Snow Leopard -- aka Mac OS X 10.6 -- is in the Davidson testing pipe. That's good news, but it's also a warning: If you use non-standard software that isn't provided or supported by ITS, you should be checking now to make sure it's compatible with 10.6. That way, when the upgrade becomes available campus-wide, you'll know if you're ready to move or not.

There are two easy ways to ensure compatibility.

It's the kind of thing that everyone knows and figures should go without saying: You spend a lot of time on your work, so make an extra copy of it just in case, right? The average hard drive probably holds years' worth of information and work, some of it irreplaceable. So you're backing it up, aren't you?

Are you sure? Every standard computer here at Davidson comes with a backup system that's installed with the computer and configured to run automatically, but have you checked yours lately to be sure it's running? There are a lot of pieces required to make a regular, automatic backup work correctly, and even one item out of place can halt or block the backup. If you're not checking yours occasionally to make sure it's running right, you should be. Here's how.

• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.4


• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.5


• How to ensure your backups are running in Windows XP

If you're in line for a new computer in the near future, you may be interested in ITS' newest standard configuration, based on Apple's recently-updated iMac lineup. The new standard desktop includes:

• a true 16:9 screen with bright, low-power LED backlighting (both bigger and brighter than the previous 20" model)
  
• 4GB of memory
  
• a 500GB hard drive (up 180GB over the previous standard)
  
• dual-layer DVD optical
  
• an SD card reader (no more cables or weird adapters to get pictures off your digital camera)
  
• the new wireless multi-touch Magic Mouse
  
• a 2.66GHz processor (up from 2.06 on the previous model)
  

As always, ITS is very happy to be able to offer our users a full range of hardware options to meet the demands of the College's mission. If you have questions, or want to discuss purchasing a new machine, please don't hesitate to contact us.

The Macintosh popularized the mouse as a user interface, but that doesn't change the fact that for lots of us the keyboard remains the fastest way to get around. With that in mind, here's a short list of keyboard commands you can use to jump around the Finder (desktop).

Last month, Apple dropped their latest Mac OS upgrade. Mac OS X 10.6, or more colloquially, Snow Leopard, has already seen one major point update in that time, and ITS is busy getting the new system ready for testing on campus.

If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac (as all 10.5-equipped workstations on campus do), backups are pretty much automatic. That's fine, right up to the point where TM starts alerting you that your backup drive is full, and it's going to delete older backups. Under normal circumstances, this is a completely worry-free aspect of the software's behavior. It's just removing out-of-date material to make room for current data.

If your drive seems to have filled up unnaturally fast, though, it can be kind of disconcerting. Especially since Time Machine's backup file structure makes it difficult to tell exactly what's eating up all your space. This is where soma-zone's BackupLoupe comes in handy.

As Inside Davidson becomes the primary tool for getting information about College doings, checking the site daily will become more and more important. The simplest way to make sure you remember to peek at the page regularly is to make it your browser's home page. Depending on your browser, there are several ways to accomplish this, all of them fast and simple.

Mac users running Safari can either set their home page manually with this quick process, or they may opt to grab a copy of our Set Home Page tool, which will automatically reconfigure Safari to use Inside Davidson as its home page. Mac folks using Firefox can use this simple manual procedure.

On the Windows side, use this easy procedure for Internet Explorer, or this process for Firefox.

If you have problems accessing Inside Davidson, please don't hesitate to contact the Help Desk for assistance!

As previously noted in this space, Evernote is an excellent tool for storing, searching and retrieving just about any kind of document from just about any computer. Entourage, on the other hand, isn't renowned for its user-friendly search. Put those two facts back to back like that, and you have a unique opportunity to polish your AppleScript chops and solve a problem.

What? No AppleScript chops?

No problem...Justin at Veritrope has already put together a little tool to help you out. His Entourage to Evernote AppleScript takes any selected Entourage email and turns it into one or more Evernote entries, complete with tagging and notebook assignments.

I'll walk you through the process. It's not difficult, it won't take long, and the result is worth the effort -- I use this script myself, and it's been most handy.

