MIDDLE School Server Shut down

The OMS server, "MIDDLE" will be shut down December 29 at 3:30 p.m. for maintenance and will be back in service on December 30 at 9:30 a.m.

Update: MIDDLE is back in service at 7:15 a.m. Thank you for your patience

E-Funds / MVP Banking

It appears that the site that E-Funds uses for online payments (mvpbanking.com) is having some technical difficulties. It is unknown how long this site will be non-functioning, but as of right now E-Funds online payments are unavailable.

PowerSchool planned outage Tuesday, Dec. 15, 5-6 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable Tuesday, December 15, 5-6 PM while new drivers are installed. This will hopefully resolve the issues we've been having with random reboots following an error with a driver.

OMS Server [update]

The OMS server stopped responding at approximately 12:10PM on Monday Dec 7. The server rebooted itself and came up back up with errors. Further investigation showed that some configuration files had been corrupted. This issue was corrected and the server was rebooted once more. This eliminated the errors and the server server returned to normal at about 2:25PM.

OMS Server

The OMS server ("Middle") is not communicating on the network right now. I will post an update when more is known. Thank you,

PowerSchool unexpected restart debrief

The Powerschool server unexpectedly restarted today at 11:59am.  Analysis of the event log points to the driver for the HP Integrated Lights Out driver.  (HPQILO2)

We are researching it and trying to prevent future occurrences.

How to get to blocked short-links

Q: I've been frustrated trying to use twitter here at school.  I'm getting some great resources from the people I follow, but when I click on the links, they are blocked with a "security.proxy" warning.  Is there a way to work around this?  Is this due to the abbreviated links? 

A: Yes, this is due to the shortened links. I often have the same frustration. Twitter has made services like bit.ly, tr.im, and tinyurl.com very popular. The URL shortening services are seen as proxy sites, and are a growing security risk. This is because you can't see what site you are really going to before you go there, so you can't make a smart decision about whether it's a safe site or not.

The solution:

http://longurl.org/

In the strange world of the Internet, the site above is meeting this need by expanding shortened URLs so you don't blindly follow a link that will install malware or something. So, although annoying, the solution is to resolve those shortened URLs using longurl.org and then deciding whether it's safe to go to them.

Certificate error message last weekend

Several people reported a Security Certificate Error when trying to log in to Google Apps last weekend. This was caused by a problem with our authentication server's security certificate. There was not a real security threat, but I really appreciate people stopping and contacting IT before proceeding, so that we could determine whether somebody was trying to intercept information.

We have a workaround in place (since Sunday- thanks Zach!) and are working on a permanent solution.

Allowing YouTube videos through the Educational Video Library (EVL)

Have you ever wanted to approve certain YouTube videos so that students could watch them in class individually, instead of showing them to everyone on the big screen? Well, now you can. Introducing the Educational Video Library, which lets staff pre-approve videos from YouTube which will be viewable by students through our content filter. See http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology-integration-tool/Home/youtube-videos for instructions.

PowerSchool planned outage Thurs., 10/29, 7-9 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable while the server is upgraded on Thursday, 10/29, from 7-9 PM. Please plan accordingly.

Google Apps login problems resolved

The problems affecting some OHS users logging in to Google Apps has been resolved. There was a security setting that prevented SSL traffic (port 443) to unknown IP addresses. For some reason, a block of Google's IP addresses which happen to be used to process our SAML-based authentication were classified as "unknown" so they were getting blocked. We don't know what precipitated this change, but the workaround has been put into place.

If you continue to get errors like this, please report them to the helpdesk.

Google Gadgets not Working

Google's gadgets (aka "widgets," aka "little box things") are not working, resulting in a less-than-useful start page (see below).

Email is still working- you can access it at http://mail.oregonsd.net
Calendar is also working- you can access it at http://calendar.oregonsd.net 

We have contacted Google and told them about the problem. They are looking into it.

Quick tip: Don't miss a meeting!

Please take 1 minute to update this setting so that you don't miss a meeting invitation:

1.  Click on "Calendar"  (the top-left corner of the page)
2.  In the "My Calendars" section on the left side of the page click the triangle next to your name
3.  Select "Notifications"
4.  Make sure there are checkmarks in at least the first three boxes under "Email" (on the right side of the page)
5.  Click "Save"

Thank you!

PowerSchool planned outage Wed., 10/14, 7-8 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable on Wednesday, October 14, 7-8 PM, for a version upgrade. Please do not log in during this time.

In addition to some important bug fixes, the upgrade has one significant improvement: the parent portal will show exactly what teachers have entered in the grade book.  For example, if a teacher marks an assignment as an "M" for missing, or "L" for late, it will show up for parents to see.

Powerschool Service Interruption

Sometime between 2:00 and 2:03pm 8 Oct 2009 Oregon's Powerschool server unexpectedly powered down and rebooted. As of 2:08pm the server was back online and accepting connections.

Free anti-virus, anti-malware for Windows

Microsoft has just released a free anti-virus product called Security Essentials for Windows computers. Almost everyone knows that they should have anti-virus software installed, but not everybody does it. If the cost was keeping you from buying anti-virus software, this free version could be just what you need.

See http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Update- PowerSchool planned outage Thursday, 10/1, 5-9 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable on Thursday, October 1, from 5-9 PM so that we can correct some configuration issues which caused Tuesday morning's unplanned outage.

Teachers must be logged out of PowerTeacher prior to 5:00 PM or else risk losing data. Parents and students will simply see a "not available" message during this period.

Please plan accordingly. Thank you.

PowerSchool is back online

PowerSchool is back online. Many thanks to Lynn for working on it starting at 4 AM. The issue was resolved by Pearson Technical Support, and we are making changes to prevent the root cause from recurring.

Thanks for your patience.

If you get meeting invitations that are an hour off....

If your Google Apps Calendar seems to get getting invitations that are the wrong time, it may be on the wrong time zone. Try re-setting your time zone.

To do this:

1. Get into Google Calendar
2. Click on Settings
3. In the Timezone section, click the drop-down menu and select the Central Time Zone that's at the bottom of the list. You have to do this even if it already says you are in the Central Time Zone because apparently there are two of them.

