TEST DRIVE OUR CONFIG!

Howdy, everyone---

So, here in the Labs & Classrooms Office, we are diligently toiling away at our new computer lab configurations that are going to be deployed onto the labs & classrooms computers across all of Lesley's campuses..


To TEST these machines, we are placing them in various locations around the campus... at the Library, Science Room(s), Kiosks, etc... and if you see one, please feel free to give it a test drive!
If you notice anything kind of suspicious (e.g. a popup, notification, setting, etc.), OR if you want any additional software, please let us know by posting on our facebook page: 
http://facebook.com/lesleylabs

Be on the lookout for these labels:

Also,...
I recently wrote a letter to the faculty....

This is Richard Phung, the Labs & Classrooms Coordinator with UT here at Lesley University.
You are receiving this message because our records indicate that you meet at least one of the following criteria:

• You are a fac/staff who has used- or scheduled- one of our computer-equipped classroom(s) in the past year.  --- (e.g. Doble 3rd, 4th, Wolf 2nd, Training/Reading Room)
• You are a fac/staff who has used one of our mobile computing resources for checkout for a class or an event. --- (e.g. Laptop Cart, Classroom in a box, Loaner Laptops)
• You are a fac/staff representing a group that oversees/manages kiosk/public-access computer terminals, special purpose computing workstations and/or related facilities.  --- (e.g. Library, Math/Science, Media Center)
• You are a fac/staff representing an academic department or academic support entity (for both faculty and students) who use computer tools for learning or content access. --- (e.g. Instructional Support/eLearning, Academic Achievement, Accessibility, etc)

I am writing to fill you in on some innovations that we have made in the Labs & Classrooms Office and to invite you to join me in a collaborative effort to cater to our community with more efficient and better equipped computer tools.


The first major initiative that I have been working on is a Master Image, a customized computer configuration including the Operating System (MacOSX and/or Windows 7) and desktop applications.  This Master Image be applied to all Lab & Classroom computers on the Cambridge campuses, thus ensuring that no matter what location the end-users are sitting-down at, they are greeted with the same User Interface and updated desktop environment. 
*The 2nd phase of this initiative will be to custom-cater individual area computing resources to fit the needs of certain areas of academic focus.--- Please contact me directly if this is you.

I invite you and your colleagues to participate in our Master Image TEST DRIVE to get a first-hand look at some of the quality of life improvements and next generation configuration!

For this test-drive, I have installed a Vanilla installation on a handful of Dual-Boot iMacs, Dual-Boot MacBook/Pros, and IBM ThinkPad Laptops.
I will be placing these units in public areas/offices, and they will be available in our office for testing between Nov 10-Dec 1.
It would be helpful to take a minute to do the following:

• Review your curriculum and course materials on the workstations:
  • Test your media on the machine (including classroom documents, video/audio, etc)
  • Test your web content:  webpages, plugins, myLesley, other content sources
• Note any suspicious behavior:  pop-ups, dialogs, prompts, etc.
• Leave feedback

*IF you are a fac/staff and you have your own computing resources,  I would be GLAD to install our latest master image on any of your workstations to test-drive (so long as they meet our system requirements).  *Please contact me for details.

The important dates to note:

November 10, 2011 - December 1, 2011 -  I will be collecting feedback on these computer configurations.
Software purchases must be completed BEFORE December 1.  *normally, this is October 1, but we extended it.
Final Master Image(s) completed by:  December 7
Final Area-Specific Image(s) completed by: December 13
Early-bird Image Roll-out:  December 14 - December 20
Semester ENDS:  December 20, 2011
Image Roll-out:   *Varied between December 21, 2011 - January 20, 2012 --- *I will post these date/times on a calendar.


Additional Resources:
For information about the computers on the Cambridge Campuses, please visit the Labs & Classrooms website:
http://www.lesley.edu/ut/academic/software_labs_class.html

To see SPECIFICALLY what software is installed on the Master Image, please visit the Labs & Classrooms Image Version History:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Ak0iCSXaWrKadGlCMC11WDVEQ2FJYTBBVFpzX0Vvcmc&output=html
  NEW! To see the evolution of the Master Image since 2009, please visit this site:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/pub?id=1y6O5O1yzmBI7GvKilvxoGFoEJd9OpvsUsAcICmtbz8E&w=960&h=720



Thanks! And look forward to hearing from you soon.

--- Richard Phung, EdM
Labs & Classrooms Coordinator
University Technology

And there you have it!

New features to get you excited!

Warning: These projects have been discontinued by Labs & Classrooms due to changing internal structure.
As these features will remain live on external servers, they will NOT be used or endorsed by University Technology or Lesley University as a whole.  Thanks for checking them out anyway.

Howdy, folks---

As you may know, we at the Lesley Labs office are always trying to improve the communication of technology needs from the community.
And as such, we have put together a couple of new features that will help streamline the way we do things... and hopefully, the way you interact with us!


------------


First of all, we have installed a brand-new Equipment Reservation system that extends WAY beyond the simple click-here fill-out the form found on our current page:


OLD:
http://lesley.edu/ut/labs/equipmentreservation.html


NEW:
http://lesley.comxa.com/checkout


--------------


Secondly, we have added a question/answer section to our services...
so if you have quickie tech questions to ask, someone (perhaps your neighbor) can help answer those questions!  We give awards for people who help others the most *not to mention some other perks/benefits technology related! *wink-wink
Check it out by going here:


http://lesley.coxma.com/answers
*we are going 2-steps further than our old-school formspring.me account. LOL


(*** THESE PAGES ARE IN TESTING!!! --We need feedback from the community before we can go LIVE!!! let us know what you think!)

