What's New in the SMS Web

Not maintained since 2012

Below is a historical list of material added to our WWW server, and other changes to computing arrangements. Some WWW items are only available locally within the School.

Don't forget that SiteSearch allows you to search all School WWW information.


Dec 2011Matlab version R2011b installed on Linux and Windows
Samba upgraded to version 3.6.1
Nov 2011Internet access for undergrads allowed to all work-related sites.
Mathematica version 8.0.4 available, see scnews
Oct 2011New research server "briona" ready to use, see scnews
Sep 2011Incoming telnet was unused for several months, turned off: please use ssh (or putty) instead
Aug 2011TeX on Linux upgraded to TexLive2011, see scnews
Jul 2011Linux software updated to Debian "squeeze" release
Jun 2011Gridroom website ngame.edu.au now at /u/NGame, including room booking tool
Apr 2011Maple upgraded to version 15
Mar 2011Mathematica version 8.0.1 available, see scnews
Tutor and lecturer aliases tutmNNNN and MATHnnnn etc, see scnews
Feb 2011Mathematica version 8 available, see scnews
Linux software on parona upgraded to current Debian "squeeze"
Jan 2011New research server "gemona" ready to use, see scnews
Sound (Skype, MP3, youtube) may now be used on Y-terminals, see scnews

Dec 2010Acroread on Linux updated to 9.4.1
Nov 2010Matlab version R2010b installed on Linux and Windows
New research server "facona" (donated by Faculty) ready to use, see scnews
Oct 2010Spam filter stopped, see scnews
Internet traffic limits removed (even private), see scnews
The SchoolInternalWiki re-activated then again commented out
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.4.0
Sep 2010Samba upgraded to version 3.5.5
Aug 2010Disk quotas quadrupled, see scnews
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.4
Jul 2010Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.3
magma on Windows upgraded to version 2.16-10
May 2010Maple upgraded to version 14
Samba upgraded to version 3.5.2
New research server "ossona" ready to use, see scnews
Mathematica version 7 available, see scnews
Apr 2010Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.2
Mar 2010magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.16-6
Touchscreen info kiosk on level 7 ready to use
Feb 2010Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.1
Outgoing emails branded, see scnews
Jan 2010New research servers "ippona" and "cetona" ready to use, see scnews
TeX on Linux upgraded to TexLive2009
Samba upgraded to version 3.4.3
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3
Web server branded

Dec 2009Linux software on bari upgraded, rome replaced: all Linux machines now run current Debian "lenny", see scnews
Nov 2009Linux software on asti upgraded to current Debian "lenny"
New research server "parona" ready to use
Oct 2009Matlab version R2009b installed on Linux and Windows
Touchscreen info kiosk on level 5 ready to use
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.2
Mathematica upgraded to version 5.1 (up from 5.0)
Maple upgraded to version 13
Samba upgraded to version 3.0.37
Sep 2009Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.3
Aug 2009Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.2
May 2009Linux software on pisa upgraded to current Debian "lenny"
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.1
Mar 2009New research server "strona" ready to use
Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.0
Matlab version R2008b installed on Linux
Feb 2009Acroread plugin on Linux updated to 8.1.3

Dec 2008Samba upgraded to version 3.0.33
Nov 2008Acroread on Linux updated to 8.1.3; the mozilla plugin still uses 7.0.9
Sep 2008New login server "bari" ready to use
Aug 2008New research server "traona" ready to use
magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.14-15
Jul 2008New Admin server machine bianco
Printing on photocopiers, see scnews
May 2008Samba upgraded to version 3.0.30
New firewall/proxy/gateway machine siv/talus
Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28a
Apr 2008Disk quotas increased
Feb 2008magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.14-9
New 64-bit research server "carona" ready to use
Acroread updated to 8.1.2; the mozilla plugin on Linux machines still uses 7.0.9

