OPINION

Shock and Awe When the IT Stops

By Terry Calhoun

Editor’s Note: Terry Calhoun transmitted this column, with his laptop balanced on a garbage can, via a random wireless connection for reasons that will become clear as you read further.

I just found out about shock and awe first-hand. I have no idea why Mozilla Thunderbird crashed on me this morning. First I could not send any messages, not through my “umich” nor my “scup” identity. Then my inbox disappeared. Then Thunderbird refused to boot up at all yet, when I reinstalled it, Windows told me that I couldn’t install it – because it was already running. Of course, I could not see or use it.

Then, our local area network went down and no one had email or Web, and I could not download a new installation file. Following that, I rebooted my Vaio laptop and it refused to boot up at all. Completely gone, among other things, was my opinion column for this week. This happened while SCUP was transmitting a special 2-hour Webcast to 150 college campuses which I had managed for the past year. What a panic, at first, until we realized that only our office had the problem. The show went fine for everyone else.

Sigh. Then, when our Webcast was over, I was faced with the choice of remembering what I had written, or quickly writing about my reaction to and the experience of . . . losing everything. As you can tell, I have chosen to write about losing everything. Read more

IT NEWS

Stanford University G'es iTunes . . . Lectures and Lots of Things

You can go to the iTunes store soon and purchase lectures by Stanford (CA) faculty, as well as other Stanford-related events and performances. (Podcasting News) Read more

Plagiarism Detection Service Turnitin Spreads to 4,000 Schools

Did you know this started at UC-Berkeley in 1996? The article is excellent at explaining, for those of us who have not used it, how such a plagiarism-catching service works. (The Brown Daily Herald) Read more

Purdue Student Printing Quota Implementation Delayed

Because administrators want the "uniprint" service to be fair, implementation has been delayed until some additional research is done. However, the marketing of it to students has, on its own, reduced the amount of printed paper waste on campus. (The Purdue Exponent) Read more

High Point University's Winston-Salem Campus Is Wisconsin System's Top Unwired Institution

The Madison Park campus in Winston-Salem, WI, is now fully wireless as only the first step in ambitious plans for new facilities, equipment, and everything else. (High Point University News) Read more

RESOURCES

Hurricane Relief Community Exchange

In the aftermath of Wilma, more Floridians are joining the Texans and New Orleanians who are glad that EDUCAUSE's "Hurricane Relief Community Exchange" is available to make offers of or requests for assistance in coping with IT issues from hurricanes. Find out more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

Microsoft and the University of Massachusetts--A Collaboration

UMass has been named Microsoft's first "Information Technology Showcase" school. (Four more are to be named.) Steve Ballmer made the announcement just hours before the dedication of UMass' new Learning Commons. (Springfield Republican on MassLive.com) Read more

Aqilix Announces 2006 Version of Mobile Learning Product

Agilix Labs, Inc., a mobile learning product vendor, announced a new version of its GoBinder product to be available in early 2006. GoBinder 2006 minimizes the need to run e-learning systems in high availability mode, while providing an open, extensible architecture, according to the company’s announcement. (PR Newswire) Read more

Elluminate and Sun Signup Campuses for eLearning Products

Elluminate, Inc., (www.elluminate.com) a vendor for live eLearning and Web collaboration products for the real-time organization, and Sun Microsystems (sun.com) announced new campus customers for a joint product offering that includes Elluminate Live! Academic Edition software running on Sun hardware. The new customers include Franklin University (OH), The George Washington University (DC), University of Hawaii, and University of South Florida. In addition, the North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, a state agency whose customers include the North Carolina Community College System of 58 schools, will also deploy a combined Elluminate Live! and Sun solution, the companies announced.