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To promote wider use of the electronic means of information dissemination at the University, the Computer News is now published by the Computer Centre in our website. Only the Table of Contents, the Operations Schedule and the Training News of the Computer News are distributed in printed form to users. To read the Computer News articles, please visit the Computer Centre home page at location http://www.itservices.hku.hk/ and select the hot-link Computer News using any web browser.

For previous issues, please check Computer News Index Page. 


Table Of Contents
Holidays Closed on Re-open on
Winter Solstice December 22, 1999 
 (Wednesday) 5:00 p.m.		 December 23, 1999
 (Thursday) 9:00 a.m
Christmas Holiday December 24, 1999
 (Saturday) 8:30 a.m.		 December 28, 1999
 (Tuesday) 9:00 a.m
New Year Holiday December 31, 1999
 (Friday) 1:00 p.m.		 January 3, 1999
 (Monday) 9:00 a.m

Welcome to the Computer Centre !
 

Introduction

It is the beginning of another new academic year. On behalf of the Computer Centre, I would like to give a warm welcome to all new staff and students to the campus and introduce to them our Centre's wide range of computer facilities and IT services. To our old users, I would also like to update them on the new developments on our hardware, software and services in the last few months.

The Computer Centre provides comprehensive computer facilities and network services to meet the different IT (information technology) needs of teaching, learning, research and administration in the University. It is important during your association with the University to acquaint yourself with the numerous IT services available on campus.

Location

The headquarters of the Computer Centre is located on the first and second floors of the Run Run Shaw Building. The other major site is located on the first floor of the Old Library Building. Students and staff can access the numerous PC's available in the PC laboratories in these two sites, and use our help desk and laser printing services. We also have faculty-based PC laboratories set up in various buildings, including Knowles Building, Main Building, KK Leung Building, Runme Shaw Building, Composite Building, Chong Yuet Ming Building and buildings in the Medical campus, the Dental campus and the Student Amenities Centres.

Central IT Services

All student, faculty and staff members of the University are eligible for free e-mail services and internet access. Computer accounts for first-year undergraduate students are automatically created using their student numbers as account names when they enter the University. Other students, including postgraduate students, and new staff members can apply for an account on our host computer system online via the Intranet web. If you have difficulties in doing this yourself, then go to the Help Desk located at Room 104, Run Run Shaw Building and ask for assistance.

PC Facilities

The Computer Centre provides a large number of PCs (Pentium IIs and IIIs) distributed in various locations across campus for use by all staff and students. To access the PCs, you must have an account on our HKUSUA computer, which is the host system for all students. For staff members whose accounts are on the HKUCC computer and who need to use the PCs in the laboratories, you can always create an account on the HKUSUA computer for yourself. A large variety of popular PC software is installed in the various PC laboratories to meet the different needs of our students. Laser printing service is available on a chargeable basis. All the PC's in the student laboratories are connected to the HKU Campus Network. From the staff offices, access to the network is possible via the departmental LAN file server from PCs connected to the campus network.

The central PC laboratories and multimedia rooms can be booked by teachers for instructional purposes. These laboratories provide network points for teachers to connect their PCs or notebook computers to the network and overhead projection facilities are available. Booking should be made two weeks in advance through the Centre's General Office.

Network Services

Our campus network had a major upgrade as part of the Digital University Initiative last year. We now have a sophisticated high-speed ATM-based network backbone supporting our campus network with over 14,000 network points installed around the campus and in the student residences. ATM WAN links from the University's main campus are set up to provide high-speed network access to the remote campuses in the Queen Mary Hospital area and in the the Prince Philip Dental Hospital compound.

Starting from the last academic year, our first-year undergraduate students have benefited from a student notebook computer programme set up by the University in conjunction with IBM. To provide ubiquitous access for the notebook computers, 4000 ACEnet (Access-Everywhere-Network) network points have been installed throughout the campus so that students can connect to the campus network anywhere on campus. Students residing in halls also have direct access to the campus network from their own bedrooms. All the nine student residential halls provide one network access point for each student through the HKU Hallnet and each room is provided with one telephone. To access either the ACEnet or the Hallnet services, staff and students are reminded that they must register their network cards with the Computer Centre on the Staff or Student Intranet.

