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Table Of Contents


  Welcome to the Computer Centre !
 

Introduction

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all new staff and students to the campus and to introduce our
Computer Centre's facilities and services.  To our old users, I would also like to highlight some new development on hardware and software and new services introduced in the last few months.

The Computer Centre provides a wide range of computer and network facilities to meet the different information technology (IT) needs of teaching, learning, research and administration in the University.  All our new staff and
students are entitled to register for an email account on one of our servers and be given access to our campus network and access to Internet from the campus as well as from home.  It is important during your association with the University that you should acquaint yourself with the numerous IT services available to you.

To our old users, I am sure you will appreciate that it was a particularly busy year for the Computer Centre last year.  There were quite a few significant new developments and our staff were very busy with many activities.  With the University embarking on the vision of a "Digital University", the Computer Centre is doing our best to
support this vision.  Our ATM-based campus network is now up and running, our servers for supporting "Access Everywhere" network (ACEnet) are installed, our major administrative applications were re-developed to support the changing environment and our services have been expanding and improving.

The University has also started a notebook initiative, under the auspices of the IT and Teaching Task Force, for freshmen undergraduates in September 1998.  This is the University's strategy to move towards ubiquitous access for our students and to build up our IT leadership in teaching and learning.  The Computer Centre has been building up the necessary infrastructure and applications for this new development of our University.

Location

The Computer Centre is primarily located on the first and second floors of Run Run Shaw Building, with various offices distributed in the Old Library Building, Eliot Hall and the Dental Hospital.  Other than the PCs and Macs installed in the open space areas in the Run Run Shaw Building and in the Old Library Building, we also have PC laboratories set up in the vicinity as well as in the different buildings of the University, including Knowles Building, Main Building, KK Leung Building, Runme Shaw Building, Composite Building, Chong Yuet Ming Building, buildings in the Medical and Dental campuses, and the Student Amenities Centres.

With the building up of the ACEnet for supporting roaming network access by students, the Computer Centre has set up two laboratories for ACEnet access, namely, Room 113 of Run Run Shaw Building and Room 136 of Old Library Building.  These two laboratories are set up for open access by students with their notebook computers, but teachers can also book these laboratories for classroom use.
 

Central IT Services

The Computer Centre offers a comprehensive information technology service to staff and students of the University. Services include access to our various computer servers, including an IBM SP supercomputer with 32 parallel processor nodes (being upgraded to 48 nodes), training courses on the usage of our facilities, provision of numerous popular PC software, electronic mail, access to the Internet, World-Wide-Web and News bulletin, etc.  We also provide services, on a chargeable basis, for PC and system maintenance, development of web pages, web-based course materials and other software development for office automation.

To provide our users with the necessary skills to use our provisions, we offer regular training courses on all of our computer facilities and numerous PC software, email, the Internet, World Wide Web, news bulletin service and multi-media facilities.  Our courses are much in demand and we are often overwhelmed with applications to all these courses.  Users are advised to register early to secure your seats if you do not want to be disappointed.  All our courses can be booked over the Intranet.  Special training can also be arranged for departments at very reasonable cost.

We maintain a library of computer periodicals, reference manuals and books, which are available for short-term loan from our General Office located in Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building.  We also have a Help Desk set up in the Computer Centre (Room RR108) to assist our users in computer and network problems (Tel no: 2859-2480) during office hours.  Alternatively, you can direct your enquiries and requests for support electronically at email address ithelp@hku.hk.  We respond openly to enquiries put up on the news bulletin board, hku.cc.forum, on a weekly basis.

We do receive a lot of feedback from our users and we strive to respond positively.  We have set up performance pledges with an objective to improve our quality of service.
 

Central Computer Servers

The Computer Centre operates a variety of powerful time-sharing servers of different platform ranging from 32-bit to 64-bit architecture, and from serial to parallel processing for supporting the University's teaching,
learning, research activities and network communications needs.  The central computer server facilities have been much enhanced this year with system upgrades and installation of new systems.

One of the major system work is an upgrade of the University's IBM SP2 supercomputer.  Work is being
carried on by IBM engineers and Computer Centre systems staff to upgrade the existing 32-node system to a 48-node system with new CPUs.  The peak processing speed of the new system is over 30 GFLOPS (30 billions floating-point operations per second), which is about 4 times that of the existing system.  It is one of the fastest supercomputers in this region of the world.  The disk storage available for users will be much increased - the new system is equipped with 200 GB disk storage which is more than 16 times that of the existing system.  The installation of the 48-node IBM RS6000 SP supercomputer should be a very valuable addition to the central computing resource for the University's researchers who are working on computation-intensive
research projects.  The installation and testing of the new system may take 1-2 months' time since we are upgrading in phases so as to minimize disruption to our users.  We expect that the new supercomputer will be put into service by December 1998.

Over the summer, the Computer Centre has also installed another IBM RS6000 SP system which consists of 8 SMP (symmetric multi-processing) nodes with a total of 24 processors for supporting the University much enhanced Campus Network, and the ACEnet (Access Everywhere Network) in particular.  The 8 powerful computer nodes of this IBM SP system have been configured to provide high-availability and high-performance functions of the sophisticated network services supported by the Computer Centre, namely the network firewall and access authentication server, high-capacity WWW proxy, file and printer servers and electronic-
course server.

The HKUSUA (SUN SPARCcentre 2000E with 12 CPUs) and HKUSUB (SUN Enterprise 6000 with 8 CPUs) will remain our systems for supporting the general computing and network communication needs of all staff and students.  During the summer, both systems have been upgraded to the latest Solaris 2.6 operating system which is now Year 2000 (Y2K)  compliant and more efficient.  These two systems are now
supported by a high-capacity and high-availability NFS server which provides 90 GB of disk storage for our 14,000 users.

