Thursday, September 18, 2003 |
OPINION
IT NEWS
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, GRANTS
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OPINION
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Picking at a Virus-Ridden Corpse:
Lessons from a Post-Blaster, Post-Welchia, Post-Nachi, Post Mortem
J'e St Sauver, Ph.D., Guest Commentator
University of Oregon Computing Center
J'e St Sauver, Ph.D., director of user services and
network applications at the University of Oregon Computing
Center, has just gone through what everyone else has: the
epidemic of viruses and worms that rained down on campus networks
over the last several months.
As our guest editorialist this week, J'e has some strong opinions on why
some people got hit so hard and others didn’t. He also has some good lessons-learned.
Oh, J'e also wanted me to point out that his perspectives here do not reflect
difficulties or conditions at either his institution or any one particular institution.
They are "a synthesized view that reflects the collective higher education
experience."
—Terry Calhoun, IT Trends Commentator, Society for College and University
Planning (SCUP), University of Michigan.
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Sick of the Blaster/Lovsan, Welchia, Nachi experience? I
know I am.
Let's do a brief post mortem and see what good we can glean
from the latest virus follies.
1. It's Windows PCs (again)
D'es your campus rely on PCs running a current version of Microsoft Windows?
If so, I suspect you were hit hard. Campuses that use Macs (or Unix/Linux workstations,
or a mixture of different types of systems) experienced fewer direct problems,
although even the most innocent shouldered part of the collective burden.
Do we never learn? Just as these viruses targeted PCs running Microsoft Windows,
so have virtually all the previous ones. Time after time, infestation after
infestation, the viruses and the worms have come for the PCs running Microsoft
Windows, and time after time, the PCs running Microsoft Windows have fallen....
Read
more
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IT NEWS |
U. Florida Upgrades Info Security Manager Position
UF's CIO, Chuck Frazier, noted that "two recent audits and internal reviews
have led me to conclude that we need to raise our security program to a higher
profile and a higher level of operation."...
Read more
Texas A&M Experiences a "Backdoor Fade" Disconnection
Monday late about 10:00 am, a piece of heavy equipment cut the optical cable
that physically connects the Texas A&M network to the rest of the world.
It took less than 3 hours to locate and fix the cut...
Read more
Privacy and Internet use at Central Michigan University
Students at Central Michigan University sometimes do—and sometimes do
not—understand that their privacy is with email. Occasionally they get
nervous...
Read more
Despite RIAA and Publicity, No Lull in Peer-to-Peer Traffic
Despite RIAA and institutional efforts, the percentage of file trading traffic
worldwide is up roughly 20 percent in September over August averages. (BBC)...
Read more
Blackboard replaces electronic reserves at Swarthmore
Swarthmore's Blackboard-related storage capacity now g'es up to about 50G,
with an annual cost for licensing and maintenance of $20,000...
Read more
U. of British Columbia Unveils 600-acre Wireless Net
UBC's new Wireless LAN is part of a three-year, $30M "e-Strategy"
network upgrade that lets students, faculty, and staff be completely mobile
and wireless, anywhere on its 600-acre Vancouver Campus...
Read more
Slow and Steady Has its Virtues
The Zigbee standard moves data at only 20 Kbps, but the cheaper nodes can create
a "mesh" and thus avoid the use of more expensive hubs or wires. It's
an application of "Metcalfe's Law," which states that the number of
users of a network is more important than its speed (Wired)...
Read more
UNLV Has Monitored Student Computers for Five years
While being careful about privacy issues, UNLV measures "all the Internet
traffic on campus" in order to keep itself and its students out of court....
Read more
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RESOURCES |
Favorite Technology Blogs from Readers of Whatis?com
A list of useful and varied technology oriented web logs, ranging from WiFi,
programming advice, computer security, "The Life of a One-Man IT Department,"
Linux, general science, Macs, and last but not least, one man’s "Backup
Brain."...
Learn
more
Best Education Tech Standards Web Logs from the United Kingdom
From across the pond and by way of the U.K.’s Centre for Educational
Technology Interoperability Standards, comes a list of "some of the most
useful blogs for anyone interested in standards in educational technology."
...
Learn
more
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DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS |
Northwestern Signs License with Content Filtering Company
Northwestern University’s Media Management Center has signed a licensing
agreement with FluentMedia to supply news and commentary to MediaInfoCenter.org,
which provides daily coverage of the publishing and interactive media industries.
FluentMedia is an electronic information service that uses filtering technology
to supply customized packages of news, commentary and analysis to corporate
clients for use on their intranets, extranets and public marketing sites. Content
is drawn from major newspapers, wire services, trade publications and other
sources. FluentMedia is a content licensing subsidiary of the Tribune Co.
Cleveland State Signs Long Term Deal for Dark Fiber
Cleveland State University has signed a deal to acquire dark-fiber from American
Fiber Systems. Dominique Porter, manager of enterprise networks at CSU, said
the AFS network "gives us a long-term solution with truly unlimited bandwidth"
for its local area networking needs. Under terms of the agreement, CSU has the
option of acquiring more fiber on the AFS network which extends throughout the
Cleveland area and surrounding communities.
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Can intellectual property rights be better served with Creative
Commons licensing?
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NEW PRODUCTS
Microsoft Opens Office Early to
Power Users
Microsoft allowed some business customers to download its new Office desktop
application bundle about two weeks sooner than originally planned. Microsoft
Office 2003 was released Monday to those signed up for the company’s Enterprise
Agreement and Software Assurance licensing plans, as well as to members of its
Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft will sell the standard edition of Office
2003 for $399, the professional version for $499, and the student/teacher version
for $149. Office 2003 includes new versions of Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
InfoPath, Access, Publisher and Outlook.
Discounted Anti-Spam Software Offered
to Education Community
Panicware, Inc., a Seattle developer of PC pop-up control and spam-blocking
technology, is offering individual discounts on its Pop-Up Stopper and SpamWasher
applications, as well as on site licenses to schools and educational institutions.
Pop-Up Stopper blocks pop-up and pop-under in every browser and every type of
Internet connection, the company said. SpamWasher detects spam e-mail while
allowing non-spam e-mail to pass to the e-mail program. Single-user registration
of Pop-Up Stopper Professional or SpamWasher is currently discounted at $29.95,
and full CD versions are $39.95.
Sun updates Java 2 Enterprise Edition
for Web Services
Sun Microsystems released a preliminary update of its Java 2 Enterprise Edition
software, with support for a major new Web services standard. Version 1.4 supports
Basic Profile, the comprehensive Web services standard released last month by
the Web services Interoperability organization (WS-I). Basic Profile is designed
to allow Web sites to share data and applications. It’s inclusion in the
latest release is expected to speed the spread and adoption of web services
applications.
Symantec Offers New Firewall Appliances
for Enterprise
Symantec released its Gateway Security 5400 series of firewall appliances
for the enterprise. The systems, which start at $3,995, include a firewall,
intrusion detection and prevention systems, anti-virus defenses, content filtering,
virtual private networking (VPN), and anti-spam filtering in single server-based
packages. Centralized policy management is provided by a plug-in that allows
IT personnel to monitor and manage hundreds or even thousands of the appliances
via a Web-based interface that also offers logging, reporting, and alert features.
The five models in the 5400 line vary by processor, the number and speed of
the Ethernet ports, the size of the server, and the amount of software purchased.
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Discussion of the Week:
I'm considering using a product
that isn't a full-blown LMS,
but a plug-in to PowerPoint that
adds video, screen shot and
broadcast capabilities to it.
Is anyone else using such a
tool alone or along with an LMS?
-- posted by andychittum
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