News from Computing Services

Easter Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:50:13 +0000

IT Services, Banbury Road, will be closed for the Easter break from 8:30 pm on Thursday, 28th March until 8.30am on Monday, 2nd April.

Beware of a message from Maggie Monett

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:51:38 +0000

The University has been hit by a large run of phishing emails explicitly pretending to be sent by the University. These direct the "University of Oxford EMAIL OWNER" to a docs.google.com URL to verify their username and password. Do not do this!

The fake messages have a sender address of Maggie.Monett@fwisd.org and a greeting along the lines of 'DEAR University of Oxford EMAIL OWNER'. We know that some people have already been fooled and have given away their password. This puts their emails at risk of being deleted by an intruder and the University at risk of being blacklisted when spam is sent by the intruder. If you did respond to the message with your password, please change it immediately and let us know what happened through an email to phishing@it.ox.ac.uk

User awareness is a key defence and we would encourage you to always be vigilant. More details are available at www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/phishing/ and www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/fake/.

Help Centre Closing Today at 12pm

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:31:21 +0000

We are sorry to announce that the Help Centre will be closed from 12pm today. This is due to the adverse weather conditions. We hope to reopen as normal on Monday morning 8:30am.

Banbury Road Help Centre Christmas Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:12:46 +0000

The Banbury Road Help Centre will close for Christmas at 12:00 noon on December 24th and will re-open at 8:30 am on January 2nd, 2013. The Banbury Road Help Centre will close for Christmas at 12:00 noon on December 24th and will re-open at 8:30 am on January 2nd, 2013. Please visit the Online Shop for details of deliveries before Christmas. The Hardware Repair Service will be taking in new jobs again in the New Year. The drop-in Help Centre and phones will close at 12:00 noon and emailed queries will receive a response before Christmas if they arrive before 11:30 on December 24th. Merry Christmas!

Come and Work on our Help Desk!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:51:59 +0100

The IT Services Help Centre at Banbury Road is looking for post graduates to work on our Help Desk as Computing Assistants. Do you like people? Do you have a knack for explaining technical topics in plain English? Please click on the news item title for more details of this part-time job.

A reminder to vote for your Nexus improvement

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:13:09 +0100

A reminder about our earlier announcement. The deadline is approaching...

The Oxford Nexus services are always trying to develop and improve. Please help the Nexus Team to prioritise future improvements by visiting The Nexus Improvements Page and voting for your favorite improvements. We can't promise that your choices will all be selected, but your vote will count when we work out what we can do next. Vote as many times as you like. Your votes will be counted as they stand at midday on Tuesday 16 October 2012.

If you would like to suggest completely new functionality, please consider using the suggestion form.

Engage with Social Media Michaelmas

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:15:07 +0100

From getting started with Twitter and Facebook Pages, to making LinkedIn work for you and disseminating your research via social media. This term our 'engage' programme will offer you everything you need to explore digital tools and strategies for academic networking, engagement and impact. Visit the website for details of workshops, training and guest speakers.

Now part of IT Services

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:54:40 +0100

OUCS merged with two other Oxford University IT departments on 1st August 2012 and is now part of IT Services. Much information will remain available on this website for the time being but please do click the title of this item to see the new IT Services website.

OUCS is changing!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:01:20 +0100

Oxford University is merging its three central IT providers (OUCS, Business Services and Projects and the ICT Support Team). The official change date is 1st August and at that point all three will cease to be known as their current names and all will be called IT Services. The actual integration of the units has started already and will continue over some months. From a customer point of view there will be no major change on 1st August. Service changes will be carefully consulted upon and announced and changes will be timed not to disrupt major or critical University activities.

WebLearn User Group Meeting Tues 10 July

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:08:29 +0100

Adam Marshall will enlighten us on all the great improvements in Sakai 2.8, Ed Long will tell us about the Blavatnik School of Government iPad app and WebLearn customisation project, Wulf Forrester-Barker will undertake a bit of green-fingered WebLearn gardening, and Mike Heaney will share his knowledge about copyright do's and don'ts in the electronic environment. This is a last chance to hear Mike speak, and learn from his experience before he retires. Join us afterwards for our traditional cream tea.

Vote for your Nexus improvement

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:13:30 +0100

If you would like to suggest completely new functionality, please consider using the suggestion form.

Poster Printing

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (David Birds) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:17:54 +0100

No poster printing (drop off or collection) due to staff holiday and our Shared Data Centre Aisle 2 fitout project on three consecutive Tuesdays from 0830 to 1730. 26th June, 3rd July and 10th July. Normal service is available on these dates after 1730.

OxTALENT 2012 Awards: 21st June

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:12:51 +0100

On Thursday 21st June a red carpet reception will be held to celebrate Oxford's innovative use of IT in teaching and learning. Winners will receive prizes in categories such as 'Technology for outreach and impact', 'Innovative use of technology in the classroom, 'Student IT Innovation' and 'Best Infograph'. This event is invitation only. However, you can follow the proceedings online through twitter (@ltgoxford and #oxtalent2012 ) and via the OxTALENT 2012 web page.

Nexus SharePoint User Group Meeting: 25th June

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:00:47 +0100

An invitation for SharePoint users to meet with members of the OUCS SharePoint team to discuss ideas regarding the use of SharePoint. You will have the opportunity to give feedback and guide the ongoing development of the system and hear how others in the university have been using SharePoint. All those attending the User Group will be given the opportunity to shape the agenda of the session and details to become part of the SharePoint User Group site. Lunch and networking opportunities will be provided prior to the session. Book online at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/courses/detail/TXE12

OUCS Closure for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:34:12 +0100

OUCS will be closed for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee from 8:30 pm on Friday 1st June, 2012 until 8:30 am on Wednesday 6th June, 2012.

Artweeks at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:26:59 +0100

Artweeks is the country's biggest open studio event with more than 500 free exhibitions across the whole of the county. Amazing art is available to view or buy in a huge variety of different locations. This year OUCS invites you to enjoy a range of beautiful and inspiring pieces within the department's converted Victorian houses. Come and explore the exhibition between Monday 14th May - Friday 18th May 2012, 11.30am - 1.30pm.

OxTALENT Awards 2012

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:13:48 +0100

Do you make creative use of technology in your teaching, learning or research? Has your use of ICT enhanced your own educational practice or that of others? The OxTALENT annual awards recognise those who have made use of ICT to foster learning and academic practice at either undergraduate or postgraduate level. Set yourself apart from the rest and enter the competition at: http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/submission-s.xml (Deadline: 21st May 2012).

Security change to Oxford Nexus

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:44:17 +0100

On Tuesday 8 May 2012, the Oxford Nexus service is renewing and changing its server certificates. Most software and devices should accept this change without prompting, and we expect that most people won't notice any change at all. Some software may ask you to re-start. If you see a message regarding a security change from your hand-held device, please restart the whole device. A few hand-held devices may take some time to work with the new certificate, so please allow 3 hours before contacting the Help Centre if you see problems. For more information, see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/upgrade/certrenewal.xml

OUCS Easter Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:16:58 +0100

The OUCS building will be closed during the Easter break from 8:30 pm on April 5th until 8:30 am on April 10th. The Help Centre, Poster Printing, and IT Learning Program will all be closed over Easter.

OUCS runs first Raspberry Pi Course

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:04:08 +0000

On Friday 9th March OUCS held, what Electronics Weekly proclaim to be, the first introductory course on Raspberry Pi, a revolutionary computer designed to encourage kids of all ages to experiment with electronics and programming. It's USP is a fully featured computer the size of a credit card, sold at less than £30. Slides from the seminar are available on Slideshare. A recording of the session will be released over the coming weeks on the Oxford Podcasts web site.

Celebrating Open Education Week

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:56:14 +0000

OUCS is one of the early pioneers in the HE Open Education Movement, so for Open Education Week we have plenty to be proud of. OpenSpires has released over 1300 podcasts under an open licence for reuse, whilst the Oxford Text Archive are opening up hundreds of texts from Shakespeare to C18 medicine as e-books. Projects such as Ripple, Triton and OER Impact have made available workflows and research for those who want to get started in OER. Currently Politics in Spires, Great Writers Inspire, WW1 Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings and Europeana 1914-1918 are collecting together OER under themes to support teaching and learning across the board. The purpose of Open Education Week is to raise awareness of the open education movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide. Participation in all events and use of all resources is free an open to anyone.

World Book Day

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:53:16 +0000

Join the festival of reading by exploring the literary resources offered by OUCS. The Oxford Text Archive preserves electronic literary resources for use in Higher Education, many of which are available for download as e-books. Our Great Writers Inspire project is assembling a substantial new body of open content with a literary theme, focused on engaging new students. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and The Old English Coursepack are open access sites, offering texts, contextual resources and tutorials.

What are you going to do with your extra day?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:12:41 +0000

If you did not get a place on one of our free Leap Year courses today, you can still learn something new on your extra day this year. Be inspired by some of the greatest writers of all time, learn to meditate, or take romp through the philosophy of the mind. Our Oxford Podcasts have over 3000 talks, lectures and ePubs to choose from.

IT, Impact, and Public/Business Engagement

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:58:01 +0000

Need to demonstrate how your project engages the public or show how it could have a beneficial impact on society? This guide details how IT tools can help.

Your Oxford Nexus mailbox should be upgraded soon

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:25:36 +0000

The Nexus Team has begun to introduce Microsoft Exchange 2010 into the Nexus Service infrastructure. There were some preparatory changes on 14 and 16 February. Your mailbox should be upgraded some time in the month of March. The main change you should notice is to the web access for your email and calendars. See http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/upgrade/ for more information.

Oxford Nexus changes on 14 and 16 February

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:36:49 +0000

You may have just received an email about some changes to the Oxford Nexus email/calendar etc. service on the above two dates. Please keep the experience of the change as easy as possible by avoiding the use of your email and calendars between 7am and 9am on 14 February. People who use IMAP email software may not be able to email between the same times on 16 February. No changes to your service should result. Users of Apple Mail, Apple iCal, DavMail (some people), IMAP (some people) may have to change a setting, but you should have received information about this already. For more info, please see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/upgrade/.

LTG Case Studies in Innovative Practice

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:27:08 +0000

Each week this term the Learning Technologies Group will publish a video case study on an innovative use of technology enriching teaching and learning in the University. You can watch the case studies on the LTG YouTube Channel or Oxford Podcasts. A written version is available on on the LTG Case Study Blog.

New WebLearn Guidance Site

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:33:33 +0000

The WebLearn Guidance Site has been given a new-look. It has been made easier to navigate and looks more visually appealing. It should be easier to find information as the front page contains links to all sections and is laid out in a clear and concise manner.

OUCS Christmas Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:45:37 +0000

OUCS will be closed for Christmas from 12:00 noon on December 23rd and will re-open at 8:30 am on January 3rd, 2012. Best Christmas wishes to everyone in the University!

Notice of Building Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:55:33 +0000

The OUCS building and all public-facing services will be closed from 13:00 on Wednesday 14th December 2011. We will reopen as normal at 08:30 on Thursday 15th December 2011.

Don't fall for Phishing!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:22:09 +0000

Don't fall for phishing! Be alert! Do not reply! Do not give your password to web forms linked from emails! Click the title of this item for more info

Hotmail delivery issues

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:41:20 +0000

We are witnessing some problems in delivering email to Hotmail accounts. We are trying to resolve this with Microsoft as quickly as possible. We are witnessing some problems in delivering email to Hotmail accounts. We are trying to resolve this with Microsoft as quickly as possible.

OpenAdvent

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:26:09 +0000

OUCS' advent calendar is now open at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/openadvent/. There is a lovely open educational resource for you to find each day behind the doors.

Nexus issues Resolved

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Stuart Lee) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:48:58 +0000

We believe the connectivity issues witnessed this evening are now resolved. We are investigating the exact cause of the issues. We believe the connectivity issues witnessed this evening are now resolved. We are investigating the exact cause of the issues.

IMAP username.herald service has been withdrawn

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:09:41 +0000

If you use an IMAP connection to Oxford Nexus, and it has suddenly stopped working, you need to open the configuration settings in your email client and change the 'Incoming server' name from yourusername.herald.ox.ac.uk to imap.nexus.ox.ac.uk. Click the title of this message for further instructions, if you need them. If you are stuck or in a tremendous hurry, go to https://nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa in a web browser. If you're still stumped as to what to do about it, please contact the OUCS Help Centre via http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/help/request.xml.

IMAP email using yourusername.herald.ox.ac.uk is about to stop working

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:19:23 +0000

If you used to connect to Herald using an IMAP email client, please check that you have changed your connection settings for 'incoming server' to imap.nexus.ox.ac.uk. The yourusername.herald.ox.ac.uk method will stop at 11am on Tuesday 29 November 2011. If you're not sure what this means, click the title of this item and check the settings in your email client.

Accessing WebLearn via Mobile Oxford: Wed 16 Nov, 12:30-13:30 at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:05:44 +0000

Come and attend this one-hour session which demonstrates the award-winning Mobile Oxford platform (m.ox.ac.uk) and a selection of WebLearn tools that can be accessed via a mobile device. Bring your internet-enabled mobile device and try it out for yourself.

