Mac Tech 2013

Star Trek Bridge!

Folks form http://newstarship.com/ were there to display their Star Trek Bridge.  You could sit in the chairs and get your photo taken.  They were looking for volunteers to help with their effort to make the touch screens interactive.

Notes From Talks

Dave Maclachlan - iOS Development at Google. How we make it work.

• They use Sen Test, OC/Test, SC Test
• He wrote Cover story for code coverage
• Unit tests are the best documentation your code will ever had.
• Things Apple has done with XCode 5 are really nice.
• Having the number of tests without having coverage is not very useful.  XCode can use GCov.
• There is a NSUserDefaults setting that configure observers for code coverage.
• When working in real time at 60FPS, you have 16 msec per slice. Mac dispatching takes 4 of the 16 Ms so he uses C++.
• Good speaker, but the material was pretty deep and specific to unit tests and coverage.

Gwynne Raskind - Intro To Internals

• Talking about the internal hardware design of the Mac from a high level.

Peter Hosey  - Building Great User Interfaces

• Users are broken in that they are afraid of the computer.
  • They have been trained by bad interfaces.
• Respect The User
  • A person is not a machine and should not be forced to think like one.  The machine should conform to the user, not the other way around.
  • heeris.id.au - Jason Heeris Cartoon : http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-a-programmer
• Help The User
  • It is never the user's fault. The app should guide the user. If the user does the wrong thing, it's your fault.
  • Everything you tell the user should be actionable - even if the action is "wait".
  • Gestures are verbs, akin to keyboard shortcuts.
• Problems in your app are your fault, not the users.
  • Kill Gestures: The problem with Gestures is that you need to know that they are there which means you need a tutorial.  This means it's best not to use them.
  • Kill Dialog Boxes : Dialog boxes will yank the user from the think they are trying to do.  Dialog boxes can be a problem.
  • Kill Documentation : If you have to explain your application, there is a problem.  Fix the app instead of explaining the problem.
  • Care about the little things - they all add to become the difference between good and great.
  • An example of little thing - setting the keyboard type to use the "@" symbol on the login screen.
  • Another Example : Dialog box on empty trash.  For one, it's a dialog box. Secondly,  you have to cancel to know what you will do.
  • Test your app on regular, non technical users.
  • Kill Verbs that can be replaced with nouns.
• Not a bad talk. Peter always does well. Would be good to see this from an actual IXD person though.

Jim Rea; Constructing Lexers With Ragel and Objective C

• Gave a talk in 2010 about maintaining a code base. This year he's rewriting Panorama in Objective C.
• He writes tool used by Spreadsheets, Databases, Programming Languages.
• Allow the user to create formulas that will operate on values. Take a string and convert it to tokens.
• Parsing -> Tokenizing : Tokenizing can be done by char, NSScanner, NSRegularExpression.
• Also can use lex, yacc, bison, etc.  He's using Ragel which targets Objective C and supports Unicode.
• Ragel recommends that you install Mac Ports and use that to install their application.
• Showed examples of writing grammars and then handshaking with Objective C methods to parse formulas and numbers.

Vendor Forum : Adobe

• With creative cloud being in the cloud, how is it deployed?
• Creative Cloud Packager
• They have tools AAMEE, AUSST. They come together.  Home base update server.
• RUM - Remote data manager. Remotely invokes the Adobe updater.
• XDA - Exceptions deployer.
• Adobe CS4 would have taken 400 floppy disks.
• AAMEE 3.0 caused some problems for educational users.
• With creative cloud, the apps still live on the user's system. They are still installed locally. Users are not required to sign in to each machine. You do not need to be on line to use the software.
• Services such as shared storage and sync settings are in the cloud.
• Creative cloud licensing for the enterprise is serial number based.  The serial number based solution does not count your launches. Adobe does not monitor what is launched when.
• Talk of using serial numbers for installs. - They are "serialized". You can be serialized with a small number of users. They are going to trust you to manage your users on your own and not exceed concurrent users.
• This was a good talk if you are someone who has to deploy Adobe products to a large enterprise. I had no idea they had so many tools to help manage deployments.
• There was some mention of using Sassafras to manage license usage.
• Currently they expect that you need at least 100 users to be an Enterprise account. Though, they know there are people that are smaller and want to work off line.

