Thursday, June 24, 2010

Summertime...

We're seeing evidence of summer, gradually - and not just outside where the grass is still incredibly green, the cottonwood trees haven't really been shedding cotton yet, and the hanging baskets on Main Street have only just appeared. We got tired of all the rain, but it really was a good thing.

So, our summer season is starting: a few Yellowstone Park workers, some snowbirds (what are they called when they come north for summer?) and some foreign students. The Mail.RU program that shows up on public computers is one of the first signs - students seem to have that promoted as the program to use to keep in touch, and it likes to automatically install on our computers. This year hasn't been quite as difficult - so far I'm not seeing the home page consistently hijacked by this as in past years. I made screen shots of removal instructions, so everyone is able to remove it, since none of us read Russian very well!

If we had the imaging system working this wouldn't be an issue, but that has sometimes caused more problems than it solved. I'm still making updated images for each group, so we can restore a computer if something happens, but that takes some time also. Still not sure what the answer is to keep all machines identical all the time!

Highlight of the day: a patron brought his own typewriter and sat upstairs in a study carrel, typing away, bell ringing on the carriage return and keys clacking. No one complained about the noise - maybe people were surprised to see the antique technology?