iNews: Top Stories

Effective November 1, 2009, the rate for hourly consulting and support services provided by IST–Departmental On-site Computing Services (DOCS) increased from $80 to $82. The monthly subscription rate for desktop support remains unchanged.

CalNet has established terms of service that relate to the CalNet test environment; login and logout standards for applications that use the Central Authentication Service (CAS); and a prohibition against proxied CalNet Authentication without an approved exception. The CalNet team asks campus departments to comply with these terms by June 30, 2010.

The Campus Guidelines for Kiosk Workstations are a limited set of basic guidelines departments should follow if they provide workstations that are available for use by the general public. The guidelines focus primarily on configuring kiosk machines to minimize the chance that users will inadvertently leave themselves logged in when they leave a public workstation, and educating kiosk users so that they don't inadvertently leave themselves logged in to a public workstation.

The CollectionSpace project is hosting three webinars to introduce people to CollectionSpace, the open-source, web-based software application for the description, management, and dissemination of museum collections information. Webinar participants will get an advanced look at CollectionSpace; meet the design and development teams; learn about the software's advanced architecture, functionality, and user experience; hear about the production schedule and deployment plans; and learn how to get involved with the project. Each webinar will conclude with a question-and-answer session.

In spring 2009, the CalNet team partnered closely with staff in Student Affairs–myBerkeleyApp and IST–Web Applications to implement a number of changes, such as reducing the wait time for creating CalNet IDs, to help improve the experience new students have when they first access electronic resources on campus.

The Cal Student Store now offers an in-store computer and printer repair service for campus students, staff, faculty, and departments. A technician is available weekdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Departments can make arrangements for printer repairs to be done on-site at department locations by calling 1-800-672-2734.

Campus voicemail service rates have been reduced by as much as 76 percent. The new rates are effective October 1, 2009, and apply to current voicemail service subscriptions as well as orders for new voicemail service.

The CalMail team will begin transitioning CalMail's IMAP, POP, and SMTP access to CalNet authentication on Wednesday, September 30, 2009, at 9:00 am. The switchover of accounts to CalNet authentication will be staged over at least a one-week period (five business days) to handle the anticipated support load increase.

On August 3, 2009, CalMail began the transition to CalNet authentication with the adoption of CAS by CalMail webmail clients. Now, users of CalMail desktop clients, such as Thunderbird, Outlook, or Eudora, may also use their CalNet passphrases to log in to CalMail.

As you may be aware, the latest Mac OS release, 10.6 "Snow Leopard", is not compatible with the campus site-licensed antivirus software, Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) for Macintosh 10.2.1. To cover the antivirus needs of Mac OS 10.6 users, Symantec has made the recently released 10.6–compatible Norton software, Norton AntiVirus (NAV) for Macintosh 11.0.3, available to UC Berkeley until the updated version of SAV for Macintosh is released. This software is now available for download on Software Central, under "Early Adopters" in the Symantec AntiVirus section.

Cal Voicemail, the new campus voicemail system, will deploy September 26, 2009. Those who wish to get a head start can set up their Cal Voicemail mailboxes effective September 17. Orders for new voicemail service received September 18 and later, will be processed after September 26.

As part of an overall campus effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Vice Chancellor's Administrative Council (VCAC), the Office of the CIO (OCIO), and Cal Overstock and Surplus are sponsoring a project to replace CRT monitors on campus with energy-efficient LCD monitors. A replacement credit of $20.00 is available for every LCD monitor purchased by September 25, 2009, in combination with the trade-in of a working CRT monitor.

In an effort to provide some relief to departments as they cope with the current financial crisis, effective September 1, 2009, IST is reducing the cost of basic dial tone service by 20 percent. Departments will see the reduction in their September IST Bill Statement and Summary.

Testing of the new captive portal — a replacement for the current authentication system used with AirBears — at 2484 Shattuck and 2195 Hearst (Earl Warren Hall) is going well. The Captive Portal team is now opening the testing process to the campus community and has scheduled three open testing sessions for the end of September.

Based on lower demand, combined with reductions in resources, The Scholar's Workstation (TSW)  is reducing services provided by the Technology Store for Departments. Effective September 18, TSW will no longer be making deliveries to departments, store hours will be shortened, and inventory for walk-in purchases will be reduced.

As part of the campus effort to operate more efficiently, Business and Technology's Computing Operations and Information Services (COIS) unit will merge with IST effective September 1, 2009. COIS' variety of services will be an excellent complement to current IST offerings.

As previously announced, Berkeley is collaborating with LBNL to launch a new voicemail system for the campus. Deployment of the new system is now scheduled for September 26, 2009. IST moved the date to avoid any possible negative impact on departments at the start of the fall semester.

Due to internal restructuring, the College of Natural Resources will no longer develop or support the Our Unit application. Effective immediately, IST's Web Applications unit will take responsibility for the Our Unit application code and will provide transitional support for Our Unit while a long-term roadmap for the application is developed.

The start of the semester is a peak period that corresponds to increased load on our infrastructure combined with high levels of anxiety for incoming students. To minimize the potential for disruption during this time, IST is implementing a two-week freeze on changes impacting student systems. The freeze will be in effect from 7:00 am, Friday, August 14, 2009, through 5:00 pm, Friday, August 28, 2009.

The IST Storage team will discuss the services their group offers. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance to generate_ucb_email("storageteam", "lists", "."); storageteam at lists dot berkeley dot edu.