GCC Labs

Okay, maybe floppies aren’t the best media to use.  Nor is Radio Shack the best place to buy it.  But you need to BACK UP YOUR STUFF to a device or location of your choosing.  iMacs located in the labs, and the accounts and desktop files contained on them, are erased at the end of every semester.  Student folders on the GCC server are kept intact from semester to semester unless:

1. You are no longer taking a class in the labs.
2. You are no longer a student at Bradley.  (see #1)
3. Your folder is obnoxiously huge.

#3 is perhaps a bit subjective, but I always give people fair warning before I start swinging the axe.  Suffice to say that you shouldn’t be using your student folder for permanent storage of massive amounts of data.  And remember that those folders are there for convenience; it is not recommended to store your only copies of anything there.  Any questions, please let us know.

The GCC server (that this very webpage is running on) is back up.  It never went completely down, but a campus-wide network outage caused it to start rejecting valid logins for people trying to connect to the server’s share points. It is working now.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

More animated backgrounds from Footage Firm have been added to our library.  What are those, you ask?  Perhaps you should just go look and see for yourself.  These can be used as moving backgrounds for full-screen graphics in video projects, demo reel contact information, even PowerPoint slides.  Enjoy.

SFTP file access (for Windows machines) is now back up and running as of yesterday.  I restarted the server last week  to install some security updates and several services did not start up automatically as I had anticipated they should.  I didn’t know this, however, until a student reported the problem.  If you are experiencing issues with the server or the labs, make sure you submit a trouble ticket so we know about it and it can be addressed.  I try to send a return email with the status or solution of the problem whenever possible.

If you are a Windows user and have some time to experiment, please try the SMB method for connecting to the GCC server.  It seems like it’s working now but I would like some students to test it too.  Submit your results (good or bad) via the Contact Us page.  Regardless of whether it works, the SFTP alternative will remain in place.

The Xerox Phaser 7760 color printer is again working.

Sorry for the delay.

More music from Footage Firm has been added to our ever-growing production library.  This collection is all cinematic underscores, so they tend to be full-length, orchestral, dramatic pieces.  If you mount the Resources share point and go into music, then into Footage Firm, sorting those folders by date modified will put the newest stuff all together.  Titles include Global Scores, Blockbuster Scores, Horror Atmospheres, Dramatic Atmospheres, Piano Themes, Romantic Scores, Science Fiction, Action Themes, Epic Battle Scores and just plain Horror (volumes 1 and 2).  You can also view these files on the web (BUNETID required).

The color printer (aka Xerox Phaser 7760) is having paper jam issues. I have ordered a new fuser that may or may not resolve the issues.

I will post again when the issue is resolved.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

SFTP connections are now working for the GCC server.  Windows users should use this method for connecting to the server.  Please let us know if you have any problems.  Mac users can continue using AFP.

I hear your complaints about the Windows connection issues to the gcc server, and I’m working on a solution.  I will post when I have it finalized.  We may need to go back to the SFTP solution.

More music from Footage Firm has been added to our Resources share point.  If you need music for a class project, check out our ever-growing library of production music.  The newest additions include varied genres such as pop, rock, latin, R&B, acoustic, romantic, funk, and film scores.  Visit the collection via the web (BUNETID required) or by mounting the Resources share point from the GCC server.

If you’ve been waiting for a folder to be created for you on the Students share point, they are now all done.  Please let us know if you think you should have one but don’t.  For an explanation of the permissions on your folder plus the Private and Dropbox folders within, click here.

Welcome back to Bradley!  The GCC labs are now open.  If you’re new to the labs, bookmark this page or make it your browser home page so you stay up to date on all the latest news and announcements about the labs.  Use the navigation menus above to find information on anything you’re looking for… lab policies, procedures and open hours, tech info, printing procedures and FAQ’s, and file sharing and student file storage.  Don’t forget our Contact page, where you can get in touch with a staff member or if you observe a problem, directly submit a trouble ticket into our system.

I hope everyone has a great semester.

Whether you’re a red crab or not, the GCC labs will be closed for the winter break this Wednesday, 12-14-11 at 10pm.  Please conclude any business you have in the labs by that time.  We will re-open for the start of the Spring semester on January 18th, 2012.

From all the student and professional staff at the GCC, have a great winter break and holiday season.

Wishing everyone a great Thankgiving and some well-deserved time off before the end of the semester.  Travel safely.

15 more CD’s worth of production music from Footage Firm has been added to our Stock Resource collection.  This is mostly Christmas and Halloween music, with a few other genres in there as well.  If you are looking for instrumental music to underscore your next class project, you can find it here.

The instructions for connecting to the GCC server from Windows has been slightly updated to a procedure that works more reliably.  Please see me if you are still having trouble.

If you are still having trouble connecting to the GCC server from a Windows machine, please come see me.  I am located in GCC 105, near the back door.

Apologies for the outage this morning on the GCC server.  One of the services ground to a halt which necessitated a restart.  Everything is back up and running now.

The instructions for adding our network printers to Windows 7 machines have been updated once and for all.  Through exhaustive experimentation and testing, we found that using the IP addresses instead of the printer’s network name works consistently when adding a printer to a student machine.  Special thanks to Mike Whitlow and Enrico Willis of Computing Services for their help with troubleshooting this problem.  Please remember that these printers are for-pay printers, and you are responsible for any print you make whether you want it or not.  Follow the directions carefully to create an accurate name for the printers and to avoid setting a network printer as your default.

Additionally, there is one important feature of the server I left off the list: most of the share points, including the Students share, are now on a RAID hard drive array.  ”What does that mean,” you might ask.  It means that if a drive were to physically fail on the server, we would not lose any files from those share points.  However, keep in mind that when you delete something from your folder, it’s still gone forever.  We do not keep old backups of the drive, we just ensure that we won’t lose what’s currently on it.  Deleting a file will still kill it, as it always has.

Any questions, let me know.

The GCC server is now housed in a new MacPro!  Bigger, faster, better.  You might notice that this very site is loading quicker.  So what does this mean to you, John Q. Student?  Well, a few things have changed.  Here’s a list of the most major new features and fixes:

• Many of you (myself included) were experiencing random disconnects while using the share points on the GCC server.  That is now fixed.
• Windows users can now reliably connect via SMB.  This has now been fixed once and for all.  Follow the instructions here and let me know if you have a problem.  Follow the instructions exactly!  Do not use the SFTP workaround with Cyberduck; that service is not running on the new server.
• The “Print me” folder inside the Service Bureau share point has been changed to be its own share point called “Large Format Print Queue”.  Inside you’ll find a DropBox folder for dropping your files to be printed.  The large format print form has also changed locations.  The instructions for large-format printing have been updated to reflect these changes, for both InDesign and Illustrator.
• Faculty folders have more web-friendly names.  The old names were “Lastname, Firstname”.  The capital letters, spaces and commas made it difficult to reliably send links to files.  The new naming convention is “lastname-firstname” with a dash and no capital letters.  If you have a faculty member’s folder bookmarked, you’ll need to visit the Faculty sharepoint on the web and update your bookmark.

Some of you were still having issues connecting to the HP 5200 B/W printer and Xerox 7760 color printer on the network.  We’ve now gotten to the bottom of this issue: Windows users must use the IP address of the printer and not the name of the printer when adding it.  The instructions have not been updated yet but if you’re comfortable doing it, sub in 136.176.71.48 for “gcc210hp5200.bradley.edu” or 136.176.71.218 for “gcc210xerox7760.bradley.edu” on the Windows printer instruction page.  The documentation will be updated soon.

Welcome back from break and enjoy the new capabilities.