Free Google Apps Training

Via Twitter, the Resident Student Association has learned of a Free Google Applications training workshop for students. The training will take place Wednesday, September 23rd during Activities Period (11:45 AM) in 145 Snell Library.

Google Applications is the new platform for student e-mail, calendar, and document sharing. Through Google Applications, students can organize meetings for classes, share documents, create new documents, chat with other students, and have a powerful e-mail platform available.

You can register for the training on the Information Services Training website.

Useful Phone Numbers

Here's a quick list of many useful Northeastern phone numbers. Many offices are open today, tomorrow, and even Labor Day.

Housing & Residential Life: 617.373.2814
Registrar's Office: 617.373.2300
Husky Card Office: 617.373.2270
ResMail: 617.373.5108
Information Services Service Desk: 617.373.4357

Our phone number is 617.373.8682, and if you don't think any of the above offices can help with your issue or want to find out just who to call, we encourage you to call us.

ResNet On-Site

Thanks to Twitter, we have learned that ResNet teams will be dispatched on-site to residence halls around campus to provide assistance to students who need to connect their computers to the network and activate them. The teams are expected to hit the residence halls around Noon, and will also be able to help with HuskyCable issues.

Cable TV Channels Fixed

HuskyCable channels in the area of Channel 16 to 22 recently were very fuzzy, miscolored, or distorted for students campus wide. Today, we're happy to report that thanks to the work of people in various groups of Information Services (ResNet, Customer Service, and Network Services) the channels should now be coming in clear. After determining the issue was campus wide and investigating, Information Services found that it was found that the problem stemmed back to an issue with Comcast, who provides a feed to Northeastern that gives us most of our standard definition cable television channels. Comcast fixed the problem quickly, and students can now enjoy clear channels like CNBC, the New England Sports Network, and ABC Family.

E-Mail Outage - Why It Happened

On September 1st, 2009, Google Applications and Google Mail users saw an e-mail outage that lasted for several minutes to several hours for some accounts. The outage affected Northeastern University's new Husky Mail, which is powered by Google Applications. Google has posted an explanation of what caused the outage, and what they plan to do to prevent similar outages in the future. You can read about it here.

In one sentence, and without too much technical jargon what happened was some of Google's computers became overloaded and stopped accepting requests from users trying to open their e-mail on the web which resulted in the downtime.

Microsoft Office Ultimate Discount for Northeastern Students

Northeastern University students are eligible to buy Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate for just $59.95, thanks to a special offer from the Microsoft Academic Promotions Online Store. Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate typically retails for $679.95, so this over 90 percent off. The package includes the typical necessities for college students with Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Word, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint, but also includes Microsoft Office OneNote, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Publisher, Microsoft Office InfoPath, and Microsoft Office Groove.

While Office 2007 Ultimate is only supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the upcoming Windows 7, Mac users can currently get of Office: Mac 2008 on sale at Amazon.com or the Apple Store. While the price is higher than the Windows version and does not feature as many applications, it includes installation rights for three Macs.

Of course, a topic that frequently comes up from residents is why Northeastern doesn't license copies of commonly used software like Microsoft Office for students living in the residence halls to use. This takes place at other institutions of higher education, and is something that the Resident Student Association can pursue if there is enough student interest. If you think this would be beneficial (or not beneficial) let us know.

Profiler Plan Bonuses

Two students who purchased Profiler meal plans noticed that the 10% bonus of meals did not show up on myNEU. They contacted the Resident Student Association, and we got answers.

Dining Services says the bonus meals should be added in the middle of September.

If you haven't signed up for a meal plan yet, you can still get the bonus meals by signing up before the end of this week. It's now easier than ever to sign up for a traditional or profiler plan thanks to the implementation of the Banner system for meal plan sign ups. Just click the link on the right side of the myNEU Portal's self-service tab.

