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 2011 Matlab version R2011b installed on Linux and Windows

Samba upgraded to version 3.6.1

Nov 2011 Internet access for undergrads allowed to all work-related sites.

Mathematica version 8.0.4 available, see scnews

Oct 2011 New research server "briona" ready to use, see scnews

Sep 2011 Incoming telnet was unused for several months, turned off: please use ssh (or putty) instead

Aug 2011 TeX on Linux upgraded to TexLive2011, see scnews

Jul 2011 Linux software updated to Debian "squeeze" release

Jun 2011 Gridroom website ngame.edu.au now at /u/NGame, including room booking tool

Apr 2011 Maple upgraded to version 15

Mar 2011 Mathematica version 8.0.1 available, see scnews

Tutor and lecturer aliases tutmNNNN and MATHnnnn etc, see scnews

Feb 2011 Mathematica version 8 available, see scnews

Linux software on parona upgraded to current Debian "squeeze"

Jan 2011 New research server "gemona" ready to use, see scnews

Sound (Skype, MP3, youtube) may now be used on Y-terminals, see scnews

Dec 2010 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.4.1

Nov 2010 Matlab version R2010b installed on Linux and Windows

New research server "facona" (donated by Faculty) ready to use, see scnews

Oct 2010 Spam 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 2010 Samba upgraded to version 3.5.5

Aug 2010 Disk quotas quadrupled, see scnews

Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.4

Jul 2010 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.3

magma on Windows upgraded to version 2.16-10

May 2010 Maple 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 2010 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.2

Mar 2010 magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.16-6

Touchscreen info kiosk on level 7 ready to use

Feb 2010 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.1

Outgoing emails branded, see scnews

Jan 2010 New 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 2009 Linux software on bari upgraded, rome replaced: all Linux machines now run current Debian "lenny", see scnews

Nov 2009 Linux software on asti upgraded to current Debian "lenny"

New research server "parona" ready to use

Oct 2009 Matlab 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 2009 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.3

Aug 2009 Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.2

May 2009 Linux software on pisa upgraded to current Debian "lenny"

Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.1

Mar 2009 New research server "strona" ready to use

Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.0

Matlab version R2008b installed on Linux

Feb 2009 Acroread plugin on Linux updated to 8.1.3

Dec 2008 Samba upgraded to version 3.0.33

Nov 2008 Acroread on Linux updated to 8.1.3; the mozilla plugin still uses 7.0.9

Sep 2008 New login server "bari" ready to use

Aug 2008 New research server "traona" ready to use

magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.14-15

Jul 2008 New Admin server machine bianco

Printing on photocopiers, see scnews

May 2008 Samba upgraded to version 3.0.30

New firewall/proxy/gateway machine siv/talus

Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28a

Apr 2008 Disk quotas increased

Feb 2008 magma 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 2007 Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28

Nov 2007 Samba upgraded to version 3.0.27a

Sep 2007 Acroread 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 2007 Local front page local.html with pretty layout (see older)

Jun 2007 Matlab on Linux (but not yet on Windows) updated to version R2007a

Apr 2007 Anthony Henderson has released the 2007 SUMS Problem Competition

Mar 2007 Maple 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 2007 Matlab 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 2006 External scnews (School-members-using-Web-remotely) authentication changed to cookie-based with "form" prompt, for proper functionality

Nov 2006 scnews 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 2006 Anthony 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 2006 Outgoing 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 2006 Ownership of tutsols directories re-organized: "shareable", not counted against owner's quota

Matlab on both Linux and Windows updated to version R2006a

Jul 2006 Splus 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 2006 Ownership 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 2006 Reduce 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 2006 Data projectors in labs, see scnews

TexLive2005 available on Linux

Feb 2006 Acroread on up-to-date (sarge) Linux machines (not many of those, yet...) updated to 7.0.5

Dec 2005 Both 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 2005 CDs 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 2005 Wrapper 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 2005 Internet 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 2005 Scanner 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 2005 Jim 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 2005 The School IT Committee has approved a new version of the IT Equipment Plan.