Dec 2007Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28
Nov 2007Samba upgraded to version 3.0.27a
Sep 2007Acroread on Linux machines updated to 8.1.1; the mozilla plugin still uses 7.0.9
The School calendar (in essence) incorporates data from the events database
Aug 2007Local front page local.html with pretty layout (see older)
Jun 2007Matlab on Linux (but not yet on Windows) updated to version R2007a
Apr 2007Anthony Henderson has released the 2007 SUMS Problem Competition
Mar 2007Maple upgraded to version 11
Incoming ssh (or putty, scp sftp etc, as well as telnet) possible directly, without the ssh-with-skey script (however skeys are still needed). The script is only needed for outgoing ssh or telnet from laptops and the like (and will be used automatically from our Linux machines)
TeX on Linux upgraded to TexLive2007
Jan 2007Matlab on Linux (but not yet on Windows) updated to version R2006b
External web (local web content, including scnews) authentication possible with UniKey, see also scnews

Dec 2006External scnews (School-members-using-Web-remotely) authentication changed to cookie-based with "form" prompt, for proper functionality
Nov 2006scnews items not automatically deleted when expired, but may be kept for historical record
Internet traffic limits essentially removed (only private limits remain), see scnews
Oct 2006Anthony Henderson has released the solutions and winner list for the 2006 SUMS Problem Competition
Incoming email filtered for spam (and viruses) by the central Sophos setup, see scnews
Sep 2006Outgoing ssh (or scp, sftp or telnet) possible direct from laptops etc with ssh-with-skey script
Ability to go backwards and forwards in School calendar
HTTPS (== HTTP CONNECT) proxy replacing SOCKS
Aug 2006Ownership of tutsols directories re-organized: "shareable", not counted against owner's quota
Matlab on both Linux and Windows updated to version R2006a
Jul 2006Splus on Linux updated to version 7
Labs 729/730 fitted out with new Dell computers
Linux machines updated to current release "sarge" of Debian
Jun 2006Ownership of teaching (not tutsols) directories re-organized: "shareable", not counted against owner's quota
Acroread on up-to-date (sarge) Linux machines updated to 7.0.8
Data projectors in labs and in bag, see scnews
Web space standardized at www.maths.usyd.edu.au
SOCKS V5 support added to our proxy server (for https connections)
Apr 2006Reduce version 3.8 is now available
Anthony Henderson has released the 2006 SUMS Problem Competition
Incoming ssh available from Windows machines (as well as Linux) (see ssh-with-skey script)
asti available as upgrade to pisa
Mar 2006Data projectors in labs, see scnews
TexLive2005 available on Linux
Feb 2006Acroread on up-to-date (sarge) Linux machines (not many of those, yet...) updated to 7.0.5

Dec 2005Both Linux and Windows-via-Samba versions of magma have been upgraded to version 2.12-17.
64-bit Linux computer available.
Donald Cartwright has released the solutions and winner list for the SUMS 2005 Problem Competition.
Nov 2005CDs may also be used on Y-terminals, see scnews.
Printers f5lw and colw updated (replaced by new).
VMware Player available, see scnews.
Firefox and Thunderbird available on up-to-date (sarge) Linux machines (not many of those, yet...)
Oct 2005Wrapper for acroread also with CPU limits to protect against runaways.
Workaround for misfeatures of Yahoo search (incompatibility with Apache)
Wrappers for sylpheed, galeon and xemacs improved or created, to warn about left-over process and/or with CPU limits to protect against runaways.
Wireless network coverage improved, see scnews.
The 'man page displayer' (e.g. for xfrom) had not been working for some time, now fixed. (i2w, i2wx are not re-implemented yet.)
Disk quotas generally tripled, nobackup quotas more so.
Sep 2005Internet traffic limits generally doubled.
Donald Cartwright announces the 2005-2006 Vacation scholarships.
Code added to the sylpheed wrapper to warn about disk quota problems
SiteSearch had not been working for some time, now fixed.
Aug 2005Scanner available in 612, see scnews.
USB sticks may be used on Y-terminals, see scnews.
rome crashed several times since 27 July (and pisa froze several times including on 10 June). May be fixed with kernel upgrade.
Jul 2005Jim Richardson is away on secondment as "CST ICT Relationship Manager" for one year. Paul Szabo is "acting Computing Manager".
Lab PCs have been upgraded to WindowsXP, loaded from images prepared by Mike Wilson. With the new arrangements, it will be possible to keep Windows updated with the all-too-frequent (but long overdue and still inadequate) security patches, and to keep software like Acroread, Firefox and Thunderbird up-to-date.
Jun 2005The School IT Committee has approved a new version of the IT Equipment Plan.
May 2005Donald Cartwright has released the SUMS 2005 Problem Competition.
Mar 2005TeX documentation from the TeXlive distribution is now available via the web (inside the School). The HTML TeX documentation is the most useful part.
Feb 2005The network gateway siv has been upgraded from an Alpha to a Linux machine. The School's external web page address is officially now http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/ without the ":8000", although the old address still works (via a redirect).
Robert Pearson has upgraded Magma on the Linux system to version 2.11.
Jan 2005The main teaching server rome has been upgraded from an Alpha to a Linux machine. The "staff server" milan decommissioned, its functions having been replaced by pisa for some time.

