General « Informasietegnologie

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Free training opportunities for aspiring IT-expertsGratis opleidingsgeleenthede vir aspirant IT-deskundiges

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Microsoft recently announced a training sponsorship for SU staff and their children. CTU Training Solutions, the company currently responsible for training staff, approached Stellenbosch University as one of their three biggest clients, with this offer.

Applicants will have to be able to attend classes every morning for the first year or after hours. Someone from a non-IT environment will still be able to do the course, but have to occupy an IT position in the second year where the information learnt in the first year will be applied on a practical level. During the second year, Microsoft will review the student’s performance.

Children of SU staff are also eligible to complete these courses. Please take note that certain conditions apply. The offer is particularly applicable to staff whose children completed their matric, but do not have the financial means to study further. Disadvantaged and disabled applicants, as well as applicants from households with a single income or single parent will be given preference. Applicants may also be required to submit a written motivation as to why they would qualify for the funding.

The only two requirements are that either the parents or company pay R2000-00 per month for the child’s travel and living expenses and he/she completes and internship during the second year. CTU will assist the student with the placement of interns at an appropriate company.

These courses generally run at a cost of R40 000, which makes this sponsorship a wonderful opportunity for any aspiring IT experts.

Please direct your applications for funded learning to:

Petro Uys by sending an email to: puys@sun.ac.za

We shall inform applicants of the outcome of their respective application on Friday 11 January 2012.

More information ….

Microsoft het onlangs aangekondig dat die maatskappy van plan is om `n aantal kursusse vir US-personeel en hulle kinders te borg. CTU Training Solutions, die maatskappy wat tans IT-kursusse aan personeel bied, het Universiteit Stellenbosch, as een van hulle 3 grootste kliënte, genader met hierdie unieke Microsoft-aanbod.

Aansoekers moetvir die 1ste jaar elke oggend kan klas bywoon, of die klasse na ure kan bywoon. Iemand uit ‘n nie-IT verwante omgewing kan die kursus doen in die 1ste jaar, maar word verplig om die 2de jaar ‘n IT pos te beklee en die kennis wat geleer is op `n praktiese vlak toe te pas. Gedurende hierdie tweede jaar sal Microsoft dan ook die persoon se werkverrigting nagaan en beoordeel.

Kinders van US-personeel kan ook aansoek doen om hierdie kursusse te loop. Neem asseblief kennis dat sekere voorwaardes geld. Dit is veral van toepassing op personeellede (byvoorbeeld enkelouers) wie se kind sy/haar skoolopleiding voltooi het maar nie oor die finansiële middele beskik om verder te studeer nie. Voorheen benadeelde en gestremde aansoekers, sowel as aansoekers van huishoudings met `n enkel-inkomste of enkelouer, sal voorkeur geniet. Aansoekers mag ook versoek word om `n geskrewe motivering voor te lê waarin hulle uiteenset waarom hulle kwalifiseer vir die befondsing.

Die enigste twee voorwaardes is dat die ouers of maatskappy bereid moet wees om maandeliks R2000 te gee vir die kind se reis en verblyf en die kind moet ook in die 2de jaar van studie ‘n internskap doen. CTU sal wel help met die plasing van interns by maatskappye

Aangesien hierdie die kursusse gewoonlik R40 000 beloop en met hierdie geleentheis gratis verskaf word, is dit `n wonderlike geleentheid vir aspirant IT-deskundiges.

Stuur asseblief aansoeke vir befondsing aan Petro Uys, puys@sun.ac.za. Aansoekers sal op Vrydag, 11 Januarie in kennis gestel word of hulle aansoeke suksesvol was.

Meer inligting ….

Posted in General, Training | 3 Comments »

CHOC houses offer “home away from home”CHOC-huise bied `n “tuiste weg van die huis”

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation SA is a national organisation dedicated to providing assistance to children that are battling cancer or life-threatening blood disorders, and their families.

