Channel, Issue No. 27

Abstract

[evdate 1997-01-15] THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRE OF COMPUTING SERVICES & TELECOMMUNICATIONS January 1997 Issue No. 27

What's inside 2 Intranet Home Page - Centralized Campus Information 4 Where is Intranet Home Page? 4 Send Us Comments 4 University Communications Directory 5 Infoseek Search Engine 6 HKUST Official Web Page Style 6 General Guidelines 6 Good Practices 7 Network Development Updates 7 Dial-up Services Upgrade 7 New Staff Quarters & Student Halls 8 Internet Bandwidth Upgrade 8 Live Video Broadcast of Congregation over Campus Network 9 Enhancing the Solaris Environment 9 UNIX Timesharing Servers 9 Computer Barn UNIX Workstations 10 Solaris Software Availability 10 New SUN Desktop Users 11 Chinese News & Information 11 How to Browse Chinese WWW Pages 12 Chinese Language Kit for Macintosh Rollout 13 Windows 95 Hints and Tips 15 Announcements Supercomputers: Paragon, Onyx, HP Clusters \ UNIX Servers Computing laboratories - - - Staff Quarters & Student Dormitories Internet Administrative Systems Clear Water Bay Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong channel@usthk.ust.hk

2 CHANNEL Editor's Notes Channel is a regular newsletter of the Centre of Computing Services and Telecommunications (CCST) of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Prepared by the Computing Information Centre (CIC) of CCST, Channel provides information about CCST facilities, services, development and plans. Topics on new trends in computing technology and other related topics of general interests are also included. Hard copies of Channel are available for distribution to staff and students of the University through departmental offices and computer barns, respectively. Members of other organizations can also subscribe their names to our mailing list by sending an e- mail to channel@usthk.ust.hk. Soft copies of Channel can also be browsed from the CCST web page location at: http www.ust.hk/ccst/pub/channel Users contribution to Channel are much welcomed at any time. Please send the articles and suggestions to: Karen Chan Editor of Channel Centre of Computing Services and Telecommunications The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay, Kowloon Hong Kong Telephone : (852) 2358-6253 Fax : (852) 2358-0967 Internet : channel@usthk.ust.hk Portions of this newsletter may be reprinted without prior permission if the source is clearly acknowledged and a copy of the reprinted article is sent to the Editor. Editor Karen Chan Production Support Wendy Fung Intranet Home Page - Centralized Campus Information You may already know what is Internet. Have you ever heard about Intranet? Well,

Intranet means applying Internet technology within a company. In our case, Intranet

means running applications using our existing Internet facilities and technologies

within campus. Both Intranet for Student and Intranet for Staff home pages have been set up in our

Web site.

Staff Intranet Home Page January I997 Issue No 27

3CHANNEL The Intranet page is designed so that all campus information and services can be centralized as a single starting point of

reference. You may find that there are lots of pointers in the page, almost everywhere is clickable. This is because we are trying to

minimize your time spending on searching the information you need. The Intranet page is divided into several sections: News in campus. Online information like Library Online Catalogs, Electronic Notice Board and Communications Directory. Web Keyword Search Services Departmental Info Download Area Search for information in campus or worldwide. Online services in campus like CCHELP and full name e-mail alias. Pointers to others departments in UST. A new page designed so that it contains all materials that are frequently downloaded.

This helps to provide a more convenient way to download software, forms or even lecture notes. Staff's/Student's Interest Pointers or information you may find interested. Web Companion Technical tips on surfing or developing Web pages. Web Services in HK Pointers to others Web sites in Hong Kong. WWW around the World Pointers to others Web sites in the world. Download Area Web Page

CHANNEL Where is Intranet Home Page? Intranet for Staff and Student home pages have been installed as the default home pages of the Netscape Navigator in UNIX,

Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh environments in offices and computer barns, respectively.

The Intranet for Staff is located at: http www.ust.hk/intranet/ and the Intranet for Student is located at: http www.ust.hk/intranet/stu/ Send Us Comments The main goal of the Intranet page is to provide the most useful information at your fingertips, hence we sincerely invite you to give

us suggestions and comments so that we can try our best to tailor the page to fit your needs. Just send us an e-mail to:

webmaster@www.ust.hk. University Communications Directory One of the major enhancements in our Intranet page is that we have used the Internet popular LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access

Protocol) to replace our University Communications Directory system. Here you will have user changeable fields like personal home

page, full Internet address, photo and even personal contact points. Communications Directory Sample Listing Communications Directory Detail information January I997 Issue No. 27

5 CHANNEL Also, the search mechanism is more flexible. The smart search provides you a single field for searching. You may enter the

name, telephone extension or campus network ID, and the system will distinguish and search for you. Besides, the detail

search provides you specific fields so that your search will be exact.

