October 2009 Archives

Firefox has been updated to version 3.5.4; the next tim you start firefox, you may see a message about the upgrade and a request to make this update your default browser.

MATLAB wasn't working for half an hour this morning due to a problem with the license server but is now working again. This was unrelated to the upgrades to MATLAB itself.

MATLAB has been upgraded to the latest version (2009a) on the ms workstations and the compute servers. Use matlab to run the graphical version or matlab-console to run the console/text version.

Maple has been upgraded to the latest version (13) on the ms workstations and the compute servers. Use the comand maple for the console/text version and xmaple for the graphical version.

R has been upgraded to the latest version (2.9.2) on the ms workstations and the compute servers.

We've a spate of email messages with subjects like "Conflicker.B Infection Alert" and "Important Notification!" purporting to be from "System Administrator" or "Microsoft Windows Agent". These messages are examples of phishing, the intent of which is to get you to run a program which will infect your computer or visit a web site and divulge your password. Needless to say, you should ignore these messages and neither click on the attachments nor visit the web sites.

On October 22nd, there will be a computer/electronics recycling tent set up outside the student centre run by the Office of Sustainability, University Technology Services and Facility Services. You can take old stuff there and it will either be recycled, safely disposed of or targeted for re-use. UTS staff will be on hand to wipe hard drives clean.

The full announcement follow ...

There are two little things you can do to make large or long-running jobs easier for you and less stressful on the file server: use screen and scratch, respectively.

When you print to the network printers from the linux workstations, you get the square of the number of copies you request. Not a problem for one copy, obviously. Use the photocopier in the office for generating multiple copies: it's cheaper for the department, doesn't interfere with other people's print jobs and doesn't involve doing any math.

We've found that double-clicking on mail attachments in Thunderbird doesn't work under Gnome, though it does under KDE. But there is a simple workaround and also a fix - a wacky one, but an easy one.

Earlier this week, I changed the default desktop interface on the ms workstations from KDE to Gnome. I expected this to affect only new users, but it affected everyone who had never changed from the previous default.

You can revert to KDE if you wish by selecting it from the Session menu on the login screen.

Some people were having trouble with access to their home directories (or logging in) from their workstations this afternoon; I believe that the problem is resolved.