Daily Bulletin, Thursday, January 8
Chris Redmond
[1][University of Waterloo]
DAILY BULLETIN
_________________________________________________________________
[2]Yesterday
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[5]About the Bulletin
Thursday, January 8, 2004
* _Voicemail back after 'pretty wild' day_
* _Galleries feature three new exhibits_
* _Revised overtime policy approved_
* _Senate seats ready to be filled_
Editor: Chris Redmond cred...@uwaterloo.ca
_[6]Women's day in Greece . . . sort of _
_________________________________________________________________
['View Term Grades?']
_A flyer_ distributed by the registrar's office this week explains
that fall term marks posted on the Quest system are "unofficial" until
January 21.
Voicemail back after 'pretty wild' day
Anybody who dials the UW voicemail system at ext. 4966 (888-4966)
today will hear the familiar sound of Meridian Mail, as the new
CallPilot system has been taken out of operation after technical
troubles.
Yesterday was a "pretty wild" day for staff in information systems and
technology, says IST's Greg Cummings, who reports that CallPilot
failed about 7:30 yesterday morning. The new system was put in place
just before the Christmas holiday.
Voicemail was "up and down" -- mostly down -- for the rest of the day,
and about 10:00 last night IST decided to move CallPilot aside for a
while and bring Meridian Mail back into operation while repair work is
carried out. Meridian is the same system, with some upgrades, that UW
has been using for the past decade.
Any messages that did get through on CallPilot yesterday are stored
separately and can be accessed at ext. 4965 (888-4965), Cummings said.
Galleries feature three new exhibits _-- by Barbara Elve_
The UW [7]art gallery greets the new year with three exhibitions, from
a show about art conservation to digital images to works from the
current Toronto arts scene. Two of the shows have their official
openings tonight.
"Digital Journey", a collection of computer-assisted prints by UW fine
arts professor emeritus Don MacKay, traces "20 years of artistic
practice in the digital imaging world," according to a gallery news
release.
"Looking at the development of digital imaging software -- from
experimental software developed by the Computer Science Graphics Lab
here at UW through graphics cards, windows, drawing or vector-based
software, 2-D and 3-D drawing software, to the current Photoshop --
the 19 works in the exhibition provide the viewer with a fascinating
look at what was capable of being achieved 20 years ago and what we
are able to manage today.
[Through a red window] "Garuda", 2002-03, by Don MacKay
"A lot has changed in the last two decades, and MacKay has been
instrumental in the transfer of that information and knowledge to
students at the University of Waterloo. Along the way, he has created
a significant body of work that reveals the changing nature of the
artist's media, as well as a style marked by compositional complexity,
dramatic colouring and visual innovation."
"Digital Journey" opens with a reception on Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m.
in the East Campus Hall Gallery.
Opening at the same time in East Campus Hall is "Vivid", a collection
of abstract works in various media by Toronto-based artists Karen
Azoulay (sculptural installation), Jordan Broadworth (painting),
Angela Leach (painting), Scott Silverthorn (painting) and Julie Voyce
(printmaking). The exhibition is curated by UW gallery
director-curator Carol Podedworny, in collaboration with independent
curator Virginia MacDonnell Eichhorn.
Podedworny describes "Vivid" as "an exhibition about current abstract
practices." The artists, she explains, "have turned to abstraction
with, on the one hand, a studio interest in the formal demands and
aesthetics of the style, and, on the other hand, the conviction that
every day reality informs the content of their work."
Both exhibitions continues through February 12. Gallery hours are noon
to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, noon to 7 p.m. on
Thursday, and 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free.
Meanwhile, "Handle with Care", an exhibit in the Modern Languages
building gallery, focuses on the conservation and preservation of
museum collections, taking a unique approach to the subject by showing
damaged works in the university's own permanent art collection.
Curated by students in last fall's Fine Arts 330, "The History and
Discourse of the Museum", the show reveals "the necessity of proper
care and handling of works in public collections that are maintained
in the public trust for future generations."
UW owns more than 600 pieces of Canadian art, much of which has been
hung on office walls across campus. Without proper storage conditions,
many of the works have succumbed to "damage by light, humidity, pests
and even humans," says a flyer describing the show. "They have stayed
out so long, their colours have faded, the paper has buckled and
yellowed, and several works have spotting caused by mould. These works
utter a silent plea for education about conservation."
"Handle with Care" opens with a reception on Thursday, January 15,
from 4 to 6 p.m., and continues through March 25. Hours are from 1 to
4 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday, and whenever the Theatre of the Arts
is open.
Envisioned as a way to "education the public about the importance of
maintaining art collections, and the challenges facing the
institutions who do so," the exhibition provides information labels to
advise visitors about caring for art.
