INFORMATION SERVICES
November 2002
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to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
11/21/02, CARS back in service
The CARS administrative system is back up and running normally, thanks
to concerted efforts by CIT administrative computing staff,
Hewlett-Packard technicians and CARS representatives. We regret the
serious difficulties yesterday's CARS downtime caused. If you have
questions, please call Databse Manager Ramón Rentas at x.6633.
[Notification-L]
11/20/02, Clicnet downtime scheduled for late tonight
We have just been notified by our Internet provider that the Internet
connection for CLICnet will be down for a short period tonight for some
maintenance. The work will be performed between 12:00 AM and 5:00 AM,
November 21, 2002. That is, it will be performed TONIGHT. The work should
cause the line to be down for only 10 minutes, according to our Internet
provider.
This is only for the CLICnet connection. All other Macalester Internet
access, such as Web browsing, e-mail and instant messaging, will not be
affected. [Notification-L]
11/20/02, CARS update, 4:30 PM
The CARS administrative system remains down and unavailable.
Representatives from CARS and Hewlett-Packard have been on-site all day
and continue to work with our administrative staff members to resolve
the problem (CARS runs on a Hewlett-Packard server). We fully
understand how seriously this downtime affects campus departments; we
deeply regret it, and are working diligently to bring CARS back into
service. If you have questions, please call Databse Manager
Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Notification-L]
11/20/02, CARS Unavailable, AM
The CARS administrative system is down and may not be accessed, as of
8:30 AM 11/20/02. A CARS technician and Administrative computing staff
members are working on solving the problem and getting CARS back up as
quickly as possible. We regret the inconvenience this disruption is
causing. If you have questions, please call Ram—n Rentas at
x.6633. [Notification-L]
11/15/02, Medicine Wheel
Harmon Reading and Research Series: "Researching and producing an
historical documentary, 'Medicine Wheel: A Journal of Healing.'" At
noon Tuesday November 26th in the Harmon Room, Kristi Wheeler, Media
Resources Specialist at Macalester, will discuss making the video
"Medicine Wheel: A Journey of Healing," broadcast earlier this month on
Twin Cities Public Television. The video features Lakota spiritual
leader Basil Brave Heart who offers innovative workshops combining
Native American healing practices with Western psychology through
Hazelden Recovery Center. Kristi co-produced the video, conducted
interviews, wrote the script and located historical newsreel footage to
bring Basil's story to life. She will show clips which combine
interviews, historical photographs and archival footage. We hope you
will join us. Please bring a brown bag lunch, cookies will be provided. [Bulletin]
11/15/02, Did You Know?
That if your phone is off the hook for more than 16 seconds, it rings to
the switchboard?
That your line (extension) key on your phone is also a redial key?
That you should forward your phone to voice mail (forward 6666 forward)
when you leave your office?
That if you have questions regarding these tips or other phone or voice
mail features, you should call Telecommunications at x6566?
[Bulletin]
11/15/02, LESTER Tip #3: Design Your Own Start Tab
LESTER is Macalester's Web portal, providing a convenient and
personalized way to access a wide variety of campus and Web resources.
Use your regular network/e-mail username and password to log in to
LESTER at http://lester.macalester.edu.
LESTER's Start tab is the place to put the LESTER information channels
you use most frequently. Click on the Start tab, then click on
"Customize this page" (upper left corner). Select the LESTER channels
you would like to see on your Start tab by clicking in the boxes in
front of each channel name. Return to the Start tab to view your
selections. [Bulletin]
11/15/02, Your Inbox
As previously announced [see 11/08/02, below], we must conserve server
space by controlling the size of our Inboxes. We identify Inboxes more
than 10MB in size and, after a warning, move e-mail to another folder.
The script used to accomplish this rounds off to 10MB so the precise
total may be a tad less. Previous messages listed multiple options for
e-mail storage other than the Inbox. [Bulletin]
11/08/02, New Staff Orientation to Information Services
Please mark your calendars now for Thursday, November 21st from 9:00
AM to 11:30 AM Detailed information will soon be sent to all new
staff members, but we want you to mark your calendars and save the date
and time. More information will be posted in the next Bulletin
[11/15/02]. [Bulletin]
11/08/02, Inbox Bloat Affects Everyone
Every Macalester e-mail account has an Inbox, regardless of which
software you use to read and send e-mail. All these Inboxes share a
portion of the mail server's storage space. If you leave accumulated
e-mail messages in your Inbox, particularly messages with large
attachments, eventually your swollen Inbox begins to encroach on the
space others need. As a result, the entire mail system can be slowed or
even stopped (as happened most recently on October
31).
The solution is simple. Please move messages out of your Inbox and into
any other folder/directory in your e-mail account. There is currently
no limit on the amount of e-mail you can store in your account, as long
as it is not kept in your Inbox. If you use Mulberry and don't know how
to create other mail folders, please consult our documentation
(www.macalester.edu/cit/docs/xplatform/mulberry/mulberrymailboxes.pdf)
or contact the Help Desk for assistance.
