Archive for September, 2011
LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How LRC staff can group calendars in Outlook 2010
2011/09/28
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- You can save the currently loaded calendars as a preset or “group” from the ribbon in the calendar view of outlook 2010, like so:
- The group and its members will be added to your calendar tree, and you can load all members with one click, like so:
- Then you can create multiple presets which correspond to your typical workflows: E.g. when you do not have to check the availability of equivalent sets of equipment, you may want to have an easy overview of staffing in the LRC:
- Note that – while we have to load individually the calendars of other mailboxes we own –, calendar groups we create in Outlook are automagically mirrored in OWA
- But the calendar names get lost in the process? And: the batch select checkbox is missing. And: only up to 5 calendars can be viewed in OWA simultaneously. And: OWA does not support overlay mode for calendars.):
- It would be great if calendar groups, with the help of ActiveSync, even worked their way through to mobile devices, but apparently they do not:
LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How to display a Room/Staff/Tutor calendar aggregate at the reception desk using live@edu
2011/09/28
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- The LRC needs an overview aggregate calendar of its many rooms and services for clients in the entrance area. This should be always on display on the higher one of the reception area dual screen computers when screens are in extended mode
- From the calendar mailbox in OWA , these calendars can and have been published to the internet.
- LRC assistants can load and bookmark multiple (published or shared) calendars in their OWA, but there are limitations
- We do not want to clutter LRC Assistants OWA with LRC calendars more than we have to.
- OWA displays calendars (currently = 2011) only side-by-side, there is no overlay (=aggregate) mode like in Outlook 2010, and only up to 5 simultaneously, again unlike Outlook 2010 (30) (Students do not have Outlook (although it is being considered installing it on student staffed computers).
- A standard web browser allows for display of only one (HTML) calendar at a time in a web browser.
- ICS compatible applications like live@edu
- LRC assistants can load and bookmark multiple (published or shared) calendars in their OWA, but there are limitations
- can display many (=aggregate) ICS-based calendars in overlay mode.
- In addition, it is easy to change the display color (like in Outlook 2010) and display color (unlike in Outlook 2010, for me at least).
- In live@edu, this looks promising:
- To display more meaningful/less misleading subjects than “Busy” for pseudo-rooms (“offices” like LRC assistants or language tutors), add a subject (office name “LRC Assistant”or max class-level tutored).
- To have LRC assistants easily and consistently load this aggregate calendar view,
- we need to give tutors the password to uncc-lrc credentials – being “friends” not enough (which makes their own access to SkyDrive which we finally achieved yesterday useless – unless they log in as themselves and as uncc-lrc in 2 different browsers)
- However, I have not found a way to aggregate calendar ics files and display them without password (ideally in Joomla)
- Workaround: use a AutoIT auotmation script that runs when LRC Assistant logs in form the All users Startup Folder.
Skydrive@uncc.edu
2011/09/27
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- Ninermail’s live@edu implementation includes SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud document sharing and collaboration solution,
- Log in with your UNCC credentials at http://skydrive.live.com:
- OK, you may have to reset your password, then log in:
Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors
live@edu, MS-OneDrive
How to play unplayable DVDs with VideoLan VLC-Player
2011/09/24
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If you run into problems playing a DVD video – either since there is no (non-free up to Windows XP) DVD-decoder installed on your computer, or since the DVD was not mastered properly for your DVD-playing software – and if you have VideoLan VLC-Player installed – like on the teacher computer in the LRC main classroom–, you can work around these issues by right-clicking on the Video_TS.vob file – which you will presumably find in the Video_TS subfolder if you browse your DVD as a disk with Windows Explorer (usually drive D: – you may haveto bypass your default DVDS playing software to get in there– and choose from the context menu either directly to “Play with VLC” or via “Open with”, like in this screenshot:
Categories: e-infrastructure
copyright, DVD, DVDs, video, videolan, vlc-player
How not to book LRC equipment: Scheduling conflicts
2011/09/23
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- Do not send a meeting request to an item for a time when the item has a prior meeting request.
- The tab: scheduling assistant within the meeting request you edit is there to tell you when items have prior meeting requests.
- A “blocked” timeline denotes a prior meeting request: The item has already been booked (solid block) or requested (hatched block) during the start and end time of your meeting. Do not crash their party.
- “blank” timeline means “item is free”. Go ahead: You can request a meeting with this item between your start and end time.
- Once you have this overview, you can easily remove, by right-clicking on the resource, extra resources that you cannot book or could, but which you do not need:
- Once the university has mail-enabled your cloud-accounts on campus, we will have a computer decline such conflicting requests automatically, and force you to start over with a new meeting request. It will be still worth your while memorizing the above: You can save time and avoid disappointment.