Greening for the Holidays
and other IT Stuff of Interest

Tis the season for celebration and decoration. We pull out our greenery and decorate our offices and homes. What better time to think of another type of greening: reducing our carbon footprint. Up to this point, Outreach Information Services (OIS) has asked users to log off and leave their computers on overnight so that we could back them up. A little over a month ago, we completely rebuilt our backup system and we should no longer need computers to be left on for the entire night. And thereby reduce OIA’s electrical consumption. We plan to do this by scheduling desktop computers to sleep/shut down in the evening around 7pm where users are not logged on (this will be done on a department by department basis). We will also work to schedule computer back on in the morning around 7am (this will only be possible for systems that support this feature). Once we have completed our work on desktops, we will begin looking for ways to reduce electricity use by our laptops.

Our goal is to cut the amount of electricity used by our computers in half. In order for this to work, we need your help. If a machine has a user logged on, we will not be able to shut it down or put it to sleep. I therefore ask everyone to remember to log off of their computer when they leave for the day (i.e. not just walk away from the machine or turn the machine off at the end of the day). Another way to reduce our carbon footprint is to turn off devices we do not need to run when we are not present. If you have a personal printer, you could only turn it on when you need it and then switch it back off when you are done or when you leave for the day.

While I have your attention, I wanted to briefly update you on another project that OIS is working on. We have been setting up a new domain and will begin switching users to this new domain in January. It is our intent that users will not notice a difference as a result of this switch. When we come to visit your computer, we will be doing a general health check/update of your computer (20-60 minutes depending on the machine) and we will also be creating a new user account on the new domain for you. As a part of that new account, we will be asking all users to provide personal contact information (home address, home phone number, etc). This information will NOT be shared with the university and is being collected for the sole purpose of providing emergency contact information to emergency coordinators should a crisis (tornado, flood, April 16 type incident, etc). A given coordinator will only be provided access to those for whom they are authorized. In addition, OIS will be providing a web site whereby users will be able to update their information. Anyone wanting additional information about this effort is encouraged to contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your attention and I wish you a wonderful holiday season!

Scott Farmer, PhD
Director, Outreach Information Services