Dial-up Access to Network

Furthermore, all staff and students can connect to the HKU campus network from their homes using our dial-up service. This service is provided through our PPP network access account and our HKUNAP network access package which can be downloaded from our ftp site. There are now over 856 lines, mostly supporting 56Kbps V.90 modems, which provides 24-hour access to our network from home.

The Help Desk

Our Help Desk is located at the Run Run Shaw Building (Room RR104). It is set up and attended by our staff to assist our users in computer and network problems during office hours. For people who are not in the vicinity of the Computer Centre, you can call the hotline number at 2958-2480. 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 daily basis.

Computer and Network Equipment Maintenance

The Computer Centre provides an in-house maintenance service for PC and network equipment in the University. Our aim is to provide our departments with a cost-effective, convenient and fast-responding hardware maintenance service to all the PC users in the University. If you are interested in our maintenance service, please enquire about our competitive pricing at Telephone 2859-2495 or come to the General Office for details.

We are pleased to announce a reduction in the maintenance charge for PC equipment since the past summer. The price reduction was brought about by the continuous reduction in the price of PC hardware and equipment and we are passing this benefit to our users. This year, the maintenance charge for all PC models have been reduced, with the most significant drop in the Pentium models. We believe that the new pricing is very attractive and will benefit all PC users in the University as a whole.

Central Computer Servers

We are pleased to inform our users that we are in the process of installing a powerful Sun Enterprise 10000 (Sun E-10000) system, intended to replace two old Sun SparcCentre 2000E (SunSC-2000E) systems which have been supporting the University's central academic computing and World-Wide Web services for more than five years.

When the new E-10000 is installed, the four Sun server systems (two SC-2000E's and two E-6000's) for the existing HKUSUA, HKUSUB, HKUSUC and HKUSUD systems will be re-organised. While the two Sun SC-2000E's will be scheduled to retire, the two Sun E-6000's systems will be re-configured to form an upgraded High-Availability system pair (HKUSUC and HKUSUD) for supporting the University's World-Wide Web (HKUWWW) and the central web-caching proxy services.

New Administrative Applications

Our Staff Intranet and our Student Intranet serve to provide an information service which provides our staff and students with personal access to university information and communication resources. The Computer Centre has adopted the web-based system development strategy two years ago. Most client-based administrative systems have been converted to web-based systems for wider and more user-friendly access. The Student Connect system now provides an entirely web-based student administration system whereby students can register and select courses via the Student Intranet. The University Information System provides departments with all the administrative information that they need on the Staff Intranet.

Web-based Course Development

The Computer Centre supports the use of the web technology in the University's teaching, learning, research and administration by maintaining a powerful information server, special multimedia facilities and providing training courses on learning or teaching on the web. We also support personal homepages.

In-line with the Digital University initiative pursued in HKU to produce an effective teaching and learning environment employing Information Technology, the Computer Centre has introduced a web-based teaching and learning tool, namely the WebCT, in late 1997. Since the introduction of this tool, more than 300 courses have been included in WebCT and the total number of visits to online materials and electronic bulletins by teachers and students was close to 1 million.

In order to promote web-based teaching and the sharing of experiences among electronic course providers, the Computer Centre, with the aid from a group of enthusiastic teachers, has published a booklet called "Web-based Course Development using WebCT at the University of Hong Kong". We hope that this booklet will serve as an example to inspire other colleagues in the university for more creative ideas on how they can use I.T. to help them in their teaching. You can contact our office if you are interested in getting a copy for your own reference.

Year 2000 Compliance

The Year 2000 problem, often called the Y2K bug, is a serious problem that has a major impact on all computers or computer-related hardware and software. The Computer Centre has taken the lead to drive our University towards Y2K compliance starting from more than a year ago. It is my pleasure to inform all our users that our University, with the close cooperation and hard work from all the departments, has achieved Year 2000 readiness for all our mission-critical systems on June 30, 1999 as planned.  The number of non-compliant hardware and software systems in departments has been reduced from 6000 to only a handful in the span of about one year and most departments have completed their departmental Y2K rectification work and contingency plans are being drawn up. A University Y2K Contingency Task Force has been formed, chaired by PVC Professor Felix Wu. The Task Force is set up to deal with any possible Y2K problem that may arise at the critical dates of January 1, 2000 and February 29, 2000.

