ACO Meeting Minutes June 9, 2016

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on June 9, 2016

Present:  D. Keenan, J. Simpson, S. Hartung, H. Balagtas, S. Speers, S. Paterson, J. Schildroth, L. Tomalty, T. Marshall-Taylor

Co-ops:   D. Kingsley, I. Zinck, J. Hillo

Regrets: K.McGowan, N. Bromley, C. Wallace

  • Dawn
    • CTSC is reviewing results of the digital signage project to make recommendations for University policy. Refer to the campus digital signage project final report for more information.
    • Nothing to report from the May 26 CTSC meeting as it was cancelled due to IST’s involvement in resolving the podium issue.
  • Sherry
    • Working on computer order for new faculty. Five for July 1st, one for July 15th, one for Aug 22nd, and approximately four more coming from the Dean's office when finalized.
    • Outstanding information has now been received so the four remaining computers for Faculty Rollover can be ordered. VGA and HDMI adapters for Mac laptops have been ordered.
  • David
    • Working on revising and editing New at UWaterloo Tech Survival Guide and Protecting your computer from viruses from Fall 2015 Newsletter for Fall 2016. Fall newsletter focuses largely on information that would be useful for new students.
    • Writing a newsletter item to outline differences in the move from Windows 7 and 8.1 to Windows 10.
    • Continuing rollover process. Majority of computers have been imaged. Appointments for deployment start Monday, June 13th.
    • Jessica Jordao in AUO was having problems with not being able to send emails from the reception computer. Sean helped to create a new profile and that has solved the issue.
  • Ian
    • Writing an article on Office 2016 versus Office 2013 for the Newsletter.
    • Will be moving a number of computers on Monday, June 13th for people in ML affected by upcoming construction.
    • Imaging of computers for Faculty Rollovers is progressing. Appointments are being made for deployment.
    • Have written and tested an Imaging command to prompt for the type of machine to be imaged in order to speed up the process.
    • Computer has been updated to Windows 10 to do testing.
    • Working with Ryan (co-op) from AUO on issue with new computer and monitor. Determined to be a firmware problem. Problem fixed and everything is running well.
  • Janine
    • Finalizing revisions, checking links and confirming accuracy of information on ACO web site to ready it for move to responsive design.
    • Finish checklists for making Word documents accessible. Awaiting input from Murielle Landry.
    • Will work on bulletin boards in labs and outside of ACO office as a side project.
    • Starting work on fall newsletters. Topics have been divided up among co-ops.
    • Working on accessible documents for future co-ops.
  • Herbert
    • Deployed new laptop for Joel Blit (ECON). Followed up yesterday and everything is okay. He will be starting to upload his software.
    • Götz Hoeppe (ANTH) is having similar issues as Joel, so trying out the EtreCheck tool.  Problems seem to be random and cannot be easily tracked in the logs. Continuing to investigate.
    • Stacy Reda purchased Acrobat Pro DC for Götz. It was deployed using Munki on his laptop. Copy of paperwork to be sent to Sherry for files.
    • Assisted Debbie Dietrich (PHIL) in setting up access to their departmental share. Worked with Mary Synnott in getting access to those shares due to the move of Women’s Studies to Philosophy.
    • Helped Jean-Paul Lam (ECON) with password reset and setting up his devices.
    • Assisted Pat Gruber (ECON) in setting up OFAS for a new faculty position.
    • Vershawn Young (DRAMA) has a broken Surface Pro out of warranty, and wanted to see if we could send it back for repair. Checked with Sylvia and he currently has no funds. He will need to send it into Microsoft for repair. He has an ACO loaner laptop. Loaner is for short term use, so requesting loaner returned by September 1st.
  • Sean
    • Updated Chrome, Word 2016, Thunderbird, Firefox, Acrobat 2015 Pro for Macs.
    • OS X 10.11.5 image added to DeployStudio for restoring a take home machine.
    • Migrated spc-fin, spc-crm, spc-starez and spc-starez-sql to stp-esxi-1 for St. Paul’s. The move was successful.
    • Migrated ahslab from esxi-1 to artsvc2 so it can be updated.
    • Updated Vmware on esxi-1.
    • Removed last connections to older 1099 1Gb switches. Only trunk to 4th floor, which will be moved Tuesday, remains.  