A couple of other notes
Candace Newman writes from the teaching resource office: "TRACE is
looking for interested and energetic international students _or
students with international experience_ to sign up for the
Student-Speakers Roster and serve as guest speakers in classrooms
across campus. This program provides students with the opportunity to
share their expertise, and to practice and polish their presentation
and communication skills." For more information she can be reached at
cmnewman@fes or through the TRACE office. She'll be available all day
today in TRACE, Math and Computer room 4055, to answer any questions.
There's still lots of room at the _"Becoming an Optimal Person"_
workshop tomorrow afternoon, and it's been opened up to other people
besides UW staff. Students are welcome, as are employees' family
members, says Johan Reis of the Employee Assistance Program. He can be
reached at ext. 5418 for last-minute information and registration.
Revised overtime policy approved
Staff members aren't expected to work "extra voluntary hours" without
being paid, [8]a memo from the staff relations committee this week
stresses.
The memo introduces a new version of the staff overtime policy, UW
[9]Policy 16, which went into effect January 1 following consultations
last year. Here's what the memo says:
"In March 2003, the Provost asked the Staff Relations Committee to
review the Overtime Policy and clarify which staff members were
eligible to receive overtime. The Committee has done this as well as
made other modifications to improve the Policy. The Committee placed a
version 'on view' so that feedback from staff could be solicited on
the proposed changes.
"Based on feedback from staff, it was apparent that one of the changes
that had been recommended created some misunderstanding about the
issue of extra voluntary hours. The Committee's intention was to draw
attention to this issue among the staff and management group and
encourage everyone to keep this to a minimum wherever possible.
Unfortunately, the language appeared to imply that working extra
voluntary hours without compensation was expected. We are grateful for
the feedback and have removed all mention of this in the revised
version so that there is no misunderstanding. Workload continues to be
an ongoing issue for discussion at the Staff Relations Committee.
"In accord with Policy #1, the attached revised policy, effective
January 1, 2004, has been approved by the President."
The memo lists these main changes:
"The Policy now applies to all regular full- and part-time staff."
"The preamble has been expanded to encourage managers, where
possible, to organize work assignments to minimize the need for staff
to work overtime, and to encourage staff to inform their managers if
the amount of overtime they are doing becomes a problem."
"The eligibility section has been expanded to make it clear that
staff members can't schedule their own overtime and specifies that
'all regular full- and part-time staff members are eligible to be
compensated for overtime, except those whose responsibilities are
supervisory and managerial in character and include approving overtime
assigned to others."
"Time in lieu of payment must be taken within one year from the date
of overtime worked."
Senate seats ready to be filled _-- a memo from the university secretariat_
Nominations are requested for the following undergraduate student
seats on Senate:
One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students
in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, term from May 1, 2004 to
April 30, 2005.
One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in
the Faculty of Arts, term from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2006.
One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in
the Faculty of Environmental Studies/Department of Independent
Studies, term from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2006.
One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in
the Faculty of Mathematics, term from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005.
One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in
the Faculty of Science, term from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2006.
One student elected by/from full-time undergraduate students, term
from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2006. Nomination forms are available
[10]online or from the Federation of Students Office. At least five
nominators are required in each case. Completed nomination forms
should be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, NH 3060 no
later than 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 27, 2004. Elections, if
necessary, will coincide with the annual Federation of Students'
elections (February 11-13).
Student Senators who will be completing their terms of office on
Senate as of April 30, 2004 are Avi Caplan, Environmental
Studies/Independent Studies; Adrian Chin, Applied Health Studies;
Yolanda Dorrington, Mathematics; Jesse Helmer, Arts; Alex Sloat,
Science; and Siyan Li, at-large.
Please refer to the following sites for information about Senate:
[11]the University of Waterloo Act; [12]Senate bylaws; and
[13]committees and councils.
CAR
_________________________________________________________________
[14]Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca | [15]Yesterday's Daily Bulletin
Copyright ) 2004 University of Waterloo
References
1. http://www.uwaterloo.ca/
2. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/jan/07we.html
3. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/previous.html
4. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/bulsearch.html
5. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/aboutus.html
6. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1996/96.08.05.html
7. http://www.artgallery.uwaterloo.ca/
8. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy16.memo.pdf
9. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy16.pdf
10. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/elections/ugtosen.html
11. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/uwact/uwactindex.html
12. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Senate/senindex.html
13. http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Committees/committees.html
14. http://www.communications.uwaterloo.ca/
15. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2004/jan/07we.html
Mattias Hembruch
Chris Redmond <cred...@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>
>Voicemail back after 'pretty wild' day
>
> Anybody who dials the UW voicemail system at ext. 4966 (888-4966)
> today will hear the familiar sound of Meridian Mail, as the new
> CallPilot system has been taken out of operation after technical
> troubles.
