Author Archives: Petar Mitrevski

Stewart Lane portrait photo

Goodbye Stewart Lane!

7 Replies

Stewart Lane is retiring on June 14th, after 25+ years of service!
Stewart has been the real embodiment of a Media Services and ITS staff. Courteous, expedient and willing to take on any task, from helping a faculty with their laptop in a classroom, to screening Hirschfield films on late nights, to running a video camera, to supervising our students, to redesigning a classroom and programming lighting systems. He’s been a real go-getter, with a can-do attitude! I can’t count the emails and other positive feedback that I’ve received for him from customers over the years.

Stewart would like to thank Norm Cushman and Bryan Merril for giving him a job and a chance to become part of Middlebury back in the 90s.

We will miss you dearly Stewart, especially your dedication to work, as well as your cheer and lightheartedness.

A tip of the hat to Stewart!

Some of the kind words of thanks that Stewart has received over the years:

  • …phenomenal! #epic…
  • Thank you for your swift and diligent support. This was an excellent service provided.
  • “…incredible effort you have put in to get ready for this year’s Fest. There are so many fabulous films that are screening at Dana…”
  • It’s been great working with you over the years…
  • Many thanks for the timely save yesterday–I’m glad you and Jen remained unflappable.
  • took a lot of pressure off of my shoulders.
  • terrific
  • We’re very fortunate here to get such personal attention from you and other Support staff!!
  • thank you for your help and patience
  • thank you again very much for going above and beyond the call of duty
    heartfelt thanks to you
  • It’s a pleasure to work with such professional and capable colleague
  • thank you for saving me last week with that screening
  • Thank you SO much for being patient with the laptop and us, non-techies.

Attention VPN Users! (Pulse Secure)

Leave a reply

On January 31, 2019, Information Technology Services (ITS) will enable a feature on the Virtual Private Network (VPN) system that will detect if your VPN software needs to be upgraded to the latest release. If an upgrade is indicated, you will see a popup window from the Pulse Secure VPN application informing you that “An upgrade is available for Pulse Secure.” Please click on “Upgrade” to complete the upgrade process. Keeping the client up to date will ensure that all security updates have been applied.

Users of the older Juniper VPN client should note that the system tray icon has changed. The Pulse Secure client icon now looks like a fancy letter “S.”

Linux Users: The automatic upgrade isn’t offered for Linux; the new client can be downloaded manually from https://middfiles.middlebury.edu/software/public/VPN/

If you have concerns or issues with this upgrade please contact the Help Desk at http://go.middlebury.edu/helpme/, helpdesk@middlebury.edu, or 802-443-2200.

MiddMedia and Muskrat are being replaced with Panopto

Leave a reply

After a period of review and evaluation, Middlebury College adopted Panopto, a new service for creating, storing and sharing video. Panopto has been used since June 2017, with more than 1100 users and 5000 hours of video stored on it currently. In addition, Google Drive and Office 365 offer the ability to store and share video files, at no charge to us. To support these new products, and to reduce operating expenses, ITS needs to decommission MiddMedia and Muskrat, two older systems for storing and sharing video files. Both MiddMedia and Muskrat are less user friendly and lack the functionality of Panopto, Google Drive and Office 365.

  • On December 1, 2018 we will turn off the ability to store new files in MiddMedia and Muskrat.
  • You will have time until June 1, 2019 to migrate files from Muskrat, and until January 1, 2020 to migrate your files from MiddMedia. We expect most people will be able to migrate videos on their own, but those with more than twenty files can contact us for support.
  • Muskrat videos will remain available in read only mode until June 1, 2019 when we will decommission Muskrat.
  • MiddMedia videos will remain available in read-only mode until January 1, 2020, to comply with data retention policies for courses. On January 1, 2020 we will decommission MiddMedia.
  • For information on how to migrate your files, please visit this page: Move Your Files From MiddMedia to Panopto.

RESOLVED – Wireless issue

Leave a reply

We are pleased to report that our MiddleburyCollege wireless network is now fully functional.

The MiddleburyBackup network will remain in place until 07:00 am tomorrow, July 27th. Your devices will automatically switch to the MiddleburyCollege network at that time (if they do not, please select MiddleburyCollege from the list of available networks).

Thank you so much for your patience while we worked to resolve matters. Again, we are sorry for the disruption.

The Google Drive software is being replaced

Leave a reply

Google is discontinuing the Google Drive software that synchronizes files from your computer to the cloud. The software is being replaced with two new options, outlined in our Google Drive Notice. The Google Drive online service (https://drive.google.com) is not changing, and can be accessed on the web or using one of the replacements below. On December 11, 2017 Google stopped supporting the Drive software. On March 12, 2018, the Drive software will stop working.

If you use Google Drive strictly via the website (https://drive.google.com) and do not use the Google Drive software on your Mac or PC to synchronize your files to the cloud, then you will not be affected by the changes listed below. However, you should still consider the new functionality offered by Google and described in our Google Drive Notice.
Of the two replacement options made available by Google (Drive File Stream and Backup & Sync),

ITS recommends that users of the Google Drive software install Drive File Stream to access their Middlebury Google Drive. Drive File Stream frees up disk space, decreases sync time and minimizes the amount of Middlebury data stored on your computer. The other option available, Backup and Sync, does not offer these advantages.

To install Drive File Stream, for a comparison of options or for more information, please see the Google Drive Notice.

Video Conferencing Tool for Middlebury: Zoom

1 Reply

We are pleased to introduce a new tool that will make communication and collaboration easier regardless of your location.

In the fall of 2016, a team representing Academic Technology, the Digital Learning Commons at Monterey, ITS, and the Office of Digital Learning set out to identify a new video conferencing solution that would improve the ways we communicate and work with each other across Middlebury. The team selected Zoom Video Conferencing as the tool that best met Middlebury’s needs, and initiated a pilot program in January 2017. Due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from academic and administrative groups, Middlebury is now making Zoom available to all users.

Zoom works with our existing video conferencing rooms and includes features such as video calls with up to 100 participants, screen sharing, breakout groups, webinars, and more. It’s quick to download and easy to use. Zoom will completely replace the Polycom software by January 1st, 2018. If you use a dedicated Polycom video conferencing unit in conjunction with an office or conference room monitor, it will continue to function and you can use it together with Zoom by dialing your Zoom meeting as described in our documentation.

To start using Zoom, please visit http://middlebury.zoom.us and sign in with your Middlebury credentials. We hope that you will find Zoom convenient and useful in your work. We invite your comments and suggestions about the service and our communications regarding it. You can submit feedback here.

For more information, please visit the Zoom web page.
For questions and other support, please visit the support page.

(resolved) Polycom software not working at Monterey and off-campus

Leave a reply

UPDATE: The issue has been resolved as of 5:30pm EDT. We apologize for any disruption this may have caused.

Dear colleagues,

The Polycom software is currently not working at Monterey and off-campus. We are working to resolve the issue. Rooms with dedicated polycom equipment are not affected.

If you need to participate in a call today from Monterey or from off-campus and do not have access to a room with dedicated polycom equipment, please email us at helpdesk@middlebury.edu and we will provide an alternative solution.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Petar