News

Are you a person who likes to spend an afternoon at the Computer Expo’ just to see what’s happening in the computing arena? Does your job require you to keep up-to-date with the latest technology? If your answer to either or both of these questions is ‘yes’, you should consider attending seminars and talks organised by the Computing Services Centre (CSC).Starting Semester A 1999/2000, we will be hosting a number of exciting seminars. The first to be held this fall will feature the Office 2000 that everyone has been waiting for. As Linux is becoming more and more popular nowadays, a special seminar has been organised for this topic of interest. Other hot topics include FrontPage 2000, Web Security, PC Technology Trend in 1999/2000, and Chinese Input. Apart from the CSC Forum, we also have some casual Small Talk sessions in store for you during this Semester. Being held in a casual atmosphere and chaired by our most experienced CSC staff members, Small Talk serves as a channel to deliver vital and useful information so that all CityU staff are properly educated in the use of the computing facilities and services offered by the CSC.

Information Services Advisory Committee (ISAC) is a committee that advises the Senate on matters concerning the policy and development of the Information Services Group. The following are a list of issues reviewed and reported in the ISAC.Outsourcing of Dial-up Facility To meet the rapidly growing demand for dial-up facility, a modem pool of a total of 800 dial-up lines including 96 for staff, 100 for express lines and 604 for students was recommended. The ISAC decided that priority should be given to improving on-campus Internet access rather than off-campus, and agreed to outsource the entire modem pool to a carrier provider and increase the total number of dial-up lines as recommended.

Much has been said about the y2k awareness and conversion project in June 1998, March and June 1999 issues of the Network Computing. It is time to report the y2k compliance progress in the Computing Services Centre (CSC). We are proud to announce that all the mission critical systems of CSC have reached 100% y2k compliance as at 15th July 1999. The following is a summary of an update in respective areas:1. Campus NetworkAll the networking equipment is y2k compliant. In June 1999, the Joint Universities Computer Centres (JUCC) arranged a joint testing to test all networking equipment used for HARNET connections, e-mail and Web services. The result was satisfactory.

CityTouch isa new multi-option item on Intranet Home Page a collection of on-campus and off-campus news Web sites which provide a common starting point to know what is going on in our University, Hong Kong and the world a Web page where you can read newspapers, listen to current radio news and watch real-time Cable News Channels simply by pointing and clicking.

If you are considering to purchase a new computer or to replace your existing one, now it is the time to act quickly. The CSC has arranged with Compaq, Dell, IBM, and Sun to provide CityU students with special offers which are guaranteed to be lowest in town. Some even allow payment by installments (with low interest rates). A couple of vendors also agree to extend the offers to all full time staff. So check it out by visiting the following Web site:http:// www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/compown