Infoseek Search Engine We have adopted and installed the popular Infoseek search engine in our Intranet web page. The main advantage of this over the

original is that the search result will be more accurate, and since the engine is installed in our own server, the speed is also much

faster. You may search different departments, whole UST, or form complicated or exact queries using the friendly interface.

Infoseek Search Result Ban Szeto Phone: 2358-6244 E-mail: ccszeto@usthk.ust.hk January I997 Issue No 27

6 CHANNEL Currently many departments in UST are operating their own WWW servers and information pages. In order to

coordinate and standardize Web pages in UST, an ad hoc committee was formed. The following guide is proposed

by the committee which recommends good technical practices in designing Web pages. Web administrators in UST

may find it useful in maintaining their information on Web. Guidelines are divided into two categories: the first category entails general guidelines that are strongly encouraged

to be followed; whereas the second category entails good technical practices that are also recommended in designing

cohesive Web pages in our University. General Guidelines

No information and medium within the page may violate any Hong Kong laws and university regulations.

Content of the Web page should be up-to-date and accurate. No broken links. Last modified date should appear at the end of the page. The Web administrator or author of the page, together with his/her e-mail address, should be shown on the

page so that readers can contact the person and express comments. It is preferable to have a real link in the e-mail address so that mails can be sent directly by clicking on the link.

A link back to the main University home page (http www.ust.hk) should be provided on each official home

page, making it easier for users to find their way back. Each official UST Web page can and should carry the UST official emblem (to be announced).

A copyright statement should be included in each page. The location of official Web pages should be on a server that is stable and available 24 hours a day. Reliable

backup procedures and regular system maintenance should be performed. Good Practices * Large pages with complex graphics may take a long time to transmit. Therefore avoid using large graphics.

* GIF is the most universally supported file format for Web browsers. Use GIF format for graphics.

* Considering the default configuration of many computers, graphics should not be larger than 480 pixels wide.

* Graphics should have a text alternative (ALT tag). * Select a background that does not detract from the readability of your text. Dark colors or complex background

graphics will make it difficult to read overlaying text. * Your page should at least appear fine in Netscape Navigator. * Use TITLE tag to make sure your document is indexed accurately. In addition to the guidelines above, the University reserves the right to remove information (or otherwise block its transmission) which may be inconsistent with the University Education Mission or which may damage the general

image of the University. January I997 Issue No 27

7 CHANNEL Network Development Updates Dial-up Services Upgrade An additional 48 lines have been added to the Student Regular Pool, making the total number of all modem lines to 336. All

modem pools support a maximum speed of 28.8Kbps and both PPP/Slip protocol. The updated configurations are summarized

below:

Modem Pools Tel. No. No. of lines Session Time limit when pool is full

Staff Pool 23584000 60 2 hours Student Regular Pool 23353500 216 1 hour Student Express Pool 23584937 60 15 minutes Based on the dial-up usage statistics for the past months, we believe the current line provision is adequate to provide a reasonably

good service level, 7 days a week, up till the end of this academic year (June 97). Hence at this moment, we will not implement

quota scheme of any kind in both the staff and student pools. For further details, please visit our dial-up web page location at: http www.ust.hk/ccst/services/connect/dialup/ New Staff Quarters & Student Halls CCST has completed the extension of campus network to our new buildings, namely: Senior Staff Quarters Tower 8 - 19 and

University Apartments Tower A - D. There is a total of over one thousand data-outlets in these buildings, each of these provide dedicated 1OMbps network connection

back to the campus. Users can connect their computers to our campus network immediately when they move in.

January I997 Issue No 27

8 CHANNEL Internet Bandwidth Upgrade A new Internet link has been set up for HKUST via Hong Kong Supernet since November 96. This new link provides dedicated

256Kbps international bandwidth for HKUST. It will be used to enhance our overseas WWW access by speeding up the proxy

server and it will also act as backup path for other Internet services. Furthermore, CCST is working with other JUCC members to upgrade the existing shared HARNET international Internet link from Tl

(1544Mbps) to El (2Mbps). We expect th e whole upgrade will be finished by January 97.

