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From: russell@muddcs.UUCP (Russell Shilling)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Free and undirected campus computing facilities - Not at Waterloo
Message-ID: <288@muddcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Nov-84 21:05:11 EST
Article-I.D.: muddcs.288
Posted: Mon Nov 19 21:05:11 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Nov-84 06:38:39 EST
References: <457@utcsrgv.UUCP> <649@watdcsu.UUCP> <425@watcgl.UUCP> <652@watdcsu.UUCP> <9840@watmath.UUCP> <150@harvard.ARPA>
Reply-To: russell@muddcs.UUCP (Russell Shilling)
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Lines: 55
Summary: 

[bugs get free computing time]

	Following the discussion about free access leads me to ONE
conclusion about all the systems and colleges discussed:
	EVERYONE NEEDS MORE COMPUTERS (hardware, not time) !!

	If anyone disagrees with this statement, then you aren't
listening to/reading the discussion.  I agree with everyone that
free access to computers is a very good thing.  I have good access
priveleges on the system I use regularly, and have enjoyed it
tremendously.  I would not have nearly the knowledge of the system
that I do if I had the (non-)priveleges as others do here.

	At Mudd, there are NO charges for computing time on any
of the machines, and almost anyone with any sort of reason at all
can get an account on any of the machines, FREE.

	But, there are practical considerations concerning the staff
here.  These are:  Terminals (we have eight for general use),
Disk space (we have ONE ra81), Lack of Dial-up Lines and Modems
(we have ONE dial-in, through which comes all uucp), and the load of
multiple users on our little VAX750 (as noted in a previous posting,
when the classes in op-sys, compilers, etc. get rolling, the load gets
pretty high).

	Thus, we have made the decision to restrict access to some of
the facilities which might be considered desirable to a 'hacker', i.e.
network access, news posting, source code access...

	Personally, I would like to see the system opened up more to
the users, but again, practical considerations come up.  For instance,
if we allow networking, will that cause people to use one of our eight
terminals to log into another system if that one is crowded ?  We cannot
afford to let the system get tied up, or even go down, because approximately
100 students at a time may be taking computer classes, all with weekly
(or so) assignments, (and of course they all wait until the night before
the assignment is due before they start coding :-).

	Perhaps our problems here could be solved, if anyone out there
would like to donate 1) a VAX 780, 2) an RA#any#, 3) 3+ Meg memory,
4) terminals (vt220, or similar) ;=}  If we receive any of the above,
perhaps we could open up the computing facilities here more, in fact,
for the first ten donations of VAX 780's, we will provide a lifetime
account on the system of your choice :-)

	Hopefully, with time, we will acquire the hardware we need to
provide REAL accessible computing facilities, but for now, it remains
in the realm of the sysops here.

-- 
	Russell Shilling
		UUCP:	{ allegra, ihnp4, seismo }!scgvaxd!muddcs!russell
		ARPA:	muddcs!russell@ucla-cs
	Always eat from the four basic food groups:
		Beer, Ice Cream, Chips and Salsa