OUCS News available on web and in PDF

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:33:18 +0000

OUCS News for Michaelmas 2011 is now available online and in PDF format.

OUCS website homepage is changing

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:37:27 +0100

The OUCS website homepage will change to a new, refreshed version on 1st November. Thanks to all those who have helped develop and test it. For a preview please click on the title of this item.

Some urgent Oxford Nexus password changes

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:04:25 +0100

You may have been encouraged recently to change your password. Please follow the instructions sent to you and which are reproduced at the following page: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/password-info.xml. Similarly, see that page for guidance if you are an Outlook user and are seeing a pop-up 'Change Password' prompt.

Tell us what you think and win a £50 prize

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:12:50 +0100

At OUCS we are looking to further our understanding about what you think of our services and use your input to improve the way they are delivered in the future. Let us have your opinions by completing the online survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/oucs_users. All completed entries received before 5 November are eligible to be entered into a prize draw.

Talk to OUCS about Green IT

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:04:35 +0100

The University has achieved a 4.8% reduction in carbon emissions Jan-Mar 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. OUCS is actively supporting the implementation of the University's Carbon Management Strategy by offering the Green Desktop Computing Initiative; building the University Shared Data Centre, consolidating servers using virtualisation technologies; and supporting the use of communication technologies, reducing the need for travel.

To discuss these find out more please visit: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/greenit/index.xml.ID=desktop

Hotmail issue now resolved

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:21:09 +0100

After last week's lifting of the hotmail blocks on Oxford we continued to experience some severe rate-limiting by Microsoft so the backlog took some time to get down to zero. We believe the blocks and rate limits have now been fully removed so email sent from the University to Hotmail, MSN, or Live addresses is now flowing freely. Thank you for your patience in an extremely difficult time.

Oxford Hotmail block lifted and nearing full resolution

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:04:13 +0100

The Hotmail block on mail sent from Oxford University has been removed. Mails from Oxford to Hotmail, Live and MSN sent and queued from last week may take a day or so to deliver. Once that has happened you'll be able to send to Hotmail, Live and MSN again. For a fuller version of this please click the title of this item.

Ongoing problems with email to Hotmail, Live, MSN etc.

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:16:07 +0100

There is a problem, caused by an error in a non-OUCS department, that means the University cannot currently send email to several services, including Hotmail, MSN, Live and others. If you send email to any affected service it will either bounce back with an error or be held on the Oxford email systems until it can be delivered. Receiving email from these services remains unaffected but replies to such messages will not get through. Note that auto-forwarding your Oxford email to any of the affected services will not work at the moment so you may like to adjust your settings. OUCS is working hard to fix this problem but some factors out of our control mean we can't yet give an estimated fix time. We are sorry for the obvious inconvenience this will cause.

WebLearn User Group meeting. OUCS 29 Sept, 2-4pm plus refreshments

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:53:19 +0100

Book yourself a place to attend the next WebLearn User Group (WLUG) meeting. WebLearn users will share with us how WebLearn works for them and their students, including examples on the use of Turnitin (plagiarism detection and prevention) and Xerte (content authoring package). See the WebLearn User Group site in WebLearn for more information.

Digital literacy is key to unlocking the value of online resources says new research from the LTG

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:13:28 +0100

Researchers from the OUCS Learning Technologies Group have authored a report on the impact of Open Educational Resources. Findings highlight the need to support learners and academic staff alike in the referencing and the reuse of online resources.

The report was commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and authored by by Liz Masterman and Joanna Wild. It can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/okzU8Qf.

Mobile Oxford goes Welsh!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Alexander Dutton) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:16:29 +0100

Bangor University is trialling a mobile service based on the Mobile Oxford software. Click the title link or point your phone at m.bangor.ac.uk

Computing Services Building Closed

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:05:45 +0100

On Wednesday, August 3rd the Computing Services Building will be closing at 5:30 pm. The evening Help Desk service and the Data Centre Operations Desk will not be available on this day.

InfoDev Team Member wins jiscEXPO "Project Developer of the Year"

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:48:27 +0100

Alex Dutton from OUCS's InfoDev team has won "Project Developer of the Year" at the jiscEXPO Programme Meeting. "...truly an inspiration in terms of hard work, not only in his project but in about a dozen other initiatives ..." Congratulations Alex!

OUCS Help Desk closed for 8 1/2 hours

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:53:09 +0100

On Thursday, July 14th, the OUCS Help Centre will be closed during the day. This affects phone and email cover as well as the drop-in help service, registration service and the online shop order processing. The revised help desk opening hours on this date are 5 pm to 8:30 pm. Normal service will be resumed on July 15th.

Access to exam results release information for leavers

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:24:13 +0100

If you are a student completing your studies this year and haven't remembered to set a forward on your Nexus account to get your email notification of your results release you can follow @OxfordExams on twitter or look at Mobile Oxford to find out this information. You may also use online self registration by clicking the title of this item to set forwarding so future emails go to your nominated email address.

10th OxTALENT Red Carpet Awards

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katharine Lindsay) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:38:04 +0100

On the 28th June, OUCS will host the 10th Oxford University OxTALENT awards to celebrate creative use of technology for learning, teaching, impact and outreach. Awards will be presented for categories including: Best use of WebLearn to Support a Course or Programme of Study; Student Podcasting; Academic Podcasting; Best Digital Research Image and Best use of IT for Outreach and Impact. Attendance at the event is by invitation only, however if you do not have a ticket to grace the red carpet you can see the winners revealed via on the OxTALENT event page or through following tweets from @LTGOxford.

Severe network problems

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:44:55 +0100

The University network is having severe problems connecting out to Janet and the internet. We are investigating the problem and hope to have a fix in place before working hours tomorrow, Tuesday 28th June. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

WebLearn User Group 7 July 2pm

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:59:03 +0100

WebLearn User Group (WLUG) next meeting: Trinity Term: Thursday 7 July 2011 Booking is required Meeting: 2:00-4:00 pm, followed by cream tea. WebLearn user presentations: Rachel Woodruff and Victoria Brown: History of Art: a multiple site model; Daniel Wilkes: Lessons learned from the Politics WebLearn migration; Denise McDonough: Help Desk Resources - all in one place in WebLearn

Hadware Repair Services Closed until June 27th

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:11:56 +0100

Due to a combination of staff holiday and scheduled surgery, all Repair Services (including Apple Warranty) are closed until June 27th, 2011. The enquiry forms can be used to request a repair after this date but will receive no reply until then.

Launch of new OxFile service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:48:18 +0100

We are pleased to announce that OxFile, the large file exchange service, is now available for general use.

OxFile is a web service that supports the exchange of large files with people inside and outside of Oxford University, and is fast and simple to use.

https://oxfile.ox.ac.uk/

We are grateful to everyone who helped test this service, and hope that it will prove useful for people needing to exchange files that are too large to send by email, WebLearn, or SharePoint.

People who wish to read more about the service should visit https://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/services/oxfile.xml.

Energy Dashboards and User Behaviour, Said Business School, 14th June

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:30:40 +0100

Rising prices, carbon regulation, and HEFCE targets are all making universities and colleges pay greater attention to their energy consumption and carbon emissions. Better information about usage patterns, and changes over time, is a key part of taking action to minimise consumption. Energy managers have long understood this but hardware and software innovations are now enabling many more people to access and use energy data, and for it to be displayed in buildings. How can universities and colleges work together on this and how can we motivate changes in user behaviour? Anyone working in the area of energy display or user information/behaviour change should find this of value.

OUCS News now available in print, as PDF and online

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 20 May 2011 09:57:42 +0100

Keep up to date with news, developments, updates and more from OUCS with OUCS News. In this term's issue: a new £1.2 million cloud project, taking the WW1 archive to Germany, wireless picnicking, swimming the channel and lots more.

WebLearn Courses Trinity Term 2011

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:31:51 +0100

A variety of taught courses are offered by OUCS free of charge, to support the use of WebLearn. Of particular importance this term is the course Migrating your Content, since all content must be migrated from old to new WebLearn before September 2011 when the old system becomes read-only. There are two new courses available this term: WebLearn: For Teaching; and WebLearn: via Mobile Oxford (lunch time session). Places are limited and bookings are required (bookings open 30 days in advance of the course). Full details of dates, course descriptions and topics covered in all WebLearn courses are provided via the booking system.

WebLearn Courses Trinity Term 2011

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:31:39 +0100

Spam pretending to come from University addresses

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:57:27 +0100

Over the last weekend, a large amount of spam arrived sent out from outside the University with forged From: fields containing University email addresses. A significant portion of this spam run was blocked before being received due to the sending hosts being blacklisted already. The University spam scoring system also assigned a high score so that the messages landed in the Junk E-mail folder for people with filtering enabled (see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/filter/). Exceptions were cases where people white-listed their own domain (e.g. @oucs.ox.ac.uk) and so disabled the filtering for these faked sending addresses.

Everyone's invited to Artweeks at OUCS 21-27 May 2011

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:44:16 +0100

Artweeks is the country's biggest open studio event and this year OUCS invites you to enjoy a range of beautiful pieces within the department's converted Victorian houses. We also have a selection of free gifts to give away each day!

Eduroam and OWL service now available outdoors

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:09:28 +0100

Your al fresco lunch/baguettes/picnics/tutorial experiences can now be enhanced by connectivity to the University backbone in the green spaces at Wellington Square and the Keble Gate side of the University Parks. Hopefully more areas to follow!

OUCS wins £1.2million for cloud project - VIDaaS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:17:04 +0100

JISC announced today that OUCS has won funding of £1.2million to develop the VIDaaS Project - Virtual Infrastructure with Database as a Service. This Project will provide a local virtual infrastructure (VI) which will interface with a national Higher Education VI - or 'cloud' - to enable the sharing of services across the whole HE sector. As a result there will be substantial cost savings through economies of scale. The virtual infrastructure will host a self-service 'Database as a Service' (DaaS) system which will help improve the efficiency of UK Higher Education research.

OUCS Internships available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:41:17 +0100

OUCS are offering internships to Oxford University Students. Seven vacancies are available and include work with multimedia ePub documents, on the Research Skills Toolkit website, investigating a collaborative video guide site, developing OpenData, work on Mobile Oxford, documentation and workflow research with SharePoint and developing research sites. Pay is £10.15/hour. Deadline for applications: May 6th.

"OUCS in 2010" on your ebook reader

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:17:15 +0000

The new "OUCS in 2010" report is now available in ePub, Kindle, and PDF formats. These can be downloaded from http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/internal/

New report on OUCS in 2010 available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:29:27 +0000

A new report - OUCS in 2010 - is now available. This review summarises and celebrates the continuing achievements by OUCS staff in delivering high quality reliable services, supporting the Information Technology needs of the collegiate University as cost-effectively as possible, and adjusting to new demands.

Embedding Oxford Podcasts in your WebLearn site is easy !

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Fawei Geng) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:17:30 +0000

WebLearn now makes it very easy to embed items from Oxford Podcasts(podcasts.ox.ac.uk) into a site. First, add the "Oxford Podcasts" tool to your WebLearn site via "Site Info". Second, click on "Browse the Oxford Podcast Collection" to view the podcasts available. You can search for podcasts by Division or by keywords in their titles or descriptions. Third, select a podcast and continue adding it to your site. A detailed "How-to" guide is available at http://bit.ly/eukbru.

Research Skills Toolkit online: now covering how to organise your research information

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Pamela Stanworth) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:17:56 +0000

A new section about 'Managing research information' now includes resources and guidance for researchers, on keeping on top of their research material.

Annual report in ebook formats

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:57:52 +0000

The OUCS annual report for 2009-2010 is now available in ePub and Kindle formats for those who prefer to use ebooks. Feedback from users on how useable they find these versions is very welcome.

New WebLearn upgraded

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:26:31 +0000

New WebLearn was upgraded on 1st Feb 2011. There have been big improvements to the Survey Beta tool: many bug fixes and new features as requested during the pilot of the tool. There is also a new tool called "Oxford Podcasts" to facilitate using, er, Oxford Podcasts within a WebLearn site.

SharePoint 2010 released to early adopters

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:48:56 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the Nexus team have successfully upgraded the SharePoint service to SharePoint2010. Early adopters can now access increased functionality and site usability that is provided by this important upgrade.

Mobile Oxford wins Award for Excellence

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:08:34 +0000

Congratulations Mobile Oxford! They have won the UCISA 2010 Award for Excellence.

OUCS News Hilary 2011 Available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:00:50 +0000

Online, PDF and print versions of OUCS News are now available. Click the title for the electronic versions or collect a print copy from OUCS.

Efficient IT - Keeping Costs Down and Performance Up

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Kathryn Wenczek) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:46:09 +0000

Wednesday 9 February. A free event aimed at college bursars and departmental administrators and who want to ensure their IT services are efficient and cost-effective.

Deleted Items and Junk E-Mail start to disappear

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:57:31 +0000

This is a reminder that the Deleted Items and Junk E-Mail folders are managed folders in Nexus. From 24 January 2011, the oldest items (specifically, items that have been in the folder for 90 days or more) will be purged. Some further information is available within the Nexus FAQ at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/help/faq.xml.ID=using If anything important does disappear from Nexus due to an accidental deletion, remember that you have a further 7 days to get them back. See http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/email/deleted.xml.