CHOC Western Cape has three facilities that provide a ‘home away from home’ for disadvantaged families that travel long distances for treatment. The CHOC Lodge Tygerberg provides assistance to families receiving treatment at Tygerberg Children’s Hospital, while the CHOC House Plumstead takes in families from Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital.

Earlier this year, Wendy Robyn from IT’s network department took it upon herself to collect presents for children residing in these houses. IT staff donated 22 gift packages and these were successfully dropped off at the CHOC Tygerberg Lodge last week. Some gifts will go to patients at the Paediatric Oncology Ward at Tygerberg and the balance will go to Red Cross.

This foundation receives no support from government and rely on donations and financial support from the public. Therefore they depend on any support you are able to afford and willing to give. For more information click the link below or contact Lynette at lynette.muthuray@choc.org.za.

IT User services wraps it up for the yearIT Gebruikersdienste speel Vader Kersfees

Monday, December 10th, 2012

Information Technology’s User Services department this year decided to forgo their Christmas presents and rather put a smile on someone else’s face.

Each year staff and IT User services exchange presents to show how much they appreciate their colleagues. This year however, they decided that it’s more important to make a small difference in someone less fortunate’s life, especially at this time of year.

Choosing a charity wasn’t easiest task, but it was decided to support SU’s Employee Volunteer Programme’s campaign to donate toys to terminally ill children. Each staff member donated R50-00 for this cause and with a sum total of R2200-00 gifts were bought for children from the age of 4 to 16.

Staff decided not only to buy the gifts, but also to wrap it themselves and last Friday everyone jumped in and started wrapping until only a huge stack of gifts were left.

We’d like to challenge other departements to rather use the money for their year end function or gifts for a better purpose. Most of us already have everything we need, put many have nothing to look forward to this Christmas. A small gift will make a world of difference to someone else and you won’t even miss the money.

Informasietegnologie se Gebruikersdienste-afdeling het hierdie jaar besluit om hul kersfeespersente te verruil vir `n glimlag op iemand anders se gesig.

Elke jaar ruil personeellede van IT Gebruikersdienste geskenke uit om waardering teenoor hulle kollegas te betoon. Hierdie jaar het hulle saam besluit om die geld op `n beter manier aan te wend en `n klein verskilletjie in iemand minder bevoorreg se lewe te maak – veral die tyd van gedurende Kersfees wanneer dit die nodigste is.

Die keuse van `n organisasie was nie `n maklike taak nie, maar op die ou end is daar besluit om deel te neem aan Universiteit Stellenbosch (US) se Werknemers-vrywilligersprogram se Hospice-projek om speelgoed in te samel vir kinders. Elke personeellid het R50-00 bygedra en met die somtotaal van R2200-00 is geskenke gekoop vir kinders van 4 tot 16 jaar.

Dit het egter nie net by geskenke koop gebly nie! Personeel het besluit hulle wil ook self die toedraaiwerk doen en die afgelope Vrydagmiddag het almal skouer aan die wiel gesit en geknip en plak totdat net `n berg pakkies oorgebly het.

Ons wil ander afdelings uitdaag om ook eerder hulle geskenk- of funksiegeld vir `n goeie doel aan te wend. Die meeste van ons het reeds alles wat ons nodig het, maar daar is ander wat geen vooruitsig hierdie Kersfees het nie. `n Klein geskenkie sal `n verskil in iemand anders se lewe en nie `n groot gat in jou sak maak nie.

Posted in Community Interaction, General | Comments Off on IT User services wraps it up for the yearIT Gebruikersdienste speel Vader Kersfees

New malware warning

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Please take note that a new malware threat has emerged on campus. Some users have reported the following:

A pop up will appear on your screen (see below) prompting you to update your Antivirus package due to a threat (in this case a trojan). However, this notification in itself is a malware application. If you click on the option to update, it will install itself on your pc. Under no circumstances should you click on the button.

