Computer lab fun

[Geek King]

Due to a particularly irritating band on campus, we implemented a punchcard system where you could get 50 pages for $3, or pay $.10 each. Mainly because these guys would come in and try to print of 300 copies of their poster to hang up around town. On a HP Laserjet 4. It would eat up half the printing capacity of the lab for hours.

[Captain Kidd]

Unfortunately, our printers aren't on any one central print server. And our student logins aren't really much more than a boolean query to see if they're a legitimate student. It'd require a massive infrastructure redo.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Not exactly on-topic, but close. One thing about the computer labs at my university that pissed me off was that they did not allow you to use them for programming. At all.
t back early, he had permission to use my laptop to go online or whatever.

Total waste of tuition dollars and an utterly retarded policy. To this day I don't get it.

You should have gone to my college Dave, we had labs exclusively for programming and similar students that could not be accessed without a KEYCARD given to students in those programs. It was brilliant.

On the other topic, We got a 500 page per semester printing limit and if you went over that you paid through the NOSE (I think it was $1/page or something crazy) but damn it worked. well.

[AmericanZero8503]

My family owned the Dot-Matrix printer that had a continuous ream of paper. They bought a huge box of it and when we updated to an inkjet we had to sit there and tear the edges off the paper and separate it...that was a blasty.

(At my 'real' job, not the customer service one)
Since I'm more 'technically literate' than other people who work at the company...our engineer usually talks to me and tells me about the technical f*ck ups of others. The other day the entire sales department was jumping his case over the laser printers not working. The problem...the damned things weren't turned on. And everyone laughs when the first question tech support asks "Is the device turned on?"

[Dave1982]

Not exactly on-topic, but close. One thing about the computer labs at my university that pissed me off was that they did not allow you to use them for programming. At all.

It was quite literally the case that the School of Business classrooms had individual stations for each student, where the monitor was actually below the desk and shined up through a glass top at an angle (so that if you looked down, just past the keyboard tray you'd see what you were doing) which left the desktop free for books, papers, and other work. The setups were terrific. But they were NOT to be used for programming. And yet, there were programming classes held there. So what do they do?

They force you to bring your own laptop, which HAD to run XP Pro SP1 and nothing else (this was before SP2 came out), give you the software to install on it, and you could not use the supplied PC at all. I know of at least two people who were forced to spend money on a laptop just for that one class. I myself had to drop the class and take it later because I had a PowerBook (a Mac). And no other classes even held there even had use for the PCs! So all those computers ended up being used for was "surreptitiously" going online during class. I ended up making an arrangement with my roommate to borrow his Dell laptop to use during this class. It worked out because he would be off at another class at the same time, and if I got back late or he got back early, he had permission to use my laptop to go online or whatever.

Total waste of tuition dollars and an utterly retarded policy. To this day I don't get it.

[Captain Kidd]

I haven't had to kick anybody off for porn or playing games. Guess I should have for the latter, but we have a second lab downstairs (math lab rather than computer science lab) that is our overflow redirect.

Plus the upstairs lab has additional rooms with 40 or so computers each that are usable if there's not a class lab going on. Even then most of the GAs running the labs are cool with somebody coming in and using a back-row computer if they keep quite. Although I've seen more than one person, usually a freshman, "escaping" from one of those rooms with a very irate GA on their tail.

Paper usage is getting to be a big problem. The library is going $40,000 or more over each year on their paper/toner budget. They're trying an educational approach to cut back on the usage, but I fear that a more draconian approach is going to be required. Like limiting how many "free" pages a person gets before charging a per-page fee. That or student tech access fees are going to go up yet again.

HawaiianShirts, how I sometimes wish we were like you. Some classes take their tests online. Some of them are hosted on our university's servers, others are third-party. Either way, I can do nothing if the server goes belly-up! I feel their pain, but sorry, dude, I can only give you an apologetic look. If it's the intranet, I'll let them call up the IT helpdesk (actually I'll call the IT helpdesk and then handover the phone to the student at some point if it can be resolved). If it's a third-party test, yeah sorry, you're SOL. I'll give them my name and tell them that I'll vouch to their professor that I saw the 404 error. Beyond that, well I've got a roll of paper towels if they need to dry their eyes, but crying ain't gonna give me super haXor power to hack into the remote site and fix their problem.

