July 2005 Archives

Our TV web server was hacked last Thursday night. It's bound to happen sooner or later. The lesson here is: servers should be patched, monitored and backed up on a regular basis. (Uh, duh)

The HP ProLiant ML330 box that hosts the TV web site was running a flavor of Linux called Debian. When it was hacked, someone from the campus IT Security Office came over to audit the log files. He suggested we wipe the operating system and install either Novell's SuSE Linux or RedHat ES. SuSE would be free because KU has a site license, but RedHat academic version requires a $50/year subscription. We opted for SuSE because it was free, KU could give it to us on CD and KU has a server setup to automatically download OS updates. Then, we had to find someone to help us backup, wipe, rebuild and reconfigure it.

After 24-hours of frantically searching for talent...trying former student employees and their friends, and even my own husband, I finally had some luck. Rory Petty was available. Rory Petty had the necessary skills. Rory Petty came to our rescue. Rory is a computer science student I met last summer. He used to do work on Kansan.com and he is a whiz kid, in my book. He's also very easy to talk to, he can communicate the technical stuff and do it without making me feel dumb.

So Rory started working on the server on Wednesday morning...and I think he's still working on it...stay tuned for the revival of tv.ku.edu.

I can't believe it's the middle of July. Where has the summer gone? I've spent the majority of my time 'tweaking' our WordPress installations for the Multimedia Newsroom blog and the Multimedia Reporting blog. I've also been acting editor for the Intern blog (I do hope you've checked this blog out, our very own Adam Sechrist is an intern for Good Morning America, and we've got pictures and video of him from a show a couple of weeks ago).

We spent a good chunk of time yesterday hashing out the changes we want to make to tv.ku.edu and its back-end system. At this time last summer, we were looking at several different Content Management Systems, trying to decide how we could take the Multimedia Reporting class to the next level. Dreamweaver was proving to be too much, and we felt like the students were spending too much time putting the story online, and not enough time thinking about the best way to utilize the medium. Today, as I look back, I can see we've come a long way. The blog is a great way to manage the reporting student content. It's a little bit of HTML and a whole lot of learning to how to tell the story. And, our home grown CMS that manages the TV web site was a good project for both student programmers and student journalists. I am very pleased with the creativity and skills of these students. I hope as we continue to move forward we will explore new ways to manage content and tell stories online.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on campus and around town, about KU's new logo.

Here, we thought the unveiling meant that it was ready for primetime. But, we jumped the gun and adopted the new KU logo too soon.

Nothing's been finalized. According to KU Director of Marketing, David Johnston, there are still many decisions to be made about how the new logo can and cannot be used by the various university departments and affliates.

"Obviously, we want people to hold off on using the new Trajan until we get the standards created, copyright issues resolved... It is very important that units don't actually use it publicly until that happens, "Johnston said.

So, we'll do a little revamping on the KUJH logo and hopefully, have something new to post in a day or two.

The very cool, brand new, KUJH logo, as seen on Sunflower Cablevision 31 and channel 14. Coming to the tv.ku.edu web site soon.

I met Ellyn Angelotti one semester when I was GTA'ing for the Online Journalism class. She was motivated, enthusastic, creative, and she never stopped smiling. But, I really got to know Ellyn in fall 2004 during the first Online, Writing, Editing and Production class.

I also met Natalie Flanzer in the online production class. This young lady is gutsy. She's a natural leader, a quick learner, and she, like Ellyn, is motivated, enthuastic and creative.

To see Ellyn and Natalie graduate and take on a project like the LJWorld's GAME has been very rewarding.

Meagan Kelleher is another student I had the pleasure of working with in the online production class. Meagan was seduced by the power of code. Haha, I kid you not. She jumped right in and picked up some HTML, a little CSS, a bit of Javascript and then Flash. She took on Flash with a vengence, and learned more in a few weeks that I did in one month. Meagan will begin her new job as Internet Director for KPLC Television in Lake Charles, LA.

It's students like Ellyn, Natalie and Meagan that really make what I'm doing worthwhile. I am very proud of these three KU J-School graduates, and others like them, who are going on to do great things for our profession.