Home > It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times . . .

Current News

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times . . .

9/10/2003

First, we had the budget cuts and were probably hitting this semester understaffed. Then, in many higher education-intensive parts of the country, the lights went out. Following that was the worm, Blaster. Then came, Sobig. And then the students came back, bringing with them their infected computers.

More than one CIO was quoted in the news media recently saying that this was the most difficult time ever to be IT staff on campus. And it was challenging, no doubt about it. But we think that, on campus after campus, the IT staff came through with shining colors. There was a lot to handle, but it was handled well!

So perhaps the most famous words of Dickens apply in all their discordant meanings: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so."

Impacts on the campus information technology infrastructure probably affected the campus-wide community, in general, as much as any one thing ever has. Read the following to yourself while imagining that you are listening to "Weekend Edition" on NPR and, as voices report from these campuses, there is stirring background music going on:



Recommended Reading
  • Campus Security :: June 27, 2008

    :::::: NETWORK SECURITY

    : Delivering Slices of Network Securely at USC

    :::::: CAMPUS SECURITY NEWS

    : VMware Finds Home on Campus in Disaster Recovery Planning
    : Microsoft Advisory Targets SQL Injection Attacks
    : Mobile Security To Surface in Sybase iAnywhere Suite
    : Southeast Missouri State Says Former Employee Took Student Data
    : Universities Deploy Procera Hardware to Prioritize Network Traffic
    : Dartmouth Launches 2-Week Crash Course in Security
    : Survey: Many Microsoft Patches Are Going Uninstalled
    : New Bluetooth Patch Fixes XP Security Hole

  • IT Trends :: Thursday, June 26, 2008

    :::::: FOCUS

    :: Lyon's 1:1 Laptop Program Aims To 'Level the Playing Field' for Students

    :::::: IT NEWS

    :: Windows XP's Death Is for Real, Microsoft Rep Explains
    :: Temple To Deploy Wireless LAN Across 8 Campuses in Philly
    :: Adobe Releases Acrobat 9, Creative Suite 3.3
    :: Microsoft Open XML Converter Arrives for Mac
    :: Pentaho's BI Platform Released Under GPL
    :: New Bluetooth Patch Fixes XP Security Hole
    :: New 11.0 openSuSE Linux OS Released

  • C-Level View :: June 25, 2008

    :::::: EXECUTIVE VIEW

    : The Educational Software Paradox - Can We Learn to Unlearn?

    :::::: WORTH NOTING

    : D2L: Blackboard's Comments 'Contempt(ible)'
    : Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
    : New Green Supercomputer Powers Up at Purdue
    : Western Governors U Offers New Online Degree in Health Informatics
    : Foothill-De Anza CC District Deploys Abaca for E-mail Protection

  • SmartClassroom :: Wednesday, June 27, 2008

    :::::: VIEWPOINT

    : Podcasting in Instruction: Moving Beyond the Obvious

    :::::: NEWS and PRODUCT UPDATES

    : D2L: Blackboard's Comments 'Contempt(ible)'
    : Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
    : Samsung Launches Pint-Sized Projector
    : Mediasite 5.0 Debuts; New Classroom Recorders Coming in July
    : Mitsubishi Launches Wireless, Short-Throw Projectors

  • News Update :: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

    :::::: NEWS

    : Sao Paulo University Taps Sun Technology for Computing Cluster
    : Ohio State Installing Interactive Technologies in Campus Incubator
    : New Green Supercomputer Powers Up at Purdue
    : Mediasite 5.0 Debuts; New Classroom Recorders Coming in July
    : Intel 'Holding Back' USB 3.0 Spec, Says Nvidia
    : Allegheny College Launches Energy Reduction Program
    : Virginia Tech Automates User State Management with Kaseya
    : Tokai U Uses PTC MCAD Software To Design Car that Competes at Le Mans

  • IT Trends :: Thursday, June 19, 2008

    :::::: CASE STUDY

    :: Job Scheduling Software Smooths Data Transfers at IUF

    :::::: IT NEWS

    :: Blackboard Continues Pursuit of Desire2Learn
    :: IBM Launches 'Carbon Strategy' Service in Project Big Green
    :: Microsoft Joins Open Source Census Group
    :: Swedes Deploy Dual-Boot 'Green' Supercomputer with IBM, Intel Chips
    :: U North Texas To Roll Out ImageNow for Document Management
    :: Cambridge Installs Panasus Parallel Storage System for Research Support
    :: Novell Joins Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program, Runs Windows Server 2008 On SUSE Linux Enterprise