OUCS Annual Report 2009-2010

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:36:47 +0000

The OUCS Annual Report for 2009-2010 has now been published detailing our extensive work of maintaining and enhancing IT for the wider University community. It covers all OUCS services, projects, activities and more, showing how they have performed, and the demand for each.

OUCS CHRISTMAS CLOSURE

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:17:15 +0000

OUCS Christmas Closure Dates OUCS will be closed for Christmas from 12:00 noon on December 23rd and will re-open at 8:30 am on January 3rd, 2011. Best Christmas wishes to everyone in the University!

HFS passes the petabyte milestone

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Janet McKnight) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:17:37 +0000

This week the HFS reported holding more than 1PiB of primary copy data online. That's a one followed by 15 zeros or, perhaps more meaningfully, a million gigabytes. Three copies of all data are held, meaning we now manage over 3PiB. When the service started in 1995, tape media held 10GB per piece. Had tape technology stood still, we would now be managing 300,000 tape volumes rather than the several thousand we currently have. So that's progress!

Shakespeare's first folio released on iTunesU

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:53:29 +0000

Shakespeare's entire First Folio, including original spelling, is being made available to download for free, as Oxford University becomes one of the world's first universities to add ePubs to iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store [www.itunes.com]. This has been made possible with the expertise of staff here in OUCS and the Oxford Text Archive.

To read the news item in full click on the title above.

Call for Participation - WebLearn Polls via m.ox (Mobile Oxford)

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:05:13 +0100

Have you ever wished your students could respond in class using personal voting systems (clickers), but never quite got around to trying it? Well now you can do it for free using a combination of WebLearn and Mobile Oxford (m.ox).

Copyright Infringements on VPN

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:55:32 +0100

In response to some questions from the "Cherwell" student newspaper we have written a short FAQ about the University IT Rules on copyright infringement and how they still apply even when you are using VPN.

Happy Birthday

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:52:27 +0100

Today marks the second anniversary of the launch of Oxford on iTunes U, featuring audio and video podcasts from across the University. 5 million downloads have been made from the site, which contains more hours of material than any other UK university. We currently have three podcasts in the global top ten. Awareness among first years that Oxford produces podcasts has risen from 15 per cent the 2009 freshers fair to 60 per cent this year. Thanks to the OUCS team; and the contributions of many other colleagues from across the University, this site has helped bring Oxford thinking to a broad global audience

Microsoft Office and Windows 7 now available at discount to students

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:20:45 +0100

Students can now buy Office 2010 and/or Windows 7 for £50 and £30 respectively. Please note this deal isnot administered by OUCS so we can't help with it. Please click the title of this item for more information.

WebLearn User Group - 29 September 2010, 2-4pm followed by cream tea

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:46:15 +0100

You are invited to join us at OUCS for our next user group meeting to hear about the latest updates to the system and share ideas about WebLearn practice. Guest speakers: Andy Cotgreave (Student Data Management) and Wulf Forrester-Barker (Medical Sciences). Booking is essential.

Oxford Nexus issues

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:30:13 +0100

The Oxford Nexus service has experienced some failures due to a storage problem. These began on Thursday (9th Sept 2010) evening and continued during Friday. Currently a resolution plan, as advised by the storage vendor, is being applied and users should now see a normal service. The Nexus Team are monitoring the situation.

Nexus accounts now mostly available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:33:16 +0100

Work continues on Nexus and we regret that around 500 accounts are still unavailable. We have no current estimate for a fix of these so if you can't get in please ask your IT Officer to check if yours is an affected account.

Nexus - further problems Friday morning

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:43:09 +0100

Nexus has experienced some more storage issues overnight so some accounts are unavailable either through Outlook, Outlook Web, access or IMAP. Our staff are working on the issue now and we'll provide further updates as soon as we have more information. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Come and work on the Help Desk!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:50:59 +0100

Out-of-Oxford backup service over VPN

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jason Zerdin) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:37:03 +0100

The HFS has opened a new service intended to meet the needs of those who work outside Oxford (off the University Network) for long periods and who wish to ensure that their data is appropriately secured using Oxford-run facilities. Further details can be found at: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/hfs/vpn

At risk period

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:22:15 +0100

Maintenance and updates to services usually are scheduled for the at-risk period. This is between 7am and 9am on Tuesday morning each week. Please try again if you find a loss of service, and check that the service is still unavailable at 9am before reporting this.

Possible Turnitin Outage Sept 4-5

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:05:13 +0100

The plagiarism detection service "Turnitin" may be off-line between 6pm on Sat 4th Sept and 2am on 5th Sept. This will affect people who use Turnitin via WebLearn or directly via submit.ac.uk.

Dialup service stopped on 31st July

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:53:09 +0100

After many years of faithful service, the dialup service was pensioned off. It will be missed by its small, very devoted, following.

TransferSummit/UK

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:31:01 +0100

OSS Watch, the JISC funded open source advisory service for UK Higher and Further Education recently held a hugely successful conference at Keble College. Speakers and delegates from across the world gathered to explore open innovation in software as a means to increasing the level of collaboration between academic researchers and private sector companies.

Finishing at Oxford this summer?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:26:35 +0100

Find out about what happens next to all your OUCS-managed computer accounts, how to forward emails, Alumni options etc.

Woruldhord project opens collection

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:14:28 +0100

The Woruldhord project, based at OUCS, has now opened its online submission site. The community collection project sets out to collect together into an online hoard, digital objects related to the teaching, study, or research of Old English and the Anglo-Saxon period of history.

World Wide Research: Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:13:29 +0100

Professor Paul Jeffreys (Director of IT) and Professor William Dutton (OII) have contributed to, and edited, a new book entitled 'World Wide Research: Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities'. This book examines how advances in information and communication technology are transforming the way scholarly research is conducted across all disciplines. It offers a comprehensive and accessible view of the use of these new approaches-called 'e-research' - and their ethical, legal, and institutional implications.

OxTALENT Academic podcasting prize

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:53:55 +0100

Congratulations to Dr Emma Smith (Faculty of English Language and Literature) who has won the OxTALENT Academic podcasting prize for 'Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean popular theatre'. This was part of our annual competition for the innovative use of IT in teaching and learning at Oxford. The OxTALENT awards are part of the University Teaching Awards Scheme.

Owl and Eduroam available in Oxford Hospitals

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:31:44 +0100

As part of OWL Phase 2, to introduce wireless networking in public areas across the University, OUCS has come to an arrangement with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust to allow access to OWL and Eduroam wireless networks from all their internal wireless network access points. Whether you work in the hospitals or have the misfortune to be a customer, you can access the internet in all hospital public areas. Click on the title to check details of how to access and any credentials needed.

WebEx during travel restrictions

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:36:20 +0100

Don't cancel your meetings because you can't travel: as long as you have a internet connection, you can use WebEx to run your meetings from wherever you are. You can share presentations, documents, applications or even your desktop with participants at the University or across the world.
For more details visit www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/webex or email webex@ox.ac.uk.
This photo by Simon_sees has a CC licence.

OUCS News Online

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:56:33 +0100

OUCS News is now available online as a PDF document and an XML web page.

Artweeks at OUCS open today from 11am - 4pm

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:45:51 +0100

OUCS Summer Internships available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:16:35 +0100

Oxford University Computing Services are offering internships to Oxford University Students only. This is an exciting opportunity to join our committed IT work force and we are looking for students from various backgrounds. All internships will run for eight weeks between July and August 2010, and you will be paid £10.06 an hour.

Webex during travel restrictions

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:14:00 +0100

Don't cancel your meetings because you can't travel: as long as you have a internet connection you can use webex to run your meetings from wherever you are. You can share presentations, documents, applications or even your desktop with participants at the University or across the world.
For more details visit www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/webex or e-mail webex@ox.ac.uk.
This photo by Söring is released with a CC licence.

OUCS moving its website to Gopher

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Janet McKnight) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:57:48 +0100

Owing to the high risk of security vulnerabilities in modern websites using HTTP and HTML technologies, OUCS is leading the way in protecting the University's websites by moving to the more secure Gopher protocol. The HTML version of the OUCS website will be phased out in favour of the Gopher version over the next six months.

While support for Gopher is missing in some modern browsers, users can access the site using Firefox at gopher://gopher.oucs.ox.ac.uk/. Users with less-capable browsers may access the site using a gateway.

The HTML version of the OUCS website will be phased out in favour of the Gopher version over the next six months.

Image licensed under CC-BY-3.0 from Wikipedia.

NSMS prices held for the coming year

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:06:54 +0100

In these financially challenging times good economic news is a rarity. NSMS have bucked this particular trend. Charges for NSMS services will be held at the 2009-2010 level for 2010-2011. In addition, the pricing model has been simplified to further reduce any administrative overhead to our clients. Please contact nsms@oucs.ox.ac.uk for more details.

Artweeks exhibition comes to OUCS 8-15 May

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:10:27 +0000

OUCS is hosting an Artweeks exhibition by members of staff between 8-15 May 2010 (Mon-Fri 4-8pm and Sat 11-4pm) at 13 Banbury Road. The idea behind Artweeks is to create an Oxfordshire Visual Art Festival where the public is invited to enjoy visual art away from the formality of a gallery setting, in a relaxed environment and with direct access to the artists. Entry to the OUCS Artweeks exhibition is free and open to anyone so why not come and see the the output of some talented geeks (and non-geeks)!

OUCS Building Temporary Closure - 8.30am to 10am 24 March 2010

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:47:47 +0000

Due to emergency plumbing works, the OUCS building at 13 Banbury Road will be closed on the morning of Wednesday 24th March from 8.30am to 10am. All other services are unaffected. We apologise for the inconvenience.

OUCS dialup to close 31st July 2010

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:31:03 +0000

Due to high costs and the lack of maintainability of the obsolete equipment providing the service, and the small number of users, the service will terminate on July 31, 2010.

Spamsettings

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:15:13 +0000

If you are receiving too much spam, or losing a lot of items to your junk mail folder, check out your settings on the register page. Click the title to go straight there!

OUCS News on-line

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:27:49 +0000

The Hilary 2010 edition of OUCS News is now available on-line in PDF or webpage format.

Old WebLearn: Test Building will become read only from 8th Feb

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:25:44 +0000

As part of the migration to the new WebLearn, it is our intention to stop allowing the creation of new materials in Old WebLearn's Test Building from Monday 8 Feb 2010, Wk4 HT2010. This is the first phase of the process of closing the Test Building.

Nexus upgraded with Messageware

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:18:27 +0000

Following recent upgrades, Messageware is now functional across all of Outlook Web Access to Nexus. This allows for more sophisticated address book lookup, capability to share and delegate calendars,quickly find recent addresses, and add items to a personal dictionary.

OUCS will close today at 5.30pm

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:30:08 +0000

Because of the bad weather, OUCS is operating at reduced staffing levels today (Wednesday) and the building will close at 5.30pm.

Meet despite the snow

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jemima Spare) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:29:37 +0000

The weather may have caused chaos with transport (again) but it doesn't have to cause chaos to your meetings... Don't cancel your meetings because you can't travel, as long as you have a internet connection you can use webex to run your meetings from wherever you are. Share presentations, documents, applications or even your desktop with participants at the University or across the world. For more information visit www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/webex or contact webex@ox.ac.uk.

OUCS will close on Friday 8th at 5.30

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:13:18 +0000

Because of the bad weather, OUCS is operating at reduced staffing levels today and the building will close at 5.30 on Friday 8th.

Nexus back up but still at risk

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:48:08 +0000

Last ditch efforts to bring the service back up before Christmas appear to have been successful. It is operating on reduced capacity and is still very much at risk but most clients should now be able to connect.

Nexus unavailable - major disruption - no service over Christmas

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ylva Berglund) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:15:47 +0000

Dear All, // This is an emergency note re the Nexus service. As you will know our dual site at Begbroke was taken out of service this week due to an air-conditioning failure and we have been informed this will not be available until after the break. Unfortunately this coincided with a failure of the Nexus service overnight (we are not sure if the two are linked). As we cannot move to our mirror site at Begbroke we have spent all of today trying to fix the problem and run on a single site. OUCS staff have given up their holiday to come in today but despite our best efforts we have not been able to get the service back. As you can imagine this is not been helped by the fact that this is Christmas Eve so we are very short-staffed as it is and unable to get the support form vendors we would expect at other times of the year. // We deeply apologise for this inconvenience but there is little we can do. OUCS staff will attempt to work on the problem again on Monday and we will keep you posted. // Please notify your users accordingly, // Stuart Lee Director, OUCS

Early Closure on December 17th

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:25:51 +0000

OUCS will close early at 6pm on 17th December. We will re-open again as normal at 8.30am on Friday December 18th.

Feedback please!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:10:46 +0000

OUCS is constantly looking to improve its services or to focus on new areas in line with the needs of its users. This is an open call to remind you of our online suggestion box on the OUCS home page which allows you to give direct feedback about the services we are currently running, and those you would like to see us provide.

