Staff Happenings

Comings and Goings

The following people have left Information Technology Services. Please contact their manager if you need to follow up on any open items.

Tilak Dhar (Matthew Ricks)

Dan Stillmaker (Matthew Ricks)

its in bits welcomes more detailed employee news submissions from all staff. Please submit to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu

Tech Briefings

Tech Briefings

Fridays
2:00–3:30 p.m.
Turing Auditorium

Friday, October 9

Wireless Networking at Stanford — Kris Lao, IT Services. In this session, join Kris Lao as he discusses topics regarding Stanford's wireless network, focusing on Stanford's wireless architecture, guest wireless, and Self-Registration.

Friday, October 16

Voice Messaging Portal — Ammy Hill, IT Services.

Check the Tech Briefings home page for future sessions and to subscribe to the mailing list. Also see the Tech Express home page for information on upcoming presentations.

Technology Training Courses

IT Professional Development:

Drupal: An Introductory Workshop (ITS-3020), Tues, Oct 13, 9:00–4:00, $395

Drupal: Intermediate Workshop (ITS-3021), Tues, Nov 10, 9:00–4:00, $395

SQL Basics (ITS-2521), Mon, Oct 19, 9:00–4:00, $325

PHP Workshop (2 days) (ITS-2511), Nov4-5, 9:00–4:00, $525

XML Technologies (ITS-2531), Fri, Nov 13, 9:00–4:00, $325

Javascript (ITS-2541), Mon, Nov 16, 9:00–4:00, $325

Javascript Advanced: AJAX (ITS-2561), Tues, Dec 8, 9:00–4:00, $325

Perl Programming Plus Workshop (2 days) (ITS-2522), Dec 3–4, 9:00–4:00, $525

The full listing of Current Courses is available on the Tech Training web site.

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff:

Mac OS X Fundamentals (Leopard) (ITS-0401), Mon, Oct 12, 1:30–4:30, $195

Photoshop 101: Start Here (ITS-1460), Tues, Oct 13, 9:00–12:00, $195

ReportMart1 Introduction (ITS-8401), Tues, Oct 13, 1:30–4:30, Free

Photoshop 101: Start Here (Photoshop Lite) (ITS-1460), Tues, Oct 13, 9:00–12:00, $195

PowerPoint 2007: Seven Essential Time-saving Skills for Effective PowerPoint Use (ITS-1334), Wed, Oct 14, 8:30–12:00, $195

Word 2007: Seven Essential Time-saving Skills for Effective Word Use (ITS-0936), Wed, Oct 14, 1:00–4:30, $195

OrderIT Site Training (ITS-8301), Wed, Oct 14, 1:00–4:30, Free

Dreamweaver 101: Start Here (Dreamweaver Lite) (ITS-2601), Thurs, Oct 15, 1:30–4:30, $195

FileMaker Pro Lite v9.0: An Overview (ITS-1800), Thurs, Oct 15, 9:00–12:00, $195

Excel 2007: What? You Don't Know Excel Yet? (Level 1), Thurs, Oct 15, 9:00–4:00, $325

Web Design: Help! I have to take over the dept website — NOW WHAT??!!! (Lecture) (ITS-2500), Mon, Oct 19, 1:30–4:30, $125

Access Transition from 2003 to 2007 (ITS-1717), Tues, Oct 20, 1:00–4:30, $195

Excel 2007: Level 1, Part A: Excel Basics, Formulas, and Formatting (ITS-1157), Tues, Oct 20, 8:30–12:00, $195

Podcasts: Creating Audio Podcasts at Stanford (ITS-2652), Wed, Oct 21, 9:00–12:00, $195

Photoshop Level 1 (ITS-1462), Wed, Oct 21, 9:00–4:00, $325

Adobe Acrobat & PDFs: Creating, Collaborating, and Saving (The Basics) (ITS-1401), Thurs, Oct 22, 1:30–4:30, $195

Visio Professional 2007: Level 1 (ITS-1480), Fri, Oct 23, 9:00–4:00, $325

Upcoming Web Certification Workshop:

Certification Workshop: Web Professional in the Stanford Environment (ITS-2606), Fri, Dec 11, 9:00–4:00, $325
More information at webcertificate.stanford.edu.