>
> Yesterday was a "pretty wild" day for staff in information systems and
> technology, says IST's Greg Cummings, who reports that CallPilot
> failed about 7:30 yesterday morning. The new system was put in place
> just before the Christmas holiday.
>
> Voicemail was "up and down" -- mostly down -- for the rest of the day,
> and about 10:00 last night IST decided to move CallPilot aside for a
> while and bring Meridian Mail back into operation while repair work is
> carried out. Meridian is the same system, with some upgrades, that UW
> has been using for the past decade.
>
> Any messages that did get through on CallPilot yesterday are stored
> separately and can be accessed at ext. 4965 (888-4965), Cummings said.
Is there any reason to upgrade voicemail, other than "it's old"? I'm not an
expert, but somehow I doubt it's like upgrading an operating system to
remain current..
I mean, really. I've had ZERO complaints about voicemail during the time
I've worked here ('97-'00, '02-'04).
Why cause extra hassles, extra work, extra expense if it's not needed?
Mattias
Isaac Morland
> Why cause extra hassles, extra work, extra expense if it's not needed?
So young, so naive. ;-)
Bruce Campbell
On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, Mattias Hembruch wrote:
>
> Is there any reason to upgrade voicemail, other than "it's old"? I'm not an
> expert, but somehow I doubt it's like upgrading an operating system to
> remain current..
>
> I mean, really. I've had ZERO complaints about voicemail during the time
> I've worked here ('97-'00, '02-'04).
>
> Why cause extra hassles, extra work, extra expense if it's not needed?
>
Callpilot is the evolutionary successor to the successful Meridian Mail
product line.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/01/callpilot/collateral/ent057pb1002en.pdf
Callpilot provides many advantages in todays fast-paced and dynamic
organisations.
Double the output with half the effort.
Callpilot provides improved communication with decreased cost simply
by conforming to industry standards.
Prabhakar Ragde
> Is there any reason to upgrade voicemail, other than "it's old"? I'm not an
> expert, but somehow I doubt it's like upgrading an operating system to
> remain current..
It could very well be -- Nortel might refuse to maintain the older
version.
> I mean, really. I've had ZERO complaints about voicemail during the time
> I've worked here ('97-'00, '02-'04).
My main complaint, besides the interface being awkward and poorly
designed (wonder if they still have the feature that anyone can lock
you out of your voicemail box by trying to get into it three times?)
is that people don't seem to believe me when I spell out my e-mail
address in my voicemail message and tell them to use that
instead. --PR
--
Prabhakar Ragde plr...@uwaterloo.ca
Professor, School of Computer Science DC 1314, (519)888-4567,x4660
Faculty of Mathematics Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1
University of Waterloo http://db.uwaterloo.ca/~plragde
Bruce Uttley
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>mghe...@ecexh.uwaterloo.ca (Mattias Hembruch) writes:
>
>> Is there any reason to upgrade voicemail, other than "it's old"? I'm not an
>> expert, but somehow I doubt it's like upgrading an operating system to
>> remain current..
>
>It could very well be -- Nortel might refuse to maintain the older
>version.
Nortel has announced the date when it will no longer sell Meridian
Mail. I recall that it is sometime this year. The date for dropping
all support for Meridian Mail follows.
>> I mean, really. I've had ZERO complaints about voicemail during the time
>> I've worked here ('97-'00, '02-'04).
>
>My main complaint, besides the interface being awkward and poorly
>designed (wonder if they still have the feature that anyone can lock
>you out of your voicemail box by trying to get into it three times?)
>is that people don't seem to believe me when I spell out my e-mail
>address in my voicemail message and tell them to use that
>instead. --PR
CallPilot has two security values to protect a voicemail box from
breakins. The first is the total number of failed logon attempts
before the account is disabled and the second is the number of
logon attempts allowed in this session. The total number of failures
needed to disable the account would normally be set higher than
the number per session that requires hanging up and redialing.
CallPilot has features to unify e-mail and voicemail messages
into one queue. You could continue to listed to your voicemails
on the phone or play them from a browser on your sound card.
Meridian Mail could not offer such a feature.
...Bruce Uttley, IST
Prabhakar Ragde
> CallPilot has features to unify e-mail and voicemail messages
> into one queue. You could continue to listed to your voicemails
> on the phone or play them from a browser on your sound card.
> Meridian Mail could not offer such a feature.
No one who is reading this is going to want to listen to their e-mail
messages on a telephone. I will even venture that very few UW
employees in general will want to do this.
