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nSaffe Serving USCSin Lee Clontz, Editor in Chief Susan Editorial E Keith Boudreaux, Lupe Ey< Jimmy DeButts,! Exposure Student's appearance i n/Miw/i/i a nm /Ja w a/ rvn* dUU/LC 1// ^Jl LUC ILUL jJCI Jan Pollack's recent stint as a "Girl up a debate over her decision to p membered in such roundtable or that the pictures are of her body, no o As a woman of sound mind and be say if she will be photographed, wheth That she has chosen to exercise this does not call the act into question, m adamantly oppose it. In a society founded on the princip alism should be encouraged, not punii are not harmful to fellow citizens, the tions were not harmful by any stretch While some members of the USC c poor reflection of the university, they ty for publicity. Given the broad marke lent distribution nationwide, the plac boy provides the university with proir For others, the issue of morality c against the magazine and those who must be reiterated that moral standar by large, sweeping mandates of public gardless of how beneficial they believt There will always be individuals \ find objectionable. Their freedom to be their actions not judged by a set of mo scribe. Electronic as to simplify d BRAD WESTON Multimedia, interactive TV, the information superhighway, virtu- c al reality, cyberspace - catch phrases of a society constantly being propelled by technology. What does it all mean? What can it do for you? I will explore these and other questions over the next few weeks to keep you up-to-date with what's going on in the world of computing technology. Today's topic: the usefulness and future of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Two years ago when Atlanta was announced as the host city for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, I had the opportunity to hear some of the ideas people had for making it rtifforont than anv nrpvinns cramps. One of the more radical ideas I heard was a proposed $50 device t that would be available at the Olympics. Photos, statistics, and the complete history of every olympian would be available at the touch of a finger from this four-byfive inch electronic pad A radio network throughout the Olympic pavilion would update each handheld pad with up-to-the-minute standings of each event. Three years ago when I first heard about such a system, I scoffed at the price because I couldn't believe something like that could be made for such a small amount, especially in the short time before the nivmniM Q+QT+AH 1 vyiuyvs Today, I carry a similar device i around everywhere I go and keep ] my entire life documented on it. It 1 has my complete database of phone < numbers and addresses, my cal- i endar, my "to-do" list, a video database for helping me decide cm movies 1 at the video store, a program to keep track of my expenses, a traveling alarm clock, the complete text of major UJS. historical documents, 1 a scientific graphing calculator, a 1 handful of games and several books I'm reading. An optional fax modem allows me to send faxes right from the small unit, or send and receive Email. I can also hook it up to my "iBaffoock B Student Media Russell House-USO Coll Lee Clontz Jimmy DeButts Editor ill Chief Sports Editor Susan Goodwin Kim Truett Viewpoints Editor Photo Editor Steven C. Burritt Nguyen Le Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor Keith Boudreaux Erin Galloway News Editor Asst. News Lupe Eyde Robert Wertz Features Editor Asst. News The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters, with the exception of university holidays and exam 1 periods. i Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the j editors or author and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is its parent organization. Dock ct 1908 Goodwin, Viewpoints Editor toanl ie, Steven C. Burritt, Kim Truett in Playboy secution of the SEC in Playboy has stirred ose. The point that needs to be recoffee table discussions is the fact np plap'a >dy, Pollack alone has the right to er it be by Playboy or anyone else, right in a way that offends some lerely the tolerance of those who les of personal freedom, individu3hed. As long as such expressions y should be allowed. Pollack's acl of the imagination, sommunity feel the pictures are a actually represent an opportunist for the magazine and the prevaement of fellow students in Playlinent name recognition. :omes into play as a major strike choose to be associated with it. It ds are personal and cannot be set officials or concerned citizens, rei the reformations to be. vho choose to do activities others +V? riftliTAo aliAiil/1 V\a nr\/I l/lldilSCl V CO OliUUiU UC UpilCUlX, CU1U rals to which others may not subisistants afly grind computer to back up or transfer information, as well as print out files I have on it. The device is called a Newton MessagePad and students can get one for $550. The Newton is intelligent, which is to say that it is the most diffi:ult thing on the face of the earth o demonstrate. One year ago, when x i. J 3 T 1 * i was mwoaucea, i Decame lmnediately skeptical of the technol>gy because it never did the one hing it was heralded to do well: ecognize my handwriting. I gave countless demonstraions of the unit and let people play vith it and it didn't do well with heir's either. It wasn't until I obained one for my own personal use hat I