ITS is pleased to introduce CounterSpy, a new tool to protect campus computers from all kinds of threats including spyware and malware. CounterSpy will replace Ad-aware on standard Windows computers.

The changeover will be done over the network beginning on Wednesday, May 21st. No action is required on your part. The transition will take a matter of minutes, be done in the background, and you may continue to work as usual during the process. CounterSpy will automatically scan for malware and spyware. If your computer isn’t connected to the network on Wednesday, there’s no need to worry. CounterSpy will install automatically the next time your computer connects to the network.

If you wish to initiate a manual scan or have other questions, please refer to our instructions and Frequently Asked Questions documentation.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk with questions.

On Monday, March 24 ITS will be upgrading its Internet service with an approximately 50% boost in speed, from 42 megabits per second to 62 megabits per second. At the same time, we are building in growth potential for speeds as fast as one gigabit.

Please take a moment to review the NITLE opportunities below.There is a nomination process and it is simply letting me (Mur Muchane) know which opportunity you are interested in. These are open to faculty, technologists and librarians.

ITS is offering instructional technology workshops in web design to interested faculty. The sessions will assist faculty creating web sites for teaching and research. Additional workshops will be announced soon...

As you may know, Congress passed a law that changes the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST). The end date for DST is Sunday, November 4th, 2007.

Microsoft released the patch for the Daylight Saving Time change in August. ITS has already applied the necessary update to all campus servers and college owned computers. As a user, the update should be transparent to you and requires no additional action. Campus Apple computers did not require any updates for the DST change and are unaffected.

More information about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Daylight Saving Time change is available from the US Department of Energy http://www.energy.gov/about/EPAct.htm

Sophos Anti-virus Home Use Option enables Davidson College faculty and staff to install Sophos Anti-virus on one (1) personally-owned computer. These instructions describe how to install the application which will stay updated via the Internet each time you go online. Updates are downloaded, either manually or automatically, from Central Installation Directories (CIDs) on Davidson's Sophos web server.

ITS is pleased to announce the availability of Office 2007 for Windows. We would like to make the upgrade to Office 2007 as rewarding and trouble free as possible. To help guide your decision, please review the Key Information and Request to Upgrade.

Faculty and staff email accounts will be moved to an Exchange 2007 email server on Friday, September 21st, at 5:00 p.m. Your email quota will increase from 100MB to 1GB.

During the past week, ITS has been upgrading the Clean Access hardware and software. Some unexpected issues will affect your use of the system.

We are pleased to announce that ITS will be supporting the new Apple iPhone connected to Davidson's Exchange 2007 e-mail system and our newly expanded Wi-Fi network.

We will be upgrading the Ingeniux Web Content Management software on August 7, 2007.
Webcontent/buildsite will be unavailable during the normal maintenance window that ends at 7:30 AM.

Please remember to ALWAYS log out of the CMS at the end of the night or when not working in the system.

After the upgrade, the next time that you log-in to webcontent/buildsite, you will be prompted to download the software. Go through the prompts, making special note of the screen that asks about installation. There are two options: Install for Me or Install for Everyone. You must select the For Everyone option.

You will probably not notice any changes from this upgrade. We are upgrading to stay at the current release level.

On Tuesday, July 24 we will be upgrading the Clean Access hardware and software beginning at 6:00 a.m. Major work should be completed by 8:00 a.m., with testing continuing throughout the day.

Between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. service interruptions are possible for the following access types:

• Residence halls
• Wireless networking
• Open (unassigned) network ports in buildings and labs

Off campus access to the network via VPN will not be interrupted; however, active users that logon during the maintenance period may have to re-logon after 8:00 a.m.

Along with the release of Office 2007, Microsoft introduced a new file format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In order for earlier versions of those applications to open Office 2007 files, a converter must be installed.

