Update your eNews RSS Feed !!

We have completed the migration of our website to Plone, the Content Management System that currently houses the College of Agricultural Sciences and main Cooperative Extension websites.

As a result of moving to Plone, the AgSci IT eNews RSS Feed has changed. The move to Plone has made the RSS Feed creation automatic, a very good thing.

Please update your eNews RSS Feed for the new address:

http://agsci.psu.edu/it/news/latest/RSS

Unfortunately, several features of the old blog/RSS Feed are not supported in Plone. For example, previously you could listen to the RSS Feed via Odiogo or iSpeech, subscribe to the Feed via iTunes, and receive the full article via the RSS Feed.

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

AgSci News: Ag IT Website Gets a Facelift

You will soon notice that the Ag IT website will have a slightly different look. We have almost completed the migration of the website to Plone, the Content Management System that currently houses the College of Agricultural Sciences and main Cooperative Extension websites.

The Ag IT website will still contain all of the valuable information as before, but the look will be slightly different.

One area affected by the move to Plone is the Training portion of the site. You will still use this area to review and register for scheduled training sessions, BUT please look for the link “Register or get more information” at the bottom of the course description to complete course registration.

If you have any questions or comments about the new site, please feel free to submit a Help Request.

Sherry Crum, Educational Technologist

AgSci News: Learn More About Adobe Connect

Do you need to learn more about how to use Adobe Connect to reduce costs and to reach more people? You’re in luck. You have two avenues of training: the College’s IT Unit and the University ITS Training Services.

Adobe Connect – I’m a Host, What do I Do? This is a hands-on class. Register on our IT Website: http://go.cas.psu.edu/training/

• March 17 – 1:30-3:30 p.m.
• April 21 – 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• May 18 – 1:30-3:30 p.m.

How to Host a Webinar. Register on our IT Website: http://go.cas.psu.edu/training/

• March 11 – 9:00-10:00 a.m.
• April 15 – 2:00-3:00 p.m.
• May 13 – 10:00-11:00 a.m.
• June 2 – 9:00-10:00 a.m.

Request an Adobe Connect training for your department, team, unit or county by contacting any of the Educational Technologists: Peg Shuffstall (pshuffy@psu.edu), Jacki Weikert (jweikert@psu.edu), Sherry Crum (slg161@psu.edu), or Albert Nakpil (aln@psu.edu).

Adobe Connect Demonstration session by Information Technology Services (ITS):

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. No registration necessary. Just show up at this meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/

The Educational Technologist Team Sherry Crum, Ron Matason, Albert Nakpil, Peg Shuffstall, and Jacki Weikert

Security News: Typical Home Windows User Patches Every 5 Days

"The typical home user running Windows faces the "unreasonable" task of patching software an average of every five days, a security and vulnerability research company said today.

"It's completely unreasonable to expect users to master so many different patch mechanisms and spend so much time patching," said Thomas Kristensen, the chief security officer of Secunia. The result is that few consumers devote the time and attention necessary to stay atop the patching job, which leaves them open to attack.

After comparing the software portfolios on each machine with the bugs Secunia tracked during 2009, Secunia determined that the typical user faced nearly 300 vulnerabilities during the year, and with the number of vendors represented on the PC, had to deal with approximately 75 patch incidents annually.

That averages out to a patch action every 4.9 days.

"It surprised us that there were so many applications on the systems," said Kristensen, "and that then there were so many updates they had to do in a year." Also important, he said, was that the typical user had to master 22 different patch mechanisms, one from each of the 22 software makers whose programs were on her PC."

To read the rest of the article, go here:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030410-typical-windows-user-patches-every.html

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

How Do I... Use Disk Cleanup to Remove System Restore Points

System Restore is a great feature, but restore points can take up a lot of space as well. Did you know that Disk Cleanup will allow you to remove all but the most recent one? If you are pressed for disk space, this is another trick to eke out a bit more space from your hard drive.

1. Choose Start menu | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup.
2. Click the More Options tab.
3. Under System Restore, click the Clean up button.
4. When asked "Are you sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point?", click Yes.
5. Click OK. Click Yes.
6. The window will close when done.

