Minimum Workstation and Software Site License Subcommittee Minutes

May 15, 2003
Meeting in AH-1120 at 10 a.m.
Diana Osborn, Chair

Calendar Committee Update
According to Diana Osborn, the Calendar committee met last Tuesday and decided to invite Microsoft and Novell to come back for more specific questioning on their products and give a demo highlighting the differences between their native and web clients. Meeting Maker has also been invited to give an update on their product. The committee has decided to drop further investigation of the Oracle product.

MacAcademy/WindowsAcademy Training
Carol Phillips updated members on her investigation of MacAcademy/WindowsAcademy's training products. Her recent email with the http://www.macacademy.com/sale/samples.html url, provided a visual sample of their CD training for Windows XP and Mac OS X (Jaguar). QuickTime is required to view these samples, while a Macromedia engine is used on the CD to display the training index and Quiz. Also available on that page are screen shots for the CD's Training Interface, Quiz, and Index. Each CD consists of approximately 2 hours of training. There are 4 CDs for Mac OS X (Jaguar) and 6 CDs for Windows XP. At http://www.macacademy.com/sale/cdosxjaguar.html and http://www.macacademy.com/sale/cdwindowsxp.html, you can see a list of topics covered in each CD.

The multi-user licensing is $590 for Jaguar and $885 for XP and would also allow either 20 individual installs or 20 users simultaneously accessing a server. Discussion was had on the possibly use of some kind of authentication for IT staff to access the CDs.

While their CDs are cross-platform capable, MacAcademy/WindowsAcademy suggested that the Mac OS X (Jaguar) CDs will require a Mac Server, and the Windows XP CDs will require a Windows Server. Their Customer Service has sent a Windows CD for testing with a Windows server. Per their tech support, we should also try running the Mac OS X.1 CDs that ITS has on a Mac server to see how things play. The Library is still willing to host the CDs on their servers, if the products are purchased.

After discussion, MWSSLS decided that Cyndi Chie and Carol Phillips would put together a purchase proposal with campus statistics and comparison pricing for Ethan Singer's review.

Blue Star XP Training
Discussion on the proposed Blue Star XP training revolved around the need for those, who have signed up with Steve Voelker, to coordinate with Steve on their source of funding (account number and authorizing signature). Steve will contact Blue Star to confirm whether they will accept multiple PO's or only a single PO and continue coordinating an acceptable training date for all parties.

Select and Apple CDs
Celia Chavez brought a CD case with a set of MS Select Agreement Applications CDs to demonstrate what she will receive for a master set of the Select Agreement Server CDs. She also announced that she has a set of Apple Mac OS 10.2.5 Update CD for checkout purposes.

MS Server 2003 Training
Celia Chavez explained that Carol Tohsaku was stepping away from the MS Server 2003 Training project due to her other deadlines. However, John Ross indicated to Celia that Carol Phillips would be available to assist her, if needed.

Celia ran into a glitch recently on what had been already agreed to on the training. Apparently, the training program had run out of funds and that was threatening our training dates. Then Celia, with a flurry of email/calls, received a confirmation that our training dates would be honored, as alternative funding had been found.

Celia circulated her list of signups for the training at the meeting, so all could check they were appropriately listed. She will be emailing the registration information out to the email addresses on the signup list. NOTE: This is for two full days of training for each of the 2 courses.

Diana Osborn reported that other UCSD IT staff, having attended this training, said "The training was good, because of the technical detail that is explained". She relayed that it will have a "Sales" flavor on the preview information presented and there would be no hands-on activity. The training is free, but worth approximately $600 each, if they had to charge us.

Macromedia Contract Update
Diana Osborn announced that the Chancellor's Office web site should be ready for ordering of all of the products on the new Macromedia Contract at the end of the month. Contribute should be in the $30 pricing range. Discussion ensued on the ordering procedures, as orders can be made for products that were previously on the old contract (i.e. DreamweaverMX, FlashMX, etc.). Departments will see their charges come through via a Plan of Financial Adjustments. It was noted that when the Department approver replies to Keith Wandrey's email, it is best to include the account number they want the charge to appear against. Otherwise, the Chancellor's Office may charge some other account associated with your Department.

Safari Online
The service known as Safari Tech Books Online is an online searchable text service of current and some older O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, New Riders, Prentice Hall, Peachpit Press, QUE, Sams, and Microsoft Press titles. It allows books to be swapped out for new titles monthly. Current SDSU trial is good through 6/3/03.

This service was demoed at IACC's May meeting and the response from IACC and MWSSLS members has been small. Comment was made from a MWSSLS member that a search on some categories showed that Safari did NOT have any new books and most of what was found was over a year old. It was noted that no wholesale printing is allowed, but sections of books can be printed. No copying of books in any way (CD or any other format) is allowed. Further discussion highlighted more questions and Diana volunteered to send these to Laura Hudson.

If MWSSLS members have not done so, please take advantage of the trial to browse and use the available books. It was suggested that a booklist of 50 to 100 would meet SDSU needs and be considerable less than the Chancellor's Office deal for the O'Reilly booklist. When sending your feedback on your interest in pursuing a deal, please include book suggestions that you would like to see on the booklist.

Laura Hudson has offered to coordinate a campus response, but will need MWSSLS assistance in possibly going directly to Academic and Business Affairs for funding. All MWSSLS members interested in pursuing a subscription contact for SDSU only should contact Laura Hudson (lhudson@mail.sdsu.edu)) with their feedback.

Minitab Announcement
The renewal of the Minitab software for the campus has increased to 100 licenses for personal computers with 75 slated for use in the Student Computing Center. However with that increase, it was decided by the campus to drop the 15 Solaris licenses. This means that Minitab will not be available on ROHAN. Diana indicated that the reason for dropping the Solaris version was that Minitab had not updated it since version 9 (PC version is at 13) and had stated that they would not be updating it. The cost per license on the Solaris side is also 3 times that of the PC version.

Next MWSSLS meeting will be June 19, 2003 in AH-1120 at 10 a.m.

PLEASE NOTE: The statements found on the MWSSLS Home Page are for informational purposes only. While every effort is made to ensure that this information is up to date and accurate, official information can be found in the University publications.

Last modified on May 19, 2003
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