On the other hand, the prospect of playing voicemail through my computer
appeals to me, especially if there is a button that I can push to send
the caller a voice message that says "I told you to send me e-mail,
try again!". Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
voicemail? That will be about perfect, because then I can stop
glancing at the phone once every three or four days. In fact, I would
probably unplug it and stuff it in a drawer. --PR
Martin Timmerman
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>b...@ist.uwaterloo.ca (Bruce Uttley) writes:
>
>> CallPilot has features to unify e-mail and voicemail messages
>> into one queue. You could continue to listed to your voicemails
>> on the phone or play them from a browser on your sound card.
>> Meridian Mail could not offer such a feature.
>
>No one who is reading this is going to want to listen to their e-mail
>messages on a telephone. I will even venture that very few UW
>employees in general will want to do this.
>
>On the other hand, the prospect of playing voicemail through my computer
>appeals to me, especially if there is a button that I can push to send
>the caller a voice message that says "I told you to send me e-mail,
>try again!". Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
>voicemail? That will be about perfect, because then I can stop
>glancing at the phone once every three or four days. In fact, I would
>probably unplug it and stuff it in a drawer. --PR
>
per day and a reason to toggle the mute button on my computer. But
family harmony would mean the need to keep the phone out of the
drawer.
David Evans
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>
>Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
>voicemail?
If the system can't do so itself, perhaps someone with 1337 SK1LLZ
can write a little tool to get this (rather useful) functionality.
--
David Evans dfe...@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca
Ph.D. Candidate, Computer/Synth Junkie http://bbcr.uwaterloo.ca/~dfevans/
University of Waterloo "Default is the value selected by the composer
Ontario, Canada overridden by your command." - Roland TR-707 Manual
Ray Butterworth
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
...
>On the other hand, the prospect of playing voicemail through my computer
>appeals to me, especially if there is a button that I can push to send
>the caller a voice message that says "I told you to send me e-mail,
>try again!". Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
>voicemail? That will be about perfect, because then I can stop
>glancing at the phone once every three or four days. In fact, I would
>probably unplug it and stuff it in a drawer. --PR
You could always ask to have the voicemail capability removed
from your extension.
Ray Butterworth
rbutte...@mfcf.math.uwaterloo.ca (Ray Butterworth) wrote:
>On 08 Jan 2004 20:35:59 -0500,
>Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>...
>from your extension.
Or better yet, if there is some maximum limit allowed
for your queued messages, just fill up your queue.
That way callers will still hear your "use e-mail" message.
Bruce Campbell
> b...@ist.uwaterloo.ca (Bruce Uttley) writes:
>
> > CallPilot has features to unify e-mail and voicemail messages
> > into one queue. You could continue to listed to your voicemails
> > on the phone or play them from a browser on your sound card.
> > Meridian Mail could not offer such a feature.
> ...
> On the other hand, the prospect of playing voicemail through my computer
> appeals to me, especially if there is a button that I can push to send
> the caller a voice message that says "I told you to send me e-mail,
> try again!". Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
> voicemail?
As far as I can tell, callpilot provides a dedicated mail
server (IMAP) and does not interact with your regular
e-mail.
"CallPilot mailbox is accessed using IMAP e-mail client"
http://www.tel-phone.com/voice-solutions/voice-mail-systms/nortel/pbx-m1/call-pilot.htm
"CallPilot combines voice, fax and e-mail into a single point-and-click
"in-box" with unified messaging. It integrates with more e-mail systems
than any other messaging product, including: Lotus Notes, Microsoft
Exchange/Outlook, and Novell Groupwise, as well as with IMAP4-compliant
e-mail clients such as Netscape Mail, Eudora and Microsoft Outlook
Express."
review of UMS (unified messaging service) at...
http://www.voiceanddata.com.au/vd/feature_article/item_032003a.asp
Ideally, what I would like is a notification of new voicemail sent to my
regular e-mail, including a url which would jump straight
to the web based message, or optionally attach the
message as a .wav file. Perhaps callpilot does all
that, it is not easy to tell from what I found via google.
Bruce Campbell
>
> > b...@ist.uwaterloo.ca (Bruce Uttley) writes:
> >
> > > CallPilot has features to unify e-mail and voicemail messages
> > > into one queue. You could continue to listed to your voicemails
> > > on the phone or play them from a browser on your sound card.
> > > Meridian Mail could not offer such a feature.
> > ...
> > On the other hand, the prospect of playing voicemail through my computer
> > appeals to me, especially if there is a button that I can push to send
> > the caller a voice message that says "I told you to send me e-mail,
> > try again!". Will the system send me e-mail to tell me I have
> > voicemail?
>
On the off chance anyone is still wondering how this works,
I've figured it out.
