Minutes of March 21, 2006 Meeting

Present:: A Butman, B. Golin, N. Gonzaga, P. Johnson, R. Sandler and via teleconference S. Bartz, M. Belasco, K. Kuehl, J. Maxymuk, M. Medeiros and C. Singh.

1. Systems Update

Systems is finishing up pointing WorkFlows clients to the www.iris.rutgers server name as opposed to the IP address in preparation for the the transition of the Sirsi server from its current location on legacy network address space to the RUNet network. Yet to be done are workstations in TAS and LSM. This should be done by the end of March. A date has not yet been set for moving the server as downtime is required and must be scheduled.

Systems is also finishing the Ariel 4.1.1 upgrade. There are still problems with the autoscan feature however there is no telling when the vendor will come up with a solution. In the interim, a workaround has been found and so the upgrades will continue throughout the library system.

The Procite software purchased by Jane Sloan has been installed on the libsys server and will be made available to members of Media by 3/24.

RUCS reported that the new Mailman software does not recognize underscores so PCWG_ probably will be renamed. Anne Butman will check back with RUCS.

There was discussion on the security risks of keeping passwords labeled on laptops and workstations. Matt Medeiros noted that the SCC is using Tweak UI to enable automatic logins for their data center and IHL machines. It was agreed that provided the NBL laptops were set up to automatically login there would be no need to keep the passwords on the devices.

A couple of units have experienced problems with Firefox loading PDF files. Matt speculated that the problem lies in a user profile corruption. The easiest solution is to set PDF files to open in Acrobat rather than the browser.

We discussed the updating frequency of Firefox. Firefox is set to automatically update now. Users should approve the updates when they are notified. This feature should not be disabled as it is used to keep versioning standard throughout RUL. Typically these updates are seamless and the changes have very little effect on the users but rather fix bugs and vulnerabilities in the software. In the event of a major upgrade and/or updates containing major revisions or changes, Systems will inform users ahead of time.

Rich Sandler and Nick Gonzaga reported that they are going to the brown bag lunch that OIT is sponsoring for VBrick. VBrick is the vendor of a data streaming system that has the potential to allow for real time video conferencing as well as the delivery of video over the local area network. Possible applications of this would be the streaming of classes and seminars as well as the delivery of Media Services collections across RUNet to the classroom or other endpoints. The quality and bandwidth use remain at issue.

A good response has greeted the replacement of Netscape Composer with Nvu, mostly due to its low learning curve.

The next meeting is scheduled as usual, on Tuesday, April 18 at 10AM in the TSB Conference Room.

Reported by John Maxymuk