Consuming Web API's the TDD Way : Luis Solano @luisobo

• Going to talk about good practices for networking code and real life testing scenarios
• Also going to talk about underlaying principals of TDD
• It's unfortunate that TDD has test in the name since it's really a design tool.
• He is using a testing framework called "QE" which has an "it" block. Uses Objective C.
• Tests must be isolated form undeterministic and slow dependencies such as the network, changing data, or databases.
• Tests should not be coupled with implementation details.
• You don't want to have failing tests while modifing both the tests and the implementation.  If you do, "git reset --hard"
• He released an open source tool called Nocilla that allows you to "stub the internet".
• Mentioned "Charles Proxy"

Joe Workman : Automating Business

• He started as developer working at companies, and doing projects on the side.
• He started charging and folks bought things. He then wrote a book.
• If doing something more than one time, figure out how to automate.
• Suggests using a Ticketing system instead of keeping things in E-mail.  He uses ZenDesk.
• Suggests against using PDF for documentation. Use live web pages.
• He suggests using Video Tutorials as much as possible.
• The video should talk you through the work flow.
• When hiring support staff, it's good to recruit customers. They are already your advocates.
• There is a package maker for Terminal commands (similar to mac ports).  http://brew.sh
• XCode ships with xcode-select, xcrun, xcodebuild
• He went through and automated everything in his life with Ruby.  Before Ruby, he used Perl.
• There were some automation talks at WWDC this year.  Changes in Apple script eleminated need for the TELL statements.
• XCode Bots are a new thing in XCode5. They are new.  Allows some build automation like Jenkins.
• Test Flight and Hockey App can be used to deploy tests.
• He's never met the support folks that meets for him. One in Vegas one in Minnesota.  He pays his guys $15 per hour. 1099 contractors.
• Cocoapods.org - Cocoapods allows you to use other folks open source tools in your project. "Ruby Gems for Cocoa".
• It's worthwhile to hire contractors to build more stuff. What about hiring junior people cheaply, like High School folks.
• Fresh Books is a good program for running your business.
• They use BitBucket for tracking bugs.
• Some talk of Tcsh, "Fish Shell", Csh, "Oh My CSh", Zsh.
• joeworkman.net
• 
  

Jeanette Lee : WiFi Design 

• #rukusgirl  jlee@ruckuswireless.com
• Channels 1, 6, and 11 suck
• Lots of AP's are on these channels and they collide.
• Power drops as an inverse square of distance.
• With the 802.11 protocol, if someone else is on their channel, they have to stop transmitting.
• Each channel is 20 Mhz.  There is now a 5Ghz Spectrum.  There is a lot more spectrum and more capacity.
• The individual channels are 20Mhz wide and do not overlap.
• These frequencies are also used for RADAR. If you hear something on that channel that sounds like RADAR, you are required to vacate for 30 minutes. These are called DFS events.
• You can have more access points not using the same channel.
• They use multiple antennas - called beam flex or beam forming. They try to make it directional.  Another trick is to try and transmit slightly out of phase and get a node where the person is sitting.  You can get 3db gain this way.
• The client has to support beam forming and give feedback to tailor the signal.  Though, there are no clients that do this so they have to do implicit beam forming where the AP Guesses.
• 802.11 MCS Rates - Your throughput will change depending on spacial streams.
• MIMO Technology - You need multiple antennas. Inputs/Outputs/Spacial Streams i.e. 2x2x1
• Option Key + WiFi on the Mac shows you what your Mac is doing. RSSI is not very usful.  MCS Index is important.!  SNR and MCS will tell the real story.  Data rate will always be changing.
• Example Slide RSSI: -31, Transmit Rate: 27, MCS Index: 1
• Mine Currently: -50, Transmit Rate: 216 , MCS Index: 15
• "inSSIDer" is a good tool.
• 802.11ac : 5Ghz only. GIgabit Wifi. Must be done in hardware.
• 802.11n was supposed to support 4x4, but stopped at 3x3.  Best to wait till Wave 2 of 802.11ac.
• 5Ghz goes about half the distance with the same data rate. 2.4Ghz
• Indoor AP's can run up to 1W, outdoor can run 4W.
• "Sticky Client Problem" - A client that connects to an AP, then moves.  The client has to decide to let go of the AP and use a new one.
• With Apple, around and RSSI of 80 is where the client goes to a new AP.
• With sparse AP's, lowering the power may help to make sure only clients that can actually talk to the AP's are connecting. Though, if you have sticky clients, it does not help.
• A Wireless controller will not help with the "Sticky Client" problem becuase the AP can not force them to go somewhere else.  They end up writing a lot of code to deal with bad clients.  They then kick the client off the AP when the signal gets too low.
• For the conference, they have 16 2x2x2 access points. They are all using 2.4 and 5Ghz.  Their pipe is 90 Megabits Per Sec.
• In this hotel, they had bad jacks.
• Hotel turned off their AP's where the conference is happening. Though, there is a ton of 2.4ghz traffic which made it un-usable.
• On channel1, there are 30 overlapping AP's.
• She had a client in Portland that had interference problem. They were in the middle of the woods. She went there with a spectrum analyzer. 2.4ghz went red for 10-15 minutes. Turns out they had 11 microwaves all going off at 3PM every day.

