(no subject)

Alison Yowell teaches in the Loudoun County public school system, in Sterling. She also has Hodgkin's disease, which had been in remission but recurred in September. After she used up all her sick days (ten, plus three personal days) for treatment and asked to take unpaid leave, her school administrators, in a stunning display of sensitivity, fired her. Well, technically she was forced to resign before she was fired because she hadn't been working for the school system long enough to be eligible for leave without pay.

Yowell said she knew Loudoun policies when she was hired.

"I know what they've done is completely legal," Yowell said. "I don't feel this policy is ethical."

School Board member Priscilla B. Godfrey (Blue Ridge), who chairs the committee that oversees personnel issues, said the district views matters differently.

"As an employer, you have to watch out for yourself," Godfrey said. "To her, it would be an unethical result. But legally, if you have a policy on your books, everyone is treated the same, and everybody has to toe the line, whatever that line may be. Otherwise, it's not a policy."

I can't imagine why Loudoun says they're having trouble recruiting enough qualified teachers. If I can go work in Fairfax, one county over, and not have to wait 90 days to take unpaid leave in case of medical emergency, why wouldn't I?

(no subject)

Hackers steal ID info from George Mason University. Apparently they nabbed information from a server that stored details relating to campus ID cards, including names, photos and SSNs for students, faculty and staff.

*ahem*

[GMU] also is home to the Information Security Institute, the Lab for Information Security Technology and the Center for Secure Information Systems, which has been designated a "Center of Academic Excellence" by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Oops.

(no subject)

Today is Setting Orange, the 10th day of Chaos in the YOLD 3171
[The return of ddate!]

Not necessarily a good sign when you look at a bit of code and think "There's no way I could've written that". Actually, in this case, I *didn't* write that code fragment, so it's okay that I feel like I've never seen it before. The problem is that right now I can't write this @#$% PHP code to save my life because I seem to have forgotten nearly everything I ever knew about PHP. This sucks, Beavis. ( Here's where I turn into Whingey McWhingerson. )

Well, I don't feel better per se after that, but at least it didn't hurt. I think I'm going to go home now and see if working on revamping my website makes me feel any better. Probably not, unless I get my laptop fixed and am magically transported to a sunny location to sit on the beach with a fruity drink with an umbrella in it and a stable wireless connection. And a cabana boy who will keep fetching me those foofy drinks.

Oh yeah, anyone got a good Subversion reference? Never mind, I found it.

(no subject)

Because I love you all and I'm an enabler, I will point out to you that the lovely tafkar is selling a metric boatload of books. You know you want them.