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.
Table of Contents
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. See our guidelines for good bug reports. 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).
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.
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, your desktop applications will still access your mail and web pages on Linux and will need your Linux loginID and password to do so.
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 will be required to 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 one 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 a strong, non-trivial password 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.
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.
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). Some faculty and research groups have purchased their own printers; please don't use these without permission from the owner. If you are considering purchasing equipment please see the section below.
E-mail is widely used at UCLA, and you have a variety of access methods to choose from. All of these work from department machines or remotely, e.g. from home. Please refer to this index of remote access resources to see what is available.
By default, for legal reasons, incoming E-mail is not filtered for spam (unsolicited bulk E-mail). However, virtually everyone in the department elects to opt-in to spam filtering. Here is information about Mathnet's anti-spam procedures. If you're in a hurry to start filtering spam with reasonable default parameters, just run "spamscript" from Linux.
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. If you're going to buy a laptop with department funds, please refer to the section on equipment purchases.
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 from Windows to shared Windows filesystems and printers is available in the normal way with authentication. Windows machines can mount your Linux home directory (with authentication). At present Linux cannot mount Windows filesystems (coming soon). But you can mount Linux filesystems on a Linux laptop (including from off-site). For shell access from Windows or Linux to your Linux account on Mathnet you can use ssh/slogin. In the Linux case, if you use the -X parameter X-Windows clients at Mathnet can open windows on the laptop.
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.
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.
All faculty, staff and students in Math are encouraged to 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.
To set up a home page, just create a subdirectory called public_html in your UNIX home directory. You can then place an index.html (or shtml) file and content there and you're in business. Mathnet has a pre-made template file for home pages at /usr/www/htdocs/templates/homepage.html and you will save yourself a lot of work if you copy it and use it as a starting point. See our summary of HTML syntax for some suggestions how to get started editing the page. Make sure that your web subdirectory and all files in it are world readable (but not world writable), so the world's web users will be allowed to read them.
Our department web server uses Apache web 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.
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.
If you are going to use department or grant funds to purchase equipment such as a desktop or laptop computer, a monitor or a printer, please contact the Bugs Manager so Mathnet personnel can discuss your requirements. The department and the University have volume purchase agreements so that if a system is customized based on a configuration covered by the contract, you enjoy a considerable cost saving. Also, if the purchased hardware can play nicely with Mathnet administrative procedures, the user experience is much improved. In particular, Mathnet printers are assumed to be able intrinsically to render PostScript, and the small extra expense is worth it in exchange for reduced administrative hassle.
Additional Mathnet computing documentation can be found at http://www.math.ucla.edu/computing.
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.
Revision history:
| UCLA Department of Mathematics | Search | Site Map | Home |