July 25th, 2000 by Dana Roode
Tony Soeller joined NACS on May 30, 2000 to enhance campus support for research and scientific computing. Tony has a B.S. degree in Geology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.S. degree in Geology from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Tony is skilled in a wide range of programming languages and has extensive experience with 2-D and 3-D visualization applications. Tony is equally capable with UNIX, PC, and Mac computing platforms.
Previously, Tony has held management positions at a number of companies and academic institutions, including the Geographical Information Systems Laboratory at Caltech. Please feel free to call Tony at 824-3239 to discuss research computing needs.
July 25th, 2000 by Dana Roode
E3 made several improvements to its tools and website at the start of spring quarter. Many of the enhancements have come as a direct result of faculty comments and suggestions.
The new “Toolbox” link off the main site gives instructors the ability to access any particular tool directly without having to login through the main site.
An “Edit” feature has been added to SiteManager. Now it is possible to edit the HTML code of any course web page directly on SiteManager. All changes will take place immediately after they are submitted on SiteManager.
New features have been added to Gradebook, making it more versatile and easier to use. Gradebook now supports multiple gradebooks for a given course on a single web page. The Gradebook feature can also be used without having to create a course website.
Instructors who access their WebRosters are now able to view not just enrolled students, but also extension students (UCI Access students) and students on the WaitList.
Noteboard is now available for use for every class without requesting a web page. All users can now specify if their posted message is a question, solution, urgent, or class information.
Instructors can now view and configure the mailing list options for all their courses on one screen. It is no longer necessary to log in and log out repeatedly to manage multiple courses, as all the courses are listed and accessible on one page. Changes to mailing list options will continue to take place the following morning.
July 25th, 2000 by Dana Roode
NACS and the UCI Police Department (UCIPD) want to alert the campus community with critical 911 information. Too many people are dialing 911 by accident. These misdialed calls are a serious problem because they tie up UCIPD personnel who should be answering real 911 emergency calls.
Here are three steps you should take to avoid calling 911 in error.
- When making an off-campus long-distance call do NOT dial 1+area code For example, to call Santa Ana, simply dial 9-714-xxx-xxxx.
- Check your fax machines and modems to be certain that they are not programmed to dial a “1″ before the area code.
- When placing an “international” call be very careful to dial 9-011
There are four useful facts to remember when you do need to call 911 in the event of an emergency.
- You can dial 911 when using a campus telephone extension or any payphone located on campus.
- All UCI campus elevators are equipped with emergency call boxes. Each box has a push button that connects directly to the UCIPD 911 via speakerphone.
- If you are outside of a building, look for an emergency phone. These yellow emergency phones with blue lights on top are located on the campus ring mall and in many campus parking lots. Each box has a push button that connects directly to the UCIPD 911 via speakerphone.
- If you dial 911 from a cellular telephone you will NOT be connected to the UCIPD or the Irvine Police. As mandated by State law, all calls to 911 from cellular phones are routed to the California Highway Patrol (CHP). If you call 911 from a cellular phone make sure you give your exact location using the full name and “University of California Irvine”. Recently, someone on campus dialed 911 from a cellular phone during a medical emergency. The caller identified the location as “UCI”. The CHP officer did not recognize “UCI” which resulted in a delay in the emergency personnel response.
Finally, if you wish to reach UCI emergency assistance from a cellular phone, you must dial 949-824-5222 to reach the UCIPD emergency dispatch line.
July 18th, 2000 by Dana Roode
Effective July 1, 2000, OAC has a new name: NACS – Network and Academic Computing Services
We feel NACS best represents the areas of our primary emphasis:
- Network:
- The network is a major component of what we do, with all of our services being heavily dependent on network technology, even those sometimes labeled “computing services.” The telephone system is a network as well, and the expectation is that it will be come increasingly integrated with the data network in the future.
- Academic Computing:
- We provide a wide range of services to users of computing at UCI, and our primary computing focus is serving UCI’s research and education mission. The phrase “academic computing” has served us well, properly distinguishing our role from that of Administrative Computing (AdCom) Services.
- Services:
- It’s what we do! NACS’s mission is to provide services to campus departments by creating and maintaining a computing and electronic communication environment that meets the needs of the campus.
July 18th, 2000 by Dana Roode
Starting in July, NACS and AdCom are partnering with the professionals at Quickstart Technologies to bring on campus three key Microsoft Certified Software Engineer (MCSE) classes, at a 52% savings over public classes. The series spans 3 weeks and comprises two Windows NT 4.0 core courses and one elective, although registrants may enroll in any combination of these. Each week-long class will be conducted in AdCom’s computer lab located in Berkeley Place from 7:30am to 2:30pm Monday – Friday. All three classes directly correspond to Microsoft’s certification exams. For more information, seehttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/uci_mcse.html
NACS is also hosting a series of half-day classes in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, starting July 18th, conducted by professional trainers from Creative Business Concepts. Each class is just $79 and will be held in NACS’s PC lab in the Engineering Gateway Building. While the courses are taught on PC computers, skills are directly transferable to users of Microsoft Office on Macintosh systems. To sign up and see the course outlines, go to http://www.nacs.uci.edu/training/summer_skills/
The preferred method of payment for both programs is the University PAL card. This is the ideal time for staff training, as staff can build skills in time to apply them to the upcoming school year.
July 18th, 2000 by Dana Roode
Each quarter E3 posts news articles on topics suggested by faculty or important information that may assist instructors. Currently, there are two new articles on “Computer Ergonomics” and “What’s New for Spring 2000″ on E3. To subscribe to the E3 News mailing list, go to http://e3.uci.edu/news/ and fill out the online form.