REMOTE STORAGE: Faculty and staff at the University of Virginia now have a place to go if their hard drives are full. A new project called the Home Directory Service offers remote disk space to store up to 50 megabytes of data. Using the remote server as a parking place for files can cut down on the necessity for removable media, like floppy disks or zip drives and automatically creates a backup file. The service, previously available to students, is accessible from any computer connected to the UVA network. The University’s Information Technology and Communication Office says the new file servers are compatible with all operating systems. Almost 18,000 individuals have opened the accounts.

SOFTWARE TRAINING: At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill staff, faculty and students can learn how to use more than 300 computer programs online and for free. The software covered includes Microsoft Office, Netscape, Unix, Java, web site creation applications and other programs. The computer based training is administered by the University’s Academic Technology and Networks department. To take an online course, staff, faculty or students need only to sign on to the new CBT (Computer Based Training) website and choose either a “liveplay” or “download” option.

UNIVERSITY MAIL: The U.S. Post Office has issued a postal card honoring the 50^th anniversary of Brandeis University. It features a photo, taken by university photographer Julian Brown, of Usen Castle on the Waltham, Mass. campus. U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who first proposed the idea to post office officials last year, backed the postal card project.

SPEAKERS BUREAU: A full-service speakers bureau is being formed at the University of Wisconsin to enhance partnerships between the university and citizens throughout the state. The bureau will be part of a larger effort to highlight the impact the university community has on Wisconsin’s economy. With the help of a steering committee a database of potential speakers will be developed. They will support the university’s “On the Road” program, a series of appearances in Wisconsin communities designed to demonstrate the university’s research, outreach and economic development efforts.

MEDICAL INFOMATICS: The University of California, Davis is offering a new master’s degree program in medical infomatics. UC Davis joins Stanford, Columbia, Duke, University of Minnesota, University of Pittsburgh and Oregon Health Sciences in making the degree program available. The UC Davis program will train doctors, veterinarians and other health professionals to use computers to do such things as manage hospital records, better run clinics and hospitals and monitor the spread of animal diseases nationwide. Unlike the other institutions’ programs, which are aimed at training people to become academics or full-time informaticians doing non-clinical jobs, the UC Davis program will focus on the medical professionals themselves. ¶