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Harvard Offers Sneak Peek Into Their Network
Bob Brown writes "Harvard University doesn't usually talk much about its internal network, but here, the guy overseeing it opens up about the homegrown and commercial tools used to manage the massive system." From the article: "Harvard, as of late, has been exhibiting another telco trait - considering the network as part of the university's critical infrastructure. As such, its construction is considered during the initial planning phases of building renovation, new construction and campus expansion projects. The data networks that are being built today, at Harvard and similar institutions, are being built to host a variety of IP-based traffic. Most every physical-plant control device, whether it be security cameras, chilled water-valve actuators or parking garage card readers, are being designed to work with the IP network"
They have the money to do everything properly! /. article where that actually happened.
I can't remember the last
Documentation - Check
Test Environment - Check
Disaster Recovery Tests - Check
Inform the Users - Check
They made a really good move hiring someone from the Telephone Industry. Nothing like having someone used to managing critical infrastructure in charge of your biz.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
What's the point of being able to control a cold water valve actuator through the internet? Wiring everything into their internet servers just creates a lot more problems when something goes down.
If a server goes down you would expect that internet access would not work. But now if a server goes down you can't access the internet and you can't get water either. Considering the fact that most networks are poorly configured anyway, the amount of problems that could be generated from something like this far outweigh the ability to actuate a cold water valve through the network,
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
so... if that is right... i could, theoritcally, break the intarweb for all of harvard? +5 Interesting? Only on slashdot.
>browsing the notes to the lecture that the teacher made available and adding notes/annotations
A good student will have pulled down the lecture notes to their hard drive already.
>Pulling down source code from the book you've got because it didn't come with a CD (that costs extra)
You don't know when you got a CD with your book?
>Googling for more info to assist a group project
This one is a decent use. The instructor could have a web-based interface to say when students can use the Internet.
>Uploading/Downloading your notes from your home server so you can keep them all in one place
Again, do this before class and again immediately after class.
>Saving bookmarks and urls that a teacher may point out as a good source for more info
This is where that web-based interface comes in handy. Giving URLs and/or sites they're allowed to browse.
>Using your laptop to run a presentation/group project
USB thumb drives are common enough, as are ethernet ports on laptops. Equip the instructor's computer with a crossover cable that will enable a student to send a presentation to the instructor's computer.
AC's modded -6. I don't see you, I don't mod you, anything you say is lost. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say if the students aren't paying attention, its probably that the lecturer is not doing a very good job of making the lecture interesting, the lecture doesn't present any useful information (but, perhaps, attendence is taken in the lecture for grading purposes because otherwise no one would show up and just read the book instead), or that the students simply don't need to devote their full attention to it and desire some distractions (and for someone like me with a bad case of ADHD, if I didn't have a distraction, I'd probably end up not being able to focus on the lecture at all).
If Harvard is such a great school and only admits the best students, I'd think they could trust the students to exercise their own judgement in regards to how they choose to learn in class.
This is college, not high school. These professors and college beaurecrats need to grow up. If I pay upwards of $3000 a semester (and this is just a public college I attend), I expect a little bit of freedom and respect towards how I choose to gain or squander with my education. It seems like the higher up you go in the prestige ladder, the more inane and ridiculous it becomes.
Using your laptop to run a presentation/group project
Store it locally
Uploading/Downloading your notes from your home server so you can keep them all in one place
Store them locally temporally
Like maybe browsing the notes to the lecture that the teacher made available and adding notes/annotations
Pulling down source code from the book you've got because it didn't come with a CD (that costs extra)
Grab them before class and store them locally
Googling for more info to assist a group project
This one can't be answered by store it locally, but in my years in college we never had the chance to work on a group project during class time.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
Tablets. Without WiFi for my tablet, half the features which do things like cross-reference stop working. I quite like being able to quickly look something up, whilst still scrawling notes, then drop it straight into my work. Tap the 'save' and the whole thing is backed up off-site.
I'm only in 6th Form at the moment, but I find being able to access everything absolutely invaluable. I could live without it, but having 3 years worth of notes on-hand to search through comes in useful.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?