo>+</mo> <mn>3</mn> <mi>x</mi> <mo>+</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> <annotation type=’MathType’/> </semantics> </mrow></math>”><param name=color value=”#ffffff”><param name=parser value=”mathml”></applet>

The way WebEQ passes the parameters as XML inside a parameter tag strikes me as very odd. Maybe causes anti-malware to trigger a false positive?

These applets have been a problem in the past, as many were hard coded into the HTML prior to Vista incorporating this into the equation editor. Vista instead, uses a parameter block to pass the values to the applet.

I think our instructional designers are moving away from use of WebEQ as it has been consumed so much of their time, they hate it now.

Feb

27

Quick Enough?

Filed Under Overheard | Leave a Comment

Overheard in cube land…

Analyst: Quick question which I think will have a quick answer.
DBA: Okay.
Analyst: Can we–
DBA: No! Is that quick enough?

It was humor. Both laughed.

Feb

27

Coolest Last Name

Filed Under Humor / Weird | 2 Comments

I get some variant of, “You have the coolest last name,” from many strangers. Freelove sounds hippie, care free, and … well… loving. Its nice, you know?

Marriage proposals over how cool it is… That is new.

Sharon: Is “Freelove” really your name?
Ezra: Yes, it is.
Sharon: Can I marry you?

About a year ago, a woman said she would love to marry me just to get the name. This is the first time a woman just asked.

Feb

27

Open Letter to Users of Email Autoresponders

Filed Under Computers | Leave a Comment

Hi,

Some people work in positions requiring high amounts of near constant contact. There is technology for this. One popular is the Blackberry which allows the user to no longer sit in front of the computer all the time.

If more than one person is capable of doing the job you do, then set up an email alias. Such aliases can direct a message to multiple recipients. This means should you be out of the office, then your coworker can pick up the slack. No need to set up an autoresponder.

Do you really trust the world to know you are out of town for a week? That screams Come find my house and take all my stuff while I am away. Thanks!

Finally, if I email a discussion email list and not you specifically, then do you really need to tell me that you are out of the office?

Ezra

Feb

25

Mozilla Prism Self-Signed SSL Issue

Filed Under Computers, Interweb | 1 Comment

I have been looking to use Prism. A gotcha I hit was it balked at any site using a self-signed SSL certificate. A recommendation was to copy the cert8.db file from a Firefox  profile to a Prism profile. This actually worked.

Locating it is a bit of a pain in the ass on Windows. It is in what would be a hidden folder, so some layers have to be opened up just to get to it. Copy from <user>/Application Data/Mozilla/profiles/default  to <user>/Application Data/Prism/default.

Excellent. Now it is a fair evaluation.

Feb

24

Persuasion

Filed Under Philosophy, Religion / Baha'i Faith | Leave a Comment

When I present my ideas, my intent is just to provide what I know or think without bias. The information just… is. The good, the bad, and the ugly all need to be in front of the decision maker(s) to have a chance at a quality decision. From my perspective, the information I provide belongs to the group or individual making the decision not myself. This is based on principles of Baha’i consultation which I have used for years.

Trying to force agreement by influencing a decision through information control, I think has the opposite effect. People may sense the agenda and resist being manipulated. Anything said forward from that point would be suspect and minimized and possibly outright ignored. People can handle the truth.

Feb

23

Blackboard Won Suit Against D2L

Filed Under Corporations, Gov't & Politics | Leave a Comment

Blackboard acquired patent ‘138 and brought a lawsuit against Desire2Learn. I would say 80-90% of the commentary about this case has been from anti-Blackboard crowd with about 90% of the rest from the let’s-wait-and-see crowd. Blackboard very much has been mum on the subject. I do not recall a blog of a single Blackboard supporter saying how great it will be for them to win this case. All I have seen are assurances from Bb they do not intend to sue into the ground open source (after EDUCAUSE got on Bb’s case).

I understand motivations for filing a patent request. I understand why they started the lawsuit after getting the patent. What I don’t understand is the reasoning for why the patent was awarded. Also, I don’t understand why Blackboard won the lawsuit. In truth, I probably both have more and less information.

  1. Examiner’s notes would describe the other bases of information about the decision.
  2. Transcripts of the trial would describe what information the jury heard.

Lacking, this information, I cannot really put myself in the shoes of the people who made these decisions to understand why they were made.

In the realm of public opinion, Blackboard certainly has given its vocal detractors very strong ammunition. Mainly the complaints are about using lawsuits to suppress smaller companies and establish dominance rather than innovation to win over new customers. It is about fear and uncertainty.

Drink the Kool-Aid!!

Feb

19

A Return To Educational Segregation

Filed Under Education | 2 Comments

Huh… A nearby school system plans to segregate sexes.The administrators say the research they have reviewed says boys and girls learn better in different environments: 1) Girls need quiet time. 2) Boys need to express themselves.

Probably the Hawthorne Effect will cause scores to increase for the first couple years. :D So they will stick with it. The parents will buy that it is working.

If not, then this school board will be voted out very quickly.

Feb

19

Literacy

Filed Under Education | 1 Comment

Before we react to the lower amount of reading, what exactly is the problem we seek to solve?

Is the problem declining student reading scores? We need to improve reading comprehension. Students may need to learn how to read more effectively so increasing the quantity may not help that much.

Is the problem half of adults read no books in a year? Is that really a problem? What adults do seems to be the canary for pointing out how we are a culture going to collapse soon. Two, three generations later, we are still here… More wealthy and concerned about a wider variety of issues.

Howard Gardner has an interesting article in the Washington Post about how the form of reading has changed over time. Just because we read out of books in the 18th to 20th centuries doesn’t mean books will remain the primary form ideas will be delivered in the 21st century.

Feb

19

Marbles in the Mouth

Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment

Dava Sobel on John Harrison in Longitute:

Harrison, according to those who admired him most, never could express himself clearly in writing. He wrote with the scrivener’s equivalent of marbles in his mouth…. The first sentence [of his last published work] runs on, virtually punctuated, for twenty-five pages.

I propose we call long winded typing which no can understand the point “Marble keys”.

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