Panera Bread, Heavy, but light on WiFi

Panera bread locations that have Wifi (not all do), while free, still might come with a price - two prices, in fact:
1: privacy/security - you can forget about it, they track every website you go to and
2: site blocking; one in particular I found rather odd is the blocking of livevideo.com - as they are one of the few from the "ustream/sitckam/blogtv" crowd that actually has an always-defaulted-on Family "Friendly" button!
The problem I find here is that Panera isn't actually checking these blocked sites for contraband, other than perhaps for keywords; such as "twogirlsonecup!". Well, we all know that 99% of those sites are reaction videos and (thanlfully, yet how would I know) not the "real McCoy" - or is it MacCoy? How Dare You, Panera? You need to lighten up or you may find your free access go the way of the dodo.

And, btw, they also block Anonymizer.com - go figure.

Public Access? Net Neutrality? Can anybody say "throttling"?

Shenan Stanley, MS-MVP on tech-archive.net? WHY?

Shenan Stanley, MS-MVP needs to have his MVP status yanked.

I was googling for a way to stop, once and for all, Adobe's shockwave from installing or starting Norton PC whatever-the-crap-software, Shenan didn't help anon. and by default didn't help me.

But, that's not important right now, what is follows:
Check that link - he tells anon. that the SP2 update of WinXP does not "force" the user to install IE7 on their computer. True, but that is NOT what anon. said, nor was that anon.'s concern, nor was that anon',s IT dept.'s concern.

At the time IE7 was being PUSHED on MS customers of XP updating (or not, as it turned out) from SP1 to SP2, MS did not - in fact - force any user to install IE7, BUT every update would always INCLUDE the update to IE7 for EVERY SINGLE UPDATE AFTER installing any update or service pack from then on - until you would actually leave THE BOX CHECKED IN THE UPDATE LIST. Everytime, it never failed to be in s list and checked in that list.

At the same time, a MAJOR known issue of IE7 was that it was not compatible with Blackboard software. That affected a lot of schools who used and still use that service.

PeopleSoft also recommended a "not yet" attitude OFFICIALLY and with CONCURRENCE WITH MS regarding the install of IE7.

All this escaped an MS-MVP? Any MVP that new none of these issues or concerns needs MS to rescind the MVP title from those individuals - and use Stanley as a perfect example.

Shenan Stanley, MS-MVP - How DARE You?

Adobe's Got a Cloud!

"

Are there any restrictions on the types of files I can upload and share?

You cannot upload and share the following file types: audio formats (MP3, AAC, OGG), video formats (MOV, WMV, FLV, XVID, DIVX, RETG), font formats (TTF, DFONT, OTF), archive formats (TGZ, RAR 7Z, SIT, JAR, WAR, CAB), system files and executable formats (EXE, DLL, JS, VB, BAT, CMD, COM, CPL, SH, CSH, TCSH, KSH, BASH, ZSH, INF, HTA, HLP, INS, ISP, VB, JSE, LNK, MS, PIF, SCR, SHS, WS), web files (CHM, CRT), database files (MDB), or raster image files (PCD, SCT).

"

All the more reason to use Acrobat.com's Cloud. Wait a minute.......HEY!

The Little prince

http://wwww.princefansunited.com/

Go there, and multiply. Prince, How Dare You?

O Ye of Little Faith!



Prince, Pal, Bud....what in the HellBoy is wrong with ye? R U "Crazy"? Oar R U jus B Inge re-COCK-u-LOUS ?

It's a damned good thing that publishing to blogs and bloggers who publish are covered by U.S. Supreme Court Ruling regarding blogs and bloggers' FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Ya, they are kind of covered as far as US law is concerned.

The first time I thought U might B a wee bit outta WHACK, was after hearing Kevin Smith's anecdotal evidence on his College Lecture Tour (also available on YouTube and DVD) - and with this latest spate of crit of your fans critting you, you done stepped over the line with this law suit crap.

B a part of the solution.

