Departmental Computing Meeting - 23 Mar 2011 ============================================ A. People ========= DJC - David Colling SF - Simon Fayer RB - Richard Bantges SR(ICT) - Steve Rochford AM(ICT) - Adrian Mannall DC - Dave Clements RS - James Spencer JZ - Jing Zhang CC - Carlo Contaldi PT - Peter Torok JC - John Conway HV - Harry Vine B. Action Summary ================= * CC/DC - Investigate the possibility of using Netbeans for teaching. * DJC - Get Sharepoint configuration finished - End of week. * DJC - Investigate who manages lab PCs. * ICT - Check lecture theatre projectors & AV and check renewal date. * JC - Arrange blackboard so tutors can access tutee's marks. * RB - Send an e-mail about IDL licenses. C. Minutes ========== 1. Disaster Recovery -------------------- - Most people have submitted their plans now, people who haven't will get a reminder. - Teaching materials can be backed up to Sharepoint once this is configured. - DJC got an action to get this configured this week. - Teaching materials could also be stored on blackboard. 2. Huxley Machine Room ---------------------- - Redevelopment bid for CIF funding will be ready soon. - The redevelopment will be done in a "sensible way" where people should be consulted about it. - If equipment needs moving into the ICT machine room, it should really be rack-mounted. 3. ICT News & Plans ------------------- - Mailboxes are being migrated to Exchange 2010, this has been started now but is currently only being done at ~50 people / day. This will be suspended during the exam period. - Exchange 2010 gives better performance in the web-mail interface for browsers that aren't made by Microsoft (i.e. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, ...) - This should allow for people to have more mailbox space in the future and also gives the possibility for server-side archiving for non-Windows users. - The print-service (DTP) contract renewal is being postponed for a year as HP have just marked the current printer range as end-of-life. - HV suggested that the lab printers could be reviewed as some of these make a loss. 4. Desktop Replacement ---------------------- - People had asked about getting journal batch numbers for the desktop replacements. This is being sorted out by HV. 5. Licensing ------------ - The idea of getting some licenses for Intel compilers for Mac was proposed, but no-one seemed to have a need for these. - It was also noted that GCC works well on Macs and there are some other good free compilers such as the Oracle suite (which includes and IDE & debugger). - The other Intel compiler suite licenses should be continued. - Origin is now licensed for use in FoNS. - Mathematica licensing is still being sorted out by the lawyers. - ICT has the possibility of getting a 50 seat license for the Intel compilers for a year (as a trial) for teaching. - SPAT has 250 IDL licenses which are cheap (for historical reasons), it's possible these could be shared with other groups for a pro rata fee. - RB will send an e-mail about the IDL licenses. 6. Teaching Status & News ------------------------- - Exam kiosk (/lock-down) software is being trialled, mainly in Engineering, this should be available for general use next year. - There is a plan to link DSS to Blackboard, which should eventually make marks available on it, but there is currently no timescale on this. - As an interim step, marks can be accessed on blackboard (comments & grades). - JC to ensure that personal tutors can view their tutee's marks. - Windows 7 caused some minor problems, but these are resolved now. - Tech support on level 3 was a bit "turbulent", but this should be fine next year as long as ICT are told the dates for start of labs, etc... - ICT said someone should be available on Level 3 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri, although it's better to seek support from the main support office. - A few students had complained about using VS2008, which isn't compatible with VS2010 project files. Switching from VS2008 to VS2010 was deemed to be too much work. - CC/DC to investigate the possibility of using Netbeans for teaching. - It was noted that projector quality seems to have decreased since the projectors were installed. - ICT to check the projector refurbishment date and get them looked at, as well as other AV problems (i.e. sound problems in LT1). - There are reportedly other problems with seminar room projectors, which are maintained by the department. Problems with these should be reported to Malcolm as there is a service contract for these. - Computers in labs have had some problems with having different versions of software, etc... installed on them. - DJC said he would find-out who manages these. 7. Group Status & News ---------------------- - [TP] A small amount of sys-admin work is needed to maintain a machine, ICT said they should be able to do this. - [SPAT] Solaris server is being replaced. - [SPAT] Found that ICT archiving for "large" data volumes (~40TB) is prohibitively expensive. ICT say that a cheaper archiving solution may be available in the future. - [ASTRO] A new sys-admin/research post will be created soon. - [CMTH] Moved from RH Linux to Ubuntu. - [CMTH] PAT testing caused some problems, HV noted that any feedback regarding PAT testing should be sent to him.