Channel, Issue No. 22

Abstract

[evdate 1994-09-15] THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Newsletter of the Centre of Computing Services & Telecommunications SEPTEMBER 1994 Issue No. 22 Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong channel@usthk.ust.hk

2 Channel Issue No. 22 In this issue . . . . . 6 General Information for New Staff and Students 6 Computer Account Application 7 Network Connection Application 7 Central Printing Outputs Collection 8 Tips & Hints 8 Network Password Reset 8 Incoming Mail Forwarding 9 Logging On from Other Internet Sites Welcoming Message from CCST Central Computing Facilities Network Services Information Services Computer Barns Computer Software & Manual Libraries Users Consultation & Documentation 9 Announcements 9 Adjustment on E-mail Account Disk Quota 9 Clearing of Output Bins 9 System Maintenance Schedule 10 Documentation 1O Training News 11 Staff News CCST Help Desk / Hotline (Rm. 2019 / Ext. 6200) Mon - Fri : 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 2: 15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sat : 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. CCST Computer Manual Library (Rm. GlOl) Mon - Fri : 10:00 a.m. - 1l:OO p.m. 3:00 p.m. - 4:OO p.m. Computer Barns (Rms. 1101,4402-4404, and 4578-4580) Mon - Fri : 8: 15 a.m. - 10:45 p.m. Sat : 8:45 a.m. - 4: 15 p.m. Business Computing Laboratory (Rm. 4334) Mon - Fri : 8:15 a.m. - 10:45 p.m. Sat : 8:45 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. Channel is 8 regular publication of the publication of the Centre of Computing Centre of Computing Services and Services and Telecommunications Telecommunications (CCST) of HKUST. (CCST) of HKUST. Prepared by the Prepared by the Computing Information Computing Information Centre of CCST and Centre of CCST and printed by the Educational Technology Centre (ETC), Channel provides information about CCST plans, developments, and services. Topics on new trends in computing technology and other related topics of general interests are also included. User contributions to Channel are welcome _ and should be sent to the Editor along with the author name and department. Channel is distributed to all University members who are registered users of CCST services. Other parties who would like to have their names added to our mailing list for Channel may complete and return the form on the last page to the Computing Information Centre. Karen Chan, Editor of Channel Computing Information Centre cckarenOusthkust.hk

Issue No. 22 Channel 3 With the start of this new academic year, we would like to express our warmest welcome to all you new and existing members of the University! To help you better acquaint with our Centre, we would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce our profile as well as facilities and

services we provide to the campus community. The Centre of Computing Services & Telecommunications (CCST) is comprised of six units, namely: (1) General Office; (2) Systems & Operations; (3) Information Systems; (4) Computing Information Centre; (5) Systems Engineering; and (6) User Services Group. General reception of CCST is manned by the General Office and is located at Room 202 1; whereas user consultation is manned by the Computing Information Centre and their Help Desk is located at Room 2019. You can access to both of these locations by taking Lift 2. Central Computing facilities CCST provides a wide range of central computing facilities including supercomputers

(SGI Onyx and Intel Paragon), high-end workstations (DEC, HP, SUN, and SGI workstations), and microcomputers (PCs and Macintoshes). These facilities are pro- vided to staff and students of the University for academic use and is available in the Computer Barns and various departmental offices and laboratories. Extensive network linking to all departments and housing quarters for both staff and students is done by the FDDI networking, which in turn also linked our network to Internet and HARNET. Various kinds of network services such as electronic mail, telnet session and file transfer across different operating sys- tem platforms, local and remote USENET newsgroups, library online system, information services (which will be discussed in greater details in the later section), and network laser printing are readily available at your fingertips. In addition, common office tools in the areas of word processing, spreadsheets and database are also provided for your easy access. CCST also provides many specialized academic software in the areas of accounting, computer assisted design, demography, engineering, mathematics, scientific word processing,

simulation, statistics, and programming language compiling. In addition, integrated administrative systems in areas like student registration, personnel information, financial systems and inventory management have been developed to support various management information needs.

