Month: February 2006

Blackboard, F5 (BigIP) and Internet Explorer Performance

We have run into some very strange performance problems with Blackboard and Internet Explorer recently. We think there is an interaction with our load balancer (which is an F5 BigIP – forget which version). We have found that Internet Explorer 6.0 will randomly slow to a crawl, where Firefox is zipping along just fine.

This appears to be a new phenomenom (February 2006), although we cannot point to an exact date, but it manifests itself as random slowdowns in IE only and it appears to be only with our Blackboard system sitting behind our F5 load balancer, not with other systems. We think it is a threading problem in the browser, but can’t really explain it. Blackboard distinguishes itself from other applications on that load balancer by having horrible HTML loaded down with images, etc, but it’s still strange.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?

Gmail for Domains

Earlier I wrote about Microsoft offering e-mail hosting for universities and colleges – what I wasn’t clear about was that this hosting was at the college’s domain, e.g. @email.yourcollege.edu. I think this is a big deal – with MSN, it comes with the suite of MSN tools, including spaces (weblogs, etc.).

Now Google is getting into the act with GMail for Domains

Will Richardson Moving On

Will Richardson announces that he is moving on:

“…today I notified my superintendent that as of May 15 I would be leaving the district for parts somewhat unknown.”

I met Will at a conference in D.C. a couple of years ago. A nice guy, smart, and knows how to make a presentation. I’ll be fascinated to see where he ends up.

Windows Live @ edu Program – free email hosting for universities and more

Update: Gmail has come out with a similar program – when I first wrote about this, I didn’t highlight the fact that this is @yourdomain.edu – Robert Scoble reports that at least 20 Universities have signed up for this

While there has been understandably vigorous discussion about Apple’s iTunesU, I am surprised that the Windows Live @ edu program has not garnered more attention:

Windows Liveâ„¢ @ edu Program
Connect your college or university campus with free1 hosted e-mail from MSN®. Provide all of your students and alumni with free e-mail accounts that potentially never expire1, featuring a custom domain name selected by your institution. You and Microsoft® can bring your school the same e-mail, messaging, and collaborative services that a global network of millions of people already successfully utilize.

Let’s get this straight:

  • Free email hosting at your institution’s domain with no ads and 2GB of space
  • With the option for converting to lifetime hosting for alumni
  • With MSN Spaces integration – weblogs for all students
  • With Messenger – collaboration tools

The FAQ (big pdf) is worth reading.

Did I mention that it was free? Do you know how much it costs to host student email and weblogs at a big institution?