Computing & Humanities Lab

237 Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania

 

 


 
 

 
 
 

Welcome to the Computing and Humanities lab at Logan Hall. This restricted access lab is devoted to serving students by providing a computing environment necessary for studying and taking classes.

News

February 14, 2008 - A new 'How-To's' page has been created to address common lab issues and questions.  The page is currently in active development and such is rather spartan.  Design and content will be refined and added over time.  Check it out....

February 5, 2008 - Twelve new Dell Optiplex 755 computers are in the process of being deployed to the Logan Hall 237 lab.  The 755's will replace the existing Dell Optiplex GX-270 computers purchased in 2004.  Windows Vista Business Edition along with Microsoft Office 2007 Professional is installed on all of the new computers.  One 755 will continue to run Windows XP in the scanner room to avert any potential issues with Windows Vista and the scanner software. All user logins will continue to use the PennKey authentication mechanism. Microsoft Office 2007 introduces new file format to the popular complement of applications. The lab's copy of Office 2007 is configured to save items in Office 2003 formats.

      New Formats & File Extensions:

Office 2003
Office 2007

MS Word

.doc
.docx
MS Excel
.xls
.xlsx
MS Powerpoint
.pps
.pps
MS Access
.mdb
.mdb

 

 

Vista Logo 

October 26, 2007 - Adobe Creative Suite 3 comes to the lab!  The new Vista computers have been outfitted with installs of Adobe's 'CS3' suite, which includes; Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver.  The software was provided by SAS computing and is a part of the department's pool of software licenses.  The reason the Vista computers were chosen is due to their performance capacity.  The Windows XP machines just could not handle any of the CS3 applications.  Eventually, the new Intel-based Macs will also have CS3 installed.

October 10, 2007 - Dr Michael Weisberg and colleagues will be holding a Philosophy class in the lab from 12-3 PM. During this time, the lab will be unavailable for normal use. Please make suitable arrangements for your computing needs during that time.

Funding

We've been funded by the SAS Dean's Office through the Instructional Computing Development Fund to provide additional computing resources and instructional technology environments.

During the summer of 2007, SAS Computing purchased four Dell Optiplex 745 computers and a single iMac 17" computer.  The Dells are the first computers in Logan Hall, perhaps even SAS Computing, to run the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. Additionally, Microsoft Office 2007 was included as the productivity suite.  Windows Vista poses a new operating curve for the users of the Logan Hall 237 lab, and a glimpse of things to come. Replacement for the current Optiplex GX270s is scheduled for fiscal year 2009. 

In the summer of 2002, the School of Arts and Science's Instructional Computing development fund bolstered the lab's resources with the purchase of five windows 2000 systems and one additional Mac. Nineteen state of the art computers enable students to do everything from checking email to working on collaborative projects to researching ancient greek texts. The new systems are Dell Optiplexes with Flat Screen monitors. Windows 2000 is being deployed as well.

With the approval of the Computing and Humanities committee, instructors may now bring in a Windows or Mac laptop (or make use of the one of the existing workstations) to teach classes. Three of the four Macintoshes have licenses for Virtual PC, allowing the Macs to run as PCs.

The Computing and Humanities commitee has established a goal of gaining a fully capable computer instructional classroom for undergraduate and graduate use. Not envisioned to be a university classroom pool, the committee recognizes the growing need for instructional computing facilities.

Jay Treat (Religious Studies & SAS Computing) is well known for his vast knowledge and practice in Instructional Computing as well his scholarship. And Bob Kraft is one of the earliest adopter of computing resources for academic purposes. John MacDermott heads the Instructional Computing wing of SAS Computing and has helped the lab considerably by providing an overhead projector and the leadership to make the lab a true instructional facilty.

Students Served

Students and staff from Logan Hall departments and groups are welcome to use the lab. This list includes Religious Studies , Classical Studies , Philosophy and the Center for Folklore and Ethnography and History and Sociology of Science .

Classes held to date:

Religious Studies Computing and The Humanities 302
Religious Studies Computers and Humanities 602
The College: Training the trainers
SAS Dean's Office
Instructional Computing: making and publishing web pages
Blackboard CourseInfo tutorials

Reporting problems

Please notify the administrator cohen-help@groups.sas.upenn.edu or leave voicemail at 8-0065.

Saving files

   Part of lab maintenance includes reguarly overwriting the contents of the hard drives with images that will NOT contain your documents. For peace of mind DO NOT store any data of the lab computers.  If any of the lab machines are comprimised with a computer virus, or other malware, they will be wiped and reimaged without any data recovery attempts given.

Policies

  • Food and Drink: Though the lab is not a lounge, it is understood that the occaisional cup of coffee or bottle of water may help with a long work session. Please remember that Mom is not here to clean up after anyone and take responsibility for any messes you may make. Drinks in containers with caps, or lids are greatly preferred to those without such.
  • Printing: The lab has a networked HP Laserjet 4015x with a duplexing unit. All print jobs have to be submitted through the Pharos/Uniprint software, installed on the lab computers
  • Paper & Toner may be obtained in Suite 201 during normal business hours. Please bring your own paper if you plant to print after hours.

Web Pages of Contacts

Reporting problems

Please notify Jason Watkins cohen-help@groups.sas.upenn.edu or leave voicemail at 8-0065.

Reserving for use:

To reserve the lab for classroom training purposes. contact cohen-help@groups.sas.upenn.edu or macderm@sas.upenn.edu.

Facilities

4 Dell Optiplex 745 systems (Windows Vista Business Edition)
12 Dell Optiplex 755 computers (Windows Vista Business Edition)
1 Apple PowerMac G5 (Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger")
1 Apple iMac G5
(Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger")

2 Apple Intel-iMacs (Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger")
--------
20 Computers

Software

  • MS Word 2007
  • MS Excel 2007
  • MS Powerpoint 2007
  • MS Access 2007
  • Adobe Photoshop CS3
  • Adobe Flash CS3
  • Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
  • Adobe Illustrator CS3
  • Adobe InDesign CS3
  • Secure Telnet
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Antivirus protection
  • MatLab, Mathematica
  • OmniPage Pro v12
  • Video LAN Client (VLC) Player
  • More...

TLG Translation program

Of interest to users of the TLG
TLGU A utility for converting an input file in Thesaurus Linguae Graeca (TLG) representation to Unicode (UTF-8).

See the documentation.

Fonts

Greek fonts are installed on the computers. Please let me know if there are any deficiencies. In testing, both browsers and word processors were able to display greek fonts correctly.
     
SAS Computing SAS Computing Help Pages

Last edited: 5/24/2009     -- cohen-help@groups.sas.upenn.edu