UCSC BME 205 Fall 2008
Bioinformatics: models and algorithms
Remote-viewing instructions
(Last Update:
13:35 PDT 22 October 2008
)
This fall, we are trying an experiment in presenting BME 205 for
students at remote sites. This is likely to cause some inconvenience
for students at UCSC (such as using E2 room 506, instead of PSB 305,
and my needing an extra 5-10 minutes before each class to set up all
the equipment), but we will try to minimize the difficulties.
Each lecture will be telecast on the web through three channels: a
video link and two whiteboards.
Live Video
I had originally been told that you go to http://polycom.cse.ucsc.edu/
and click on "View a Meeting" but all I've ever gotten is "Streaming
Streaming Disabled". I've been told that the main group of off-site
students will have polycom equipment in a video conference room, and
will be using a different way of establishing the connection. I've
now been told that the streaming to sites other than LANL will remain
disabled this quarter, since turning it on enables some security
problems (not explained to me).
Recorded video
I've been told that the lectures will be recorded and will be
available for streaming or download.
The files are temporarily available for download from
http://beryl.cse.ucsc.edu/video/bme/
in WMV format, but they should eventually be converted to
QuickTime for streaming from a different server.
The WMV files are about 600Mbytes per lecture, so make sure you have
enough space and a fast connection before you download.
Note: the beryl website is only a backup. Use the streamer server
described below.
Streaming video is now available. Here is the information from Tomas Witen-Hannah:
I have been re encoding the video from the lectures and I am uploading
it to a streaming website.
http://streamer.cse.ucsc.edu/groups/bme/blog/
From this page students can view the lectures online. The video will
stream at different rates depending on the connection speed. Also
there is a link to subscribe to the lectures in iTunes if students
wish to download a high quality version.
Whiteboards
I spent hours learning how to set up the "e-beam" software and write
these instructions, but it was decided (not really by me) that the
setup in the classroom was too difficult, so that only the video link
will be used, and an undergrad hired to operate the camera. (That was
cheaper than getting the "enterprise" license for the e-beam software,
which would have been necessary to do more than on whiteboard.)
The following instructions are only here in case they change their
minds a gain and decide to use the e-beam equipment after all.
The whiteboards will be done with "e-beam" hardware and software.
To view the whiteboards you need to download software from
http://www.e-beam.com/downloads/software.html
Download "ebeam capture" and
install it on your computer. There appear to be both Windows and Mac
OS X versions. I tested version 1.0 on a Power PC Macintosh running
OS 10.3.9, and it appeared to be working ok.
The user interface is not very intuitive, but is not difficult to
use once the ritual magic has been learned.
-
First, the program will complain that "your receiver could not be
detected," because you don't have whatever hardware it is looking for.
Click on cancel to ignore this error message.
- Then,
click on the button (3rd from right) that shows a person next to an open door.
(trust me, that is supposed to be a door, though I would not have
recognized it if someone hadn't explained it to me.).
- A small window labeled "server" will appear, with a (probably
empty) list of servers to choose.
Click on the button next to the server list which shows a computer
sitting on top of a sewage pipe.
- This will bring up yet another small window with a table of
servers, their DNS names, and their ports
Add a new server,
| Server | DNS Name/IPAddress | Port |
|---|
| UCSC SoE | ebeam.cse.ucsc.edu | 80 |
- Close the "Meeting Servers" window and select
"UCSC SoE" on the server window.
There should be two meetings, one for each whiteboard.
Select both. You shouldn't need a password.
Click "Join". If the whiteboards don't appear, it may be because they
aren't properly hooked up and turned on in the classroom.
Note: I have not had a chance to test the software with two boards
turned on—I have no idea if further ritual magic is needed to
get that to work.
- The boards are supposed to show you what is currently on the
whiteboards in the classroom and add more as I write on the board, but
they don't initially do that. I found that by going to the
thumbnail-only view (the calculator-like icon second from the left),
then double-clicking on the thumbnail will start synchronizing your
view to what is going on in the classroom.
- Occasionally. I will move to a new board. You can see the series
of boards as thumbnails to the right of the main board by clicking on
the leftmost icon (the microwave oven).
-
At the end of the class, you should be able to save the whiteboard
contents to play back later, but I have not experimented with that
feature.
Questions about page content should be directed to
Kevin Karplus
Biomolecular Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
USA
karplus@soe.ucsc.edu
1-831-459-4250
318 Physical Sciences Building