4 Channel Issue No. 22 Information Services The main channel CCST used to disseminate computing information to all members of the University is through the CCST On-line Information, which can be accessed from any networked PC and UNIX workstation. Topics covered in this service include new facilities and services available in CCST, hardware and software information, user documentation, upcoming training courses, computer barn notices, as well as some frequently asked questions. (PC users can look into this service by invoking CST On-line Information" under "Information Services" item on the HKUST main menu. UNIX workstation users can simply type ustinfo under X- Windows to invoke the HKUST Information Services Main Menu and then select the CST On-line Information" option.) In case if you find your machine not working properly due to hardware failure, or you would like to have a computer hardware installed or relocated, you should send your request to CCST using the CCST Service Request System. This service is provided to staff and can be accessed from any networked PC and UNIX workstation. (PC users can look into this service by invoking CST Service Request System " under Information Services " item on the HKUST

main menu. UNIX workstation users can simply type ustinfo under X-Windows to invoke the HKUST Information Services Main Menu and then select the option.)

Other information services we provide include the HKUST Electronic Notice Board, which keeps notices on advertisements, calendar of events, academic seminars, student affairs, and library information, etc., and is available

on both staff and student networks. In addition, the HKUST Communication Directory is available for staff which keeps the most updated information on telephone numbers and e-mail account names of all University staff. Computer Barn There are altogether three Computer Barns (Rooms 1101, 44024404 and 4578-4580) and one Business Computing Laboratory (Room 4334) that CCST administers. The latter three computing laboratories are set up to support classroom instruction and tutorial, each with a big RGB projection screen installed. To reserve any of these rooms for teaching purpose, advance booking is required by contacting our General Office either in person or by phone. The following lists the different equipment and number of units in each of these computing laboratories. These information are, however, subject to change in the coming months.

Issue No. 22 Channel 5 1. Computer Barn - Room 1101 - 80 units of Pentium - 10 units of Macintosh LCII - 12 units of Spare Classic - 4 units of HP LaserJet network printer - 1 unit of Apple LaserWriter network printer - 4 units of Epson network dot matrix printer - 24 units of Epson desktop dot matrix printer - 3 units of Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer 2. Computer Barn - Room 4402-4404 - 40 units of Port-o 486/PC in the teaching area - 60 units of Porro 486/PC in the self-access area - 4 units of HP LaserJet network printer - 5 units of Epson network dot matrix printer - 30 units of Epson desktop dot matrix printer 3. Computer Barn - Room 4578-4580 - 40 units of Porro 486/PC in the self-access area - 57 units of Spare Classics in the teaching area - 4 units of HP LaserJet network printer - 4 units of Epson network dot matrix printer - 12 units of Epson desktop dot matrix printer 4. Business Computer Laboratory - Room 4334 - 28 units of Macintosh LC - 2 units of Apple LaserWriter network printer - 8 units of Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer Computer software & Manuul Libraries CCST Computer Software Library maintains a variety of soft- ware for short-term evaluation to University staff and CCST Computer Manual Library maintains comprehensive user manuals and documentation procured from vendors for loan to University staff.

Staff are welcome to call our General Office for general enquiries relating to software or manual borrowing services. Users Consultation & Documentation One important area of our services is to provide professional consultation to staff and students of the University. Staff and students can seek assistance from us by sending an electronic mail to CCHELP. Alternatively, staff can also walk-in to our Help Desk at Room 2019 for help. Students should, however, seek help from the help desks in the Computer Barns. Staff having queries of urgent nature can call our Hotline at Ext. 6200. (For queries that do not require an immediate reply, please kindly channel them through CCHELP instead.) CCST also launches series of computer training courses on a regular basis to help users get oriented with our computing facilities and services. Coming up in September will be a series of orientation programs for new staff to familiarize themselves with computer resources in the University. In addition, comprehensive training on the usage of common office tools will

follow. Please refer to the Training News section later in this newsletter for the list of training courses. To readily help users become productive with the usage of common applications, CCST publishes a number of user guides which are written locally by our own staff and are distributed A complete summary of these documentation is listed on the Documentation section later in this newsletter. Finally, we also publish a newsletter called CHANNEL regularly, which is what you are reading now. CHANNEL provides users with the latest information about our plans and new developments, addition or upgrade of software and hard- ware, tips and hints on using our computing resources, and announcement on new documentation and training courses, etc. It is distributed to staff through the departmental offices and to students through the Computer Barns.

