Through the grapevine, Bwog has been hearing rumors that in attempts to safeguard against theft, Public Safety has plans to begin taking unattended laptops in Butler. Oddly enough, this is one rumor that turned out to be kind of true, in a vague, quasi-benevolent way.

Ricky Morales, Crimes Prevention Manager at Public Safety clarified: "It's not just that we go over there and we take it. It's a whole educational process." According to Morales, Public Safety has been meeting with members of the University Senate and library security to design a process of reminders and education/awareness about property theft that culminates with a possible meta-theft. Explains Morales, Public Safety is "not taking [unattended property], but safeguarding it from people." In other words: thieving the property to protect it from thieves.

- JNW

Sent from Lerner two hours ago, from Bwog correspondent Alex Weinberg:

I was sitting in a Lerner computer lab when a slightly-past-middle-aged lady with thick reading glasses came in and stood in a corner pensively for several minutes. She approached my terminal.

Lady: Are you going to be using this computer for a while?
Me: I don't know, I think so.
Lady: Oh, it's just because this one is my favorite.
Me: These computers are all the same.
Lady: Mmmmm, no... I like this one the best. (said as if I should have known better) Me: (looks around the room at the completely identical and unoccupied Dell Optiplexes)
Lady: So are you going to get up?
Me: No.

She then stood over me awkwardly and passively for the next few minutes, watching what I was doing on the computer. I stopped reading web comics and opened up Microsoft Word to begin typing a fake paper because I felt intimidated in that "I just handed in a library book way past its due date" way.

Free Culture at Columbia has come out with some pretty cool stuff in its brief history: the Core on Flash drives, CULator, this gem of a protest video. Now, under the guidance of founder Brendan Ballou, they've transcended the Columbia plane and gone global. Allied with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), Ballou and co. are set on helping to distribute free mini-computers to children in the developing world. And, you know, possibly influencing the course of human communications and history.

OLPC, which was founded at MIT in 2005, has created small, cheap ($130 each), super-durable laptops (called "XOs"...see photo) that feature internet access, a camera, music and art software, word processing, a phone, and a host of other useful tools designed for the use of kids aged 6 to 12. The computers connect on a local network and have the capacity to link up globally, bringing kids world-over face-to-face through their screens. Columbia's Free Culture chapter, with the help of several grad students and J-Schoolers, contributed one of the more exciting software applications ot the project-- a built-in template for news articles that will allow kids to publish their reports to a blogging system on the network or even print their own homemade newspapers.

Ballou said he envisions a world where young people are describing their own lives in place of, say, BBC reporters. To OLPC, he added, the micro-tech of the laptops is akin to developments in microfinance-- it gives increased agency to the disenfranchised. Ultimately, OLPC hopes to spread the computers across the globe; currently, the education ministers of Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, and Rwanda are signed on to finance the project in their countries, with more (possibly even the U.S.) expected to join.

-KER

While Public Safety clamps down on Columbia's physical security, some students were alerted today to a breach in the university's virtual defenses. According to an email they received, Housing and Dining accidentally exposed information from students' housing files online for a period on April 2nd. "Exposure was limited," the email goes on to say, "because there were no links to the files on any Columbia website and because the files could only be viewed with a Columbia University UNI and password and a specific type of software." Still, many students' Social Security Numbers were among the bits of information placed online.

In the wake of the incident, Housing and Dining has, it claims, attempted to limit further exposure of student SSNs. The files were, of course, removed from the website, and students affected were offered a year of free credit monitoring, or the ability to file fraud reports or run credit checks with various agencies free of charge, if they so choose. The administration is clearly doing much to ensure no further damage to students results from this incident. Though it has been attempting to move away from the use of SSNs, however, their presence on student datasets is still prevalent, and the security precautions needed to secure them clearly have some way to go.

The full email from Lisa Hogarty to affected students appears below the jump.

-CJS

Julia Kite, an urban studies major (?), sent this one in to give SEAS students and science majors one last thrill before midterms. Bwog thinks SEAS guys and gals are probably too jaded to enjoy this, but if you're not at least one iota thrilled (or made slightly nauseated) by this, there's probably something wrong with you.

1. Go to an image-heavy website, may we recommend the Columbia homepage (not a blog).
2. Erase the address bar and insert the following code:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24;x4=300; y4=200;x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length;function A(){for(i=0;i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style;DIS.position='absolute';DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5;
DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++
}setInterval('A()',5);void(0);

Make sure each line is copied into the bar -- you may just get the first line if you try pasting the whole thing at once, so try copying and pasting each line on its own.