In support:






OK, that is the fun side of the issue. Now, for the serious side.
F.U.N.K. , How Dare You?
Kudos to your group in looking to quell anger or consternation among the Prince Nation of Fans, but frankly, if I want to start a blog (fan site), I will start one - whether it is for the P or against the P, I don't care all that much. I like Prince's music. As a person, Prince is a little cry-baby bitch. No, make that Bitch. I am not the problem nor the solution, nor should I be either. Prince is both the problem and the solution when it comes to fan sites (official or unofficial). Fan sites will exist or coexist with or without Prince's help. But, if Prince decides to interfere with the business of fan sites, he should best stay in the Dove World of Music and out the World of Law.
I mean COME ON, who in their right mind thinks an assistant can run out at 3am in the morning for some smokes, when all the damn stores are closed?
Prince, just stay here on Earth with the rest of the dove poop. Quit trying to fly around so high there, bud!

Rights of Excercising your rights. (, and your lefts ?)

Yep, thems are fightin' words! So, here is yet another in a series of plagiarized articles for you to peruse - and I mean peruse!

-------START OF COPY------------

How to resolve the dispute over the Daily 49er's future

(Editor's note: This article first appeared in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Reprinted with permission of the author.)

Commentary By William A. Babcock

Faculty members at California State University, Long Beach's Department of Journalism have a two-fold task: to help students understand the mass media and prepare them to survive and thrive in their chosen media field.

One of the best ways journalism instructors can foster the respect for a free and ethical press to both journalism majors and students from all academic disciplines is to provide them with opportunities for publication, be it in traditional print or photojournalism or online writing or graphics or streaming video. Nearly all comparably sized universities in America thus have hefty print and online daily campus newspapers.

Since coming here as department chair six years ago I have seen the number of majors in CSULB's Department of Journalism nearly double as the department has implemented a new student-friendly curriculum, brought in outstanding faculty with professional experience and doctoral degrees and recently become the home for the Southern California News Council. Earlier this year the Department of Journalism received a strong vote of endorsement by an Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications pre-accreditation team that came to Long Beach to assess Journalism's program.

The ACEJMC team, however, was critical of CSULB's lack of support for the campus newspaper, the Daily 49er, saying, "The University needs to face up to the challenge of sustaining a first-rate, independent campus newspaper." The ACEJMC report added, "Virtually no such independent campus papers can and do survive in U.S. universities on advertising revenue alone."

Unfortunately, the Daily 49er now survives almost exclusively on ad revenues, which lately have totaled about $300,000 per year. Thus, the print campus daily newspaper often consists of only a few pages of tabloid-sized newsprint. The Daily 49er generates nearly all of this advertising revenue. By comparison, the online version of the newspaper attracts about $500 in advertising dollars.

CSULB's Department of Journalism is one of nearly two-dozen departments in the College of Liberal Arts, which at one time paid the salary packages of two full-time professional Daily 49er employees and, more recently, made up for any red ink the paper incurred - a figure that often was between $20,000 and $30,000 per year, according to Daily 49er financial records.

Recently, CLA Dean Gerry Riposa said he is considering eliminating the daily print campus newspaper or reducing it to a weekly print paper, and plans to conduct a study to see if this might be feasible.

When he came to the Friday, Sept. 14, departmental meeting in Journalism's conference room to discuss such a study, three student journalists from the Daily 49er newsroom across the hall entered the conference room. A reporter from Long Beach's Grunion Gazette weekly also came into the conference room.

After a few minutes Riposa left the conference room, and was widely overheard in the hallway saying he did not want to discuss a feasibility study with student journalists present, and left the building. Two hours later a Sept. 12-dated memo from Riposa was hand delivered to the Department of Journalism announcing that as of September 2007 CLA would no longer cover cost overruns for the paper from its general funds.

The next working day Riposa said he was removing me as chairman of the Department of Journalism at the end of the week, even though I had been re-elected in May by Journalism faculty to another three-year term. I requested that he retain me as chair until the end of the 2007/08 academic year to avoid disruption to the Department of Journalism. He denied this request.

The purpose of this op-ed piece is not to argue with a dean's ability to dismiss a departmental chair, as chairs serve at the "pleasure" of deans. Rather, the hope is that:

1. Dean Riposa will once again decide that CLA has a stake in having a strong, vibrant, informative daily print and online campus newspaper, and that the college will help fund this daily newspaper accordingly.

