
<h2>Staff (mitch) Activities and Schools for Week of 2007/03/24</h2>
[UofC Spring Quarter 1st Week]

[CPS last week before Spring Break]

[Friday 3/30 day off]
<h2>School (and some Non-School) Hours Summary</h2>
<ul>
	<li>Server backups (esp CWD): Saturday 3/24, 5 hrs; Sunday 3/25 (actually monday early a.m.) 1:30</li>
	<li>Staff desktop Network Security issue Wednesday and Thursday, 30 minutes of email spread over both days, 2 hours of direct restore work</li>
	<li>Fermi, Weds 2:00</li>
	<li>Fiske Weds. 1:30</li>
	<li>Murray, Tues email 15 mins, Thurs 0nsite 20 mins,total 35 mins</li>
	<li>Sexton Weds. 1:30</li>
	<li>Till, Thurs ~2:00</li>
	<li>Woodlawn Tues 4:00</li>
	<li>Woodson, Monday 3/26, for 1:20</li>
</ul>
<strong>===============================</strong><strong> </strong>

<hr />
<h2>Status on previously deferred items, ongoing projects, and specific to-do's</h2>
<ul>
	<li>Server backups (using new NAS [Network Access Storage])
<ul>
	<li>I've got a much better handle on "smbmount" than before. (Using SAMBA [Windows-like networking] to attach a drive or share to a Linux machine.) The new NAS also does a good job of sharing by NFS [the system " native" to Unix/Linux, and now Mac OS X too], and for that matter good ol' FTP too (but not SFTP).</li>
	<li>Despite some oddities of using this form of storage for backups, I got a full backup (suitable for manual disaster-recovery) of content/data/media from the Chicago Web Docent server, the CUIP-related project which was least-well backed up. Running an update to the backup seems to take the system not more than an hour.</li>
	<li>To do next: Extend to WIT, the main CUIP-in-the-schools server.</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Schedule a Tech Coordinators meeting!
<ul>
	<li>We made some progress, with direct inquiries.</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Woodson, Meet with Larry Spearman and Dr. Arnall re the latter’s classroom management idea
<ul>
	<li>See Woodson report in main (Schools) section</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Start on Apache 2 / PHP 5 installation on WIT server
<ul>
	<li>To support WPMU among other things</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>Probably should be done (solo task essentially) <strong>AHEAD of CPS spring break week</strong>, so that we can do some group development in WPMU and transfer of standalone blogs to WPMU, when staff and NSPs will be available to execute those.</li>
	<li>Last week: No progress.</li>
	<li>This week: Noprogress.</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>WP standalones upgrade to 2.1.2
<ul>
	<li>WIT (blogs.cuip.net) server done two weeks back!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>blogs2 to be done — discussed wth Erin but as a secondary part of what she will be doing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>It wouldn’t be too hard to adapt the “newblog” installation perl script into one for this upgrade
<ul>
	<li>Jimmy Salvatore is on the case!</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>After this round, we can put in the “Instant upgrade” plugin and leave it up to each blog owner</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>WP standalones theme and plugin distribution
<ul>
	<li>Erin has completed selecting themes
<ul>
	<li>Now edit / fix some which need it</li>
	<li>Adjust the distribution folder for new standalone WP</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>The newblog script also would be good starting point for one to handle the implementation/installation of this, though with considerable manual intervention possibly needed</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>This may not be ready for CPS Break Week …bt it would sure be nice if it were!</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Carried forward: Techwiki entries for
