Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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Working in the Information Mine The computer center is a hallmark of our technological society. Within its walls, quietly humming, are some of the foremost creations of our technology. And we have just such a facility on the WPI campus, the Worcester Area College Computation Center, affectionately known as WACCC (rhymes with back). For a hallmark of civilization, a lot of primal screaming goes on at WACCC. As I write this, I have been working at WACCC for almost two years. It ' s a neat place to work. The people are easy to work for, the machines are not that terrible to endure (usually), and it beats flinging dishes around at DAKA. The people come and go, the faces change, even the machinery changes every so often. Only the primal screams are a constant. People don ' t just cry out in anguish because they like it. There ' s a lot of emotion in the air at WACCC. A lot of dreams shatter and die in a cloud of random bits down there in the basement of the library. And though it is in the library, it is probably one of the noisiest places on campus. WACCC is like the rest of the campus — activity ebbs and flows with the academic demand. At the beginning of the term, the place is like a tomb. No one goes to 24 • Academics WACCC unless they have to or unless they have some bizarre keyboard fetish, and most of the keyboard fetishists have terminals at home. So no one is there. You sit behind the desk, watching the occasional user go by, discussing the nature of the universe with whoever you happen to be working with at the time. It ' s so quiet, you can go mad. The week goes on. People receive their assignments. Activity increases. The noise level goes up. Typically, you hear the rapping of keys under fingers until somewhere, amongst the bits and the wire and the chips, a mistake is made. Then the screaming starts. My program doesn ' t work! My data disappeared! My program disappeared! Aaaaaugh! Which is where people like me step in. The distraught user comes rushing to the desk, explains his problem, and we try to help. Sometimes we can help them, which is kind of satisfying. And sometimes we can ' t, which is kind of apocalyptic. Up and down, up and down, until the big rush at the end of the term. People who want to meet people should spend the last couple of nights of the term at WACCC. Almost everyone on campus is there at one point or another in the proceedings. It is a true sampling of the college experience. My fondest memories of working at WACCC are from the ends of terms. Such as B-Term my sophomore year, when at ten minutes to four on the last afternoon of the term, with many project reports primed and ready to be printed, the line printer decided that a small but crucial spring deserved a vacation.

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Mike Strzepa, Editor

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For a hallmark of civilization, a lot of primal screaming goes on at WACCC. ' Tm not going to tell them. (them being the vast quantity of people waiting for not-to-be printed project reports). The operator, then a diminutive young lady with a soft voice, also voiced this opinion. As did everyone else. The eventual solution was to lean out, shout out the bad news, and lock the door before they came over the counter. People are very sensitive about the computer. Just one thrill after another. And since computers are imperfect machines made by human beings, they fail occasionally, usually according to Murphy ' s Laws on technology. You can always tell when the Decsystem goes down. The air is filled with the noise of beeping terminals. The system obligingly tells everyone that it has stopped running. And the screaming begins again. That ' s life in the basement of the library though. Somehow, our lives at WPI are enriched even by wretched experiences like spending all night in WACCC, have the work of an entire term vaporize at a typing mistake, and all the other little catastrophes associated with WACCC. 1 ' ? Academics • 25