Overview of
UCLA Mathematics Computing
Overview
The UCLA Mathematics department maintains a large
heterogeneous network of Windows and Linux computers. All offices in the department have at least one PC running either
Windows or Linux, and a broad variety of application software is
available. Both platforms can also be
found in our public computer labs.
Back-end fileservers provide storage for all users, and a Beowulf-style
computing cluster is available for intensive computation.
Getting
Help
The Mathematics Computing Group (MCG) is available to
answer questions and to assist with all types of computing issues. The MCG maintains the Mathematics Computer
Consulting Office (MCCO) in room MS 6121, which for historical reasons is
called “The Bugs Office”. A consultant
is on duty weekdays from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
For prompt assistance, your best bet is to report problems
by sending email to bugs@math.ucla.edu. Be sure to be specific about the problem,
and include the machine name, the time, and any error messages. Alternately, you can report problems
on-line at http://www.math.ucla.edu/bugs. Drop-in consulting is available in MS 6121
daily from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and again from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (drop-in
hours are 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM when classes are not in session).
Acceptable
Use
The Mathematics department expects everyone to use
computer resources prudently and legally.
Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the campus and UC
acceptable use policies for computing, which can be found at http://www.bol.ucla.edu/policies.
Accounts
Everyone in the Math department gets two computer
accounts: a Linux account, and a
Windows account. Your Linux account is
your primary account; this is where mail is delivered, and where web pages
live. Even if you’re a Windows-only
user, you’ll still be accessing desktop
applications to access your mail and web pages using your Linux login and
password.
To activate your UNIX account, you will need to connect to
the host math.ucla.edu using ssh. Log on as “newuser”, with a password of
“newuser”. Follow the instructions on
the screen to select a strong password and activate your account. For your Windows account, your initial
password will probably be your UCLA 9-digit identification number; you can
change it to a secure password when you first login. If you’re uncomfortable setting up your account, or just have
questions, please don’t hesitate to drop by the MCCO for assistance. Be sure to bring your BruinCard so your
identity can be verified.
The Mathematics department also administers the
undergraduate Program In Computing (PIC).
If you’re assigned as an instructor or TA for once of these
classes, you’ll need a separate set of Linux and Windows accounts
for PIC. In most cases, these accounts
will be created for you automatically about one week before the start of a
quarter.
For all your computer accounts, PLEASE select
strong, non-trivial passwords before you activate your account. At a bare minimum, passwords should not be
based on any name or word (in any language), and should contain characters from
3 of the 4 character classes (lower case, upper case, numerals, and
punctuation). The best passwords have
no more than three consecutive characters from any class. Additional information on choosing strong
passwords can be found at http://www.math.ucla.edu/computing/policies/password.html.
It takes a little effort to come up with a strong initial
password, but it’s worth it.
Computing
Resources
For Linux accounts, all users are assigned a home
server. For faculty, this server is cedar.math.ucla.edu. Grads are assigned
to walnut.math.ucla.edu, and staff to
julia.math.ucla.edu. These servers
are intended for general interactive work, and should not be used for
number-crunching; please use a desktop
machine or the Bamboo Cluster for your CPU intensive jobs. Your initial disk quota on Linux is 100
MB. More disk space can be granted if
you have a legitimate need. Your Linux
home directory will be backed up automatically each night.
If you use Windows, all your personal files should be
stored on your Z: drive (physically on the server palomar), which is
also backed up each night. Disk quotas on your Z: drive are also 100 MB. Note
that files on the C: drive of desktop PC’s are never backed up; please
do not put any data there you cannot afford to lose.
All offices have at least one networked PC, which by
default a Windows system. Linux PC’s
are available on request.
In the case where several people share a single PC, all must
consent to using Linux.
The Math department maintains two computer labs for
department use. These labs are in MS
6187 and MS 3347. Linux and Windows
machines are in both labs, and scanners and printers are also available. In addition, the undergraduate PIC/Math lab
in Boelter 2817 can be used by Math
students as long as there is seating available.
Printing
Everyone in the department is asked to use the printers
responsibly. While faculty and staff
are not subject to printing quotas, graduate students are limited to 300 free
pages of printing each quarter. Unused
pages are carried over to the next quarter, except at the end of the summer,
when all printing quotas are reset.
Additional page allotments can be purchased from the department office
in MS 6363 at $5.00 per hundred pages.
General printing is available in the public labs. Additional printers can be found in the
department copy room (faculty/staff only).
