![[Contents]](../pictures/contents.png)
|
![[Previous Topic: Costs]](../pictures/prevtopic.png)
![[Next Topic: Language]](../pictures/nexttopic.png)
|
|
|
|
The Technical university, the hostels and the Internet cafes should provide enough computer using alternatives for anyone. The university has the best free computers, but they are most often reserved and can't be used at night. Internet cafes have excellent computers, but that costs. (Internet: e.g. 150ft /10min, 700ft /1h). Martos is the most convenient place to use computers, provided that one lives there.
The computer center has lots of PCs whose age, condition and set of installed programs vary. The Windoze machines have at least Matlab, Netscape and Telnet. Probably much more, but I don't remember. Maybe one third of the machines had Linux, but I don't know what those machines have eaten. I can't say for sure if the computers have SSH installed, but one can always connect to ural with telnet and use SSH there. The user account on ural is given in the first week.
To use the computers one must have a TIRIS card and student card. (They are given during the orientation in the first week.) In the computer center there's a bunch of unary operators sitting in their cubicles and knowing next to nothing. One can't go directly to the computers, but the student card must be left to an operator first. The computers are turned off by default, and the TIRIS card is needed to boot them. Without the card the machine starts whining heart-breakingly at 120dB.
Besides the bureaucracy, the computer center has two major drawbacks. Firstly, the classrooms are reserved at daytime. Either by lectures or by other students. Secondly, the whole place is closed at night.
If one takes some lab courses at the faculty of Informatics, one gets an account on their workstations, or probably on a single workstation. They have at least HP and Sun workstations. One's allowed to use them in the evenings if some of the staff members is present and the moon is waning and Saturn is in Aquarius.
There are three PCs running Win NT. The machines have pretty much all that one needs: SSH, Netscape and Hungarian MS Office. Occasionally the Internet connection was extremely slooooooooooooow. The computer room is available also at night. There's a b&w printer that one can use if some of the student union members is present. In 1999 the printouts were 10ft a sheet. The student union has also two computers. Ordinary mortals may use them if the three other computers are reserved and there's some kind privileged human being present to perform the login.
For rich yuppies there are always the Internet cafes. The computers are typically new, full of useful programs and the net connection is not slow either. For a foreigner the places are not too expensive. It's also possible to print and scan. I don't recommend scanning. At least in BudapestNET the staff couldn't use the scanner at all. And the "cafe" in "Internet cafe" was highly exaggerated, too. (A coffee machine in the lobby.) The other one that I tried is near Martos and opened in late 1999. I haven't tried to do anything useful there, but the net seemed to work. The place is more like a bar than a cafe.
See also what the survival guide has to say about computers.
This page looks best when viewed with a browser supporting CSS. However, everything is readable with any browser.