October
The AgSci IT eNews is a newsletter from the staff of Information Technologies. The newsletter covers a range of topics from many sources with a focus on college technology news, maintenance suggestions, trainings, How Do I tips and new technologies.
eXtension September News featured 150 news releases in 40 resource areas from 32 states.
The 4th annual eXtension Virtual State Fair event in Second Life, October 26-29, 2011, offers a fine opportunity to join colleagues for a visit to an immersive, social virtual world. New this year is the Land Grant University Expo, highlighting virtual world projects by educators around the country, with group tours departing for their regions each day.
Join us onTuesday, October 18 for our next ITChatter series. Our topic is Extension Branding: Tips & Tricks. Join us at 12 noon and the chatter starts at 12:15. We’ll wrap up by 12:50. Registration is not required, but if you do, you will get a nice reminder. More information can be found by clicking the link.
“Reach”, “follow”, “lead”, “innovate”, “engage”, “curate”, “initiate”, what does it all mean? How can each of us take advantage of the increasing flow of information we see every day? How can we learn more and bring value to our workplace and our clientele? Navigating the information super-highway isn’t the same as it used to be. Curation, virtual worlds, social media strategy, new media trends, and media literacy are just a few of the intersections we are heading toward both professionally and personally. The 2011 National eXtension Virtual Conference brings together an outstanding lineup of speakers for More Mind Reach, October 17, 18, & 19, 2011. Anyone working to reach and interact with the public will be interested in this active and reactive virtual conference designed to build your knowledge skill set about the changing world of information today and for the future.
Information security and security awareness is our shared responsibility. During National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2011 Ag IT encourages everyone to think about cyber security and its impact.
Enterprise Network (EN) program that have shipped this summer have the Windows 7 operating system, rather than Windows XP. If you have one of these new machines, there are several How To's that cover routine maintenance tasks for these computers.
Outlook lets you create appointments or tasks to set reminders for some future action. But did you know that you can do the same thing with email?
Facebook has rolled out its new timeline and sharing features. Don't get creeped out. You can change some of your settings. Click the link for more information.
Laptop battery wearing down? In this week's episode of Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley shows us how to help batteries last longer ... and what to do when they run out! You can click the link to read the full article.
The Square app and card reader allows mobile devices to accept credit cards as well as track cash payments. This device could be a boon for vendors at farmers markets for example.
The Inkling digital sketch pen captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process.
The Nonprofit Tech 2.0 website breaks down the changes made by Facebook in an article called "10 Recent Upgrades to Facebook Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About." You can click the link to read their recommendations.
Bob deLaubenfels from the Microsoft Office Publisher blog writes a colorful post on how Jane Austen would explain the difference between printing multiple copies and printing multiple pages. You can click the link to read the full article.
Discovery.com looks at speakers from iHome for any Bluetooth-equipped music player.
YouTube has launched its own teacher’s channel. The site walks you through creating your own YouTube channel. There are also video production tips and tools for creating videos. You can click the link to read more about the YouTube.com/Teachers.
Lighter Side items are links to interesting, funny, even weird items from the web. These may not be tech-oriented. We hope you enjoy them.
The AgSci IT eNews is a newsletter from the staff of Information Technologies. The newsletter covers a range of topics from many sources with a focus on college technology news, maintenance suggestions, trainings, How Do I tips and new technologies.
As an employee at the University, you have many resources to help protect your privacy and the computer systems you own or manage at Penn State.
Join us on Tuesday, November 15 for our next ITChatter series. Our topic is Mobile Device Security. Join us at 12 noon and the chatter starts at 12:15. We’ll wrap up by 12:50. Registration is not required, but if you do, you will get a nice reminder. More information can be found by clicking the link.
Pete Kauffman and Amanda Kirsten from Ag Communications and Marketing presented information on extension branding, statements, and editing style. Pete provided answers to the top-ten branding questions and showed examples of how to use the branding elements effectively. Amanda explained when to use which statements and answered questions about college and University style. Click the link to see this session and our other ITChatter session recordings.
The Lookout blog reports on a new phishing scam being sent on Twitter. They report that "it all starts when you receive a Direct Message from a friend letting you know that a ‘bad blog’ has been published about you, along with a link that urges you to check it out." Be WARY of any Direct Messages of this type. You can click the link to read their recommendations.
Windows 7 has a new feature that lets laptop users automatically switch the default printer when you move from one network to another. For example, when you move your laptop from your work network to a home network. Or, when you move a laptop between two extension offices.
Have you noticed that by default when you write an email message, your font is black and when you reply to a message it is blue? Have you ever wanted to change the default color but did now know how? Well, here is your answer.
The cropping tool got a significant upgrade in Publisher 2010 with the ability to pan your image inside the crop window. To see how it works, you can click the link to read more about this new feature at the Publisher blog.
OfficeDrop allows you scan, search, organize and store your paper and digital files on your iPhone and iPad devices.
"While it may take an extra minute to look at an app’s ratings and read through the permissions before hitting the 'download' button—in the long run—using discretion when downloading apps could help keep you from inadvertently downloading a bad app to your phone." You can click the link to read Lookout Mobile Security full recommendations.
This Sept. 29 posting on the Bing Community blog describes how 42 airports in the United States are now searchable. "Airport maps include information on parking garages, ticket counter location, terminals and gates, baggage claims, currency exchange and more! You’ll also see a sortable directory of airlines, cafes and restaurants." Please click the link to read the full article and see which airports are included.
This website gives a detailed breakdown of the next generation Windows 8 operating system. Designed with touch screens and tablets in mind, Windows 8 has a new Start screen and touch navigation. You can click the link to read the full article. I would recommend that you scroll down and watch the 6:21 video about Windows 8.
Facebook's population is currently at 800 million users, which is slightly more users than the Internet of early 2004, based on data from InternetWorldStats.com. You can check out 2 charts at this page (scroll down to see them).
HeyStaks is a social search app for tablets. The HeyStaks app for iPad and Android tablets provides you with a beautifully presented, magazine-style layout for your search results. You can click the link to watch their video.
The Museum of Obsolete Objects contains a series of videos that look at when items were invented, and when they became obsolete. Some of these items are older than Joe Paterno, but not many.
If your household has a plethora of different mobile devices, then the Refresh charging station may be just what your inner geek needs.
TweetChat's dashboard lets you easily follow chat hashtags. You can even hide users who over-tweet or go off-topic.
Lighter Side items are links to interesting, funny, even weird items from the web. These may not be tech-oriented. We hope you enjoy them.
