• Oct. 30, 2007

News from the interim vice provost: Creation of Campus E-mail Needs Assessment Committee

by Lynn Carlin, Information Technology Services
published Oct. 30, 2007

As outlined in the Sept. 18 article in InfoTech Tuesday, K-State is in the process of identifying and implementing a new strategy for K-State e-mail, calendaring, and other collaboration services. To ensure that the needs of K-Staters drive this new strategy, I have created a campuswide committee to define the critical requirements for our next generation of collaboration services. Committee members represent students, faculty, staff, alumni, athletics, and the KSU Foundation.

To learn more about this committee, the membership, and the e-mail needs assessment initiative, see www.k-state.edu/infotech/projects/email. The success of any new services depends on understanding the needs of our users. Please provide ideas to committee members or send comments to jlyall@k-state.edu.

Daylight Saving Time ends 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4

by Betsy Edwards, Eric Dover, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

It's time to set your clocks back to Central Standard Time and get an extra hour of sleep this Sunday, Nov. 4. According to timeanddate.com's Clock changes in Topeka, when local daylight time is about to reach 2 a.m. on Sunday, clocks are turned backward one hour to 1 a.m. local standard time instead.

This spring, a flurry of patching activity occurred so computers would properly recognize the new Daylight Saving Time schedule. If you were one of the few who made the adjustments by hand and did not patch your systems, this is a good time to get those patches applied. Visit the DST resource links for major software vendors' update pages to ensure that your computers and applications have the proper patch. And don't forget to restart your systems once the patches have been applied.

For more about the time change, see:

November IT training open for registration

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

iTAC's IT training calendar is now online. All classes are free for K-State faculty, staff, and graduate students, but require pre-registration. Details are listed on the individual registration pages. Courses include:

  • Introduction to HTML
  • Introduction to Dreamweaver
  • Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets
  • Working with CSS in Dreamweaver
  • eTips -- RefWorks, Podcasting, Electronic Grade Submission

TechBytes Nov. 1: Collaboration and Sharing made Easy with Wikis

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

Cathy Rodriguez and Dave Bollman will present "Collaboration and Sharing Made Easy with Wikis" at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in 501 Hale Library (Hemisphere Room). Do you want an easy way to collaborate with others, share information, and post on the Web? Wikis may be the answer. Come see how easy it is create a wiki, and we will also explore the different ways a wiki can be used in education, training, policy and procedure manuals, documentation, and more!

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.

5 job openings in Information Systems Office

by John Streeter, Information Systems Office
published Oct. 30, 2007

K-State has these openings in the Information Systems Office:

  • Assistant Director for Projects and Portfolio Management
  • Project Manager
  • Database Administrator
  • Systems Specialist for Student Systems
  • Systems Specialist for Financial Systems

All five positions require a bachelor’s degree and experience. For position announcements and application procedures, see ISO's employment page, call 785-532-4758, or e-mail iso@k-state.edu.

eTips Nov 7: Getting Started with RefWorks

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007.updated 6:04 p.m. Oct. 31, 2007

Sara Kearns will present an eTips session on "Getting Started with RefWorks" at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7. Join this session to learn how to use RefWorks to store and organize your references, find them later, insert them into Word documents, and share them with students or colleagues. Learn how to format a paper's citations for APA style, and, with a few clicks, reformat it for MLA -- or any other style!

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.

Missed Leopard OS X debut? Educational discounts available

by Eric Holderness, K-State campus student Apple representative
published Oct. 30, 2007

Leopard is here! After a pre-release party last Friday -- where Mac users from as far as Salina enjoyed food, punch, and door prizes -- at exactly 6 p.m. the doors of the Union Computer Store were opened, and those who had been awaiting the operating system upgrade finally got the chance to pick up their copy. Not only could they buy the new software, but they could also take Leopard for a test drive by stepping up to one of the two demo iMacs that were set up outside the store.

If you missed the release party, you can pick up Leopard at the K-State Student Union Computer Store for an educational discounted price of $99. Meanwhile, Justin (Anderson.ksu@mac.com) and I (ericholderness@mac.com) are available via e-mail.

