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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2004 Courses, Programs Emerge in Homeland Security RealNetworks Wages Price War, Targets Apple Survival Time of Unprotected PCs Drops COURSES, PROGRAMS EMERGE IN HOMELAND SECURITY Courses on various aspects of homeland security are springing up at college campuses all around the United States, and some institutions have devoted entire departments to the study of homeland security. Students at institutions including the University of Richmond and Rice University can take classes with titles such as "Rhetorics of Terror/ism, Homeland (In)Security, and the State" and "Jihad and the End of the World." Meanwhile, Syracuse University has established a department called the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, and Ohio State University now includes the International and Homeland Security program. Other colleges and universities have established certificate programs in homeland security. The federal government's Department of Homeland Security, which employs roughly 180,000 people and is the presumed destination for many students in these programs, funds both academic programs in homeland security as well as individual scholarships. Observers expect to see undergraduate and even graduate degree programs introduced in areas related to homeland security. Wired News, 18 August 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,64608,00.html REALNETWORKS WAGES PRICE WAR, TARGETS APPLE Making reference to the old joke about "losing money on each sale and making it up on volume," RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said his company will offer songs from its RealPlayer Music Store for a limited time at half price, including songs that play on Apple Computer's iPod portable music player. The drop in price will reportedly widen the company's loss for the current quarter. RealNetworks recently unveiled a new version of its music software that allows users to play songs on the iPod despite objections from Apple, which is considering legal action against RealNetworks and said it will likely revise the iPod to prevent playing songs from RealNetworks. Glaser has long argued against "closed" formats for music and believes that, despite the short-term cost to his company, the half-price promotion will ultimately benefit the market for digital music. New York Times, 17 August 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/business/17real.html SURVIVAL TIME OF UNPROTECTED PCS DROPS Researchers at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center estimate that an unprotected PC will be compromised within 20 minutes of being connected to the Internet, down from an estimated 40 minutes last year. The estimate is based on observations of vacant IP addresses, which received reports approximately every 20 minutes. According to the researchers, if those reports come from Internet worms, the unprotected machine would likely become infected within 20 minutes, which is especially troublesome because most patches that would protect the computer take longer than that to download and install. Scott Conti, network operations manager for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said that, as a test, his institution recently put two unprotected computers on the school's network, and both were compromised within 20 minutes. As a result, all computers at the institution will be checked before they are allowed to connect to the network. CNET, 17 August 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5313402.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. For information on EDUCAUSE publications see http://www.educause.edu/pub/ ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/conference/ ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2004, EDUCAUSE