The NFS server for HKUSUA and HKUSUB is based on the High-Availability cluster of HKUSUC (SUN SPARCcentre 2000E with 10 CPUs) and HKUSUD (SUN Enterprise 6000 with 8 CPUs).  Both HKUSUC and HKUSUD have also been upgraded to Solaris 2.6 for Y2K compliance and improved performance.  This
cluster of servers supports the University's central World-Wide-Web server, proxy server and Usenet News server.

The Intranet and UIS (University Information System) servers have also been upgrade to Solaris 2.6.  In addition, we are working to upgrade them to form a high-availability cluster to provide for resilient services of the important functions of Intranet and UIS.  UIS serves as the prime system for access to management and administrative information.  Through UIS, heads of departments can enquire all the information through the network while individual staff members can enquire their personal and financial information through the user-friendly web-interface.
 
The HKUCC system, which supports the electronic mail service of many staff users, is also getting out-dated.  With the much-increased use of electronic mail, the system is becoming inadequate to cope with the demand.  It will be shortly be replaced by a high-availability system of two DEC Alphaserver 1200/533 computers with 150 GB user disk storage.  They should provide the sufficient capacity for meeting the users' needs in the digital age of the University.  The new system is about 10 times faster and has 10 times more disk storage.  It is our plan to put the new system into service in December.  In migrating from the old system to the new one, our staff will provide the necessary training and assistance to the users so that they can get familiar with the new system environment quickly and convert their applications and data with minimum difficulties.

In addition, a SUN UltraSPARC 10 server and an IBM RS6000 F50 server have been installed for upgrading the performance of the central HKUGIS server (for Geographical Information System applications) and for augmenting the systems in the support of the University's administration respectively.

Lastly, the UNIX Workstations laboratory in Room RR-210 has been upgraded.  It now includes four SUN UltraSPARC 5 and ten UltraSPARC 4 workstations.  All the workstations are configured with 64 MB of memory.  A screen projection system has been newly installed to facilitate teaching in the laboratory.

All our servers and network operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They are, however, running unattended on Sundays and public holidays.  With the constant demand for support outside of office hours, we are now gearing up to extend our hours of service.  I shall inform users accordingly when the plan can be finalized.
 

Upgrade of PC facilities

Starting from the beginning of the 1998 academic year, all PCs in Room RR-103 of Run Run Shaw Building (46 sets) and those in Rooms OLB-134 and OLB-135 in the Old Library Building (102 sets) have been upgraded from 486 PCs to the new Pentium-II 333 MHz model which are configured with 64 MB RAM.  Other PC facilities of the Centre include 21 Pentium-Pro 200 MHz PCs in Room RR-101 and 25 Pentium 120 MHz PCs in Room RR-201.

Flexible PC starting procedures have been implemented so that users can select to use a wide variety of English and Chinese versions of software under the Window 95 environment.  Those PCs set up in Room OLB-135, Old Library Building can also be chosen to operate in the latest Windows 98 environment.

The provision of laser-printing service in the Computer Center laboratories has totally been re-engineered.  The
previous manual scheme is now replaced by an automatic printing budget deduction scheme which is much more
convenient and flexible than before.  Users can now acquire laser-printing units which are kept with their central
computer (HKUSUA) accounts and students can print in any of the above-mentioned Computer Centre laboratories any time.  The printing service hours is in effect extended from the previous 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to 24-hours operation.

The Computer Centre also arranges site-licensing of many popular software as well as bulk-purchasing agreement on PC hardware and software from vendors, many of which are operated through the auspices of JUCC (Joint Universities Computer Centre).  Users are welcome to enquire on these low-cost hardware/software arrangements from our webpage at http://www.itservices.hku.hk or from our General Office at Room RR-223, Run Run Shaw Building.
 

Upgrade of Campus Network

In the past 14 months, my colleagues in the Computer Center have been working extremely hard in the implementation of the major upgrade of the University's Campus Network.  The project is now close to completion and many of the facilities have been put into service.

The University's Campus Network backbone has been upgraded in the summer to increase the capacity and bandwidth for supporting the vision of a "Digital University".  The HKU ATM backbone network is now the most sophisticated in Hong Kong with over 30 high-capacity backbone switches/routers, 50 fibre OC-3 (155 Mbps) ATM links, 100 Gbps switching speed, hundreds of edge network devices and 10,000
FastEthernet (100 Mbps) network ports.

All the halls of student residence have been networked.  Each hall resident is now provided with a network connection point in his/her room for them to gain access to the information resources and facilities available on the University Intranet and international Internet.  An Access Everywhere (ACEnet) environment with a total of 4000 network access points is being implemented throughout the University's Main Campus, Medical Campus and Prince Philip Dental Hospital premises.  The ACEnet is very flexible and fully supports students to use their notebook computers at various locations in the campus and and have roaming access to the University network easily and conveniently.

A thousand ACEnet points in the Libraries, Computer Centre and the different Student Amenities Centres have been put into operation since the start of the academic year.  The installation of ACEnet points at other locations are also coming into place on schedule.  All the work except those in the Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) Complex will be completed by the end of October.  For the QMH area, we are working closely with the hospital administration with an aim to complete that part of work by early 1999.

All the old coaxial network points installed years ago are also being replaced by 100 Mbps FastEthernet connections.  Nearly all parts of the network cabling and device installation have been completed.  There has been some delay for part of the QMH complex due to seeking work approval from the hospital administration.  We shall soon work with departments in migrating the PC computers from the old coaxial network to the upgraded network.
 

Dial-up Access to Network

The dial-up facilities of the Computer Centre has been substantially improved this year.  The number of dial-up
lines now available is more than 4 times than that of last year.  These include 574 high-speed V.90/x2 56-Kbps lines and 108 V.34 28.8-Kbps lines.  Our monitoring shows that demand of dial-up access is so high that recently the utilization has reached 100% during the peak hours from 9:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.  To improve the situation further, additional lines will be installed.  We are also considering making arrangements with commercial ISPs for providing low-cost PPP access.
 

