Without the Internet, your computer is a typewriter at best and a paperweight at worst.  You need to protect this amazing asset, but how?  You need to be on the network to figure out how to protect yourself from the network.  What do you do?  You need to Get Connected.

Get Connected 2012 in its 14th year of providing excellent security, automated troubleshooting, and adding convenient IT tools to the desktops of Students, Faculty and Staff of Indiana University.

For years, as part of safeguarding the security of your computer, Get Connected has ensured your operating system has been fully patched and updated with the latest service packs, an antivirus client if you didn’t have one installed, and some form of anti-spyware, but did you know that it also does much more than that?

The 2012 version of Get Connected provides support for the latest Operation Systems: Windows 8 and OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), as well as supporting Windows 7, Vista, and XP. But, this year, it packs something new under the hood.

New to the 2012 version is the ability to register network cards with IU’s network via “off-campus” mode.  This gives new students, faculty, and staff the ability to pre-register all of computer’s network cards prior to the machine being brought onto campus.

It installs helpful tools like the UITS Printer finder to allow you to easily print to any UITS lab printer on campus.  Are you low on hard disk space, but you’d love to install the entire Adobe Creative Suite if you had the free space?  Get Connect also provides the necessary browser plugins to IUanyWare, Indiana University’s cloud-based software deployment environment.

Even further advances have been made to the 2012 version of Get Connected to support Faculty and Staff.  The new advanced customization and reporting features allows IT Professionals in Schools and Departments to automate the software install process tailored to the specific needs of their users.

Learn more about Get Connected when Chief designer, Brent Moberly, presents these new features and much more during Indiana University’s Statewide IT Conference in Bloomington on September 24-25, 2012.

Get Connected is just one of the many ways that the staff of University Information Technology Services fulfill our mission and commitment to keeping your technology current, safe, and always productive.

For more information, see our Knowledge Base article:
At IU, what is Get Connected and how do I use it?

Every course taught at IU automatically gets an Oncourse site. The following tools are immediately available:

• Home, where instructors post an introduction to their course. The Home tool also displays the most recent announcements, and whether or not there are new messages.
• Announcements, useful for keeping site members up-to-date on assignments and other events
• Assignments 2, for posting homework and other tasks. You can associate them with the Gradebook automatically, and choose to post an announcement when they come available.
• Gradebook, where to record and calculate grades.
• Library Resources, an interactive page connected to the university library.
• Messages, an internal email system for each site than can be connected to its members’ IU email address, or automatically forwarded to any outside email address, as desired.
• Resources, a place to post documents and links related to course content.
• Roster, which shows a list of site members (students, instructors, course assistants, and others). There’s even a roster version with everyone’s official ID photo for those of us with memory issues.
• SIS Grade Roster, a quick way to officially post grades.
• Site Setup, the only tool that can’t be deleted, which allows site owners (usually instructors) to change what tools are visible, who can access the site, and how basic info is displayed.
• Syllabus, where you can post a copy of your course syllabus, as text or as an attachment.

These are by no means the only tools at your disposal, however – there are many more.  Some additional tools that might be useful:

• Web Content, which allows you to list links to other web sites that will be listed among the tools on the left of the screen.  You can add multiple links this way.
• Forums, a discussion board
• Chat room, for live chat between students – with or without the instructor
• Tests & Surveys Beta, for creating assessments

There are many more tools available that might serve your needs.  For more details on how to use Oncourse, watch our short feature demo movies and read the PDF Least You Need to Know documents, or click the blue question  marks sprinkled liberally throughout the workspace.  Watch this blog for tips and tricks to make the most of your Oncourse experience!

Becoming Familiar with the Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 User Interface

Since most of the other Adobe apps have a similar look and feel, this short video can also be useful for those getting started with Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, Illustrator, etc.

What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has burst onto the computer technology scene like a fast-moving cold weather front. Essentially, “cloud computing” refers to a new concept and delivery model rather than a specific program or platform. Traditionally, when you wanted to achieve a task on your computer such as filling out a spreadsheet or typing a letter, you’d purchase a piece of software at the store, install it, and then use it as long as you owned the computer. Cloud computing turns that notion on its head – the functionality is available via the Internet, not a program sitting on your computer. And, rather than buying a permanent license, cloud-computing services are usually offered according to a cafeteria model where you pay for only what you use when you use it. (And, unlike a real cafeteria, many cloud-based services are free). Cloud computing is now used for a lot more than just replicating the functionality of traditional desktop applications, too, including virtual server hosting, database processing, and lots of technical business operations.

What does Cloud Computing have to do with me?

Perhaps more than you realize! If you’ve ever used a service like Google Docs or Zoho, you’ve been working in the cloud. And even if you’re just using 3rd party applications, like Gmail and Facebook, many of the issues discussed here will apply to you, too.

