GeorgeWashingtonUniversity
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Researchers pluck carbon from the sky, turn it into diamonds
Carbon's the perfect material to build strong yet lightweight materials, but it's also the reason we're running head-first into an ecological apocalypse. Wouldn't it be great if we could snatch the excess CO2 from the air and use it to cheaply build aircraft fuselages, modern cars and artificial synthetic diamonds? That's what a group of researchers from George Washington University claim to have achieved at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society. Not only would it mean that future engineering projects would have an abundant source of cheap materials, but it also has planet-saving consequences.
Higher Ed choosing sides on iPad use
Timothy M. Chester, the CIO of Pepperdine University, discussed the ongoing controversy of how higher education has and should deal with the encroachment of the iPad on campuses throughout the country. Using information gleaned from the Educause CIO listserv, he found two camps being formed, and a bit of misinformation. The first camp's motto seems to take the position that if there is a new, potentially useful technology, it should be welcomed immediately. Seton Hill University announced that it will give an iPad to every full-time student in this fall, while George Fox University, a school that has been giving out computers to all incoming students for twenty years, is giving students a choice of either being handed an iPad or a Macbook. Their position is that they aren't willing to say which is the better choice, and many students already come to school with a laptop. To a large extent this is a marketing gimmick. When was the last time you heard of Seton Hill or George Fox University? But on the other hand, I know from experience that IT departments function more cheaply, and most often more effectively if their mission is to not support every digital device in the known universe. Tech support staff that only need to support a small number of platforms need less training, and parts inventories can be drastically reduced. However, Chester writes that putting an iPad into every student's hands would cost Pepperdine around US$800,000 which he posited would be much better spent on hiring new faculty.
Princeton, Cornell, George Washington University and the iPad
There have been several stories published recently, both on the web and in print, about ivy league schools banning iPads. Fortunately for students, they aren't true. Philip Elmer-DeWitt points out an article by Steve Wildstrom that explains what happened. Princeton's Office of Information Technology noticed that some iPads were having trouble with the IP addresses sent to them by the school's system of distribution. The department blocked the misbehaving units and warned students that they could have trouble. However, there never was a ban put in place. The school maintains up-to-date information on the issue here. Meanwhile, the Cornell Daily Sun reported that Cornell University "...[has] researched the issue and have found no negative [iPad] impact at Cornell at this time." That's a quote from the university's IT director Dave Vernon. In fact, Cornell sells iPads in their bookstore. The story at George Washington University is a bit different. Their network requires a VPN client of sorts that isn't available for the iPad. The devices aren't banned, they're just unable to access the network for the time being. According to the school's website, "We believe iPads will work on our wireless network this summer."
