21 Nov 2003:

During the past month or so, the number of working computers in SCI108 has increased from 17 to 22, the full number for that lab. While lab staff worked on server issues and faculty requests for new software installations, student lab assistants George Orriss and David Wyman worked to make more workstations available.

There are now two workstations (IT30026771 and IT30026770) directly under the whiteboard. They were relocated there because their prior position had a lot of magnetic interference from something on the other side of the wall. This interference distorted the video signal, making the monitors unusable because the display was "jumpy". Moving the monitors away from the disruptive source now allows them to display a steady picture.

For quite some time, the two video-processing workstations (IT1197652 and IT1197651) were out of commission. They used Windows NT 4.0 OS software because it was thought that the special video processing software was the most compatible with that older OS, so they weren't updated to Windows 2000. In addition, a disk failed in each computer, causing it to be unusable. Now, the operating system has been updated and the failing disks have been replaced, so they are both functional as regular or video processing workstations (note that preference will be given to use as a video processing workstation for course-related work).

In addition, one of the computers (IT30026613) was being used as an imaging server, and is now back in service as a regular workstation.

Please feel free to use them all, especially on Wednesday in the late afternoon when SCI108 workstation usage is high due to reserved labs.

We hope that these changes will make it easier for you to do your coursework, and apologize for any problems their unavailability may have caused.