The way to check this is to look at your Google Calendar and see if there is a small red line on today's date that indicates the correct current time. If it's accurate, you're good to go. If it's an hour off, go select the other Central Time Zone.

gmail service disruption

Google posted this message at about 9:29 AM this morning:

"We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail, but we've provided a workaround below. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 10:29:00 AM UTC-5 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

You can access Gmail via IMAP"

Changes to Google Docs that are publicly shared with the whole world

Google Apps has informed us of some important changes around published documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

In a few weeks, documents, spreadsheets and presentations that have been explicitly published outside of the OregonSD.net domain and are linked to from a public website will be crawled and indexed, which means they can appear in search results you see on Google.com and other search engines. There is no change for documents published inside your organization or shared privately.

If you do not want your published Docs to be crawled, then you must unpublish them by doing the following:

1. Go to the 'Share tab'
2. For documents and spreadsheets, choose 'Publish as web page'. For presentations choose 'Publish/embed'
3. Click on the button that says 'Stop publishing'

For more details, please see this Help Center article: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60781

This is a very exciting change as your published docs linked to from public websites will reach a much wider audience of people!

Checkboxes in PowerTeacher assignments are visible to teachers only

When a teacher enters a check mark in their PowerTeacher Gradebook (to indicated that an assignment was collected, or turned in on time, or whatever they want to use the check mark for), parents and students do not see that mark.  It is for teacher use only. 

If a teacher want parents to know that the assignment was collected, or money was collected, or whatever, they will need to use something else (such as an assignment work only one point).  Check marks are for teachers eyes only.

Planned PowerSchool outage Thursday, 9/17, 5:00 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable for several hours beginning 5:00 PM on Thursday, Sep. 17. This is regular server maintenance including installation of Windows security patches and an incremental upgrade to PowerSchool software. Please plan accordingly.

Internet back to normal- myriad problems solved

Thanks to lots of investigating, research, and phone calls by Zach and Doug, the district's Internet connection is now operating properly. This appears to have fixed the difficulties people were having with United Streaming, Plato, eSped, YouTube, and pretty much anything else that required web access.

As you can see from the pretty picture below, our inbound traffic has still not peaked.

 

What you cannot see is that all the CRC errors on our router have disappeared now that the duplex mismatch between our firewall and the WiscNet router has been corrected.

Thanks again for your patience.

Slow web access

We've received numerous complaints about slow web access, resulting in problems with Discovery Streaming, Plato, and [gasp!] YouTube. We feel your pain- we are experiencing it as well, and we are working on the problem.

We have enough bandwidth to accommodate our traffic, even with the anticipated increase due to Google Apps Gmail. In the graph below, the green parts are incoming traffic, which is 95% web traffic. As you can see, it used only about half of the 20 Mbps available. (The blue line is an upload of backup files, which stopped this morning at 8 AM, and doesn't significantly affect download speeds.)

So, why is this happening? At this point, we believe the issue is caused by a service configuration in our firewall. This summer we replaced an obsolete network firewall with a new one. Like most things technological, the new one has more capabilities, but is also more complex. Everything seemed to be working fine until Tuesday, when everybody returned to school. (It's hard to simulate the 1,600 simultaneous users for a test, so Tuesday was the first day of a real, full load. )

We are working with a Cisco engineer to figure out the problem. We'll keep you updated on this blog.

Gmail outage

On Tuesday, the first day of school, Gmail went down for approximately 100 minutes, starting at 2:30 PM local time. Obviously, this was not a great way to initiate the district's first full day of business after migrating all email systems to Google Apps Gmail. Thanks for your patience.

I knew going into this that Google Apps would have some outages (like any system), so this didn't make me second-guess the decision. It was just the unfortunate coincidence of happening on the first day of school, the first day back after migrating, that made me slap my forehead.

A couple benefits of using Gmail include:

1. Compared to our old email system, Google Apps Gmail is still online a higher percentage of time.
2. When it goes down, it makes national news. This is because it goes down so rarely, and also because so many people use it.
3. Google Apps has a Service Level Agreement of 99.9% uptime for its customers. If it doesn't meet that, it loses money. So there were a whole lot of people working very hard to get it back online.

If you are interested in reading the causes of the outage, you can read the official Gmail blog post. In the future, if you want to check the status of Oregon's IT services, (since we can't email you when email is down), you can check our blog (you are reading it now).

You can also see the global status of Google Apps at http://google.com/appsstatus

gmail service outage

from Google:

"We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail. We will provide an update by September 1, 2009 3:53:00 PM UTC-5 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change."

http://www.google.com/appsstatus

Adobe Acrobat Reader fix- your action required

Due to a combination of some bad plugins and more of an attempt to get every computer to be setup as similarly as possible, we created a new install routine for Adobe Acrobat Reader. Beginning about 2:00 p.m. yesterday, an automated process removed all versions of Reader older than the current update (version 9.1.3).

To install version 9.1.3, please close any web browsers you have open (Internet Explorer and/or Firefox), then go to the COMMON APPS menu, then click on Adobe Reader. This will install the reader and correct plug-ins. This will be a one-time process, the script only removes versions older than 9.1.3

PowerTeacher training handouts

All teachers should have already received an email with their PowerTeacher password. Teachers of grades 5-12 also received the date, time, and location of their PowerTeacher training session. If you did not receive this information, please contact Jon Tanner right away (x4024).

Two handouts will be distributed at the training. If you want to access the handouts ahead of them, they are available on the district's PowerTeacher support site at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology-integration-tool/Home/powerschool/powerteacher-gradebook
(Note: Staff login is required to access this page.)

PowerGrade not accessible until after registration

This is a reminder to teachers that, as in years past, you will not have access to PowerSchool until after district-wide registration. District registration occurs August 13 and 18, after which all the updated student data must be processed and imported into PowerSchool. Given the scheduling complexities reported this year, my estimate is that teachers will have access to PowerSchool not earlier than August 21.

Clarification on email newsletters

I need to clarify a statement I made back in the spring regarding email newsletters. Here is what I said:

If you want to create an email newsletter for parents, community members, students, or anybody else, we have instructions for how to do it at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/support/creating-a-public-email-newsletter

The "parent mass mailer" will be used only for high priority, non-optional communication to parents. Why? Some parents have complained about the number of emails they get from the district, and ask to be removed, or to have us send to a different address. Our mass mailer doesn't allow us to do that because it pulls information directly from PowerSchool.

