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Despite what some people think, the laboratories are places in which to work. In order to make this working environment as pleasant and stress-free as possible for everyone, it is essential that all students attempt to adhere to a few simple guidelines when in the laboratories:
If you are not actually working at a machine, then you should not be there. Socialising, meeting people or having your lunch on a rainy day in the labs makes for a very unpleasant environment for those who are there to work, so please be considerate and leave.
When you are working in the laboratories, please talk quietly. If you need to discuss something with someone who is not next to you, move closer before you have your conversation. That way you are doing your bit to keep lab volumes down, and you can have a well-deserved stretch at the same time!
Please do not bring food into the laboratories. Apart from encouraging lingering odours and unwanted insects in the laboratories, you are also putting the equipment at risk. We lose several keyboards each year due to food and drink related accidents in the labs. This puts workstations out of action unnecessarily and creates extended delays in getting our machines in working order for students. Besides, nobody wants to work at a greasy workstation!
If you see someone enjoying their lunch in one of the labs, please report it to the CSE Help Desk immediately. If you are found enjoying your lunch in the labs on more than one occasion, you may be interested in reading the section Why is my Account Access Denied? (section 1.6.2, page ![[*]](/export/sites/cse/help/doc/images/crossref.png) ).
Don't bombard the printers with excessively large print jobs, or lots and lots of small print jobs for that matter. Please note that the size of a job on the print queue may be larger than you orginally anticipated. See section (section 2.2.14, page ) for more information on checking printer queues. Please also note that the Help Desk superviors will not hesitate to remove excessively large or frequent print jobs during peak times, or at any time they consider a student to be inconveniencing others.
Please treat other people's printouts as you would have them treat yours. Don't steal other students printouts, even when you are desperately stressed and your assignment deadline is looming (see Originality of Assignment Submissions in section 1.7, page ).
Don't tamper with any machine that has an Out of Order sign displayed on it in any way. These signs are used to indicate to you that a machine is not functioning as it should be and that support staff are in the process of fixing it. Interfering with a machine that has an Out of Order sign on it can often lead to extending the time it takes to get the machine back into working condition.
If you discover a fault with a workstation or printer, or any other piece of hardware in the labs, please do not attempt to fix it yourself. Report it to the Help Desk and they will immediately take the necessary steps to rectify it.
Don't log people off when they are absent from their terminal. They may have just gone to the toilet, to pick up a printout, or to get help.
On the other hand, if you have to leave your terminal unattended it is best to protect yourself against others using your terminal illegally by running a program called xlock. This is a screen saver that locks your display until you unlock it with your password. It is up to you to make an effort to prevent others from gaining illegal access to your account. xlock is there to help you keep your account safe. It should never be used to obstruct others from legally using the machine; or as a means of securing extra time on the machine. For the forgetful, the xscreensaver program will automatically lock your screen if it has been inactive for 10 minutes. For more information on xscreensaver, see section 4.8 on page .
Please do not use the lab computers for non-course related activities (games, irc, web surfing, extended personal email, etc) when there is legitimate demand for machines due to assignment work. During session when the work load on the laboratories is low, non-course related activities are usually fine if you are quiet.
Loc Van Huynh 2007-03-15
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