HARNET and Internet Upgrade

The Computer Centre has been working closely with JUCC (Joint University Computer Centre) during the summer to upgrade our Internet connection to provide better access to Internet.  Users may be interested in knowing that the upgrade has been completed since the beginning of October.  The speed of the HARNET-Internet connection has been doubled and now runs at 12 Mbps.  In addition to this dedicated link
to the U.S., international WWW access is also provided by another connection to the NetPlus of the Hong Kong Telecom through two JUCC proxy servers.

The local HARNET backbone has also been upgraded.  The speed of the inter-institutional network connection has been doubled, from 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps, through public ATM service.  The resilience of the public ATM network configuration is also improved.
 

New Administrative Applications

In the past year, the Computer Centre has been working closely with the University administration to develop a few major administrative systems.  The Oracle Financial system was the first one implemented early in 1998.  It replaces our legacy ledger and purchasing systems, providing departments with an online ordering system with immediate fund checking.  The student system, named Student Connect, is another major system that we have developed with the Registry, providing online admission and course registartion through web-interface.  Individual time-tables for students are automatically drawn up.  Other modules including examination time-tabling, transcripts etc are now being developed.  Still another system is the University Smart Card system which the University has worked with the Bank of East Asia in providing an electronic-cash function and the
University staff and student card for access control and other functions.
 

Web-based Courses

To assist teachers in the University to develop web-based courseware, we have installed a software, WebCT, developed by the University of British Columbia in Canada on our IBM SP computer.  Intensive training courses have been offered to our teachers.  We also offer free advice to teachers and provide assistance to get student helpers to assist in their development on a chargeable basis.  A number of interesting courses have been developed and we are seeing more and more teachers getting interested.  Automatic student account
creation has also been developed to facilitate the management of the courses.

WebCT has also been used as the software platform to develop the course "Foundation to Information Technology", which the Computer Centre has worked with the Department of Computer Science and the Library to deliver the course in electronic form.

 
Year 2000 Compliance

As we get closer to the turn of the century, the Year 2000 compliance (Y2K) issue is looming over us.  The Computer Centre has taken up the coordinating role in driving the University toward compliance by end of June 1999.  The Y2K problem could be potentially dangerous.  We are systematically working with the departments in the University to ensure that they are aware of the problem, that they will take inventory of their systems which could be affected and that steps will be taken to test the systems and replace or convert them as appropriate.  If you are unsure of the issues and do not know what to do, you are advised to contact the Computer Centre as soon as possible.
 

User Services Handbooks

To assist users in using our services and facilities, we have been continuously updating our User Guides and
Computing Services Handbooks.  These publications provide the basic information enabling our users to start using our facilities.  They also indicate where additional details can be found.  A new Computing Services Handbook has just been published in September 1998 which provides details of our facilities and services we provide.  Other publications are constantly updated to reflect the latest information. These publications can be purchased at nominal cost from our General Office.  They are also placed online in our Centre's web pages for electronic access.
 

Computer News

This newsletter, Computer News, is one of our means of  communication with our users.  The Computer News is published electronically and only the content page and the training courses are published in paper form.  You can access Computer News from our Centre's webpage.
 

Concluding Remarks

Here, I have summarized the numerous facilities and services supported by the Computer Centre and to introduce the new developments that we have achieved in the last few months.  It is by no means a complete account of what we have done.  Please read other articles in this newsletter and other Centre publications to get all the details.

I hope you will enjoy reading the Computer News and find the information useful.  Your feedback and comments are always welcome.  It will certainly help us improve on our services and guide us to develop those services that are important to you.

N Ng
Director, Computer Centre
Tel.: 2859 2491
E-mail: nng@cc.hku.hk


  Progress of the Campus Network Major Upgrade

We are happy to report that, as a result of intensive work this summer, Phases II and III of the Campus Network Major Upgrade are now near completion. The network points installed all over the Main Campus, the Sassoon Rd. Campus and the Prince Philip Dental Hospital are being put into operation. They are expected to be fully in service by end of October. We are also working closely with the Queen Mary Hospital administration to start the installation for the QMH compound soon. As cable installation in the Professorial Block and the New Clinical Building has to go in tandem with their ceiling replacement project, we anticipate the network points on the QMH premises to be operating by early 1999.

Up to the present, the completion status and schedule are as follows :
 
 
 

Completed  by late August:
  • Chong Yuet Ming Amenities Centre 
    		•
    Completed by early September: Completed by mid-September: Completed by late-September:
  • Chong Yuet Ming Chemistry Building 
  • Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building 
  • James Lee Building
  • Swire Building
    		•
  • Hsu Long Sing Amenities Centre
  • Library Building, New Wing
  • Patrick Manson Building, North Wing
  • Pauline Chan Building 
    		•
  • Knowles Building 
  • K.K. Leung Building
  • Li Shu Fan Building
  • Library Building, Old Wing
  • Meng Wah Complex
  • Run Run Shaw Building
    		•
    Completed by mid-October:
  • Chow Yei Ching Building 
  • Haking Wong Building 
  • Hui Oi chow Building
  • Hung Hing Ying Building 
  • Pao Siu Loong Building
  • Pathology Building 
  • Prince Philip Dental Hospital
  • Runme Shaw Building 
  • Tang Chi Ngong Building 
    		•
    To be completed by late October: 

  • Dexter H.C. Man Building
  • Eliot Hall 
  • Estates Building
  • Games Room by the side of R. C. Lee Hall
  • Lindsay Ride Sports Centre
  • Medical Society office (by the side of Madam S.H. Ho Hall)
  • Main Building
  • Patrick Manson Building, South Wing 
  • Weilun Hall 
  • Yam Pak Building 

    • To be completed by early 1999 :
  • QMH premises 
    		•

     

    HKU Access Everywhere Network (ACEnet) for Notebook Computer Users

    Since the summer of 1998, in addition to over 10000 network connection points installed in offices and residential halls, 4000 network connection points have been installed in many parts of the University's campuses to build an Access Everywhere Network (ACEnet) environment for students' roaming network access within the University campus. 