You Probably Will Need to Re-Register for ResNet

Students living on-campus will probably need to re-register computers and other devices on ResNet on August 20th, 2009. The re-registration is necessary due to an update to ResNet taking place the night of August 19th, 2009. Re-registration can be done starting at 9:00 AM on August 20th by visiting http://registerresnet.neu.edu. Devices that lack a web browser may need to be re-registered manually. For information on this process, you can e-mail help@neu.edu or call 617.373.4357. You may be required to either provide the device's Media Access Control address or bring it into the ResNet Customer Service Center in Speare Commons.

G-Apps Migration "Delayed"

When Information Services Vice President Bob Weir sent an e-mail out to the student body about Google Apps being available to undergraduates starting August 12th, many students looked forward to today as the day when they could ditch the insufficient storage, lack of functionality, and difficulty of use of the current myNEU e-mail system for a new system driven by Google Applications. Unfortunately, students will have to wait 5 days. Due to a mistake, the e-mail from Vice President Weir indicated the wrong date. Undergraduate Students will be able to switch to G-Apps on Monday, August 17th. On the positive side, Admitted Students and Graduate Students can switch today.

NUPay Working Again

Last night we blogged about NUPay being unavailable. We now can bring you the good news that the service is back up and running.

NUPay Down

If you were hoping to add money to your HuskyCard, pay your tuition, or make a housing deposit tonight, you may not be able to. There is currently an outage of the NUPay (also known as CashNet) service that students can access via the myNEU Portal to make online credit / debit card payments.

The problem seems to have come up after the close of business, but Information Services Customer Service staff informed us that they have assigned a "High" priority to the issue and that the group in charge of the service will "be taking a look at this in the morning."

Affected students will see an error message stating "You have too many outstanding requests, wait for them to complete, then try again," or will see a message like this:


Click for Larger Image

Students who encounter an error accessing the service can send an e-mail to help@neu.edu to let Northeastern know they are having problems.

Tweeting NACURH

Writing full blog entries can be hard during the fast pace of the NACURH [National Association of College and University Residence Halls] conference. Thus, I'll be updating about the conference via @soleynm on Twitter.

Other Northeastern students who may be tweeting from NACURH include @savannahmrose, @naegelis, @mozessw, @malloryleigh19, @brittinyrae and @pao612. Look out for the hash tag #NACURH.

For those unfamillar with Twitter, it's a micro-blogging system. Tweets can be posted from computer, mobile application, and from any cell phone via text message. Twitter allows for real-time updates of your status, news, and anything you can say in 140 characters. Anyone can sign up for free at www.Twitter.com

The Week in Review

This week was an interesting one in terms of my role on the RSA e-board. I didn't update the blog because so much was going on!

We opened up the week with our e-board meeting where we ran down all of the ongoing projects. There's a lot of good things coming for residents, both in advocacy and outreach and programming. The RSA website had some updates made Monday, with many more to come to bring it up to date. All the missing documents for Housing Services Committee from last year will be posted, and then we'll have information about how to get even older documents. It will basically be a request system where you e-mail RSA (at) Northeastern.edu and we send you the requested documents.

On Tuesday, I took a trip with VP Rose up to Freedom, New Hampshire where we looked at Camp Cody, a possible new site for the Association's fall retreat which will offer us a significant savings in cost over our traditional retreat to the Ashland Campus. The site was very nice, with a great lake nearby. While the drive was almost 2.5 hours each way, it was worth it because we also got to enjoy some tax-free shopping! Tuesday was also the first Housing Services Committee meeting. It's not too late to join / attend. We meet next week at 6:00 pm in 336 Curry Student Center.

Wednesday was a much calmer day. Not too much to comment on, other than a meeting with the Senior RA Representative to discuss RA Training.

Thursday was a long day. On Thursday we found that our new office furniture would be coming in. We only got two hours notice, so VP Rose, VP Gagnon and I had to do a fast pack and clear job and then set everything up again once the new furniture came. The RSA Office, at 128 Stetson Hall West, has had the same layout for years. Four desks to be used by an organization with over 80 members and more than a dozen officers, Assistant Vice Presidents, and others who frequent the office as a working space. We upgraded to a total of six desks, which now gives each Vice President their own desk. We also switched to desks that provide better cable and power access for technology and gave the Vice President for Finance a bigger desk. We moved our water cooler and installed new seating to provide a more professional look. Once we clean up, I'll post some pictures.