There's a lot of good information floating around the Web. That's a good thing. It's also a bad thing, since finding a few grains of wheat can require sifting a great deal of chaff. Search PDF helps you with that sifting when you need a book, ebook or instructional PDF.

Just open the Search PDF web page and enter a search phrase, book title, etc. From the list of returned links, you can open a direct link to the PDF (using your preferred viewer), or click View to preview the PDF using Scribd's iPaper (so there's no need to start up a separate piece of software on your machine). Search PDF is very much a single-purpose tool, but it does an excellent job of wading through the worst of the irrelevant material, helping you to narrow your searches more rapidly and effectlvely than a straight-up Google search.

It's no great secret. You know it and we know it -- few things in life are more boring than waiting for your computer to reboot. It's a time sink when you have work to do on the machine, and a distraction when you need to be working elsewhere.

It's also one of the single most important things you can do to keep your machine -- and the College's network -- safe and secure.

With that enticing bon mot, tools developers Print What You Like (PWYL) introduce a simple tool called PageZipper. This unique tool quickly and simply merges the contents of multipage articles into a single page for quick reading/skimming (ad-supported sites are notorious for breaking up their content to increase pageviews). PWYL's summary of PageZipper says it best:

Ever read one of those top ten lists or photo galleries where every item is on a different page? You spend more time clicking "Next" and waiting than actually reading anything. PageZipper is a free bookmarklet which automatically merges all the "Next" pages into one, so you can skip directly to the stuff you want.

Everyone's had it happen at least once. You leave the domicile in a rush and reach your destination with only minutes to spare, whip out your computer or flash drive, and promptly discover you don't have the document you need. No? Then maybe you've lost that one bookmark you really wanted to revisit in the wash of hundreds of favorites, misplaced a receipt for an online purchase, or accidentally chucked an important piece of paperwork or business card.

All of these problems have a single, simple, elegant solution: Evernote.

I discovered Evernote months ago while it was in beta, tried it briefly, and forgot about it. For some reason, I wasn't impressed. Tweaked by friends who are avid users of the current release, I jumped back into the service two months ago, and have since become completely addicted. Evernote is, as its name implies, a single repository for your documents. Here's how it works.

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.

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

Over the last week or so, Mac OS users learned of a new malware threat called OSX.iServices. This new nasty comes inside pirate copies of Apple's new iWork '09 suite and Adobe's Photoshop CS4 being distributed over Bittorrent networks. It's a particularly pernicious bit of programming, because the pilfered software actually runs normally, while the malware does its work in the background.

The nature of this new threat underlines a couple of important facts for Davidson Mac OS users:

1. Pirated software is inherently dangerous, no matter how it's acquired or the reason. This new threat takes advantage of the fact that Apple has removed serial numbering from iWork '09, and plays on people's natural inclination to save money in this tight economy.


2. Mac users must remain watchful. Though the number of malware attacks on the Mac is small, and falling prey to one requires some actual effort, it's still possible. Sophos is installed on every college-owned Mac for just this reason.


3. The best defense against Mac malware is smart behavior, because most threats to Mac users are essentially social engineering. Stay away from sketchy websites and questionable sources of software. Know what you're installing before clicking Okay. If you have to question whether something is legitimate, it probably isn't.

Starting October 27, 2008, all campus wireless networking for college-owned computers, as well as for computers owned by students and employees, will use DavidsonSecure for wireless connectivity. This wireless network is encrypted to better protect your data. Learn more about the change.

On that date, students and employees logging in to DavidsonWLAN or WildcatNet will be directed to the upgrade instructions and must update their computers and other wireless devices to connect to DavidsonSecure before receiving network connectivity. But you don't need to wait until then - upgrade to DavidsonSecure now!

ITS is now distributing Office 2008 and Mac OS X 10.5 -- also called Leopard -- to faculty and staff users. The latest version of Mac OS X offers a wide array of new features and technologies, packaged in an interface that feels completely familiar and intuitive to anyone accustomed to using a Mac. The same can be said of Office, which sports a subtly revised interface offering a variety of new and improved features. Again, it will be familiar to any Office user.

