Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Opinion
The Calm Before the Calm?
8/9/2007
Journalists have often referred to the "Dog Days of August," meaning a time of the year when the kind of political and national news that makes headlines is less available, and things can seem to be happening slowly. In higher education, August is for many a time to finally get out for a week or two of vacation. In my own office, we have our peak of activity (with SCUP's annual conference), followed by a wave of time off that stretches through the month.But in this period of slowdown for us, our students, returning and new, are out there interfacing with the virtual and physical worlds, getting ready to bring all sorts of things back to our campuses. Are we ready? Is this the calm before the storm or the calm before the calm?
Do you remember "Cloner," the first feral computer virus, created by Richard Skrenta in 1982? It didn't even need the Internet or a local area network.
That was an amazing 25 years ago. It was the first virus to get into the "wild," meaning outside the closed network or system within which it was created. Until I researched this story, I didn't know that in the early '70s, when I was working at the Defense Special Research & Planning Group (DSRPG), a division of ARPA, that there had been a "Creeper" virus within the ARPANET system, and then the "Reaper" virus that appeared to have been written to hunt down and destroy "Creeper" virus clones.
We've come a long way in 25 or so years, with the biggest shift happening at the beginning of this new millennium. The intent and the power of various viruses and worms, "malware," changed tremendously. Even as recently as 2002, the virus protection company McAfee was learning of something like 100 new viruses every week. Now they find more than 100 new ones every single day. And our students, those who are juniors this fall at least, have always lived with computers that are susceptible to viruses.
If you work in higher education IT, I know that you remember the beginning of the 2003 school year. That was the year of "Blaster," which came on the heels of major budget cuts and caused tremendous discomfort for IT staffers on nearly every campus. Remember that "Perfect Storm?" Maybe these story synopses will bring back some memories for you:
Recommended Reading
- U Wyoming Students Vote To Implement Sonic Foundry's Mediasite for Lecture Capture
An overwhelming student vote for Mediasite will put the Webcasting platform from Sonic Foundry into University of Wyoming lecture halls this fall. Mediasite is a presentation capture tool that records and synchronizes audio, video, and slides and then allows the presenter to provide it online for on-demand viewing or in podcast form. The tool also enables the presenter to make the presentation available online as it happens.
- DNS Flaw Unfixed as Experts Argue Protocol
Speculation continues as to what the ultimate systemic Domain Name System (DNS) flaw could be. This flaw apparently allows Web surfers to be spoofed, directing them to fake Web sites to gain passwords and load malware on their computers.
- IT Cost Cuts in 2008 May Be a Trend, Study Says
A first-quarter 2008 survey conducted by Computer Economics suggests a possible slowdown in IT spending and staffing lies ahead.
- Microsoft Revamps Its Platforms Division, Loses Kevin Johnson
Microsoft announced late Wednesday a reorganization of its Platforms & Services Division (PSD), as well as the departure of Kevin Johnson, a 16-year Microsoft veteran and president of the PSD.
- Microsoft's DNS Fix Leads to More Problems
The blogosphere is awash with talk about the possible overall weakness of the Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. For its part, Microsoft's released a DNS fix in its patch slate for July, but Redmond seems to have problems just getting it to end users. Moreover, some users of the DNS fix have experienced additional difficulties.
- D2L Launches Mobile Learning Environment
Desire2Learn this week announced a new mobile application of its Desire2Learn Learning Environment. Called Desire2Learn 2GO, the application ties in with Learning Environment 8.3 to provide access via Blackberry. The company also announced that it's streamlining integration Respondus 3.5, a quiz- and test-building application.