     

    The locations of the ACEnet connection points are distributed evenly throughout the campus.

    Central computing services are provided to members of the University on the strict understanding that they are used solely for academic purposes. Users should understand the Policies and Regulations governing the use of central computing services.

    Users of pre-configured IBM ThinkPad notebook computers purchased through the University please follow the procedures below to connect your computer to ACEnet and print from ACEnet.
     
     

    Users of non-preconfigured Windows 95 or 98 notebook computers please follow the procedures below to connect your computer to ACEnet and print from ACEnet.

    Users of Macintosh notebook computers please follow the procedure below to connect your computer to ACEnet.

    M. C. Pong
    Tel: 2859 2491
    E-mail: mcpong@hku.hk

    New 56Kbps Modem Lines

    We are pleased to announce that 336 new lines were added to the x2/V.90 standards 56Kbps modem pools on 31 August and 2 September 1998.  This upgrade operation has expanded the 56Kbps modem pools to support a total of 576 lines. Moreover, all 56Kbps modem servers are upgraded to support both x2 and V.90 56Kbps standards. Users using modems which support either x2 or V.90 standard can connect at data transfer rate higher than 33.6Kbps. The data transfer rate can achieve up to 50Kbps depending on the quality of the users' telephone lines. Users using modems of other types, including K56flex standard modem, can connect at a maximum data transfer rate of 33.6Kbps.
     
     

    x2/V.90 standards 56Kbps Modem pool Tel. no. No. of lines
    one-hour 56Kbps modem pool for all users  29757000  408
    half-hour 56Kbps modem pool for all users  21057100 96
    one-hour 56Kbps modem pool for staff only  28595100 72
    Total:  576

    HKUPPP Package for Windows 3.1 Phased Out

    The HKUPPP Package for Windows 3.1 is no longer available at the General Office (Room RR-223). Nevertheless, users can still download the HKUPPP package for Windows 3.1 from the FTP server at ftp://ftp.hku.hk/pub/hkuppp/win31/ and follow the instructions at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/services/hkuppp/ppp56k-w31.htm to connect to the 56Kbps modem pools.

    Users are encouraged to convert to Windows 95 or Windows 98 for connecting to the 56Kbps modem pools.  The HKUNAP package for Windows 95 (also installable on Windows 98) for dial-up connections is purchasable from the General Office. Users can also download the package from ftp://ftp.hku.hk/pub/hkunap/win95/ to 11 floppy diskettes. Please read the file README.TXT in the HKUNAP package carefully before the installation.

    Thomas Y. T. Lee
    Tel: 28597977
    E-mail: ytlee@cc.hku.hk

     

     This is the fourth of a series of articles on the progress of the Y2K project since issue no. 72 of the Computer News.

    Each department/unit received a questionnaire in July this year which we sent out to ascertain the general level of Y2K compliance in the university.  The response was good and only a few departments have not yet replied.  Analysis of the data so far gathered has clearly shown that outside the Computer Centre, PC systems are the biggest and most widespread problem area.  We are therefore treating this as our priority task for the present.  We will turn to network and host system difficulties as soon as the PC initiative has been properly launched.

    In order to plan our Y2K training and consultancy programme we will need to collect more detailed information about non-compliant PC systems from your department's Y2K coordinator.  We need to know which particular hardware and software is causing your problems so that we can assemble the expertise to deal with it.

    Each department is responsible for its own Y2K compliance programme but the Computer Centre will take the lead in coordinating the project and in offering assistance wherever possible.  The following is a list of the Computer Centre's key Y2K commitments to departments:
     

    Please note that the Computer Centre does not have funds to replace any hardware in departments other than as part of the existing rolling replacement plan for PCs.  This plan should ensure that all PCs issued to Terms of Service I staff should have been replaced by compliant machines by the end of next year.  However department heads may have passed on some of the non-compliant machines to clerical and other staff.  Any replacement costs for these machines is entirely the responsibility of departments.

    In the case of very specialised systems such as some host computers and all embedded systems it is likely that support can only really come from vendors.

    D.P. Carthy
    Tel: 2857 8594
    Email: dpc@cc.hku.hk


    IBM SP2 Supercomputer Upgrade

    Last month we had mentioned that in order to provide improved support for computation-intensive research projects of the University, we have placed an order in June to upgrade our existing HKUSP2 system (an IBM 9076 SP2 system) to a much more powerful RS6000/SP 48-node model.

    With the U.S. Export License approved in late August, the upgrade kit has finally arrived in Hong Kong, and the hardware installation/upgrade is now proceeding.  We expect the upgraded system to be fully operating in the middle of November.

    In the middle of September, account renewal forms have been sent to all existing users of the HKUSP2 system.  For users who have not sent back their renewal form, their accounts in the HKUSP2 system have been disabled.  In case they want to reactivate their HKUSP2 accounts, they should contact the undersigned.
     
    Mr. Kwan Wing Keung
    Tel : (852) 2857 8631
    E-mail : hcxckwk@hkucc.hku.hk

    Mr Woo Chat Ming
    Tel : (852) 2857 8632
    E-mail : cmwoo@hkusua.hku.hk
     

    SAS to terminate on HKURSC in December 1998

    We wish to inform our users that SAS (Statistical Analysis System) on the HKURSC system will be removed when its license expires at the end of December 1998.

