IT Trends :: Thursday, September 21, 2006
New Technology
Microsoft Zune to Share the Music
One feature of Microsoft’s so-called "iPod killer" is a peer-to-peer sharing system that will allow users to send a song to a friend wirelessly. The friend will be allowed to listen to the tune three times over three days before deciding whether or not to buy the track. The VP in charge of Zune says, "The idea is to legitimize peer-to-peer sharing in a healthy way that works for everybody."…
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University Dumps Cisco VoIP for Open-Source Asterisk
Sam Houston State University is moving 6,000 of its students, faculty, and staff off a Cisco VoIP platform. Instead, they'll be on an open-source voIP network via Asterisk. This will include call processing, voicemail, and PSTN gateway functionality. The university believes that there will be significant cost savings over time…
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Computing at Speed of Light: Intel, UC Santa Barbara Use Lasers in Computer Chips
Intel and UC Santa Barbara are seeing spots at their success in replacing copper wire with lasers. Can't get any faster. The researchers say they have found a way to use lasers, working at the speed of light, to send information around on a computer chip as well as from one chip to another. The technique, known as optical computing, uses indium phosphide, attaching it to the silicon chip in a way that many researchers had not thought possible. Too bad we're going to have to wait a generation to get the consumer products…
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Ohio University Struggles with Slow, Unreliable E-mail
There are only so many IT staff, and this summer at Ohio University they focused on security. They took on this focus despite the fact that they knew that the e-mail system needed more capacity. It was a matter of priorities. Now there are an awful lot of "squeaky wheels" spinning on campus. If you've ever (recently) waited four hours for an e-mail message to arrive, you can understand…
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