Academic Computing Center

Microsoft is pushing Apple-like deals with their Windows 7 OS to the student population.  Seems they see the market value in building stronger relationships with the student population which is good for us.  From now until Jan 3, 2010 you can download Windows 7 for 30 bucks.  That’s a pretty big switch for Microsoft who will be charging the regular public $119.99 after October 22 when it’s due to release.  FYI, you won’t be able to get a license key before Oct. 22 but you can download the OS now.  To apply, to to Microsoft’s 741 site and you can sign up.

Just a reminder to those folks that forget (or never realized to begin with) that there are at least two locations to access your program website, no matter what kind of site it is.

http://academic.evergreen.edu lists alphabetically all program websites as soon as they’re created.

https://my.evergreen.edu will show a link on the right side called Program Website which is a direct link to your site.

If you have trouble accessing your site or don’t see yours listed, contact the computer center at extention 6227 or contact your faculty!

Student personal shares that up to this point have been hosted on Calawah, will be moved to the new fileserver Orca this evening (Friday Sept 11). At the same time there are scripts in place to automatically create a student personal share for every current student.   Help docs have been written to help students connect to their new fileshare locations (see help wiki link below). If folks need help with this, please refer to this page or to the computer center help desk at X6227 who can help walk through the process of getting access to data both on and off campus.

http://wikis.evergreen.edu/computing/index.php/File_Space_Overview

This is the last step in consolidating Masu and Calawah into a single server for students, student groups, academic programs and academic research shares. After this, shares on Masu and Calawah will be turned off.

Network Services will be upgrading core network hardware this weekend starting in the early afternoon on Saturday. While the upgrade is underway, each network location (including wireless services) will experience scattered service outages as Internet connectivity, network servers and building connections are moved off of the old hardware onto the new hardware. Some services and areas will take longer to restore than others. We expect the upgrade to be completed sometime Sunday afternoon. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Computer Center Help Desk at 360-867-6227.

Usability is how useful an interface is. When it comes to websites, usability can be measured through surveys and focus groups. A website has high usability if information is quick and easy to find and the content is laid out well. Websites with low usability have redundant links, labyrinth navigation, and leave the user unsatisfied and frustrated.

Last Friday, a usability study was posted to my.evergreen.edu. The survey will be there all summer, and is an attempt to identify the common usability problems with my.evergreen.edu. Once these problems are identified, a reorganization and re-languaging of the site will take place and be tested with student focus groups. A new organization of my.evergreen.edu will go up at the end of fall quarter 2009.

You can participate in this process by taking the usability survey located under the “News” header on my.evergreen.edu. Or you can take the survey directly by going to:

http://collab.evergreen.edu/surveys/myusability

If you’re excited by the idea of a more usable my.evergreen.edu, visit the survey’s website and join the discussion around the survey and my.evergreen.edu usability:

http://collab.evergreen.edu/groups/myusability

Please take the survey when you have a chance, you’re feedback will help make a more usable my.evergreen.edu!

Student email services should be quicker and more reliable based on some changes that Network Services made in the past week. The latency problems that many students reported seemed to stem from the way our anti-virus software was configured on the email server. If you have any email related problems or notice any issues, please contact Academic Computing at acadcomphelp@evergreen.edu.

Did you know that people leave thumb drives behind in the Computer Center all the time? (I know, hard to believe..)  We have an extensive lost and found with all sorts of stuff left behind, and a special system for thumb drives.  We’d love to get yours back to you if you think you might have left one behind in one of the computers.

When we find a drive left in the center, we log it in our lost and found system and then try and contact the owner if we can dig up that information.  Please stop by the computer center consultant desk (and bring ID) if you think this might be you and we will happily reunite you with your data!