Sophos personal editions need updating

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:01:55 +0000

If you installed Sophos on a personal machine last academic year you need to install the new versions of Sophos Anti Virus to ensure that continue receiving regular updates from Sophos. Last year's versions will have stopped auto-updating from 18 November and will show a red-cross on the little shield icon. It is extremely important to update as you will not be properly protected if you fail to do so. Click the title of this item to go to self-service software download.

30,000 users migrated to Nexus

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:52:33 +0000

Sunday 15th November saw the 30,000th user migrate to Nexus, now giving 38,565 active mailboxes. Many users are now taking the opportunity to organise meetings through the new Calendaring functionality.

New Podcast lectures

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:50:34 +0000

Oxford's iTunes U site frontpage has been updated with talks from the 2009 Alumni Weekend; "Not Shakespeare" - a great new series on Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre; an address by Peter Mandelson on Enterprise-led Recovery; and an engaging Introduction to Old English by Stuart Lee. Climate Change is also on the agenda with the first of over 30 talks from the recent 4degrees Conference in Oxford, which examines the implications of a global climate change of 4+ degrees.

WebLearn User Group: 20 Nov, 14:00 at OUCS followed by cream tea

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jill Fresen) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:55:43 +0000

Booking required. We invite all WebLearn users to come together with members of the OUCS WebLearn team to hear about recent and future development, to give feedback and share ideas and practices regarding its use. Use this opportunity to ensure that your voice and ideas are heard and shared in order to inform the ongoing development and support of the system. We will also discuss your needs and preferences for the format, frequency and nature of the WebLearn User Group.

War Poets Exhibition in Second Life

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Alun Edwards) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:59:46 +0000

This immersive experience attempts to demonstrate how effective it can be to expose items from a research project in their context. This is the result of a collaboration between the JISC-funded First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the OUCS Learning Technologies Group (LTG). In the three-dimensional virtual world Second Life you can see items from the collection, hear interviews with veterans, and watch contemporary film footage as you explore the area - a training camp, communication trench, a dressing-station, a front-line trench - as well as listen to readings of the poetry.

OUCS can carry out Apple Warranty Repairs

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:22:40 +0000

after an agreement was signed with Apple Sales International authorizing our Hardware Repair Service to carry out warranty repairs on Apple Mac computers owned by the University or its members. For more details, click the title of this news item.

OUCS achieves Apple Authorised Training Centre for Education status

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Kathryn Wenczek) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:18:32 +0100

We launch our Apple teaching programme with three new courses. Two lead to certification in Aperture or Final Cut Pro. The third is aimed at those who want to make documentary film about their research.

On-line Shop launch delayed

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:11:44 +0100

due to technical difficulties. We will announce the new launch date as soon as we have this information.

A New Version of the On-line Shop

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:03:07 +0100

has been launched on October 5th at 8:30 am. You can now search for items, specify delivery or collection when ordering, and request older software versions where available. Follow the link in the news item title for details on using the service.

Nexus migrations start 1st Sept

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:37:33 +0100

All new accounts created on the central email service will be provisioned on the new Nexus service from 1st September. From this date current undergraduates and taught postgraduates will be migrated over a four week period. Staff and research postgraduates will be migrated in two windows - one starting 7 Sept and on from 19 Oct.

WebLearn on the OUCS website

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:04:18 +0100

The WebLearn area of the OUCS website contains lots of useful information including: dedicated sections for students, staff, departments and ITSS/webmasters (including customisable publicity material and documentation); information about WebLearn tools; training; migration of content; future plans; and a rather nifty photo of the WebLearn team in their office! It's a useful companion resource to the Guidance site found within the new WebLearn.

Major Bandwidth Increase - JANET now 10Gps

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:19:42 +0100

Following successful engineering works during the 'at-risk' periods on 11th Aug and 18th Aug the bandwidth on our link to JANET has been increased to 10 Gbps (previously 2 Gbps). This substantial increase will enable us to continue to handle the ever increasing traffic levels that we experience

Nexus initial users now online

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:47:33 +0100

Over 400 users are now using Nexus for email and other services. Roll-out to the next Early Adopters will occur shortly, with a target of all users migrating by Christmas. For full details, FAQ etc click the item heading

Dialup Service no longer provided on 792444

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:44:52 +0100

The dialup service no longer works on 01865 792444. This service failed terminally as a result of the power outage on Friday 31st July 2009. Service may still be available on 01865 434527 but this service is no longer supported or maintained so nothing can be guaranteed. Please consider moving to a broadband connection with an internet service provider for use away from the University Network.

OUCS Data Centre Outage

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:50:13 +0100

There was a power failure in the OUCS Data Centre at approximately 10.15am on Friday 31st July. Services have now been restored.

Launch of the new WebLearn service on 30 June 2009

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:32:34 +0100

A new version of WebLearn moves into production on the morning of Tuesday 30th June, it represents the future of the University's online teaching and learning environment and will eventually replace its predecessor. The new system offers many advantages over the old: more tools, a better cleaner interface and improved accessibility.

Oxford Nexus moves on to the next stage

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:22:36 +0100

As of Monday 22nd June, the groupware project steps up a gear with the beta testing of the Oxford Nexus email system. This will be followed by the first early adopters from the 6th July. Once all our trials are complete, the new email system will gradually be rolled out to our Herald users in the Autumn. To find out more, visit our Nexus section (click the title above).

Feedback and Ideas Wanted!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:43:54 +0100

OUCS is constantly looking to improve its services or to focus on new areas in line with the needs of its users. This is an open call to remind you of our online suggestion box which allows you to give direct feedback about the services we are currently running, and those you would like to see us provide.

Oxtalent Awards open

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Davis) — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:04:46 +0100

Submissions are now requested for the 4 categories of award - closing date is 29 May

OUCS News on-line

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:17:45 +0100

The Trinity 2009 edition of OUCS News is now available on-line in PDF or webpage format.

Free iPhone SDK training

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:08:36 +0100

Come and hear Paul Burford from Apple's World Wide Developer Relations lecture at this one-day bootcamp. He aims to get you started with writing native applications on the iPhone, even if your background is not in computer science (you will need some programming knowledge). Lunch and refreshments will be provided

Competition: Developing an iPhone/iPod application

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:16:37 +0100

As part of Oxford University's developing relationship with Apple Computers, we are pleased to announce a new competition aimed at all members of the University (staff and students) to reward the best new application ('app') developed for Apple's iPhone (or iPod Touch) that meets a specific need (academic, social, or administrative) of Oxford's staff and/or students. The applications will be judged by a panel consisting of OUCS staff and senior Apple developers. Click the title of this item for full information.

Access to e-journals and OXAM past exam papers when not in Oxford

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:58:18 +0100

You no longer need Vpn to access e-journals or OXAM past papers when you are not in Oxford. Start from http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources You will need your Oxford Single Sign On (herald) username and password.

OUCS News on-line

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:45:19 +0000

The latest edition of OUCS News is now available on-line in web and PDF formats. If you would like to receive brief news reports and important information once a term from OUCS via email, send a blank email to send an email to: oucs-news-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

Modelling4All Launched

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:23:21 +0000

Computer modelling is playing an increasingly important role in fields as varied as sociology, epidemiology, zoology, economics, archaeology, ecology, climate, and engineering. The OUCS Modelling4All Project, funded by Eduserve, aims to greatly broaden participation so that researchers and students can participate in this new way of exploring and understanding real-world phenomena without needing advanced programming skills.

They're back!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:06:00 +0000

8.7 miles run, all colleges and PPH visited, loads of money raised - well done!

OUCS Red Nose Day Runners

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:19:56 +0000

The OUCS red Nose Day Runners are off! Click on the title for a photo.

WebLearn Beta upgraded on March 3rd

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:22:00 +0000

WebLearn Beta has been further improved. You can now: restrict access to material based on department and college affiliation; restore accidentally deleted files; copy the site participants to between sites; search over all your sites. In addition, the Tutorial Sign-Up tool is now available to all users.

Email Updates from OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:07:00 +0000

Would you like to receive termly updates from OUCS via email? We have set up a new email mailing list to send out brief news reports and important information once a term to subscribers. To subscribe yourself to the mailing list, send an email to: oucs-news-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk You will be sent a confirmation request, and once you reply to it, a message confirming that you are a subscriber with information about the list, including how to unsubscribe.

Apple Mac teaching room coming soon

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Kathryn Wenczek) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:09:25 +0000

Apple Mac computers are now more widely used in the University and we have seen an increase in demand for Apple Mac courses. We will soon have an Apple Mac teaching space to add to our existing innovative rooms in the Thames Suite at OUCS. The building work is on schedule and we hope to be ready to offer a new and extended range of courses in Trinity Term. Watch this space - the room will not be what you might have expected!

Oxford on ITunes U - downloads reach 500,000!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:41:18 +0000

Free-to-download audio and video podcasts from across the University of Oxford are available from the Oxford University iTunes website. The OUCS project team is proud to announce that it has only taken 16 weeks to reach 500,000 downloads. Checkout the hundreds of talks and seminars from senior academics,students and researchers by clicking the title bar link.

Beware of phishing attempts

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:59:51 +0000

Many University members have recently received messages with the subject 'Mail Quota' and saying 'You are to provide the following data - First Name: - Username/ID: - Password:' These messages are sent by a malicious person in the hope of gaining login names/passwords which can be used for spam distribution among other things. Please do not ever reveal your password to anybody and never respond to messages asking you to send your username and password. Rest assured that OUCS would never ask you to email a password.

OUCS closure January 15th for staff development

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:50:05 +0000

OUCS' public areas (including the Help Centre) will be closed until 13.00 on Thursday 15th January 2009 to allow people to attend an annual staff development event. Email, VLE, networking, and other such services are entirely unaffected.

WebLearn Beta was successfully upgraded on Jan 6th 2009

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Adam Marshall) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:29:50 +0000

We are pleased to announce that a new version of WebLearn Beta (2.5-ox2.2) has been released. This release contains the following improvements: * A forgotten password link (for external users) now on front page * Child sites are now ordered alphabetically (instead of randomly). * Removal of middle initial(s) from names * Faster performance of Site Info. * Fixed 'missing key' bug on Resources 'Edit Details' page. * Fixed a variety of hierarchy related bugs * Non-primary email addresses can now be used to add site participants * Improved error reporting when logging in * Fixed problems with rendering on Safari

.oxford.ac.uk email addresses have now stopped for good

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Janet McKnight) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:27:33 +0000

Email addresses of the form .oxford.ac.uk now no longer work. Ensure all addresses of this form are removed from your address books as they will now fail.

Access to OXAM past exam papers when not in Oxford

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:22:44 +0000

You can now access OXAM past exam papers when not in Oxford using your Oxford SSO account- you dont have to install VPN. Select link above and after authenticating, type OXAM into the Title box. The .pdf files may be slow to open or save depending on the speed of your link and computer.

Christmas Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:09:02 +0000

OUCS will be closed for the Christmas break from midday on Thursday, 24th December. We will re-open at 8.30am on Monday, 4th January. We wish everyone in the University a Merry Christmas!

Early Closure on 18th December

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:14:30 +0000

OUCS will close early at 6pm on 18th December. We will re-open at 8.30am on Friday as normal.

Help shape communications across the collegiate University

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:29:50 +0000

Sharing information across the collegiate University is a huge challenge — one with which we need your help. Take part in the internal communications survey and have your say about university-wide communications, from Blueprint to OUCS News. Let us know what areas could be improved and what developments you would like to see in the future. The survey is running until 19 December. Click the title of this item to complete it online or request a printed copy from Internal Communications on 01865 270164 or at internal.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk.

The end of faxed/emailed software orders

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:54:07 +0000

The OUCS On-line Shop is now no longer accepting faxed or emailed orders for software. All orders must be placed using the On-line Shop at www.oxforduniversityshops.co.uk/oucs/ in order to ensure accuracy. Procedures are in place for ordering via Oracle Financials or College purchase orders and instructions can be found by clicking on this item title.

NSMS provides virtualisation expertise for cross-site virtual infrastructure project

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Elena Blanco-Vazquez) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:31:38 +0000

During the Summer of 2008 NSMS collaborated on a project with Business Services and Projects (BSP) and the Information and Communications Technology Support Team (ICTST) to provide an enterprise level server infrastructure using virtualisation technology. The virtual infrastructure provides dual site redundancy and mirrored data storage and was designed to consolidate servers from BSP, ICTST and the Oxford University Library Services. The solution was handed over in August 2008 and NSMS continues to manage the hardware and virtualisation platform with the infrastructure resources shared between BSP and ICTST.

WW1 Poetry Digital Archive

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:19:42 +0000

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 4000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research. The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artefacts from the Imperial War Museum, a separate archive of over 6500 items contributed by the general public, and a set of specially developed educational resources.

Feedback on OUCS's services

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:42:03 +0000

OUCS is constantly looking to improve its services or to focus on new areas in line with the needs of its users. This is an open call to remind users of our online suggestion box which allows you to give direct feedback about the services we are currently running, and those you would like to see us provide. Find the suggestions box on OUCS' front page.