6 Channel Issue No. 22 General Information for New Staff and Students Computer Account Application To access to any of our central computing systems or to exchange information among a group of people on the same or different computers, a valid computer account is required. In our University, UNIX is the major computational platform for teaching and research. Staff familiar with UNIX can choose to use UNIX accounts for accessing e-mails; whereas PC, Macintosh and VMS users are provided with VMS accounts for accessing e-mails. Students are also provided with UNIX accounts to carry out academic and computational activities as well as for accessing e-mails. We also have other specialized systems for use on HP workstations and even on supercomputers. RI Staff Computer Account Application To apply for a staff account, the followings are some simple steps that you should take: 1. Obtain an application for Staff Computer Account Facilities" form and information sheets from your depart-

mental offices. 2. Fill in the required information on the application form following the instruction as listed on the information sheets. Then sign your name on the form. 3. Send the completed form to CCST General Office with an envelop labeled: "To : CCST (Re : A/C Application)" Once your account is created, the initial password and other relevant information of your new account will be sent to you via your departmental office in a confidential' stamped and sealed envelop. Further details relating to staff computer account application can be referred to the articles posted in the "USERDOC" folder under CCST On-line Information, or in the CST-NEWS" folder under Electronic Notice Board. @I Student Computer Account Application All registered undergraduate students are automatically as- signed with default account names once your records are available in our Centre. The default account name will be a unique name consisting of the department code and the initials of the student name. Postgraduate students have the option to choose your account names using any PC of the Computer Barns. This can be done by choosing the student A/C Application / Enquiry " option under Information Service" item on the HKUST main menu. Both undergraduate and postgraduate students can check if your accounts are ready for use by choosing the tudent A/C Application / Enquiry" option from Information Service" item on the HKUST main menu. Further details relating to student computer account application can be referred to the articles posted in the "USERDOC"

folder under CCST On-line Information, or in the CST-NEWS" folder under Electronic Notice Board. Rules and regulations for using CCST computing facilities are also included inside the respective folders under the CCST On-line Information and Electronic Notice Board.

Issue No. 22 Channel 7 Network Connection Application Staff residing in staff quarters or students residing in student halls may apply to connect your personal computers to the university computer network. Interested staff should contact your department Office Manager for in- formation on network connection application. Students should, however, complete an application form obtainable from the Student Affairs Office. Details on how to apply for network connection as well as related terms and conditions can be referred to the articles posted in the "USERDOC" folder under CCST On-line Information, or in the CST-NEWS" folder under Electronic

Notice Board. Central Printing Outputs Collection Normally, you can send your printouts to the network printers in your office or the computer laboratory in which you are working. How- ever, at times when you have a lot to print and you do not want to jam the printers in the office or laboratory, you may send your print jobs to our central printers in the CCST Printer Shop. The printer shop is accessible from Lift 2. Printouts sent to queues SYS$PRINT (band line printer) and CCLQ (laser printer) are distributed via pigeon holes outside the printer shop. The output bins are partitioned into two sections with labels in two different colors: the upper section is reserved for staff and postgraduates, while the lower section is reserved for undergraduates. For staff and postgraduates, the printouts are distributed ac- cording to the first two characters of the account names. For example, one with account name of CCKAREN will have the printouts put in the bin labeled A-CM". On the other hand, as the account names of undergraduates are all prefixed by a two-character department code and a separator (underscore), the fourth and fifth characters are used to distribute the printouts. Therefore, a Computer Science undergraduate with account name of CS-KAREN will have the printouts

put in the bin labeled A-KM". As these pigeon holes are shared among users, please make sure you do not print confidential information to the print queues named above, and please do not take away other users' printouts. At present, printouts are distributed by our operators around every two hours.