In preparation for the widespread use of Microsoft Office 2007 on and off campus, ITS will install the converter on standard Windows computers running Office 2003 on campus. The installation will take place on Monday, July 23. No action is required on the part of the computer user, as this “silent” install will take place via the campus network.

Information about the new XML format is available on the Microsoft web site.

Note: This information does NOT apply to computers running the Macintosh operating system or non-standard Windows computers.

ITS instructional technology staff will host a series of targeted workshops designed to assist you with the new Blackboard version 7.2. The new version adds features to online assessments (tests and surveys) and makes significant changes to the discussion board. We will also offer training on the new version of the campus pack – a third party tool that allows for course blogs, wikis, podcasts and web pages, all managed within your Blackboard course site. Please visit our workshop schedule on the Davidson website to learn more and to register for classes:

As always, we continue to offer “desk-side” one-on-one workshops for new Blackboard users. Please contact your instructional technologist to make an appointment.

We hope you are enjoying your summer.

Are you planning to develop surveys this Fall? Surveyor, the campus survey tool will be replaced on August 1, 2007 by a new survey tool called Checkbox. Using Checkbox, users can create dynamic surveys and forms for the web and develop data reports instantly.

The Ingeniux CMS software will be upgraded on Tuesday, May 1. The CMS be unavailable from 5:00 am to 7:30 am. As always, please remember to close out of the CMS client at the end of your day.

Part of our summer will be spent updating computer classrooms and labs to meet academic computing needs for classes next semester. To accomplish this goal, we need to hear about your requirements as early as possible in our planning process. If you will use ITS academic computing facilities, services provided by ITS, or ask students to use these services, please be sure to let us know your plans and needs.

Request computing services for fall semester 2007 now. Please submit software requests by May 18 and other requests by August 24.

Did you miss the February Office 2007 and Vista information session? Maybe you were able to attend but now have new questions you would like answered. ITS has good news for you……

Due to the number of requests to repeat the February Office 2007 and Vista preview, we would like to invite you to join us for the April Office 2007 and Vista preview.
Drop by to view an online presentation of Vista and Office. Learn about the new features of all the Office applications and about One Note, a new addition to the Office family. Sit down at a computer running Vista and Office to get a first-hand look at the new user interface, features, and security enhancements. ITS staff will be available to answer your questions.

Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Sprinkle Room, Campus Center

This fall ITS offered centrally funded Adobe Acrobat Professional 7 and Dreamweaver 8 installations for Davidson Faculty and Staff. The ITS Department would now like to announce the availability of Acrobat Professional 8 for utilization on college-owned Faculty and Staff computers. Acrobat 8 may be installed as an upgrade to Acrobat 7 or to a system that does not currently have Acrobat.

The campus FTP service is up and running. If you share files that are larger than 10 MBytes, the FTP server will make sharing much easier than before. Unlike e-mail, you won't have a small quota that can easily get filled with just a few large files. And you can share files with anyone that you work with even if they don't have a Davidson account. The FTP server has a separate account and password that you can share with anyone. Any staff and faculty can get an account. Students can get an account through a faculty sponsor for academic use. Contact the help desk to get your account set up.

For more details see the FTP service FAQ: http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x23065.xml

Have you tried to login to Outlook Web Access (OWA) using just your username and password only to get an error message that your login has failed?

Everyone with a network account has been given a folder on the campus network file server ("Louise") in which to store personal files. Each of these folders has a limit (or quota) of 100 MB of disk space.

Each department has been given 500 MB of space on Louise. This space can be increased to 1.5 GB by requesting it through the Help Desk. If more than 1.5 GB of space is needed, then a special request must be made.

Before you request a quota increase, be sure to take the appropriate steps to reduce the space you are already using.

Delete duplicate copies of files. Do you need versions 1, 2, 3, AND Final?
Delete any files that are no longer needed.
Move files from Louise to the hard drive of a personal computer or archive to CD.

How secure are your files on the Louise file server? Are you unintentionally allowing others access to sensitive information? It is in your best interest to learn more about what permissions are set on your personal and departmental folders.

