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The new Microsoft Office System 2003, which was released to the general public in October 2003, consists of the latest versions of traditional Office programs such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint and with new tools added, such as a note-taking application called OneNote and an XML data tool called InfoPath. As its name implies, this new "system" is a family of interrelated applications aimed at helping enterprises to utilise their Microsoft programs in a collaborative way. The idea is to help employees work with each other more effectively, whether they are sharing documents or planning meetings and events. It runs under Windows XP and 2000, but not under Windows 9x or any non-Microsoft operating system. The following table shows a list of new and enhanced programs provided by Office System 2003:

CityTV, the online television cum Internet broadcast TV channels through our campus network attracts more than one thousand users per day since its launch several years ago, and obviously it becomes one of the most favorite links for many of you. In order to cater for the different needs of our users, it is recently enriched with more channels in response to the great deman. At the start, there are a total of 6 channels plus one CityU live broadcasting channel. From early November 2003, the number of channel was increased to 11. The new channels include: National Geographic, Cable Sports, ESPN, CCTV-4, CCTV-9 and Phoenix. (CNBC was removed due to its low access rate). More channels will be added should there be such a need. So please visit the CityTV home page (as shown below) via the ePortal by choosing the Campus Life tab to have a look at the latest channels available.

What is "spam"? "Spam" can be regarded as a synonym of "junk mail". It refers to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) and unsolicited bulk email (UBE). Email spam is an annoying problem faced by most of the email users on the Internet. No one wants his/her mailbox fills up with unwanted messages. However, spam spreads everywhere on the Internet nowadays, we get it almost every day and the condition is getting worse.

Quite a number of University PCs were infected by the recent outbreaks of the viruses/worms, viz. MS Blaster, W32/Welchia (or W32/Nachi) and Sobig-F. The University not only acquires sufficient licenses for the Windows, MS-Office, and McAfee anti-virus software but also frequently promotes user awareness and provides timely warnings on computer viruses. Yet it is surprised to see that there are still machines, especially those not managed by the Computing Services Centre (CSC), which are not installed with the latest patches or updates for these licensed software. Some were even found running without any anti-virus software or any patch at all. As a result, those machines with well-known vulnerabilities in the OS and application software were being exploited to hack or spread viruses on other machines both on campus and the Internet. In order to effectively stop these damaging activities on our campus network, you are urged to take the following actions on your office computers as well as the remote ones if you have not already done so:

In view of the increasing popularity of notebook computers for use on campus and at home, the Computing Services Centre (CSC) has successfully partnered with the IBM to organize a Computer Ownership Programme for both students and staff. Six latest models of IBM ThinkPad notebook computers plus printers and other peripherals are all offered at special discount rates up to 36% off the market price. All models, except the one with the lowest price tag, come with a 3-year international warranty. They all have been certified by the CSC to work under both the wireless and wired LANs of the campus network.

After a lengthy tendering exercise, the annual maintenance service contract for Dell desktops (Warranty Extension Scheme, WES) and the Per Call Service Scheme for all desktops are finally awarded to IBM and ServiceOne respectively. The subscription arrangement and the service scope of the two Schemes are described below:I. Desktop PCs About half of the 4,500 Dell PCs on campus are still under Dell's 3-year warranty until 30 June 2004. On-site Dell engineers will continue to provide maintenance service, and departments can simply raise an online CSC Work Request or call the CSC Help Desk as before for it.

When we talk about Chinese input method in the subject of "Chinese Computing", you will immediately relate this to the "Chang Jie", "Pinyin", "Quick" etc. input methods. Then, you might also have experienced the hardship when you start to learn using the keyboard and memorize keystroke combinations and complicated input rules. You may have an impression that most of the Chinese input methods are difficult to learn or use through keyboard inputting methods. Some may even prefer to use pen input method. In fact, each Chinese input method is designed for different targeted users. For example, pen input method is easy to learn but relatively slow in input speed, it is good for general users; whereas "Chang Jie" is difficult to learn but the input speed is fast for experienced users. Therefore, it is good for frequent users. And the CKC Chinese Input System

The video conferencing equipment can be cataloged into two types. One is desktop level device for very small group of participants, and web cam is one commonly used device under this category. The other type of video conferencing device is more advanced and sophisticated, and we usually called this video conferencing equipment as "Room System".

Eudora has been the standard and officially supported email client software at the City University since its installation in 1997. Owing to the fact that it is user-friendly, Eudora is welcomed by the majority of staff on campus. However, as technology advances, more and more problems have arisen from its lack of multi-language support, especially its inability in handling Chinese. In view of this, the Computing Services Centre (CSC) has decided to extend its standard support to Outlook Express as an alternative email client on campus with a view to phasing out Eudora gradually in the future.

According to usage statistics, the majority of our students have already moved from Windows 98 (Win98/CWin98) to the Windows XP (WinXP) environment. In order to concentrate our support effort on WinXP and leave room for the development of this environment, we will remove the Win98/CWin98 application environment in the CSC Student Terminal Area after the Summer Term.A full list of software applications installed under Student LAN WinXP and Win98/CWin98 can be found at the following URL: