IT Trends April 7, 2005

  • 04/07/05

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In This Issue
OPINION
IT NEWS
RESOURCES
NEW TECHNOLOGY
DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS
SPONSORS

OPINION

From ‘Duck and Cover’ to ‘Flip and Power'
to . . .

By Terry Calhoun

SINCE CELL PHONES, PDAs AND WATER DON'T MIX, HAIR DRYERS MAY BECOME MISSION CRITICAL IT TOOLS

About eight years ago I learned that there was a basic computing skill that had to become part of the training for each new employee in my department: What to do if/when you spill a liquid onto the keyboard. This is serious. Every new staffer in my department, and I employ a lot of work-study students, had to learn the routine: Quickly flip the keyboard upside down and stop power to the machine as fast as you can, whether by hitting a button or yanking on a cord.

Our mantra became a computer era version of the early Cold War “Duck and Cover” – except that we said, “Flip and Power.” But I am at a complete loss as to what to tell people who keep on dropping their cell phones into toilets, puddles, and sinks – or who run them through the laundry. Read more


IT NEWS

Giving Students the Legal Media Download 'Jones'

Many institutions (and the music industry) are finding legal (and relatively cheap) downloads to be a win-win-win (university-industry-students) situation. (CNN)
Read more

Boston College Fundraising Takes a PR Body Blow

An external vendor slip-up potentially exposed 100,000+ contributors' records recently. Forensic analysis indicates that the hack was probably not aimed at those records but at using the machine in question for further attacks. We hope that nuance is understood by the donors in question. (The Boston College Chronicle)
Read more

Cornell Dorms to Get CUTV - for Windows Machines, Anyway

Students will pay for it, but the college is glad to be able to offer it to their computers rather than having to rewire dorms with new cable. (The Cornell Daily Sun)
Read more

At ASU an Outage Slows Internet, Computers on Campus

The cause was apparently a piece of router equipment, but we were unable to quickly learn more because our link to this kept timing out. Hmm. (Web Devil Online)
Read more

When Nature Calls, Cell Phone Owners Should Answer Carefully

We bet that our colleagues in the Human Computer Interface design area (or would it be ergonomics?) are all over this. (AP)
Read more

RESOURCES

Website Spinoffs: Flickr, Mappr, Flicker Postcard Browser, and more

Taking a clue from last week's guest column about "content in motion," this commentator notes and describes several websites where the content owners are serving up the same content from other sets, but with twists. Anyone want a collection of photos in mauve? (Christian Science Monitor) Read more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

Get Your Brand New Laptops, for Only $100 US, at MIT!

MIT has three corporate sponsors who want to be suppliers and who've already committed $2M each for the project which would create $100 laptops (purchased by governments in bulk) for children around the world. The pitch: Think of how many textbooks you don't have to buy! (CNN)
Read more
Thursday, April 07, 2005

Sponsored by:
Connect Minds with e-Learning Solutions
Collaboration solutions from Microsoft(r) and industry partners allow student and faculty teams to share ideas and express themselves in new ways and new places. This set of affordable tools makes collaboration on academic papers, access to research, and even online learning easier.

Click here to see how Johns Hopkins and others are enhancing collaboration.


Sponsored by:
Wanted: Simplified Printing Solution for 802.11 Wireless Notebooks
With the growth of mobile computing and wireless networks, the simple act of printing now presents challenges to students and their institutions. Read about the technologies and printing solutions that provide value to mobile and wireless users on campus in the whitepaper, "Student Printing in a Mobile Computing Environment," by PrinterOn. Visit the Campus Technology Resource page and download this comprehensive look at printing alternatives that allow you to leverage current assets and address needs now and into the future.

Click here for details

Sponsored by:
The new Dell™ Latitude™ D610
The new Dell(tm) Latitude(tm) D610 with Intel(r) Centrino(r) Mobile Technology. Get more out of it now.

Click here for details

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Gmail G'es to 2 Gigabytes!

As more and more users use their email folders to store and collect resources for long-term use, the need by power users for more space just grows. Google likes that idea. (CNN Money)
Read more
Sponsored by:

Syllabus2005 Keynotes Span Technology Issues
Four of the leading thinkers in higher education technology— Tracy Futhey, Duke University; Diana Oblinger, Educause; Lev Gonick, Case Western Reserve University, and Barbara White, University of Georgia--kick-off each day’s sessions at Syllabus2005 with keynote presentations covering significant technology issues facing institutions today. Hearing their insights is just one of the reasons to attend this year’s conference, July 24-28 in Los Angeles. Join your peers and learn from best practices, networking, expert panels, and sessions.

For more information and to register, click here.



Current Topics in Our forums include:
Networking

Collaboration in the Education Space

Mobile Computing

Campus IT Security

Tablet PCs

Discuss with us

Featured

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.

  • Two stylized glowing spheres with swirling particles and binary code are connected by light beams in a futuristic, gradient space

    New Boston-Based Research Center to Advance Quantum Computing with AI

    NVIDIA is establishing a research hub dedicated to advancing quantum computing through artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing technologies.