Rant: printing queue at work

[MegaVovaN]

I work in local community college Admissions office. I help people register for classes (when they are clueless how to use PeopleSoft, especially after recent interface upgrade) and solve more technical problems, such as why account is inactive - why and how to remove a hold on account; I help with FAFSA and so on.

At computer lab we're in we (workers) don't have printing control - anybody sends a print job and it's processed immediately. Printing is free if it's for admissions/financial aid purpose, 10 cents a page for everything else (including homework).

With tons of student traffic this time of the year (hundreds, if not thousands unique visitors a day), I was strapping in to see some retarded behavior. Oh boy I saw plenty.

Today some lady sends a print job from BlackBoard. Blackboard is an online class interface with homework, assignments, resources and so on. Nearly always it's impossible to print from blackboard - it's all messed up: menus on some pages, pieces of content on others, some pages almost blank...anytime you try printing from blackboard, you waste paper and don't achieve what you need. Only way to print from it is to copy/paste into word or make a screenshot and print that.

Well this lady sends a print job...or a few...or maybe a few x20. I don't know. But printer spit out about 300 pages of garbage, ran out of paper. I loaded it back again, so garbage got printed twice before I figured out how to cancel a print job - rebooting the printer didn't help, and "main" computer had no control over queue. Printer buttons only froze the printer. After a while I figured out how to cancel a job using printer buttons.

Later that day some other lady printed out a 60 page powerpoint with one slide per page. Sure enough, slides had a shitton of graphics and bold text.

IT staff needs to implement queue control with a "rule" where if print job is under (10) pages, it is processed automatically. If it is more, the staff must allow it to continue. Number 10 can be disputed, but it should be at least 5 pages (because fafsa's SAR report in PDF form is 5 pages, 8-10 in HTML form).

I talked to my supervisor but no luck, so I'll have to bug IT staff directly some other time.

Here it is, your tuition and tax money going towards students that print hundreds of pages erroneously or even worse, for personal use. Enjoy.

 

[looker001]

So basically printing everything is free if it's impossible to tell the difference between what is being printed? How are the 10c per page for homework being enforced?

 

[MegaVovaN]

The thing is, it is not enforced. I can tell the difference but it's up to me to enforce it. And they can just refuse to pay for 600 pages of garbage, you know? Not like I am gonna call security on their ass - it is a tech problem more than students fault.

 

[tasmanian]

10c a page is crazy expensive.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: tasmanian
10c a page is crazy expensive.

They do that shit at my school. The copier charges 10c/print for B&W, 50c/print for color. Yes, 50 fucking cents a page for color. I don't print it there though... I do it at my apartment... it only works out to be like 35c or less per print there.

 

[Bill Brasky]

At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

 

[rh71]

You know you are creating more work for yourself / the other staff if you want people to approve everything that's over 10 pages. I think you should strictly enforce the payment somehow as that will cause people to actually care about what they're printing.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Originally posted by: rh71
You know you are creating more work for yourself / the other staff if you want people to approve everything that's over 10 pages. I think you should strictly enforce the payment somehow as that will cause people to actually care about what they're printing.

Our library has 100% enforce - ANYTHING you print does not get printed until you pay cash for this particular print job. But this would be very bothersome with half a hundred people applying to classes and printing their schedules and whatnot all at same time - there frequently is a crowd by the printer even when jobs get printed instantly.

Originally posted by: Zaitsev
At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

This is what we need. Problem is that getting people to log in with their account is bothersome.



10 cents a page is not that expensive. If you buy a 500 page ream for $3, thats 6 cents for each blank page. Add cost of toner and initial cost of printer and 10 cents a page makes sense.

Of course when we buy paper by palette it's cheaper but when YOU print at home you will come at around 10 cents anyway. Plus school printers are quite advanced/expensive & Dell (computer supplier) may have bad prices compared to that hot deal you got online on your toner.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: rh71
You know you are creating more work for yourself / the other staff if you want people to approve everything that's over 10 pages. I think you should strictly enforce the payment somehow as that will cause people to actually care about what they're printing.

Our library has 100% enforce - ANYTHING you print does not get printed until you pay cash for this particular print job. But this would be very bothersome with half a hundred people applying to classes and printing their schedules and whatnot all at same time - there frequently is a crowd by the printer even when jobs get printed instantly.

Originally posted by: Zaitsev
At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

This is what we need. Problem is that getting people to log in with their account is bothersome.



10 cents a page is not that expensive. If you buy a 500 page ream for $3, thats 6 cents for each blank page. Add cost of toner and initial cost of printer and 10 cents a page makes sense.

Of course when we buy paper by palette it's cheaper but when YOU print at home you will come at around 10 cents anyway. Plus school printers are quite advanced/expensive & Dell (computer supplier) may have bad prices compared to that hot deal you got online on your toner.

Don't they have to log into an account to use the computer in the first place?

 

[MegaVovaN]

No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

Yes. But we have like 9 campuses with many thousands of students, and on all campuses computers are logged in with public accounts...I am sure it's impossible to change this. BTW: I am quite sure students already have their accounts set up - they just never use them. I tried mine and it works, abeit not in all labs.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

Yes. But we have like 9 campuses with many thousands of students, and on all campuses computers are logged in with public accounts...I am sure it's impossible to change this. BTW: I am quite sure students already have their accounts set up - they just never use them. I tried mine and it works, abeit not in all labs.