realized how well the system ictually worked. It took a couple of lays to get it to recognize my style )f writing (moreover, it takes that ong to get used to writing on a fiicaonless surface); but thereafter, it performed flawlessly. The intelligence also allows me ;o write a simple statement like lunch Matt Friday Russell House", vhich it will take and automati:ally schedule lunch for Friday at loon with whatever Matt it hnds n my address book. If I choose, I lan have it alert me ten minutes )r so beforehand to remind me of he appointment. So what does this technobabble nean to you? Well immediately, lot much; but the future will bring you electronic textbooks so you can store all of your notes, books, reports, programs and tests all on one device that weighs less than five pounds. When you walk into a class, you will automatically be hooked up to the classroom network so the professor can download his notes i nn* ..^ll l ui_ i._ uu yuixr ui yvu wm ue auic tu capture the notes he writes on an intelligent chalkboard into your PDA so you can pay more attention to what's going on and less on copying down every bit of information he writes on the board. Several companies are coming out with similar devices with additional capabilities, such as cellular phone capability and possibly speech recognition. The bottom line: PDAs hold a radical change in the future of classrooms that one hopes will improve the quality of our education. mm 77oa Chris Carroll ///-//ZO Director of Student Media ising: 777-4249 Laura Day 777-6482 Creative Director imbia, SC 29208 Wendy Hudson Gregory Perez Asat. Copy Desk Production Asst. Tanya Kropf Elizabeth Thomas Asst. Copy Desk Adv. Graduate Asst. Allison Williams Renee Gibson Asst. Features Advertising Manager Ryan Wilson Christopher Wood Asst. Sports Asa. Advertising Manager Jason Jeffers Erik Collins Cartoonist Faculty Advisor Letters Policy The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters sbonld be 200-250 words and must include full name, professional title or year and major if a student. Letters must be personally delivered by the author to rbe Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 321. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for style, pcpsible libel or space limitations. Names will not be withh -id under any circumstances. 3* /) can't ( sorority &/u k I romm herself > \ some kinp of x Wrr\ "There were about 3 a Six Fla Helms: Not i The first thing you learn when you start working for Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) is that the mere mention of his name provokes an instantaneous, and often unpleasant, reaction in those around you. I had the pleasure of working in Helms' office this summer as an intern. During my internship, I found that no matter where I was, no matter who I was with, no matter what I was doing, chances were good that I would be called upon to defend Helms against rather harsh criticism. I have debated, and in many cases yelled and screamed, with countless friends and acquaintances about Helms' positions on everything from the National Endowment for the Arts to the regulation of tobacco to homosexuality. I have come to the conclusion that manv neoDle have gone far beyond simply disagreeing with Jesse Helms' politics. They have developed an irrational, out of proportion hatred for the man. In my time in Washington, I saw Helms only a few times. However, I have spent time with his staff and with his constituents. His staff thinks of him as a loving grandfather, a kind man who is good to people. Many of his constituents see him as courageously taking a stand for what is right. Through these people I now understand why Helms does what he does, and how his actions have been misconstrued in the minds of many. Let's take the NEA for instance. Helms for many years now has been a crusader against works which he feels are offensive and inappropriate for federal funding. For his efforts, he is dubbed "The Thought Police" and made the butt of hundreds of editorial cartoons. But, before you condemn Helms, New semestei If there's one thing Fve learned in the two years Fve spent in Gamecockville, it's that resolutions are made to be broken and broken often. No matter how much I've tried to swear off bad habits, the semester's not yet a week old, and al ready Fm backsliding into the less than astute habits I formed in frosh times. For example, my activities last Saturday provide a perfect illustration for the disparity between fantasy and reality. My plans: 1. Will get up, preferably before the Late Siow begins. 2. Will clean my room to the point that the cockroaches and other bugs won't feel so cramped. 3. Will study. (Don't laugh. It does happen, you know.) 4. Will read something other than the National Enquirer. 