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.

Download YouTube Videos

Ever find a YouTube video that you wanted to keep?  When bookmarking it isn't enough, try savetube.com.

SaveTube allows you to extract the video from YouTube, download it, and keep it for the long term.  This protects you from the video disappearing off of YouTube, allows you to load it into iTunes (for syncing to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad), and lets you put it on a flash drive to hand out.

To use it:

1. Find the YouTube video that you want.
2. Select and copy the video's URL (a.k.a. "web address")
3. Go to savetube.com
4. Paste the URL into SaveTube's blank line and click the "Video" button.
5. If the computer asks, let the Java program run.
6. Wait
7. Scroll down the page and download the video as your preferred file type.  MP4 gives the best flexibility, so use that if you don't have a preference.

Extra Tip:  There are a lot of services like SaveTube.  Feel free to search Google for "download youtube" to find others.  Maybe you'll find one that you like better.

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.

Sale on Apple Computer for Students

Apple just posted a sale on new computers.  In addition to the usual academic discounts, you can get $50 or $100 in iTunes credit.  That lets you buy music, TV shows, movies, books, iPhone or iPad apps, Mac software, rent movies, and more.

More details on their web site.

Saving Google Docs

You may find that you (or your students) want to save all of your Google Docs files.  This can be useful for any number of good reasons:  graduation, retirement, leaving Cairo-Durham schools, or just wanting a backup.

To download your Google Docs files, try the directions from Google themselves:
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=49115&topic=1153350

Alternately, if you want all of your files in one shot, try this:

• Go to the Start Portal and click on Google Docs.
• Login.
• Hover your mouse over any random document so that "Actions" shows up on the right-hand end, next to the date the file was last changed.
• Click on "Actions".  This will show a pop-up menu.
• Click on "Download..." in that menu.  This will show a new window named "Convert and Download".
• Click on the "All items" tab near the top of the "Convert and Download" window.
• Select the type of computer file that you want each type of Google Doc to convert into when you download it.  For example, you might select "PowerPoint" for "Presentation".
• Click the "Download" button.
• Now wait.  If you can't wait, click the "Email when ready" button and check your email later.
• After a few minutes, your computer will download an archive of your files.  If this doesn't begin automatically, you should have a link that you can click on.

Find "Download" in the "Actions" menu.

Select "All items" and converted file types.

Wait while it "packs up" your files.

When the archive is made, you can download it.
If the download doesn't begin automatically,
click "click here to download".

Apple Sale for College Students

As a follow up to the previous post about purchasing computers for college-bound students, you might be interested in knowing about Apple's new sale.  You can buy a Mac at the discounted/academic pricing and they'll discount an iPod -- including the iPod Touch, which is basically a pocket-sized computer.

EDIT:  I stand corrected.  The sale hasn't started yet.  It has happened every May or June for the last few years, so it will probably start soon.  Sorry if I got your hopes up.  Just try Apple's web site in a few weeks to see if its changed.

EDIT 2:  The sale just began today.

Customize Email's Look

Want to make email look better?  You can customize the background picture, colors, fonts, etc. of your email account.

This does not effect the look of email that you send.  So you can make a very personal working environment without worrying about looking unprofessional to anyone you email.

Fo details, check out Google's announcement of this new feature:

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/custom-background-image-themes.html