Understandably, some teachers understood this to mean that I was saying, "You can't send out weekly email newsletters to parents anymore." But that's not what I meant. Classroom weekly email newsletters are great; I actually encourage this form of regular, timely communication. Plus, they are "opt-in," by which I mean that each parent can tell the teacher what email address to use, or if they prefer not to receive it.

What I am trying to curtail are the massive email "blasts" of non-critical information that get sent to all parents from a school with no way for them to opt out of receiving them. This would include school newsletters, community ed newsletters, technology news for parents, etc.

So feel free to keep sending your own class newsletters!

If, however, you want to send messages to a large number of parents who are not giving you their email address for a specific purpose, then you really need to set up a blog newsletter as described here.

Planned power outage Monday, August 3, 5:30 - 7:00 PM

Alliant Energy has informed us that they will be cutting off electrical power to the District Services Office today, Monday, August 3, at 5:30 PM. The outage will last approximately ninety minutes.

We do not anticipate any disruption of technology services to other buildings, thanks to our emergency generator.

scheduled DSO server outage

update: Server is up and running at 8:15 p.m.


The DSO Server will be unavailable starting at 4:00 pm on July 29th until approximately 9:00 pm. We are moving to new hardware and all logins will be disabled. Check back on this blog for an update when the work is completed

Staff start page is working again

UPDATE: 9:56 AM- The staff start page at www.OregonSD.net is working again.

---

The regular district start page for staff, www.OregonSD.net, is not working right now. The problem is actually DNS related. You can still get to the page at its "real" address of http://partnerpage.google.com/oregonsd.net

We are working on the problem and hope to have it resolved soon, but it requires coordination with Google, WiscNet, and possibly other DNS providers.

MIDDLE server back online

The migration to the new virtualized MIDDLE server is complete, with a new IP address for the server. Your first login may take a bit longer than usual to resolve the new address, but all subsequent logins should be normal. Files on the "Video" drive were not transferred, but a new video volume was created for the coming years use.

PowerGrade vs. PowerTeacher comparison

We are not the only school going through the transition from PowerGrade to PowerTeacher. The Franklin School District is doing the same, and they have published a succinct chart comparing features of the two programs. It highlights some of the new features of PowerTeacher Gradebook. If you are interested in viewing the chart, it is available here as a PDF.

Planned Server outage for OMS - July 28th

The server MIDDLE will be unavailable all day on Tuesday, July 28th beginning at 8:00 a.m. for migration to new hardware. Logins will be disabled and no file activity should be attempted, as you would risk corrupting or losing the files entirely. Watch this blog for an update when the server is ready for normal use again

PowerSchool is back up- new server, new version, new year!

PowerSchool is back online, on a new server, with a new version (6.0), and in the new academic year.

Many thanks to Lynn S., who worked on the rollover process until 12:30 AM, got a few hours sleep, then started again at 5:30 AM, to make sure it all went smoothly. Thanks also to Chris B. for configuring the new server and doing some practice runs to make sure all the data was successfully migrated to the new server in record time.

The new server is much faster at data-intensive tasks such as running reports. (For example, transcripts took 38 minutes to complete on the old server, versus just nine minutes on the new server.) PowerSchool 6 has some great new reporting features, better management features, and PowerTeacher 1.6. All in all, this is a major upgrade that was accomplished with minimal disruption. We hope you find the new features helpful.

Planned PowerSchool outage Friday 7/24, 5:30 AM - 5:00 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable tomorrow, Friday, July 24, beginning at 5:30 AM and continuing throughout the day as we complete three major tasks: rollover students to 2009-2010, upgrade to version 6, and migrate to a new server. Please do not access PowerSchool tomorrow. Although you might technically be able to get in, any changes you make will not be saved.

Google Apps for Education Community- Lesson Plans, Tutorials, and more

Now that we are on Google Apps, you have access to the Google Apps Education community, as well as classroom-ready lesson plans in Google Apps. Check them out at http://edu.googleapps.com/

The "community" also has forums for discussions about how to best use these tools in the classroom, to share ideas, and find answers to some questions.

Coming this fall: PowerTeacher

This summer, PowerGrade electronic gradebook will be replaced with PowerTeacher. This is good news because it has the following advantages:

• No more corrupt gradebooks due to flaky network connections
• It is web-based, so it is accessible from home without Citrix
• Much better user interface than PowerGrade

Click here to see a thorough (if slightly cheesy) promotional video highlighting the features of PowerTeacher.


We are hard at work learning the program and developing ways to train all the teachers at OHS, OMS, and RCI. We just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that this is happening, so you can mentally prepare yourself.

Microsoft Excel security vulnerability

I don't publish these too often, but this is a fairly significant threat, especially because it is being actively exploited.

The SANS Internet Storm Center has raised its alert level to
"yellow" in response to Microsoft Security Advisory 973472:

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=6778

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973472

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/973472.mspx

Microsoft Office Web components are allowing remote code execution
based on an ActiveX control instantiated for Excel. This
vulnerability is being actively exploited on web sites for
drive-by download infections.

No patch yet, but workarounds include:

* use a non-ActiveX browser such as Firefox
* set kill bits for two more CLSIDs (see above)

The KB article links to a tool end users can use; in active directory domains the registry changes can
be pushed via group policy.

Scheduled Internet service outages

To replace our network firewall to a new hardware model, there will be one or two brief Internet service outages, on Monday, July 13, 3:45 - 4:00 PM and/or Tuesday, July 14, 3:45-4:00 PM. If there is an important reason why Internet connectivity cannot be interrupted on one of these times, please contact me ASAP.

PowerSchool rollover and upgrade

The annual PowerSchool rollover from 2008-2009 to 2009-2010 is scheduled to occur the week of July 20-24. We will notify everyone when the rollover is complete. There will be several subsequent periods when PowerSchool will be unavailable while we upgrade to PowerSchool 6 and migrate the data to a new server.

The evolution of Gmail labels

One of the most common questions about Gmail is "where are my folders?" Although Google correctly states that labels are better to use than folders, it looks like they have finally succumbed to users' requests for a folder-like organizing scheme.

Their latest evolution is described in the Official Google Blog: The evolution of Gmail labels.

If you are confused about labels, folders, and how to organize in Gmail, or whether you want to see the data that Google used to determine the need to change, it's worth a read

Update on recent spam attacks

We'd like to provide you with an update on recent the spam attacks which are occurring in our environment.

