SHSU Information Resources Update

PINs

You have two PINs. One for voice mail and one for campus administrative functions, such as DARS. You can reset both of them yourself.

You can reset your VM PIN in your e-mail. Within Outlook 2007, click Tools, Options, Voice Mail, Reset PIN. Your new PIN will then be e-mailed to you.
You can reset your regular PIN in SamWeb. Login with your username and password, and then click Student Records, Pin Change.

One extra good news item: You will no longer have to use your PIN to enter your grades each semester! Therefore, it is even more critical that you protect your password. It's your security to ensure you and only you can update your class grades.

Training

Learn how to sync your Windows Mobile Smartphones/PDA/MDA’s to your SHSU exchange account. Other classes include: How to Move your Old Mail to your new e-mail account and Using Adobe Contribute for web page maintenance.

Check the Calendar for class times and sign up now to reserve your seat. You may also request one-on-one training or training for your department. Just e-mail the Helpdesk.

Typewriters Be Gone

Do you at times still put a PDF or hard-copy form in a typewriter? Doesn't that make you cringe? Have you printed a Nell or SamMenu document to PDF and then wished you could add some extra information? Adobe has a feature under Tools appropriately entitled Typewriter.

If you have a hard-copy form or other document, you can scan the document in as PDF. You will then have a digital version of the document, and can continue by typing with the AdobeTypewriter tool to add information. .If you already have the form or another document, you can quickly type in the information you need by clicking in the locations you want.

Blackboard

A name is just a name---or is it? We are continuing to work to create one database for campus names. With the many variations on how people want to be addressed, it's been problematic to program a computer to know to call one person by their middle name, another by their nickname, another by their initials, and so on. The Blackboard system will now have the same names as are used for e-mail and the telephone system.

Profiles

Ever had a corrupt profile and felt like it was a disastrous situation? We are working to achieve a less painful fix for these. The Systems department has developed a process which we hope will allow us to quickly replace the corrupted segment and yet not cause major loss of your other settings.

Do your part to keep from having a corrupt profile. Clean it up! There's a new tutorial to walk you through this process. Your profile needs to be less than 50 MB for the most efficient logins. You can quickly find out how large yours is and why with the steps outlined in the tutorial.

Unreal

Phishing scams continue to come SHSU's way, as well as the rest of the planet's! Unfortunately, some SHSU users are still falling for them. SHSU will NEVER ask you to provide your password or birthdate in an e-mail. Please just delete these phishing e-mails.

On October 9th, Homeland Security is coordinating with other national agencies to provide a national webcast: Phishing Scam ` How to Avoid Getting Hooked . We invite you to come learn more about these to protect your campus account as well as your personal confidential information. You can register to see the webcast at your own computer or you may sign up to watch it with others in AB1, 213 at 1 pm on 10/9.

Installing Stuff

At times you may need to add software to your university workstation for a specialized reason. You may request temporary administrative privileges to do so. Use the SamWeb Work Order systems to request that temporary access. Since these are state workstations, and are to be used for business purposes, a brief explanation of the needed business functionality must be included as justification. Additionally, a record of the appropriate licensing for that software must be available if needed for audit purposes.

New Staff

We are pleased to welcome Sia Dehghan to SHSU. Sia (pronounced “SeeYa Degan”) assumed the newly created position of Assistant Vice President for Information Resources on October 1st. Sia has over 20 years of extensive IT, business, service delivery, customer service, project and operations management experience.

Kristofer Rothe joined the Client Support department as an additional fulltime staff member in the Helpdesk. Kris is a Texas A&M grad with a degree in Technology Management.

What's Good, What's Not, and What's Happening When?

The Helpdesk provides support for university equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's update will include the versions of software and minimum requirements for hardware with the new or changed information highlighted and bolded.

Memory Sticks: Purchase (and encourage your students to buy) flash drives that are USB Mass Storage Compliant.

Operating Systems: The supported version of Macintosh machines will be OS X, version 5 after the Leopard conversion which is underway. The supported version of Microsoft's operating system is Windows XP.

Software Packages: The supported versions of office suites are Microsoft's Office 2007. The new version of an office suite for Macintoshes is Microsoft Office 2008 and is being packaged for installation on campus machines.

Hardware Configurations: The minimum requirements for SHSU local area network support for a PC are a 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 40GB disk. Our recommended configuration is a 2.53 GHz Dual Core
2 GB 800 MHz memory, and a 160 GB hard drive. The recommended configuration for a Macintosh on the LAN is a 1.6GHz PowerPC Single-core/Single processor, 1GB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive.

Computer Services may schedule significant periods of downtime for major system upgrades and maintenance. For your planning purposes, the weekend following each graduation will be set aside for scheduled outages. Additionally, certain systems may be unavailable on Friday nights after 6 p.m. and on holidays.

All offers, training, and software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, compliments, comments, or concerns, please let us know.