Free Web Certification Coaching and Information Meeting, Fri, Oct 30, 12:00–1:00, Turing Auditorium

  • Get your questions answered about your preparedness
  • Plan the next steps in your curriculum
  • Meet others with the same goal and network with them
  • Find out more about what it takes to pass

Free Upcoming Email / Calendar Training:

Full schedule available at emailcalendartraining.stanford.edu

Stanford Email (Webmail) (ITS-2110)

Stanford Calendar (ITS-2300)

Introduction to Stanford Webmail (Lecture) (ITS-2020)

Introduction to Stanford Calendar (Lecture) (ITS-2121)

Cool Tips and Tricks for Stanford Email and Calendar (Lecture) (ITS-2117)

Outlook 2007 Mail (ITS-2111)

Outlook 2007 Calendar (ITS-2118)

Apple Mail (ITS-2113)

Apple iCal (ITS-2114)

Thunderbird Mail (ITS-2112)

The full listing of Current Courses is available at itsupcoming.stanford.edu, or on the Tech Training (techtraining.stanford.edu) web site.

Sign up at http://axess.stanford.edu.

Classes with low enrollment may be cancelled one week in advance. More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There was one new job posting for IT Services this week.

Req#36022: Director, Storage Services and Disaster Recovery, 1M4, 100%FTE, hiring manager, Matthew Ricks.

This position reports to the Executive Director of Computing Services within IT Services. Overarching responsibilities include the support of production and development storage systems in terms of deployment, operation, maintenance, performance, change management, standards, and monitoring.

To view the complete listings or to apply for a position, visit the StanfordJobs web site at: jobs.stanford.edu.

There are other open Information Technology positions at Stanford. To see what other opportunities exist on campus, link to the full list of all open IT positions at Stanford.

Quote of the Week

“The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

- Anonymous

News

A Note From Bill…

If the changing weather didn't tip you off, certainly the arrival of students and the start of classes tells us that autumn has arrived. This always feels like a very energetic time at Stanford — a time of new beginnings.

Autumn also marks the start of a new fiscal year. We will kick off the fiscal year with our opening Town Hall on October 15 at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center. Randy Livingston is our guest speaker and will cover numerous University topics, including Stanford's financial status.

In addition, we will introduce the organization's new Strategic Plan. As we discussed at the last Town Hall, IT Services has come a long way over the years: from annual project planning, to a three year project roadmap, to now, a more complete Strategic Plan and accompanying Implementation Plan.

If you go to our internal wiki, you will find a copy of the three year roadmap for FY10. I encourage you to take a look at it in advance. At the Town Hall we will be discussing the larger elements in the Strategic Plan along with the related roadmap. We continue to polish the full Strategic Plan and will post it immediately after the meeting.

Also at Town Hall, we will review some of the more interesting findings from the Employee Survey, how the scores differ from previous surveys, and what our key findings and opportunities are based on the current results.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the Town Hall, and I hope that you enjoy this early autumn time at Stanford as much as I do.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

October Town Hall

The next IT Services Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 15, in the McCaw Room at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. The meeting should already be on your Stanford calendar.

The Town Hall will feature Randy Livingston, Stanford's Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we will introduce new staff members, and Bill and the Executive Directors will discuss our response to the recent employee survey and our plans for FY10. As always, there will be time for questions and answers.

Please make plans to attend.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communications

Update on Forsythe Space Changes

The reconfiguration of Forsythe 145 to accommodate the IT Operations Center and Service Desk (Computing) (aka "Tier 1 Help Desk") staff is scheduled to be completed the week of October 12. The move of the Computing staff from Acacia is tentatively scheduled for Friday afternoon, October 16. The IT Operations Center staff are tentatively scheduled to move Friday night, October 16, and over the weekend.

