Friday, November 10, 2006
Behind the technology: What’s wrong with Webmail2
“Very few of my comments about Webmail2 are suitable for publication," a student complained about
Penn State’s e-mail service. This comment sums up most of the explicit comments slung about whenev
er someone looses an attachment or when messages are dropped.
The original Webmail was created with the intent to allow students to access their e-mail when they
were away from their campus computer. However, it quickly became the
main e-mail client for 80,000 regular users, instead of a program like
Eudora or Outlook. With so many people using Webmail that often, the
servers hosting it became slow and unreliable under the load. Over the
summer, Information Technology Services (ITS) built Webmail2 to reduce
the load on the servers.
Returning students have discovered significant problems with the sys
tem. The most frequent complaint is that it's slow, especially when trying
to get mail from a dial-up connection.
Early in the semester, ITS had hardware problems that resulted in some
e-mails disappearing - but ITS says that they have recovered all e-mail lost
from this period. Many students are still having problems with sent e-mail
never arriving and attachments vanishing.
In addition to these more common problems, many students have expe
rienced unique, and if grades weren't so serious, hilarious problems. For
example, communication and media studies junior Mallory Blasic has e
mail in her inbox that disappeared, only to reappear days later claiming to
be received weeks in the future.
Webmail2 sometimes turns Journalism senior Jerry Pohl's text white, on
a white background, making it impossible to read. Computer engineering
senior Mike Vogt had the opposite problem with his club-related e-mail:
black text on a black background.
Foreign character sets started out with very little support, and have slowly been increasing in function
ality. Denis Lapets, a junior studying math, regularly receives mail from his parents in Russian. The sub
ject lines are printed correctly, but not the “From” field. Also, all mail from his family is marked as spam,
Sacha Baron Cohen challenges stereotypes in new film Borat
Sacha Baron Cohen’s “fish out of Kazakhstan" Borat opened around the world last Friday. The film
gained much anticipation through sneak previews online. Borat, fresh off of the “Da Ali G Show” plunges
into the world of cinema with his own full length feature. The adventure begins with his producer and their
trip to America in hopes of recruiting some of the refining qualities to better his homeland, Kazakhstan.
However, as a real country, Kazakhstan has not been pleased by the content and stereotypes that Cohen
uses in his movie.
Borat’s ideology is bravely naive as he searches the streets of New York City kissing cheeks and chas
ing down New Yorkers in an attempt to make friends. During a Midnight Cowboy montage of “Everybody’s
talking at me,” the audience gets the feeling of alienation that can afflict an outsider on the busy sidewalks
of Manhattan. Seemingly he abandons this mission when he encounters an episode of “Bay watch” in his
hotel room and falls into an obsession with Pamela Anderson. After purchasing an ice cream truck and a
bear (of course!) to protect him from the Jews, they set off to L.A to find his beloved Pamela. Of course
along the road there is abandonment, desperate loneliness and drunken frat boys driving an RV. Yep, Borat
saw it all in America.
What has some fans groaning and others howling is the offbeat, often offensive humor that Cohen
employs to his careless protagonist. Nothing is sacred or taboo in the ring with Cohen. He is particularly
heavy on the anti-Semitism. I could say without pause that Borat has a ridiculous phobia with the Jewish
people and I waited to see if Mel Gibson got a producer credit. Is it funny, though? Larry Charles, director
America, Britney fed up with K-Fed
By Chris LaFuria
news editor
Just when the world was fed up with celebrity 1,500, K-Fed managed a whopping 300 fans in
users and pop culture abusers, some silly supemat- attendance - 297 of them more than likely his
ural being decides to deliver to the world the gift of Verizon network (they come with the phone).
Kevin Federline, or, as most people have come to All jokes aside, the life of K-Fed, or the recently
call him, “Mr. Britney Spears.” Blatantly coincid- tagged Fed-Ex, took a turn for uncertainty after he
ing with the creepiness and ghoulishness of allegedly received a text message from Brit, reveal-
Halloween, Mr. Spears released his debut album ing the plans for a divorce. After two children and
Playing with Fire on Oct. countless embarrassing
31- media run-ins, the
After weeks of support Spearses ended their two
and media preparation foi year marriage due to what
its release, the album man- Britney claimed was,
aged to sell 6,000 copies in “Irreconcilable
its first week and landed at Differences.”
number 151 on the According to a close
Billboard Top 200. friend of Spears, “She
Though not cited in doesn't want to divorce
Britney s claim, some peo- Kevin, but if that's the best
pie speculate that the thing for her children and
recent divorce between for her own sanity, that's
Federline and Spears may exactly what she'll do.”
have come from the artist’s The Ex-LFO back-up
lack of popularity and dancer and former Shar
over-exertion in the party Jackson lover fathered
scene - two children with Spears,
While the album was Sean Preston in 2005 and
entirely written by j ay den James in 2006.
