Campus Technology Services

From May 19-22, 2009, SUNY Oswego will be hosting the SUNY Conference on Instructional Technologies (CIT).

CIT 2009, "Engaging Minds: Innovative Teaching and Learning" is supported by six tracks covering a range of pedagogical and technological topics. The conference provides an opportunity for faculty, instructional support professionals, librarians, and administrators throughout the SUNY system, as well as outside institutions, to share best practices and innovations in the use of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research.

If you haven't registered, there's still some time left, but hurry! A SUNY member is able to register at the following rates if registered before Sunday, May 3^rd. Registration is still available after that date, however fees will be slightly more.

• Entire conference registration: $150
• Single-day registration: $95

Three-hour pre-conference workshops on a variety of topics will also be offered at an additional $40 per workshop.

For more information and to register, please visit www.cit.suny.edu.

Email Name Changes Coming this Summer!

At the request of the Faculty Assembly, the Instructional Technology Council (ITC) and Campus Technology Services (CTS) have developed a revised email naming schema for faculty and staff. The primary goal of this initiative is to distinguish between faculty/staff and student accounts to assure the delivery of email to the intended individual. Subsequently, new email addresses will be issued to faculty and staff on June 14. On May 6 you will receive an email from CTS requesting you review your proposed new email address. You will have the opportunity to indicate a preferred email address subject to the exception criteria in the naming schema procedure. For more information on the proposed naming schema see the full proposal on the CTS web site at www.oswego.edu/cts/policies/email_addresses.html. At this point in time only your email name will change. User account names will be handled separately in the future.

Email sent to your old email address will continue to be delivered to your new email address. This change WILL NOT require you to change your email address with your contacts or other services. If you subscribe to email lists you DO NOT need to change your email address if you only RECEIVE messages. However, if you post messages to an email list you will need to resubscribe to that list with your new email address to be able to post messages. Lists maintained by SUNY Oswego will automatically be converted.

End of the semester technology reminders for students:

As you prepare for finals and the end of the semester, we wanted to remind you of a few things:

1. If you need to use a computer lab late at night to complete final course work, there are computers available 24 hours in the Penfield Library 24 hour room. Printing is also available at this location during normal lab hours.
2. Make sure you have enough print pages to finish up your course work. You can check your print quota balance at the CTS Account Tools web page. Just login and click on "Check your print quota." If you are running low or have already ran out and still need to print, more print pages can be purchased in $5.00 allotments from the Telecommunications office in 105 Culkin Hall.
3. If you are living in the residence halls, CTS requests that you place your ResNet hub, power supply, and network cable in a plastic bag available from the front desk of your building before moving out. Please hang the bag on a coat hook in your room near the door. If these items are not left in your room, you may be charged for them.
4. Before leaving campus, make sure you have set your security question for your SUNY Oswego computer account. When you leave for the summer and come back in the fall, you may find that you have forgotten your computer account password. The normal methods of getting your password reset are to show your College ID or drivers license to our staff at the Technology Support Center in 26 Lanigan Hall or by faxing or snail mailing a notarized letter. If you set the security question, you can avoid these methods and just answer your security question to reset your password. Just go to the CTS Account Tools web site and click on "Forgot Your Password" at the bottom left of the page.
5. If you subscribe to any CTS telephone plan, final statements will be mailed to your home address. Please email phone-list@ls.oswego.edu with any changes of address. A hold will be put on all accounts with an outstanding balance.

CTS wishes you a successful end to your semester and for our returning students a safe and warm summer! For those that are graduating, we wish you well on your new journeys!

Online Campus Directory Replaces Printed

In continuing efforts to meet sustainability objectives, the printed campus directory has been replaced with an online version. This has been accomplished through recent updates to the PeopleSearch utility available from the SUNY Oswego website.

PeopleSearch provides a quick and easy way for people to find name, email, affiliation and phone number information of faculty, staff, and students associated with the campus. It was recently updated to display much of the same information available from the printed campus directory and now displays the following:

• In addition to the name, email, affiliation, and phone number, faculty and staff results include office address and the department they are associated with.
• Student results return name, email, and affiliation.
• There is now also a page of departmental contact information that displays name, address, phone number, and if applicable, the department's email address. This is available as a link under the search box.

With these changes and the newly introduced Voice Directory service available for the main campus phone number (see "Did You Know?" article below), the printed directory will no longer be published.

The efforts needed to complete this project were contributed from staff of both Campus Technology Services and Public Affairs.

To access the updated PeopleSearch, go to www.oswego.edu/people_search.

SAS, Minitab, and Maple Licenses Expiring Over the Summer

Licenses for the following mathematical/statistical software packages will be expiring over the summer: SAS, Minitab, and Maple. If you are a user of one of these packages and have it installed on a SUNY Oswego computer or if applicable a home machine (Minitab only), then your license will expire over the summer. If you wish to continue using these packages, you will need to contact the Technology Support Center at x3456 to request an updated license and if applicable updated software.

Did You Know?

Did you know a new telephone voice directory service is now available for SUNY Oswego?