Our message security vendor has advised us on high volumes of bogus Microsoft downloader and other messages that contain links to download malware. Spammers have created false Microsoft Outlook notifications and Amazon/World Pay confirmations, and added links that prompt users to download a fake update or invoice.
 
Google Apps Gmail and Postini have detected and blocked the vast majority of these attacks, and continues to release protections to stop the new mutations. Their capture rate is over 99%; however, the attack volumes are so large (in the hundreds of millions of messages) that a 1% passthrough rate means that a few messages may end up in your inbox.

For best security practices, if you see any suspect security notifications or messages:

• Do not deliver these messages from your Message Center or Quarantine Summary.
• Delete these messages from your inbox.
• Do not click on any links in the messages.
• If you need to access any of the services listed in the email, visit the website directly.

Please be assured that our security service considers virus and spam protection as their highest priority, and continues to be on the cutting edge against new spam attacks and tactics.

Using Search in Gmail

Need to find a message quickly? No problem. Gmail has the power of Google Search. It's like searching Google, but just for your mail. Plus, it has advanced capabilities. Watch this video to see how it works, and learn a little bit about Advanced Search.

How to fight spam using Gmail

You- yes you- can join the fight against spam. Watch this video to see how.

Become a Gmail Ninja

Now that you have moved to Gmail, it's time to hone your skills. Google has created a handy set of tips with the catchy title "Become a Gmail Ninja." You can choose your level: white belt, green belt, black belt, or Gmail master, then learn skills to make you more efficient.

If you want to keep a quick reference sheet handy, you can also print out the tips using this "PDF document."

Go and learn wisely, Grasshopper!

Email is now being delivered to Gmail

As of Tuesday, June 23, e-mail sent to any of the Oregon School District email addresses is being delivered to your Google Apps Gmail inbox.

This includes messages sent to addresses ending in any of the following:

• oregon.k12.wi.us
• oregonsd.org
• oregonsd.net

Many thanks to Zach for coordinating the dozens of DNS record changes with Google Apps, WiscNet, GoDaddy, and our own servers to make this happen smoothly.

Email will automatically go to Gmail soon

There is a slight delay in making the DNS changes necessary to make mail sent to xyz@oregon.k12.wi.us arrive in your Gmail Inbox. This should not have any effect on most staff, who have already configured Gmail to check GroupWise mail via POP.

If you are one of the people who has not configured Gmail to check your GroupWise mail (meaning that you still have to manually check both inboxes), this means that, for a couple more days, you'll have to continue checking both.

We'll provide more status updates when we make the actual DNS record changes.

Planned Internet Outage June 26, 1-5 AM

From: "NOC Change Management" <NOCChangeManagement@chartercom.com>

Date: June 15, 2009 4:54:20 PM CDT
Subject: Charter Communications Maintenance Notification  -  MNT 191939

Charter Communications will be performing maintenance that will affect your services.


Date/Time (local time zone): 6/26/2009 (1:00 AM - 5:00 AM)

Description of Maintenance: Madison, WI -

Expected Down Time: 60 mins

Affected Sites or Services: Oregon School District

Circuit ID	Circuit Description/Location	Impact
CNTWI08.11823	123 E. Grove Street, Oregon, WI	60 mins

What's the most annoying thing of the day? Opachki A

The annoying pest/virus/trojan malware that it driving us nuts has been identified. Not solved, but at least identified. At least we now know what to call it when we curse under our breath: Opachki A.

Brief Internet outage (it wasn't just us)

You may have noticed a brief Internet outage today. I certainly did. We scrambled a bit before realizing that it wasn't on our end. Here are the details:

Network:           WiscNet
Type:              Unplanned Outage
Location:          Charter
Ticket Number:     090528-0255
Party:
Start Time:        5/28/2009 14:27 Central Daylight Time
End Time:          5/28/2009 14:43 Central Daylight Time
Description:       Routing Loop

Engineers:


Reporters:

Affected:
  BarabooSD
  BeloitCity
  BeloitColl
  BlackhawkTC
  CalumetCO
  CampbellsportSD
  JacksonCO
  MarianUniv
  MonroeSD
  MoraineParkTC
  OregonSD
  PalmyraEagleSD
  RiponColl

Notices:

Maria Accuardi @ 2009-05-28 14:57:24
  Contacted Charter and this outage was caused by a routing loop.
     They suspect one of their VLANs dropped and started flooding
     another VLAN.  Outage resolved at 1443.

Maria Accuardi @ 5/28/2009 14:57 Central Daylight Time

For more information, please call the NOC at (608)265-6761, pick 1 or email noc@wiscnet.net.  You can also visit our outages web page at:

http://my.wiscnet.net/outages/outages.php

Middle School computers to be removed June 16

Our plan is to begin removing computers from OMS on June 16 so we have room for the new ones coming in. If you are an OMS teacher, don't count on being able to use your computer after June 16. (We know office staff work longer into the summer, so we'll work around those few exceptions.)

(This assumes, of course, that we can still afford to buy computers. We'll see how the state budget gets worked out.)

Newsletters and parent emails

If you want to create an email newsletter for parents, community members, students, or anybody else, we have instructions for how to do it at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/support/creating-a-public-email-newsletter

The "parent mass mailer" will be used only for high priority, non-optional communication to parents. Why? Some parents have complained about the number of emails they get from the district, and ask to be removed, or to have us send to a different address. Our mass mailer doesn't allow us to do that because it pulls information directly from PowerSchool.

Making a new, second system, gives us lots more features, like the ability for anybody to subscribe, change their email address, and unsubscribe on their own. It also provides ways for you to get statistics on your publications, and you can include pictures, formatting, and links. It will even generate an archive of your letters and let people subscribe to an RSS feed.

Summer equipment procedures

Here are some rules/guidelines for making the end of the year and the summer go smoothly for everyone.

Summer borrowing
If you want to borrow any piece of district equipment during the summer (including a laptop computer that you regularly use) you must check it out from the building where it is housed. For example, if you want to check out a laptop that normally "lives" at OMS, check with Lynn Benisch. DON'T bring an OMS computer to the district tech office and expect to check it out. This change from centralized checkout at the district tech office is to insure that everything gets returned to the correct place.

General room cleanup
Remove all batteries from remote controls. (i.e. Projectors, TV, boom boxes.) This keeps the batteries from draining over the summer, or worse, corroding inside the unit. You may want to label the batteries or tape them to the thing they came out of so you know where they go when you come back.

Unplug all power cords from all A/V equipment in your room, including TVs.

