CS4624 News 960403

News from April 3, 1996

Remember the Library tour tomorrow!

Slow progress and its dangers:

Finals are in about a month, yet most of you have not started quiz 1! If you have not yet sent in your password for taking quizes, please do this ASAP. It may take a few days to get a reply to that message, so plan ahead!

Virginia Tech and other institutions are all moving toward the type of learning you see in this class, where students take responsibility. Similar behavior is required by most employers. The course materials, and explanations of them at the start of the semester, clearly warn you about procrastination, assuming that you will be mature. The instructor and GTA will continue to treat you this way, and will not force you to adhere to particular deadlines. However, we must warn you that procrastination will almost certainly cause a number of problems:

• The instructor and GTA may take several days to reply to your submissions, and there may be several rounds of email on a submission, which must be completed before trying the next version of a quiz.
• Office hours and lab hours may become very busy with queues of students.
• Systems may go down or experience delays due to heavy loads, and this situation will not be considered an acceptable excuse for not completing work.

1-month trial subscription to Engineering Information Village

This is EI's web site with links to both Compendex Plus and EI Page One and many other features. There are links from the Science Home Page (http://ginmac.lib.vt.edu) and the Engineering Homepage (http://ginmac.lib.vt.edu/sciref/engineering.html).

It is set to recognize Virginia Tech and Bev ip addresses. If you have any problems, you may contact Ginger Young at 1-9237 or at gingery@vt.edu or Ms. Gray.

EI will provide us with a usage report at the end of the trial period and we will consider subscribing to the service at this time. Please let Caryl Gray, Science Reference Librarian, (540)231-9229, cegray@vt.edu know your opinions concerning the Engineering Information Village.

Silicon Graphics Magic Bus

is coming to Blackburg on Saturday, April 13! The Silicon Graphics Magic Bus is a highly-customized 18-wheeler that travels throughout North America. The Magic Bus is fun and exciting, and showcases the technology that continues to establish Silicon Graphics as the innovator in high-end performance computing. This includes scientific visualization, Hollywood special effects, visual simulation done on ultra-realistic graphics supercomputers, data mining and database visualization tools, and World-Wide Web authoring tools. We will be in Blacksburg, on the Tech campus, parked near the Bookstore and Newmann Library. Hours are 10-4, there is no admission, and it is open to the public. The Magic Bus showcases the entire Silicon Graphics' product line, and we will have several third-party software representatives on hand to demonstrate the tools that are helping users gain competitive advantage in today's environment. For more information contact: Lee Stocks, lstocks@copland.richmond.sgi.com

Best CD-ROM blank prices

See more info on this from the New Media Center home page http://www.nmc.vt.edu.

The Cassette House is the best price that I have seen. John Husser found them some time ago. They can be accessed at , Phone: Voice 800-321-5738; Fax 800-848-5738. Their current price for the Sony (gold face/greenback) w/case 650MB (74 minute) is:

1-29                    $6.95
30-99                   $6.75
100+                    $6.50