User Training

To provide our users with the necessary skills to use our systems, we offer regular training courses on all of our computer facilities and PC software, email, World Wide Web, news bulletin service and multi-media facilities. Most computer courses offered by the Computer Centre are free of charge, and those that are provided by external course vendors are charged at cost. Users are advised to register early to secure a place. All our courses can be registered over the Intranet. Special training can also be arranged for departments at very reasonable cost.

User Documentation

We maintain comprehensive documentation on our Centre's hardware, software and services in our Handbooks and the "Computer News". The Handbooks are normally updated once a year before the academic year starts. Other updates on the lastest acquisitions of hardware, software and services are published in the Computer News on a bi-monthly basis. All staff and students are notified by email when a new issue of the Computer News is published. You can of course access Computer News from our Centre's webpage.

We also 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.

Concluding Remarks

Here, I have summarized the numerous facilities and services supported by the Computer Centre and introduced our new developments in the last few months. It is by no means a complete account of what we offer. Please read other articles in this newsletter and our 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


From The Help Desk ...


A New Help Desk Office

The Computer Centre Help Desk located in Run Run Shaw Building has recently been moved from Room 109 to Room 104.  The new Help Desk office is more spacious and closer to the user area in the Run Run Shaw Building.  For users who cannot come to the Help Desk in person, they can call the telephone number at 2859-2480 for assistance.

The Help Desk Opening Hours

Monday-Friday: 9:00a.m-12:30p.m., 2:00p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Saturday : 9:00 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.
For problems found outside of the Help Desk opening hours, users can consult our  Frequently Asked Questions
or write an email to our electronic Help Desk at the CC Box.

Frequently Asked Questions in the Last Month

Following are the most frequently asked questions raised at the Help Desk in the last month and their answers:

1. Where can I query my PPP budget usage for the dial-up network connection from home?

You can query your PPP account usage at http://intranet.hku.hk:8030/cas/app/ppp.ver_user
Make a bookmark of this site for easy reference.
To account for the PPP usage, the PPP budget allocated to a user is deducted according to his daily usage at a rate of $4 per hour.  The annual budget allocation is reset on september 1.
2. In browsing the Internet from home via the PPP connection, I can only see the HKU homepage but no other site.
You have to set the proxy in your browser. In Netscape Communicator 4:
1. Click on the Edit menu and select the Preferences item.
2. Double click on the Advanced category.
3. Click on Proxies.
4. Select the Automatic Proxy Configuration radio button.
5. And type 'http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/proxy.pac' as the Configuration Location.
3. I received a mail from the Computer Centre saying my MAIL quota was exceeded.  What should I do?
Your mail quota refers to the disk usage of the INBOX of your account in the server.  To reduce the size of your INBOX, you should login to your email server and delete unwanted mail or save them in other folders which you create.  Type the command 'mailquota' to confirm that it is within limits.
4.  I received a mail from the Computer Centre saying my DISK quota was exceeded.  What should I do?
Your DISK quota refers to the disk usage by all the files except the INBOX of your account in the server.  These files include the mail folders that you have created for storing old mail, the send-mail folder, and all the webpage files and images in your homepage.   To reduce the disk usage in your account, you should login to your server and delete unwanted mail from mail folders and large files from the directories using the 'rm'  command.  Type the command 'showquota' to confirm that it is within limits.
5.  I forgot my account password(s).  What should I do?
You can change your email and PPP passwords in the Staff or Student Intranet.  For students, the HKUSUA account name and password is used to get into the student intranet.  For staff, the UIS account name and password is used to get into the staff intranet.

If you forgot your email account password or do not have the UIS account, you must go to the Computer Centre's general office in Room 223 in the Run Run Shaw Building and fill out a request form to change your password(s).

Mabel Chau
Tel: 2859 8934
E-mail: chaumabc@hku.hk

Y2K Progress Update

The University achieved Y2K compliance for its mission critical systems by the HK SAR Government target date of 30th June. However, more preparation work remains. An academic department is still working at its final stage of replacing a number of old PCs and the related software.  At the same time, the Computer Centre has been placing its effort to increase our confidence in the resilience of the central administration systems and to coordinate with departments to formulate their Y2K contigency plans.

Integrated tests were conducted during the last two weeks of September to ensure that all the central administration application systems will work together without any Y2K-induced problem. These involved user departments in testing the systems and especially those parts which interface with other administrations systems outside their control. These tests were useful in highlighting a few minor problems and have given us more confidence that these systems will function properly in the new year.

