Tel No.
General Enquiries 8592495
Fax 5597904
Computer Operations 8592496
(Hardward and operational problems)
Help Desk 8592480
(Software and general problems)
Hardware Maintenance 8592774
Dial-up Services
24-hr service line 8592595
24-hr service line 5480590
Night service line 8597992
(6 pm - 8 am next day)
Computer Centre Opening Hours
Summer Schedule (June 14, 1994 - September 11, 1994)
Monday (8:00 a.m.) to Saturday (3:30 p.m.) Closed on Sundays and Holidays(All central host systems will still be running unattended during the closed hours.)
Microcomputer / Workstation Schedule
Run Run Shaw Building (Rm. 101, 103, 104) : Monday (8:30 a.m.) - Saturday (3:30 p.m.) Run Run Shaw Building (Rm. 113, 210), Knowles Building (Rm. 218) and K.K. Leung Building (Rm. LG-108) : Monday - Friday (8:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.) Saturday (8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.)All microcomputer/workstation rooms are closed on Sundays and Holidays
Holidays
The Saturday Preceding the last Monday in August (27-29/8/94)
The Computer Centre will be closed on Saturday, August 27, 1994 at 8.00 a.m. and will be opened on Tuesday, August 30, 1994 at 8:00 a.m. after the holidays.
The day following the Mid-Autumn Festival (21/9/94)
The Computer Centre will be closed on Wednesday, September 21, 1994 at 8.00 a.m. and will be opened on Thursday, September 22, 1994 at 8:00 a.m. after the holiday.
Chung Yeung Festival (13/10/94)
The Computer Centre will be closed on Thursday, October 13, 1994 at 8.00 a.m. and will be opened on Friday, October 14, 1994 at 8:00 a.m. after the holiday.
All staff and students of the University are eligible to have one general user account on one of the Computer Centre's academic host computers, namely the HKUCC,HKUXA/HKUXB and HKUSUA/HKUSUB during their stay in the University. The computer budget for the general accounts will be reset to the standard allocation value on September 1 each year if the users remain as members of the University on that day. The standard budget allocated to staff and postgraduate is $5,000 and the standard budget allocated to undergraduate is $2,000.
Users who are leaving the University are reminded that their accounts and files on the academic host computers will be deleted. Users are thus advised to backup their useful files on tapes, diskettes or other backup media well before their accounts are deleted. The account deletion arrangements are as follows:
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
In the last Computer News, the Computer Centre announced its revised dialup services as summarised below :
Y.W.Cheung Tel: 8592488 E-mail: cheungyw@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre is pleased to announce, with effect from July 1, 1994, that all staff and registered students of the University can register their general accounts for the time-sharing system from any networked PC in the University. This is an extension of the service to staff as promised by the Computer Centre in its Computer News (July/August 1993) when the new procedure was first announced for students.
The new procedure is only applicable to those users who have a valid HKU staff or student number and a HK Identity Card (HKID card). All other users will have to fill in an account application form which is obtainable from the General Office of the Computer Centre at Room RR-223, Run Run Shaw Building.
With this new procedure, the system will automatically generate a username for a user. For undergraduate students, the usernames will be their HKU student numbers preceded by the letter "h", e.g. the username h9412345 will be assigned to the student whose HKU student number is 9412345. For staff and postgraduate students, the default usernames are based on their initials and surnames. However, they are allowed to specify their own usernames which should bear resemblance to theirs surnames, initials or departments. The Computer Centre reserves the right in granting the user-specified username. Furthermore, staff can choose to register his general account on another time- sharing host system other than the default time-sharing host system, namely, the HKUCC system (VAX6420 running VMS).
To register for a general account, the user has to carry out the following steps at any networked PC.
To assist you in identifying the status of your general account registration, you can select the "Computer Account Status Enquiry" entry from the Computer Account Registration Screen.
If you have any comments or enquiries about this new account registration procedure, please contact the undersigned.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
The Inter-Institutional Equipment Committee (IIEC) has compiled a consolidated list of major equipment held by the seven UPGC-funded institutions, i.e. the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic, the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Baptist College and the Lingnan College. This UPGC Equipment List embraces major academic and administrative equipment for inter-institutional sharing. Each equipment listed costs more than $500,000.
