Friday, September 2, 2005
Wireless network has
By Jeremy Korwek
technical correspondant
Well, it’s that time of year
again - time for long lectures,
Bruno’s breakfasts and surfing
the web from the comfort of the
Reed Wintergarden chairs. “Hey,
wait a minute, I can’t get on-line
and my wireless doesn’t work!
My computer must be broken;
stupid Best Buy Nerd Patrol.”
Well you can just relax,
drop the lawsuit and listen. The
Behrend computer staff has
implemented a new policy, requir
ing all the people who want to
use the wireless connection here
at Behrend to download a pro
gram called Cisco VPN (Virtual
Private Network) Client.
What is a Cisco VPN
Client, you might ask? Well, it’s a
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very simple program that is sup
posed to secure all Internet com
munications between the client’s
computer - that’s you - and a
server connected to the Internet.
Some of the students that
were here prior to the change will
recall that the wireless mobility
network was wide open and if
you had a student or faculty user
ID you could access the network
with no trouble.
Unfortunately, there are
many ways to easily bypass this
simple security, but that’s another
matter. With the VPN connection
in place, it may make tapping into
the schools network or intercept
ing information transmitted from
students computer, extremely dif
ficult if not impossible.
“You still haven’t
answered my question! What the
w,Tti p *PPtnon
Dine In,
new client
heck does a VPN do anyways?”
Well, that’s a simple question to
answer. A Virtual Private
Network attempts to simulate the
kind of connection you get when
you connect two computers
directly to each other.
This means that the data you
send from your computer to the
other computer is hidden from
the prying eyes of that creepy
guy that lives across the hall or
that strange foreign guy named
“Titan Rain.” The program does
this by encrypting all of the infor
mation passed to and from the
client - that’s you - and the server
on the other end.
Now you know how the
wonderful world of technology
works and the reason why your
new wireless computer doesn’t
work at Behrend yet.
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Grimm Outcome
Terry Gilliam is widely known for his direction
of epic point A-to-point-B pictures such as “The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen," “Time Bandits,”
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and his co-direc
tion of the immortal classic “Monty Python and the
Holy Grail.” Gilliam’s most recent picture, “The
Brothers Grimm,” is, at first, a bit of a shock
because it does not follow the course of an epic
quest through innumerable fantastic locales. That’s
fine if you haven’t any Gilliam experience and just
go because you think Matt Damon is dreamy; how
ever, it took a bit of adjustment for me as that’s not
what I had bargained for. No matter - Gilliam is a
competent director and manages to weave a fasci
nating tale around, primarily, one location.
The story follows the exploits of the brothers
Grimm, with Matt Damon as the overbearing type
and Ledger as the shy type, as they investigate and
eliminate supernatural nuisances in Eastern
Europe during the French occupation. Soon, how
ever, it is revealed to the audience that they them
selves are staging the supernatural nuisances in a
fashion that is strikingly reminiscent of what the
Ghostbusters were long ago accused of by Walter
Peck. The Grimms are subsequently exposed to
the authorities and threatened with death if they do
not hunt down and eliminate another supposed
trickster that is making little girls disappear in a
remote village. Of course, events unfold which illus
trate that their prey isn’t a trickster at all, but is
rather the real supernatural deal.
The rest of the film plays out around
Damon’s unwillingness to accept the supernatural
and Ledger’s opposite persuasion as the two work
to solve the mystery of the disappearing little girls
with the help of a local woman, Lena Headey, who
is tossed in for a bit of intrigue, and Peter
Storemare, who delivers a fair amount of Italian
accented antagonism as well as the film’s most
compelling performance.
Is it worth your time? If you’re out for a mild
romp with frequent suggestions toward the works of
the historical Brothers Grimm or if you’re a Gilliam
completist, certainly. If you’re out for a gripping nar
rative and thrilling action - I’d say look elsewhere.
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The Behrend Beacon I
By Chris Hvizdak
opinion editor