Dec 2004NCAR Graphics version 4.3.1 is now available on Linux. To use it put the line ". /usr/sms/share/ncarg/bash-setup" (note the dot!) in your ~/.myenv file; then see the man pages ncargf77, ncargcc, etc.
Oct 2004The Intel Linux Fortran compiler on Debian machines has been upgraded to version 8.1.019; extensive documentation is available if you have a licence and are running on a Linux machine. The command for version 8 is ifort instead of ifc.
Aug 2004Donald Cartwright announces the 2004-2005 Vacation scholarships.
Paul Szabo has upgraded MATLAB on Linux to version 7.0. This cures the MATLAB6/Sawfish bug, so people using the IceWM window manager may now return to Sawfish.
Jun 2004Paul Szabo has upgraded Maple on Linux to version 9.5.
Apr 2004The Linux bugs page has new information about MATLAB windowing problems with Sawfish, and pasting from Nedit to a Gnome terminal.
Jan 2004Paul Szabo has upgraded the TeX distribution on Debian to the TeXLive9 version.

Nov 2003S-PLUS on Linux has been upgraded to version 6.1. Note that the licence is for research and teaching only: commercial and consulting uses are not permitted.
A 4-user Mathematica version 5.0 licence is now available on Debian Linux machines. An unlimited version 4.0 licence continues to be available on rome.
Oct 2003As decided by the Information Technology Committee, the work-related and unclassified Internet traffic limits, both weekly and yearly, have been doubled for most academic and research staff.
Aug 2003Maple has been upgraded to version 9.
Jun 2003The Linux Fortran compiler on Debian machines has been upgraded to version 7.1.020.
For Samba users managing their own PC, Acrobat Reader 6.0 for Windows (98SE, 2000, ME and XP only) can now be installed by running L:\win\sfwinst\Acroread6.0_install . Staff with CSO-managed PCs who would like this installed should email support@maths.usyd.edu.au. It may be worthwhile keeping version 5.1 in place as well, as it is reported to have "better anti aliasing and smoothing".
May 2003On Linux, Magma has been upgraded to version 2.10.
Apr 2003On Linux, MATLAB has been upgraded to version 6.5, and a 2-user Image Processing Toolbox licence is now available.
Feb 2003For Samba users managing their own PC, Acrobat Reader 5.1 for Windows can now be installed. Uninstall any previous version, then run L:\win\sfwinst\Acroread5.1_install .

