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EDUCAUSE | 3 Jul 2006 20:32

Edupage, July 03, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 03, 2006
  Virginia Tech Mandates Tablet PCs
  Academics Sneak Past Chinese Firewall
  Court Rulings Fail to Slow File Sharing
  Shadowcrew Cofounder Sentenced

VIRGINIA TECH MANDATES TABLET PCS
Starting this fall semester, students in the engineering school at
Virginia Tech will be required to have a Tablet PC, making the school
one of the first to mandate such devices. Similar to a laptop but with
a screen that users can write on with a stylus, Tablet PCs have been
slower to take off than many had predicted. The program at Virginia
Tech is a joint effort between the university, Fujitsu, and Microsoft.
Over the summer, faculty will receive training in how best to
incorporate Tablet PCs into their teaching. Virginia Tech's
engineering school has often been an early adopter of technology,
requiring students in 1984 to own personal computers.
ZDNet, 30 June 2006
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6090046.html

ACADEMICS SNEAK PAST CHINESE FIREWALL
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a way to
circumvent the firewall operated by the Chinese government and also to
use it to launch denial-of-service attacks. Chinese authorities
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EDUCAUSE | 5 Jul 2006 22:41

Edupage, July 05, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 05, 2006
  Chinese Authorities to Tighten Control of Internet Access
  Britain Pulls Plug on National Grid for Learning
  Paris Looks to Increase City Access
  New Mac Targets Education Market

CHINESE AUTHORITIES TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OF INTERNET ACCESS
Chinese authorities, keen to exert considerable control over access
inside the country to online content it finds objectionable, has
announced plans to increase restrictions on Internet and cell-phone
technologies. Among the proposals is a requirement that users of cell
phones would have to register themselves. Currently, Chinese citizens
can use cell phones anonymously, which allows many millions to access
and share information that would otherwise be prohibited by the
government. Search engines are another likely target for tightened
control. Despite recent agreements with major search engines operating
in the country, "more and more harmful information is being circulated
online," according to Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of the
State Council. The planned crackdown riled many Chinese bloggers, but
others, including Wang Yi, law professor at Chengdu University, were
more optimistic. Wang noted that each generation of new technologies
has been censored by government authorities but that new tools continue
to appear, staying one or two years ahead of the restrictions.
New York Times, 4 July 2006 (registration req'd)
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EDUCAUSE | 7 Jul 2006 22:25

Edupage, July 07, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 07, 2006
  Pentagon Acknowledges Monitoring Student E-Mail
  Legal Downloads a Dud on Campus
  Microsoft Agrees to Work with OpenDocument

PENTAGON ACKNOWLEDGES MONITORING STUDENT E-MAIL
Surveillance reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act
indicate that the Department of Defense monitored student e-mail as
part of its efforts to identify and track potential terrorist suspects.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network filed requests for the
information, and the reports released so far cover e-mail surveillance
at the State University of New York at Albany, Southern Connecticut
State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and William
Paterson University of New Jersey. Student e-mail was monitored when it
dealt with protests against the war in Iraq or against the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" program concerning gay and lesbian members of
the armed forces. Instances of monitoring were evidently prompted by
reports of suspicious behavior, but a Pentagon spokesperson would not
say who submitted the reports that led to the monitoring described in
the surveillance reports. Kermit Hall, president of SUNY-Albany, said
his institution is investigating the nature of the monitoring and how
it was conducted and would decide later how to proceed.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 July 2006 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/07/2006070601n.htm
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EDUCAUSE | 11 Jul 2006 00:09

Edupage, July 10, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 10, 2006
  Navy Site Exposes Data
  BPI Calls on ISPs to Block Customers' Accounts
  Dyson Announces School to Promote Engineering

NAVY SITE EXPOSES DATA
For the second time in recent weeks, officials from the Navy said that
personal information on Navy personnel was posted on public Web sites,
this time on the site of the Naval Safety Center (NSC). In June, 28,000
records were improperly placed on a public Web site of the Navy
Personnel Command (NPC). In the second case, names and Social Security
numbers for more than 100,000 Navy personnel were exposed, possibly
affecting every active-service Navy and Marine aviator of the past 20
years. The personal information was also inadvertently included on
1,083 disks that the Navy mailed to Navy and Marine Corps commands. The
Navy is working to recover those disks, and it has set up a hotline
where affected individuals can obtain more information.
Federal Computer Week, 8 July 2006
http://www.fcw.com/article95202-07-08-06-Web

BPI CALLS ON ISPS TO BLOCK CUSTOMERS' ACCOUNTS
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has demanded that two Internet
service providers (ISPs) discontinue service to a total of 59 customers
who the BPI said have violated copyright. Unlike in the United States,
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EDUCAUSE | 13 Jul 2006 00:19

Edupage, July 12, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2006
  UC Santa Cruz Offers Gaming Degree
  Google to Open Michigan Research Center
  House Clamps Down on Internet Gambling

UC SANTA CRUZ OFFERS GAMING DEGREE
The University of California, Santa Cruz, will begin offering a degree
in computer gaming, joining a number of other schools with similar
programs, including the University of Southern California, Southern
Methodist University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Noting that the
institution is not far from Silicon Valley and major developers of
games, officials from UC Santa Cruz said they consulted representatives
of the gaming industry as part of efforts to develop the program.
Seniors in the program will develop a complete video game as their
capstone experience. Eric Goldberg, managing director of Crossover
Technologies and a longtime member of the gaming development community,
cautioned that liking to play games does not equate with being able to
develop good games. Nevertheless, he said, for those with the talent
and the ambition, university gaming programs offer a kind of formal
training that was not an option until recently.
Mercury News, 11 July 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/15011858.htm

