National day of mourning delays IT newsletter
by B. Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Jan. 3, 2007
InfoTech Tuesday is being published on a Wednesday for the first time ever, due to the
closing of university
and state offices on a national day of mourning
for former President Gerald Ford. See the Spotlight section
below for links and details on Ford's life and legacy, including his Landon Lecture presentation at K-State in 1978.
Chastain retires today as ECC director
by R. Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Jan. 3, 2007
K-State's IT community has appreciated the leadership of Mel Chastain as the first director of the Educational
Communications Center. Mel is a master at "telling the story" and has mentored a
staff who are equally talented, growing from a staff of one to more than 24. As he retires today,
Mel leaves behind a well-equipped unit to
continue his legacy. More about his 19-year tenure at K-State can be found in
Media Relations' Dec. 1, 2006
news release.
eProfile site, eID password rules changing Jan. 4
by H. Townsend, interim IT security officer
published Jan. 3, 2007. updated 10:20 a.m. Jan. 4, 2007
On Thursday, Jan. 4, the eProfile system will be unavailable from
midnight to noon due to system upgrades. After the upgrade is completed,
K-State password requirements will include the following:
- Passwords must have a minimum of seven characters (this is up from the previous six).
- Passwords must contain characters from three of the following categories:
- Uppercase letters
- Lowercase letters
- Numbers
- Special characters (such as !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*, etc.)
The maximum password length is still eight characters.
These changes are being implemented to meet new requirements for passwords specified in K-State's recently updated
IT security policy.
Even though the new requirements take effect on Jan. 4, the start of the password-change period was still
Jan. 1. If you changed your password Jan. 1-3, you will not have to change
it again until next fall. The deadline for changing your password is Feb. 14.
IBM mainframe may be unavailable part of Jan. 4
by E. Unger, Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Services and Technology
published Jan. 3, 2007
Processing demands on the K-State IBM computing mainframe are currently very
time-intensive. In order to complete processing for preparation for
spring semester, the mainframe may be unavailable for the first part of
the morning on Thursday, Jan. 4. This impacts the Student Information System and possibly
other systems that are dependent on all data from the mainframe, such as
KATS. The mainframe will be available as soon as all processing is complete.
Reminder: January IT training now open for registration
by C. Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Jan. 2, 2007
Kickoff the new year by brushing up on your IT skills. iTAC's
January IT training calendar is now online. All classes are
free for K-State faculty, staff, and graduate students, but
require pre-registration. Details are on the
specific registration pages. Courses include:
- Various K-State Online topics
- Dreamweaver Exchange
- K-State Calendar
- Microsoft Access: Searching and Querying for Your Data
K-State Online workshops begin Jan. 3
by C. Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Jan. 3, 2007
The following K-State Online face-to-face workshops will be held in
January:
- Getting Started with K-State Online. Create your course and
import your roster.
- Creating Online Quizzes, Exams, and More!
Learn how to create online and/or timed assignments. Save time grading by using online assignments!
- Creating, Managing, and Scoring Classroom Assignments. Provide
your students with online access to their grades even if it is an in-class assignment.
- Managing Your Content. Learn how to upload and orgainize files
within your course.
No time to leave the office? On Jan. 8-9, the following
sessions will be available online using K-State Online's Wimba tool:
- Getting Started with K-State Online. Create your course and
import your roster.
- Creating, Managing, and Scoring Classroom Assignments. Provide
your students with online access to their grades even if it is an in-class
assignment.
- Enhancing Course Communication with E-mail, Announcements, Calendar
and More.
Check out the IT training calendar for specific dates and times.
Enrollment is required. If you can't make any of the scheduled
sessions and need assistance, contact Cathy Rodriguez
(cathyr@k-state.edu) or Sarah Silva
(gr8ful@k-state.edu) to set up an appointment.
Choose CDs/DVDs carefully when backing up data
by H. Townsend. interim IT security officer
published Jan. 3, 2007
Regular readers of this column know that backing up your files is an important security strategy for protecting
K-State data. Since most new computers now come equipped with the ability to write CDs and DVDs, it is tempting
to grab the nearest writable CD or DVD, write your files to it, and consider them safe indefinitely. However,
if you plan to use this backup for a long term archive to, for example, satisfy K-State's
retention of records policy, you need to be very careful about your choice
of media and how you store it so that 10 years from now the CD or DVD will be more than just a coaster for your drinks.
Like so many technologies, there are a dizzying number of options when it comes to CDs and DVDs. CD or DVD?
Record-once or re-writable media? DVD-R or DVD+R? Single-layer or dual-layer DVD? A good place to start for definitions
and background information is Wikipedia's description of optical media.
Larry Haventstein recently pointed out an excellent, albeit highly technical,
article that provides guidance on
choosing optical media for long-term archives. Here are some guidelines for choosing your archive media gleaned from this
and other articles.
- Use DVD+R instead of DVD-R because of the former's superior quality.
- Use record-once media (CD-R, DVD+R) instead of re-writable media (CD-RW, DVD+RW) media.
- Store the disks in a cool, dry, dark place in acid-free plastic containers (direct sunlight is the enemy!).
- Do not use adhesive labels because the adhesive can react with and compromise the disc surface over time.
- Don't let price be the primary driver of your decision. Paying extra for high-quality media is well worth it in
the long run. As one article put it, "quality and low prices just don't seem to mix!"
As always, talk to your IT support staff for your department or college's recommondations, or contact iTAC's
IT Help Desk.
IT by the numbers: 2004-2006 printing in the labs, InfoCommons
by T. White, Computing and Telecommunications Services
published Jan. 3, 2007
The following table shows the number of pages that have been printed via
the limited free
printing system and paid printing in the university computing labs and
K-State InfoCommons over the last three years.
| Year |
Pages of limited
free printing |
Pages of
paid printing |
| 2006 |
1,308,336 |
288,456 |
| 2005 |
1,147,005 |
264,056 |
| 2004 |
826,882 |
205,775 |
|
