INFORMATION SERVICES
July 2005
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Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
07/27/05, E-Mail Status
It took longer than we hoped to upgrade some hardware and restore
service this morning (Wednesday, July 27) and we regret the
interruption. As explained in our announcement of July 19, the complex
transition to the new system will mean occasional interruptions but we
will try to minimize them and schedule them for off hours. Check the
status report at the upper left corner of
www.macalester.edu/email/ for the latest news. Thank you.
07/19/05, Intermittent E-Mail Outages: Growing
Pains
Setting up a new e-mail system requires a great deal
of fine-tuning and configuration. Frequently these modifications require
us to restart the the system, which results in brief service outages. In
general we try to do these restarts at the end of the day to cause the
least inconvenience. However, in order to get the new system up and
running in time, we sometimes cannot wait to perform the restart. Thus
there will be a higher than usual number of short-term service outages
in the next few weeks while we finish setting up the new system. We
regret any difficulties this may cause you, and we will strive to keep
the outages as infrequent as we can. The current status of the new
system is available at www.macalester.edu/email.
[Notification-L and Bulletin, also 7/26 in the latter]
07/19/05, Emeritus/a, Guest, and Group E-Mail Account Migration
Active e-mail accounts for emeritus/a faculty and guests will be migrated
to the new system on Thursday, August 4th. Those individuals will be
contacted via e-mail in the upcoming weeks with the details of their
migration. In June, departments were asked to send us lists of special
e-mail accounts. Thank you for your responses. Those accounts will be
migrated on Wednesday, August 10th. We will be contacting those
account-holders directly with more detailed information. [Notification-L and Bulletin, also 7/26 in the latter]
07/19/05, Think Your Call to Area Code 320 or 507 is Long Distance?
Our local calling area actually includes some prefixes (our prefix is
696) in both the 320 and 507 area codes. There are 3 local prefixes in
320 and 18 in area code 507. So, if you call a number in 320 or 507 by
dialing 9-1-area code-number, and you hear a fast busy signal, that
probably means that it's a local number, and you should dial it without
the 1. If you have any questionss regarding this or other
Telecommunications topics, please call x6566. [Bulletin, also 7/26]
07/12/05, Important News for Macintosh Users!
As you may have heard, Apple is switching the type of processor they use
in Macintosh computers. This will have a dramatic effect on the software
any future Macs will run! As of spring 2006, new Macs with the Intel
processor will likely no longer run Classic-mode applications. This
includes any programs originally designed for Mac OS 9 or earlier, or
programs that specifically run in Classic mode on OS X systems.
What does this mean for you? Simply put, some of the programs you use
may no longer work. Fortunately, you've got plenty of time to do
something about it. Many programs have newer versions that are designed
to work with OS X, and those should still work fine. Other programs may
not be maintained any longer, and you will have to find a replacement.
For more information, or assistance with determining if you have any at-risk
programs, faculty may contact their local AIA
(http://macalester.edu/cit/instructionaltech/) and staff may contact the
Help Desk at x6525. [Bulletin, also 7/19]
07/12/05, Thunderbird and Mac OS 9
The e-mail migration is underway and going well, but for those who are
still using computers with Macintosh OS 9, there's something you need to
know. Once you've been migrated, there are two methods available to
access the new e-mail system. The first is OCS webmail, which is
available online at http://ocs.macalester.edu. This will be the primary
access method for general users. Faculty and staff will also have access
to the new, supported native client: Mozilla Thunderbird. However,
Thunderbird is only available for Windows XP and 98, and Macintosh OS X.
There is no Thunderbird for Mac OS 9. What this means is that our Tiger
Teams will not be installing Thunderbird on computers running OS 9
(because they can't), and OS 9 users will have access to e-mail through
webmail only. For more information, see www.macalester.edu/email/. [<
EM>Bulletin, also 7/19]
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