Software Piracy On Campus

Piracy is not a new thing, it has always existed, even before introduction of PC computers. Artists have been claiming that their songs are being copied or recorded when they are being played in media stations for a long period of time.

Before I came to know about software I could remember we had a radio cassette that was in fashion by then, it used to play tapes, when I heard a nice song being played over the radio I would take one old tape insert in the cassette and click on the red button to record, all I had to do was to ensure that I had a tape for recording from the media. The second option was to borrow from a friend the tape they had but we didn’t have, I placed it playing on one side then placed the other one to record into on the other side.

What amazed me was the type of technology used in making the radio cassette tapes, every time I placed it to record it erased the previous portion that was to be occupied by the new song.

Tapes needed much attention, when you borrowed from a friend there were high chances that it could be returned not functioning even by touching the recording brown part. When I had chance of going to university the technology had changed from radio cassette carrying along with it all the old ways of piracy to new sophisticated techniques.

Campus is like a box or a small enclosed room, any good or bad smell in one corner diffuses to all corners at great speed. University students are like sheep grazing in the field when one follows one direction then the rest too follows the same direction. During the first two years in campus very few students owned computers, because they were expensive or believed to be expensive and computer illiteracy among students was high.

After some time numbers of computers in campus began increasing at a high rate because law had allowed for importation of used computers from abroad hence the prices were affordable. Even me I acquired one dell Pentium III, 128 RAM, 600mhz processor speed, 17 inch monitor with 10gb hard disk space at Ksh. 10,500.

The computers students bought had no software installed, but because of the students brotherhood upon arrival in campus the following day they had latest software running in them. If a student had software for example a Windows XP CD, most students would borrow it and make copies of the same. Defining the origin of software proves very difficult especially if it had followed a chain of students. In campus I do not think that there are any anti piracy law, because that would mean arresting all the students who had computers which was impossible because of their unity and may lead to strike.

Having bought my first computer with no software installed, I borrowed a friend most of his software, I installed them and the following day the computer was up and running then made copies.

Piracy in campus also had its side effect. I recall a time a virus attacked almost all the computers in the whole campus. Because students shared a lot of software that virus did spread crushing most of the computers, funnily enough you would find that there was only one antivirus and every one had the same license, It was first a Mcafee license that was blocked and update became a problem, then Kaspersky which I don’t know where it originated, started spreading as one of the students said that it was the best, It worked fine for some time then blocked also. Students were going to cyber cafes to download the latest updates and I think this was the reason those license were blocked. However from time to time the students would shift to latest software and get blocked they would still vigorously look for crack patches till they succeed, I do not know how they were managing to get all these software, from games to programming languages, It reached a point any software you would get from a friend, be it small or even large ones, others pirated them from organizations during internship so selling software to a knowledgeable students was out of question, if there was way to pirate hardware students can easily do so.

As software piracy in most campuses has become common, software companies like Microsoft have now began producing free copies with less functionality just for learning purposes, an example is the express editions, other companies like Oracle offer software to schools and campuses at subsidized cost. By doing this I hope they are in the first steps of fighting software piracy in campuses as the main cause is the inability to get fund for legal copies.

Most Beautiful Campuses Worldwide

A campus university is seen as the place offering student accommodation, teaching and studying facilities, and extra-curriculum activities. Nowadays, the young people long for being enrolled into not only a prestigious university or college with the best teaching and learning methods but also those with beautiful campus including large botanical gardens or lakes. They can be said to be the creative design of the leaders of universities in attempt to facilitate students’ study and life. Here are the most impressive campuses all over the world:

Towers Grey Castle of Arcadia University

Unlike the modern facilities of other campuses, Grey Towers Castle, the U.S National Historic Landmark, which lies inside the campus of Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, is a long traditional building. Completed by Horace Trumbauer, this impressive campus was started building in 1893 and purchased in 1929 for 2,500. The interior illustrates Trumbauer\’s eclectic style with an option of different French influences from the Renaissance through the age of Louis XV.

Towers Grey Castle is seen from Easton Road entrance

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Significantly, STATA center designed by Frank Gehry is the computer science department, information and intelligence services and the department for linguistics and philosophy. This modern building features numerous short tower blocks, which are curved and lean at unnatural angles. The complex is situated on two eight-storey \’U\’ shaped towers including the Gates (G) and the Dreyfoos (D) towers. Also, this center contains an auditorium, four lecture rooms, childcare facility, food court, fitness centre, and swimming pool.

The Stata Center is a new complex of buildings on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus

The Stata Center is the typical icon of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ørestad College

Ørestad College is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is designed by 3XN architects. The Ørestad College will be the first to implement new educational issues in terms of subjects, organization and teaching systems with the introduction of IT as the major educational tool.The college is interconnected vertically and horizontally. Four boomerang shaped floor plans with four study zones of each are rotated to provide the powerful super structure constructing the overall frame of the building. With all these convenient and modern facilities, Ørestad College becomes the desire of all students all over the world for their study environment.

