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California teen phished his teachers to change grades
Phishing attacks have been a key part of some of the most high-profile hacks in recent years, but they're also used in smaller, less diabolical schemes as well. KTVU reports that a student at Ygnacio Valley High School in California used a phishing scam to access the school district's computer system and change a number of students' grades. He was arrested last week on 14 felony counts.
15 Minutes of Fame: Honors student hits the mark in WoW and life
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. This might be just a little bit embarrassing, but by way of introduction this week, I'd like to reprint the note this week's featured player emailed us last December in response to a call-out for WoW-playing honors students. Its summary of achievements really can't be beat. Hello Lisa, I'm 17, and ... I've played World of Warcraft since late Burning Crusade while maintaining a 91.2 GPA. I've even taken several Advanced Placement courses, which offer me college credit including world history, human geography, literature and composition, and physics. In addition to completing multiple 10-man hard modes of Icecrown Citadel, I've taken on a lot of other responsibilities as a student. I've been a National Honors Society member for three years along with a member and co-captain of an award winning robotics program sponsored by FIRST. On top of that, I don a swimsuit after school for the varsity level swim team. I've played trombone throughout my years of WoW (nine years of the trombone total), playing in the school's jazz band, symphonic band, symphonic orchestra, and marching band, in which I also hold the position of associate drum major. Just this year, I became one of the founding members of the Math Honors Society, in which I spend my mornings before school tutoring other students who just don't quite understand the work. As another bit of school community service, I head over to the middle school as a co-coach, mentor, and former member of the FIRST Lego League robotics club/team. Now, as if my schedule outside of World of Warcraft wasn't busy enough, I'm a second-degree black belt who has studied martial arts for nearly 13 years while also teaching classes, aiding at seminars, and working with disabled/mentally impaired individuals. You'd think I'd have no time for anything at this point, but somehow I squeeze in another job cooking in a New York City restaurant. It's more of an on-call basis, but I cook, wait tables, and assist in instructing cooking classes as well. For my summers, I will admit I do end up taking small breaks from WoW, but it's allowed me to see the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Egypt, and a decent amount of other countries/places. It's also given me time to become a certified SCUBA diver who's Rescue certified and qualified as an Emergency First Responder as well as picking up some International Yacht Training sailing certifications. Oh, did I mention I have four 80's and a 72? Today, Kuhfleisch (Kirin Tor) is an 18-year-old freshman at Texas A&M University at Galveston. He's still keeping up the grades, still keeping up the extracurriculars -- and still keeping up World of Warcraft.
Interview with Jeremy Olson of the Grades app
Created by Jeremy Olson of Tapity, the Grades app is a tool for students to help them earn the grade they want in a class and achieve their target GPA. The app lets students input their current grades, list upcoming assignments and finally set their target grade or GPA. The app will calculate the scores students need on their upcoming assignments to turn a D into an A. We had a chance to interview this budding developer, and we talked with him about programming, payment and promotion. Read on for a closer look at this developer and his experience with iOS.
1UP's letter grade conversion explained, analyzed
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/1UP_s_letter_grade_conversion_explained_analyzed'; Update 2: 1UP Vice President Simon Cox has contacted Joystiq to let us know there are some bugs associated with the current roll out of the conversion formula. Specifically, Cox said the full range of grades (including those marked with a dash in the chart) should have been used in the conversion, and will be when the bug is fixed by the end of the week We'll update the chart and this post when that happens.Update: Since there appears to be some confusion in the comments, a dash in the "Number" column on the chart means that there's no number score that corresponds to that letter grade.As part of a planned reorganization, 1UP today switched from its well-known 0-10 review scale to a school-style letter grading scheme. The changeover included a conversion of all existing review scores on the site from numbers to letters, but, as Editorial Director Dan Hsu told N'gai Croal, the site will not be publishing a simple conversion scale to figure out which old number ratings apply to which new letter grades, Hsu says they're keeping the scale close to their chest "because we want our readers to go with our new scoring system and not be constantly translating the new letters back to our old scores."Where's the fun in that? We compared some old numerical ratings to the new letter grades for ourselves and created the handy (if a bit ugly) conversion chart on the right. Read on for way too much analysis of the score conversion and what it means for evaluating 1UP review scores going forward.
