Libraries offer Google Search Appliance use to other units

The "Meet the Google Search Appliance" session May 2 in Hale Library drew about 35 attendees from various campus IT areas. The presentation covered the administration of a Google Search Appliance, showing how one creates the index and the various front ends for it. A GSA search:

• Is different from a public Google Search because you have complete control over what is indexed and how it is presented.
• Differs from the current K-State search in terms of faster response time, the ranking abilities of the Google software, and its ability to both add and remove content quickly from its index.
• Is child's play to administer for the most part, and requires little technical knowledge, unless one opts for some of its more sophisticated features.

One question raised was whether K-State Libraries would share or donate capacity on the Search Appliance to permit other K-State sites to offer searches across all of their content. Given that the Libraries' needs do not remotely approach the appliance's capacity both to index and serve content, the natural answer is a qualified "yes".

If departments are interested in having a searchbox on their site powered by a Google Search Appliance, contact Dale Askey, daskey@k-state.edu.

Interviews for interim VPAST position May 17-21

Harvard Townsend, Rebecca Gould, and Lynn Carlin will interview for the position of interim vice provost for information technology. All K-Staters are invited to attend. Evaluation forms will be available.

• Thursday, May 17 -- Harvard Townsend interview
• Friday, May 18 -- Rebecca Gould interview
• Monday, May 21 -- Lynn Carlin interview

Interview schedule (will be the same for all candidates):

• 8:30 a.m. Union Cottonwood Room -- Meet with deans, provost’s staff, president’s staff
• 9:30-10:45 a.m. Union 213 -- Meet with faculty members and department heads; short presentation followed by Q&A. All are welcome.
• 11 a.m.-noon Union 213 -- Meet with IT staff

Virtual commencement for distance-ed Class of 2007

About 96 students graduated this May from the Division of Continuing Education's distance education and off-campus programs. See the university's Virtual Commencement site for congratulatory speeches by K-State administrators, a list of graduates, and a "reception" page for sending messages to Spring 2007 graduates.

Summer hours for Union Computer Store

The K-State Student Union Computer Store's summer hours began May 14 and run through Aug 4:

Note these exceptions to the schedule:

• Closed Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28 (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday)
• Open 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, June 7-22, for New Student Orientation
• Closed the afternoon of Friday, June 29, and all day Saturday, June 30, for end-of-fiscal year inventory
• Closed Independence Day, July 4 (Wednesday)

Database admininstrator search extended to June 1

The Information Systems Office is continuing its search for a database administrator through June 1. The minimum education required is a bachelor's degree. The minimum experience requirement is at least three years of experience in responsible positions in a major information systems organization, to include one year hands-on experience working with SQL programming in support of complex applications systems running in a Unix operating systems environment. Details are in the position announcement on the ISO employment page.

Application developers and all other qualified candidates potentially interested in a career in Database Management Services are encouraged to apply. Considerable training in Oracle technologies is provided. Feel free to share this notice with anyone who might be interested. Questions may be addressed to ISO Director John Streeter, jws@k-state.edu, 785-532-4758.

IT survey results: K-Staters' use of Internet-based services

Results for this year's IT Services Satisfaction Survey are in. Over the next several months, we will share survey results in InfoTech Tuesday and on the IT surveys webpage. The results will be used to improve IT at K-State.

This week's IT services survey question: Which of the following Internet-based services do you use? Mark all that apply.

Other responses included online gaming, wikis, and multiple e-mail accounts.

Security tip: Winners of student computer security video contest

The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force, the National Cyber Security Alliance, and ResearchChannel have announced the winners of the 2007 Computer Security Awareness Video Contest. The contest was held as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of and increase computer security at colleges and universities. The videos can be used in campus security awareness campaigns during student orientation and throughout the year. Download and view them at www.researchchannel.org/securityvideo2007.

IT by the numbers: K-State's Internet bandwidth increased

During the last month, there was a rate decrease for Internet 1 traffic. Computing and Telecommunications Services was able to increase K-State's bandwidth from 83 Mbps to 105 Mbps, a 27 percent increase.

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Managing editor
     Betsy Edwards
Associate editor
     Aimee Hagedorn
Executive editor
     Rebecca Gould

shoulder surfing "refers to someone standing over your shoulder to obtain private and sensitive information... To prevent this from happening, you should always shield your paperwork and keyboard from the view of others."
--netlingo.com

Popular IT

IT events
and deadlines

May
Free, online SHI Microsoft webinars. Registration required.

May 7-16
Electronic Grade Submission System is available for entering spring 2007 grades.

May 21 (Mon)
Trend Micro OfficeScan 8.0 new release date.

May 23-24 (W-Th)
CHECK conference

June 1 (Fri)
SIRT roundtable: Encryption on mobile devices (SIRT recommendations). 9:15-10:30 a.m. Union 213

Aug. 2-3 (Thu-Fri)
SIDLIT conference at Overland Park, Kan.

Fall 2007
Masters students will be required to submit theses and reports electronically.

Summer cleaning -- emptying the Recycle Bin. It's almost inevitable to have quite a bit in the Recycle Bin of a course that has been built in K-State Online.

Zipped files that have been uploaded into a course are often deleted after the contents have been opened up and deployed into a course. Content that has been updated may result in the old files being deleted.

Whatever is in the Recycle Bin resides for a year before it is deleted automatically.

To maintain a tidy classroom:

1. Go to the Course Tools page.

2. Click Manage Files.

3. Click the Recycle Bin in the left window.

4. Check the items you want to delete.

5. Click the Delete key and the items will disappear.

What to use for WID on residence-hall contract?

If a student doesn't have a Wildcat ID assigned yet, what should they put in the WID section of Housing's residence-hall contract?

If no WID has been assigned yet, the student must use their Social Security number on the paper form.

Iris Totten, a K-State champion of learning using technology

The worlds -- a Terra World and a Water World -- will be based on free software from Second Life, a 3-D virtual-reality space where participants can emulate many real-life environments and activities (and also have the ability to fly).

"The thinking is that there are so many students into gaming, this taps into the gaming world for educational purposes," Totten said.

A new way to learn science

"The goal is to create two virtual worlds that are tied to state science standards for geoscience," she said. Instead of learning from a textbook, 9th- and 10th-grade students will explore and acquire information in the virtual world.

A generic image of a Second Life world.

Students will be "dropped" into various parts of the virtual world and will gather information -- animal, vegetable, and mineral -- as clues to figure out where (and when) they are. If they're correct, they're allowed to pass through portals to other sites. Once they've gone through all 8-10 portals, they'll go to a future portal and get supplies to build a future world.

An "educational" Second Life

Unlike the Second Life site for adults, this project will be a closed world -- only for the classes, Totten said. Students will not be able to get out to other Second Life places, nor can others get in. They can, however, use the Internet and other resources to analyze their findings.

At least six schools will participate -- including four Missouri sites and two Kansas high schools -- "possibly Kansas City and Topeka, maybe Junction City," she said. Participating schools will receive (and keep) resources that include:

• a cart of about 20 laptops
• summer institute training for teachers
• instructional materials and stipends

"Because this is so computer-intensive, and because we are going into schools without computing labs, we felt we needed to give them" the resources needed to run the high-end graphics of the Second Life program, Totten said.

A prototype of the worlds should be ready this fall, and the team is already scouting for Second Life programmers who specialize in creating products needed for the worlds, such as dinosaurs, certain types of plants, etc. The pilot program is scheduled to begin fall 2008 and run two years.