These staff members will be combined in their new work area by Monday, October 19. A suitable "open-house" will be scheduled once the space is all spiffed up.

On Monday, October 19, the Order Processing staff in Forsythe 165 will move to Acacia in the spots vacated by the Service Desk (Computing). That will allow for the Forsythe Data Center Phase II expansion project to kick into high gear with the expansion of raised floor space into what was Forsythe 165 (and the adjacent hallway).

In a testament to our Work Anywhere capabilities, the Order Processing staff are working from home from Monday, October 5 until they move to Acacia on October 19. The project will re-purpose the cubicles from Forsythe 165 into seven workspaces for the Service Desk staff, saving a lot of money. Great flexibility and much appreciated!

- Chris Lundin
Client Support

CS Print Is Retiring

CS Gold — the application that enables card access — is retiring the CS Print program after its many years of service as the primary printing program. As a result, we will be notifying clients that effective September 1, 2010, this service will no longer be offered. Happily, the main libraries and ResComp as the primary users of the service have already transitioned to an internally supported program, PD Print. The remaining distributed libraries will be able to transition to using PD Print in the coming year. If you have any questions about CS Print retiring, or how to move to PD Print, please submit a HelpSU ticket.

- Jay Kohn
Card Services

Stanford Whole Disk Encryption Update

The Stanford Whole Disk Encryption (SWDE) service made its successful launch in May and has been steadily growing throughout the summer. Nearly 500 unique devices have been encrypted to date. Every month, a few users have needed assistance with a recovery token to bypass a forgotten passphrase, but this has affected less than ten people in each of the past two months. These requests are handled by the IT Operations Center twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

SWDE protects all data on a hard disk from unauthorized access in the event the computer is lost or stolen. Data security concerns are on the rise amidst several high-profile data security breaches. The best defense is still to avoid having Restricted or Confidential data on your computer, but SWDE offers a solution to protect campus users who cannot remove this data from their computers for business reasons.

As more users become aware of the risks, IT Services expects to receive additional requests for encryption service. SWDE is available for free to all faculty and staff. Once the initial setup process is complete, SWDE runs in the background without impacting system resources. The only time most users will know it’s there is when they reboot their computer and have to enter their SWDE passphrase.

- Shirley Hodges
Computer Resource Consulting/Desktop Systems Group

Minor Changes to StanfordCardPlan

The new StanfordCardPlan (SCP) that went in to effect on September 1 has had some minor changes since the announcement in the July 15 itsinbits article. Faculty and staff will now be able to retain the use of SCP for printing and copying only — they will not be able to use the card for other purchases. The new student component of SCP remains unchanged — they are able to use their card for printing, copying, and purchases at approved SCP locations. The Cardinal Dollars program to purchase pre-paid dining dollars remains unchanged. If you have any questions regarding the use of SCP for faculty and staff or the new SCP plan for students, please submit a HelpSU ticket or go to the Card Services web site.

- Jay Kohn
Card Services

Lenel Becomes Access Control Standard

As many of you are aware, the ACES (Access Control Enterprise System) project installed access control on all freshman residence exterior doors over the past year using the Lenel OnGuard system. Lenel was chosen following an RFP to identify the system Stanford would use going forward for all access control. With the freshman project basically complete, we are now beginning installations of Lenel on campus.

To clarify our direction for those with questions, all new buildings or reconstruction will utilize Lenel for access control.

We are also working on a project to retire the legacy CS Gold access locations and transition them to Lenel. Toward that end, we will only allow Gold access control as an addition of doors to an existing installation — there will be no "new" Gold installations. Any request for additional Gold doors will need to be approved to confirm the client is aware they will be spending dollars on a system that is retiring. There may be cases where this makes short-term sense, but we do want to make sure the client is fully aware of the decisions they are making and the associated costs.

If you have any questions about access control or the use of Lenel or Gold in a particular location, please feel free to contact me directly or submit a HelpSU ticket.

