Interesting Article on Grade Inflation

Well, I guess school was far less adversarial for me. I can recall leaving hardware projects sit on open benches unattended for weeks at a time without fear that someone would "move a few wires" (how would you ever *know* it had been perturbed?)

OTOH, it was a somewhat popular pastime to crash the computer systems for each individual class the night before a homework assignment was due! Seems like every professor had his own pet, homegrown OS running on his own mainframe/mini. And, as all were "research vehicles" (i.e., "not ready for prime time"), they were usually littered with trivial exploits.

E.g., one of these systems had two mounted "volumes". A surefire way to bring the system down was to list the contents of volume "2" (recall, most start counting with '0') and leave the lab while the output buffers in the DECwriters were still spilling their last hundred characters onto the paper printouts. Then, hear the sudden quiet that results and the groans of those poor folks who won't be turning in their homework assignment in the morning! :>

My experience is quite like yours. That sort of thing wasn't done. People moaned about the curve-busters but that was more jealousy than anything else. I guess it's because it was a public university. ;-)

The EE department computer (Bendix G-20s - a pair, and a third for parts) had no safeguards on it, intentionally. People didn't mess with it because it was so easy to crash. The CS department computers (360s) were "bullet proofed" and a challenge to some.

Sure, but peer pressure kept people in line. ;-)

rote:

ated from Harvard Law School in 1972, served as a captain in the U.S. Army' s military intelligence unit and once practiced law in Arizona.

ough to hire those freaks gets what they deserve:

deserves ridicule.

Another Harvard student made the news again today, emailed in bomb threats to get out of taking final exam. Even though he used Tor and Guerrilla Mail , they traced him as logged into to Tor on the university wireless net just prior to time emails were sent. They were on him by COB and he confessed t he whole thing in "interview" with FBI and University PD. He's looking at 5 years.