Jamie Newberry : Designing Engagement

• I really liked this talk.  I asked Jaimee to come give it for our team.
• @jaimeejaimee  bests.com jaimeejaimee.com
• Worked for Black Pixel after using them when she worked at Zappos.
• She's been doing all mobile stuff since 2010.  She has a UX background.
• You have to find out both who you are, and who your customers are.
• Been doing design work for the last 17 years.
• Ask the question, "If my product were a celebrity".
• When looking at a web form, think about the personality with the colors and symbols. For example, the login on Oprah's site vs a more playful one on Carbonmade.
• Personality informs everything!
• The OnBoarding process is really important.  Introduce the concept.
• Empathy Rules.  It's way more important than disruption.
• Simplicity is very hard. Editing, taking things away, is difficult.
• Define Your Objectives
• Games define their objectives. They don't cram everything up front.
• The personality of the product should be everywhere. i.e. Release notes, button text, etc.
• Bug reports should be fun as well.
• Example of Photomojo making a connection emotionally.
• Honesty is Important.
• Talked about Twitter moving from "What are you doing" to "What's happening"  A simply change in copy changed the possibilities with the product.
• Flickr has a downtime message that is a coloring contest.
• Review Your Product - Do a sweep. Think about.  There are Cheap, Delightful, and Engaging things you can do you to your product.

Angel M. Stone (TSE At Walt Disney Studios) - Documentation Can be a beautiful thing.

• Documentation is important, but it can also be fun and interesting.
• She likes doing documentation because it allows her to come to conferences, lowers the bus quotient, and helps her remember things.
• Documentation is changing.  No more simple text documents or even word documents.
• She's a fan of video documentation.
• She worked at a Catholic university and made videos for the Nuns.
• Think about the audience of the documentation.  What is the scope of their expected knowledge?  How often will it be updated. ?
• Know your clients - Know what your clients can and can't do.
• Know your team
• Pretend you are doing this task for the first time. (She didn't say it, but this is akin to putting yourself in the users shoes)
• Don't be boring. - No one wants to see your documentation if it is boring.
• She does not like Wiki's.
• Their help desk system comes back with "Have you tried doing this"... As they add more knowledge, they have more people clicking on the "have you tried" links.
• Separate documentation from what the product is, and how you use it.
• Folks went around and talked about documentation that was problematic.  i.e. Stick notes on the client's monitor, text translated from Russian, Old documentation for an old operating system.
• Error messages often need translation.
• She started talking a tiny bit about cognitive research.
• She still uses pages for documentation and builds her templates in pages.
• Zen Desk - Useful for integrating help. A lot of effort can go into making the site useful.
• One of the teams is publishing all their documentation as Google Docs in Read Only mode.
• Someone mentioned folks printing documentation and putting it on the wall and then it goes out of date.  To me, it seems this is done because 1) Docs are hard to find. 2) Fear they go away.  Angel said she fixes this by visiting users.
• She's been using Camtasia because it has editing built in such as Title cards.
• She walked through using Camtasia to record some documentation.
• She has "Stems" and the stems need to be named accordingly.
• Someone mentioned iFixIt and that they have a tech writing handbook.

Some Random Notes From Talks:

• There is a desire from folks to "Learn Terminal" - A new talk for next year?
• Listening to some folks, I wondered if a talk on Learning Spaces would be useful.

Python For The Sysadmin By Matt Schnittker And Greg Neagle

Greg and and I gave a presentation about python programming for the Mac sysadm.  The talk was well received.  Here is some Twitter feedback.