<ul>
	<li>INSTR updates from legacy SI, part I, how to get from SI to file: this entry exsts, add note about not trusting floppies, use thumbdrive or direct upload to server</li>
	<li>INSTR updates from legacy SI, part II, what to do with the file — stub only in place, take from email sent to Bryan</li>
	<li>Power-on passwords and Setup Admin Passwords: take from email with Jimmy and Linda Sudduth</li>
	<li>Added to this to-do list: the CPSWIRELESS notes</li>
	<li><strong>Status last week: </strong>Umm …. no progress</li>
	<li>This week? : noprogress this week either.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<strong>———————————————</strong>
<h3>Longer-term plans, noted pro-forma, progress not particularly expected in any given week</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Carried forward:: Installation and tryout of Retrospect for desktop backups in CUIP lab, using WD NetCenter Drive
<ul>
	<li>Brought in my own copy of the CD (the office copy is misplaced)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li>Did not install. Try again next week.</li>
	<li><strong>NEW last week 07/03/22:</strong> I like the newer NAS better!</li>
	<li>Server backups (using new NAS) entered in non-stalled section as separate item.</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Deferred longer term: Trial installation of Skeletonz CMS or other CMS. Last week, this week, any week: –Still deferred.</li>
	<li>Look into other Wikis, which may support more CMS-like features, plus individual page ownerships</li>
	<li>Waiting for spring break or summer: look into “Google Apps for Domains” [as it is no longer called]</li>
</ul>
<strong>———————————————</strong>
<h3>To-do items added this week for next, or new continuing projects</h3>
<ul>
	<li>    Investigate the printer setup by registry idea
<ul>
	<li>Tried at Sexton, learned something.</li>
	<li>See Murray</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Murray -- find out what the story is with the printer replacements
<ul>
	<li>See Melissa's report, <a href="http://reporting.cuip.net/2007/03/30/murray-week-4/">http://reporting.cuip.net/2007/03/30/murray-week-4/</a></li>
	<li>If, as Melissa's mention of parallel cable suggests, these are being shared from computers, what is the method to make them work for multi student logins? Go see Joe about whether they need sme additional system, like Location-Based Printing [requiring a VBS login script] or this new Printer-Setup-by-Registry idea.</li>
</ul>
</li>
	<li>Fermi - finish lounge-singer OS reinstall, excuse me, lounge <em>computer</em> OS reinstall.</li>
	<li>ENTR/Leadr - How is the Athena station doing? Can we string a cable?</li>
</ul>
<strong>===============================</strong>
<h2>This week's activity not at or for a specific school</h2>
<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>CUIP Team Building</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Worked with Michael Hebert (NSP VISTA) on using Dreamweaver to maintain NSP web site. Admirably, he wants to make it independently sustainable by his successors.</li>
</ul>
<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>Educational Computing Community</h3>
<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>eCUIP</h3>
<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>Chicago Web Docent</h3>
<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>CUIP Office — Facility and Computing</h3>
Staff desktop Network Security issue Wednesday and Thursday, 30 minutes of email spread over both days,  2 hours of direct restore work. To do: finish saving data, second round of temp W2K install. Longer term -- make better acquaintance with Valeri Galtsev.

