WATLab NEWS Archive
10 Jan 11 *** Messy
workplace
After just one week from startup, we
found that the sample prep hood was once again left with a big mess.
Once the entropy has started, the second law of thermodynamics will take
over WATLab in no time. We have implemented the following
countermeasures:
1. From now on, anyone caught leaving a big mess in the SEM, hood,
gold coater, and other areas of WATLab will be charged a clean-up fee
equivalent to 1 h of OS. We will do a spot-check before and
after each user's session to assure compliance. As we just don't
have human resource to clean up after these messy users, chronic messy
users will be banished from WATLab altogether. Each user MUST leave
the workplace in a tidy and clean condition for the next user.
2. Some users still don't know how to use the new
system of the gold coater and proceed to unplug things on their own.
This is NOT acceptable. If you have questions, please come to ask
one of us. If these users cannot follow the protocol, we will
discontinue gold coating service at WATLab.
3 Jan 11 *** Happy
New Year!
As we start this exciting new year
(celebrating the International Year of Chemistry), we wish to draw your
attention to the new booking system now in place (below). In
the interest of streamlining our operation, accounting and billing will
only be done once a year (from April 2010 to February 2011) - please
inform your boss and this will be done later in February. WATLab
will be completing all the upgrades to the SEM this term, including the
upgrade to the Nabity EBL system. WATLab is looking forward to the
commissioning of the first Helium Ion Microscope in Canada (expected later
in the spring) and of the first Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry system on
campus (expected later in the fall). Various enhancements of our
other materials science techniques will be made along the way, budget
permitting. With these new and upgraded existing tools, we hope that
WATLab will continue to play a key role in enabling our users to engage in
exciting new research in science and technology in Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada, and beyond in 2011. Happy data mining.
3 Dec 10 *** New SEM
booking system now in place:
The Bookit system will be coming down
on Dec 13. WATLab will not move to its replacement (Outlook
Exchange) b/c it's far too complicated to manage. Instead, we will
use google calendar. Beginning Dec 13, all SEM reservation will be made by
logging in at:
http://calendar.google.com
Sign in with the login name watlab.sem
and the appropriate password. Certified users may obtain the new
password from Nina. As we are experimenting with this booking
system, we wish to remind the user that the normal operating hours are 8
am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday. We will block off Operator Service
time slots once the system is stabilized. We hope we could rely on
all of our users to have some patience with each other as we go through
this transition phase. In the meantime, we take this opportunity to
wish you all a happy holidays and all the best in 2011.
21 Oct 10 *** CCEM
One-day Workshop:
There is a one-day microscopy workshop at
Mac on Nov 5, 2010 (Friday). Please see the workshop poster
here.
20 Oct 10 ***
Computer security:
We are aware of the ongoing issues with the
Raith EBL system at QNC. This has been traced back to a USB stick of
a user infected with the so-called "Chinese virus" that is known
to infect not only
the cpu of any computer but also any EPROM or processor in any
electronic device (including all the electronic boards inside the SEM and
virtually any machine systems at WATLab). This type of virus is also
very difficult to kill once it gets inside a "controller" as antivirus
programs will not work with controllers without the proper OS. This
is a real and very potent threat and can serious damage not just all the
computer systems and machines in WATLab but also all the computers of our
entire user base and their groups. We therefore ask all users to
implement the following counter-measures:
1. Do NOT use any of WATLab
computers, including the USER DATA computer that stores the SEM images,
for any email or messaging or internet or social networking activities.
Under no circumstances should any of the machine computers see the
internet - do not run the browsers on these machines! Anyone caught
with using the browsers on these machines (including the SEM, EDX and EBL
computers) will be banished forever from WATLab. Please bring your
own laptop for these activities and use wireless access.
2. Do NOT bring in any old or
suspect USB stick for transferring data. Please RESERVE (and label)
one new USB stick just for this purpose and don't use it for anything
else. WATLab will also provide blank DVD for writing data, if
needed. The idea is to minimize exposure of our systems to the
external world.
3. Please report to us ANY user activity that
does not follow these simple rules.
I think we all agree that it is of everyone's interest
to protect WATLab's systems because once affected they will become the
point of infection that spreads the virus to all the computers of anyone
who uses WATLab. This could affect us all very negatively,
especially our graduate students who may be writing their theses.
Thank you for your continued
cooperation.
11 Oct 10 *** EBL
upgrade & spectroscopy fleet relocation: There will be a software (to Version 9 and XP) and hardware upgrade
(control board) to the Nabity EBL system, which will improve the write
speed and off-line design flexibility. We will implement this change
during machine physics time slots and hopefully with minimal service
interruption.
WATLab is expanding into some recently found space to accommodate the two
new instrument clusters and the RPL. We will also be able to
relocate the spectroscopy fleet to this new space before Christmas.
We expect this should relieve the severe space shortage experienced in all
areas of WATLab.
3 Sept 10 *** Normal
operation:
As we begin a very busy fall term, we wish to again remind the user of the
heavy fines for late start and no show. Please have your sample in
hand before making machine reservation to avoid these penalties.
Please also note that we have made an adjustment to the gold coating cost
due to the sharp rise in gold prices and added a surcharge to those who
just use our gold coater and not our SEM.
22 July 10 *** Vacuum problem:We
have located the leak and removed this problem temporarily. A new
vacuum readout problem has emerged and we have been working on this last
week. We don't think we have completely resolved this issue but we
will resume normal service starting July 23. Thank you for our
patience.
