As you know from our post on our recent trip to Cape Town, our good friend Nate Massey from Chapel Hill, NC, came to visit for two weeks in late January/early February. We asked him to write a bit about the work we did in the computer lab while he was here.
I work with computers back in the States, so before my visit, Nate and I talked about the computer lab at the Powerhouse and some upgrades that we might be able to work on together while I was there. Nate had discovered an interesting concept by a company called NComputing. They sell specialized hardware that allows one regular computer (nothing fancy; your standard home desktop computer will do) to drive 11 sets of keyboard + monitor + mouse. Although they’re all powered by the single computer, each combination ends up acting like its own desktop computer: there is a Windows login prompt, and each user can run his/her own programs which appear only on his/her screen. From the students’ standpoint, these terminals function like 11 different computers, and it’s like a whole lab—all driven by a single machine!
The benefits of using NComputing’s power in the Powerhouse computer lab are pretty awesome. First of all, rather than having to maintain 11 different computers, set them all up identically and perform software upgrades on each one, one can just set up a single tower exactly how one wants it, and then the operating system is just shared between each of the many terminals. (Maintenance of 11 different systems is actually even more annoying in practice. The Powerhouse is dealing with donated hardware—for which the church is extremely grateful—but sometimes the systems are older, run slowly and may be in various states of disrepair. Figuring out how to standardize a dozen older computers can be a nightmare!) By harnessing the power of NComputing, it becomes feasible for one to go ahead and purchase a new, solid desktop computer and attach donated monitors, keyboards and mice… and you’re good to go!
From a hardware cost standpoint, it’s a no-brainer. Nate and I snagged a Lenovo desktop from a local electronics retailer for about $475. The NComputing hardware costs about $350 for a set that powers five terminals, so we purchased two sets at about $770 after tax and shipping. We were fortunate to have enough monitors, keyboards and mice at our disposal, plus power cables and cat 5e/6 cables. Total cost for 11 effective workstations (10 terminals plus the host machine, which a student can use as well): $1,245, or under $120 per station! Not bad at all. (Other benefits include decreased space requirements and lower power consumption.)
Later on this spring, Nate is hoping to get another NComputing setup in the lab to replace a few of the standalone computers which we are currently struggling to maintain. He won’t decide for sure until he’s had a chance to work with our first installation for a few more weeks—we want to kick the tires a bit to make sure everything’s running smoothly. But then, we’ll be ready to call our experiment a success and move forward with another! May the Powerhouse and Mamelodi be blessed by the new and improved computer lab.