Close the pop up screen immediately and if you’re worried that your pc is infected, contact the IT helpdesk. Read more on http://www.hoax-slayer.com/fake-fedex-invoice-malware.shtml

Tags: malware
Posted in General, Security | Comments Off on New malware warning

Need to build a website?Tyd vir `n nuwe webwerf?

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

What platform should I use to author and publish my department/faculty/division/centre website? This is a question that the IT and Communications divisions are often asked and we have consequently prepared the following guidelines and advice.

But first some important principles…. Authoring, publishing and maintaining a website need not be tasks reserved for technically-minded people. In fact, it is far preferable that these tasks are performed by the people most concerned with communications in your entity – and in order to do this they need not be skilled in “html, javascript” and other arcane technical tools and languages.

Secondly, websites must increasingly be fresh, dynamic and interactive. This implies that website maintenance is not a once-in-a-semester exercise, but a continuous commitment that should involve many contributors and authors in your environment, all co-ordinated by a designated editor.

Where one does require professional input is at the initial stages of a website’s design: design of the particular user experience that is required, graphical design and information layout (i.e. templates or master pages) and preparation of the technical platform. After these stages website management revolves around generating content and using the site for effective communication with the target audience(s).

So – in order empower people not skilled in web technologies to manage and contribute to their own websites and to maintain image and look-and-feel consistency across multiple pages and sites, most institutional websites are increasingly built on so-called Web Content Management Systems (WCMS). There are various examples of such WCMS’s including, Joomla!, WordPress, Sharepoint, Drupal, Oracle Portal, Nettoolbox, etc. So which one(s) should you use?

We strongly recommend the following:

Until recently many faculty and departmental websites were built and authored on the Oracle Portal WCMS. However, this platform is approaching end-of-life and will be phased out over the next years. Do not build any new sites or do major upgrades of sites on this platform anymore.
The university has officially adopted the Microsoft Sharepoint platform as the institutional WCMS for official websites. Do build new sites on this platform. Both the IT and Communications divisions are gearing up to be able to support and advise website owners on its use.
We also offer a WordPress blogging platform for sites that require blogging functionality. Institutional support is limited, but WordPress is easy to use and suited to small, single sites.
Ensure that all websites include the necessary code to log web usage data for analysis of usage of the sites (known as Web Analytics). We offer a PIWIK Web Analytics platform for this purpose, although you could use Google Analytics as well. But you need to be aware that given the need for on-campus users to open Inetkey for Google Analytics to work, such users, if they are in your target audience, will experience degraded site performance if Intekey is closed.
Ensure that you are familiar with the requirements of the University’s Web Regulation, which governs the management of institutional websites.

Although all the other WCMS’s mentioned above, and others, do run on our servers and are used by many, neither the IT Division nor Communications provides any WCMS-level support for them. Entities that have in-house technical skills or are able to afford external technical support may wish to continue using them, but we recommend that plans be made to eventually migrate those websites to the Sharepoint platform.

Contact the E-communications Division (ecomms@sun.ac.za) or Advanced Support, IT Division (helpinfo@sun.ac.za) in order to learn more about Sharepoint and to prepare the plans for your new or upgraded website.

ARTICLE BY RALPH PINA

Watter platform moet ek gebruik om my departement/fakulteit of afdeling se webwerf te skep en publiseer? Hierdie is `n vraag wat die afdelings IT en E-kommunikasie op `n gereelde basis gevra word. In antwoord hierop het ons die volgende riglyne en advies saamgestel.

Maar eers, `n paar belangrike beginsels …. Die skep, publiseer en instandhouding van `n webwerf hoef nie uitsluitlik gereserveer te word vir diegene wat meer tegnies georienteerd is nie. Om die waarheid te sê, is dit verkieslik dat hierdie take eerder verrig word deur die mense wat nou betrokke is by die kommunikasie van die afdeling. En om dit te doen, is dit nie nodig dat hulle geskool moet wees in “html, javascript” en ander obskure tegniese hulpmiddels en tale nie.

