Posts Tagged Internet

Reconnect with the actual world

As this is my first column of the year, I wish to extend a warm welcome to you, whether you are a returning student or a new student. Indiana University has a lot to offer you, but I’d like to offer some words of caution.

What you’ve heard is true – IU is one of the most wired campuses in the United States, if not the world. There are e-mail stations in the cafeterias, hallways and in other random spaces. The campus offers dial-up network connections that are fast and efficient.

IU also offers an incredible deal that allows you to acquire Microsoft products at only $5 a CD-ROM. You can not go wrong with that deal: if a new upgrade goes wrong it probably didn’t cost you more than $20, the price of the Office 2000 Premium 4 CD set. (And, at least in my humble opinion, Office 2000 is a major improvement over its competitors and predecessors.)

The lure is great. For only a few dollars you too can get on the Internet and surf all day; many research journals are available online with the click of your mouse. Hometown newspapers keep you in touch with the places you are from. Networked games offer the lure of winning games and prizes. Chat rooms offer the potential for new friends in interesting places.

And IU is making it even easier for you to avoid stepping in the classroom. The University now offers Oncourse, a Web-based instruction system that, in some cases, could mean that you will never have to step into a classroom or physically meet your professors.

No doubt about it, this technology is grand! It is making life a whole heck of a lot better.

But I want to remind you that you are here in Bloomington, a city of 70,000 people in Monroe County, in the state of Indiana.

So I wish to offer you some advice: TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER. GET UNWIRED.

And I don’t mean you should purchase a cellular phone. I mean lose the technology.

Bloomington and the surrounding areas offer a number of splendid attractions that are well worth the trip and worth getting offline and outside for. For those of you interested in fall colors and a tourist-trap shopper’s Mecca, head east to Nashville and Brown County State Park. It’s well worth the trip, even if you must pay to park during the prime tourist season.

Every train buff in town ought to take a trip west to Solsberry and the world’s third-longest train trestle. It is an interesting site, and any one wishing to marry a person named Melissa has a built-in proposal painted on the south side of the trestle (at least it was there when I visited it earlier this summer). Both of these sites are well worth the time away from your Web browser, and there are many more places to visit in the area.

But for those of you who want to stick closer to town, or even want ideas for the upcoming weekends, Saturday, Kirkwood Avenue will be home of Hoosierfest, an annual concert and street fair. It starts at noon and the tunes begin at 2 p.m.

And Labor Day weekend will bring the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts & Crafts to Fourth and Grant Streets. Another opportunity to get outside and have some fun, you will be able to find stuff to hang on your walls and enjoy live entertainment.

For those of you who cannot wait for the weekend and have a few minutes to spare between classes, here’s an idea. Sit outside in the Arboretum or make the trek to People’s Park. Each provides their own kind of unique entertainment: plants and people at their best and worst, case dependent.

In any case, there are opportunities to get offline and outdoors. Don’t waste your time in Bloomington only seeing the walls of your apartment and the street between home and campus. Get out and live a little.

Your computer will be waiting for you when you get home.

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First come, first serve at ASUW trough

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

Our student government is spending our money at an amazing rate this year with what appears to be little student input.

According to my calculations, ASUW has committed, or already spent, $929,400 of our money. Most of it appears to have come from the recently discovered Student Loan Fund that had more than $2 million.

Our decision-making process for spending the money appears to be a “first come, first serve” method of thinking — and only one of these ideas actually appears to have been any good.

I certainly appreciate ASUW funding the purchase of the new UNIX server for campus. It was much needed and will be, over time, much appreciated.

However, I do question the naming of the server. Was it absolutely necessary for ASUW to name it ASUWlink?

Before Plains came to campus, students used computers named Outlaw and Posse. Other major computers on campus have embraced the western theme.

ASUWlink breaks that tradition and glorifies an organization that does not need any more glorification.

At a cost of $253,000, I’ll overlook the egotistical nature of ASUW and say thanks.

