Computing Service

Computing Service Newsletters

Computing Service Newsletter 232 (April 2007)

General News

Lost: one thesis, nearly complete [headline article]

The Hardware Support section of the Computing Service sees a regular flow of users with dead or partially-dead laptops. A number of these users report that the laptop contains their only copy of work in progress: thesis, paper or book. Some also report that the laptop has been showing signs of trouble for weeks or months, and it still has not occurred to them to make a backup copy of their work.

Could this be you?

With the advent of USB storage devices, backup is easier than it has ever been, and takes only a few mouse-clicks. Documents or data you are actively working on need to be copied to backup devices at least twice a day, depending how much time you can afford to lose having to reconstruct your changes from scratch. Backup devices need to be stored separately (i.e. not in a laptop case - laptops can be stolen). See leaflet G81: CDs and other removable storage media for advice on the different removable media you can use.

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Use of CS teaching rooms and User Area

Following recent complaints about the behaviour of some users in Computing Service Teaching Rooms, the Service would like to remind all users of the following.

Antisocial behaviour including noise which disturbs other users is not acceptable in Computing Service public areas such as the Titan Teaching Rooms. Eating and drinking is prohibited in CS Rooms, particularly because of the risk of damage to equipment arising and the likely mess created.

Users are reminded that CS Rooms are covered by CCTV Security monitoring.

Small Institution Support Service [headline article]

A new service has been launched to provide support for small institutions within the University which do not have access to their own Computer Officer, yet still have significant and sometimes complex requirements for IT services and support. Marcus Young has been appointed Small Institution Support Specialist within the Institution Strategy Team and started in the post on 1 March 2007.

The Small Institution Support Service offers the following services:

  • Consultancy - this may include a review of current use of IT and recommendations for upgrades or new systems/services; expert advice on projects identified by the institution; implementation or managing the implementation of projects.
  • Technical Support - for more complex problems which cannot be resolved via the UCS Help Desk and which may require a site visit or remote access to systems to resolve.
  • Emergency Support - for institutions whose own IT support staff are unavailable owing to leave, illness or an interregnum.
Central funding means that this service is available free to small Council and non-School Institutions; for other institutions an hourly or daily charge will be made. For further information contact small-inst-support@ucs.cam.ac.uk

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New University telephone system [headline article]

The current University Telephone Network (UTN) infrastructure dates from 1984 and the maintenance is due to expire in April 2009. At that time it will be imperative to have a replacement system operational.

Originally the University Telecommunications Office and latterly the University Computing Service (UCS) have been charged with procuring a replacement. The new system will be based on a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution, which uses the data network to carry voice calls digitally.

The replacement is a large and complex undertaking. Pilot schemes have been running for some time in the Computing Service and the Engineering Department. The system will be rolled out institution by institution over a two-year period starting early in 2008. A significant goal of this project is to ensure minimal disruption to affected institutions and end users. It is expected that each new instrument will be installed and tested before the existing number is transferred from the old system.

For the end user with no special requirements, the change of technology will not make a great difference; phone numbers will generally be unchanged and the new handsets will operate in much the same way as the old, just plugging into a different wall socket. However, there may be a much wider range of add on services available including special feature phones, or alternatively 'softphones' running on a PC or laptop.

The new voicemail system promises several improvements such as email-delivered voicemails, web access to voicemail, and a variety of customizable controls. Future enhancements may include alternative forms of communication medium (e.g. video), and links to other institutions, organizations, or to public internet phone services to allow free or low-cost calls.

Further details, and links to an FAQ and discussion area on CamTools, can be found at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/voip/. For any other information, please contact Jake Hornsby, jdh51@cam.ac.uk

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Coordinated bulk purchase of Windows/Linux hardware

As reported earlier, the University Computing Service (UCS), the IT Purchasing Group and the Central Purchasing Office (CPO) are again working this year on a tender for the supply of desktop PCs to the University. The evaluation of tendered machines took place in April, and the tender should be awarded at the end of May with the tender agreement itself starting in the first 2 weeks of June.

Details of the current bulk purchase deal are at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/offices/purchasing/groups/it/deals/hardware/current.html and details of the new deal will also be published on those pages.

The current deal will remain in place for a few weeks to overlap with any new deal, or if the same suppliers are selected again will continue without interruption.

Power failures

On 24 January a complete external power failure to both the New Museums and Downing sites from 8.20 am to 5.15 pm resulted in public facilities on those sites being unavailable. All UCS courses on the New Museums Site had to be cancelled. Computing Service major systems (network, Hermes, webserver, and so on) were protected by the UPS system, backed up by a diesel generator. There was some disruption to service on Hermes caused by a few of its servers being plugged into the mains instead of the UPS, which was soon corrected. Some sites served from the Downing site CUDN router suffered some disruption later in the day when its local UPS battery was exhausted.

A second power failure to both sites occurred on 2 March, from midday to early evening; again, major services were maintained but local facilities on both sites were disrupted.

The Computing Service regrets the inconvenience caused to users.

Copyright and scanners

The University policy on copying and scanning has recently been updated to bring the rules for scanners into line with those for photocopiers. The new policy will be published shortly.

The new policy allows UCS scanners in public rooms to be used by University staff and students under the following conditions:

  • for material for which the user is the copyright owner.
  • for copyright material for which the copyright owner has granted express written permission to copy, or copying is permitted under statute.
  • for material for which it is reasonable to assume that copyright has expired, e.g. generally, for published literary works, copyright expires 70 years after the end of the calendar year of the author's death.
  • by designated people as defined by the University's Copyright Compliance Notice: Photocopying and Scanning, scanning material within the terms of that agreement.

If you use the scanner outside these conditions you are breaking UK copyright law.

