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IT staff open their pockets for VWS

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

vws Over the past week a relentless wildfire has been tearing through the Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. At least 3000 hectares of veld has been burnt down and 450 fire fighters battled to keep the fire under control.

During the recent wildfire in the Cape Point area, we’ve seen the circumstances under which these fire fighters work and many of them are VWS (Volunteer Wildfire Services) volunteers. Therefore they are dependent on donations to be able to do their job and need funds to effectively fight fires with helicopters, buy equipment and also basic items like medical supplies, eye drops, food and water.

IT staff wanted to help and started collecting money on Wednesday morning. At the end of the day the total stood at R4450-00 and food supplies were also collected and delivered at MFM. The money collected was paid into VWS’s account via a registered VWS-project at Givengain and will be used as needed by the organisation.

We challenge other SU departments and divisions to do the same. Have a look on the Volunteer Wildfire Services website for more information on how to help and on their Facebook for the latest news on the fire.

Posted in Community Interaction, General | 2 Comments »

3G at a price

Friday, February 27th, 2015

Is your cell phone’s sneaky behaviour taking a bite out of your pocket? By applying a few guidelines you can save yourself from a 4 digit cellphone bill.

1. Set data limits and limit your account with your service provider.
Practice caution when using certain providers’ 3G bundles on laptops. Some of these do not protect the user against overspending.

The risk of overspending occurs when users are under the false impression that their 3G package is safe to use until the package runs out. This is not necessarily the case. Higher costs can occur when the initial bundle’s capacity is exceeded and a much higher tariff kicks in. The user will then, without knowing, pay the higher tariff.

Users are strongly advised to limit the amount they want to spend or traffic they want to allow. (All this information can be found on your service provider’s website.) On Android your mobile data limit can be changed in the settings.

Also activate SMS and email notifications when your data bundle is close to its limit. In this instance prepaid data is a considerably safer option.

2. Don’t set your e-mail to synchronise automatically. Rather use the manual option and Send and Receive when you need to check your e-mail.

3. Also take care when using sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram Pinterest and YouTube as they use a lot of data.
Apps can be restricted not to use background data when mobile data is activated. Certain apps enable you to compress content (for example Google Chrome) Onavo is a 3rd party app you can use on your phone to do this compression.

4. Set software updates to manual.
The risk of overspending is increased by software updating automatically and therefore generating more traffic. To avoid overspending ensure that the settings of your software updates are set to manual. You’ll be able to choose when and where it’s done and how much data is being used. If you need to do software updates on your phone, only use your WiFi.

5. Another risk 3G users need to be aware of is the excessive cost of data overseas.
Wireless in hotels is usually much more affordable than the local service provider’s roaming data options.

6. Preferably switch off the 3G facility when it’s not being used.
3G users are encouraged to monitor their traffic and data usage on the 3G control programme, as well as the service provider’s website.

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Printing and copy services on campus

Monday, February 16th, 2015

From the beginning of January printing and copy services fall under the management of Commercial Services in the division Maties Copy and Print. This division is managed by Joswayne Newman and also includes the central copy facilities.

The important key points for the future are:

In future each environment will manage it’s equipment from it’s own account and it’s own unique cost point (as was the case with copying services in the past)
No cross subsidising between environments will be applicable.
The key strategy with which the complete service will be managed with, will be cost effectiveness and optimal network strategy.
The tariff will be exclusively focused on uniformity for student users, even though there will be an official campus tariff. ((35c for A4 black, single-sided) A complete series of tariffs including colour and A3 options, is also available.
Financial administration of the service will be located at Commercial Services.
Environments can, for example, choose whether they want to buy an unit cash or hire-purchase over a term of 36 months.
All units will be on a service contract which will include usable items such as ink, as well as under warranty repair work, as part of the tariff.
Maintenance costs for units not on a service contract, will be for the account of the environment until it has been replaced with a unit with a service contract.
At the moment both Safecom and Phonet pay systems are being maintained and a strategy regarding this will be introduced within the next 6 months.

Unfortunately no chance occurs smoothly without any problems and we would like to request all our clients to contact us if there is any confusion. Contact us at the following numbers and addresses:

Complaints: IT Service Desk x4367
New requests: jsnewman@sun.ac.za
Technical support: safecom@sun.ac.za

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New IT building: What is a place of work?

Thursday, December 11th, 2014

Our fairly intensive participation in the design process for the new IT building got me thinking about what a place of work is and why a knowledge organisation, like an IT division, would have one. The new building is essentially an office building: it will not house technical infrastructure such as the data centre, but will be the place of work for the division’s engineers, system administrators, technicians, architects, analysts, software developers, managers, etc.

Besides the admittedly exciting “green” design features, such as the vertical garden, optimal orientation, solar PV panels, rainwater harvesting, bicycle store, and various other efficiency elements that will make it far more energy-efficient and sustainable than other buildings of its type, the other intriguing possibility that it presents is the opportunity to influence change in the culture of the IT division. The catalyst for this “change of culture” could be the university’s new norms that require that all new office buildings be “open plan”. For an organisation that has become accustomed to being housed for the past 25 years in what can only be described as a “rabbit warren” of cellular offices leading off dark, desolate corridors, this is a radical departure. There seems to be much trepidation and negativity about our “open plan” future, some of which at least is simply related to humans’ default discomfort with change of any sort ¹. (more…)

Tags: new IT building, sustainable IT
Posted in General, Green IT | 2 Comments »

Microsoft Lync improves communication on campus

Friday, December 5th, 2014

The world revolves around communication. Over the past few years our means of communication has expanded rapidly thanks to technological advances. lync

If these technologies are used cleverly they can improve communication and save you and your department money. One example of this is Microsoft Lync.

With Microsoft Lync you can chat away to your heart’s content with fellow SU colleagues – whether it’s through instant messaging, voice calls or a video conference. And because the programme uses the university’s existing network, this will won’t cost your department an arm and a leg (as long as your calls are to internal staff). In addition to this, Lync connects to your Outlook information, your Office documents and other Microsoft applications ensuring you’re up to date at all times.

Lync’s main focus is the corporate environment and this shows in it’s functionality. Functions and advantages include the following:

instant messaging
voice over ip (voice calls)
videoconferences
visibility of Outlook contacts
availability of global addresslist Outlook contacts
know when colleagues are available to chat
users can work on the same document simultaneously, whether it includes text or graphics and can see when someone else is working on a document
better tools for collaboration between staff, for example, desktop sharing, sharing documents, whiteboard, etc.
more secure communication since it takes places on the SU network
available for Windows Phone, Android en Mac’s
working from home more accessible
removes travel time between meetings
possibility for staff to link a phone number to a roaming laptop (at a registration fee and normal phone costs)
communication with other organisations using Lync

To start using Lync, contact the IT Service Centre at x4367 or help@sun.ac.za. For more information on Microsoft Lync, go to http://lync.stb.sun.ac.za

A programme will be installed on your PC and if you want to use of the VOIP function, a Lync headset is recommended.

The cost to use Lync on campus is as follows:

Lync Softclient: R150-00 per month
Users are responsible for their own headset at a cost of approximately R290-00

Lync with Polycom 600: R 200-00 per month
Users are responsible for their own headset at a cost of approximately R290-00

Tags: Microsoft Lync
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