OPINION

IT Systems You Wear Around Your Neck: Not Just For SciFi Anymore

By Terry Calhoun

BEFORE HE RETIRES OUR COLUMNIST EXPECTS TO SEE THE GADGETS OF SCIENCE FICTION BECOME REALITY

One of my favorite columnists posted an April Fool’s joke item about the new convergent device, the ‘iTreoPod’. He wrote it well enough that the joke was suspended until you clicked through to the image, which was of an iPod duct-taped to a Treo 650 smart phone.

But that story, and some other recent developments, has me thinking more and more about whatever eventual convergent device we are all headed for. What d'es it look like? What d'es it do? What’s next?

Having averaged close to one full science fiction novel per day from about age 7 to 35, I am pretty familiar with a lot of the ‘future’ gadgets the writers used to posit in their stories and novels. Certainly, storage devices that hold oodles of information and are crystal-like are happening now, what with DVDs and flash memory devices being designed to be worn as jewelry. Read more

IT NEWS

Hackers View University Networks as Playgrounds

Some hackers consider university networks the equivalent of bars or clubs for hackers, with plenty of places to play and lots of interesting stuff to see. (The Oklahoma Daily)
Read more

Duke to Replace Unix with Linux

Duke University is replacing its Sun Ultra 10s and Sun Blades will be replaced with new Dell machines that run CentOS 3.3 as supported by Linux@DUKE. The machines in place already run Unix, so users will not be tremendously burdened by the change. The Chronicle Online (Duke)
Read more

UT Austin to Replace Library with Info Center

No more books will be the slogan for the new multi-department information center that will be replacing the University of Texas at Austin's Undergraduate Library this summer.(The Daily Texan) Read more

Myth Busted: Internet Dominates Campus Life, But Is of Little Use for Academics?

The American College Health Association says that non-academic uses of the Internet has jumped from being reported as negative to students' grades from 9 percent in 2000 to 13 percent today. (The South End)
Read more

Seton Hall Gets Secure with Its Wireless

Seton Hall has 300 access points and its sophomores get IBM ThinkPad R52s to use, but until recently outsiders could also log on. (The Setonian)
Read more

RESOURCES

Engineers Illustrate How Technology Can Serve in Disaster-Relief Efforts

"When the relief workers arrive after a disaster, what is the first thing they need?" The answer seems to be, nowadays, that they need their information technology. (The Stanford Report) Read more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

E-Corridor Stopping at UA Fayeteville

The LamdaRail will be connecting to the University of Arkansas, Fayeteville soon, but it will stop there for now because the state is short of the roughly $10M it would take to connect all the 4-year institutions.(Arkansas News Bureau)
Find out more