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“It sure was nice to have the break over the
holidays, huh?” is what I heard from a colleague
in early January when I ran into him at the grocery
store. Retrospectively, I thought about how I, indeed,
had enjoyed the brief respite with an opportunity
to see family and friends over the holidays. Then
my acquaintance continued by saying, “Things
sure do slow down on campus when classes are out,
don’t they?” That’s when I recalled
what the IT Services staff had been doing during the
December-January time frame, and I commented, “Well,
actually, that’s one of our busiest times of
year.” The other person was surprised. Ironically,
during the “time off” period, there were
only two days when no IT Services staff members were
at work: December 25th and January 1st. Because of
this, I thought it would be a good idea to share what
has been occurring over the past two months. Here
are some accomplishments we are proud to share:
Over winter break, IT Services acquired, tested
and deployed an Intrusion Prevention Appliance
(IPA). This device analyzes network traffic, inspecting
it for computer viruses, worms and other attacks
that can be spread on the network. Network traffic
carrying infections or representing attacks is
blocked.
Universal Disk Space (UDS) is
networked disk space available to all Miami University
students, faculty, and staff. IT Services has
increased the amount of disk space allocated to
each person from 50 to 100 megabytes.
Our current Microsoft contract
will expire on June 30, 2004. While we expect
to sign a new contract, prices for Microsoft software
may be substantially higher after that date.
Eudora 6 is site licensed, e-mail client software
available to all faculty, staff and students.
The latest version of Eudora contains a special
mail filter called “SpamWatch”. This
filter identifies junk mail and automatically
transfers junk messages to a special Junk mailbox.
Faculty, staff, and students at Miami
use the MUnet password to access a variety of services
including myMiami, e-mail, netDisk, BannerWeb, the
Miami Directory, and Novell servers.
The SCT Banner system contains information about
all students, faculty and staff. This information
is considered highly confidential. The data that
is contained in the SCT Banner system and many
other applications are secured by an Oracle password.
On Monday, January 5, 2004, the
number of modems on the 523-9444 Oxford dial-in
number was significantly reduced (to 92) and the
number of modems on the Hamilton 737-2120 dial-in
number was increased (to 276).
In late January, Miami migrated from SmartForce
to SkillPort for delivery of web-based training
courses.
Novell servers provide disk space for
all students, faculty, and staff. This service is
commonly referred to as Universal Disk Space (UDS).
Divisions and departments may also provide Novell
disk space to faculty and staff. Until recently,
accessing Novell servers required the Novell or
ProSoft client to be installed on your desktop.
A common misconception among my non-university
acquaintances is that life at university is slow
while the students are away. I know you know better!
I know you were busy during the holiday break
because you were concerned every time IT Services
needed to schedule service maintenance. You needed
to get your work done and many of those services
are important to you.
Over winter break, the IT Services training
room moved from 305 Hoyt to 362 Gaskill. 362 Gaskill
opened for use on Jan. 12, 2004 as a dual purpose
computer training/videoconferencing facility.
Miami’s IT Services is pleased
to announce that it will be hosting this year’s
Ohio Higher Education Computing Council (OHECC)
conference. The conference will be held on April
14-16 at the Marcum Conference Center and Inn.
In October 2003, Microsoft released the
latest version of their popular office suite, Microsoft
Office 2003. Miami’s Microsoft contract, which
has been extended until June 2004, permits the use
of Office 2003 Professional on university owned
machines.
The optical scanner and associated equipment
used to scan tests and faculty evaluations has aged
to the point that it is being replaced. The IT Services
Test Scoring Office, 101 Gaskill Hall, will oversee
the installation of new scanning and computing equipment
early in the second semester.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973 was enacted more than fourteen years ago
to prohibit federal agencies from buying, developing,
maintaining, or using electronic and information
technology that was inaccessible to people with
disabilities.
Miami University has received 6 fiber
optic strands as a gift from alumnus Robert C. Schuler,
’85 of Dublin, Ohio. The strands of fiber
are part of the Butler County Loop connecting Oxford,
Hamilton, Middletown and Evendale. The estimated
value of the gift is more than $1 million. Miami
leases 12 fiber optic strands of the Butler County
Loop from the County; they are used for network
communications among the university's Ohio campuses.
Examples of new Gartner research
articles are available from Miami's web site to
all Miami students, faculty, and staff, and are
listed below. You will be prompted to login using
your UniqueID and MUnet password.
Gartner research will be of particular
interest to any student, faculty, or staff member
learning, teaching or using technology. Areas
of focus for Gartner research include E-Learning,
Business Management of IT, Security and Privacy,
Higher Education, and Emerging Trends and Technology.
The web site is updated every Friday with new
research articles.
Technology tidbits for Miami faculty,
staff and students.
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