As always, thanks for your reports, Ben, and for your good work at the school.


Lastly, I tried Remote-Desktoping into Canter?s user server. Though one can access the server, the only window I see, which cannot be closed, is for filling out an improper shutdown report, or something like that. Since I?m not sure what caused the shutdown (or whether the data even gets sent to CPS or Microsoft), I didn?t bother filling out the report. Russ, do you know anything about this? 


This is a "feature" of Windows Server 2003.  It gets recorded in one of the onboard logs (though I always have a hard time re-locating it) and is not sent anywhere.  It also puts up this question window if you intentionally do a shutdown or restart, in advance of that operation; but if nothing was logged before the shutdown, it asks the first admin login after the restart.  I usually just select Unplanned from the dropdown, and write "Power outage" in the text input area.  (Or "asdfasdfasdfg ;kjh;kjh;jh;;'.)  Once you've typed anything into the text area the button goes live to close the window.

For reasons we haven't figured out (but actually have been concerned about at one time or another) Canter's school fileserver does seem more prone to spontaneous restarts than most schools' .

I encountered an interesting problem, though: a teacher told me that Yahoo Mail wouldn’t work, and she was right…Internet Explorer refused to load the page, as well as several others. It turns out it was a secure-server type issue — something was wrong with IE and it wouldn’t connect to sites using SSL. Ultimately, a computer restart fixed this issue (it was also having some random INSTR permission issues).

Maybe it's pure coincidence but Kenwood HS next door was having problems with Yahoo last week also.  I won't write out the whole explanation here, but there *used* to be a CPS-wide issue at Yahoo and maybe some other services, due to the way the NAT-firewall works.

Also on Tuesday, I got a request from Ms. Spector (the teacher in 205) to help her set up a blog for her latest Spanish project, compiling a cookbook. I sent Russ an email and am waiting to hear back from him about this. Mitch stopped by, and we caught up for a little bit; he said I should inform Russ about the possibilities of hooking up some of the printers lying around, and that Russ could work with Ms. Ahad on that.

Russ might be able to come to Canter to work with you jointly sometime this week.  Schools are closed Tuesday ... are you thinking of putting in a couple hours on another day instead?  

Also, Mitch, did you intentionally expand people’s user permissions on this WP site? I’m now able to edit other people’s posts and comments.

After you showed me the disappointing appearance on IE6 on a small screen, I moved up your permissions so that you can GENTLY edit the theme if you are still so inclined.  (That might be something to do if you aren't going in to replace your Tuesday hours.)  Please always check the effect of any changes you try, in IE7 and FF2 on small and big screen settings.  If Editor doesn't let you edit the theme, let me know and we can adjust further.  

I need to find some more spare mouses to use — certainly at least one. Does CUIP have any extra mouse balls? I have three working mice which are simply missing balls, and I know those are much cheaper than an entire mouse.

We have a few spare mice but not balls or other parts.  These are intended for schools of course, but in ones or twos for special cases; when a school needs maybe a half-dozen we encourage them to order on their own.  But if one or two would make a difference, you can come get them the way you did that ethernet cable.  
 
Thanks for your comment on the Mollison issue.  As usual, the situation has moved on beyond the initial interaction on the blog; and happily will focus on our good relationships at the school.  BTW, what are your observations about lab usage at Canter?  

  ==Mitch