The UPGC Equipment List database is mounted on the CITYLINK Information Services of the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong. Students and staff can gain access to the UPGC Equipment List from any host systems of the Computer Centre (hkucc , hkuxa, hkuxb, hkusua, hkusub, etc) by calling up the HKUMENU. An option "UPGC Equipment List" is available when "USENET News and other Bulletin Boards" is selected, users should follow the procedures below to gain access to the UPGC Equipment List information.
T.Y. Lui Tel: 8592455 Email: hcxclty@hkucc.hku.hk
For the past few years, many students of the University have enquired the Computer Centre if they could continue to use the Internet services after their graduation.
The Computer Centre is now pleased to announce that the University has approved to extend the Internet services to its own graduates. The service is provided to the graduates of the University on the understanding that it is for his personal use and that it is used for non-commercial purposes. There will be an annual charge for the use of the service. The Computer Centre is now formulating the procedures for this service.
Graduates who wish to know more about this service can contact the undersigned for further information.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre will carry out a clean-up exercise on September 1, 1994 by removing from the output bins in Room RR-107 (outside the Computer Room) any unclaimed printout which is produced on or before August 20, 1994.
Users are reminded that each output bin is shared by several users, and they should help each other in maintaining the bin orderly by collecting their printouts promptly. Best of all, users should avoid printing if possible.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 e-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre has acquired a number of UNIX workstations over the last two years. These workstations are used mostly as a display unit for the graphical applications running on the time-sharing host systems.
To better utilise the processing power of the workstations, the Computer Centre has ordered network licences for the following mathematical processing packages :
Software No. of network licences Mathematica 5 MATLAB 11 MATLAB Signal Processing Toolbox 1 MATLAB Nerual Network Processing Toolbox 1 SIMULINK 1 MAPLE V 16 MEDAL Site licence(The 2-user Mathematica licence on the RS/6000 model 360 has been transferred to a network licence.)
By means of network licences, the software can be run on a number of networked workstations. The number of network licences is the limit of concurrent copies of the software that can be loaded and run on different workstations.
The above mentioned packages are very useful tools for solving engineering and scientific problems with graphical output. They will soon be available on the IBM RS/6000 and Sun SPARC workstations of the Computer Centre.
Information and instructions on how to use these applications will be made available to our users when the software are installed and tested. If you wish to enquire about these software, please contact the undersigned.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre is pleased to announce that there will be a reduction in maintenance charges, with effect from July 1, 1994, on some models of microcomputers and their associated peripherals which supported by the in- house Maintenance Team of the Computer Centre. The models of microcomputers that will benefit from this price reduction include PC/AT, 386PC, 486PC, Mac Plus and Mac/SE 30. The aim of the Computer Centre's in-house maintenance service is to provide cost effective and efficient hardware maintenance support to the large and ever growing population of microcomputer equipment of the University. The reduction in maintenance charge is possible because there has been price reduction for some spare parts, especially the 486PC CPU board, RAM and disk drives and more users are joining the maintenance. We believe that the price is very attractive to all users and departments. If you are interested in joining this service, please contact Miss Heti Cheng at 8592491.
The new maintenance charges of the common microcomputer systems are summarised below:
HK$
PC/AT, 386 PC
386SX/AT Compatible 470.00
(SIGMA AT, MBA 286, Quantum 286, C&D 386SX)
with 2MB or less memory, VGA display, 2 floppy drives
and 120MB hard disk or below
386DX/486SX Compatible w/64KB Cache memory 570.00
(COMTECH, SIGMA, CONNECT, IMAGINEERING)
with 4MB or less memory, VGA display, 2 floppy drives
and 120MB hard disk or below
486 PC
486DX Compatible-33MHz w/256KB Cache memory 620.00
with 4MB or less memory, VGA display, 2 floppy drives
and 120MB hard disk or below
Macintosh
Mac LC III/475 System 700.00
with 8MB or less memory, 14" colour monitor,
Apple Keyboard /II and 160MB hard disk or below
Comprehensive information on the equipment that are supported by our in-house
Maintenance Team and the maintenance charges are available on CWIS through
the University Campus Network (under the "Computer Centre" section).
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre is pleased to announce the availability of the APR (Applied Parallel Research, Inc.) FORGE Magic/DM on the IBM 9071 SP1 system.
