April 2006 Archives
April 27, 2006
Correction: Network Down May 7th, not April 30th
The announced network outage for Hamilton Hall is for May 7th, not April 30th as I originally wrote.
Virus Making the Rounds
Several department members have reported receiving messages from the "math.mcmaster.ca user support team" or "math.mcmaster.ca mail admin team" which ask the recipient to open an attached file. These messages contain Windows viruses.
Continue reading Virus Making the Rounds.
Printing Limits
A number of people in the department have been printing in excess of the 200 page-per-month limit requested by the chairman for most of the year, some by an order of magnitude. Bradd Hart, Nicholas Kevlahan, Andrea Hartin and I are reviewing the usage and costs, and will be considering ways reducing or recouping the cost to the department in paper, toner and maintenance.
Please review the departmental printing guidelines. You may be hearing from the department administration shortly if we have logged excessive printing from your account or computer. If you have any questions about the printing policy, please contact Nicholas Kevlahan.
April 26, 2006
Network Down Sunday, May 7th
We've been informed that Hamilton Hall will be disconnected from the network this Sunday morning:
Technology Services, Enterprise Networks, has scheduled a network service interruption for Sunday May 7th, to carry out maintenance on the fibre plant. This work is necessary in order to upgrade the networking in Residence (MacOnline) later this Spring.
Continue reading Network Down Sunday, May 7th.
April 24, 2006
Mathserv Problem Monday Morning
The primary server, mathserv, stopped responding to network activity at 4:00 am this morning; services were restored at 9:45 am. There is no evidence of data loss; msprime workstations began working again as soon as service was restored.
Continue reading Mathserv Problem Monday Morning.
April 17, 2006
GAP Installed
GAP (Groups, Algorithms, Programming), a system for computational discrete algebra, has been installed on the msprime workstations and the two applied-group compute servers bluespruce and freesurface.
See the GAP site for documentation and examples.
April 10, 2006
Intel C++ for Mac OS X
Intel has released a version of their C++ compiler for OS X for Intel-based Macintoshes. The Fortran compiler and the MKL were released ealier this year.
I don't yet know whether the licenses purchased by the departments of Physics & Astronomy and Mathematics & Statistics can be used for the OS X versions of the compilers.
April 3, 2006
Firefox Still Dodgy
Even after the latest upgrade, firfox on the msprime systems is still apt to get into a state in which one can't open new windows. I've created a script which will clear the locks without requiring a reboot:
Continue reading Firefox Still Dodgy.
April 1, 2006
Intermitent SSH Problems
We are experiencing intermitent problems with ssh'ing to some campus servers, including mathserv. Mail and web are not affected.
Continue reading Intermitent SSH Problems.
