Student Technology Services

1) Revising and adapting our new Macintosh-Windows dual-boot computer lab in Soc-Psych 133 and preparing it for spring semester, including working to accommodate an undergraduate GIS course

2) Updating the Pratt Visualization Lab (VisLab) with updated software and system images

3) Laying the ground work for Froshlife ‘08, the sixth-annual Duke digital filmmaking contest that unites Duke’s first-year dorms in a spirited but friendly competition

4) Preparing to launch a campaign to raise student awareness of many new technology support services for Duke students, including expanded SWAT support, online storage and backup, and other services

5) Supporting Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) efforts in digital video and tablet PCs

6) Collaborating with A&S on a concurrent license server environment pilot for STATA and other costly applications.

Upcoming sessions include ePrint, Blackboard and Viewsflash. Participation is open to all Duke students, faculty and staff. Registration is not required, but seating is on a first come, first-served basis. Information about the sessions can be found at http://www.oit.duke.edu/help/training/learn_it_lunch.html.

All sessions are held from 12:00 to12:30 PM and again from 12:30 to1:00 PM in the Collaboratory (room 101), Bryan Center, inside the Office of Student Activities and Facilities suite.

Remaining 2007 schedule

November 13
ePrint: Printing Made Easy at Duke

November 20
Blackboard: Overview

November 27
Creating an Online Survey with ViewsFlash

Operating Unit Award
Chris Hughes

Division Award
Michael Mercado
Arlene Thompson

OIT will provide the turkey, ham, gravy and utensils for the event. OIT members have volunteered to bring side dishes, bread, desserts or soft drinks to the festivities.

Please remember to bring your item and place it in your respective break room by 10:30am tomorrow morning. If possible, please bring your item in a disposable dish.

If you have any questions, please see the designated building representative below:

ATC - Wendi Clark
North Bldg - Myra Hill-Rochelle
Telecom Bldg - Freda Partridge

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Submitted by the OIT Fun Club

Barbara has enjoyed her time at Duke and has held a variety of positions in multiple areas of the campus. Departments include: Accounting, Physics, Perkins Library, the Placement Office, Benefits and Records, Telcom, the Office of Vice President for Information Technology, Academic Computing, and OIT. She has seen many changes in technology through the years and in fact used the first word processor on campus. The technology bug hit her mid-career, and she’s been providing technical support ever since. She is the only person to directly support four Duke presidents: Sanford, Brodie, Keohane and Brodhead.

Those of you who have worked closely with Barbara know that her friendly nature, dedication, cooperative spirit and warm smile will be what we miss the most. Please join me in expressing our gratitude for the service Barbara has provided to Duke and OIT, and wishing her all the best in her retirement.

submitted by John Cook

Topic: Maintaining an Electronic Calendar with dCal
Date: Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Times: 12:00-12:30 p.m. & 12:30-1:00 p.m.

No pre-registration is required to attend this session. For more information about OIT’s Learn IT @ Lunch series, go to:
http://www.oit.duke.edu/help/training/learn_it_lunch.html

Upcoming sessions include an overview of Blackboard, ePrint and ViewsFlash.

If you cannot attend in person, this session will be recorded and made available online within a few days of the session here.

submitted by Kevin Davis

A year ago Duke OIT email filters were blocking 1.4 million spam messages a day. In October, the filters blocked over one million spam messages an hour.

Klara Jelinkova, Director of OIT Computing Systems, noted that there was a particularly large jump in spam messages between September and October. In September, Duke was receiving 13 million spam messages per day. This number shot up to 24 million messages per day in October.

The OIT Computing Systems group continues to work on repelling even more spam, even as the volume of keeps going up. The group is constantly retuning the filters to catch new threats. These threats include a new kind of spam that could be even more annoying than the old-fashioned kind. An audio MP3 version of the spam has started to spread rapidly. The spam is designed to evade anti-spam filters, which have recently gotten wise to image spam and attachment spam.

Another problem MP3 spam presents is that it chews up more bandwidth just trying to get to its destination. This was a significant problem when image and PDF spam peaked, and now MP3 spam is arriving as even bigger files than image spam.

All email sent to duke.edu addresses go through the Duke OIT email filtering gateway. The OIT Computing systems group is the first line of defense at duke against a never-ending flood of unsolicited e-mails.

*Features of the Site*
The site will offer more flexibility to access and update your personal information, making your information available electronically when and where you need it. Using your NetID and password to access the secured site, you will be able to:
* View current and past pay statements
* Change your home address
* Update your work address (physical location)
* Access your health care or dependent care reimbursement account information
* View your retirement plan balance
* Review benefit participation
* Explore professional development opportunities and search for jobs at Duke
* Set up or change bank accounts for direct deposit
* Change Federal and North Carolina tax withholdings

Allowing faculty and staff direct access to view and update their information will also streamline administrative processes and reduce the potential for errors from multiple points of data entry. This project is therefore a priority initiative for OIT.

  Going Green
The self-service web site will also support Duke’s sustainability efforts by allowing staff to view their direct deposit statements online, and eliminate the need to receive a paper direct deposit statement. Each OIT staff member will receive one printed pay statement in November – bi-weekly employees on November 9th and monthly employees on November 21st. All future pay statements after these two will be available only online for the duration of the pilot, so that we can fully test the technology and process for this option and support Duke’s sustainability efforts. You will receive further updates as our pay dates draw nearer regarding the related functionality. If you have questions or concerns with this plan, please email OIT HR at oit-hr@duke.edu or contact Janice Jordan at 681-8017 to discuss alternate arrangements.

*Your Role*
You will find detailed information about the new web site, including several information sessions for pilot participants, at
www.hr.duke.edu/selfservice. As part of the pilot, please use the self-service site for any of the features listed above. You will also receive email notification each pay period when your new pay statement is available online.

Thank you for your support and participation in this pilot.