Reflections on 1999

By Martin Hoffman

Living, as we do, on the northern hemisphere of an oblate spheroid with an axial tilt of approximately 23.5° with respect to its orbital path around its main sequence yellow star, we experience "winter" from December 21^st until March 20^th or thereabouts. Many archeo-astronomers will tell you that the plethora of religious and social celebrations which surround the start of winter have to do with the winter solstice. From the northern hemisphere, the sun seems to sink lower and lower in the sky throughout the autumn, only to "stop" and "turn around" and begin to climb higher on the solstice (literally solstice means "sun stand still"). Many historians believe that ancient people celebrated the return of the sun around December 21^st and that we have inherited the customs of our ancestors.

At this time of reflection, please allow me to send out my personal best wishes to every member of the BCC community. I started here last January and it has been an eventful year. I have worked with faculty, staff and students from almost every department and division of the College. I have learned a lot, and I believe I have managed to share a little in return. Some of my proudest moments throughout the year are also some of the saddest, however. Unlike a traditional business, where good service means repeat customers, when I do my job right, my "customers" don’t need me anymore!

I have enjoyed working with everyone I have met, and if we haven’t met, please feel free to stop by the Educational Technology Center in Parker 311A and introduce yourself. Also feel free to call if you would like to discuss technology issues, or if yourself and at least two other people would like to arrange for a custom workshop on any aspect of educational technology.

The October 1999 ETC Newsletter generated more feedback than any other ever published by this Department. The comments ranged from "this is the ugliest color paper I have ever seen" all the way to a long list of suggestions for improvement. Regardless of the source or the nature of the comments, one thing is clear. The October Newsletter caught people’s attention. The time and trouble that everyone took to provide feedback is greatly appreciated! You can expect to see many of the suggestions implemented as space and funding permit. (I’ll also ask the print shop for even uglier paper! Hey! Whatever works! – Martin)

From the OIT Help Desk at BCC

By Paula Giannattasio

All of us at OIT appreciate the cooperation and support of the College Community during 1999 and look forward to working with everyone at BCC to conquer the technology challenges of the new year.

Trouble Reporting

OIT has established some general guidelines for staff and faculty that will aid in reporting computer problems. If you are experiencing trouble with a computer assigned to you please call the Help Desk at X7304. Problems with shared access computers, for instance those in the computer classrooms and/or labs, may have different reporting procedures. Please check with your department head or Dean if you are having trouble with a shared access computer, to avoid redundant reports flooding the helpdesk.

Regardless of the trouble reporting channel, when reporting any computer problem the following information is critical:

• Who is reporting the problem?
• At what campus is the problem?
• In which building? In which room?
• At what workstation?
• What’s the tag number of the CPU?
• At what extension can user be reached?

PLEASE INCLUDE DETAILS:

• In what application was the user working?
• The exact wording of any error message.
• The sequence of keystrokes that resulted in this problem.
• How is the user logged in?

With this information, Help Desk can "trouble-shoot" as the ticket is created and expedite diagnosis and problem resolution.

Software Documentation

Tricks and Traps

Mouse Inversion

If you are a right-handed person using a two (or more) button mouse on an IBM compatible computer, here are some terms you should know:

Click = click once with the Left mouse button

Double Click = click twice with the Left mouse button

Right Click = click once with the Right mouse button

If you are left-handed you may simply put up with the way the mouse comes configured, and the above will also apply to you. But if you would like, you can reverse the mouse buttons via a control panel setting to make things slightly more convenient. If you would like to do this, and don’t know how, please contact the ETC or OIT for help. If you do reverse your mouse buttons, then the terminology above would be reversed as well.

Version Conversion

When reporting trouble or moving files from one computer to another, it is often vital to know what version of the operating system or application software you are running. If you have a "Start" button in the lower, left-hand corner of your screen your operating system is either Windows 95 or 98. How can you tell? First, right-click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop. Then click on "Properties" from the menu. Under the "System" heading on the "General" tab you will be able to see which operating system you are running. Don’t mess with the other tabs unless you work for OIT, or want to potentially foul-up something in your computer! Just make a note of the information for later use, and click "Cancel."

You can also find out what version of a particular application you are running by clicking "Help" and then clicking "About" from any Windows program. If you are running Office 95, then clicking "Help" and "About Microsoft Word" from inside your word processing software should give you the information that you are running Word 6.0. If you have Office 97 on your PC the same technique would tell you that you are running Word 97. If you have files created or edited in a newer version of a piece of software, and want to use them in an older version, you will have to use the "Save As…" instead of the "Save" function in your software. You will also have to specify which version of the software you will be using in the "Save as type:" box.

If you have any questions about this, please stop by the ETC Lab for a demonstration.

Please contact the Educational Technology Center if you have any questions pertaining to this newsletter.