IBM System Magazine includes a case study of the EITS project to decrease costs, while increasing customer service, on the central IBM mainframe.

The May/June issue of IBM System Magazine includes a case study on the highly successful EITS project to decrease costs, while increasing customer service, on the central IBM mainframe. This includes an extensive interview with Shannon Marable, an IT manager in EITS, who provided insight into the cost-savings/customer service project at UGA.

"In researching for the next-generation mainframe," said Shannon Marable, an IT manager for EITS, "we discovered that running a 64-bit operation system on an IBM zSeries mainframe would enable us to take advantage of the sub-capacity pricing metric for select IBM software. Given the tight budget times, the potential for cost savings was very attractive. We discussed the potential cost savings with UGA administration and they agreed to fund the initiative. The combination of upgrading to the 64-bit machine, along with sub-capacity pricing, led to both a substantial increase in performance and a dramatic decrease in monthly costs."

http://www.eits.uga.edu/pressreleases/2008/share-2.html

EITS staff present at EDUCAUSE

On Monday June 2, 2008, Lynn Latimer and Patrick Wagman, EITS Planning and Decision Support, presented a session on "Using Project Management Tools to Manage Services" at the EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference in Jacksonville, FL.

The presentation looked at the use of project management tools as the tools for documenting, gathering and providing basic analysis of the identified services. The specific tools discussed were the QuickBase database system and the Clarity Portfolio and Project Management system.

Mike Dennis, associate CIO for Client Services, Infrastructure, and Operations noted that "They represented EITS well and it was one of the best attended presentations at the conference."

To download and view Lynn and Patrick's presentation (requires MS PowerPoint), please click below:

http://eits.uga.edu/cioIO/presPapers/pmtools-educause-0608.ppt

Merger to provide one-stop shop for network installation needs

Effective July 1, 2008, the TEC Services Telecommunications Cabling Installation unit (TCI) will become part of the EITS Network Infrastructure Department. This will allow for a more integrated approach to the installation of data, telephone, CATV, and wireless infrastructure. All current TCI installation services will continue to be available as before.

http://www.eits.uga.edu/pressreleases/2008/tec-move.html

The Office of Admissions announces launch of new Admissions Referral website

Undergraduate Admissions requests the assistance of UGA Faculty and Staff in identifying talented high school students in order to include them on the UGA prospective student mailing list. Competition among selective universities for top high school students is increasing exponentially. We would like to know about your high school age children, grandchildren, extended family or neighbors in order to make sure they know about the fantastic opportunities that UGA can offer them. The referral will be used to ensure that the prospective student hears from UGA, but will carry no guarantee of admission or scholarships.

The referral website can be found here:

http://www.admissions.uga.edu/referral

Submitting the referral only takes a few minutes, but in addition to name and address, accurate information regarding year of high school graduation is imperative in order for us to initiate the appropriate correspondence. For more information, please contact Patrick Winter at pwinter@uga.edu

Four-day course on digital recording taught by music producer John Keane offered through UGA’s Music Business Program

Respected Athens music producer and engineer John Keane will teach a series of four-day workshops at the University of Georgia on the essentials of using Digidesign’s Pro Tools, the music industry standard for digital recording.

http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/080617_protools.shtml

Help desk tip: How do I create a Calendar account?

In most cases, a UGA Faculty/Staff member may create a Calendar account online by following these instructions:

1. Go to the UGA Calendar Service Page: (http://www.eits.uga.edu/calendar)
2. Click on "Create A Calendar Account"
3. Fill out the form and click "Create Account"
   NOTE: A user must have a valid UGA MyID to be eligible to create a Calendar account electronically.
4. The account will be created in about 2-3 business days (but usually less time than that).
   NOTE: You may get a message that you are not eligible when attempting to create your Calendar account via the web form. This typically happens to brand new faculty/staff members who aren't in our system yet or to faculty or staff who used to be students. If either of the above is the case, click on the link for the MANUAL ACCOUNT CREATION FORM found here:

http://www.eits.uga.edu/calendar/index.php?c=manual

The account will be created manually within 2-3 business days.

Send us your news

If you have an IT-related news item that you'd like to see in the EITS Weekly News, we'd like to hear from you. Please send your submission or contact us at:

itnews@uga.edu

EDUCAUSE survey shows students watch their privacy on Facebook

A new survey of more than 27,000 students nationwide indicates that most students are taking steps to limit access to their profiles on social networks.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3086/educause
-survey-shows-students-watch-their-privacy-on-facebook

Inside the new Opera 9.5 Web browser

Opera 9.5 boosts the already very good browser interface and provides increased security features and capabilities for synchronizing to mobile browsers.

http://etech.eweek.com/slideshow/index.php?
directory=opera95&kc=EWKNLEDP061608A

Short and sweet: Technology shrinks the lecture

Professors venturing into online education are discovering that shorter lectures work better outside the lecture hall, and some professors are taking that lesson back and applying it to traditional classroom teaching.

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i41/41a00901.htm

'Oldest' computer music unveiled

A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of computer generated music. The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester. The recording has been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of "Baby," the forerunner of all modern computers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm

European Commission stumbles on buying Microsoft alternatives

The European Commission, a thorn in Microsoft's side for its antitrust campaigns against the software giant, is falling short in its own internal attempt to promote more competition in the technology sector.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/EU-Stumbles-on-Buying-Microsoft-
Alternatives/?kc=EWKNLNAV061808STR5

Beware of new "piggyback spam" campaign

A new type of spam campaign is circulating around the globe - loaded with links to malicious files and the intension of building botnets - warns security vendor Marshal.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/55337,beware-of-new-piggyback-spam-
campaign.aspx

Victim of its own success

Life without the Internet is unimaginable for the millions who use it every day. But one of the world's leading academics on the impact of the net warns we could be facing its destruction.

Hacking has changed and the public have not adjusted their PC's security to the threat of viruses, spam, worms, phishing and fraud. It is estimated that the number of PCs involved in botnets (networks of infected machines open to instruction by the creator of the code which infected them) is 100-150m, or a quarter of all PCs on the internet, as of early 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7457000/7457841.stm

One in three suffer cyber-bullying

One in three children has suffered from some form of online bullying, according to research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/55269,one-in-three-suffer-cyberbullying.aspx

For the latest virus and security information

Visit the EITS antivirus Web site for the latest campus virus advisories and fixes:

http://www.virus.uga.edu

To learn more about security issues at UGA and around the world, please see the Office of Information Security Web site:

http://www.infosec.uga.edu/

https://www.ugajobsearch.com/applicants/jsp/shared/
frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1185199759407