ITS is offering monthly training workshops to help further develop your Argos skills. All interested parties are invited to join this open forum to discuss and learn about Argos. Since all levels are invited, the content of each class will be driven by the participants, their abilities and their curiosity. Classes are being offered the last Wednesday of every month through April (excluding December). Register on the campus calendar for these events.
All faculty and staff are invited to visit the Academic Technology Fair this Thursday. The fair is a showcase of a variety of software and hardware resources that you can use for teaching, research, and administration.
The theme for this year’s fair is “Innovation Is Recession-Proof.” All of the technologies on display are available for you to use today without any additional cost to you or your department. Everything is either free or currently licensed/purchased by the College for your use.
Scheuer Room
Thursday, Nov 19th
10am-2pm
Light refreshments served.
Some of the things you’ll see at this years Academic Technology Fair include:
Swatfiles
SwatCal
SwatSurvey
Check out the Swarthmore-hosted survey system
Web Editing
Introduction to new Ingeniux editor features:
Digital Storytelling
See examples created by members of the Swarthmore community
High Performance Computing
Revolution
Learn about various exercises developed to test language production.
Augmented Reality
Integrate 3D models with real time video using ARToolkit
New Operating Systems
New in Media Services
Have a Great Idea?
Make sure to stop by and share your thoughts, questions, and suggestions with us. We’re eager to hear what you have to say!
Although new Mac OS and Windows OS are entering the market, ITS does not recommend upgrading to the new operating systems at this time. ITS will make an announcement in the near future about upgrades, but at this time, faculty and staff should not upgrade their office computers to the newer operating systems. In addition, if faculty/staff connect to Swarthmore networked resources from home, they should also not upgrade their home computer’s operating system until further notice. Current operating systems we support are, Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, and WinXP SP 3.
Since Move-In Day on Tuesday, students from the entering Swarthmore class of 2013 have registered quite a few new devices on our network.
421 individual computers were registered to the entering class in their first 24 hours on campus.
Stats as of 8/27/2009:
494 total devices registered by the class of 2013
261 Mac OS X computers
165 Windows Vista computers
43 Windows XP computers
25 iPods and iPhones
Over 450 new Virus Scan installations successfully installed over the three Operating Systems.
Seth Frisbie-Fulton
Restech Coordinator
ITS has recently updated the Blackboard course management system to include the Blackboard Content Manager. Similar to Swatfiles but for course related materials, the Content Manager allows faculty and staff to store material online for use in their courses.
Some uses for the Blackboard Content Manager:
To get started, click on the new “Content Manager” tab in Blackboard. You will be able to upload content to your personal content area (”My Content”) or your course areas.
There is more information available on the TriCo Blackboard Wiki.
For more information, contact Andrew Ruether (aruethe2 or x8254).
The new version of Safari offers some compelling new features. The “Top Sites” option displays your most frequently visited websites in grid format. This version also includes earlier features, including the “Snapback” option which makes it easy to return to your original site after browsing other pages. Compatible with Max OS X 10.5 and newer.
Visit http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ for more information.
Swarthmore ITS is pleased to announce the launch of SwatFiles, a secure web-based file storage system for faculty, staff, and students.
Available at swatfiles.swarthmore.edu, SwatFiles allows users to access their files from any computer with an Internet connection and share files with anyone with an e-mail address.
Features include:
To start using SwatFiles, visit swatfiles.swarthmore.edu and log in with your e-mail/network username and password. For additional information, click on the Getting Start Guide. Help is also available for students with the IT Associate in McCabe and via the Help Desk for Faculty and Staff.
Phishing is a common experience for email users these days. Swarthmore email users often receive requests for their network/email passwords, user IDs, and other private data. Some of these emails can be very convincing and appear to be from Swarthmore ITS Staff.
Below are some different types of phishing emails received here at Swarthmore:
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Subject: Dear swarthmore.edu Email Account Owner
From: Admin Help Desk
Date: November 28, 2008 6:41:35 AM EST
To: xxx@swarthmore.edu
Reply-To: adminhelpdesk4@gmail.com
VERIFY YOUR SWARTHMORE.EDU EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW..
Dear swarthmore.edu Email Account Owner,
This message is from swarthmore.edu messaging center to all swarthmore.edu email account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused swarthmore.edu email accounts to create more space for new accounts.
To prevent your account from being closed, you will have to update it below so that we will know that it’s a present used account.
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
Email Username : ………. …..
EMAIL Password : …………….
Date of Birth : ……………..
Country or Territory : ……….
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Thank you for using swarthmore.edu
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ
swarthmore.edu Team
www.swarthmore.edu
From: “swarthmore.edu Web-Administrador”
Reply-To: helpdesk89@live.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Dear Account User,
Your email account needs to be upgraded to our new F-Secure R-HTK4S anti-virus/anti-spam 2009 version.
All you have to do is to click reply and fill the column below, then click send; our webmail Team will upgrade your account. Failure to do this, your account will be suspended temporarily from our services.
user ID:
Password:
PHONE NUMBER:
Thank you for your cooperation!
swarthmore.edu Web-Administrador
https://swatmail.swarthmore.edu/nutsmail/src/login.php
From: “WebMail Maintenance Service”
Date: July 9, 2009 12:45:57 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Webmail Users Maintenance Notice.
