COMPUTER RULES
 This web page is located at http://bbs.nobles.edu/wittenbergdoorrules.htm

Pictures of the Nobles Wittenberg Door (and computer street): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Video of the Nobles Wittenberg Door (and computer street): movie


#1 No food or drinks please!
 In the LIBRARY or computer CENTER (east lab and west lab), no food or drinks are allowed. Coffee cups and water bottles by faculty and first class students — even if empty — make younger students think that we have a double standard, so please leave them outside of the door.
#2 No games during academic day
 Games are allowed after the close of the academic day, but please do not run them off the file server. Chess is NOT considered a game, but rather an intellectual activity. Fantasy hockey and other similar web activiteis are indeed considered games! Please try to learn the difference between COMMERCIAL games, PUBLIC DOMAIN games and SHAREWARE games. COMMERCIAL games purchased by Nobles can legally be used or installed on one computer. If we in the computer department install a COMMERCIAL game on multiple machines or allow you to do so, we are breaking the law. Games declared PUBLIC DOMAIN by the author can be freely copied. The third category is trickier. When software is declared SHAREWARE, you can copy the disk or the folder, but you are honor-bound to send in a designated fee if you choose to keep and use the program. How do you know which category a game is? Either you ask someone or you look through the READ-ME file that might be part of the folder. Sometimes the information is the first choice under the ð menu. The point is that if you are an honest computer user, the burden is on you to find out first. No one likes a tennis player who goes by the rule “when in doubt, call it out.” Please try to be honest.
#3 “Be nice to each other.”
 This is a popular extension of one of our three community principles (“respect for others”) at Nobles; we need to actively appropriate it with computers if we are going to be successful with technology at Nobles. Everyone needs help with something: NoblesNet, Photoshop, Pagemaker, Hypercard or even putting paper in the laser printer. All G license students have a formal job of helping out others, but even N license students will at times be asked to help out. Computer skills at Nobles will grow exponentially if we function technologically as a self-help environment. If you get stuck on a computer, find someone younger than you to ask ! The N license will be the normal computer license and the G license will be for generous students willing to have a formal computer job helping out two periods per week. If you want a G computer license, please see a computer teacher. It is easy if you can be generous helping out in the lab 1-2 periods per week.
#4 Respect “electronic privacy.”
 Stay out of other users’ folders and disks . Many computers are now networked to the N&G File Server where you find Community Files for you to copy. Yes, that’s right — it is okay to COPY these COMMUNITY files, since they are public documents, not COMMERCIAL software and not APPLICATIONS. Opening another person’s folder or disk without permission is no different than prying into his/her desk. But please do not open any Faculty or G License Folder. No one has permission to put any application (e.g. Clarisworks, Microsoft Word or FileMaker) onto any hard drive or the file server. This includes of course Napster which is an application.
#5 Do not install any applications
 All faculty members and students can maintain folders on the file server, but these folders may not contain applications. In case you didn’t know it, an application is a file such as Clarisworks created by programmers with mega-hours of time. A typical application (i.e. computer program) can take 33 days to 33 years of person-time to create. When you COPY AN application, that is when you are most likely doing something illegal, dishonest and against Nobles’ rules. But regardless, we do not want even public domain applications installed without explicit permission!
#6 Please respect copyright laws.
 No copying of software permitted. No use of illegal, bootleg or pirated software regardless of whether you or someone else did the copying. If you own a computer and have software, it is your responsibility to know whether or not it is legal. Half the software publishers in the 1980s are out of business as a result of illegal copying. Copying software is analogous to counterfeiting money — in small doses it seems harmless, but it is stealing something that someone else produced. It is against federal laws and Noble and Greenough rules. One of our community principles is “Honesty is one of the essential values at Nobles. Any form of dishonesty is unacceptable.”
#7 Use the computers but do not alter them!
 Do not alter the control panel, clock, colors, patterns, desktop settings, fonts, desktop accessories, sounds, etc. Do not change the names of folders on the hard drive or the name of the hard drive. Do not make any files invisible and do not use ResEdit without explicit permission. Use and enjoy the computers, just don’t alter them! No student or faculty member may install any software onto any hard drive without explicit permission. This includes putting public domain applications into personal folders. Please do not do so. No applications are to be installed or run off the file server or any hard drive without permission.
#8 Be careful with hardware
 Do not contribute to the dead mouse society! If a mouse or keyboard is broken, do not switch it with another computer while the power is still on. As a general rule of thumb, respect your own floppy disks. This means do not play with the metal window, or bend your disk and always transport your disk in a solid plastic box. By abusing your disk, you can not only destroy your data, but damage the floppy drive. If your disk does have a broken metal window slide, do not use it; if you must use the disk, break off the metal slide before inserting it. You take responsibility for damage to your data. If the label on your floppy disk is extremely sticky, again, do not put it into a Nobles disk drive. Do not attempt to put a sticky labeled floppy into a Nobles drive until the label has been removed outright.
#9 Follow Nobles Netiquette & Online Rules
 Watch your language with messages and chatting; use the same standards of language when on NoblesNet and on-line that you would use publicly at assembly. Do not invite anyone to chat repeatedly on Noblesnet. Do not use mailing lists (these are reserved for faculty members and student staff). Do not give your password to anyone or let someone else use your account. No chain letters allowed on NoblesNet regardless of content. Avoid mean-spirited comments in your resume or in postings to conferences. Be careful where you surf on the web! Do not use anyone else’s account even if you have permission. Do not download illegal software, racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay or sexually provocative files; once again think of what you do online as trying to measure up to the same standards as what you might be doing in the library or at an all school presentation. We can’t codify every type of behavior online in terms of dos and don’ts, so be please understand that we all have a case of the Gotta Be Decent at Nobles Blues!
#10 Always Cite Your Sources
 Teachers in various classes at Nobles will help clarify issues of plagiarism to you, but part of the N license Wittenberg Door rules now includes this important statement regarding citing your sources. You must remember that in all cases of using information off the web, you must include reference to the exact URL (web address) that you used. If you use any sentences or phrases or ideas from a web page such as www.12000papers.com, you must cite your souce and reference the exact URL (web address). Remember that you will never get in trouble with your teachers or your bosses if you always remember to cite your sources!