Both packages have been extensively tested on campus, and the feedback from testers has been overwhelmingly positive. We're very pleased to be able to offer these upgrades to our users.

To get the new software, you'll need at least a PowerMac G4 with a 1 gigahertz processor, and minimum of 1 gigabyte of memory. To schedule your upgrade or discuss your needs, email the helpdesk and request a consultation.

Starting today, users of Apple's iPhone and the iPod touch media player can configure their devices to talk to Davidson's e-mail servers and Wi-Fi networks using automated profiles. These profiles, when accessed via Mobile Safari on the iPhone or iPod touch, automatically provide the required settings and information to connect to the College's network services. All the user has to do is enter their username and password as requested.

The new profiles require that the user's device be upgraded to version 2.0.2 or higher of the iPhone/iPod software. For iPhone users, this is a free upgrade. For iPod touch owners, Apple charges a small fee for the upgrade. Apple provides instructions for updating your iPhone or iPod if your software is not up to date.

To get started installing Davidson's custom configuration profile on your fully updated iPhone or iPod touch, see these instructions. They will walk you through the process in step-by-step detail. Expect the setup to take less than five minutes.

For users who do not wish to upgrade, ITS still provides manual instructions for e-mail and Wi-Fi configuration.

Many Mac users have been frustrated over the last few months by an inability to open documents saved in Microsoft's new Open XML format (docx, xlsx and pptx files). At long last, however, the cavalry have arrived -- Microsoft has released their Open XML Converter package in finished form.

The converter installs quickly and, with the latest revision of Office 2004 installed, works transparently. You can use it to convert single documents on the fly, or to convert many documents at once. This saves the trouble of asking a document's sender to resave the file in an older format.

Full instructions are available via the ITS knowledge base.

So you're working on a PowerPoint presentation for class, and you want to make sure it plays properly on any computer...not just your Mac or PC. What to do? Here's a short list of tips for making sure your presentations operate with minimal fuss in a cross-platform world.

Users upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will find that their Cisco Clean Access login agent no longer functions. ITS is investigating solutions to this issue.

Faculty and staff Mac users connecting to the wireless, as well as students using residence hall ports or wireless, should use the CCA login page to connect. After selecting DavidsonWLAN (wireless) or plugging in your network cable (residence halls), open a browser and enter your username and password on the presented login page. This will connect you to the network and you may work as usual.

Note: This applies to personally-owned computers only. ITS is not upgrading College-owned machines to Leopard at this time.

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

Apple, Inc. today confirmed plans to release Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to the public on October 26. This is a pretty exciting upgrade, including a claimed 300 new features and abilities. ITS has been tracking Leopard's progress for more than a year now, and based on the previews we've seen, we expect the new Mac OS to improve campus computing for Mac users substantially.

Testing the release version of the product, developing new master images and generally getting the new OS ready for deployment will take some time. For stability and security, ITS will likely wait until Apple issues at least one update to 10.5 before we release it to campus. In the meantime, watch this space for more news about what you can expect from the next big cat.

This may be the Office 2008 update most of you have been waiting for. Today over at Mac Mojo, Microsoft serves up the straight dope on the new Entourage 2008 mail client. Today, they're mostly discussing calendaring (since that was one of the biggest sources of user complaints). What's so great about the new version, you ask?

• Set your meeting status directly from the calendar
  
• Improved meeting organizer tool for updates to meeting status, etc.
  
• Reply, Reply to All and Forward meeting information (and access these options directly from the calendar)
  
• Better handling of stale invitations
  
• Better notifications of conflicts and adjacent appointments
  
• With our new Exchange 2007 server, better handling of the "Automatically accept meetings as tentative" feature
  
• Better resource booking

Continuing their efforts to publicize the new features and technologies in Office 2008 for Macintosh, Microsoft's Mac team have posted up a bit of information on the new version's improved Toolbox feature, which gives you access to a host of formatting features in a single, collapsible window. Check it out.

