ACO Meeting Minutes December 13, 2018

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on December 13, 2018

Present:  S. Hartung, B. Baer, R. Park, K. McGowan, H. Balagtas, S. Speers, N. Bromley, S. Paterson, J. Schildroth, T. Marshall-Taylor,

Co-ops:   S. Luckhurst, A. Sanchez

Regrets:  W. Lewis, M. Byerley, C. Wallace, O. Vakomies

Attendees:

  • Sherry
    • Processing result emails of the Fall 2018 course evaluation period for January 5th release date.
    • Getting Key Permits ready for Winter 2019 co-ops, and processing paperwork as they come in for their job shadow day.
    • Working on getting Key Permits ready for Winter 2019 instructors needing access to PAS 1237 podium.
    • Ongoing work on finances.
  • Bill B.
    • Staff annual performance appraisal process has started. Will incorporate goals into our individual bi-weekly meetings.
    • Grad students and post-docs have requested that all students have edu email address. Some currently have edu and others have Connect. There is discussion at CTSC on whether graduate students and post-docs should have EDU (undergraduate) or Connect (staff & faculty) email service.
      • Meeting discussion:
      • Is there any implication for this with post docs teaching? Further discussions to be held with Will Lewis.
    • There was good discussion and positive interest at yesterday’s ACO lunch to try Microsoft Teams.
      • Meeting discussion:
      • ACO should set up our own Microsoft Teams and start using it, so we can share our knowledge and helps others interested.
      • Bob would like to get a better understanding of the differences between SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. Sean explained that it’s a blend of Skype for Business and SharePoint. Permissions in Microsoft Teams is more simplified than the persmissions set up in SharePoint.
      • Skype for Business can be deployed through Munki for Apple computers.
      • Enterprise voice will be moving to Skype for Business. Bill has talked to IST to ensure PAS/ACO has proper cabling to make the switch.
      • Herbert interested if Microsoft Teams could be used in development.
  • Bob
    • UCIST meetings continue to be cancelled, so nothing to report.
  • Oliver (not in the office)
    • Working on OFAS Project update.
    • No new issues since last meeting.
  • Samuel
    • Completed upgrading Lenovo
      • Action: Scott asked that a search of Lenovo computers in CALMS be done to find any other Lenovo computers that may need upgrading.
    • Updating PC in Spanish to Windows 10 for Yessenia Guerrero in ML 321 by December 19th.
    • Currently working on PD presentation about the Kurzweil 3000 software.
  • Angelica
    • Completed ACO Lunch Session presentation.
    • Completed Job Shadow Day with Kayle (technical writer - Winter 2019 term). Kayle is really interested in Scinage and prepared some pages.
    • Working on PD Presentation.
    • Working to complete tutorial video updates and the official documentation
    • Will create separate documentation for Kayle that explains everything ACO is working to complete with Science Computing and how she will continue the work in Winter 2019 term.
  • Keith
    • Have asked Troy to transfer the History Scinage display to ACO to do updates.
    • SAF research project looking at psychological traits to susceptibility of responding to phishing email. White listed address to allow the research, and have now removed it from white listed. One student questioned the email and sent it to SOC, another sent it to ACO.
    • BSIA to hold a remote seminar in January. Going over today to set up the computer system and test.
    • Economics research project requires controlled access system.
  • Herbert
    • Work on OFAS.
    • Signed up for Dell TechDirect API to allow access to get warranty information and information about machine. Still awaiting for approval.
  • Sean
    • WordPress site created for Kyle Scholz to develop courseware on artsweb.
    • artsresearch server migrated to 18.04 from 14.04. Had to fix old code for RhetFig. lettresjapon to get working in new PHP. Diagnosed issue for Psych and Python virtual environments.
    • CrashPlan server and clients upgraded to 6.8.4.
    • arts-grad-database updated in place from 14.04 to 16.04, low risk as application runs in Docker.
    • Shutdown artsstore2 and Cogito Dec 9th for the Dec 10th power outage in HH.
    • watarts server migrated to 18.04 from 14.04. Created quota for users as some are using a lot of space.
    • Fall 2018 term course evaluation reports processed for paper and online, and given to Sherry.
    • artslab and ahslab migrated from 14.04 to 18.04.
    • aroorda-sr16 HD failed; put in spare. Waiting for warranty replacement.
    • jgorrie fixed issue where our VPS quota was getting close to capacity (570GB) by making our 2 machines (artsprint & safanalytics) thin provisioned.
    • Testing artsonline2 for 18.04. Some fixes to course approval, voting app have been made. artsonline2 is hosted in our IST VPS, will be a good test for moving forward with more deployments there.
  • Nevil
    • Artsprint migration: Two SAF printer issues solved, secure printing confirmed, windows 7 migration script now in place. Angelica to document.
    • Testing new LearnLock version.
    • Looking at Microsoft Teams.
    • SWORDC / STATCAN Windows 10 implementation started. Permission issues on home folders solved.
  • Scott
    • There has been an issue with a system from the HH 280 lab. Computer is past warranty. Quote received for extended warranty was approved by Donna, and account to charge provided. Purchase is underway.
    • Looking into Microsoft Teams.
    • Job Shadow days. One held Dec 11th, the other two next week, Dec 18th and 19th.
    • St. Paul's Windows 7 upgrade to Windows 10 of remaining systems coordinated with Peter Pillsworth. Upgrade scheduled for Dec 21st as Peter will be in over the holidays to check on the systems.
  • Jameson
    • Philosophy PHD Skype Defence on Dec 3rd.
    • New BIOS Task Sequence complete. Testing to work out any issues then will start to deploy it out. Will start with ACO Vanguard group first, then Labs, then everyone else.
    • Deployed and Set up a 58" UHD 4K TV and mobile cart for English. Waiting on HDMI cable to come in (received Dec 12th).
    • Installed printer for Susan King in History.
    • Roy Brouwer had issue with saving files to N drive on laptop while in Europe. Found out that offline files has a quota and it needed to be adjusted. This may be a problem on laptops that have mapped N drives and smaller SSD's.  
  • Todd
    • Dec 7th staffing of lab ends. Jan 7th staffing begins. Hiring to be done through Workday.
    • Attended Workday training.
    • There was some question about TA pay rate for someone with a Masters degree wanting to be paid at the Master pay level. This situation has happened before, and since it is an undergrad job, the pay is based on undergrad pay. This was explained and accepted by the TA.
    • Will be changing door codes in ML soon. Will send Sherry the email with the new codes.
  • Will (absent, but items read in meeting)
    • Waiting for vendor to provide new licenses for SPSS for 2019. The upgrade is for January 1st, and affects campus-wide. We always receive the upgrade very late.
    • Moving IST Webstore to new server.
    • Issues reported with Thunderbird email on Connect. Suggestions are to reboot computer, update Thunderbird or switch to another email client.
    • Microsoft Teams client will be deployed to the IST-supported academic support computers.