- Jay Kohn
Card Services

Fall Issue of Speaking of Computers

The fall issue of Speaking of Computers is now online. This e-newsletter highlights the latest news in technology-related and computing activities, services, and resources on the Stanford campus. Highlights of the fall issue include:

  • Changes to the StanfordCardPlan program, a pre-paid expense plan that enables students, faculty, and staff to use their Stanford ID card as a debit card to purchase some goods and services on campus.
  • New features for Google Books, including an easy way to embed a preview of a book on your Web site, and a better search within each book.
  • Fall Technology Training classes, including Drupal, IT professional development classes, and lynda.com, a new online training resource available to Stanford faculty, staff, and students.
  • Changes in IT Services' Software Licensing program on campus, including the transfer of the Microsoft and Adobe Student Software Sales programs to the Stanford Bookstore.
  • More Web tools for the Stanford community, including WebAFS, Collaboration Tools Installer, and the Stanford Web Forms Service.
  • Expanded Stanford access to online tech books via Books 24x7, and Safari Books Online.
  • And much more!

Speaking of Computers is published at the beginning of Fall, Winter, and Spring Quarters by SULAIR Publications.

Please send any questions or feedback to me.

- Eleanor Brown
SULAIR Publications

IT Staff Get "Smart"

Congratulations to everyone who successfully installed a SmartStrip in their workstation as part of Green IT Services. This not only helps reduce our electricity use, it saves money and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Green IT Services offered five $20 gift cards from Coupa Café for those who had completed installation by September 4, and Brian Young, Ed Nuqui, Dean Zanardelli, Jay Heyman, and Jeremy Tavan were the winners.

Not sure what we're talking about? If you've got peripherals in your workspace (printer, speakers, scanner, external hard drives, extra monitors, etc.) that can be turned off when your computer or monitor goes to sleep, then you should use a SmartStrip to drastically reduce the phantom energy drain from these items. Ask your building admin how to get a SmartStrip.

If you've got a SmartStrip and need help installing it, your building admin can help. There is a known issue with 'cycling' with some Dells and Macs, so if you've experienced this, please let me know and I'll make sure you get an upgraded SmartStrip.

- Joyce Dickerson
Sustainability & Energy Management

Sick? Stay Home

The cold and flu season is certainly near. Please be considerate of others; if you are sick please stay home as a way to reduce the spread of the cold and flu.

Stanford University recently released return-to-work guidelines if you know (or believe you have) come into contact with the H1N1 strain of flu.

The Vaden Health Center is offering free flu shots for Stanford staff beginning in October. We wanted to make you aware of this additional resource. Even though these shots are for the seasonal flu (not H1N1) it is an added precaution you can consider to safeguard your health during this flu season. Additional information is available on the Vaden Health Center web site.

- Nancy Ware
Strategic Planning

Coats for Kids Drive

Each year Classic Cleaners collects, cleans, and distributes coats for kids throughout the community. Last year they distributed over 7,000 coats. This year, Classic Cleaners has teamed with Splash Dogs to create the first annual Coats for Kids Halloween Splash. The Coats for Kids Halloween Splash is a two-day event (Oct. 31 – Nov. 1) featuring dock diving dogs.

What is dock diving? Simply put, it’s the long jump for dogs. Each dog takes turns going up on a 40-foot long dock, runs down the dock, and jumps into a 40-foot long pool. If you have a dog that likes to swim and jump, this is the sport for you.

Come out and cheer for your dog and see who can jump the farthest. Participate in costume contests and ball jumps for a chance to win a prize.

All proceeds benefit the Coats for Kids program and are 100% tax deductible. If you're interested in making a donation or would like more information, check out the event web site.

- Anna Pettinati
IT Operations Center

About its in bits

A regular summary of IT business, news about personnel, and pointers to other information of interest to IT Services staff. Coordinated, compiled, and published by the Communication Strategy and Standards Team. its in bits is published on the first and third Wednesday of the month.

Submissions are due by Noon on the Friday before the scheduled issue, to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu for consideration. its in bits is distributed via email to its-all-staff@lists.stanford.edu and the subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via mailman.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, October 21, 2009.