2. Provost Karen Gould realizes that a strong, well-funded campus daily newspaper provides an invaluable service to and for all students in a way that is impossible for a journalism class- or lab-newspaper produced as the result of a course assignment for journalism majors.

3. President F. King Alexander exercises his ability to have students pay a modest $4 per semester "circulation" fee for receiving the print Daily 49er, and also provides university funds to offset the salary package (about $75,000) each year of one professional daily campus newspaper employee.

With a campus faculty and student body as large and diverse as that of CSULB, we can't afford to close this vital avenue of dialogue within our community. Riposa, Gould and Alexander are relatively new in their respective positions. The hope is that they all will understand the benefits of fiscally supporting a strong, non-lab print and online daily campus newspaper to which all 35,500 students have been welcome to contribute and of which everyone at CSULB will be proud.

***

William A. Babcock is a professor in CSULB's Department of Journalism and executive director of the newly formed Southern California News Council. In a former life he directed the University of Minnesota's Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, served as senior international news editor and writing coach for the Christian Science Monitor and was on the faculty of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

***

If you're concerned about what's happening at CSU Long Beach and want to do something, write a letter to:

William A. Babcock
Professor, Department of Journalism
& Executive Director, Southern California News Council
1250 Bellflower Blvd., SS/PA 024
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, CA 90840-4601
E-mail: wbabcock@csulb.edu

-------------END OF COPY------------------

What pisses me off about this, isn't the call for help proposed here by Babcock, but that the writer/publisher feels that much will be righted if we contact Babcock. No, I say. Much comfort might come to Babcock by writing to him. But, as with Congress, if you want it done, you complain about the top to the top - that would be Risoto, Roposa, whoever, you know who I mean. You put the journalistic pressure on that guy, and then you will get change. If a community college can get a butt load of plants removed from a lobby, a Fonte off their backs, and have a Chairman change his mind before we change his eating, drinking, & private "clubbing" arrangements, all by direct confrontation and commentary, then so can Babcock get his word to the wise-ass, I mean WISE MAN, Rizzo, Riposa, wh...you know who I mean.

iPhone Unlocked + Apple's iPhone update 1.1.1 = APPLE is a MORON

iPhone Unlocked + Apple's iPhone update 1.1.1 = iDoorstop or the iBrick (there has to be more) and a damned illegal thing for Apple to have done to its iPhone users! Yes, it is actually illegal (it's punitive).

DO NOT UPDATE YOUR iPHONE with 1.1.1 if you have "unlocked" your iPhone* and installed any 3rd party apps on it, which is, by the way, legal for OWNERS of iPhones to do - the Supreme Court said 3rd party apps installed on devices is exempt.

UN-INSTALL all 3rd party apps

RE-LOCK your iPhone to "day one" status (if you unlocked it properly, you WILL be able to do this!)

THEN update with iPhone update v1.1.1

THEN RE-UN-LOCK your iPhone.

THEN Re-Install your favorite 3rd party apps.

WARNING = this is LIKELY to work and still leave your iPhone usable and with your added 3rd party apps re-installable.

The method above will HAVE to be re-done for EVERY future iPhone update.
------------------------------------

You WILL have to update it anyway, just do it right. If you do it wrong, or if you do not update, then parts of your iPhone will stop working before your very eyes.

-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Ah, and Speaking of French Apple Pie Waste:
(were we?)

It seems the French company Vivendi is complaining of Apple's iStore charging too much for songs.....give it up, Frenchie, you know you can - you are experts in surrendering. So, surrender to your Bitch-master, Vivendi, and wine no more.

I am not french.

CDT-05 released from the factory too soon!

As the scratchworx website image verification NEVER works, here is what I tried to let everyone there know:

Just opened up 2 CDT-05's, shipped only 9 weeks late of promise (from the dealer) and the table on one of the units just will not spin. It's as if someone on the assembly line forgot to plug something. What a joke. Way to go, Gemini!

Gemini includes no right-angled plugs - power or audio - but should be an industry standard, this caused me to cut back the foam AND go to Radio Shack for yet more electronic parts & adaptors that should always be thought through and included.

