The big excitement this week was getting the video conferencing system in the large conference room back to normal. Campus sent a replacement Director unit” (the box that the front cameras sit on) by overnight. It arrived on Monday and Jerry had it installed by late that afternoon. Tuesday morning we went through the software/firmware updates and still had problems that required campus to bring in someone with more expertise to walk us all through the process. Unfortunately, it didn’t get fixed in time for the 9 am class that was scheduled to be in there. But Kelsey moved the class to another room. We did get it all fixed in plenty of time for the 2 pm class. So far, it’s running smoothly.
Other Center Items
- No update on getting the podium from the westside yet
- No word back yet about the phone upgrades
- Nick has not scheduled his visit back to the Center to continue our internet upgrades. But it should be the beginning of February.
Campus IT Items
myWSU – There continue to be issues with myWSU. Every time they think they have the problem fixed, it starts acting up again. I know that there have been numerous security updates (almost daily) to the VMware (the underlying software that runs the system). Although the chatter has not linked the security updates directly to the slowdown and connectivity problems with myWSU, it has to be at least indirectly related since myWSU runs on the affected system. I’ve been hearing reports that Activity insights has shown some unexpected behaviors such as giving error codes or not allowing people to log in. Since some of the information is linked through myWSU, the problems with myWSU could be impacting Activity Insights to a limited degree.
Misc. security updates – Don’t neglect to run security updates. Updates to browsers and operating systems continue to be announced. It can be annoying to get a pop-up about updates when you are in the middle of doing some task. Most people usually close the window and continue what they are working on. That’s OK. Just don’t forget to go back and do the updates. Hacking and other electronic intrusions are at an all-time high. The best way to protect yourself is to make sure everything is up to date.