Can't save

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to Alice, so please be patient with me. I recently (like day-before-yesterday recently) started teaching Alice in my middle school computer lab. Today a couple of my students tried to save the example world they were working on but got the Mean Queen error. The error message said that the error was a critical error. We tried to submit, but it seems the bug reporting system is down. The worlds appeared to save, but when the students tried to reopen them, the files were unreadable.

Our computers are new and we are running WinXP, not Vista. 512 MB of memory. The Java version is 1.5.0_10. We have Java 3D loaded too.

Any ideas? Only 2 students had the problem out of a class of 21.

TIA.

Ann Brady

Hello Ann,

I don't know what the problem is, but I hope I know what it isn't.

It is my belief that it is not necessary to have any Java software, (other than the v1.3 software that is included in the Alice download zip file), installed on a machine in order to run Alice.

I have been believing (hoping?) that students can unzip the Alice download onto a 256mb USB flash drive (memory stick) and run it on just about any Windows computer with a USB port and a recent vintage OS (such as a computer at the public library with no Java software installed).

So far, however, I haven't been able to test this theory because all of the computers that I have ready access to have Java software installed.

Maybe this will help you to solve your problem by eliminating your installed Java software as the culprit.

Dick Baldwin

This has happened to others and was some server access issue for some classroom setups - unfortunately since I don't work on a server (or in a class setting) I didn't pay much attention. You might try a search or just wait until someone who did pay attention to the problem checks the forum - sorry not to be more help.

Originally Posted by DickBaldwin

I have been believing (hoping?) that students can unzip the Alice download onto a 256mb USB flash drive (memory stick) and run it on just about any Windows computer with a USB port and a recent vintage OS (such as a computer at the public library with no Java software installed).

Dick - that would be GREAT! I don't have any machines here I can try it on, but I will be re-imaging some machines this summer and I can test it out then. I'll let you know.

Originally Posted by DrJim

This has happened to others and was some server access issue for some classroom setups

That sounds right. The kids were saving to network locations and later on a different activity they were getting "Disk Full" errors because the Alice World backup files were so big. We limit their disk usage. I may have to let them save to the local drive and burn to CD-RW before they leave the lab.

Thanks.

Ann,

You can reduce the number of backups to be saved in the following menu:

Edit/Preferences/SeldomUsed

Dick Baldwin