As a temporary measure to relieve congestion, the maximum amount of time allowed for any one session on UCI’s 824-9000 modem pool is being reduced to 2 hours. Shorter dial-up sessions will give more people a chance at this scarce free resource. NACS is studying several long-term remote access solutions including more favorable arrangements with commercial Internet Service Providers.
UCI Acquires 38 Powerful Unix Workstations
Last month, UCI took delivery of 38 Digital Equipment Corporation AlphaStation 200 workstations. The workstations were acquired at substantially less than the normal educational price through a campus-wide purchase coordinated by NACS. The systems have 64 MB of RAM memory, 2 GB of disk space, and CPUs that run at 233 Mhz; they will be used for a variety of research and other purposes at UCI. NACS will be creating a new campus-wide graduate student computing service using 9 of the AlphaStations. The new workstations will also provide a platform for gaining additional parallel computing cluster experience at UCI.
Computing Supporter Meetings
Every 2 months the staff who support computing and networking in UCI departments (Computing Support Coordinatorsor CSCs) meet to discuss issues and share ideas and information. At this month’s meeting, 16 CSCs heard from Garrett Hildebrand of NACS on the current status of UCI’s network. The CSC meetings are announced in the UCICSCG listserv, which anyone who supports computing is invited to join. The meetings are coordinated by Jan Vescera of NACS’Departmental and Distributed Computing Support group.
NACS Service Brochure Available
The Fall 1997 NACS Service brochure is now available in print and on-line. You may access it in the Web athttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/org/services-brochure.html. If you would like a paper copy, send e-mail to NACS@UCI.EDUrequesting one; please include your campus mailing address.
NACS News Survey Results
We recently surveyed readers regarding this electronic newsletter to gain some feedback and find ways to improve it. Of the 77 respondents, 91% found NACS-News to be “useful”, 74% have read most of the articles, and 82% felt the article length was about right. The most popular 1996 articles were “NACS Service Summary”, “NACS’ Response Center Help Desk”, “Computing and Communication Service Upgrades and Enhancements”, and “Alternatives for Modem Users”.
Here are some comments that we received:
"...The newsletter serves as an excellent tool for NACS to keep in touch with everyone on campus, and to provide information through one source rather than numerous listservs. Keep up the good work!""I would like to know more about NACS' vision of the electronic future of the Irvine campus. Just where do we expect to be 5 years from now? ... I have a feeling that there are BIG changes out there."
"...This publication is a much needed and welcome one. I enjoy learning about how NACS is structured, and who I can call upon for help in a specific area..."
Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond, we appreciate your input and will strive to deliver the information you need. If you have further or future comments, do not hesitate to send them to us via our NACS@UCI.EDU e-mail address.