    Both HKURSC and HKUSUA host computers are in the same Academic Unix cluster and share the same file system and the username and password file for login. As HKURSC is a relatively slower computer than HKUSUA, and many SAS users have migrated their work from HKURSC to HKUSUA, we have decided to consolidate the SAS system by installing the AF module on HKUSUA and terminate the SAS licence on HKURSC when it expires by the end of December 1998.

    To facilitate the migration of the SAS system from HKURSC to HKUSUA, we have installed SAS on the HKUSUA system.  Users can start to migrate their SAS application programs from HKURSC to HKUSUA by simply logging into the HKUSUA system and run their SAS application programs.

    At present, SAS is installed in the following host computing systems:
     
     

     
    SAS modules HKUCC system HKUSUA system HKURSC system
    BASE Yes Yes Yes
    FSP Yes Yes Yes
    GRAPH Yes Yes Yes
    IML Yes Yes Yes
    STAT Yes Yes Yes
    AF Yes Yes
    ETS Yes Yes
    OR Yes Yes
    ASSIST Yes
    CONNECT Yes

     

    For further enquiries on the migration of the SAS software from HKURSC to HKUSUA in December of 1998, please contact Mr. SL Lee (tel: 2859 7970, e-mail: sllee@hku.hk).

    C.M. Mak
    Tel: 2859 2491
    E-mail: cmmak@hku.hk

    A New IBM SP for supporting HKU ACEnet

    A new 8-node IBM SP (scalable parallel) ) supercomputer is deployed in the setup of ACEnet (Access Everywhere Network).
    This computer is symmetric-multi-processing (SMP) and can run different jobs simultaneously.  In order to enhance the system availability, the 8 nodes are logically divided into 4 units providing the following distinct services:

    Each of these services is provided by a pair of SP nodes by the deployment of HA (high availability) software.  The logical allocation of the 8-node SP computer is shown in the following diagram.


     

    Importance of HA (High Availability)

    HA (High Availability) computing is an essential element in providing a stable and reliable computing environment to end-users.  With the complement of high availability management software, redundant computing devices/peripherals in a high availability system will automatically take over/share the system services whenever any part of the system fails.  This would eliminate any single point failure in the HA system.  With the HA system in place, the system should provide uninterrupted service for all mission critical applications.
     
    File and Print Server

    Two SP2 nodes are configured to upgrade our existing File and Print server.  This file server serves all of our HKU students within the campus network.  By the deployment of IBM HACMP (High Availability Computer Management Program) software, we expect to deliver smooth, non-interruptible computing services to our users.  Moreover, a disk array with raw capacity of 720GB will be put into service soon.  Equipped with this large capacity, more disk space can be allocated to users to cope with their ever-growing demands.

    ACENet Gateway

    The firewall serves as a gateway to connect the ACEnet to the campus Intranet (as well as the Internet).  Apart from this basic functionality, the firewall also imposes security measures to protect the ACEnet from hackers' attacks.  The firewall closely monitors the data going in/out of the ACEnet, and drops/rejects any suspicious data/connections according to the computing policy of the Computer Centre.

    ACEnet Proxy

    The proxy server provides an intelligent caching system to speed up web access.  Having two SP nodes running the HACMP software, the proxy server not only speeds up the ACEnet users' web access but also reduces the Internet traffic significantly.  This would improve the overall throughput of our campus network.

    WebCT Server

    WebCT (Web Course Tools) is a user-friendly tool for teaching staff to publish their course materials on the campus Intranet.  Again, the WebCT server is maintained by 2 of the 8 SP nodes running in parallel to provide speedy and reliable access.  By publishing the course materials online, students can easily access useful information anywhere in the campus via ACEnet or any other Computer Centre access points.

    The launch of ACENet and its complementary computing services promote the use of IT (information technology) in education.  This marks a significant milestone towards the proposed  Digital University Initiative.

    T.Y. Kan
    Tel: 2859 7979
    E-mail: kty@cc.hku.hk


    Revised Laser Printing Service in Computer Centre's Microcomputer Laboratories

    Since September 1, 1998, laser printing is available throughout the day in the Run Run Shaw Building Room 103, and the Old Library Building Room 134. Each of these two PC laboratories is equipped with three 24 page/minute black and white laser printers and one 10 page/minute colour laser printer. With the self-service of printout collection and automated payment from the print budget, laser printing is no longer limited to office hours.

    Self-service laser printing 

    Laser printing now operates in a self-service mode. Users can collect their printout directly from the laser printers themselves and the equivalent number of units for the number of pages printed will be automatically deducted from the users' laser printing budget in their HKUSUA account.

    One-time 50 free laser printing units for general accounts on HKUSUA

    To use the laser printing service at the Computer Centre's microcomputer laboratories, the user must have a HKUSUA account. At account creation time, each staff or student is allocated 50 free laser printing units.  For existing HKUSUA accounts, the one-time 50 free laser printing units have been added to their account on September 1, 1998.

    Laser Printing Budget

    The laser printing budget is similar to the laser printing coupon in operation.  Each A4-size black and white page is charged 1 unit while a color page is charged 10 units.

    When a user's printing budget is overdrawn, he will not be able to print until he replenishes his printing budget. Users can purchase the laser printing budget at HK$20 for 50 units from the Centre's General Office at Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building or at the Enquiry Counter at Room 134, Old Library Building during office hours.

    A bonus of 15 laser printing units will be added to the user's printing budget for each used printing coupon returned to the Computer Centre. When additional budget is purchased, the balance of the printing units is calculated after the overdraft (if any) is deducted. Unused laser printing units are not refundable.

    Unused Printing Units on existing Laser Printing Coupons

    During the period of September 1, 1998 to December 31, 1998, users can return their laser printing coupons to the Centre's General Office at Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building or the Enquiry Counter at Old Library Building and the number of un-used coupon units will be credited to their laser printing budget.

