Technology news for UMD faculty, staff and students
March 2006
The Multimedia Hub is growing
The Mulitmedia Hub in the Audio Visual office (KPLZ 175) has expanded their services which now include:
- DVD burning
- Video editing
- DVD duplication
- VHS, DV, DVD transfer to a digital format
- Music production (with MIDI keyboard)
- Digital camera and video camera help
Never edited anything before? Want to learn how? Bring in your tapes and we can help get you started editing your first video.
For advanced and intermediate users, we can provide assistance in taking your editing skills to the next step.
Software and hardware resources available:
- iMovie
- iDVD
- Garageband
- Photoshop Elements
- Final Cut Pro *
- DVD Studio Pro
- Motion
- Soundtrack Pro
*Includes Final Cut Pro 5, Motion 2, DVD Studio Pro 4, and Soundtrack Pro. We recommend that for those wanting to use the Final Cut Studio series have some background in the programs.
Multimedia equipment includes three Macintosh G5s. We also have a Panasonic digital video editing station which allows you to burn DVDs direct from your digital camera recordings, transfer VHS tape to DVD format and DVD to VHS with some editing and titling capabilities.
For more information, mmedia@d.umn.edu, x6087.
UMD presents: Techfest 2006
Friday, March 31
9:00-4:00
Kirby Student Center Ballroom
Since 1998 we've come together each year at Techfest to learn how technology has enhanced or changed the way we teach, learn, and share information here at UMD
All faculty, staff, and students are invited to this one-day popular event! This will give you an opportunity to see how UMD is using technology to enrich the educational experience at UMD. Faculty, Staff, and Students will showcase the latest and greatest technologies which are used at UMD.
If you or your department would like to present at TechFest please go to: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/etrg/techfest/ The deadline for proposals is Friday, March 10.
For more information, contact Sheri Pihlaja (spihlaja, x6975).
FY 2006 file storage rates decreased
ITSS has recently reviewed its FY 06 file storage expense, volume and rate as part of our annual ISO rates and fees review for FY 2007. We have found that the current amount of file storage used by our customers has increased significantly while costs related to the support of file storage have not increased at the same rate. Because of this, we will reduce the cost of file storage beginning with the January 2006 file storage customer billing. The rate will change from $2.60 per gigabyte/day to $1.00 per gigabyte/day. It is the nature of an Internal Service Organization, ISO, to exhibit rate fluctuations and, whenever possible, we would like to pass along savings to our customers.
New ITSS staff member: Amanda Johnson
ITSS is pleased to announce that Amanda Johnson joined our ITSS staff on Feb 20, 2006. Amanda will be providing desktop and web development support.
Amanda graduated from UMD in 2003 and has been working for the last 3 years as the primary hardware and software technical support person at Residential Services of Northeastern Minnesota, Inc (RSI).
As a student, Amanda worked for ITSS providing both Help Desk and Resnet support, and is very familiar with many of the services and software applications we support.
facultEtools: Faculty Toolkit
The 2005-2006 Faculty Toolkit is a collection of free and reduced-price multimedia software tools: Adobe Acrobat 7, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Director, Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, Macromedia Flash 8.
University of Minnesota faculty can request these tools by completing the UMD request form (see link below). The tools must be used for University course development and instructional purposes. The kit is co-sponsored by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost (EVPP) and developed and managed by Academic and Distributed Computing Services (ADCS) and the Digital Media Center (DMC), units of OIT.
Visit the U of M Digital Media Website for more information on the 2005-2006 Faculty Toolkit: http://dmc.umn.edu/toolkit/index.shtml
Faculty Toolkit Request form: http://dmc.umn.edu/toolkit/toolkit-form-duluth.pdf
Please note: Software versions are upgraded periodically. To request upgrades, submit a new faculty toolkit request form.
Other facultyEtools: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/facstaff/WebServices.html
For more information contact Shelly McCauley Jugovich (smccaule, x6862) or Bruce Reeves (breeves, x6831).
Facilities Management upgrades
Facilities Management recently completed the implementation of “FAMIS”, a new maintenance management software system. Famis is an enterprise system and is being run in tandem with the same software product used by the Twin Cities Campus’ Facilities Management Department. This new system replaced UMD Facility Management's aging work management system, called “SPOC.” The new system provides greater flexibility for the department in the planning, managing, and tracking of facilities various work activities.
In addition to the numerous benefits to the department, Famis will offer the ability to provide work order and billing information online to its customers. In the upcoming months, Facilities Management will be adding components to Famis which will allow its customers to login to a webpage, create and review service requests, and review their billing detail. As the release date nears, people will be receiving additional information on how they can establish access to Famis.
Wireless network update
As explained in last month's info.tech.News, we were working closely with our vendor to resolve some wireless stability issues. Specifically, there were very frequent connection drops and poor service for Windows computers which used a certain wireless card common to many new laptops. We have resolved these issues by working with our vendor and our test group of customers report the service is now stable and reliable.
If you have connection issues with wireless, please contact our helpdesk (helpdesk, x8847) to open a ticket. Please provide what the issue was, the location (building and floor), and the date and time you experienced issues. This way we can look in our error logs, double check wireless coverage with our equipment, and determine if you were using the new or old wireless system.
Thanks for helping make the wireless server better for everyone.
info.tech.News is published monthly during the academic year by ITSS. An email digest is also sent to all users subscribed to the infotech.announce, UMD.business.announce and studenttech.announce. The goal is to distribute information useful to the daily routines of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus community in conjunction with computer and telephone technologies. Comments or suggestions may be sent to the editor at: sbradt@d.umn.edu.