« Our Best Technology Investment by Far | Main | LibraryCampEast 2006 »
August 17, 2006
Empty Cradles
Whoever is the dummy who ordered our latest set of PCs -- oops, that would be me -- didn't measure to see if they would fit in the cradles used for the five-year-old PCs they are replacing. So when we went to install them last night in the Darien Technology Foundation Center at the Darien Library, all we ended up with were empty cradles, because the cases on the Dell PCs were 1/4" longer than would fit.
So our solution was to gang the PCs on the workstations:
Next step is to see if our custodian -- Jim Simmel -- can cut the flange off the bottom of one of the cradles as a test to see if that will allow the PCs to be moved back down below desk level.
Considering all the hours deciding on specs for the PCs, Benjamin Franklin's "For want of a nail...." comes to mind, but let's let Michael Dell himself have the last word: "Ideas are a commodity, performance of them is not."
Update: Jim Simmel took one of the cradles apart to see how difficult to it would be to cut off the flange, and realized that there was a very easy (he was kind not to say "obvious") way to adjust to fit the new Dells. So they're soon in the cradles where they belong.
Update 2: While we were in between knowing we had a problem, and knowing what the solution was, we were visited by our Dell Account Executive, Neil Osborne. That, in and of itself, was interesting -- I've never been visited by Dell, and I guess it shows how their market position has matured that they feel the need to connect face-to-face with their smaller customers ('cause do you think they don't visit Fortune 500 companies?) But Neil had the grace to tell me, when I was musing about the new PCs not fitting, that since they were less than 30 days old, I could return them and get a smaller version of the CPU. Nice offer, but I cringe at the thought of making someone else pay for my mistake. However, it's the kind of gesture that pays off in the long run, as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by Alan Kirk Gray at August 17, 2006 10:24 AM
Comments
The problem with vertically mounted machines in knee-side suspended "sling" supports is that they are almost as vulnerable as lap-tops to being subjected to head write scraping shocks by a patron who bumps them during a "read" or a "write" to the hard drive. This not only corrupts data, but it also will contribute an accumulation of damage to the drives' writing heads and their media surfaces. Count on replacing all the hard drives in half the time you'd need so to do with "flat on the desk" placement. This would be true at home, where we treat our own stuff with some respect. At the Library, I wonder if there is as much care even thought about, let alone given by swivle chaired patrons.
Posted by: Norbert Boxbottom at September 1, 2006 07:45 AM
Oh yeah, we find ourselves replacing the drives quite often. Sometimes it's just impatience that causes a patron to push the drive closed without using the button, but most often it's the kind of cumulative degradation that you describe.
We keep extra drives on hand just for this reason, even when they are in the warranty period.
But our reason for putting the PCs under the desk is because it provides a better experience for our patrons, and we will always choose that over standard "minimize loss" behavior.
Posted by: Alan Gray at September 7, 2006 08:18 PM