The complete How To Use Disk Cleanup is here: http://it.cas.psu.edu/917.htm

When you have finished the cleanup, check out our How To Use Disk Check and How To Use Disk Defragmenter to fill in the gaps of the items you just deleted.

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

How Do I... Adobe Connect – "Hiding" the Attendee List

At times during an Adobe Connect meeting you may not want to display the Attendee list within the meeting "stage." One reason for this may be simply due to a shortage of available space on the screen. If you find that you would prefer not to display the Attendee list on the stage, but still want the Hosts and Presenters to be able to see who is attending the meeting, you do have an option.

There is an area of Adobe Connect known as the Presenter Only area. Anyone with host or presenter permissions can use this area. To learn how to use the Presenter Only Area you can watch this short (under 2 minute) video tutorial.

https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a227210/presenteronlyarea

Sherry Crum, Educational Technologist

How Do I... Saving Multiple Attachments in Microsoft Outlook

When you receive a message containing several attachments, you do not need to open and save each file separately. In one step, you can save multiple attachments to the same location.

In Outlook 2003, open the message then click File -> Save Attachments, and select Save All Attachments. In Outlook 2007, open the message and select Microsoft Office button -> Save As -> Save Attachments.

Choose a location to save them and click Save.

You can then delete the E-mail message from your Inbox.

Jacki Weikert, Educational Technologist

Tech Spotlight: Chuck Norris Botnet

This article from Network World entitled "Chuck Norris botnet karate-chops routers hard" describes how poorly configured routers and DSL modems can allow malware into your home network.

"Security experts say that various types of botnets have infected millions of computers worldwide to date, but Chuck Norris is unusual in that it infects DSL modems and routers rather than PCs.

It installs itself on routers and modems by guessing default administrative passwords and taking advantage of the fact that many devices are configured to allow remote access."

The easiest way of preventing this from happening to you is by using a strong password on the router or DSL modem.

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

Tech Spotlight: Twitter Safety

If you use Twitter, here are two issues to bring to your attention.

First, be cautious of Direct Messages (DM) from people you follow.

"Messages asking "This you????" followed by a link are being sent via the system to unsuspecting users. If you click on the link you are taken to a fake Twitter login page, where hackers are just waiting for you to hand over your credentials. In fact, they can automatically post the phishing message from your account as soon as you hand over your details. If you have received a message like this from one of your friends it is likely that their account has been compromised by cybercriminals."

To read more and see a YouTube video for a demonstration of the phishing attack, please visit here:

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2010/02/24/phishing-attack-hits-twitter-users/

Second, this Twitter Help Resources page describes How Twitter Accounts Become Compromised (Did somebody hack me?).

"Accounts may become compromised if you’ve entrusted your username and password to a third-party application, or if your Twitter account is vulnerable due to a weak password, viruses or malware on your computer, or a compromised network

Unexpected updates don't always mean that your account was hacked. Occasionally, a third-party application can have a bug that causes weird things to happen your account. If you see strange behavior, changing your password and revoking connections will stop it, as the application will no longer have access to your account.

It’s best to take action as soon as possible if updates are appearing in your account that you did not intend to have posted or approve. You can find more information about Account Security on the Safe Tweeting help page."

Takeaway Points:

• Use a strong and UNIQUE password for your Twitter account.
• If you get a weird link from a follower that you think is a phishing site or a spam site, reach out and suggest they change their password right away. You can also send them to the help page for compromised accounts so they can get more information.
• Select third-party programs and applications you use with your Twitter accounts very carefully. Learn more here: http://help.twitter.com/forums/26810/entries/76052

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

Tech Spotlight: Password Generator

The PC Tools Password Generator allows you to create random passwords that are highly secure and extremely difficult to crack or guess due to an optional combination of lower and upper case letters, numbers and punctuation symbols.

You can choose from seven different options and click "Generate Password(s) to create a new, strong and unique password.

http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

Tech Spotlight: Limit Your Exposure To Cell Phone Radiation

Cell phones in 2010 are loaded with new features. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) reports that you might be paying a hidden price for these phone: exposure to high levels of cell phone radiation. Since makers and vendors aren’t required to disclose their products radiation output at point of sale, you won’t find out from those pricey ad campaigns or even the labels.

