February 20, 2009
Phishing Attacks on the Rise at Wabash
For several years, financial institutions and large web sites such as Amazon and eBay have been used in "phishing" attacks in an attempt to gain personal information from customers of these sites. While Wabash may not have as large a customer base as these companies, Wabash too is being used in phishing attacks.
In a phishing attack, a person sends an email that pretends to come from a legitimate bank, merchant, organization, or government agency. In reality, the sender is attempting to fraudulently acquire personal information, such as a password, bank account, or credit card. The phishing emails typically claim there is a problem that requires immediate attention; for example, a phishing message may claim the person’s account will be closed unless they send their username and password to “confirm” they are still using the account.
Phishing attacks can be extremely complex. Messages will often use graphics from the legitimate web site, and may even have an associated copy-cat web site that they direct the recipient to.
In recent weeks, we've seen a marked increase in phishing emails that claim to be from Wabash. We’ve had reports from students, employees, and Wabash alumni who have received the scam. Many of these emails claim there is a problem with your Wabash email or webmail account, and ask you to send your username and password to avoid having your account deleted or disabled.
Wabash IT Services will NEVER ask for your password via email. If you receive a message asking for your password, you can be sure it is a hoax and an attempt to gain access to your personal information. If you are ever unsure of the validity of a message you receive, feel free to contact the IT Services Help Desk at helpdesk@wabash.edu, or phone 765-361-6400.
OnGuard Online, a web site maintained by the Federal Trade Commission with assistance from a number of other government agencies, is a good resource for additional information on phishing scams and other online dangers.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 22, 2009
Weather on the Wabash Web Site
We've had a number of calls recently about the weather forecast no longer appearing on the Faculty/Staff or Current Students web pages. Instead of seeing the local weather forecast, these pages were showing a broken image link.
Unfortunately, the weather service we were using for this image is no longer in business. The good news is we have identified a new service, Accuweather, and the weather is once again displayed on the pages.
Now if only we could get some weather that we like!
Posted by Brad Weaver at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 13, 2008
2nd Annual Computer Recycle Day Draws Big Crowd
Saturday October 11 the IT Services department and the Wabash Environmental Concerns Committee sponsored our second annual Community Computer Recycle Day. Wabash faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the greater Crawfordsville community, could drop of obsolete computers, monitors, printers, and related technology equipment at no cost. The equipment was collected and will be recycled by RecycleForce of Indianapolis.
We picked Saturday for the collection day so we could join Wabash alumni across the country in Wabash Day, a national day of community service. It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a great turnout. We collected enough stuff to fill a semi trailer; in all, more than 15,000 pounds! Thanks to everyone who took the time on Saturday to bring in equipment. See the photo album for pictures from the day.
It takes a lot of people to pull together an event like this. Jamie Ross, IT Services office manager, coordinated the event for Wabash. IT Staff Members Mike Heinold and Jim Pond helped with traffic flow and loading equipment, and Gary Leonard (Campus Services) ran the fork lift and moved equipment onto the trucks. I'm especially thankful to Larry Smith, from Smith Family Trucking in Crawfordsville, who donated the use of his semi trailer and his time to deliver the equipment to RecycleForce in Indianapolis.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 27, 2008
Picasa 3 Photo Editing Software is Essential Upgrade
Earlier this month, Google released a major upgrade of its free photo editing software, Picasa. For those not familiar with Picasa, it offers all the tools necessary to organize and edit your pictures. Picasa integrates with a variety of photo printing services, and you can upload pictures to Picasa web albums to share pictures with others.
New features in version 3 include a retouch tool to remove blemishes and camera lens dust, a movie editor, screen capture, and a text tool to add watermarks and text to your photos. Improved features include new collage settings, improved sharing and Picasa web album integration, automatic red-eye correction, and improved tagging. A complete list of new and enhanced features is available here.
Picasa runs on Windows XP and Vista. As a major new release, you have to go to picasa.google.com to download the new version, rather than upgrading from within Picasa, but all photos and albums will be transferred automatically.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 14, 2008
Atomic Learning Now Available to Wabash Community
IT Services has licensed the Atomic Learning on-line learning system for all faculty, staff, and students. Atomic Learning offers short on-line video-based instruction for many computer programs and technologies, including Microsoft Office, Adobe and Macromedia design products, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh OS. Courses cover topics from beginner to advanced, and topics are broken down into short individual lessons.