Because of the serious impact a few large Inboxes can have on the entire
mail system, occasionally our network staff identify Inboxes over 10
megabytes in size and notify their owners of the need to immediately
move mail. The Size column in Mulberry will show you how much space each
message is using. If this is not done, we have no choice but to relocate
bloated Inbox contents into other folders within the same accounts.
This is necessary to protect everyone's e-mail access. If this happens
to you, it may appear that your mail has vanished: it hasn't, it's
simply been moved to a different folder. A followup message will tell
you the name of the new folder and also point to the Mulberry
documentation on how to make that folder visible. As always, contact
the Help Desk at x.6525 for assistance. [Bulletin]
11/08/02, LESTER Tip #2: Daily E-mail Event Notification
LESTER is Macalester's Web portal, providing a convenient and
personalized way to access a wide variety of campus and Web resources.
Use your regular network/e-mail username and password to log in to
LESTER at lester.macalester.edu.
LESTER includes a feature to send a daily e-mail message with a list of
events from the campus events calendar. To enable this feature and
receive the daily e-mail message, click on the Customize icon (looks
like pencil and paper) in LESTER's "Today at Macalester" channel and
then select the "Send campus events list via e-mail" option. [Bulletin]
11/08/02, Web Response
We have experienced overlapping problems that have led to Web response
slowdowns. These began with some file-sharing programs' new-found
ability to camouflage themselves and continued through configuration
issues at the network firewall as well as within another network
management device. Each problem was recognized and fixed within a
reasonable time but we suffered from the fact that the problems
overlapped. To counter a popular perception, not all Web slowdowns stem
from file-sharing programs such as KaZaa. As of this writing, we are
seeing improvement in the network data reports. Our network staff will
continue to monitor closely and respond. [Bulletin]
11/01/02, LESTER Tip #1: Access to Library Reserves.
LESTER is Macalester's Web portal, providing a convenient and
personalized way to access a wide variety of campus and web resources.
Use your regular network/e-mail username and password to log in to
LESTER at lester.macalester.edu.
Did You
Know...LESTER's course channels include easy one-click access to library
reserve materials. Click on the link in the Reserves section of each
course channel to view a list of items on reserve for that course,
including links to documents available through electronic reserve.
[Bulletin]
11/01/02, Fragile! Handle Media Materials With Care!
Recently, some videotapes and DVDs have been returned to Media Services
through campus mail. Please return media materials in person, so they
will not be damaged or lost in transit and can be checked in the day of
return. Thank you. [Bulletin]
11/01/02, Broadcasts Honor Native Americans
As part of Native American Heritage Month, Twin Cities Public Television
will broadcast a number of new programs. On November 10th, TPT will
broadcast "Medicine Wheel: A Journey of Healing." Produced by Kristi
Wheeler of Macalester Media Services and Terry Grant of St. Paul, the
program will air at 3:00 PM on Channel 2 and 8:00 PM on Channel 17. This
historical documentary features Lakota Spiritual leader Basil Brave
Heart. Basil, who spoke at Macalester last September 11th, counsels
veterans who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as well
as others who suffer from addiction. His innovative treatment program
offered through Hazelden Recovery Center combines traditional
Native American healing ceremonies with Western psychology.
[Bulletin]
11/01/02, Need Directory Assistance?
You have options. Check www.switchboard.com or www.phonenumbers.net.
Alternatively, go to www.qwestdexlive.com/web/setup32.exe,
and install a shortcut on your PC desktop to the Qwest directories,
QwestDexLive! Your last resort should be dialing 411, as that is a
billable call.
[Bulletin]
11/01/02, Your Voicemail Greeting
If you are going to be away from your office for a day or more, please
let your callers know! It's very easy, and you don't even have to
record over your current greeting. Access your voicemail box; press 1
for administrative options, 3 for greetings, 2 for extended absence
greeting and follow the prompts. When you get back to your office after
your time away and access your voicemail, you will be reminded of your
extended absence greeting, and asked if you want to keep it or delete it.
When you delete it, you're back to your original greeting. If you have
questions about this or any phone or voicemail feature, call
Telecommunications at 6566. [Bulletin]
11/01/02, Virus Hoaxes
We have periodic reports of hoax viruses as well as real ones. Most of
the real ones are caught in our two-level virus detection net. It is
more difficult to deal with hoaxes that play on people's fears. If you
are told to to delete files from your system, be suspicious. The latest
asks that you delete "jdbmgr.exe."
There are also actions that you can take that will minimize the chances
of your contracting a potentially-damaging computer virus. They include
the following:
10/31/02, Mail Server Problems
There were some problems with e-mail delivery today, that were resolved
this afternoon. Both incoming and outgoing messages were being queued
on the mail server and not delivered. No messages were lost, delivery
was just delayed until we got the mail server queues cleared.
The problem was caused by the disk drive where e-mail Inboxes are kept
getting filled up yesterday afternoon. This prevented any messages from
being delivered, and caused the mail delivery queues to get hung up.
If you have a large number of messages in your Inbox, especially if you
have received notices asking you to clear your Inbox, please move any
messages you want to keep to another folder. Folders are kept in a
different place than the Inbox, and messages can be stored in other
folders without causing mail delivery problems. [Notification-L]
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