In Twitterspeak (140 characters or less), here is a repeat of important tech news:

All Davis campus e-mail, many other services going down at 7 a.m. Dec. 26 for 12 to 48 hours. E-mail to be delivered right after the outage. (That's 140 characters on the dot, by the way!)

You can receive a real "tweet" telling you when the service interruption has ended. All you need to do is “follow” the Davis Campus Data Center’s Twitter account, @UCDavisStatus. (You will need your own Twitter account, of course: sign up for free at Twitter.com).

Information and Educational Technology will be "tweeting" sooner if unforeseen events develop during the service interruption--which is prompted by the need for an electrical upgrade at the data center. Officials are alerting the campus community to a shutdown that could last up to 48 hours, but believe the power project will take far less time. See At a Glance.

IET established the data center's Twitter account last summer, providing a mechanism to distribute status updates even when certain computer services are down.

And, in fact, most of the services hosted by the data center will be going down Sunday morning, Dec. 26, and possibly extending into the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 28. However, Twitter messages will get through to mobile devices and to off-campus computers (and on-campus computers with wired Internet connections).

A tweet is only one way for you to know when the service interruption ends. The Campus Network and Service Status website will be up and running, and you can check there for updated information. Or you can look in your campus e-mail inbox: When you see new messages coming in (including those that were delayed during the service interruption), you will know the service interruption is over.

The planned service interruption comes amid winter break, Dec. 24-27, when most students, staff and faculty will be away and not as likely to need campus computing services.

The service interruption will affect most of the services that are hosted by the data center, including SmartSite, online grading, Banner (Student Information System), MyUCDavis, DaFIS (UC Davis Financial Information System), and department servers and research computing clusters that are hosted by the center.

Also, the campus’s wireless network will be down, whereas wired connections will be up.

IET, which runs the data center, has been getting the word out about the service interruption, so as not to catch anyone off-guard. Mass e-mails have gone out to faculty, students and staff, and information technology personnel all over campus have been notified.

In addition, IET has consulted with the Office of Research and solicited its help to make sure the research community is well informed and prepared for the service interruption.

Alerts have been posted on the UC Davis home page and the Campus Network and Service Status page, and these pages will stay up through the service interruption.

An FAQ has been posted here, with more details about the service interruption. You also may call the IT Express Computing Services Help Desk before and during the service interruption. The number is (530) 754-HELP (4357).

IET announced special hours for the help desk number: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 26 and 27, when personnel will be available to speak with people inquiring about the service interruption.