OIT News – June 2012

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 56, June 2012
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Follow OIT on Twitter @NCStateOIT
For up-to-the-minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk
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01:
Human Resources System 9.1 and Student Information System 9.0 upgrades targeted for Oct. 1
02. WolfPrint is changing
03: OIT to change processing time for Optical Mark Reading Services
04: Delegating contacts is now possible in Gmail
05: Improve Google Apps @ NC State services
06: Google announces Administrative Assistants Community
07: NC State participates in World IPv6 Launch
08: Download Google Doc Tool
09: Creating accessible headings
10: Report2Web demo and training available
11: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
12: SAR training suspended
13: Be sure to install SSL certificate updates
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01:  Human Resources System 9.1 and Student Information System 9.0 upgrades targeted for Oct. 1
On Monday, Oct. 1, the campus community will see a new, improved Human Resources (HR) System as well as a new Student Information System (SIS). Both are being upgraded to maintain vendor support.

Human Resources and OIT Enterprise Application Systems (EAS) will upgrade the current HR system to version 9.1, which will provide a new workflow-driven employee hiring process. New self-service features will include multiple account options for direct deposit of paychecks and paycheck statement printing enhancements. Details on these and other new features as well as help and training information can be found at the Human Resources Information Management website.

At the same time, Registration and Records, the Graduate School and OIT EAS will also be upgrading SIS to version 9.0. This upgrade will feature an enrollment wizard and an advisor dashboard. In addition, OIT is partnering with the College of Engineering Web Development Team and other campus IT units to provide mobile support for some SIS functions, such as class schedule and grade tracking. A website with details for the SIS 9.0 upgrade is forthcoming.

The upgrade schedule is as follows:

  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: Access to the HR 9.0 Production System is removed.
  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: HR 9.0 Reporting System remains active.
  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: Access to SIS 8.9 is read-only. Transactions will not be processed.
  • Midnight (approximately), Friday, Sept. 28: SIS 8.9 read-only access ends.
  • Midnight (approximately), Sunday, Sept. 30: HR 9.0 Reporting System access ends.
  • 7 a.m. (target) Monday, Oct. 1: HR 9.1 System and SIS 9.0 production systems are up.

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02: WolfPrint is changing
Effective Wednesday, June 27, WolfCopy, in conjunction with OIT, will introduce a new student-accounted service for WolfPrint printers.

Students will no longer pay for their printing via the infiNET QuikPAY system. Instead, they will use the AllCampus account infrastructure, which will allow them to pay for their printing with the same campus-wide account they use for other transactions. Accounted printing services will be managed using PaperCut print management software, and all printing funds in students’ existing accounts will be transferred into PaperCut as print credit. For more information, visit the WolfPrint is Changing Web page.

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03: OIT to change processing time for Optical Mark Reading Services
Due to an increase in service demand, OIT Optical Mark Reading (OMR) Services will change its processing time to scan exams and quizzes from 24 hours to two business days. This change is effective Thursday, Aug. 16 with the beginning of fall semester.

OMR supports nearly all of the university’s Scantron-based (bubble sheet) exams and quizzes, faculty and course evaluations, and surveys. Faculty and staff who use this service should plan accordingly for this change and for high volume periods such as midterm and final exams.

OMR will continue to process faculty and course evaluations within three to five business days and most surveys within five to seven business days. The processing time for customized surveys may take longer.

For additional information about OIT Optical Mark Reading Services, contact op-scanning@ncsu.edu.

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04: Delegating contacts is now possible in Gmail
Google Apps @ NC State users can now delegate full access to their contacts, including contact groups, without granting access to their email or anything else in their Google Apps account.

This new feature allows you to share your contacts with other users, but you should keep in mind:

  • You can delegate contacts only to Google Apps @ NC State users. You cannot delegate to a gmail.com or other non-Google Apps @ NC State account.
  • Users who have access to your contacts will also be able to edit your contacts.
  • Contact delegation is all or nothing. You cannot delegate a subset of your contacts.

To view best practices for delegating contacts, visit the Google Apps @ NC State Delegated Contacts Web page.

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05: Improve Google Apps @ NC State services
Have an idea to improve Google Apps @ NC State services? Please submit it online via the new Google Suggestion Box.

The suggestion box is just one method that the Google Apps @ NC State Service Team uses to prioritize issues for the Google Apps service and to improve the user’s experience. The team welcomes all service improvement suggestions and routinely passes them on to Google Inc., who makes implementation decisions on many features. For more information and to submit your suggestions, go to the Google Suggestion Box.

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06: Google announces Administrative Assistants Community
Google Inc. recently announced a new community for administrative assistants to share best practices, learn new tools, and build communities using Google Apps. The Support for Administrative Assistants community includes a live forum, interesting links, an event calendar, and a wish list.

