INFORMATION SERVICES
May 2005
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to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
05/31/05, Apple Computer Battery Recall
Apple Computer is recalling some lithium-ion rechargeable computer
batteries that were sold between October 2004 and May 2005. These
batteries were used with the 12" iBook G4, the 12" PowerBook G4 and the
15" PowerBook G4. Notification of this recall has been sent separately
to every faculty and staff member who has received one of these computer
models within that time frame, and who may therefore qualify for battery
replacement. Under the terms of this program, Apple will send a
replacement battery free of charge, as well as pre-paid postage for
returning a defective battery, if any existing battery qualifies for
recall.
Full instructions on how to determine whether a battery needs to be
replaced may be found on Apple's Web site, here:
https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/index.html?lang=en
You may also consult the Computing Help Desk (x.6525) or your Academic
Information Associate. If your battery is not one of those being
recalled, you need do nothing more. If your battery fits Apple's
criteria for exchange, everything you will need to begin the process may
be found on the same Web page.
[Bulletin, also 6/7]
05/25/05, CARS Problem This Morning
As of 10:00 AM today, Wednesday May 25, the CARS administrative
system is experiencing problems. Users who were already logged
in when the problem occured may remain logged in, but if you
are trying to log in now, you will not be able to do so. We
have reported this problem to the vendor and are working with the
vendor to resolve it as quickly as possible. If you would like more
information, please contact Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Notification-L]
05/23/05, German Spam: Annoying But
Harmless
Many people are finding their e-mail accounts
filling up with messages in German. These first started appearing in
mid-May, at approximately the same time the Sober virus and its variants
(including Sober.O, Sober.Q, Sober.L, etc.) began to hit - and there was
concern that the two were related. Within a working day, updated virus
definitions to catch the new virus were mounted on Macalester's e-mail
server. Similar new definitions also became available for download from
Symantec for the College-licensed desktop computer version of
Anti-Virus. With these moves, potential infections from the Sober virus
have been stopped. (Have you downloaded your updated definitions? See
www.
macalester.edu/cit/docs/windows/savwin.pdf, for PC users, and www.
macalester.edu/cit/docs/macintosh/macxsav.pdf, for Macintosh users.)
Spam in German is still coming in, however. Sober-infected computers
beyond campus continue to spew such spam to anyone listed within their
addressbooks - including faculty, staff and students. Such spam is
annoying, and does take up space in one's Inbox, but unlike viruses it
poses no threat. It can, and should, be deleted. Because such spam is
truly nothing more than incoming e-mail, it cannot be filtered or
blocked at the server level, but must be dealt with by individual users.
[Bulletin, also 5/31]
05/23/05, Message #1 - Informational Session on New Administrative Computer System - Tuesday
Macalester will be replacing the CARS administrative computer system
with a system called "Banner." David Wheaton and Joel Clemmer invite you
to an all-campus informational meeting about the new system at 10:00 AM
Tuesday, May 24, in Olin-Rice room 150. Please plan to attend, learn
more and get your questions answered. Light refreshments will be served.
[Bulletin Flash]
05/17/05, E-Mail Account Changes This Summer
Macalester will be changing e-mail and calendaring systems during the
summer of 2005. All faculty and staff accounts will be moved to the new
server on a department-by-department basis. The planned schedule is
available at www.macalester.edu/infoservices/planning/email
/facstaff_deployment.html.
On the morning of your department's changeover, Information Services
staff will be on location in your department to help you access the new
system. If you cannot be present in your office at the time, staff
members will still install the new e-mail program and setup your account
unless you contact Barb Brunell in advance. If you opt to not have the
setup done in your absence, your mail account will still be moved on
that day.
On the day of the change, all passwords will be temporarily reset to
users' Social Security numbers in order to transfer your old mail into
your new account. This means that your usual password (unless it is
still your Social Security number) will not work as of that day. If you
do login to your old account using the reset password, your inbox will
contain only one message. The message will contain a note about the
change, the Web address for accessing the new account and a copy of your
address book to be imported into your new account.
Please keep posted by checking for future mailings on our e-mail
conversion and at www.macalester.edu/email.
Thank you.
-The E-mail Workgroup [Bulletin]
05/17/05, New Administrative Computer System Update
As you might already know, Macalester - along with Bethel, Northwest
College and the College of St. Catherine - will be replacing the CARS
administrative computer system with a system called "Banner" offered by
SCT Corporation. David Wheaton and Joel Clemmer invite you to an
all-campus informational meeting about the new system at 10:00 AM
Tuesday, May 24, in Olin-Rice room 150. Please plan to attend, learn
more and get your questions answered! Light refreshments will be served. [Bulletin]
05/17/05, New Look for Macalester Home Page
Macalester's Web home page will soon have a new look. The campus Web
Management Team has been planning a design refresh for the home page and
for a number of top-level section pages. The project updates the look of
these pages, but does not change the information structure of the site.
The new home page was designed by Julie Hogan in College Relations, with
input from members of the Web Management Team. Web Coordinator Sara
Suelflow is working on implementation of the new page designs, and
expects to launch the updated site on or about June 1. Members of the
Macalester community may see a preview of the new design at
www.macalester.edu/preview/. [Bulletin]
05/17/05, End of Year Computer Purchasing
If you are still contemplating some end-of-fiscal-year purchasing of
either computer hardware or software, you will need to hold those
purchases until next fiscal year. Our Business Services Office mandates
that all items ordered in a fiscal year be received on campus on or
before May 31, the last day of our FY. As most of our vendors operate
on a very different fiscal calendar, it is difficult to make them
understand our need for fast delivery at this time of year. In
addition, David Sisk, institutional purchasing agent for IT, will be out
of the office Wednesday May 18 through Sunday May 22.