The most important item to deal with at this stage is the completion of contingency plans. Each department must draw up a plan detailing what precautions it will take to offset any problems which might occur at the year end or over the leap year. These contingency plans should cover both what can be done to minimise disruption to the department in the unlikely failure of its own I.T. systems and also the possibly more likely scenario of outsiders having problems.

These threats include the failure of the utilities such as electricity and water to maintain their normal service, but perhaps more importantly, delays by consumable goods suppliers. Some of these may well be small or medium business enterprises which have not had the knowledge, time or good sense to ensure that their I.T. systems were Y2K compliant. The general level of Y2K awareness and preparedness in Hong Kong seems to be well ahead of many of our neighbours and so any disruption is likely to be short term but even a few days without a key consumable could be a great nuisance. Your plans should envisage a defensive position to cover a period of at most one week for most supplies, Though some vital goods sourced from less well organised places than Kong Kong may need a longer term strategy.

A briefing session for departmental Y2K coordinators was held on October 27 to familiarise them with the potential problem areas and to offer suggestions as to formats for drawing up department contingency plans.

At the university level a task force has been set up to establish guidelines for dealing with contingency planning for events that might affect the university as a whole. The Finance Office, Registry, Estates Office, Safety Office, Office of Student Affairs, Computer Centre and V.C's Office are represented.  A student representative will also be invited to join the task force.

D.P. Carthy
Tel: 28590535
Email: dpc@cc.hku.hk

A New Search Engine for the HKU WWW Server

We are pleased to announce that the Ultraseek version 3.1 web search engine is now used on the HKUWWW web server to replace the SWISH search engine.  The latter had been used for a few years and could only provide the very basic web searching functions.  Ultraseek version 3.1 is Year-2000 compliant.  It's searching speed is much faster and it supports more advanced search features.

The search features supported include the following :

To gain access to this new search engine on the HKUWWW server, users can first click on the the "Search Over HKU WWW" icon of the HKU homepage (http://www.hku.hk/) , and then click on the hotlink "Keyword Search on HKU WWW Server" displayed on the webpage.

With the new web search engine, a user can search for the webpages kept on the HKU WWW server (www.hku.hk) or those on Internet by means of keywords or user-defined text strings.   The Ultraseek search engine supports two search  modes, namley the "Simple Search" and "Advanced Search" modes.

(A) Simple Search Mode

The "Simple Search" mode is set as the default search mode. Users can switch between the  "Simple Search" and the "Advanced Search" modes by clicking the hotlinks shown near the bottom of the screen.

Some common search examples are illustrated below :

(1) Searching by words and phrases

(2) Defining phrases with quotation marks and separating phrases with commas (3) Using UPPER case to indicate the requirement of an exact match (4) Using a require operator (+) (5) Using a reject operator (-) (6) Searching by document title (7) Searching by URL (8) Searching by links (B) Advanced Search Mode

Users can elect to switch to the "Advanced Search" mode by clicking the "Advanced" hotlink shown near the bottom of the screen.

In the "Advanced Search" mode, a user-friendly interface is provided to allow users to formulate a complex search command Such a complex search command can be built by choosing the pre-defined commands provided through each the pull-down menus in screen for an "advanced search". The advanced search screen is self explanatory and easy to use.

For further information or queries, please contact the undersigned.

Lui Tun Yee
Tel: 2857 8633
Email: lty@cc.hku.hk


Web-based Course Development using WebCT at HKU

In line with the Digital University initiative pursued at the University of Hong Kong to develop an effective teaching and learning environment employing Information Technology, the Computer Centre has introduced a web-based teaching and learning tool, namely the WebCT, since late 1997. This facility has been very well received by many teachers from different faculties and departments. More than 300 courses have been developed or are being developed; and we have already recorded a million visits to online electronic course materials and bulletins mounted on the central E-course server by students and staff.

The Computer Centre has been very much encouraged in the development of web-based courses by our teachers as we can see many of them are so enthusiastic and have been spending much extra effort in exploring the innovative use of the advanced IT infrastructure built at HKU. In order to allow other colleagues to share the valuable experience of our pioneers in web-based course development, the Computer Centre with the generous help from a number of teachers has published a booklet called “Web-based Course Development using WebCT at the University of Hong Kong".  We hope that this booklet will serve as a vehicle to promote the new means of teaching and learning and to stimulate new ideas on how I.T. can be employed in course development and delivery at the University.

