Instructional Labs

Make sure there is "room in the inn" for your classes next semester. Check the official Lab Schedule to ensure that you have reserved space in a computer lab if you plan on teaching a hands-on section in Spring 2005.

Have you ever had students panic because they "lost" everything? In the past, when student profiles were too large to load on a lab PC, the system loaded a temporary profile instead. It could end up overwriting their real profile when saved. We have modified this system to simply not permit logon until they have contacted the Helpdesk for assistance to get their profile reduced.

Software: In the Dead of the Night

To make updates and patches less intrusive and also not bombard you with reminders, we are now regularly scheduling software installs for night-time. Therefore it is especially critical that everyone remembers to log out each night. Leave your workstation turned on but logged off.

PC's

• Daily. Your PC checks with the Microsoft Software Update Server (SUS) server to see if there are any new updates and patches.
• 2 a.m. Your workstation installs any updates downloaded during the day. If you are logged off, your PC will then reboot when an update requires a reboot. If you are still working(terrible thought!) or forgot to log off, the computer posts a message stating that software updates have been installed, and the machine needs to be rebooted.
• If your PC was turned off and missed its 2 a.m. install, ten minutes after it is turned on again, it will install its updates. The same rules will apply if one of the updates requires a reboot.

Macintoshes

• 10 p.m. If your Macintosh is turned off, it will automatically turn itself on.
• 11 p.m. Your Macintosh checks to see if there are updates it needs to run. If there are updates, it generates an update script.
• Midnight. The updates run and reboot the Macintosh if needed.
  

Don't Go There

Did you realize you can damage your security here or at home with some Internet sites? An Internet research company (www . marketscore . com) is causing problems now with malware (a term describing malicious software). This example may install itself on your computer.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) sites use encryption to help protect your private information. With marketscore for example, the malware pulls the certificate information from the secure site. It then steals the pertinent information, generates a new SSL certificate and sends it signed by the marketscore.com Certifying Authority (CA). It appears real so your browser and operating system trust it.

Want to know more? Columbia University and the University of Minnesota have posted tips.

Phoning It In

We are continuing implementation of the President's Phone Initiative to ensure "every person who calls Sam Houston State University has a pleasant experience worth sharing with others." Each week we will be evaluating University telephone usage. Problems could include full mailboxes, no voice mail greeting, looping forwarded calls, or unanswered calls. When a difficulty occurs in routing calls to an extension, we will e-mail the person with that phone number, as well as, the department head and Vice President.

In our first analysis of our own phones, we found many of you still having to leave voice mail at the Helpdesk. In response, we have posted a job opening through Career Services for additional student Helpdesk assistants. Faculty: If you have exceptionally talented students in your classes, please recommend them to us for hiring.

Outages during the Holidays

The East Plant Chiller will be shut down for an extended period November 26 through November 28 for installation of a chiller. The buildings affected will be the Fieldhouse, HKC, Coliseum, NGL, TEC, UTC, LSC, LDB, AB IV, AB I, North Annex, Smith-Hutson and Music.

Every effort will be made to keep all network and computing systems operational; however, some or all of the systems will be shut down if the supplemental air conditioning is insufficient. Please arrange your work schedules (utilizing the network and your computer) for the Thanksgiving weekend with this possible outage in mind.

More work is scheduled by Physical Plant during the December holidays. If you are working during this timeframe, be sure to save often in case of unexpected outages.

Use Bb and Respondus (requesting test-banks)

Perhaps the last thing you want to think about is making up exams for next semester. Save time by using test banks from Respondus. It only takes a few minutes and you'll have a head-start for Spring.

If you want to learn how to use Respondus to make test creation easier in Blackboard, contact Jacob Spradlin or visit the Training Calendar to sign up for a class.

Learning and Winning

If you have attended on-campus training or accessed our online training source, MindLeaders, in 2004, you're eligible to claim one of this month's recycled freebies for your departmental use. Just be the first to e-mail us if you are on either list (on-campus classes or MindLeaders seminars ) and request your visor or printer.

Department chairs: you may want to review the training lists and give kudos to your faculty and staff that have participated in development seminars this year.

We have an abbreviated listing of training offerings this month, due to finals and the holiday break. Enroll in courses that let you downsize your Inbox on your PC with Outlook's archiving feature and upload publisher-made or self-created test banks to Blackboard with Respondus.

Try Something New

Filemaker Pro 7 has now been installed. The University forms have been updated to the new version and are available for download from the T: drive in a folder in the Common Area named FP7 Forms.

Staff: Coming and Going

Angie Williams has just joined the Computer Services staff full time. Angie is a 2003 SHSU COBA graduate with a degree in MIS. Angie is a Cisco-certified networking associate and will be on the networking team.

That's the good news. The bad news is we are losing Dan Cross to a position in The Woodlands. We'll keep you posted as to the department replacement for managing inventory purchases.

Approved for campus-wide e-mail distribution by Associate Vice President Jim Stevens