Lab Machines Ready for Testing!

Students, Faculty, Staff---

TEST YOUR PRESENTATIONS ASAP---

We have recently re-imaged computers in Wolfard and Doble.
As we understand the software configuration is stable and functioning, it is not unreasonable to expect technical difficulties with opening or viewing files and media on these machines.  These are often due to discrepancies with the version of software used to create the media, the format of the media, and codecs/plugins required to view the media.

*Even though we try to cover MOST bases with our installation, we cannot always guarantee that your media will work on our computers like they do your own computers.---- a common misconception.

To serve the community, we have provided sample machines from each of the computer areas on campus here in our office.
ALL members of the Lesley Community are welcome to come-down and test our computer configurations to see if they will work for your files or presentations.
If there needs to be any updates, we will be here to take requests in-person.

The longer you wait, the less likely we will be able to fix ANYTHING before your presentation or class meeting.

EVERYONE who uses ANY of our computers for any WORK should make an appearance in our office.

We are located on the Lower Level of University Hall (LL-010) and these machines will be here until March 4, 2011

---

In a letter to the faculty:

Hello, Faculty--

I hope you all had a splendid holiday.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you have been assigned one (or more) of the following classrooms as your designated teaching-space for the Spring 2011.

DOBL-309; DOBL-413; DOBL-415

WOLF-203; WOLF-204; WOLF-201

As many of you know, these are rooms that contain computer systems.

To update you on what’s going on, we are in the middle of re-configuring all of the computers, a process that is anticipated to take up the majority of the month of January. 

In an attempt to alleviate any software/hardware problems that may arise with your classroom materials, we have set-aside sample computers in our office (located at the HelpDesk Suite on the Lower Level of University Hall, LL-010) so that you may test your course materials and media PRIOR to the start of the semester.

We invite you to bring your course materials, multimedia, and a list of web-resources and give the computers a rigorous testing.  Any issues that come-up now will be documented and resolved before you start your class.

Here is a list of software that will be present on the computers:

*please keep in mind that without physically testing your media on our machines, there is NO guarantee that your media will function as expected regardless of whether it was made using the same software version or operating system.

On Mac

Adobe CS3 Design Premium -- Acrobat Professional, Bridge, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Reader 9

Ilife 09 -- Garage Band, iMovie 09, iMovie HD, iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, iTunes

MS Office 2004 – Excel, Powerpoint, Word

MS Office 2008 -- Excel, Powerpoint, Word

Safari 5, Firefox 3.6 +SilverLight

Google Earth, Google Sketchup, Picasa, Epson Scan Utility

FileZilla, QuickTime 10 +Windows Media Components, VLC, Audacity

Inspiration 8, InspireData, Tech4Learning (KidPix, WebBlender, TimeLiner, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Twist, ImageBlender, Frames, Pixie), Skype

On Windows

Adobe CS3 Design Premium — Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, Reader X

MS Office 2007 — Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word

Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 +SilverLight, iTunes

Google Earth, Google Sketchup, Picasa, ArcGIS, Kurzweil 3000, Epson Scan Utility

FileZilla, VLC, Audacity, BurnIMG

Inspiration 8, InspireData, Tech4Learning (KidPix, WebBlender, TimeLiner, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Twist, ImageBlender, Frames, Pixie), Skype

These machines will be available for you to test up until January 23rd, by which time we cross our fingers that everything is copacetic.  

Any questions, feel free to contact me directly.

Thank you, and have a great rest of the winter break

P.S.  If you, or anyone else you know, uses the laptop cart for any part of your instruction, a sample laptop cart configuration will also be available to test.

-- 

Richard Phung

Labs & Classrooms Coordinator

University Technology

Lesley University

Ph:  617.349.8819

Fax:  617.349.8989

Beta Test for Master Image

Warning: The content on this post was written while Richard Phung, the Labs & Classrooms Coordinator, held the title of Computer Lab Technician at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University.... the content expressed here is out of date, at best.

Things to do after installing new image:

Create local user account
User name: AIB Users
No password. Make it so that the computer auto logs in AIB Users.

Restart the computer and it will automatically log in as AIB Users

Change desktop background to the one that says "Save all files to temp storage etc." Background is located in the users>shared folder.

Change name of hard drive to "AIB HD"

Remove all links from the sidebar in Finder, all except "AIB HD".

Configure Applications. Open them to see if they work, insert serials when necessary. If a program asks if you want automatic updates, check/click no/never.

Customize dock. Applications that should be in the dock are:

Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Bridge, Painter, Toast Titanium, Word. On the dock there should also be a folder with internet apps and the Wacom Tablet Preference panel (this can be found AIB HD>Library>PreferencePanes).

Disable auto updates for Flip4Mac and Perian. To do this go to System Preferences. Icons for them will be at the bottom of the window under "Other."

Click on the Flip4Mac icon. Go to the "Update" tab. Next to "check for updates" click the drop down and select "Never".

Likewise, in System Preferences click on the "Perian" icon. Next to the "check for updates" button uncheck "Automatically Update".

-William