Beginning in July 2006, a new plan is in place to improve and streamline the budgeting and replacement of computers on campus to ensure that campus computers are replaced on a regular cycle. The goals of the new plan are to:

Assure that all faculty and staff members that use computing resources have a computer of sufficient capabilities to fulfill responsibilities;
Assure that appropriate computing resources are available in shared computing facilities (classrooms, labs, etc.);
Simplify departmental budgeting and planning for new computers;
Acquire computers at lower cost through consolidated ordering and reduced administrative overhead.
From this month forward, ITS will begin proactively contacting individuals and/or designated department representatives to discuss and make arrangements for computer replacements. The entire replacement process will continue to be handled in the normal consultative manner.

The standard replacement cycle for desktop computers is four years. Some

computers will be replaced on a three-year replacement cycle. These accelerated replacements have been identified and approved by the head of the department or division. Networked printers will be replaced every six years. Replacements will be based on the original purchase date of the equipment. ITS will contact individuals or designated department representatives when equipment is eligible for replacement. At that time, individuals will be able to choose from the standard configuration available or describe a special need.

Standard replacement: By default an individual will be offered the option to replace her/his current computer with the newest version of that system (i.e., Dell laptop replaced with the current Dell laptop model or Mac desktop replaced with the current Mac desktop model). If the standard replacement computer meets current needs, the employee will be asked to confirm and suggest a convenient timeframe for delivery of the new computer. ITS will contact the individual to schedule delivery of the new computer and pickup of the current system. This replacement is automatic and does not need prior approval.

If the current standard replacement option does not meet an individual’s current needs or the employee wants to make a change (i.e., replace a Dell with a Mac or replace a desktop with a laptop), she/he may request a computer consultation. (See Changes, New or Special Needs below.)

Changes, New or Special needs: New computing needs may arise for a computer or printer (an additional staff member, replace equipment before its standard replacement cycle, or change from previous model). These special needs must be identified and funded during the annual budget approval process or approved by a Vice President.

Preparation and Delivery: ITS inventories computers and printers, affixes a Davidson College property tag, and installs the standard software suite. ITS staff will contact individuals or coordinate with departmental IT specialists to schedule a mutually-convenient time to deliver new equipment. ITS will set up the new equipment and assist with data transfer.

Out with the Old, in with the New: When a new computer or printer is delivered, the old one will be collected. If you have a departmental need for the older equipment, please discuss the need during the initial conversation with ITS (see Tier II below). Note: with the exception of new needs, one old computer must be returned to ITS for every new computer delivered.

Tier II: Computers and printers are valuable college resources. Older equipment serves a useful purpose for second tier functions, such as student or part-time workers. If you have a departmental need for older equipment, please discuss the need with ITS.

File sharing seems to be a great way to get any music or video you want without paying for it. But whether you know it or not you already are paying for it. File sharing across the Internet takes up bandwidth on our connection to the Internet, so we have to pay for a connection that is about twice the size that we would need without file sharing. That eats up a little tuition.

When a file sharing application gets out of control and requires that we find out what went wrong on the network, that takes away time that we could otherwise use to improve network services. When we get a notification from a media company that someone on campus is sharing a file out to the Internet, we spend time finding whose computer the file was shared from. When we find out, we temporarily suspend the network connection for that computer to make sure that the sharing stops. We do this to protect campus network participants from being sued by media companies. The Dean of Students, VP of Academic Affairs, or the staff member’s supervisor talks with the person involved to make sure he or she knows the college's policy on file sharing. And finally we require a form to be filled out to make sure that file sharing has stopped. All this causes us to lose otherwise productive time and subtracts from the quality of services provided by the staff involved.