Ørestad College is designed and completed by 3XN architects

The rotation opens an aspect of each floor to the vertical tall central atrium and supplies space to serve the purpose of community and expresses the college’s longing for interdisciplinary education

Students can feel relaxed even when they are studying with the aid of IT tools

Miami Dade College

Designed by the company named Oppenheim Architecture + Design, Miami Dade College is well-known for its eye-catching new campus center. To be situated on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, the building is a quadrangle shape g with a striking glass and steel exoskeleton and maximizes natural ventilation and public spaces to enjoy. One more thing, the center is equipped with wind turbines and solar hot water collectors on its roof, which is considered as a symbol of green environment.

The center will be around 250,000 square feet with a two-level commercial space covering the whole building and an open-air campus arts quad on the third level.

A sloping auditorium inside is also included to serve as a venue for different cultural events

The towers will feature offices, an athletic center, meeting facilities, a residential area with one-bedroom rental units, small studios, and a full service hotel

School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University

School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is famous for its hug green roof made of an organic, vegetated form blending landscape and structure, nature and high-tech as well as symbolizing the creativity. The glass walls offer a visual exchange which helps students and teachers to view the building, the surrounding landscape along with the interior plaza as fluid spaces. Meanwhile, the curving green roofs make this building striking among the other structures on campus. Surely, this campus not only represents the soul of an art school but also promises to be concept campus model for most universities all over the world in terms of environmental friendliness.

Planted grasses are raised to create a curve above the roof

Its interior spaces included concrete walls and columns, cement-sand floors, timber railings and a neutral palette in different shape and size

Related links:

Campus Schools and Their Significance

Campus Living Choices

‘Green’ Waterside Campus Floored

Campus Safety Factors

All campus safety measures are not the same.  There are some basic factors to consider when evaluating your personal safety in any situation.  It’s not just about weapons or self defense moves.  Your safety on campus is about much more.  It’s about your awareness to circumstances, conditions and threats.

When reviewing your situation, consider the following factors:

Are you alone or in a group of people?
Is it day time or night time?
Is it a weekday or weekend?
Is school in session or on a break?
Are you on campus or off?

By being aware of the above factors and adjusting accordingly, you increase your safety awareness and understanding of possible threats.  This reduces your risk of being attacked.  Being vigilant is a 24 hour job, but there are different levels of vigilance.  For example, sitting in class with 20 classmates and a professor teaching, your level of concern is much lower then if you were walking across campus on your way home from a party at 2:30 a.m.

Understanding the different factors and their apparent risks, and adjusting your behavior is another way to protect yourself.  Let’s take the above scenarios and add a supportive behavior modification to it.

Recognizing it’s late before you head out to a party, you decide to call some friends to walk with you
Knowing there is a greater threat of attack at night time, you decide to wait until morning to run that errand
Understanding that the campus has less activity during the weekend, you decide to call a friend to walk to the library
Being aware that during breaks there is much less support and decide to change your on campus plans
Recognizing the neighborhoods bordering your school can be dangerous at night, near parties and breaks, you decide to steer clear until you’re with a group of friends

None of the above are dramatic changes, but represent subtle shifts you can make right now to become more aware of your personal protection and enhance your safety on campus.

Student Violence on Campus

Student violence on college and high school campuses isn’t new. Violence has occurred in nearly every environment, educational or otherwise, since the dawn of time. Arguably violence on campuses seems to be more prevalent today than in the past but it might not be the case.

Media coverage of student violence on campuses receives a lot of attention these days. It’s become somewhat fashionable for legislators to begin writing new laws designed to prevent or punish campus violence after a particularly notable occurrence. News commentators feel the need to discuss gritty details that would never have been given air time or space in the newspaper 20 years ago. Many of the incidents are treated like they’re the crime of the century. As tragic as student violence may be, most physical assaults that occur on high school and college campuses aren’t fatal and don’t cause serious injury or death.

The hook of the story is that a student was the perpetrator.

It’s notable that violence on the campus is addressed in many ways today. Law enforcement has gotten on the band wagon with efforts to station officers inside of schools with violent histories. Officers throughout the country are now trained in how to respond aggressively to “active shooter” situations designed to save lives and stop the shooter. The rationale for this training is a good one and it has many law enforcement applications outside of school campuses. Officers arriving on the scene no longer wait for the S.W.A.T. team. They group into teams capable of providing a lot of firepower and immediately move to the sound of the shooting. When the team hits the hallway the time for negotiations is over.

Incidents of student violence are a fact. Are campuses somehow to blame? What causes the violent behavior of students involved in these incidents?

Psychiatrists, law enforcement, and a host of others have varying opinions as to the causes of violence. However, the fact remains that many of these students, if not most, have a background of violence, emotional instability, or mental illness long before they arrived on campus.

There are often plenty of warning signs that violence is brewing before the shooting starts. These include a solitary lifestyle, threats, observable mental illness, and aggressive behavior.

Is campus violence preventable? How? At what cost?