The Vinyl controller locking disc (the label-sized fastener disc) is now PLASTIC, and not metal as I had previously seen from early show pics. The body is a charcoal gray, and is indeed plastic, not metal - what a surprise. The tonearm counter weight is strange, hanging back out almost completely off of the tonearm for an Ortofon? Whoa! Also, zero instructions on what gets attached first: The control vinyl? The slipmat? The other mat? The control disc that locks the vinyl (?) down is pretty easy to figure, but come on! At least pictures if not SOME narrative. I guessed with success.

Odyssey does not yet make a foam-lined case big enough for these CDT-05's for battle (but who does, really, make a case deep enough for permanent battle setups?), but, they should start. This really doesn't matter as almost all the new Numarks and Gemini TT's are at least 17+3/4" wide, and with only 17" of clearance after adding the typical 1" foam on all sides of the TT compartments in Odysseys largest (widest)...get it?

The other case design consideration? The front-RIGHT slot loading CD hole makes for an interesting re-design of the popularly asked for - bit rarely built - drop-down sectioning of the front lip of a DJ coffin (this would be ideal, of course). The CDT-05 came out in March 07, so one would think that Odyssey could have built a case with such in mind by August! Nope.

CDT-05? Gemini? Good idea, but Gemini is not improving their rep sending out TTs that have not ALL been at least plugged in and run to see if the basics work. They are also not improving their rep by insisting - after 20 years+ in the business - that all repair work be done in NJ. Ridiculous.

Odyssey? Can you say "Retrofit", that's what I am doing - cutting out foam pockets and getting the saws-all out of its new box to cut me some drop-down flaps for easy slot access!


Damn you, Gemini!

Alec Baldwin is a Big Baby Cop

So, uh, Baldwin.

How Dare You?

Shut up, already.

I may actually be, by the way, a better actor than you, also.


HA HA HA.


Imbicile.

Go, you Lesbians, GO!

Lesbians Rule !

http://digg.com/tech_news/LiveJournal_deletes_hundreds_of_illegal_rape_survivor_LGBTQ_communities "Responding to a query from a pedophilia-watchdog group, LiveJournal deleted all journals containing "illegal" key-words in the journal or community interests. Rape-survivor and incest-survivor groups, BSDM groups, and Lolita (the book) literary groups disappeared, along with hundreds of personal journals. Users are (predictably) outraged." from digg.com Wow. I wonder how long it will take LJ to kill my LJ account? Tags: digg, fun, gay, lebsians, morons, oops Current Location: My Lesbian Bed Chamber Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: L7

Cops vs. Real Life

Just something you need to see.

talk-show-hosts-in-hiding-after-police-threat

Ana Rincon is an idiot.

Her info on how to handle copyright violators is laughable if it weren't so scary and if it weren't for the fact that every body does this when confronted with SOME ONE ELSE'S Copyrights being violated!

Stupid. You do not - and according to the Act CAN NOT - take ALLEGED Copyright violators to court UNTIL you have at least followed the grievance procedures set out BY THE ACT. The Act supersedes any and all other sanctions IMAGINED yet still printed, publicised, adhered to by Colleges, High Schools, Libraries, companies, etc, all blindly thinking they know Copyright Law. The Copyright Act is not huge and nor hard to read. The DMCA bullshit, however, is complicated and is hard to read, but what of it?

The ONLY course of action for you to take when you feel violated is to report the violation to the PEOPLE THAT CAN AND WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT LEGALLY! That would be the US Copyright Office for ALLEGED Copyright infringement. Your College has NO BUSINESS accusing anyone nor imagining anyone of violating copyright law - how can they? No college employee nor student anywhere in the US can legally enforce ANY violation of the Act. Enforcement of the Act is the sole territory of the US Treasury Department. A college employee certainly can not enforce any ALLEGATIONS of same. And yet most schools print in their Policy Manuals words to that detrimental effect. I can not wait to get into the court system over Person A accusing Person B (me, in this case) of violating Person C's copyright, I live for this shit.