CallPilot includes a portal "my callpilot" and
here is a copy of the user guide:
While My CallPilot won't forward the actual voicemail
to your regular e-mail, it can send an e-mail notification
with the name/telephone of the sender.
You can use "my callpilot" to read all of your e-mail
from one location by entering your existing userid, imap server,
password etc. into my callpilot.
The published reason they won't send you the actual message
in your normal e-mail is because they feel it would
put too much load on the existing e-mail and network
infrastructure...
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/products/01/callpilot/collateral/nn102020-0902.pdf
Mike
Mon, 12 Jan 2004 13:49:43 -0500:
>
> The published reason they won't send you the actual message
> in your normal e-mail is because they feel it would
> put too much load on the existing e-mail and network
> infrastructure...
You'd think Nortel would be more than happy to do this, so that you have to
buy more network infrastructure from them. :-)
Mike
Prabhakar Ragde
> CallPilot includes a portal "my callpilot" and
> here is a copy of the user guide:
>
> http://www.it.canterbury.ac.nz/services/telecommunications/callpilot/My_Callpilot/my_callpilot_2.html
>
Thanks, Bruce. For those of us with Macintoshes, Sun workstations, and
Linux boxes, this is unwelcome but not unexpected news. You can listen
to your voicemail on your computer if you can deal with .wmv files,
but you can't send voicemail from your computer except on a Windows
system, it appears. Still, being able to see a list of your voicemail
messages is great, because currently I have to grab a whiteboard
marker and stand ready to copy down the caller's number when it goes
by on my telephone. --PR
Chris Redmond
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>Still, being able to see a list of your voicemail
>messages is great, because currently I have to grab a whiteboard
>marker and stand ready to copy down the caller's number when it goes
>by on my telephone. --PR
Somehow this seems like the punk kid (is "punk" still the correct
word for teenagers with multiple piercings?) in the comic strip
"Zits", who explains this morning that it was easier to text-message
a ten-page term paper than to find a pencil.
CAR
Prabhakar Ragde
> Somehow this seems like the punk kid (is "punk" still the correct
> word for teenagers with multiple piercings?) in the comic strip
> "Zits", who explains this morning that it was easier to text-message
> a ten-page term paper than to find a pencil.
It's not the grabbing of the whiteboard marker that's a problem
(though the phone is in a part of my office where I don't normally
keep paper and pencil, that is easily fixed); it's the idea that the
number is read out to me, and I have to write it down as it is
dictated on the chance that it will be useful. If it is shown to me in
a list, I can often tell if it is useful or not, and if I have to
listen to the message to know, the list is still there afterwards,
whereas I have to do something (what I don't really know, which is why
I grab the marker) in order to retrieve the caller's number from
voicemail after I've listened to the message.
Let's put it this way: suppose the only way you could deal with your
e-mail was to have it read to you, including the sender name and
subject line. It would drive you nuts. Voicemail-over-phone drives me
nuts. (Yes, I know that visually-challenged people have to deal with
e-mail and the Web in this fashion, and I find it ironic that UW spends
money to make buildings physically accessible while making its Web
pages inaccessible by using Javascript.) --PR
Mike
13 Jan 2004 11:50:46 -0500:
> keep paper and pencil, that is easily fixed); it's the idea that the
> number is read out to me
... and that's assuming, of course, that whoever's dictating to you doesn't
mumble, cough, stutter, or otherwise render the number intelligible. Goes
doubly if you're not sure who it is in the first place.
> nuts. (Yes, I know that visually-challenged people have to deal with
> e-mail and the Web in this fashion, and I find it ironic that UW spends
> money to make buildings physically accessible while making its Web
> pages inaccessible by using Javascript.) --PR
How would you prefer the university made its web pages inaccessible? :-)
Mike
--
> Can you SysAdmins tell me what might go on in a typical day?
Hours of endless frustration punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
- Saul Tannenbaum, monk
Prabhakar Ragde
> ... and that's assuming, of course, that whoever's dictating to you doesn't
> mumble, cough, stutter, or otherwise render the number intelligible. Goes
> doubly if you're not sure who it is in the first place.
The number of the person who called is read out to me by the system,
not the person themself, so it is at least intelligible.
> How would you prefer the university made its web pages inaccessible? :-)
How about by optimizing for Internet Explorer, as they seem to have
done in the past, thereby rendering the pages unrenderable (I like
that) for those of us who use other browsers (among whom, your new Mac
in hand, I presume I can count you?). (Currently, all university pages
I use work fine in Safari -- though the schedule of classes page is
still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
their policies and documents into PDF instead of HTML is mystifying.) --PR
Mike
> Mike <mike.pa...@unb.ca> writes:
>
>> ... and that's assuming, of course, that whoever's dictating to you doesn't
>> mumble, cough, stutter, or otherwise render the number intelligible. Goes
>> doubly if you're not sure who it is in the first place.