    • CrashPlan servers updated to version 5.2.0.1 resulting from security patch. CrashPlan licensing will need to be renewed soon. May need to purchase additional licensing this year as have used 50 of 75 licenses already.
  • Scott
    • James McCarthy forwarded a request to Green IT members. Waterloo North Hydro is running an Energy Efficiency Pilot Program to reduce the load at the plug of computer workstations and looking for commitment for participation. They are looking to install "Embertec Advanced Power Strips" (estimated savings per workstation averaging 275 kWh annually or $30.25 per workstation). Power is cut off overnight and turned back on in the morning. As computers need to remain on to push through updates, Arts does not have a good case use to be part of the pilot.
    • Nevil and Scott are discussing deployment of the Office 2016 update. We will make it available for early buy in at the end of July, followed by a mandatory install the third week of September.
    • Jameson, Scott, and two co-ops have installed Windows 10 for testing. Anyone interested in upgrading now, let Scott know. Health Sciences and Environment will be putting it on their lab machines. Nevil is working on changes and testing to make profile settings close to those used in Environment and AHS for consistency in student experience.
    • Metaanalysis Programs for Psychology have been installed, but some changes are required. Handling of packaging requests will be reviewed at June 9 meeting with Psychology IT staff.
    • iTunes version 12.4.1.6 has been deployed.
  • Jameson
    • Setting up a computer in Games Institute for IT Admin functions to be performed through Remote Desktop. This will be deployed on Friday.
    • Deployed the Event Log monitoring script to Nxsartsws and have been testing it. A few more bugs found that only show up when certain conditions are met. Working on a fix before scheduled task is set to run nightly.
    • [UW-RT #521514] Reached out to Brigitte Schnebeli regarding a workshop they want to webcast in October in STC2002. Contacting Science Computing to see what technology is available in STC2002 and if they are able to accommodate this request. If not, will pursue with Audio Visual.
    • Working on pre-staging Neil Randal's new PC. Neil wants to have it joined to Watgamer domain instead of Nexus. This is against policy. More information is required to determine why the Watgamer domain, and what is Nexus is missing that Watgamer is providing.
  • Lisa
    • Working with Janine on accessible checklists (Word) for Murielle Landry, ACO web site review (send Janine/Lisa any updates needed), and resizing photos and moving links to prepare for move to responsive web design.
    • Working with St. Paul’s on using Hubspot.
    • Provided troubleshooting tips to English for access to the generic englgrad account.
    • Looking for Lunch Session topic suggestions.
    • IST has been working on a problem related to podium imagining. This issue did not affect Arts. Safeguards have been put in place, and a meeting will be held to discuss situation.
    • IST is aware of slow WCMS speed and working on a solution.
    • Interviews for Fall term Technical Writer with Scott went well.
    • FACCUS meeting minutes will be available shortly.
    • Will Lewis away until Sept; Steve Carr covering as initial contact.
    • Lisa ill be away June 20th to 23rd at the CANHEIT Conference, June 30 to July 8th, and the third week of July.
  • Todd
    • One workstation had a problem due to out of date BIOS. It was replaced with a spare while David performed the update.
    • Studies of Islam holds labs in the evening and TA is paid according to each session held. It is important to be advised if a session is not held in order to adjust payment.
    • Renison English Language Centre workshop went well. We have helped them reduce the proliferation of multiple accounts for access to various resources. Another session will be held the last Wednesday of the month.

General Items:

There was a discussion about the renaming of staff computers when someone leaves and a new person comes in and uses that machine. Computers are currently named for the person using it unless there is significant turnover in the position. When there is a change in staff, the computer name is not changed until the next rollover. In the instance of multiple users, the computer is named for the use/area, such as AUO Reception Desk. The current naming convention will remain in place with a new exception. If the name of the computer used by a new staff causes confusion, a change in the computer name will be done and all related documentation updated.