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UA computer lab gets new technology

UA students tired of waiting in long lines or walking across campus to use a computer now have access to a new lab with upgraded technology located in Engineering 318, as of Monday.

The computer lab, where older Macintosh computers have been replaced with 48 new Hewlett-Packard PCs, will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.

Barbara Hoffman, manager of Center for Computing and Informational Technology Instructional Support, said students will have more access to this computer lab than those in the CCIT building which are usually reserved by instructors.

"This lab will be close to the heart of campus and has a much nicer environment," Hoffman said. "We really hope students will take advantage of the lab."

Funding for the upgraded lab came from CCIT allocations and cost about $100,000.

Raul Saba, a computer engineering sophomore, said the new computers are "awesome" compared to the "old crappy ones."

Saba, who was at the lab yesterday said the number of students using the lab has been minimal, but its popularity should increase once they know about it.

Each of the new computers features a PII 400 MHz CPU, a 4.3 gigabyte hard drive, a 1.44 megabyte floppy disk drive, an internal Zip disk drive and a CD-ROM drive.

All of the computers will operate with version four of Windows NT as well as Internet access.

The new units are also loaded with updated software, including Netscape and Internet Explorer, Office 97 Professional, Acrobat Reader and Telnet.

The computers are accompanied by two new Hewlett-Packard printers that will support laser printing. One workstation will have a flatbed scanner and appropriate graphic and OCR software to support creation of digital images and text documents.

In addition to Engineering 318, new Pentium Class systems can be found in Electrical and Computer Engineering 206, Shantz 338 and the CCIT Training Lab, which is located in Computer Center 311.