May 2005 Donald Cartwright has released the SUMS 2005 Problem Competition.

Mar 2005 TeX documentation from the TeXlive distribution is now available via the web (inside the School). The HTML TeX documentation is the most useful part.

Feb 2005 The 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 2005 The 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 2004 NCAR 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 2004 The 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 2004 Donald 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 2004 Paul Szabo has upgraded Maple on Linux to version 9.5.

Apr 2004 The Linux bugs page has new information about MATLAB windowing problems with Sawfish, and pasting from Nedit to a Gnome terminal.

Jan 2004 Paul Szabo has upgraded the TeX distribution on Debian to the TeXLive9 version.

Nov 2003 S-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 2003 As 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 2003 Maple has been upgraded to version 9.

Jun 2003 The 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 [email protected]. It may be worthwhile keeping version 5.1 in place as well, as it is reported to have "better anti aliasing and smoothing".

May 2003 On Linux, Magma has been upgraded to version 2.10.

Apr 2003 On Linux, MATLAB has been upgraded to version 6.5, and a 2-user Image Processing Toolbox licence is now available.

Feb 2003 For 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 2002 The Linux Fortran compiler on Debian machines has been upgraded to version 7.0.064.

Sep 2002 Andrew Mathas has written an easy-to-use tool for writing web pages in the new format, essentially just by cutting and pasting.

Aug 2002 A 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 2002 Maple has been upgraded to version 8.

May 2002 For 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 2002 Mike 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 2002 For 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 2002 MATLAB 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 2002 A 5-user Maple licence is now available.

Nov 2001 Donald Cartwright has released the solutions and winner list for the SUMS 2001 Problem Competition.

Oct 2001 Additional funding for postgraduate students.

Administrative web documents have been moved from the old Novell server white to the new admin Linux server bianco.

Aug 2001 Geometric Aspects of Representation Theory: 21-26 July 2002 conference page by Joost van Hamel.

Jul 2001 Updated Postgraduate Handbook from Neville Weber.

Jun 2001 S-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 2001 Updated hints on VM mail for XEmacs users, including printable reference card.

Apr 2001 Margin 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 2001 Algebraic 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 2001 List of work-related sites under the Internet traffic limits scheme.

Mike Wilson has upgraded nedit to version 5.1.1.

Jan 2001 Mike 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 2000 Mike 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 2000 The 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 2000 Netscape 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 2000 New keyboard-oriented cleanup command allows rapid deletion of unwanted files and gzipping of large old ones, as a complement to xcleanup.

Jun 2000 The MATLAB licences have been reorganized into a research licence and a Classroom licence, with the latter including the Financial Mathematics Toolbox.

May 2000 Paul Szabo has provided a list of PostScript, PCL and PJL references for people interested in printing technicalities.

Apr 2000 The 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 2000 Paul Szabo has upgraded latex2html to version 99.2beta6.

Mike Wilson has upgraded ghostscript to version 6.0.

Feb 2000 The 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 1999 The 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 1999 XEmacs version 21.1.7 is now the default.

Oct 1999 Applied Mathematics Seminar page from Charlie Macaskill.

Aug 1999 Paul 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 1999 Internet 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 1999 Version 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 1999 Paul Szabo has upgraded the PostScript viewer gv to version 3.5.8.

Mar 1999 Paul 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 1999 Mike 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 1999 Mike Wilson has upgraded MATLAB to version 5.2 (on rome) and ghostscript to version 5.50.

Dec 1998 The 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 1998 Paul 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 1998 An experimental on-line discussion capability has been added to scnews.

Sep 1998 The 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 1998 The 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 1998 You 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 1998 There 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 1998 Information 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 1998 Mike 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 1998 Don Taylor has added a memo variant to his smslett document class for letters in LaTeX using School letterhead.

Feb 1998 MathSciNet, 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 1998 LaTeX 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 1997 rome is now running the Apache HTTP Server instead of the obsolete NCSA one.

Nov 1997 New SUTMEG pages by Sandra Britton and Jesse Sweeney.