Contents

This booklet is divided into two sections. In the first section, the facilities and services provided by the Computer Centre to facilitate web-based course development are described. The second section is a "Course Showcase" which shows 16 online electronic courses built with WebCT. With the help from teachers of different departments, we are able to include online electronic courses from different disciplines.  These courses are good examples to illustrate the use of a wide variety of functions provided by WebCT, including electronic bulletins and interactive exercises, for course development and teaching by our teachers..

Distribution

A copy of this booklet has been distributed to all heads of departments and registered WebCT course designers.
Any staff members who would like to obtain a copy of this booklet may forward their requests to the undersigned.
 

Alice Lam
Tel: 2241 5184
E-mail: alicelam@cc.hku.hk

Wireless Local Area Network at HKU


The Computer Centre is introducing the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology to the University by setting up WLAN access points at a few selected sites on the main campus.  These sites are located in open areas where exhibitions and are often held and where PC's need to be connected to the campus network (e.g. for displaying webpages on the Internet).  The sites ready for WLAN access at the time of writing are :

- The Run Run Shaw covered podium
- The Haking Wong covered podium

Additional access points are being installed at these two sites to extend the signal coverage.  New access points will also be installed at the K. K. Leung concourse shortly.

The WLAN system can transmit data up to 10Mbps Ethernet speed in an open area with unobstructed line of sight between the system components. The system consists of two types of components. One component is called the BackboneLINK, which acts as an access point and is a signal transmitter physically connected to the wired network backbone.  The BackboneLINK bridges between the wireless and wired LAN segments. Another component is a wireless network interface card (NIC) for a notebook or desktop computer.

The computers installed with the wireless NICs send and receive data by communicating with the BackboneLINK through radio signals. The BackboneLINK will then forward the data received from these computers to the wired backbone network, and vice
versa.  Thus it is possible for computers with wireless NICs to maintain roaming connection to the network.
 


 

Parties who are interested in utilising the WLAN facility may borrow the wireless NICs from the Computer Centre General Office in Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building.  The NICs are available in 2 versions : PC Card version (called PC CardLINK, for notebooks) and ISA bus version (called ISA CardLINK, for desktops).  We currently have 22 PC CardLINK and 2 ISA CardLINK for loan.  Should you have any further enquiries about this service, please contact the undersigned.

In addition, the Computer Centre has also worked with the Graduate House to install WLAN systems (using a technology different from the RadioLAN) in the Wang Gang Wu Lecture Theatre, Smartcard Centre and the foyer of the building.  Enquiry on the procedure to make use of these access points should be directed to the Graduate House.
 
 

T. Y. Shen
Tel: 2241 5229
E-mail: sty@cc.hku.hk


Special Facilities for Video Encoding in RealVideo G2 and MPEG-1 Formats

To facilitate our users to develop multimedia material with video contents, the Computer Centre has set up two special PC stations for video encoding in Room RR-104, Run Run Shaw Building. One station supports encoding in RealVideo G2 format and another one supports encoding in MPEG-1 format.

These PC's can be used  by staff, postgraduate students and undergraduate students working on projects under staff supervision.  Interested users should apply for the use of these special facilities by completing the Application Form for Special Facilities which is obtainable at the counter of Centre's General Office (Room RR-223).  Advanced booking is required for using the special facilities.

The two PC stations support the following video input sources: VHS tape, DV tape, VCD, MPEG-1 file and AVI file. An S-VHS video recorder/player is available for use with either one of the PC's for playing back users' VHS tapes. To play back DV tapes, the user should bring along his own DV CamCorder together with the required S-Video or composite video connection cable.

A CD-R drive is provided with the PC for MPEG-1 video encoding. Users can make use of this drive to record his MPEG-1 encoded video file(s) on a CD-R  disc.
 