Some models with the highest levels of legal radiation are the Motorola’s Droid, Blackberry Bold 9700, LG Chocolate Touch and HTC Nexus One by Google. To see a list of the 10 best phones, go here: http://www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation

EWG has created a user-friendly interactive cell phone radiation list and database that covers more than 1,000 phones now on the market. You can see this list here:

http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone?allavailable=1

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

Tech Spotlight: Accurate Outlook Duplicate Remover

Disclaimer: Information presented here is provided as a general information resource. Any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply recommendation or endorsement.

Accurate Outlook Duplicate Remover (AODR) can find and remove all duplicate Outlook items automatically. It quickly removes duplicates from Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes and Email folders in one click. You can select any folder for Duplicate Removing.

http://accuratesolution.net/AccurateOutlookDuplicateRemover.htm

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

All Interest: The U.S. Census 2010: Don’t be Counted as a Victim of Online Fraud

On February 26th, 2010, the Symantec Security Response Blog posted the following:

"It’s been ten years already; can you believe it? I’m talking about the U.S. Census. It’s been ten years since the last one. Time to do it again. No, it wasn’t on my calendar either. To remind all of us and to encourage us to participate, the U.S. Census Bureau is spending $340 million to get the word out. There was even a Super Bowl ad.

The Census Bureau will not be the only ones trying to get our attention and encouraging us to help them collect data. Cybercriminals will be doing the same thing. But they’ll be trying to fool us into thinking they are the Census Bureau. And the data they’ll be collecting will be a little different. It will be personal information they can use to rip us off.

How do I know this? First, the census is a perfect dodge for cybercriminals. After all, people are already expecting to have to reveal personal information about themselves, and with a little bit of social engineering, criminals could easily use this as a springboard to victimize computer users. And second, in today’s threat landscape, spammers, scammers, and every other sort of online evil-doer seemingly jump all over every major (and even minor) event in an attempt to use social engineering to fool computer users into becoming their prey."

To read the rest of the blog post and get some great tips on avoiding any scams, please go here:

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/us-census-2010-don-t-be-counted-victim-online-fraud

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

All Interest: New Poll Shows Most Productive Time of Day

What time of day is your most productive? For me, it's early morning. But that is my dairy farmer roots.

For the rest of you, you'll need to check out this article to see where your most productive time falls. As it says, "while there seems to be no fixed time of day that is the most productive for everyone, my recent poll of 181 people did provide some insights into who gets the most done when. Here, then, are some insights into people’s most productive times of day."

http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/02/22/new-poll-shows-most-productive-time-of-day

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

All Interest: N.Y. Firm Faces Bankruptcy from $164,000 E-Banking Loss

"A New York marketing firm that as recently as two weeks ago was preparing to be acquired now is facing bankruptcy from a computer virus infection that cost the company more than $164,000.

Karen McCarthy, owner of Merrick, N.Y. based Little & King LLC, a small promotions company, discovered on Monday, Feb. 15 that her firm’s bank account had been emptied the previous Friday. McCarthy said she immediately called her bank – Cherry Hill, N.J. based TD Bank – and learned that between Feb. 10 and Feb. 12, unknown thieves had made five wire transfers out of the account to two individuals and two companies with whom the McCarthys had never had any prior business.

“She was told to go to the branch next day, and she did, and the people at the branch were very nice, apologetic, and said, ‘Whatever happened, we’ll replace it,’” Karen McCarthy’s husband Craig said. “She called them up on Wednesday, and they gave her the runaround. Then she finally got to talk to someone and they said ‘We don’t see the error on our side.’” "

To read the rest of this Feb 24, 2010 article, please go here:

http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/02/n-y-firm-faces-bankruptcy-from-164000-e-banking-loss/

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

Lighter Side & Interesting Links

Disclaimer: Information presented here is provided as a general information resource. Any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply recommendation or endorsement.

