IT Trends :: Thursday, May 25, 2006


New Technology

Big Brother on Campus: Cell Phone-GPS Combo to Track Students' Whereabouts

Rave Wireless' new Guardian system allows students to activate a signal on their cell phones when they feel unsafe. If the student d'esn't turn off the signal in a certain amount of time, campus security is notified and can use programmed information such as the student's name, photograph, and exact location to investigate the situation. New Jersey's Montclair State University will implement this new technology next semester and college security officials nationwide are certainly curious to see how well it g'es… (InformationWeek)

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Universities Focus on New Technology as Landlines Disappear

As personal technology needs change, some schools are scrambling to provide their students with affordable, yet trendy options. Morrisville State College has already replaced dormitory landlines with Nextel cell phones and the University of Cincinnati's 4,000 incoming freshman will receive free cells this fall. This is all courtesy of a new arrangement with Cincinnati Bell. However, not all schools are ready to jump on this bandwagon yet: "Officials at Towson University in Maryland worry about potential lawsuits if students don't have reliable landline service in their dorm rooms in case of emergency."… (Newsday Inc.)

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High-Tech Cure for the Munchies, 24/7

College cafeterias can only make money when they're open (and few are open around the clock), so the State University of New York A&T Morrisville developed a gigantic vending machine that carries food, drinks, and other necessities. Accessible at all hours of the day, the machine even accepts students' meal cards. Be sure to check out the photograph of this vending monstrosity… (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

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Open Source Automates College Net Security

To keep their network secure, a pair of IT employees at Middlebury College used PHP to develop a new program called Privateye. The program automates a large chunk of network security management activities by taking advantage of capabilities already found in common applications, including firewalls and Intrusion-Prevention Systems (IPS), and in a network of managed switches. This article breaks down the three-step process of this relatively simple new technology, piece by piece… (Network World)

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Featured

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    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

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    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

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    Linux Foundation to Host Protocol for AI Agent Interoperability

    The Linux Foundation has announced it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol project, an open standard originally developed by Google to support secure communication and interoperability among AI agents.

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    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.