campus

Cupertino mayor says city's ready for Apple HQ 2.0

In case there were any doubts about the city of Cupertino, Calif., being interested in Apple building its campus reboot there, city Mayor Gilbert Wong has put those fears to rest.

"Cupertino is ready for this," Wong said in a press conference held in Cupertino's City Hall lobby yesterday (video below). Wong followed up a reporter's question later on in the press conference, saying that there's "no chance we're saying no."

Apple's plans to build a new campus were detailed earlier this week by CEO Steve Jobs, who pitched the Cupertino … Read more

Jobs stumps for new 'spaceship'-like Apple campus

Apple is bursting at the seams with employees, and CEO Steve Jobs wants to build a new corporate campus in Cupertino, Calif., that will be dominated by a single "spaceship"-like building.

Jobs went before the Cupertino City Council this evening (see video of the meeting below) to present plans for development of a campus that will augment--not replace--its current campus at Infinite Loop Drive. Jobs said the current campus holds about 2,800 employees, but the company has 12,000 employees in the area.

"Apple is growing like a weed," Jobs told the City Council. "It's clear we need to build a new campus."

Apple purchased 98 acres from Hewlett-Packard last year on Pruneridge Avenue, adjacent to 50 acres the company purchased in 2006. Apple did not reveal the selling price, but real estate experts estimate it may have been $300 million or more, according to an AllThingsD report.

It's on that combined parcel of land that Apple plans to construct an enormous four-story, circular building in which 12,000 people will be employed, Jobs said.

"Think about that, that's rather odd, 12,000 people in one building," Jobs told the council. "We've seen these office parks with lots of buildings--and they get pretty boring pretty fast. So we'd like to do something better than that." … Read more

Federal rules on campus file sharing kick in today

Frat parties and free music have been among the perks of attending college in the United States during the past decade. But now the days of using fat campus bandwidth to download movies and music via file-sharing networks appear to be coming to an end.

Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

HEOA, which was backed by the movie and music industries, addresses a lot of different facets of higher education, but tucked in … Read more

Choosing the right school: 11 sites that'll help

By now, many prospective college students have received responses from all the colleges to which they've applied. But now comes the hard part: deciding where to go.

Luckily, there are some sites that help them in that endeavor and provide them with valid insight before they make their final decisions. Even better, these sites can also help those who haven't applied yet and are starting their initial research.

For the high school junior who is considering applying to different colleges or the high school senior who needs to make a decision, these sites are outstanding resources.

BeRecruited: BeRecruited is designed specifically for the high school athlete. Instead of waiting for a team to find the student, BeRecruited gives them an opportunity to find colleges across the United States that have the kind of athletic program for which they're looking. They can then upload information about themselves and their high school athletic performance to attract the attention of team recruiters.

CampusExplorer: CampusExplorer allows students to search more than 6,000 colleges in the United States to find which campus is right for them. They can search by area, curriculum, or type of school. The site provides information on the size of the school, what it offers to students, and the attendance cost. It even has advice on getting into the school from students who have asked questions about the college on Yahoo Answers.

Cappex: Cappex requires students to sign up and create a personal profile that includes grades, extracurricular activities, and SAT/ACT scores. Once that profile is completed, they can search for colleges, learn about the schools in which they're interested, and use a handy tool called "What are my chances?" to help them determine if they really have a chance at being admitted to a particular school.

CollegeAnswer: Owned by college financial-aid company SallieMae, CollegeAnswer provides students with information about all facets of college admittance. From basic research on schools to information on paying for a college education, the site has it all. It provides in-depth information about colleges, including their demographics and attendance costs. But where it really shines is in its information about college life in general. It's an outstanding resource for prospective and current students.… Read more

Economy takes down much-maligned JuicyCampus

I'm almost always saddened by news of businesses being forced to close because of the economy, but I'm glad to see the apparent demise of JuicyCampus.com. The site, according to a blog post from its founder Matt Ivester, is shutting down because "in these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved."

I'm not shedding any tears for Mr. Ivester. What he refers to as "lighthearted gossip of college life" was, in many situations, vicious innuendos, hateful messages, and downright lies. In covering the site … Read more

Webware Radar: Grammy trivia comes to iPhone, Facebook

Mobile app developer BrowserMedia announced Thursday that it has launched an iPhone app for the Grammy Awards, airing Sunday. According to the company, it worked closely with The Recording Academy to develop the trivia game, which tests the user's knowledge about Grammy history. BrowserMedia is also developing a companion Facebook application that will provide ongoing trivia contests past the award show's airing Sunday.

Juicy Campus, a service that let college students manufacture gossip and spread it anonymously, announced on its corporate blog that it has decided to suspend operations. According to the company, it was enjoying strong user … Read more

Mixed reviews for illegal file-sharing on campus

Newly reauthorized legislation will ask U.S. universities to deter students from illegal file-sharing, a controversial provision that has drawn concern from educators and praise from copyright holders.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass the Higher Education Act 2008 (H.R. 4137), a law first established in 1965 to govern the nation's universities. Despite its five-year reauthorization schedule, the law hadn't been reapproved by Congress for 10 years, or about the same time it's taken the Internet to pervade college campuses nationwide. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation … Read more

Fire guts historic Silicon Valley building

A fire has destroyed an historic Silicon Valley building at the center of a preservation fight.

An early morning fire on Saturday swept through Building 25 at IBM's Cottle Road campus in San Jose, Calif., according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News. The building, which opened in 1957 but had been vacant since 1996, was the site where the flying hard disk drive--an ancestor to the modern hard drive--was invented.

The 40,000-square-foot building was also hailed as precursor to the modern high-tech campus for "creative engineers"...built "in true California style, (with) … Read more

Gossip site JuicyCampus.com faces student backlash

The law doesn't seem to have caught up with the evolving concept of online defamation yet, so internet service providers and websites are generally not responsible for the content that their users post. There are many valid reasons for that legal approach, but the website JuicyCampus.com stretches the credibility of this concept. The website's sole reason for existence is to serve as a portal for anonymous gossip, spreading rumor, sexual defamation, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and racism at colleges across the country.

In the era of cyberbullying tragedies, it's depressing to think that a site like this passes … Read more