Nov 2002The Linux Fortran compiler on Debian machines has been upgraded to version 7.0.064.
Sep 2002Andrew Mathas has written an easy-to-use tool for writing web pages in the new format, essentially just by cutting and pasting.
Aug 2002A wavelet package WaveThresh3 has been installed for Linux S-PLUS.
S-PLUS is now available on padua, under the University site licence, which is for research and teaching only: commercial and consulting uses are not permitted.
The statistics package R 1.5.1 is now available on Samba PCs: run L:\win\bin\R1.5.1 . It creates files in H:\My_Documents but you can copy the shortcut and modify the "Start in" directory in Properties if you wish.
New designs for the front and research pages are now in place, thanks to Step Two Designs and a Web Working Party chaired by Andrew Mathas, who did most of the work for research pages.
Jul 2002Maple has been upgraded to version 8.
May 2002For Samba users managing their own PC, GSview 4.3 for Windows can now be installed. Uninstall any previous version, then run L:\win\sfwinst\GSview4.3_install . A GSview licence, for use within the School only, is available from jimr.
Apr 2002Mike Wilson has set up a way to access Alphas from lab PCs.
Information about Office PCs installed by the School CSOs.
Paul Szabo has provided commands ps2optpdf and pdfoptinplace for optimizing PDF files. It is a good idea to use one of these commands on PDF files intended for distribution on the Web, to help overcome problems with some versions of the Acrobat reader.
Mike Wilson has upgraded ghostscript to version 7.04.
Mar 2002For Samba users managing their own PC, Ghostscript 7.04 and GSview 4.2 for Windows can now be installed. Uninstall any previous versions (including fonts), then run L:\win\sfwinst\Ghostscript7.04_install followed by L:\win\sfwinst\GSview4.2_install . A GSview licence, for use within the School only, is available from jimr.
Workshop in Arithmetic Geometry (Echidna) page by David Kohel.
Feb 2002MATLAB 6.1 is now available on Samba PCs: run L:\win\bin\MATLAB . Startup of the program is slow over the network, taking a minute or two, but it seems to run all right after that.
Jan 2002A 5-user Maple licence is now available.

Nov 2001Donald Cartwright has released the solutions and winner list for the SUMS 2001 Problem Competition.
Oct 2001Additional funding for postgraduate students.
Administrative web documents have been moved from the old Novell server white to the new admin Linux server bianco.
Aug 2001Geometric Aspects of Representation Theory: 21-26 July 2002 conference page by Joost van Hamel.
Jul 2001Updated Postgraduate Handbook from Neville Weber.
Jun 2001S-PLUS version 6.0 is now available.
Updated list of recent postgraduate theses from Neville Weber.
Support Web Page for reporting computer problems, by Mike Wilson.
Fifth Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium (ANTS V) page by Claus Fieker.
Revised School policy on equipment purchase, support and maintenance.
May 2001Updated hints on VM mail for XEmacs users, including printable reference card.
Apr 2001Margin bar of links on local front page to aid navigation, especially for new users.
Basic Unix commands for new users.
Paul Szabo has upgraded the Acrobat PDF reader acroread to version 4.05.
Netscape 4 has been upgraded from version 4.76 to version 4.77; this fixes a security problem involving GIF comments and JavaScript. You can select whether to run Netscape 3 or Netscape 4 with the netscape-select command. Netscape 3 (the default) is faster, and adequate for most purposes.
Paul Szabo has upgraded TeX to the TeXLive5 version.
Mar 2001Algebraic Geometry Seminar page by Joost van Hamel.
Structural reorganization of external front page, with new pages About the School, Information for Students, Seminars and Computing Topics; plus navigational sidebars on the Research pages and a site map.
New multi-target Search.
ssh and scp are now available on internal Alphas to allow visitors to make secure connections to their remote home machines.
Deirdre Lawrie has updated Administrivia (converted for the Web by Robert Pearson).
Paul Szabo has completed the upgrade of the operating system on all internal Alphas to Compaq Tru64 V5.1.
Computational Algebra Seminar page by Gavin Brown.
Feb 2001List of work-related sites under the Internet traffic limits scheme.
Mike Wilson has upgraded nedit to version 5.1.1.
Jan 2001Mike Wilson has upgraded python to version 2.0.
For XEmacs users, VM Mail has been upgraded to version 6.90.

