Badger News 12-11-2011
System Outage Due to a Stanford Wide Loss of Chilled Water
As of about 5 PM I was notified that a water main in Stanford's chilled water system had broken and that this resulted in an inability to cool many areas on campus including our server room. After discussing the matter with the server room manager I was advised to shutdown all servers in the room to avoid overheating. As such Badger was unavailable from yesterday evening until about 3:30 AM on 12/11/11.
We apologize for any inconvenience. If you need charges added or adjusted due to this outage please contact me or your lab mangers.
Regards,
Mike Bell (mikebell@stanford.edu)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Old News -
Update for September
A new release of Badger Lab Management Software (formerly SNC-Coral) has been installed.
Members will find a number of new features when they download the newest version. To begin with we've rebranded SNC-Coral as Badger Lab Management Software, which is apparent from the appearance of our scrappy new Badger mascot on the login screen. The details of the update are listed below. We hope you like this latest installment of the application.
Features of the update
Cool New Login Screen
In addition to our new mascot, the following enhancements now appear on the login screen.
- At the top is a new “Message of the Day.” This can be used to notify members of new features, equipment or events. It can also refer members to the “News” feature.
- Clicking on the News button will open a browser to the News page on the SNC website. This page will provide the latest information on equipment, lab happenings or refer members to other pages of interest.
- New Member and want to get an application in for the Shared Labs? This is as simple as clicking on the “New Member?” button. This is the first step in a New Members process that greatly simplifies the procedure and makes it possible to add members quickly and efficiently. It will be of huge benefit during new lab startup and conversion.
- View agreement message and button. The Shared Labs moves into the digital age by providing agreements online and ensuring that members can review and acknowledge the agreements with the click of a button.
- Not obvious to the new login screen is the adoption of a web standard login strategy. That is, external users are now issued logins which are in the form of an email address. The SUNet ID will still be the accepted login for Stanford fully sponsored accounts. With “@Stanford.edu” as the default domain, Stanford members can continue to enter only their 3-8 character ID. External users will enter a fully qualified name. In addition to eliminating the ongoing issues of namespace collision, this will ensure that we have good email address for the external members and reduces the burden of having yet another site specific login. Vastly improved autocomplete enhancements, to be installed simultaneously, will mitigate any concerns about the longer member name – stay tuned.
New Member Processing -
While all Stanford required manual forms will still need to be signed, initialed, countersigned and certified; prospective new members can complete the information needed to setup a Badger account online. This will accomplish a number of things.
- Member can enter information themselves resulting in more complete and accurate information.
- Emails, document scans and related activities are minimized.
- Account information is validated in real time against Stanford’s financial system.
- Instructions can be viewed as needed from the website.
- Members can select their own password at application creation time.
Again, this is simply an application for an account. The decision to move the account to active status and then to later qualify a new member for equipment use is still subject to administrative and lab manager oversight.
New Member Account Review Process
Once new members have completed the application process for the Shared Lab Facilities their accounts can be reviewed for accuracy and completeness. Invalid PTA’s will be flagged with parens. Staff can review and modify those accounts as needed (see below). Multiple accounts can be activated simultaneously by simply highlighting any combination of members on the screen. The table can be sorted on any field. New Member records with PTA issues will be flagged and may be rapidly corrected. Once accurate, accounts may be activated and the new member is sent an email letting them know that their account is ready for use.
Enhanced Qualification Capability
Qualifying members can be a time consuming and frustrating process because in the past you could only qualify a member on one device at a time and you needed to know the member ID, which may bear no semblance to the member’s name. Qualifications may now be perform en masse by simply highlighting any number of devices and opening the normal qualification screen.
Functional Autocomplete
Not sure of the members ID? Just start typing in the last name and the new autocomplete drop down opens enabling you to see member last name, first name and ID. The new autocomplete actually works without superfluous characters at the end or requiring you to remember an unrelated Member ID. Any place you need to specify a member you can now do so quickly and accurately.
Much more is on the way!