At 10:19 AM -0700 6/24/04, Roy A. Baril wrote:
*snip*
>I apologize for this very long diatribe, but sometimes I feel like
>the solution is simple: Just get rid of the old equipment and
>standardize on the new equipment whether that be Mac or Windows or
>Linux or Unix or whatever.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Roy
Roy,
it is not such a simple thing to just get rid of old equipment. In
my case, I have 30 Macs used as data acquisition computers with
associated cabling and interface boxes. Our life cycles are very
long due to the high expense of changing systems. Our last set of
Macs ran from 1996 to 2003 with almost no maintenance (aside from a
floppy drive failure). We had to replace them as they were just
getting worn out from abuse. We just got through "upgrading" last
year but we are continuing to use Mac OS9 as our software no longer
supports our cards in OS10. We do not need the latest, greatest,
fastest for our purposes so we are not compelled to keep up with a 3
year replacement cycle.
Our data acquisition computers need network access as that is the
only efficient way to get data off the computers. Floppy disks dont
cut it anymore.
I found it beneficial to lag behind the curve, especially with a mac,
as no one was bothering to write virus' or trojans for these old,
slow, sparse computers.
Now it seems we are being forced to upgrade not because of our needs
but rather the desires of others. We have neither the funds nor the
man power to do this on a continuous basis (we have no dedicated IT
person). At the same time, my computers have never been blocked due
to any abuses.
It is nice to say that we should all just upgrade and keep up with
the Joneses but we do not have this kind of money without affecting
our teaching mission. As far as I know, we do not have a budget to
replace these computers and my plan was to keep them for another 5
years in their current configuration. Now I'm between a rock and a
hard place. Upgrade or get blocked. Either way, the students lose.
-- Chris Kumai Principal Development Engineer University of California Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering Berkeley, CA 94720-1760 (510) 642-3827 270 Hearst Mining Building ckumai@uclink.Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following was automatically added to this message by the list server: For information about MAGNet, its meetings and events, and its mailing list, including information on subscribing and unsubscribing, see the MAGNet Web site at <http://magnet.berkeley.edu/>.Received on Thu Jun 24 11:12:42 2004
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