Part of the movie was filmed at Wabash, and it's been fun watching the film come together.  We've seen bits and pieces in various stages of edit over the years, but are still waiting anxiously for the premiere.

Zorg and Andy was directed by Guy Davis, who worked in the IT Services department as desktop specialist before "hitting the big time".  Application developer Mark Siegel appears on screen as a "scowling cultist" (a stretch, I know), and senior systems analyst Kathy Tymoczko is an executive producer of the film.  Several other current and former IT Services staff members appear briefly.

If you can't make it to the screening on Saturday, you can watch the official trailer, and Quentin promises DVDs will be available "soon."  And be sure to read the story on the Wabash web site, which features and interview with Quentin, and more details on the premiere.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Click here to access the Atomic Learning site.

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.

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.

On first glance, Farecast looks similar to many travel sites. There is a form to enter your travel information -- to, from, dates, number of travelers, etc. After you fill out the form and click search, you see a list of available fares. The difference is you will also see a fare history and prediction, similar to this chart (for a search of Indianapolis to Orlando, Dec 28-Jan 5):

In this case, Farecast recommends that I wait to purchase, as they predict the price will drop by at least $50 within the next 7 days. The "69% confidence" means that similar predictions they made in the past were correct 69% of the time.

You can search and get pricing on any available flights, but there are some exceptions if you want to see Farecast's future pricing predictions. To see predictions, your trip must be 2-8 nights in length, and depart within 90 days. Also, currently only 75 airports are included (Indianapolis is one).

The Farecast web site has a beta feature to search for hotel rooms, but it is little more limited at this time than the flight search. In regard to this, the web site says "Rate Keys are limited—30 destinations, missing many major hotels. We plan to improve our coverage to eventually include all major cities and hotels in the U.S. and around the globe."

Farecast has lots of other neat tools, including a graph that shows cheapest flights in the next 30 days, and cheapest flights between multiple destinations. It's definitely worth a look when you make your next airline reservations.

We had a great turnout, and the event was a big success. We completely filled a semi trailer, and had to load additional equipment on a supply truck. In all, we collected 19,810 pounds of equipment, or just under ten tons! Thanks to everyone who took the time on Saturday to bring in equipment. The amount certainly exceeded my expectations. The picture above shows the inside of the semi trailer; see the photo album for more pictures from the day.

The event fit well with the goals of the Wabash Environmental Concerns Committee, which seeks to find ways for Wabash to incorporate an environmental perspective into its decision-making and its daily operations. Further, the committee seeks to link the College's actions with those of our wider Crawfordsville and regional communities, so opening the recycle day to all of Crawfordsville was important.

According to the EPA, computer monitors contain an average of four pounds of lead. In addition to lead, electronics can contain chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc, and brominated flame retardants. When electronics are not disposed of or recycled properly, these toxic materials can present problems. It's hard to imagine the world-wide impact when you consider how much stuff we collected in this small town in west-central Indiana.

It takes a lot of people to pull together an event like this. Jamie Ross, IT Services office manager, who coordinated this event for Wabash, Ginny Maharry (Lilly Library) and Mike Heinold (IT Services), who helped with traffic flow and loading equipment, and Gary Leonard (Campus Services) who ran the fork lift and moved equipment onto the trucks. I'm especially thankful to Andy Bradley, from Bradley Trucking in Ladoga, who donated the use of his semi trailer and his time to deliver the equipment to RecycleForce in Indianapolis.

We are planning to make this an annual event, so if you missed out this weekend you'll have another chance next fall.

What to do when your trusty iPod has a problem, whether a lost bezel, cracked case or screen, or the battery is dead?  Depending on how long you had the iPod, you may decide it's time for an upgrade, but with most problems you can repair your iPod for a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new one.

One repair option is RapidRepair, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  You can send your iPod (or Zune) to RapidRepair and they will make the repairs for you, or you can purchase many parts and install yourself (the site offers handy repair guides, as well as an assessment of the difficulty level of specific repairs).  Express testing only costs $0.01 (plus the cost of shipping your iPod), and they provide a quote before making any repairs.  In addition to repairs, they offer a variety of upgrades and accessories.

I recently tried out RapidRepair myself, when the top bezel broke off my daughter's iPod Nano. After reviewing the part options and repair guides for this particular problem, I decided the best option was to send the Nano in for repair.  Once I ordered Express Testing ($0.01), they sent instructions on where to ship the Nano.  I received confirmation they received it, and a day later they called with a price to repair the Nano.  It shipped back to me a couple of days later.  In all, I was happy with the repair process, and the Nano looks as good as new.

We've planned two Tech Talks on security -- Desktop Support Analyst Mike Heinold presented Windows Security on September 25 (see the recap and the PowerPoint), and Network Administrator Quentin Dodd will present Network Security and Identity Theft on Tuesday October 9 at 12:10pm in Baxter 114.  Lunch will be available in the Baxter Lounge at noon.

The security resources page on the IT Services web site has a number of links to security sites and resources, including links to computer security tips that we've shared on the Tech Notes blog.

Wabash students who have a computer connected to the Wabash network are eligible to use Sophos antivirus software under our site license agreement.  If you are a Wabash student and are not currently running virus protection software on your computer, you can stop by the Help Desk for a free copy of Sophos.

If you have any security-related concerns, whether a suspicious email you received, spyware or viruses on your computer, or questions about identity theft, contact the Help Desk any time for assistance.

Summer IT Projcts Recap
  Brad Weaver, Director of IT Services
  September 11, 2007
  recap | PowerPoint

Windows Security
  Mike Heinold, Desktop Support Analyst
  September 25, 2007
  recap | PowerPoint

Network Security and Identity Theft
  Quentin Dodd, Network Administrator
  October 9, 2007

Educational Uses for Second Life
  Jeana Rogers, Instructional Media Specialist
  October 23, 2007

Searching the Wabash Online Alumni Directory
  Tom Runge, Director of ALumni and Parent Relations
  November 13, 2007

Google Applications
  Monica Brainard, Help Desk Specialist
  November 27, 2007

We're working now on the Tech Talk schedule for the spring semester.  If you are interested in giving a Tech Talk, please let us know.

In his talk, Mike looked at ways to keep your computer safe from viruses and spyware, how to keep your computer up-to-date with Windows automatic update, how to keep intruders away with Windows firewall, and how to control spam filter settings.  If you missed the talk, you can review the PowerPoint presentation.

On October 9, network administrator Quentin Dodd will give a Tech Talk titled Network Security and Identity Theft. As always, Tech Talk's are held in Baxter 114. Talks begin at 12:10pm, with lunch available in Baxter Lounge at noon.

Office Ultimate includes the following programs:

• Word 2007
• Excel 2007
• PowerPoint 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Access 2007
• Accounting Express 2007
• InfoPath 2007
• Groove 2007
• OneNote 2007
• Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager

While campus computer labs and classrooms will continue to run Office 2003 until summer 2008, the computer labs are configured so that they will open Office 2007 files, so you should not run into compatibility issues if you purchase Office Ultimate 2007.

To purchase Office Ultimate, go to www.theultimatesteal.com to purchase a license key, then download and install the software. The program runs through April 30, 2008.

See the program announcement on Microsoft's web site for more details.