Penn State Launches Fall Take Control Campaign (10/26/06)
This week, the University is launching its 3rd annual Take Control security awareness campaign and contest, with an urgent message for students, faculty and staff to "take control" by learning about personal security dangers such as phishing, spyware, Internet fraud, and more. The campaign will also emphasize secure password practices and safe Internet conduct when using social networking venues such as blogs, chat, eprofiles, e-mail and instant messaging. This year's contest offers a laptop prize and features the theme "What was I thinking?" to encourage students, faculty, and staff to think about how insecure actions can lead to situations they may regret. All Penn State community members are urged to participate in the contest and learn about secure digital identity practices at http://its.psu.edu/takecontrol/.

New ANGEL Tools Offer Enhanced Flexibility and Communication: (9/22/06)
Faculty now have access to three new ANGEL tools: the Course Gradebook, discussion forums, and the Penn State Test Tool. Each tool offers enhanced flexibility and improved means for providing feedback to students. Faculty are also invited to visit the new ANGEL Community Hub blog site, which has been created to facilitate dialogue between faculty and support staff about best practices for using new and existing ANGEL tools.

Penn State WebMail Users Migrated to New and Improved WebMail2 During August (7/26/06)
Beginning on August 3, 2006, ITS will migrate current Penn State WebMail users to the new and improved version, WebMail2. Originally WebMail was designed as an e-mail reader for users-on-the-go. Since its creation in 2000, it has grown in popularity and is now used as a primary e-mail client throughout the entire University community, serving more than 55,000 users per day. WebMail2 is designed to meet this growing demand. In order for the Penn State community to fully enjoy WebMail2's new and improved features, groups of users of the current WebMail service will be migrated to the new system, on a daily basis, throughout the entire month of August. The conversion will be completed by the first day of classes on September 5. Daily migrations will occur only between the hours of 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. Those who are being migrated will not be able to access e-mail via WebMail during his/her migration. Should users attempt to access WebMail during the migration time frame, detailed error messages will be in place within the WebMail client to inform users that migration is taking place for their respective accounts. With the culmination of this effort, WebMail users will be able to enjoy a number of new features, including 500MB of fast and dedicated e-mail storage space (in addition to an original gigabyte of PASS space); a tabbed interface; filters for organizing mail and filtering spam; an enhanced message composition screen with an HTML editor and improved spell checker; and, customizable interface themes. For additional information and migration details, please visit http://aset.its.psu.edu and https://webmail.psu.edu/.

Enhancements To TNS LAN Services (7/21/06)
Telecommunications & Networking Services (TNS), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), is pleased to announce an enhancement to the LAN design, installation and maintenance service. Effective immediately, ITS customers will have additional maintenance options when requesting a LAN from TNS. TNS will continue to offer both "Full" and "Hub-Only" forms of installation and maintenance (for more details, see Installation and Maintenance of Local Area Networks at http://tns.its.psu.edu/policies/privateLans.html). To meet requests to include both design and installation of patch cables while excluding their maintenance in situations for which "Hub-Only" maintenance is desired, a new service variant has been created, called "Full LAN installation/Hub-only Maintenance". This affords an additional approach to installation and maintenance options, by separating choices as applied to qualified networking electronics, and to patch cables. Please refer to TNS's LAN Services Web site at http://tns.its.psu.edu/services/LAN/LANdesign.html for additional information. Academic and administrative units wishing to obtain LAN services should contact TNS through the Web service inquiry form (http://tns.its.psu.edu/forms/lanSerReqForm.html) or (814) 865-5486.

Penn State IT administrator testifies before U.S. Senate on Internet neutrality issue (6/15/06)
In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week, a Penn State information technology administrator suggested that the federal government should back legislation that would retain network non-discrimination rules -- known as 'net neutrality.' Jeff Kuhns, senior director of Information Technology Services at Penn State, testified at the invitation of committee chair Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday (June 14) at the U.S. Capitol. He urged senators to support a bill that would prevent Internet service providers from blocking or altering certain Web content. more...

MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA IN TESTING PHASE (6/06/06)
Microsoft is planning to release a new version of the MS Windows desktop operating system. The new system (Windows Vista) will be a replacement for Windows XP and is scheduled for final release during, or sometime after January 2007. ITS staff are currently working with Microsoft through the company's Technical Beta program to test and report on the new software. ITS is also evaluating possible challenges for Penn State's adoption of the system, based on compatibility with central University IT services. For more information, please see http://its.psu.edu/headsup/VistaOS/.

Upgrade Slated for Penn State Search Engine - July 11, 2006 (5/15/06)
Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will upgrade the Penn State Search Engine on July 11, 2006 to a newer version of Google Search Appliance. more...

New Version of ANGEL to be Released in May (5/5/06)
On May 13, Information Technology Services plans to upgrade Penn State's Course Management System, ANGEL, from version 6.2 to version 6.3. more...

Libraries' MediaTech Hosts Annual Technology Expo (3/31/06)
Penn State University Libraries' Media and Technology Support Services (MediaTech) is hosting the 2006 Technology Expo on Monday, May 1, 2006, from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The MediaTech Expo provides an ideal opportunity to see and try new technology and audiovisual equipment that students, faculty and staff may be considering for purchase. On site vendors and MediaTech staff at the Expo will be available to answer questions and provide demonstrations of the latest in plasma display screens, video/data projectors, electronic white boards, sound systems, video/data switching systems, document cameras, DVD players, digital still cameras, digital video cameras, technology podiums, touch-screen control systems, wiring products, lighting solutions, and more. For more information, please contact MediaTech at 814-863-3202.

GEaRS Receives Microsoft Development Grant (3/31/06)
ITS Graduate Education and Research Services (GEaRS) recently received a ConferenceXP Node Development Opportunity grant from Microsoft Research External Programs. The ConferenceXP research platform offers a group oriented multimedia tele-conferencing framework that enables rich media, multi-group to multi-group collaborative work sessions and learning experiences in and out of the classroom. The grant will provide GEaRS with two Dell Dimension XPS graphics workstations, videoconferencing hardware and Microsoft Developer Network subscriptions. Penn State's GEaRS teleconferencing facility is available for use by faculty who are interested in exploring the potential of rich media telecollaboration in their work, or who have opportunities to work with similarly equipped colleagues at remote institutions. For the complete announcement on the Microsoft award, go to http://css.its.psu.edu/news/nlsp06/deploymentaward.html. To learn more about the GEaRs teleconferencing facility, contact access-grid@psu.edu.