With both of these bandwidth upgrade, we hope our users will enjoy the Internet services with significant improvement in response

time. Raymond Chau Charles Choy Phone: 2358-6263 Phone: 2358-6208 E-mail: ccrayc@usthk.ust.hk E-mail: ccchoy@usthk.ust.hk Live Video Broadcast of Congregation over Campus Network To enable as many audiences as possible to 'attend' the congregation virtually through our campus network, CCST had conducted

a live video broadcast of the whole 2-day event through our MBone network with the kind assistance of ETC and PA0 on 21/22

November 96. MBone stands for Multicast Backbone on the Internet. This technology forms the backbone of the Internet for distributing real-time

multimedia information to millions of computer desktops worldwide. It is capable of delivering full-motion video to desktops via

existing data networks rather than requiring dedicated video cables, monitors or viewing rooms.

A lot of exciting multimedia applications now become realistic. Examples of these applications are audio/video conferencing,

computer-based training, video distribution, interactive TV, distance learning and campus kiosks. This conjunction of multimedia

and networking promises dramatic improvements in productivity, cost and user satisfaction, as well as a generation of entirely new

applications! We were very pleased to know that more than 200 users had viewed the event through the network where 80% of them were using

their desktop PCs! The viewers of the event were from nearly anywhere in campus with a network connection (including nearly all

departmental offices, staff quarters and student halls). This live broadcast arrangement is part of our experimentation project of transmitting multimedia contents (video/audio) through

our campus network. Your suggestions or comments are most valuable to us. You are welcome to send us an e-mail to the account

CCLISTEN for improving our services. Charles Choy Phone: 2358-6208 E-mail: ccchoy@usthk.ust.hk January 1997 Issue No. 27

Enhancing the Solaris Environment We are enhancing our UNIX computing resources significantly in early 1997. Our UNIX timesharing servers and computer barn

workstations are being upgraded with higher performance hardware, more advanced OS version and more supported software.

UNIX Timesharing Servers We are adding some SUN Ultra model 170 and 1200 servers for staff and student timesharing service. Majority of our systems are

upgraded to Solaris 2.5. We are still maintaining some SunOS 4.1.3 systems for users who have not yet migrated their software to

Solaris 2.x. Followings are the new configurations of our UNIX timesharing resources: For Students 1 x Ultra 1200 running Solaris 2.5.1 1 x Ultra 1 Ultra 170 running Solaris 2.5 1200 Solaris 2.5.1 x

2 x Ultra running 170 Solaris 2.5 2 x Sparc20/712 running SunOS 4.1.3 running 1 x Sparc20/712 running Solaris 2.5 2 x Sparc20/712 running SunOS 4.1.3 For migration information from SunOS 4.x (Solaris 1 .x) to Solaris 2.x, please refer to:

Computer Barn UNIX Workstations We have upgraded 20 SUN Classic workstations in Barn C to Sparc4/110 with 32MB RAM, 17" color monitor and 1 GB hard disk.

The increase of computational performance is more than twice. These Sparc4 are installed with Solaris 2.5 / OpenWindows 3.5

GUI, which supports both the Open Look windows manager and the new Xl1 Motif-based CDE vl.O.1 (Common Desktop Environment).

Users using public domain Xl1 may consider to switch to CDE if the public domain Xl1 for the new workstation hardware is not yet

available from the developer. For details on Solaris 2.5, please refer to: http www.sun.com/solaris/2.5/ For details on Solaris CDE, please refer to: http /www.sun.com/solaris/cde/ January 1997 Issue No 27

10 CHANNEL Solaris Software Availability We have subscribed SUN education license program called ScholarPac III, which includes media and updates of the following

software for research and teaching: Solaris 1 .x & Solaris 2.x SPARCworks Pro Fortran 77 and 90 SPARCworks Pro Pascal SPARCworks Pro C++ SPARCworks Pro C SPARCworks Performance Libraries ShowMe Suite SunPHlGS Solaris SDK

The number of supported public domain software and licensed third party packages for Solar-is are increased to the same level as

for SunOS. In addition, there are many web related software available in Solar-is but not in SunOS.

