• Oct. 9, 2007

Dark fiber initiative under way

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

Yesterday, the University of Kansas and Kansas State University announced the acquisition of a fiber optic network that runs along Interstate 70 from Kansas City to Smith Center. This "dark fiber" when lighted (turned on) will boost the capacity for data transmission and foster collaboration and communication among our faculty and students. To read more about this initiative, see the Oct. 8 KU news release: 'Dark fiber' gives KU and K-State a light-speed link to the world.

USB virus showing up on campus

by Fred Darkow, Information Technology Assistance Center
and Shea McGrew, Computing and Telecommunications Services
published Oct. 9, 2007. updated 2:27 p.m. Oct. 10, 2007

In the past week, the IT Help Desk has received numerous requests from K-State faculty, staff, and students to remove a virus on their USB drives. The virus is often listed by Trend Micro as PE_Luder.CH or a variant.

Follow the directions below to remove the virus from a USB drive.

  1. On the desktop, double-click My Computer to find the drive letter of the USB device. (Drive "E" is used as an example in the instructions below.) Close the window.
  2. Click the Start menu and click Run.
  3. In the Run box, type cmd and click OK.
  4. A new window will appear. At the C:> prompt:
    • Type E: and press Enter.
    • Type attrib and press Enter.
  5. The files on the USB device will be displayed. If you see the files autorun.inf and setup.exe, then the USB device is infected. (If you don't see the files, it's not infected.)
  6. To remove infected files, type the following commands:
    • attrib  -s  -h  E:*.*   (press Enter)
    • del  E:autorun.inf   (press Enter)
    • del  E:setup.exe   (press Enter)

The virus might have also infected your personal computer. More information about removal is available from these Trend Micro webpages:

Trend Micro began catching this virus on Oct. 5. However, this virus is still showing up on campus computers and USB drives due to infections prior to Oct. 5. If you need help, contact the IT Help Desk.

Seaton computing lab under construction Oct. 8-Nov. 5

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

On Oct. 8, University Facilities began construction in the Seaton 22-23 university computing lab. The majority of the computers will be moved to Seaton 22, and more electrical and data lines will be installed there to make room for these computers. One or both rooms will be closed at times between Oct. 8 and Nov. 5. Notices have been posted on the lab's doors so that students are aware of the construction.

Four IT learning opportunities this week

by Betsy Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

Don't miss these IT training and learning opportunities this week on the K-State campus:

Second Life interest group forming at K-State

by Larry Jackson, Information and Educational Technology
published Oct. 9, 2007

You are invited to attend a meeting to explore the formation of a Second Life Interest Group. The gathering will take place 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Room 213 of the K-State Student Union. Current or potential SL users (whether students, faculty, or staff) are welcome to attend. If you cannot attend but would like to be involved, please e-mail your interest to Larry Jackson, ljackson@k-state.edu.

New Palm Centro cellphone offered by Sprint

by Ernie Perez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

The new Palm Centro cellphone is due out by mid-October and promises to have high-end features offered on other smartphones like the Palm Treo but with a much smaller price tag -- $100. The new Centro was introduced at the 2007 Digital Life conference in New York and is aimed at traditional cellphone users who are looking for a better way to manage life on the go. This new cellphone will allow for Microsoft Direct Push Technology for delivery of Outlook e-mail as well as personal e-mail such as Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo. A built-in Google Maps application will offer fast access to directions, traffic updates, and local searching.

According to the Palm website, the phone will feature a full-color 320x320 touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. The phone will measure 4.22 inches by 2.11 inches by 0.73 inches, weigh 4.2 oz., and will be available in onyx black or ruby red.

TechBytes Oct. 11: The New Wimba Live Classroom

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

"The New Wimba Live Classroom; Internet Conferencing with Video" is 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in 501 Hale Library (Hemisphere Room). One of the challenges of teaching online courses and hosting virtual meetings is the limited vocal and visual interaction. Horizon Wimba's Live Classroom addresses this issue by adding student-to-teacher interaction and student-to-student interaction to existing courses. The virtual classroom is especially useful for adding a human touch to online courses, and includes tools such as:

  • streaming audio and video
  • application sharing
  • chat
  • whiteboard
  • polls and surveys
  • 508 accessibility
  • archives

TechBytes seminars are free and open to the K-State community. The series is also video streamed live for off-campus viewers and those who wish to view it from their desktop. See the TechBytes site for handouts, videos, and resources from previous seminars, plus a link to the next live video.

eTips Oct. 16: Google as a Security Tool

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

The next eTip session, presented by Harvard Townsend, will be "Google as a Security Tool" 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16. Like so many powerful tools, Google can be used for both good or evil. While Google is very useful for helping secure your personal identity information and protect K-State's information and technology resources, it is also used by hackers as a reconnaissance tool to find their next victim.

