OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 27, January 2010
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Follow OIT on Twitter @NCStateOIT
For the up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews:
http://sysnews.ncsu.edu
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State University Help Desk:
http://help.ncsu.edu
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01: It’s official! Student e-mail to be hosted by Google Apps Education Edition™
02: OIT workstations, labs are now running Microsoft Windows Active Directory
03: Rosetta Stone Classroom is now available
04: OIT to finalize SAS grant renewal
05: New version of SPSS now includes Mac platform
06: Register for OIT Workshops!
07: OIT Lunch & Learn: “Podcasting at NC State” on Jan. 21
08: SAR training scheduled for Feb. 9
09: All invited to Gertrude Cox Award Ceremony on Feb. 22
10: OIT continues Trend Micro OfficeScan 10.0 upgrade
11: Passwords breached on Facebook, other social media sites – Change your passwords now!
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01: It’s official! Student e-mail to be hosted by Google Apps Education Edition™
After months of negotiations, NC State Vice Chancellor for IT Dr. Marc Hoit announced today (Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010) that NC State has signed an agreement with Google Inc. for their free Google Apps Education EditionTM service. This action was recommended by the Student E-mail Task Force in their March 2009 report. Google Apps @ NC State will provide students e-mail and other popular hosted services designed to improve collaboration, communication and education.
“Outsourcing e-mail is a growing trend in higher education because it enables universities to improve technology services for students while reducing costs,” stated Dr. Hoit, in the memo announcing the successful negotiation of the contract with Google.
The Google Apps Education Edition™ suite of applications also includes Google DocsTM, Google SitesTM, Google CalendarTM and Google TalkTM. Students will receive more than 7 gigabytes of file storage space per account. This is something students have requested for years, but the university has been unable to afford to provide. Although e-mail services will be hosted by Google, students will keep their official @ncsu.edu address.
OIT plans to launch a student beta e-mail service by mid semester this spring. Students can request an invitation to become early adopters of the service by visiting NC State’s Google Web site: http://google.ncsu.edu. The production Google Apps @ NC State service will be rolled out over the coming year.
More information about NC State’s implementation of Google Apps Education Edition™ is also available at http://google.ncsu.edu.
02: OIT workstations, labs are now running Microsoft Windows Active Directory
As of Monday, Jan. 11, 2010, the computer workstations in classrooms managed by OIT ClassTech and OIT student computing labs are running a desktop computing environment based on Microsoft Windows Active Directory.
Users should still use their Unity username and password to log in to these workstations and will still have access to their AFS-based file space via their K: drive. Applications are no longer accessed through the Novell Application Launcher, but are available via the “Start” menu. Notice of this change has been sent to all faculty using ClassTech classrooms during the spring 2010 semester.
If you have any questions or problems with this change, please contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357) or via e-mail at help@ncsu.edu. Click here to view ClassTech classrooms.
03: Rosetta Stone Classroom is now available
In a collaborative effort with NCSU Libraries, OIT is pleased to announce that Rosetta Stone Classroom is now available for anyone affiliated with NC State University.
Rosetta Stone Classroom is the online version of the popular language learning tool Rosetta Stone. There are currently 100 licenses for campus use. The license count can be increased if more people are interested in participating. These licenses are available on a first-come, first-served basis and will be administered by OIT Software Licensing Management. There are 24 languages from which to choose. Users will have 60 days to access their accounts online and will need access to a headset or speakers and microphone. For more information, please visit the Software@NC State Web site.
04: OIT to finalize SAS grant renewal
OIT is working with SAS to finalize the SAS grant renewal for both SAS and JMP licenses. Upon completion of the renewal, updated licenses will be made available on the Software@NC State Web site.
Current licenses expired on Dec. 31, 2009; however, there is a 45-day grace period that will permit users to continue using SAS without interruption. OIT fully expects to announce the availability of new licenses before this grace period ends.
