March 2007
STATA
SHSU is in the process of adding a new statistical package to the campus network. The Office of Graduate Studies and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences have purchased 17 licenses for STATA for campus use. We plan to have it installed in the next week. Please send us a note letting us know if you are interested in using it. We want to ensure we have sufficient licenses for the demand and will e-mail you when it is ready for use.
Spring Forward Earlier 
In the United States, Daylight Saving Time starts three weeks early this year: March 11th (the second Sunday in March) and ends one week later: November 4th (the last Sunday in November). This expanded DST timeframe was mandated by Congress as an energy-saving plan. Unfortunately, it is now being compared to Y2K; lots of last-minute programming is needed for computers and other dated devices, such as smart alarm clocks and Blackberries.
SHSU has applied patches to campus computers to handle the earlier time change. To ensure you receive patches such as these, please remember to log off each day, and reboot once a week.
Since we cannot be sure how each of you have responded to this problem, we have decided to NOT run the Outlook calendar fix. We do not want to risk changing your scheduled appointments back if you have already reset starting times yourself. We strongly urge you to personally double-check any scheduled meetings from March 11th through April Fool's Day.
You may update your calendars on your laptop or other computers yourself from the Apple site or the Microsoft site.
FYI: Europe's version of DST is called Summertime. To further complicate international communications, Summertime is not synchronized with the U.S. DST. The scheduled time shift for Summertime is March 25th and October 28th.
Listen Up
Two state agencies were recently sued for not providing programs that let you hear instead of view information. SHSU wants to ensure we meet our legal obligations and provide a welcoming environment for users with disabilities. We are just beginning our annual web site audit. By state law, any key entry sites accessible from the main agency site, must comply with federal and state guidelines. If you maintain your departmental site, enroll in one of our two SHSU Web Compliancy courses this month. We'll show you how to make sure your site passes the compliancy examination and will demonstrate how your site sounds using the JAWS reader. We appreciate your prompt responses to updating and modifying your web sites.
Help Us Help You
Save time and frustration by using the SamWeb Work Order system whenever you need profile fixes, programming help, software support, telephone assistance, networking lines, computer maintenance, or technological purchases. Let us know of any legal or financial constraints, the number of people impacted, and the end result needed. Tell us what troubleshooting steps you have already taken, such as logging in on a different computer, printing to another location, or saving to new device. Give us as much information as possible.
We would appreciate your help in making sure that the WO system is intuitive. Come be a part of our focus group on Wednesday, March 7th, at 9:30 a.m. in AB1 131.
Document Imaging 
The campus has been slowly moving toward a SamMenu system of scanning university documents into digital format. If you have used the previous Docman product or are just now interested in digitizing your campus hard-copies, it's time to plan the work. The software interface is just one part of the discussion. The real meat of the process is determining first what should be scanned, then which department should scan it, who should have access, how long scanned copies have to be retained, and lots more. Please join in creating a true campus document imaging system.
We will be meeting Friday, March 9, in AB1 213 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Please RSVP so we can ensure we have enough hand-outs.
Blackboard
Have any questions about any of our tips for Spring 2007 or any other Blackboard thoughts? Contact the Blackboard team.
The Wow Doesn't Start Now 
Windows Vista (Microsoft's The Wow Starts Now) was recently released. Unsurprisingly, it does not yet work perfectly with other vendor's software or printers.
Microsoft has released a list of software applications that have been "Certified for Windows Vista" as well as "Works with Windows Vista.". Although the list contains hundreds of applications, it does not include some of the heavyweights such as: Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, etc.), McAfee Antivirus, Filemaker Pro, Mozilla Firefox, and SPSS.
The currently released specification list of hardware needed for Windows Vista is demanding. While the minimum requirements do not stray far away from SHSU's current standards, they do push the limits. An additional problem is the lack of support hardware manufacturers are providing. Many manufacturers have released drivers which allow the hardware to function within Windows Vista, but they have not released final, tested versions of their drivers.
Without stable drivers to operate the hardware of your computer, your computer will, in turn, be unreliable and not function as needed.
Therefore, we recommend you not upgrade to Windows Vista at this time. If searching for a new PC or laptop, you will likely see that it only comes with the option for Windows Vista. We have a site license to install Windows XP on SHSU computers. Even though your new equipment may come with Windows Vista, we will continue for this next year to install Windows XP on it to ensure you have the ability to run the software you need. We are planning on switching to Windows Vista sometime during Summer 2008.
Training
In addition to web page compliancy courses, this month's training offerings include a class on the Turnitin anti-plagiarism tool inside your Blackboard courses and a session on customizing your Blackboard courses to make them easily navigable.
Does your department need a crash course in Blackboard? Would you like your office staff to be more adept at filtering e-mail? Then why not set up a group training session for your department, program, or area. Just send an e-mail to our training group.
Staff Changes
We are pleased to announce that Jacob Chandler has been named as an Assistant Director for Computer Services. Jacob's area will be the Administrative Programming. Jacob has a B.S. with Honors in Chemistry and an M.S. in Computing and Information Science, and he has been an adjunct to the Computer Science department. Jacob is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership here at SHSU. Being at Sam Houston is pretty much a family tradition of the Chandlers: parents, grandparents, wife, aunts, uncles, and cousins--all Bearkats.
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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