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Issue
40 - June 2004
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Tech
Terms: Do You Know What They Mean?
By
Annie Yu
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Some
of the technical terms we use in our daily work were mentioned
in our last issue. This issue, we shall continue to provide
definitions of the ones that were often raised at the CSC
Help Desk.
SYSNET |
SYSNET,
the Systems and Network Technical Group, was established
in December 1999 primarily for sharing of network and
system administration experience and increasing cooperation
with departments to tackle the technical problems.
Since
many departmental facilities are managed and supported
by departments' technical staff, close cooperation between
technical staff of departments and of the CSC are therefore
essential in order to achieve a reliable and seamless
integration while maintaining effective distributed
management. Moreover, standards, compatibility and consistency
in setup, good practices in operations, etc. across
the entire campus network will also have to be agreed
and adopted.
Members
of the group are nominated by departments who are responsible
for managing the departmental facility. The objectives
of the group are as follows:
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Exchange information on access to departmental and
central computer facilities with aims to improving
existing facilities and to establishing new ones.
- Exchange
ideas on resource planning, management, and monitoring
as well as on policy formulation for central and departmental
facilities.
- Issue
and receive timely alerts on service interruption,
virus, security, and performance.
- Discuss
technical issues such as: standards, common practices,
configurations, settings, compatibility, etc and their
subsequent adoption and implementation.
- Discuss
and resolve problems encountered in relation to systems
and networks.
- Assist
in deploying and in evaluating pilot tests on new
departmental and central services.
It
is expected that the members are the administrators
of systems/networks or the technical staff in the departments
who are willing to contribute his expertise, time and
effort to serve the University community.
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CityTV |
Through
e-Portal, users can select to view a total of 16 channels
of in-house TV broadcast and commercial TV programmes.
Simply click the "Campus Life" tab under e-Portal
and you will find "CityTV on the left of the page
OR if you prefer, you could access the page directly
at http://www.cityu.edu.hk/CityTV/index.htm.
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Disk
Quota |
A
disk quota is the amount of space assigned to each user
for file storage on a given computer.
On
shared systems, every user has a maximum disk quota.
This prevents any individual from using more than his
or her fair share of disk space. In order to keep from
exceeding quota, you must be sure to periodically remove
old, unused, and unneeded files. To check disk quota,
for example, the email quota usage, you may access "Quota
& Account Profile" at http://email.cityu.edu.hk/.
For enquiries on disk quota of other accounts such as
the departmental Web accounts, simply contact the CSC
Help Desk.
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FTP |
FTP
stands for File Transfer Protocol. As the name implies,
it allows a user on one host to access, and transfer
files to and from, another host over a computer network.
You can use FTP to exchange files between computer accounts,
to transfer files between an account and a desktop computer,
or to access software archives on the Internet. Using
graphical FTP clients simplifies file transfers by allowing
you to transmit files by dragging and dropping icons
between windows. When you open the program, you will
have to enter the name of the machine (e.g. www2.cityu.edu.hk)
and your username and password.
To
select the FTP client program, simply choose "File
Transfer Using WS_FTP LE Setup" under "Software
for Windows 2000/XP" on the "Work Desk"
page.
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IP
Number/Address |
Your
IP address is your computer's unique address on the
Internet. It is different from the MAC address (see
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/netcomp/mar2004-7.htm)
of your Ethernet card. Your IP address has four numeric
segments separated by periods, e.g., 999.999.999.999.
At City University, most IP addresses begin with 144.214.
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PCMCIA |
PCMCIA
stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association. PCMCIA is a non-profit trade association
and standards body consisting of some 500 companies.
PCMCIA has developed a standard for small, credit card-sized
devices, called PC cards that are often used in notebook
computers. (Adapters are available that allow PC cards
to be used in desktop computer systems.) You can visit
the PCMCIA Web site at http://www.pcmcia.org.
In
the past, the cards were known as PCMCIA cards, but
they are now referred to as PC cards, PC card hosts,
and PC card software. PCMCIA refers to the association
and standards body.
A
PC card slot is an expansion slot often found in notebook
computers that allows for the easy and quick addition
of a host of different devices. PC cards are plug-and-play
devices that allows you to change cards on the fly under
Windows 95 and above except Windows NT. The following
is a list of common PC card devices:
- CD-ROM
interface
- Cellular
phone interface
- Docking
station interface
- 10Mbps
Ethernet LAN adapters
- 100Mbps
Ethernet adapters
- GPS
(Global Positioning System) cards
- Hard
drives
- Infrared
wireless LAN adapters
- ISDN
cards
- Joystick
interface cards
- Memory
cards
- Modem
and Ethernet combination cards
- Parallel
port interface
- SCSI
adapters
- Serial
port interface
- Sound
cards, input and output
- Video
capture/frame grabber cards
- Video
teleconferencing card
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WinZip |
WinZip
is a Windows-based program that allows you to compress
files and open previously compressed files in the zip
format.
Apart
from zip files, WinZip also has built-in support for
most popular file compression and archive formats, including
tar, UUencode, MIME, BinHex (.hqx), cabinet (.cab) and
gzip. You do not need to worry if the file being received
is UUencoded, XXencoded, BinHex, or a MIME file (base64,
plain/text, and quoted-printable). WinZip will detect
the method being used and automatically decode it.
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Burn
disk |
It
is a slang term meaning to write data to a CD-ROM disk.
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