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Ok… I’ll
bite,
I am with
Rick here… the level of sheer incompetence at the Universities when it comes to
computer technology is mind boggling. Being a computer professional myself and
dealing with the universities daily, I have to say that the problem is not only
the bad hardware choices (politically motivated) or personnel (monetarily
motivated). It is both… the problem is fundamental. My dear friend Sam is a
great man and he is pointing the positive. It is important to point to the
positive… but do not loose sight of the negative. It is easy to congratulate
ourselves for one accomplishment and forget to address the other problems.
The computer
hardware choices at both universities are determined by lack of knowledge and
ignorance as well as political reasons. Many of the choices were made before
the current crew who I know to be infinitely more qualified and knowledgeable. These
past decisions, however, still plague us… look at banner for example. As an
individual who has developed far more complicated databases than U of I’s banner
I have always used banner as the singular example of how not to develop a
database. I tried to talk to the “genius” who used to run the computer services
(we will not name names… most know to whom I am referring) who brought us the
banner but he was always intimidated by me. His complete lack of experience and
knowledge has cost our beloved U much time and money. We are still dealing with
this.
Another very
influential factor is money. Since we make bad choices we have to spend more
money to fix our mistakes. When the opportunity comes to do something really
cool and do it right we have no money… we wasted it on stupid things and now
there is not enough to buy the best; this is why the U went with Cisco for the
infrastructure. This is why before we used 3Com hubs. There is a bit of
ignorance involved here as well I am sure but the cost factor is a big one.
So it is
true that we have accomplished great connectivity. It is true that most frat-houses
are tied in. but it is also true that all these guys are doing is goofing off! I
know “students” who spend 7 hours a day playing games! Then we wonder why we
have a shortage of IT and IS professionals? We wonder why the students in my
class have such a hard time and complain about how hard my course is? We wonder
why people are graduating the Universities completely unqualified to carry the
burden of the real world? The few who try to work have to be inconvenienced by
the masses of goof-offs who are bogging down the system with games, video,
music, porn, and other unnecessary and often detrimental traffic. I have to say
that it is unfair for Rick and those like him to have to struggle to eat so
they can own a computer and attend school while the taxpayer is paying for a
bunch of slackers to get free internet so they can play games.
Please understand…
I am certain that there are many great people at the U… I just think they are
out numbered!
Your
brother in arms,
Shahab…
Shahab Mesbah
Technical Director
Meteor Light Labs
Voice (208) 883-9765
Fax (208) 883-2678
www.meteorlabs.com
-----Original
Message-----
From: Wolfgang Schwartzenweintraub
[mailto:wolfman@turbonet.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2000
8:03 AM
To: Gundars Rudzitis; Piotr
Jankowski; Karl Chang; Sister Margret Johnson; Anna Pavlik;
vision2020@moscow.com; Rick Lovel; SMW Scripter [aka GeoSam]
Subject: Re: GEO-CART> Wired,
but?
Hi Rick: You know fellow everybody has
had a bad day or two and I have had mine here at the ole U myself. There
are a lot of things wrong here but there is a lot of right going on just as
well. Sure I can complain about petty campus politics (Poly=many
Tics=blood suckers) but it is only a fact of life that we can work around.
When you start walking in GeoSam's wheel house you better be aware that he is a
much respected well thought of person who he himself has had to deal with peer
group pressure on himself for some of the stands he has taken on our behalf.
This is America and this is the thirteenth
most wired University out of the 1,300 polled and I bet if you took
your energy and devoted it to a positive approach for constructively trying to
change some of the wrongs you have observed you could find that we might make
it all the way to number one sometime in the future. God Bless you my
friend and have a better day tomorrow.
With all due respect;
Wolfgang M. Schwartzenweintraub
-----
Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 15,
2000 6:10 PM
Subject:
GEO-CART> Wired, but?
yea,
we're wired, too bad the computers are junk and the network
administration is a freakin joke. If all the components
( infrastructure, hardware, software, admin) were there I wouldn't be so
sarcastic. Being "wired" is just good intended press for the UI Well it beats having one of our FRAT houses burning down or
some drunk falling out of a window.