If you see a customer copying something at Kinko's, say of a picture taken by a photographer that you know Personally, and you some how, some way, find out that this customer does NOT have the Copyright Holder's permission to copy that picture, is there anything that you can do on behalf of your photographer friend?

Well, yes, there is something we can do to help the friend - one thing, and one thing only: You can call him on the phone and ask him to get his ass down quick to the Local Kinko's, because , "Dude, someone is copying one of your photographs from one of your published books! You better get down here and kick this guy's ass! I talked with a Kinko's employee about it and they said they only refuse to copy the works themselves, unless THE CUSTOMER gives a copy of signed permission form FROM the original Copyright Holder".

And that, my friends, is all that anyone can and is allowed to do under the Copyright Act. In this case, since I am not the copyright holder, I can not accuse nor report this Kinko's customer to anyone except the original copyright holder - period. I cannot complain to the Office of Copyright, the cops, the Kinko's store managers, no one except the original copyright holder. And if the original copyright holder does not care (about this one-time infringement) then I still can not do anything more. That is all.

Look it up: In your State, there are a list of crimes that can be reported and to whom they can be reported. Unfortunately there is no list of alleged crimes that CAN NOT be reported.

The Kinko's case is brought in here because Kinko's the company was once involved in a Copyright infringement case, that ultimately put ALL copy stores and libraries with copy machines "On Notice". The settlement specific to Kinko's was that they must FOREVER and ALWAYS (this now includes FedEx's ownership interest in Kinko's) must refuse all customer requests to make copies of customer's work unless the Kinko's Mange or employee attempting to do the work is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the CUSTOMER owns or holds ALL copyright to all the work that the customer wishes the Kinko's employee to copy.

ANY and ALL COPYRIGHT infringement can only be PROVED, DISPROVED and SETTLED first with the Office of Copyright, and if not there, then appealed to a COURT of actual LAW. Why do we not know this in America?

How hard is that, really?

Factoring out the fear.

Joe Rogan, you are the MAN.

What the FUCK is going on here people?

Mitzi? If I EVER thought of doing standup again, it would have to be when you fire your sons from running the Comedy Whore (I meant Store). That you should even have to HEAR Joe's "side" of things is laughable - the mere thought of it is damned funnier than Mencia.

And what about Paul Rodriguez? He is one funny brown man. goddam! And fuck you Wikipedia for not listing Rodriguez at the top of the (at least Menstealia is near the bottom).

You know, we had Calos Mencia here at our school, the College of Lake County*, and yes, he was funny. But, not funnier than George Lopez (George must cringe everytime he hears one of his jokes come out of Ned) whom we have not had here, yet. At least George's fist in Mencia's face is funny.


* Yah, the same College of Lake County that Edward James Olmos cancelled TWO (2) appearances. (He has now the nickname of Edward James Almost because of it, too).


On the other hand, I don't care who handed Joe the microphone: because KUDOS to you my man or woman, KUDOS TO YOU!


Forgive me Joe

Joe Rogan VS Carlos Mencia ONSTAGE VIDEO.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FX17EJDD

http://media.putfile.com/rogan-pwns-menica

So you see how pissed off I am about Mencia - I have to steal Joe's links for the video!

By the way: my use of the word FUCK is of course covered by the 1st ammendment (go, you ACLU, go!)

Should I pick Modeling, Campus Safety, or User Support Tech for my new career?

Should I pick Modeling, Campus Safety, or User Support Tech for my new career?

OK, putting a computer in my hands is like putting a loaded gun in Barney Fife's hand, I know how to walk a runway, and I don't go for ladies much under 25 years old.

So I guess I will pick User Support Technician. I don't know why - it just seems like a good direction. (On the plus side, I can be my own boss. "Be your own boss?", you say, "Yes. Be my own boss", I say back to you - although being your own boss is kind of like being your own uncle - I can be my own boss, because no one is going to tell me I have to "ghost" someones hard drive when I know all I need do is put in a bootable linux device and change one or two registry settings in Windows, Macs are even easier to fix, and then reboot; thereby saving an administrator's hard work saved for years)

An Interest of Conflict

After reading this, some of my colleagues will think me a hypocrite (especially the ones who wouldn't know the definition of hypocrite if it hit them in their Achilles), some will be astonished I would "read" in to CLC Governance something so trivial, and some others will think, "How DARE you" think you can lump yourself into "colleague" status - the latter being quite ridiculous. Read on brave, thundering souls!