    Collection of Laser Printout

    In the Centre's microcomputer laboratories, each laser printer is labelled with its print queue name and each PC or Macintosh workstation is associated with a default print queue. The user should note the name of the print queue to which he has sent his file for printing. He can then go to the laser printer labelled with the respective print queue name to collect his printout. The user should check carefully that the printout is his, and leave other users' printout in the output stack of the laser printer.  Any printout taken by mistake should immediately be returned to the output stack of the respective laser printer.

    Disposal of uncollected laser printout

    On each laser printer, there is a tray to hold any uncollected printout from that printer. The tray is emptied everyday at 8:30a.m. and uncollected printout from the previous day is placed on a box on top of the laser printer. Uncollected laser printout older than one day is discarded without notice.

    Laser Printing Budget Usage Enquiry

    A user can enquire about his laser printing budget usage using a web browser at url: "http://web.hku.hk/prtquota.html" and then enter the account name and password of his HKUSUA account. This will display the user's remaining budget and his print history.

    Checking the status of a Laser Printing Job in the Laser Print Queue

    A user can check the status of his laser printing job in the laser print queue at url: "http://web.hku.hk/LPRng ".
    Then click the "Show printers in All locations" and then click the required print queue name to display the printer status and all print requests on that printer. The print requests are processed in sequential order. If there are print requests in the print queue but the printer does not seem to be working, the user can inform our operations staff in the Computer Room at Room 108, Run Run Shaw Building for assistance.

    Cancelling a Laser Printing Job

    Before a print request is processed by the printer, it is possible to cancel the print request using a web browser at url: http://web.hku.hk/lpqinfo.html. After entering the user's hkusua username and password, select "Check job in queue" to view his queued print jobs or select "Remove all jobs in queue" to delete all submitted print jobs.
    .
    C.M. Mak
    Tel: 2859 2491
    E-mail: cmmak@hku.hk


    Adding Netscape Communicator 4.06 and Real Player 5.0 to Your Local Hard Disk

    For your convenience, a new program folder called "Install Software on PC" has been added to the "HKUWIN - Central Network Services" program group. This program folder contains the latest versions of some software for you to install on your local hard disk.

    When you click on the "Install Software on PC" icon, the following window will pop up. There are currently three new software for you to install: Netscape 4.06 and Real Player 5.0 for the Chinese and English windows.  More software will be added as they are acquired.

    To install the software, simply double click on the corresponding icons and follow the step-by-step instructions for completing the installation.

    For more details, please contact the undersigned.

    Vitus Lam
    Tel: 2859 2484
    E-mail: lsw@cc.hku.hk


    New and Fast Laser Printers in Room RR-103 and OLB-134   

    We are pleased to announce that laser printers in Room RR-103 and OLB-134 have been replaced by 6 new HP LaserJet 8000N black and white printers and 2 new HP Color LaserJet 5M colour printers. The new printers in Room RR-103 are located at the same location as the old printers while the new printers in Room OLB-134 are placed along the separation wall between Room OLB-134 and Room OLB-135.

    The LaserJet 8000N printer comes with a 24-page-per-minute printing engine for supporting high speed printing. The 4 input trays of the printer can provide a total capacity of 3000 sheets of A4-size papers for high volume printing. It supports HP PCL 5e, HP PCL6 and Postscript Level 2 emulation.

    The Color LaserJet 5M printer can print 10 pages of black and white documents per minute and 2 to 3 pages of color documents per minute. The paper tray of the printer has a capacity of 250 sheets of A4-size papers.

    To print to these printers from your application programs, all you need to do is to select one of the printers from the following list of printer names before printing:

    All these printers are running when the PC and Macintosh Laboratories are open. The printers are operating in self-service mode and users are reminded to collect their own printouts as soon as they are available. Uncollected papers will be removed from the printers every now and then.

    The status of the print jobs can be checked at the web page http://web.hku.hk/LPRng while the user's printing budget can be enquired at the web page http://web.hku.hk/prtquota.html.

    Print Queue Display Stations are placed near the printers in Room RR-103 and Room OLB-134 so that the user can view the queues of print jobs sent to each printer. The following is a display of the print queue status.  It shows that there are 3 print jobs in the print queue of the printer named "HP LaserJet 8000 (1) in RR103". Notice that if there are print jobs shown in red, this signifies that there are some problems with those print jobs. Users should report them to the operations staff in the computer room (Room RR-108) so that the operations staff can remove the problematic print jobs from the print queue.

    A user can also double-click on the program icon "Print Job Management" in the "Computer Centre Software" program group on a PC in the PC Laboratories to view or delete his own print jobs. The user is required to type in his HKUSUA username and password as shown in the following screen before performing the required actions.

    For more details, please contact the undersigned.

    Vitus Lam
    Tel: 2859 2484
    E-mail: lsw@cc.hku.hk

    Laser printing from Macintosh in Room RR-104

    We are pleased to announce that the DAVE program is installed on the Macintosh computers at the Computer Centre's Macintosh Laboratory located at Run Run Shaw Building Room RR-104.

    Currently, the laser printers in the student laboratories are managed by the Samba software installed on the HKUSUA host computer. DAVE is a program which enables Macintosh users to login the Samba software
    using the HKUSUA account name and password and then print to the laser printers in Room RR-103.

    Printing units will be deducted from the user's printing budget in his HKUSUA account depending on the type of print-out requested:

  • 1 unit per black-and-white page
  • 10 units per color page

    • Procedure to login HKUSUA through DAVE on a Macintosh

    When a Macintosh is powered on, the DAVE 'Network Logon' window will be shown as follows:

    When the 'Network Logon' window appears, you can connect to the Samba software by filling in the data fields and then click the 'OK' button:

    "User name:" --- HKUSUA computer account name
    "Password:" --- HKUSUA computer account password
    "Domain:" --- HKUSUA

    If you click on the 'Cancel' button, the system would bypass the 'Network Logon' procedure.  You can get the 'Network Logon' window again in the middle of your Macintosh session by clicking on the 'DAVE Access' button in the 'Application' menu and select the 'Logon' entry from the Access menu.