Topics covered in this eTip include:

  • How hackers use Google as a reconnaissance tool
  • Johnny Long's "Google Hacking Database" (johnny.ihackstuff.com)
  • Google's "site:" directive to limit the scope of a search to a specific website
  • Investigating malware
  • Researching suspicious processes running on your computer
  • Determining if an e-mail/attachment/link is legitimate
  • Discovering what Google knows about you
  • Persistence of cached webpages (Google's "cache:" directive and www.archive.org)
  • Removing info from Google
  • The good and evil of a robots.txt file
  • Using Google as a proxy to hide the origin of a web access

The session will be held via K-State Online's Wimba tool, which allows online collaboration and sharing through any networked or wireless computer. eTips registration is required at least 24 hours in advance to allow time to add you to the session and ensure your workstation is configured properly for accessing the session.

Mac SMART status can give "alert" on pending failures

by Eric Holderness, K-State campus student Apple representative,
published Oct. 9, 2007

If you have a newer hard drive in your Mac, you may or may not have noticed that you are equipped with something called the SMART status. This "status", depending on the failure, will alert you if your hard drive is going to fail in the near future. It gives you the time to back up your data.

Not all failures show up in the SMART status, but it's still a good idea to keep an eye on it. It can be checked in the disk utility application. This can be found in your Applications folder > Utilities > disk utility. Once you select your hard drive, you should see the word "VERIFIED" after the SMART status. This is nice to keep an eye on and can even be set to alert you if your SMART status changes.

If you have a question about this or any other Mac problem, don't forget to e-mail us at ericholderness@mac.com and Anderson.ksu@mac.com.

Security tip of the week

Trend Micro OfficeScan's weekly scheduled scan

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published Oct. 9, 2007

According to K-State policy, "virus scans of all local hard drives must be performed at least weekly" (see the Virus Protection section of PPM 3430). K-State's Trend Micro OfficeScan security software is configured by default to perform that scan on Wednesday afternoons starting at 3 p.m., although some campus system administrators have changed the time or day of that scan to one that's more convenient for their clients.

Depending on a number of factors, having the scan run while you're trying to get work done can be very disruptive. You can change the time and/or day the scheduled scan runs, but you must check with your IT support staff first! Some departments do not want you to change the default setting.

Be aware that if your computer is turned off when the scheduled scan is supposed to begin, the scan will not run that week. It will not, for example, try to run the next time the computer boots up. It will simply skip that week and try again at next week's scheduled time. Therefore, it is important to schedule the Trend Micro scan when you know the computer is normally running, so the scan can also run.

To change the time, day, or frequency of the scheduled scan in Trend Micro OfficeScan, talk to your IT support person, the IT Help Desk, or follow these instructions.

K-State Online

Going up in flames

by K-State IT staff
published Oct. 9, 2007

Caustic or sarcastic remarks and replies, referred to as "flaming" someone, can put your online or mediated course on its ear. Be prepared for such incidents in advance and post netiquette rules in your course syllabus. That way, when and if a student flames someone, you can shut down the potential conflict fast by reminding them of your expectations for a mature and safe place to learn. Accept nothing less from your students.

Getting started with course accessibility

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 9, 2007

Where can I learn more about getting started with course accessibility?

To learn more about course accessibility standards and how to make courses accessible, see Getting started with Accessible eLearning. That page is on the K-Access site, where the goal is "to assist instructors in making eLearning (courses using technology to deliver course content) accessible to all students, including students with disabilities."

Spotlight

Digital scanners popular in Hale Library

by Betsy Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center,
and Sara Kearns, K-State Libraries
published Oct. 9, 2007. updated 9:05 a.m. Oct. 16, 2007

K-State Libraries purchased and installed three digital scanners in Hale Library in March when Printing Services consolidated their copying services to the Union. As a result, K-Staters can choose to scan materials for free and in full color or make traditional black-and-white copies with photocopiers.

photo of a new digital scanner in Hale Library

The scanners allow users to save scanned images and documents to a USB drive (recommended) or to e-mail the images. According to the usage data, USB scanning is more popular than e-mailing (see chart below).

The equipment has been used to scan selections from books, journal articles, art projects, maps, interior design projects, and more. The default settings work for most situations. And it is easy to customize the scans with a little patience and experimentation.

Scanner instructions are posted at each location and, as of early September, are also on a scanner webpage that includes:

  • How to save scans to a USB drive
  • How to e-mail scans to yourself
  • Tips for special scanning projects

The digital scanners are located on the first, second, and third floors of Hale, as are the photocopiers still available for those who need or prefer physical copies. The copiers produce black-and-white images for 10 cents per page and accept change or small bills. Locations for both the copiers and digital scanners are on the Hale Library map.

Assistance using the scanners is available at the help desks located near the scanners.


Digital scanner use in Hale Library, April-September 2007
Month Total sessions Total scans USB scans E-mail scans
April 579 11,539 5,405 6,134
May 385 13,266 8,235 5,031
June 352 10,952 7,293 3,659
July 265 10,004 6,208 3,796
August 325 14,685 7,937 7,748
September 514 17,487 10,622 6,865