After reading the well defined CLC Governance Handbook, I recalled a Committee Charter and one of its sections; and how it was worded. Something wasn't accurate. Something about comparing the two "versions" bothered me a bit. It all started with the Charter of an ITC subcommittee - the one that deals with Internet and Intranet things (and how damned appropriate, as you read this on the Internet!)

While searching for an acceptable form in forming a democratic entity from the ground up to be ready for inclusion into parts of the Operations of a college radio station, I came across a variety - too much so - of in-place, real-world constitution and charter examples, either outdated or similar to each other where there should be clear delineations or dissimilar where there should be almost verbatim identicism.

Assumptions: That the CLC Governance Handbook, last updated Oct 2006 (pretty good, considering past update history!), is the sole guide to be used.

Points I found:

There is, in every non-student Senate constitution, a section utilizing the CGH directions, but adding a 3rd party assumption of duty that is non-binding by its nature - this section needs to be dropped and its dropping would not be substantial - on the contrary, its very inclusion causes substantial nonsense in the governmental process as outlined in the CGH.

Although membership in each commission and any ITC standing subcommittees (there are 4 such via the ITC, several in the Faculty Senate, 2 in the classified) delineates the need for student representation - each requesting/requiring 2 student reps per Commission and 1 per subcommittee in fact - there is less. Each Commission has 1 of the requested and each ITC subcommittee has zero.

The Student Senate appoints students to fulfill these requested obligations. There is no distinction as to if a student appointed must, must not, or should be only an SGA voted or appointed senator, only that those 2 chosen be students (presumably of CLC, although also not spelled out).

Although there is no mention in any of the non-student Senate Constitutions as to membership requiring student representation of any kind, the Faculty Senate has verbally requested for many years, some student representation at their meetings (presumably already an appointed or elected SGA Senator, and for this latter concern seems an appropriate distinction, although personally I would prefer 1 student be an SGA member and the other student not be an SGA member - on purpose)

I think there should be not only student repping such as have been allowed/requested in the Fac Sen, but the other Senates should require this in their membership sections (in their respective constitutions). Why Specialist and certainly why in Classified would having student reps be important?
Checks & Balances, more open communication, real-world access to what is really going on "behind the scenes".

Student Media needs to play a much more significant observational role in reporting Employee and student Senate meetings. I attended CLC for a number of years and have personally witnessed Chronicle Staff being present at Student Gov meetings, and then reporting (I should say, trying to report) their observations post-meeting. As, according to the CGH, ALL initial regularly scheduled meetings of Senate and Commission groups are to follow first the Illinois Open Meetings Act, having a News Reported present is no different than having one present at any Board meeting.

The case of Senate or Commission intra-representation has always been a concern of mine. As of January 2007, the Specialist Senate has specialists in the field representing their cause in various committees and commissions, however, the problem is that a Specialist hired and working with ITS should NOT be also a voting member of the Specialist Senate nor any of its subcommittees, as IS now the case. This is a potentially bad practice to continue as the ITC, its subcommittees and all its membership are ADVISORY commissioners with only ADVISORY capacity. Those same advisors should not be allowed to vote on their very recommendations via another conduit - voting should be left up to the non-ITS Specialists within the Specialist Senate

Senates vote and Commissions advise and recommend.

Either group or individuals can bring concerns for discussion to, for example, the ITC Internet/Intranet Subcommittee, but if they realistically feel that the concern is best handled by a redirect from the GCC or by an operating department in place, then that is what should occur as not every idea that comes up in a group needs to be discussed in that group (how long do meetings really need to last?).

Regarding needs: The I/I subcommittee of the ITC have "come up" with a few ideas that they clearly talk about in their meeting minutes (available in the Public Folders, but curiously not on the Intranet page):

1. Web standards (to be used in faculty, staff, student web pages/spaces, presumably covering everything from disclaimers to bandwidth usage to storage capacity to database use to content update frequency allowances to publication authority an control)

2. Public Folder Access concerns, mainly, Public Folders should be used for more private communications and the Intranet should be used primarily for Agenda and Meeting Minute publications.