5. Will eat something legitimately "nutritious." The reality: it's 3:30 in the afternoon, and I find myself still unshowered and hopelessly glued to a Dee Wallace movie titled "Shadow Play" as I stuff Twizzlers in my mouth and guzzle Diet Dr. Pepper. Tn raao vnil miaaoH it anri T Virvno for vnnr aalro you did, this movie was made in the '70s, and there it should have remained in the corner of some deWhat do you think "1 guess I really don't see anyt her choice and she is the one "I think its a personal choice. j^ ^6n * * . /oulP \ lj&JQs. ^ J I ff^l \ I / 100 people at noon waiting to get In gs amusement park day. We were p Best Buy asst. store manager Elizabeth Burton such a bad j ? ^ n MARC LaFOUNTAIN Columnist take a look at what he is trying to stop federal funding for: An HIV-positive man who cuts bloody designs into another man's back and then suspends paper towels dripping with the man's blood over the audience A former prostitute who urinates on stage and invites audience members to look inside her vagina with a flashlight A man who strips naked on stage, stimulates himself to erection, and then walks out into the audience A man who saws the head of a corpse in half, and then photographs the halves so they appear to be kissing on the lips These are just a few of the disgusting works the NEA has helped to fund. Helms isn't trying to stop the artists from doing these works, and he doesn't want to abolish the NEA. He is only trying to stop artists from doing blatantly offensive works at taxpayers'expense. I happen to agree with him. Personally, I don't want my tax dollars to pay for an ex-prostitute to urinate in front of a live audience. Do you? I have found that Helms has a rational reason for his actions. He supports the arts, but wants responsible use of taxpayer funds. He defends tobacco because it is vital to the economic interests n VAonlniiArko f L 1 CijUlUUUllO li * SUSAN GOODWIN Viewpoints Editor serted warehouse being slowly devoured by wet mice. It had quite possibly the worst ending of any movie I'd ever seen (Wallace reads incredibly bad poetry, supposedly typed by her dead fiance, and l l li. c i _u_i. -c_ i:_LI laugxiB uuunauuijr as we aw a inicu siiut ui a lignthouse) and certainly the worst dialogue ("No, he doesn't want you. HE WANTS ME!!"). After getting over the traditional bad movie aftershock, otherwise known as the "I-can't-believeI-spent-hours-out-of-my-life-watching-this-stupid thing" syndrome, I decided to hit the shower. (Incidentally, I fared better than my roommate, Lori, who took to her bed, too overcome by the utter cheesiness of the flick to go on.) Planning to start in on ny room, I suddenly hit upon a realization. My mother was coming for a visit the next day! For those of you who fail to 4.1. i.: 'i : _i _ Tc 1 see txxe connection, it s quite siiupie. 11 you piay about a USC student ;hing wrong with it. It's ppwpMM "It's i ! who decided to do it." I her d Matthew Reeves El" a*' If she feels comfortable "She' k its her right." ly, I c Amy Thomas ^ %iwBusiness senior ( A "A \WHfcT?J u i. It was kind of like acked. " r *uy after all of his state. He does not hate homosexuals as people, but he believes that homosexuality is a sin, and therefore wrong. Helms wisely tried to postpone health care reform until next year because he believed the entire rofnrm nrwaao Viarl Vu?rv\mo frui niaho^ anH rv\_ ,v'viui "mv? uvvu""' litical because of the November elections. The Senate decided against Helms' argument on postponing reform several weeks ago. However, the Senate is already starting down the road to postponement. The Senate recently passed the crime bill and then decided?surprise!? to postpone health care reform until they return from their break. Could it be senators are realizing that putting the issue off until next session might be wiser?. Unlike other politicians, Helms doesn't do things because they are politically easy or because he wants to please a political action committee. Helms does things because he believes they are right He takes a rational stand on an issue and does not waver. Fnr t.his he navs a nrirp A political group has draped a nylon condom over his home. While his mail is overwhelmingly positive, the hate mail is often vicious. When I was working in his office, an anonymous person sent Helms a box of fecal matter with a sign that read "Jesse, you are full of shit." Helms has been vilified in the press and by many in the public for doing what he thinks is right. He is constantly subjected to personal attacks because of what he believes. Before you judge him too harshly, ask yourself," Would you be willing to go through what Jesse Helms does to fight for what you believe?" ail to make id m your cards right, you can present your mottoe with a hideously unkept abode that she will in mediately begin picking up, for fear it will be cor demned, while giving you a minimal lecturer cleanliness. Though this strategy has worked in the past an is a valid one, my sister rather selfishly decided t have a birthday on what was to be Mom's cleanu day, forcing us to go to T.G.L Fridays and The Line ited. Of all the nerve. The bottom line was that I was left with a rooi whose floor I vaguely remember and absolutely n feelings of remorse over the fact that I can neve remember whether my sister's birthday is on tb 27th, 28th or 29th of August. (It's the 28th, I die covered.) In short (too late, I know), I failed on all couift of trying to be a better person last weekend. Bu t was left with at least one consolation. I think I sa\ some bugs who looked a little more comfortable wit] their surroundings. And they looked like they were eating somethm, nutritious. \> \\ posing in Playboy? I s\> really up to the student. If she wants to do it it's Cv lecision. No one else's but hers." Dawn Suber Undecided freshman w w W vV ?\> s allowed to do whatever she wants to do. Reallon't care." w W Quester Byrd ~ Electrical Engineering junior ^ W