Good afternoon all,

I had a question or two about the lab more specifically about times that labs are available due to cancellations.

I'm set up to receive twitter feeds about available lab times that open up. I wanted to know what i need to do to request that time if available.

So far when i see a block of time that just opened i reply to the announcement at which time i have been asked to register. So now that i am registered, how i am able to secure the times that open????

Say there was a reservation for 4 hours at 0:00 and its now 0:31 and the blue color disappeared. So now the time is available to use by the first to secure it ?

Should I request 0:00 4 hours or 1:00 3 hours ? is either acceptable ? or just the second ? If I do secure this time slot. Will it go 'blue' again for others to see that it is reserved again?

I see many spots go white and appear to stay white. Is the lab really that idle ?

Should I request 0:00 4 hours or 1:00 3 hours? is either acceptable?

Either is fine. With the first option, you can begin using the lab immediately rather than waiting until 1:00.

If I do secure this time slot. Will it go 'blue' again for others to see that it is reserved again?

Yep. And/or orange, depending on which block(s) you reserved.

I see many spots go white and appear to stay white. Is the lab really that idle?

Unfortunately a lot of people don't bother to show up for their reservation, wasting everyone's time. It has been suggested to implement a small fee for using the lab so that people are more motivated to stick to their word. I really don't want to do that, but I don't have any better solutions.