Olin College - The Link

Reminder: Big Conversations, April 4
Hungry for more food for thought on this year's Big Conversations theme? Check out the Big Conversations website for a bibliography list of books pertaining to appropriate technology.

You'll also notice on the Big Conversations website, we have added a meeting with the Green Needham Collective (GNC) to the schedule. Come to talk about local green technologies and the possibility of a "Greening Needham" SCOPE Project.

Olin Gear Shopping Cart Now Online!
Need one of those cool Olin sweatshirts? How about a teddy bear? There's a lot more Olin Gear than perhaps you knew. Point your browser to olingear.olin.edu, browse the offerings there, and use your Visa/Mastercard to check out securely. Orders can be shipped via UPS, or picked up on campus. For more information, check out olingear.olin.edu or contact olingear@olin.edu!

Olin Images is Here!
Do you have some really cool photos to share with the Olin Community? If so, come join the fun with Olin Images. Utilizing technology from Flickr, you will be able to share, comment, tag, and even place photographs geographically! For more information, please login to PhoenixNet and check it out under the Campus Life section.

Zip Cars Are.........Now Available!
The two Zip Cars, a Mazda 3 and a Toyota Matrix, are located in two designated parking spots in the 3rd tier of Lot A. The Olin College Zip Car account is available on line and members of the community can go here to register to become part of the Zip Car program. There is a $25 one time membership fee to be paid and a driving history check is performed. Once authorized, a Zip Card is mailed out, which is used to activate the car at the reserved time. The keys are in the cars and reservations include gas, insurance, satellite radio, 24/7 roadside assistance and parking.

The discounted Olin Account rates are $8.00 per hour or $60 per day (24 hours) and include 125 FREE miles included per day, with additional miles from $0.35. Value plans or buying discounted bulk hours may be something that is added later, but are not available at this time.

Questions or issues with the Zip Car program should be directed to Scott Slaboden or 781-292-2318.

Women 2.0 Business Challenge
Your head is full of great ideas. Put your business idea on a paper napkin and enter the Women 2.0 Napkin Business Challenge --- DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS MARCH 30!

Two winners get $1000 each and a meeting with Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, or Michael Moritz of Sequoia. Six finalists will present to the judging panel of Silicon Valley's top-shelf VCs and successful entrepreneurs at a pitch event on April 25th at CNET. Everyone is invited to attend and submit their best business idea to the Challenge BEFORE MARCH 30!

Submissions are accepted worldwide but finalists must present on April 25th to our top-tier Judging Panel. See who's in: www.women2.org

Strategic Planning Sessions
What do you want Olin to be in 5 years? You have a chance to shape the answer to that question this spring by coming to the strategic planning sessions for the community, listed below. The content of the sessions will vary and build upon each other, so come to as many as you can. Also, sign up for the email discussion list for your group to facilitate communication between meetings. Please note that the first sessions for faculty and staff (separate sessions) will take place Friday, March 30, from 3 – 5 pm.

List Name	Email address
spc-students	spc-students@lists.olin.edu	Subscribe Here
spc-faculty	spc-faculty@lists.olin.edu	Subscribe Here
spc-staff	spc-staff@lists.olin.edu	Subscribe Here
spc-alumni	spc-alumni@lists.olin.edu	Subscribe Here

Students:
Tuesday, April 3, 6-8pm (night before Big Conversations) AC109
Wednesday, April 11, 5:30-7pm AC109

Faculty:
Friday, March 30, 3-5pm AC328
Wednesday, April 11, 11-1pm AC328
Friday, April 13, 2-4pm AC328

Staff:
Friday, March 30, 3-5pm AC109
Monday, April 2, 11-1pm AC328
Friday, April 20, 3-5pm AC109

Mixed (faculty, staff, and students):
Friday, April 6, 3-5pm AC109
Monday, April 9, 11-1pm AC328

"Chasing Asimov's Dream One Vacuuming Robot at a Time"
Babson will host the 2nd Babson/Bentley Mathematics and Science Colloquium Thursday, April 12 with a reception from 3-3:30 pm and presentation 3:30-5 pm in Olin Hall 201. Orin Hoffman, Director of Third Party Development at iRobot, will demonstrate (with actual robots) some of the robotic technology in use today both in the home and by our troops and civilian authorities. He will also give a brief talk on the history of robotics and on some of the challenges that current roboticists face trying to make robots commonplace. iRobot was founded in 1991 by MIT robotocists and has been a public company since 2005. Orin will discuss some of the challenges faced transitioning cutting edge technology into deployment-grade consumer and government products.