Magnetic Anomaly Maps From Satellite Observations by Denis Winch and Jon Turner.]
Dec 2000Mike Wilson has upgraded ghostscript to version 6.50.
Pages for prospective students by Nigel O'Brian.
MATLAB has been upgraded to version 6.0.
The Publication List Search has been improved, based on ideas of Don Taylor and Andrew Mathas.
The threshold at which Web pages have a trailing message indicating how much of the traffic limit you have used has changed from a fixed 20% to a varying amount depending on the fraction of the week or year which has elapsed, so that these messages should be seen less often.
Nov 2000The School network hubs have been upgraded from Catalyst 3000s to three Catalyst 4000s and a Catalyst 3524.
Netscape 4 has been upgraded from version 4.75 to version 4.76; this fixes a security problem involving an HTML buffer overflow.
Oct 2000Netscape 4 has been upgraded from version 4.73 to version 4.75; this fixes a security problem involving Java, but you are still advised to run with Java disabled except to trusted servers, in case of further holes.
Jul 2000New keyboard-oriented cleanup command allows rapid deletion of unwanted files and gzipping of large old ones, as a complement to xcleanup.
Jun 2000The MATLAB licences have been reorganized into a research licence and a Classroom licence, with the latter including the Financial Mathematics Toolbox.
May 2000Paul Szabo has provided a list of PostScript, PCL and PJL references for people interested in printing technicalities.
Apr 2000The Backspace key on PC-style keyboards on laboratory X-terminals should now delete the preceding character.
The 2000 version of the Postgraduate Handbook, updated by Neville Weber, is now available on the Web.
Perl has been upgraded to version 5.6.0.
Mar 2000Paul Szabo has upgraded latex2html to version 99.2beta6.
Mike Wilson has upgraded ghostscript to version 6.0.
Feb 2000The teaching server rome has been upgraded to an AlphaServer ES40 running Compaq Tru64 Unix Version 5.0.
Mike Wilson has upgraded MATLAB from version 5.3 to version 5.3.1 (on rome).
Collection of Course Objectives Papers by Geoff Ball.
New session manager SMSsession written by Mike Wilson.

Dec 1999The network gateway has been upgraded from an Alpha 255 to a 600au, about 5 times faster.
Paul Szabo has set up a newer version 4.1 of the Aachen computational discrete algebra system GAP, available via the command gap. Documentation is available on internal Alphas. Version 3.4.4 will be available via the command gap344 for a limited period.
Nov 1999XEmacs version 21.1.7 is now the default.
Oct 1999Applied Mathematics Seminar page from Charlie Macaskill.
Aug 1999Paul Szabo has upgraded xfig to version 3.2.2; see also the man page and a PDF article Using XFig.
Information on the School's Multiple Choice Marking facility by Nigel O'Brian.
Jul 1999Internet traffic limits introduced.
Mike Wilson has upgraded MATLAB to version 5.3 (on rome).
Paul Szabo has installed the up-to-date TeXLive4 version of TeX.
Most frequently linked pages /MS-freq-link.html in the /MathSearch.html index.
Jun 1999Version 4.0 of Mathematica is now available on rome only.
Paul Szabo has upgraded the Acrobat reader acroread to version 4: see its built-in help.
The staff server milan has been upgraded to Digital Unix V4.0D.
XEmacs 21.1 is now the default version. See also the hint on running a shell with coloured fonts.
The network gateway siv has been upgraded to Digital Unix V4.0D.
May 1999Paul Szabo has upgraded the PostScript viewer gv to version 3.5.8.
Mar 1999Paul Szabo has installed R, a free language for data analysis and graphics with similarities to Splus, and also version 2.8.1 of gcc.
Dismissing new scnews items on the local front page now directly updates the page.
Plain text documents are now printed "two-up", that is, two document pages per paper side, to save paper.
Feb 1999Mike Wilson has upgraded nedit to version 5.
Colours on the School pages have been modified so as to be more stable (not to "dither") across a range of displays, by making most RGB values multiples of 33 hexadecimal -- thanks to Ruth Corran for this suggestion.
The scwho School members list is now available sorted by position, in a format suggested by Don Taylor.
LaTeX has been upgraded to the June 1998 version.
New Teaching page by Jonathan Kress.
Paul Szabo has upgraded the operating system on rome to version V4.0D.
Jan 1999Mike Wilson has upgraded MATLAB to version 5.2 (on rome) and ghostscript to version 5.50.