05: New version of SPSS now includes Mac platform
IBM recently acquired SPSS, a statistical data analysis program, and renamed it Predictive Analysis Software (PASW). With the release of version 18, this software is now available for the Macintosh platform as well as Windows.
The university’s site license for SPSS/PASW18, made available by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) and the OIT, provides the following for the Windows and now Macintosh platforms: SPSS Base, SPSS Advanced Models, SPSS Regression Models and AMOS.
While the software is available to the entire campus on university owned computers, only faculty and staff (including graduate assistants) can download and install it. SPSS 17 (Windows) and PASW 18 (Windows or Macintosh) are now available for download at the Software@NC State Web site.
06: Register for OIT Workshops!
The spring schedule for the OIT Workshops program is now available via Classmate, OIT’s registration site. Users may view and register for a variety of free, technology-related workshops.
Workshops will be held in the newly renovated Avent Ferry Technology Center at 2114 Avent Ferry Rd. If you would like to be notified when training schedules are open for registration, please join the OIT Workshops E-mail List.
07: OIT Lunch & Learn: “Podcasting at NC State” on Jan. 21
OIT’s Brown Bag Lunch and Learn series presents “Podcasting at NC State” from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21 in 216 Scott Hall. Podcasting is a way to deliver digital media content such as classroom lectures, presentations or quarterly “State of the Department or College” addresses.
Hal Meeks of OIT Outreach, Communications and Consulting will talk to attendees about the cost of creating podcast content, which has decreased significantly in the last few years–down to a computer, a quick open source software download and a $20 microphone. The presentation will also cover the necessary tools to create content and how to publish content using NC State’s iTunesU offering. To register, visit Classmate.
08: SAR training scheduled for Feb. 9
Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Feb. 9 in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.
09: All invited to Gertrude Cox Award Ceremony on Feb. 22
Celebrate the IT innovation of NC State faculty and staff at the Ninth Annual Gertrude Cox Award Ceremony! The ceremony will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22 in the Walnut Room of the Talley Student Center. The Gertrude Cox Award recognizes “the creative pedagogy of NC State’s faculty and technical staff and their work in integrating new technologies into effective teaching strategies.” The award is sponsored by the Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable; Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA); and the Office of Faculty Development. Refreshments will be served. For more information, visit the Gertrude Cox Web site.
10: OIT continues Trend Micro OfficeScan 10.0 upgrade
OIT will continue updating the university provided antivirus software, Trend Micro OfficeScan (TMOS), to version 10.0 through January 2010. The update should be mostly unnoticed by users. The new version of TMOS updates more frequently, which enables viruses, worms and other malware to be detected and cleaned up quicker.
During the process, users might see the TMOS icon disappear from their computer’s system tray and then reappear a few minutes later. At a later point, the icon will change from the round blue circle with a white pulse line through it, to a “Smart Scan” icon, which will look like a world globe. If a prompt from TMOS indicates virus patterns are out of date, users should contact the IT administrator for their department or contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357) or via e-mail at help@ncsu.edu.
NC State Regulations require the use of approved antivirus software on all Windows and Macintosh computers connected to the NC State network. TMOS is available at no charge to all NC State students, faculty and staff. If you’re not currently running a university approved antivirus software, you can download Trend Micro OfficeScan Version 10.0 from the NC State Antivirus Resources Web page.
11: Passwords breached on Facebook, other social media sites – Change your password now!
The OIT Security and Compliance unit reports that the database for Rockyou.com, a social media application developer, was breached in December. Rockyou.com maintains databases for large public Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Mixi, Cyworld, etc.
As a result of the breach, the usernames and passwords of 32 million users of their applications were stolen. In most cases, the username was an e-mail address. To safeguard against unauthorized account access, Rockyou.com is recommending that users of their applications change their passwords for other online Web sites where they have the same login e-mail and password. See the Rockyou.com announcement of the breach.
OIT Security and Compliance also advises campus users to change their userid and password for all online publicWeb sites where they have the same login userid and password to a set of unique and secure ones.
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For help with computing at NC State, contact the NC State University Help Desk:
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