Some folks suggested that it would be good for us to give our python talk at UofPenn. Greg and I applied and will be presenting as a pre-conference workshop!!

Evening Events.

Mac Tech keeps you busy all day.  They feed you breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and plan evening activities well into the evening.  They want to make sure that everyone has a chance to talk with peers and share ideas well beyond the formal learning presented in sessions. One of the trips was to the Endevour Shuttle at the California Science Center.

What The Fox Say?

For those that don't have an army of kids keeping you informed on what is hot on YouTube, here's what's winding it's way through my kid's school this week - "What does the fox say?"

As with any YouTube hit, the amazing parodies quickly spawned.  Here's an SNL skit.

Some Books I've Enjoyed

I really enjoy Audio Books.Here's a few that I think are exceptionally good that others might enjoy as well.   

• Drive : The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us  by Daniel H. Pink - His companion TED talk is amazing and is my all time favorite TED talk.  
  
  
• Quiet by Susan Cain -  This is a very good companion to Daniel Pink's book and covers similar topics.  Understanding how different people communicate is an excellent tool to understanding and collaborating with others. 
• Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek - Simon Sinek is one of the most insightful folks you can learn from for building relationships and growing as a leader.  You can pick up a lot of the content from this video. 
  
  
• Resolving Conflicts At Work by Kenneth Cloke - I picked up this book while working on my Masters in Management.  If you've ever had to help resolve workplace conflict, this book has great methods to approach solutions. 
• Leading Change by John Kotter -  Also one I read while working on my Masters in Management.  Are you looking to implement change at work?  This book has a time tested recipe that can be used in almost any environment. 
• Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull - Ed is the founder of Pixar Animation Studios. Although this book focuses on Animation, it's a great book for leaders everywhere. Much of the content is covered in his Stanford talk.   
  
  
• Outliers: The Story of Success  by Malcolm Gladwell - Ever wondered how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates ended up where they are? This book explains a lot. The author has done some TED talks. both on The Norden Bombsight and Spaghetti Sauce.
• The Tipping Point : How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference  by Malcolm Gladwell - Another Gladwell Classic. If you liked Outliers, you'll like this one.  You can see his Crazy hair on his TED Talks.
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking  by Malcolm Gladwel - Talks about instant instinctive decisions we all make day to day.  Check out his TED talks on the Norden Bomb Sight and Spaghetti Sauce. 
• Click : The forces behind how we fully engage with people, work, and everything we do  by Ori Brafman - Talks about people that naturally get along and how effective they can be when this happens.  The author discussed the book in a talk at Stanford which you can watch to get the basic ideas.
• Made to Stick : Why Some Ideas survive and Others Die  by Chip Heath and Dan Heath - Ever wondered why fake e-mail and urban legends spread so easily? Ever wonder how to make your ideas propagate better? 
• Switch : How to change things when change is hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  Here is a video presentation on Vimeo about the talk.
• Rework by Jason Fried - Written by the creator of Ruby on Rails. They founded the company 37 signal. If you are curious about the author and his work, you can watch his TED Talk.
• Misquoting Jesus - The story behind who changed the bible and why by Bart D. Ehrman- The bible has had a profound impact on our culture. Yet, few take an academic or historical approach like Bart Ehrman.  More information can be seen by watching Bart Ehrman's Stanford Lecture.   
  
   
• The Bible Says So by Dan McClellan  - In today's politically challenging and divisive times, the Bible is often use as a bludgeon in the political arena.  Dan takes an Academic and Historical approach to firebrand topics such as homosexuality, abortion, slavery, and monotheism to show that the bible does not say what you probably think it says.  
• The Victorian Internet  by Tom Standage - Yes, the Internet existed in the 1800s.  It was called the Telegraph.   This book is amazing and a great history lesson!!!

Learning Spaces In Cyberspace

We humans are naturally social creatures.  Communication is the glue that binds us.   It is only natural that the digital world we have created reflects our love to communicate.  We have been communicating for hundreds of thousands of years.  Have the ways we communicate stayed constant? Are there fundamental things we do that are innate in who we are?