3. Press enter.

4. Watch the magic.

Podcasting His Life Away:
Electrical Engineering Prof. Daniel P.W. Ellis has a hobby even his wife finds creepy: digitally recording every waking moment of his day. Seeing it as an audiologged diary (or a "lifelog"), Ellis recounts such highlights as the fight with his wife in which he made "asshole" comments and his pleas to doctors for information on his injured infant son (as well as their queries as to why he was holding an Mp3 player the whole time). See the rest in this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education on the lifelogging phenomenon.

MIDI-Makers Frozen Out...Again: In the week since Bwog reported on subzero temperatures shutting down the Computer Music Center in Prentis Hall, the heat has been turned on...and then off once more. After CMC officials thought the problem had been remedied, the chill returned. Now, CMC director Brad Garton is demanding a permanent solution - and spare heaters installed, just in case - before the center reopens and classes are resumed. Seriously, admins, it's one thing to cut essential services to Columbia's computer musicians - and another to give them a brief spell of hope before shutting them back out in the cold.

Get Your Beauty Rest: All nighters can make you fat. Really. According to the Daily Times of Pakistan, which assembled a compendium on US universities' sleep research, Columbia scientists determined that "adults who sleep less than seven hours a night had an increased risk of obesity. The risk ranged from 23 percent for six-hour-a-night sleepers to 73 percent for individuals who slept only two to four hours. Experts attributed this phenomenon to the fact that sleep deprivation lowered the level of leptin, a protein that suppresses appetite, and raised grehlin, which makes you want to eat." Columbia researchers: doing their homework so you have an excuse not to.

-CJS

Vast uptown expansion? Check. Globe-trotting presidential trips? Check. Providing basic amenitites, like heat, to university buildings? That's always seemed to prove a little more challenging for this institution. As temperatures in New York plunged over the last two weeks, the radiators at Columbia's Computer Music Center (the vaunted 125th St. mainstay where the world's first music synthesizer, the RCA Mark II, was invented, and the likes of Edgard "electrical storm" Varèse and Charles Wuorinen have experimented) have struggled to keep up. As a result of the unbearable cold, professors have gotten angry, classes have been cancelled, and work at the center has ground to a halt until the university does something to remedy the situation.

Bwog was made privy to an email from a CMC professor with details, available after the jump. But first, in other faculty protest news, Bwog has also been told that Prof. Achille Varzi of the Philosophy Department has threatened to go on strike if his Symbolic Logic class, enrolled at 140+, isn't moved into a room that can seat more than the 90 currently accommodated. It seems the heat will be on, at least, over at Facilities today.

If you have been following the news in even the vaguest capacity over the past few years, or if you've ever tried to get a computer in Lerner around 1 PM, you're aware of the major space crunch Columbia is experiencing. But who needs to move into Manhattanville when you have the garage below Uris, with a carport-sized space devoted entirely to old computer monitors? (Even without the old iMacs, we know that's the purpose because of the snazzy signs Columbia made up). Bwog recommends a new freshman dorm, and perhaps a Jamba Juice franchise, for the space.

More computer-riffic pictures after the jump!

Rest assured, the computer consoles will return to their nook at Butler. Giulia Pines sent a note to the Program Coordinator for Marketing and Assessment at Columbia University Libraries, who wrote her back:

Giulia,

The computers in the Butler lobby will be re-installed today. They were
temporarily removed for construction.

Thank you,
Jennifer

But the computers won't be alone...

While researching a linguistics paper on Artificial Intelligence, Bwog Correspondent Sara Maria Hasbun came across the websites for the winners of the Loebner Competition, a contest in which judges converse blindly with both humans and computer programs--the prize goes to the machine that bests simulates intelligent conversation. For her paper, Sara decided to try out a little PG cybersex. Let's just say, they couldn't keep it up.

Conversation with iGOD

Sara: Are you there, God? Its me, Margaret.
God: I am here, Margaret.
Sara: So God, what are you wearing?
God: Yay. I am a Christian.
Sara: That's hot. I'm Christian too.
God: You don't hear that sentiment very often. I am glad we have something (Christian) in common, Margaret.
Sara: So, God. Wanna party?
God: Hmm. GOD rules. Sure, let's party.
Sara: what would you do if we were alone?
God: Do you think everyone will agree?
Sara: Well, do you want everyone to join in?
God: How about that. If I had it what would I do with it?
Sara: What do you want to do with me, God?
God: I like talking about robots, movies, history, or whatever else you'd like. You must be a man. Sara: Oh, no. I am a teenage girl, 5'4, long dark hair.
God: Wow! Are you serious? You are a teenage girl 5 4 long dark hair? Is that your job?
Sara: Do you want a job?
God: No thanks but you can send me a donation.