Terminal Terror at UPEI

By Jim Macgrath

You have to run all over cam- s to find a free terminal due this year’s influx if students bistered in computer science lurses. There are over 400 stu- nts registered with class ac- unts, and there are more than 0 personal accounts. So you ould have quite a time trying to d a free terminal.

The VT100 Lx terminals...our most horrible rror story. The terminal’s that

are located here on campus are old, rundown, and just downright abused. The keyboards don’t work, so people smash the keys to make them work. It’s a scary sight on a Wednesday night in the Robertson Library terminal room. Students frantically trying to get their assignments done for the next days due date.

Look, over there on the other side, a keyboard sits mornfully atop the CRT, with a small death

notice tacked to it’s face; waiting, hoping that their wonderful tech- nician will soon come and revive it.

Yes, it has been happening all over campus, terminals dying, mostly from just over use of the equipment. These things take a

lot of abuse at the hands of ev- °

eryone from two-fingered sledge- hammer typist to frustrated Pas- cal students.

‘| have to run all over campus to find a terminal.’

Mr. Hancock would also like students to let the Computer Centre know when and where there are terminals and printers in need of repair on campus. Just send a letter to the CC by Vax Mail to Bruce Ferguson (Computer Centre Technician) at FERGUSON or Scott Cudmore (User Support) at CUDMORE and let him know which terminal it is located.

ew Microlab in Kelley which was installed this summer.

€ story behind the rumors —

hen are we going to get new terminals?

There have been a lot of "ges over the summer, and Must be blind if you haven’t ‘ed them. The new Micro 'n Kelley was installed over Summer with 24 new Sam- IBM compatibles/clones, by Steat staff at the UPEI Com- * Centre. The Novell Net-

work, which is a network of PC’s, was put in completely by the CC Staff without any help from the company that they were pur- chased. |

Other terminal rooms on cam- pus are in for a drastic change.

‘The terminals in the library are

being removed and replaced with the DEC Rainbow’s that were taken from the lab in Kelley late last semester. That means that there will be more terminals in

RL than before. After which the

VT100’s will be taken and put in the terminal room in Memo- rial Building for the Math and Computer Science students. The room there isn’t going to be taken out, but improved in this way.

And last but not least, Main Building. Yes, there is going to be a terminal room in Main. It will be located in room 153 of the English Annex. The room will be equipped with four Rainbow mi- cro computers, two of which will be connectable to the Vax as. ter- minals while the other two Rain- bows will be strictly micro com- puters.

New terminals will not be in- stalled in the very near future, says Jim Hancock, Director of the Computer Centre. Hancock hopes to eventually replace all of

the terminals on campus with a PC net.

‘This net will be a group of Personal Computers that would

The VT100’s on campus are old, they have been around for quite awhile now, and are really starting to show the hard use of the overwhelming number of stu- dents using them. If you have been wondering if we are going to be getting new terminals soon, you may have a

long wait ahead of you.

function as micros as well as ter- minals to the mainframe. The net would be much like the Vax- Mates that are located in the Vet College now. But until such time that it can be fit into the Computer Centre budget and in- stalled, the present terminals will be around and should last until then.

Hancock feels that “students are very considerate of equip- ment” and wishes to thank them for that. Students don’t have to be kicked out of the terminal room early in the evening to pro- tect the equipment from vandals and thieves, as other universities are required to do.

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A quiet night at the library terminal room. Students working on termpapers and computer assignments.