INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
February 2007
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Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
02/28/07, Banner Maintenance 3/1
Banner will be offline for maintenance and patching from 5:00 PM to
12:00 midnight tomorrow, Thursday March 1. If you have questions,
please call Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Staff-Notification-L]
02/23/07, E-Mail DST Maintenance for Saturday, February 24
On Saturday February 24, between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM, the e-mail system will need to
be rebooted to apply a patch related to the Daylight Saving Time changes taking effect
this year. E-mail should not be down that entire time but it will be
down for a period during that window while the patch is applied.
As you may recall, we had to take down Corporate Time on February 9 to apply
its DST patch. That was pleasantly uneventful, and we expect this patch
to be as well. (This patch is for the Oracle database used by our
e-mail server.) Questions about this are welcome and should be directed
to fines@macalester.edu.
Thank you,
Ted Fines [Notification-L]
02/23/07, Call for Proposals: ACTC Classrooms of the Future Symposium
Classrooms of the Future Symposium will be held May 22 at Hamline University.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The Classrooms of the Future Committee of the Associated Colleges of the
Twin Cities (ACTC) announces our Call for Proposals for Classrooms of
the Future XIII. This year's theme is "Teaching, Learning, and
Technology: In That Order."
The COTF Review Committee invites all faculty and staff to submit
proposals for the conference sessions and the post-conference workshops.
You are invited to talk with your colleagues about:
02/16/07, E-Mail Performance
Recently, you may have noticed occasional slowdowns when you are
checking your e-mail. We are experiencing an intermittent hardware
problem that affects e-mail performance. Additional hardware is on order
and we expect the issue to be resolved shortly. Please direct any
questions or concerns you may have about this problem to Ted Fines
(fines@macalester.edu). [Bulletin]
02/12/07, Calendar Patch Goes On Without a Hitch
As promised, we applied a patch from Oracle to our Corporate Time calendar
server on Friday February 9 after business hours. This was necessary to
prevent significant disruptions for all users based on the changes in
Daylight Saving Time that will take effect this year. The patching process
went smoothly and the Corporate Time calendar system was back up and running
normally within an hour. To date, we have heard no reports of problems.
(If you experience any, please call the Help Desk at x.6525.)
Remember, full details about the changes in Daylight Saving Time and how
they may affect your Corporate Time meetings may be found here:
www.macalester.edu/its/daylightsaving/.
[Faculty-Notification-L, Staff-Notification-L]
02/16/07, E-Mail Performance
Recently, you may have noticed occasional slowdowns when you are
checking your e-mail. We are experiencing an intermittent hardware
problem that affects e-mail performance. Additional hardware is on order
and we expect the issue to be resolved shortly. Please direct any
questions or concerns you may have about this problem to Ted Fines
(fines@macalester.edu). [Bulletin]
02/09/07, Daylight Saving Time Change - Last Chance Before We Patch
The U. S. government is changing Daylight Saving Time this year - it
will start earlier (March 11) and end later (November 4). During these
additional four weeks, appointments in your Corporate Time online
calendar may be off by an hour unless you take some simple actions to
prevent confusion. ITS will apply a patch to the Corporate Time system
shortly after 4:30 PM this afternoon, Friday February 9. You can read
all about the potential discontinuity and find out what steps to take by
visiting our Daylight Saving Web pages, beginning here
www.macalester.edu/its/daylightsaving/.
If you have further questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at
x6525. [Bulletin]
02/09/07, Your Tax Dollars at Work?
The DeWitt Wallace Library invites you to join us on February 15 for a
student "National Day of Action" in support of federal legislation that
would require open access to scientific and scholarly research findings
that have been made possible with taxpayer dollars.
Currently awaiting reintroduction before Congress, the Federal Research
Public Access Act (FRPAA) was introduced last year and if enacted would
require the largest federal funding agencies to make the results
(manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles) of publicly funded
research available to the public via the Internet. What can you do to
help? For more information, including a petition, congressional contact,
and Facebook group link and more click
www.taxpayeraccess.org/students/takeaction.html. Be sure to stop by the
library on the 15th to pick up a sticker. Thanks! [Bulletin, also 2/13]
02/08/07, Daylight Saving Time Change: Act Now
If you have not already done so, go to our Web page beginning at
www.macalester.edu/its/daylightsaving/
and read how the U. S. government's changes to Daylight Saving Time may
affect your Corporate Time online calendar. Because of the changes, DST
starts earlier this year (March 11) and ends later (November 4); during
the additional four weeks of DST, Corporate Time appointments may be off
by an hour. ITS will apply a patch to Corp Time after 4:30 PM on Friday
February 9 - if you have checked your calendar, and followed a few
simple steps, your schedule is much less likely to be disrupted. If you
have further questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at x.6525.
[Staff- and Faculty-Notification-L]
02/07/07, Brief E-Mail Blockage Fixed
On Tuesday, February 6, from approximately 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM, many
incoming e-mail messages from off-campus were erroneously blocked by our
anti-spam device, the Barracuda. The problem has been fixed.
Every hour, the Barracuda is automatically updated with new antivirus
information which protects our campus from e-mail viruses. A corrupt
10:30 AM update made the device block many legitimate e-mails. The
company fixed that update between 11:30 AM and noon. Later in the day
they configured the system to re-send the erroneously blocked messages.
We received many reports yesterday from users who were affected by this
problem, and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. The
manufacturer, Barracuda Networks, has done well in providing a reliable
device, and has assured us that steps have been taken by their company
to prevent the distribution of corrupt updates in the future. However,
if this continues to be a problem we will just look for a different
solution. If you have questions, please call Ted Fines at x.6781. [Notification-L]
02/02/07, Daylight Saving Time Change: Be Ready
Are you aware that Daylight Saving Time has been changed beginning in
2007? This year, it will start on March 11 - three weeks earlier than
usual.
This change WILL affect your Corporate Time online calendar. You need
to check your calendar and take some simple steps to safeguard
appointments you have already made, as well as appointments you may make
later. Full instructions and news about the change are waiting for you.
Fire up your Web browser and go here:
www.macalester.edu/its/daylightsaving/
And yes, it really is 'Daylight Saving Time,' not 'Savings Time.' [Staff-Notification-L, Faculty-Notification-L]
02/02/07, Oracle Calendar Alert: Daylight Saving Glitch
In 2007, Daylight Saving Time will begin earlier and end later than in
previous years. We must apply a patch to our Corporate Time calendar
server to update the system because of this change. Meetings that are
already scheduled during the two affected periods (March 11-April 1 and
October 28-November 4) may be off by an hour after the patch is
installed.
We will apply this patch shortly after 4:30 PM on Friday, February 9.
We recognize that this change may cause schedule disruptions and
frustrations for many at Macalester. We regret any inconvenience that
may arise - but we have no choice. We must patch our Corporate Time
calendar system, otherwise we risk creating more problems that will
repeat themselves for years to come.
ITS will do all that we can to minimize the effects of this change. To
learn what we're doing, and to find out what you need to do to help
protect your calendar from problems based on this change, please see our
Web page on the subject:
www.macalester.edu/its/daylightsaving/
Background: On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act
of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time
in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in
March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will
report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right
to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of
Energy study is complete.
Old DST start/end dates: First Sunday in April/Last Sunday in October.
New DST start/end dates: Second Sunday in March/First Sunday in November.
Because of the change, the affected dates in 2007 are March 11-April 1 and
October 28-November 4.
[Bulletin, also 1/29]
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