 
Video Encoding PC Configurations
RealVideo G2 video encoding PC Pentium III 450, 128MB RAM with AVI Video Capture Card
MPEG-1 video encoding PC Pentium II 450, 128MB RAM with MPEG-1 Video Capture Card

The following digital video production software packages are installed in the PCs:
Software packages
Adobe Premiere 5.0 For AVI video editing
Snazzi Amigo For MPEG-1 Video Encoding
RealProducer Plus G2 Encoder For RealVideo Encoding
RealProducer Pro For SMIL Presentation Editing
RealPlayer G2 For playing RealVideo file
Adaptec EasyCD Creator Deluxe For creating CD-R disc

For information on converting standard video into RealVideo clip, please refer to User Document for RealVideo Encoding.

For information on converting standard video into MPEG-1 video, please refer to User Document for MPEG-1 Encoding.

To save a file into a CD-R disc, please refer to User Document for CD-R Drive.

For more information on using these video encoding facilities, please contact the undersigned.

George Poon
Tel: 2241-5302
Email: skpoon@hkucc.hku.hk


Note: CD-R stands for "CD-Recordable". Recordable CDs are WORM (Write Once, Read Multiple) CDs that can be written and read by CD-R drives and can be read by ordinary CD-ROM drives.

Staff News

We welcome two additions to the Computer Centre family: Terry Ho Yuk Tao and Jeffrey Kwan Cho Fai.
Terry Ho joined the Finance support team on Sept 1, 1999.  Terry is a graduate of the HKUST in 1998 with a B.Eng in Computer Science.  Jeffrey Kwan joined the research services support team on Oct 15, 1999.  He is also a graduate of the HKUST in 1994 with a B.Eng in Computer Science.

We were sad to say farewell to two officers:  Helen Lam who left the Centre on Oct 10, 1999 and Fu Wing Wing who will leave us on  Oct 31, 1999.  We wish them the best in their future endeavours.

Training News

The Computer Centre is pleased to announce a series of courses between November and December, 1999
to assist staff and students in using the Centre's facilities. The courses will cover the following areas:
 
 
  • Internet Browsing and Webpage Authoriing
  • Chinese Information Handling
  • Spreadsheet
  • Unix System and Application Software
  • PC Network and Services
  • Word Processing 
  • Web Course Tools
  • Parallel Programming
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Statistical Analysis
Most courses are open to all staff and students free of charge.  Some courses may require pre-requisites.  Courses provided by a course vendor are charged a fee. Click on the course number to see the description of each course.

Users can apply for these courses through the "CC Course Registration" icon in HKUWIN or select "Computer Courses" from the CEntre's webpage at URL: http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/courses.htm. Otherwise, users can make their applications by completing and returning the Regisration Form obtainable from the General Office (Room RR-223) in the Computer Centre.

Click here to suggest new courses you would like.

Staff Registration   or   Student Registration


Course Schedule from September to October 1999

Courses on Parallel Programming
 
C0113799 High Performance FORTRAN Nov 2, 3, 4, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-101
C0413599 SP2 Parallel Programming with workshop Nov 11, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-101
C0213899 Introduction to Fortran90 Programming Dec 1, 2, 3, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. 		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-101
C0213799 High Performance FORTRAN Dec 7, 8, 9, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-101
C0513599 SP2 Parallel Programming with workshop Dec 17, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building,
RR-101

Staff Registration   or   StudentRegistration
 

Courses on Unix System and Applications
C0211899 Introduction to UNIX Oct 27, 1999 
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. 		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135 
C0411899 Introduction to UNIX Nov 2, 1999 
2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. 		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135 
C0110699 Seminar on MATLAB Nov 4, 1999 
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. 		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201 
C0110299 Seminar on SAS Nov 8, 1999 
2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. 		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135 
C0110599 Seminar on Mathematica Nov 12, 1999 
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
C0311899 Introduction to UNIX Nov 23, 1999
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. 		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201

Staff Registration   or   StudentRegistration
 

Courses on HKU Network
C0315999 Introduction to HKU Network (PPP, ACEnet, Hall Network) Nov 16, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
C0415999 Introduction to HKU Network (PPP, ACEnet, Hall Network) Dec 3, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201

Staff Registration   or   StudentRegistration
 

Courses on Web Browsing and Webpage Editing
 
C0314099 Getting started with Internet Services and WWW  Nov 9, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201 
C0215199 Basic HTML Editing Nov 22, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
C0115099 Introduction to WebCT
(Staff Only)		 Dec 4, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135 
C0315199 Basic HTML Editing Dec 9, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135
C0215899 Advanced HTML Editing : Imagemap, CGI and Frames Dec 10, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
C0414099 Getting started with Internet Services and WWW Dec 10, 1999
2:30 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135
C0115299 WebCT Course Designer's Basic Workshop   (Staff Only) Dec 13, 1999
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135
C0115399 WebCT Course Designer's Advanced Workshop 
(Staff Only)		 Dec 20, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
Staff Registration   or   Student Registration

