More upgrades
Like a lot of humanities departments in comprehensive universities, we here in WIU’s English & Journalism aren’t wallowing in technology. In fact, quite a few of our faculty use computers which are aging rapidly. So every little bit of new technology helps.
I write this because I recently sent a wheezing old Pentium II to UCSS for a format and reinstall, and the technician assigned the project called me to say, “Hey, want me to upgrade this to a Pentium III?”
“Hell yeah,” I wrote. So I’m writing here to confirm how much I appreciate that gesture. One fewer five year old computer doesn’t solve our problems, but it will certainly make one faculty member’s workday a bit smoother.
Also, tonight we’ll be deploying the shiny new Dell Optiplexes I wrote about earlier. The UCSS tech arrives at 4:30 and has promised to work until it’s done. Awesome.
September 19th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
I’ve been thinking about this a bit recently. What kinds of demands are being placed on these machines that make a five- (or four-, or three-) year-old machine unsuitable? Web browsing? Email? Writing stuff in Word? My institution seems to upgrade the iMacs in the labs every semester, and I’m not sure that’s actually money well-spent. I’m writing this on a three-year-old laptop, and the only reason I’m thinking about getting a new one is because this one’s kind of heavy.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:54 am
1) Windows. Every update and “improvement” requires more RAM and more CPU.
2) Wear and tear. In our classrooms, this is very noticeable; machines which are used all the time start to break down, literally. Besides replacing keyboards and mice, USB ports fail after repeated thumb drive use, CD-ROMs stop working, hard drives crap out, etc.
September 20th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Point taken on 2. The Windows problem seems like it could be mitigated by a) running another OS on some machines (especially those dedicated email/web browsing, serving print jobs, etc.), and b) resisting the “upgrade” cycle. We’re still running Windows 2000 on many of our lab and classroom machines. Does damn near anything XP can do, but faster and with greatly diminished demands on RAM and CPU.
September 20th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
I was just talking with the support person last night about using Linux on older desktops as opposed to Windows. Hell, any desktop. We could save a ton of money on software, that’s for sure.
I’m not sure I’d want to use Win2K; Microsoft is clearly moving in different directions, and I’m afraid there would be even more vulnerabilities to deal with.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:48 am
re: failing USB ports…
I bought some el-cheapo $3 single port USB extension cords from CDW-G for the computers in our little library. Makes it easy for students to plug in and out and when it finally breaks down, I’ve only lost three bucks out of my budget (well $6 I guess, if you count the original purchase) and I don’t have to wait *for-ev-er* for the machine to be repaired by our already overworked IT guys. Plus it’s kinda nice to have the port right up front under the monitor- espec. on the older machines that don’t have the ports on the front of the box.
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Darned good idea.