Archive for April, 2009
April 24th, 2009 by Kelsey Layos
The Electronic Educational Environment (EEE) web team has revised the SignupSheet tool, which now supports automatically-generated timeslots. Rather than manually entering each timeslot, instructors and assistants can generate a set of timeslots by entering the following information:
- Label
- Time range
- Date (or day of the week)
- Number of timeslots (or length of each timeslot, which will then determine the number of timeslots offered)
- Gap between each timeslot
- Number of signups to allow per timeslot
SignupSheet will automatically create each of the signup items based on the entered parameters.
The new timeslot option makes it easier for instructors and assistants to schedule appointments during office hours, presentations, review sessions, or exam times.
More information can be found on the SignupSheet Help web page.
April 24th, 2009 by Brian Roode
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spam
NACS employs many techniques to maximize the quality of the campus email system, and in particular to limit the amount of junk email (spam) faculty and staff receive. Known spam senders are automatically blocked, for example, and campus mail gateways require adherence to email standards (which spammers often ignore) before email is accepted for delivery.
Beyond that, email delivery is a balancing act between reliability and convenience on the one side, and security on the other. It is annoying to receive junk email, but it is unacceptable to block a message which was wanted.
One feature of the campus email service that helps achieve this balance is the mail-scanning service which rates every incoming message for the likelihood that it is junk mail. This assessment is recorded in special “header” lines in the delivered email of the form “X-UCIRVINE”.
Sometimes a message comes from a dubious source. Those messages get a header line “X-UCIRVINE-MailScanner-From:” Other times the content of the message matches patterns associated with spam. These messages will get a line “X-UCIRVINE-SpamScore:” with a number of copies of the letter ’s’ proportional to the number of suspicious elements in the messages.
These lines are not normally displayed by email readers, but users can configure the programs to look for these lines and file away such messages in a spam folder for later assessment at their convenience. For users of NACS’s Enterprise Services email, this spam filter is easily activated with “My Email Options.”
Only messages coming to UCI from off campus are subject to this analysis. Intracampus email is delivered directly.
NACS tunes the rules that characterize email regularly, incorporating each new trick developed by spam senders into the mail scanner.
Faculty and staff working from home (sending email from off campus) should consider using Webmail, the VPN, or configuring their email software to use the authenticated campus mail gateway (smtp.uci.edu) to avoid the possibility that your email might be scanned, flagged, and isolated.
April 24th, 2009 by Max Garrick
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Distance Learning Center
NACS and UCI Extension have teamed up to enable UCI Extension courses to use the Moodle course management system, available at http://learn.uci.edu/ .
This new capability was made possible through “single sign-on,” a technology that allows students to move seamlessly among websites which, by sharing login and other information, eliminate the need to sign-in multiple times.
Extension students use their Extension login to register and pay for classes. They can then move into the Moodle online learning environment hosted at NACS. Once classes begin, students see their classes immediately and can start participating in online discussions and view media-rich course materials. All authentication and student enrollment information are exchanged in real-time behind the scenes.
Jill James, Director of University Extension Information Systems praised the partnership’s success. “NACS’s project management help, technical expertise, and support are fantastic and ensured a very successful launch. As the Distance Learning Center expands, the new automation helps streamline the process of creating courses and linking students.”
The partnership between NACS and UnEx’s Distance Learning Center has served as a model for on-campus IT “in-sourcing” since 2002. NACS provides the IT expertise, infrastructure, and on-call emergency response necessary to host a Moodle site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This allows the Distance Learning Center to focus attention on their unique contribution on campus: top-notch distance learning education.
April 24th, 2009 by Allen Schiano
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Mirrored Servers
NACS and AdCom have jointly developed a network infrastructure for units with mission-critical computing services. “DMRnet” (short for “Dual Modular Redundant Network”) allows you to create twin servers and to locate them separately in the NACS and AdCom Data Centers.
With this arrangement, an interruption in service (power, network, etc.) at one physical location can automatically transfer services (fail over) to the server in the other location. Users of your critical services will see no interruption.
DMRnet was designed and developed in response to the need to have UCI’s main web site, www.uci.edu, continuously available. The upcoming Student Portal will be the latest client of the DMRnet system.
NACS staff are available to consult with interested departments on the options, cost, and fitness of DMRnet for your particular need. DMRnet is intended only for the most critical campus services.
April 24th, 2009 by John Mangrich
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UCInetID
Many campus network and computer services are reserved for faculty, staff, and students, and your network identity (UCInetID) is the key to accessing them.
People who separate from the University are no longer eligible for some or all such services, and their UCInetIDs are subject to deletion. It may be helpful to understand the policies for UCInetID deletion.
The UCInetIDs of faculty and staff who separate from the University become eligible for deletion when their records are removed from the campus payroll database. In general, you will receive notification of pending deletion 60 days after removal from the payroll database, and the actual deletion will take place 30 days later. Retirees may request to retain their UCInetID and certain services, such as email. Faculty awarded emeritus status retain full UCInetID privileges.
Students lose email and services 1 year after they leave unless they graduate and apply for lifetime alumni services, although access to Registrar services continue for at least 2 years.
April 24th, 2009 by John Mangrich
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Usenet
The campus USEnet News server, news.service.uci.edu, will be discontinued after the end of the academic year on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
At present, the service has minimal use and is running with older software and hardware. External sources of USEnet News have been launched in recent years that provide a variety of quality services. Campus users still reading news from our server should evaluate and switch to one of those sources or your local ISP’s news feed.
In the past, some classes have created local feeds on the campus news service for discussions. We recommend the EEE Class Mail List system for those needs.
