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September 18, 2000 ALL EYES ON GORDON Hurricane Gordon made landfall late Sunday in norttiem Florida. The storm’s remnants might bring heavy rains * today to the Midlands. i $6.3 million computer system gifted to USC „ / ■ The gift will allow engineering and retailing students to learn data warehousing technology by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock The same technology that lets Wal-Mart kno\ to put beer and diapers together late at night ha come to USC. The retailing giant is teaming up with NCI Corp. to donate $6.3 million dollars worth of com puter hardware and software to USC. The gift in eludes a computer system with about 1.7 terabyte of storage. One terabyte is equal to 1,000 giga bytes, or 250 million pages of text. ■ “This thing has 80 Pentium processors and s 400 disk drives,” said Michael Huhns, a professor in USC’s department of computer science and en * gineering. The purpose of all this computing power? “It can just store a whole lot of information,” s Huhns said. Including, Huhns said, everything everybody buys, as well as any combination of things people buy. That’s where the beer and diapers come in. Wal-Mart found out that, late at night, people were buying diapers and beer together. So when they put the beer and diapers closer together on their racks, they ended up selling more of each. “It makes it more convenient for shoppers, and for them [Wal-Mart], they sell more,” Huhns said. The “data-mining” programs Wal-Mart uses with the massively parallel computer systems are one of the reasons for the company’s success, Huhns said. They can also be used for e-commerce sites like amazon.com and Barnes and Noble’s Web site. “They keep track of everything that people click on and every page that they view,” Huhns said. This “clickstream data” allows Web businesses to better arrange their Web sites. Huhns said most Fortune 500 companies don’t have technology like the NCR system, and that will make USC students more valuable. It also can’t be found at the universities of North Car Gift see page 2 Mayor kicks off monthly public meetings By Kristin von Karowsky The Gamecock A new initiative by Columbia May or Bob Coble in which the mayor will meet monthly with citizens in order to hear their concerns and ideas has kicked oil this month. Tagging the effort “Meet with the Mayor,” Coble said the meetings are de signed to give everyone a voice in re gard to citywide issues. - - “"'i'a!'of our citizens to liave the chance to share their ideas with and dis cuss issues dial affect them or their neigh borhoods,” Coble said. “The focus of Uiese * eungs is to make sure everyone knows that their voice can be heard about their concerns in the city of Columbia.” Coble said the idea for the meetings grew out of his concern that some peo ple may not feel comfortable asking him questions on his radio call-in show on WVOC-FM, a Columbia talk station, since it reaches such a big audience. He added Uiat he hopes more citizens will feel comfortable expressing them selves in a more one-on-one atmosphere with a smaller audience, and he said qual ity is more important Uian quantity at Uiese public gatherings. AlienaUon and a general sense of feel ing disconnected or cut off from one’s community is high in this country, Coble said. He hopes the meetings will help ^vart creeping alienation and foster a Mayor seepages GAMECOCKS WIN; GOALPOSTS STAY Sean Rayford The Gamecock Junior defensive back Willie Offord raises his helmet In celebration as his teammates gather In front of the stu dent section after USC’s 41-6 victory over Eastern Michigan. At the request of Athletics Director Mike McGee, fans stayed off the field after the game ended. STORY, PAGE 10. Commission puts finishing touches on Homecoming preparations Amy Goulding The Gamecock KJm Yandow (left to right), Melissa Pettenglll and Sarah Bayko, members of Chi Omega, prepare for Friday's Cockfest celebration. The event is a part of annual Homecoming Week activities at USC. by Krysta Heidman The Gamecock Planners are busy with last-minute preparations for this year’s Cockfest and Homecoming festivities, which kick off Tuesday. The theme for this year’s celebration is “A Touch of Southern Charm.” Home coming Commissioner Jo Smith said this theme is reminiscent of all traditional cel ebrations practiced at USC. “Carolina has always added a South ern touch to its festivities,” she said. “It seemed natural to select this theme for this year’s Homecoming.” Activities will start on Tuesday with Cocky’s Carnival, which will include mu sic, free food and entertainment, and fire works. WNOK-FM will broadcast live from Cocky’s Carnival at USC’s Davis Field from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The band Hip bone will be playing afterward at the Kick off celebration from 7 to 10 p.m. on the Russell House Patio. One new event this year, an idea in spired and put together by Smith and oth ers, is the “Mr. Legs” contest. This competition includes a total of about nine men who will take chaige of the stage in front of the audience. The audience will help choose the winner by their applause. Judges will be discussing and announcing the winners of the contest at the end of the night. Jamfest will begin Wednesday at 7 COCKFEST SEE PAGE 2 Homecoming activities Tuesday: ♦ 4:30 p.m.: Carnival, RH patio • 7 pm.: Kickoff, RH paflo Wednesday • 7 p.m,: Jamfest, RH baBroom Thursday • 7 p.m.: Showcase, RH theater Friday * 3 p.m.: Parade ♦ 7 p.m., Cockfest. Wiiliams-Brice Stadium Governor lauds state SAT gains ■ Principals give credit to school-sponsored preparation programs, in-class practice by Valerie MATCHETTE The Gamecock South Carolina’s most recent SAT scores have revealed an encouraging trend of academic improvement through out the state, Gov. Jim Hodges said. Hodges, who made the issue of ed ucation one of the focal points of his 1998 election platform, is pleased with the 15-point gain in South Caroli na's statewide test score average. He praised the school system during a vis it to T.L. Hanna High School in An derson County, which saw a 35-point increase in its SAT scores. “South Carolina’s children are im proving in a broad range of categories, from school readiness to SAT scores,” Hodges said. “We're going to build on our success in education reform.” SAT SEE PAGE 3 ‘We’re going to build on our success in education reform.’ Gov. Jim Hodges ‘Service 101’ class could be in place by next semester by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock Student Government President Jotaka Eaddy is optimistic about the prospects for “Service 101”—a proposed service learning course that is one of the four cornerstones of her “Contract With Carolina” —after a meeting between SG officials and university administrators Friday. “We’re optimistic,” Eaddy said after the meeting, knocking on the wooden wall of the Russell House’s Witten Room, where the meeting took place. Eaddy, SG Treasurer Ricky Shah, Community Affairs Director Manasi Sinha and Co-Director of Research and Development Josli Pruitt Mayfield met with David Berube, chairman of faculty senate’s University Courses and Curricula Committee, Director of Student Life Jerry Brewer and Director of Leadership and Service Programs Cindy Benton. Eaddy said the course, which would require students to attend a class on service and also serve a set number of hours at a volunteer site, would fit between two of the university’s existing courses: University 101, a course for freshmen, and University 401, the “Se Service 101 seepages Weather Inside Quote of the Day Online Poll Today 75 57 Tuesday 79 59 Students rock on at Fall Out 2000 % Page 7 "Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon, and wise too late.” Benjamin Franklin Monday • Blackwatch at the Roger Center Tuesday • Bang the Can at the Roger Center • Homecoming Carnival, RH patio • Homecoming Kickoff, RH patio v