Dec 1998The Rose/Moore TeX macro package xypic has been upgraded to version 3.7. Documentation in PDF and PostScript form is available on internal Alphas.
There is a bug in XEmacs which makes it die when VM or RMAIL reads a mail message with many many recipients in the To: header.
Nov 1998Paul Szabo has set up a new Canon BJC-7000 colour printer in 612. The queue name is cpr6: you can queue PostScript files to it with the command lpr -Pcpr6 file .
Bridging Course pages.
Summer School pages.
p6lw has been replaced with a new HP4000N printer. Use queue p6lw for two-sided printing, and p6lw-1 sparingly for single-sided: see the printing page.
Oct 1998An experimental on-line discussion capability has been added to scnews.
Sep 1998The 1998 version of the Postgraduate Handbook, updated by Neville Weber, is now available on WWW. With it come updated versions of the Research Group Pages.
The main (RAM) memory on milan has been doubled to 512MB. This should improve performance under load.
A graphics display bug in the PDF viewer acroread has been noted.
Aug 1998The GNU Image Manipulation Program or gimp has been installed by Paul Szabo. This powerful if tricky-to-use package could be used for creating and manipulating images for Web pages.
The School Administration page is now housed on and managed from the Admin LAN Web server. Minutes and other material for this page should be sent to Robert Pearson.
There is now a 4-user Mathematica 3 network licence for all internal and external Alphas, in addition to the unlimited licence on rome. The commands math and mathematica run the version 3 kernel and front-end on all machines. To stay at version 2, use math2 and mathematica2 (these will be phased out).
Jul 1998You may now modify and delete scnews items you have created, by re-reading the item and selecting the appropriate button at the bottom.
The LiE computer algebra package for Lie group computations is now available, via the command lie. There is internal help, and a manual is available on internal Alphas in dvi form.
The default version of Mathematica on rome, obtained with the command math, is now 3.0. You can still use version 2.2 on rome, with the command math2.
The commands tclsh and wish now reflect versions 8.0. Feel free to contact Mike Wilson if you need any help.
Jun 1998There is a new Alpha Frequently Asked Questions page, including information about mail, data formats, floppies, CDs, etc.
The old domain maths.su.oz.au is now gone. Any mail sent to it will receive a reply generated in ITS saying that maths.usyd.edu.au must be used instead.
PStricks version 97 has been installed, replacing the 1993 version. Some Web documentation is available.
Mike Wilson has installed the GNU C/C++ compiler and GNU make. The commands are gcc and gmake (note that the latter is set up as gmake here but known in the documentation as make). These are alternatives to the Digital commands cc, cxx and make, and may be useful for installing large imported software packages; if you are in doubt about which to use, you should probably stick to the Digital versions. Note also that the manual pages for the GNU commands are out of date; instead use the Web documentation, which also covers libraries.
SiteSearch can now search for strings of digits (between 4 and 8 long), as well as for alphabetic words.
May 1998Information on the 1998 Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society, from Bob Howlett.
New Junior Mathematics and Statistics Courses page (in provisional form), including past exam papers converted by Bob Howlett.
Apr 1998Mike Wilson has recently provided a graphical interface program tuteroll for maintaining databases of tutorial attendances and quiz results.
It is now possible to read new scnews on WWW, and be kept up-to-date with new items, from outside the Alpha system -- either from other School machines or from beyond the School. To do this you authenticate yourself with a special password (different from all other passwords you use). To arrange this please think up a memorable password and telephone Jim Richardson.
For XEmacs users, VM Mail has been upgraded from version 6.33 to version 6.46; the changes are mainly bug-fixes.
Mar 1998Don Taylor has added a memo variant to his smslett document class for letters in LaTeX using School letterhead.
Feb 1998MathSciNet, giving Web access to Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications, is now available across the University.
Final shutdown of the last of the School's Apollo computers
An additional Alpha called venice is now available, principally for graphics computations. It has no monitor, but shares files with rome/milan/turin, and can be accessed with xfrom; it is best suited to running one batch job at a time. If you have a graphics project and would like to use venice, please send email to jimr.
All Alphas are now officially in the maths.usyd.edu.au Internet domain.
Mike Wilson has provided a program called xcleanup to provide an easy graphical interface for cleaning up unwanted files. On most Alphas, xcleanup will now run automatically if you try to log in while over quota.
A gallery page including pictures by Nigel O'Brian and a new ring spinning machine picture by postgraduate student Jim Clark.
Jan 1998LaTeX has been upgraded to the December 1997 version (at patch level 1).
Algebra Seminar page, by Andrew Mathas
Don Taylor has provided the smslett document class for writing letters in LaTeX, using School letterhead.
The Digital Unix operating system on milan has been upgraded from version 4.0 to 4.0B. At the same time, the default version of XEmacs on all internal Alphas has become 19.16. Note that version 19.16 includes the AUC TeX package for using LaTeX within XEmacs.
The network gateway siv/talus has moved to a new machine, with version 4.0B of Digital Unix, and running the Apache HTTP Server.

