After four technology previews IE9 has finally been released in public beta.  I had to blog about it in Firefox 3.6, however, because my WordPress blog was uneditable using IE9 (64-bit version on Windows 7).  Clearly, there is a long way to go, and clicking the new compatibility button didn’t help.  Please note, before reading on, that this browser is NOT  recommended for use at Palomar College and in fact will not work correctly with the Palomar web site, Blackboard, and probably not with PeopleSoft too. For those generally interested in the features of the new product, there is a thoroughgoing...

This is a continuation of my interview with the Academic Technology Systems Administrators about technology planning at Palomar College.  In this part we focus on some rubber meets the road issues like paperless environments, AV technologies, telephony, and lots of other issues.  The written response of the technicians is provided in the post below, and the audio of an interview with them follows the post. Additional Questions for ATRC Staff 1.  Would you support a goal of creating a paperless environment at Palomar College, if it meant that you would not have access to printers and would have to rely...

We are in the throes of writing a new Technology Master Plan for our institution, looking out to the year 2016, as if such a vision were possible.  We are in the information gathering phase of the project now, and, as usual in education, on a short time line with far too many other things to do.  In any event, this post summarizes my interview with the Academic Technology Systems Administrators on our campus.  There are three of them, Chris, Shay and Dave.   They are primarily responsible for the Blackboard System, Web Servers and Systems, Streaming Media Services, and Tech Support for faculty,staff...

In my MS Office online newsletter today I found a notice about a new “Forgotten Attachment Detector” for Outlook from Microsoft labs. Actually, it is from an employee of Microsoft labs, Bhavesh Chauhan, who developed it on his own time and MS labs liked it so much they are distributing it with him. Imagine, a tool made for Office, endorsed by MS–though with the usual warnings about lab/beta software–to make us look less stupid. Sounds like a winner to me. Here are the installation specs: Requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, Outlook 2007, .NET 3.5 SP1 and VSTO...