Forum on MIT VoIP
On Monday, Nov. 26, Information Services and Technology (IS&T) will host a community forum on the new MIT Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service. It will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in W20-306 (Twenty Chimneys). MIT VoIP provides telephone and voice-mail services over MITnet rather than over traditional telephone wires. Key advantages include the ability to set rules for handling calls and to receive voice-mail messages via e-mail as audio file attachments.
The forum will consist of a presentation on MIT VoIP today, a brief demo and a Q&A session with representatives from IS&T's VoIP Core Team. To learn more, visit web.mit.edu/ist/topics/voip.
Don't leap to Leopard
IS&T strongly recommends that Macintosh users wait to upgrade to Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
With any new operating system, there are going to be incompatibilities and bugs. Some applications that are important to productive and safe computing at MIT do not work with Leopard, including TSM and SAPgui. IS&T expects that vendors will release updates to address these incompatibilities.
IS&T's Computing Help Desk offers limited support on basic configuration issues for new machines arriving with Leopard installed. As critical application issues are resolved, IS&T will offer more in-depth support.
For details, see the Mac OS X 10.5 Release Notebook at web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/macosx. Send your questions about Leopard to the Mac OS X Release Team at macosx-release@mit.edu.
Order goods online with eCAT3
eCAT3 (pronounced "eCAT cubed") provides MIT with an easy-to-use, web-based solution for ordering goods from several suppliers, including Office Depot. To get started, you need an MIT certificate, SAP authorizations and permissions, and a few minutes to set up your eCAT3 profile. When creating your profile, set up at least one "Ship to" and "Bill to" location, complete with building, room and e-mail address. You can then search for products, place orders and create "favorites" lists.
When you submit an order, eCAT3 brings you to the SAP requisition page where you provide your GL account, cost object and material group information. Completing the requisition starts the SAP workflow. Purchase orders are sent electronically to eCAT3 for disbursement to the vendor. The vendor will ship your order and send an electronic invoice to SAP.
For links to eCAT3 suppliers and training resources, visit web.mit.edu/ecat/ecat3.
Support for Windows Mobile devices
IS&T now offers support for Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC/smartphone and Windows Mobile 6 Professional/Standard devices. This includes support for the Windows Mobile operating system, e-mail on these devices, the SyncML application for wireless synchronization with MIT's TechTime calendar and Wi-Fi connection to MITnet.
In addition, IS&T continues to test Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone. IS&T plans to provide limited support for these devices within a few months.
For details on IS&T's support for mobile devices, visit itinfo.mit.edu/article.php?id=8663.
Digitalk is compiled by Information Services and Technology.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 14, 2007 (download PDF).
