The scheduled lab "contact" hours are those hours for which either the instructor or a teaching assistant (TA: currently we do not have one assigned to this class) is guaranteed to be present. For the most part you will have to do your own debugging. Learn how to use the debugging tools to step through your programs, and you will find that the time invested in learning how to use these tools will save 10 to 100 x the amount of time trying to chase down the problem without the tool.
If something seems wrong with the computer you are using (e.g. it doesn't ``boot'' properly), then ask for help. If the problem persists, write down the suspected computer number and symptoms on the white blackboard in the lab room. This board is checked regularly and the problem will soon be fixed. Be as specific as possible about the problem so that the repair person can reproduce the problem. Several labs build upon previous labs, so it is a good idea to save the source code for each lab.
The lab computers are equipped with protective software which erases all traces of what you have done when you log out of the Physics user account. Consequently, if you have not saved your work you will lose it. There are two ways to save; save to a USB drive, or save to your physics department account via FTP/SFTP. Saving to the local hard drive will not work because as soon as you log out all data written to the hard drive is erased. You are also advised to `save early-save often’ as it is possible to cause the LabView Program to crash or lock up, and then your software solution will be lost unless it is saved to the USB disk or to your physics department account. This rarely happens anymore, but nonetheless I advise that you save before trying to execute a new program.
The lab computers use the same login as you use at the Mariott Library Computer center; use your normal University student Id number and password.
Since many of these labs are software exercises, there is a temptation to copy somebody else's program and submit it as your own. Each student will be therefore be required to submit a copy of their program to be kept on file. This will also help you in case your files gets destroyed through some unfortunate accident. Student solutions will be compared and suspicious activity which appear to be the submission of essentially the same solution by two different people will be flagged. Individuals caught cheating through copying of the solutions risk failure of the class or even expulsion from the University, according to University policy. Note that the LabView keeps a history of every mouse click on the application, yielding a totally unique digital fingerprint which can be used to uniquely identify each lab project as well as identify copied solutions.