20 March 2002

Macromedia Licence Agreement

The University has entered into a two-year Agreement with Macromedia to site license Macromedia applications on every computer the University owns, rents or leases.

The Agreement covers Dreamweaver UltraDev, Fireworks, Flash, Freehand, Director Studio and Authorware. Except for Authorware, which runs only on the PC, both Macintosh and PC versions of the software are available.

The software can only be used for educational purposes. Staff or students involved in commercial activities must purchase full copies of any applications they use for consultancies or to fulfil non-educational contracts. We have the option of granting limited Work at Home Use Rights to faculty and staff members. These rights permit the use of the Macromedia products on a personally owned computer for University work-related purposes only. Contact the helpdesk for further information.

TSU will install the applications in labs and staff machines as time and resources allow. Staff who have an urgent need for any of the applications should email the comedu HelpDesk with their request.

12 March 2002

Rollout of desktop computers

TSU rollout of staff desktop computers is complete. Any requests for new or updated computers should be directed through heads of school or unit to the comedu helpdesk, and will be considered in the light of available resources.

Electrical safety testing of equipment

An inspection and testing regime for the Division's electrical equipment must be put in place to satisfy our duty of care under, among other things, occupational health and safety legislation. A proposal has been put to PVC, and the issue is with VCAC.

Transition to UCSTAFF

What we're doing

Changing all staff from SLIE-DOMAIN to UCSTAFF.

Why we're doing it

Increase access and security for users.

When it will happen

Over the next three to six months.

What you have to do

Nothing. Technical Service Unit (TSU) staff will contact users individually to organise a smooth migration.

Tell me more

Over the next few months the Division will be moving progressively to the University's UCSTAFF domain, and away from SLIE-DOMAIN. Once in UCSTAFF domain, staff will have greater access to network services from any machine in the UCSTAFF domain, which includes computers in Category A teaching spaces and laboratories.

In conjunction with this move, the My Documents folder on all computers using Windows 2000 will be transferred to the Division's Network Attached Storage device (the NAS). All work in the My Documents folder will subsequently be stored on a central server away from your local machine, and will be backed up regularly both on the Division's server itself and in Building 10.

PCs using Windows 95, 98 or NT are being progressively updated to Windows 2000 and the transition to network storage and backup will coincide with the upgrade to Windows 2000. In some cases a new computer may be required and these are being rolled out progressively as resources permit. If you believe your computer needs to be upgraded please ask your head of school or unit to contact the Comedu help desk with the request.

Macintosh computer users will be able to connect to the NAS and store their work in much the same way as Windows users do.

Access to these individual workspaces will be possible (with appropriate permissions) from either Macintosh or Windows 2000 computers. Files can therefore be exchanged between platforms as long as file names conform to the Windows file naming conventions (files should have an extension, like .doc for Word documents, .xls for Excel, .pdf for Acrobat files, so that the files can be associated with their correct application on the Windows side).

Quotas limiting the space available for individual users will not be enforced initially. Storage will be limited only by the space available on the NAS. Usage will be monitored (down to an individual user's storage usage). If necessary quotas may be enforced later, or the NAS expanded if resources permit and requirements demand. We do expect the NAS to fill quickly, so be prepared for changes to policy on network storage.

Apart from investigations sanctioned under the University's policy on network access, an individual's own folder will normally only be able to be seen and written to by that individual. TSU supervisors will have access for technical management purposes and are bound by the University's network access policy.

There will be shared folders for each School, Centre or other administrative unit. These folders can only be seen by others in that School, Centre or administrative unit. There will be a folder that all staff of the Division will be able to see, but no-one outside the Division will have access to. Permission to write to these folders will be granted by the head of the School, Centre or administrative unit.

You will be given a new username and password to access the UCSTAFF domain. Eventually you will be able to use the same username and password you use currently to access the University's proxy and other central services, but it won't be possible to implement this until later this year at the earliest. It was decided not to wait until this service was available in order to facilitate staff access and increase security as soon as possible. Once the Division's organisational structure is mapped to the UCSTAFF domain, TSU staff will contact users individually to organise their changeover from SLIE-DOMAIN to UC staff.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this matter please email the comedu helpdesk.