    Should you have any questions regarding the DAVE program, please contact the undersigned.

    Lui Tun Yee
    Tel: 2857 8633
    E-mail: lty@cc.hku.hk


    Staff News

    The Computer Centre welcomes our new colleagues Mr Chang Kai Cheong who joined the Centre on September 1, and Mr Poon Sze Kit, George who joined on September 14 to the Systems team and the PC and Network team respectively.

    We said farewell to Miss Sarah Tam who left the Computer Centre in September of 1998 to pursue her new interests.

    Training News

    The Computer Centre is pleased to announce a series of courses between November 1998 and January 1999 to assist staff and students in using our Centre's facilities. The courses will cover the following areas:
     
     

    • Spreadsheet
    • Word Processing
    • Chinese Information Handling
    • Unix System and Application Software
    • Web Course Tools
    • Internet Browsing & Web-page Authoring
    • PC and Network Services
    • Parallel Programming

    The courses are open to all staff and students.  Some courses may require pre-requisite knowledge. Users can apply for these courses through the "CC Course Registration" icon in the HKUWIN or select "Computer Courses" from the Centre's homepage at URL http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/courses.htm. Otherwise, users can make their applications by completing and returning the Registration Form obtainable from the General Office (Room RR-223) in the Computer Centre.


    Course Schedule from November to January 1999

    Register on our Intranet Systems for Staff or Intranet Systems for Students. 
     
     

    Courses on Parallel Programming
     

    C0113798 High Performance FORTRAN November 2, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    November 3, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    November 4, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0413598 SP2 Parallel Programming with Workshop November 12, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0213898 Introduction to FORTRAN 90 December 2, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    December 3, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    December 4, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0213798 High Performance FORTRAN December 7, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    December 8, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    December 9, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0513598 SP2 Parallel Programming with Workshop December 18, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm     		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0313898 Introduction to FORTRAN 90 January 11, 1999 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    January 12, 1999 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
    January 13, 1999 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm     		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101
    C0613598 SP2 Parallel Programming with Workshop January 19, 1999 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-101

     

    Courses on Web Browsing, Webpage Authoring and
    Web Course Tools
     
     

    C0115398 WebCT Course Designer's Advanced 
    Workshop    		 November 7, 1998 
    9:30 am - 11:30 am    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0314098 Getting Started with Internet Services and 
    WWW    		 November 9, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 am    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0414098 Getting Started with Internet  Services and 
    WWW    		 December 10, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 am    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    C0315198 Web Authoring using Netscape 4 December 15, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0415198 Web Authoring using Netscape 4 January 21, 1999 
    9:30 am - 12:30 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201

     

    Courses on Unix System and Application Software
     

    C0211898 Introduction to UNIX November 19, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0311898 Introduction to UNIX November 26, 1998 
    2:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0110698 Seminar on MATLAB November 30, 1998 
    3:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0110598 Seminar on Mathematica December 14, 1998 
    3:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201
    C0212298 Seminar on MAPLE V January 5, 1999 
    3:00 pm - 5:00 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
    RR-201

     

    Courses on Microsoft Office and Other Topics
     

    W0280898 Chinese Inputing Method & 
    Chinese Word 97 for Windows 95    		 November 23, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    November 24, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    November 25, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    W0280798 MS Excel 97 for Windows 95 November 30, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    December 1, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    December 2, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    W0280598 Adobe Photoshop 4.0 for Windows 95 December 7, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    December 8, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm     		 OLd Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    W0280698 MS Word 97 for Windows 95 December 14, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    December 15, 1998 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    December 16, 1998 
    9:30 am - 12:30 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    W0380898 Chinese Inputing Method & 
    Chinese Word 97 for Windows 95    		 January 13, 1999 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm 
    January 14, 1999 
    9:30 am - 4:30 pm     		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135

     

    Courses on PC and Network Services
     

    C0211998 PC and Network Services Seminar  November 13, 1998 
    9:30 am- 12:30 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-135
    C0311998 PC and Network Services Seminar  December 1, 1998 
    9:30 am- 12:30 pm    		 Run Run Shaw Building 
    RR-201
    C0115498 Connecting Notebook Computers in 
    ACEnet and in Offices    		 November 16, 1998 
    3:00 pm - 4:00 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-136
    C0215498 Connecting Notebook Computers in 
    ACEnet and in Offices    		 November 30, 1998 
    3:00 pm - 4:00 pm    		 Old Library Building, 
    LBO-136

     
          Register on our Intranet Systems for Staff or Intranet Systems for Students.
     

    Course Descriptions:

    Courses on Internet Browsing and Webpage Authoring 

    Course No. C0314098 & C0414098 - Getting Started with Internet Services and WWW

    This is a 3-hour introductory course. It shows the users how they can obtain information and services offered by the Computer Centre and the Internet.
     

    New WebCT Training Courses

    Course No. C0315198 & C0415198 - Web Authoring Using Netscape Communicator 4

    This 3-hour course will discuss the basic HTML editing skills using Communicator 4. Note that although this is a general HTML editing training that is also suitable for web masters, priority will be given to those who are taking this training for preparing courses on WebCT.
     

    Course No. C0215498 - WebCT Course Designer's Advanced Workshop

    This 2-hour course will cover more advanced features for course designers, e.g. preparing on-line quizzes, checking statistical data, managing student records. Note that knowledge on topics covered in WebCT Course Designer's Basic Workshop is a pre-requisite for attending this session.
     
     

    Courses on Unix System and Application Software

    Course No. C0211898 & C0311898 - Introduction to UNIX

    This is a 3-hour introductory course for users with little or noUnix experience. The course will cover the Unix environment in the University, the Unix file system, the editor, electronic communication and other hints to better user the Unix facilities.

