College Library News

The Lent Term 2007 computer service course timetable is now available.

It is essential to register for courses - the titles of available courses are are linked to the corresponding booking forms. If you book a place but cannot attend the course, please use the form to cancel your booking.

Unless otherwise specified, courses assume basic computing skills. Courses marked are suitable for beginners; those marked require some prior knowledge or experience (as detailed in the course description). If extra runs of over-subscribed courses are added after initial publication of the timetable,
they will be marked .

The useful Office Letter site introduces a list of Windows tips as follows:

Many of us are using our computers at breakneck speed most of the
time. Cutting corners on how you control the system interface saves
you literally hundreds of miles of mousing around on your desktop
over the course of a few years. Here are our top time-saving and
motion-saving tips for using Windows Vista (taken from the book,
Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows Vista by Robert Cowart and
Brian Knittel, Que Publishing).

From 1 June access to wireless networking from laptops will be available in the University Library’s West Room for staff and students of the university via the Computing Service’s pilot “Lapwing” service. Raven passwords will be required (see the Computing Service web pages for details).

Lapwing, a wireless hot-spot service, is currently being piloted within the Computing Service. Advice and instruction leaflets will be available shortly. Lapwing should enable many users to dispense with the installation and configuration of VPDN client software, and set up a wireless connection more straightforwardly via Raven.

The January 2006 issue of Computing Service Newsletter has been published.

It includes an article on Raven passwords and, because of what they allow access to, the importance of keeping them secret. For example, your Raven password allows access to your supervision reports, examination marks, home address etc. and allows alteration of your examination entries or your personal information in the University Directory. Raven passwords also allow access to a number of online databases hosted by the University. Information about Raven passwords is at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/faq/n5.html.

There is also a reminder that NetStorage is now generally available. NetStorage enables easy access to your personal PWF (Public Workstation Facility) filespace from anywhere on the Internet (in particular, from student rooms).

Also an item about the Computing Service planning to provide a Managed Wiki Service, expected to be available in the first quarter of 2006. A Wiki allows users to create and edit shared web pages using a web browser - for example see Wikipedia, a massive online encyclopedia which anyone can easily edit and contribute to.

You can download a PDF version of the complete newsletter and we have a copy of it in the library for reference.

The timetable for this term’s computer courses is now available. All courses are open to students and staff at the university. Please note that it is essential to register for the courses - you can do this on the website. If you book a place but cannot attend the course, please use the form to cancel your booking. The courses, run by the Computing Service, are free to current staff and students of Cambridge University (including Dunn Human Nutrition, Biostatistics and Cancer Cell Units and the Centre for Brain Repair), the Colleges, and Cambridge Assessment (formerly UCLES).

Courses include Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, plus web authoring/HTML/, SPSS (statistical package), Photoshop (graphics), endnote (bibliography software), and many others. Unless otherwise specified, courses assume basic computing skills. Indication is given on the website about which courses are suitable for beginners and which require some prior knowledge or experience (which is detailed in the course description).

Edition 226 of the University Computing Service Newsletter (October 2005) is now available. A PDF copy can be downloaded by anyone who prefers a copy to print for themselves and hardcopy versions will be available for reference in University Libraries.

Items include a special page on Advice for new users plus:
* The new University Directory (lookup service): what it is, how to use it, and how to edit your own information
* Security and how to protect your computer and the network
* Most people will need Raven passwords this term: how to get one
* Network charges are likely to increase for 2005-6

Collection of student passwords
All students who are new to the University this autumn, both undergraduate and postgraduate, have automatically been issued with accounts on the three Computing Service core services:
- Hermes for email
- the Public Workstation Facility (PWF) for access to workstation clusters
- Raven for web authentication.

Students can collect their passwords for these accounts via a web browser once they have arrived in Cambridge. The web pages at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/new-students/ describe the facilities available for new students, and include a pointer to the password collection pages.

As a pilot service, an RSS feed of the newsletter is now available as well as an an Atom version of the feed. For those using the excellent Firefox browser, live bookmarks usable with Firefox are on http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/news/, http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/ and http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/newsletter/.

Computing Service Newsletter July 2005 is now available online. It includes information about collecting your Raven password - available to everyone in the University who has a CRSid (Central Registration System identifier, as used in University email addresses), including all staff. Raven is becoming increasingly important for accessing University-hosted online resources (ie. non-Athens stuff). The Library keeps hard copies of the newsletter, including back issues.

The current issues of PC Pro, an excellent magazine for those who are interested in the workings of their computers, contains a superb article on Windows XP maintenance.
As the magazine says:

“[…] the most comprehensive guide to XP since the operating system was first released. We show you how to fix it, tune it and defend it. But this is more than just an annual service or selection of the best tips and tricks. By following even some of the simple steps we have detailed, you will get an operating system that’s in better shape than when you first bought it. And let’s face it, with the added pressure of spyware, viruses, and the numerous applications you have installed on your system, this is not simply a nice little project to keep your operating system ticking over - it is an absolute necessity.”

One small annoyance for such a key text - viewing the article seems to require [free] registration…