IT server upgrade

I filed a ticket to ask our IT folks to upgrade PHP on our virtual machine server. Turns out the easiest and safest way to do that was to upgrade the entire OS and all dependencies, so we scheduled that for this afternoon. They just finished upgrading the server, and we now have a shiny RHEL5 box running PHP5. That means next week I’ll be moving our TLC website onto the VM, as well as migrating wiki.ucalgary.ca (and finally upgrading it from 1.6.10 to 1.13.0) Woohoo! Our IT folks really are great. Thanks!

UCalgary’s Bandwidth Restrictions (again)

I tried a couple of times this morning to join a webcast offered by Apple, on the topic of using Lectopia to capture and distribute lectures (and other material). Something that would be useful, say, at a large-ish university that spends a fair amount of time and effort on online and blended learning.

Instead of being able to attend the webcast, I got occasional snippets of audio, and about once every minute or so I get a partial screen refresh for the video feed of the webcast.

Thanks for the partial connectivity. Maybe we should just get everyone AOL dialups or something.

I tried a couple of times this morning to join a webcast offered by Apple, on the topic of using Lectopia to capture and distribute lectures (and other material). Something that would be useful, say, at a large-ish university that spends a fair amount of time and effort on online and blended learning.

Instead of being able to attend the webcast, I got occasional snippets of audio, and about once every minute or so I get a partial screen refresh for the video feed of the webcast.

Thanks for the partial connectivity. Maybe we should just get everyone AOL dialups or something.

UCalgary’s packet shaping is counterproductive

The U of C's connection to the commercial internet has been packet shaped for years. Back in the Napster days, they added something that makes any file ending in ".mp3" be transferred at about 2 bytes per second. The shaping filters have slowly been added to, winding up with something that basically says "is this file some form of media? then it's going to be slow…"

The latest case in point – I just tried to watch Stephen Downes' video commentary on his Group/Network whiteboard braindump. After about 25 minutes of downloading, I've managed to view the first 35 seconds of the video.

Stephen Downes' Whiteboard Braindump VideoStephen Downes' Whiteboard Braindump Video

All of this hype over "new media" and "broadband connections" is basically lost on campus. Anyone wanting to use this type of media, whether for research or other academic purposes, is completely left out. Unless the content publisher has the good grace to publish on an Internet2/CANet4 network.

We're seriously at risk of being left further behind, here. If we can't use media on campus, why bother? Should I be asking Stephen to send me a DVD via FedEx so I can see the video? By the way, he was able to post the video while travelling in New Zealand. I can't view it while sitting at my desk here in the office. That seems a little backward, no? 

The U of C's connection to the commercial internet has been packet shaped for years. Back in the Napster days, they added something that makes any file ending in ".mp3" be transferred at about 2 bytes per second. The shaping filters have slowly been added to, winding up with something that basically says "is this file some form of media? then it's going to be slow…"

The latest case in point – I just tried to watch Stephen Downes' video commentary on his Group/Network whiteboard braindump. After about 25 minutes of downloading, I've managed to view the first 35 seconds of the video.

Stephen Downes' Whiteboard Braindump VideoStephen Downes' Whiteboard Braindump Video

All of this hype over "new media" and "broadband connections" is basically lost on campus. Anyone wanting to use this type of media, whether for research or other academic purposes, is completely left out. Unless the content publisher has the good grace to publish on an Internet2/CANet4 network.

We're seriously at risk of being left further behind, here. If we can't use media on campus, why bother? Should I be asking Stephen to send me a DVD via FedEx so I can see the video? By the way, he was able to post the video while travelling in New Zealand. I can't view it while sitting at my desk here in the office. That seems a little backward, no?