Georgia Tech and Udacity — the online courseware project led by Sebastian Thrun — have announced a plan to offer an accredited M.S. Computer Science program online. The two organizations are also working with AT&T. This is the first time a major university has made an actual degree available solely through the MOOC format. Getting a degree in this manner is going to be much cheaper than a traditional degree: “… students also will pay a fraction of the cost of traditional on-campus master’s programs; total tuition for the program is initially expected to be below $7,000.” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have quickly become one of the most significant catalysts of innovation in higher education. As parents know all too well, America urgently needs new ideas about how to make higher education accessible and affordable. This new collaboration between Georgia Tech, AT&T and Udacity, and the application of the MOOC concept to advanced-degree programs, will further the national debate — pushing from conversations about technology to new models of instruction and new linkages between higher education and employers.” Georgia Tech is looking at the big picture: “At present, around 160,000 master’s degrees are bestowed in the United States every year in computer science and related subject disciplines; the worldwide market is almost certainly much larger, perhaps even an order of magnitude larger.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Georgia Tech and Udacity Partner for Online M.S. in Computer Science
Apple apparently has the power to decrypt iPhone storage in response to law-enforcement requests, though they won’t say how. Google can remotely “reset the password” for a phone for cops, too: Last year, leaked training materials prepared by the Sacramento sheriff’s office included a form that would require Apple to “assist law enforcement agents” with “bypassing the cell phone user’s passcode so that the agents may search the iPhone.” Google takes a more privacy-protective approach: it “resets the password and further provides the reset password to law enforcement,” the materials say, which has the side effect of notifying the user that his or her cell phone has been compromised. Ginger Colbrun, ATF’s public affairs chief, told CNET that “ATF cannot discuss specifics of ongoing investigations or litigation. ATF follows federal law and DOJ/department-wide policy on access to all communication devices.” …The ATF’s Maynard said in an affidavit for the Kentucky case that Apple “has the capabilities to bypass the security software” and “download the contents of the phone to an external memory device.” Chang, the Apple legal specialist, told him that “once the Apple analyst bypasses the passcode, the data will be downloaded onto a USB external drive” and delivered to the ATF. It’s not clear whether that means Apple has created a backdoor for police — which has been the topic of speculation in the past — whether the company has custom hardware that’s faster at decryption, or whether it simply is more skilled at using the same procedures available to the government. Apple declined to discuss its law enforcement policies when contacted this week by CNET. It’s not clear to me from the above whether Google “resetting the password” for Android devices merely bypasses the lock-screen or actually decrypts the mass storage on the phone if it has been encrypted. I also wonder if the “decryption” Apple undertakes relies on people habitually using short passwords for their phones — the alternative being a lot of screen-typing in order to place a call. Apple deluged by police demands to decrypt iPhones [Declan McCullagh/CNet] ( via /. ) 
The restructuring of the ailing TV maker includes pruning the global workforce and executives. [Read more] 
ATF says no law enforcement agency could unlock a defendant’s iPhone, but Apple can “bypass the security software” if it chooses. Apple has created a police waiting list because of high demand. [Read more]