Prepping for the Open House, I was poking around the www.dps.uiuc.edu site. I found they have a page that lists the recent crime reports… and they mean recent. This must be from the same sources (at least for campus) that the DI gets its blotter.

Marc massaged it through some pipes to get an RSS feed of the UofI DPS crime reports.

It proves for entertaining reading. Such as:

An unknown person(s) poured two bottles of laundry detergent in the fountain near the Admissions and Records Building, 901 W. Illinois St., U. sometime after midnight on July 21. Staff estimated the costs of labor and de-foaming agents for clean-up at $300.

Yes, that’s bad — but think of how “green” they were being, doing their laundry outside.

A construction worker paid restitution ($186) for breaking a wood parking arm in a lot at Assembly Hall, 1800 S. First St., C. on July 7. According to the report, the man drove his truck across a pedestrian walkway to enter the parking lot without paying the fee and struck the arm. A witness recorded the truck’s license number and the incident also was captured by a surveillance camera. When interviewed by police, the man agreed to pay for the damage and the $5 parking fee.

And best yet:

Dumbass1, 22, of U. and Dumbass2, 21, of Paxton (not their real names) were arrested on a charge of criminal trespass to state-supported property on July 14. At 2:05 a.m. Urbana and U. of I. police responded to a call of a burglary in progress and a report of suspects on the roof of the Bread Co. building. Dumbass1 was arrested after an U. officer identified him as the suspect he had seen on the roof of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Avenue, U. a few minutes later. Dumbass2 was arrested at about 2:36 a.m. when a U. of I. officer saw him walking with a woman on the west side of KCPA. According to the report, the officer became suspicious because Dumbass2 was not wearing a shirt, shoes or socks and was covered with dirt.

So, enjoy!

[ I threw in non-summer band YouTube example links, so you can listen to others' (odd) renditions... ]

Star spangled banner — ex (she does kimi ga yo better, I think)
Flourish for wind band / R. Vaughn Williams — ex
Bacchanale : from Samson and Delilah / Camille Saint-Saens — ex1, drum corp ex2
Scenes from “The Louvre : based on Ancient Airs / Norman Dello Joio
El Capitan / John Philip Sousa — ex
Jupiter / Gustav Holst, transcribed by James Curnow
John Williams : the symphonic marches / John Williams, arr. by John Higgins
Inglesina ["The Little English Girl"] / Davide Delle Cese — bad ex, ex
Gershwin : a medley for concert band / Ira and George Gershwin, arr. Robert Russell Bennett
Illinois Loyalty / Thacher Guild, arr. Mark H. Hindsley — ex with mace!

I’m going to re-blog Greg Downey’s post about finding a Computing Research Association publication on using history to teach computer science and related fields. It’s a long report (319 pages,) but just reading the table of contents makes me think this is something I should read. Computer Science, Informatics, LIS: they aren’t just studies of technologies and methodologies, algorithms and analysis. They are cultures, evolutions, people, social networks, and are disciplines filled with resumes of triumphs and failures. Their histories are greater than the product of where they currently are. The first paper’s abstract says, “attention to the history of computing might help to make a computer scientist into a better teacher and, on a broader level, might make computer science itself into a better discipline.” I agree.

But, see, I get mine without the cilantro, so it’s healthier. (I don’t care if you are bad for me — I still love you, Chipotle.)

University of Illinois
Summer Band
2008
Daniel Neuenschwander, Conductor

*Program*
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Star spangled banner
Espirt de corps / Robert Jager
Concord / Clare Grundman
National emblem march / E.E. Bagley
Second suite in F / Gustav Holst
Amparito Roca / Jaime Texidor
Puszta / Jan Van Der Roost
Shenandoah / Frank Ticheli
Armed forced salute / Bob Lowden
Illinois loyalty / T.H. Guild

[ Concert starts at 7pm on the south patio of the Union/Quad, and should last about an hour. ]

[ Edit: 6/19 4pm Corrected the date from 6/18 to 6/19. Whoops. ]

Humor is repetition.

It looks like Sprint has flipped the switch on their high-speed, 3G data network in the Champaign-Urbana area. As of this morning, my phone is showing the same data icon I see in the St. Louis and Chicago areas. I don’t use the broadband much on my phone, but I’m looking forward to the increased speed — even if it’s as much a perception of speed than true evolved functionality. It makes us not seem so rural when we have the same data plans as urban areas.

Now, to gets me a new smartphone to use all this tasty bandwidth…

New MASSMAIL:

It is time once again for renewal of campus parking permits. Significant
events in the past year have resulted in major changes related to parking.
A recent ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court said that parking fees are a
mandatory subject of bargaining. As a result of this ruling, the
University of Illinois has begun to significantly revise its parking
permit fee structure.