 

 Learning Spaces

I found a similar question being proposed by Dr. David Thornberg  in his article Campfires in Cyberspace: Primordial Metaphors for Learning in the 21st Century  Much of our learning happens through communication so this seemed to be relevant.  He categorized learning into three different  categories called "Learning Spaces". Each learning space serves a different purpose and a successful learning experience requires all three of these.

Learning Space	Learning From	Purpose	Real World Examples
The Campfire (Lecture Space)	An Expert	One person telling a story.	Lectures, Radio, Television
Watering Hole (Collaborative Space)	Each Other	Many people discussing a topic	Panel discussions, Meetings, Telephones
Cave (Reflective Space)	Yourself	A place to be alone and think or research.	A walk in the park, Reading a book

For example, at a conference, you learn more if you have a chance to go to Presentations (Campfire), Discuss ideas with others (Watering Hole), and think about the the things that were presented and what they mean to you. (Cave).

 

Learning Spaces In Cyberspace

In the digital world, we see examples of all three as well. The most successful communication applications have a clear mapping to a learning space.

Learning Space	Types Of Service	Digital Examples
The Campfire (Lecture Space)	Push	Blogs, Twitter, Facebook Timeline
Watering Hole (Collaborative Space)	Interactive	E-Mail, Jabber, Yammer, Skype, Facebook Chat
Cave (Reflective Space)	Pull	Research tools like Wikipedia or Google

 

Google Apps For Education

SCVi Charter School makes use of Google Apps For Education which provides us with some great communication tools. Some of these tools include :

• Blogs : One person speaking to a group over time.  Postings are generally like journal entries and have a specific publish date, though they can be modified.  People can post comments, but everyone can see them so they are like an open forum.
  
• Groups: This is meant to be an area for discussion. It's interactive. Not good for "publishing" content as much as it is a way to have a searchable archive of conversations. You can have conversations go out through e-mail or have folks log on to see them.  They are not publicly visible like a blog usually would be.
  
• Sites: A place to publish different kinds of content.  Can be changed regularly. No inherent time associated with a posting.  Gives the most flexibility. Comments and discussions can probably be worked into this.  
• GMail: Google's E-mail service.
• Docs : Provides the ability to work collaboratively on content.

These products are intuitive because they can be mapped to learning spaces.

Learning Space	Google Product	Example
The Campfire (Lecture Space)	Blogs, Sites	A single storyteller publishing content.
Watering Hole (Collaborative Space)	GMail, Groups, Docs	Collaborative work or communication
Cave (Reflective Space)	Google Search	Research tools that allow you to discover on your own

 

Another Example : Jive SBS

Jive SBS is a "Social Business Software"  that is often used inside companies to facilitate internal communication.  One clever thing about Jive is that intrinsically provides different avenues for different learning spaces. Here's a few of the Jive content types that  map to learning spaces.

Learning Space	Jive  Content Type	Description	Typical Content
The Campfilre	Blogs	One Person talking to a group over time	Meeting Notes,  Reports, Events
The Watering Hole	Discussions, Polls	Interactive discussions outside of an e-mail thread	Problems, proposals, new ideas
?	Documents	Collaborative living documentation	Documentation, Policies, Procedures

Notice that it's not clear if a Document is a Campfire, Watering Hole, or Cave.  The problem here is that, unlike Google Docs, the Jive docs to not allow real time collaboration.  This keeps it from working very well as a watering hole.  This also makes it confusing for people on when to use documents at all.  This divergence from our naturally understood methods of communication is bound to cause confusion.

Summary

So, When looking at how you communicate in an organization, the closer you can come to using our intrinsically understood learning spaces, the more likely you'll be able to find something that works.

How To Speak Teenager

Does your middle or high school student seem to be speaking a language all their own? Do they have words in their vocabulary that you aren't sure even exist?    Keeping up with it all can be a bit of a chore. For folks who are finding difficult to keep up, maybe this will help. 