8 Channel Issue No. 22 Tips & Hints Network Password Reset If you would like to change the password of your computer account, you are advised to change the network password in order to ensure that all accounts registered under the same account name can be kept synchronized. This can be done by either one of the following methods: Through the PC main menu 1. Choose the "Change Network Password" option under "Others" item on the HKUST main menu, and then press " to confirm proceeding the process. 2. Type in your account name and press <Enter>. Then type in your old password after the "Old Password:" prompt and press <Enter>. 3. Type in your new password after the "New Password:" prompt and press <Enter 4. Retype your new password again after the "Verification:" prompt for verification and press <Enter>. The screen will then prompt you whether your network pass- word has been successfully changed. Through the VMS or UNIX host machine (on PC/MAC) 1. Choose "USTCC3" to login to your VMS account; or choose NIX Server (Staff/Postgrad)" to login to your UNIX account. 2. At the prompt, type "ust_passwd" and press <Enter>. 3. Type in your old password after the "Old Password:" prompt and press enter>. 4. Type in your new password after the "New Password:" prompt and press <Enter>. 5. Retype your new password again after the "Verification:" prompt of VMS or the "Retype new password:" prompt of UNIX for verification and press <Enter>. Your network password will then be changed and you can proceed to logout your VMS or UNIX account. Incoming Mails Forwarding If you have accounts on both VMS and UNIX systems, you are advised to centralize all your incoming mails to one of these accounts only so as to avoid forgetting to read mails from the other account. The steps to redirect incoming mails, once and for all, are as follows: To redirect mails from VMS to UNIX 1. Login to your VMS account. 2. Invoke Mail by typing the following command at the prompt: $ mail 3. Inside Mail, type the following commands: MAIL> set forward _Address: "IN% " name@uxmail.ust.hk " " " where name is your UNIX account name. 4. When done, exit Mail by typing the following command: MAIL> exit To disable mails forwarding to your UNIX account, execute the following command inside Mail: MAIL> set noforward To redirect mails from UNIX to VMS 1. Login to your UNIX account. 2. Create the file ".forward" by typing the following commands at the prompt:

% cd % echo ame@usthk.ust.hk forward where name is your VMS account name. To disable mails forwarding to your VMS account, simply delete the file ".forward".

Issue No. 22 Channel 9 Logging On from Other Internet Sites You may use the Telnet facility provided at remote Internet sites to login to your HKUST account. Our connection node names are as follows: VMS node: ustcc3.ust.hk or 143.89.14.9 (for staff and postgraduates) UNIX node: ustsu3.ust.hk or 143.89.14.10 (for staff and postgraduates) ustsu4.ust.hk or 143.89.14. I5 (for undergraduates)

Announcements Adjustment on E-mail Account Disk Quota In order to accommodate the escalating use of electronic mails, the default initial disk quota for all staff and postgraduates' e- mail accounts on VMS had been increased from 1.5 MB (3000 blocks) to 3 MB (6000 blocks) as of July. Existing staff and postgraduates' e-mail accounts with quota less than 3MB had also been extended to 3MB. To avoid unnecessary disk quota exceeds problem in the future, however, all users are urged to make the necessary precautions to ensure that your accounts have enough free disk space to accommodate incoming e-mails. Clearing of Output Bins On September 15, all printouts prior to August 3 I found in the pigeon holes outside the CCST Printer Shop will be removed. This will include files being sent to queues SYS$PRINT (band line printer) and CCLQ (laser printer). The printer shop is accessible from Lift 2. CCST will enforce a procedure for cleaning up the pigeon holes regularly. Any printouts that are older than two weeks will be removed by our operator on duty. This is to ensure that printing to our central laser and band line queues are carefully utilized and to accommodate the increasing population of our users. System Maintenance Schedule A maintenance window, a period of time in which network services are limited due to routine backup and maintenance, takes effect from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily. Some of the maintenance activities may have a negative effect or even corrupt your work if you are using the machine during this period of time. Depending on what you are working on and the nature of the maintenance work, there may not be any warning message or the broadcast messages may not be able to reach your screen. Therefore, you are recommended to save your work as frequently as possible if you have to work during the maintenance window. If you are a PC user, you should reboot your machine on each morning if you left the machine on overnight.

10 Channel Issue No. 22 Documentation Summary of User Guides published by CUT: FORTRAN User Guide INTERNET User Guide Mail for Macintosh User Guide Microsoft Word User Guide MS-DOS User Guide PATHWORKS MAIL User Guide Statistical Analysis System User Guide UNIX User Guide VAX/VMS User Guide ** ** ** Training News CCST will launch a series of computer training courses for staff beginning from mid September. Those who are interested may register with us when the particular course is announced. Application forms should be obtained from respective Office Managers and returned to our General Office. The following lists the courses we will offer: 1. Orientation to HKUST PC Environment (6-hour, 2-session) September 12 and 14 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. September 16 and 19 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. 2. Orientation to HKUST Macintosh Environment (6-hour, 2-session) September 16 and 19 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. 3. Orientation to HKUST MS Windows Environment (6-hour, 2-session) September 26 and 27 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. September 29 and 30 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. 4. Introduction to Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 (g-hour, 3-session) October 3.6 and 10 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. 5. Introduction to Microsoft Excel for Windows 4.0 (g-hour, 3-session) October 4,7 and 11 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.