(read: politics). Unfortunately having a new backbone and other
wiring infrastructure does not transfer into usability and functionality for
the end-user, the students. It
will eventually! Oh but meanwhile, the
president and other "functionaries" at the U can
certainly crow about "how wired we are". Of course, our esteemed
Senator Larry Craig also jumps on the bandwagon. Why, because it makes us all
sound so "cutting edge" and "progressive" We certainly are!. BAH!
I have
heard all this bragging for the last year while the "improvements"
were being implemented, what a bunch of BS. The students can attest to what
really goes on behind the scenes. So soory I am feeling so onery today Moscow
Sam, but you know as well as I that when labs such as "the advanced
technology teaching lab" (snicker) does not even have
basic Multi-media tools enabled (quickTime, WMT, ECT) there is a problem.
(actually they are there, but the average student does not realize that they
have to go in and "intialize" them). The last Arc View install
was a mess with symbols missing in action, and it took weeks and weeks for
"them" to figure out how to get MS Explorer
working with their NT install (granted its MS). And what is this faky-ass zip
utility that can't even handle GZip files? DID they save money by dumping
WINZIP?
I could not begin to even try to count how many times in the past I have packed
up my stuff, fought for parking, or rode by bike to school, only to find
inoperable computers We had a class in
GeoSams course on Web Resources and Design that had an inoperative Internet
browser working. Two of us went to the computer center with our discs and
shown them that our 'MARQUEE' pages would not run in that lab. The next
day it was fixed .and /or network. Kind
of hard to make forward progress to say the least.
So, I
gave up doing any serious work at school over 2 years ago.I hope you will find a way to return and continue on with you
studies. But what about those
less fortunate students that don't have the luxury of a home computer?
These
examples I have shown may seem like nit-picking, but tell that to the student
trying to maintain a GPA and who is working on a deadline. And these examples
are only the tip of the iceberg. I took my student loan money and ate rice and beans to own my own
computer.
Even
with this "multi-million dollar" upgrade to the backbone, good luck
logging in the monday after a long weekend or heaven forbid during pre-mid term
and pre finals week.>>>>>>>>>>meanwhile the frats
have some serious networked Quake and Duke Nukem games going on 24/7. I know
they are jacked we're wired.
Sorry
about the diatribe, but this is how it really is. We have a great system, but
they don't pay enough to retain people competent enough to make it work
properly. I do believe our
computer people are very well qualified or President Bob Hoover would have
replace them. Its like buying a
Ferarri or a Lotus, but only being able to afford to hire Gomer Pyle to work
on it. But oooh, thats Ok, cuz the fiber and Cat 5 cables are in
place, so WE ARE WIRED. whatever.>>>>> Overall, I am very
pleased with the quality of my education at the UI, and I very am
grateful to have been able to work with the people I have within my field of
study. But the computer situation has been the bane of my existence for the
last 4 years.
Thanks,
I feel better now. People do listen Rick
take it to President Bob Hoovers office and he will talk to you. You
might be able to be part of the solution.
Rick
Wolf
-----
Original Message -----
From:
SMW Scripter [aka MoscowSam] <MoscowSam@moscow.com>
To:
geo-cart <geo-cart@uidaho.edu>
Sent:
Friday, April 14, 2000 12:16 PM
Subject:
GEO-CART> Fw: [Vandal] 100 Most Wired Colleges
> de
GeoSam ...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Phil Corless <philco@micron.net>
> To: <vandal@uidaho.edu>
> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 11:36 AM
> Subject: [Vandal] 100 Most Wired Colleges
>
>
> >
> > The May issue of Yahoo Internet Life just hit my mailbox,
> > with a special report on the 100 Most Wired Colleges in
> > the country.
> >
> > Out of 1,300 schools surveyed, the University of Idaho
> > landed at Number 13.
> >
> > Congratulations to the computer folks at the UI!
>