• Yolo - You Only Live Once
• Although you would expect this to be used  in situations where one is being encouraged to take a risk or explain a mistake, it's often used  as a synonym for good. i.e., "that movie was so yolo". The actual intention has to be derived from the context.
• Swag - Ridiculous Clothing or Behavior - Secretly We Are Gay
• This term is usually meant as an insult to say a person is behaving badly or wearing ridiculous clothing or jewelry. It's usually used in phrases like "That guy is oozing swag." or "You are dripping with swag".  Note that for people over 30, Swag used to mean the stuff you get at conferences or things given away at parties.  This meaning appears to have expired, but it's similar  in that it can refer to little shiny trinkets of stuff.
• Pawned - Owned, Defeated
• This is pronounced "powned" and is a derivative of PWNED from Leet. The person who was "pawned" is the one who lost a game, argument, or competition. It's typically a very solid defeat. i.e. "12 frags in a row, I totally pwned him". 
• Hash Tag - "#" meant to signify an interest, significance, or subject in a phrase
• Hash tags are used on social media and chat applications to signify a subject or interest. i.e.  "Having dinner with old friends is such #goodtimes." Using a hash tag allows others to "follow" conversations about this subject and search on when a subject was discussed. In most cases, hash tags can be created "on the fly" and be whatever you want them to be.  This can be used in speech as well. If you spend some time in a middle school classroom you may hear the word used repetitively to give emphasis to what someone is trying to say. For example, "that minecraft mod is so hash tag awesome".
• Noob -  Someone with little knowledge, experience, or ability.
• Noob often also implies that someone thinks they know more than they actually do. This is usually used as an insult. For example,  "He's such a Noob!". If you want to add extra emphasis, you can call them a "Nooblet", like.  "You are totally a Nooblet!" 
• R-Tard - Retard, someone who is not intelligent.
• This is just a newer version of the age old insult, "retard".
• LOL -  Laughing out Loud" or sarcastically, 'I don't really care. "
• LOL started as a texting shortcut for "Laughing Out Loud".  It is used in spoken language as well by just saying the letters "LOL" or sounding it out "lol".  Over time,  it became so over used, it started to be used sarcastically.  Now, when used,  it could mean either that the speaker thinks that something you said is funny, is signaling a complete lack of interest, or just has nothing to say and wants to break the silence.   i.e.  Teacher: "Class, we have a paper due tomorrow." - Student to his friend: "LOL".
• XD - "XD Face", from the emoticon XD.
• The XD emotocon is a smiling face with crossed eyes. When used in spoken language, you can say "XD Face" or just "XD". It is similar to LOL in that it can be used as an acknowledgement, or to show that you were entertained by what someone else has said. 

So, now when your kid walks into the room and says, "Hash Tag YoloSwag".. you'll at least have some idea of why the other kids all start laughing. 

SCVi 2013 Projects

We've got a lot on our plate at SCVi over the next year and we could use lots of help!!  We took a pass at listing everything we know and what we think will be needed to accomplish these tasks. Of course, these are only estimates and estimates can be way off, but we at least wanted to get an idea of the relative scale of the different tasks.