The APR FORGE Magic/DM is a pre-compiler which transforms a serial Fortran77 program into a parallelised Fortran77 source program. It uses an algorithm that identifies the most significant loop or loops in the program by looking for the ones with the deepest nesting. Then arrays referenced within these loops are partitioned and the loops are distributed on multi-processors. Any other loops that reference the partitioned arrays appropriately are also distributed, possibly causing additional loop distribution and array partitioning. The parallelisation process continues through the program until there are no longer any arrays and loops requiring partition and distribution caused by the initial choice. Parallelisation will be generated if the -plist option is specified at the pre-compilation.
To produce a parallel executable from a serial Fortran 77 source program using the APR Forge90 Magic/DM, two steps are required:
dpf (f77-serial-source) -ompf=(77-parallel-source)
-plist=(option) -BenignUnknown
where
(f77-serial-source) = Fortran77 serial source program
(f77-parallel-source) = Pre-compiled Fortran77 parallel source
(option) = p output parallelisation analysis report
= c output call tree with parallelisation
= x output extended parallelisation commentary within source code
mpxlf (f77-parallel-source) -o (executable) -lsp
-L$APRHOME/lib/api/RS6K -ldd_n
where
(f77-parallel-source) = Fortran 77 parallel source produced by dpf
(executable) = parallel executable
dpf serial-prog.f -ompf=parallel.f -plist=x -BenignUnknown
mpxlf parallel.f -o parallel.o -lsp -L$APRHOME/lib/api/RS6K -ldd_n
The APR FORGE Magic/DM not only helps you to easily port your serial
Fortran77 program to run on the IBM 9076 SP1 system in parallel mode, it is
also a learning tool for parallel application program development. APR FORGE
Magic/DM provides the following APR directives which, together with the
parallelisation report, allow a user to control the parallellisation of the
program by including the user-supplied APR directives in the program input to
dpf.
APR directives Meaning
CAPR$ DO PAR {ON reference} Mark a loop for parallelisation
CAPR$ DO NOPAR Prevent parallelisation of a loop
CAPR$ IGNORE ALL INHIBITORS Ignore loop inhibitor
CAPR$ IGNORE type COM {ON reference} Ignore certain communication
CAPR$ PARTITION array (format) Partition array
CAPR$ PARTITION (format)::array-list Partition arrays
CAPR$ PARTITION_NOMOVE array (format) Partition array ("nomove")
CAPR$ PARTITION_NOMOVE (format)::array-list Partition arrays ("nomove")
The APR directive CAPR$ must begin at column 1 of the line. The APR FORGE
Magic/DM can only select one dimension of a multi-dimensional array for
partitioning. When APR directive is defined in the program, the dpf command line must include the -Auto= option to control the parallelisation strategy. The - Auto= option can be one of the following :
-Auto=None Parallelise all those loops or array
explicitly defined by the APR directives
-Auto=Loops Parallelise the loops that reference
those arrays explicitly defined by
the APR directives
-Auto=0 Parallelise those loops and array defined
explicitly by the APR directives. Then
parallelise the remainingloops that
reference the APR directive defined arrays.
For details about the features and use of the APR FORGE Magic/DM software,
please refer to the "FORGE Magic/DM dpf User Guide" which can be borrowed
from the Computer Centre's General Office at Room RR-223.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
SAS Release 6.09 which has been installed for trial use for the last few months is now installed as the production version on the IBM 9076 SP1 System. The old version, SAS 6.07, is no longer available on HKUSP1.
To execute SAS Release 6.09, please type the following command at system prompt :
$sasIf you find any problems in using SAS, please report them to the undersigned.
S.L.Lee Tel. 8598936 E-mail:sllee@hkucc.hku.hk
The GCG's database of the Wisconsin Package has recently been updated. The updated databases available from GCG's database of the Wisconsin Package are :
GenBank Release 82.0 (4/94) EMBL (Modified) Release 38.0 (3/94) PIR-Protein Release 40.0 (3/94) PIR-Nucleic Release 36.0 (3/90) SWISS-PROT Release 28.0 (2/94) Vecbase Release 3.0 (8/87) PROSITE Release 11.1 (2/94) Restriction Enzymes (REBASE) (4/94)Help information for GCG is available by invoking the GenHelp command at the command prompt $.
