The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2007 Page: 1 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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Vol. XCIV, Issue No. 9
SINCE 1916
Friday, October 26, 2007
Massive server failure leads to campus-wide e-mail outage
by Dan Derozier
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Students, faculty and staff
found themselves without e-mail
for several hours this week when a
massive e-mail outage struck Rice.
On Tuesday afternoon one of two
storage servers containing e-mail
data went offline, cutting off half
of campus e-mail users from their
mailboxes.
Users of Rice WebMail logged
in to find empty inboxes, users of
e-mail clients were unable to access
their e-mail at all and incoming
e-mails sent to affected addresses
bounced back to their senders.
By Wednesday evening, Vice-
Provost of Information Technology
Kamran Khan said recovery was
nearly complete and that IT was
testing the systemis readiness to
go back online.
The problems began around 2
p.m. Tuesday, when IT noticed file
system errors on one of the RiceMail
storage servers. Khan and his staff
quickly determined that the errors
were caused by a much lower-level
problem: file fragmentation and
corruption. After being unable to
rebuild the data directly, IT turned
to the backups at 4 p.m. Tuesday
to find that they, too, had been
corrupted.
"What we discovered was that
both the primary and the redun-
dancy [backups] had the same
problem," Khan said. "It has to do
with the file system, and it's one of
those very rare occurrences."
Khan said the size of the mail
system meant that it took nearly
30 hours of re-creating lost mail-
boxes from a series of magnetic tape
backups made between Sunday and
Monday to recover all the data from
the backup system.
see E-MAIL, page 5
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Throwing caution to the wind
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TAYLOR JOHN SON/THRESHFR
Members of FE&P and Wiess College sow the seeds of environmentalism. planting wildflowers in the drainage ditch along IM Field 7. For more
on Rice's push for sustainability, see story, page 5.
RUPD launches
controversial
anti-theft policy
Pre-emptive stealing a
response to recent spike in
on-campus theft
by Dale Swartz
FOR THE THRESHER
The number of personal property thefts have
spiked since the beginning of the school year.
Rice University Police Department is beginning
to resort to new and drastic tactics to ensure stu-
dents protect their property from theft: stealing
before the robbers have a chance to.
Fondren library staff and RUPD developed the
procedure to decrease personal property thefts.
Officers conduct sweeps of the library look-
ing for personal items left unattended and bring
them to the circulation desk. Besides the library,
unsecured bikes and backpacks from other build-
ings will be relocated to the police station.
"If we spot something sitting out unattended,
it's better that they come get it from us than for
it to be stolen by someone else," Police Chief
Bill Taylor said. "Nothing gets moved without
documentation."
Taylor said RUPD does not have any leads or
suspect descriptions to account for the crimes,
except that the thief has been able to move freely
throughoutthecampus without being questioned
bv students,
Continued construction causes increased NOD security
by Joyce Yao
THRESHER STAFF
Break out the men in tights, Wiess College's
annual Night of Decadence, themed ANight in
NODdinghani: Bring YourStiffest Arrow, will be
held tomorrow in the Wiess commons. Tickets
will be sold for $8 in advance and $10 at the
door. T-shirts are also available for sale.
Wiess Social Matthew Schumann said
the expected attendance for the party is
around 1,500 people, which is more than
half the number of undergraduates. Student
volunteers, police officers, Rice Emergency
Medical Services and Students Organized
Against Rape escorts will be present at
the party.
"With so many people coming to the party,
it is our responsibility as hosts to do everything
possible to take precautions," Schumann said.
Decorating for the event started over fall
break. Trees and stone walls painted on die
windows of Wiess commons will be part of the
casde of Noddingham and Sherwood Forest.
Partygoers will cross a drawbridge to enter the
Wiess Acabowl and find a castie in the commons
with food and drink.
The biggest change is that a student will
be DJing. Wiess sophomore Kevin Johnson is
a professional DJ who has had several gigs in
different clubs around Houston.
Security has also been enhanced due to
construction that is taking place outside
the South Servery. Schumann, a sopho-
more, said the administration is primarily
concerned with students interfering with
the construction on campus. A designated
walkway will be sectioned off, connecting
the North Colleges to Wiess to prevent
people from getting lost or wandering into
the construction sites on their way to and
from Wiess.
"[The construction] poses a different safety
and security situation than what we've had to face
in the past," Schumann said.
Rice University Police Department
Lieutenant Dianna Marshall said there will
be two more officers than usual at the party,
making a total of twelve police officers present.
One of these officers will be designated to
patrol the construction site in order to prevent
students from wandering in. Hie other officer
will be a dispatcher responsible strictly for
incidents at NOD, while the rest of the officers
will be in charge of all the events occurring
across campus.
There will also be two student volunteers and
see NOD, page 6
staff or RUPD
officers.
The num-
ber of personal
property thefts
have increased
since the be-
ginning of the
school year. In
a typical month,
five to ten items
are reported
stolen, but in
September 17,
items worth a
total of more ————
than $ 11 .000were stolen. Most of the items stolen
have been small pieces of personal property like
wallets, backpacks, purses and laptops.
However, the new crime awareness procedure
has met with opposition from some students.
Baker College sophomore Samuel Jacobson
said he thought RUPD should let students learn
on Uieir own.
"Although I appreciate what RUPD's doing
see THEFT, page 8
4 We 're so used to a
trusting community
where we don 'f
have to worry
about things
being stolen.'
Kathy Deng
Baker sophomore
(JTSIDE
Closet bookworm?
The Friends of Fondren Library will be
holding its biannual book sale today and
tomorrow in the Grand Hall of the RMC.
Stop by between 10 a.m.-6 p.m. today and
10 a.m.-5 p.m. tomorrow and check out the
wide selection of books, music scores, mu-
sic CDs, recorded books and VHS movies.
Fifty-cent paperbacks and $2 hardcovers?
(More expensive books will be individually
priced.) It's an opportunity well worth your
time and money.
Club registration deadline
The deadline for clubs to re-register is
5:00 p.m. on October 31, 2007. Please visit
www. ruf. rice. edu/~stact/registration.htm
for more information.
NODy but NOIce?
So you don't want to be a part of the weekend
extravaganza taking place al Wiess? Gymania
will be at Autry, and the Night of Innocence will
be at Sid, both 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday.
OPINION
Page
3
Don't rape anyone
A&E
Page
13
Rice online military
SPORTS
Page
17
Football loses Bayon Bucket
Scoreboard
Soccer
East Carolina 1, Rice 0
Marshall 1. Rice 3
Volleyball
Rice 3, UAB 0
Weekend Weather
"When I came in, I was a northeastern Ivy-
League lawyer. What could be worse?"
— President David Leebron providing anecdotes as
they relate to his lecture on leadership.
See story, page 9.
Friday
Sunny, 50-76 degrees
Saturday
Sunny, 54-77 degrees
Sunday
Sunny, 51 74 degrees
H#i
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2007, newspaper, October 26, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443035/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.