Occasionally when some new twist on file sharing occurs, we meet with Deans and Vice Presidents and sometimes lawyers to ensure that we are following both the law of the land and the spirit of life on campus. Again this subtracts from their time in trying to make the college function as smoothly as it can. Although you might not notice it now or even while you are at Davidson, it is the fine grit that slowly wears away the gears that run the college. When your parents see another bump in tuition or when you graduate and are asked to give to the college, remember that you are paying a little bit of that for something that you thought was free.

Because we respond quickly to requests by media companies to stop sharing their content, we believe that the likelihood that any individual on campus will be sued is very low. If it ever happens though, that individual will, in effect, foot the entire bill for everyone’s dine and dash habits.

If you are backing up your computer with the Maxtor OneTouch drive, you should check at least once a month to ensure your backups are taking place.

To check if your backups are running on a Dell with Windows XP: click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks. Locate your Weekly Backup task and ensure the “Last Run Time” date listed is no later than 3 weeks ago. If your system indicates a date older than 3 weeks ago, please email the Help Desk and request that someone check your backups.

The Mac backup is an exact duplicate of the user's home directory, so verifying is just a matter of checking that the contents of the backup drive match the contents of the backup source (i.e. the home directory). You can also open SilverKeeper and look at the Status tab for a summary of the date and outcome of the backup attempt.

If you do not have a Maxtor OneTouch drive, please email your request to the Help Desk. This option is available to both Mac and Windows XP users. If your computer's operating system is Windows 2000 and if it has a Davidson College property tag over 4000 you will need to upgrade to Windows XP prior to the installation of your Maxtor drive. You will need to submit both a Maxtor drive request and a Windows XP upgrade. Please use davidson\username when prompted.

Apple, Dell, and other laptop manufacturers voluntarily recalled millions of batteries last month. Because these batteries may overheat and cause a fire, they will be replaced at no-charge to their customers.

Learn more about the recall, determine if your battery has been recalled, and how to request a replacement.

Apple

Dell

In addition, Toshiba America today announced a voluntary exchange program for Sony-made batteries in select Dynabook and Satellite models sold in the United States between March and May of 2006. This does not affect any College-owned machines, but if you use a Toshiba Dynabook or Satellite at home, you may wish to contact Toshiba support at (800) 457-7777 to determine if your machine is part of the recall.

Two years ago, ITS implemented a Customer Satisfaction survey that is generated automatically when a Help Desk case is closed. We sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to share general comments, well-earned praise, and well-deserved criticism.

Your responses to the survey were reviewed weekly by ITS management. We use the input to help shape and improve our service.

The time has come for us to take a short hiatus and revise the questions. No surveys will be generated over the summer. The Customer Satisfaction survey will return in the fall and will be generated randomly rather than when every Help Desk case is closed.

Our sincere thanks for your feedback; we look forward to your continued input. If you have suggestions or comments about the Help Desk service or the survey, please email Lydia Lorenzin, Director of Computing Support Services.

What is a blog?

A weblog or “blog” is an easy-to-use, web-based application that enables users to publish content to the web via a standard web browser. Postings are chronological and typically presented in reverse order. Blogs are primarily used as journals or diaries, usually on a specific topic.

Teaching with Blogs

In the classroom, blogs are primarily used for simple collaboration, student portfolios, and rudimentary course management. Students and faculty can post draft papers for peer review or participate in group research. Blogs also enable collaboration outside of the course, drawing participation from other institutions and the community at large.

Davidson blogs

At Davidson, we deployed a pilot blog server using an application called Movable Type. Although external blog services like Blogger are available to any individual, a Davidson blog gives us the flexibility to modify the structure, add multiple editors, create our own branding and limit blogs to campus access by request. Our pilot course blog, Pressing Matters, was created by the Instructional Technology Group for Jennie Buckner's “Critical Issues in Mass Media” course. The blog is used to create a public forum for discussion about the current state of the American press. Click here to read more about the course's use of the blog. ITG trained two students in the class who, with assistance from our staff, customized the blog to meet the needs of the class.

