Exeter On-Line
You've
Got Mail! Dickies Go On-Lineby Celia Abrams
The MIS department and the Dean of Students office have been working to streamline various aspects of tracking student attendance. The first step in this process has been to replace many individual letters and reports, sent through campus mail, with an email process through Colleague Communications Management. Students, and their advisers and dorm heads, have begun receiving email notices of absences to be cleared, interviews with the attendance committee, and restrictions that have been assigned. The tasks of printing, sorting, and stuffing of mailboxes for hundreds of letters each week have been replaced by a few keystrokes in GTA and PCB!
In late February, faculty began entering absence reports (dickies) for students in their classes through Lion Links. As the absence is entered, Lion Links determines the time the course meets on that date and will look for a matching excuse. It will automatically mark the absence as excused if it finds an excuse for the same date and time as the absence. Conversely, if Health Services enters an excuse, the excuse entry process will search for and excuse any matching absence.
Students and their advisers can now view attendance history through Lion Links. Students will no longer receive a paper dickie for each absence a teacher has submitted; they will receive an email instead. They can check Lion Links to see if an absence they received earlier has now been excused.
Because these process changes are so new, we haven't heard much feedback from the community on how well they like the email communications and new Lion Links options. We do know that the Deans Office is very pleased with the time they have saved. They expect the reduction of steps and automation of processes will eliminate errors and provide better service to students and faculty.
MIS welcomes inquiries from other departments with ideas on how we might help them use Lion Links or Colleague Communications Management technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their department in delivering better customer service to their constituencies.
IT
Staff Changes
y Shelley Nason
In late August, Emily Merrill joined our Information Technology Department. She returns to her native northeast after a six-year sojourn in the Midwest. A Microsoft Certified Professional, Emily worked at FirstEnergy, the nation's sixth largest power company, and at Oberlin College. At Phillips Exeter Academy, she steps into the dual role of training and support. She belongs to Toastmaster's International, and is an enthusiastic student of yoga at the O2 Yoga Studio in Rye. Emily lives in Portsmouth.
Derek Rolfe recently joined the department assuming a new role as Senior Network Administrator. Derek held a similar position at Newmarket International, a software company in Portsmouth, where he has worked since 1994. In addition to performing network tasks, Derek will manage network projects and staff. Derek and his wife live in Rye.
Mark Bodnar came to the Academy in 1994 and participated in the creation of the IT department. Today he serves as the Technical Director of the department. Mark will leave the Academy at the end of this school year to assume the position of IT Director at the Taft School in Connecticut.
Training
Tips
Windows
Keyboard Shortcuts
by
Emily Merrill
These are some of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts for navigating in Windows. Many of them also work in applications such as Word and Netscape. If you have any questions, please contact the Support Desk at x3693.
| SHIFT | Select Adjacent Items. Hold down the Shift key, and select the first item with the mouse, and then the last item. Every object in between will also be selected. |
| CTRL | Select Multiple Items. Hold down the Ctrl key, and use the mouse to click on each object you wish to select. |
| CTRL + ESC | Start Menu. This will bring up the Start Menu. |
| CTRL + A | Select All. Selects the entire contents of current folder. |
| CTRL + S | Save. Opens the Save dialog box. Cut. Cuts the selected item(s) to the Clipboard. |
| CTRL + X | Cut. Cuts the selected item(s) to the Clipboard. |
| CTRL + C | Copy. Copies the selected item(s) to the Clipboard. |
| CTRL + V | Paste. Pastes the copied items(s) from the Clipboard. |
| CTRL + Z | CTRL+ Z Undo. Undoes the last action. Note that not all actions, such as shutting down, can be undone. |
+ E |
Windows Explorer. Opens Windows Explorer. |
|
+ F |
Find. Opens the Find All Files dialog box. |
|
+ M |
Minimize. Minimizes all open windows. |
| PRINT SCREEN | Screen Capture. Copies an image of the screen to the Windows Clipboard. Key located to the right of F12. |
| ALT + PRINT SCREEN | Window Capture. Copies an image of the active window to the Windows Clipboard. |
| ALT + TAB | Switch. Switch between open programs. |
| ALT + F4 | Close. Close the open program. If no open programs, brings up the Shut Down dialog box. |
|
(WINDOWS KEY) |
Start Menu. Not every keyboard has these keys; if they are present, they are located next to the ALT key, close to the space bar. |
Why
CTRL + ALT + DELETE?
The three fingered flag. The three fingered dance. The three fingered salute. All of these refer to the CTRL + ALT+ DELETE keyboard sequence used to log into a Windows NT or 2000 computer. Several people have recently asked why a user must torture their fingers in order to log in.
The answer, briefly, is security. According to Microsoft: "The CTRL + ALT + DELETE sequence can be read only by Windows, ensuring that the information in the ensuing logon dialog box can be read only by Windows. This can prevent rogue programs from gaining access to the computer." (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q308226 March 21, 2002)
As I recall, a while ago some computer hackers wrote "spoof" programs that looked like a normal login box. Users would sit down to log in, and enter their username and password into the "spoof" login box, never suspecting it was not the actual login box. The "spoof" program would then collect all of the usernames and passwords, and pass that account information back to the hackers. The hackers could then use these accounts to break into the computer system.
Microsoft, when creating the NT operating system, wanted to make it as secure as possible. So, they programmed into NT the CTRL + ALT + DELETE sequence as a call for the login box. This prevents the login from being "spoofed." That concept was so successful it was also written into Windows 2000 and Windows XP, though administrators do have the option of turning that security feature off.
CTRL + ALT + DELETE does have other uses. If you are already logged in to NT or 2000, pressing CTRL + ALT + DELETE will bring up the NT Security dialog box. There, you can change your password, log off the computer, shut down the computer, lock it (not recommended at PEA), or use the Task Manager to close a program that has stopped responding.
In operating systems other than NT and 2000, such as Windows 95, 98, or ME, CTRL + ALT + DELETE pressed once will allow you to close a program that has stopped responding. Pressed twice, that keyboard sequence will force the computer to reboot. The End.
On
Campus Dialing Instructions
by
Tracey Lulek
A reminder about local dialing on campus:
To dial local numbers on campus, press 5 + 7 digit number.
The local exchanges for Exeter area are:
Epping 679, 693, 734
Exeter 395, 418, 580, 583, 658, 772, 773, 775, 777, 778, 849
Hampton 601, 758, 910, 926, 929, 967
Kingston 642
Newmarket 292, 659
Raymond 244, 706, 895
Portsmouth 245, 294, 319, 334, 373, 422, 427, 430, 431,
433, 436, 457, 501, 559, 570, 610, 766, 812Cell phone exchanges 771, 385, 512
These exchanges are also listed in the Verizon telephone book on page 14.
Letting
Computer Monitors Sleep
Colleges hope to save on electric bills by 'Letting Computer Monitors Sleep.'
An article from The Chronicle of High Education.