INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
September 2006
return
to Information Technology Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
09/28/06, Banner Maintenance, Weekend of 9/29 - 10/1
Attention all Banner users!
The Banner production system will be taken offline Friday, September 29
at 5:00 PM for scheduled maintenance. The system will be brought back
online Sunday, October 1 at 5:00 PM. The Banner production system will
be the only service affected during this maintenance period - Internet
access, e-mail, CARS, Moodle, network storage folders and the Web will
not be interrupted. If you have questions about the scheduled downtime,
please contact Tim Friemann in ITS at x.6879 or friemann@macalester.edu.
[Notification-L]
09/26/06, ITS and Library Fall 2006 Classes
Classes for the week of October 2 include Web Calendar (Oct. 3), Network
Access and Introduction to Photoshop (Oct. 4) and Web Editing with Nvu and
Creating Online Tutorials with Captivate (Oct. 5). Registration is
available at www.macalester.edu/infoservices/training.
Also check out the ElementK self-paced online learning program. If you
are interested in an account, fill out the form at
www.macalester.edu/infoservices/training/question.html. [Bulletin, also 9/29]
09/21/06, Improved Internet Connection
Speed
We are pleased to announce that we have improved the
College's Internet connection by increasing our Internet connection
speed from 15 Mbps to 20 Mbps. You don't need to know what a 'Mbps' is
("Mega bits per second") to take advantage of the increase in speed; it
just means we have a 33% faster Internet connection! This should
shorten download times and ease the Internet slowdowns you may have
noticed recently. [Notification-L]
09/19/06, Moodle Course Enrollments Are Automatic
Faculty members do not need to add or remove students from their Moodle
course sites. Enrollments are drawn automatically from the Registrar's
database (FIS/SIS) on a nightly basis, so add/drops are processed
everyday. Remember, the FIS/SIS is the official source for course
enrollment data.
Students only need to log into Moodle once to be linked to all their
courses. If any of your students do not appear in your participants
list, please have them log in to Moodle and also check their SIS for
their official enrollment information.
If you have any questions, please contact your Academic Information
Associate (AIA) or library liaison. [Bulletin, also 9/22]
09/19/06, Office Productivity User Group
The first meeting is scheduled from 1:30 - 2:30 PM, Thursday, September 21
in Humanities 302. All employees are welcome. This month's topic is
Telephone Tips, presented by Kelly Borke, Telecommunications.
Other topics this semester are:
Thursday, October 19: Banner Questions
Thursday, November 30: Using Captivate to Create Web Tutorials
E-mail Bonnie Alexander at alexander@macalester.edu if
you want to be added to the mailing list. [Bulletin]
09/18/06, OCS Outage Sunday Night 9/17
OCS was down on Sunday September 17 from approximately 8:30 PM to 10:00
PM. The downtime was caused by a known Oracle glitch. Oracle has
created a fix that should correct this problem, and we expect to receive
it this week. We regret the inconvenience that this downtime has caused.
[Notification-L]
09/15/06, Library and Information Technology
Services (ITS) Sponsored Classes
Classes for the week of September 18 include both the Web Calendar,
September 19, and the client-based calendar program, September 20;
Creating Web Graphics with Photoshop September 20 and Dreamweaver Basics
September 21.
Register now at www.macalester.
edu/infoservices/training.
For other training resources (group tailored sessions, self-paced online
learning, Web tutorials, individual consultation), check out the links
on the Classes and Training page. [Bulletin, also 9/19]
09/12/06, Chronicle of Higher Education
At the start of the new academic year, we'd like to remind the campus
community that we have a site license for an online subscription to the
Chronicle of Higher Education. Access to the link for full text is
http://0-chronicle.com.clicnet4.clic.edu.
[Bulletin, also 9/15]
09/12/06, New Library Resources
Last year the library completed a review of electronic services. After
the review we were able to eliminate some duplication and and a few new
services were added. The following new resources will be found on our
page of indexes located on our Web site.
http://libdata.macalester.edu/libdata_pos/page.phtml?page_id=111#i
Direct links are listed as well for the following new services:
Grove Art Online.
Index Islamicus. Over 2,500 journals plus related
resources that cover all aspects of Muslim life.
