Information Technology News Archive

1996 - 2017

Software License Information

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Many software applications are of sufficient popularity that the University can benefit from economies of scale. NACS for many years has negotiated and managed such bulk and site licenses on behalf of UCI, and as a participant in a UC-wide licensing effort.

Recently, NACS has improved the Web site devoted to communicating to faculty and staff the software packages which can be acquired at a discount or on other special terms.

The web site (http://www.nacs.uci.edu/licenses/) includes general-purpose software licensing information (FAQs, a glossary, and links to UCI servers which distribute licensed software) as well as a new software license database. The database can be browsed by software category, manufacturer, title, and other characteristics, and also provides a free-form search function.

We are very interested in fine-tuning this service to meet the needs of UCI faculty and staff. Please send us your feedback.

Mathematica

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During Spring quarter, faculty, research staff, and graduate students from a number of schools and departments attended a training workshop on the use of Mathematica, a comprehensive symbolic and numerical mathematics software package. The workshop was hosted by NACS and presented by Dr. Hooshang Tahsiri of California State University, Long Beach. With Mathematica, users can perform a single task — like analyzing data or solving a tricky differential equation — or develop an entire solution, prototype, or application.

The workshop coincided with the new, two-year license agreement with Wolfram Research, Inc. for the use of Mathematica at UCI. The software can be installed in computer labs, as well as desktop systems. Faculty who purchase a Mathematica license for their campus computer can, at no additional charge, acquire a license to use Mathematica on their home computer.

Under this agreement, Mathematica can be licensed for any computer owned or leased by the University and installed in a University-owned facility at the UCI campus. There is no distinction between usage for instruction or research. Automatic upgrades, free faculty home-use access, and expanded technical support make this program a good value for UCI. To request more workshops or obtain pricing and information about the latest version of Mathematica, please contact NACS.

Facilities Network

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NACS and Facilities Management are jointly creating a network for monitoring and controlling campus heating and cooling (HVAC) equipment. This is one of a number of campus projects where NACS has assisted a department in design, planning, procurement, and implementation of a special-purpose networking project.

Facilities Management HVAC systems now connect in numerous ways, limiting centralized monitoring and control, and lack the high-speed communications needed to allow real-time management. Facilities Management has long envisioned a more effective system, but has been unable to get satisfactory assistance from outside consultants.

With the new network, every system in every building can be monitored and controlled 24 hours a day. The system will also support metering, capacity planning, and crisis management.

The network will be based on a Cisco gigabit backbone similar to UCInet including 6 core nodes supporting 60 buildings at 10 or 100 megabit/s. The system will be scalable and flexible with spare capacity and performance. This system will be independent of UCInet (and thus the Internet) for reasons of security.

Planning began in the Fall. Most of the equipment has been received and work crews have been hired. Fiber optic cable will be installed over the rest of the year, and the HVAC equipment will be hooked up early in 2002.

Computer Security

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Computer Viruses and Hoaxes

New computer viruses arrive daily. There are a few practical steps that everyone can take to help keep computers safe.

First, be sure that your computer has updated anti-virus software installed. All modern anti-virus software can be configured for automatic updates. If your computer is using VirusScan, the “About…” menu item should report a Scan Engine of 4.1.40 and a virus definition creation date within one week of the current date. Ask your school’s computing help desk for assistance in configuring your software if you need it.

Many computer viruses arrive as e-mail attachments. Use caution when opening attachments. For example, if your co-worker routinely sends you Excel spreadsheets which you collaborate on, you would expect to open those. But if the same associate sends you a Visual Basic script (a file whose name ends with .vbs), DON’T OPEN IT! It’s probably a virus. Use the good old-fashioned telephone to call and confirm that your co-worker meant to send you an unusual attachment. In general, never open an email attachment unless you know what it is — even if it comes from someone you know and trust: many viruses exploit innocent users and computers to spread themselves.

Another problem is virus hoaxes. Whenever you see a message informing you to e-mail “everyone you know”, it’s probably a hoax. It may even be carrying a virus. DON’T e-mail everyone you know. Instead check with your computing support help desk, or check the Web for hoax reports. Places to check include:

Links on these pages to commercial Web sites do not represent endorsement by the University of California or its affiliates.

Instructional Web Resources

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Did you know UCI faculty can establish a Course Web Site using EEE?

EEE is UCI’s Electronic Educational Environment, a campus wide collaborative effort among the Division of Undergraduate Education, Network and Academic Computing Services, the UCI libraries, and the Registrar/SAIS. EEE offers faculty a variety of services for using the Web in instruction. The EEE Web site can be found at eee.uci.edu. It provides a list of UCI course web sites and a variety of communication and web site administration tools.

Bring your course materials to the Web and your site will appear on your students’ EEE Resource Page. EEE currently provides two ways for instructors to post course materials to the web.

EZE3 (http://eee.uci.edu/toolbox/eze3/)

Create a Course Web Page the EZ way. A simple form lets you choose contents, cut-and-paste information and select colors. You can update this page as often as you wish.

Register (http://eee.uci.edu/toolbox/register/)

Request unlimited space on EEE. Upload web pages you create on your computer. Get web pages located on another server listed on EEE or crosslink courses using the same web space.

For any questions about how to use EEE resources please contact EEE support team at eee@uci.edu or 824-8505

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