ITS Users Group Minutes 30/10/06

[RobFett]

SRC ITS Group

30th October, SR5, Arts Building at 4 0'clock.

Attending:
(From SRC) Robert Fett (Chair) (srclib), Fain Hussain (fsh4), Alastair
Cooper (abc8), Adam Maye (adm47), Rupert Bright(rbgb).
(From ITS) Julian Crowe (jfec), Lorraine Brown (ldb21), Malcolm Bain
(mb), Bruce Campbell (bc), Ian McDonald (iam), Phil Robertson (pjr).

Apologies:
Heidi Fraser Krauss (BI) and Raymond Moir (Saltire).

Minute of last meeting were approved.

A couple of alterations to the constitution were noted: one changing the
dates of meeting, revised to once per semester, and an alteration to
include ResNet in the group's remit.

Printing
Recycling of print cartridges: It was pointed out that arrangements are
already in place. See
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/its/newslet ... cycle.html
It was agreed to raise with the Library the possibility of providing a
receptacle for used cartridges in the foyer of the Library.

Double sided printing: ITS is already supplying printers with duplex
capability although, not yet, in the computer classrooms. The Bute
classroom was suggested as a useful place to try out a pilot.

Deleting print jobs: The possibility of providing more control over
print jobs once they have been submitted would be investigated.

Website
Some discussion of certificates especially when they tediously keep
appearing. ITS described some steps which were possible to mitigate this
and undertook to provide some more publicity e.g in a Newsletter article.

Short update given on progress of update to University's web site
including mention of the content management system, Terminal4.

Some digressions into the availability of sites linked from the
University web site such as the Data Warehouse and into progress on
single sign-on. As regards the latter, the identity management project
was described.

Butts Wynd Classroom
There was some frustration expressed as classrooms being unavailable
when booked for teaching classes which, in fact, required only a few
workstations. In some cases access was allowed to unused workstations
but it was appreciated that, because of the nature of some teaching, the
classroom had to be closed for others. ITS undertook to provide
information on the doors of closed classrooms indicating alternative
locations of PCs.

Wireless in Halls
Some discussion of the issues. ITS undertook to install wireless access
points in locations such residence common areas to gauge range of
coverage and quality of service that might be offered. Also undertook to
check status of sockets in New Hall cafe. It was noted that most
teaching rooms already have or will shortly have wireless coverage.

Macs
Request for Macs seem to stem from a few printing difficulties. It was
felt that there might be alternative solutions to cope with these
difficulties.

AOCB
ITS undertook to look at reporting mechanism for PCs out of use in
non-cover periods such as weekends.

Windows/Office upgrades: Timings of upgrades were discussed. As far as
Windows is concerned, the main difficulty is to test all the applications
currently running in classrooms rather than issues with Windows itself.
Office does need updated periodically but some thought has to be given
to the maintenance of compatibility with current material written using
earlier versions.

Messaging: Some discussion of messaging facilities. There are issue of
ports being opened and used for other things.

It was noted that, week beginning 30th October, the Helpdesk would be
running an experiment with longer evening opening.

ITS undertook to look at making home directories generally available to
student PCs.