SUMMARY - Tracking Windows usage (billing)

Thanks to all who replied to question relating to tracking 
Windows/DiVa usage for billing.

A lot of people pointed out that if you have set up "users" in the 
DiVa software then it will track usage for you. I had suspected this 
was the case but couldn't find anything in the documentation about 
where the log was kept and our support reps here in Australia didn't 
seem to know about it. So it looks like BD could do a better job of 
informing people about what its software can actually do!

For those wondering, the log is stored in the following location:-

C:\ProgramFiles\CommonFiles\BD



However, I can see a few drawbacks to using this built-in log:-

* No easy way to insert a "pause" into the log. For example, if we 
are down on staff and running a long sort we will sometimes pause the 
sort for a lunch break. We don't want to log-out of the DiVa software 
in this case and we don't want to charge the user for the break time.

* On some instruments we find it more convenient to use a single user 
and not have constant log-out/ins going on.

* The MAJOR drawback for us is the need to maintain a separate user 
list on each machine. We have just put a lot of effort into setting 
up a central directory service of user information and we would love 
to be able to tap into that resource for our logging as then would 
not need to maintain a separate list of users each DiVa-machine (and 
I can't see an easy way to move the list between machines so I'm 
guessing it has to be manually entered on each one?)



In the light of this my IT support guy has been looking at the issue 
and has come up with a couple of solutions that may work better for 
us:-

* one is the software "Transparent Screen Lock" 
(<http://www.e-motional.com/TScreenLock.htm>). He is in discussion 
with the author about adding a couple of extra features that will 
make it work even better. The big advantage here is that it can use 
Windows users/groups from the network.

* the other solution would be to write a custom solution. He has 
recently discovered REALbasic and if he gets a chance he will try to 
knock something together that will meet our needs. The other 
advantage here is that REALbasic can create cross-platform solutions 
so he may be able to create something that will work exactly how we 
want on all our machines (ie DiVa and CellQuest based).

If we make any progress I will post an update,

-- 
Regards,

Adrian Smith
Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology
Sydney, Australia