Archive for March, 2004
March 26th, 2004 by Dana Roode
Oracle Calendar (formerly CorporateTime) is an on-line calendar service for faculty and staff operated by NACS for campus units. Users can schedule meetings with one another as well as manage calendars on others’ behalf. More information can be found at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ct/
Oracle Calendar also accommodates schedules for rooms or equipment. Called resource accounts, the agendas for these items can be shared within a unit or a specific set of people. Resource accounts are available at no cost.
The School of Information and Computer Science is one unit on campus using this feature. It allows ICS faculty and staff to check the availability of conference rooms managed by the ICS Dean’s Office and to request reservations for these rooms.
ICS staff and faculty can check room availability on-line and then send Diane Triantis (dtrianti@uci.edu) an email to reserve a room. ICS staff and faculty who need assistance with the installation and use of Oracle Calendar may contact Janet Salk (jsalk@uci.edu).
Departments who are interested in using Oracle Calendar to schedule shared resources are invited to contact NACS (nacs@uci.edu, x42222).
March 26th, 2004 by Dana Roode
Among the tools and services for instructional computing on the EEE server is the “Chat” tool. Chat lets you communicate with your students in real-time over the Internet. Some of the ways Chat might be used in instruction are:
- Hold virtual office hours
- Run Exam review sessions
- Form groups of students and practice writing in a foreign language
More information about the chat tool can be found at http://eee.uci.edu/toolbox/chat/
Using Chat requires a valid UCInetID. You will also need to use a Java-enabled computer to enter a Chat room. This may involve downloading and installing Java on your computer. NACS managed instructional and drop-in labs are already enabled. Contact NACS if you need any help with Java.
March 26th, 2004 by Dana Roode
The Environmental Health & Safety building was running out of copper cable pairs that provide the building with telephone service. This limited the ability to add more telephone lines to the building. Todd Strand, NACS Infrastructure Engineer, re-designed the outside plant cable infrastructure in this area to solve the problem. The design and implementation was complicated and required careful timing and coordination.
To implement Todd’s solution, Facilities Management electricians trenched, installed cable, and created a new cable vault in front of the 66 KV Electrical substation. Then a cable installation contractor spliced the cables to reroute telephone services and to provide the additional required capacity to EH&S. All of this work was performed in a way that minimized telephone service outages.
March 5th, 2004 by Dana Roode
In partnership with Biological Sciences (Bio Sci), NACS recently completed the installation of UCInet Mobile Access wireless networking in McGaugh Hall using a new higher speed wireless network technology called 802.11g (”11g”). This is the first 11g service installed at UCI.
The 11g technology can perform up to five times as fast as the 802.11b (”11b”) wireless technology used at UCI until now. Another advantage of 11g is that it is “backward compatible” with 11b network cards, so computers that have worked at other UCI wireless sites will still work at BioSci (albeit at the slower speed). NACS will soon be installing 11g in Steinhaus Hall.
March 5th, 2004 by Dana Roode
Due to the widespread availability of cellular telephones, the use of campus payphones has dropped dramatically. As a result, NACS has selected a new payphone vendor and has been reviewing the number and location of payphones on campus. As of early 2003, there were 165 pay phones on the main campus. There are now 30, and we are in the process of moving some of these to more convenient locations. If you have input on payphone locations, we would like to hear from you.
March 5th, 2004 by Dana Roode
The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) has been building a new regional network which will assume the name of the earlier California Research and Education Network (CalREN). CalREN will provide gigabit connectivity to all UC campuses, the Cal State system, and some private universities. Ultimately, CENIC will include (at more mainstream data rates) all educational institutions in California. At present, the entire UC system has been connected.
The new CalREN network is the first multi-tiered, statewide optical network of this type in the nation, and it provides advanced services to major research entities in California, including CAL(IT)2 which is based at UCSD and UCI.
For more information about CENIC, go to http://www.cenic.org/ . For more information about CalREN, visit http://www.cenic.org/CalREN/index.html . Finally, for information on CAL(IT)2 research programs, go to http://www.calit2.net/