• SCVi Admin Trailer has Internet And Phones
• We are expanding into a trailer behind what is currently Higher Vision Church.  We need to pull the Wireless bridge, router, cabling and phones and move it into the trailer. 
• Internet In New High School
• SCVi high school will be moving into the building that is currently Higher Vision Church.  We need to make sure they have Wifi. We may either bridge this from the main school campus, or set up a new provider.   If it is a separate drop, it will also have separate phones and a separate phone system.
• New High School Has Phones
• If we do a wireless bridge, we can tie the new High School into the main SCVi phone system.  If they have separate internet, this will be more difficult. We need to figure out what we will be doing and then make it happen.
• Summer 2013 Classroom Moves
• Every time a classroom is moved we find it takes about 3 hours of labor.  It is expected that several classrooms will move during the Summer of 2013.
• Phone System For iLead
  • A new phone system has been purchased for them.  Someone at iLead will need to install it.
  • Folks involved : Daniel Glen, Matt, Shannon, Lynn Boop, Natasha
  • Estimated Effort : 32 Hours
• ERATE 2013
• We have several bids from different vendors. We need to look at them and determine which will work best for us.
• Increased Internet at SCVi
• Once we choose an ERATE vendor, we need to look at increasing Internet bandwidth at SCVI and what will be involved in that
• iLead Internet Filters
  • We currently use OpenDNS for internet filtering and CIPA compliance at SCVi.   It's always been free,. but the service is being retired so we are going to have to find something else.  We are doing ERATE at  iLead Lancaster so we now need to add filtering for them as well.
    I started looking at a replacement that we can use at both sites.  The direct replacement for OpenDNS is called umbrella,. and it's expensive,. about $4,000 per year!   We are going to be obligated to have something so I don't see a way to avoid having this as a budget item.  There may be some other devices or services that are cheaper, but it sounds like this is an expense we're going to get stuck with one way or another.  
  • Folks Involved : Matt, Shannon
  • Estimated Effort : 16 hours
• Internet For Breezeway
• We purchased an outdoor access point that we believe will provide strong internet for the breezeway and parts of the cafe. However, it appears we got the wrong one.  We can probably make it work, but it will take some time to figure out. 
• Folks Involved : Matt, Shannon
• Estimated Effort : 8 hours
• Estimated Cost $100
• Wireless Network Accounts
  • We want each person on the wireless network to have their own account.  We hope to accomplish this by logging in with our Google ID's.
• Implement Adobe Cloud
• We have purchased 14 Adobe Cloud licenses.  We need to see how these can be use don Island or Apple Laptop Cart machines.
• Tech Ticket Web Site
• We have been using http://www.scvitech.com.  Though, there have been problems with reliability.  What other options do we have?
• All Technology Inventoried
• We need to know exactly what we have at the school.  Every computer, monitor, iPad and network switch should have a property tag and a vital statistics stored.  We should be able to know how many we have a particular type of computer, processor or iPad model.
• School Checkin / Google Intetgration
• We want to be able to send an e-mail to parents that don't have enough volunteer hours.  We are experimenting with google groups to send mail through \  volunteers@scvi-k12.org or  parent.volunteers@scvi-k12.org.
• If you add folks through the Web interface, it sends them an e-mail so we need to write a script that will create the group through GAM.
• The school checkin does not have e-mails so we'll need to merge two different lists in software and use that to generate the google group.
• Also looking at automated ways we can add and delete users from the system based on the school roster.
• JB is looking at backups and upgrades for the system as well.
• Folks Involved : Matt, Shannon, Cheryl Sena, Christine Chane, Ronald Johnson
• Estimated Effort : 12 hours
• Learners Can Checkout Laptops
• We will need to purchase  chrome books, a few Mac Airs and a few ipads for learners to check out and take home for short periods of time.  The computers on the carts need to stay on the carts.
• Paperless Business Office
  • We'd like for Accounting and records to be stored paperlessly. This will mean scanners and backed up reliable storage.  We are currently thinking 3 paper scanners.
  • http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=soho&cs=ussoho1&sku=A5718569&dgc=SS&cid=255160&lid=4522435&acd=12309163088460810
  • http://mashable.com/2010/05/01/small-business-paperless/
  • http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/switch-to-paperless-office.html
  • Estimated Cost : $6,000
• Electronic Time Card System
  • We purchased a time card system that will require IT support to get set up and configured. A lot of concerns have been raised as to whether this is a good fit for the school. We want to verify that this is the best option before we invest the work in deployment.
  • Specific concerns have to do with the "Punch In"/"Punch Out" time clock nature of the system since many people work from home and don't want to have to drive in to the school to punch in.
  • Some of the requirements that have been requested:
  • Remote access for folks working from home
  • Web interface to view and edit hours for use on iPad, iPhone, Mac, Linux,. ChromeBook,. etc.
  • Folks Involved : Matt, Ceci, Amber, JB Marsh
  • Estimated Effort : 40 Hours
• Network Documentation
  • We've made a lot of changes to our network over the last few weeks.  We need to document how these changes were made so that  IT staff can maintain these changes.  We need to document the commands and process for the following.
  • Static routes set up for the phone system.
  • Configuration on Ubiquity Dishes
  • Configuration on small Cisco switches.
  • Configuration of switch in 2'nd grade
  • Folks Involved : Matt, Shannon, Daniel Glen
  • Estimated Effort : 24 Hours
  Nightly Ubuntu Update
  • We'd like our Unbutu machines to run our update script every night. This can be done by CRON. Anything we need to do to make sure the machine is in working order should be added to the script.  
  • Folks Involed : JB Marsh, Matt
  • Estimated Effort : 8 hours
• Island Computers
• The tables in the Island need to have computers set up on them.  All the table space should be available for use with computers.  The tables in the middle of the room probably need to be secured for earthquake safety.  We'll probably put the light computers (Mac Minis) in the middle table and Heavy HP 8200 machines along the wall. 
• Folks Involved : JB Marsh, Kay McElvain
• Estimated Effort : 24 Hours
• Deploying Computers To Classrooms
• We have a lot of computers configured in the Island. We'd like to get them deployed to classrooms.  There are some issues that need to be resolved here:
• Network problems in Room 219. They would like 4 computers added.
• Tables in 2'nd grade are too tall for use by learners. Either need new tables or tall stools.
• Folks Involved : Kay McElvain, JB Marsh
• Estimated Effort : 40 Hours
• Phones Cont'd.
• We don't have all our phones up and running yet.  We need to get more phones set up in Maui Wowie as well. This may involve running extra cables in Maui Wowie.  We may also need to add phones to the Cafe.
• Folks Involved : Shannon
• Estimated Effort : 8 hours
• All Printers On The Network
• We have printers in most classrooms. However, not all are on the network.  We'd like all printers to be available for printing wirelessly. 
• Folks Involved: Shannon, Kay McElvain
• Estimated Effort : 24 Hours
• Estimated Cost $300
• Synology - SCVi Cloud Music and Photos
• We have purchased a Synology NAS to use for  picture and movie sharing. 
• Folks Involved : Matt, Shannon, Tad Miller
• Estimated Effort : 40 Hours
• Disney Computer Donations
• Disney will be donating more computers and maybe a cabinet for the server room
• 2014 Computer Purchases
• We may need to buy more Facilitator laptops in 2014.
• Donated Network Equipment
• We have a coule Cisco 4507 Catalyst switches and a Foundry POE switch we could be using for our network.
• Island Comm Closet Spaghetti Mess
• Our comm closet is a disaster!  We need to get wires organized,. maybe add a rack or turn switches around for better access.
• Cable Management / Tidy Byte
• Besides getting computers put into the classroom, we want to make them look good.  Wires should be minimally visible and CPU's should be tucked into places where they don't interfere with hands and feet. 
• Also open up machines and remove dust that has clogged fans.
• Folks Involved : Looking for fresh meat!
• Estimated Effort : 8 Hours
• Music In Hallways
• We'd like music playing in our hallways and we'd like a central PA system that is connected to it.  We should be able to bring learners back from lunch using this system.
• Televisions In Lobby
• We'd like to place televisions around the school. We'd like to stream video content to them.
• 3 at the front door
• 1 at the end of the high school hallway
• 1 outside the Island
• Estimated Cost is  $2,000
• Apple TV's in all Classrooms
• We would like to purchase an Apple TV for every classroom projector
  