Clean up those electrons!
Keep track of important passwords. (Voicemail, Novell, PowerSchool, etc.)

Delete old and unused files from the Video (V:), Home (H:), and “share” folders (that you own, of course). If you don’t specifically need it as part of curriculum next year, it’s just using up valuable and limited space on the network.

Thank you!

Now Hiring for Summer Help

Summer Technology Custodian (District Wide) $8.60/hr

Position duties inlcude: loading, unloading, and moving computers and other equipment, assist with performing inventory, setting up and configuring computer hardware and software in labs and classrooms, performing basic troubleshooting, and documenting work. Must be able to lift 50 lbs and have a valid WI driver's license; Monday-Friday; 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. - (Internal/External)
Application Deadline: Friday May 29th 2009

See http://db.oregon.k12.wi.us/postings/viewing.php?Custodial=on&tablename=postings for full details.

Google Apps Gmail training dates announced

Whether you prefer to learn in a large group, small group, following written instructions, or watching a video, we have a Google Apps Gmail training session for you!

Written instructions for migrating from GroupWise to Oregon's Google Apps Gmail are now posted at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology-integration-tool/Home/email?AuthEventSource=SSO

Training sessions for how to use Oregon's Google Apps Gmail, and moving from GroupWise, are now scheduled at all schools. The current list is posted online at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology-integration-tool/Home/email?AuthEventSource=SSO

More will be added as needed. Large-group trainings are limited to times when labs are available, but we can help with smaller group as requested.

The last day to receive training on Google Apps Gmail, or to receive help migrating your mail, is June 12.

Mail sent to an oregon.k12.wi.us address will arrive in your Oregon Google Apps Gmail Inbox beginning June 18. GroupWise will go away on June 22. If you have not moved your mail and contacts from GroupWise to Google Apps Gmail by June 22, it will be deleted forever.

Getting more spam? It's not just you.

If you see an increase in spam, it's not your imagination. The following report from Postini (we are a customer) tells the story.

Threat Advisory: Spam Volume Increases in First Quarter 
 
Overall spam volume growth in the first quarter of 2009 was the strongest since early 2008. Spam volume temporarily dropped in November 2008 when the McColo web hosting service – allegedly a significant source of spam at that time – was taken offline. However, spammers have rallied since then, with spam increasing an average of 1.2% per day in the first quarter. By comparison, the growth rate of spam volume in Q1 2008 was approximately 1% per day – which, at the time, was a record high.

Data suggests that spammers are adopting new strategies to avoid another takedown of a web hosting service. The recent upward trajectory could indicate that spammers are building botnets that are more robust but send less volume – or that they haven't enabled their botnets to run at full capacity because they're wary of exposing a new ISP as a target.

In the past few weeks we've also seen the return of image spam – mostly in pharmaceutical ad images. Image spam was popular with spammers in 2007 but died out in 2008. It's unusual for spammers to re-use an "old" technique since most filters were perfected to block image spam back in 2007.

But spammers continue to prove their resilience. Whether it's bouncing back from the biggest takedown on record or finding new ways to exploit the ways we communicate for malicious purposes, they're clearly here to stay.

Source: Postini.com Threat Advisory email

Tech Showcase Monday, May 11, 5:30-6:15 PM at Rome Corner Intermediate School

As reported yesterday in the Oregon Observer, the 3rd Annual Tech Showcase will be held prior to the Board meeting on Monday, May 11, beginning at 5:30, in the RCI Commons. Please come support the work of teachers and students by viewing the projects they've been working on this year! It is free and open to the public.

Free electronics recycling this Saturday

If you have been looking for a way to get rid of an old TV or computer, you are in luck.


Dane County is sponsoring a TV and Electronics Recycling Drop Off on Saturday, May 9 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Alliant Energy Center. Items can be dropped off at an area that will be set up in the back parking lot of the Alliant Energy Center.

Full details are available on this flyer (PDF).

Note: This is for personally-owned items only, and only for residents of Dane County.

Board report

Presentation to the Board of Education
April 13, 2009



Direct link

Registration now open for summer professional development classes!

Registration is now open for the Oregon Summer Series of professional development classes! 

Classes are held at various times throughout the summer, so you can take more than one. A variety of exciting options are available, including:

• Literacy and Technology
• Weaving Web 2.0 into the Classroom
• Connections, Collaboration, and Conversations using Digital Tools in an Elementary Classroom
• Intro to Improvisational Writing
• ELL strategies for the mainstream teacher 
  
• Google Apps for Educators

But wait, there's more! Go to http://bit.ly/SummerSeries to browse classes and register online.
All educators are welcome!

Planned phone outage Monday, April 6, 8:30-10:30 AM

The phones at BKE, OHS, OMS, and RCI will be unavailable on Monday from 8:30-10:30 AM.

If you recall that one of our phone switches died a few weeks ago, then you might also recall that we need to replace the spare switch that was installed as an emergency backup. It will be replaced on Monday, April 6, 8:30 - 10:30 AM. During this time, phones at the affected schools will not work. Staff working that day should plan to use cellular phones or the fax line in the main office for emergencies.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update on Conficker C virus and April 1

UPDATE: Thanks to Lon Levy for this article: April Fool's Conficker Threat is Likely Hype. It's true, but just not as dire as reporters would like us to believe. Remember- panic sells papers. Or ads, or electrons, or whatever.

===========
I have received more questions today about the Conficker C virus thanks to a "60 Minutes" piece last night. Unfortunately, the report was more alarmist than informative.

Here are a couple facts:

• It affects only Windows computers.
  
• It probably won't activate on April 1, because everybody is expecting it.
  
• An infected computer is already receiving instructions from the P2P botnet, so it probably won't drastically change on April 1.
  
• There is now a way to detect infected computers. 

Read more at http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3043&tag=nl.e539

The practical steps you can take:

1. If you must use Windows, make sure you have automatic updates turned on, and that they are installed. 
2. Use virus protection and make sure it's up-to-date.
3. Turn off your computer when you aren't using it. If it's not on, it can't be infected. Or infect others.  Plus, it will save electricity.

Conficker C virus warning

Our friends at UW-Madison pass along this warning about a particularly powerful and complex virus. We (IT) are looking into our district computers, but owners of Windows computers at home should check for infection as well. It is estimated to have infected millions of computers.

