State: Answers were erased on 14,220 STAAR tests | www.mystatesman.com:

State officials are threatening to reconsider a $280 million contract with its testing vendor after answers to 14,220 state standardized tests were erased because of a computer glitch last week.

I recently received a notice from my kid’s after-school care provider that they had setup an online service to check on the bill and update personal information, etc. Well, that’s nice — I thought — so I hopped right on setup the account.

At first, some good signs. All the accounts were pre-setup with the registered email and a password was pre-set that was based on some information most people wouldn’t have. Not perfect, but better than most.

Microsoft Surface product placement in CNN election coverage fails as iPads revealed behind them:

Microsoft must have thought it had pulled off a nice piece of product placement when it gave CNN election commentators a bunch of Surface Pro tablets to help with their coverage. CNN dutifully covered its desks with the devices, resulting in a series of proud tweets from Microsoft fans.

There was just one small problem, noted by GeekWire: a closer look revealed that hidden behind the Surface tablets were the iPads that commentators were actually using. In one case, the commentator was actually using her Surface tablet as a stand for her iPad.