Techtalks 2002 - 2004
This is a forum for all University IT staff and related positions. The talks cover relevant IT information for IT staff, giving notice of changes and innovations, and generally acting as a communication channel on campus. If you have any topics you would like to see covered please contact the Relationship Management team.
More recent Techtalks
25 November 2004 - Risk Management - Spam Tagging
Time: 10am- 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
RISK MANAGEMENT - ERGONOMICS - SECURITY
DRAFT INFORMATION SECURITY POLICY
ITS - SPAM TAGGING
Rosemary Sexton: Manager Worker Compensation and Injury Management (15minutes)
Computer related injuries at the University and workers compensation - costs of this - workstation set up, University resources to help prevent injury
Linda Rowan: Manager General Insurance (15 minutes)
Desktops, laptop and audio insurance claims and losses at the uni - options to help reduce loss - responsibilities for installation and security
Jim Fraser: Policy Development Officer (10 minutes)
Jim will give a short outline of the draft Information Security Policy
Rudolph Pereira - Network Security and Data Centre Officer (ITS) (40 minutes) Rudolph will address the spam problem in general(sxi) (pdf) ITS' current implementation - problems/issues they have/will have and possible solutions to them.
10 November 2004 - Multi - Cast Streaming
Time: 10am - 11.30am
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
Matthew Geier: Computer Network Manager - Arts
The Language Centre has been IP multicasting six satellite TV channels live on the University network for the past year. Matthew Geier, Faculty of Arts Network Manager, will explain how they “broadcast” and how you can “tune in” to watch on Macintosh, Windows and Linux. A live video streaming demonstration will also be given using a video camera and Cisco IP /TV system, by broadcasting the talk itself.
The multicast TV service can currently be viewed at the following campuses: Main Campus, Conservatorium, Law School, Cumberland and Mallett St and will be available at more locations when they can be reached by high-speed network links.
30 September 2004 - Archibus Functionality
Time: 10am - 11.30am
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
Shaun Correy, Project Manager, Finance Program- Major Projects Group, will discuss the current status of the project in relation to the roll out that is about to occur with regards leasing, asset management, loans etc.
The talk will focus on the following:
1. A short introduction to Archibus
2. Current Status
3. Transition to Archibus – Lease Functions / Asset Management / PDA / Loans
4. Questions
25 August 2004 - Sydnet Web Tool
Time: 10am - 11.30am
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
SYDNET WEB TOOL
Bob West, Senior Network Analyst - ITS - will demonstrate/introduce the
Sydnet WebTool (authentication is needed for certain sections), its capabilities and discuss future upgrades. The Sydnet WebTool contains very interesting and useful data about the University Network. There will be lots of time for questions so please come prepared! Specific questions can also be sent beforehand so that Bob can address them during the talk. Send questions to dianal@med.usyd.edu.au before the 20th of August.
Functions of Tool:
1. Central location for links to data network (Sydnet) information
sources
2. Access to data collected from Sydnet at regular intervals regarding
computers' IP and MAC addresses
27 July 2004 - Centralised Authentication (ITS)
Time: 9.45am - 11.30am
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
John Mcqueen, Network Services - ITS - will explain the centralised authentication systems that ITS has in place including :
Unix based systems
Windows based systems
LDAP directories (including the new "EDS")
WASM (A Web Single Sign On System)
- how to wasmify your web application
- how to wasmify an apache web server
There will be further discussion of some security issues to do with POP/IMAP and web proxy authentication and what ITS is doing/should do about these issues.
30 June 2004 - Archibus
Time: 9.45am - 11.30am
Venue: Darlington Centre Conference Rooms 1 & 2
Gerard Gabriel: Facilities Information Manager (FMO)
This techtalk will deal with the implementation of Archibus at the University of Sydney. As well as giving a history of why Archibus was implemented, Gerard Gabriel from the Facilities Management Office will give you an overview of the system , its attributes and future uses.
28 April 2004 - Intel and HP Roadmaps relevant to the USyd
Time: 9.30am - 12noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1&2
Intel roadmap including; desktop, servers, Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology
HP roadmap; desktops, laptops, etc
Intel will cover the following topics :-
Intel Desktop/Mobile Products Roadmap
Roadmap for Itanium2 and Xeon
Overview of Intel Xeon Processor with EM64T.