OCIS is aware of increased media coverage of a specific instance of malware, Conficker C, that may have infected many vulnerable Microsoft operating systems.  This malware may have logic set to activate (on already compromised machines) on April 1, 2009. Currently, the full details of what may happen on this date are not known.  However, IT staff should be alert for possible issues.  In addition, IT staff may consider verifying that Windows machines under their control (do not forget virtual ones) have been recently updated as information suggests infected machines may turn off automatic Windows updates. 

More information can be found at the following sites:
In plain English:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/24/conficker.computer.worm/index.html?eref=r

For the technically minded:
http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/addendumC/

Clarifications on software requests

For clarification on the software request procedure, and answers to some frequently asked questions, please see 
http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/policies-and-procedures/software-requests (staff login required).

Request your software for 2009-2010

Did you know that industry-wide, 80% of tech incidents are caused by IT making a change? Given that statistic, you might ask why we ever make any changes. The answer, of course, would be to solve a security issue, provide upgrades, or fulfill a software request from staff.

To avoid such problems, we want to streamline our software, and minimize changes. Toward that end, IT has a goal to use a single software image on each computer for each semester. We will begin with this practice in fall 2009. We'll need your help to determine what software is to be installed, so we need you to tell us what software we need. Please submit your requests in an online form at http://bit.ly/request

You can view all the requests submitted so far at http://bit.ly/viewrequests . That way, if somebody else already submitted the same request, you don't have to do it again.

Please note that if you do not request a software application to be installed, it won't be available for the first semester of the 2009-2010 year! You'll have to wait for the semester 2 request window.

Timeouts when Gmail checking Groupwise 2009-03-14

Groupwise has been resetting incoming POP connections from Gmail. This results in Gmail not retrieving all the mail from Groupwiae. The problem started Friday, was fixed Friday evening, but is occurring intermittently today. We are continuing to investigate what is causing POP_Handler10 on Groupwise to stop responding.

Panther really, really slow. 2009-03-12

UPDATE 2009-03-16
One of the hard drives in the SAN died on Friday, 3/14. It is likely that this failure contributed to Panther's slowness earlier in the week as it developed. Reports are that performance is much better today.

++++++++++
Panther is being agonizingly slow. No, it's not just you. It's taking many people 15-20 minutes to log in. We are actively working on this. All diagnostics look fine, which is really strange. We've called in the "big guns" (read: external consultants) to investigate on a Priority 1 status, so we hope to have it resolved soon.

Further updates will be posted here.

Phone service and voicemail restored. 2009-02-28

Thanks to Tim and the TDS Technicians putting in a 12+ hour day, phone service has been restored to 98% of extensions. Voicemail is also working again. There are still a few extensions that need to be configured, but most are now working. Please report any problems with phones to the helpdesk.

Thanks for your patience. 

Phones at DSO, PVE, NKE down. 2009-02-28

Update 2009-02-28 16:18

A spare phone switch has been installed while ours is being taken in for repair. Technicians are now in the process of restoring the switch configuration. Our ETA for service resuming is still for some time this evening, though it will take a while to get all the reconfiguration done.

---

2009-02-28

Phones at NKE, PVE, and DSO are down, due to a hard drive failure in the phone switch that provides service to those buildings. Technicians from TDS have been onsite since 10 AM working on restoring service. We expect phones service to resume later today.

Because the voicemail system is located in the DSO, voicemail is also down at this time.

2009 Summer Series: Empowering the Innovators!

The Oregon School District is hosting a series of summer courses for teachers, designed by teachers. This is a call for presenters. If you are interested in teaching a course, please submit a proposal today!

Submission deadline is March 14.
Submit a course proposal online at http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/

Why teach a course?

• Share your knowledge with other teachers from south-central Wisconsin
  
• Earn extra income over the summer
  
• Build your resume
  
• Meet teachers from other schools
  
• Because you always learn more by teaching
  

Why would teachers want to take my course?

• They can earn credit from Viterbo University
  
• To fulfill PDP requirements
  
• To sharpen their teaching skills
  
• To collaborate with colleagues
  
• To meet other teachers from the area
  

Where and when can I teach a course?

• All courses will be hosted in the Oregon School District, seven miles south of Madison.
  
• You can choose your own class meeting times! From June 16 - August 20 (in July, only afternoons and evenings- no morning classes). You can meet straight for a week, or once or twice a week, or a couple evenings, or a miscellaneous schedule- whatever works for you. Keep in mind that your class is most likely to get participants if the schedule works for them.
  
• You can host a portion of your course on a Moodle server.

What kind of facilities do you have?

• K-12 classrooms
  
• Meeting rooms
  
• Science labs
  
• Multimedia computer labs (Windows only) with fast Internet access
  
• Standard computer labs in elementary, middle, and high schools
  
• LCD projectors, SmartBoards (limited number) and wireless Internet access
  
• No food service on-site, but a number of local restaurants
  

What kind of courses are you looking for?

• While we are especially hoping to provide classes on balanced literacy, guided reading, technology literacy, Love and Logic, TRIBES, technology integration, and Everyday Math, we are open to all types of classes.
  
• If optional graduate credit will be offered, Viterbo requires 13.34 contact hours per credit. (Forty hours for a three credit course.)
  

What qualifications do I need?

• If your course will be offered for optional graduate credit through Viterbo college, you must have a Master's degree in education or administration. Viterbo will evaluate each instructor's qualifications based on what is included in the course proposal.
  

When will I find out if my course has been approved?

• Course proposals will be accepted or declined by March 21. Because each course must have a minimum enrollment to be offered, final decisions will not be made until registrations have been paid in mid-May.
  

How can I get more information?

See http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/instructions_letter.php
Call Jon Tanner at 608-835-4024
Email jst+summerseries@oregonsd.net
Follow updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/OregonSummer

Remember, you can't win if you don't play, so submit today!  http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/

Oregon Gmail February 24 Outage Postmortem

If you had difficulty accessing Oregon Gmail between 3 AM and 6 AM on Thursday, you weren't alone. Below is Google's explanation of the outage.  

Begin forwarded message:

From: The Google Apps Team <apps-notify@google.com>
Date: February 26, 2009 12:38:47 AM CST
To: jon.tanner@gmail.com
Subject: Google Apps Update: February 24 Outage Postmortem
Reply-To: apps-notify@google.com

Dear Google Apps customer,

Between approximately 9AM to 12PM GMT / 1AM to 4AM PST on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, some Google Apps mail users were unable to access their accounts. The actual outage period varied by user because the recovery process was executed in stages. No data was lost during this time. The root cause of the problem was a software bug that caused an unexpected service disruption during the course of a routine maintenance event. The root cause of this unexpected service disruption has been found and fixed.

