January 31, 2011

Today's topics:

Scheduling Meetings

There has been quite a bit of confusion about how to schedule meetings using Outlook. Here's an attempt to clarify some of the elements involved.

• Exchange accounts, including room accounts, at Cornell start out with an owner and no delegates.
• Privileges are initially set to "Free/Busy time", which means anyone at Cornell with an Exchange account can see whether a person or room is free or busy at a particular time.
• It is possible for a person (or people that person has granted sufficient privileges to) to double book him/herself. No one should be able to double book a room except people with sufficient privileges.

• Meeting rooms that CLASSE staff use will have or already have:
  1. An room Owner (a member of the Computer Group)
  2. Default privileges changed to display "Free/Busy time, subject, location"
  3. People with room "Editor" privileges:
     1. everyone in CLASSE Business Offices
     2. another member of the LEPP Computer Group
     3. the PSB building manager has "Editor" privileges for rooms at the PSB
• Meeting rooms at Newman and PSB are already set up this way
• Meeting rooms at Wilson will be set up this way February 7, 2011
• Starting February 7, 2011, you should no longer be able to see in detail the calendar of a room in Wilson Lab when you book a meeting in that room. You will ONLY be able to see the subject and location of a meeting and whether that room is free or busy. This setup is designed to keep rooms from being double booked.

• Suggestions for scheduling a meeting:
  • When booking a room, USE THE SCHEDULING ASSISTANT
  • Make sure YOU are the meeting organizer. If you have sufficient privileges and you book a room with the ROOM as the meeting organizer, you might end up double booking that room WITHOUT KNOWING IT.
  • To cut down on the number of emails, invite the person or room that is hardest to book FIRST; then modify the meeting by adding other invitees after the initial invitation is accepted. Usually you should book the room first.
• Common Calendar Functions are described here: http://www.cit.cornell.edu/services/outlook/howto/calendar/index.cfm
• How to Propose a Meeting described on this page: http://www.cit.cornell.edu/services/outlook/howto/calendar/cal-meet.cfm

Printing

• The w267_xrx_3005 printer will be switched over from the lns61 print server to the cups print server. This will be transparent for most users and you will not have to make any changes. If you lpr to this printer (usually from a personal laptop), you will need to point your print server to cups.lns.cornell.edu instead of lns61.lns.cornell.edu.

Windows Backups

• The following Windows systems were not backed up this week because someone had turned them off: PC03 and PC6205. Please leave computers on even when you are finished using them.
• Note: Windows 7 systems are NOT backed up. Important files need to go on the samba servers. Some suggestions for appropriate locations are included on the Wiki page https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/DataStewardship

Windows Security Updates: system reboots

• Please logout when going home for the weekend to avoid loss of data.
• Security updates for Windows XP and Windows 7 are automatically distributed to LEPP desktop computers Sunday night on the weekend after they've been released by Microsoft. Typically Microsoft releases updates on the second Tuesday of the month, although sometimes urgent bug fixes are released at other times.
• Windows computers usually have to be rebooted after security updates have been applied. If you have an editing session open when a reboot happens, you will lose any unfinished edits or partially written output files.
• These updates are mandated by Cornell Policy 5.10, and must be applied within 7 days of the release by Microsoft. If your computer is asking to reboot to complete updates, you need to let it reboot.

Software Selection

• If you need to use software that isn't part of the Base Image on Windows or the Standard Install on Linux, please consider using software already in use and supported at the lab.
  • Example: Image Editing
    • Rather than using MSPaint, consider if Paint.net (Free) or Photoshop Elements (inexpensive) would meet your needs. They can produce compatible image formats if others need to edit your work later.
• The best way to find out what is in use and supported but not included in the standard LEPP distributions is to submit a service request. We are working on creating a "preferred software" wiki page for general reference.
  • Software which is included in LEPP's Windows "Base Image" is listed at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/StandardSoftware
  • Software which normally is included in LEPP's Linux systems is described at https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/LinuxSupport#Policies

Free Microsoft Office Training Manuals

• The most recent free manuals below are for Office 2007, which is the version provided on LEPP Windows computers.
• Title: Microsoft Office Training
  Description: Expert MS Office training in London and UK wide by Mouse Training
  URL: http://www.mousetraining.co.uk
• The manuals are available on the lower half of the Web page at
  http://www.mousetraining.co.uk/ms-office-training-manuals.html

X-Terminal replacements

• Several ancient NCD X-terminals and small-form-factor PCs used as X-terminals are being replaced by tiny Lenovo Q150 systems running Linux. They're small enough to be fastened to the backs of LCD displays where they're unnoticeable. The Q150s are dual-processor systems with roughly 2/3 the performance of LNX201, so we may be using these as general-purpose desktop replacements where CPU performance isn't an issue.

New SSL Certificates

• SSL certificates are used to encrypt passwords and other accesses to LEPP's Web and Wiki servers.
• All LEPP SSL certificates were updated on Friday, January 28. You will not notice any change if you are using the correct official URL (for example, https://www.lepp.cornell.edu). If you are using an alias instead (for example, https://www.lns.cornell.edu), you may be prompted to accept the new certificate.