NUMBER 132
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February 2012
Safe Use of Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other forms of social media have become commonplace
for connecting with family, friends, co-workers, and in a growing number of cases, even
students. Because the laws that regulate these are still developing, a few things about
using these spaces are worth noting.
First, familiarize yourself with rules and polices that may govern the use of these spaces. In
particular SUNY Oneonta employees should be sure they have reviewed the Institutional
FERPA Policy Statement and the Confidentiality Policy.
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Set your social media pages privacy settings so that only “friends” can view them and
consider maximizing other security settings.
Be careful of who you accept “friend” requests from.
Think before you post.
Finally, remember that once you post something it may ultimately been seen by
everyone. Friends can send your posts on to other friends. Once you have posted it,
you no longer have control over it. Even when you think you have deleted something,
it may still be available online.
A note about teaching and learning in this space: More and more colleges and universities
are using these spaces to teach, reach out to alumni and current students, and engage
prospective students. Extra care should be taken to ensure privacy and post appropriately
in these cases.
If you have questions or concerns about using these spaces please contact any member of
the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center staff or the IT Security Administrator
([email protected]).
Trivial Knowledge
Occasionally we get three paychecks in one month. Because we get paid every fourteen
days, every once in a while we have a payday Wednesday that falls on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd
day of the month, and if that happens, the next check comes in on the 15th, 16th or 17th, and
the one after that on the 29th, 30th or 31st. So it’s not all that unusual.
However, since February usually only has 28 days in it, it’s rare for this to happen in this
wonderful gray month. We need at least 29 days, which only happens once every four
years. And the only way it will work is if the first of February on a leap year happens to fall
on Wednesday, and that particular Wednesday happens to be a payday.
Well, February 2012 happens to fit all of those criteria. Which got us wondering, of course –
how often does this happen?
One of the great by-products of the internet is the ability to actually answer inane, trivial
questions like this without having to resort to either a savant or a PhD in Mathematics.
A quick search turned up www.timeanddate.com/date/leapyear.html which listed all of the
leap days for the next 28 years and revealed that the day of the week they fall on has a
repeating cycle, so every 28 years, February 1st, 15th and 29th all fall on Wednesdays. So
far, so good. Seems like 2040 will be the next time we will be able to savor three paychecks
in February.
But hold on – it’s a Wednesday, but is it the one we get a paycheck on, or one of the offWednesdays when we don’t?
Since the gap between two paychecks is fourteen days, then the gap between February
29th, 2012 and February 29th, 2040 would have to be evenly divisible by fourteen in order for
the 2040 leap day to also be a pay day. But who’s got time to figure that out?
Luckily, the internet has that squared away, too. www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html
lets you put in two dates and it will calculate the number of days between them. Turns out
that there’s 10,227 days until the next leap day that falls on a Wednesday in 2040. But
10,227 divided by 14 is 730.5 and that means that 2/29/2040 is not a pay day – it’s one of the
off-weeks. So we have to go on to the next one – February 29th, 2068. That’s 20,454 days
after 2/29/2012, which divides evenly into 1461 two-week periods. Makes me tired just
thinking about it.
So there you have it. We’re getting three paychecks this February, and that won’t happen
again until February 2068.
Which means I’ll never see it, unless economic conditions force me to work until I’m a
hundred and three.
About the Information Technology Reorganization
Each month we will be featuring a subgroup of the newly reorganized I.T. Services
Department, telling you about the services they provide and who staffs the group.
This month – Customer Support
The customer support area is responsible for end-user support. It includes the help desk,
desktop support, classroom technology support, computer lab support and training activities
such as the TIPS program. Steven Maniscalco ([email protected], x2226)
directs the operations of the group consisting of ten professional staff and a student work
force of approximately seventy student hires.
The Information Technology Help Desk, supervised by Teri Weigl, is the first line of support
for all technology related questions. The Help Desk staff is responsible for general
troubleshooting and consultation for students, faculty and staff. The Help Desk specializes in
user account services, equipment sign out and remote assistance services. The Help Desk is
also responsible for routing support problems to the appropriate Information Technology
department for advanced technical support and resolution. Matthew Weinell is our evening
supervisor reporting to Teri.
Desktop support is staffed by Kyle Britton, Ryan Swan and Michael DeLaire. We are
currently searching for a fourth desktop support technician to fill a recently vacated position.
The desktop support group provides advanced support and troubleshooting for all types of
computer requests. Virus cleanup, new installs, software configuration, network connectivity,
printer support and basic data recovery are a few of the many requests that we handle for
students, faculty and staff.
Classroom technology support is provided by Mark English and Steve Miller. Mark English is
the supervisor for this area overseeing the technology needs of learning and meeting spaces
for the college. Technology Services supports the technology installed in approximately 200
learning spaces on campus. Of these, 136 are fully enhanced with computer, video, audio,
and large-screen display systems. Other services include, educational technology related
equipment delivery and setup, audio and video recording and conversion, retrieval,
assessment and re-distribution of technology related equipment, and computer and other
electronic hardware repair.
Computer lab support is provided by 3 professional staff members and about forty student
staff. Jill Attanasio supervises the student staff and coordinates the day-to-day needs of the
student computing labs around campus. Services include general computing lab questions
and orientation, basic to advanced troubleshooting of hardware and software problems,
maintenance of printers and large format printing services as well as computer lab
replacement and new installs. In addition, Justin St. Onge and Anthony Biltucci, who report to
the Servers and Applications department, provide advanced computer lab support and
configuration. Together the group supports over one thousand computers both PC and Mac.
Training activities are coordinated by Raphael Web providing software application training to
students, faculty and staff. Raphael supervises four student staff who make up our
Technology Instruction Program for Students, TIPS. The TIPS program was designed to
provide peer-to-peer training for students in various software applications such as, Microsoft
Office, Adobe Creative Suite, webpage design and digital video and audio editing. Other
services include, just in time training for faculty and staff, computer based training videos,
and one-on-one as well as group training offerings on an as needed basis.
For Customer Support questions or to report a technology issue, please contact the
Information Technology Help Desk at x4567 or send an email to [email protected].
For more information about the IT reorganization please visit
www.oneonta.edu/admin/its/itsplan.asp.
Voice Mail
Did you know? Messages are limited to 1 minute, the total storage time for a mailbox is 4
minutes, and messages already listened to are deleted after 3 days.
Voice Mail instructions are available here (PDF).
Phone features and dialing instructions are available here (PDF).
Forwarding Voice Mail to E-mail instructions are available here.