Dec 1997rome is now running the Apache HTTP Server instead of the obsolete NCSA one.
Nov 1997New SUTMEG pages by Sandra Britton and Jesse Sweeney.
Oct 1997Your most recent unread scnews items are now shown on the local front page if accessed from a suitable machine within the School.
PDF-format Senior Courses Handbook from Bob Howlett and Intermediate Courses Handbook from Sandra Britton.
Mike Wilson has provided commands tex2gif and latex2gif for converting TeX and LaTeX pages or fragments to GIFs for WWW and other uses. See their manual page.
milan and turin (along with rome) are now available on the XDMCP menu on all laboratory X-terminals, not just 729/30. Postgrad students may find 611 a more congenial place to work during busy times.
An updated version of the Aachen computational discrete algebra system GAP is available via the command gap. This has 3.4.4 libraries, though only a 3.4 kernel. Documentation is available on internal Alphas.
Mike Wilson has upgraded Ghostscript or gs to version 5.03; see /usr/local/lib/ghostscript/5.03/doc/use.txt for details of new capabilities e.g. PDF.
Link colours on most Web pages have reversed: unvisited links are now OrangeRed to make them stand out, while visited links are brown.
Sep 1997Complete School publications list, broken down by year of publication, from Don Taylor.
Information on customizing Netscape font and window size.
Second Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation page, by Rupert Littlewood and Hugh Luckock.
Information on Units of Study, including old and new code numbers, and credit points -- from Don Taylor.
Aug 1997Courses and Careers Day page, by Nigel O'Brian, including Nigel's and Peter Buchen's share portfolio program.
tgum command for transferring files by mail.
scnews has been moved from the Apollos to WWW on the Alpha system. You may read new, all, or selected news, and add new items. The categories of news items have changed (thanks to Nigel O'Brian for this suggestion).
For XEmacs users, VM Mail has been upgraded to version 6.33, which can decode MIME mail messages including base64: use the D option in the Dispose menu. The VM-mail info page is useful but rather out-of-date.
Information about incoming telnet and dial-up to the Alphas.
The Acrobat PDF reader/searcher for reading Adobe Portable Format files has been installed. You can use it as a stand-alone program with the command acroread: there is built-in help, or try acroread -help. It will also start up -- after a long pause -- from Netscape as a helper application (not a plug-in yet) if you fetch a PDF file from the Web.
Updated information on cost-saving while printing.
A new version of the Postgraduate Handbook, updated by Neville Weber, is now available on WWW. With it come updated versions of the Research Group Pages.
Jul 1997The School's "Shuttle" connection to WWW has been replaced by more reliable proxying; Netscape has been upgraded to Navigator Gold version 3.01.
The scwho page now includes a full listing of School members, with links to personal home pages or other details.
Mar 1997Senior Courses in Pure Mathematics (PM3 handbook, from Jenny Henderson and Nigel O'Brian)
Feb 1997You may now submit records of research publications through WWW (this replaces genpubs).
Nigel O'Brian's Master of Arts in Mathematics pages
A password is no longer normally required when using xfrom to make an X connection from one of the major "trusted" Alphas rome, milan and turin to another Alpha.



