February 2008 Archives

friday tech support roundup

By
Kristen
on February 22, 2008 4:44 PM | | Comments (0)
My department has recently spent a good deal of $$$ for PGP Universal, which applies whole disk encryption to all of our windows-based laptops. We are currently in the middle of rolling it out to our users.

But now comes interesting research: cold boot attacks circumvent disk encryption:

"Disk encryption, the standard approach to protecting sensitive data on laptops, can be defeated by relatively simple methods. We demonstrate our methods by using them to defeat three popular disk encryption products: BitLocker, which comes on Windows Vista; FileVault, which comes with OSX; and dm-crypt, which is used with Linux."
Continue reading friday tech support roundup.

Library & central IT units in higher education

By
Kristen
on February 17, 2008 3:54 PM | | Comments (0)
I entered the MLIS program even though I have no intention of becoming a librarian. In fact, I've worked in IT for over 10 years and intend to stay in IT for the forseeable future.  Thus, one of the questions I get most frequently at the iSchool is "why aren't you in the MSIM program?" 

Usually I answer that by saying I can use tuition exemption on the MLIS program but not the MSIM. On hearing that, most people just nod their head; it's an easier explanation then trying to go through an analysis of the relationship between Libraries and Information Technology or why it might be useful for an IT professional in higher education to have the MLIS degree.  I think this degree will be useful and have thought so long before I enrolled at the iSchool.  
Continue reading Library & central IT units in higher education.

More thoughts about the MLIS Portfolio

By
Kristen
on February 9, 2008 8:28 AM | | Comments (2)
Continuing my previous post about the iSchool MLIS thesis option...

So there is an institutional bias as well as a student bias against the Master's thesis option at the iSchool.  And yet I can't help but feel my own bias against the portfolio option.
Continue reading More thoughts about the MLIS Portfolio.

The iSchool's MLIS Thesis

By
Kristen
on February 8, 2008 6:49 PM | | Comments (1)
The MLIS program at the iSchool is capped off by one of two options: a "Portfolio", which is essentially a website documenting a student's growth in a variety of areas such as technology, leadership, intellectual growth, etc.; or a Master's thesis, which is an individual research project usually spanning 3 quarters and requiring somewhere between 9 and 15 credits (as well as an expenditure of a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears).

About 98% of MLIS students choose to do a Portfolio.

Why is this?
Continue reading The iSchool's MLIS Thesis.

Friday tech support roundup

By
Kristen
on February 8, 2008 4:30 PM | | Comments (0)
My favorite tech support email this week:

"The next thing is my iCal reminders don't work any more
And the web has lots of pages on this but none are helpful
But I continue to try

Tonight
When I installed Leopard it did not erase the old iCal stuff from Tiger
So I did it manually today

Today iCal reminders worked so maybe the old stuff was a problem...
Or not
Time will tell"

It's almost poetry...

Gamasutra - A History of Gaming Platforms: The Apple II

By
Kristen
on February 4, 2008 10:05 AM | | Comments (1)
Most of the article is a rehash of the history of Apple as well as their first two products, the Apple I and Apple II (or Apple ][ for you purists), but starting on page 4 you'll find a discussion of some long-gone games developed for this platform.

Gamasutra: A History of Gaming Platforms: The Apple II

Odyssey.jpg


My favorite Apple II game was Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure (sic).


On Windows, you can run the online emulator version in firefox.


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