ACO Meeting Minutes November 12, 2015

Minutes of the Arts Computing Department meeting held on November 12, 2015

Present:  Dawn, Jennifer, Keith, Sean, Todd, Scott, Nevil, Herbert, Jameson, Lisa, Sherry

Co-ops:   Lydia, Madeline, Mercedez

  • Dawn
    • Safety audit recently done with a number of items being addressed:
      • Health & Safety signage has been updated.  Note We Share the Air posters put up at both entrances for scent sensitivities in the office.
      • Shelving in storage areas is being addressed.
      • Ladder training required for anyone using a ladder to access items above shoulder height.
    • CTSC updates:
      • Considering open source licensing model for software written by UW staff.
      • New lab lockdown software in use in ENG/MATH to be demoed at November 12 CTSC meeting. ACO considering possible use in Arts labs.
      • SCInage application under development on https://git.uwaterloo.ca/science-computing/Scinage
    • Departmental support contact information has been updated https://uwaterloo.ca/arts-computing/faculty-and-staff/departmental-support-contacts. Dawn is interested in feedback about these changes, which will be mentioned at this term’s Lunch and Learn session. This is a good opportunity for ACO staff to (re)introduce themselves around their supported departments.
  • Sherry
    • Working on Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 2015 upgrade. Purchasing through Webstore.  Most updates going smoothly, but Nevil has a fix in place for any that have caused problems.
    • We have been notified that the computer for Lennart Nacke is on its way.
    • Gearing up for Course Evaluations.
  • Lydia
    • Continuing work on project Asset Management Lifecycle Rollover.
  • Mercedez
    • Continuing work on project Asset Management Lifecycle Rollover.
    • Finished up RT tickets that were awaiting information.
  • Madeline
    • ACO computer rollover process documentation in editing.
    • Co-op Newsletter articles are done and ready for editing by ongoing staff.
    • ACO Instructors info page has been published. https://uwaterloo.ca/arts-computing/instructors
    • Bulletin board planning ongoing.
  • Keith
    • Artsweb account cleanup continues. Checking if web pages are still in use: if no longer required, they will be removed. Several old accounts are associated with research studies in Psychology so follow up with Bill will be needed.
    • Drobo connected to ArtsCP failed - GSS research group files recovered and saved on disk.
    • Scheduled Cygnus update this Saturday morning.
    • ColourQube printer in IS failed due to broken internal part. Working on solution for replacement, including possible use of Xerox fleet device from Retail Services.
    • Mac Office 2016 patched in Munki. Limited distribution on test machines looks good. Will plan to push out to Mac users.
    • Cleaning up Munki mis-configurations. Looking into why some Macs are not getting updates without intervention.
    • Reminder to register for WatITis Conference held on Dec 7th before the November 25 deadline.  Register soon, sessions filling up.
  • Herbert
    • Issue resolved with FORE for Pat Gruber (ECON) by switching her over to Firefox.
    • Working on Printing Stats to allow improvements, more features, charts and reporting for department administrative staff.
    • Working on CALMS project with co-ops.
    • File permissions on John North’s MacBook prevented him from logging in even after resetting his password. This has been fixed with diskutil, but unsure of root cause of problem.
    • Ann Rasmussen’s MacBook Air high CPU usage was caused by HP printer. Have removed all printers, re-installed and now okay.
  • Sean
    • ESXI patches are being applied to our 5.5 environment.
    • Script to remove Acrobat 10 from labs tested and ready to go.
    • Chrome, Office 2011, Firefox, Flash Mac updates via Munki completed.
    • CrashPlan updated to 5.0.1 (server) and 4.4.1 (client).
    • Web Comments for course evaluations bug where only 254 characters of import were printed. Fixed and emailed the 40 affected instructors with the fixed print-out as a pdf. Import into Excel is fixed and can be checked online.
    • Upgraded mscarbor-imac to Yosemite successfully for the latest Final Cut via Munki (same as lab update).
    • Office 2016 for Macs packaged on Munki. Once licensing file received, push out can coexist with 2011.
    • Drupal 6 end of life is February 24th 2016. Removed 31 unused sites, converted 12 newsletter sites to static html, leaving 9 sites that will need to be migrated to WCMS or Drupal 7/8 or static. Links still work, but newsletter content should be reviewed. Newsletters older than 3 to 5 years should be archived and taken off line.
  • Nevil
    • Undergrad \\files\students$ issue on a small number of lab machines not being able to access N:drive. Workarounds have been provided; still investigating the cause and a permanent solution.
    • Cygnus and Cygnus2 DFS replication is not working as intended yet. Will recreate the replication configuration after servers are patches on the weekend.
    • Reminder that an ASAC rep is needed to represent IT staff in the Faculty of Arts https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/faculty-staff/staff-advisory-council/arts-staff-advisory-council-membership.  Mandate is to foster and enhance communications between staff and the Dean of Arts, and provide social and professional development.
    • SCCM training will soon be provided by IST for basic and task sequence imaging. Basic training is a prerequisite to task sequence image training.
  • Scott
    • iTunes 12.1.3.23x64 deployed to Arts, Psychology and St. Paul’s.
    • DropBox 3.10.9 deployed (security group)(3.10.11 downloaded to package).
    • Skype 7.13 deployed (7.14.104 downloaded to package) to Arts.
    • Veracrypt Unattended Installer (Truecrypt fork and replacement) being tested in Psych.  Problem with users needing credentials, but looking into that.
    • 5 Win7 images being updated with WSUS updates.
    • Acrobat Pro X scheduled to be removed by IST on Sunday Nov 15th at 12am.
    • Reminder of Montana's outing for coops November 12.
  • Jameson
    • Working on a utility to audit security group changes.
  • Lisa
    • SharePoint course for Arts staff November 12, being taught by Stephen Markan.
    • Lunch session confirmed for Dec 9. Topics confirmed: Windows 10 demo/overview, OFAS, Lync Lite, Updates (Evaluate, Win 10 and Mac OS El Capitan, ACO staffing, Changes to departmental assignments, Concur).
    • Oct 27 FACCUS meeting minutes online: https://uwaterloo.ca/faculty-computing-user-support-group/sites/ca.faculty-computing-user-support-group/files/uploads/files/faccus_meeting_minutest_tuesday_oct_27_2015v2.pdf
    • Arts will host Winter FACCUS meeting on Feb 10.
    • Providing Wordpress support/help. Recently helped Bessma Momani on a site.
    • PC deployment process documentation has been completed.
    • ACO RT queue feedback link now uses the ACO feedback form including RT # as a hidden field.
    • New ACO bulletin board planning continues.
  • Todd
    • ML 117 ceiling tiles showed water damage and black mold, and has been taken care of.
    • ML 101A still dry. Roof was repaired late summer and still dry through rainy fall.
    • AccessAbility ML 113 reservation as usual through Fall exam period.
    • Set up February-March bookings for a Psych class needing SPSS. Nevil is looking after the software installation.
    • Dec 7th to 9th booking for Arts Undergrad open house and training.
    • Classics lounge system has been retired. The department has information on recommended hardware and costs for a new computer.