Beware! More Fake Emails

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:16:48 +0000

Along with other UK Universities, Oxford is still being subjected to fake "phishing" email messages. OUCS will NEVER, EVER ask you to send your password in an email and you should never send it to anyone else either. To do so puts you at risk of Identity Theft and of having your Oxford login used for criminal activity. It is also in direct contravention of the IT Rules. Please DO NOT reply to any email requesting you to send your password to OUCS or anyone else. Click the title of this item for more information.

Number of downloads from iTunes U is still increasing

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:11:47 +0100

On 7th October 2008 the University of Oxford launched its podcast site on iTunes U. During the third week, there were 77,180 downloads of media recordings from the University. This is about 9% more than last week's figure which was about 21% up on the previous week's figure. Oxford have both 1 and 3 in the global top downloads thanks to the popularity of Joseph Stiglitz's podcast about the credit crunch and Robert Stalnaker's John Locke lecture on Starting in the Middle. Currently, Oxford have 7 podcasts in the global top 30 downloads. Oxford's site is available at http://itunes.ox.ac.uk

Podcasting Service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:23:20 +0100

A new Oxford University series of podcasts has been launched today, supported by OUCS! This allows lecturers, researchers, colleges and departments to upload video and audio content to both our local media service (http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk) and to Apple’s iTunes U service for worldwide distribution (http://itunes.ox.ac.uk). The service has been developed by OUCS along with the Public Affairs Directorate from central administration. To find out more about how to podcast at Oxford see our podcasting section (click on this news item's title).

Oxford on iTunes U

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:01:28 +0100

The University of Oxford now has its own site within iTunes U. To visit the site, go to http://itunes.ox.ac.uk. The iTunes Store is Apple's online digital media store where music and films can be downloaded using the iTunes software. iTunes U is an area within the Store where an educational institution can provide its own collection of audio and visual material (such as lectures, talks and interviews). Unlike the music and films, this material can be downloaded free of charge.

Switching to Office 2007

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Miller) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:25:10 +0100

Download a brief guide to using Microsoft Office 2007. Baffled by the Ribbon? ITLP offers a brief guide to using Microsoft Office 2007. A few minutes exploring the new features can save you time and frustration. Download the guide and exercises at http://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/site/asuc/oucs/itlp/materials/tefg/

iPhone @ Oxford

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:24:37 +0100

Have you been out and got an iPhone 3G, or updated your iPod Touch? OUCS will soon be providing support for using your device with the eduroam wireless setup, and looking at local applications.

EndNote for Mac

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Miller) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:28:10 +0100

EndNote with Mac now fixed. A fix is now available for using EndNote X1 with Word 2008 for Mac

Athens accounts to stop on 31st July

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:25:00 +0100

Athens accounts for accessing external electronic resources will stop working 31 July 2008. Start from http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/ for the best links.

OUCS led team wins £1M+ Technology Enhanced Learning Award

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:44:14 +0100

A team led by the London Knowledge Lab, and including the University of Oxford, has won an ESRC/EPSRC award in Technology Enhanced Learning. Prof Diana Laurillard of the LKL is leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including Liz Masterman of the Learning Technologies Group in OUCS and Marion Manton of TALL in the Department of Continuing Education. This £1M+ grant aims to develop an interactive environment - a ‘Learning Design Support Environment' (LDSE) - to enable teachers to lead the discovery of innovative pedagogical designs that exploit the potential of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and better integrate TEL in the mainstream provision, processes and practice of educational institutions. The LDSE will provide a space where teachers can explore, model and share ways of ‘normalising' their uses of technology, and build on each others' work. The LDSE promotes a view of teaching that is closer to a science of learning design and is both a personal, reflective journey, and also a social, collaborative activity.

OxTalent 2008: Presentations and Display

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:36:06 +0100

OxTalent 2008 awards presentations and display will take place at 12:30pm in OUCS on Thursday 12th June 2008 This is an annual opportunity for teachers, developers and researchers who are spearheading the creative use of ICT in teaching and learning in the University to get together and share their ideas and experiences. The programme includes the annual OxTalent ICT awards ceremony and show and tell event. Light refreshments will be available. Click the title to see details and booking information.

Debian OpenSSL vulnerability

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:48:47 +0100

A weakness has been discovered in the random number generator used by the OpenSSL libraries in Debian, Ubuntu and potentially derivative systems. This item links to a talk prepared by Andy Saunders and David Ford of OUCS.

NSMS Patch Depot for VMWare ESX v3.x

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (David Janes) — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:49:08 +0100

A new FREE service from the NSMS Team of OUCS. In addition to the comprehensive VMWare services offered to University departments and colleges, the NSMS team have just made available a FREE "Patch Depot" for users of VMWare ESX v3.x. Please contact NSMS on x73209 for details and access.

Share your thoughts on groupware

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:46:12 +0100

The University is currently looking into ICT to help us collaborate, including email, public and private calendaring, room booking, and contact list management, all accessible over the web and on mobile devices. We would like to hear your thoughts as an end-user. Please join our User Consultative Group mailing list. This will let you have your say and you'll hear what is happening in this important project.

Your chance to give feedback on OUCS's services

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:02:13 +0100

Connecting to Herald via Mobile Devices

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:50:39 +0100

Want to access your email while on the move? If you answer 'yes' to this question, you will want to see our new guides for accessing Herald from your mobile. Click the heading above to read more!

2008 OxTalent Awards

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:51:23 +0000

Have you created a digital resource, online study aid, or teaching website? Or do you know someone who has? The 2008 OxTalent IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition is open to all University staff and students. £400 to be won! Nomination deadline: 22nd May 2008

ECDL ends at OUCS in May 2009

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:11:56 +0000

OUCS has been running the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) qualification for nearly 10 years. During this time, hundreds of students and staff have completed the course and gained an internationally recognised qualification. However, over the last 3 years, numbers have declined and ECDL at OUCS is being phased out. There is still time to study for ECDL before the May 2009 deadline - click the title for more info.

Developing free software for green computing

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:06:07 +0000

OUCS staff are leading an energy saving research project for green computing, which is likely to have wide-reaching benefits for further and higher educational institutions across the UK.

Easter Closure of OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:06:46 +0000

OUCS will close to customers at 8.30pm on Thursday 20th March and re-open on Tuesday 25th March at 8.30am. There will be no official helpdesk cover during the closed period but service problems/outages etc. will be dealt with on a best-efforts basis (as OUCS’ funding dictates).

FroDo Project Completed!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:36:04 +0000

FroDo, the OUCS project to provide secure, reliable, easily managed, and consistent network services right to the "front door" (FroDo) of every University building, has been completed. This been a huge undertaking involving the installation of standard hardware for the far side of the optical connection in 180 locations, to provide multiple network services.

OUCS Annual Report 2006-7 now available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:43:44 +0000

The latest OUCS Annual Report is now available. It covers all OUCS services, projects, activities and more, showing how they have performed, and the demand for each of the services.

Low Carbon ICT Conference

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:42:20 +0000

The Low Carbon ICT project is working to deliver technologies that will help the University reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that result from its ICT infrastructure. To find out more about the project and the 'Towards Low Carbon ICT' conference, please visit the project web site by clicking on the title above. The Low Carbon ICT project team is a collaboration between the Computing Services (OUCS), e-Research Centre (OeRC) and the Centre for the Environment (OUCE).

Long Email Addresses Turned off

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:33:40 +0000

OUCS has stopped rewriting email addresses to the long form of name@unit.oxford.ac.uk . Long addresses will stop working for incoming mail in Jan 2009 so need to be removed from wherever they are lurking sooner rather than later!

Winners!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:46:35 +0000

Congratulations to Bushra Ahmad and Laurie Maguire who won the prizes in our Shop Prize Draws for November and December. The draw was to celebrate the successful move of the shop to within the Help Centre at OUCS.

OUCS Shop closed for annual departmental meeti

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:42:56 +0000

The OUCS Shop counter will be closed in order to allow shop staff to attend the annual OUCS departmental meeting. Shop counter services will be unavailable on Friday January 18th between 10 am and 1 pm.

Web Design Consultancy Service launched

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Joseph Talbot) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:33:56 +0000

Are you designing or revamping a University web site? Would you appreciate a free consultation to help you clarify scope, plan your strategy or ensure you meet all the University requirements? Need help building an attractive, usable, fit-for-purpose web site? The new OUCS Web Design Consultancy can help you with all of these, and even provide cost-effective design, development, and project management of your project using in-house and external designers.

The IT Learning Programme at OUCS is now open for bookings for Hilary 2008.

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:39:41 +0000

We are offering a number of new courses as well as our usual programme of IT courses. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

OUCS Christmas Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:36:00 +0000

The OUCS building will close at noon on Monday 24th December and reopen at 8.30am on Wednesday 2nd January 2008. Happy Christmas.

Using your Oxford SSO to access Athens-protected resources

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:58:31 +0000

You no longer need a separate Athens account to access Athens-protected resources. A new test service is available from the 'Alternative Login' box from an Athens login page. Click link for details.

New Technology guides

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:45:29 +0000

Try our concise, simple to use guides that introduce some of the latest technologies that can be used to support tutorials, lectures, assessment, communication and other teaching and learning activities at Oxford.

The OUCS Shop is moving into the Help Centre

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:35:48 +0100

The OUCS Shop counter service will be closed all day on Friday, October 26th. The shop will reopen on Monday, October 29th, from its new premises in the OUCS Help Centre. We anticipate that the online shop will be doing business as usual during the move.

New server software and quotas rolled out

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:45:39 +0100

OUCS is very pleased to announce that the Herald upgrade, which took place over the summer, is now complete. As a result all users now have at least 1 GB of mail quota. The recent work, which encompasses both new server software and hardware, will help ensure that Herald continues to provide a dependable email service for the University. Click the title of this news item for further information.

You can't see your INBOX in webmail ?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Janet McKnight) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:08:20 +0100

Make sure you have started from https://webmail.ox.ac.uk/ and not from an old bookmarked link.

The OUCS Shop Counter has Ceased Trading

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Katherine Craddock) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:22:31 +0100

As of the end of July, 2008, IT consumables are no longer being sold via the shop counter. Orders for software and service payments can only be made via the Online Shop. Please click on the news title for more information or visit the Online Shop at www.oxforduniversityshops.co.uk/oucs/

Herald/Webmail system downtime planned for Sat 25th Aug

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:19:51 +0100

The Herald/Webmail email service will not be available this on Saturday 25 August, from 6.30 a.m. onwards. This is to allow IBM engineers to repair a serious fault which arose following power safety testing earlier this month. We expect the work to be completed during the course of the morning, and hope to resume normal service by noon. Up to date information about the status of the service will be available from the http://status.oucs.ox.ac.uk website, as usual. Any mail received while the system is down will be delivered as soon as possible after the service resumes.

Herald/Webmail service outage cancelled

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:11:36 +0100

You may be aware of the email service outage that was planned for Thursday 16th August 2007 6.30-9.00 am. This has now been postponed and these email services should be fully functional during these times. The IBM engineers were not ready to begin and so we have postponed this work to a later date. Apologies for the false alarm: we will update this message as soon as we have an alternative date.

Herald/Webmail service outage Thurs 16th August 2007 6.30-9.00 am

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:04:32 +0100

The Herald/Webmail email service will be unavailable this Thursday (16th) between 6.30am and approximately 9.00am BST. This is to allow IBM engineers to repair a serious hardware problem that arose following last weekend's power safety testing. Any incoming mail during this period will be delivered after the work is complete. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

Remaining problems

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Mark Norman) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:46:01 +0100

After the routine electrical maintenance work on Saturday 11th August, some services did not become available. For details of the current state, please see http://status.oucs.ox.ac.uk

Electrical Shutdown at OUCS on Saturday 11 August

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:07:54 +0100

Several OUCS services (including Webmail, WebLearn, and OUCS websites) will be unavailable while routine electrical maintenance work is carried out in the OUCS Machine Room between 0600 and 1800 on Saturday 11 August 2007. See: http://www.ox.ac.uk/oucs-shutdown.html for full details of which services will and will not be available.

Help Centre Temporary Relocation

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Higginbotham) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:53:24 +0100

A major refurbishment of the OUCS Help Centre begins on 24th July and is expected to take around 7-9 weeks to complete. From that date, the normal Help Centre facilities will be available in the Cherwell lecture room.

NSMS VMWare Consultancy Service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:37:47 +0100

A new service from the NSMS Team of OUCS. Following their extensive use of VMWare's ESX Virtual Infrastructure 3, the NSMS Team are now offering comprehensive and expert advice on installation, configuration, and ongoing administration of VMWare solutions. This service is available to University departments and to Colleges. Please click on the title for further information.

NSMS VM4rent Service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:36:29 +0100

The NSMS will soon be starting the VM4rent service that provides almost immediate access to a virtual machine running a server OS which can be any one of Linux (Red Hat, SUSE, or Debian), Windows 2003 Server or Netware 6.5. Please click the title to find out more!