I'm not familiar with server design or network design, but is it really that hard to set up a centralized server-system for user accounts?

 

[looker001]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

Yes. But we have like 9 campuses with many thousands of students, and on all campuses computers are logged in with public accounts...I am sure it's impossible to change this. BTW: I am quite sure students already have their accounts set up - they just never use them. I tried mine and it works, abeit not in all labs.

Are on campus computers not for students use only? If they are for students use only and all students already have own account, why is it hard to enforce the policy? Take off all public password and force students to log in

 

[MegaVovaN]

Looker001: you would think so. But for some reason it's not enforced. I guess they want it to make easier on non-tech savvy students. Remember, this is community college, first step in education (other than high school). We get people that don't use email, much less understand that they have account and default password is their birthday. So what would happen is that we - lab aides, would have to figure out their logins and passwords and then log them out when they leave and leave their account signed in. Hell, many of them leave their peoplesoft accounts and personal emails open when they leave!

Brainonska511: It's already set up and tied to student email.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: rh71
You know you are creating more work for yourself / the other staff if you want people to approve everything that's over 10 pages. I think you should strictly enforce the payment somehow as that will cause people to actually care about what they're printing.

Our library has 100% enforce - ANYTHING you print does not get printed until you pay cash for this particular print job. But this would be very bothersome with half a hundred people applying to classes and printing their schedules and whatnot all at same time - there frequently is a crowd by the printer even when jobs get printed instantly.

Originally posted by: Zaitsev
At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

This is what we need. Problem is that getting people to log in with their account is bothersome.



10 cents a page is not that expensive. If you buy a 500 page ream for $3, thats 6 cents for each blank page. Add cost of toner and initial cost of printer and 10 cents a page makes sense.

Of course when we buy paper by palette it's cheaper but when YOU print at home you will come at around 10 cents anyway. Plus school printers are quite advanced/expensive & Dell (computer supplier) may have bad prices compared to that hot deal you got online on your toner.

Do they teach math there?

 

[MegaVovaN]

self-owned. It is 0.6 cents - Less than one cent per blank page.

They do teach math here

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
self-owned. It is 0.6 cents - Less than one cent per blank page.

They do teach math here

Just do what you can, when you can. Try not to stress out too much about it.

I do feel your pain about printer queues though. Where I used to work we only had one printer and it was shared between 3 employees. Every customer invoice came off that printer and customers couldn't leave without signing the invoice. One of the chicks I worked with felt it was her duty to print off everything she did. I am talking meaningless things that she would never even look at again. This got to be really frustrating when I was trying to take care of a customer and I had to wait for one of her 40 page nonsense prints to finish. Plus the damn printer was always out of paper! Then she would complain when she had to refill it.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

Yes. But we have like 9 campuses with many thousands of students, and on all campuses computers are logged in with public accounts...I am sure it's impossible to change this. BTW: I am quite sure students already have their accounts set up - they just never use them. I tried mine and it works, abeit not in all labs.

I'm not familiar with server design or network design, but is it really that hard to set up a centralized server-system for user accounts?

No, the school sounds like its IT department is run by idiots.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: NSFW

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: rh71
You know you are creating more work for yourself / the other staff if you want people to approve everything that's over 10 pages. I think you should strictly enforce the payment somehow as that will cause people to actually care about what they're printing.

Our library has 100% enforce - ANYTHING you print does not get printed until you pay cash for this particular print job. But this would be very bothersome with half a hundred people applying to classes and printing their schedules and whatnot all at same time - there frequently is a crowd by the printer even when jobs get printed instantly.

Originally posted by: Zaitsev
At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

This is what we need. Problem is that getting people to log in with their account is bothersome.



10 cents a page is not that expensive. If you buy a 500 page ream for $3, thats 6 cents for each blank page. Add cost of toner and initial cost of printer and 10 cents a page makes sense.

Of course when we buy paper by palette it's cheaper but when YOU print at home you will come at around 10 cents anyway. Plus school printers are quite advanced/expensive & Dell (computer supplier) may have bad prices compared to that hot deal you got online on your toner.

Do they teach math there?

hahaha :laugh: :thumbsup:

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
No, computers are logged on with public account. Log in and password are written on the monitor.

That's probably your first problem then. People should only be able to use campus computers if they enter their own credentials.

Yes. But we have like 9 campuses with many thousands of students, and on all campuses computers are logged in with public accounts...I am sure it's impossible to change this. BTW: I am quite sure students already have their accounts set up - they just never use them. I tried mine and it works, abeit not in all labs.

I'm not familiar with server design or network design, but is it really that hard to set up a centralized server-system for user accounts?

No, the school sounds like its IT department is run by idiots.

This, bigtime.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: tasmanian
10c a page is crazy expensive.

It's called a "fuck you" price to control demand.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: tasmanian
10c a page is crazy expensive.

It's called a "fuck you" price to control demand.

Yupp.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: Zaitsev
At ku, printing is tied to a system account, and every student is given 10 dollars for printing each semester. Each page is 8 cents, and a confirmation box shows how much will be left in the account before it is sent to the printer. If you don't have money in the account, no print for you!

It's $8