The Mac team have also provided a spiffy update to the Charts function of Excel. The new version will have a more polished presentation and new tools. More information at Mac Mojo.

Sophos Anti-virus Home Use Option enables Davidson College faculty and staff to install Sophos Anti-virus on one personally-owned Mac OS computer (PowerMac, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac mini). These instructions will walk you through downloading and installing the software, which will then update itself via the Internet at regular intervals.

Microsoft's Mac Mojo blog continues to put out new information about the forthcoming update to the Office suite. Today's entry from User Experience lead Han-yi Shaw talks about the new Elements Gallery feature.

So, what is this new Elements Gallery? Well, it’s a visually rich gallery that allows you to quickly find commonly used, but often times hard-to-create elements. For example, many users know that you can create beautiful tables, charts and diagrams in Office, but not everyone knows where to find or create them. The Elements Gallery is intended to unlock the power of Office by making our rich functionality more discoverable and accessible. No longer do you need to search through hierarchical menus and tunnel through dialogs only to find another sea of commands. With the Elements Gallery, you can focus your time on exploring and perusing the collection of professional and attractive designer content. “Great looking Office documents made easy” is an important pillar of Office 2008 and the Elements Gallery is a cornerstone to this effort.

Microsoft yesterday opened a new Mac Office 2008 preview website, with extensive video documentation of the new suite's interface and features. Take a minute to check it out. (Warning: The entire site is Flash-based, and can be quite slow to load.)

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit yesterday posted the first in a series of teaser information releases regarding their forthcoming Office 2008 for Macintosh product. In this first post at Mac Mojo, the MacBU team talks about the unfortunately-acronymed OOF (Out of Facility) feature -- more commonly known as Out of Office. For years now, Mac users have asked for an easy-to-use, flexible tool for setting Out of Office notifications without using Outlook Web. With Office 2008, Microsoft promises to deliver just that. Check out Mac Mojo for full details.

Microsoft continues to cite a December/January time frame for the release of the new version. ITS will work to get Office 2008 to the campus community as quickly as possible following that release.

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.

Most new gadgets, including laptops and cellphones, use lithium ion (LiON) batteries. While these batteries are far lighter and far more powerful that the previous generation of nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, they do suffer their own unique set of problems. Iron Cook at Spicy Gadget Roll recently published a quick list of tips for overcoming or avoiding these problems. I've condensed the list below; follow the link for full details.

I know how it is. You download a file from the Internet, and it's simplest just to drop it on the desktop. That file you're always working on, well -- easiest just to put it on the desktop where you can find it, right? Text clippings, URLs, video files you need to watch. Anything and everything tends to accumulate on your desktop. (I've see this happen to the point where the desktop simply fills up and icons begin stacking on top of one another at the top right!)

Very possibly, yes. Entourage, Address Book and iCal are all compatible with Apple's built-in iSync technology. All that remains is to figure out if your phone, PDA or other external device is also recognized by iSync. Luckily, Apple keeps a list of compatible devices!

They also have a comprehensive list of help articles for connecting particular devices to your Mac. With iSync and your mobile device, your data can go everywhere you go.

Apple's Bluetooth wireless keyboard and Might Mouse are great accessories, ridding your desk of wires and freeing you to rearrange your desktop as you like. Unfortunately, they also eat batteries. Worse, if you don't pay close attention to your menu bar or go through an annoying series of clicks and windows to check their battery level, they'll drop dead unexpectedly.

To help avert that annoyance, Jack Starmer has put together a quick, clean and simple battery monitor widget called Mighty Monitor. Once it's installed, it makes monitoring your wireless accessory batteries as simple as pressing F12. To get it, follow the link, scroll down to the Download link, double-click the download zip file, and then double-click the unzipped widget to install it. Handy!

Apple, Inc. announced late yesterday their plan to delay the release of the next version of Mac OS X until October, 2007. The company cited the need to devote software engineering resources to the new iPhone.

Apple's official statement, and ITS' take on the implications for Davidson, after the jump.