[IT Grunt]

One of the things that would piss me off to no end is people who would waste paper mercilessly and tie up the printers while I was waiting for a print of my current assignment.

I remember this vividly. There were signs all over the lab that said that printing ONE copy of your report was acceptable, but if you needed multiple copies, the library's copy facilities were available. There was one time this girl was going to print /40/ copies of a 20 page paper, for reasons unknown. I called her on it, but another person in the lab said I was being 'obnoxious' as I tried to tactfully convince her otherwise without coming right out and saying 'Go to the library.'

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I was never a lab assistant, but I spent enough times in there during college to know what you're all talking about.

One of the things that would piss me off to no end is people who would waste paper mercilessly and tie up the printers while I was waiting for a print of my current assignment. Most students it seemed would run a draft of say a 20 page project, then catch a few errors on several of the pages. So then they'd correct the errors and print the ENTIRE PROJECT over again just get those three corrected pages. Or they'd need small section of a large webpage and rather than cutting and pasting, they'd print off the whole page, which sometimes took a lot of printer pages to cover. This often happened multiple times involving the same students.

The first year I was at college the printer paper was readily available, but I guess too many people were stealing it that every year after it was kept in a locked cabinet below the printers so if a printer ran out, you needed a lab assistant to refill it.

Also, there was never a day that went by that someone didn't pester the lab assistants for pencils, pens, staplers, scissors, floppy disks, CD-Rs, project folders and anything else they needed to get their precious project in on time.

And oh god, the people who would tie up the computers playing games and e-mailing and myspace, etc. When I use a computer in a college lab the usual intent is to be PRODUCTIVE.

[HawaiianShirts]

Signs, I'm starting to wonder if there's any reason to waste the paper to print them as people just don't seem to pay attention.

The stapler is located on a table under a big sign that says "Stapler here", yet 3-4 times an hour (on a slow day) I get to point it out.

We have some Linux and Mac machines. On each of them is a note along the top of the monitor that say, "you must have a Linux account to use these computers." Not that that note helps. About 1 in 5 then get mad at me because they can't log in.

"Are you the lab assistant?" Err, well, I better be since there's a 'Lab Assistant' sign above my head.

I don't work in a lab, but I did work in a testing center that was right next door to a lab. I got to experience a little of that stupidity.

We had people wander into the testing center and sit down at one of the computers there (for the few professors who submitted computer tests and didn't make them available online), thinking that they were regular-use computers. We would try to stop them. If they were taking a test, we had to check them in, so anyone going directly to the computers would have trouble anyway. Eventually, we just let them figure the problem out for themselves. When they'd wander up to the desk and ask why they can't get into MS Word or on the internet, we'd get to laugh at them and send them next door. That only happened the first month of the semester, though, with the people who had never been to that particular lab or testing center before.

All year long we had the opposite. People would go into the lab, walk up to the lab assistant, and tell him they needed to take a test. And often, when he directed them to us next door, they'd protest!
LA: You need to go to the testing center then. It's right through that doorway.
Student: But I need to take a test!
LA: Yeah. Go to the testing center.
Student: But don't I take tests here?
LA: No, this is the computer lab. You want the testing center. Over there.
Student: That's stupid.
So the lead lab assistant put up a big sign right in front of his desk that says: "This is the COMPUTER LAB. This is NOT the testing center. You CANNOT take tests here. This is the COMPUTER LAB." It doesn't work. He still gets people asking to take tests. Only now, he doesn't even grace the idiot with an answer. He just points at the sign, more emphatically each time they protest, until they finally get it and leave.

And then there are the morons who try to download porn on the lab computers. On our campus, that is a big no-no. Students caught doing it are escorted off campus by armed security guys and have their computer account suspended. There are signs on the wall informing everyone of this as school policy. Yet every few weeks, someone on a PUBLIC computer, making ZERO attempt to hide their screens from their peers, will decide to indulge and get kicked out.

Surprisingly, we don't have many printer problems, though. Except for that first week or two when the freshmen are getting used to the set-up.

[Captain Kidd]

I've also been there when it comes to being a programming student as well and let me tell you, even though you guys aren't supposed to "help" us, your hints were good enough for me! Just letting you know that you're very much appreciated.

