 It's a Jungle Out There 
Is your campus laptop or home workstation protected from viruses? Don't even try to use it "just for a minute" if it's not. Symantec's results emphasize the risk is growing. In 2003, it took 15 minutes to be attacked. By 2004, that timeline had dropped to a mere 15 seconds. In just 1/4 of a minute, your computer could be "owned" by someone else. Check your home desktop or University laptop and ensure you have virus scanners running and Windows updates automated.
Many of you have said, "I don't have anything important on there so it doesn't matter." Attackers are not necessarily trying to get your personal information.
They just want your machine. Hackers target easily-compromisable machines to use as a launchpad for attacking others.
If you're not certain that you have automatic updates and virus protection on your University laptop, call the Helpdesk at 41950 for a work order.
A Clean Start
Take time before the new fiscal year and new academic year to clean up your e-mail. Empty your trash and cull your Sent items. The University is spending a lot of space and time storing and scanning e-mail that should be deleted.
 Macintosh New OS 
We made progress with the new OS on the Mac server. Unfortunately, the new OS caused Firefox to crash. We are working with an Apple engineer on this issue, so please be patient. In the meantime, you can use Apple's browser, Safari.
 Your Cheating Heart
To help deter student plagiarism, SHSU has a license for Turnitin. This system assists professors by identifying unoriginal content in student papers.
Jess Nevins, Reference Librarian, will be presenting Turnitin at The Teaching Conference for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences on August 22nd.
All faculty are invited to the open sessions scheduled for: Wed. Aug 24 at 3 pm, Wed. Aug 31 at 3 pm, and Thurs. Sept 8 at 3 pm. The presentations will be in Room 157 of the Newton Gresham Library. For more information, professors may contact Jess Nevins at 43587 or the Reference Desk at 41599.
Downsizing
Have you ever used a projector that doesn't "fit" the screen? If your presentation appears larger than the screen (egos aside), you can modify the aspect ratio setting of the projector.
A projector here is normally set to Native with a 4:3 aspect ratio of room screens. The projectors may also project full 4:3 aspect ratios for screens that have 16:9 aspect ratios. Also a projector may project the full 16:9 aspect ratio on a larger screen. In other words, projectors have the ability to project a larger image onto a larger screen. This is not however the "native" application for the selected projectors.
The aspect ratio is typically adjustable through the projector's Menu functions. It will either fall under a Picture or Aspect Ratio tab. Most of the projectors have three settings: Native, 4:3 or 16:9. We recommend projectors be left in the Native aspect ratio setting.
A Few Easy Commandments
- DO use the online Computer Account Activation Request for new faculty and staff. It's available through SamInfo, Computer Accounts.
- DO logoff at the end of each work day.
- DO reboot your workstation once a week.
- DO NOT power off your workstation.
- DO NOT save anything but shortcuts on the desktop.
- DO NOT give your password to anyone.
- DO NOT ask anyone to give you their password. (Supervisors: if you need to retrieve some University information, ask the Helpdesk for assistance.)
- DO NOT log into Nell, SamMenu, or SamWeb and then allow your student staff in your account.
- DO NOT e-mail social security numbers. Use the SamID or username instead to uniquely identify the correct person.
- DO have a great Fall semester. Happy New Year!
Blackboard
Remember the days when you and your students couldn't log into Blackboard around 3 a.m. for an hour or more because we were backing it up? Due to some improvements in the hardware and software, Blackboard is now only down for a maximum of five minutes each day for backups. This change should make it easier for students around the world to use your Blackboard classes regardless of their time zones.
Expanding Your Skills
Start the new year out with some new knowledge focusing on cleaning up. First, we are offering an anti-spam course for Outlook to help you clean out your Inbox of real junk. Additionally, there will be two Blackboard brushup courses so you can "dust off" your course materials.
Please encourage your new faculty to get organized by attending the New Faculty Classrom Tools course.
Give away
Color toner cartridges for an HP 4550 are yours for the asking.
What's Good, What's Not
The Helpdesk provides support for university equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's Update will now 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 is OS X. The supported version of Microsoft's Operating System is Windows XP.
- Software Packages: The supported versions of Office suites are Microsoft's Office 2003 and WordPerfect Office 2000 for PC's and Microsoft Office 2004 for Macintoshes.
- Hardware Configurations: The minimum requirement for SHSU Local Area Network support for a PC is a 1Ghz processor, with 512mb RAM, and a 40GB disk. The minimum requirement for a Macintosh on the LAN is a 733 mhz processor, with 512mb RAM,and a 40GB disk.
All offers, training, or software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, kudos, comments, or concerns, please let us know!
Approved for campus-wide e-mail distribution by Associate Vice President Jim Stevens
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