Courses on Microsoft Office and Other Topics
 
W0180599 Adobe Photoshop 5.5 Oct 25, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 
Oct 26, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
W0180699 MS Word 97 for Windows95 Oct 27, 28, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 
Oct 29, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building,
RR-201
W0180999 MS Access 97 
(Staff Only)		 Nov 17, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Nov 18, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
W0281299 MS PowerPoint 97 
(Staff Only)		 Nov 22, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135 
W0181099 Webpage Creation Using Dreamweaver 2 
(Staff Only)		 Nov 24, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Nov 25, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
W0380799 MS Excel 97 for Windows95
(Staff Only)		 Nov 30, Dec 1, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 
Dec 2, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
W0181199 Graphic Design Using Photoshop Illustrator 8 
(Staff Only)		 Dec 8, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Dec 9, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.		 Run Run Shaw Building, 
RR-201
W0280699 MS Word 97 for Windows95
(Staff Only)		 Dec 14, 15, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 
Dec 16, 1999
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135
W0280999 MS Access 97 
(Students Only)		 Dec 21, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Dec 22, 1999 
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.		 Old Library Building, 
LBO-135
Staff Registration   or   Student Registration
 

 Course Descriptions:

Courses on Internet Browsing and Webpage Authoring

Getting Started with Internet Services and WWW

This is a 3-hour introductory course. Course contents include
    Introduction to Internet
    Using The Netscape Communicator 4 Browser
    Reading Chinese on WWW Browser
    Tour on the HKU Intranet
    Tour on the Global Internet

Basic HTML Editing

This 3-hour course workshop on HTML editing using the Netscape Communicator 4 Editor.  In the workshop, students would be doing the following exercises:
    Exercise 1 - Create a document, try colors, fonts, bullets lists etc.
    Exercise 2 - Create targets and hyperlinks
    Exercise 3 - Create a table
    Exercise 4 - Using image files in your document
    Exercise 5 - Uploading your document to the server

Advanced HTML Editing

This is a 3-hour course on advanced techniques for HTML editing using the FrontPage Editor.  Contents include:
    Creating frames in a webpage
    Using image maps in a webpage.
    Downloading and imbedding "cgi programs" in a webpage
Pre-requisite: Basic HTML Editing.
 

WebCT (Web Course Tool) Training Courses

Introduction to WebCT

This 2-hour course will discuss the basic functionalities provided by WebCT from a student's point of view to give participants some feelings on what WebCT can do for their course. e.g. browsing course materials, attempting on-line quizzes, using bulletin boards.
 

WebCT Course Designer's Basic Workshop

This 4-hour course will cover steps for course designers (staff members who actually prepare courses on WebCT) to post lecture materials on WebCT, and to perform customization on course homepages.
Pre-requisites: Introduction to WebCT, Basic HTML Editing.

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.
Pre-requisites: WebCT Course Designer's Basic Workshop

Courses on Parallel Programming
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.

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:

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 to wirte FORTRAN 90 programs using arrays and write reusable and
readable codes using the data encapsulation feature of FORTRAN 90.

Courses on Unix System and Application Software

Introduction to UNIX

This is a 3-hour introductory course for users with little or no Unix experience. The course will cover the Unix computing environment, the Unix file system, the editor, email, disk quota and mail quota allocations and commonly used Unix commands.

Seminar onMAPLE V

This is a 2-hour introduction course on the use of MAPLE V for mathematical computations.  The course covers:
    Maple Objects,
    Syntax of Maple V commands
    Some Common Operations
    Numerical Operations
    Graphics
    I/O
    Programming in Maple V

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.

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.

Seminar on SAS

The SAS package is an integrated system for data analysis. In this 2-hour seminar, users will learn how to create a SAS
data set, to retrieve data from the data set and to perform some commonly used statistical procedures. Users are expected to have
some statistics background.

