QUAD or SUAD?
After returning from a wonderful Christmas vacation to the sunny California, I proceeded to log onto the Quick University Access to Data program that is set up and supported by what I thought was a first class high tech institution (USU). To my surprise it was not available Saturday evening, and it was closed Sunday (of course I already knew this from prior experience). Come Monday it was overloaded as all of us who had tried to access it when it was convenient (over the weekend) tried to access it.
It appears to me that USU is not so high tech after all. They can’t seem to develop a reliable system that can handle the load required by its student body. Now I know that QUAD support will refute this by saying it was unusual peak demand, but solutions are out there. Solutions like opening it the weekend prior to known peak demands or allowing for more connections. I’ve heard the usual “Mainframe needs to run batch processes excuse” but does it truly take 36 hours to do that. If so, USU needs to check into streamlining batch processes or getting faster processors.
As a student body I suggest we all email the student help desk (helpdesk@usu.edu) with name suggestions for our “University Access to Data” program. I suggest SUAD (pronounced swod) which stands for Slow University Access to Data. Of course that is when you can access it at all, which is usually not the most convenient time.