Click here to access the Atomic Learning site.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 08:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 12, 2008
Virtual Media Reserves to Move to iTunesU
Starting this Fall we will be using iTunes U instead of the Virtual Media Reserves (VMR) for course specific media and public presentations. Please read on for general information about iTunes U, along with specific information about how to use iTunes U in your courses this fall (especially important for those of you who have used the VMR in the past).
What is iTunes U?
Apple's iTunes U provides educational audio and video from top universities, famous museums, PBS stations and other cultural institutions. This free service is available to anyone, not just students.
Why iTunes U?
iTunes U adds more functional and ease of use than the VMR. Most people have heard of iTunes and have used its simple cross platform interface to listen to podcasts, buy music or watch videos. This same popular interface will now be the gateway to your course media. iTunes also offers the ability to download media to iPods and iPhones although you don't need these devices to view content on iTunes U. Any computer with Internet access and speakers can access the content. Apple stores all the content and streams the video from their servers. Hundreds of other Colleges and Universities are successfully using it for instructional purposes. For those of you new to iTunes U, click here for a short video introduction.
What do I need to do to set up my courses media in iTunes U?
We need your help to get things set up in iTunes U for your course. In order to post media to iTunes U we must convert the video from the original source using the specifications required by iTunes U. This is a time consuming process and we need your help to insure this is accomplished in a timely manner.
Please fill out the iTunes U Request Form for ANY media that you would like posted on iTunes U for your Fall Courses. If you have the video that needs to be put on iTunes U. please bring the VHS/CD/DVD to the Media Center as soon as possible. If the video is in the library please indicate that on the form, we can check it out ourselves and return it to the library when we are done.
I already have things set up in VMR, can't you just move it?
Unfortunately no, we cannot just move video assets. The have to be re-compressed for streaming in iTunes U. Even if you have video set up in VMR that you have used in the past we have to get that original VHS or DVD and recapture it from the original source and re-compress it. This is a one-time process in order to convert the media properly for iTunes U. If the media is needed for a subsequent semester or another course we can set up access to the media for that course without having to recapture the media.
What about music or audio files?
We still need the request form filled out telling us what audio files you need for what course. However, our preliminary tests show that we will not have to re-compress most audio files. Longer audio files may still need to be re-compresses. Once the request form is submitted you only need to bring us any NEW audio files that you want posted in iTunes U. We'll contact you if we need your assistance with any existing audio files.
Want more on iTunes U?
Check out our iTunes U web site for updated information as we move forward with iTunes U. If you have questions about iTunes U or any media assets for your course please contact Jeana Rogers at x6251.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 08:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 12, 2008
Wacom Intuos3 Pen Tablet
Jeana Rogers, Instructional Media Specialist -- There are many software programs that have features and tools that are designed to be used with a pen or a brush. Programs like Photoshop and Illustrator have amazing tools and capabilities that allow you to draw, paint and edit graphics. It can be rather difficult for the creative person to master these tools using a mouse. It’s just not intuitive.
Enter the The Wacom Intuos3 pen tablet. This device works with Macs and PC’s and and over a hundred software programs. For the artist it’s senses over a thousand levels of pressure sensitivity. You can control software tools by changing how hard you press the pen on the tablet. Using sensitivity you can control exposure, brush size, opacity and more. The wireless pen and mouse can be customized through it’s own control panel for various programs.
Physics professor Dr. Martin Madsen is currently using the Wacom tablet to work through problems for his Physics 112 class. The Wacom tablet is currently set up in the Media Center's I/O room where Dr. Madsen uses Photoshop and a screen capture program that records his actions on the screen and his voice as he works out physics problems for his students to review. We then post this recording as a short movie file on the Virtual Media Reserves.
Dr. Madsen says “I've gotten some positive feedback from the students. I think it is pretty straight forward to do the recording and I really like not having to worry about not getting to the problem at the end of class. It frees me up to spend more time on the concepts and leave the problem demonstration to the web.”
The tablet has many potential uses for students and instructors to do more creative work in the programs they already use. If you would like to check out the Wacom tablet or have any questions please contact me at X6251 or rogersj@wabash.edu.
Posted by Brad Weaver at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