>
> The number of the person who called is read out to me by the system,
> not the person themself, so it is at least intelligible.
Always for on-campus calls? I find that sometimes I get a person's name
read out to me instead of their extension. Most annoying. A call history
on the telephones with call display would be nice as well, although most
people seem happy just emailing me anyway.
>> How would you prefer the university made its web pages inaccessible? :-)
>
> How about by optimizing for Internet Explorer, as they seem to have
> done in the past, thereby rendering the pages unrenderable (I like
> that) for those of us who use other browsers (among whom, your new Mac
> in hand, I presume I can count you?). (Currently, all university pages
> I use work fine in Safari -- though the schedule of classes page is
> still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
> their policies and documents into PDF instead of HTML is mystifying.) --PR
I've not used IE day-to-day in over a year; before that it was only whilst
at home on the GameOS machine. I've been using Firebird for my regular
browsing needs for a couple of years now, on Win32/Linux/FreeBSD and now,
said Powerbook. Safari had some issues with the MFCF RT pages that I can't
reproduce reliably (but I think it has to do with the cookies it issues).
Plus having a single look & feel everywhere is nice. My experience is
similar to yours though: I've not found any University web pages that don't
work properly in Firebird everywhere I've tried them. Even the execrable
Quest and myhrinfo pages seem to work acceptably (although I believe earlier
versions of Quest may have given me fits on my Linux machine).
A serious (and good) answer to a smartass question - my glass is raised to
you, Prabhakar. :-)
Mike
--
... at least even if it is perceived as self-indulgent garbage,
it will fit right in with the rest of the net. - Gene Spafford
Mattias Hembruch
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>Mike <mike.pa...@unb.ca> writes:
>
>> ... and that's assuming, of course, that whoever's dictating to you doesn't
>> mumble, cough, stutter, or otherwise render the number intelligible. Goes
>> doubly if you're not sure who it is in the first place.
>
>The number of the person who called is read out to me by the system,
>not the person themself, so it is at least intelligible.
>
>> How would you prefer the university made its web pages inaccessible? :-)
>
>How about by optimizing for Internet Explorer, as they seem to have
>done in the past, thereby rendering the pages unrenderable (I like
>that) for those of us who use other browsers (among whom, your new Mac
>in hand, I presume I can count you?). (Currently, all university pages
>I use work fine in Safari -- though the schedule of classes page is
>still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
>their policies and documents into PDF instead of HTML is mystifying.) --PR
I don't use ALL UW pages, but the CIR for the registrar and such work just
fine with mozilla and firebird..
Mattias
Jesse Rodgers
> > How would you prefer the university made its web pages inaccessible? :-)
>
> How about by optimizing for Internet Explorer, as they seem to have
> done in the past, thereby rendering the pages unrenderable (I like
> that) for those of us who use other browsers (among whom, your new Mac
> in hand, I presume I can count you?). (Currently, all university pages
> I use work fine in Safari --
I pretty much only use Safari, if a page doesn't work in it there usually
are some serious issues. Any university pages I make are made for
Safari first, then Moz, then IE for OS X, then i eventually fire up
virtual PC to take a look at the mess that windows makes...
> though the schedule of classes page is
> still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
> their policies and documents into PDF instead of HTML is mystifying.) --PR
Yup but.. hmmm..
Jesse
Prabhakar Ragde
> I pretty much only use Safari, if a page doesn't work in it there usually
> are some serious issues. Any university pages I make are made for
> Safari first, then Moz, then IE for OS X, then i eventually fire up
> virtual PC to take a look at the mess that windows makes...
Apparently UPS just broke for Safari. I keep IE for OS X around, much
as I'd love to trash it, for such eventualities. --PR
Isaac Morland
> Mike <mike.pa...@unb.ca> writes:
> I use work fine in Safari -- though the schedule of classes page is
> still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
Please see http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~isg/schedule
It's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement.
Siyan Li
>
> Apparently UPS just broke for Safari. I keep IE for OS X around, much
> as I'd love to trash it, for such eventualities. --PR
I guess the reason is that Apple use Purolator instead of UPS...
my 0.5 cent,
--
--
Siyan Li
...
KeyServer: pgp.mit.edu; Index ID: s8li
Key fingerprint = 82ED 0541 FD94 DEC3 8AC3 3C6E E04A 525F 0DDE 14D4
Dream as if you'll live forever;
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse Rodgers
> >
> > Apparently UPS just broke for Safari. I keep IE for OS X around, much
> > as I'd love to trash it, for such eventualities. --PR
Which Safari? 1.0 (Jaguar version) or 1.1 (Panther version)?