Y.W.Cheung Tel: 8592488 E-mail: cheungyw@hkucc.hku.hk
Octave is primarily intended for numerical computations. It can do arithmetic for real and complex scalars and matrices, solve sets of nonlinear algebraic equations, integrate functions over finite and infinite intervals, and integrate systems of ordinary differential and differential-algebraic equations. Two and three dimensional plotting are fully supported by using gnuplot.
Octave is a public domain software and it is now installed on both HKUSUA (SPARCcenter 2000) and HKUSUB (SPARCserver 670MP). Octave looks very much like MATLAB; however it has much less functions when compared with MATLAB.
To execute Octave, please type the following command at system prompt:
$ octaveA user manual of about 150 pages (in PostScript format) can be found in /usr/local/src/octave-1.0/doc/octave.ps. A user document called "Using Octave", UD 199, is obtainable from the General Office of the Computer Centre, Room RR-223.
S.L. Lee Tel.: 8598936 E-mail: sllee@hkucc.hku.hk
Since the installation of At Ease V1.0 for Macintosh computers in Room RR- 104, users may find that it is convenient to open an application by just clicking the corresponding button from the user-friendly, icon-based "At Ease" menu. To provide for further communication the Computer Centre has recently installed the "At Ease for Workgroups" V2.0.1 which has a number of enhancements over its old version as described below.
After logging onto At Ease, 2 standard panels will be displayed on the screen. The "Applications" panel contains all the application programs available for use. Buttons with pictures and captions appear for each application program. The "Floppy Disk" panel will display all the files stored at floppy disk.
New file management capabilities have been provided by "At Ease for Workgroups" V2.0.1, with the file management option on the 'File' menu, a user can rename files, delete files and create new folder on his floppy disk. When a user opens a folder of the floppy disk, its contents are displayed on a new panel that sits on top of the 2 standard panels. The folder can be closed by either choosing the "Close" item from the "File" menu or clicking the panel's close box. The result of any file management operation will be shown on the "Floppy Disk" panel immediately. This file management capabilities are not provided by the At Ease V1.0.
Users can choose to view the items on any At Ease Panels by name (in alphabetical order), by size (starting with the largest file), by kind (in alphabetical order by programs) and by date (date the items were last modified, from newest to oldest).
T.Y. Lui Tel: 8592455 Email: hcxclty@hkucc.hku.hk
The Computer Centre has set up new computer laboratories to accommodate additional PCs and workstations in Room LB(O)-134, Room LB(O)-135 and Room LB(O)-136 on the 1/F of the Old Library Building (entrance next to the Sun Yat San Steps on the Library Building's side). Room LB(O)-134 will be an open-access general user area with 56 PCs. Room LB(O)-135 is designated as a PC laboratory equipped with 28 PCs. Whereas Room LB(O)-136 is designated as a workstation laboratory. Both Room LB(O)-135 and Room LB(O)-136 are set up with G.E. Imager Graphics Projectors and can be reserved for instructional classes. The additional PCs and workstations in the Old Library Building should significantly improve Centre's user facilities in the new academic year.
These rooms will be opened for use by users in phases. Initially, the general user area (Room LB(O)-134) with 40 networked 486PCs will be opened on August 1, 1994. The opening hours for this general user area are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday and from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 noon on Saturday. The set up for these networked 486PCs is similar to those in Room RR-103 and RR-101 in the Computer Centre, namely:
These 486PCs are connected to the new fileserver HKUPC3 in the Computer Centre. Software that are currently available on the server include:
Programming Language : Watcom Cobol 4.0 Watcom Express C 8.0 Watcom Fortran 3.1 Watcom Pascal 4.0 Wordprocessors : WordPerfect 6.01A for Windows WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS Microsoft Word for Windows PC-Write 3.03 Nota Bene Chinese CWI under ETEN 2.0 Ami-Pro for Windows Databases : dBase IV Desktop Publishing : Windows 3.1 Chinese Windows 3.0 Pagemaker 4.0 Presentation Graphics : Freelance Graphics Harvard Graphics Powerpoint Spreadsheet : Microsoft Excel Framework III Lotus 1-2-3 Rel 3.1+ Statistics packages : SAS 6.05 SPSS/PC 4.0 Communications : PC/TCP softwareLaser printing facilities are available from the Laser Printing Counter at Room LB(O)-134A from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Laser printing is limited to 350 Kbytes per print file and there will be a charge for the laser printing. Laser Printing Coupon which can be purchased from the Computer Centre's General Office at Room RR-223 must be presented to the staff-in-charge at the Laser Printing Counter for cancellation of the equivalent number of printout pages.