GOOGLE TO OPEN MICHIGAN RESEARCH CENTER
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EDUCAUSE | 14 Jul 2006 21:30

Edupage, July 14, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006
  Rice Press Reborn as Online Only
  Squabble over Cell Phones in School Goes to Court
  China Sends Internet Reporter to Prison
  Lawsuit Alleges Collusion in Chip Market

RICE PRESS REBORN AS ONLINE ONLY
Rice University will restart its press, which was closed in 1996, as an
online-only operation, publishing peer-reviewed books and monographs.
Faced with declining budgets, many libraries buy fewer books, leaving
academic publishers unwilling to publish books unless they can justify
the printing costs. Rice's model does away with printing, allowing the
press to publish texts not published otherwise while considerably
speeding up the publishing process. Because texts will be
peer-reviewed, organizers hope the reborn Rice press will be as
prestigious--and as valid for tenure or promotion--as a traditional
press. The press will operate through Connexions, a site that offers
course materials free of charge. Separately, Connexions will also begin
offering print-on-demand custom textbooks, assembled from individual
modules within Connexions. The textbooks are expected to cost
significantly less than comparable offerings from traditional textbook
publishers.
Inside Higher Ed, 14 July 2006
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/14/rice
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EDUCAUSE | 17 Jul 2006 22:54

Edupage, July 17, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 17, 2006
  UT Austin Edges Toward Nanotechnology
  HP Develops Tiny Radio Chips
  AOL Introduces Security Tools

UT AUSTIN EDGES TOWARD NANOTECHNOLOGY
The regents of the University of Texas System have given their approval
for Chancellor Mark Yudof to solicit grants and other funding to
support a nanotechnology research center. Called the South West Academy
for Nanoelectronics, the center would be housed at UT Austin's
Microelectronics Research Center. Among possible areas of study,
researchers at the center would investigate how nanotechnology might
replace conventional transistors, the building blocks of current
computing devices, with smaller processors. Researchers would also look
at nanotechnology applications in biomedicine, energy, and health care.
Organizers of the center hope to secure $1.5 million from the
Nanoelectronics Research Corp., which has given grants to similar
research centers at UCLA and the State University of New York at
Albany. Backers of the initiative also plan to seek $10 million from
the high-tech industry and another $10 million from the state.
Silicon Valley, 14 July 2006
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15041918.htm

HP DEVELOPS TINY RADIO CHIPS
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EDUCAUSE | 20 Jul 2006 00:14

Edupage, July 19, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2006
  Northwestern Reports Break-In
  Microsoft Files Piracy Suits
  India Clamps Down on Blogs
  Microsoft Teams Up with Nortel

NORTHWESTERN REPORTS BREAK-IN
Officials at Northwestern University have said that in May, hackers
compromised troubleshooting software, giving them access to nine
personal computers on campus that contained sensitive data on about
17,000 students and applicants. The troubleshooting software allows
support staff to access computers remotely to fix problems; the
compromised computers were in the school's Office of Admissions and
Financial Aid. According to Chuck Loebbaka, Northwestern's director of
media relations, there are no indications that the hackers used the
compromised data or even knew it was on the machines. Still, the
university is working to contact individuals affected and has
encouraged them to report the risk of identity theft to the three major
credit bureaus.
Chicago Sun Times, 15 July 2006
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-hack15.html

MICROSOFT FILES PIRACY SUITS
Microsoft has filed 26 lawsuits in the United States against companies
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EDUCAUSE | 21 Jul 2006 22:24

Edupage, July 21, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2006
  Universities to Develop Assistive Technologies
  Google Launches Site Catering to Visually Impaired
  University Supercomputer Enlisted in Bird Flu Research
  Bill Would Require Notice of Security Breaches

UNIVERSITIES TO DEVELOP ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University will use a
five-year, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation to
create a research center focused on developing technologies to help the
elderly and people with disabilities. The Quality of Life Technology
Engineering Research Center will work to develop technologies that can
improve the quality of life of older people and those with
disabilities, help them live longer and more independently, and allow
them to start or keep working. Organizers of the new research center
demonstrated examples of the kinds of technologies they hope to
develop. The examples included a robotic walker, a bar code reader to
help visually impaired persons shop, and an "eWatch" that monitors the
wearer's health while keeping track of his or her location. Jared
Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon, said the new research center is
also expected to attract start-up companies with an interest in similar
assistive technologies.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 18 July 2006
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06199/706633-85.stm
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EDUCAUSE | 25 Jul 2006 00:19

Edupage, July 24, 2006

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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 24, 2006
  MTV Enters Social Networking Game
  House Bill Mandates Data Sharing at DHS
  Microsoft to Take On Apple in Music, Player

MTV ENTERS SOCIAL NETWORKING GAME
MTV is introducing a new cable channel and Web site designed to take
advantage of the immense popularity of social networking software.
Sites such as MySpace (which was recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch),
YouTube, and Bebo have large numbers of loyal users who go to the sites
to find others with similar interests, share content, and communicate
with friends through various means. MTV's social networking entry,
Flux, will combine online tools with a cable channel, allowing users to
select the videos that they see on the channel, upload multimedia
files, and talk with other users. The site also lets users interact
through avatars--animated figures that represent individual users. An
official from MTV said Flux puts control in the hands of users,
"challenging the status quo in TV programming."
CNET, 24 July 2006
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6097692.html

HOUSE BILL MANDATES DATA SHARING AT DHS
Last week, the House Homeland Security Committee passed a fiscal
appropriations bill for 2007 that would require the Department of
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