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IT Meeting @ 2009-10-29 08:47:11

IT Meeting Minutes 22nd October 2009
Meeting Start: 19:15

1) Welcome and Apologies

Present: Ben, Tim, Bernard, Chris, Omar, Matt, Fergus, Ed
Apologies: Rachel, Andrew, Adam, Martin

2) UPS
•Email Andrew, old UPS will be on Monday 26th October 2009
•Email to get volunteers for to help move and package the UPS ready for collection

3) New Servers
•Cheapest quote for 2 servers is £1800, however for an extra £140 we can get an extra 4GB RAM installed in each one, this quote includes a 3yr warrantee and next day support from Dell
•Dell do not provide sliding rails for this server design however they are smaller in depth and shouldn’t prove too difficult to remove from the server rack if required
•One of the IT Team questioned the point of getting that quality of hardware because of cost. However server hardware is more reliable, plus it will save on future upgrades.
•Current servers sliding rails – we have only got one half of the sliding rails for the current servers, need to invest in the other half so that the old servers can be easily removed
•14 day limit on the quote, order needs to be placed ideally before the 2nd November
•Need to get approval from exec on the exec meeting on Tuesday 27th October 2009
•Need to change postal address on the quote
•Platform choice, waiting on other key members of the societies IT Team until official choice is made. Windows would also incur additional costs and this needs to be discussed with the Exec, preliminary vote status: 4 Windows, 4 Linux, 1 Abstention The additional cost would be £323 per server
•Discussion in to preference; pros and cons to using Windows over Linux – not included in the minutes
•Final point which was agreed on was that it doesn’t matter what platform we use as long as it works and is reliable

4) Website
•Do we use PHP or python? Long discussion on pros and cons
•Why was python chosen? Discussion was brought up using other languages. Python was chosen due to frameworks that are available and it discourages bad code
•Voted on whether to use Python or PHP: 5 – PHP, 2 – Python, 1 Abstention
•Was pointed out that progress has already been made in Python, however not all of the model is constructed therefore if PHP is used due to larger numbers of people knowing already how to code in PHP progress would be quicker than learning a new language and the progress that has already been made could be caught up
•Bring whiskey, (and soft drinks for those who do not wish to drink) to the next meeting – as the discussions were stressful
•Would we consider a using a framework in php – yes going to look into the available frameworks
•Due to the vote and more personal knowing PHP the new website will be written in PHP
•Another note was made that we need to write a new EPOS system as well as a website as they are strongly linked together
Grouping
Would be useful and more time efficient if the IT Team was “split” in two. Suggested division:
•Team ‘Dexter’ - Infrastructure, UPS, Tills, Servers, Firewall
•Team ‘Morgan’ - “software”, EPOS and Website
However this does not mean that you can not be parts of both teams.
Design
Specification
Structure
Design/Looks/Graphics – Getting someone from publicity to design a ascetically pleasing design

5) Website Specification/starting points
•A new database will be built, will use false data to test
•Test data independent from actual data
•When the new website goes live the data will have to be transferred across to the new one
•Members, University numbers, emails if allowed (personal preferences), membership data updated twice a day so our record is up to date
•Reduce the number of menu items – making site navigation quick and easy
•We want the appearance design to be separate other code – interchangeable appearances
•Member permission
1.everyone is assigned a status
2.giving them different privileges
•Visit www.filmsoc.warwick.ac.uk/trac/ to view what has already be achieved in Python
•Authentication and group membership – people are at the centre of the website
•Status and multiple status’s – each status has a parent to which they belong to, for example a trainee steward is under the parent group Stewards
•Consider inheritance
•Contacts –addresses, what if they are a lifetime crew member
•User accounts – associated to a particular person, they also have status’s and permissions of access on the website
•Preferences – do you want to see have everything (selectively deactivate items) – not beneficial to those who aren’t in “Admin” – possibly overkill
•New website features –
i) downloadable calendar
ii) film reminders
iii)mailing preferences
iv) number of film passes left
v)online ticket sales – through the union, discuss with DM and Union

6) Touch Screen Tills
•Debating whether it is worth it, though not a requirement could be a good investment
•All in units – aprox. £1000, just screens £370, overlays couldn’t be found
•Pressure or capacitance – pressure based not so lifetime is reduced
•Multi-system so you could use a touch screen or the standard PC

7) AOB
•Regarding EPOS ticket sales
•Wireless access point put on the concourse or a private access point, however would require running a network cable from the servers to the concourse, this would be useful to have encase the university networking crashes. Then we will still be able to sell tickets

8) Next meeting 29th Oct – 09

Finish: 21:18

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