August 6:
Dear diary … If a ghost haunts an empty residence hall, is it really haunted? All the students are gone; only the guys putting in the new Wi-Fi stuff are here, but they’d don’t even sleep over. At night, I roam the bowels of the Schenley Quad alone. I float above the Towers and gaze out at the campus, thinking of decades gone by.
Movies romanticize disguise. Your favorite heroes slip into crowds undetected, use fake IDs and fingerprints to sneak into secret lairs, and get custom passports under unique aliases. I grew up with iconic 2000s children’s spy cinema like Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks. These movies made me skeptical of strangers in public, and also made me really want a microwave that could make burgers out of space food.
Three years ago, my grandma asked me to check her inbox and tell me if her emails were legit. A quick glance revealed an inbox chock-full of crazy phishing schemes. From ransom threats to sketchy requests to wire millions of dollars, the scams seemed pretty obvious.
Recently, my parents clicked a link from “AT&T” to confirm their account information, which allowed a hacker to break into their account, change the password, and buy $3,000 worth of devices. Luckily, they were able to recover the account, but that was close … way too close.
The world is changing rapidly. As professional environments become increasingly flexible, more and more employees are able to work remotely from home and other locations. You may find yourself doing some work in the evening, performing your job off-site one or more days a week, or even having an entirely remote position. While riding the information superhighway of the new workplace, it’s important to make sure that unwanted hitchhikers aren’t tagging along with you.
The Fall semester schedule of Faculty and Staff Development Program (FSDP) workshops has just been announced. There is an array of professional development workshops, including Technology Training seminars, that seem really interesting. There’s even a new workshop on using Box cloud storage that intrigues me because I use it with only moderate competence.
Publishing is central to your success as a faculty member. You no doubt dedicate countless hours to your research. But your work truly makes an impact only when other people see it, value it, and want to be a part of it.
A few months ago, I needed to schedule a meeting for 10 people from different divisions. All I had to do was magically find a time when everyone could come. I remember thinking, “Yoy, this is gonna be like herding cats.”
The great online course offerings from Lynda just got even better. In July, Pitt’s On-Demand Training service transitioned to LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning combines the best of Lynda—expert content, convenient access, and personalized collections—with the advanced functionality of the LinkedIn professional networking service.
The result is a one-of-a-kind learning resource to help students, staff, and faculty take charge of their personal and professional development.