Technology Advisory Group

The new issue of IR’s IT Matters newsletter is available in PDF format.

Many of the articles deal with issues we’ve already been discussing here on the TAG site, but there are a few important items relevant to faculty.  Some quick highlights (take a look at the newsletter for more details) —

General:

• Big news for Mac users — the U is now an Authorized Apple Service Center!  Glen Pace is our first Apple Certified Macintosh Technician.  The Laptop Support Center can now service University-owned faculty and staff Macs.
• During the summer, over 58 faculty/staff computers were quarantined due to infections.  Make sure you’re browsing safely and that you’re backing up your files!
• New antivirus software is on the way – Microsoft Forefront Client Security has been chosen as the replacement for McAfee.
• Windows 7 deployment is in the works.
• There’s a reminder about the new network authentication (aka CNAC deployment) that will be taking place.  See Jeremy’s post on this for all the details.
• Files stored on Royal Drive are now encrypted so they’re more secure – but this is a back end change. As a user you won’t notice anything different.
• We’ll soon be upgrading Royal Drive to a new Xythos server (before the end of fall semester).
• You can use a tool called KeePass in Royal Drive to securely store a list of usernames and passwords.  Find a PDF of instructions here.
• The Project Tracking system will slowly be streamlined with the use of Numara’s Change Management software.
• IR is encouraging the campus to use Firefox instead of IE, except for accessing University systems.

Classroom Mediation:

• OIT is slowly updating classroom technology.  Hyland 305, Leahy 1011, McGurrin 302, St. Thomas 209, and St. Thomas 563A were done over the summer.  You’ll notice a new control panel (that you can use to freeze images and mute sound).  You might also notice that any video you’re displaying from your laptop, smartphone, or iPad will be automatically formatted to accommodate the projector’s resolution.

Computer Labs:

• OpenOffice is now on lab computers (along with Microsoft Office 2007).
• Lab machines are now equipped with Deep Freeze, a program that restores the machine to a “fresh state” each time it’s rebooted.  Several labs got new equipment over the summer.
• In addition to the standard software found in all computer labs, KSOM lab computers have the following software:  Eviews 7, Maple 14, MATLAB R2010, MS Office Pro, Minitab, MPL, MyITLab, Crystal Ball, Oracle SQL Plus, Peachtree Complete Accounting 2010, ProSeries 2009, Research Insight, SAP, PASW 18.0, Visual Studio, XLMiner, EconoMagic, Weka2, WireShark, and FrontPage.