January 11, 2002

OnTechNews seeks to inform UW faculty, staff, and students about new and interesting technology to use in teaching, learning, work, and life.

UW students can pay tuition online
Beginning this quarter, UW students and their parents can use a credit card to pay tuition and fees over the Web. An additional fee is charged to cover processing costs. The new UW Web Credit Card application, developed by C&C, provides Student Fiscal Services with transaction processing and management, inquiry, and reporting. UW departments wanting information on using the UW Web Credit Card application for conference registration or other purposes can contact projects@cac.washington.edu or visit the Web site.

Top 10 Internet hoaxes
Ever get one of those dire email messages about a new virus or a cause you just can't help donating to? You are not alone. PC World editor Scott Spanbauer pulled together this "10 worst" list at the year's end, with links to helpful sites like HoaxBusters, Vmyths.com, and Urban Legends References Pages.

UW scientists reach students via Internet2
UW computer scientists and researchers with Cell Systems Initiative (CSI) are bringing the laboratory to students in the classroom through the use of sophisticated technologies. Labscape, a virtual lab assistant, will allow high school students to participate in biology experiments by following live or recorded steps that scientists are performing. Internet2 provides the needed high bandwidth for transferring data, video, and simulations that the students use remotely.

E-RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
PNW index to newspapers and periodicals
Ever wanted to find an article in the UW Daily from 1926? Or news about the UW or Seattle from the 1860s? The Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index, a card file containing hundreds of thousands of citations from hundreds of publications dealing with all aspects of life in Seattle, Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest, has been migrating to the Web since summer 2000.

Housed in the "Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives Division" of the UW Libraries, the Regional Index was begun as a WPA project in 1936. Over the following 60 years, dozens of indexers contributed citations from publications dating back to the 1850s. In 1997 the indexing went electronic, and in 2000, retrospective conversion of the card file began and continues with hundreds of citations added each week.

Nearly 60,000 citations are now accessible online including articles pertaining to the UW from its founding to contemporary times, early Seattle and Seattle city government, and news from 1997-2001.

UW Tacoma to cut ribbon on science building
The new 48,000-square-foot Science Building at UW Tacoma adds tremendous capacity for science courses and programs and faculty and student research. Environmental Science and Environmental Studies will use the saltwater aquariums to sustain field samples and labs to support focused study in chemistry and geology. Academic programs across campus will benefit from computer labs and classrooms and a sophisticated GIS lab. You can help cut the ribbon on Wednesday, January 16 from 10-11:30 a.m.

TECH BIT
There are currently more than 36 million sites in cyberspace. (BBC News, January 2, 2002, as reported by NewsScan)

SURVEY: What's your screen set to?
Depending on how you have your computer screen resolution set, you may see Web pages very differently than the person next door. Web developers work hard to design for what people use, but they don't always know. Help UW developers find out what the UW community is using. Take a two-minute survey and volunteer for other usability research at the UW.