Federline and mastered at After Britney filed papers
the notorious Federline for divorce, Fed-Ex count-
Records, musically and er-filed papers, attempting
lyrically, the album may to gain sole custody of the
propel the self-proclaimed children and receive
“America’s Most Hated” to spousal support,
the top of the Ex- According to TMZ.com,
Celebrity Husband” charts. Spears is waiving the right
Most of the content in K-Fed can add divorced and broke to his r6sum<§. t 0 s P ousal support after
Federline’s lyrics are about the two established a stem
the important things in his life such as a garage full prenup. Sources say Spears may also move to have
of whips, smoking weed and partying. both parties pay their own court fees.
Federline stuns the world with the profoundness Whether you hate him or love him, the male Paris
of his lyrics, in which he compares himself to a pop- Hilton’s album may surprise some people. Even
ular deity and ranks his priorities. “Like Jesus in with its cliche beats and less-than-enticing lyrics,
every way / I'm crucified every day” and “Fell in there’s a good chance K-Fed will reach the 10,000-
love with the herbs just like my wife” are only two album mark. Although his music will make rap fans
short excerpts from the revealing diaries of a misun- cringe and critics reach deep into their think-tank of
derstood drama king. insults, the purpose behind Fed’s album is what
Not only is his album racing up the charts like a America yearns for - pop icons to love and destroy
’93 Eurovan, but his concert venue is bringing in
r\r
By Logan Stack
By Ben Morris
contributing writer
rUDEI IT LI
staff writer
about as many fans as the Penn State Behrend Lawn
Darts team. At the prestigious Webster Hail in New
York City, where the seating capacity is just over
WebMail2 cannot be used
The e-malt client you are trying to use might have been a bad Idea,
had Its interface ruined, or Is permanently unusable.
Please try the following
• If you were switched from Web Mail Classic to WebMail2,
make sure you have a gmail account.
• Open the . . home page, and then get
Eudora or Thunderbird
• Click the login j button to inconvienience yourself.
• Click #to exit and try a functional email client.
Penn State 404 - WebMail2 does not work
Information Technology Services
so he's had to turn off spam filtering and wade through the sea of spam to rescue his parents' drowning
Other students haven't noticed any problems. Matthew Ritz, a junior environmental science major, said,
“I’ve gotten all the e-mails people sent me, and people have gotten all the ones I sent, or at least I think
so." Though he didn't have any problem with the e-mail functions of Webmail2, the interface isn't to his
liking. "1 want to kick it," he said.
Many students have complained about the interface. Drawing particular ire was the "back" button in the
browser. Unlike it's previous function of going "back" in the original Webmail. in Webmail2 it logs users
out, losing any open mail or folders when they log back in.
Users of browsers like Mozilla, Opera, Safari and almost anything but
Internet Explorer have noticed a tab problem . Webmail2 has tabs on the
page, which allow you to have multiple folders and messages open in
one window. However, non-IE browsers have had this capacity built-in
for years, and many students have become accustomed to using these
tabs. Unfortunately, when these students try to use their tabs instead of
Webmail2's tabs, they don't get the folder or message they wanted, but
yet another copy of their inbox.
So how much did this fairly faulty new system cost the PSU students?
The ITS department says the cost for developing Webmail2 can't be
extracted from the costs for running the mail servers and general main
It is possible, however, to estimate the cost using the final report from
a computer science senior design project. Last year, a senior design team
built an interactive web site with similar requirements to Webmail2
called GRS. The coding, documentation and testing of GRS took three
people a total of just under 1000 hours. If we assume that ITS workers
make $25 per hour, we can estimate that Webmail2 may have cost
$25,000 to create, which is about 125 students' Information Technology
Fees, or about 45 cents per student.
The general student consensus seems to be well summarized by Pohl's comment. “Webmail2 is like
‘The New Coke’: Webmail2 exists only to show us how good we had it with Webmail Classic.”
of Borat. knows funny from working with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David on the TV sitcom “Seinfeld." He
specializes in making the audience squirm in their seat at the long emphasized pauses and brutally offen
sive honesty. This is just the kind of humor that is sprinkled throughout “Borat."
What people seemed to enjoy was the articulate diction with which Borat uses to express himself. He
explains how he would like to make "sexytime" with Pamela and conclude it with a "romantic eruption."
Black and white people are "chocolate and vanilla faces." When first hearing these lines you’re shocked.
Did 1 really just hear that? Not to worry, he reiterates all his sentiments. And so the film goes. The rest of
the movie (not a film) feels like the equivalent of a drunken Andy Kaufman, or Tony Clifton for that mat
ter, drifting through the streets of Marrakesh. In the most notorious of the scenes. Borat wrestles with his
overweight producer through a hotel lobby, elevator and ends in a blinding mesh of flabby skin and body
hair. Both men are completely nude and there are some psychologically scarring camera angles that will
change your life. There are certainly better choices in the theatres, but if grandmother is in town this would
definitely be your film.
j'llj
tenance
Jerry Pohl
The Behrend Beacon I 7