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G.R.I.D. lab will be closed November 12, 2014 for software upgrades; disks will be erased.

Last revision October 10, 2014

The Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. computer lab is maintained for individual research and creation of presentations such as posters. The lab will be closed on November 12 to do a major upgrade of the operating systems and applications. The single computer "Saxton" will be removed from the lab on November 3. It will be used to build the new system image and then returned on November 12 to be upgraded with the other computers. All user files created on the local computer disks will be erased!

The six dual-boot iMac computers in the lab will be upgraded to Windows 7 Enterprise and Mac OS X 10.9 "Mavericks". Most installed applications will be upgraded to the latest versions. In particular, the Adobe Creative Suite applications, such as Illustrator, PhotoShop, Acrobat Pro, InDesign, and Dreamweaver, will all be upgraded from version CS4 to CS6.

If you want to save any files you made on the local hard disks on the G.R.I.D. lab computers, copy them elsewhere before November 12 (before November 3 for "Saxton"). The local disks will be completely erased as part of the upgrade.

Will G.R.I.D. lab disk erasure affect files you made in the lab?

  • If you are a regular graduate student, staff, or faculty member in Earth Sciences with a home share on the School file server sesfs.stanford.edu, and you save all files to the Desktop or Documents folder, then you are not affected. Those folders are redirected to your home share on sesfs.stanford.edu, where they are safe and backed up. However, your custom application settings (such as browser home page) will be reset to the defaults.

  • If you are a regular graduate student, staff, or faculty member in Earth Sciences but save files in other folders (not Desktop or Documents), or on the Scratch disk, then those files are on the local disk and will be erased.

  • If you are an undergraduate student or guest user, you do not have a home share on the sesfs.stanford.edu server, so all your files are saved on the local disks of the G.R.I.D. lab computers and they will be erased.

G.R.I.D. lab renovation done - lab re-opened on September 4, 2013.

Updated September 9, 2013

The renovation of the Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. lab is basically done and the lab has re-opened. The new door combination can be found on the Door Code section of the Quick Links.

The six new dual-boot iMacs can be started into either Mac OS X 10.8 or Windows 7 Pro. Use the arrow keys to select from the choices on the screen when you start or restart and then press ENTER. If you do nothing, default startup is Mac OS X. As before, login to all computers with your SUNet ID and password.

The ptolemy poster printer is working correctly with the new computers. A new printer to replace escher is still being tested and is not installed in the lab yet. There is a new "GRID Proofer" color laserjet printer to replace the broken "grid-inkjet".

The scanners have not been tested and two are not put back yet because we still need to find new drivers for them.

The lab website still needs to be updated with details of the new computers and printers.

Please report any problems to the G.R.I.D. lab management.

G.R.I.D. lab closed Aug. 16, 2013 through Sept. 5, 2013 for renovation; files on computers to be erased!

July 17, 2013

The G.R.I.D. lab will close on Friday, August 16, 2013, for complete lab renovation and upgrade, and re-open on Friday, September 6, 2013. During this closure, none of the computers, printers, or other devices in the lab will be accessible.

All user files stored on the hard disks of the lab computers will be erased on August 16! If you want to keep such files, you need to copy them somewhere else before then.

The lab will be repainted. Workstation tables will be replaced. All computers will be replaced with powerful new dual-boot iMacs, running both Mac OS X 10.8 and Windows 7. The door combination code will be changed on August 16; it will be published here when the lab re-opens on September 6.

See the full Computing News announcement for details.

G.R.I.D. lab door code has been changed!

August 1, 2012

Every year or two, the code to open the door to the G.R.I.D. lab is changed as a security measure. Codes like this tend to get passed around and soon many people who do not really have rights to use the lab have the code.

The new code is available to anyone in Earth Sciences by selecting the Door Code link in the "Quick Links" section of this website. Only SUNet IDs of people associated with the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences will be given access to that page.

