Studio PCs / ASP Tech Committee

From: "Jeremy Kulm" <jkulm@hotmail.com>

I did some troubleshooting on the studio PCs: All the PCs are operational however only 2 of the monitors are functioning. It appears that the non-functional monitors have power supply faults - the stand-by power indicator light on the power button does not come on, therefore no power is delivered to the LED screen. I spoke to Howard (EWU Riverpoint IT Guy) and asked him to do some more troubleshooting and switch out the monitors with any spare ones he had.

All the studio PCs are circa 2005 – Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz (single core) with 1 GB of DDR1 RAM (can be upgraded), 150 GB Hard Drive, running Win XP (Service Pack 3). In the short term, I recommend upgrading the RAM on at least 4 of the PCs and purchasing at least one "newer" PC to be used exclusively for class/community projects that require use of GIS/graphics software and printing to the plotter. Upgrading the RAM on existing PCs will allow for more effective use of the virtuallabs.ewu.edu remote applications functionally.

Additionally, I/we (ASP Tech Cmte.) can conduct VirtualLabs short workshops to introduce its functionality (such as connecting a local printer, wherein, a student in the studio or at home can print to the studio or home printer while using VirtualLabs). I have observed and heard students desire "laptops stations" in the studio, myself included. The majority of students have laptops, though not all bring them to school. One curious thing that I observed in the studio is that the drafting tables don't have any stools. With a few stools, the tables along the walls (adjacent to power outlets) can be used as laptop stations.

I would like to evaluate the GIS Lab PCs as well and develop some recommendations for upgrade or replacement. Additionally, I would like to develop a procedure to allow for more student access to the lab, perhaps a group of "trusted key-holders" like the ASP Officers and ASP Tech Committee who sign a key-holder agreement and pay a key deposit.

In the next few weeks the Tech Committee will develop a Tech Needs Survey for students and faculty in order to evaluate current and future technology needs.

Studio Computers

Students:

I realize that we have problems with the computers in the studio. I am in the process of trying to find the funds to purchase two new computers and monitors; however, you need to know several factors.

First, your tech fee does not support the studio computers. It does support work you need to do for regular classes. The studio computers are for studio work and for faculty field projects. You need to use the computers in the computer lab and other labs on the Cheney campus for your normal work such as papers.

Second, you do pay a lab fee for some of your courses. These funds are used for maintenance of the studios. These fees are marginal. For example, the course fee for most of the those courses is approximately $17. If you take the number of students in the class times the fee, you can generate the income. If a class has 15 students in it, the income is $255. The cost for a roll of large scale copier paper is $50. The cartridges for the copiers are $200. The annual maintenance fee for these copiers is over a $1000. Thus, you can see that the course fees are not keeping up with the costs associated with them. We try to make up the difference from our contracts with clients but when the materials used in the two studios are for personal printing, we have no way to sustain the costs.

Therefore, you all need to be patient and utilize the computer labs when you should and the studio computers for studio work only.

Fred A. Hurand, Chair
Department of Urban Planning, Public and Health Administration
Eastern Washington University
668 N. Riverpoint Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99202
509-828-1217
fhurand@mail.ewu.edu