Positioning Itanium2 and Xeon
Intel Software Development Products
Peter Kerney is a Solution Architect with Intel Australia. His position is Developer Relations and works with software developers to port, tune and optimise applications on current and future Intel platforms.
Ken Martin:Business Development Manager -Hewlett-Packard Australia
23 March 2004 - HP Sole Supplier Agreement & the Master Leasing Facility
Time: 9.30am - 12noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
This Techtalk will endeavour to answer all your questions on the Sole Supplier Agreement with HP as well as the Master leasing facility. Questions on the Asset Management Project including leasing and asset tracking will also be addressed.
Madeleine Petit: Client Support Manager (ITS)
Shaun Correy: Business Analyst (MPG)
26 February 2004 - Antivirus Strategies deployed at ITS
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Norman Gregg Lecture Theatre, A27
Rudolph Pereira, the Network Security and Data Centre Officer at ITS will be sharing with you the antivirus work he has done for the ITS mail server.
26 November 2003 - Sydnet VPN
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Eastem Avenue Lecture Theatre F19
Presenters Bob West and Doug Kohlhoff
Do you have off-campus users who want to access your servers from their
own ISP, but you don't want to open up access to the whole ISP's IP space? Do you have lecturers who want to access your servers from lecture theatres, or students from Access Labs?Do you have students on lab machines who want a real 129.78.*.* IP
address to run some piece of software that requires direct Internet
access?Do you want to know what's behind the authentication for the Uni's wireless network?The Uni now has a VPN service that solves these problems.
Wireless at Usyd
The Sydney University Wireless network trial has now been in operation for two semesters. Steve Tolhurst and Doug Kohlhoff will report on some of the lessons learned and possible options for the future.
08 October 2003 - Telstra Linux Desktop Trial
Time: 9.30am- 12 noon
Venue: WP Young Room - Veterinary Science Building
Jeff Smith, Chief Information Officer of Telstra who is responsible for Telstra's Linux Desktop Trial called "Project Firefly" (using two flavours of Linux and a Citrix-base Windows system) will be coming to share with us how and why they got to the point of having 250 desktops in the pilot with the goal to complete the pilot with 500 desktops in October. To date this is one of the biggest Linux trials in Australia so do come along and hear all about it.
24 September 2003 - Search and Seachability
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
David Hawking (CSIRO)
Many organisations lose potential customers because of poor visibility in global search engines and poor quality search on their own websites. Not only that, but some organisations spend large sums of money on web design and content management and in the process make things worse.
Behind the firewall, it is common for employees to waste large amounts of time looking for (or in the worst case re-creating) information. Effective search relies on both a high quality search engine and on the "searchability" of the information and services. To achieve effective search requires an understanding of how search engines (global and enterprise) work.
This talk aims to provide such an understanding and to outline what works and what doesn't in enterprise search (PageRank doesn't!) and will be illustrated with university examples."
28 August 2003 - Video Conferencing
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
This Techtalk featured the technology and capabilities of video conferencing currently being used at the University of Sydney. We linked to Orange and the following people presented.
Rafik Razzouk-Manager , Video Conferencing Development & Implementation: ITS
Chris Aquilina - Video Conference Coordinator: Medicine
Kim McShane - Lecturer: Institute for Teaching & Learning
28 May 2003 - MPG - Major Projects Group
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
A comprehensive update and overview of current projects
Speakers: Various Program Managers from MPG
29 April 2003 - Lab Management
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
A look at how other departments are managing and running their computer labs The following labs were represented.
Presenters:
Access Labs: Ashley Scott
Faculty of Medicine: Paul McInerney
Economics: Susan Currey
College of Health Sciences: Cumberland: Than Naing Chan
Computer Science: Bruce Janson/ Ronald Jore
Mechanical Engineering: Paul Briozzo
Orange: Frazer Slack-Smith
Presenters were asked to respond to the following questions after the techtalk in an attempt to further share knowledge among labs.
1. What was the best thing in the lab that you have implemented /done thus far that have made life easier.
Cumberland
To standardise hardware and software with master cloning, locking down all share PC's such as Labs and Public PC's in the library area. These are a must for generic PC and support but they cannot apply to individual requirements such as research PC's.
Information Technology/ Computer Science
Finding that in some circumstances, images can be booted across multiple hardware platforms, meaning we can minimise the number of disk images we have to support.
2. What was the biggest problem you've encountered and how did you solve it.
Cumberland
If all the IT support groups and sponsor management teams (for eg school and dean) consolidate on budget and reinforce the support policy it will smooth most of the issues.
