Dysmey Blog Archives > Da Brats
The library where I work has had visitations from a bunch of kids who come in the afternoon, playing on the computers, running around and making a lot of noise, and basically treating the library as a playground. They generally gather around the iMacs in Reference and in Education Resources, but they use other computers, too.
I myself did not care what the kids do on the iMacs so long as they do not damage them. But I am told that the kids are visiting Web sites that are inappropriate for kids. It has gotten so that I was told that today I must set up the iMacs so that one must log on in order to use them. And so I did.
I was reluctant to do this, partly because I thought I have created an ideal iMac/network mix with Thursby Software's DAVE, by means of which users can print on the Win2003-based networks from their iMacs; and partly because while it is possible set up common settings to all users for Apple, Microsoft, Adobe and Freeverse applications, it was not possible to do so for Firefox. It turns out I was wrong: It is possible but involves a lot of twittling that I have not yet perfected. But at least I can set up a common home page and global University Libraries Toolbar extension for all users, which overrides everything else.
So, this morning I converted first the Reference iMacs and then those in Ed Res to logon-only. The support staff in both departments are very happy; the kids (those who can't get guest accounts) are not happy at all.
I intend to make control of the iMacs a lot tighter: removing the only remaining wireless iMacs; getting DAVE's tougher brother ADmitMac for greater logon control; and making Firefox's profile truely universal for all users. This on top of all the other changes.