Welcome, Sites Users! We have new services, new software, new Apples and Dells, and a new strategic planning process, all designed to help you take full advantage of what we have to offer. Read on to learn more!
Sites is rapidly expanding our Virtual Sites service, which allows you to use the software on Campus Computing Sites Windows workstations remotely from any Mac or Windows computer with an Internet connection. 350 machines will be available in September, up from 100 last year. Later this fiscal year, we will have as many as 1,000 machines. Access Virtual sites at http://virtualsites.umich.edu/.
Sites has replaced or is replacing 208 Dell machines and 96 Macs, for a total of 304 machines! Look for new Windows machines at these sites: Angell Hall classrooms A-B-D, ATCS, ErgoPods, Newberry, Palmer Commons, Stockwell, Undergraduate Library 2nd Floor and Lower Level locations, Michigan Union basement and Tap Room locations, and West Quad. Look for the new Mac stations in the Angell Hall Courtyard site.
The technical specifications for the new machines are below:
Apple 24" iMac
Dell Optiplex 960 Small Form Factor
In our previous newsletter, we mentioned that we would remove SPSS software from our Macintosh workstations. But, good news, we were able to continue to license the software and will include it in our Fall loadset. The new name of the software is Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) Statistics. We will deploy PASW Statistics version 17.0.2 to both our Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.5.8 Fall loadsets.
Additional software updates include: (Windows) AMOS 17, AutoCAD 2010, Microsoft Expression Web 2.0, Microsoft Sharepoint Designer; (Mac) iLife '09, iWork '09, Fetch 5.5, NeoOffice 3.0, and Cacophony; (Win/Mac) EndNote X2, Maple 13, Matlab R2009a, R 2.9.1, Adobe CS4 applications, Mathematica 7.0.1.
Say good-bye to outdated software. We will remove Microsoft Office 2004 (Mac) and Microsoft Office 2003 (Windows) from our workstations for Fall Term. Microsoft Office 2007 will remain available on our Windows workstations. Microsoft Office 2008 will remain available on our Macs.
Sites has added the "Qwizdom ActionPoint" software to our standard Windows classroom loadset for Fall 2009.
A list of our current set of core software is available online.
Effective July 1, Campus Computing Sites became part of Information and Technology Services (ITS) — the new campus IT organization that comprises the former ITCS, ITSS and MAIS. Learn more about this merger at the interim ITS website, but for now, expect that Campus Computing Sites will operate in the next year as it has in the past.
Sites will be kicking off a fast-tracked strategic planning process in September. Look for us to share our new strategic plan by December 1. We would love to have your input. Send your thoughts about Sites and where we should be headed in order to best support the University and its mission, Steve Sarrica, manager of Sites at sarrica@umich.edu.
A year from now, in September, Campus Computing Sites will upgrade our Windows platform to "Windows 7" and our Macs to "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X 10.6). Older software may no longer work in our labs with these new systems. We encourage you to test all of your software with these new operating systems. Sites plans to provide demo machines of each operating system closer to the end of Winter Term 2010.
Look online for additional information about these new operating systems:
Find copies of our previous newsletters online.
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome! Please send e-mail to sites@umich.edu.
9/11/09
