Category: UW-Madison Related

Computer-security analysts have long since learned to hate â??botnetsâ?: clusters of computers, infected with worms or Trojan-horse programs, that are taken over by outside users. After all, botnets can do plenty of awful things: They trawl for passwords and credit-card numbers, fire off spam, and propagate automatically.

But now Paul Barford, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says he may soon be able to stop botnets in their tracks. Mr. Barfordâ??s company, Nemean Networks, is developing software that can identify 99.9 percent of â??malicious signaturesâ? associated with botnet attacks, according to Roland Piquepaille of ZDNet.

Representative Mary Hubler has sent a letter to the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (ECB) urging that the board study the possibility of televising all Big Ten sports events on Wisconsin Public Television.

Hubler noted that Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) has offered Badger sporting events on delayed broadcast for 35 years. Now, however, the University of Wisconsin, the Big Ten and the giant cable sports network ESPN have signed contracts that reserve these sports events for subscribers of certain cable or satellite providers

University of Wisconsin-Madison business alums are taking their famous Badger pride to new heights, issuing an unusualâ??and lucrativeâ??mandate to the school: “Keep That Name.”

In an unusual twist in the business school naming gameâ??generally, a wealthy donor gives a multimillion-dollar gift to get his name on the schoolâ??the school formally known as Wisconsin School of Business has received an $85 million group donation from alumni that will allow the school to keep its current name for the next 20 years.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Angela Bartell, the longest tenured judge currently serving in Dane County, will end her career in February after 30 years on the bench, she said in a letter to Gov. James E. Doyle Monday.

Bartell became the second woman judge in Dane County on Jan. 3, 1978, when she was appointed as a county judge under the old judicial system, replacing Judge William Eich, who was in turn replacing the retiring William Sachtjen as a circuit court judge. The next year Wisconsin adopted a restructured court system and all county judges were made circuit judges.

Quoted: Andy Carlin, Gander Mountain’s senior vice president for store operations and a UW-Madison graduate.

They look like poorly erected circus tents, or maybe miniature mountain landscapes, elevated three or four feet off the ground by wire stakes. Officials from the city, Dane County and the UW-Madison art department all say the objects don ‘t belong to them.

A group of University of Wisconsin at Madison alumni have given $85-million to the School of Business so that it can retain its traditional name, officials announced last month.

The members of the group made 13 donations through the “Wisconsin Naming Partnership” to preserve the name for at least 20 years.

For that time, the business school will not be named for a single donor, but after that time, all bets are off if the right donation to the school comes through. However, the members of the partnership will offer advice on potential names.

When he became dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business in 2002, Michael Knetter went looking for a big donor, someone who would give $50 million in exchange for putting their name on the school.

No one was interested.

So, Knetter decided to do something radical: find contributors willing to pay to keep the school’s name off the market.

In his story (â??Law School warns students of strange man,â? Oct. 18), Pedro Oliveira condones how some persons from the Law School have damaged the reputations of Alfred Fares and myself.

Thirteen University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business alumni have anted up a combined $85 million for “unnaming” rights to the school.

More than 20 years ago, a combination of people (UW-Madison students) and an idea (a satirical newspaper) came together in Madison to create the hugely successful national publication, The Onion. In 2007, another convergence of people and ideas in Madison created Our Lives, a new bi-monthly magazine for Madison’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) population.

Chancellor Joe Gow unveiled more details of the modified version of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosseâ??s Growth and Access Agenda to the campus community Thursday.

The new Growth, Quality and Access plan seeks to grow total enrollment by at least 500 additional students in the next three to five years, hire at least 75 more faculty and 20 more staff members in the next five years and provide increased financial aid for students from low- and middle-income families.

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray predicted the costs of policing this past weekend’s Freakfest State Street event would be on a par with last year police costs: $763,000.

Wray said Freakfest police costs have been increasing every year until now. “We did not add police staff to the event in a significant way.”

The Halloween weekend has for many years thrown a scare into Madison. It is not that this city is frightened by the prospect of a big party. Quite the opposite. The problem was that the fun nature of the festivities on State Street was warped by a handful of rowdies who did not know how to have a good time.

The University of Wisconsin-Madisons School of Business has received an $85 million gift from a group of 13 alumni – the biggest single gift in UW-Madisons history – to add faculty, boost the schools reputation and improve teaching and research, but not to change its name anytime soon.

It worked again.

For the second year in a row, police needed little more than plastic fencing and some strategically placed horses to peacefully clear the crowd on State Street after Madison’s annual Halloween celebration.

Madison may have lost one of its “best place ” titles Saturday night: It has evidently lost the distinction of being the to best place in the U.S. to riot on Halloween.

Forget a car, the bus or the train. A few of the alumni in town for homecoming, flew into Madison Friday, on fighter jets. When the signup sheet came around to be part of a flyover preceding Saturday’s game at Camp Randall, Marine Major Smith said he jumped on the chance.

Smith landed at Wisconsin Aviation facility around noon from a Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He flew in an FA 18 hornet fighter jet, which he’s flown for about eight years.

