[AG-TECH] Doorbell for the grid?
Jason Bell
j.bell at cqu.edu.au
Thu Apr 13 08:17:27 CDT 2006
G'day Brian
Thanks for your email. I understand your comment, but from a personal
point of view, I work in an environment that contains a variety of sound
levels and I am regularly working on other projects. I have found that
that having "listen" on and having someone yelling out "are you free
Jason" works well (I have been doing this for around 3 years now). I
guess in some way, it works like a door bell, but instead people are
calling out your name. The other advantage is that people can see if
you are in the local area, before they say hello :-)
I guess in my opinion, someone asking for you personally is better than
having some form of alarm going off. Though I guess there would be some
cases where having something directly alerting you (similar to a phone)
would be necessary.
Again, this is just my opinion, though I think this is an interesting
topic.
Once again, thanks for your reply and I look forward to hearing what
other people have to say.
Cheers,
Jason.
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Tieman [mailto:tieman at aps.anl.gov]
Sent: Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:29 PM
To: Jason Bell
Cc: Cindy Sievers; Ivan R. Judson; Thomas D. Uram; Tom Coffin; ag-tech
Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Doorbell for the grid?
The beamline is a noisy place where people are focused on their
experiments--not a computer that may or may not have someone at the
other end. Never-the-less, the someone at the other end may be someone
I wish to speak with.
I can look out my window to see if someone is standing on my front
porch...but a doorbell is more convenient...I agree not everyone needs
this functionality, but I think of the AG more as a bag of tols than a
single application. I may need tools you don't, but I still need my
tools and would like them to play well with others.
Jason Bell wrote:
>G'day All
>
>I thought I might add my 2 cents worth here. In my opinion, I don't
>know if the "On Air" type of thing is really required... As we have
the
>tools already that highlights whether (for example) audio is on or not.
>
>The reason that I mention this is because I recently have been
>displaying "Rat" on the display screen/wall for users to view whilst
>participating within an AG session. This has multiple benefits:
>
>* Users can see there audio transmission level;
>
>* Can see that the "Talk" button is enabled, thereby informing
>users they are currently "On the Air";
>
>* Also allows users access to switch off the "Talk" button if they
>require a private conversation.
>
>In my opinion, if we education users, (this button turns talk on and
>off, etc) the users will have enough information already to determine
>whether that equipment is on or not. Therefore, why not simply use Rat
>to determine is you are "on the air" or not.
>
>Secondly, a number of my Australian colleagues (including myself) have
a
>portable machine that run continuously in the APAG lobby. I have found
>this invaluable, in which you simply say hello, if you or anyone else
>has have any questions, want to conduct a quick test, etc.... The
>simple "Are you there Jason" or whoever works well. And if you don't
>wish to be disturbed, you turn off the listen button. You can also
tell
>when transmitting a message who receives it (By the green lights within
>rat) as well.
>
>Sending a message through the VenueClient is also useful for getting
>peoples attention as well.
>
>So I guess I would like to ask, do we "really need" a doorbell or an
"On
>Air" function. I my opinion, I don't think it is required. Just
>educate people with the use of the already supplied tools with the
>Access Grid.
>
>Anyway, I am happy to hear other people's opinions and I'm curious to
>see what everyone else thinks.
>
>Cheers,
>Jason.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
>Behalf Of Cindy Sievers
>Sent: Thursday, 13 April 2006 2:12 AM
>To: Ivan R. Judson; Brian Tieman
>Cc: Thomas D. Uram; Tom Coffin; ag-tech
>Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Doorbell for the grid?
>
>Actually if you are talking about a more or less persistent space, in
>addition the doorbell idea, it might be good to have just a signal that
>the
>"Grid is ON" or "Grid of OFF".....even in monitored spaces, the biggest
>concern that participants have is whether the cameras and mics are
>transmitting or not.....some sort of visual indicator would be very
>useful...
