Terry Calhoun, IT Trends Commentator
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
University of Michigan

Coding While Muslim

I don't know about you, but since the very early days of the World Wide Web, a lot of my time has been spent assisting a wide range of nonprofit organizations in obtaining domain registrations, designing, setting up, and maintaining Web sites. That's why I was chilled the first time I dove into news information about the Patriot Act-based charges against Sami Omar al-Hussayen, a Saudi National completing a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Idaho.

On the one hand, the Department of Justice was claiming that al-Hussayen had built and maintained an Internet network for terrorists. But every time I read the specifics about what he did, it sounded like the sort of stuff I do all the time for various nonprofit organizations. And it sounds a lot like that Patriot Act clause could be held against anyone working on a campus IT resource that is misused.
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Staying on Top of the Oracle/PeopleSoft Hearings

Department of Justice witnesses so far are testifying in ways that support the government's case that there is limited competition in the EPR field.
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PC Users Play 'Dodge the Hacker'

Comparing using a computer nowadays to playing a game of dodge ball, with viruses, worms, and spam taking the place of the dreaded volleyball, this author summarizes the current state of security issues affecting Internet users.
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More Testing for PeopleSoft in North Dakota

Citing a desire to test its ability to handle research grant and contract money, North Dakota is delaying the implementation of PeopleSoft enterprise software at its three largest universities.
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Less Hacking for Access Going One

Incidents of hacking to gain access to computers for unauthorized use continue to drop, with only 53 percent of companies reporting such intrusions in the past year--a new low.
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Missing UCLA Laptop Contains 145,000 Blood Donors' Personal Information

The laptop went missing late in 2003 but UCLA officials only recently discovered that the blood donor information was on that particular machine. Per California law, they are engaged in a massive campaign - UCLA's second such in recent months - to notify individuals of the possible exposure of their personal information.
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Purdue to Wire More of Its Green Space

Recently ranked by Intel as the #2 most unwired campuses, right behind Indiana, Purdue says it has more access points than Indiana and thinks it could capture the #1 spot by covering a little more of the campus' green spaces.
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U. of Hawaii at Manoa Campus Launches New, Distinct Web Site

The new Web site is the result of a thoroughly integrated planning process that involved a lot of the university community and is informed by the university's strategic plan. It uses Milonic javascript technology for its navigation menus.
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University of Wyoming Acquires Dark Fiber

UW has gone to FiberCo, a company brought about by Internet2, to get a dark fiber footprint between UW's campus in Laramie and Denver, Colorado. The Lariat Network will eventually enhance connectivity and research between rural institutions in several states.
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Students Can No Longer Live Or Study Without Computers

Yes, we all know that. But a recent study at Ball State University put some numbers onto what we "know." "About 69 percent of students report using a computer every day to keep in touch with friends while 62 percent use computer technology every day or several times a week to keep in touch with family members."
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Acquittal Welcomed By University Community

34-year-old University of Idaho computer science graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was acquitted recently of charges that he used his computer skills to further terrorism in a case that alarmed folks on the University of Idaho campus.
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Schools to Keep Ownership of Airwaves

The Federal Communications Commission recently decided that educational institutions might not sell their spectrum licenses. But they can continue leasing the valuable airwaves for commercial use.
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Putting the Professor on Camera To Improve Learning

Engineering physics professor Gregory Moses has turned his office into a recording studio for his eTEACH-designed online course.
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Trying a 'Landmark Case'

We in higher education care most about the effects on our professional environment if Oracle is successful at gobbling up PeopleSoft, primarily because of PeopleSoft's focus on higher education. But from the government's side of things, the larger competition issues are what really count.
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Networking Research Center Aims To Improve Computer Links

The Stanford Networking Research Center (SNRC) is building networks of researchers among the faculty and students at the Stanford School of Engineering and with employees at a range of technology companies around the world.
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Virginia Tech Takes Top Honors for IT Applications

At the 2004 Computerworld Honors Program banquet in Washington, D.C., Virginia Tech received top honors for the "best IT [information technology] application in the world in science" for its homemade supercomputer.
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