UW-Madison ranks among the top-10 public and private universities for maintaining green practices, earning a â??B+â? grade from the Sustainable Endowments Instituteâ??s 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, released Wednesday.

Students at UW-Madison received nearly $569,000 in scholarships this year courtesy of local chapters and affiliates of the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

For the 2007-08 academic year, 352 students from 77 cities in Wisconsin and 25 other states received WAA scholarships, ranging from $200 to $8,000 for a school year.

Bring on the zany costumes and good natured fun.
Just don ‘t freak out with violence or damage to property at this year ‘s Freakfest on State Street.

UW-Madison’s new Microbial Sciences Building, which will be formally dedicated this afternoon, is now the largest academic building on campus.

In a longstanding tradition of debauchery, drunks, scanty costumes and excrement, the University of Wisconsin and the city of Madison, Wis., brace themselves for yet another Halloween on State Street. Just as moths to the flame are University underclassmen flocking to Madison to experience firsthand the heralded night of escape. This year, however, might bring obstacles to those underage drinkers looking for a riot or the perpetual nip-slip.

As a proud alumnus of the University of Wisconsin, I bleed cardinal and white. I love our university and have worked tirelessly to make it even better, both financially and through my time and talent.

As much as I love this place, on football Saturdays, in and outside of Camp Randall Stadium, there is a part of life here that needs to change.

It is a police officerâ??s worst nightmareâ??a riot fueled by alcohol and anger with the only line of defense being an undermanned and overwhelmed staff resorting to tear gas in fear for their own safety.

The University of Wisconsin received nearly $100,000 in grant money from the Royal Thai Embassy, the UW Center for Southeast Asian Studies announced Tuesday.

With the Wisconsin state budget passing last night in both the House and the Assembly, renovations of both Memorial Union and Union South were approved, as well as a major University of Wisconsin Housing project. However, a planned addition of two residence halls in the Lakeshore area was nixed in the Assembly.

The Legislature passed a long-overdue budget late Tuesday, even as lawmakers discovered new provisions – including one allowing grocery stores to serve customers free samples of hard liquor.

The little-noticed tidbit in the budget would allow grocers and liquor stores to serve up to 1 1/2 ounces of whiskey, gin and other liquors to customers each visit. The budget, 115 days overdue, was the second-latest spending plan the Legislature ever adopted.

The state budget came one step closer to being finalized Monday, passing out of the Conference Committee of legislative leaders and gaining support by UW System leaders.

After all this time, it looks as if the Legislature will vote on a budget today that Gov. Doyle will sign.
That ‘s such a relief we might be forgiven if we were to ignore the pesky little fact that the budget rests on a bed of funds that are extorted from one segment of the state ‘s residents and stolen from another.

Property taxes would rise $80 – or by 2.9% – on the typical home in December under the state budget lawmakers are expected to adopt today, documents released Monday show. Here is a summary of budget provisions, prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders announced Friday that an agreement on the overdue state budget had been reached, with a full vote possible as soon as Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle reached a budget agreement with bipartisan legislative leaders late Friday night, but some legislators are still uncertain of its future.

If budgets are roadmaps that lay out a course for a state’s future, then the compromise spending plan reached late Friday by Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders takes Wisconsin mostly in the right direction

The week that resolved the three-month budget impasse started with a Monday showdown that taught Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle he couldn’t club Assembly Republicans into a deal; moved to rallies at which public workers denounced those same Republicans; and ended with handshakes Friday.

Legislative leaders and Gov. Jim Doyle met behind closed doors Friday afternoon to discuss resolving the nation’s longest budget impasse.

This week, when a retired schoolteacher from New Jersey became the first baby boomer to apply online for early retirement benefits from Social Security, it was the stuff of national news.

After all, nearly 80 million Americans were born from 1946 to 1964, and they are expected to flood the Social Security system in the coming decades.

Among those who took notice of this week’s milestone was a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor named John Witte.

MADISON â?? A Wisconsin lawmaker said today he will sit at his desk in the Assembly chamber until his colleagues approve a long overdue state budget.

Rep. Tom Nelson, D-Kaukauna, started the sit-in Thursday morning and said he was willing to stay there 24 hours a day, seven days a week until lawmakers approve a new two-year budget.

Debate over the stalled state budget erupted into two competing rallies at the state Capitol Wednesday, with one group demanding no new taxes and another group urging legislators to pass the budget now.

In the midst of the continuing budget chaos, a new bill to divide the state budget and pass each aspect separately through bipartisan committees is being drafted by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills.

Capitol Square was flooded Wednesday afternoon with the loud protests of angry public workers, sympathetic honking car horns and music from a taxpayers group, which looped between politiciansâ?? calls for decreased spending and U2â??s â??Beautiful Day.â?

Madison, Wis. – Business school students routinely learn the basic tenets of supply and demand, but these days the campus CIO had better be well versed in it, too.

Nobody knows that better than Ron Kraemer, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The expectations (and appetite) of students and to a lesser degree faculty for advanced technology create the consumer demand, and Kraemer realizes he had better be a steady supplier.

Madison, Wis. – Business school students routinely learn the basic tenets of supply and demand, but these days the campus CIO had better be well versed in it, too.

