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Hi, Alison

How did you set up your computers to monitor users? Is it done with a
commercial software or an in-house solution?

Thank you
Judy

Judy Trogadis
Bio-Imaging Coordinator
St. Michael's Hospital, 7Queen
30 Bond St.
Toronto, ON M5B 1W8
Canada
ph:  416-864-6060  x6337
pager: 416-685-9219
fax: 416-864-6043
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Hi Greg,

We set up our computers so that users are automatically charged for
the
time they're logged on.  The initial rate for confocal use is $30 per
hour,
but after 4 hours of continuous use the rate automatically drops to 20%
of
this - so that from the 5th hour onwards they're only charged $6 per
hour
etc.  We have the same set-up for all of our microscopes (the initial
rates
are different, but the 20% after 4 hours rule applies) because I
didn't
want to penalize people doing long time-lapse experiments.  Thus to do
an
overnight time-lapse isn't significantly more than doing one long
session.
I don't know whether this will work for you if the users have to still
be
there collecting the stacks - they may go crazy after too many hours
sat at
the microscope!  But this way they do keep paying something so I hope
it
keeps them more respectful of their usage than if it was simply free.

Hope you find a good solution,
Best regards,
Alison


Dr. Alison J. North
Rockefeller University,
Bio-Imaging Resource Center, Box #209,
1230 York Avenue,
New York,
NY 10021,
USA

Tel. (212) 327 7488
Fax. (212) 327 7489
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