August 2007 Archives

Another reminder: if you try to print n copies from one of the departmental linux workstations, you will get n^2 copies from the printer. There are two ways to get n copies:
1) Print x1 + x2 + x3 + ... xn copies, where x1 ... xn are integer such that x1^2 + x2^2 + x3^2 ... xn^2 = n.
2) Use the photocopier in the main office.

Method 2 is, in fact, preferred because:
1) no mental mental algebra is involved
2) the photocopier is cheaper than the printer
3) it's actually departmental policy (primarily for reason no. 2)

We've had a number of questions in the wake of the printing bills sent out by the main office. Before contacting either the systems administrators or the department administration, read the departmental printing policies and guidelines. If you still have questions about why you've been billed, contact Julie Fogarty. If you want to see a break down of your print jobs, see http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/cgi-bin/printjob-logs-by-user. If you think that you can prove that the records are incorrect, email me; I'm open to persuasion by hard facts or compelling anecdotal evidence.

Some people have been quite shocked by the charges for printing for April through July. You can view and download a record of your printing activity for November through July from http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/cgi-bin/printjob-logs-by-user.

Records for subsequent months will be added at the start of the following month; e.g. the August records will be added at the start of September.

Friendlier access to more current data is under consideration - but the cost of such access in either dollars or sysadmin time to the department might be considerable.

Maxima, an open-source symbolic algebra package, has been installed on bluespruce and the msprime workstations. Maxima is the descendant of Macsyma, a program upon which Maple was based - Maxima may be considered a sort of "free Maple."
These screenshots give you a good idea of the functionality.

Mathserv went down as scheduled down at 4:34. The server, web sites, email and workstations were all operational again by 4:37.

I will be restarting mathserv today (Wednesday) at 4:30pm in order to sort out a performance problem. Web, email and msprime workstation access will be interrupted for ca. five minutes.