So if you need more time to cram just upload with this image format
Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
61–70 of 577 posts
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We need some sort of standard for software engineering quality. I don't think this is an academic question anymore. Real people's lives are being impacted every day now by shoddy software, and with the current crisis they often have no alternative. Software that you or I could probably have executed better, but that the people who were hired to do it either a) couldn't, or b) didn't bother. It's nearly impossible f…
New sweat, tears and duct tape solutions are being created every day. Let's start by focusing on the ones coming down the pipe.
Which would still face the same problem: the government would rather pay multiple times for crappy software at a lower price than one big bill for quality software the first time.
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
18F released a pretty good guide about these topics but I can't shake the feeling that many organizations aren't willing to learn these lessons. https://github.com/18F/technology-budgeting/blob/master/hand...
Guidelines are well and good, but they aren't really helpful when the people who care about them can't enforce them and vice-versa. What we need is accountability when it comes to the engineers who work on systems that are critical to large swaths of society.
You think this was an engineering decision? These failing systems were probably contracted to a politically connected company that subcontracted to lowest bidder. Not only that, but that usually these systems were created with COBOL means that it was likely created a very long time ago and minimally updated as laws/requirements changed to be compliant but thats it.
Thats not the fault of the engineer(s). A surge in traffic in the 80s or whenever it was initially created very well may have been able to be handled as designed and its normal traffic in modern pre-COVID times was the equivalent of a constant "surge" when initially designed. It was already on life support and needed a rewrite 10 years ago. Some software engineering certification/quality board wouldn't account for 30 year old systems design and population. Those are political and budget/prioritization issues. It would be a near equivalent of a bridge that was built then ignored for 50 years collapsing when a modern 18 wheeler drives over it.
All the new systems getting spun up ASAP are just quick hacks to try and get some way of addressing the problem. They are bound to be full of failures by the nature of the rapid development cycle and current crisis. In a situation like this, a quality board like proposed would be granting exceptions left and right because theoretically, something is better than nothing.
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#64While it sounds like the College Board may be at fault for some of the issues, like the test timing out when HEIC images were sent or the initial communication of the issue, I wouldn't be so quick to place all of the blame on them. Part of the problem is how we more-or-less glorify an ignorance of technology. This can be seen in both students trying to change the file type by changing the file extension and JPEG bein…
> JPEG being referred to as a "most compatible" rather than by name in the settings.
The settings do explicitly mention JPEG though:
> Most Compatible will always use JPEG/H.264...
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#65Here's the relevant frontend source code for the file upload picker, if anyone's wondering (webpack://src/components/exam/submissions/FileInput.js): { const [file] = Object.keys(e.target.files).map(key => e.target.files[key]) const fileSizeInMb = file.size/(CONVERSION_BASE*CONVERSION_BASE) const fileSizeInKb = file.size/CONVERSION_BASE const split = file.name.split('.') const fileType = split[split.length-1].toLowerC…
So do we know yet why iOS wasn't auto-converting the HEIC images? Is it because they didn't use mime types in the `accept` attribute?
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the HTTP "accept" tag play a role here? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Ac...
I don't follow. How does the "Accept" header factor in here?
Rule of least astonishment would be that the file is converted unless the accept header lists the heif file. At least by the expectations Apple set up, which don’t match up with standards.
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Guidelines are well and good, but they aren't really helpful when the people who care about them can't enforce them and vice-versa. What we need is accountability when it comes to the engineers who work on systems that are critical to large swaths of society.
You think this was an engineering decision? These failing systems were probably contracted to a politically connected company that subcontracted to lowest bidder. Not only that, but that usually these systems were created with COBOL means that it was likely created a very long time ago and minimally updated as laws/requirements changed to be compliant but thats it. Thats not the fault of the engineer(s). A surge in t…
> These failing systems were probably contracted to a politically connected company that subcontracted to lowest bidder.
And what if that government body established a policy that all contractors had to be certified engineers who hadn't lost their certification due to past negligence? Suddenly there's a much higher floor for "lowest bidder".
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#68This is the latest in a string of incidents where critical software systems, facing new pressure due to the pandemic, are catastrophically failing their users. I think what's happened in the past is that most public-facing software systems either a) were not really critical (because people had the alternative of doing things in-person), or b) (as in the case of all the ancient COBOL systems underpinning the US gov) h…
> If not governmental, maybe an organization around this could be made by developers themselves.
These exist. The ACM and IEEE CS are best-known, but there are also various national bodies (ACS in Australia, BCS in the UK etc).
> Not the "certified for $technology" certifications we have now, but a certification of fundamental software engineering skills and principles.
The IEEE Computer Society has such a thing, maintained in various forms since about 2002[0]. The ACM and IEEE CS also publish a software engineering curriculum that they are prepared to recognise[1]. They also have a jointly-published Code of Ethics[2].
I sincerely agree with you that our profession is mostly a disaster area. But one thing other professions have that we lack is (1) fairly worked-out fundamental theoretical bases, or at least long experience to draw on, and (2) legal enforcement of standards.
[0] https://www.computer.org/education/certifications
[1] https://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations
[2] https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/software-engineering-c...
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#69Here's the relevant frontend source code for the file upload picker, if anyone's wondering (webpack://src/components/exam/submissions/FileInput.js): { const [file] = Object.keys(e.target.files).map(key => e.target.files[key]) const fileSizeInMb = file.size/(CONVERSION_BASE*CONVERSION_BASE) const fileSizeInKb = file.size/CONVERSION_BASE const split = file.name.split('.') const fileType = split[split.length-1].toLowerC…
I'm trying to square this with the fact people pointed out downthread, which is that iPhones will automatically convert HEIC images to jpeg from an HTML input form. Perhaps it's the `isAllowedExtension` check? If `e.target.files` is the actual file names on disk (and not whatever temporary file the browser made out of the HEIC file), that would cause a problem.
Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
#70Ugh, as someone who took a number of AP exams back in the day, the idea of completing the entire exam and then having to redo it weeks later because of something like this is just painful. I think I agree with the sentiment that these students should be allowed to re-submit their existing answers, despite the obvious concern about cheating.