How DO They Get Those Pants So Clean? The story behind getting Penn State's uniforms clean after the Capital One Bowl. http://pennstatermag.com/2010/02/23/how-do-they-get-those-pants-so-clean-video/

[Video] Dancing the Boogie-Woogie Personally, this should be called PLAYING the boogie woogie. The piano player (and the band) just kill it. http://www.flixxy.com/dancing-the-boogie-woogie.htm

[Video] Will You Go Lassie Go Judy Collins and Pete Seeger sing Wild Mountain Thyme by William McPeake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kbr6tUhDRI

Keyboard Art This is from 1948, a long time before :-) appeared. http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/PopularMechanics/10-1948/ascii_art.jpg

Pet's Eye View Digital Camera You clip it to your pet's collar and it will record snapshots of their day. http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/7-13-years/afbc

[Video] Time Lapse You need to wait for the Milky Way segment. http://vimeo.com/8918647

The Sugar Shack at Tintinhull Farm Let's make some maple syrup. http://www.durhamtownship.com/March0410.html

Three Day Old Calf Walks Along its Mother It is not that kind of calf. http://www.flickr.com/photos/maratriangle/4384049991

When Liz Taylor Tweets Forever, She Means It Two of the RT were for the same guy though. http://historicaltweets.com/2010/02/22/when-liz-taylor-tweets-forever-she-means-it

Parenting In Post 2.0 You can talk to today's children, carefully. http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2010/02/parenting-in-post-20.html

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

AgSci News: ITChatter Series

Our 3rd ITChatter Series was a HUGE Success!

Mike and Vince brought in a record number of participants for the February ITChatter session, entitled What's in your Closet? A Look at the hardware in your office.

They gave us a tour of a county network closet and the equipment found inside. They also discussed a few things you can do to check the connectivity of your computer or for the office before contacting our Help Desk.

For those of you that missed the session, you can find the recording here - http://it.cas.psu.edu/2101.htm along with our previous ITChatter sessions.

Next month’s topic is How to Keep up with it all - Start Pages. Learn how Peg Shuffstall, Educational Technology Team Coordinator, keeps up with it all (RSS feeds, news and more) by viewing one webpage. This can save time throughout your day and week.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. The chatter gets started at 12:15 and will wrap up by 12:50. Participants are asked to arrive in the Adobe Connect meeting room (http://breeze.psu.edu/ITChatter) at noon.

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming dates and topics include:

4/20 – Twitter Lingo 5/18 – How many Accounts do I have? 6/15 – Windows 7 7/20 – Using PowerPoint better in Adobe Connect 8/17 – Topic TBA

Jacki Weikert, Educational Technologist

AgSci News: Adoption of Wireless 2.0 Service Encouraged

In 17 months (July 1, 2011) Penn State will phase out the need for Cisco VPN to authenticate, login, and use wireless network access at Penn State campus locations.

Read the full ITS News story at http://news.its.psu.edu/story-1177

Note: If you use wireless networks at a Penn State campus, you'll need to follow step-by-step connection and setup instructions and/or perform a onetime download and configuration of the Penn State Wireless 2.0 client.

https://www.work.psu.edu/access/dot1x/prod/

Once the Penn State Wireless 2.0 service is setup, you no longer have to download VPN or relaunch a VPN session when moving from building to building on your campus.

Note: If you use the College's AG Exchange server, you will still use the 'ISPtoPSU' VPN connection entry to read your E-mail while out of the office.

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist

AgSci News: Ag IT's Statewide Training Schedule

Ag IT is offering a wide variety of trainings over the next few months! We hope you can join us! We have some new topics listed so please take a look!

Be sure to check out the All about Word series, our ITChatter sessions, and our new class "PowerPoint Advanced!" There is a topic for everyone!

For the complete list of topics & dates & times along with a description about these trainings, please visit our website - http://it.cas.psu.edu/TechTraining.htm and click on Scheduled Training.

A Look @ Social Networking and your Program – Heard of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr? Learn what they are and how you could incorporate these into your program by attending this overview session.

• 3/24
• 4/8
• 5/5
• 6/15

Adobe Connect – I’m a Host, What Do I Do? – Ready to host a meeting or training using Adobe Connect? This class is for you!

• 3/17
• 4/21
• 5/18

All About Word 2007 - Join us for a new series of "All About Word" training sessions. During this 9 session series we will cover a range of beginner, intermediate and advanced Word topics used to create and enhance Word documents. Each session will last 2 hours and will include demonstration and hands-on practice time. The sessions are designed as a series and participants are encouraged to attend all sessions; however, attendance at all sessions is not required and recordings of previous sessions will be available.

