December 2006
Not Quite Ready for a New Day
Faculty: are you having your students submit digital papers or presentations? Remind them to not submit Office 2007 documents. If they have already downloaded that beta version, they need to Save As an Office 2003 version instead so that you can open it on the SHSU network. We do not plan to convert to Office 2007 before Summer 2007 at the earliest.
Layman's Terms 
Firewall- A hardware or software utility that helps protect the resources of a computer from users not on the computer by restricting or preventing access from unauthorized attempts.
Virus- Malicious computer code run on vulnerable computers in an attempt to gain control of the computer. Once the computer is infected, the virus will attempt to search and gain control of any other computer it can contact.
Security Patches- Additions to software which repair vulnerabilities that can be exploited by anyone with access to the flawed program.
Imagine a house surrounded by a fence within a neighborhood. The fence is your firewall, the house is your operating system, and the neighborhood is your network. A burglar (virus) is in your neighborhood trying to gain access to vulnerable houses (computers). The burglar is going to every house looking for an open fence gate or a house with no fence. If your house has a closed fence, the opportunistic burglar will move on to the next house. If there is an open fence or no fence at all the burglar will pick your house. The burglar will then look for open windows and open doors ( possible vulnerabilities). In this neighborhood, the home builder did not apply anything to one of the back windows which would prevent the window from falling out. The burglar knows of this flaw, and looks for it at every house that is accessible. The houses which fixed the window are not vulnerable; This is our Security Patch. If the burglar is able to gain access to a house, that house is now used to get into other houses which probably won't be expecting a threat coming from that location. The burglar does not care what houses have already been checked, and checks all of them repeatedly until he and all the infected houses are apprehended.
Having a firewall will help prevent unauthorized access to your computer. Keeping your operating system up-to-date by installing security patches helps prevent a virus from exploiting flaws and taking over your computer. Also, having an anti-virus system installed will help detect if your computer has been infected. All of these complement each other in preventing and detecting if your computer has been compromised; having just one is better than none, but all three help ensure your computer is safe.
Don't Be a Headline
UT-Arlington recently had to post an identity theft warning on their web site due to a faculty member's computer being stolen. The computer had files containing "class rosters from the Fall of 2000 through the Fall of 2006 and included the student’s name, attendance, grades, email address, social security number and UTA ID." Please make sure you are safeguarding SHSU equipment, as well as, the confidential information stored elsewhere.
The Eyes Have It
 Getting headaches? Eyes burning? Office-ergo.com offers a dozen suggestions for reducing this problem. Follow the 20/20 rule. Every twenty minutes, look twenty feet away for twenty seconds. Give your eyes a chance to relax. Put your monitor as far away as you can; close-up viewing is more tiring. If you're wearing bifocals, you may be getting neck strain from tipping your head back to read. Try lowering your monitor to eye height.
Training
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.
Individual one-on-one training is always available. If this next month allows you any free time as the students leave campus, please contact the Training office at 294.4357 to set up an appointment.
End-of-Semester Prep
The Registrar's office will be sending out sealed letters to the departments with your new PINs for grade entry on December 4th.
Internet Explorer 7
During the semester break, we will be installing the newest version of Microsoft's browser: IE 7.
Blackboard
Spring '07 courses are now available for Blackboard faculty. You will be able to copy from your Spring '06 courses up until Wednesday, January 10th, the first day of Spring Classes, when they will be removed from the system.
Not using your course until next fall or later? No worries! Just archive your course for safekeeping. Instructions for archiving your Blackboard course can be found on the Blackboard software guides page.
We do plan to update to the new version of Bb during the semester break. Therefore, we will be posting the scheduled downtime for this conversion as soon as the date is finalized.
Welcome
Sam McGee (SPM002) has joined the Systems staff. Sam is an SHSU Alum with both a B.S. and M.A. in Industrial Technology. He has also attended the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking. Sam is a veteran of the United States Army, and has deep roots at SHSU: his dad is a retired prof!
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 is OS X, versions 2, 3, and 4. 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 12 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.
- 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.
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.
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