Additional Details

A few months ago, new software was implemented to optimize data center functionality to make more efficient use of Google's computing resources, as well as to achieve faster system performance for users.

Google's software is designed to allow maintenance work to be done in data centers without affecting users. User traffic that could potentially be impacted by a maintenance event is directed towards another instance of the service. On Tuesday, February 24, 2009, an unexpected service disruption occurred during a routine maintenance event in a data center. In this particular case, users were directed towards an alternate data center in preparation for the maintenance tasks, but the new software that optimizes the location of user data had the unexpected side effect of triggering a latent bug in the Google Mail code. The bug caused the destination data center to become overloaded when users were directed to it, and which in turn caused multiple downstream overload conditions as user traffic was automatically shifted in response to the failures. Google engineers acted quickly to re-balance load across data centers to restore users' access. This process took some time to complete.

The recently launched Apps Status Dashboard includes greater detail on this February 24th incident, including actions we are taking to continually improve performance.  For a direct link to this Incident Report, visit http://www.google.com/appsstatus/ir/1nsexcr2jnrj1d6.pdf (English only).

For ongoing service performance information, please access the Apps Status Dashboard at http://www.google.com/appsstatus (English only).

We are very sorry for the inconvenience that this incident has caused. We understand that system problems are inconvenient and frustrating for customers who have come to rely on our products to do many different things. One of Google's core values is to focus on the user, so we are working very hard to make improvements to our technology and operational processes so as to prevent service disruptions. We are confident that we will achieve continuous improvements quickly and persistently.

Once again, we apologize for the impact that this incident has caused. Thank you very much for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Google Apps Team

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps product or account.

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

IT Update for February 25, 2009

IT News, February 25, 2009

1. Email transition to Gmail

We appreciate everyone who has become an "early switcher" from Groupwise to Oregon Gmail. Based on feedback from those who have already switched, we are streamlining the transition process and ironing out some glitches. (Yes, believe it or not, even Google has glitches.) We will provide more documentation and formal training sessions after spring break. Thanks for your patience as we try to make it as smooth as possible.

2. Wireless

Many have asked when wireless access will come to your school. For a complete explanation of why we temporarily stopped installing wireless access points, read the Wireless LAN Roadmap at http://osdtech.blogspot.com/2009/02/wireless-lan-roadmap.html

In short, the moratorium has been lifted, and here is our timeline for the coming months:

    * Pilot of either Cisco or Aruba 802.11n network in English area of OHS.
    * Phase 2 network infrastructure deployment spring 2009
    * 802.11g managed APs deployed to elementary schools summer 2009
    * 802.11n managed APs installed in RCI, OMS, OHS summer 2009
    * All plans are dependent upon funding, which has not yet been approved.

3. Summer courses

We are now accepting proposals for teaching summer courses. You can submit a course proposal online at http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/ The deadline is March 14.

You will be able to register to take a summer course beginning March 21.

Notable quote:
In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia. -Unknown

Wireless LAN Roadmap

Wireless LANs were installed in 2003 using consumer-level 802.11b access points in the Middle School to support a “mobile lab” of notebook computers due to a lack of traditional labs. Wireless implementation has been fraught with difficulties due to unique needs of schools:

1. high density of computers in a single area;
2. all computers being booted and logging in simultaneously;
3. roaming profiles and other login-related traffic saturating available wireless bandwidth.

In 2006, the consumer-level access points were replaced with an enterprise-level managed wireless network. This alleviated some issues, but not all. The main problem is the large bandwidth needed by a full classroom of notebook computers logging in simultaneously. The theoretical I/O of 802.11g is 54Mbps shared, but real-world bandwidth is closer to 30Mbps. Shared among 20 notebooks, each gets only 1.5Mbps. Compared to a wired 100Mbps connection, this is obviously about 60 times slower. Because the 802.11b/g network has only three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11), there is a maximum of three access points servicing a given area; more will cause signal interference. Regardless of changes made to the wireless LAN, this is a fundamental problem.

The next wireless standard, 802.11n, was ratified in November 2008. It offers not only increased speed and range for 802.11n clients (many of which are shipping with draft specification hardware now), but also an increase in performance for legacy 802.11g clients due to its MIMO capabilities.

The IT department has decided that deploying additional 802.11g infrastructure is not effective. All further wireless deployment is deferred until 802.11n access points are available.

Cisco (the manufacturer of our current switch infrastructure) has a prototype 802.11n access point based on the draft spec. Research indicates that improvements to the wired network will be needed to effectively deploy 802.11n access points. The IT department will prepare for 802.11n by completing the following action plan:

1. Identify best locations for APs and survey available power. New APs will require more power than previous standards.
2. Identify structural support for AP installation. Unlike earlier APs, the 802.11n models house multiple radios and are therefore too heavy (11 lbs.) to simply hang from a drop ceiling.
3. Install 1000BaseT copper SFPs in network switches to provide gigabit connections to 802.11n APs (needed because the APs  will exceed 100BaseT throughput back to the switch).

Here's our current timeline:

• Pilot of either Cisco or Aruba 802.11n network in English area of OHS.
• Phase 2 network infrastructure deployment spring 2009
• 802.11g managed APs deployed to elementary schools summer 2009
  
• 802.11n managed APs installed in RCI, OMS, OHS summer 2009
  
• All plans are dependent upon funding, which has not yet been approved.

IT News, February 4, 2009: Summer classes, Gmail, logins, and Board Policy

OSD IT News
Februrary 4, 2009

1. Summer classes- let us know what you want!

We are planning the Oregon Summer Series of classes. So, what do you want to take? Let us know by entering your request online. See your staff email for the link (I'm not posting it here because they spammers would get it and put all sorts of junk in the form.)

2. Login issues

We are still wrestling daily with the server refusing to log people in. It's a weird thing where we think we have everything fixed, and then the next day they suddenly stop working again for no apparent reason.