Portable computers like the MacBook and MacBook Pro get more popular every day. In addition to being powerful and flexible tools, they're nice looking machines. When you travel frequently with your machine, though, keeping it spiffy can be a problem.

WIth that in mind, I recommend three accessories for your MacBook/MacBook Pro to help keep it looking good.

I'm a speed nut — when I'm working at the computer, I do everything I can to save time. That includes using a lot of keyboard shortcuts to avoid using the menus. Still, there are always some commands that don't have keyboard shortcuts. Getting to those means taking your hand off the keyboard, grabbing the mouse, finding the cursor, and then finally going to the menu bar to access the command.

Until now.

Apple and Scott Kelby just pointed out this super-handy timesaver (note that this trick requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later). To activate the menu bar, just press Control-F2. The Apple menu icon will highlight. Now you can move left and right using the left/right arrow keys to select the menu you need. Press Return to drop the menu down, then type the first letter of the command you need, and the selection will jump to that command. Pressing Return selects the command.

No mouse involved! Perfect...fast and simple.

Beginning in October, ITS will make Dreamweaver 7 and Adobe Acrobat 7 available to faculty and staff for both the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Please watch the top level ITS Web page under “News and Events” for the official announcement on how to request these software products.

Adobe has recently announced the addition of Acrobat Professional 8 to their software line but has not made the product available for use. When Acrobat Professional 8 is officially released, individuals using version 7 will have the option to upgrade.

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.

It’s probably a sign of the times that security updates for computers are now national news. Read any of the Internet news outlets—The New York Times, CNN, or MSNBC—and you’ll see stories about security vulnerabilities in our software and what the vendors are doing about it. During April both Apple and Microsoft released sets of patches deemed “critical.”

Automatic Updating

Whether you use a Mac or a PC for your personal use, patch distribution can be handled either automatically or manually. For Davidson-owned Windows systems, patches are pushed out by a system called “Windows Server Update Services” or WSUS. The WSUS server synchronizes its patch inventory with Microsoft. After a period of testing and evaluation, most patches are approved for distribution. If your system ever asks you if it’s ok to apply patches, you should save your work first, and answer "yes." Automatic updates may also be configured on non-Davidson Windows machines. It’s one of the property settings of “My Computer.” On April 11 Microsoft released several critical patches, one in particular that addresses vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Whether your system is Davidson-owned or not, you don’t need to visit the Microsoft Update site yourself; your system can handle updates automatically for you.

On the Macintosh side, the security patches were bundled into a “point upgrade” of OS 10.4—specifically 10.4.6. These point upgrades are more like the service packs periodically released by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. Various Macintosh support programs also received minor upgrades making the complete suite of updates over 100 MB. Like a Windows machine, there are various ways of handling updates, the most common is by configuring the “Software Update” application under “System Preferences.” The Apple updates were released on April 5.

Exploits Typically Addressed

Often the types of updates released by Apple and Microsoft are very similar in the types of exploits that they address. The two main categories that they address the most often are buffer overruns and privilege elevation. The buffer overrun vulnerability can allow savvy attackers to execute their own programs that might attack your computer or take control of it. The privilege elevation vulnerability can allow an attacker to gain administrative control of your computer and cause further damage. At Davidson we make every effort to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to patching. The modern operating systems we use the most, such as Windows, OS X, and Linux, are extremely complex so vulnerabilities are bound to crop up. Staying up to date on security patches, like staying up to date on virus scanning software, is an important way to ensure the integrity of your system.

Problem: By default, documents created in Word, Excel and PowerPoint may contain revealing information regarding the document's author and/or commenters/editors.

Cause: This is the default behavior for Office applications.

Solution: The solution varies slightly for each program, but all are generally similar.

Important Caveat: These procedures do not anonymize tracked changes or inserted comments in a document. These items are attributed by their nature, and must be manually modified.

Mac OS – Office 2004

Word

Open Word and choose Word | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Excel | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose PowerPoint | Preferences | Advanced.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Windows – Office XP, Office 2003

Word

Open Word and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Here's a quick quiz on passwords.

