Subject: LTS Digest July 25, 2002 Issue
From: Helen Zuercher (hlz2@Lehigh.EDU)
Date: Thu Jul 25 2002 - 12:25:18 EDT
LTS DIGEST July 25, 2002 Lehigh Univ. Library and Technology Services CONTENTS: --PUBLIC SITE UPDATE --"FIRE" - LEHIGH'S NEW LINUX BEOWULF CLUSTER --TWO NEW VERSIONS OF LIBRARY DATABASES --PHONE UPDATES --HELP DESK CHAT SERVICE NOW ONLINE 8AM-8PM --ENHANCED ELECTRONIC MAIL SECURITY Subscription, archive and contact information is at the bottom of this digest. PUBLIC SITE UPDATE As previously announced, all computers at Library and Technology Services (LTS) public computing sites have been upgraded to run the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system. The move to XP is expected to enhance system reliability and security. The Microsoft Office suite has also been upgraded to Office XP. LTS has been testing the XP environment throughout the summer, however, as these are new products, those who utilize the public sites are encouraged to test this software and any other site software they may require to determine compatibility within this environment. The need to test is especially pertinent to those who may temporarily install personally licensed software on systems at these sites for use in courses; in some instances security settings may prevent the software from installing. If this is the case, please contact the Software Librarian at ext. 86247 for installation assistance. Other problems pertaining to software at public sites should be directed to the Help Desk at ext. 8-HELP. The other primary area of change for the public sites centers on web browsers and the associated electronic mail clients. The default web browser is now set to be Microsoft Internet Explorer. As the most recent version of Netscape is currently only available in a beta (i.e., pre-release) version, a Netscape derivative called Mozilla has been installed as the default electronic mail client; click on the Lehigh Email icon to invoke the mail client portion of this program. For those who wish to use a web-based mail client, IMP continues to be available at http://Lehigh.edu/imp and a new web-based client will be available for testing as part of the upcoming Campus Portal pilot release. Note that functionality similar to Netscape Navigator and Composer can be obtained through the Mozilla icon within the Start menu. Seminars on the utilization of these products will be offered in the fall semester; watch for announcements around the beginning of the semester. Assistance in using these products is available from the Help Desk at ext. 8-HELP. "FIRE" - LEHIGH'S NEW LINUX BEOWULF CLUSTER Lehigh University has recently acquired a 96 processor Linux cluster that will be used for high performance and parallel computing applications. A Linux cluster is essentially a group of personal computers linked together using network cards and cables and managed by special Linux cluster management software. This technology can be used to perform complex parallel computing tasks at a fraction of the cost of traditional multi-processor computers. The majority of the cluster (64 processors) has been purchased by the Industrial Engineering department and the remaining 32 processors are currently available for use by the Lehigh community for free. However, as of September 1, 2002 a usage-based fee will be implemented in order to contribute to upgrades and annual maintenance of the system. Fire is located in the Library and Technology Services (LTS) computer room and is being administered by LTS programmers and Client Services staff. Please contact Kelly Decker at ksd2@lehigh.edu regarding opening an account on Fire. For more information contact David Morrisette at dpm2@lehigh.edu or visit the Beowulf website at http://www.lehigh.edu/~insgi/beowulf.html TWO NEW VERSIONS OF LIBRARY DATABASES Books in Print becomes Global Books in Print Global Books in Print, the new Books in Print service, covers English-language books published abroad, as well as those available from U.S. publishers. Lehigh users can also forward book requests to Library Acquisitions through the service, and check the Lehigh catalog to see whether a book is already available. For many books, summaries and reviews are included. Factiva the new Dow Jones News Retrieval Factiva is a new information product from Dow Jones and Reuters that will supplant Dow Jones Interactive (DJI will also be available until December 31, 2002). The service offers an improved search interface and access to over 8000 full-text publications, with some sources going back as far as the early 1980s. Company information available from Factiva includes both qualitative and quantitative reports and the latest headlines. Company data retrieved through the service can be assembled into customized reports. Global Books in Print and Factiva are now available from the Library Databases Web page http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Einref/databases/index.html