Hardware/Software Standards Committee Notes
April 4, 2006
Present: Drake Lewis, John Vandercook,
Sharon Luciw, Bill Matsumoto, Stan Judkins, Willie Pritchard
Absent: Wayne Chenoweth, Jose Rueda,
Tom Lindstrom, Dan Mitchell, Penny Patz
Possible installation of "lo-jack" software" on laptops:
The committee discussed the installation of a "Lo-Jack" type of application
on all laptops (see http://www.absolute.com)
to enhance the recoverability of stolen or lost laptops. The application would
identify lost or stolen laptops whenever they are connected to the network and,
depending on the application, notify law enforcement agencies when it There
are two or three such applications available. Several questions were raised,
including he following:
- Is there a posted workaround on the net that would undermine the effectiveness
of the application(s)?
- How closely do the law enforcement agencies work with these products?
FH TS has installed "Stealth" on the machines in the Heritage Room,
but it's too soon to tell if it is effective. It was decided that we need
more investigation -- Terry will look into the products and report back at
the next meeting.
Setting the default browser on the disk image to Mozilla Firefox instead
of IE and/or Safari: The standards
committee recommended to users over a year ago that for security reasons they
should use Firefox as their standard browser instead of IE. Firefox
also works better than Safari on the Mac for applications that the ETS IS
department is developing for workflow automation. However, the standard
disk image for had not been set to have Firefox be the default on both platforms.
After discussion it was agreed to set the default browser in the disk image
on both Mac and PC platforms to Firefox.
Recommendation (or not) for a combo printer/fax/scanner/copier: John reported that they reviewed the HP5610 combo. John reported
that it works well, although not fast, and that the quality is good.
After discussion, it was decided to recommend it as a standard. It will
be added to the standards list and posted to the web asap.
Color laser printer standard (or not): There
was discussion about whether there is a need to have a color laser printer
standard in addition to the color inkjet standard. After considerable
discussion it was recommend that those users interested in purchasing a color
laser printer should consult with the Tech Services Supervisor on each campus.
The consultation will take into consideration given some of the following
issue: cost of printer, cost of supplies, cost of maintenance and amount of
use (volume, frequency). It was recommended that if a user or department
had little need for volume color printing that the TS Supervisor should recommend
that the purchaser consider other alternatives such as the college Print Shop
or use of an inkjet color printer.
Including iLife on the Mac image:
The question was raised about including iLife on all new Macintosh
computers as a part of the standard disk image. As it turns out the
iLife product is already being installed on all new Macs. However the question
was raised about ongoing maintenance and license costs for it. Is there
a similar program for iLife as we currently have for the operating systems?
Willie will investigate. The iLife software will be added to the standards
spreadsheet to reflect current reality.
Mac Mini as possible standard:
The question was raised about whether we want to reconsider the Mini as a
possible standard in light of the recent announcements from Apple, which improved
its specifications. Also there are some folks who have large flat screen
monitors but need a new CPU, so would a Mini be the appropriate solution for
them (instead of losing to flat screen to an iMac, or going all the way to
the more expensive G5 tower)? After discussion it was decided to defer
this decision until the next meeting when more members would be present and
Tech Services will have a chance to test a new Intel-based Mini.
Other items from the committee: A
question was raised about whether we should consider replacing Eudora with
a new email client. There was some dissatisfaction raised regarding
Eudora, especially in light of other, more modern, clients with better feature
sets which were essentially free to the district. Those other products
included Micorosft Entourage (for the Mac) and Outlook/Outlook Express (on
the PC), the open source product Thunderbird (for both platforms), and Mail
(on the Macintosh). Discussion ensued and it was decided to defer this issue
for further discussion.
A question about our licensing of Ghost software (which is our disk imaging
utility for PCs) was raised. Stan will check into it and report back at our
next meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30.
|
