Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 04/30/2001 The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by fyfer. In attendance were Voting members: sly dmaze ingolia tibbetts lgdean yak arolfe golem jmorzins fyfer kolya |keithw Associate members: jhawk kcr tytso jweiss |zacheiss marc Non-voting members: Prospectives: mwp xela |lael kareid Guests: stevenl@imsa.edu Treasurer's Report: sly: I've been reorganizing the treasurer's drawer. There are 2 folders there: one for Quantum and one for Copytech. Put receipts there. Soon there will be an incoming folder for everything else. Ignore all of the old incoming folders from years past. Chairman's Report: Office Report: sly: We ordered the Kinesis keyboards. fyfer: We have chair issues. There was confusion last week on what chairs we were voting for. Does anyone know if the Herman-Miller chairs have a no arm feature? sly: No, but you can take them off. fyfer: Keeping in mind that the arms are removable, there are 2 options. Currently we have 10 chairs. 5 with arms, 5 don't. We're voting on 2 pink chairs, 3 steelcase with no arms. <8-1-2> Ok. So we won't vote on the second option. jweiss: Chair colors? I was going to buy pink ones since that what we have. Anyone prefer a different color? tibbetts: Yes. jhawk: It's good if the same style chairs are the same color. I think this is sufficient to override color preferences. ingolia: New pink won't be the same color as the old pink sly: The types of chairs are very different. tibbetts: I move that jweiss choose colors. sly: We have some machines that are using AUI. There have been problems with this. There are some inactive drops besides the broken ones. I suggest we use some spare money to activate some drops to alleviate the AUI and drop shortage problems. jhawk: I don't think there's any reason to move the machines from AUI, especially if the only reason is inadequate strain relief over the cable. But more drops for more drops is a good idea. kcr: How much does it cost? How does that compare to the cost of an ethernet to wireless bridge? sly: I haven't priced bridges. Drops cost $400 to activate if they exist. jweiss: There are several issues. By bridges, you mean Airports or similar devices? jhawk: No, the inverse. kcr: Yes. Wireless to UTP. keithw: Lucent sells one for like $200. tibbetts: We should get drops instead. jweiss: There are several drops that are inactive and that there are 1 or 2 in inconvenient corners. jhawk: I think that for all the inconvenient drops, we can use them with careful cabling. sly: I move we spend up to $1400 to activate three drops. <11-0-4> [sly allocation: $1400 for drops] sly: I'll probably wait for a month so we don't get the per day drop charge. kcr: If we can move office heads to wireless, it's cool to be able to rearrange without dealing with cables. jweiss: It's hot. fyfer: Is there a proper path of escalation? jweiss: If all the units are on or off and not spewing hot air, call Dept. of Facilities. kcr: The vent temperature has dropped by a degree since jweiss looked at it. golem: Did people discuss the color printer issue? I was suggesting a straw poll. fyfer: There has been talk of getting a color printer. jhawk: We might want a color printer for us and for users. There are lots of details to work out. I think it's premature to propose to allocate funds, but it's useful to do a straw poll. Issues: (a) Where to put it? It's not a replacement for the black and white printer. (b) Cost of consumables. Hotline might help. (c) I forget. marc: Modern color lasers have separate toner for black printing. jhawk: But they have reliability issues. sly: Color printers don't print as well in black and white. zacheiss: Agreed. fyfer: What would happen if we asked I/S to get a color printer for W20? jweiss: It would get discussed at an OWLS meeting. fyfer: Would they be willing? jweiss: It's possible. zacheiss: It would be worth asking. fyfer: Why don't we take a straw poll? jhawk: Who's interested in a color printer in the office? tibbetts: For use by users? jhawk: Not if it had a substantial recurring cost. The cost of consumables would come from somewhere else or it wouldn't be available to users. <6 in favor, 6 opposed, 3 abstaining> jhawk: Why did those who vote against do so? xela: I maintain them at work. They suck. dmaze: If there is demand for a color printer then people will print without asking so it will be clogged. It will also mean a continuous stream of people into the office. sly: My concern is that we've voting without having asked Hotline to see if they're willing to support it. tytso: The straw poll was constructed to not talk about why we have the printer. If it's just for SIPB, I don't think it's worth our resources. If for users, there are issues of cost. I'm uncomfortable either way. tibbetts: IS might support it to reduce load on 4-035. If IS will support it, why not put it in the cluster? jweiss: Getting it in the cluster might be better. fyfer: I'll send mail to OWLS. yak: I think everyone would be better if it's in the cluster regardless of who buys it. golem: Is there opposition to the phrasing of the poll or to the printer in general? SIPB sounds pretty lame in this discussion. sly: I don't see a necessary reason for a color printer to be specifically ours. It'll be locked up when no one is here. It's better in the cluster. jweiss: This discussion has run its course in the meeting and should go back to mail. Office Cleaning Report: jweiss: take down cans and bottles. MIT Computing Report: jweiss: There is wireless infrastructure in this building. It's not fully deployed. The ASO airport in the machine room has been turned off. See jhawk's email for more details. kcr: Does it work in Toscis? jweiss: More of the upper floors are done than the lower ones. tibbetts: Pismere deployed 6 machines. They sorta work. deathtongue is almost as current as they are. It has the wrong flavor; it's a server, not a workstation. zacheiss: It's after drop date but there's a scheduled upgrade tomorrow night for moira. keithw: Are we still on defcon4? jhawk: I've revised my assessment from any day now to any week now. sly: We should put ourselves at defcon3. For end of term. Computer Services: jhawk: The primary chilled water pump failed. The machine room got really hot, but it's fixed now. SIPB Backup Report: Publications Report: Orientation Report: aletta: I'm going to be working on the blurbs. They have to be in by the 18th. IAP Report: fyfer: Sherri has been appointed Czar in charge of IAP. She's trying to get input on speakers for IAP. If you have opinions, let her know. CokeComm Report: Other: fyfer: It's hot in here. Other Other: keithw: The appellate hearing for Universal v. Ramirez is tomorrow. I'm not going. $10 per minutes to watch other people get sued was not worth it. xela: I have a large 21" monitor that I'm about to post to reuse unless someone wants it. It's not working. The meeting was adjourned at 19:58. Minutes taken and submitted by arolfe.