Nobody knows that better than Ron Kraemer, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The expectations (and appetite) of students and to a lesser degree faculty for advanced technology create the consumer demand, and Kraemer realizes he had better be a steady supplier.

The Havens Center is commemorating the 40th anniversary of â??Dow Dayâ? in Madison with three days of lectures and a forum. The series entitled â??The Day that Changed Madison: The â??Dow Riotâ?? forty years on,â? began Tuesday night with a lecture by Paul Buhle, a lecturer at Brown University, focusing on Madisonâ??s history of liberal activism, how it was reinvigorated in the 1960s, and its continuing effects on the university.

The man who allegedly robbed Fraboniâ??s Deli, 822 Regent St., and put southern parts of UW-Madisonâ??s campus on lockdown Sept. 28 was charged Friday with armed robbery.

A man accused of robbing a Regent Street store and causing several University of Wisconsin buildings to lock down late in September was charged with armed robbery Friday.

In the last few years, UW-Madison has spent more than $300,000 to prevent and resolve allegations of illegal downloading and sharing of music by users of the university ‘s computer network, the UW ‘s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) estimates.

Safety must be the top priority as Madison prepares for its annual Halloween party on State Street later this month.

But Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Police Chief Noble Wray also need to get a handle on escalating costs.

UW-Madisonâ??s participation in gaining state funding for itself and the UW System was debated Wednesday at a higher education forum at Grainger Hall.

The Republican-controlled state Assembly agreed to hold a Monday vote on Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed compromise budget bill, with the outcome of the budget crisis likely to be decided by roughly four votes.

Kevin Hughes is haunted by the unsolved homicide cases he has worked on during his 24 years as a detective with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

Hughes, who has investigated nearly 20 homicides, guesses that roughly six remain to some degree unsolved.

Can a coaching legend break the state budget impasse?

Even though he wasn’t in the Capitol today for that purpose, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez says the 14-week budget has come up in his talks with lawmakers.

Alvarez said everybody says it’s a tough, brutal fight.

UW-Madison College Republicans and a GOP state lawmaker are criticizing e-mails that were sent by UW officials to low-income students still awaiting financial aid grants, asking whether they wished to appear at a press conference with Gov. Jim Doyle today urging legislators to complete the state budget.

The 33 students contacted are among 420 at UW-Madison and 5,544 in the University of Wisconsin System who will not know whether they receive their Wisconsin Higher Education Grants until the budget is concluded.

If state funding support for UW-Madison remains uncertain or declines, one of the possible ramifications could be reducing the size of the incoming freshman class for fall 2008, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said.

“We’ll have to make the decision soon on whether to slow down admissions,” Wiley said in a recent address to the faculty senate. “That is always an unpopular decision.”

The City Councilâ??s recent passage of the Alcohol Density Plan â?? which prohibits the issuance of new liquor licenses in the downtown area â?? was not the first time this decade that city officials attempted to regulate students into a state of sobriety, as proceedings at the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week reminded us.

There’s a chance that a lawsuit over efforts to curb binge drinking on the UW Madison campus could be revived. Wednesday, the state supreme court heard arguments involving drink specials and price fixing. Shamane Mills reports. (Audio.)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 600 self-described geeks are expected in Madison this weekend for a two-day convention that includes role playing, video games, and lots of science fiction.

Others might call it Revenge of the Geeks. The organizers call it Geek.kon, with .kon standing for convention. Like any conference, it’s a place for people with common interests to gather.

“Your average American citizen does not know what a LAN party is, nor Warhammer, nor LARP, nor cosplay,” organizer and panelist Jackie Lee said.

The convention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is sponsored by Geek.kon, a registered student organization made up mostly of members of the university’s sci-fi and anime clubs, and the university’s East Asian studies department.

Tickets go on sale today for Freakfest, Madison’s Halloween party on State Street.

New this year for the party, to be held Oct. 27, a Saturday, will be a third stage and corporate sponsors.

Officials, however, hope to again see the kind of reduction in the drunken mayhem and violence that made last year’s event noteworthy in comparison to previous years.

The Wisconsin State Legislature has become dysfunctional, ineffectual, and counter-productive. It is an embarrassment and it is harming the state’s reputation and image. And the few good public servants in its ranks can do nothing. It is time for fundamental change.

The most important change will only come with reform of the redistricting process and the way campaigns are financed. Currently, government is pretty much run by rabidly partisan legislative staff members whose jobs are basically to cater to special interest money and keep it flowing. There is no longer even a façade of caring for the interests of the citizens of this state or responsible public policy. Cash and reelection are all that matter.

MADISON, Wis. | While its neighbors avoided government shutdowns by passing state budgets in the nick of time, Wisconsin has quietly operated 13 weeks without a new spending plan and is the only state left without a budget.

There is no hammer of a government shutdown in Wisconsin as lawmakers bicker over raising the cigarette tax and imposing new taxes on big oil companies and hospitals. And there’s no limit to how long lawmakers can be in session. Current taxing and spending levels continue even when there is no budget in place by the July 1 start of the fiscal year.