[238] in Tooltime
these are the comments from the student testing of 9/10/96
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Smyser)
Wed Sep 11 16:10:06 1996
To: wade@MIT.EDU, tooltime@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 16:09:52 EDT
From: Rob Smyser <smyser@MIT.EDU>
The actual notes about our testing occur after the current events
section below.
Rob
------- Forwarded Message
Received: from PACIFIC-CARRIER-ANNEX.MIT.EDU by po8.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA05478; Wed, 11 Sep 96 15:40:57 EDT
Received: from PONGO.MIT.EDU by MIT.EDU with SMTP
id AA15059; Wed, 11 Sep 96 15:40:48 EDT
From: godinger@MIT.EDU
Received: by pongo.MIT.EDU (5.57/4.7) id AA25618; Wed, 11 Sep 96 15:40:43 -0400
Message-Id: <9609111940.AA25618@pongo.MIT.EDU>
To: hd@MIT.EDU
Subject: Meeting Minutes 9/10/96
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 15:40:41 EDT
Topic: The introduction and testing of the beta version of the Scopus
database that will be used at the MIT computer help desk.
Presenter / organizer: Peter Lee
There are four new hires. Welcome to:
Leonardo
Erin
Sean
Paul
Remember to log out of the phones before leaving. When consultants are
logged in overnight, in the morning clients will be misled (and thus on hold
indefinitely), thinking a consultant will be with them shortly, when in fact
there are none at the help desk. When no consultants are logged on, they get
a message informing them that this is the case.
Current events done by Jeremy Godinger:
1. AOL will contest ruling that prevents it from blocking promotional
electronic mail.
2. Net Searches will become faster with a new service unveiled by Infoseek
(called Infoseek Quickseek), a free utility that gives users the ability to
search regardless of where they are on the net if you are using the right
browser. The utility is available for download now (for free). It adds a
live search box next to the Netscape Navigator directory buttons and can
search the net without having to go to a search page.
3. Internet Explorer continues to be plagued with security problems.
ActiveX (supported by IE) can wipe out your hard disk with no record,
install a virus, etc. Microsoft argues that to be completely save would
close off everything that is interesting on a computer.
4. IBM unveils network computer ($700), aimed at the business market.
E-mail and WWW Browser services will be supported
5. One of the new Internet telephony features included in Netscape
Navigator 3.0 is CoolTalk, a technology that allows PCs to function as a
telephone and answering machine. CoolTalk can also be used for chat or as a
whiteboard, which allows users to collaborate on documents.
6. Microsoft argues that its free distribution of Internet Explorer (IE)
has led to the development of better browsers. It claims that it has
creative marketing, and that the allegation made by netscape (that says,
essentially, that Microsoft is exhibiting monopolistic, illegal practices)
"is unheard of. this is standard practice in the software industry and
intellectual property licensing generally."
7. Apple system software 7.5.4 coming out this Thursday. The naming
conventions for Mac OS will be standardized. New Open Transport will not be
included in this release. This will be the last one to work with the older
Macs (2cx & under). This will be on Public ASAP.
Final Beta testing of scopus will be done in the following way: Consultants
will break up into groups of 3 or 4. The testing will be done by the
consultants using Scopus in parallel with Filemaker (each having identical
record sets), and comparing the system (as well as exploring Scopus). One
client, one consultant on Filemaker DB, one on Scopus, and one observer.
Consultants should take notes, and discuss them later in the evening. Scopus
is not yet supported on Macs. Passwords are the same as usernames.
Comments on Scopus:
1. Unreliable to search in history/summary field -- not specific enough
results (with some random logs) this is when find logs method is used.
There are actually other methods for searching the summary and history field=
s
2. Easier access of searches suggested.
3. The preferable ways to do searches on history and summary fields are the
following: Use MIT pulldown menu to do search. The options or search
summary, search history. These searches will not be case-sensitive. Code is
written to search the first 2000 characters of these fields.
4. When the new button is clicked, a message comes up that should be
ignored. The record is cleared, and the message lets you know that there was
nothing in the log (just cleared) to begin with.
5. When new log is not saved, and hits are listed (and another hit
exists for the specific client) --record is clicked on and shows information
on new log that cannot be saved.
6. History field gives a weird error message when opening a log
7. When the Q is high, only 500 entries are displayed.
8. Mac model list is incomplete. "other" should not be there, and it tells
nothing. It will be taken out soon.
9. Clear Profile to get rid of the phone number and e-mail defaults of
0-0000, etc. If these are used in searches, result set will be null.
10. Log marked housecall did not save.
Comments / Suggestions
1. Call back history should be separate from history field.
2. 0-0000 phone number is misleading, since the database is set up for
phone numbers without dashes.
3. Keyboard shortcuts would be nice. Scopus doesn't presently have them, but it
should.
4. Scopus spawns separate windows for opening additional records. Thus, it is
simple to open multiple logs at a time (without getting off the one currently
being worked on). A new instance of the database will appear.
5. It is easy to use other open logs for clients.
6. Bigger log number field and last name would make improve UI.
They are finished working on the UI as far as Tooltime is concerned, but the
consultants are not satisfied with it.
7. Visual layouts and fonts are not ready yet.
8. Secondary information will not be so prominent. Suggestion that it be a
separate pop-up form.
9. Fonts can be customized for each workstation, but fields may collide.
10. Comment about scrollbars
11. Phone number format may include dash.
12. Steve is the project manager for scopus. He said that User Interface
(UI) was not a priority in this release. This release was more focused on
delivering a baseline product. UI improvements will come in the second
release, will should be out not long after the helpdesk starts using the
first release. He also noted that there is the possibility of integrating the
current database with others used by IS throughout campus.
Written reports / comments should be e-mailed to tooltime-bugs@mit.edu.
Include comments on scopus documentation.
------- End of Forwarded Message