The list of UNIX available software can be found at the following web page location:

http www.ust.hk/cgi-bin/ccst/ccstinfo/ccinfo_showsubiect?774 New SUN Desktop Users All new Spare hardware will be installed with Solaris 2.5.1 or above unless you have certain software that must run on SunOS 4.x.

If you are buying third party software on your new SPARCstation, you may consult the software vendor for availability of a version

on Solaris 2.x. For information on Solaris 2.5.1, please refer to: http www.sun.com/solaris/2.5/2.5.7/ Andrew Tsang Phone: 2358-6204 E-mail: ccandrew@usthk.ust.hk

11 CHANNEL Netscape: How To Browse Chinese Web Pages

January 1997 Issue No. 27

Chinese language Kit for Macintosh

January I997 Issue No. 27

13 CHANNEL Windows 95 Hints and Tips Want to make your Windows 95 a more productive working platform? You may find the foil owing hints and tips interesting and helpful . . . . .

Move the Taskbar Usually Taskbar is placed at the bottom of the desktop. If you don like where the Taskbar is

located, you can drag it to one of the other three edges of the desktop. Expand all sub-folders In Windows Explorer, if you want to expand all branches (sub-folders) of a drive or folder, click

and press the asterisk key on the numeric keypad. Clean up Recycle Bin Deleted files will be stored in Recycle Bin and use up disk space. To free disk space from these

deleted files, right-click Recycle Bin and select Empty Recycle Bin. Quicker way to traverse between folders When a folder is opened, you can press BACKSPACE to open the folder one level higher.

Check free disk space To check disk space information of a disk, you may open My Computer, right-click the desired

drive and then select Properties. Save a file with non-standard extension name You may find problems when you try to save a file with non-standard file extension name. To

handle this problem, try to enclose the file name with quotes. For example, if you want to save a

Notepad file with the name TEST.XXX, you type "TEST.XXX" and click OK when file name is

prompted. If quotes are not used, Notepad will name the file as TESTxxX.TXT instead.

Drag a document to print To print a document quickly, you can drag its icon onto a printer icon.

14 CHANNEL

Show printing jobs status To see information on the printer to which you have just sent a document, double-click on the

printer icon that will appear in the bottom-right box of the Taskbar. Minimize all opened windows If you want to quickly minimize all the windows you have opened, right-click on an open area of

the Taskbar and select Minimize All Windows. Move/copy a file To move or copy a file from one location to another, you may use the right mouse button to do

drag-and-drop, a menu will then pop up allowing you to do move or copy operation.

Make hidden files visible If you find that Windows Explorer does not show hidden files, you may click the View menu and

then select Options. In Options window, click the View tab page and then select the Show all files

option. Create shortcuts on desktop A faster way to create shortcut of an application on desktop is to drag-and-drop the application

onto the desktop. For example, if you often need to invoke the Control Panel, try drag-and-drop

Control Panel onto the desktop. A shortcut (to Control Panel) will be created automatically.

Add icons to Shortcut Bar A faster way to add an application to Shortcut Bar is to drag-and-drop the application onto the

Shortcut Bar. Select all files To select all files in a folder in one shot, press <Ctrl> + <A>. Rename a file with <F2> You can rename a file in a more rapid way by highlighting the file and then press the <F2> key.

Teddy Poon Phone: 2358-62 16 E-mail: ccteddy@usthk.ust.hk January 1997 Issue No 27

15 CHANNEL Announcements Big Savings - low cost IDD Effective early December 96, the University community has been saving more. With the Sub-tender Board approval to appoint CTI (the City Telecom Hong Kong Ltd.) as the additional IDD service provider for the University, UST offices and all full-time staff are privileged to enjoy a special CTI IDD rates which are much lower than the normal rates offered by IDD providers in the market. We expect to have 50% or more of the current IDD charge saved thereafter, with an average 3-5 seconds longer connection time. The CTI IDD service was introduced to offices' fax / direct telephone lines on 2 December 96; while for PABX extensions, due to hardware installation requirement, it came into effect on 6 December 96. In effect, CTI would be the default IDD service provider in UST. The dialing procedure is simple and direct (it is the same as before) : For Voice: dial "001" For Fax: dial "002" So every time it gets you going worldwide, wish you enjoy the introduced CTI. CHANNEL Software News

