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barracuda |
All is well at Palomar. We have completed
the second week of summer "intersession" classes,
with the six and eight week summer classes to begin
June 19. Last Sunday, May 28, David completed
the database migration to the new database server
for the Blackboard system. He will talk about
that and more on his Blackboard feature of the week
segment. The barracuda has swum into our
waters. I'm talking about SPAM filtering.
Our IS department has deployed the Barracuda spam
firewall publicly this week, and we have an
interview with Mike Dimmick of the IS department to
explain the ins and outs of it, which is the subject
of my tech-talk this week. Haydn will discuss "facilitating
students in an online course" in his teaching with
technology segment. Finally, our gizmo of the
week is something that no spy should be without:
video recording eye glasses.
Palomar Tech and Download News
- The online version of the
Fall 2006 schedule is available online.
the printed version is not yet availalbe.
It is not too early to start planning for Fall.
- The Barracuda SPAM filter has been deployed
publicly as of June 1. If you receive any
suspected spam at all, you received--or will
begin receiving once the spam starts
arriving--an email, in your Outlook inbox from
"Palomar College Spam Firewall" with a subject
line of "Spam Quarantine Summary." See the
tech talk topic, below, for an interview with
Mike Dimmick on how the new spam filter works.
- The migration from the old Blackboard
database server to the new was done Sunday, May
28 and was completely successful. We have
seen performance gains already. Dave has
more on this in his Blackboard feature of the
week.
-
Microsoft downloads:
-
Hotfix for
Windows XP SP2 for computers that cannot make
network connections. Read the Knowledge
Base article first before installing. It
is
KB917730.
-
Update for
Windows Desktop Search, to 2.6.5, mainly bug fixes.
KB917979.
-
Windows Live Local Add-in for Outlook, adds
maps, routes, driving directions and travel time
to the scheduling capabilities of MS Outlook.
After installation, a new "Location" tab is
added to the appointment form. The new tab
can be used to get maps, driving directions,
travel times and so on for any appointment made
and tracked in Outlook.
Training Opportunities
This week the @ONE system announced their
summer training schedule. They offer what
are called "lunch 'n learn"
desktop seminars, facilitated
online courses, and an in-person
summer institute, which will be held at San
Diego City College this year from June 13-15,
followed by a 1-day
Teaching Online workshop at the same location on
June 16. Of special interest should be the
facilitated online course they are offering "Introduction
to Teaching with Blackboard 6.0" from July
24-August 11.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
David has three topics for us this week:
- The ongoing saga of Simon's birth
certificate. (He doesn't have one yet).
- The Blackboard database migration last
Sunday.
- Reminders to faculty in advance of the
beginning of the 6 and 8 week summer classes.
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
8:16]
Screen Videos from the "Teaching with Blackboard"
series:
Copying Course Content into Another Course
Set your Faculty Blackboard Email Address in
eServices
Making Your Course Available
[Requires the use of the
Macromedia Flash Player]
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Haydn's topic is facilitating every student in an
online course. He covers what the instructor
can do to encourage time management and motivation
among online students.
Links
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
11:20]
Tech-Talk-Topic
Spam Filtering
The Barracuda SPAM filter has been deployed
publicly this week at Palomar College. Many people have been
troubled by the amount of spam they receive in
their Outlook inboxes. In fact, spam has
been a very controversial topic on campus of
late, and our IS department was tasked with
finding a solution to the problem. Their
solution is to install the Barracuda system.
We have Mike Dimmick from our IS department with
us today who was kind enough to consent to an
interview about the Barracuda spam firewall system, which made
its public debut June 1.
Listen to this segment only [mp3 -
play time = 18:20]
Since we threw around some tech terms in this
interview, here
is a little glossary:
Bayesian spam filtering: "Bayesian spam
filtering is the process of using
Bayesian statistical methods to classify
documents into categories."
Exchange server: "Microsoft Exchange
Server is a messaging and
collaborative software product developed by
Microsoft...Among other things, Microsoft
Exchange manages
electronic mail, shared calendars and tasks,
provides full support for mobile and web-based
access to information, and can support very
large amounts of data storage. "
Palomar deploys and manages its email system
through several Exchange servers.
Whitelist. Used as a verb, the act
of placing an email address, or an email domain
address, on your approved sender list. The
whitelist setting overrides any spam filter
settings. As a noun, the list of approved
senders that can be edited within the
administration area of the Barracuda spam
filter.
Blacklist. Used as a verb, the act
of placing an email address, or email domain, on
the list to be filtered. Barracuda will be
uncertain whether some mail should be filtered
or not. If not, you can place the address
on your blacklist (n).
Outlook junk mail filter. Microsoft
Outlook, the standard email client at Palomar
College, uses a junk mail filter that can be
updated regularly from the
MS Office web site. The junk mail
filter, if enabled, routes suspected junk mail
to the Outlook junk mail folder automatically.
Useful Links:
Gizmo of the week
Video
Eye Glasses. These eye glasses let you
record whatever you are looking at. "The
hidden hardwired CCD color camera built into these
protective glasses allow a 92 degree FOV. Perfect
for covert operations." They are powered by 8
AAA batteries in a battery pack, which will record
from 6-8 hours. They retail for $599.50,
marked down from 799.50. The product site goes
on to say "Use the glasses with One of Our Body Worn
DVR units to make a totally portable covert
solution."
Music
The
music for today's show was provided by
Magnatune.com, and is used through their
Creative Commons license for podcasts. Today's
album was Long
Ride Home by featured artist
John Williams. John Williams plays blues and
jazz guitar and is a working musician doing song
writing, production, and session work in the Seattle
area.
We
used tracks 7: "Off the road;" 1: "Hand picked;" 11:
"Coast highway;" 3: Southern flyer;" 6: "Nothing
lost;" 10: "Admit one;" 8: "Always on time;" 4: "Red
Georgia clay;" and 18: "Dog don't hunt."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"Nobody
believes the official spokesman... but everybody
trusts an unidentified source." ~
Ron Nesen
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for June 2, 2006 - Episode 20