Issue No. 22 Channel 11 Staff News Since January this year, we have had quite a number staff newly joined to or promoted within different teams in our Centre, while a few familiar faces have left us. ** ** ** Congratulations to Lawrence Law for his promotion to Associate Director in July. Lawrence was previously the Manager of Systems & Operations. In the General Office, Letty Poon was also promoted from Clerk I to Senior Clerk in March. In July, we also had Jeddy Mok newly joined as Clerk II. However, Lyon Cheng had left the office in January. ** ** In the Systems & Operations team, Michael Shiu was promoted from Assistant Computer Officer to Computer Officer in April. In August, we also had Jim Chan joined the team as Computer Technician II. ** ** ** In the Information Systems team, we had Mike Mak joined the team as Assistant Computer Officer in July. In the same month, Peter Au was promoted from Computer Officer to Senior Computer Officer. Following shortly in August, Sylvia Lau was also promoted from Senior Computer Officer to Principal Computer Officer. However, Katie Chow had left the team in July. Katie was previously an Assistant Computer Officer in the team. ** ** ** In the Computing Information Centre, we had Doug Wong and Peter Chang joined the team as Assistant Computer Officers in March and May, respectively. However, Paul Kwan had transferred from our Centre to the Research Center in July. Paul was previously a Computer Officer in the team and was also the previous Editor of Channel. In the same month, Samuel Chan also left after his placement as Student Programmer had completed. ** ** ** In the Systems Engineering team, we had Pong Kwok Wai joined as Computer Technician II in January, Wong Chi Sing joined as Computer Officer in February, and Terrence Chan joined as Computer Technician II in May. In April, we also had Lam Kwok On promoted from Computer Technician II to Computer Technician I. However, Joseph Pang had left the team in February. Joseph was previously a Senior Computer Officer in the team. ** ** ** In the User Services Group, Theresa Lo was promoted to Computer Officer in February and Wilson So was also promoted to Computer Technician I in April. Theresa was previously an Assistant Computer Officer in the Computing Information Centre and Wilson was previously a Computer Technician II in the Systems & Operations team. ** ** **

Channel Issue No. 22 Phone CCST Contact Points E-mail

General Enquires 358-6388 Fax 358-0967 User Consultation Hotline 358-6200 U-Hour Dial-Up Service - -= -Staff(Password is required) - Student : Normal pool Express pool 358-2440 358-2Ot4 358-4937 ' Phone E-mail Phone E-mail Director Assoc. Director ' Mr. Lawrence Law 6201 Dr. Wm. Max Ivey Dr. Lawrence Law Mgr. Systems & b Operations (Acting) Mgr. Information Mr. William Tung systems Mgr. Computing Mr. Victor Cheng Information Centre (Acting) 6182 ccmax cctaw 6201 cctaw 622 I ccbtung 6203 ccvictor E-mail Account Coordinator Telephone Services Coordinator Training Courses Registration t Gem-at Support I Ms. Theresa Lo 6252 cctlo Ms. Cindy Yung 6190 ccyung Ms. Christine Cheng 6190 cccheng Ms. Cindy Yung 6190 ccyung Ms. Anna Mak 6189 ccanna Mr. Patrick L.eung 6245 ccpteung Mr. David Shiu 6248 ccbshiu - a-- Mgr, S~~UW Engineering Academic Support Mr. Victor Cheng 6203 ccvictor .I- Am--I --m #z-AZ t f

I Requests for Computing Resources - Admin & Business Mr. William Tung 6221 ccis I . . m . MA-- . 6253 LLb&UCU I - users Ms. Theresa Lo OUL CCUO Editor of C-l Ms. Karen Chan

The telephone extensions are (852) 358-XXXX. The Internet address are E-mail address@usthk.ust.hk. Channel Mailing List A mailing list is maintained for the distribution of Channel. To be placed on the mailing list*, fill out this form

completely and mail to the Computing Information Centre, CCST, The Hong Kong University of Science and

Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Please print clearly. 0 Add my name and address to the mailing list [7 Address change (write new address below) 0 Remove my name and address from the mailing list Name : Organization : Address : *Registered users of the CCST services are placed automatically on the mailing list.

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