We hope you will review the course blog by clicking the link above. In the Fall, ITG will create a course blog for Dr. David Martin's "Davidson in India" program. If you have any questions about course or research blogs or would like to set one up, please contact ITG at any time.

Languages - Kyosung Koo (x2648)
Music - Jason Brewer (x2659)
Social Sciences and Humanities - Kristen Eshleman (x2583)
Sciences and Math - Bill Hatfield (x2897)

The ITS academic needs registration process enables faculty to submit technology needs they will have for classes the following semester. This includes requests for special software to be installed in ITS computing facilities or facilities in the sciences, network services, etc. The schedule for registering academic needs with ITS is generally:

April for the following fall semester
October for the following spring semester
If you have any special needs, please inform us by participating in this process. If you are wondering why you can't make software requests throughout the semester, we have an explanation that you might want to view.

Select the services you need from the list below:

disk space on servers
using technology in your courses
software that you wish to use in ITS public computing facilities
software or setup in the Sciences' computing facilities
Outlook public folders
Outlook global distribution lists
in-class training on a lab application
network directories on Louise
other technology need
The computers in ITS public facilities contain a set of lab software. You do not need to request software that is included in this list. If you need software not included on the list, please request it by October 31, 2006.

If you need in-class training, network directories, Outlook public folders, or listservs, please request them by January 12, 2007.

If you need assistance with this page, please email the Help Desk.


Editing Video and Creating DVD's
This workshop for faculty introduces basic video editing and DVD authoring skills. No prior skills are required. At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

Organize video clips
Add various types of titles
Make a photo slideshow
Use background music
Insert transitions
Create cool effects
Produce a DVD movie with menus
When?
Thursday, March 23 from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Where?
Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) in the south basement of Chambers (Chambers B260)

How can I attend?
There are 5 seats available. Please send your email reservation request to Kyosung Koo and include your name and department. Attendance is limited, so please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel the reservation. We will move down to the next person on the waiting list. If demand is high, we will conduct additional workshops.

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact your ITS Instructional Technology Group (ITG) representative:

Kristen Eshleman: Social Sciences and Humanities
Kyosung Koo: Foreign Languages
Bill Hatfield: Sciences
Sarah Hatfield: Sciences

Note: It is the responsibility of the individual making duplication to secure copyright clearance. ITG does not provide video duplication services for purposes other than classroom instruction within fair-use guidelines of copyright law.

If you notice that a system, network, or telephone service is down, you may wonder if you should report the problem. Below, we have provided information about times you might expect service to be down due to regular maintenance. We have also highlighted some Web pages that report maintenance schedules and server status. Hopefully this will help you decide if you should report a service outage.

Does the service problem occur during a time when regular maintenance is scheduled for the service? System, Network and Telephones/Voice mail devices may periodically be rebooted between 5:00 and 8:00 AM without notification. Voice mail maintenance is routinely performed the first Friday of each month between 7:00 am and 8:00 AM.

Is there a posting on the web about the outage you are seeing? Check the Downtime and Outages Web page to see if there is a scheduled maintenance outside of the normal maintenance window.

If the time is outside of a maintenance window and no special announcement about the service being down has been made, please check the Server Status web page to see if the service is active, inactive or under repair. Any service without a green check mark is known to be problematic and is being addressed by ITS staff.

These web pages will help you determine if you should report a problem to the Help Desk. Please also know that ITS uses a number of different monitoring systems to determine if there are problems with services and, if there are, selected staff members are notified.

Hewlett Packard (HP) Printers
Under the terms of our printer service agreement with OfficeMax, Davidson College is eligible to receive one Preventive Maintenance Inspection per networked printer per year at no charge. This free service applies to networked HP printers purchased through ITS.

To request the inspection, complete the OfficeMax Printer Service form. The username is DAVIDSON (or any combination of capital and/or lower case letters). The password is COLLEGE. Click on "Order Service" and request an "annual preventive maintenance inspection" in the problem field. Click on the Save button to submit your request.

