Tech Time

By Sammi Powers

I think everyone remembers the point in the night where you’re trying to download some PDF for class and the internet was just crawling along. How frustrated were you?
Did you make it to the “I know that my warranty covering physical damage is still in effect for three more months so if I do throw this out my second story window I’ll be covered” sort of state?

It seems this may no longer be a problem. Last week it was announced that SXU has increased their bandwidth. Over the past eight months, engineer Eryk Kaminski has diligently worked on this problem.

Since this announcement, I have actually noticed a difference in the speed and responsiveness of our internet. I was interested to see how good this new internet speed was and thus undertook an experiment.
During the peak homework time (between 9 and 11p.m.), I went to hulu.com and pulled up last week’s episode of “Glee.” And I waited.

Normally, if you’re looking at anything during these hours—Facebook, Twitter, Google, Wikipedia—you’re waiting what seems to be an excessive amount of time for anything, even the smallest graphic, to load.

But “Glee” buffered quickly. I thought, “We’ll see how long this lasts…” The show would stutter-stop occasionally, but the buffering bar soon picked back up again and it was almost like watching the show on broadcast television.

That means the internet is free to use again, at regular and reasonable speeds.
The other new introduction is wireless printing. Supposedly you can log onto this “Printwhere?” software and send your documents to a number of printers of campus. Then you mosey on down to that printer, swipe your card, say “Yes, you may take my print money if you insist,” and collect your pages.

I have yet to actually get this to work for me. I downloaded the “Printwhere?” software, installed it, and ran it, but I still can’t print. It seems to be because every time I choose a printer it tells me that the printer is unavailable.

I love the idea, though, and think that once it gets fixed/I learn how to work it properly it will be an excellent tool and may result in fewer lost flash drives.

Sammi Powers is a junior communications major from Romeoville. She is Peer Minister for Liturgical Ministry, deputy Viewpoints editor for The Xavierite and program director for WXAV 88.3 FM. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.