Screen Savers & Passwords

If you're using a Mac and it goes to the screen saver or goes to sleep, sometimes it will "lock."  When it wakes up, it will ask for your password to unlock.  It just wants to make sure that you're really you and not someone who sneaked up while you were out of the room.

If this feature is getting in the way, you can adjust it.

First, go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences.

Next, click on the "Security & Privacy" icon.

Lastly, make the adjustments you want.  This could include lengthening the delay so it is 15 minutes or even an hour instead of 5.  You could even turn it off entirely.

Keychain "Nagging" on Macs

Ever see this while using a Mac on the web?

It means that your "keychain" didn't unlock when you logged in to the Mac.  This article will explain how that happened and how to fix it.

How to Fix It

You're probably reading this because you want to fix this, so let's start there.

• Logout of the Mac.
• Login to the Mac, but go slowly.
• When you are asked to pick between three choices, pick "Create New Keychain".

How it Happened

As you use the web, sometimes you see forms that ask for your name, password, credit card information, etc.  The Mac you're using will try to store those bits of information for you.  That way, when you see a form like that again in the future, it can fill the form in for you and save you some typing.

That information is stored in a small database called a "keychain."  The keychain is encrypted so that no one can steal your information.  So in order for you to use it, it must be "unlocked" when you login.  That happens when you enter your password while logging into the Mac.

But what if your Mac password gets changed?  The keychain won't know.  So it would keep using your old password.  The most common example of this is when students reach 6th grade.  We change passwords at 6th grade to make them harder to guess.  Unfortunately, it means that the old password is still used by the keychain.  There is no way around this.  So its left to 6th graders to create new keychains when they login.  The same thing can happen when someone (student or employee) needs their password changed.

PowerSchool 7 Login Problems

On October 14, 2011, PowerSchool was upgraded to version 7 for Cairo-Durham Central School District.  If you're having trouble logging in, check on the following:

• Macs must be running Safari 4 or higher (available on MacOS 10.4 or higher)
• PCs must have Internet Explorer 8 or higher
• If you use FireFox, it must be version 3.6 or higher.

If you're still having problems after checking the above, PCs often need all of their history, Cache, etc. cleared in order to work correctly.  You will only need to do this once.  See the picture below for a guide. It shows what settings to clear on Internet Explorer 8.

Servers: More, Faster, Better

This weekend has seen a lot of change in the design of the Mac servers.  I wanted to take a moment to give you a look behind the scenes and show you why this is a big deal.

At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, we were using five "home directory servers."  (Let's just call these "servers" for now.)  Each of these servers had the files, settings, and other items for a group of people on it.  Those groupings were:

• Cairo Elementary
• Durham Elementary
• Middle/High School employees
• MS/HS students with last names M-Z
• MS/HS students with last names A-L

Now, we have a different arrangement using seven servers:

• Employees A-G
• Employees H-O
• Employees P-Z
• Students A-E
• Students F-L
• Students M-R
• Students S-Z

Strange as it sounds, this isn't just about cleaner bookkeeping.

Consider 24 students in Cairo Elementary loging in to their computer lab.  Before, one server had to handle all 24 requests at the same time.  Now four different servers handle a mere six requests each.  Each server has much less work to do, resulting in faster logins.

Now consider  the Middle School and High School.  Every 84 minutes, students log in or out of about 100 desktops and 80 laptops.  That is a lot of work for the two previous servers.  Now its split up across four servers.  Again, faster results.

So what happens in the elementary schools when those MS/HS students log in?  Well, different schools are on slightly different schedules.  So that big spike of activity is not happening when Cairo or Durham Elementary are having a lot of logins or logouts.  So instead of the servers sitting idle for long stretches (during class) and suddenly doing a lot of work (save, print, and logout!), they will now be doing smaller tasks more often.  That means smaller "traffic jams" when an entire lab logs in or out.

In addition, student activity is now separate from teacher and office activity.  So teachers should see fewer slow-downs -- especially in the elementary schools.

You may have also noticed that we now have 7 servers instead of 5.  Again, this spreads out the work among more servers, allowing it to all go faster.

So what happens if a server goes down?  For one thing, fewer people will be effected.  If the server can't be fixed quickly, we can move those people to one of the other servers.  At that point, we'll still be running six servers instead of our previous five.

So, in summary:  More servers, better distribution between them, and faster service.  This is what 2011-2012 will bring us.

iMovie Storage

Earlier today, I made a small but important change to iMovie.  If you use or intend to use iMovie, please be sure to read this.

Previously, iMovie would try to store to your account's space on the servers.  While that is great for Word or PowerPoint, it makes iMovie terribly slow.  And it fills your disk space, which breaks other things.  And it slows the server down, making the computers slow for everyone else.  Not good.

Now, iMovie will store recordings on the computer that you're sitting at.  This means a few things:

1. Its not slow.
2. Its not "killing" the computers for everyone else.
3. You will be leaving your work behind on that computer UNLESS you export it and copy the movie file to your Documents folder.  (See below)
4. Anyone else who sits at that computer can see, edit, and delete your work.  (See below)

These changes make iMovie work on hundreds of our computers.  Before today, it only worked on a handful.  So this was an overall good change.

If you or your students want to keep a video after you finish editing it in iMovie, please follow these steps:

1. Go to the "Share" menu and select "Export".
2. Next to the name of the file, click on the small blue square with the triangle in it.  This will expand the window and allow you to save to a new location.
3. Select "Macintosh HD" --> "Temporary Storage".
4. Select the file size that you want.  Use the guide to help you pick.
5. Name your file.
6. Click "Export".
7. You now have a video file in the "Temporary Storage" folder on the hard drive.  Copy this to your Documents folder so that you can keep it when you logout.
8. You should now be able to logout, login somewhere else, and keep your finished/exported video.

Lastly, please note the only real down side of this change.  Since its on the computer itself and not the server, that means that the students must sit at the exact same computer as the last time they worked on their project.  For example, if your class is editing video on Monday and Wednesday this week, have each student note the computer that they're using on Monday and return to it on Wednesday.  That will let them continue working without disruption.

Try to avoid very long video editing projects, too.  The longer the project, the greater the chance of a student deleting the work on Tuesday.  (This might happen due to malice or just confusion.)

Also, various computer problems may be fixed by replacing or erasing the computer.  So please be sure to mention any iMovie projects on that computer when reporting problems.