James Purtilo

Associate Professor of Computer Science
University of Maryland at College Park
4437 AV Williams Building, 301.405.2706
purtilo @ cs.umd.edu

Research

• Software Engineering @ Maryland

Academics

• (Fall 2017) CMSC 435: Software Engineeering
• QUEST Faculty
• Course Outtakes

... on Computer Science

• There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
• People say that if you play Microsoft CD's backwards, you hear satanic things, but that's nothing, because if you play one forwards, it installs Windows.
• "The problem with quotes on the Internet is that they cannot be verified." -- Abraham Lincoln, 1865

... on College Park

• Institutions of higher learning have no place for free thinkers. In fact, here you must pay a lot to be allowed to think like everyone else.
• He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

... on Everything

• "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." -- Winston Churchill
• "Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." -- Sen. Davy Crockett
• I slept, and dreamed that life is beauty;
  I woke, and found that life is duty.
• Freedom is not free.
• Things to read, things to watch.
• Accumulated quotes, lest we would forget.

Commentary and Resources

• hyperbolic.cs.umd.edu is my reblog for developments of interest to people who are concerned with privacy and the quality of information used in deciding policy.
• Telecommunications Jobs with a Security Clearance (2017-10-19, ClearanceJobs.com)
• HBO Cyberattack Driven By Mysterious Motives (2017-08-04, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Millions May Have Picked Up FalseGuide Malware at Google Play Store (2017-04-26, TechNewsWorld.com)
• WikiLeaks Exposes CIA's Device Surveillance Tricks (2017-03-23, ECT News)
• Do IT Certifications Pay Off and What are the Best Certifications to Have? (2017-02-21, ClearanceJobs.com)
• Is a Master's Degree Worth the Cost? (2017-02-20, ClearanceJobs.com)
• iPhone Call Logs Easy Pickings on iCloud, Says Russian Security Firm (2016-11-17, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Tech on TV: A Little Realism Goes a Long Way (2016-10-27, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Senate Leadership Rebuffs Cruz's Shutdown Threat Over Internet Control (2016-09-23, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Cybersecurity for Recruiters (2016-10-12, ClearanceJobs.com)
• Human Resources Cybersecurity (2016-10-19, ClearanceJobs.com)
• WhatsApp Shaves Off a Little More Privacy (2016-08-25, E-Commerce Times)
• Spies and iPhones - Why the Apple, FBI Showdown Has Been a Long Time Coming (2016-04-17, ClearanceJobs.com)
• Why College Park Doesn't Lead in Computer Science Education (2016-03-25, Faculty Voice)
• TalkTalk Attacked, Hit With Ransom Demand (2015-10-23, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Ashley Madison could be a sticky honeypot for the military (2015-09-02, Fortune.com)
• Google works to rank sites based on 'truthfulness' (2015-03-05, Fox News)
• Cyber Legislation, Education, and A Healthy Dose of Realism (2015-01-19, Cyber Frontiers)
• Brief Amici Curiae of Experts in Computer Science, In re: National Security Letter, Under Seal v. Holder (2014-04-01, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; amicus unsealed 2014-05-30)
• House vote limits NSA data collection, but experts say it won't stop government snooping (2014-05-23, redOrbit.com)
• Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Cybersecurity, Security Technologies, and the Privacy Issues Surrounding Us All (2014-04-19, Cyber Frontiers)
• NSA snoops extend ops to online games (2013-12-09, E-Commerce Times)
• Judge cuts Google no slack in wiretap case (2013-09-27, E-Commerce Times)
• What passes for 'business as usual' on this campus can be over the top (2013-09-26, Fox News) To the Honors Director's assertion "This year, we learned that it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida." No. It's not.
• Whither Excellence? (2013-09-21) A 2011 invited essay on our trajectory at College Park that the Faculty Voice will neither accept, reject, request a revision or explain its silence.
• Cheating is rife in colleges - by admissions officers (2013-08-12, Hyperbolic) On the smokescreen created by campuses in order to maintain an unjust business-as-usual.
• The expansion of contingent faculty: Precarious working conditions in the house of intellectual enlightenment (2013-03-30, Faculty Voice)
• Raytheon May Know Where You've Been - and Where You're Going (2013-02-11, TechNewsWorld.com)
• SEAM is dead (2013-01-15) A decade after its launch, the Software Engineering @ Maryland co-op is a victim of the department's administrative indifference. Are you an upperclassman feeling the squeeze on available 400-level seats? An ambitious senior eager for an edge in competing for top industrial positions after you graduate? Write the department chairman and ask why SEAM's advanced courses in product assurance faced higher administrative hurdles than courses offered in other areas. Meanwhile, long live SEAM. The cooperative may be dead, but the core team is still active.
• Comments on UM's proposed strategic plan for information technology (2012-11-10)
• Underneath the surface: Some observations on promotion and tenure (2012-10-31, Faculty Voice)
• Maryland's tech education effort does not compute (2012-07-17, Baltimore Sun)
• Brief of Scholars of Economics and Statistics as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, in the matter of Fisher v. Texas (2012-05-29, US Supreme Court)
• Support and opposition dig in as CISPA clears house (2012-04-27, TechNewsWorld.com)
• Guns on college campuses (2011-08-11, C-SPAN Public Affairs Event, National Press Club, Washington DC)
• Activists and politicians discuss the right to carry concealed weapons on college campuses (2011-08-11, Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Conservative media link affirmative action to illegal immigration (2011-05-19, Chronicle of Higher Education)
• University insiders: illegal immigrants get affirmative action (2011-05-17, FoxNews.com)
• The Halperin legacy (2010-05-17) Years of neglect made the case for merging one declining college with one weak college in hopes of salvaging one winner. This article sketches what an objective review might have found had campus leaders followed their own rules before making new appointments and organizational changes.
• Back in CS -- with personal honor intact (2010)
• State of the CMPS Undergraduate Office: Issues of Today and Recommendations for Tomorrow (2009-09-07) A report that lays out the history of undergraduate office efforts on behalf of students and what we sought permission to try in the future. (Also available is a transmittal letter which summarizes recommendations given in this report.) See for yourself how many of these concerns turned out to be well-justified by later developments, and how many remain issues today in the merged colleges.
• Data woes in CMPS (2009-08-18) A report to the dean which documents how much the college policy of willful ignorance on data and analysis costs us in student outcomes.
• To really lie you need Wikipedia (2007) Consumers already know to be wary of random assertions they find on the web. The Wikipedia entry for "John Lott" gives a classic example of why consumers should be not only careful to check the assertions they find on the web, but also the quality and policies of the source.