So, what’s the big deal?

As with most bleeding-edge technologies, it will take humans awhile to get a grip on when, and when not to, utilize the technology. Just remember that when the hammer first became popular, everything started looking like a nail.

The good, the bad, and ways around the ugly

The good: top rewards from working in the cloud:

1. You can work from anywhere there’s an internet connection. You no longer have to remember which USB memory stick you left that paper on…because the paper’s floating around in the Internet, waiting for you to grab it and keep working on it. Hop on a computer at home, at the office, at grandma’s house, and all of your work is waiting for you.
2. Collaboration is easy. When you need to work with others on a project or problem, collaborating via documents in the cloud is usually easier than passing around a document via email.
3. Lots of things are available for free.
4. It can be efficient. We’ve probably all had the experience of opening up a program on the desktop, only to have it crash and burn. Search for help, possibly re-install the program – all of these things take time. When working in the cloud, maintaining the program is somebody else’s headache.

Having said all of this, there are plenty of issues you should be aware of before trusting applications in the cloud completely.

The bad: the top risks from working in the cloud:

1. You get what you pay for. When you’re not paying for a service, the company that makes the service available will not necessarily prioritize your needs and requests. This includes low to non-existent levels of help and support. Who can you call if your account with the service suddenly gets suspended? Who can you contact if a document suddenly looks corrupted?
2. You don’t control much of anything, including:
1. how your data is used/not used
2. how the data is protected and backed-up
3. the policies and procedures the company follows to ensure the integrity and security of your data
4. when the service is available, how long the service is guaranteed to be available, or if you’ll have advance warning when the service will not be available
5. how stable the company running the service is; if the company goes belly-up, what happens to all of your stuff on their servers? Will you have the opportunity and capability to migrate your data somewhere else?
3. Your data is potentially more at risk. This is related to the previous point. Let’s assume the company storing your data is doing everything right in terms of protecting, securing, and backing up your data, and, just as important, enforcing smart policies for its users concerning password strength, changing passwords, and so on. If I were a hacker, the cloud computing outfits might still be a very attractive target due to the sheer amount of data that I’d be able to access.

Mitigating the ugly: ways to minimize the risks

1. Know what the risks are. This post should give you a head start. Would I  store personal financial data in the cloud? Maybe not. And for University employees collaborating in the cloud, read up on Protection of Sensitive Institutional and Personal Data.
2. Have a backup and emergency plan. Just as the government reminds us to have spare water, food, and a pre-set meeting place set up in case of an emergency, you should also have a backup plan in case you can’t access your data in the cloud. Make regular backups of your data and think through what you’d do if Gmail were down for a week (hmm, might be good to have a backup email account, and make sure you have a backup of your contacts).

Other Reading:

• Use of Cloud Computing – Indiana University Information Policy Office
• Schneier on Security: Cloud Computing

For a moment, think of your worst nightmare. The imagery that rouses you out of a slumber with teeth clenched, clutching the bedcovers. No, not the bad dream where you find yourself at your high school reunion standing on the stage wearing only a cereal bowl for a hat and barking like an apoplectic prairie dog. (Um, that’s actually kind of a funny dream, isn’t it?)

The other dream, the one that perhaps you’ve had while awake, where that paper/dissertation/project that was on your hard drive/flash drive/friend’s computer is suddenly corrupted/not there/gone/wait/what?!?!?!

“Oh, noooo!” you’ll cry. “I knew I should’ve backed that up!”

We’ve all been there (yes, even the computer geeks who know better), and we’ve all been there because:

• we’re in denial (e.g., it won’t happen to me and certainly not after I’ve spent 13 straight hours working on this thing.)
• it’s a pain (e.g., I don’t want to manage backing up everything all the time.)

Ideally, a file synching option would:

• back things up as soon as you save them
• work cross-platform, so you could access your files from anywhere, including across Macs, PCs, and Linux machines
• allow you to save your files to a normal desktop folder, rather than having to manually upload them via a web browser
• provide access to files even if your internet connection drops temporarily
• allow you to share documents or entire folders of documents with others
• provide backups of the files you’ve synched, including the capability to revert to earlier versions or retrieve files you’ve deleted
• and, best of all in these harsh economic times, be FREE

Well, friends and neighbors, try .

Still not convinced?  Watch a video demonstration of DropBox.

PS. At this point in time, there are a lot of online file storage options available, but they all, in my opinion, have drawbacks that make them less preferable to DropBox for synchronization and backup purposes:

• SugarSync: Costs money, and you have to manually add/get files via a browser window
• drop.io: Is free and great for file sharing and collaboration, but you still have to get into a web browser and manually upload/download files
• Gspace: allows you to use a spare Gmail.com email account as file storage space, but, again, you have to manually upload/download files and have access to the Firefox web browser in order to access files