When calling the main campus phone number (x2500) you may automatically be connected to the Voice Directory. To use the Voice Directory, simply do one of the following:

• To be transferred to a SUNY Oswego employee, simply say their first name and last name. Ex: Jane Doe
• To be transferred to a department, say the department's full name. Ex: Admissions Office

Once you have said a name, the Voice Directory will automatically transfer you to that employee or department.

Currently, the Voice Directory automatically answers the main campus number during off-hours, weekends, and holidays. You may also reach the directory anytime by dialing xNAME (x6263). After Memorial Day, internal campus dialers will also hear the Voice Directory when calling x2500 during normal business hours. After Labor Day, both internal and external dialers will hear the Voice Directory when calling the main line at all hours of the day. If you wish to speak to an operator that may be on duty, simply press "0" or say "operator."

If you find the voice directory does not understand a certain name or department, please email phone-list@ls.oswego.edu with the name you were using so that we may better tune the service.

For more information about this new service, please see the "Voice Directory" demo on the CTS Demo Page at www.oswego.edu/cts/demo.

Notes from the Help Desk

Starting in the fall semester, a new service will be available to assist users in resolving their technical problems. "Lakerpedia" is a web-based self-service that will allow users to search a knowledgebase for answers to their technical questions as well as submit and check the status of any tickets submitted to the Technology Support Center (TSC). A pilot project is in the process of being formed that will give us feedback on any areas that might need to be improved in terms of functionality and/or missing content before it is officially released to the campus.

TSC summer hours, effective May 18, will be Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm. We will be closed on Memorial Day (5/26) and Independence Day (7/4).

You can reach us by phone at 312.3456, on location at 26 Lanigan Hall, or online at www.oswego.edu/help during normal office hours. We are online via our live chat service. Just go to our web page and use the web-based chat utility to ask our staff a technology-related question.

Looking Ahead

The following are major projects CTS is currently working on:

• Campus Wireless Computing Changes: The campus wireless computing network will be reconfigured in a way that makes it easier for the campus community to get connected. Details of how the whole process will work are still being determined and will be tested over the summer. The final reconfiguration will be fully implemented and operational by the start of the fall 2009 semester.
• Mahar 210 Computer Lab Renovations: The open access PC computer lab in room 210 Mahar will be receiving a face lift. This room has not been renovated since its original configuration 20 years ago. The room will be repainted, new tables and chairs installed, the chalkboard replaced with a white board, and an ATC-style podium installed for instructors. In addition to changes in physical appearance, the lab will be receiving new Dell GX760 computers with faster processor speeds and more memory. All changes will be completed over the summer in time for the start of fall 2009 classes.
• Rice Creek and Fall Brook Get Connected: Rice Creek field station currently gets connected to the Internet via modem. Fall Brook has never had Internet connectivity. The campus has been actively working on getting these two sites remotely connected at decent network speeds. To accomplish this, new fiber to both of these locations will be installed by Time Warner and should be completed this summer.
• Calendaring Project: The project to incorporate a calendar module into the online Communications Express (CE) webmail system is now on hold. With the recent purchase of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, the extent of Oracle's future support and development of some Sun products, such as the calendaring module for CE, is unclear. We will be meeting with Oracle during the summer to get a better understanding of the future direction of support for the Sun products we are currently using and those we are considering adopting in the near future.
• Blogging Software: The blogging software continues its pilot phase. It is being tested with some users on campus to iron out any issues before being officially introduced to the campus.
• iTunes U: iTunes U is a site provided to SUNY Oswego by Apple that allows users to post and download SUNY Oswego academic and university-related podcasts. The downloading and uploading is all done through the iTunes application. The spring semester pilot phase is coming to an end. We will be focused on next steps needed to release it to the campus.
• ATC Computer Upgrade: The computers in all of the Advanced Technology Classrooms (ATCs) on campus will soon be upgraded. Dell 620 model computers are being replaced with brand new Dell 760 models which have faster processor speeds, more memory, and wide screen displays. These machines will continue to run the Windows XP operating system. You can expect to see these new machines by the start of the fall 2009 semester.
• Content Management System Update: The Web team has been evaluating our user satisfaction with the existing content management system and will be investigating potential products that might work better in our existing environment and that will also serve the needs of potential future directions in web technologies.
• Construction Projects: CTS continues to assist with campus construction projects, including the design of the science building and the new townhouses near Glimmerglass Lagoon.

If you have any questions related to any of these projects, please contact the Technology Support Center at x3456 or by email to help@oswego.edu.

Tech Tip

Recover Corrupted Powerpoint Files Using the Temp Folder

PowerPoint files will often become corrupted if the "save" process does not work properly, or if a system crash occurs while the document is open. Under these circumstances, Windows should save a working copy of the file before corruption occurs.

To find any potential backups, follow these instructions:

1. Click the Start Button and select "Search".

2. Type "*.TMP" (without quotes) in the "All or part of the file name" box and click the Search button.

3. Once the search has finished, arrange the files by the "Date Modified" column.

4. Temp files for PowerPoint will be listed as pptxxx.tmp, where "xxx" are numbers. Try opening these files by double-clicking on them; they should contain at least some of your recent modifications.

Note that this tip also applies to other Office programs. Word documents will look like "~wrdxxxx.tmp", and Excel documents will look like "~dfxxxx.tmp".