** Final Exams This Week! **

Final Exams begin this week. Check your Week 12 Online Guide for details, times and dates for your final exam.

Good Luck!

Greg McIlhiney

Greg McIlhiney
November 14, 1950 – June 8, 2008

A beloved friend to countless people whose lives he touched in the South Bay Area for decades will be missed beyond words by the many, many lives Greg touched throughout the course of a life that ended far too soon.

Greg grew up in Los Altos, graduating from Awalt High School in 1969. Shortly thereafter, Greg served our country in the Vietnam War. Upon returning from the war, Greg earned a degree in political science from Cal-State University Chico in 1975. For several years after graduation, Greg owned his own contracting business, specializing in installing skylights throughout the late 1970’s and early 80’s, hence his business’ name, “The Skylighter”.

Where Greg left his mark, however, was when – “way back” in the mid-80’s – he decided to take a computer course up at Foothill College. From there, a star was born. Greg ended up working his way up from being in charge of various labs to becoming a full-time tenured professor of various Information Technology courses at Foothill. Greg was a respected expert in Flash and HTML technology, and even did several consulting jobs at local tech powerhouses, including Genentech in South San Francisco.

Greg’s passions in life included all-things high-tech, especially when it came to products being made by Apple. He once called himself an “Apple Evangelist”, and one could witness this fact when viewing his license-plate frame, which read: “Blah, Blah, Blah…..Get a Mac”. Greg’s other main passion in life was golf, and we are pleased to know in our hearts that he simply must have a fantastic seat for this weekend’s U.S. Open down in San Diego.

Greg is survived by his loving sister, Joan Keller of San Jose, two nieces Katie and Christina, best friend of 50-plus years Bruce Durham of Fair Oaks, CA and countless friends from his days at Awalt. It would be difficult to even begin to quantify the number of students that Greg helped launch into careers in Information Technology. He was always so pleased when he would get a call from Google, HP, Yahoo! – or any of our big tech firms – looking for a reference for a former student of his. Rest in peace, dear Greg, you were loved by countless friends and family and your career touched the lives of countless more. We love you.

Donations may be made in honor of Greg McIlhiney to Foothill College, c/o CTIS Department, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

** Service for Greg **

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Greg McIlhiney who was a well-respected faculty member from Foothill’s Computers, Technology & Information Systems Division. We were awaiting word regarding memorial services and have been told that Greg’s family will have a celebration of his life at a future time to be determined.

Greg was a highly regarded colleague in CTIS who contributed a great deal to building curriculum and preparing students for the demands of a highly technical workforce. He will be greatly missed by Foothill College, so we will gather together on Friday, June 20, from noon to 1 p.m. in Appreciation Hall (Room 1501) to share personal and professional memories of Greg and honor his accomplishments as an educator.

** Access Issues **

Etudes has had server performance problems since Saturday. Some students may have experienced difficulty with login, taking tests, and/or submitting assignments. You can read about the problems in the Users Group Discussion under the topic: Bug Report.

The NG staff are working to identify and resolve the problem. In the meantime, they suggest that you shutdown your browser and start again whenever you experience problems.

There have also been power and network problems at Foothill all day today.

If you are trying to turn in an assignment, do not worry about being late. Keep trying to log on to either Etudes NG and/or Krypton and eventually it will work out. Do not panic. FTP assignments and turn them in via Etudes as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, near the end of the term, we are likely to have machine failures and power outages. Any time there is major stress (like end of term projects due and finals), servers go down, power goes out, disks fail. So take a bit of time now to prepare yourself for possible coming disaster and make some backups of what you have done so far - and keep making them so that if anything happens, you'll be covered.

Sad News...

I received the following message this morning from CTIS Division Dean Tim Woods:

It is with great sadness that I bring you news of the passing of Greg McIlhiney. I have not known Greg for very long, but for the short time we had I came to appreciate him as a wonderful individual. Greg's passing is a tremendous loss to us all. We will, of course, forward on to all any information we receive concerning services.

I have known and worked with Greg for over ten years and I cannot believe this sad news. He was a warm, caring person, always willing to help answer questions and always working towards making our courses the best they could be for students. He was an excellent teacher and a good friend and I will miss him more than I can ever express.

I hope those of you who knew Greg and were lucky enough to have him for a teacher will join me in taking some time to remember him; his warmth, his humor, his willingness to take on the most intractable CSS problem, his encouraging comments on your homework and his dedication to his students and his colleagues.

Greg - we’ll miss you.

** Etudes NG Not Available **

Service appears to have been restored.

As of 6:03 pm, Etudes NG is unavailable. I have no information about the outage other than the fact that when I try to log on, I get a message that says

Service Temporarily Unavailable

So, go out and have some fun...I'll update when I have more info...

** Summer Registration at Foothill **

Register Early for Best Summer Course Selection; Classes Start June 30

Foothill's Summer Session classes begin the week of June 30 and run through Aug. 8, unless otherwise noted in the Schedule of Classes. The most up-to-date edition of the schedule is posted online at www.foothill.edu. California residents pay $13 per unit for Foothill classes. A full range of student support services is available, including financial aid, academic counseling and tutoring.

Continuing students (those who were enrolled in spring classes at Foothill) can register online or by phone June 3–29. New and former students can register online or by phone June 9–29.

New and continuing students can register for classes, schedule a consult with a Foothill counselor, review the class schedule, complete placement tests, if required, pay enrollment fees, purchase parking permits and buy textbooks online. To register by phone, call (650) 917-0509 or (408) 777-9394.

The Foothill Main Campus in Los Altos Hills and Foothill Middlefield Campus in Palo Alto can help you earn a specialized certificate, associate degree or upgrade your current job skills. Foothill can also help you complete the general education course requirements you need to transfer to a four-year university - we even offer transfer admissions agreements to 21 universities! Most Foothill College courses are transferable to California State University and University of California campuses as well as private colleges and universities.

For registration instructions, access www.foothill.edu or call (650) 949-7325.

NOTE for students in my classes: I will have suggestions for what you can take in next week's (Week 10) Online Guide.