March 2003

SYSTEMS STAFF MONTHLY UPDATE, MARCH 2003

DEPARTMENT EVENT - ID03

The International Dinner was held on March 6 and was a great success.
Check out the photos and recipes at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~csgsc/id2003/index.html

ALERT

There was a serious theft of equipment from one of the research labs two weeks ago. Please be vigilant about security wherever you work in the building. Do not give out combinations to anybody. Students should always get combinations from their professor or TA. Do not leave doors propped open. If there is a heating or ventilation problem in the room or a problem with the door lock report it promptly to Kathy. If you are on the first floor with a window do not leave monitors turned on overnight. Sun workstation users should use the xlock program, PC users should use a similar screenlock or power down the monitor.

The Grants Management Office recommends that you purchase insurance through them for any equipment purchased on research funds or used for research purposes. For applications and guidelines visit http://www.research.sunysb.edu/research/gmo/equipins.html. You can also call directly either Stephanie Ammann at 2-9071 or Marjorie Lundgren at 2-9018 for further information.

REMINDER

The DB2 database server will be undergoing an upgrade this Saturday (4/5/03) and will not be available between the hours of 9:30AM and 12:30PM. Please plan you work accordingly.

1. New/Upgraded Software for Solaris

The pine mail reader has been upgraded to version 4.53.

Acroread has been upgraded to version 5.0.5. Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts have been installed.

Hevea, a latex to html translator, has been installed.

Objective Cam l, an implementation of the ML language, has been installed.

The GNU patch program has been upgraded to version 2.5.4. It is installed as /usr/local/bin/gpatch.

Python version 2.2 has been installed. It is installed as /usr/local/bin/python2.2.

Codesurfer has been ugpraded to version 1.8. It is installed as /usr/local/bin/codesurfer8.

Matlab has been upgraded to release 12.

The gcc compiler has been upgraded to version 3.2.2.

2. New/Upgraded Software on MS Windows

A new information page on how to use UDF's under DB2 is available at http://www.translab.cs.sunysb.edu/website/db2/db2andudf.html. Please make sure you are following this up to date information if you are using this feature of DB2.

3. Web

A new look and feel for the department website is under development. An announcement will be made when some prototyped pages become available for inspection.

The course objectives survey has been expanded with new features. Students can input to the survey at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~survey. All input is anonymous. At the present time mid semesterinput has closed, but course objective input will be available soon. This valuable tool benefits both the students and the faculty so be sure to try it out.

4. Infrastructure Changes and Upgrades

Upgrades

The department ftp server has been upgraded.

A new disk has been installed on the translab server and student quotas have been increased. Also the memory has been upgraded to 1 Gigabyte.

A new whiteboard has been installed in room 2311, the new Seminar-Multi-Media Teaching Room. This room is now available by reservation for classes and lectures.

PCs and Laptops

Windows 2000 and Windows XP have an application called "Windows Update Application" which allows Explorer to check daily for critical updates. There is an FAQ on how to configure this feature on the FAQ website.

The campus has signed a contract with Microsoft to supply Microsoft Office XP for both the PC and MAC to all faculty and staff at the University. In addition students with a GA, RA or TA appointment
qualify for the program. Details can be found at:

http://clientsupport.stonybrook.edu/software/OfficeXP.shtml.

For personal use of this software please visit the link above and follow instructions to obtain your copy. For use on a department owned machine please submit a request through WREQ at cs dot sunysb dot edu.

Ths MSDNAA program in which students and faculty can obtain free software from Microsoft is online at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~msdnaa. You can email msdnaa if you have questions or problems.

5. The Stony Brook Community

Work is progressing on the graduate student database.

6. HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM or MAKE A WORK REQUEST

6a. First you should check the FAQ pages at:

http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/index.html

There is also a link to an index of FAQs.

6b. If the answer to your question is not in the faq's you should use WREQ at cs dot sunysb dot edu
to report the problem or make a work request.

There is a short blurb on wreq in the faq area (search by index)

Wreq lives at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~wreq/

6c. You can also send email to: WREQ at cs dot sunysb dot edu from your dept account, or campus account. The subject line should cover what is wrong or what you need. The body of the email can supply any details.

6d. Your problem report must include the following information for us to be able to help you promptly:

1. The room you are working in, either room number or lab name.
2. The name of the host you are working on (hostname command in Unix, machine number in 1239, the number written on the bookshelf by your desk in the student offices).
3. The sequence of things you did just prior to having the problem as best you recollect.
4. The exact text of any error message you see on the screen, or a complete description of the problem that occured.

Please report problems promptly as they occur so they can be investigated under the same set of conditions as far as possible.

When in doubt, feel free to send email to:

Unix and network problems: WREQ at cs dot sunysb dot edu
PC problems: NETADMIN at cs dot sunysb dot edu

Previous Newsletters

February 2003

January 2003

December 2002

November 2002

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