Introduction to HKU Network (PPP, ACEnet and Hall Network)

This is a 3-hour seminar on the HKU network with an introduction to the network topology, network services, and the software for accessing the HKU network.  The HKU network can be accessed from the following venues:
    PPP - for dialing in from home
    Hallnet - for student residing in residence halls
    ACEnet - for accessing everywhere from any network point
 

Courses on Microsoft Office and Other Topics

MS Word 97 for Windows 95 ($360)

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 :

  • Word 97 processing concepts
  • Using dialog boxes and icons
  • Documents editing
  • Files save/retrieve and Management
  • Files conversion and import/export filters
  • Selecting fonts and using special text and symbols
  • Auto formatting and style options
  • Using thesaurus and hyphenation, spelling and grammar check
  • Creating multiple columns and table
  • Positioning text and graphics with frames
  • Assembling documents with mail merge
  • Working with long documents
  • Printing master documents, envelopes and labels
  • Data linking and embedding

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    PowerPoint 97 ($200)

    This is a 6-hour course on making a professional presentation slide show using PowerPoint97.  Contents include:
        Creating and editing a slide show presentation
        Entering data in a presentation
        Adding clip art and charts to a slide
        Creating speaker notes
        Adding transition effects
        Saving and printing a presentation

    ACCESS 97 for Windows 95 ($360)

    Access is a powerful database software allowing users to create
    database and database applications without any programming work.
    Access 97 is part of the Microsoft Office 97 system which operates in
    the Window 95 or Window 98 environment and is Y2K compliant.
    This is a 2 day course.

    Contents of this course include:

    1. Introduction to Access 97
        - Basic concepts of Access 97
        - Starting the application
        - To quit Access 97
        - To open a database in Access 97
        - How to read from and write to standard text files

    2. Creating tables
        - Data type
        - Creating tables
        - Saving table
        - Data entry table

    3. Finding data
        - Sorting data
        - Filtering by selecting data
        - Filtering by form

    4. Query
        - Creating a query
        - Creating multi-table query and calculated field

    5. Creating a form
        - Creating a form with form wizard
        - changing design of form
        - preview designed form
        - formatting toolbar

    6. Creating reports
        - creating reports
        - creating mailing labels

    Ms Excel 97 for Windows 95  ($360)

    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 & formulas cell 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

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    Adobe Photoshop 5.5  ($500)

    This is a 2-day course on using the Adobe Photoshop, a software for photo retouching, image editing and color painting.
    Adobe Photoshop 5.5 has many new and enhanced features in auto-updating of formats, multiple layers control, digital watermarks for copyright, effects filters, and other enhancements for control of quality etc.
    Course outline :
        Photoshop Basic
        Selections, Mask and Channel Operation
        Enhancing Photo
        Montage and Collage
        Using Filters
        Painting
        Combining Photoshop and PostScript
        Special Effects
        3D/4D Adding Depth and Motion

    Adobe Illustrator 8  ($500)

    This is a 2-day course on using the Adobe Illustrator 8, a popular illustration software that can create graphically rich artwork for print or the Web.
    Course Outline :
        1. Basic concepts on computer graphic design
        2. Using various drawing tools
        3. Grid and guides
        4. Text editing, path type and area type and use of different fonts
        5. Rotating and resizing objects
        6. Mask effect, transforming objects from 2D to 3D
        7. Inserting graphic images

    Web Creation Using Dreamweaver 2  ($500)

    This 2 days course is designed for users who want to learn how to use Macromedia Dreamweaver 2, a powerful & professional visual editor for creating and managing web pages. With Dreamweaver, it's easy to create cross-platform, cross-browser pages. Course outline :
        1. Dreamweaver Work Space
        2. Site Planning & Site Management
        3. Understanding Hyper Link
        4. Using Images & Animations
        5. Using Cascding Sytle Sheet
        6. Creating Forms & Frames
        7. Creating Interactive Homepage

    Chinese Inputting Method & Chinese Word 97* ($360)

    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.

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    1. Since workshops on Microsoft Office97 and other programs for Windows are organised in conjunction with a course vendor, the Whiz Company, there is a nominal charge on the course.

    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 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.

    2. The workshops on Chinese Word 97  will be conducted in Cantonese.

    3. Enrolment for some courses may be for students only while others may be for staff only.  Where it is not specified, the courses are open to all students and staff members of the University.

    * 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.