During this fall, some of our early applications (such as Tanner) will be used for a third time. Thankfully, they seem to be running fine with just some minor tweaks. Many more will be run for the second time, such as the hugely successful checklist. One component of the checklist is the assignment of a first year seminar and a writing class for the first years. This went through a major rewrite this year based on what we learned from the way placement was done last year. Since we retain historical data in these apps, we can analyze, re-simulate, and achieve better results. One more that we did this year is the automated assignment of classrooms based on faculty preferences. Went extremely well and based on the feedback we receive, we will keep refining the apps. In the meantime, we keep getting a lot of requests and we are moving along…
Let us get on to email attachments! I don’t know if you are one of those who began using email before attachments were implemented in early 1990’s. I was one of them. You needed to run an external program such as BinHex on the file to be sent, copy and paste it to the text of the email. Then instruct the recipient on how to unwind it and hope they have the program that you used. Many of us also belonged to BITNET at that point in time and it provided a relatively easy way to “SHIP” a file, which was considered easier. But then came the Internet, the availability of easy to use mail clients such as Eudora and the implementation of MIME for exchanging images, files etc. These additional entities are the “Attachments”. However, technology has improved tremendously in the meantime and it is time to rethink attachments.
(more…)
I was out playing golf at the Nehoiden golf club yesterday evening with my son and a fellow golfer yet again reminded us of how humbling a game golf is. In theory, many of us who have played the game for several years, know what to do – stretch, the grip, the setup, placement of the ball, keep your head down, keep your head down, keep your head down…, practice swing, club face, back swing, read the green, so on and so forth. However, execution is a whole different thing and concentration is a big factor. For the undisciplined person like me, that last email that I just read messes up my execution. And then, I read research papers like “Rotational biomechanics of the elite golf swing: benchmarks for amateurs” (bad idea) and start worrying about how I am doing relative to best practices mentioned there. I need to meditate and do yoga to learn mind control & have a flexible body to be a good golfer!
We, in LTS, are engaged in a lot of “projects” and they pose the same challenges as a golf swing. There are umpteen variables that all need to line up for a successful execution. Just the way that the ball does not land most of the time exactly where you want to, projects also don’t end up where one originally intended. Sometimes, the ball lands in a sand trap and getting it out is not clean and you need to rake the sand to make the trap appear undisturbed – in several projects such mishits and cleanups are necessary.
(more…)
Summer is winding down and we have already begun seeing increased activity in the College, preparations are underway for the orientation for students and new faculty. Several of us have been in conversations with some of the new faculty. They are some of the most technologically savvy and need computing power beyond the usual laptops. It is encouraging to see that there is no longer a discipline dependency to high end technology requirement. Faculty from all disciplines seem to need them.
In a shameless self promotion, please watch my participation in a discussion about MOOCs with the Chairman of edX Anant Agarwal on NECN CEO Corner.
I am sure you that many of read this in NY Times -“Universities Face a Rising Barrage of Cyberattacks“. If you haven’t, you must read this. In the early stages of internet, the technologies were also evolving and all of us faced attacks, our networks were penetrated and were used for activities such as storing and sharing large image and video files. Warez was one such common activity. I distinctly remember watching a perpetrator’s every keystroke when we were trying to track down what was going on. It was from Australia and I called the ISP who basically told me that they are helpless to do anything but temporarily suspend the account. Of course, in the heat of the moment, I was asking a lot more of them! As soon as I put the phone down, the keystrokes disappeared!
These problems have gotten much worse and far more serious than stealing file storage. Trying to guard information has become expensive. But most importantly, IT professionals alone cannot be responsible for information security.
(more…)