Information Technology/ Computer Science
Multiple single connections to our image server imposed too high a network load, and multicast was not a real option either, because it would have too, because our labs are not segmented off into different broadcast domains. Bruce Janson's peer to peer download client solution fixed this problem, allowing us to increase the number of multiple lab reloads at any one time,and still maintain reasonable download times.
27 March 2003 - LDAP & Directory Services Project
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
LDAP: Chris Albone: Systems Administrator Medical Faculty
Directory Services Project: Charlie Forsyth, Project Manager MPG (IT)
26 February 2003 - WAN Deployment at USyd - Microsoft Software Licensing at USyd
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
Peter Choquenot (ATI)
This talk will look at a summary of applications driving wireless deployment as well as the
current and future state of the art wireless LAN/WAN systems, from low cost local area products through to high capacity long haul solutions. Included in the discussion will be the strengths and weaknesses of the available technologies, comparisons with fibre and othersolutions as well as deployment pitfalls. This will be followed by a run down on the involvement of ATI in the USyd WAN
deployment including comparisons with similar institutions and possible applications of new WAN technologies.
Microsoft Software Licensing at USYD - Madeleine Petit (ITS)
Do you understand how Microsoft Licensing works at the University? What is covered?
Where can you get the cheapest software? How do you order and pay for licenses and media?
ITS coordinates the Microsoft licensing and many other volume licenses for the University. This presentation will detail the conditions of the various Microsoft license agreements, and
how to work within these agreements.
10 December 2002 - Wireless Local Area Network Overview
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
There has recently been a major uptake of Wireless LAN services.This has been due to the success of the IEEE 802.11b standard,which has resulted in widespread availability of relatively cheap, highperformance Wireless LAN infrastucture.
This talk will provide a brief 802.11 technical overview, followed by an outline of the key design issues and problems associated with Wireless LANs. Major applications, such as public "hotspots" and campus wide installations will be reviewed. The talk will finish by
outlining potential future directions arising from current Wireless LAN research.
About the presenter: Dr Tony Eyers has been a member of the academic staff at the University of Wollongong since 1994. He is currently the Technical Training Coordinator with the Telecommunications and Information Technology Research Institute (TITR) at the University of Wollongong.
26 September 2002 - Securing and Protecting Machines in the Microsoft Operating Environment
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
Microsoft Presenters
Jason Jacobs : Dean Racovolis : James Fang
20 August 2002 - Dealing with Web Proxies and Web Caches
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
John McQueen, Network Services Team Leader (ITS)
What is web proxy server?
What is a web cache?
What's the difference?
What happens when I press reload on my browser?
Why are my CGI scripts cached by the proxy server?
How can I write my dynamic content so it handles a proxy server properly?
I've heard of reader's digest - but what's a cache digest?
All of these and more were covered in this TechTalk.
24 July 2002 - Network Security - Virus Defences at Maths
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Darlington Conference Centre Rooms 1 & 2
Network Security:
Nicole Haywood, Network Security Officer ITSDepartments can have access to their subnets blocked from outside the University. This web page details what an access control list is and how to go about asking for one.
Virus Defences at Maths:
Paul Szabo, CSO, School of Mathematics & Statistics
25 June 2002 - The Evolution and Architecture of Sydnet
Time: 9.30am - 12 noon
Venue: Norman Gregg Lecture Theatre, A27
The Evolution and Architecture of Sydnet: Stephen Tolhurst, Data Network Manager (ITS)
The Uses of Linux on Campus:
Chris Albone: Systems Manager, Department of Medical Education
Doug Auld: Senior Lecturer, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.
Danny Yee: CSO, Department of Anatomy and Histology
30 May 2002 - Content Management Overview
Time: 9.30am- 12 noon
Venue: WP Young Room - Veterinary Science Building
Overview of the One USydnet Project Presented by Emerging Technologies - Major Projects Group
1.Content Management Overview:
Slide Presentation by Lee Hunter (Major Projects Group)
2.Interwoven-Content Management:
Slide Presentation by Alex Patison (Interwoven)
March 2002 - Wireless Networking
Venue: WP Young Room - Veterinary Science Building
Wireless Networking: Slide Presentation by Cisco
February 2002 - Linux at Compaq
Venue: WP Young Room - Veterinary Science Building
Linux at Compaq: Slide Presentation by Compaq