In addition, we have added GeoScienceWorld.
GeoScienceWorld is a core collection of 31c full-text peer-reviewed
geoscience journals that are indexed and linked within GeoRef. To see a
list of these titles:
09/12/06, Support for Podcasting
Podcasts provide another way to communicate with the broader Macalester
community via the Web. For example, College Relations is currently
producing two audio series, Faculty Talks and Guest Speakers.
Anticipating more requests for producing these kinds of broadcasts,
Information Services and College Relations have developed the following
policies and procedures. Following these procedures will ensure that
podcasts are well made and properly archived:
09/12/06, Office Productivity User Group
This user group meets monthly during the academic year. All college
employees are welcome to join. We meet for an hour from 1:30 - 2:30 PM
in Humanities 302.
This semester's topics are:
Thursday, September 21: Telephone Tips
Thursday, October 19: Banner Questions
Thursday, November 30: Using Captivate to Create Web Tutorials
No signing up is necessary. Just drop in. If you want a reminder, e-mail
alexander@macalester.edu
to have your name added to the mailing list. [Bulletin]
09/08/06, Information Technology Services (ITS) and Library Fall 2006 Classes
Classes begin next week! Register now at www.macalester.edu/infoservices/training.
Topics include network access, Web applications (mail, calendar,
Dreamweaver and Nvu web editors), Microsoft applications (Excel,
PowerPoint), Photoshop, video editing, etc.
Check out our other training resources (group tailored sessions,
self-paced online learning, Web tutorials and individual consultation. [Bulletin, also 9/12]
09/08/06, Moodle Maintenance This Sunday, September 10
Moodle will not be available between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM on Sunday,
September 10th.
We will be adding a redundant Moodle server to make sure this service
runs smoothly throughout the academic year. This new "understudy" to
the Moodle server will have the capacity to take over in the event of a
hardware failure on the primary Moodle server.
We apologize for any inconvenience. Please direct questions to Barron
Koralesky (koralesky@macalester.edu) or
Marisa Brandt (brandtm@macalester.edu). [Notification-L]
09/08/06, Scams and Official ITS Communications
As a new academic year begins, here's a timely reminder. Notification-L
is a mailing list used by Information Technology Services (ITS) to keep
you informed about planned system maintenance, unplanned system
downtimes, and to send relevant notices and warnings about
computing-related issues. We do so as infrequently as possible. All
Macalester e-mail accounts are subscribed to Notification-L; you may
unsubscribe if you choose. If you are a new student, faculty member or
staff member, this may be the first Notification-L posting you have
received.
Be warned that scammers will try to deceive you by sending faked
messages, ostensibly coming from ITS staff. (They may also represent
themselves as College-approved vendors.) It happens every year,
especially in the fall. Right now, another version of a fake message is
making the rounds. You may see the following message, or something
similarly worded, in your e-mail:
************BEGIN FAKE MESSAGE************
Dear user of macalester.edu,
Your email account was used to send a huge amount of junk e-mail
messages during this week. Most likely your computer was infected by a
recent virus and now runs a trojaned proxy server.
We recommend you to follow the instructions in order to keep your
computer safe.
Virtually yours,
The macalester.edu team
************END FAKE MESSAGE************
Messages like this are not only fakes, but often carry computer viruses
as .zip attachments. Our e-mail server's virus-detection software normally
catches such viruses. However, the best defense against viruses and
similar 'phishing' attempts is for you to read messages critically. We
recognize that messages like this may make you apprehensive or raise
concern, and we know you have better things to worry about (as do we).
Be assured of the following when ITS staff communicate with you via
e-mail:
09/05/06, New Students and Failed E-Mail Delivery
We have discovered and fixed a bug in the e-mail system. Because of
this bug, e-mail delivery to first-year and transfer students failed
between 8:30 AM Saturday September 2 and 2:15 PM Tuesday September 5. No
one else - returning students, faculty or staff - has been affected by
this bug.
New students should contact correspondents and ask that critical
messages during the 'gap' period be re-sent. Instructors and others who
sent messages to new students are urged to re-send these messages.
Messages sent from a Moodle news forum will still be archived
in that forum.
The Help Desk, x.6525, can assist you in searching your 'Sent' folder
and re-sending such e-mails. We regret the inconvenience this bug has
caused.
