Dynamic Mental Representations	Freyd Dynamics Lab Notes on the RA PC in 457	Betrayal Trauma

The PC in Room 457

The Dell PC in Room 457 (installed January 2005) runs Windows XP Pro, and is a bit different from some of the other PCs in the lab. Here are some notes about using it. This page assumes a basic knowledge of Windows XP, and tries to cover a few items that are specific to the particular PC.

By the way, the PC has a name. It's "spacey."

Logging In

When you log in, you'll find that the system maintains a separate desktop and files for each user. So your "My Documents" won't be the same as what a different user will see. If you store files on the PC, then normally only you will have access to them -- they will not be accessible to other people in the lab.

Configuration

Each user on the PC has her own configuration settings, so the first time you use a program you will want to change some things. Here are a few things I think you will want to change:

Start menu: right-click the Start menu and click "Customize...". Change as you wish (I like "small icons", for instance). Also left-click the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and choose "show on desktop".
Word: enter your initials and full name when it asks you for them as part of initial configuration. When you start Word you may get a Security Warning about PDFMaker.dot containing macros by Adobe Systems Incorporated. If you do, click the "Always trust macros from this publisher" and "Enable Macros". Next time you start Word you should not see the warning again. Note that if you get warnings about macros from other publishers you might not want to blythely trust them, but might instead want to check with me. Note also that if you just close the dialog box (clicking the X) you're likely to run into problems.
Internet Explorer: Visit http://dynamic.uoregon.edu, then change your home page to the dynamics lab by clicking Tools->Internet Options->Use Current. While in Internet Options, click Security and view what zone IE thinks you are in; if you're in Local Intranet, then click Sites... and uncheck the first two boxes. Note that we also have Firefox installed, and that you might want to use it as your web browser instead of IE.
Outlook Express: if you want to read email on this machine, you can use webmail (http://email.uoregon.edu) or configure a local email client. Configuring a local client is fairly easy. If you use OE, set email servers to incoming: "imap", incoming server: "imap.uoregon.edu" (or "dynamic.uoregon.edu" to read your dynamic email) and outgoing smtp server: "dynamic.uoregon.edu". If you are using imap.uoregon.edu for mail, see http://micro.uoregon.edu/email/ or ask me for detailed instructions. You can also use Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird.
Printing: The default printer is probably wrong. Go to Start->Printers and Faxes. Right-click "stb352 iR5000" and select "set as default printer". That's the printer/copier in Straub 352. If you want to create PDF files you can print to the logical printer "Adobe PDF".

Using dynamic for file sharing

The easiest way to use dynamic is to click the My Computer icon (on desktop or Start menu) then double-click on one of the 2 network drives we have automatically configured. "share on Samba Server dynamic" is the shared area on dynamic. You also have a personal area on dynamic that you can access from any lab machine.

Software and Hardware

The PC in 457 has a reasonably complete set of programs installed. In particular, it has

Microsoft Office (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Adobe Acrobat, which allows you to create and edit PDF files. To create a PDF file from any program such as Word, just print to the virtual priner named "Adobe PDF".
SPSS v 11
McAfee antivirus and Spybot Search & Destroy for antivirus checking
both Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers
standard internet plugins, including Java, Quicktime, and RealPlayer

We hope to order Endnote version 8 sometime soon.

If there are other programs that are essential for RA use in the lab but not currently installed, let Jennifer know.

The PC itself is quite nice. It is a Dell 4700 PC with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 120GB hard disk. It has a 19" CRT display, which is best viewed when set to 1280x1024 resolution and 24 bit color. It has fairly good speakers and both a CD-RW drive and a DVD drive, so you can play audio CDs, MP3, and DVDs, and can record CDs. You can even copy CDs from the DVD drive to the CD-RW drive. It also has USB plugs (including plugs on the front of the box) allowing you to attach peripherals such as digital cameras or USB thumb drives.

Security

We have the system configured for fairly high security. It automatically updates system software and antivirus definitions. It has a firewall that will protect you from lots of attacks. Etc. This should be pretty invisible to you, though -- if you notice any problems that appear to be security-related let me know.

last update 15-Apr-2006 jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu