DukeNet, our Internet service provider, is planning equipment maintenance this Wednesday, March 4th. Their work begins at 6:00 a.m. and may continue until 7:30 a.m. During this window all external network connectivity will be unavailable, VPN services included.

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to Robert Lee (rolee@davidson.edu).

Over the next two months, please take time to review your CMS content. Do you have pages that are no longer used? Or events that have come & gone? If yes, delete them from webcontent\buildsite. Page cleanup will help optimize our site, and reduce backup and maintenance times.

A note regarding Events: re-using old events is not recommended. Developing templates that have NO DATE selected in them provides the best results.

Thank you for helping with the Spring Cleanup!

Most people bump up against this scenario once or twice. You're browsing the Web happily enough, then you click a link and - whammo - a non-English page pops up, and your pleasant browse comes to a screeching halt, because whatever language the page is in, you can't read it. Well, as seems so often to be the case, Google to the rescue. Say hello to the "To English" bookmarklet.

There are other ways, even some that are automated, to translate pages, but this is by far the simplest tool I've found. The bookmarklet is just a bit of JavaScript that takes advantage of the Google Translate service. Here, try it for yourself. Just click and hold on the "To English" below, and drag it to your bookmarks or favorites bar:

To English

On Tuesday morning, March 17th, a software update will be required on each campus computer which uses Banner. While the desktop updates are software driven, they require manual acknowledgements through the process. A step-by-step guide is available. Open the "March 2009 - Banner 7 Installation document (pdf)" document.
You will not need to do anything before March 17th. Your computer will know if it is lacking the proper software and start the installation process that morning (or whenever you next try to start Banner).

A new piece of Windows malware is going around that offers to "fix" your files. What it actually does is encrypt your files (including Word documents and pictures), then demand money to decrypt them.

Details are still sketchy, but one way people have caught this is through a bogus MP3 file downloaded from file sharing sites. Exercise extreme caution!

ITS is interested in soliciting your feedback about all the services we provide including Help Desk, Instructional Technology, Systems & Networks, and Administrative Systems. We are pleased to offer a new and improved customer satisfaction survey which will be automatically triggered for every fifth Help Desk ticket closed (so you will not receive a survey each time you contact the Help Desk). If you receive a survey, I hope you will take a few minutes to tell us how we are doing. You may also contact me directly by email or at x2672.

By way of a reminder, answers to your technology questions are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through Answers Online, a self-service resource customized for your use. You may also view or create Help Desk tickets through Answers Online. I hope you will take advantage of this valuable tool. Contact Lydia Lorenzin (x2431) if you have any suggestions for improving Answers Online.

Have you been spending late nights barricaded inside the new group study rooms in the Belk lab, yet had no idea what they were called? Nameless no more, these comfortable and group-friendly rooms have brand new monikers: The Think Tank and the Digital Den!

The names were selected after a month-long contest filled with 147 submissions from students. In total, four lucky Wildcats were selected for suggesting the winning names: Daniel Cook, Kayla McCann, Alayne Kane and Evan Colbert.

If you haven't already, come check out the new Think Tank and Digital Den the next time you're in Belk and see what everyone is talking about!

Everyone knows Google is an excellent search engine for text and links. Fewer know that it's a great way to find images as well. Until recently, though, only a very few people realized that you can also search Google's database of images according to the color of the image. Here's how.

First, load up Google Image Search. Then enter the keywords you need to specify the category of images you want to search for. For purposes of this example, I'll search for "car." Obviously, this is really, really broad -- the basic search returns about 129 million results.

A virus named "Conficker" (also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido) has been very much in the news these past few days. The virus infects Microsoft Windows computers and is reported to have an activation date of April 1st, 2009. We want to provide information to you about what ITS has done to protect our campus systems and what you can do with your home systems.

Microsoft released a patch for this virus in late 2008. Shortly after this release, ITS began requiring this patch on both student and college-owned systems connected to the Davidson network. Our primary defenses against such viruses, Sophos anti-virus and Brightmail, are constantly scanning inbound e-mail and documents for suspicious or malicious files and attachments. Both of these systems are constantly updated with new and better ways to detect viruses and block them before they reach campus computers.

For home computers, we recommend you review the Microsoft website (link below) for advice on protecting your personal computer. At the very least, ensure that your home computer is fully updated with the latest patches from Microsoft and running updated anti-virus software.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx.