UW ALUMNI ACTING LIKE NERDS
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CARDINALVIEW: Internal reform needed for ASM but new representatives making positive steps
The Overture Center production of “The Nerd” showcases UW talent in cast, crew and direction
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dailycardinal.com
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Rare WiscMail outage frustrates students, faculty By Whitney Newman THE DAILY CARDINAL
A campus-wide WiscMail service outage Tuesday and Wednesday left many students and staff frustrated without their regular form of communication. Brian Rust, senior administrative program specialist for UW-Madison’s Division of Information Technology, said problems with the services began Tuesday afternoon after DoIT’s WiscMail team conducted a routine software update for the e-mail servers. The update aimed to improve the maintenance and processing of the WiscMail server system. “Some time around mid-morning on Tuesday we started noticing problems with one of the servers, so we attempted some fixes, and things seemed to be fairly well back to normal,” Rust said. “Wednesday morning we noticed problems on all of the WiscMail stores and servers, and that affected just about everybody.” Rust said DoIT technicians uninstalled the software upgrade, went back to the previous version of software and then restored all servers, causing WiscMail services to be temporarily out of operation. No e-mails were lost in the process, he said, but large amounts of backlogged mail
prolonged the outage. Some UW-Madison students were still encountering problems with their WiscMail late in the afternoon Wednesday, according to a service outage report on the DoIT website. “I had problems with my email account all day Tuesday and Wednesday. It was horrendous,” UWMadison senior Josh London said. “My roommate needed to doublecheck the time of his job interview and he couldn’t do it. I had financial advisors and comedic agents trying to reach me, and I’m left with no source of communication for them.” Rust said outages like this happen very rarely, and there is no need for students to worry about creating a “back-up” e-mail account. “We fixed it, we will try to make sure it never happens again, and move on,” he said. Rust also said a DoIT team is in the process of looking into alternative mail systems, such as GMail, Yahoo or Hotmail, but will not make any decisions until they have carefully observed how these systems have played out at other universities. “There’s a big difference between having a rare mail outage and having a system failure such that mail or an account is lost. If we lost all of your mail, [the students] would roast us.”
JACOB ELA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
WiscMail and WiscMailPlus servers shut down Tuesday and Wednesday after DoIT began a routine software update.
Area veterans stress refocus on Iraq War By Charles Brace THE DAILY CARDINAL
In an effort to focus attention on the Iraq War, a group of veterans and community members criticized President George W. Bush at an event at the Capitol Wednesday. The participants said the event was meant to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech. Ryan Nofsinger, 25, a veteran who served two tours in Iraq, said people’s apathy toward the war is frustrating. He said his first tour was extended by several months and he was later forced to serve a second term. “For five years people have just shrugged their shoulders and walked away,” Nofsinger said. Without a draft or tax increases
over war costs, according to Nofsinger, people can ignore the issue. He also said Congressional leaders failed to fulfill their 2006 promises to end the war. Nofsinger said the Iraq War should not be an issue that only young people are interested in but that it affects all age groups. Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal-leaning group One Wisconsin Now, which also participated in the event, said polls show the majority of residents disapprove of the way the war is being handled. He said the event also highlights the 90 Wisconsin soldiers that were killed since the “Mission Accomplished” speech, with no veterans page 3
LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Madison Police Department officials investigate the scene outside the Mental Health Care Center of Dane County, 625 W. Washington Ave, where a 19-year-old Madison resident was shot Wednesday.
Madison man shot on West Wash; suspects still at large By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL
Madison Police are investigating the shooting of a 19-year-old male Wednesday evening on the 600 block of West Washington Avenue. Police said at least three shots were fired outside the Mental Health Center of Dane County at 625 W. Washington Ave. around 5:54 p.m. According to MPD public information officer Mike Hanson, the act was not random and the victim knew the shooter. The victim was taken to a local hospital for non-lifethreatening injuries. Hanson said police are look-
ing for a group of three to five black males who reportedly fled in a vehicle after the shooting. Investigators later recovered the vehicle on Madison’s south side and continue to search for the suspects, some of whom police have identified. Police continued to comb through the crime scene in the hours after the shooting, searching for additional evidence, such as shell casings and bullet fragments to count the number of bullets fired, according to Hanson. UW-Madison junior Kristy Ludwig, who lives one block from the shooting, said the presence of police cars and caution tape is
Students, residents seek safety improvements after homicide By Lexie Clinton THE DAILY CARDINAL
In student neighborhoods where laziness means safety is often ignored, many student tenants re-evaluated home security after UW-Madison junior Brittany Zimmermann’s April 2 murder. But, as the incident fades from recent memory, those heightened concerns are receding. “[Safety] is not something you think about until someone gets murdered four houses down,” said UW-Madison Junior Joel Ondercin, who lives on the same block as Zimmermann. In the unsolved investigation of 21-year-old Zimmermann’s death, police say there were signs of forced entry at her apartment. As a result, Ondercin said he became concerned about his basement-level bedroom window, which doesn’t lock. “Anyone could walk onto our porch and get into my room. I’ve even crawled
through my own window.” One Madison landlord said tenants were concerned about home security the week of the murder. “We did see a surge of calls immediately after the murder from tenants,” Michael Greiber, corporate counsel for Madison Property Management, said. The calls were to fix existing locks, doors and exterior light bulbs. However, those extra calls have plummeted since. Except one lock request unrelated to safety, City of Madison Housing Inspection Supervisor Tom Adamowicz did not recall any security or lock-related requests in the student neighborhood recently. Some students say after a quick reflex reaction and conversation about safety, they are back to feeling safe. safety page 3
becoming all too familiar in her neighborhood after the April 2 Brittany Zimmermann homicide on nearby West Doty Street. “It’s sad to say, but you’re kind of like immune to it now,” Ludwig said. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who represents the area in which both the homicide and shooting took place, said his “heart sank” when he learned of Wednesday’s incident. “I think it is critical to stress, particularly given what this neighborhood has gone through in the last month in terms of crime, that this absolutely was a random act of violence,” he said.
TODAY ON THE WEB www.dailycardinal.com8 Proposal to merge budget, Great Lakes Compact bills faces bipartisan opposition Madison lawmakers support public financing for elections
State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, was among legislators supporting election finance reform
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”