Windows Automatic Update Issues - BITS Service Repair
It has come to the IT Department’s attention that many systems on Olin's campus, particularly the freshman D620s, have had trouble with Windows Automatic Updates. The problem has manifested itself in a variety of ways including: the system hanging during shutdown for some, and Automatic Updates simply not working at all on other systems. In most cases, this issue is caused by a failure of the BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) service to start automatically on startup. We have created a patch to correct the BITS problem such that it starts and allows the system to download available Windows updates. It's critical that automatic updates work on all systems to ensure that they're protected against discovered vulnerabilities.

We ask that everyone verify whether or not their Windows systems are properly updating and if not, to follow the instructions for correcting the problem. If after running our patches, you find that your system still isn't updating, please contact the IT Help Desk for additional follow up.

For more information on Windows Automatic Updates, follow this link:
http://it.olin.edu/documents/General/Windows%20Automatic%20Updates.doc

For the details on correcting the BITS problem, follow this link:
http://it.olin.edu/documents/General/BITS-Fix.doc

As always, we welcome all your feedback. If you have additional questions, comments or concerns please contact the IT Help Desk.

Wireless Upgrades Update
Wireless networks upgrade status. On Wednesday, March 21st we upgraded our wireless network infrastructure with a new code stream to address some issues we had been experiencing. Unfortunately, we encountered some new issues in the process resulting in connectivity problems for several days. With the help of feedback from the community, we have identified and corrected all but one of the issues, which appears to be affecting only MAC computers. The MAC related issue appears to be solely related to a new wireless update released by Apple, which is affecting a large number of MACs regardless of the wireless systems they connect to. The IT Department recommends that anyone with MAC wireless connectivity issues contact Apple and submit a case to address the problem. As for other users/systems, we've heard that connectivity and coverage has improved since the upgrade. If you have any feedback regarding wireless connectivity, please let us know.

Parents, Did You Know?
Reminder - Annual Parents Appeal
The Parent Advisory Board (PAB) recently sent a follow-up letter to last semester's Annual Parents Appeal. This is a reminder to inform those who want to give Olin but haven't had a chance that there is still time to make a tax-deductible donation for this academic year. We are currently at 50%, but we know there are many Olin families who would still like to make a gift. A gift of any size is meaningful, appreciative, and a step toward our 100% goal. Simply click on the Giving to Olin page of the Olin website to make your online contribution or send a check to the Development Office. We thank you for supporting Olin!

Community Bulletin Board
David Soo Leaving Olin for Graduate School
David Soo, Hall Director and Study Away Coordinator, will be leaving Olin this coming summer. He has been admitted to the prestigious doctoral program in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

We are indebted to David for his many contributions to the Olin community. Among them are enhancement of our study away program, his role as the College's immigration officer, oversight of East Hall, work with the Resident Resources (R2s), sponsorship of several Co-Curricular Offerings, coordination of many student gatherings in the OSL suite (e.g., chocolate fondue for Valentine's Day), and membership on several College committees. More important, however, are his support for individual Olin students, his close working relationships with faculty and staff, and his professionalism.

Passover Events
Hillel will be celebrating the first night of Passover on Monday, April 2 at Wellesley College. To attend this seder, please RSVP to tshalem@wellesley.edu before the end of the day.

The second night seder will be held on Tuesday, April 3 in Reynolds 241. Please RSVP to jkochen1@babson.edu by the end of the day.

Thanks to the generous support of Spiritual Life and Jewish Student Projects, both seders are FREE for students. We ask for an $18 contribution from faculty, staff, and friends.