OXTALENT ICT Show and Tell event on Thursday 14th June

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:49:36 +0100

This is an annual opportunity for teachers, developers and researchers who are spearheading the creative use of ICT in teaching and learning in the University to get together and share their ideas and experiences. Prizes will also be given to innovative learning and teaching developers.The programme includes demonstrations of projects by individuals and the *Ideas zone* - demos of a range of applications including WebLearn, Aspire, TurnItin Plagiarism Detection and the OxCORT tutorial booking system. Review Web 2.0 applications such as meeting organising tools, wikis, Flickr, web video conferencing, Second Life and Facebook. No booking needed.

50 Years of Computing in Oxford Exhibition

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Jane Littlehales) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:00:30 +0100

New, expanded "History of OUCS" web pages are now on-line. Where has OUCS been for the last 50 years? For even more information on OUCS and "50 years of Computing in Oxford" come and see the exhibition at OUCS. Call in whenever the building is open - 0830 to 2030, Monday to Friday.

ACDT - Send us your project suggestions!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Groves) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:36:33 +0100

The Academic Computing Development Team (ACDT) has now opened its Summer 2007 Call for Proposals and is looking for project suggestions from individual staff, departments, and other academic groups to identify both projects that will benefit an individual or group's teaching or research and also more generically applicable projects which will be of wider benefit to the organisation. In return we can provide you with advice and useful information where appropriate, and for some suggestions our experienced developers will be able to take on their development free of charge.

OxTALENT IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:02:21 +0100

Have you created a digital resource, online study aid, or teaching web site? Or do you know someone who has? The 2007 OxTALENT IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition is open to all University staff members and students. This year's competition will feature five categories, the first four having a prize of *100 pounds* for the winning entry. Nomination deadline is 24th May.

Beyond the Search Engine: Oxford, March 23rd 2007

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:23:30 +0000

Beyond the Search Engine continues the successful 'Beyond...' series of speeches and debates hosted by the Learning Technologies Group at the University of Oxford. This year the conference examines how students learn, what advice they are given, how academics can help students through appropriate guidance on use of material and the issues of plagiarism.

Reviewer of websites wanted

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Alun Edwards) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:56:11 +0000

Intute: Arts and Humanities, based in OUCS, is looking to recruit a part-time reviewer of websites.

Secure access to Herald to be enforced from July

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:05:44 +0000

As standard, most email programs (Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Outlook Express, Mac Mail etc.) send your email password to Herald insecurely and this represents a security risk to you. The good news is that most can easily be altered to behave more securely. Herald will REQUIRE secure connections from 1st July so please click the title of this item for instructions on how to secure your email program.

Breakfast at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Grazyna Cooper) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:53:43 +0000

"Breakfast at OUCS" is organised by ITLP and includes contributions from, and information on, the whole of OUCS. New members of Oxford University staff are invited in a targeted email and have been signing up in droves. Two extremely successful sessions have been run so far. The format is simple - An 8.30am start before the main work of the day sets in, 30 minutes of presentations on OUCS services from 3 or 4 OUCS staff followed by 30 mins of juice, coffee, croissants, fruit and chat with OUCS experts. "Breakfast" for new staff will continue to run each term on Friday of 4th week.

Microsoft Vista

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Higginbotham) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:48:40 +0000

Microsoft Vista has now been released. For information about its availabity via OUCS and also that of Vista-ready third-party products, please click on the heading to this item.

MyWebLearn passes 1000 sign-ups

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Trafford) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:29:44 +0000

MyWebLearn is now providing more than 1000 Oxford users with their own individual space in the VLE, which we've celebrated by giving more prizes!

OUCS Staff Day

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:59:20 +0000

OUCS will be holding their annual Staff Day tomorrow morning. The Help Centre will remain open throughout the morning but our Shop will be closed and will re-open at 1.30pm. Thank you for your co-operation.

MyWebLearn: win a prize for the 1000th sign-up!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Trafford) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:53:10 +0000

MyWebLearn provides many facilities to support personal study and research, giving you complete control over who has access, so you can keep some areas private, whilst sharing others with your peers, tutor, or even the general public. Signing up is easy and if you are the person who takes us to 1000 MyWebLearn areas you will win a memory stick (over 950 created so far)!

Christmas Shut Down

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:27:40 +0000

OUCS is now closed for the Christmas break. We will re-open on the 2nd January at 8:30am. We hope you all have a Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year.

Last year's Sophos Client Credentials Expired 1st December

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Tony Brett) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:55:34 +0000

Please note that the old Sophos client credentials for *student and personally-owned* machines expired at midnight on 1st December and any remaining old Sophos clients will have stopped updating at that point. Upgrading to the current version via the registration pages will fix the problem.

Skills Portal

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:48:42 +0000

SkillsPortal brings together information about transferable skills development for Oxford research students and research staff. With a searchable database of training opportunities, articles and advice, discussion forums and links to resources, it's all designed to help you achieve your research goals and enhance your employability.

MyWebLearn: your flexible personal space

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Paul Trafford) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:01:25 +0000

Wanting an easy way to share documents or discuss research? How about maintaining a personal diary or carrying out surveys? MyWebLearn provides for every Oxford user a personal web space with interactive tools for such tasks and more, all under your control. If you haven't signed up already, now's an excellent time as we're still giving away prizes...

New Lecture room at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Grazyna Cooper) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:54:20 +0000

Following the successful refurbishment of the Isis lecture room in summer 2005, Windrush Lecture Room has been refurbished this year to accommodate greater flexibility in teaching methods. In particular wall-facing benches have been removed and replaced with oval desks allowing for easier collaboration and configuration for discussions etc. The majority of the features previously only available in Isis can also be accessed here. The room is available for booking: email courses@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

Need an Athens account or a new password?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:45:16 +0100

Click on the link to request an Athens account or change it's password. You will need to know your SSO (herald) username and password to identify yourself. Athens credentials let you access many National datasets when not in Oxford.

The Winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Peter Robinson) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:46:02 +0100

Over 1000 IT surveys were completed at Freshers Fair. Rebecca Robertshaw of Pembroke College was the lucky winner of an iPod touch. Congratulations!

Herald Quotas Take a Hike

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Senior) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:33:34 +0100

OUCS has more than tripled the email quota for all Herald users from today. Undergraduates will now have 100MB, postgraduates 200MB, and staff 300MB. Nothing has been lost, but mailboxes can look remarkably spacious with such a huge increase!

Free ECDL - ends on 30th September 2007

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Ian Miller) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:09:15 +0100

ECDL training and testing is free for University students and staff for one year from 1st October 2006. You need to complete the seven modules by 30th September 2007. Book your test slots now.

MyDetails

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:13:58 +0100

Click on the link to show what OUCS know about you. Has your University Card data been updated? Where does your mail go? You need to know your Single Sign on (SSO) Oxford username to access it.

Forgotten Password?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:55:02 +0100

Use your Security Question/Answer to set a new password.

Leavers should set up vacation or forwarding

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:27:25 +0100

Access to your herald account will stop on the completion date that appears on your University Card. However, if you set up forwarding and/or vacation on your account, it will work until Jan next year. For other leaving issues see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/registration/finish/

Send us your suggestions

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Sophie Clarke) — Mon, 22 May 2006 09:47:48 +0100

2006 OxTalent IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:20:02 +0100

Have you created a digital resource, study aid, or teaching web site? Or do you know someone who has? The 2006 OxTALENT IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition is open to all University staff members and students (undergraduate and postgraduate).

Too much junk mail?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Beth Crutch) — Wed, 10 May 2006 10:16:48 +0100

If your mail is delivered via Herald, you can set levels at which mail is automatically moved to a junk-mail folder or deleted. Go to https://webmail.ox.ac.uk Options/Filtering to set it up. It will have its effect no matter which mail client you use to read mail.

Self-Registration change

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:14:44 +0100

On Tuesday 4th April the OUCS Self-Registration pages (https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/self/index/) changed from using surname, date or birth and university card number to requiring Webauth credentials (Oxford username and password) for authentication. This change now allows users to access the server from anywhere on the internet and set up new accounts, and reset forgotten passwords.

NSMS Launch Calendaring and Contacts Service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 16:11:45 +0000

The OUCS based NSMS team now offer a Calendaring and Contacts service. Based upon Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003, the service allows local and remote access to personal and shared calendars and contact lists. The service is available to colleges, departments (and associated departments) or individuals in the University. Access is possible through Outlook 2003, web browsers and PDAs. PDAs can be synchronised over 3G, GPRS and USB connections, making it very useful when travelling worldwide.

.oxford.ac.uk email addresses to stop- plan now

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:29:22 +0000

On 2-Jan-2009 @unit.oxford.ac.uk email addresses will stop working. Check NOW that headed notepaper, business cards, advertizing leaflets only contain short email addresses. Ensure long addresses are not perpetuated in re-printed material.

RSS Course Exercise

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:25:38 +0000

Welcome to the OUCS Bytesize course on RSS running today

Webmail

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:10:22 +0000

We regret the problems following the Webmail upgrade on Tuesday. We are still working on some final bugs displaying some mail messages. You can use other mail clients such as Pine on linux.ox.ac.uk, Outlook etc see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/config/ for alternatives

Opening of the Thames suite

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:43:50 +0000

The new Isis teaching room will be opened by the Vice Chancellor on January 11th. This forms part of the renamed Thames Suite of lecture rooms at OUCS.

Major Power Shutdown 7th and 8th January 2006

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 17:52:41 +0000

There will be a major power shutdown at OUCS this weekend to allow for vital upgrades to main power supplies to the building. The main user-visible effect will be that Herald (including Webmail) will be unavailable from 7am on Saturday with an anticipated restart sometime that afternoon.

Advance notice of Christmas shut down

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 14:20:59 +0000

OUCS will close for the Christmas period at midday on Friday 23rd December 2005 and will reopen at 8:30am on the 3rd January 2006. OUCS would like to wish all University staff and students a happy Christmas and productive New Year.

Go to short outgoing email ( from Oxford Only)

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:03:05 +0100

Outgoing mail headers for University members who were here before 2-Aug-2005 are re-written to the form, usually long, chosen by the dept/college. Elect to stop this by clicking on title (from .ox only) For background see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/addresses/ No change in a mail client will have an effect until this is done.

Freshers iPod winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 12:20:22 +0100

The random winner of the iPod draw was Nick Randle

OUCS / ICT Management Changes

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:48:28 +0100

An 'Acting ICT Director' post has been created to lead the ICT Strategy Programme over the next eight months, and Professor Paul Jeffreys (the current OUCS Director) has been asked to occupy this position as of 1st October 2005. Consequently, the Computing Services will have an Acting OUCS Director post, which will be filled by Dr Stuart Lee during this period. To find out more about the ICT Strategy, please see http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/

New Postgrad account details now at Colleges

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:46:59 +0100

Single-Sign-On account details for new postgraduates have been sent to the person responsible for Graduate Studies in Colleges, except for students at Said Business School. For most people, this will also be their email account.

AHDS Digitisation Workshop Oct 12th

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 15:41:45 +0100

AHDS Digitisation Workshops lead potential and actual digitisers to the wider issues involved in developing a digital resource. Thus besides data capture, delegates can learn about project management, metadata and documentation, deposit and delivery, rights issues and consider how digitisation can fit in with their wider educational purposes. These workshops are free and open to all. This can include researchers, lecturers, and librarians, as well as those working in other cultural organisations, such as museums and archives. Potential applicants to the AHRC, or other funding bodies such as the Leverhulme Trust or the British Academy, may well find the workshop helpful when completing any technical aspects of their funding applications.

IT Learning Programme for Michaelmas term

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 16:44:03 +0100

The IT Learning Programme is now open for bookings. We have a number of new courses which can be viewed via a new drop-down list "View New Courses". Many of our courses have also been updated. We welcome questions, comments, requests or suggestions.

Cisco VPN Client now available for OSX 10.4 (Tiger)

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:53:33 +0100

The Cisco VPN client for Tiger is now available for download within the university (via https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/software) and externally (click the news title).

Mytob Virus Faking Unit Support Addresses

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 08:44:51 +0100

Many Departments and Colleges have been hit by the Mytob virus. Compromised machines send mail purporting to be from various 'official' looking addresses such as (but not limited to) support@unit.ox.ac.uk, service@unit.ox.ac.uk, mail@unit.ox.ac.uk and webmaster@unit.ox.ac.uk. The messages have subjects such as (but not limited to) "Members Support", "You have successfully updated your password" and "Your Account is Suspended For Security Reasons". The messages are text/html with various executable attachments. Please do not be tempted to run such attachments. There is no need to report these messages to OUCS; infected machines have a discernable network signature that means they can be tracked down and dealt with. Please ignore and delete these messages. See title link for a detailed analysis by Sophos.

Virus Faking OUCS and Herald Support Addresses

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 13:46:06 +0100

We are currently seeing mail with faked senders purporting to be from addresses such as mail@herald.ox.ac.uk, webmaster@herald.ox.ac.uk, support@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk and service@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk. The messages have subjects "Members Support", "You have successfully updated your password" and "Your Account is Suspended For Security Reasons". The messages have a zip file attachment which contains the virus Mytob-AT (click the title of this news item for more information). OUCS does not send messages concerning user accounts as text/html messages with zip file attachments. Please take care with messages such as these.