Course accessibility

Tips for creating accessible PowerPoint presentations

by Phyllis Epps, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007
  1. Use a sans-serif font for your presentation, such as Arial (used to write this text). The use of fonts such as Times New Roman creates false cues for people with low vision, creating confusion in the correct identification of letters.
  2. Always use "normal View" when creating accessible PowerPoint slides (icon located in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen). Any information that is on the slide but does not appear in the outline pane will not be accessible and should be described in the Notes Pane.
  3. PowerPoint slides with an image, graphic, logo, or flowchart are inaccessible for people using assistive technology such as screen readers. All those non-text images will not be seen (i.e., not read aloud) since the graphical information is a "blank space" for the screen reader.
  4. To prevent screen readers from skipping information conveyed by images or graphics, describe the image or graphic in the Notes Pane. The notes should clearly convey what you want the user to get out of the image. If the graphical information on the slide is purely decorative, you do not have to mention it. If there is a logo, let the user know the logo is there and what the logo is.
  5. When you create PowerPoint presentations using design templates (e.g., stylish backgrounds and/or colors), be sure to use colors with enough contrast so that people with color blindness or low vision have access to all of the information in the presentation.
Security tip of the week

PE_LUDER virus persists on K-State campus

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published Oct. 30, 2007

Since its first appearance on the K-State campus on Sept. 5, the PE_LUDER virus has infected at least 12,033 files on K-State computers, with 344 infections reported in the last week. It has proven to be difficult to eliminate from the campus since it infects USB thumb drives that are then carried to other computers, thus spreading the infection. While this virus does not appear to do anything malicious like delete files or launch an attack, it is still burdensome since it spreads itself so easily and it can infect hundreds of files on a computer (it attaches itself to .EXE files).

Trend Micro OfficeScan is now able to detect and clean the malicious SETUP.EXE file on infected USB drives, so make sure the version number of your OfficeScan pattern file is 4.794.000 or higher (at press time, the current version is 4.803.000). Determine the version by pointing to the OfficeScan icon image of small blue OfficeScan icon in the system tray of your taskbar (usually the lower right corner of your screen), press the right mouse button, and select "Component Versions". Look for the component named "Virus Pattern". OfficeScan does not remove the AUTORUN.INF file installed on the thumb drive; it needs to be removed manually.

On some infected computers, OfficeScan is also identifying malware called WORK_SMALL.JBC. This is not a new type of infection, but one related to PE_LUDER. More details are in the PE_LUDER virus removal procedures for computers and USB drives (PDF).

Since OfficeScan is now able to detect and clean infected USB drives, we expect this outbreak to subside. Nonetheless, scan all of your computer hard drives, USB drives (thumb drives and other types of external drives), and network drives with OfficeScan to make sure your file systems are clean.

If you have any questions or need help with cleaning your computer or USB thumb drive of this virus, contact your IT support person or the IT Help Desk.

K-State Online

Add a folder introduction

by Sarah Silva, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

When you create a folder in K-State Online’s Manage Files section, you can also add introductory text that will appear at the top of the folder page in the student view, as seen below.

screenshot of Modules section in K-State Online

To add this text:

  1. Go to the Manage Files tool, click a folder on the left, and then click the Design button on the toolbar.
  2. Type the desired text into the Introduction box and then click Save.

You can also mark the text up with HTML should you want to apply character formatting, such as bold, italics, or font color to the introductory text. While the image above shows the introduction for the Modules folder, you can add an introduction to any folder.

How to view docs, presentations in larger format?

by Phyllis Epps, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

I have a vision impairment. Where can I view an enlargement of a document or presentation?

A print magnification system is available in the Media Development Center in Hale 214.

Spotlight

Pop!Tech website

by Justin Brull, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Oct. 30, 2007

Pop!Tech is a website with a powerful scholarly punch that's touted as a "network of remarkable people, extraordinary conferences, powerful ideas and innovative projects that are changing the world." Listen and view presentations by Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman, Neil Gershenfeld, Richard Dawkins, Stewart Brand, and a host of others. Visit poptech.org/popcasts.