Annual software upgrades and disk cleanup starts November 21, 2011

November 14, 2011

The Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. computer lab will be closed to normal use on Monday, November 21, 2011, for operating system and software upgrades on all the lab computers. User files saved on local disks will also be erased as part of an annual cleanup. See Computing News for details on which files may be erased. The upgrade process may continue into Tuesday or Wednesday if additional time is needed.

The "Jode" computer will be removed from the lab on November 14 so it can be used as the "build computer" to make a new software image for all four iMacs in the lab.

General operating system patches will be installed and individual software applications will be upgraded to the latest versions. Two major changes are planned for the Mac OS X operating system on the lab computers:

  • Mac OS X will be upgraded from version 10.5 ("Leopard") to version 10.6 ("Snow Leopard" on the Mac disk partition of all four iMac computers: Jode, Mauro, Mercator, and Beck. The older Mac "Saxton" does not meet system requirements for version 10.6 and will remain at 10.5.

    The Windows disk partition of the four iMacs, and the Dell PC "Amerigo", will remain at the 64 bit Windows 7 Professional version.

  • Currently, both the Windows and Mac OS X desktops are mapped to the same folder on your home share on the sesfs server. This can be confusing if you alternate between operating systems, since some desktop files in one operating system, such as disk and folder shortcuts, will show up on the desktop of the other operating system, but do not function there.

    To fix this confusion, the upgrade will separate the files saved to the Mac desktop into their own subfolder, named MacDesktop. The Desktop subfolder in the GRIDLab folder of your home share will continue to be used for files and shortcuts on the Windows desktop.

    If you previously saved files to the Mac desktop in the GRID lab, you will need to move them yourself after the upgrade from the Desktop subfolder to the new MacDesktop subfolder or to the Documents subfolder. The Documents subfolder will continue to be shared between the operating systems. Save any files there if you want them to be accessible from either operating system in the lab.

Computers to be upgraded to Windows 7 on January 18, 2011

January 12, 2011

The Mitchell A59 G.R.I.D. computer lab will be closed to normal use on Tuesday, January 18, 2011, for operating system and software upgrades on all the lab computers. Some user files saved on local disks will be erased as a side effect. See Computing News for details on which files may be affected.

The Windows partition on each computer (except Saxton, which is Mac OS X only) will be upgraded from Windows XP to 64 bit Windows 7. This will give us a more modern and better supported version of Windows that can use all of the RAM installed in each computer (XP can only use 3 GB). Mac OS X partitions will remain at version 10.5.8.

Most applications on the computers under both Windows and Mac OS X will be upgraded to the latest version.

The Dell PC "Amerigo" has 8 GB of RAM (main memory), which will now be fully available under Windows 7. Because there are no Windows 7 drivers for the Contex large format scanner that was attached to Amerigo, another older PC running Windows XP has been connected to this scanner. It is named "Hoffman" and is intended solely to operate the scanner.

No general purpose applications will be installed on Hoffman. The only application on it (other than programs built-in to Windows itself) is the "WIDEimage" scanning software to operate the Contex scanner. Use this software to scan maps and other large documents. Save the files to your "My Documents" folder, which is mapped to your home share on sesfs. Then you can retrieve the scans from other computers in the lab or elsewhere. Complete instructions for using the Contex scanner will be added to the lab website soon.

Annual erasure of user files on G.R.I.D. computer local disks

October 8, 2010

All user files stored directly on the G.R.I.D. lab computer hard drives were erased on October 8, 2010, as announced in advance on the Computing Resources website news section. As normal user files are actually stored on your home share on the sesfs file server when using the lab, the only files actually erased were files stored in the Scratch disk partition, files stored by guest users of the lab, and program settings files (such as browser bookmarks), which are stored on the local hard drives.

Door lock code changed

August 2010

The combination code for the lock on the lab door was changed. Click here to get the new code (restricted to Earth Sciences SUNet IDs only).