Do you share any of your passwords?
Do you use "password" as your password?
Is your password the same as your username?
Is your password something that would be easily guessed, like your last name, a pet's name, or "1234."
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions it is important that you read up on Password Security. Even if you think your password is secure check out the article to review your responsibilities for your accounts and passwords.

Davidson's virtual private network (VPN) service is now available to Macintosh users. This service allows computers that are not physically wired to the Davidson campus network to be treated as if they were, with full access to all network resources -- email, file servers, etc. In this way, off-campus computers can function as full members of the College network.

To use the VPN connection software, you must have a Power Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.2 or better (10.3 or better is recommended). To request the connection software, please complete this form. ITS will send you a service agreement to be signed and returned. After the agreement is on file, you will receive instructions for downloading and installing the software -- a simple six-step process.

Once the VPN software is installed and your computer is connected to the Internet, three clicks will tie you into the Davidson network and open up your computer's access to our network resources!

As always, if you have any questions about this service, please contact Brian Little.

ITS is pleased to announce wide-scale availability for the newest revision of Mac OS X, version 10.4.5 -- also known as Tiger. This newest version of the operating system offers several news tools, including Widgets and the new Spotlight search tool, as well as the usual crop of speed and stability enhancements.

This upgrade is not currently required, but is highly recommended for all users. To upgrade, your machine must be at least a PowerMac G4 running at 450MHz or faster. You should have a minimum of 512MB of RAM, and at least a 20GB hard disk. Not sure if your system meets the specifications required? Call Brian Little at x2429 and he can help you find out.

If you're ready to upgrade, service is on a first-come, first-served basis. Request the upgrade by completing this form, and someone will contact you to schedule your install. If you have questions, please contact Brian Little, and he'll be happy to help.

ITS offers three methods to faculty and staff for getting to your important information from off-campus. That information can be your email using the Outlook full client, files on Louise, or confidential information on Banner or another server. All of these methods provide secure access for your connection. Note: Entourage does not need any special configuration to access the email server from off-campus.

Methods for secure remote access:

RPC over HTTP - Remote Procedure Calls over HyperText Transfer Protocol - allows use of the full Outlook client.
WebDAV - Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning - provides access to files on Louise.
VPN - Virtual Private Network - gives you access like you were on campus.

Apple Computer began a two-year transition from PowerPC to Intel CPUs last week with the announcement of the MacBook Pro and the Intel iMac. This transition process is expected to last well into 2007. ITS is looking into acquiring one of the new models for testing.

With respect to software, finalizing the transition may take longer. Apple currently provides a technology called Rosetta, which allows PowerPC-based software to run under OS X for Intel. Predictably, this involves a reduction in performance. While we have not actually seen this firsthand, the numbers being bruited about are in the 30% range. With this in mind, users of high-performance computing applications, graphics software, and similar CPU-intensive programs should consider waiting until their software is converted fully to Intel before looking into a switch to the new hardware.

For standard and supported applications like Office, performance under Rosetta is said to be acceptable — a claim ITS will verify as soon as possible. Thus far, the only campus application known to not work at all under the Rosetta compatibility package is VirtualPC, which Microsoft has committed to updating.

Apple is, thus far, not forcing the transition. The new Intel-based units are being offered alongside their predecessor G4- and G5-based machines. ITS will test the new products thoroughly, and will notify the campus community when they are available as supported computers.

Following a successful test period last semester, ITS is ready to begin deployment of Mac OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger. This newest version of Apple's operating system offers an array of new and improved features, from better Windows interoperability to Widgets. Along with the new operating system, ITS will provide an improved version of our ADmitMac login software.

Minimum system requirements for getting Tiger your Mac are: 450MHz or faster G4, 512MB of RAM, and a 10GB or larger hard disk, with at least 5GB free. The upgrade will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and Tiger will now come standard with all new Macintosh computers. At this time, Tiger is classified as a noncritical update -- none of the features it provides are required for campus computing.

If you're interested in discussing an upgrade to Tiger, please contact Brian Little or the Help Desk.