I know dick about technology (maybe more than that, but not a whole lot) and I saw through this from the beginning. As has been noted, had this guy allowed all this info to be compromised he’d be in deep, deep shit – having lost a client, grant money and possibly a job. He’d be crying like a little girl, not pretending to be John Wayne. Seriously, anyone who belived this is really gullible.
Guess they don’t need stain remover?
That’s Professor Rine. The class in question was Biology 1A (intro Biology). His rationale is that there’s so much information being produced that it’s better to know concepts and how to apply them.
He won the Distinguished Teaching Award back in '97, which I suspect is where the quote came from; you can read about it if you’d like.
My professor for intro biology taped all his lectures for a year and you can now buy the whole set at the bookstore or borrow it at the library. He’s the only one I know of who does this.
Although the ninjas (no caps; not a proper name, no apostrophe; plural rather than possessive) might have been repulsive, the word you’re looking for may very well be rappelling.
Buttered arse. Even with no technological knowledge you could tell from the guy’s body language and how hard he’s thinking about it–and how uncomfortable his delivery is–that he’s bullshitting.
Yeah recording lectures on video is becoming more and more common. I did research for a guy two years ago where we worked on a system to allow students to search the audio track of a recording of their lecture and thus rewatch parts of the lecture pertinent to their question. So they could search their Comp Engineering lecture for “Fourier” and see where in the lecture he talked about them.
Very interesting stuff.
I agree, but the average not too bright college student knows more about computers than the average middle aged professor. And anyone with a little bit of ability to read body language and speech pattern knows he doesn’t believe himself. I think that he would have gotten farther towards getting the laptop back if he woulda stood up and said “OK, you got my laptop, now there is some important data on it I’d like to get back. I’ll look in the trash can in the corner of the classroom tomorrow at noon and hope that there is a computer there. No questions asked.”
I know I’d be a lot more likely to return the laptop if the victim used the seccond method–his story is slightly more transparent than outside air due again to not only the ridiculousness but also his body language and speech patterns, and anyway even if you believed it you’d be more likely to toss it in the trash or try harder to hide it.
Or even, “I know somebody in this room stole my laptop in order to see the upcoming test. You apparently weren’t aware that campus security has a video monitoring system throughout the college. They have been alerted and are in the process of reviewing all of the tapes from last night. There are a number of tapes and that process will probably take a day or two. My best advice to the thief is to come forward now and ask for clemency rather than wait until your identity is revealed on tape. I have spoken to the Dean and he has agreed to handle this matter within the college and not seek expulsion if the person steps forward. But if you do not turn yourself in voluntarily, campus security will be forced to turn the tape identifying you over to the local police in order to obtain a warrant for your room to be searched. And at that point you will be facing criminal charges as well as expulsion.”
(emphasis added by me). Good idea except for that phrase - you don’t want to unnecessarily encourage the idea of making the laptop “disappear”.
there’s another detail that made my bullshit meter jump: the prof says he is" the only person on the planet who can tell whether the data has been compromised".
So there is supposedly a file worth $100 million of data used by the NIH, and this prof is the only guy who has the data. Yeah, right.