Software's little helpers: managing your lab areas

There are always more labs and other things to attend to than available bodies to watch over said pesky details. How can we keep an eye on the ever-present large and small events in our labs while dealing with Yet More Interruptions elsewhere?

At the University of Oregon, we have found three utilities and/or technologies particularly useful:<ul><li>KeyServer, to monitor unauthorized and unusual software events</li><li>Remote web cameras</li><li>Web pages displaying current and archived camera output for visual backup of unadvertised hardware events (PCs as cup-holders, suddenly-mobile monitors, etc.)</li></ul>

Front-line staff and supervisors (whether technical or not) can use these tools to manage the details and monitor for problems.

This paper discusses the tools described above, with an emphasis on their use in a university environment where security and privacy issues are key. Other hardware and software solutions to these problems are also briefly contrasted and compared.