Computer Rooms

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Ok, so we've all been stuck in a queue for computers to do work thats due in in the very immediate future, so its obvious there is pkenty of demand for use of computers on campus.

We all know that going college is a very very financially draining way of life as it severely limits the amount of income you can have and sucks away an awful lot of money. Because this the case, buying a laptop simply isnt financially possible for a lot of people.

So keeping this in mind, why are the college actually reducing the amount of computers available for student use in belfield? Reducing the number of computers in Daedelus and in Engineering flys against what seems like common sense - those computers are needed.

It appears to me the college are trying to force students into buying laptops so that they don't have to supply computers to its students. Hardly a motive with the students best interests in mind surely...

PhantomBeaker

I know! It sucks!

Here's one for ya. What students absolutely NEED access to computers for their course? One of groups you'd think of would probably be the computer science people. But this year, half the computers in the 4th year lab were removed. Argument - Well we did recommend to people that they get laptops.

Thing is, and I know this from having had to pay it in first year, a science course pulls in a grand more per annum for UCD than an arts course. That's to pay for labs - I'm sure Eng courses cost roughly the same. So, chem students get their chemicals and lab equipment paid for. Similarly with biology students. For computer science students it's for the computer labs. i.e. for that extra grand a year, you have access to a computer that is suited to your job (it has specialist software installed that you won't find elsewhere) for the year. (Which is why I get p*ssy with those not in a CS course who say they should be able to use CS computers if daedelus is full - we paid for those computers, and at peak times, we're as bad as anywhere else, but there's software on there that you can't get elsewhere. PLUS it's maintained by the computer science school, not computer services. Services = open to all. Computer Science = open to CS students! - mini-rant over)

Anyway, 4th years need a computer to themselves for their final year projects (BIG projects). I.e. up until this year, students would get a computer, and it would be theirs for the rest of the year. Reason? They're big projects and sometimes need the software on there to be installed for the project, and it's impractical to install all over the lab.

Of course, now that the number of computers in the lab are cut to make room for laptop users, they've said that you can't take machines like that any more. That can potentially limit the scope of projects you can take, if you can't have a machine knowing that it's tailored specifically to your needs.

Thing is, that's probably an issue for the SU education officer, but final years don't have time to bother with that, not with their workload (for the record, I'm 3rd CS), and after that 2nd Chemistry mess-up on the part of Horgan-Jones I couldn't blame them for not trusting her even if they did have the time to see her.

So where does that extra grand go? Blank space on desks for laptops, where computers USED to be?

This does signify a move towards people being second class citizens if they can't afford a laptop. This is not an appropriate situation. UCD gets an extra grand and then wants students to spend ANOTHER grand on something that should be provided in the lab fees.

Joy.
Æ

jellie

PhantomBeaker wrote:

I.e. up until this year, students would get a computer, and it would be theirs for the rest of the year.

not true. we didnt get our own computer last year.
(just so you dont feel too hard done by!!)

besty

the joys of obligatory laptop purchase in B&L

Dave!

I feel your pain, was waiting for ages yesterday

But as it so happens, I ordered a laptop last night!

And it's an Apple, I'm not giving money to their loverboys Dell

Red Alert

i'm not a very happy bunny at all, my dell suffered two hard disk failures since I bought it just over a year ago. their desktop machines are still good however as they stand up to the continuous abuse in UCD.

rainbow kirby

Just a suggestion Dave: Get AppleCare sometime in the first year if you can afford it. If you have any problems it's SO much easier to get them dealt with if you do have it, plus it'll do you for 3 years.

Did you get an iBook, PowerBook, or a MacBook Pro?

Me... I've got my little iBook. It's my precious And it *is* fantastic not to have to wait anywhere for a computer, and to be just be able to take my iBook out and work pretty much anywhere.

irlrobins

In response to PhantomBeaker:

I'm a PG in Comp Sci so I've been around the dept for a few years and seen how the usage in labs has changed.

Certainly when I was in 4th year we had 4 rooms of PCs nearly all of which were in use. We pretty much had a PC per person. But that was back in the days before students bought their laptops and had broadband at home. Since the use of laptops and BB has increased there has been a significant drop in the use of the final year labs. Last year even with the loss of the "Sun Room" as a final year lab the remaining labs were often empty.

Also when demonstrating I often saw 2nd and 3rd year students disconnect desktop machines in order to plug their laptops into network and power points.

I think an important factor in Comp Sci is the lack of space. The dept has gone thru a huge rate of growth in the past few years (we now have over 200 postgrads). Offices are cramped, labs full etc. The dept is trying to balance all of the space requirements but if they had the space they'd certainly try to provide both enough lab and machines for all students that require them and areas for students with their own laptops to plug in etc. But at the moment some areas have to be sacrificed to support the current needs.

and to your point about does every student need access to PC, then yes they do. The days of handing up a hand written essay in arts is long gone. More and more research is done via google than via library, notes are available online etc. So while a course might not be technical like comp sci or eng, the requirement for PC's is just as important. Having said that I hope Bebo does get banned!

irlrobins

rainbow kirby wrote:

able to take my iBook out and work pretty much anywhere.

Out of interest, how do you find using the iBook in relation to course work? i.e. for programming etc? Have you ever found that an IDE or complier is not available for the OS X?

Red Alert

MATLAB for eng students is available for OSX and Linux which i use. pity others don't do a linux build from the OSX ones in general because they're practically cousins.

Dave!

rainbow kirby wrote:

Just a suggestion Dave: Get AppleCare sometime in the first year if you can afford it. If you have any problems it's SO much easier to get them dealt with if you do have it, plus it'll do you for 3 years.

Did you get an iBook, PowerBook, or a MacBook Pro?

Me... I've got my little iBook. It's my precious And it *is* fantastic not to have to wait anywhere for a computer, and to be just be able to take my iBook out and work pretty much anywhere.

I got an iBook cos it was the cheapest available But it also seems fairly perfect for me, it's quite small, purdy, and good specs. I've been a little anxious all day now, wonderin how hard it is to get used to What's your experience? :cool:

Oh and how long did it take to deliver to you, do you remember? I ordered it last night, and it said 2-5 working days, so hopefully within the week, but I might have to wait til next week!

Can't wait to get it though, I can see me taking it everywhere

rainbow kirby

irlrobins wrote:

Out of interest, how do you find using the iBook in relation to course work? i.e. for programming etc? Have you ever found that an IDE or complier is not available for the OS X?

The vast majority of my course work at 2nd year level is using Java, so there's been no problem with that. I've mostly been using Eclipse 3.1.2 as my IDE, and Java 5.0. For Multimedia, I had a full version of Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8 (go having a friend who gave me his volume license key). Having a Mac is also really useful for the Unix course in the 2nd semester, because it means I can do all the work for that on my laptop too, without having to instal PuTTY or have a dual-boot going. Being honest, I've found the iBook great for course work

DaveMcG wrote:

I got an iBook cos it was the cheapest available But it also seems fairly perfect for me, it's quite small, purdy, and good specs. I've been a little anxious all day now, wonderin how hard it is to get used to What's your experience?

Oh and how long did it take to deliver to you, do you remember? I ordered it last night, and it said 2-5 working days, so hopefully within the week, but I might have to wait til next week!

Can't wait to get it though, I can see me taking it everywhere

Mac OS X is VERY easy to get used to. There's a lot of programs that are very similar to the ones you would have used on Winblows, and the operating system is just much nicer to get to use. I did have a couple of problems with it early on, but that's all resolved now (I had a problem with the screen, which Mactivate didn't fix properly and wasted 4 weeks of my time).

It's very light (2.2kg) so it's much handier to carry around then the Dell clunkers you'll see half your class carrying.

In terms of delivery... I don't really know how long you'll have to wait! I bought mine in 3G in Tallaght over the summer. Did you get extra RAM added to it? (because Apple are a ripoff to buy RAM from... get it from shop4memory.ie)

Syth

irlrobins wrote:

Also when demonstrating I often saw 2nd and 3rd year students disconnect desktop machines in order to plug their laptops into network and power points.

Arg! Before I got my laptop this used to annoy me. Wireless network is quite common in Computer Science now. They should provide more power plugs though.

irlrobins wrote:

and to your point about does every student need access to PC, then yes they do. The days of handing up a hand written essay in arts is long gone. More and more research is done via google than via library, notes are available online etc. So while a course might not be technical like comp sci or eng, the requirement for PC's is just as important.

Yes non-computer science students need a computer, but would they need the same student:computer ratio as comp sci students?

Dave!

rainbow kirby wrote:

Mac OS X is VERY easy to get used to. There's a lot of programs that are very similar to the ones you would have used on Winblows, and the operating system is just much nicer to get to use. I did have a couple of problems with it early on, but that's all resolved now (I had a problem with the screen, which Mactivate didn't fix properly and wasted 4 weeks of my time).

It's very light (2.2kg) so it's much handier to carry around then the Dell clunkers you'll see half your class carrying.

In terms of delivery... I don't really know how long you'll have to wait! I bought mine in 3G in Tallaght over the summer. Did you get extra RAM added to it? (because Apple are a ripoff to buy RAM from... get it from shop4memory.ie)

Yeah the Dell laptops are bloody huge, I don't know how people lug them around! :eek:

I didn't get the extra RAM cos I saw a post before, by you I think, saying how it's a rip-off, etc., so I didn't bother :cool: We'll see if more memory is necessary, when I get the pooter.

I went onto the Apple site and checked on my order, and after ordering it last night, they said that the estimated delivery date is TODAY So hopefully I'll get it within the week...! I don't know if there's an Apple distributor in Ireland, so it might have to be shipped from the UK.

Stabshauptmann

Dell latitude line is quite light.
But you have to laugh at student discount, if I were to do it all over again I would not buy from the college, Id get a 700e laptop instead of the 2000 I paid for this

irlrobins

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Dell latitude line is quite light.
But you have to laugh at student discount, if I were to do it all over again I would not buy from the college, Id get a 700e laptop instead of the 2000 I paid for this

Yea The deals the college do are not great. I think at the time they strike the deal it's prob a bargain. but by the time the students get to buy the laptop the price has fallen so much anyway. Always better to buy your own, u'll prob get better value by shopping around.

Dave!

Got my lappy today, she's gorgeous

Scraggs

ooh Congrats are in order i think, i'm so v jealous Dave [I've got a dell clunker also called lappy]

Red Alert

mine's called zoltan (desktop's called fireworks, server in my hot press's called zeus)

arbeitsscheuer

Red Alert wrote:

mine's called zoltan (desktop's called fireworks, server in my hot press's called zeus)

You must get all the chicks.

rainbow kirby

My iBook is called Adam Malkovich, after the computer that tells Samus Aran where to go in Metroid Fusion.
Yes, I'm a horrible geek.
*runs*

singingstranger

rainbow kirby wrote:

My iBook is called Adam Malkovich, after the computer that tells Samus Aran where to go in Metroid Fusion.
Yes, I'm a horrible geek.
*runs*

Funny, my laptop is just called Sushi because it's always what I would have called a puppy if I'd had one. I figured that as a student I wouldn't be likely to get one for the four years... now my iPod's called Noodle and my phone is Wasabi, for the same reasons!

Scraggs

god i'm so unoriginal!

arbeitsscheuer

Or you're just less sad than this nerdular lot.

But yeah, it's probably option A.

Pythia

Yeah, mine is 'Mr Lappy'.

Syth

My 14" G4 iBook is called Din. My desktop (running Ubuntu) is called Nayru. The 8 year old Dell laptop (running Gentoo) is called Farore. Din, Nayru and Farore are recurring characters in the legend of zelda games.

Blush_01

That room in Daedalus was closed down because it's being made into a second Data Centre for the college. Currently we only have one, and therefore if anything goes wrong, we're in trouble, apparently. Means zip to me, but that's supposedly the reason!

Dave!

^
Thanks for that

Well I won't have to worry about that now, since I have this babóg

irlrobins

ha have you all beat. My primary server is called nerd!

Slightly better than http://fag.ucd.ie/ anyway! ;-)

singingstranger

Not as good as a friend who named their Quinn laptop 'Adele'.

"Hey everyone, this is Adele."
"We can see that, it says Dell on the front. It's clearly a Dell."
"No, it's called Adele."

Scraggs

ha thats a good one!