[Bulletin, also 5/24]
05/16/05, Spam in German
Some Macalester users received a flood of spam e-mails in German in
recent days. Others of us received none or just a few. The examples CIT
staff chased down came through our outsourced spam filtering service and
must be cut off at that level. We gave the necessary data to the service
on Sunday. We will stay with the problem and work toward relief soon. [Notification-L]
05/09/05, CARS down for service, 5/20-5/21
The CARS system will be unavailable beginning Friday, May 20, at 12:30
PM, and will remain down through the morning of Saturday, May 21.
During the downtime, we will upgrade the Informix database engine from
version 7.1 to 9.4.
The Student Information System (SIS) and Faculty Information System
(FIS) will also be unavailable during this time.
Please log out from CARS by 12:30 PM on Friday 5/20, and please do
not schedule any jobs to run until Saturday afternoon 5/21. If
you have questions, please contact Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Notification-L; also Bulletin 5/10, 5/13]
05/06/05, The E-mail Project
Today (Friday, May 6) is the deadline for academic departments to reply
to Barb Brunell, C.I.T., concerning the timing of our visit to you this
summer to introduce our new e-mail system. On the target day for your
department, Information Services staff will turn on all College-owned
computers to install new software and configure it for the new system.
None of your private files will be touched. We are continually updating
www.macalester.edu/email/
to keep you abreast of plans. [Bulletin]
05/06/05, Mark Lewis is AIA - Social Sciences
I am pleased to announce that Mark R. Lewis has accepted the permanent,
full-time position of Academic Information Associate in the Social
Sciences. Many Carnegie faculty and staff already know Mark from his
having assisted them informally while also working as our interim AIA -
Humanities over the past academic year. Mark is the consensus choice of
a search committee that included faculty from Economics, Political Science
and Geography as well as CIT staff. He replaces Peter Rogan, who left the
College in December 2004.
Mark earned his undergraduate degree (cum laude, in Mathematics) from
Carleton College. His academic background includes extensive studies
in Latin, the sciences, mathematics and architecture. Mark's information
technology expertise encompasses multiple operating systems, programming
languages, CAD/architectural technologies and Web programming and design.
Please join the search committee and Information Services staff in
welcoming Mark! [Bulletin, also 5/10]
05/06/05, The New Worm
We saw explosive growth of a computer worm called Sober.O this week. An
explanation of it is available to you at www.macalester.edu/
infoservices/news/ - from an article posted to Notification-L on
Tuesday, May 3. When such an outbreak occurs, we depend on a vendor or
on the open source community to release a virus definition file to
protect our servers and PCs. All recently- distributed College-owned
computers are configured to update their anti-virus definition files
daily. You can trigger an update manually any time you wish by clicking
on the yellow shield in the tray at the bottom of your screen on the
right and following the prompts. [Bulletin, also 5/10]
05/06/05, Out of Here?
Please change your voicemail greeting to correspond with your time
away. It's a great courtesy to your callers. To change your greeting,
access your voicemail box, then press 4, then 3, then 2 and follow the
prompts. For further information feel free to call Telecommunications at
x6566. [Bulletin, also 5/10]
05/06/05, Big Changes on Humanities Third Floor
CIT is beginning a major redistribution of space on Humanities third
floor. The first step in this move is the closure of the Humanities 314
public computing lab on Monday, May 2nd. The two computer classrooms in
Humanities 302 and 304 will be available for lab use throughout final
exams. The computers and furniture from Humanities 314 will be moved to
the Kirk 24-hour lab and the Humanities Resource Center where they will
be available for more hours in busier spaces.
During the month of May, the Computing Help Desk will be moved to
Humanities 314, which will provide much-needed space for equipment and
additional employees. The former Help Desk (Humanities 310) will be
refurnished as cubicles as we hire new staff positions beginning this
summer. This redistribution is a major undertaking that will require a
lot of work and should allow us to continue improving our service to the
College community. [Bulletin]
05/05/05, Message #1 - E-mail Account Changes This Summer
As you have probably heard, Macalester will be changing e-mail systems
during the summer of 2005. This change will affect all student accounts
during summer break. The exact date of the change is not yet determined,
but is tentatively planned for sometime in July and will be announced in
another e-mail before the end of May.
On the day of the change, all passwords will be temporarily reset to
users' Social Security numbers in order to allow our system to transfer
your old mail into your new account. This means that your usual password
(unless it is still your Social Security number) will not work as of that
day. When you do login to your old account using the reset password, your
Inbox will contain only one message. The message will contain a note
about the change, the Web address for accessing the new account and a
copy of your address book to be imported into your new account.
Please keep posted by checking for future mailings on our e-mail
conversion and at www.macalester.edu/email/.
Thank you,
E-mail Workgroup
[Bulletin Flash]
05/03/05, New Virus Making the Rounds
There is a new e-mail virus making the rounds. If you receive it, just
delete it. Do not open the attached .zip file.
If you think you may have opened the attached .zip file and infected
your computer, please contact the Help Desk at x6525 for assistance.
Macintosh users cannot be infected by this virus.
Characteristics of infected e-mails from this virus:
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