• 3/23 – Formatting Paragraphs
• 4/26 – Formatting Pages
• 5/28 – Working with Graphics
• 6/23 – Building Tables & Charts
• 7/29 – Creating Newsletters
• 8/24 – Working with Long Docs and Other COOL things!
• 9/24 – Printing & Reviewing
• 10/27 – Creating Mail Merges

Create a Blog using Blogger.com – Need to get your information out fast and then update it along the way? A blog may be your answer!

• 3/10
• 6/3

Creating a Podcast – Learn how to use Audacity to create a podcast and upload it to iTunes or your webpage.

• 3/25

Creating a Wiki – Learn to build a wiki for your team or group using PBWorks (formerly PBwiki).

• 3/25

Creating Multimedia Presentations with Adobe Presenter (and PowerPoint) – Take your PowerPoint presentation and put your voice to it, then make it available via the web or CD.

• 3/25

Excel Basics (a 2 part series) – Learn how to manipulate data, format data and create a chart in Excel

• 5/5 & 5/12

How To Host a webinar via Adobe Connect – Learn what is involved in doing a webinar with you as the host!

• 3/11
• 6/2

ITChatter – Join the Ag IT team and invited speakers for lunch conversations about different technologies and their uses. We will be meeting monthly for a new ITChatter series. Participants are asked to arrive in the Adobe Connect meeting room (http://breeze.psu.edu/ITChatter) at noon. The chatter gets started at 12:15 and will wrap up by 12:50.

• 3/16 – How to Keep up with it all – Start Pages
• 4/20 – Twitter Lingo
• 5/18 – How many accounts do I have?

Online Survey Tools (a 2 part series) – Need a survey? We will show you how to use Survey Monkey to create the survey and pie and column charts and Excel to create combination charts.

• 6/9 & 6/22

Photo Manipulation with MS Picture Manager – Have lots of pictures to edit? Learn how to do it with MS Picture Manager.

• 4/6

PowerPoint 2007 Basics (a 2 part series) – We will show you how to create a presentation, start to finish!

• 4/7 & 4/14

PowerPoint 2007 Advanced – We will show you some cool features to make your presentation stand out from others!

• 5/19
• 7/6

SharePoint Tips & Tricks - A major challenge for NWGs and program teams is finding effective ways to share information and collaborate as a team. As a collaboration tool, SharePoint has a lot to offer. This session will focus on tips and tricks that will help you use SharePoint more effectively.

• 5/6
• 6/8

Using SharePoint 2007 – Hear what all the fuss is about and see what great things SharePoint 2007 can do for you!

• 3/4
• 4/27

Using SurveyMonkey to Summarize Statewide Programs including Paper Surveys

• 3/15
• 4/7

For Video Teleconference training contact Ron Matason - mailto:ram5@psu.edu.

For the complete list of topics & dates & times along with a description about these trainings, please visit our website - http://it.cas.psu.edu/TechTraining.htm and click on Scheduled Training.

To register or see more information, click on the topic, enter your information, and click Submit. Sessions are offered via Adobe Connect unless stated otherwise.

We need at least 6 staff registered to hold the training, so please register today!

---- Also available are the eXtension's professional development opportunities which are open to all Cooperative Extension faculty, staff and employees. No preregistration. For detailed information go to: http://about.extension.org/wiki/Schedule_of_Professional_Development_Opportunities

Don't see a topic listed that you are interested in? Please remember that we have various Self-Paced learning opportunities and On Demand Training available too. Check out our main Technologies and Training Page - http://it.cas.psu.edu/TechTraining.htm.

If you have a suggestion for training, please let us know.

The Educational Technologist Team Sherry Crum, Ron Matason, Albert Nakpil, Peg Shuffstall, and Jacki Weikert

AgSci News: Texas A&M AgriLife Social Media Guidelines

Texas A&M AgriLife has set forth guidelines "to help those within the agencies and service units of Texas A&M AgriLife manage social media tools in support of professional communications efforts."

You can review their guidelines and tips here:

http://agrilifeweb.tamu.edu/us/social/guidelines/

Vince Verbeke, IT Specialist