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End of an Era: DuckCall Phone Registration is No More |
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Faithful registration system is superseded by DuckWebJoyce Winslowjwins@uoregon.edu After eleven years of faithful service, the DuckCall phone registration system was finally laid to rest on February 14. At precisely 11 a.m., University of Oregon Registrar Herb Chereck pulled the plug on the old 25 mHz 386 warhorse.
Longtime DuckCall programmer Tim Ketchum (left) was on hand to witness the dismantling ceremony. Here Herb Chereck takes the preliminary step of removing the "Live" sign on the VPS machine before finally pulling the plug Since its debut in 1992, DuckCall had processed over five million transactions without a hiccup. |
UO Registrar Herb Chereck (center) prepares to dismantle DuckCall, as Associate Registrar Susan Eveland (left) and Administrative Services project Manager Jim Bohle look on. Although it never faltered, DuckCall gradually lost favor as students became increasingly Internet savvy, and the speed and convenience of its younger cousin, DuckWeb, made online registration more attractive. The DuckCall system was originally designed by systems programmer Pat Lucas. Pat and his Computing Center colleagues Tim Ketchum and Royce Tokar, aided by the VMS expertise of facilities director Rick Millhollin, kept DuckCall running smoothly over the years through numerous iterations of Oracle and Banner and two major VAX/VMS releases. DuckCall's successor, DuckWeb, was first introduced in 1997 but was not used for registration until fall 1999. Since that date, DuckCall's use steadily declined, and only 4 percent of UO students used it to register in fall 2002. |