E-mail
E-mail is widely used at UCLA, and both department and
campus mail systems are in use.
By default, incoming E-mail is not filtered for spam
(unsolicited bulk E-mail). However,
virtually everyone in the department but almost everyone elects to opt-in to
spam filtering. Information about
Math’s anti-spam procedures can be found at http://www.math.ucla.edu/computing/spam
. If you’re in a hurry to start
filtering spam with reasonable default parameters, just run “spamscript” from
Linux.
Laptops
If you have your own laptop computer, you’re welcome to
use it in the department to take advantage of our connectivity. There are a few rules, however, which you’ll
need to adhere to.
All offices have at least two Ethernet ports
available. Please use the top right port
for your laptop; the top left port is reserved for office PC’s. If the port is not live in your office,
contact the MCCO and we’ll set it up.
Please do not unplug department PC’s from their jacks to plug in your
laptop; if there aren’t enough ports to go around, we’ll find you a
port-sharing hub to use.
Access to shared Windows filesystems and printers is
available with authentication. Linux
filesystems are not available for mounts; however, access via SSH or X-Windows
is widely available.
Please be aware that offices in the Math Sciences building
are not considered to be secure.
You should never leave an unattended laptop or other valuables in your
office for any length of time.
IMPORTANT: Campus policy requires that all computers which attach to internal
campus networks must meet minimum security standards. Details can be found at http://www.adminvc.ucla.edu/appm/public/app_0401_0.html,
but the main requirements are threefold:
you must run anti-virus software, you must apply automatic security
updates, and you must run firewall software.
All the necessary software is available for free from the Bruin On Line
we site. If you’re not familiar with
laptop security, or need help getting your own machine compliant, please
contact the MCCO and we’ll help you out.
Bruin On
Line
UCLA maintains a campus-wide computer system for all
members of the university community called Bruin On Line (BOL). You should sign up for a BOL account at your
earliest convenience. You’ll need your
9-digit UCLA ID number to do this.
Signups can be done at the BOL office, or on their web page: http://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/accounts
.
Your BOL account will allow you to receive mail at the
ucla.edu domain. You may wish to
forward mail sent there to your math account so you don’t have to check for
mail in two places. BOL also maintains
a web-based mail system; details on this and other BOL features can be found at
http://www.bol.ucla.edu.
The campus also maintains the my.ucla.edu server where you
can access various student-oriented campus resources. Your BOL ID and password will give you access to this page.
BOL maintains a pool of 1700+ modems you can use to access
campus computers. These are free, but
you must pay any toll charges.
Instructions are available from the BOL download site: http://www.bol.ucla.edu/software. A variety of terminal programs, browsers,
mail clients and anti-virus software (for personal use) can also be found
there.
Personal
Web Pages
All faculty, staff and students in Math can set up
personal web pages. Although there are
no formal restrictions on the content of personal web pages, please use good
taste and common sense when posting content.
Our department web server uses Apache web software. To set up a page, just create a subdirectory
called public_html in your UNIX home directory. You can then place an index.html file and content there and
you’re in business. Make sure that your
web subdirectory and all files in it are world readable (but not world
writable).
Mathnet
Software
A broad variety of software is available on both the UNIX
and Windows systems. New software is
added all the time. All systems have
Mathematica, Maple and MATLAB, Office (or OpenOffice) software, a variety of
browsers and E-mail clients, and utility software.
Wireless
networking
The Math department has deployed a Wi-Fi (802.11b) network
which covers most of the offices on the 5th, 6th and 7th
floors of the building. Work is in
progress to expand coverage to the 2nd and 3rd floors. Any laptop device
with a standard wireless card can be used, but you’ll first need to get a
network password from the MCCO.
The campus as a whole maintains a wireless network; you
can read about the current status of this effort at http://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/wireless.
Other
Resources
The CLICC lab in Powell Library is well funded, and offers
a number of resources that the Math department does not. Access is by your BOL ID. The CLICC lab has a number of scanners, and
provides Macintoshes for general use.
Monochrome laser printing is available at $0.10 a page, and color laser
printing is $0.40 a page.
CLICC also has specialized software available, including
ARCview, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, Minitab, Pagemaker,
Photoshop, Mapinfo, Math Soft, S-plus, and SPSS.
CLICC hours change over the course of the quarter: please
see http://www.clicc.ucla.edu for
details.
MORE
Additional Mathnet computing documentation can be found at
http://www.math.ucla.edu/computing
.