Don't read this by e-mail! Instead, read the hypertext version of this newsletter: <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/current.html>. Contents:
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Local and online events of particular interest to FCN members (see also On
Campus below):![[new!]](newyahoo1.gif){kind=small}
![[new!]](newyahoo.gif){kind=small}
NEW WAYS TO READ YOUR MAIL. The computing center has installed a totally web-based email reader. Though not as powerful as Eudora, it offers several benefits, particularly for faculty at conferences who may have access only to a web browser and need to read their email, or for students in campus labs whose only previous e-mail access was through a terminal emulation program and Pine. For more information, see "How To" below.
COLOR PRINTING. If you need to make color prints from your computer but don't have a color inkjet of your own, you have several options around campus. Among the options, there are now color laser printers in both Science Library ITC (Canon Laser Copier 800 with a Colorpass 4000) and Knight Library ITC (an HP Color Laserjet). You can take your materials to the library and print there, or print directly from your office computer (in either case, actual printing is queued until you pay for the printout at a station in the library). Prints currently cost $1 per page.
UO MODEM POOL EXPANDED. On Jan 27, Network Services upgraded to 56Kb and added 32 modems to the 346-3565 UO modem pool. The current modem pool is:
WIRELESS NETWORKING. Is the idea of a wired campus already passé? The next big technology, say some college administrators, will be wireless networks that let students and professors connect to the Internet with radio waves instead of cumbersome cables. One key issue is cost -- wireless network cards at current campus network speeds (10baseT, at 10Mbps) are expected to continue to cost several times the price of 10baseT cards. With reasonable notebook computers now available for under $1500, would students be willing to spend an additional $400 on a wireless card? (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Feb 99, <http://chronicle.com/free/v45/i22/22a02501.htm>)
YET ANOTHER ONLINE QUIZ PROGRAM. Check out WebAssign, at <http://www.webassign.net/info/>. It got a premium billing in the Chronicle of Higher Education <http://chronicle.com/free/v45/i23/23a02101.htm>. And the pricing is interesting: it was developed at North Carolina State, and professors who want to use a basic version of WebAssign are charged a $250 setup fee and are asked to pay NCSU $5 per student per class per semester. Maybe there's a market for that educational software you're developing for your introductory lecture course?
DISTANCE ED FOR COLLEGE PREP. Here's a new market for colleges doing web based instruction: A new free online course offered by Oklahoma State University helps prepare potential college students for higher education. Any student with Internet access can take part and download lesson plans. <http://collegeprep.okstate.edu>
SHAKESPEARE ON THE WEB. Shakespeare lovers now can use computers to view centuries-old pages from the first published edition of the playwright's works, once restricted to authorized scholars. The Folger Shakespeare Library, one of the world's most important collections, has 79 complete copies of the First Folio, the first complete edition of his plays. But they are more than 375 years old and even scholars need a good reason to touch them or turn the pages. Since Thursday, a new multimedia exhibit called "The Shakespeare Gallery" has enabled tourists to turn at least 13 pages. The exhibit has 240 digitized color images of the Folger's treasures relating to Shakespeare and his times.
E-MAIL DOMINANCE. Here are 2 unverified statistics for you to mull over: it is claimed that during 1998 the US Post Office delivered 198 billion piece of mail while US e-mail users got 3.4 trillion email messages. If those statistics are right, it's a 17-fold difference! (source: Woody's Windows Watch).
The Computing Center has installed a new web-based server that may be of interest to many on campus. Basically, the server displays your e-mail in a web page (password protected, of course). More precisely, it acts as an IMAP e-mail client and accesses on your behalf mail servers on the VMScluster, darkwing, or gladstone.
The server can be accessed in secure mode via URL <https://webmail.uoregon.edu>, or in slightly less secure mode if required by your browser via URL <http://webmail.uoregon.edu> (no "s").
Once you've logged in to the WebMail server you can read your mail (including reading HTML formatted messages), file it in folders, delete or reply to it, save attachments to your hard disk, etc. Unlike Eudora, the messages are not downloaded to your local PC disk, but instead are kept on the mail server (so if you regularly use Eudora, any undeleted messages you read using WebMail will be downloaded and deleted from the server nest time you run Eudora). Since your old mail is kept on the server, you can view it from any computer, not just from the machine in your office.
One important trick in using WebMail: If you use darkwing or gladstone as your e-mail server, then there's one additional step to take the first time you use WebMail. Immediately after logging in for the first time, click the "Options" button and in the "IMAP4 folder prefix" box type "mail/" (no quotations).
The Computing Center consulting staff can provide assistance with WebMail. Call 6-1758 or e-mail <mailto:consult@oregon>
The conference list now has its own web page, at <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/conferences.html>. We'll continue to use this space to highlight new conferences of particular interest to UO faculty interested in educational technology.
An acquaintance, having received a great many inquiries about whether his company's software is Year 2000 compliant, is considering using this as his new standard response:
We are quite confident that all of our systems are now Year 2000 Compliant. We have, however, over a one-year backlog of Year 2000 Compliance forms to fill out, so according to our scheduling database, you should hear back from us in June, 1900.
For yet another Y2K cartoon, check out <http://sibal.com/sandeep/mil_bug.gif>.
The UO Faculty Consultants Network Newsletter is published (approximately)
twice a month. If you have materials for inclusion in the newsletter you can
send them to <mailto:jqj@darkwing>.
This newsletter (as well as other FCN-related material) is available on line
in <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/fcn/news/>.