3. change the name of the Governance page on the Intranet to Commissions and Committees.

The first is rife with the members of the "nothing bad has happened in the past, but just in case it does" camp, and those campfire embers are always warm! If your IT department can determine that you have the infrastructure and are supported in the same to provide faculty, staff, and student club & organization web space/pages, then the premise should be one o OFFERING the space. Demanding it, in the example of Student Organization Space, is beyond ludicrous in some respects and Grade-Schoolish in all others. First of all, the notion that student club or org spaces need any type of control or coddling in some half-arsed future preventative effort to "protect" the college's interests or image:

1. is a fantastic waste of in-house resources
2. will be fine with proper or agreed upon (rarely the same) disclaimers holding the college harmless
3. a declaration that the club page is indeed sanctioned but not necessarily endorsed by the college's staff, faculty, or administration
4. club budgets can be temporally frozen during due process initiated from an incident
5. sanctions can be spelled out for each club member contributing to all page content that has been deemed unsuitable for anyone's image, let alone the college's (hence the disclaimers)
6. advisors can be charged with the responsibility of publication controls if needed, and then only on on a per case basis (much as in how some bulletin boards, blogs' comments, and on-line forums are moderated before comments can be posted to a site)
6a. this latter process can be easily automated and already is so on places such as Live Journal and Google Groups, Google Pages, and MSN Live (see Server2003 infrastructure used for remote control capabilities through signatory agreements between CLC ITS and MSN)

I am suggesting an honor approach be applied and reapplied to every club and organization when discussing web publication of anything, including blogs and other forms of public dissemination of club and member info. In other words, forcing clubs & organizations to only use provided internally controllable webspace will merely force clubs to use Live Journal, or Google's Blogger or Blogspot, or MSN Live, or you can see where this would become a "revolution" in a sense. Not so much a revolt, but at least quite revolting to look at! And MySpace is always lurking out there, yuch. All of these mentioned here, these technological alternatives to out-sourced somewhat costly ISP webhosting, are free. But, just because a club spends money to "go outside", the hypocritical nature of this statement blares loudly, "Why should clubs have to spend money?", well, ask anyone in Student Activities: To Learn real-world, hands-on approaches to publication and group interactivity. I said hypocritical due the fact that if clubs are using any of he aforementioned free alternatives, then the issue of spending money is disingenuous and a red herring designed to obfuscate the real concern: one of control from the top.

IT and ITS are to be used as tool boxes for us to get done what we want to do and provide for our stakeholders (and of course I HATE using that word in a sentence). IT should never be in charge of WHAT we say online, only how we can design the font. That's pretty much it, and to also help us become better protectors of our passwords and usernames.

So basically, offer the webspace, but don't force it - not even to faculty in most cases.

Any club or org or advisor that feels forced into only using CLC-controlled webspace will probably already know that CLC would never be able to handle that club's existing bandwidth and current storage requirements with the level of security and efficiency that can be had by even merely godaddy. We must also consider that some webpages cannot be controlled by edict their National or International charter - PTK comes to mind. To be a member of PTK in good standing and as a member you wish your chapter to have a web presence, I believe they require specific guidelines to be followed for this to occur.

Speaking of guidelines, lets say for argument that web space can be accommodated via CLC controlled server technologies matching all of any current club's web requirements for now and the near future; you would still need to allow all of the clubs to have meetings to consider what is fair and appropriate to each of their needs - which vary widely - regarding web standards proposed. These standards would then further need to be refined and then voted on by that ad hoc group. This method is more than just implied in the CLC Governance handbook.

Some clubs would need to be updating content automatically every 60 seconds or less (per DMCA requirements of Internet Streaming Stations such as CLC Radio, not to mention their weekly and daily music charting updates, and lists of new music coming in sometimes twice per day), others would require at least daily content updates, and on down to maybe as little as once or twice per semester for probably the majority of clubs - to start with, as once it becomes piratical and popular to let Mommy (CLC) take "care" of our sites, then you will need at least 1 full time staff in IT just to handle all web concerns, not to mention the help desk nightmares of, "I though you said we could have sub webs, not sub domains?". Not even 3 dedicated IT staff could handle such a load. And yet, such a load is normal for most Microsoft- and Linux-based web sites.

