by Seth Novogrodsky, LSCR Faculty Team Project Manager
November 10, 2008—The Letters & Science Computing Resources (LSCR) Faculty Support Team provides support to the majority of College departments. This article is the fifth in a series that provides updates in our computing support programs and other topics of interest.
If you are not currently using LSCR's faculty support services and are interested in more information, please feel free to contact us, and we will be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Since our last newsletter, a new set of "spear phishing" scams have been targeting campus users. The term "phishing" refers to attempts to acquire personal information such as passwords and user names, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, etc., through official-looking email messages and websites. No legitimate email should ever ask you to send a password via email. The latest versions of Internet Explorer (version 7) and Firefox (version 3) have features to help identify phishing websites. If you are not running either of these web browsers, we can help you upgrade. For more information about phishing scams generally, please see our article "Scams, deceptive spam, and electronic identity theft". For more information about a scam targeting CalMail users, see our news article.
Because of rapid changes in technology, we generally recommend that desktop and laptop computers be replaced every three to five years. If you are considering buying a new computer, please contact us. We can provide recommendations tailored to your specific needs, and we can let you know about special configurations that we have available through The Scholar's Workstation. We can also advise you on what software and accessories to get.
Also, once you have placed an order for a new machine, please let us know so that we can have someone available to set it up for you when it arrives. Without advance notice, there may be delays in our setting up your new machine.
Printers are a critical piece of equipment for many faculty members. Because faculty tend to print quite bit, we generally recommend laser printers because they tend to have better paper capacity and lower cost per page compared with inkjet printers. Also, the toner cartridges used in laser printers generally need to be changed much less often than ink cartridges in inkjet printers. Inkjet printers do have a couple of advantages over lasers printers: they are often cheaper initially, and they generally do a better job of printing photographs. The lowest cost laser printers cannot print in color. Color laser printers have come down in price dramatically over the past couple of years, but the quality is still generally not as good as inkjet prtinters for printing photographs (but fine for printing web pages and color charts and diagrams).
Low cost all-in-one devices—which combine a printer, scanner, copier, and often fax in one machine—can make sense for light use in a home office setting. They are not designed for high volume printing. We generally do not recommend these devices for most faculty. If you need a scanning capability, a dedicated scanner will provide better quality and performance.
Before buying a printer, please contact us. We have experience with printers from a variety of manufacturers, and we can help you find the best printer for your needs.
Although most PCs have shipped with Windows Vista for close to two years, Windows XP has remained popular. It is still possible to order a machine with Windows XP on certain computer models (such as the Dell OptiPlex and Latitude lines and the Lenovo ThinkPad series).
Vista does have a number of advantages over Windows XP (notably improved security), but it is a major change. There is a bit of a learning curve, and not all hardware and software that works with Windows XP will work with Windows Vista. Vista is more resource intensive than Windows XP and requires more memory and disk space to run well. See "MS Vista Features" for information about some of the new features in Vista.
Below are some recommendations regarding Windows Vista:
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about Windows Vista.
Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for the Mac represent a major change from the previous versions, Office 2003 and 2004. The user interfaces have changed significantly in these versions of Office, and new file formats have been introduced.
Although the new versions of Office provide an number of improvements over previous versions, there are some issues to be aware of:
Please feel to contact us if you need assistance installing the compatibility packs, configuring Office, or using Office to accomplish your day-to-day tasks.
We are available to provide comprehensive maintenance services for faculty computers.
Computer maintenances generally include the following:
The faculty member generally need not be present during the maintenance, but users should bring to the attention of the consultant any problems that he or she may be experiencing prior to the maintenance and also note if any specialized hardware or software is used with or installed on the machine.
Please contact us if you are interested in having us come by to perform a maintenance.
The best way to reach us is to send email to fac_support@LS.Berkeley.EDU. When making a request, please include the following information:
Because we use an automated ticket tracking system, the following is also helpful to us:
