Sneezing has started!!

It's fall with a vengence and in the computer lab today, I heard sneezing, sniffing and coughing all around. And not a bottle of alcohol hand gel in sight. The thought of touching those keyboard keys now just makes me cringe. It would not be too much of an expense to put hand gel at each station, put up some home-made signs to USE it, and also posters on how to cover your cough. This would make the computer labs true computer labs, and not germ incubator labs. Really. I hate to say it, but at lil' ol' Hocking College, the computer lab in the nursing office had kleenex boxes and hand gel at each computer station, and bright lights and walls and it just felt cleaner. Why can't OU do this as well? Who do I talk to about this?? I feel sick already.


On the lab rat side of things, I got to install FileMaker Pro on a bunch of computers today, learned how to unlock and re-lock the computers and place an icon on the desktop. I feel quite smug now. I know something you don't know (you must sing this to a little annoying tune used by preschoolers everywhere). Really, though, it was interesting. And next week I'll hopefully learn to uninstall them – they were installed for certain class, and must be uninstalled as soon as the class is over.  Is uninstalled even a word or is it one of the new class of made up techy words??


A good day today. And no spiders! Whew.

The Lab Rat

SPEE – EYE – DER!!!

After a really interesting and stimulating class (and I say that truthfully, not just because my instructor may read this blog), I was getting in my car when my friend noticed I had another passenger... right on the back of my seat. EEEK! It was 10 pm and dark, and so was the spider. And BIG. We tried not to hurt him by swiping him out of the car with a notebook, but he jumped UNDER the driver's seat. Now it's a real dilemma – do I drive home in utter fear of being bitten and driving off the road and crashing? Or do I call my husband and have him drive to the OU campus to remove the spider because that's why I married him? (We have a deal in our marriage – I do all the housework, vet appointments, dental and dr. appointments, gardening and shopping. He removes unwelcome beings from our house [or car].  I think that's fair.) But no, I decided I'm not such a sissy. With one big toe on the accelerator, the other big toe on the brake, the windows rolled down (in case Mr. Spider wanted to exit nicely) and all hunched down (to make a smaller target) and trying not to think what I would do if I felt him going up my pantleg, I drove home. As I rolled into the driveway and jumped out of the car – ok, I sort of dove out – my husband was waiting with his spider-collector kit: A tupperware bowl, a piece of cardboard and a flashlight. While I was heading to the house (running), he quickly ascertained that the spider was still under the driver's seat, poked at him to get him to come out, deftly maneuvered him into the open, popped the Tupperware over him, slid the cardboard under him, flipped the bowl over and took Mr. Spider across the street and let him go.


Lives were saved (mine and the spider's) and knowledge gained. Another week of school down.

The Lab Rat

2nd day in the lab – 9/23/10

Ok, and the curtains MUST go. They are, besides being ugly, dusty and unnecessary. And probably harbor germs. I'm serious. The more light in here the better, and the windows are on the 2nd floor so no one can see in, so what's the point of curtains? Dr. R. said they are at least 5 yrs. old and have never been washed. Ewwww.

So far today, I've learned how to print to both the B&W and color printer from the lab computers and how the copies get paid for. I lost about $1.50 doing so, but it was worth it (see how small my life is getting if this is exciting to me??) Also, I learned the not-so-secret code to download programs on the lab computers – like Flash. If the code isn't used, then the program won't download. The next exciting thing that happened was locating the stapler for a student. And too late, I found that I can print for free from the GA computer. Sigh.

However, I did get to go to the basement and it is musty and spooky. And dark. We were on a mission to find a CPU that had 2 gigs of memory. Using the light from my iPhone, we managed to establish that no such CPU existed in the basement. We dutifully reported this to Dr. R. He'll have to order them.

All is not fun and games here in the computer lab, though. Not by a long shot. I actually learned how to put my signature on an Adobe document – specifically my concept map for class tonight. I like that! Now, off to class.

The Lab Rat

1st day in Computer Lab – 9/21/10

Went with GA to change monitor and CPU in a professor’s office. The professor had saved all the documents that she wanted to keep in the documents folder, and the GA brought an external hard drive to save these documents on. I plugged in the drive, saved all the docs to the drive, then unplugged the monitor and CPU, then put the new ones in place. Re-attached the CPU to the monitor and then transferred the docs from the device to the new CPU/monitor. However, after downloading a new printer driver to the computer and updating Windows 7, the printer could not connect with the new computer. The driver software would unzip, but there was no option to run/install. A lot of time was spent searching the internet for drivers, trouble-shooting solutions and going back and forth from 2^nd to 3^rd floor. Also in the beginning, we had to wait approx. 15 min. for someone to come with a key to let us in to the office to make the switch. In all, this took about 2 hrs of my and the GA’s time. In talking to Dr. Robison, he said that about 75% of their time is taken up in printer issues. Case in point, as we were talking, a student came to him with printer problems. She was trying to print to a certain printer, but was unable to find where her documents actually printed and where they were. Dr. R. was able to help her with remote viewing software.

Dr. Robison said that many of the printer problems could be alleviated if everyone used a central printer.

~ Problems noted:

o Many docs printed are never picked up. Tremendous paper waste.

§ How to ID who is printing and making sure they pick papers up?

§ Papers kept in an "In" and basket emptied every Friday?

o Need alcohol hand gel at each computer station, "Cover Your Sneeze" signs and Kleenex boxes distributed around the room

o Old CPU’s labeled and stored in basement in case someone forgot to save a doc for a new computer installation. But handled awkwardly – GA removed CPU, but doesn’t label it right away. Leaves it to Dr. R. who by now is gone. CPU sits outside his office. GA will leave, Dr R. – will he remember who’s it was? Suggest GA label it right away with prof.’s name. Take label with him when switches are made.