Tweedens – webwerwe moet al meer en meer vars, dinamies en interaktief wees. Dit beteken dat webonderhoud nie net `n eenmalige oefening is nie, maar `n voortdurende verpligting wat verskeie bydraers en skrywers in die omgewing, gekoördineer deur `n aangewese redakteur, se betrokkenheid vereis.

Waar daar wel professionele en meer tegniese insette nodig is, is by die aanvanklike fase van die webwerfontwerp: die ontwerp van `n spesifieke gebruikersondervinding, grafiese ontwerp en uitleg van inligting (byvoorbeeld template of “master pages”) en die voorbereiding van die tegniese platform. Nadat dit in plek gesit is, is die fokus op die genereer van inhoud en die effektiewe gebruik van die webwerf vir kommunikasie met die afdeling se teikengehoor.

Om dus persone, wat nie geskool is in webtegnologieë nie, te bemagtig om hul eie webwerwe te bestuur en inhoud by te dra en om die voorkoms en algemene “look-and-feel” oor veelvuldige bladsye en webwerwe te verseker, word institusionele webwerwe toenemend op sogenaamde Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) gebou. Daar is verskeie voorbeelde van WCMS’s, insluitende Joomla!, WordPress, Sharepoint, Drupal, Oracle Portal, Nettoolbox, ens. So watter van hierdie behoort jy te gebruik?

Ons beveel die volgende sterk aan:

Tot onlangs is baie fakulteit en departementele webwerwe gebou en geskryf op die Oracle Portal WCMS. Hierdie platform nader egter sy vervaltyd en sal oor die volgende paar jaar uitfasseer word. Moet asseblief geen nuwe webwerwe op hierdie platform bou of groot opgraderings doen nie.
Die universiteit het amptelik die Microsoft Sharepoint platform geselekteer as die institusionele WCMS vir amptelike webwerwe. Alle nuwe webwerwe moet op Sharepoint gebou word. Beide IT en die E-kommunikasie Afdeling is besig om op te rat vir die nuwe platform en sal mettertyd in staat wees om ondersteuning, sowel as advies oor die gebruik daarvan aan webwerfeienaars te gee.
Ons bied ook `n WordPress blogplatform vir webwerwe wat blogfunksionaliteit vereis. Institusionele ondersteuning is beperk, maar WordPress is maklik om te gebruik en ideaal vir klein, losstaande webwerwe.
Maak seker dat alle webwerwe die nodig kode bevat wat die data van webgebruik kan aanteken (bekend as Web Analytics). Ons bied `n PIWIK Web Analytics platform vir die doel, alhoewel jy ook Google Analytics kan gebruik. Wees egter bewus dat gebruikers op kampus Inetkey sal moet gebruik om statistieke te sien indien jy Google analytics verkies. Indien hierdie gebruikers jou teikengehoor is, gaan hulle swakker werksverrigting van jou webwerf ervaar as Inetkey nie oop is nie.
Maak seker dat jy vooraf bekend is met die vereistes van die Universiteit se Web Regulasie, wat die bestuur van institusionele webwerwe beheer.

Alhoewel al bogenoemde WCMS’s, sowel as ander wat nie genoem is nie, op ons bedieners gehuisves word en deur baie gebruik word, lewer IT en E-kommunikasie nie WCMS-vlak ondersteuning daarvoor nie. Entiteite wat binne die afdeling oor die tegniese vaardighede beskik of in staat is om eksterne tegniese ondersteuning te kan bekostig, mag moontlik verkies om daarmee voort te gaan, maar ons beveel aan dat reëlings getref word om mettertyd die webwerwe te migreer na die Sharepoint platform.

Kontak die E-kommunikasie afdeling (ecomms@sun.ac.za) of Gevorderde Ondersteuning, IT (helpinfo@sun.ac.za) om meer te leer oor Sharepoint en om voor te berei vir jou nuwe of opgegradeerde webwerf.

ARTICLE BY RALPH PINA

Posted in General | Comments Off on Need to build a website?Tyd vir `n nuwe webwerf?

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