Gamedev software on ITS machines

[Bryan]

I would like to contact IT services to see if we can get any game development software put onto campus computers. Stuff like Eclipse, Visual Studio Express, Java 5, etc.. It'd be useful for future Codefests for those of us who don't have laptops.

I don't think it's unlikely they'd agree, since Compsoc get to use ITS computers for games, and this is just slightly more worthwhile. (Dunk, how are the games installed on ITS machines? Is there a seperate boot partition for Compsoc use, or a different login that gives access to the games or something?)

Can I fire off an email about this in the society's name?

[Dunk]

They have a special login for games, and their exec have the password. Basically they have a bunch of installers on the network drive which put the game on some temporary space which gets deleted when you log off.

[Ricky]

Can I fire off an email about this in the society's name?

I'd say definately go ahead, sounds like a great idea and I'm sure nobody would have objections anyway.

[DanceDanceIkaruga]

POO
WEE
POO
WEE

Hehehehehehehehehehe

[Bryan]

That from the man who just got re-elected Tech Editor

(sigh)

Pic unrelated

[DanceDanceIkaruga]

lol!

Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I think I get jealous in topics like this that other people have intelligent things to say while I don't and I end up making everything worse by posting something a 3-year old might say.

[Ricky]

POO
WEE
POO
WEE

Hehehehehehehehehehe

I meant to say something to you about that when I saw you in Tesco yesterday, but I forgot. Gets my vote for 'most unexpected forum post'.

[Bryan]

(Email exchange moved to exec forum)

So, what's the Computer Scientists' verdict on how likely it is DCS could help us out? My guess is the best we could hope for is that they'd let our members have a log on on the Linux machines.

Do they have any procedure for software installation requests? I guess some of the third year projects require some fairly specialised stuff to be installed. Or am I totally wrong?

My other thought was the DTP room in Union North. Jim, who is that meant for, and when's it open? Even if it's unlikey the Union could help out right now, it may be worth firing off an email about this when the new Socs Fed take over, just to let them know we want space goddammit.

[NickF]

I imagine you'd get a firm no from DCS. They'd have to enable uni cards for access, provide logins and install software.

I don't think we could even get a Java 5 compatable eclipse installed for our 4th year project, we ended up installing it ourselves in our home directories.

I think their main concern would be that if a bunch of us were all in there, we might use up all the computers. They're an academic department, so they probably don't really care about anything that goes on outside of the department, that's if they're even allowed to have anything to do with anything outside the department

Oh yeah, and obviously the machines are all unix based. So you're not going to get Visual Studio on there, or the platform SDK.

[Bryan]

Okay. I'm going to guess its unlikely enough that sending an email would not be worth the effort. Edit: I probably should, just so I can say to ITS I have.

I am quite please with the second response from ITS. I did think that'd they'd asume my second email was just me being cheeky and bitching about Compsoc. And I'm quite glad the didn't just say no no no no no you're not meant to do that when I meantioned running stuff from My Documents and USB drives.

I may try and put together a 'pack' that can be dragged into My Documents, and put it onto the CD. Any idea what the quota is on ITS machines? I believe the official line is 40MB, though I've got more like 100MB in mine.

[Ricky]

Bah, "several months backlog of requests"? How much time do you need to download an installer and run it? If their system is in such a state that it's so hard to add new programs to the network then I think there's a larger problem at hand. yeesh.

Boo for ITS! BOOOO!

[bucko]

You should be aware that CompSoc's account has no extra privileges (as far as I'm aware), bar a quota of about 6GB. All our installers are simply RAR archives.

Your second (or perhaps first) email appears to have made ITS very wary of CompSoc. They have staff members suggesting that our gaming privileges should be reconsidered - they do not wish to set a precedent with us. Please try to consider that emails like that second one, although fairly risk free to your society, might pose a risk to others (though I am of course happy for you to send out speculative emails like the first - it is, after all, as much your right as it is ours).

David Buckley,
CompSoc Gaming Officer.

PS: Their issue with distributing applications is that they need to test that on all possible setups there isn't a single conflict with any other piece of software. They then need to repackage the software into a state that it fcan be distributed properly. They need to check on licenses etc. to make sure they can do that. It's more than just "downloading an running an installer" - it could take hours of their time.

I recommend you investigate using RAR/ZIP archives and perhaps importing .reg files for settings - and using a DVD-ROM to hold them if it won't fit on a USB stick. You should be able to extract to the D: drive - unless CompSoc really does have extra privileges.

[bucko]

A quick check up on the machines in the maths dept reveals that the D: drive is indeed writable by my normal user. It's normally quite large - certainly we've never filled it up in the rooms we use.

I believe some tactics for fixing problem software includes actually attempting an install onto the DVD writer/USB stick or using various tools to pull out the contents of the installer. A bunch of people from CompSoc have experience hacking things to work as an unprivileged user - so if you have trouble, perhaps you could ask them on our IRC channel? Maybe this link works:

irc://irc.uwcs.co.uk/#compsoc

[Bryan]

Bucko - Thanks for the the suggestions. I've emailed you, though I'm not sure if it's the correct address.

For those who haven't be following, there are other factors at play, such as computer rooms not being there any more - http://planet.uwcs.co.uk