Interview with Jennifer Keir & Paul Thompson (Oct 31)

Paul Thompson is involved mainly in doing extra barcode scans to update equipment locations after a bunch of installations take place. Theoretically, the person moving any piece of equipment should update E+I, but in practice, when installing 10 grad student desktops, this is quite inconvenient. So instead the people doing the actual installation give Paul a list of rooms and he goes and scans everything in those rooms to update location.

This is in addition to his regular yearly rounds, which involve scanning everything everywhere in the building.

Sometimes equipment moves are missed. Either the person fulfilling an ST doesn't update E+I, or an informal move by the students themselves might not be known to CSCF at all. Can this be fixed by adding "inventory" to the owners of an ST?

Notes on Bar Codes & Rooms

We use code128, which allows letters, numbers, punctuation so if we want to make barcodes for rooms, etc. we can.

Paul is concerned with what happens if desks move around. So for example, maybe putting a barcode like "DC 2345-1" on each desk (-1 is workstation number within the room) is not so great - then we would have to replace the sticker, which could require a trip back to the office, every time a move is discovered. If each desk just has a barcode indicating which desk within the room it is, Paul could carry a stack of labels "-1" through "-10" or something. Maybe the room doorframe could have a barcode with the room number on it.

Notes on codes

Research subscription codes are in two types: dd-* for dedicated support, and dk-* for desktop support. We use subscription codes to track who is paying for support for what, and how much.

Sponsor codes in E+I were originally used by MFCF to track what we now use subscription codes for, but now we use them to indicate machine ownership. This is important when a machine is surplussed. Usually this is a faculty member, although it can be a lab. But typically even if it "could be" a lab, it will be whoever authorized the purchase. In order to surplus something, a person is needed to sign the surplus form.

Sequence of Events

Phil (for example) will get the ST from Debbie, and grabs a machine for that grad student. He updates the ST with the machine name. He typically grabs any old monitor from the pile, and installs the whole setup in the office. Paul visits later and updates E+I by scanning the equipment.

-- IsaacMorland - 07 Nov 2006