Study: Video games affect studying time; Us: *gasp*
A study found that students who had a video game player to distract them in college studied 40 minutes less and it translated to a first-semester drop of 0.241 points on a 4.0 scale. The study by two professors at Univ. of Western Ontario and Berea College wasn't looking at video games, just the effects of studying on grades. The study had 210 subjects and gathered information by having them fill out "time-use diaries."The study says that students who had a roommate bring a game console to school showed a substantial drop in time spent studying. These students did "not exhibit different levels of class attendance, partying, study efficiency or paid employment - all factors that also could affect grades ... This means that the lower grades of students whose roommates brought video games can be attributed to the fact that these students studied less." The simple lesson to walk away from this is that if you're going to play video games, make sure it doesn't affect your study time. That's it, lesson learned.
Grade-grubbing GameStop manager gets suspended
Usually, we're all for retail policies that encourage good grades. What overachieving student doesn't love bringing their report card in for free tokens at Chuck E Cheese's or a slice of Sbarro's pizza? Still, we have to think that Dallas-area GameStop manager Brandon Scott took the concept a little too far when he started refusing to sell games to students who didn't have good grades.Dallas/Fort Worth's WFAA reported last Thursday on Scott, who said he denied games to about two dozen children who didn't have a parent to vouch for their academic achievement. "He needs to be reading a book. He knows how to play Madden before he knows how to do his ABCs and 123s - that's backwards!" Scott told the reporter, adding that "I'm probably going to get in trouble for this."Well, he was right on that last point, at least. By Friday, WFAA was reporting that Scott had been suspended by GameStop's corporate offices, though Scott said he wasn't sure if the punishment was for the policy or simply for talking about it to the media. GameStop, for its part, said in an e-mail to WFAA that they were "evaluating Mr. Scott's concept," and had a "corporate commitment to assisting parents and other consumers in making informed choices."That's great, and we'd encourage GameStop to endorse Scott's policy of buying a game for anyone who brings in a report card with straight A's. But even stupid kids deserve entertainment, and keeping them from it isn't just a bad policy but bad business.[Via Pre-order Pushers]Read - Store only sells video games to kids with good gradesRead - GameStop manager suspended after 'games for grades' policy
GameDaily grades the consoles, PSP gets a B
AOL-owned GameDaily recently gave grades to all of the consoles. They gave the PSP a very respectable "B." Here are some excerpts of their review:Though overshadowed by the Nintendo DS, the PSP still holds its own with a more mature game lineup, plus music playback, Web browsing and media storage... The UMD movie market may be slowly dying, but the game supply is holding steady. Younger gamers will like Daxter and Loco Roco; the nostalgia gamers can relive the past with Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins and Capcom Classics Collection; and mainstream players can pick up Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Madden NFL '07."The system is praised for its more mature game variety. They recommend that a price drop would do a lot to help the PSP, and it would make the system "an easy choice for those who aren't into Nintendo's style." Nintendo's style, of course, net the Nintendo DS an "A" because of its position as a "gotta-have gadget."[Via Cold Pixel]
More on WoW Addiction in Students
From today's issue of the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the school paper of Colorado State University, comes another article concerning the addictive properties of WoW and the effects it can have on one's schoolastic life. The article talks with several students who detail the reasons that they just can't break themselves away from the game screen, and touches on numerous other points that we've all heard before, but shouldn't expect to hear the last of any time soon.One student does have a good quote illustrating why he no longer plays the game, however: "I like to live, breathe and eat, so I don't play that game anymore."
