December 26, 2012 Faculty-Staff CU-Boulder Today

In this Issue

Beware of holiday phishing attacks

Our campus is constantly under attack by a barrage of attempts to steal personal information (aka phishing). Often these attacks come during holidays when campus IT support is unavailable. Even when you can’t contact the IT Service Center there are still clues and resources to help you figure out if the e-mail you have received is legitimate or a phishing attempt. More at www.colorado.edu/oit/news/holiday-phishing.

A whirlwind Italian 'Butterfly' for CU grad student

Singing in your first professional opera is challenge enough. Throw in a 12-hour, trans-Atlantic flight and a mere two days of rehearsal time — with two different conductors — and you’ve got a grand task indeed.

But that’s just what University of Colorado College of Music student Anna Englander will face in January when she travels to Italy to sing the key role of Suzuki for three performances of Puccini’s classic Madama Butterfly in three different cities.

Physicists' research creates 'recipe book' for new materials

By showing that tiny particles injected into a liquid crystal medium adhere to existing mathematical theorems, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have opened the door for the creation of a host of new materials with properties that do not exist in nature.

2013 RTD Eco Pass Smart Cards for faculty and staff

Employees will receive their new 2013 Eco Pass smart cards in the mail by mid-January. These will replace the former RTD Eco Pass stickers, which will expire on January 31, 2013.

RTD will be implementing a grace period for all Eco Pass users. Faculty and staff members should keep their 2012 Eco Pass stickers and continue to use them until the receipt of their new smart cards. Faculty and staff will be able to utilize their 2012 Eco Pass stickers through Thursday, January 31, 2013.

Community Notes

Data Center firewall upgrade will make Enterprise Services unavailable night of Jan. 3

The data center firewall in the Computing Center must be upgraded to higher performing hardware and this will take place on the night of Jan. 3 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. A number of key enterprise services including the portals and e-mail services will be unavailable for varying amounts of time during the upgrade window. A full list of affected services is available at the link below.

Website: http://www.colorado.edu/oit/news/firewall-upgrade-1.3.13

Desire2Learn upgrade rescheduled for Jan. 2; Includes new tools & retirement of others

Desire2Learn (D2L), CU-Boulder's online learning environment, will be upgraded on Jan. 2, 2013 to a new version that improves usability, offers new functionality, and fixes a number of bugs and other known issues. The new features include a redesigned interface with a less-cluttered layout, simplified navigation bars, easier content creation, enhancements to the quiz tool and a lot more. You can find much more information about the upgrade’s improvements on the Desire2Learn Upgrade page.

Retired Tools

Website: http://www.colorado.edu/oit/news/d2l-v10-upgrade

Learn a language with ALTEC!

The Anderson Language Technology Center (ALTEC) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for spring language classes! These classes are non-credit and are open to the CU Staff, Faculty, Graduate Students, Retirees and their spouses, as well as the Boulder community. Sign up now at the ALTEC website!

Website: http://altec.colorado.edu/languageclasses

Contact: Courtney Malone

Faculty Teaching with Technology Seminar, Spring 2013, call for participants

Do you experiment or innovate with new technology in your courses? Do you explore new technologies in your scholarship, and then integrate them into the classroom? Are you interested in meeting others who do the same, sharing your experiences, and learning more?

CCTSI Novel Methods Phase II - LOI due Jan. 21, 2013

The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) is seeking proposals to provide $25,000 towards development of a novel methodology specifically designed to help a colleague progress in their clinical or translational research.

CU-Boulder Today publication schedule for winter break

The faculty-staff and student editions of CU-Boulder Today will publish once per week during the University of Colorado Boulder winter break. The faculty-staff edition will publish Wednesdays, during the afternoons of Dec. 26, Jan. 2 and 9, and resume regular publication on Jan. 14. The student edition will publish Thursdays, during the evenings of Dec. 27, Jan. 3 and 10, and resume regular publication Jan. 15.

Website: http://www.colorado.edu/news/today

Contact: CU-Boulder Today