Hey, you guys are cool and are easy to spot (e.g. intelligent, to the point, questions), it's the others that bother me. I had another today that did a half-arse job of indenting. Fortunately her only problem was fat-fingering a function call. And she tries too so she gets bonus points and more happily-given help too.

[mattm04]

What is is with people and not pushing chairs in? Has teaching manners at home gotten to the point that it's now OK to not push your chair in? Oh, I'm sorry, that's the school's responsibility, not parents, so teachers are obviously to blame.

Seriously, these chairs rooooll, and quite easily too. They're not heavy. They're not electric and won't give you a shock (yet). So, why do 9 out of 10 students not push them in when they're done? Man, at times I feel like a maid more than a technical assistant.

Hmm, I think I'm telepathic; as I typed this, one guy got up and started walking to the door. He stopped, turned around, went back to his chair, and pushed it in.

Thus bugs me too. I;m not even a lab tech. I will be sitting at a PC doing my school work, when the person next to me will just get up, send the chair flying back and leave. If it is in reach i will always pull it back in. The lab tech are always pissed that tye have to go around pushing chairs in, discarding beverages hidden under the desks, etc.

[gunsage]

Heh...I used to have a line printer (dot matrix, right?) on my old 286. That brings back memories. 5 1/4 disks, programming in Basic, etc. Anyway, I was a teacher's assistant for my high school computer teacher...well, for one of them...the cool one. Unfortunately, I was removed via the principal from there. For starters, they claimed I was supposed to have some sort of workbook...hey, too bad nobody told me.

Further, the kids there were retarded. Granted, this was a country school full of kids that knew next to nothing about computers, but come on.

Stupid Kid: "Uh...where's the 1 key?"
Me: *Points* "Right there."
SK: "Uh, okay..." (Minutes later) "Where's the 2 key?"
Me:

Needless to say, I knew they were dicking with me, so eventually I ignored the lot of them. Then one day, a RIDICULOUS announcement was made in first period that was a terrible advertisment for some sort of sport booster event or something that went along the lines of...

"Why does Basketball Player X get all the women? Well, probably because he bought his Product Y. Be like BPX, get the women, buy the Y."

Two things...one, yes, that was a VERY disgustingly crappy commercial. Two, I didn't like this kid anyway. He was a dick. What did I do? Vent. I wrote the following:

"Why does BPX get all the men? Probably because he's gay. Very gay. A stack of strawberry pancakes gay. He probably acts like a pimp to cover this up, but we all know the act. Buy the Y, don't be like BPX."

No I'm not homophobic or whatever, but there it is. Anyway, for whatever reason, I didn't delete it, I saved it, but changed the text to Japanese first. Yeah...THAT'S unbreakable. I get back from driver's ed and kids are running by me laughing posting copies of it on lockers (this kid was not well liked and was uber preppy to boot).

I've also been there when it comes to being a programming student as well and let me tell you, even though you guys aren't supposed to "help" us, your hints were good enough for me! Just letting you know that you're very much appreciated.

[Sliceanddice]

you know i didnt see a none line printer until iwas 12? your freshemn are just idiots.

[Captain Kidd]

What is is with people and not pushing chairs in? Has teaching manners at home gotten to the point that it's now OK to not push your chair in? Oh, I'm sorry, that's the school's responsibility, not parents, so teachers are obviously to blame.

Seriously, these chairs rooooll, and quite easily too. They're not heavy. They're not electric and won't give you a shock (yet). So, why do 9 out of 10 students not push them in when they're done? Man, at times I feel like a maid more than a technical assistant.

Hmm, I think I'm telepathic; as I typed this, one guy got up and started walking to the door. He stopped, turned around, went back to his chair, and pushed it in.

[IT Grunt]

*I know it was sucky, and normally I did not mind it if users just goofed around, but when there is a line out the door and people are trying to check email or print things for their next class, it is hardly fair to them that someone is wasting resources goofing off. I was always polite and asked them to log off and leave, which always got me an earful.

That was our general policy in our lab. Unused computers were just that, unused, and if someone wanted to play around, it wasn't a problem. However, if someone was using a PC for non-work and someone needed it for school work, then they had to give it up. I had the same deal, people would bitch up a storm because they had to log off their precious chat room.