Gates Charts Computing Future at MIT

"Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates lectured computer science students Thursday about using computing technology to combat scourges of the present and create new opportunities in the future, while painting a vision of a more interconnected, integrated technology world."...

The What's up with blogging, and why should you care? - TechUpdate - ZDNet article concludes:

..."The combination of blogs, RSS and intelligent searching--and future generations of those technologies and concepts-may not be the 21st century equivalent of the Gutenburg printing press, but they will play an increasing important role in forming the opinions that lead to decisions big and small across personal and professional spheres."

Work Your Proper Hours Day - Friday 27th February 2004

"If you do regular unpaid overtime, then exercise your right to work only your contractual hours, and remind your boss just how much modern workplaces depend on unpaid overtime.

Take a proper lunchbreak, not just a sandwich at your desk, and leave on time, to enjoy your own time on Friday evening. Why not get together with friends working nearby, and go for a coffee, a pint, or take in a show? You deserve it! This is one day in the year for your boss to appreciate your efforts, and for you to appreciate yourself."...

The link to the above was included in an e-mail from the President of the local AUT branch to keep us informed of developments with the strike action.

Now I'm not that militant a person but I am pissed off at the my University's stance about docking our pay for the days we are absent on strike. Many other universities are recognising that academic staff work much longer hours than the notional 9 to 5 day and, in recognition of this fact, are deducting just 1/365th (or 1/366th as it's a leap year) of annual salary for each day that a member of staff is absent due to industrial action. Strathclyde on the other hand is deducting 1/260th (5 days per week, 52 weeks per year) of our salaries! In other words, almost 1% of our salary lost due to 2 days of action!! IMHO, my employers have shot themselves in the foot by adopting this approach. It's certainly not an incentive to work the long hours that myself and my colleagues put in over and above the normal working week. More often than not I work 12 hour days during the week and very often put more work in over the weekends - such is the pressure to support/assess hundreds of students and balance the conflicting demands of teaching, administration, and research. I know for a fact that it has hardened the attitude of many staff and has helped to create an upsurge in AUT membership applications:

..."Anger at the employers’ current proposals on pay for academic and related staff is so great that the AUT’s membership has increased by at least 1,000 in the last week alone.

AUT members last conducted a national strike in 1999. Such is the anger felt that this time round the number of activists on picket lines has quadrupled."...

The only upside of this draconian pay docking strategy is that the local Student Hardship Fund gets more money as the members of the local AUT have agreed to donate their docked salaries to this charitable cause.

The Register | Symbian releases real-time, one-chip OS

"Version 8.0 of the Symbian OS now has real-time capabilities, allowing phone vendors to build one-chip phones. At present, the most popular smart phone platforms, such as Texas Instruments' OMAP, typically feature two processors: one to handle the radio communications and one to handle the data operating system that the user sees."...

The BBC NEWS | Education | University protests across the UK article has details of the strike action that I am involved in today and tomorrow:

"University staff and students are taking action across the UK in protests about pay and top-up fees"...

The reasons for the action are highlighted on the AUT's Campaign page and in the 'Dear Student' letter that I adopted to inform my students of my action.