Sending Mail From A Google Group

Google groups are a great way to address a group of folks under a single e-mail address.  They can be used for announcements and discussions.   At SCVi Charter School, we use them for two basic purposes.


1) A way to address many users under a single e-mail.Having a group with many users allows you to address many people at once. You don't  have to worry about whether you CC'd or BCC'd them, you simply send to the group and everyone will get it.  It is a very useful way for a Facilitator to address parents or for a a club to addres it's members.
 
2) A way to have multiple people read the same mail accountThere are times when multiple people want to be able to read messages going to a single mail address. They can all be given access to a group where they can read mail sent to the group, or even send mail as though it comes from that address. Since groups allow you to send mail as the group, it is o a way to show a mail as coming from a "generic" address such as "school-mascot@scvi-k12.org". Many folks may read, or send mail from the address, but it always appears to come from the same user.

This posting walks you through sending mail from a group instead of as an individual. This assures that replies go to the entire group instead of just one person. Anyone who is a owner of a group can do this. Here is how it is done.

1)  Go to the group page. 

You can see all your groups at SCVi by going to your groups page.

https://groups.google.com/a/scvi-k12.org/forum/#!myforums

As you can see here, I am currently a member of 4 groups and they are all listed on this page.  You can select the group you want to send mail from.

 2) Start a new topic

Once  you have selected the group you want to read, select "New Topic".

3) Choose to post as the group.

You'll notice that there is a "By" option for who should send the message. You can choose to send on behalf of the name of the group you are reading.

4) Send your message!

Your message will appear to come from the group instead of from an individual. Folks can then log in to the group and continue the discussion.  Here is the discussion I sent. You can see that it shows as being sent from "technology" instead of from myself.

But Wait,. There's more. 

If you have a group that you ALWAYS want ALL messages to show as coming from the group instead of as an individual user, you can set up the group this way.  First go to the Manage section (button in upper right hand corner):

Then under Settings:Email Options set the Post Reply option to "To the entire group."