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From: putnam@steinmetz.UUCP (jefu)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: A slightly different topic...
Message-ID: <671@steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 08:27:44 EST
Article-I.D.: steinmet.671
Posted: Mon Mar  3 08:27:44 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 06:44:19 EST
References: <393@ur-tut.UUCP>
Reply-To: putnam@kbsvax.UUCP (jefu)
Organization: GE CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 45

In article <393@ur-tut.UUCP> scco@ur-tut.UUCP (Sean Colbath) writes:
>I'm interested in hearing what attitudes various people have to 'billed
>computing' in an academic situation. 

I spent some time in an environment where computer time was strictly 
controlled (and billed using the usual funny money artificial constraints),
and worked out several methods to get more time on the machine.  These ranged
from talking others into signing up for accounts they would not use and getting
their passwords (considered strictly illegal by the powers-that-were), to 
becoming a TA in the comp sci dept and using the (usually quite expandable)
class accounts, to devising methods to obtain passwords illegally (remarkably
easy, but by the time i had figured out how to do it, i no longer needed
the accounts -- oddly, i came across my first password this way in a core
dump -- i always wondered how many more people had found the same thing).  
One of my favorites was to wait till a limited account was almost empty
then to start a marathon session which would last for hours and run every
resource hungry program that i needed to run.  This could manage to spend
(timed right and used to its fullest extent) several tens of times the
whole account in one swell foop.

This enviromnent created two classes of computer science major, those who
had computer time, and those who didnt.  Very biased.

It seems to me that computer resources should be more like library resources.
Free and available to all, essentially uncontrolled.  Charges are reasonable
on things like printouts, tapes... (although they should certainly be minimal),
just as there is a charge to use the copier in the library.  If there is not
enough computer time, get more.  This is a legitimate overhead for a 
university.  

For universities to (as this one did) sell time to outside companies and then
to limit student use because of this overhead is specious reasoning at best.  
Imagine the furor that we would get if student use of a library was cut off
every day for several hours because some company wanted to use it.  

An even more disturbing problem comes in those environments where students
are being charged real dollars for computer time.  This is very biased, and
will certainly lead to major inequities in computer use.  

Whats the solution?  I dont know.  But charging for computer use is not it.

-- 
               O                   -- jefu
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