The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine
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September 1991 - Volume 8:1 [Printout | Contents | Search ]
By Dr. Jeff Seaman and CRC staff You just purchased a new computer and finally have the boxes unpacked, the cables connected (correctly, you hope), and the software manuals thrown into a corner. You step back, take a deep breath, and wonder if you've made a very big mistake. Relax. There are many sources of help available on campus to guide you in learning and using your computer. The first place to look for advice is your school or department. Many offer consulting and training assistance. Courses offered by Wharton Computing, for example, are listed in the calendar section of Penn Printout. The Computing Resource Center (CRC) also offers an array of services to assist computer users on campus. These include consulting via telephone, electronic mail (e-mail), and walk-in service; training programs; a software evaluation library; disk and file conversion services; and information dissemination activities (such as contributing to, and distributing, Penn Printout). The CRC, located in the Steinberg Conference Center at 38th Street and Locust Walk, directly across from the University Bookstore, is the first point of contact for the four divisions that make up the office of Information Services and Computing (ISC). If you are unsure whom to contact in ISC, CRC staff will route you to the appropriate person or office.
ConsultingWhich computer should I buy? Does the upgrade to Lotus 1-2-3 require more memory that my current version? How do I use information stored in FileMaker Pro in a mail merge in Microsoft Word? CRC consultants can provide the answers to these and a host of other questions.The CRC provides consulting on the application programs on the CRC supported list; the selection and use of personal computers; PennNet; ALL-IN-1, the campus-wide office automation system; and a number of other topics. Consultants can be reached by telephone (898-9085, 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday), through walk-in service at the Locust Walk resource center (9 AM to 4 PM, Monday to Friday), or through e-mail (CRC@A1.RELAY, 24 hours a day, with a response by the end of the next business day). Questioning the University community about its satisfaction with CRC services yields users' number one complaint: getting a busy signal when calling the CRC telephone hotline. With thousands of computer users on campus, the demand for service during peak times is greater than the CRC's ability to respond. To avoid a busy signal, call at off-peak times (early in the day is best), or submit your question electronically to CRC@A1.RELAY. For those of you with e-mail accounts, using the electronic consultant system ensures that your question gets in the queue immediately, and more important, that the answer gets back to you without the inevitable delays caused by telephone tag. All electronic consulting questions are answered by the end of the following business day.
TrainingThe most popular CRC training offerings are the instructor-led hands-on courses. Users of both DOS and Macintosh computers can attend introductory and intermediate level courses covering the use of specific word processors, spreadsheets, communication software, and databases. All hands-on courses are taught in CRC labs, with one person per computer. The course schedule is printed in Penn Printout, and advance registration is required. Over 95 percent of all available slots for hands-on courses have been filled for the past five years. Most courses fill up within days (or hours) of the beginning of registration, and we maintain limited waiting lists. Departments that need to train a number of people are encouraged to call the CRC in advance to plan a custom training program.Alternatives to the hands-on courses are plentiful. The Bits and Pieces seminar series covers a wide range of topics and includes presentations by vendors-all listed in Penn Printout. If you wish to work on your own, try a self-paced instructional program. A large selection of tutorials is available for use at the Locust Walk resource center. While walk-in requests can often be accommodated, we recommend a reservation to avoid disappointment. If you can't make it to our location, then check out the collection of training videos at The Movie Ticket in Houston Hall. For the price of an overnight rental ($2.50), you can use one of a number of excellent video training programs. Instructional packets for CRC hands-on and Bits and Pieces seminars are yet another option. These materials include the class outlines, any handouts, and exercises copied to your disk. Fill out a request form at the resource center or by e-mail, and the material will be available within three days. The materials may be copied for non-commercial use, provided the source is properly noted. If none of the above fits your needs, and if the training you require is not available elsewhere on campus, one other alternative remains. The CRC has evaluated the offerings of several training vendors in the Philadelphia area and negotiated substantial discounts for their courses. Courses last one to two days and are generally held at the vendor's site. Contact the CRC for a list of recommended vendors.
Walk-in servicesThe CRC's Locust Walk resource center, open from 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday, is the central delivery point for many CRC services.Here you can try before you buy. A variety of microcomputer hardware and peripherals from vendors such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett- Packard, IBM, and NeXT is available for testing and evaluation. Also housed at the resource center is an evaluation software library of more than four hundred packages for both MS-DOS and Macintosh. Included are all the CRC-supported products as well as hundreds of other packages. All the programs are available for inspection and trial in the resource center. Need to convert a file from WordPerfect on a DOS machine to Microsoft Word on a Mac? The CRC provides a full range of disk and file conversion services, enabling you to move files between the various 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch disk formats, while converting them from one program's file type to another. Should the disk with your only copy of an important file become unreadable, the CRC has a number of tools to recover damaged MS-DOS and Macintosh files and disks. Want to know what reviewers have said about a particular program you are considering buying? The CRC has a CD-ROM-based magazine reference guide containing abstracts or full text of articles from a year's worth of industry-specific and popular computer magazines. Our staff can search for information by specific subject, publication, or category of hardware or software. Requests for searches can be made by phone (898-9085), in person, or via e-mail (CRC@A1.RELAY). Also available are current and back copies of Penn Printout, documentation for PennNet and ALL-IN-1, and assorted product literature. The CRC is also the distribution point for selected free software. The latest versions of the supported Macintosh antiviral program, Disinfectant, and Vi-Spy, its MS-DOS counterpart, are always available. Disinfectant is distributed as shareware; Vi-Spy has been licensed for use by the University community. Looking for an updated print driver for WordPerfect or Microsoft Word? Chances are we have it and can give it to you if you show proof of ownership (normally the original labeled disks). Periodically the CRC also distributes selected software upgrades (such as the current HyperCard 2.0 to 2.1 upgrade). Not all CRC-distributed software is free, however. We distribute two statistical programs, PC-SAS and BMDP for the PC, for a fee. See "Campus-wide site licenses" (Penn Printout, September, 1991) for details on these and other site license arrangements.
DR. JEFF SEAMAN is Director, Computing Resource Center. Sidebar: CRC at a glance
Service audience
Charge for services
Consulting
Training
Other services
Penn Printout distribution
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