    Course No. C0212298 - Seminar on MAPLE V

    MAPLE V is a system for mathematical computation - symbolic, numeric and graphical. This 2-hour seminar covers an introduction on the package and examples of numerical and symbolic calculations, algebra, calculus, graphics etc.
     

    Course No. C0110698 - Seminar on MATLAB

    MATLAB is an integrated computing environment for numeric computation and visualization. This 2-hour seminar will give an introduction on using MATLAB in numerical analysis, matrix computation and graphics etc.
     

    Course No. C0110598 - Seminar on Mathematica

    Mathematica is a general computer software system and language intended for mathematical and other applications. In this 2-hour seminar, examples of using Mathematica in numerical calculations, graphics, algebra and calculus, solving equations etc, will be shown.

    Course on PC and Network Services

    Course No. C0211998, C0311998 & C0411998 - PC and Network Services Seminar

    This 3-hour course will be divided equally into two parts. The first part will give a description of the HKU campus network, how to access the network and the use of various computer facilities and network services. The emphasis will mainly be on the use of network services which include electronic mail, WWW browsing, News reading, network printing services, dialup access, etc. The second part will be a workshop that gives users some hands-on experience on the use of those network services.
     

    Course No. C0115498 - Connecting Notebook Computers in ACEnet and in Offices 

    This one-hour course will introduce to the staff users how to connect their notebook PCs to the campus network. It will describe the procedure of configurating Windows 95 and installing HKUNAP to enable the notebook PC to access the campus network from the office, from the Access-Everywhere Network (ACEnet), and from home through the modem, Demonstration will be given during the class.
     

    Courses on Parallel Programming

    Course No. C0413598, C0513598 & C0613598 - SP2 Parallel Programming with Workshop

    This is a 3-hour seminar and workshop for people interested in parallel programming using the IBM SP2 Supercomputer. It covers the methodology of writing parallel programs using the message passing interface (MPI). Students should have programming experience in C or Fortran but experience in parallel programming is not needed. Sample programs will be given to users in the hands-on workshop.

    Course No. C0113798 & C0213798 - High Performance FORTRAN

    This 3-hour seminar on High Performance FORTRAN provides an easy way to write data parallel programs in MIMD computers such as the IBM SP2. The High Performance FORTRAN is an extension of the FORTRAN 90 in several areas, including:

    Course No. C0213898 & C0313898 - Introduction to FORTRAN 90 Programming

  • This 9-hour course provides and introduction to the structure and syntax of the FORTRAN 90 language for FORTRAN 77 programmers. After taking this course, users will be able ot wirte FORTRAN 90 programs using arrays and witre reusable and readable codes using the data encapsulation feature of FORTRAN 90.

    • Courses on Microsoft Office and Other Topics

    Course No. W0280598 - Adobe Photoshop 4.0 for Windows 95

    This is a 2-day course on using the Adobe Photoshop, a software for photo retouching, image editing and color painting. This course is suitable for art and graphics designers, electronic publishers, printers and photographers.  Adobe Photoshop 4.0 has many new and enhanced features in auto-updating of formats, multiple layers control, digital watermarks for copyright, 48 effects filters, and progressive JPEG formats for control of quality etc.

    Course Content:

    Course Duration: 12 hours
    Course Fee: $360
    Pre-requisites: The attendees should have experience on using Windows 95

    Course No. W0280698 - Ms Word 97 for Windows 95

    This is a 2 1/2 day course especially designed for users who want to learn how to navigate through and work with documents; manipulate text; change formatting and page layout; and preview and print a document.

    Course Outline :

    Course No. W0280798 - Ms Excel 97 for Windows 95

    The course outline of this 2 1/2-day workshop include :

  • Spreadsheet concepts, basic movement
  • data entry techniques & create formulas
  • using special functions formatting
  • cells formatting, data & formulascell reference
  • workbook save & retrieve
  • using dialog box commands, icons & toolbars
  • creating an embedded chart on worksheets
  • creating graphical objects on worksheets
  • worksheets printing techniques
  • database query and table handling auto filter
  • worksheet and workbook linking
  • useful built-in & functions, PMT, vlookup, (if, sumif)
  • add-in program, auto save
  • graph and picture handling and slide show
  • goal seeking and scenario manager
  • view manager

    •  

    Course No. W0280898 & W0380898 - Chinese Inputting Method & Chinese Word 97*

    This is a 2 1/2-day course especially designed for users who are familiar with the English microcomputer working environment but with little experience on Chinese microcomputer operation. The course will cover :
     

  • Basic principle Changjei Chinese character input method.
  • Basic operation of Microsoft Word 6.0 under the Chinese Windows 3.1 working environment.
  • Techniques and common practices in preparing Chinese document.

    • * The workshops W0280598, W0280898 and W0380898 will be conducted in Cantonese.
    * Enrolment for W0280598, W0280698, W0280798, W0180598, W0280598 and W0380898 is limited to    staff of the University only.

    * The maximum number of participants for workshops held in Room 135, Old Library Building is 25; Room 201,    Run Run Shaw Building is 22; and Room 101, Run Run Shaw Building is 20.

    For courses requiring a fee, please send payment to the Computer Centre together with your registration form, or as soon as you have registered on the web, otherwise your registration is considered invalid and will be replaced by another applicant.  Payment can be made in cash or cheque (payable to the University of Hong Kong), or through departmental requisition (for applicants supported by departments).   Successful applicants will be notified by e-mail or telephone at least one week before the commencement of the workshop. Once accepted, the fee is not refundable. However, substitution of participant is possible by written notification to the Centre.

    * Since the workshops on Chinese Inputting Method & Chinese Word 97 , MS Word 97, MS Excel 97 and Adobe Photoshop 4.0 for Windows are organised in conjunction with a course vendor, the Whiz Company, there will be a nominal charge of HK$360 per participant.