Konica Printers

If you purchased a Konica printer from Carolina Office Systems, preventive maintenance is part of their routine service. Their technicians will clean and inspect systems on service calls as part of their routine procedures. If preventive maintenance is needed at other times, a message will display in the window on the printer. Call Carolina Office Systems to request maintenance. Refer to the sticker on the printer for the phone number and other necessary information.

If you are backing up your computer with the Maxtor OneTouch drive, you should check at least once a month to ensure your backups are taking place.

To check if your backups are running on a Dell with Windows XP: click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks. Locate your Weekly Backup task and ensure the “Last Run Time” date listed is no later than 3 weeks ago. If your system indicates a date older than 3 weeks ago, please email the Help Desk and request that someone check your backups.

The Mac backup is an exact duplicate of the user's home directory, so verifying is just a matter of checking that the contents of the backup drive match the contents of the backup source (i.e. the home directory). You can also open SilverKeeper and look at the Status tab for a summary of the date and outcome of the backup attempt.

If you do not have a Maxtor OneTouch drive, please email your request to the Help Desk. This option is available to both Mac and Windows XP users. If your computer's operating system is Windows 2000 and if it has a Davidson College property tag over 4000 you will need to upgrade to Windows XP prior to the installation of your Maxtor drive. You will need to submit both a Maxtor drive request and a Windows XP upgrade. Please use davidson\username when prompted.

Starting January 16, 2006 all Dell laptops purchased through ITS will come standard with a new wireless network card, the Intel Pro 2200. This wireless network card allows for a stronger signal, greater wireless range and a more intuitive user interface. The Intel Pro 2200 wireless network card replaces the Dell True Mobile wireless network card.

To combat the pervasive problem of spam, ITS implemented PureMessage in May of last year. PureMessage scans email coming in from the Internet and assigns a spam score to each message. Messages that receive a spam score that falls within the spam threshold as defined on the server are quarantined, and messages that receive a spam score below that level are delivered to your inbox.

Fortunately, PureMessage has helped tremendously with the spam problem. Server statistics indicate that, on average, PureMessage has determined that approximately 60% of all email from off campus is spam. However, spam continues to be a problem. Even with the Outlook junk email filter enabled, spam still sometimes makes it to your inbox.

As another layer of protection from spam, ITS will be implementing the Exchange Intelligent Message filter on Monday, January 23. This filter will scan messages that either did not get scanned by PureMessage because they were sent to a distribution list, or messages that received a spam score lower than the PureMessage threshold defined on the server. Messages passing through the Intelligent Message Filter are assigned a “Spam Confidence Level" (SCL) which ranges from 0 (unlikely to be spam) to 9 (very likely to be spam). Initially, the SCL on the server will be set to 9. This should ensure that only the messages that are most likely to be spam will get sent to your junk email folder. This is how the Intelligent Message Filter will work:

If a message receives an SCL of 9, the Intelligent Message Filter checks the recipient’s safe senders list as defined in Outlook 2003 or OWA and then one of two things happen:

If the sender is on the recipient’s safe senders list, the message is delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
If the sender is not on the safe senders list or if no safe senders list is defined, the message is delivered to the recipients junk email folder.
If a message receives an SCL below 9, the Intelligent Message Filter checks the recipient’s blocked senders list as defined in Outlook 2003 or OWA and then one of two things happen:

If the sender is on the recipient’s blocked senders list, the message is delivered to the recipient’s junk email folder
If the sender is not on the blocked senders list or if no blocked senders list is defined, the message is delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
ITS will be monitoring and fine-tuning both PureMessage and the Intelligent Message Filter in an attempt to further reduce spam. Stay tuned for more information and details as they becomes available.

For this process to work correctly each user must have junk mail filtering turned on. Office 2003 users have this option turned on by default. Entourage, Office 2000, and OWA users will need to turn on this filter via OWA by following the steps outlined in the online kb article.