SHSU Information Resources Update

On the Edge

The past month has been a rough ride for us and for you. We appreciate your patience as we suffered through multiple database crashes. Since practically every campus function is now tied into Nell, SamMenu, or SamWeb, a database failure can bring us to our knees.

Here's what we've done and what we're doing to solve this long-term:

Our current database is MIMER, a Swedish company. They have been touting SHSU as an example of a success story. Therefore, we are pressing for real, true 24/7 support from them and have been now getting help even in the middle of the night.
Due to registration, the number of users hitting the database simultaneously increased from approximately 300 users to 1,500. The heavy loads have killed us. We are getting a load-balancing system to help even out the extreme crunch times.
We plan to convert to an Oracle database just as quickly as possible.
One administrative programmer has now completed Oracle training.
We are advertising for an additional database staff programmer.

We know this has made your jobs much harder for kick-off of Fall 2007. We are trying to find a workable solution as soon as possible.
Macintoshes Losing Power
iMac G5's are having troubles and Apple has provided a repair program for the affected machines. If your iMac G5 is having scrambled or distorted video, no video, or no power, check the Apple site to see if your serial number is on the list. Just call the Helpdesk or do a SamWeb WO and we will work with Apple to get you "back in power."
Lifelong Learning

Check the Training Calendar. Lots of offerings this month. The Administrative Accounting office is offering a couple of how-to classes. The first session will cover the intricacies of the Budget Balance report and day two will cover using other programs to get more detail about the transactions you found on day one.

For those of you responsible for departmental web sites, we are also offering a couple of web design classes:

Cascading Style Sheets which let you make quick overall changes.
Section 508 Web Accessibility which will ensure you are complying with the federal Disability Act of 1973.

Ready to tackle another new product? Try Microsoft's One Note. An introductory class is being offered to get you started. One Note lets you "gather, store, and manage your notes and information — including text, pictures, digital handwriting, audio and video recordings, and more — in a single location."One Note is especially helpful for tablet users.

A limited number of seats are available for the Microsoft Office 2007 Lunch & Learn on September 10th at the CJ Texas Room. Our thanks to Microsoft and our HUB vendor SHI for setting up this training opportunity AND free luncheon!

Blackboard for Fall 2007

What's happening with Blackboard this week? The bad news of which you're very aware is that we have had a number of crashes. At this moment (and for the past month), we have been working directly with Blackboard to diagnose and hopefully improve this situation. Here's what we've done and what we're doing for this system:

We purchased new hardware but the demand this fall has been greater than anticipated.
More new servers are now on hand.
More new hardware is being quoted.
The load balancing system can be used on this too to help even out the crunch times of class login and exam times.
We have scheduled 9/5/07 for a Bb consultant to get to the bottom of these failures.

On a better note, want to find out what's happening with Bb this semester? Be sure to read the Blackboard blog. You can find out all the details on how each Bb faculty member now has a student account within his/her Bb classes. This account lets you see your courses just like your students do. The Bb blog can point you to a recap of Bb Day 2007 along with those PowerPoint presentations.

Be sure to read “A Eulogy for a Dropbox” and find out what tool to use now that the Digital Dropbox is gone.

You may have noticed a change to the Blackboard login page. Now the most recent article from the Blackboard Blog will display there. You can get the latest news before you log in.

A Terminology Primer

Username: That's the 6 or 7 digit account name assigned to you. Faculty and staff that have been here forever still have the underscore character in the username, as well as, the departmental initials as the first three characters. Nowadays we are able to drop the dreaded underscore and just use initials and three numbers. This way if you change offices, you can maintain the same username.

Individual Personalization: Recently a faculty member told us---"I'm not a number!" We agree! However, we cannot just assign names as usernames. For instance, we have two vice president Parkers and two Keith Jenkins on campus. That would cause some real confusion. Therefore, although your username must be less personal, you can set an alias on SamWeb that reflects your name or personality.

Departmental Identification: Departments can set aliases that can be directed to one user within that area. Since your staffing may change (voluntarily or involuntarily), we recommend that you not publish personal e-mail usernames as your primary departmental contact either online or in hard-copy publications. If your staffing changes, you need to be able to quickly modify where the mail goes.

Choosing Which Alias: You may have a departmental alias and a personal alias. The telephone directory lists possibly cannot detect which is which. Make sure you have this set correctly for future editions. It may be too late for this year's phone book, but you can log into SamWeb's alias creation program and click to select the correct one that identifies you personally as your primary alias.

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. Tentative plans are to move to replace XP with Windows Vista Summer 2008.

Software Packages: The supported versions of office suites are Microsoft's Office 2007 and WordPerfect 12 for PC's. The supported version of an office suite for Macintoshes is Microsoft Office 2004. Microsoft has not yet released a new version of Office for the 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. With next summer's Vista roll-out, the minimum configuration will be a 2GHz processor, 1GB memory, and 80GB hard drive. 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. Additionally, certain systems may be unavailable on Friday nights after 6 p.m.

All offers, training, and software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, compliments, comments, or concerns, please let us know.