Factiva requires the use of the Internet Explorer, version 5.01 or higher. PHONE UPDATES ANALOG CALLER ID PHONES (SCITEC) A number of users on campus have experienced problems with the new Scitec analog phone. Technology Management has been working daily with Scitec to resolve these issues. A special update is available at http://www.lehigh.edu/~intel/scitecupdates.html AT&T WIRELESS AGREEMENT After lengthy negotiations, we're pleased to announce that the new AT&T Wireless Agreement has been finalized. The agreement covers both university-paid phones and personal phones for students and employees. It provides special benefits not available to the general public. To obtain phones, students and employees can choose whichever AT&T Wireless plan works best, then apply the Lehigh benefits on top of the selected package. AT&T Wireless will be on campus regularly in the coming months to assist students and employees with acquiring or upgrading phones for personal use. Please follow the Wireless links from our Telephone Services page http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/ for further detail. LONG DISTANCE RATE CUT FOR FACULTY/STAFF Effective July 1, long distance rates for faculty and staff were dropped to 9.5 cents per minute for domestic calls, and 5 cents per minute for "local long distance" calls within Southeastern PA. This brings faculty/staff rates in line with student rates. International long distance rates (which were cut for all campus users two years ago) were not changed. HELP DESK CHAT SERVICE NOW ONLINE 8AM-8PM Computer users who have seen or experienced the immediacy of AOL Instant Messenger know that online chat is a great way to get information and answers fast. This summer, the help desk is offering a live, online chat-based service. LiveHelp works much like Instant Messenger except that the chat session is one-on-one (private) and the service has additional features for helping online computer and library users. LiveHelp is available from 8am-8pm Monday through Thursday, and 8am-5pm on Friday. This service can be used for any questions related to library and technology services. LiveHelp is available no matter where you're working, but it is especially useful for home computing. Users living outside the local calling area can avoid long distance charges; if there is only one phone line in your home, it won't be necessary to disconnect from the Internet to contact the help desk. Give it a try - just click on the Lehigh Help Desk icon at http://www.Lehigh.EDU/library/onlineref.html For more information, contact 610-758-HELP or the helpdesk@lehigh.edu ENHANCED ELECTRONIC MAIL SECURITY As part of an ongoing effort to enhance the security of networks and computing systems, Lehigh has purchased an IronMail appliance from CipherTrust. IronMail acts as a gateway to Lehigh s primary electronic mail server by monitoring all Internet or external mail server traffic entering or exiting the mail server. While IronMail provides a number of different services to the mail server, including monitoring to detect intrusions and other malicious behavior, the primary impact of the IronMail appliance to individuals is in its virus detection function. IronMail uses Sophos anti-virus technology to scan all email messages either coming from the Internet (or from some other mail server) to the main mail server, or exiting from the main mail server to the Internet (or to some other mail server). If a virus is found, IronMail will remove the virus if it can or else it will rename any executable files within the message such that the virus will not automatically execute. In either case, IronMail will send a message warning of a virus infection to the original sender of the message as well as send a warning message to the recipient with the original message as an attachment. Any message with an inactive virus as an attachment should be deleted. Note that IronMail does not scan messages internal to the main mail server (i.e., most messages from one on-campus individual to another). As such it is not a replacement for up-to-date virus detection software on individual computers. As always, unless your particular virus detection software includes provisions to automatically scan email, all message attachments should be saved to disk prior to opening the attachment in order to give your virus detection software the chance to work. ******************************************************************** Send your comments or suggestions for future topics by replying directly to the list. TO SUBSCRIBE TO IRDIGEST: Send email to: Listproc@lehigh.edu Type in the body of the message: Subscribe irdigest <your name>. Call the LTS Help Desk (84357) if you have any difficulty in subscribing. IRDIGEST archives are located at: http://www.lehigh.edu/lists/archives/irdigest
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