In addition to the new community, Google also provides a new Gmail for Administrative Assistants Guide, which contains getting-started information on email delegation, common Gmail tasks, Gmail tips and tricks, and Gmail Labs of particular interest to administrative assistants.

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07: NC State participates in World IPv6 Launch
On June 6, NC State University participated in “World IPv6 Launch,” an event sponsored by the Internet Society to get organizations to permanently deploy the new Internet Protocol, IPv6. Current Internet Protocol (IPv4) addresses are projected to run out next year.

Using its permanent allocation of IPv6 addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and a proxy server, OIT Communication Technologies hosted several websites (oit.ncsu.edu, comtech.ncsu.edu and ncsu.edu) via IPv6 for participation in World IPv6 Launch Day. ComTech is currently testing IPv6 in a controlled lab environment and is developing plans for its future campus-wide deployment.

Last year, ComTech participated in World IPv6 Day, a 24-hour test during which service and content providers and other organizations enabled IPv6 on their main websites. For more information on the university’s IPv6 activities, visit ComTech’s IPv6 website.

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08: Download Google Doc Tool
University IT Accessibility has released a new conversion tool that allows people to share Google Docs more easily with assistive technology users.

The “Download Google Doc Tool” allows assistive technology users to easily transform these online documents to a much more accessible format such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, without the document author needing to explicitly provide the document in the additional Microsoft Office format. However, the new tool does not add any accessibility information to a document beyond what the document author included.

For more information about this new tool, visit the Getting My Google Doc in a More Accessible Format Web page.

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09: Creating accessible headings
Do you know how to create accessible headings in electronic documents or Web pages? University IT Accessibility Services has five-minute to 10-minute online videos available to help you learn the different aspects of using headings, including:

  • “How Headings Help Screen Reader Users”
  • “Using Headings Effectively”
  • “Microsoft Word Headings”
  • “Using Google Document Headings”
  • “Using Headings”
  • “Map to Check for Proper Heading Structure”

To learn how to format accessible headings, see the Training Videos or search for specific video training topics on the NC State YouTube channel. If you have additional questions, contact it-access@ncsu.edu.

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10: Report2Web demo and training available
Campus users are invited to attend new Report2Web demonstrations and training sessions this month. Report2Web, a Web-based report document repository at NC State, will be upgraded this summer.

To prepare campus users for the upgrade, OIT Shared Services will hold one-hour training sessions on Tuesday, June 26 at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., and 11 a.m. and on Wednesday, June 27 at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. To register for these and upcoming training sessions, visit Classmate. For more information about Report2Web, contact Derek Jordan at dcjordan@ncsu.edu.

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11: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, July 17 in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs).

This hands-on workshop will cover everything you need to know to get started with Gmail and Google Calendar, including an overview of the apps and helpful resources. For more information and to register, visit
Classmate.

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12: SAR training suspended
Monthly Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data has been suspended due to the Human Resources System and Student Information System upgrades, which are slated for Monday, Oct. 1. SAR allows campus users to request access to both of these systems. Please check the July issue of OIT News for the next available SAR training session.

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13: Be sure to install SSL certificate updates
When you log in to your online banking or email account, you assume you’re at the correct Web server location for these services and that your login session activities are secure. For many online service providers, secure socket layer (SSL) certificates signed by a trusted certificate authority guarantee this security.

Basically, your service provider sends your Web browser a SSL certificate, which contains a public encryption key from your website and a digital signature from a trusted certificate authority that establishes the certificate’s source as genuine. All Web browsers and email programs have a list of these trusted certificate authorities, and a list is built into Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Why do you need to install SSL certificate updates? In the past year, several certificate authorities have had security breaches. In two cases, rogue certificates were created for popular websites like Google, Microsoft and Facebook. To remedy this problem, certificate updates are issued for operating systems, Web browsers and even smartphones. When installed, the updates change the trusted certificate authority list, invalidating the digital signers of the rogue certificates.

On June 3, Microsoft discovered that Flame, a data stealing malware, was signed by one of its own certificate authorities that was on the list of trusted sources for all versions of Windows. The certificate authority was not compromised but had been misconfigured, allowing the malware to be signed and to appear to be a Microsoft application. Microsoft released a special patch for all versions of Windows.

What does this mean to you? If you use a Windows operating system or a smartphone, you should install the patch to update the Untrusted certificate store in Windows. To see if you need these certificate updates, run Windows Update and look for this particular patch or one with “root certificate update” in the name. You should also check under “optional patches,” as these updates are not usually ranked as critical. Root certificate updates are cumulative, so you need to install only the most recent one.

For more information, contact the NC State Help Desk at 919-515-4357 (HELP) or help@ncsu.edu.

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