For the past semester, a number of software in the PC, MAC and UNIX platforms have been added or upgraded in our network servers. Following is a list of added / upgraded software by platforms: PC Software 1. 2. 3. AutoLANG for Windows MicroSim 6.3 for Windows (for Computer Barns only) Netscape Navigator 3.0 with the following helper applications: - GSTools 4.0 for postscript previewing - MacroMedia Plugins - QuickTime Video 2.1.2 - RealAudio 2.0 - VIVO realtime video display 4. SpectraBook 1.02 for Windows MAC Software 1. Anarchic 2.0.1 2. Chinese Language Kit for Macintosh 1.1 3. Mail Drop 1.2d7d 4. Netscape Navigator 3.0 UNIX Software 1. Aladdin Ghostscript 4.03 2. asWedit 3.0 (on SunOS & Solaris) 3. CLAPACK 2.0 (on Solaris) 4. LAPACK 2.0 (on Solaris) 5. Netpbm 1 -marl 994 (on SunOS & Solaris) 6. SAS 6.1 1 (on SunOS, Solaris, HP) 7. Smalltalk 1 .1.5 (on SunOS & Solaris) 8. tn3270 (on Solaris) January I997 Issue No. 27

16 CHANNEL Computer Users Group (CUG) is an informal group for staff members who are keen on

using computing facilities and eager to see improvements on CCST. The group will meet

3 - 4 times a year. Join now to: * Share experiences/knowledge with other users and CCST * Get first hand information on upcoming CCST services * Try out CCST prereleased services * Voice out comments/feedbacks on our services To register, you may submit a form from World Wide Web at the CCST web page location at:

http wwwast.h&/ccst/services/cug or send an e-mail to MS Christine Cheng (E-mail address: cccheng) and provide information such as your name, department, phone no.

and the interest group (PC/Macintosh) you would like to join. m Contact Paints Director Dr. Wm. Max Ivey Assoc. Director Mr. Lawrence Law Head of Computing Mr. Victor Cheng Information Centre 6182 ccmax 6201 cclaw 6203 ccvictor Head of Information Mr. William Tung Systems 622 ccbtung Head of Operating Mr. Lawrence Law Systems Support 620 cclaw Head of Network Mr. Steven Wong Systems 6207 ccsteven Head of Future Technology Mr. Michael Tang 6261 ccwctang Head of Gen. Off. Ms. Theresa Lo & User Services 6252 cctlo Editor of Channel Ms. Karen Chan 6253 cckaren Inter-departmental Ms. Christine Cheng 6190 cccheng Liaison Person E-mail Account Coordinator Ms. Cindy Yung 6183 ccyung Telephone Services Ms. Christine Cheng 6190 cccheng Coordinator Training Courses Coordinator Ms. Cindy Yung 6183 ccyung Requests for Computing Resources l Admin & Business Mr. William Tung 6240 ccis l Other Branches Ms. Theresa to The telephone extensions are (852) 2358-xxxx. The Internet addresses are E-mail address@usthk.ust.hk.

January 1997 Issue No. 27

Channel Issue No.27 January 1997 中文天地 中文新資訊 如何瀏覽中文網頁 隨著中文網頁的普遍化，如何瀏覽中文綱頁已成為用戶常問之難題。有見及此，計算及電 訊中心已在不同之作業平台上提供各類的中文延伸系統，令用戶能輕鬆地瀏覽中文網頁。 此外，計算及電訊中心亦提供詳細指引，教導用用戶如何設定Netscape瀏覽器，以瀏覽中文

網頁。詳{????}i參閱以下網頁： Channel Issue No.27 January 1997 Chinese Language Kit for Macintosh 正式推出 為了使Macintosh用戶能瀏覽中文網頁及處理中文資訊，計算及電訊中心已於1997年1月 8日正式推出chinese Language Kit for Macintosh。此軟件包括繁體出 (Big-5)系統及簡體 (GB)

系統，另有數款中文 TrueType 字形可供用戶選擇。安裝詳{????}i參閱以下網頁： 注意事項： 1 本軟件原是設計在system 7.1.x上運行，如閣下現時之作業系統為System 7.5.x 則必須運

行 system Updater，才能令軟件正常運作。 2 基於Microsoft office 4.2.x 並不支援 chinese Language Kit 提供之多語言作業環境

(Worldscript〕，所以用戶必須安裝clarisWorks Office 4.0 來處理中文資訊。 丘石松 電話：2358-6242 電郵： ccsyau{????}usthk.ust.hk