December 1996
Shuttle now automatically loads images which either are already in the cache, or come from within the University
New School local front page (now the default home page for School WWW readers)
Netscape now auto loads images by default (reverse this with the Options menu if you wish)
An updated version of the School publication database is now available, including recently added listings and a slightly improved interface

November 1996
Personal Web pages are now available for staff and graduate students
The Alpha hints page now has suggestions for configuring the VM XEmacs mail interface.
1996 Equipment Report
New AlphaServer turin for postgraduate students

October 1996
S-PLUS licence for the Alphas now allows 72 simultaneous users [Statistics software]
Shuttle now loads through the University's WWW cache server, to reduce multiple fetches and hence costs
Updates to the Alpha hints and suggestions page, including request not to tie up laser printers with long jobs

September 1996
New AlphaServer milan for staff

August 1996
A new windowing editor called Nedit is available on the Alphas [Editors]
Information from Charlie Macaskill for AM3 Advanced Mathematical Computing students [Teaching]
From the unread scnews index Alpha users can now mark items as read without actually reading them

July 1996
MATLAB is now available on lido [Numerical software]

June 1996
AVS and IDL [Graphics] and Mathematica [Computer algebra software] available on lido
MATLAB On-line reference documentation (on rome only) [Numerical software]
Information on using cmdedit for command-line editing on the Alphas [Hints]
Several new Research Reports.

April 1996
For Alpha users, scnews on WWW now keeps track of which news items have been read. From Netscape on an Alpha you can obtain an . There is a link to this from our front page, and more options on the scnews page.
Updated network firewall page, describing new outgoing FTP proxy service.

March 1996
New page listing known Alpha bugs

February 1996
New page of hints and suggestions for using the Alphas
Updated computer algebra software page
Updated Alpha editors page, announcing XEmacs
Local Alpha command index

January 1996
New graphics software page, including NCAR Graphics V4 on Alphas
New statistics software page, including spida and S-PLUS on Alphas
School policy on equipment purchase, support and maintenance


November 1995
New enquiries and contact information page

September 1995
The School WWW server is now running on a Digital AlphaStation instead of an Apollo.
Most pages now have a link to SiteSearch at the bottom: please use this to help find information.
There are several new pages about our Digital Alpha system (available locally only), accessible from the Digital Alpha front page.

August 1995
From within the School you can now view a Web page by entering its URL without having to add the Shuttle prefix.

April 1995
Briefs for School committees and other structures [Admin]

March 1995
List of academic duties, and updated list of computer systems officer duties [Admin]

January 1995
Information for Casual Tutors, by Gordon Monro [Teaching]


December 1994
Default is now to fetch remote pages to Sydney in no-graphics mode

November 1994
Perl 5 hypertext documentation is now available (locally only)

October 1994
Postgraduate Handbook

September 1994
Information on security of passwords etc

August 1994
/MathSearch.html: search a collection of pages from mathematics and statistics servers across the Web

July 1994
SiteSearch capability for local server added [SMS]

June 1994
Information about Magma computer algebra system

May 1994
New School Calendar available on WWW
scnews back-issues now available on WWW
Shuttle now does its own caching instead of using lagoon

April 1994
Our WWW server is now gradually being announced to the world
List of administrative staff duties on the web

March 1994
Publications database now available
Availability of HPUX machines birch and fang
Policy on Private Use of Computing Facilities
Chimera now available on all office Apollos

7 Feb 1994
Chimera available on c6123 only

JSR, Sydney Mathematics and Statistics, 22 Jun 2005 . . . SiteSearch