Log out to save a life

Photo by Analyn Cuarto
Photo by Analyn Cuarto

Stop shutting down Douglas College computers after printing

By Jessica Berget, Opinions Editor

 

Anyone who doesn’t have a printer at home knows the hardship of printing your work out at the Douglas College library. The lines are long and tedious, it takes some people forever to print out a single page, and then there are those who seem to be printing out an entire novel but refuse to log off the computer while their work is printing. While all of this is no doublt frustrating, my biggest personal vexation about printing at the library are the people who shut down the computers instead of just logging out after printing. It takes forever for the computer to start back up again and holds the line back even more than usual.

There are very few worse things than speed-walking up that giant hill so you can print out your work right before your class starts only to be in line behind the person who decides the completely shut down the computer after they’re done printing. This is the unfortunate reality for many students of Douglas College. Although it takes only a few minutes for the computers to completely shut down and start back up again, when you have only minutes before your class starts and you still need to print out your work while watching the computer slowly creep back to life, that couple of minutes can feel like hours. It also doesn’t help your stress when you become late for class because you had to wait for the computer to turn back on again.

Logging out is the best thing you can do after printing in the library. It saves time, efficiency and a whole lot of headaches. Usually when someone logs-out of a computer it does a little restart that looks like its about to shut down but goes back to the log-in screen in less than a minute. When you shut it down completely the next person to use it has to turn the computer back on and wait for it to slowly start back up again, which is like the seventh circle of hell when you’re sweaty and panting and had to be in class five minutes ago.

Most people don’t care what they do with the computer after they are done with it but out of courtesy for the people behind you, just log out. The log out button is literally right next to the shut down button so please do not get them mixed up for the sake of everyone’s sanity.