By Timothy Szykula
Sources inside AcIS have hinted that consideration has been given to eventually make 251 Mudd into a 24 hour, 7 days a week computing site.
Great idea. Recent research done by myself on behalf of the Moment has illustrated that there is a significant need for computing facilities even after the 11 PM closing time of 251 Engineering Terrace Computer Lab. After 3 AM, however, the need drops dra stically. Send e-mail to AcIS and recommend that they extend the Mudd lab hours to at least 3 AM or you'll regret it when you try to type that last minute paper at the over-capacity Butler lab 2 o'clock in the morning.
Those of you who have pretty Pentium or PowerPC machines in your dorm room will never truly understand the frustration and distress those of us who have to rely on public computer labs have to endure. Thinking back a few months before I came to Columbia, just after I finished working out the details of paying thirty grand a year for school, the idea came to me that I would probably be better off at school if I had my own computer to put in my room. So, I looked across the kitchen table to my dad, readied my argument for a computer on campus, and said absolutely nothing.
That was a close call. God knows if I would still be alive today to tell this story if I had mentioned the "c" word. Asking for another $2500 just to have a computer as a matter of convenience would have been the worst possible thing to do, considering I had just gotten away with not using all of my savings toward school. So here I am in the big leagues, with only the public labs to rely on, and that prompted me to do some research about these labs.
So you have got a paper to type, and you need to know the best strategy for getting on a public machine in the least amount of time. Since freshmen are most likely to be the people without computers, this study focused mainly on the Carman and Butler publ ic labs, as they are easy to get to for most rookies.
Granted, you cannot type a paper in Carman, but everybody knows that e-mail is just as important as homework. If you just want to send e-mail, the Carman lab is wide open for a long time during the day, which is most likely due to the fact that people are in class.
The Butler lab, however, is not as accessible. If you just finished a handwritten draft of your paper at 10 PM, you are definitely going to be waiting for a Mac to type out your paper. My personal strategy (although I am not stuck in L&R right now) would be to go to bed upon finishing the draft at 10 PM, and wake up just a half hour earlier to type the paper in the morning when Butler's availability opens up. This allows you a good night's rest and some level of coherence when you are actually typing.
The charts on this page show the time of the day at which the labs are the busiest, and the times when you can practically occupy two computers and no one will attempt to murder you. I collect the data by personally walking into the labs to count how many open computers are actually available. As you can see, the best times to access the labs are a) during the morning, b) when everybody (including yourself) have classes, and c) After 3 AM in the morning. Pick you own poison.
I didn't stay up all night to have this article recycled like a Spectator editorial. I didn't have to go visit the labs every hour to collect data either. So get out your scotch tape now and post the charts on your wall. They might just save you from the frustration of fervently waiting for a Mac at Butler Lab to type that all important essay of yours. Keep looking here in the Moment for possible upcoming stories on the extended availability of the AcIS labs at 215 IAB and 251 Engineering Terrace.