>
> I guess the reason is that Apple use Purolator instead of UPS...
>
Apple uses FedEx - who can't seem to deliver to apartments ;)
Jesse
Prabhakar Ragde
> Which Safari? 1.0 (Jaguar version) or 1.1 (Panther version)?
http://www.macintouch.com/marginal01.html#jan14
I presume Panther. It seems to have broken on IE, too! Hee, hee. --PR
Craig S. Kaplan
You are the man. That's exactly the substitution I suggested
to them a couple of weeks ago. It's been horribly broken since
I was a student here, and the simple use of term names instead
of magic numbers is a big step. I swear, every time I use the
current schedule of classes page, I can sense Edward Tufte's blood
pressure going up a notch. I'll use ISG's from now on.
--
Craig S. Kaplan ``Evolution drives a steamroller,
School of Computer Science disguised as a stationary bike.''
University of Waterloo http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/
Prabhakar Ragde
> You are the man. That's exactly the substitution I suggested
> to them a couple of weeks ago. It's been horribly broken since
> I was a student here, and the simple use of term names instead
> of magic numbers is a big step. I swear, every time I use the
> current schedule of classes page, I can sense Edward Tufte's blood
> pressure going up a notch. I'll use ISG's from now on.
Of my main beefs with the Scheduling page (and I have suggested
changes to them on several occasions over several years, none ever
implemented, so save your breath/fingertips, Craig), the only one
remaining on the ISG page is the need to scroll the browser window
down to enter all information and hit submit. There's a lot of
whitespace into which we can fold the second half of the page. I'd
have to look up how to position form elements (tables, right?) but
surely Isaac or someone can do this in their sleep. --PR
Terry Vaskor
> Please see http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~isg/schedule
>
> It's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement.
Even just bringing to my attention that their search engine can actually
do any form of pattern matching is great (how nice of them not to
publicize that time-saving feature).
Terry
Isaac Morland
>>>Mike <mike.pa...@unb.ca> writes:
>>>I use work fine in Safari -- though the schedule of classes page is
>>>still a pain on UI grounds, and the decision of the secretariat to put
>>
>>Please see http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~isg/schedule
>>
>>It's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement.
>
>
> You are the man. That's exactly the substitution I suggested
Why thank you.
> to them a couple of weeks ago. It's been horribly broken since
> I was a student here, and the simple use of term names instead
> of magic numbers is a big step. I swear, every time I use the
> current schedule of classes page, I can sense Edward Tufte's blood
> pressure going up a notch. I'll use ISG's from now on.
Yes, the official one really is extraordinarily broken.
At a certain level of brokenness, one starts to wonder if there is even
any point in critiquing it; if the creator is so clueless as to produce
something so broken, will they even understand a critique?
Of course the other problem one gets around here is a complete split
between the creators and people who receive suggestions; so even a
simple suggestion that can be implemented in no time becomes a major
bureaucratic undertaking if action is to be taken.
It doesn't help that the "infocour" email address is apparently
unmonitored; I sent it something a while ago (can't even remember what)
and never heard anything.
In fairness, the email address on my page was broken until Terry pointed
it out a day ago.
Isaac Morland
> "Craig S. Kaplan" <c...@mud.cgl.uwaterloo.ca> writes:
>
>
>>You are the man. That's exactly the substitution I suggested
>>to them a couple of weeks ago. It's been horribly broken since
>>I was a student here, and the simple use of term names instead
>>of magic numbers is a big step. I swear, every time I use the
>>current schedule of classes page, I can sense Edward Tufte's blood
>>pressure going up a notch. I'll use ISG's from now on.
>
>
> Of my main beefs with the Scheduling page (and I have suggested
> changes to them on several occasions over several years, none ever
> implemented, so save your breath/fingertips, Craig), the only one
> remaining on the ISG page is the need to scroll the browser window
> down to enter all information and hit submit. There's a lot of
> whitespace into which we can fold the second half of the page. I'd
> have to look up how to position form elements (tables, right?) but
> surely Isaac or someone can do this in their sleep. --PR
I should be able to fix that. Mine has a larger subject selection box,
which adds a lot of vertical space, but as you say I should be able to
move things around a bit to fix that.
Isaac Morland
I'm not sure that feature isn't accidental. I can't remember how I
discovered it; I think I was thinking about the fact that in the new
system if you typed just '2' in the course box you get any course with a
2 in it somewhere, whereas before you got all the 2xx courses; this of
course is like grep, which raises the question of whether the box is
really a regex, which in fact it turns out to be. I haven't tried
pushing the limits, but it certainly handles all the basic stuff.