2007 Boston Breast Cancer 3-Day
Dee Magnoni will participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day that runs from August 3 - 5, 2007. She is walking in honor of friends and family that have fought this disease, and to help prevent future cases. The walk is 60 miles over the course of three days with thousands of participating women and men. The net proceeds will support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment through Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

Dee must raise at least $2,200 in donations. If you'd like to help, donations can be made by visiting Dee's fundraising page at: http://www.the3day.org/boston07/deemagnoni.

According to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, approximately 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and nearly 40,000 will die from it. Let's help stop this disease!

Homegrown Coffeehouse
Thirty years may not seem like such a long time in the life of a human being, a tree or a folk song. But in the fickle world of modern music, 30 years is a very long time. So how have David Tamulevich and Michael Hough done it? In a word, "audience." Everything Mustard's Retreat does on a stage is aimed at pleasing, moving and engaging their audience. Whether singing their own gentle love songs and vivid ballads, telling tall tales or offering treasures from America's vast traditional song bag, a Mustard's Retreat show always feels like it's designed for the people who have come to see them that day, in that coffeehouse. MUSTARD’S RETREAT at the Homegrown Coffeehouse, Saturday, April 14, at 8:00 pm.

The Homegrown Coffeehouse is located at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, at the corner of Great Plain and Dedham Avenue in Needham center. There is free parking and wheelchair access. Admission is $15.00 / $12.00 students and seniors to benefit the Church. For more information, call (781) 444-7478. Visit us at www.uuneedham.org/Coffeehouse for latest concert updates and advance tickets.

Black & White Photo Workshop
Interested in photography? Babson is hosting introductory classes in B&W Photography on April 7 and April 14, 1:00-6:00 pm. The fee is $50 for Olin students, staff and faculty. Contact Kay Sorensen for more information.

"Overscheduled Children" Lecture at Beth-Israel Hospital
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham will present a lecture on “Overscheduled Children” on Monday, April 30, as part of its annual “Community Connections” health education series. The lecture will be presented by Andrea Masterman, Ph.D., a psychologist at Needham Psychotherapy Associates. Masterman will discuss how parents increasingly feel pressure to keep their children busy and are passing that pressure to a generation of overscheduled children. She will review the normal development tasks of childhood, the support children need during these stages and the impact an activity-laden schedule can have on children and other members of the family. There will be a question and answer period after the lecture. The 7-8 p.m. presentation, co-sponsored by Parent Talk and Needham Psychotherapy Associates, is free. It will be held in the Dickerson Room at BID-Needham, 148 Chestnut Street, Needham. Contact Margaret Pantridge for more information.

"Celebrating QR Connections," April 11
This spring, Wellesley's speaker series celebrates connections between Quantitative Reasoning and Forensic Evidence. The first installment will feature Gary Larden from CalTech, who will talk about his experiences as a consultant for the hit CBS show "NUMB3RS," and explain the quantitative reasoning behind it. The event will take place in Collins Cinema on April 11 5:00-6:30 pm. See the official flyer for more information.

KUDOS/WELCOME

Sarah Spence-Adams recently received an award from the National Security Agency entitled, "Complex and Quaternion Orthogonal Designs for Wireless Communications." The award is a peer-reviewed grant.
Gregs Thomopulos, President and CEO of Stanley Consultants, Inc., and a member of Olin’s President’s Council, will take office as Vice Chairman of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) in May 2007, for a two-year term. He currently serves on the ACEC Executive Committee. He is also a nominee to be elected as Vice President of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) at the General Annual Meeting in Singapore in September 2007. He is currently a member of the FIDIC Executive Committee. He will serve as Vice President for one year, President-Elect for one year, and President for two years beginning September 2009.
Linda Tse will become the newest member of the Information Techonology department on Monday, April 2nd as our new Technical Support Specialist. Linda comes to us with many years of experience as a Help Desk and Desktop Support Analyst in the medical field and most recently as an Information Security Specialist at First Marblehead Education Resources. Linda will be working in the Help Desk office in the lower level of the Olin Center. She can be reached via email at linda.tse@olin.edu and by phone at x2441. Please take an opportunity to introduce yourself when you have a moment and help us welcome Linda to our community.