3. Board Policy regarding student cell phones and devices

Did you know that the Board policy no longer prohibits students from bringing their own computing and communication devices to school? This is in line with the nature of 21st Century learning, and the prevalence of devices being used by students. See the policy at http://www.oregonsd.org/site_uploads/news/newsfile1344_1.pdf. Teachers, of course, still have the right and responsibility to prohibit usage when it interferes with learning, but they also have the freedom to have students use information devices as a learning tool when appropriate.

4. Email

Many of you have already accessed your new Gmail account in Google Apps. To get started, just

1. go to http://www.OregonSD.net 
2. click on the big "OSD Start Page" header
3. enter your Novell username and password. If it's your first time logging in, you'll be asked to enter some squiggly letters and click "I Accept."
4. On your start page, click on "Email." This is your new Google Apps email account, where messages sent to xyz@oregonsd.net go.
   

If you want to use the new Google Apps Gmail to access your GroupWise mail, you'll want to read the instructions at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/support/email-migration (Note: Link has been fixed.)

Note: These instructions require you to login first, since we don't want just anybody looking at our documentation.

Notable quote: "There is never a wrong time to do the right thing." -unknown, but recently said by Mike Chapes

Login issues 2009-01-02

Email issues were finally resolved on Sunday evening, but we are still dealing with problems logging in. Several servers (Netmail, Panther, and PVE) were not processing logins. So, if your computer randomly chose one of these to log into, you either weren't able to log in, or it took 15 minutes until the computer switched to another login server.

The servers have been fixed, except for Panther, on which we are still working.

GroupWise WebAccess outages continue 2009-02-01

As if it heard that it is going to be replaced and is now throwing a tantrum, the GroupWise WebAccess server continues to freeze up and become unresponsive to queries. I am rebooting the server on a regular basis to minimize disruption, but the time in between incidents varies.

A Novell consultant has been contacted to resolve the problem, though he may not be available until Monday.

Regular client access appears to still work. Ironically, or perhaps as a demonstration of why we are moving this way, Google Apps Gmail continues to work- users are able to log in, send and receive mail.

Further updates as events warrant.

Web-based email outage (2009-01-30)

UPDATE:
The NDPS server continues to have issues with all threads being occupied. Quitting and re-launching GWIA failed. Server reboot required. Services resumed 9:20 PM.

=======

GroupWise WebAccess went down unexpectedly yesterday evening (January 30). Access was restored around 1:25 PM today (January 31).

This was caused by email processing threads in GroupWise WebAccess Agent running on the NDPS server that did not release when done. What caused that to happen is unknown.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

New email system coming Summer 2009

After a year of evaluation and testing, we have decided to migrate the district email system from GroupWise to Google Apps' Gmail. The cutover will occur in July 2009, but we are announcing it now so that everyone has time to make the transition. We will be providing documentation and training sessions from February to June so that everyone has a chance to begin using Gmail prior to the switch.

Between now and July, both GroupWise and Gmail will be fully active and supported, so you can continue using GroupWise, switch to Gmail, or even use both at the same time until you are comfortable with Gmail. We will provide lots of training sessions this spring and again in August to make sure that everyone can use the new system. And don't worry about your old mail- we will move all the messages in your GroupWise cabinet to Gmail.

In case you are curious, a few of the reasons we are switching include:
-seamless integration with shared calendars;
-it saves money; Google Apps Gmail is free, unlike GroupWise;
-more features;
-integration with Google Docs to share documents;
-better support for mobile devices like smartphones, iPhones, and Blackberries;
-integrated spam and virus protection;
-guaranteed 99.99% uptime;
-more storage space for mail;
-easier to search for old messages.

I realize that this, like any change, may cause some concern. I have been using Gmail instead of Groupwise for almost a year now, and although it did take a little time to grow accustomed to a new system, it works much better. We are committed to providing you with training and support to make this a smooth transition. If you have any specific questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.

PowerGrade fix

Since the PowerSchool update to version 5.2.1, some teachers have experienced problems with attendance not showing up correctly in their PowerGrade grade book.  CESA 5 support has fixed the problem on the server.  Each teacher should do the following to make sure that attendance is accurate in their grade book

You must do the following for each class:

1. In your grade book, select Utilities from the top menu
   
2. Select Rebuild Data from Server
3. Find attendance at the bottom of the table
4. Click on it and then select OK.  

This will sync attendance with the office and overwrite what you see in the
grade book right now.  Remember it has to be done for each class.  Feel
free to call or email with any questions.

How to give all your money to thieves

There is a phishing scam going on again this year, as in previous years, that poses as an IRS notification to steal your money and/or identity.

It looks like this:

>>> "Internal Revenue Service" 1/7/2009 11:14 AM >>>
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we
have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $92.50.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid
records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here :

http://.ca/date/Internal/Revenue/Service/index.html

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service.

© Copyright 2009, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.

Of course, this is a scam. You can tell because:

1. The URL of the link isn't to the IRS site;
2. The IRS knows where you live, and would just send you a check;
3. The bad grammar of the message;
4. They don't need you to fill out another form, because you (presumably) already filled out your tax forms (otherwise, how would they know you are owed a refund?);
   
5. The IRS has a warning about this kind of fraud;
6. The IRS doesn't communicate via email unless you've asked them to;
   

Don't be fooled. Use those critical thinking skills. (BTW, the URL of the link has been changed above so that it won't actually go there.)

*You may ask, "How did this spam get through our district spam filter?" Easy. It's not spam. Spam is unsolicited email trying to sell you something. This is a phishing scam, which is much harder to identify because it looks legitimate, and isn't selling anything.

2009-01-05 PowerSchool outage info

PowerSchool went down unexpectedly at 11:00 AM on January 5. The issue was escalated to PowerSchool support, who resolved the situation around 2:20 PM.

The cause of the outage was actually due to a "kernel panic" error in Mac OS X, which runs the district's PowerSchool server. The kernel panic dump caused the database to become corrupt because it could not shut down gracefully. Support had to spend time repairing and restoring the database.

A patch to resolve the kernel issue in OS X will be applied during evening hours on January 5.

Thanks for your patience.

2009-01-01 PowerSchool upgraded and back online!

In a happy start to the new year, the PowerSchool server is fully upgraded to version 5.2.1.0 and is online. There is still a little bit of data cleanup to do, which will be done soon, as well as the batch conversion process to link students to the new FamilyID field. However, the system is usable immediately, even while those are getting finished.

PowerGrade is already at the most recent version on all district computers, so no upgrade is necessary. From the teacher perspective, everything should be the same.