<strong>------------------------------------------------</strong>
<h3>CUIP Servers</h3>
See above about backup strategies.

<strong>===============================</strong>
<h2>This week's activity at or for specific schools</h2>
<h3>Canter</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Russ checked their server, which looked okay.  Probably just my login is wrong :(</li>
</ul>
<h3>Fermi</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Wednesday visited Fermi with Shaz and Pierre.   We looked at the lab together.</li>
	<li>The first-floor counselors  had asked  for help with installing software and a printer on their computers,permissions issue.  Very good result, I set her CPS login as local admin on both machines, then they did their installations successfully.  But it seems wrong that schools are buying copies of Acrobat to save filled-in forms; Central Office should be handling some other way.</li>
	<li>The computer in the teachers' lounge is having disk oddities.  I finally gave up on gentle install-in-place and replaced partition table and started low-level format, preparatory to OS install.</li>
	<li>The teacher from 107 asked me to look at a screen in her room; it turned out simply not plugged in firmly.</li>
	<li>The teacher from 103 reminded me that she has a burned-out screen on a student computer (which Christie and I verified some time ago).  A procedure for authorizing moves of components needs to be set up.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Fiske</h3>
<ul>
	<li> Weds. I met with Ms Cobbs today, and we made progress on both areas of her concerns.</li>
	<li>On the school laptop, I used zprotect to set her usual login ("office", not her CPS email name) as an administrator, and then in that account installed that all-in-one via USB.  And it prints.
The problem is, it prints very messy and dirty.  It's not a matter of a bad driver.  Possibly a dirty print drum or something like that, or maybe just settings. I didn't delve into the manual.</li>
	<li> On her home laptop I first tried out the HP reset disks, but they made it  quite clear the process would totally wipe the drive and replace it from   the CDs . Also tried the Windows XP installer (came in the same package and had a  lot of HP branding, but it was basically the MS disk).  I was hoping to overwrite just the Windows folder, but it said there was a disk problem and it would only format or quit, so we quit.  The Repair Console was no help, and also reported disk problem.  I suggested that we might pull the HD and take the data off, before going wth the HP total refresh.  She understands how that would work.  I tried to pull the HD right then -- not to start the procedure but to have a look at the drive and the connector -- but it turns out I couldn't tell how to get at it.  Her user manual did show the location, and I removed one screw that seemed like it might be holding it, but I didn't finally get anywhere.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Murray</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Tuesday email 15 mins, domain login issues and Veritas remote agent errors.</li>
	<li>Thursday onsite 20 mins for same thing.  We looked at the user record for Techco on srv02, which had expired password, and cleared the password request.</li>
	<li>Friday by email Joe confirmed Veritas remote backup did work!</li>
	<li>to do: Find out what the story is with the printer replacements.  See Melissa's report, <a href="http://reporting.cuip.net/2007/03/30/murray-week-4/">http://reporting.cuip.net/2007/03/30/murray-week-4/</a> If, as Melissa's mention of parallel cable suggests, these are being shared from computers, what is the method to make them work for multi student logins? Go see Joe about whether they need sme additional system, like Location-Based Printing [requiring a VBS login script] or this new Printer-Setup-by-Registry idea.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Ray</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Looked at good progress  on new site.</li>
	<li>To  do:  Suggest meeting for Gabe and Dawei with some CUIP staff at our offices</li>
	<li>On request from Mary Cobb, remotely cleared "Password must be changed at next login" and set "Password never expires" for all student entries.  Unclear why these ever revert to the wrong settings!</li>
</ul>
<h3>Sexton</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Visited lab Wednesday with Sara to check connections ahead of Blog/IMPACT session for Thursday.</li>
	<li>Tried out printer setup by registry on computer 17.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Till</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Ms Thurman's office computer -- verified she is a local admin, and downloaded/installed Adobe Reader v. 8.</li>
	<li>There were two IMPACT training sessions, one for each building.</li>
	<li>In the big building, the meeting was in the science lab 204, and Mr. Poole led the teachers through the Self-Paced Training materials (the PDF docs).  One teacher's login worked for CPSmail but not for the IMPACT materials; Sudduth is aware of this and the help desk has been contacted. (I logged her in as library4740 to follow the lessons, but she won't get credit.)</li>
	<li>In the small building, the meeting was in lab 513 (Sudduth's lab), conducted by Ms Schoppman and using the "sandbox".  Nicely organized!</li>
</ul>
<h3>Woodlawn</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Internet down for much of week, Ameritech problems.</li>
	<li>Carisa and I loaded CPS W2K on two problem computers in 110.  Could not complete setup with drivers and OTS remediation, in part a matter of time, but also hampered by lack of Internet.</li>
	<li>I sat in on the Dell Tech Know session.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Woodson</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Monday 3/26, with Sara, met with Larry Spearman. 1 hr 20 min</li>
	<li>They have taken care of Dr. Arnall's requirements themselves, cooperatively. (Larry very generously suggests our involvement was a bridge that helped get them thinking in certain directions and working together to implement the plans.)</li>
	<li>I demo'd the use of printer queue Pause setting, will send Larry some background info on using printer shares with multi users.</li>
	<li>We discussed the plans for the upcoming TechCo meeting; with the possibility that he could present this project, and also tt be a that Woodson might be a suitable venue for the meeting!</li>
</ul>