However, when it comes to the $626,400 ASUW is committed for renovations to Half Acre, I’m a little bit more leery.

I’ve read a lot about the proposed renovations, but I have never seen justification for the tremendous changes that are proposed.

The proposal calls for moving the entrance of Half Acre so that it faces Prexy’s Pasture — expand the women’s locker room, add a rifle range, and move some other facilities around the place.

Realistically, I understand expanding the women’s locker room — it probably needs it. Women deserve equivalent facilities. I’d also support moving other facilities around until the improved women’s locker room fits in.

However, I don’t get why we need to move the entrance.

I don’t get why students are being asked to fund a rifle range that will be used primarily by the ROTC. Can’t ROTC fund its own facilities?

I don’t understand why we need to move stuff around. Is it necessary to move free weights to the first floor and the nautilus weight room to the second floor?

We’re also going to purchase televisions at the cost of $4,000. With cable, of course, so it’s OK.

Near as I can tell, about the only real reason being given for the renovations is because Half Acre hasn’t been renovated since 1979. I guess we haven’t been maintaining the facility.

The good news is that students are not the only ones shouldering the cost of these nifty renovations. Unexpended employee benefits totaling $175,000 will also be used. The administration is also looking for an additional $25,000 to fund its commitment of $200,000.

Of course, the money really does come from the student’s pocket, but it’s more palatable when it comes from tuition, taxes and donations.

ASUW is also spending $50,000 to fund a project yet to be determined.

I’m willing to guess that the senate is going to fund the first project that comes along. That’s what they appear to have been doing all along.

Senate should realize that the first proposed projects are not necessarily the best projects to fund.

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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A Collection of UW Problems

Note: I don’t have a publication date for this column, but from the context it’s in late October or early November 1997, Published in the UW Branding Iron.

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

Like every semester, there are many stupid things about UW that could use some improvement.

Perhaps the one that stands out the most in my mind in my mind is the sound system in the Arena-Auditorium (for the uninitiated, the basketball arena).

I’ve been in the A-A twice this semester and both times I have been unable to understand a word uttered by those speaking.

The first occasion was for President Philip Dubois’ installation ceremony held Oct. 4 prior to the Montana football game.

The ceremony was not memorable since I could only hear a few phrases here and there throughout the speech.

Even worse was Gov. Jim Geringer’s welcoming talk. From my seat, Geringer’s talk sounded like a subway car coming into a station, but lasted 10 times as long.

I also suffered through another poor sound experience in the A-A during Midnight Madness Oct. 17.

It was fascinating watching the ‘Pokes take the floor for their first practice. Whether it was the excitement of watching sophomore guard Andy Young or Wyoming hometown hero Gregg Sawyer, it was fun.

But, again, I couldn’t hear more than a few words at a time over the sound system. The only thing I could hear clearly was Denny Dent’s awesome painting performance.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact they brought in a separate sound system for him.

We need an upgrade for the A-A’s sound system – preferably before the basketball season gets started Nov. 16.

Another really stupid thing about campus is the new and nearly impossible to use top web page.

In this wired world, the home page for any university is an important front door for many prospective students and other visitors.

The folks in charge of the page need to think about ease of use, not try to incorporate every neat new technological twist that is developed for the web.

Frames are one of those neat technological twists that some twisted person developed for the web. It also is one of the big problems with the new top web page.

In the right hand frame, there’s a collection of blocks that link to different parts of the university.

Too bad they don’t always link to what you expect. The image of a UW wrestler links to a collection of “UW Sports Action Shots,” not to Athletics, as I first guessed.

To add insult to injury, the collection of pictures doesn’t even have a link to the athletics department.

That’s not the only example of poor web page design.

If you actually want to connect to athletics (or research, a key component of the university), you have to go to the left hand frame and search down a long list of what appear to be randomly sorted links.

That’s almost enough to turn any cybervisitor away from the university.

Maybe it has.

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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