Accessing .ox sites eg OXAM from home

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:49:28 +0100

Need to access OXAM, TDNET, Oxlip from home over the holidays? You need to get a Remote Access username from http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/registration/ BEFORE you leave. If you use an ISP you will also need VPN. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/vpn/oucs-service/

2nd August 2005 - mail changes

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:06:02 +0100

Since the 2nd August 2005, mixed long and short forms of email addresses have not be supported. See https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/emailform for the combinations that now work. The prefered form of oxford email address is now the short form .ox.ac.uk. All new University members (since 2/08/05) only have this short form. The long form, .oxford.ac.uk, will continue to work for the next 3 years before being retired from service. Everyone should update any hybrid forms in their address books to the short form instead. Contact help@oucs.ox.ac.uk if you have any queries.

Part Time Work in OUCS Help Centre

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 14:38:09 +0100

OUCS is currently looking for part-time staff for its Help Centre at 13 Banbury Road. For more details click on the heading above. If applying, please indicate your availability for interview during the week commencing 13th June.

Mac OS X Tiger and the Cisco VPN Client

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 15:53:45 +0100

The current Cisco VPN client does not run on OSX Tiger. Cisco released a new client version in mid-May and OUCS have been testing it, but it fails to sustain a VPN connection. Crash reports have been submitted to Cisco and OUCS is awaiting their response. In the mean time we recommend that those who are dependent on VPN should *not* upgrade to Tiger yet.

Send us your ideas and get free help!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 08:21:59 +0100

The Learning Technologies Group are looking for suggestions for new IT tools, resources and projects at the University, and would like you to have your say in this by telling us your ideas, or informing us of problems which are in need of a solution. Suggestions could be for general facilities for everybody to use, or something more specific to support your own research or teaching. You can give us your suggestions by following the link given above (the news item title). In return, we will offer you advice and useful information where we can, and for some suggestions we may also be able to offer substantial practical help from experienced developers free of charge (this initiative is also the entry route into this year's Academic Computing Development Team Call for Proposals).

OxTALENT Web Awards

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 09:07:10 +0100

The award ceremony for the OxTALENT web awards 2005 will take place in Lecture Room 1 at OUCS, 13 Banbury Road, on Thursday June 9th at 1pm. The focus for awards this year is on use of WebLearn in Administration and Teaching. This is a wonderful opportunity to see and talk to the designers of exemplar teaching and learning materials. The Entries will be available for viewing from 12:45 until 1:45. We also welcome other examples of elearning showcases that people would like to disseminate. If you would like to present some other teaching resource, please email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk so we can reserve space on computers. Coffee and biscuits will be served in the refreshment area from 12:45. All are welcome, there is no need to book.

IT Literacy Tests - now updated

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:15:33 +0100

Wondering which IT Course is right for you? Why not take a quick on-line assessment now? Choose a topic from file management to databases. Immediate feedback will suggest suitable course(s). IT Literacy Tests are now available at http://learnit.ox.ac.uk/

Want to access Oxford resources but gone away for the Easter Vacation?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 12:55:19 +0000

If you have an internet connection away from Oxford then VPN could be the way for you to access OXAM, TDNET etc. Updated instructions are now available by clicking the title of this item (you don't need this if you use the OUCS dialup service)

Herald users: reduce junk mail

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:50:58 +0000

Every incoming message is given a spam score. The higher the score, the more likely it is to be unwanted junk. Your can choose to filter presumed spam into a separate folder, or to reject it altogether. Log in via https://webmail.ox.ac.uk/ select 'Options' and then 'Filtering'

Accessing .ox sites eg OXAM from home

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:45:43 +0000

Humbul seeking subject reviewers and metadata editors

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 11:46:44 +0000

Humbul is seeking freelance Subject Reviewers across a range of humanities subjects and up to two Metadata Editors for work up until July 2005 initially. The deadline for applications is 11th February 2005

OUCS is closed until 2:30pm

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:39:41 +0000

Today OUCS is closed all morning and for part of the afternoon. Normal service will resume from 2:30pm.

CREE project prize draw winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:53:29 +0000

The lucky winner of the CREE project focus groups prize draw is Michael Heaney, Head of Service Assessment and Planning, Oxford University Library Services. Michael has won a wonderful Apple iPod, and more prizes are expected for the focus groups to be organized in the new year. More information about the CREE project can be found by clicking the title.

Enhancement of Herald's Junk-Mail Filtering Facility

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 15:34:49 +0000

Herald's filtering options now allow you to discard (blacklist) or receive unfiltered (whitelist) messages from a entire e-mail domain (such as @st-giles.oxford.ac.uk). Junk-mail filtering settings are accessed via Webmail's Options/Filtering screen - as usual the Help option provides detailed instructions.

IT Innovation Funding Opportunity

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:09:47 +0000

The University Teaching and Learning Strategy strongly encourages staff to use IT in their teaching and learning "where it adds real value". To support this, the Academic Computing Development Team runs a bi-annual application process for staff and departments to propose their own ideas for IT development. Projects may range in size from provision of advice on planning an IT project to the design and development of a whole system. Closing date for applications: December 21st 2004

CREE prize draw winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:52:15 +0000

The lucky winner of the CREE survey prize draw for Oxford is Mark Theobald, a Keble College chemistry undergraduate. Mark has won a wonderful Apple iPod, and he has now collected his prize from the OUCS.

Colleges IT Group needs a new Chair

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:54:25 +0100

The Colleges' IT Group needs a new chair. This must be a senior member of the University so please encourage your Governing Body member responsible for College IT to consider this post. The post lasts for three years and the group meets termly. E-mail it-groups-secretary@oucs.ox.ac.uk for more information and nominations.

In Case You Ever Forget Your Password....

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:27:04 +0100

You can now set up a secret security question and answer that can be used to reset your Oxford (Herald/Webmail etc.) password if you ever forget it, without having to contact OUCS. If you've not already set this up, click the link at the top of this message.

Sophos and VPN registration and download

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:04:25 +0100

You can register for, and download, Sophos and VPN from the Registration server. You will not be able to log in to the server unless your computer is connected to the Oxford network.

Freshers Fair Friday winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:14:59 +0100

Today's featured service is the Computing Services Shop. Click on the title to browse further details. Today's winning number is 1291. Email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk before 5pm to claim your prize of an iPod.

Freshers Fair Draw - Thursday winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 16:43:36 +0100

WebLearn is the central Oxford VLE, where course material is placed for easy access and various tools are available to put the e into e-learning. Click on the title, or go to www.weblearn.ox.ac.uk and login to find today's number. If you have this number email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk to claim your Amazon vouchers and entry to the iPod draw

Freshers Fair Draw - Wednesday Winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 17:58:33 +0100

Today's number is on the computer maintenance page http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/maintenance/service/(click the title of this piece) where you can find all the details on buying an insurance against your computer hardware failing for a very reasonable amount. If you have this draw number email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk to claim your Amazon voucher and be entered into the final draw for an iPod

Freshers Fair Draw - Tuesday's winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 09:01:41 +0100

Today's number is at http://welcometoit.ox.ac.uk (click the heading of this piece) where you can find all the details you need to know as a new comer to Oxford - how to connect your computer, advice on buying a computer, countering viruses, securing your computer, a virtual sightseeing tour.... If you have this number email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk to claim your Amazon voucher and be entered into the final draw for an iPod

Freshers Monday winner

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:21:03 +0100

The winning prize number from the Freshers draw can be found on the Courses web site (click the link above). If you have this number email paul.davis@oucs.ox.ac.uk to claim your Amazon voucher and be entered into the final draw for an iPod

Student IT Literacy Survey

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:37:10 +0100

In 2003-4 the LTG conducted a major survey into the IT Literacy skills of students at Oxford. The final report is now available (in PDF).

Postgrads New to Oxford? Request accounts

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 15:53:50 +0100

From any Oxford machine. https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk to register for an email, remote access or Athens account. https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/user_info for info about you. https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/software for antivirus, and VPN software download. St Antony's, Linacre, St Hughs, Worcester, St Cross- your accounts will be created for you; see your IT support staff.

IT Learning Programme is open for bookings!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 14:58:14 +0100

We have updated and restructured the courses in our IT Learning Programme. From Michaelmas Term 2004 we are introducing a new modular system. Until now our programme has consisted mainly of multi-session courses covering all aspects of Information Technology. From Michaelmas Term 2004, many of our courses will be structured into separate modules. This will allow participants either to attend all modules relating to a subject, or to pick and choose a particular module that suits their current needs. Browsing and booking at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/ PLEASE NOTE: Due to some technical problems "CATEGORY" selection is not available at this moment, but we hope to have it sorted out very soon.

Take the survey and win an iPod or a 100 pound gift voucher

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:52:35 +0100

Tell us how you like to search and win an iPod or Amazon vouchers! Do you use Internet and library search tools? If you do, by completing a short questionnaire (taking less than 10 minutes), you could win an iPod music player or Amazon vouchers! The Joint Information Systems Committee-funded CREE project is researching user preferences for conducting library resource and Internet searches. The information gathered will be used to inform the development of next-generation Internet and library search tools. Click the title of this item to go to the survey.

Helpdesk Vacancies at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 11:19:49 +0100

OUCS is currently seeking part-time helpdesk staff with relevant experience for its Help Centre at 13 Banbury Road. This will typically be for a two-hour shift one day a week (Monday-Friday) but with the opportunity for occasional extra shifts. Rates of pay are 8.78 pounds an hour, rising to 10.50 pounds an hour after satisfactory completion of training and an initial probationary period. For further details, click on the heading link above.

Acccess to Oxford-only sites from elsewhere

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 12:05:34 +0100

Free IT Innovation Funding Opportunity

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 17:58:00 +0100

Transit of Venus Web Site

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:39:17 +0100

To celebrate the Transit of Venus on June the 8th, the Academic Computing Development Team (ACDT) and the Museum of the History of Science have been collaborating on a web site that draws together art and artifacts from the previous recorded Transits (the earliest to have been observed was in 1639, and there have been four more since). The web site allows museums across the world to submit images and descriptions of their Transit-related objects, many of which have a remarkable story to tell.

The end of WING

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 10:37:09 +0100

The old WING webmail service is no more, and an improved version of the new Webmail service has been launched

Closure of WING - please move to Webmail

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 20 May 2004 11:46:28 +0100

WING, the old Herald web interface, will be withdrawn on 1st June. Please use https://webmail.ox.ac.uk instead for web access to Herald. If you use a mail program like Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Mail etc. you do NOT need to change your POP, IMAP or SMTP settings. It is only the web interface to herald that is changing. Herald itself remains the University's primary IMAP server.

Herald users - Reduce your junk mail!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 18 May 2004 16:12:18 +0100

Every incoming message to herald is given a spam score. The higher the score, the more likely it is to be unwanted junk. With the new webmail interface your can choose to filter presumed spam into a separate folder, or to reject it altogether. Just log in via https://webmail.ox.ac.uk/ click on 'Options' and then 'Filtering'

Adware and Spyware

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 07 May 2004 18:47:36 +0100

Adware and Spyware - what are they and how do I get rid of them? If your PC is plagued with unwanted advertising pop-ups or your browsers' home-page setting gets hijacked, the information you need is at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/viruses/adware

Open Day at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:00:39 +0100

The OUCS 2004 Open day will take place on Thursday 22nd April from 10am till 4pm. As for the 2003 Open day, events and talks will occur thoughout the day. The title for this years event is 'What we can do for you...' So come along and find out!

New Grid computing facility in Oxford e-Science Centre

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 12:51:23 +0100

On the 5th April 2004, the UK National Grid Service (NGS) launched into its initial production phase. We are pleased to announce that the Oxford e-Science Centre is hosting a 128 CPU compute intensive Linux cluster as part of the NGS and that this cluster is now available for early adopter use by holders of e-Science certificates. For more details click title link.

IT Learning Programme (Trinity)

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 14:31:09 +0100

Our new programme of courses is now open for bookings at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses

Web Browsers for Webmail

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 12:12:53 +0000

There is now a web page giving information on web browser versions and settings for use with Webmail. Click on the heading above or choose the main sidebar Email link and then 'Webmail Browsers' in the 'Using Herald' section.

Accessing .ox restricted sites from home

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 18:25:50 +0000

Before you go, register for a remote access username and VPN software. Neccessary for OXAM, and some Library services when not in Oxford.

Weds 25th Feb - Fault on Herald Email System

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 09:08:26 +0000

There is currently a fault on the Herald email system which is preventing some users from logging in to their accounts. We hope to resolve the problem as soon as possible. For updates please monitor our system status page via the link at the bottom left of this web page.

Webmail is here!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:47:59 +0000

The new Web interface to Herald is now available. Click the title of this item to go directly there. https://webmail.ox.ac.uk To move address books: Contacts/ Migrate from Wing

Are you getting failure messages from people you never emailed?

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 17:29:19 +0000

Viruses are stealing email addresses from machines they infect. They use these addresses as the Sender when they re-infect. It is very easy to forge an email header. You get the failures. You are not infected nor has you account/machine been compromised. Just delete them.

