Computers Go Down

Science Center computers late last night shut down when the main-frame cooling system failed, leaving many students unable to access their work.

Users were unable to work on the UNIX and VMS machines, known as HUSC temperature sensors abruptly shut down the machines be cause of using computer temperatures.

Matt Jacobson Carroll, the user support specialist on duty at the time, said he could not predict when computers would be fully operational.

Although Jacobson Carroll stated that it was possible to get some work done," he said he could not determine if data was lost permanently.

Most students who lost work were rushing to finish a problem set for Computer Science 51 due today.

Paul Li '96 who stored his problem set data on the VMS machines, estimated that at least eight hours of work was trapped in the system.

The shutdown came on the heels of another system failure less than two weeks ago when many users lost over a day's worth of data on HUSC 10. Brian L. Lucena '96, said he saved his work, but other students "got screwed totally.

Computer Science 51 is notorious for lengthy problems sets. Students said they hoped for an extension.

Bob Walton, head teaching fellow for the course, could not be reached for comment last night.