I believe the underlying script is Perl, so it's easy to get regex
stuff, and I can even imagine using a regex match accidentally where a
string match is intended. But in this case it's quite a useful feature.
Matthew Skala
Isaac Morland <ijmo...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>I believe the underlying script is Perl, so it's easy to get regex
>stuff, and I can even imagine using a regex match accidentally where a
>string match is intended. But in this case it's quite a useful feature.
If it's allowing user-entered Perl regexes, I hope the author of the
script has thought carefully about the security implications. Perl can
execute arbitrary code within a regex unless it's told to disable that
ability.
--
Matthew Skala, CS PhD student, University of Waterloo
msk...@math.uwaterloo.ca <-- school
msk...@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca <-- home
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/ http://www.edifyingfellowship.org/
Simon Law
> In article <buh483$mcs$3...@rumours.uwaterloo.ca>,
> Isaac Morland <ijmo...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>>I believe the underlying script is Perl, so it's easy to get regex
>>stuff, and I can even imagine using a regex match accidentally where a
>>string match is intended. But in this case it's quite a useful feature.
>
> If it's allowing user-entered Perl regexes, I hope the author of the
> script has thought carefully about the security implications. Perl can
> execute arbitrary code within a regex unless it's told to disable that
> ability.
No, switch that. s/unless(.*)disable/when\1enable/
However, it is not inconceivable that the author has put an "e"
flag in one of his regexps.
Simon
Prabhakar Ragde
> If it's allowing user-entered Perl regexes, I hope the author of the
> script has thought carefully about the security implications. Perl can
> execute arbitrary code within a regex unless it's told to disable that
> ability.
It is fairly clear to me that whoever maintains the Schedules Web page is
exercising their right not to think carefully about anything at
all. Why don't you try executing some arbitrary code that redesigns
their page for them? I can't do it, since with respect to Perl I am
like that guy in "Memento", except I am living my life in the forward
direction. --PR
Alex Lopez-Ortiz
Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>
>their page for them? I can't do it, since with respect to Perl I am
>like that guy in "Memento",
whose name you can't remember?
Alex
Al Aho described perl as a swiss army chainsaw.
--
Alex Lopez-Ortiz alop...@uwaterloo.ca
http://db.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o Assistant Professor
School of Computer Science University of Waterloo
Simon Law
> Al Aho described perl as a swiss army chainsaw.
Everyone describes Perl as a swiss-army chainsaw. It gives you
the power to fell trees, clean your teeth, and lop off your arm in a
pinch.
Simon
Craig S. Kaplan
I think someone mentioned to me in passing a week or two ago
that the script in question was written by Ka-Ping Yee. I
have no idea whether that's true, but I do have some faith in
Ping's ability to keep his code under control. Mind you, who
knows how much the code has evolved since it was first written...
Matthew Skala
>their page for them?
I suspect that to do so might put me in violation of UW computer usage
policies, but the other followup to my message and a little research in
the Perl manual suggest that exploiting this kind of hole might be
difficult or impossible anyway. Perl apparently knows that the "execute
arbitrary code" construct is dangerous, and will automatically disable it
if your script looks like it might be insecure.
Isaac Morland
> I think someone mentioned to me in passing a week or two ago
> that the script in question was written by Ka-Ping Yee. I
> have no idea whether that's true, but I do have some faith in
> Ping's ability to keep his code under control. Mind you, who
> knows how much the code has evolved since it was first written...
I know he wrote the Web interface to BookLook. I'm not so sure about
the Schedule of Classes; seems to me the new version (to work with the
new SA system) would have to have been written in mid-2001, which I
believe is after he left.
Michael W. Godfrey
Alex Lopez-Ortiz <alop...@softbase.math.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>In article <3zu12pq...@ds1.cs>,
>Prabhakar Ragde <plr...@uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>>
>>their page for them? I can't do it, since with respect to Perl I am
>>like that guy in "Memento",
Prabhakar, you must have some way cool tattoos.
>Alex
>
>Al Aho described perl as a swiss army chainsaw.
I like to tell people that I prefer AWK to perl because I am never tempted
to write an operating system with AWK.
(I note that both A and K are speaking at Waterloo this term ... )
Alex Lopez-Ortiz
Michael W. Godfrey <mi...@plg2.math.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>
>I like to tell people that I prefer AWK to perl because I am never tempted
>to write an operating system with AWK.
>
>(I note that both A and K are speaking at Waterloo this term ... )
I had dinner with W last week for the trifecta.
Alex
Prabhakar Ragde
> >>their page for them? I can't do it, since with respect to Perl I am
> >>like that guy in "Memento",
>
>
> Prabhakar, you must have some way cool tattoos.
Were I a regular Perl programmer, I would pretty much have to resort
to that. --PR