University representatives began a process of negotiating parking rates
with unions on each campus. For the Urbana campus, a number of agreements
have been reached that feature a sliding scale parking rate, based on the
annual salary of each employee. Specifically, the parking fees paid by
these employees will be 0.7% (seven-tenths of one percent) of their annual
base salary. Represented employees whose union contracts have not yet
come up for negotiation will continue to pay the FY08 parking rate of
$35.58 per month, pursuant to the requirements of Illinois public sector
labor law.

Chancellor Richard Herman and Provost Linda Katehi have decided to extend
the new parking rate structure to all nonrepresented employees on the
Urbana campus (faculty, academic professionals, and open range civil
service staff). Additionally, they have also added a cap to the sliding
scale structure that will provide an upper limit to the monthly parking
rate. For FY09, this cap is $40 per month. Therefore, beginning July 1,
2008, all nonrepresented employees on the Urbana campus will be charged
either: (a) 0.7% of their annual base salary per month for rental lot
permits, or (b) the designated cap of $40 per month, whichever is less.
For most employees, this new fee structure based on a sliding scale
percentage rate will result in a decrease in their monthly parking fee.
For the minority of employees who, based on their annual earnings, will
see an increase in their parking fee, the maximum increase will be $4.42
per month (i.e., the difference between the cap rate of $40 per month for
FY09 compared to the FY08 rate of $35.58 per month).

I’m not sure that I agree that parking factors into collective bargaining. (Other than I think parking should be free for employees. Bargain that.) Pretending that the employee’s parking lot selection is unbiased (*cough*), and that the waiting list for permits in their lots are honest and followed (*wheeze, choke, gasp*), I am okay with the old regime of standardize parking rates regardless of employment class (non-represented employees REP-RE-SENT!) or salary.

I didn’t like that when I was parking in a rocked lot 3 blocks away from my office, the Chancellor was parking in a covered deck right across the street from his office. Now that I’m also in a covered deck just a block from my office, I’m cooler with it. FWIW, I’m glad they didn’t go with the quality of the lot as a determination for pricing. I would pay a few bucks a month more for the deck, but I know a lot of people who wouldn’t.

But, anyway, my parking rates for FY09 will go down. (But not as low as when I started buying employee parking in 2001.) It’s so rare and unique to get something back I’m almost in awe… except that it serves as a reminder that the university doesn’t think I make much money. Nothing like a graduated scale to put me back in my place. Gary was right — campus parking really is soul crushing.

Doing the math, if you gross $61k a year, your parking rates stay the same ($35.58/mo.) If you make more than that, you see an increase until $68.5k (when you hit the $40/mo cap.) If anyone’s listening, raise my salary and I’ll pay the $4 without whining.

I think there need to be more incentives for people who sometimes drive, or carpool. With gas at/over $4/gal, I’m trying to ride the bus more. I wouldn’t surrender my parking hang tag unless I really thought I could ride the bus all the time, but at a daily hang tag for about $7, if I didn’t have to drive to campus all that often, I could still save money.

www.procure.stateuniv.state.il.us/dsp_notice.cfm?PN=1DFL901&UNI=UIUC

Campus had a bid for cable TV and Internet access to Orchard Downs (and the new student housing over at 1st and Windsor.) Not surprisingly, the purchase was awarded to Comcast. (I guess the surprise comes from four other groups trying to compete.) The deal wound up being over $2M for a 3 year commitment with renewal options. It would have been nice to use that leverage for BTN support, but I doubt that happened.

A while ago, I did some data mining on my Netflix rental statistics. I tried to make those tools open so other people could study their own. I’m sad to say that those tools no longer work (Netflix changed what data was available and the format,) but I’m happy to say someone else has picked up the slack and made much neater tools.

Netflix provides RSS feeds for users to view their queues, recommendations, reviews, etc. Feedflix (feedflix.com) is a free service that mines those RSS feeds (you sign up with your private feed code,) to show you more information about how you use Netflix. It goes a step further to aggregate everyone’s queues and at-home movies to show data that Netflix doesn’t publish. (For example, National Treasure : Book of Secrets is currently at the homes of 55 Feedflix subscribers, is queued by 376 of them, and has been reviewed 8 times.)

Some of the data you can see without submitting your Netflix data. For example, I am in the 10% of surveyed users whose queue size is between 400 and 499. Almost 75% of the surveyed users return their movies in 9 days or less. Yet another way I feel like an outlier (at least I have nice hair.)

If you use Netflix, add in your RSS feeds so we can get a larger aggregate picture of Netflix users. (You’ll also appreciate knowing that you’ve had the 24 DVD for 46 days and each rental has cost you $12 a movie.) The site is maturing, and I’ve talked with the developer. He’s always looking for more data and more suggestions on how to manipulate it. If you liked my day of week calculations or cost calculations, those are in Feedflix now, so be sure to check it out.

I’m really impressed with the Feedflix data and how its improved my Netflix user experience. My only existing criticism is the lack of sample size anytime a percentage is mentioned. (For example, 23% of Feedflix subscribers return movies within 3-4 days… but 23% of what? 100 users? 10,000? A million?)