Registration Services Problem Tues 3rd Feb

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 08:46:40 +0000

8.45am - There is currently a problem with the OUCS registration system. This is affecting a number of services including online self-registration and mailing-list management. We hope to rectify the problem as soon as possible.

IT Learning Programme Awareness Session

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 16:50:45 +0000

Friday 23rd January 12.00 - 14.00 Lecture Room 1 OUCS, 13 Banbury Road The Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University Computing Services run a wide variety of IT courses for all members of the University. Come along to an awareness session at lunchtime on Friday 23rd January and talk to the course lecturers to find out more about our courses and which course is right for you. You will be able to browse our online programme of courses for Hilary term and book a place on a course. Come and test your current IT skills using our online computer-based software! Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. All welcome

OUP Bookings

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 15:18:09 +0000

Oxford University Press staff who are not part of the University can now make bookings for OUCS courses for Hilary Term. Please go to http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/oupcourses.xsp OUP staff who have University cards should book via www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses

OUCS Building Closure 12th January

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 10:24:25 +0000

The OUCS building at 13 Banbury Road will be CLOSED from 0830 to 1500 on Monday 12 January to enable all staff to attend the annual departmental meeting. All online services (email, web, dial-in etc.) will continue to run as normal. However, the Shop, Help Centre, Training Rooms, and Colour Printing Services will all be unavailable, and there will only be telephone coverage for serious emergencies. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

IT Learning Programme at OUCS

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 14:50:55 +0000

Our new Hilary programme of IT courses is now open for online bookings. You can browse for courses and read the course descriptions. You can then make a booking for any course of your choice.

IT Learning Programme for Hilary term

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:40:57 +0000

Our new programme of IT courses is now open for online bookings. You can browse for courses and read the course descriptions. You can then make a booking for any courses of your choice. For further help please read the booking information pages at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/information/

Freeserve mail tagged as junk

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 14:02:49 +0000

SYMPTOM: Mail from a Freeserve user is delivered to the junk-mail folder of a Herald recipient who has filtering turned on. SOLUTION: Freeserve user must configure their mail client to use an official Freeserve SMTP server.

Help Centre Upgrade

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:51:08 +0000

Friday, December 12th, starting 3pm - The OUCS Help Centre facilities will be restricted for a wide-reaching upgrade. The Help Desk will still be operating, but users will only have access to email terminals. Starting on Monday, December 15th, the Help Centre will reopen with Windows XP and Mac OS X.

Herding Tigers eLearning event

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 02 Dec 2003 15:31:39 +0000

A few places are still available on the LTG Herding Tigers workshop. This is an informal, discussion led event for those involved in the production of eLearning resources in HE. The day will focus on accessibilty, evaluation and learning technology standards. A full timetable is also now available on the web site, and the closing date for bookings is Monday December the 8th.

OXAM and library access from outside Oxford

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:02:35 +0000

You need to get a 'remote access account' and either use OUCS dialin or install VPN software. Both account and software need to be obtained BEFORE leaving Oxford.

Restriction of Routes for Outgoing Email

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 16:25:35 +0000

An increasing number of computers on our network are being affected by external attacks, which cause them to send out large amounts of spam email. This can lead to Oxford being blacklisted throughout the world. As from Monday 17th November 2003, all outgoing email will be required to pass through an approved relay. This should have no effect on most desktop machines, which will already use this route: if you do find any problem please contact your local IT Support or the OUCS Helpdesk.

OSS Watch Conference : Open Source Deployment and Development

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 12:42:36 +0000

IT Managers, software developers and end-users at HE and FE institutions are encouraged to attend the OSS Watch inaugural conference, "Open Source Deployment and Development", to be held at the University of Oxford on Thursday, 11 December 2003. The event is free but you must register in order to attend.

OUCS IT Courses Michaelmas Term

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 10:36:51 +0100

If you find that a course that you wish to attend is full up, please put yourself down on the waiting list (if applicable), as if possible we will try and run another session later in the term for popular courses.

Academic Computing Development Team Call for Proposals

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 09 Oct 2003 15:26:15 +0100

The Academic Computing Development Team has a new Call for Proposals open. This is an ideal opportunity if you have a good idea for an IT based teaching or research project, but lack the time and/or expertise to create it yourself. Please visit our web site for further details of how to apply.

OUP Bookings

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 14:53:29 +0100

Oxford University Press staff who are not part of the University can now make bookings for OUCS courses for Michaelmas Term. Please go to http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/oupcourses.xsp. OUP staff who have University cards should book via www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses

OUCS Course Announcement List

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:38:29 +0100

You can subscribe to our course announcement list and you will receive a weekly summary of learning events at OUCS. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/email_list.xsp

New programme of IT courses for Michaelmas term coming soon!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:56:07 +0100

Our online course descriptions and online booking form will be open to users from Wednesday 17th of September. We will be offering some new courses this term for which we would encourage early booking.

Self-service printing/copying in the Help Centre

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:57:45 +0100

Self-service photocopying (5p/A4 sheet)and colour laser printing (25p/A4 sheet) are now available in the OUCS Help Centre. Both use the new OUCS Paycard available in the Shop or in the Help Centre.

Central email scanning

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:27:46 +0100

Central scanning of emails, looking for viruses and junk mail, will start operation on August 5th

OSS Watch : Open Source Software Advisory Service

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 10 Jul 2003 09:11:31 +0100

We are delighted to announce the launch of OSS Watch. OSS Watch informs and advises the UK further and higher education community about free and open source software. It will facilitate co-operative OSS activities through the development of best-practice guidelines, and out-reach activities aimed at institutional managers, software developers and IT users. OSS Watch is part of the Research Technologies Service located within Oxford University Computing Services. It is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

IT Awards results!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:53:24 +0100

The results of the 2003 OxTALENT IT in Teaching and Learning Awards have now been posted on the OxTALENT website. Please click the headline link above.

Accessing Oxford-only sites from home

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:05:26 +0100

Get your Remote Access username and VPN software BEFORE you leave. Restricted sites include OXAM and certain library resources.

OxTALENT IT Awards 2003 and Show and Tell Event

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 11 Jun 2003 12:18:44 +0100

Come find out who won Oxford's IT in Teaching and Learning Awards at the OxTALENT Show and Tell event: Thursday, 12th June, 12:00 - 14:00, OUCS, Lecture Room A. On display will be webposters of projects from around the University.

Shock Conference Programme available!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 04 Jun 2003 16:03:21 +0100

The programme is now online for "Shock of the Old 3", our one-day conference on Educational Technologies. 24th July, 2003, 09:30 - 17:30, Said Business School.

New OUCS Paycard

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 12 May 2003 11:15:40 +0100

On Monday 12th May, 2003, OUCS is introducing a paycard for use in the OUCS Help Centre and at the Job Reception counter. Initially this will be used to pay for staff-mediated services such as poster printing. Its use will also shortly be extended to include payment for self-service facilities such as laser-printing.

Testing Web Site Accessibility Software

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 11:37:56 +0100

OUCS is running a 1 month trial of browsealoud accessibility software. This program is designed to help people with dyslexia and other similar conditions to get more information from the web. We would like to get as much feedback as possible on the usefulness of this software from University members. To find out more and how you can help, click on the headline link above.

Trinity term course list now available

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 31 Mar 2003 16:37:06 +0100

Trinity term OUCS courses are now available for online booking. Click on the above title to view and book our courses. Our printed course brochure will also be available from next week (7th April 2003).

OUCS Open Day

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 28 Mar 2003 17:17:43 +0000

OUCS will be holding an Open Day on Tuesday 29th April from 10am to 4pm. There will be a series of talks throughout the day looking forward. In addition there will be posters and demonstrations of current work, and a hands-on display of assistive technology relevant to SENDA. To tie it all together there will be a prize draw for those completing a simple treasure hunt around the stands

Help Centre Closure

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 24 Mar 2003 17:19:58 +0000

Because of delayed completion of building work, we regret that the OUCS Help Centre area will be closed on Wednesday April 3rd until 4.30pm. Telephone-based help and in-person password changing will still be available.

Access to .ox only sites from home

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 14:57:52 +0000

If you want to access sites such as OXAM from outside Oxford, you need to get VPN software and a remote access account before you leave.

Deadline extended! 2003 OxTalent IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:58:24 +0000

Have you created a digital resource, study aid, or teaching website? Or do you know someone who has? All University staff and students are eligible to enter the 2003 OxTALENT IT in Teaching and Learning Awards competition! New deadline: 6 May, 2003. Click the headline link for more information.

Junk Mail Filtering on Herald

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 06 Feb 2003 16:22:16 +0000

Herald now offers a limited form of server-side junk mail filtering. This feature has been designed to work with the University's main mail routers which tag messages originating from blacklisted domains. If filtering is activated, tagged messages will be saved to a junk-mail folder rather than the user's inbox.

New Programming Course

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 16 Jan 2003 17:40:31 +0000

This Hilary term, take advantage of a unique opportunity to learn the fundamentals of programming by taking 'CS 106A at Stanford' in Oxford. This course, which has for many years been one of Stanford's two most popular courses, is designed to appeal to students from all disciplines, and not simply scientists and engineers.

Working Lunch for Tutors and Lecturers: Hilary term

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 11:29:04 +0000

This series of Friday lunchtime sessions on learning technologies focuses on creating webpages to support University teaching and student learning. Please visit the headline link above to get more information and book for individual sessions.

Digital Projects in Oxford series

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 11:25:29 +0000

The Digital Projects in Oxford series of lunchtime talks, organized by the Learning Technolologies Group, provides a forum for members of the University to talk about their electronic projects. Presentations about new projects or updates about existing ones are welcome. Please contact Nancy.Weitz@oucs.ox.ac.uk for a place on the Michaelmas programme.

New Course at OUCS: Introduction to Matlab, Hilary weeks 3-8

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 14:49:52 +0000

MATLAB is a high-level programming language for numerical computation and visualization which is very easy to learn and to use.

OUCS building closure 12th January

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 20:18:32 +0000

Introducing linux.ox.ac.uk

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 07 Jan 2003 10:00:45 +0000

OUCS is pleased to announce that a new interactive service is available for general testing. The new service provides interactive access to Unix facilities comparable to those formerly provided by ermine.ox.ac.uk, which is to be removed from user service at the end of February 2003.

New byte-sized series of lunchtime courses on Research Technologies starting soon!

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Thu, 02 Jan 2003 12:48:38 +0000

The Research Technologies Service (RTS) brings together staff with a remit to promote and support the very latest research tools and techniques. A series of talks about the work of the section.

OUCS course for Hilary 2003

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 14:20:52 +0000

The programme of courses at OUCS for next term is now on the web and bookings can be made from now on. A printed catalogue will be available shortly.

New byte-sized series of courses starting in the Hilary term

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 09 Dec 2002 15:34:33 +0000

Research Skills Series. These sessions are being taught by Oxford University Library Services (OULS) staff as part of the new ERA (Electronic Resources Awareness) Programme. This initiative aims to provide training and support material to enable members of Oxford University to make the most effective use of electronic resources to support their research and teaching and learning needs.

Fire Strike

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 22 Nov 2002 09:59:25 +0000

The Fire Service is set to strike from 9.00 am Friday 22 November to 9.00 am Saturday 30 November (8 days). The University's working hours have now been revised and will be open from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm, with experimental work ceasing at 6.00 pm.

Urgent Course Cancellation - Strategies for online research

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 09:35:20 +0000

We are sorry to announce that today's course 'Strategies for on-line research' has had to be cancelled due to illness. We are rescheduling this course for later in this term. People booked on this course will receive notification of the date as soon as possible. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Academic Computing Development Team Call for Proposals

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 30 Oct 2002 17:34:57 +0000

The Academic Computing Development Team has a new Call for Proposals open. This could be an ideal opportunity if you have a good idea for an IT based teaching or research project, but lack the time and/or expertise to create it yourself. Please visit our web site for further details of how to apply.

Latest news on fire service strikes

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 30 Oct 2002 13:00:41 +0000

The Fire Service is set to strike from 6.00 pm Wednesday 13 November to 6.00 pm 15 November 2002. Restrictions will apply as previously announced.

Everything you wanted to know about the courses, but were afraid to ask

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Mon, 28 Oct 2002 15:15:58 +0000

Course Information Desk is open weekdays 10.00-11.00 and 15.00-16.00 in the Course Registration Area of OUCS

Fire Service Strikes

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Fri, 25 Oct 2002 13:23:04 +0100

During the proposed Fire Service strikes in November and December, there will be some limitations on working at OUCS. Please read the detailed announcement carefully.

Ermine Shutdown

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Wed, 23 Oct 2002 15:57:15 +0100

We are now moving into the closing stages for all services on ermine. Details of the planned timetable are at www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ermine-shutdown/. Please note that all e-mail services on ermine should be migrated as soon as possible. Email to ermine will cease at the end of February 2003. Replacements for other services on ermine will be in place by January 2003, and logins disabled by the end of February 2003.

Digital Projects in Oxford

undisclosed_email_address@ox.ac.uk (Barry Cornelius) — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:32:47 +0100

The Digital Projects in Oxford series of Wednesday lunchtime talks highlights online and digital projects across the University. The full programme for Michaelmas term can be found by clicking the title link.