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Web Mail
If you tried to access email from off campus yesterday, I am sure that you had problems. The ITS staffed worked all day to resolve the problem. Our email system was running on LINUX but had to be put back on Novell. The problems were related to the Apache Tom Cat Server; the gateway and to the spam protector. The system is functioning now. We must return those systems to LINUX because we are splitting the servers to provide better long term service.
PCs, Windows XP and Office 2007
All staff PCs will have to be visited to install Windows XP. As I mentioned in an earlier update Microsoft 2000 is no longer being supported; thus the move to XP. All faculty have been converted to XP and so have the labs. Now it is the staffs' turn to get the XP operating system. Every staff member will be visited as this operating system cannot be rolled out through the network.
In addition, four hundred forty five PCs will be cascaded in preparation for the move to Office 2007 for the fall semester. That number represents half the PCs on campus. The reason for this large cascade is that Office 2007 will not run or run extremely slow on that number of PCs. The cascade will start next week. If you are one of the individuals that will receive a newer PC you will get an email letting you know how to prepare for the cascade. All full-time faculty PCs meet Office 2007 standards and part-time faculty PCs will be included in the cascade. Today ITS staff are starting to image the PCs in order to get them ready for roll out. This project will probably not be complete until September. We cannot roll out Office 2007 until this cascade is complete.
Datatel and Merlin to be Downed
As you know North Central must upgrade to Datatel Release 18 by the end of August of this year to continue to receive the updates and patches necessary for College functions. For the last 18 months ITS staff has been doing a yeoman's job of converting custom programs and paragraphs identified by departments as necessary to their everyday work.
Starting on Friday, August 17th Datatel and Merlin will not be available for use as we must begin the 3 day process to convert to the new version of Datatel. That process will take all weekend so Datatel and Merlin will not be available. Hopefully, at 8 am on the 20th (Monday) we will be up and running on R18.
Friday the 17th of August was carefully selected to ensure the least amount of interruption to offices and for free Datatel support in case we run into problems. If perchance we are not successful that weekend with the R18 conversion, we will make another attempt the following weekend from Friday to Monday.
New MAC Lab
ITS is also in the process of putting a new MAC lab into place for the fall term. This high end lab will be equipped with 26 dual core MAC Pros with 4 GB of memory. The lab will also have 23" cinema display monitors, and Wacom Intuos 12" x 19" drawing tablets. In addition, color and black and white laser printers will be available as well as several graphics arts scanners. The lab will run Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection and Final Cut Studio as the major software. The lab will also have dueling projectors, two Smart Boards and an Elmo Visual Presenter. In addition this lab will have swipe card access and will be monitored by IP video cameras.
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