The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1996 Page: 7 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
; , | "*" ^ rr'f ?w iJn "" w? vw* *"** ■ L
-.../Vvf;1 -i-': .:' i;-' :-' \r,,:^:^'' ■ : '' ;• ' • < ' ':'v;;.;;iV■■■ ■;■!:■ ':■:'^'> ■ ;v- I ■
"■'I! ^.luy, 'I
nil iiyffiTffiMi
-r-—
W
22,1996 7
1 '■""""" """l 111111 T"> '
>}$¥ -
v!i^| k;,:^,. .ji'
I II
w.i:"
;•■■ ■■; \&rV!a, £,
!«• ■ .1
Hunter
% OwXn#t• The word
means many
things to many
people: a source
of e-mail, maybe
a necessary evil
to an
Architecture
major or bread
and butter to a
Computer Science
student.
% But what is
Owlnet? What
does that word
mean? Does
anyone "work"
for Owlnet? If
so/ who? And
what happens
when something
goes wrong with
it? Is anyone
watching? Who
fixes it?
Owlnet refers to a "distributed
system of undergraduate comput-
ers," according to Vicky Dean, di-
rector of systems and I AN (Local
Area Network) management. It rep-
resents approximately 390 comput-
ers: 225 UNIX machines, 125
Macintosh and 40 PCs in 17 on-eain-
pus labs. As an undergraduate ser-
vice, if is distinguished from the
Rico I'NIX Facility, RUF for short,
which serves tlie faculty and staff.
Owlnet labs have undergone
some massive changes in the past
few years to support the growing
popularity of the Internet and e-mail
on Rice's campus, a trend mirrored
throughout the nation.
• "Every time we have room, we
add more seats," Dean said. "When
new space opens up, we evaluate
our options."
Recent building construction in-
cludes the Nanotechnology Build-
ing, which will house several private
(non-0\ylnet) labs anjJ the Jaines A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy1
and Anne and Charles Duncan Hall.
The status of the labs in these two
buildings has yet to be determined.
According to Dean, Owlnet is also
expanding into Pondren Library by
taking over facilities currently used
by the Computer and Information
Technology Institute and conven-
ing them into new 24-hour under-
graduate computing labs.
"We have put a lot of money into
it to get it up to date," Director of
User Services for Owlnet Andrea
Martin said. "We can't do it just once;
it's a continual process."
According to Martin, Owlnet be-
gan*as a UNIX-only network for high-
end science and engineering re-
search that has slowly developed
into the general-purpose student
network it is today.
"We try to perform major up-
grades over breaks such as Christ-
mas break or fall break if it's ur-
gent." Dean said, "We try to have all
packages available from all seats at
all times."
As students come to entrust a
larger and larger portion of their
professional and personal lives to
Owlnet, many have begun to worry
about the consequences of major
and minor network malfunctions.
According to Dean, they have noth-
ing to worry about.
"We do backups every night, and
keep them for a limited period of
time. Usually students realize fairly
quickly if they've [for example] lost
all their e-mail," she said.
She also said that Owlnet has a
backup power supply of its own in
case of campus-wide power loss that
is capable of maintaining power for
up to five minutes.
"We try to provide a stable com-
puting environment," Dean said.
Owlnet has staff on-call 24 hours
a day, seven days a week to respond
to emergencies. For more routine
problems and maintenance, there is
a team of student and non-student
staff members who are responsible
for responding as quickly as pos-
sible, Martin said.
'--4.-" ^ -mT 4 > v —I ^ ~ <jr flr
"If students call the Consulting
Center, they often get a student staff
member. All e-mail, however, is
handled by paid adult staff during
the day," Martin said.
Owlnet uses an automated prob-
lem tracking system to speed up the
handling and resolution of problems.
Problems sent by e-mail (to
problem@owlnet. rice, edu) are logged
automatically, whereas at the desk,
calls are logged manually by a stu-
dent on duty. This system allows the
staff to track problems so that as few
as possible slip through the cracks.
Martin said that she is always
looking for ways to improve the rela-
tionship between Owlnet and stu-
dents. One innovation that has been
discussed is placing television moni-
tors in each of the labs that would
inform students of the status of the
network in the event of system fail-
ure.
"One problem we've been hav-
ing is when the computers are down,
-students obviously can't report that
[because they would have to use the
computersj," Dean said. The televi-
sion monitors would serve as a news
update to keep students informed
and reduce frustration.
IS SI 1 \ ON < Its M M S " lit him its
* fAvsr
4 SOUTH PADRE ISLAND
PANAMA CITY BEACH
BSBSEoaiaaa
► • WKHtM«.r«ic 5im rir«i/ iw<turnsamcmofswv
;hase
mnaewmm
► 1-800-SUNCHASE:
► tou. ran mrottunoN * utiraxiaiv '
WT rw WM AT- MW/mw.Mackm.CMl
Rice Student
I 0I'*> vaixt wHh coupon only. MM at p*rtKlp«anf m<m«* poly Men «wy *W CmMom.r p« win M« w*«,#
If
If
II
$3.99
BBQ OR Hot. Ranch or
Blue Cheese dipping sauce | I
available upon request. 8 j
GET A 10 PIECE ORDER OF BUFFALO WINGS f i
>„ FOR JUST $3.99 WHEN YOU ORDER ANY PIZZA -5
■"> 3U| IZTUt •.tWIUHlfJ MSI Q 0*1/1 00 on I
Qtfai valid with coupon only <1 participating only. Prleaa may wry. Customer paya tartt tu wh«,
RICE SPECIAL
: ONE LARGE ONE TOPPING PIZZA S 2 DRINKS ?1
?>_ . £• I
3 mr«>Ki *.ouiuk>ci Mat 9 oj t/i •«*• <i**o oo oetu I
Open 'til 2 a.m. seven days a week!
wM
1
m- •> ;
NHS!
wsmv
Vni've got a lot to grin about when you use AT&T or an
A'liSrT 1 niwrsal MasterCards Like an A'l&TTrue Rewards'
*
Meinber'Meneftt Qml.Ju.st flash it and:
• Sam (ioody Musieland gives you a 1S"o discount
t in (.1 )s and cassettes
• TCMY"" lreats gives you a litvbie tiller you buy two
• MIX x;KMI !STHR V ll )i:0* makes voui third movie .
free, when you rent two*
• Amtrak lets your (ont[)anion travel for oft
Mm True Rewards is just one part < >1 our spec ial
tollege pac kage 1 lere are some more
MmMM.
1 M
AWI BucNradi'
Savinf(s
lo sign up for the A'l^TTrue Rewards* Program, call
1800 654-0471
Your True Choice
hltp;' wwwiiti coin, rollege
iii
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1996, newspaper, November 22, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246554/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.