Webmail Users Maintenance Notice.
This message was sent automatically by a program on Webmail which periodically checks the size of inboxes, where new messages are received. The program is run weekly to ensure no one’s inbox grows too large. If your inbox becomes too large, you will be unable to receive new email. Just before this message was sent, you had 18 Megabytes (MB) or more of messages stored in your inbox on your Webmail, to help us reset your SPACE on our database prior to maintain your INBOX, you must reply to this E-mail and enter your:
Current User name:{ } and Password: { }
You will continue to receive this warning message periodically if your inbox size continues to be between 18 and 20 MB. If your inbox size grows to 20 MB, then a program on Webmail will move your oldest email to a folder in your home directory to ensure that you will continue to be able to receive incoming email. You will be notified by email that this has taken place. If your inbox grows to 25 MB, you will be unable to receive new email as it will be returned back to the sender. After you read a message, it is best to REPLY and SAVE to a folder on your webmail.
Thank you for your cooperation.
WebMail Maintenance Service.
Dear Webmail User,
This message was sent automatically by a program on Webmail which periodically checks the size of inboxes, where new messages are received. Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit set by your administrator. You may not be able to send or receive new mail until your mailbox size is increased by your system administrator.
To help us re-set your SPACE on our database prior to maintain your INBOX,you must contact your system administrator by replying this e-mail and enter your: Current Username: { } and PW: { } to increase your storage limit.
The Information above should be sent to: helpdesk.webs05@live.com
You will continue to receive this warning message periodically if your inbox size continues to exceed its size limit or between 18 and 20 MB.
Thank you for your cooperation.
System Administrator
helpdesk.webs05@live.com
This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and contains information that is privileged and confidential.
From: “Webmaster”
Date: March 26, 2009 12:09:58 PM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Reply-To:
You are expected to verify your email account to avoid mailbox shutdown by furnishing us with the following detials :
Login Username:
Login password: **************
To avoid shutting down of your mailbox which could lead to loss of your important files on our server,you must send these details on receipt of this message.
Thank you very much.
Webmaster
From:
Date: April 15, 2009 12:30:48 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
ATTN: EDU WEBMAIL SUBSCRIBER:
This mail is to inform all our {EDU WEBMAIL} users that we will be upgrading our site in a couple of days from now. So you as a Subscriber of our site you are required to send us your Email account details so as to enable us know if you are still making use of your mail box.
Further informed that we will be deleting all mail account that is not functioning so as to create more space for new user. so you are to send us your mail account details which are as follows:
*User name:
*Password:
Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from our database. Your response should be send to the following e-mail address.
Your Admin Manager: information@oneworld-post.com
Yours In Service.
Mrs Sarah Elrays
FROM THE EDU WEBMAIL SUPPORT TEAM
CONFIDENTIALITY: This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.
You are the Key to Information Security
Attn: Faculty/Staff/Students,
This is to inform you that your mailbox will soon be de-activated by your System Administrator due to an unusual activity detected in your mailbox. We noticed that webmail account has been compromised by spammers. It seems they have gained access to webmail accounts and have been using it for illegal internet activities.
The center is currently performing maintenance and upgrading it’s data base. We intend upgrading our Email Security Server for better online services hence you may not be able to receive new mail until your mailbox is upgraded. Please Click the link below to validate your mailbox and upgrade your account.
hxxp://www.xavi01.byethost12.com/feedback09/feedback.html
If your mailbox becomes de-activated for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual closure of your mailbox.
The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee. Access, copying or re-use of the e-mail or any information contained herein by any other person is not authorized.
For more information on regarding Email at Swarthmore, visit the ITS site.
Beginning Monday, August 17th, about 30 students are attending a week-long, intensive training program to prepare them to work as IT Associates this year.? The students will participate in workshops to learn common support and troubleshooting techniques for network registration, wireless configuration, printing, Swatmail, voicemail, software installation, and virus detection and cleaning.? In addition, they will participate in group projects to plan for Move In Day and create user education materials for popular College systems.
The first big initiative for the IT Associates will be to “storm the dorms” on Move In Day to help incoming students connect their computers to the network.? After that, they will begin regular shifts staffing the Beardsley Help Desk, the McCabe Computer Consulting desk, maintaining dorm computing resources, and working on other ITS projects.
There have been numerous reports of phishing attempts this past weekend being propagated throughout Facebook. Facebook users are receiving messages that contain a link in a format similar to:
tinyurl.com/…..
Clicking on the link (or previewing it) will redirect you to a malicious site which impersonates the Facebook login page in an attempt to steal your Facebook credentials. In addition, many of these malicious sites will attempt to silently infect your computer.
If you receive any Facebook messages like this, simply delete them without clicking on the link.
In general, while making on-line life easier, tinyurl links make it far too easy for malicious users to hide the true nasty destination they’re trying to send you to. To stay aware of what you’re clicking on, I recommend avoiding tinyurl links altogether.
Good luck!
