If All You Have is a Hammer: These days I get plenty of e-mail, particularly from my fellow Penn Staters, with unnecessary e-mail attachments. I say unnecessary because all Penn State Access Account holders have access to at least 50MB of shared enterprise wide file storage space. more...

The Penn State Portal: The Penn State Portal is your personalized view of University and Internet resources. Similar to My Netscape or My Yahoo!, the Penn State Portal lets you collect all of your favorite content in one place. You decide what you want to see and how you want to see it by editing the customizable Web page channels and channel content. Portal channels provide a means by which customizable Web page information is displayed. The Penn State Portal channels contain two essential parts: the title bar and the content. The Penn State Portal contains channels like: Did you know-facts about Penn State, My Calendar-personal calendar, My College Career-links from Career Services about obtaining a job, internship, or summer employment, My Collegian-your personalized view of The Digital Collegian, and much more! Getting access to the Penn State Portal is pretty easy, provided that you meet the following criteria: you are a Penn State student, you have an active Penn State Access Account, and you have personal Web space. To apply for personal Web space, complete the on-line form at https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace/. Once your personal Web space is established, fill out the Portal "Add Me" form at https://portal.cac.psu.edu/add_me/.

Penn State Virus Page Expanded: Penn State's virus page at http://cac.psu.edu/infotech/virus.html on the Web has been expanded. The site is intended to help students, faculty, and staff protect their computers and files from computer viruses and other forms of malicious code. The following topics are presented: what a virus is, what viruses do, how to protect your machine, how to find news and information about viruses and hoaxes, how to receive automatic notification about virus threats, and how to get help. If you receive mail that you believe contains a virus, or think your machine may already be infected with a virus, contact the Center for Academic Computing (CAC) Help Desk at (814) 863-1035 or (814) 863-2494. For locations and hours, see the CAC's consulting services page at http://cac.psu.edu/consulting/consult.html on the Web.

Military Withdrawals and Penn State Access Accounts: Computer and Information Systems will maintain the Penn State Access Accounts for currently enrolled students and employees who are called away for military duty. In order to keep their Penn State Access Account, students and employees do not need to contact Computer and Information Systems. Currently enrolled students who process a military withdrawal with the Office of the Registrar will maintain their Penn State Access Account automatically. Full-time employees who take a leave of absence for active military service or training (as per policy HR19 at http://guru.psu.edu/policies/OHR/hr19.html) also will maintain their Penn State Access Account automatically. Part-time employees should contact their supervisor or Human Resources Representative. Supervisors or human resources representatives must e-mail accounts@psu.edu in order to obtain an extension for part-time employee accounts. Questions regarding Penn State Access Accounts can be directed to the Center for Academic Computing Accounts Office at (814) 865-4772 or accounts@psu.edu.

Play it Safe -- Back Up Your Files: Most people realize that they should back up their computer files, but don't bother because it can be tedious, time consuming, and costly. This inaction can cost many hours of work and the loss of irreplaceable data. Although you may not realize it, your computer programs and data are at risk of loss or damage from a number of potential threats. These include computer viruses, hardware failure, intentional malice, and human mistakes. more...

Need a Place for Your Server? The Co-location Center can Provide a Solution ... The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) has created a Co-location Center to meet the University community's demand for machine room environmental conditions. The new Co-location Center, a central-housing facility for computer systems, is now available to Penn State departments and units for a monthly fee. The fee is based on the amount of needed and consumed resources, such as the volume of space required, network connections, and power connections. Environmental conditions provided by the Center include a raised floor, conditioned air, UPS power, and secured physical access. The Co-location Center, located in Room 140-C Computer Building, can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via your Penn State ID+ Card. Once you apply for and are granted Co-location Center space, your ID+ Card number will be added to the card reader for Room 140-C. For additional information, please visit http://cac.psu.edu/colo/, direct emails to colo@psu.edu or call (814) 865-8208.