Of course, what began Thursday was interesting. Food Advisory Committee met Thursday. From RSA, myself, AVP for Housing Services Mallory Brown, VP for Programming Brittiny-Rae Gagnon, and Cassandra Chan attended. We discussed the food preference survey results. The full results should be released by SGA soon. There was a bit of debate over the issues with the survey's question about trayless dining and the bias of the question, however. We're still working to make sure students have a choice.

Thursday wrapped up with Hall Council training. Anyone who is on a hall council and has feedback, please send it to RSA (at) Northeastern.edu and it'll help us revise for the fall.

Finally, Friday was a much calmer day for RSA, with not much activity for me.

Phishing Attempts

Once again there have been e-mails sent out trying to convince students to send e-mail with their myNEU passwords. The messages are not from Northeastern, so don't send any information out. If you have sent information to the people who sent this e-mail, change your password as soon as possible and e-mail help@neu.edu if you are unable to access your account.

Ruckus No More

The music download service Ruckus is no more. The company abruptly ended its music service last week, and a company representative has confirmed that Ruckus is shutting down business.

Ruckus was a system which allowed students to download or listen to music if they were a college student. Initially free, Ruckus then turned into a service where institutions had to sign up or be cut off. Many institutions signed up, Northeastern University did not, taking the advice of the Resident Student Association through our Summer I 2008 legislation opposing Ruckus. We're thankful that Northeastern didn't sign up for Ruckus, otherwise the investment of time and money would have been a waste.

Updated: myNEU & Northeastern Websites Down

UPDATE: As of 3:00 PM, it appears that all is fine. The outage was due to a power issue in the University data center according to Robert Weir, Northeastern's Vice President for Information Services who posted a statement on the myNEU Portal once it was back up.

It appears that something has gone wrong in the Information Services data center at Northeastern, which has led to a big outage this morning. At present, I.S. is working to restore several websites including the myNEU Portal. They were unable to provide us with a timeframe.

Juicy Campus Closing

The popular college gossip and rumor site Juicy Campus will be closing today. The announcement came from Matt Ivester, the site's Founder and Chief Executive Officer. In a letter about the shutdown Ivester cited plummeting ad revenue and a lack of venture capital as reasons for the site's shutdown.

Juicy Campus, because of its anonymous nature and refusal to divulge IP addresses that can sometimes identify a computer without a subpoena created controversy on many campuses, including here at Northeastern. Some institutions banned the website from their networks, and at other institutions Student Governments expressed outrage towards the site, which often would feature lies, insults, and demeaning content towards individuals or groups of individuals.

Virus Alert!

If you run Windows Vista or Windows XP, you could be at risk for a rapidly spreading virus known commonly as Conflicker or Downadup. The virus uses a vulnerability that existed in Windows XP and Vista, as well as other versions of Windows to infect machines via the network. That vulnerability has since been patched, so you can partially protect yourself by running Windows Update. However, one risk you still could have is infection via removable media such as a USB drive. To curb this issue, you can take the extreme step of turning off auto-run, or ensure that you have your anti-virus software up-to-date. If you don't have anti-virus software or don't want to renew a subscription, go on myNEU where you can download Symantec for free if you are a full-time student. You can read more about the virus here. If your computer is already infected, it is possible to remove the virus and the people at ResNet in Speare Commons can assist you with that process.

Blanket Music Licensing for College Campuses

Having seen music programs like Ruckus rejected by college campuses, lawsuits thrown out of court by numerous judges, and institutions rejecting the tactic of settlement letters or even storing IP address records, Warner Music Group is now looking into a concept known as "voluntary blanket licensing," where college and universities would collect money from students and then pass it onto the recording industry. Warner Music claims that, "this is exactly the type of solution that several universities and their associations have been asking for," but skeptics compare "voluntary blanket licensing" to a taxation on students, whether they download music or not.

New Link on myNEU

The work of the Housing Services Committee has one again paid off. Now, via myNEU, students can easily go to TV Planner and see what's on HuskyCable. It's on the Community tab of myNEU: