UTD garnered the national attention of the technological community Sept. 9 when computer science sophomore Chris Skalenda posted news of Information Resources’s (IR) new wireless access policy on the popular web forum SlashDot.org.

Within 12 hours of his posting, more than 1,100 individuals had posted comments in response.

“I didn’t even expect (my posting) to get accepted,” said Skalenda, who has been an avid reader of the site for 18 months. He said the number of comments to the story was two to three times the normal response.

SlashDot, which bills itself the purveyor of “News for nerds. Stuff that matters” to almost three million users per day, is a collection of news tips on gadgets, companies and policies that relate to all things techie, posted by anyone with something interesting to share.

On hearing the news that the policy was cancelled, Skalenda said he was “glad that (the IR department) is paying attention to the fact that we care about this.”

Skalenda added he would be interested in helping IR to set up its wireless networks to work best with the school’s system.

“I just want to be neighborly about the whole thing,” Skalenda said.

Comments on the access point decision came from individuals on the side of both the students and the university.

Blogging also continued on the SGA run site Waterviewsux.com and comments came in from the UTD Mercury’s online submission form.

The story was also picked up Sept. 9 by the more reputable online magazine CNET.