>
>At 08:31 AM 4/12/2006, Ivan R. Judson wrote:
>
>
>
>>It'd be interesting to couple a standard (but non-annoying tone, or
>>chime) with the little red light that can plug in via usb I got a
>>couple of years ago (Tom has it now ask him about it :-).
>>
>>Then you could ring/ping/tap whatever and it'd play the chime and
>>blink the light as a cue someone was remotely trying to get your
>>attention.
>>
>>In general this visual cue would be useful for other things like
>>question and answer during lectures, visual indication of network
>>problems for a speaker, or other things...
>>
>>--Ivan
>>
>>On Apr 12, 2006, at 8:11 AM, Brian Tieman wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Tom,
>>>
>>>Yes, the beamline is a fairly noisy place. Speakers turned up loud
>>>enough for a user--who may be several feet away--to hear will
>>>likely also have lots of static--especially in our electrically
>>>noisy environment. My thoughts were to couple a tone--likely a
>>>sonalert of some sort which can be very distinctive even in noisy
>>>environments--with a strobe. It can be set up to "ring"
>>>occasionally rather than incessently.
>>>I was just wondering if maybe this sort of issue has already been
>>>resolved for cases other than the trivial ones where leaving the
>>>"listen" button on is sufficient.
>>>
>>>Brian
>>>
>>>Thomas D. Uram wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Well, if the audio is on at the beamline, the remote researchers
>>>>could just begin talking
>>>>to the guys on the beamline, right? The beamline is likely a
>>>>noisy environment, so
>>>>this may not be heard well, but just as much as some tone, I would
>>>>think. Maybe I'm thinking
>>>>of the situation differently than you are; clarify as needed.
>>>>
>>>>Tom
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>On 4/12/06 8:34 AM, Brian Tieman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Tom,
>>>>>
>>>>>But only if you looking at your email...or have your email
>>>>>forwarded to a pager, etc...
>>>>>
>>>>>We'd like to leave an AG room open and live at an APS beamline
>>>>>where people will be working on equipment and not necessarily
>>>>>looking at computers--or at least not the computers running the
>>>>>AG. If a collabarator wants checks in via the grid--the will see
>>>>>the guys working, but how do you remotely tap a guy on the
>>>>>shoulder to make him look up from his work to notice you? The
>>>>>phone works, of course, but a way to ring a bell and/or light up
>>>>>a strobe would be very usefull to us.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks!
>>>>>
>>>>>Brian
>>>>>
>>>>>Tom Coffin wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>email notifications via the agscheduler work pretty well.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>_________________________________________
>>>>>>At 02:07 PM 4/11/2006, Brian Tieman wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>We're hoping to use the AG in more of an "always on"
>>>>>>>environment for collaboration with users. We'd be doing this
>>>>>>>at an experimental facility where people will generally be
>>>>>>>paying more attention to the facility equipment than a random
>>>>>>>user who may pop in to collaborate, monitor, etc...And so we're
>>>>>>>looking for something like a doorbell or telephone ringer that
>>>>>>>would alert someone at the facility that a remote collaborator
>>>>>>>may wish to chat with them.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Has anyone implemented something like this? I can think of a
>>>>>>>couple of ways to go about it, but thought if anyone had a
>>>>>>>"standard" solution, we could just glom onto that.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thanks!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Brian Tieman
>>>>>>>Advanced Photon Source
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>___________________________________________________________
>>>>>>Tom Coffin .......................... tcoffin at ncsa.uiuc.edu
>>>>>>
>>>>>> NCSA-ACCESS cel: 703-477-5948
>>>>>> 901 North Stuart Street, #800 tel: 703-248-0105
>>>>>> Arlington, Virginia 22203 fax: 703-248-0100
>>>>>>
>>>>>>_________________________ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~tcoffin
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>
>
>============================================
>Cindy Sievers Los Alamos National Laboratory
>sievers at lanl.gov Group CCS-1 MS B287
>tel:505.665.6602 Advanced Computing
>fax:505.665.4939 Los Alamos, NM 87544
>============================================
>
>
>
More information about the ag-tech
mailing list