This post fits nicely about my last one about always being sure to save your data… but as you will see, that’s not protection from ill-conceived computer network policies! [editor note:] To refine the headline, I know the admins are not “dumb” in the academic or technological sense, but upon implementing their latest technology features onto an unsuspecting userbase (with dire consequences) they have certainly failed to think about the users beyond themselves. So, I’ve been a student at UNO in the College of IS&T for a good 4-5 years (1 semester off to study abroad). I’ve always been proud of our network admins because we have several great features that make our computer labs better than the ones on main campus:
- No student login/password required to use - so you can sit down and go straight to work - print that file or submit that homework assignment fast
- Mozilla Firefox - for people that want a serious web browser with tabs
- Other software - specific for IS&T students not found elsewhere on campus
- Efficient printing w/o hassle - this was just last year, but you print, name the print job “whatever” and you swip your print card and choose the job to print, simple and fault tolerant
- 1 Setback - No OpenOffice.org Yet - this really should have been out once OOo hit 1.0 in 2003, I should hope 2.0 final gets put on the desktops
Some other noteworthy properties of our lab:
- Your files stay on the computer - even after you leave the lab, your files will be there all semester long if no one has deleted them, so a backup copy is in the lab if you ever need it
- Lab closing announcement - the lab monitor always goes around 10-5 minutes before closing to tell students (usually in a middle-eastern accent) that the lab is about to close, so finish up your work
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