February 2007
Tough Week Here---Want the Details? 
One bad disk drive, a daily 11 a.m. login crunch, and a flawed software install led to a week of difficulties. Thank you all for your patience; special thanks to those of you that called just to say you felt bad for us!
S: drives for many faculty and staff were impacted this morning (2/1/07) due to a bad disk drive. This was repaired at approximately 8:30 a.m. If you are still having any problems saving to your S:\ drive, contact the Helpdesk for assistance.
Dreamweaver 8 was installed on Tuesday night (1/30/07) across campus. This purchased software's install stored temporary files on the root directory of our campus computers. The problem came when the software installation continued by "cleaning up" your C:\ drive of any files that were not in a folder. This unneeded "cleaning" deleted a file needed just to start your computer. We appreciate your responding to our request to not reboot. It should now be fine---but please do not just reboot when you read this! We are requesting that you just reboot sometime this week as you routinely would.
The past few days, at 11 a.m. as classes are changing, we have been seeing a problem with students not being able to log in. Our systems team is monitoring this at this time and proposing a number of solutions. We hope to have this resolved soon.
Speak, Hear, and See
Faculty: Looking for ways to engage your students who are auditory-learners? Wanting a rebuttal for all the times students complain about all that reading? For an example of how the Newton Gresham Library is using audio, check out the Today@Sam story. NGL is creating podcasts about Huntsville and Sam Houston State University.
Does just the word podcast make you feel a bit lost? Learning Circuits starts by just defining the term itself, then discusses the podcasting trend, and offers a number of value-added reasons to take the plunge. Besides helping auditory-learners, podcasts can give a boost to non-native speakers. The Office of Academic Instructional Technology and Distance Learning has prepared a how-to for you to create your own class enhancements. Visit with James Van Roekel to learn more.
Speak no SSNs, Hear no SSNs, See no SSNs
Do not use social security numbers ANYTIME that you do not absolutely, positively have to by law. Do not place them in the text of the Work Order system. The work orders are not considered confidential. Instead use usernames and/or SamIDs. Either of those can uniquely identify the person.
Change is comin' but not yet
On January 29th, Bill Gates celebrated the launch of a new Microsoft operating system and the new Office 2007. We've had stability for four years----been nice, hasn't it? Since this is a major change, we will be giving Microsoft time to work out the bugs. Our current target, to change operating systems from XP to Vista, is Summer 2008.
At this time, we are planning to install Microsoft Office 2007 by Fall 2007. Please give us feedback if this poses a problem with your textbook selection. We will keep you posted on these changes.
Blackboard
This semester, we've received many calls and e-mails asking how you can copy content from one course to another. You can find detailed step-by-step Flash demonstrational movies on copying an entire course or copying individual course items on our Blackboard software guides page.
Need to add a teaching assistant to your Blackboard course? Just have your department chair, program coordinator or department secretary use the SamMenu program under Computer Services. It is BLUL01MG - Blackboard TA Entry Maintenance. TA's can now be administratively added to the Bb course via this program.
Have any questions about any of our tips for Spring 2007 or any other Blackboard thoughts? Contact the Blackboard team.
Shop Till You Drop
Thanks to those of you that are using SamWeb's Computer Services Work Order System for your purchases of computers and peripherals. If you haven't yet tried it, now's the time; use the Purchase /Quote Request option. If you want to buy Dell equipment, there is a web site link from the Computer Services page which lets you create your own E-quote. However, since the University is working very hard to improve our HUB purchase percentage, we may ask one of the Dell HUB resellers to rebid it. The University will then purchase from the HUB, and yet you still receive your Dell warranties and products. Keep this in mind as you create your E-quotes.
To ensure that your order can be properly monitored, we are now striving to keep all correspondence within the WO system itself. We will be attaching the payment authorization form and other quote PDF's to the WO itself. If you have problems opening the documents, please check with the Helpdesk. We can help you set the file associations on your browser. You can add attachments to the WO system, even after it has been created, with the View option.
Help us help the Property office maintain a proper inventory. When you create the initial purchase WO, add the usernames of the individuals that will be actually getting the item. The more information you can provide initially the better chance we can order the best item, deliver it quickly, and find it later at inventory time.
We're offering a training session February 21st at 2 pm in AB1 215 on using the WO system. We will specifically focus on the purchase/quote process. Please sign up and come if you would like to know more, and/or give us feedback on ways to streamline and simplify.
Training
This month's training opportunities include how to place a Turnitin assignment in your Blackboard course so you can conveniently check papers online for plagiarism, a session on managing your e-mail inbox, so you can cut down on the clutter and a class that details how you can copy content from one Blackboard course to another. For those of you that missed the Blackboard-Turnitin training last month, we are offering it on three different days. As always individual one-on-one training is available.
Staff Changes
Rolando Saenz (ras016) is joining the Computer Services Client Support team February 1st. Rolando received his SHSU Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems in 2002. He has been employed with TDCJ, and will be working with our maintenance team. Rolando may be helping fix your printer or computer soon.
We are also pleased to welcome Jason Fuermann (jbf005). Jason is a December 2006 graduate of SHSU's Computing Science program. He has been a student worker for Computer Services, and will now be heading up the Voice over IP campus project with the Systems team.
Tanya Gray (tdg004) will be working within the Client Support team with purchasing and inventory. Tanya Gray is a 2006 cum laude graduate of the college of business administration and is continuing in the master's program. Tanya started as a student worker in inventory in 2003.
Suzette Kohers (ucs_sml) has stepped down as the assistant director of the Administrative Programming group and will be focusing on the thousands of programs that we still need to convert for our database conversion. This position of assistant director has been posted with Human Resources. In the interim, just contact Mark Adams (ucs_mca) if you have specific concerns about the administrative programming.
Robert Thompson (ucs_rat) has been named as the assistant director of the Systems team. Robert has been with Computer Services since 1996, and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science from SHSU.
Lots of changes can get confusing for our campus community. However, please just call or e-mail the Helpdesk if you have questions. The Helpdesk will ensure the right person gets the information.
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 requirements for SHSU local area network support for a PC are a 1Ghz processor, 512Mb RAM, and a 40Gb disk. The minimum requirements for a Macintosh on the LAN are a 733 Mhz processor, 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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