Minutes of Smathers
Middle Managers Meeting
October 3, 1996

Present: Rich Bennett, Suzanne Brown, Stacey Carr, Tom Cetwinski, Gary Cornwell, Robena Cornwell, Bill Covey, Frank DiTrilio, David Fuller, Dot Hope, John Ingram, Erich Kesse, Mari Marsh, Barbara Oliver, Colleen Seale, Robert Singerman, Jan Swanbeck, Ed Teague, Carol Turner

Capitol printing problem
  1. Problem with Capitol printers attached to micros - specifically associated with student attempting to print from a UF Web page - College of Pharmacy admission requirments. Printed 1/2 of first page and then 23 blanks, but charged for 24 pages. Question of who would be responsible for refunds, Capitol is responsible only if the problem is caused by a physical error with the printer - they have a refund procedure to follow. Problem can be with configuration, each student can reconfigure the page setup, conflicts between 16 and 32 bit - Netscape versions 2 & 3 maybe buggy. Browser people are updating approximately every 6 months - will be impossible to keep software modified to keep up. Problem will be brought up to the Technical Support Group. System crashes, lost print is common problem. Need a combination of warning and policy to handle this, maybe post a warning to print 1 page before trying the whole thing. User frustration is common in a computing environment.
Wiring Status
  1. Music has been looked at, AFA should be complete by the end of the week.
  2. Next MSL will be expanded, additional work in West - approximately 6 wires.
Machine Distribution
  1. FCLA money is in. 20 Gateways are on order, will be distributed to public workstations and staff. Will try ordering month by monthÊ- no-name clones didn't do well, will stay with named clones, Gateway is currently the lowest priced, their Tech Support is on a first name basis with Paul.
  2. In general, replacements will be Ancient DOS, Macs - won't keep all we've got, move out the old stuff as fast as possible, survey stuff is piling up in Systems. Changeover from Mac to DOS should be complete by the end of the next fiscal year. Need to keep some units for shelf spares, try to keep 1 shelf unit for every 12 to 24 machines. No maintenance contracts, swapping parts saves on the budget.
CIRCA Classroom Accounts
  1. If teaching, get classroom accounts, end of class get cards back with passwords - passwords may expire at the end of day or may allow us to change the passwords, may allocate huge number of accounts, not reused when the class is over. Don't plan on reusing accounts and passwords.
Internet Problems
  1. Curse of Metcalf - Net is at capacity, small router errors took down America OnLine - campus access to military sites was a problem, have resolved this. If you notice repeat errors, may be routing. Next increment in service would cost around $170,000. Third World access is frequently difficult, if it is the whole continent, will trace.
Net Politics
  1. UFNET is officially disbanded - Sonny Johnson remains as a consultant for video, other staff quit. Network Resource Center was announced on the 25th - for network problems, call NERDC 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. To prevent overload of calls, call Systems first.
NT Server
  1. First server is up and operational in Business Services, printing is active, mail is in prototype
Florida Government Technology Conference
  1. Government agencies and vendors in Tallahassee October 7 to October 11. FCLA demonstrated last year, Sam Trickey had decided UF would not participate this year, Betty Capaldi decided UF would participate. Destry will go up on Monday to install the equipment. Bill Gates will give a speech via satellite. Library demonstrations will be online stuff which could be NOTIS, WEBLUIS. SilverPlatter WEBSPURR service - mainframe and disk farm - way to showcase SilverPlatter Web Service, could eliminate the CD access - updates better than the current servers - gets rid of the platform fight - users would be required to revamp their WEB browser, could have all the databases online, key search, then subset. We will be a BETA site for them for the NT server - consumer level hardware, some signons good until November 15. Government and Educational stuff, allows 8 simultaneous users. Conference is $10, long list of vendors, could carpool to go. 10 X 20 space to be shared by UF representatives.
JukeBox/Tower Management Committee
  1. Disruption of server service due to construction - theoretically should be able to continue service. List provided, if there was space, put it up. Access procedures are separable case, batch files need to be written, every machine is different, 150 CD's - liaisons - how to communicate out. List is not a problem, linkage is.
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    Last updated February 16, 2000
    by Debra Harris
    debharr@mail.uflib.ufl.edu