Thank you,
Ted Fines [Notification-L]
09/05/06, Employee Directory Available On-Line
In past years, we've printed and distributed over 800 copies of the
Macalester Employee Directory. In the meantime, the on-line directory
(http://www.macalester.edu/directory.html) has evolved to the point that
it is as complete as the hard copy version, is easy to use, is updated
daily, and you can find information more quickly. With this in mind, it
was determined by our Vice President for Administration, after
consultations with Senior Staff, ITS and Web Services staff, that
printed directories are not the best use of College dollars or of
domestic tree farms - definitely a positive step for Macalester. What
follows is a description of the convenient access that is available
on-line, and a way to obtain a printed copy if absolutely necessary.
Virtually everything in the printed directory is available online, and
it's easier to use. You can look up staff, faculty and students by
first name, last name or e-mail username. You can then e-mail someone
by simply clicking on his/her e-mail address. You can look up
individuals and departments, even by partially spelling a name (to a
reasonable degree!). Look up departments, and notice that the listing
gives you the location, main number, FAX number, department members and
their titles, and a link to the department's Web site.
To access the on-line directory go to the Macalester homepage
(www.macalester.edu) and click on 'Directory' in the 2nd green line at
the top of the page. Any questions you have should be answered by the
instructions on that page, or the "About the Directory/FAQ" on the
bottom of the page. We will continue to improve the FAQ page.
We do realize that there are a variety of reasons within departments
(e.g. traveling or no access to a computer) to have a printed directory.
Therefore, a printed version will be available to pick up from
Telecommunications no earlier than September 25, 2006. We will alert
you of the exact availability date in the Bulletin. There will be no
cost per printed directory this year - however, the number of printed
copies will be limited.
Keep in mind that you can continue to call staff, faculty and on-campus
students via x6777, our automated phone directory. [Bulletin, also 9/8]
09/01/06, Apple Battery Recalls
This message gives information about TWO (2) Apple battery recalls,
affecting different laptop and battery models. If you own or use any
Apple laptop computer, please read all the way to the end.
Battery Recall #1 ("Safety")
Apple Computer Corporation has announced that some batteries shipped
with some laptop computers from October 2003 to August 2006 are being
recalled. There is a chance that defective batteries could overheat and
could potentially start fires. As with the Dell battery recall earlier
this month, the faulty batteries were manufactured by Sony Corporation.
If your battery is affected, Apple will ship you a replacement at no
charge. Full details may be found on Apple's Web pages, beginning here:
http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram
Here are the computers and batteries affected by the recall:
| Computer model | Battery model number | Battery serial number range |
| 12-inch iBook G4 | A1061 |
ZZ338 - ZZ427 3K429 - 3K611 6C519 - 6C552 |
| 12-inch PowerBook G4 | A1079 |
ZZ411 - ZZ427 3K428 - 3K611 |
| 15-inch PowerBook G4 | A1078 and A1148 |
3K425 - 3K601 6N530 - 6N551 6N601 |
09/01/06, New Student E-Mail Account Change
Macalester e-mail accounts for new students were created earlier this
summer, and new students were informed by direct mail. An error was made
in that account creation. Usernames for new students under the
alphanumeric convention (e.g. smit0001) are being replaced with
usernames that follow the existing convention (e.g. jsmith). With the
change in usernames, e-mail addresses for new students are also changing
(e.g. smit0001@macalester.edu will become jsmith@macalester.edu). Please
update your mailing lists and begin using these new e-mail addresses
now.
E-mail messages that have already been sent to new students at their
alphanumeric addresses will not be lost, and will be moved to the new
accounts. To ease the transition, messages you send to new students will
continue to go through, whichever address you use for them.
Although new student usernames and e-mail addresses will change, their
e-mail passwords will not change. New students are being advised of this
change both beforehand and afterwards.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you have
difficulty or need assistance with new student usernames and/or e-mail
addresses, please contact the ITS Help Desk (phone 651-696-6525, e-mail
helpdesk@macalester.edu, walk-in service in Humanities 314). [Bulletin, also 9/5, also
Notification-L 8/23 ]
[return to Information Technology Services current announcements ] [ITS homepage]