HMC Mathematics Computing Weblog

Bringing us along into 2005, I have installed Firefox, the official Mozilla standalone web browser; Thunderbird, the Mozilla project's standalone mail client; and Nvu, the Linspire web-page editor, which happens to be based on Mozilla code.

All of these programs are installed in the /shared/local partition, and should be usable from any math department Linux system by simply typing firefox, thunderbird, or nvu, respectively.

If you want to add an icon to your GNOME Panel or KDE Kicker, please do so. Icons are hiding in sneakily named icons directories inside the installation directories in /shared/local.

I would strongly encourage you to consider using Thunderbird with our IMAP server, imap.math.hmc.edu, which will allow you to read mail with Thunderbird while you're at a machine in your office or one of the labs, but also read mail from a text-based mail client if you're so inclined, and read mail using an IMAP mail client from home.

You should be able to print to wuffles now using math department Linux systems, Macintoshes with Mac OS X, and Windows machines.

Please see my earlier message for details on the name and IP address of the printer. Drivers are available from our wuffles page.

Note for Linuxy types trying to set things up on their own: I haven't been able to get the copier to behave using straight CUPS and the PPD file; it seems to work just fine when I install the BrightQ drivers available from canon.codehost.com. I still want to get the thing working without the additional software, but in lieu of the looming start of the semester, I'm tabling it 'til later.

I have added support information, including drivers and some of the secondary applications (e.g., scanner-interface software) for the new Canon imageRunner 8070 copier to the department's computing website.

The copier will be called wuffles, at least on the math network, and has the IP address 134.173.34.138 for those of you playing from home.

wuffles will, we hope, be up and running on Friday.

Enjoy!

Eric Malm '05 put together a nice LaTeX class (hmcpset.cls) for typesetting math homework assignments. The class, along with a template (hw-template.tex) and a sample document (hw-example.tex) is available for your use and enjoyment.

The class file, which helps you typeset homework assignments according to the department's homework guidelines is installed in the shared TEXMF tree at /shared/local/share/texmf/tex/latex/hmcpset/ so it can be used from any department Linux workstation.

If you want to use the class and template on your own TeX system, it can be downloaded from the new home for departmental LaTeX classes.

I am taking over maintenance and development of the class from Eric, so if you have any changes you'd like to see made or bugs fixed, please let me know.

You may have heard (or seen, as it's in the hallway) that we're getting a new networked copier. The new machine is a Canon imageRunner 8070, and will be replacing our existing imageRunner 5000, fluffy.

The new copier has several major improvements over the old model, including

1. Much faster -- 80 ppm instead of 50 ppm
2. Higher resolution -- 2400x600 dpi instead of 600 dpi
3. More stapled sets -- 100 stapled sets (or 1000 pages) instead of 30 sets (or 1000 pages)
4. Thicker stapled documents -- 100 pages instead of 50
5. Better Mac support! (Including a Mac port of Command Workstation and scanner software; alas, they're Java.)
6. Hole-punching on-the-fly, eliminating the expense of buying prepunched paper and problems feeding it through the machine.
7. No longer a departmental copier; this one is a ``production'' copier. (I think that basically means that if we spent a bunch more money we could get several additional bits that would allow it to produce neatly trimmed booklets with heavier, colored covers; or to generate form letters ready for stuffing and mailing after being folded, stapled, and so forth. We don't have any of that stuff, of course.)

From the manual, it sounds like it could potentially do a whole slew of additional things, some of which might actually be useful, however, we apparently haven't actually paid to turn any of that additional functionality on. We won't know for absolute certain what we have and what we don't until we can plug the thing in and get it running.

The downside of the newer, faster, stronger model is that it uses more electricity. As a result, we will need to have the electrical socket rewired. As fluffy also uses more juice than your average household incinerator, and there isn't room for two crazy sockets in the same box, we will have to take the old copier offline, then have the electrical work done, then have Canon come out and assemble and configure the new copier. That pretty much guarantees a downtime of a day or two while we coordinate several teams of workers. Oh, and Canon shipped us (or ordered us) the wrong finishing unit, so we can't really go ahead until we have the right one anyway.

You'll hear more when we know it -- in the meantime, I am in the process of assembling webpages with pointers to the software that you'll need to use the new copier. I'll announce that here once it's in place.

I have created a new home for the department's LaTeX classes: http://www.math.hmc.edu/computing/support/tex/classes/. You will find links to download these classes, along with information about using and customizing them.

I will remove or edit pages referring to older versions of this material so that we can, finally, have a single place to send people to find the most up-to-date versions of these files.

At the moment, there are pages for the hmcclinic, hmcposter, and hmcthesis classes. More will be added when the department adds more classes. (I will be installing the homework class that Eric Malm put together soon.).

As always, the latest version of this code is also available in /shared/local/share/texmf on the math cluster machines. You should be able to use any of these classes without having to do anything special beyond specifying them in your \documentclass command in the preamble of your document.