The second point is rife with....well, it just points to some ignorance on the part of the users of public folders, which is ironic in two ways:
1. the ITC committee was first to introduce the functionality of Public Folders and disseminate proper training and usage of same
2. and the subcommittee in question - along with the other 3 of the ITC, have not published one single agenda nor minutes, even though all other governance groups have either attempted at least half-hearted or are extremely timely in their publications


The third point (from far above) regarding the "name change" is quite erroneous since the "Governance" name and its usage are only two years old and, most importantly, broad in scope which is exactly what is necessary in being able to create further delineation in government as in groups like, the Internet/Intranet sub committee!

I finish with what I earlier mentioned; the honor approach to student group, out-sourced web hosting. The honor is: Student Life and Student Activities are to be the sole controllers of web hosting choices here - thus necessitating the involvement of the SGA, if and only if some operational consensus cannot be reached between the directors, the advisor, and the club officers and membership. Due process must not only be followed in letter as a post-emptive strike, but in spirit in a pre-emptive idea. The action would be the action of the membership's trustworthiness and reasonably perceivable conflict arising out of arbitrary publication - especially of unsubstantiated facts (which is presumably why a concern from a non-student group existed in the first place).

In other words: let Student Life worry about the ethical behaviour and the ITC worry about fully, technically supporting an infrastructure truly ready to handle a wide variety of assumptive web hosting behaviour.

This blog alone should be proving this point. This blog post should not scar anyone - as I my intention is to inform, not to intimidate.

The dangers of post-it notes

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS WAAAAY OVER ANALYZED! (big suprise)

I received a post-it note with a message on it paired with a verbal genuine concern from a co-worker today, Tuesday.

The message/note was delivered to my co-worker last "....Friday", by another co-worker of ours, we'll call him "Last Friday". The note contained a simple message conveying a problem that, to me had I received the note last Friday, could have been eliminated. Last Friday. The verbal message accompanying the note handed (today, Tuesday) me I had perhaps - I will concede here - mis-heard, that an administrator had reported an incident indicated in the post it note.

I decided to seek the advice of a wise sage.

My supervisor told me to "...[not] worry", and "...just fix it [the problem].". Well, when I am told to not worry, I generally take that to mean "drop it, don't worry, no further analysis or work is needed". And yet, I ponder the inequity.

On the other hand, I am reminded of the movie starring Demi Moore & Michael Douglas, "Disclosure"; a movie of reverse sexual harassment - girl against guy - in which Douglas' character was anonymously told, almost continually, to "fix the problem" - even after he was sure he need not worry. (no spoiler here). Well I digress, for some odd reason - really odd - I have sexual harassment on my mind today, but it obviously has nothing do with "...what I am just trying to convey the sentiments of everyone here. That's all I was trying to do...."

Immediately after a casual "walk with me" interview of the administrator mentioned earlier in this blog, that administrator had no idea what I was referencing. They were clearly not involved with the delivery of the message, the note, nor its meaning, although they may have been present at the time of "the incident", they were not made aware of it., at its occurrence in time. Last Friday.

I thought to myself, "I could be embarrassed by this, or I could existentially choose not to be and, 'fix the problem'."

Hence, this blog post.

The lesson for everyone is: deliver your concern over an incident on the day it happens, otherwise ignorance will be my watch word. You're on notice, Mr. "Last Friday". OR even I can forget to deliver messages from time to time - unless, of course, I know that delaying such a message (consciously) would cause any turmoil.

Hey, turmoil? None caused. None perceived. The communication problem = Fixed.

On a side note: "So, stop the suspense. Please, tell us what was on the note; what did it say?"
Well, if I answer that question, I would be violating the first rule of working at CLC Radio.
Rules and regulations are within easy reach in their website.

<-- copyright 2007 by Dan Prowse -->