Spam

Many of you write to ask "Why can't you do something about all this junk we get in e-mail?" We are. Honest! Here's just one day's breakdown for Monday, August 23rd.

Total Email Messages= 152,035
Messages with Harmful Content that we removed = 65,809
Messages tagged as Spam which you could filter if you wanted= 56,533
Messages with a Spam score so high we deleted it before it reached your box = 24,497
Virus Messages = 8,784

Blackboard

Interested in seeing how Blackboard performs for your students? Need a refresher on Blackboard uses and terminology? Enroll in Blackboard 101 Online Training and take a self-paced, module based look at Blackboard from your students' perspective. To sign up for this online training component, send an e-mail to blackboard@shsu.edu and tell us to enroll you in Blackboard 101 Online Training!

Telephone Directory

The 2004-2005 will be delivered to your offices the first part of October.

Macintosh Browsers

Microsoft is no longering developing Internet Explorer for the Macintosh platform. Apple now supplies Safari as their standard browser. It's an Apple product and therefore is compatible with the operating system and software. We are also offering Firefox on our installs so you may have a choice. If you wish to use Netscape, we will be making a package of it soon.

Helpdesk

Our goal is to never have your Helpdesk calls go to voice mail. That goal has been way out of reach recently. We certainly felt the impact of hundreds of new freshmen this past week. On Monday, August 23rd, even though we were fully staffed, we still had 279 calls go to voice mail. Tuesday it improved to only 212! We are working overtime to handle your requests as quickly as we can. We appreciate your patience as our student and fulltime technicians respond to your calls.

A special thank you goes out to all the Computer Services students and fulltimers that worked incredibly long hours getting the residence halls' card access, ethernet, and phones up and running for Fall 2004.

Training

The Newton Gresham Library is offering a number of training sessions this Fall. Choices range from laptop setup to plagiarism detection. Also, be sure to check out the Computer Services training offerings for September. This month you can build your Blackboard course, filter your spam, create publications with Adobe Indesign and work on your web page!

Real Mail

The campus post office is now offering a price discount of 4.8% on sending one ounce mail or 3.8% on two ounce mail in standard sizes. The address must be printed straight on the envelope---or the label address must be carefully placed straight on the envelope. Each envelope must also have a return address. The price will be 35.2 cents rather than 37 cents for one ounce mail, and 57.7 cents instead of 60 cents for two ounce mail. You must use a separate postage slip for this mail so that it can be sorted and postmarked at the reduced price.

On-campus student mailings: there are 2,307 student boxes at the University post office if you're printing flyers for a student mailer. Bearkat Village and Sam Houston Village residents are not included in that total. They receive their mail in boxes directly from the downtown post office at zip 77340.

Tech Tip

Need to know how many words are in your document? In Word, click File, Properties, Statistics. In WordPerfect, click File, Properties, Information.

Security

The residence halls are now equipped with card access to enter the buildings. The student BearkatOne ID card can be swiped and the door will open if the student is on the approved entry list. Otherwise, they have to be buzzed in by a resident. This type access can now be provided at other locations throughout campus.

Free Stuff

We have nothing to give away this month! But thanks for reading this far!

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