6 July 10 *** Vacuum
problem:The
chamber pressure has become very poor. We have replaced the turbo
but the problem remains. We are in contact with the service engineer
to find a fix. System will be down until further notice.
Please watch the bookit scheduler.
5 July 10 *** Stage
fixed, but what a messy workplace:
The stage issue has been fixed for now. The system will be available
by noon.
But I found the clean hood and the SEM general area are always left in a
big mess! I spent 20 minutes cleaning this up this morning and we
will not do this again. From now on, we will check the lab condition
after each user has completed the session. If we find the workplace
is left in a messy and disorganized condition, we will charge a lab
cleanup fee ($50) to the user. Please treat your fellow user with
some respect and leave a clean, tidy and pleasant work environment for the
next user. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
4 July 10 *** Stage
failure:
The stage cannot be initialized in the X-Y plane and we cannot use the
system until further notice. We are investigating the cause of the
failure.
26 June 10 *** Upgrade
complete:
The various upgrades for the SEM/EDX/OIM systems are finally complete.
Zeiss has fixed the miscellaneous air-jack problem and has also replaced
the power control board (that gave the 24 V error). We don't expect
any more service interruption until the filament dies. Our backlog
appears to be improving (down to 2 weeks).
4
June 10 *** No show and cancellation:
We
notice a large number of recent no shows and last-minute cancellations.
Please note that there will be heavy fines equivalent to the OS rate
($70/h) or industrial user rate ($165/h) and we will start informing your
boss. Have some respect for other users who may need the time.
We need THREE working days for cancellation. Do not book the machine
unless you have samples in hand.
29
May 10 *** SEM normal operation:
Backlog is coming down to acceptable level (2 weeks). Filament is on
its last legs. Expect filament replacement soon and minor service
interruption to repair
vibration membranes in the next 2-3 months.
31 Mar 10 *** SEM resuming
normal operation:
The brief SEM pc problem (file saving issue) that
one user encountered this afternoon has been resolved and we are resuming
normal operation. I'll be on site on this good Friday for those
users who decide to do data mining that day. Happy Easter.
21
May 10 *** Victoria Day Monday:
WATLab will be open and on normal operation on Monday 24 May 2010.
12 Mar 10 *** Carbon
coating:
Those users doing the carbon coating are always leaving the station
in a big mess and creating dangerous situation by not turning off the
controller after use. WATLab will withdraw this self-serve service.
Effectively immediately, users who will need to have their samples
C-coated should submit their samples 5 working days in advance, and we
will do this service for them at a charge of $50 per coating.
17 Feb 10 *** Spot trading:
WATLab continues to have problems with a few users not following
the booking rules. We found some of these users are starting to
trade their spots with other users. This is forbidden because the
facility needs to track the machine usage in case of system breakdown.
If the user starts trading booking spots, then we will lose track of the
responsible party and the type of samples that may be causing the machine
problems. This is also the reason why each user must be trained and
certified individually. There is no substitution. From now on,
users caught trading their spots will be denied access and their entire
group will also be denied access. Zero tolerance.
Given that WATLab does not have an army of facility staff to monitor the
usage and is essentially a self-serve honour system, we hope that the user
will understand that these "strict" facility rules are there to protect
the machines and the general user community. If we allow individual
users to set their own rules as they please, the facility integrity will
degrade quickly, which will lead to chaos that is ultimately bad for all
users.
12 Feb 10 *** Fines for
no-show doubled:
This morning, both users did not show up for their appointed time
slots. You know who you are! This is a clear sign of lack of
respect for other users, especially when we are all trying to get some
time on the machine to do some work. We have now DOUBLED the fines
for no-show (i.e. twice the rate of OS = $140 per hour) and your boss will
be notified. Please remember that we require 3 working days for
cancellation so that other users can rebook (it's no good if you cancel in
the last minute as the time will still be wasted). If the present
countermeasure does not work, these "no-show" users will be denied future
access and they will be off our grid permanently.
27 Jan 10 *** Booking rules and
backlog:
Due to the recent surge in the SEM usage, we wish to remind
everyone to treat your fellow user and the machine with respect and to
observe the following protocols:
1. Please
observe the booking rules, i.e. not counting the current week,
reserve in the coming weeks no more than SIX hours total in no more than FOUR time slots.
THIS MEANS: A user should reserve, in ALL of the coming weeks not counting the present
week (and not per week), the total amount of time not more than 6 hours and the number of
time slots not more than 4, whichever is less. We will be monitoring
this closely and implement heavy fines for users who overbook. Users
who continue to ignore the booking rules will be blocked.
2.
Please show up on time and do not book a time period longer than you need. There will be
fines for users who show up late. Also, try not to leave too many
gaps in between time slots.
3. The fine for "no-show" is charges equivalent
to hours for OS industrial rate, and we will start indicating this on our accounting statement to
your boss - this means your boss will know. We require 3 working
days for cancellation to allow other users to re-book.
4.
We will be creating a new class of users to allow these "senior users" to
access evening and Saturday time slots (when they become available).
Only the most responsible "permanent" users will be given this privilege.
5. If
all these measures do not work, then we will start blocking all
undergraduate users
from WATLab.
11 Dec 09 *** ORF announcement
at WATLab:
Full
story at TheRecord.com
WATLab
FAQ
12 Jan 12 *** Update on
QNC tool acquisition and deployment. - 