Videoconferencing News

The UCS videoconferencing suite now includes the following equipment:

  • Studio-based Tandberg 6000 hardware codec with screens, projector, document camera, video recorder.
  • Portable Tandberg MXP hardware codec for use in Babbage Lecture Theatre or for hiring out to Departments or Colleges.
  • Apple Mac with iChat, Skype and MSN Messenger for use in the studio.
  • Windows PC with Skype, MSN Messenger and Netmeeting for use in the studio.

For more details of the videoconferencing service see http://www-tus.csx.cam.ac.uk/videoconf/

Are you paying too much for software? [headline article]

It sometimes happens that members of the University pay the commercial rate for software when they need not do so, because the University has negotiated site licences which would cover what they require. This article lists some of the applications which are free to institutions or individuals in the University, and describes some other sources of free or very low-priced software. Note that if you need a particular application which would cost money to obtain for your own machine, you may well be able to use it free of charge on the PWF (see http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/pwf/software.html). In the case of Linux applications, you can do this remotely, from your own machine in your Department or College.

Software which is generally free

There is a lot of good free software available on the Internet. The UK Mirror site, which used to be the recommended place to look, is being discontinued at the end of July, but the following are good sites for browsing for free software:

Some particular applications which may be of general interest in the University are:

Site-licensed software, free to the end user

Site licences vary in detail, and in whether they are free only to individuals for personal use, or only to institutions, or both. Note that if an item of software is site licensed to an Institution or the University, you must obtain a copy of the software from the person or group holding the site licence. You cannot simply download a copy by searching the internet and assuming that you are licensed to use it.

Generally, however, the following are free to members of the University (you will usually need to collect a licence key, as described on the pages listed below, and if you need a CD there will usually be a small charge):

Nearly-free software

The sites listed above for free software are also good sources for shareware (which you can typically use free for a short period but are then asked to contribute towards costs).

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Are you paying too little for software?

The attention of all users is drawn to the University's Software Policy at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/sales/softwarepol.html

Seventy years ago

From the University Reporter of 23 February 1937:

The following Graces passed the Regent House:
... 2. That the recommendation contained in the Report of the General Board, dated 2 December 1936, on the establishment of a Computing Laboratory be approved.

Cancellation of student accounts [headline article]

This notice is addressed to all students expected to complete their studies this summer, and describes the timetable for cancelling student accounts. Students believed to be continuing to a further course are excluded; however, the data we collect is inevitably incomplete, particularly concerning certain one-year courses. See below for what to do if you are on the cancellation list and should not be.

Students cannot keep their University computing accounts after the cancellation date below; the University's email forwarding service for alumni, set up jointly by the Development Office and Management Information Services Division, may be of interest. See http://cantab.net/ for details.

Students affected

Cancellation date 16 July 2007:

  • third and fourth year undergraduates, unless they are known to be following longer courses (e.g. clinical medicine and veterinary medicine, MML, MEng, MSci and some Oriental Studies students), or known to hold a conditional or unconditional offer of a postgraduate place in Cambridge.
  • affiliated students completing their second year (entered the University in 2005)
  • LLM and Part III Mathematics students
  • final year clinical veterinary medicine students
  • single term and single year students who have completed their Cambridge course

Cancellation date 20 August 2007:

  • students following one-year postgraduate courses scheduled to be completed by 31 July. This includes a number of MPhil courses and all Diploma courses.
  • fourth year MET students
  • PGCE students

MPhil and one year students following later-finishing courses will be cancelled at a later date in the Michaelmas term.

On or shortly after the dates shown, all computing accounts belonging to students in the categories mentioned above will be cancelled on the PWF, Hermes, CUS, CUDN Dial-up service (Magpie), VPDN, Raven and Pelican. The students concerned will be notified by email to their @cam addresses during May 2007. Those who have applied to continue to a further degree will receive a message confirming that we are aware of their application and that accounts will not be cancelled, as long as the application is live at the cancellation date.

Before you leave

If you are not intending to return to Cambridge next year, please clear your filespace(s) before the dates given above, first ensuring that you have copies of any files you want to keep. Also, if you have subscribed to any mailing lists, please remember to cancel the subscription before you leave.

If you will have another email address after you leave the University (for instance the cantab.net forwarding service for alumni), you are advised to set up your new account and notify your regular correspondents of your change of address soon. You may forward mail from your Cambridge account to your new account, but this will only work until the Cambridge account is cancelled. It is regretted that mail cannot be forwarded after accounts are closed. See http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/backup.html for how to make copies of your data to take away.

University Society computing resources

Please remember to arrange to transfer ownership of any society resources to the person who will be looking after them in the next academic year. See http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/socinfo/ for instructions.

Information for alumni

The following has been received from the University Development Office:

To make sure that you receive CAM, the University's alumni magazine, when you leave Cambridge please visit http://www.foundation.cam.ac.uk/ and register your details. You will also find information on the Alumni Travel Programme, the Alumni Weekend and other benefits available to alumni on the web site.

If you are staying in Cambridge

If you are going to be away during the summer vacation, please unsubscribe or suspend mail from mailing lists; see Information Sheet IS12: Hermes Email: Forwarding (redirection) and vacation messages (or IS31 if you are a CUS mail user). You may also like to consult IS13: Reading and sending email when away from Cambridge, and see http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/away/ which describes actions you should consider taking before you leave Cambridge for the summer.

If you expect to return to the University in October but are not on our list of continuing students (and therefore receive a message warning you about cancellation), then when you receive the message about cancellation, please fill in the web form at the appropriate page:

If you have not yet finished your degree: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/request/contstud.html

If you are returning to the University for further study: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/request/newpg.html

If you are joining the University or a College as a member of staff: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/request/stud2staff.html

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The title of this document is: Computing Service Newsletter 232: General News
URL: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/newsletter/2007/nl232/general.html