If you wish to know more of the computing facilities at the 1/F of the Old Library Building, you can contact the undersigned.
C.M. Mak Tel: 8592491 E-mail: cmmak@hkucc.hku.hk
This summer, four 3-day workshops on the use of four popular software, dBase IV, MS Excel 4.0, MS Word 6.0 and WordPerfect for Windows will be organised. The workshops provide effective in-depth hands-on training in the use of the software. The schedules of the workshops are:
Workshop Title Venue Date
No.
W1/94 dBase IV for DOS RR-101 August 16, 1994 (Tuesday)
Run Run Shaw Bldg August 17, 1994 (Wednesday)
August 19, 1994 (Friday)
W2/94 MS Excel 4.0 RR-101 August 23, 1994 (Tuesday)
Run Run Shaw Bldg August 24, 1994 (Wednesday)
August 26, 1994 (Friday)
W3/94 MS Word 6.0 RR-101 August 31, 1994 (Wednesday)
Run Run Shaw Bldg September 1, 1994 (Thursday)
September 2, 1994 (Friday)
W4/94 WordPerfect for RR-101 September 6, 1994 (Tuesday)
Windows Run Run Shaw Bldg September 7, 1994 (Wednesday)
September 9, 1994 (Friday)
Since the workshops are organised with an outside organisation, the C & D
Computer Ltd., there will be a nominal charge of HK$350 per participant.
Interested persons should read the general information below before
completing the registration form and return it to the Computer Centre for the
course enrolment. General information:
The workshops are aimed at providing in-depth hands-on training in the use of the software.
The workshops will be conducted in English and there will be two sessions on each day of the workshops : from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration should be made with the attached registration form on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Registration form should be sent to the Computer Centre with attention to Miss Sarah Tam (Room RR-223, Run Run Shaw Building). Registration by fax is acceptable (Fax number: 559 7904).
Enrolment is limited to staff and students of the University only, and the maximum number of participants in each workshop is 20.
Successful applicants will be notified by telephone, and will be asked to confirm their registrations at least one working week before the workshop begins. Payment should be made in cash or cheque, or through departmental requisition (for applicants supported by department). Once accepted, the fees are not refundable. However, substitution of participant is possible by written notification to the Centre. Participants are requested to bring one 3.5" diskette when attending the workshop.
For any enquiries, please contact Miss Sarah Tam (Tel: 8592491) or Mr. WK Kwan (Tel: 8597974, E-mail: hcxckwk@hkucc.hku.hk)
This year we shall again conduct a series of Computer Centre Orientation and Network Services Seminars for fresh students in September in order to make them familiar with the Computer Centre facilities and services that are generally available. Please refer to the following information sheet about the detailed schedule of these seminars.
This 1-hour seminar is used to introduce the computing facilities offer by the computer Centre to new users. For example, the locations of PC laboratories and time-sharing computers, electronic mail, file transfer, Internet, dial-up modem, Library On-line Public Access Catalogue, Help Desk, Laser Printing etc. The procedures to open a general computer account will also be discussed.
This 2-hour seminar is a follow up of the Orientation course to help new users to get started in using the Computer Centre's network services such as e-mail, bulletin board and file transfer. The seminar is followed by an open workshop where users can practice the use of the network services instructed in the seminar.
Course No. Title Date/Time Venue
C1/1994 Computer Centre September 1, 1994 (Thursday) Rayson Huang Theatre
Orientation 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
C2/1994 Computer Centre September 2, 1994 (Friday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Orientation 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
C3/1994 Computer Centre September 5, 1994 (Monday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Orientation 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
C4/1994 Network Services September 6, 1994 (Tuesday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Seminar 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
C5/1994 Computer Centre September 7, 1994 (Wednesday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Orientation 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
C6/1994 Computer Centre September 8, 1994 (Thursday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Orientation 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
C7/1994 Network Services September 9, 1994 (Friday) Lecture Theatre 4,
Seminar 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. Chong Yuet Ming
Physics Building
The above training courses will be conducted in English, all staff and
students are welcome.