Oct 1997 Your 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 1997 Complete 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 1997 Courses 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 1997 The 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 1997 Senior Courses in Pure Mathematics (PM3 handbook, from Jenny Henderson and Nigel O'Brian)

Feb 1997 You 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

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

Dec 2010	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.4.1
Nov 2010	Matlab version R2010b installed on Linux and Windows
	New research server "facona" (donated by Faculty) ready to use, see scnews
Oct 2010	Spam 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 2010	Samba upgraded to version 3.5.5
Aug 2010	Disk quotas quadrupled, see scnews
	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.4
Jul 2010	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.3
	magma on Windows upgraded to version 2.16-10
May 2010	Maple 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 2010	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.2
Mar 2010	magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.16-6
	Touchscreen info kiosk on level 7 ready to use
Feb 2010	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.3.1
	Outgoing emails branded, see scnews
Jan 2010	New 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 2009	Linux software on bari upgraded, rome replaced: all Linux machines now run current Debian "lenny", see scnews
Nov 2009	Linux software on asti upgraded to current Debian "lenny"
	New research server "parona" ready to use
Oct 2009	Matlab 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 2009	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.3
Aug 2009	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.2
May 2009	Linux software on pisa upgraded to current Debian "lenny"
	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.1
Mar 2009	New research server "strona" ready to use
	Acroread on Linux updated to 9.1.0
	Matlab version R2008b installed on Linux
Feb 2009	Acroread plugin on Linux updated to 8.1.3

Dec 2008	Samba upgraded to version 3.0.33
Nov 2008	Acroread on Linux updated to 8.1.3; the mozilla plugin still uses 7.0.9
Sep 2008	New login server "bari" ready to use
Aug 2008	New research server "traona" ready to use
	magma on Linux upgraded to version 2.14-15
Jul 2008	New Admin server machine bianco
	Printing on photocopiers, see scnews
May 2008	Samba upgraded to version 3.0.30
	New firewall/proxy/gateway machine siv/talus
	Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28a
Apr 2008	Disk quotas increased
Feb 2008	magma 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 2007	Samba upgraded to version 3.0.28
Nov 2007	Samba upgraded to version 3.0.27a
Sep 2007	Acroread 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 2007	Local front page local.html with pretty layout (see older)
Jun 2007	Matlab on Linux (but not yet on Windows) updated to version R2007a
Apr 2007	Anthony Henderson has released the 2007 SUMS Problem Competition
Mar 2007	Maple 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 2007	Matlab 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 2006	External scnews (School-members-using-Web-remotely) authentication changed to cookie-based with "form" prompt, for proper functionality
Nov 2006	scnews 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 2006	Anthony 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 2006	Outgoing 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 2006	Ownership of tutsols directories re-organized: "shareable", not counted against owner's quota
	Matlab on both Linux and Windows updated to version R2006a
Jul 2006	Splus 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 2006	Ownership 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 2006	Reduce 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 2006	Data projectors in labs, see scnews
	TexLive2005 available on Linux
Feb 2006	Acroread on up-to-date (sarge) Linux machines (not many of those, yet...) updated to 7.0.5

Dec 2005	Both 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 2005	CDs 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 2005	Wrapper 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 2005	Internet 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 2005	Scanner 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 2005	Jim 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 2005	The School IT Committee has approved a new version of the IT Equipment Plan.
May 2005	Donald Cartwright has released the SUMS 2005 Problem Competition.
Mar 2005	TeX documentation from the TeXlive distribution is now available via the web (inside the School). The HTML TeX documentation is the most useful part.
Feb 2005	The 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 2005	The 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 2004	NCAR 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 2004	The 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 2004	Donald 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 2004	Paul Szabo has upgraded Maple on Linux to version 9.5.
Apr 2004	The Linux bugs page has new information about MATLAB windowing problems with Sawfish, and pasting from Nedit to a Gnome terminal.
Jan 2004	Paul Szabo has upgraded the TeX distribution on Debian to the TeXLive9 version.

Nov 2003	S-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 2003	As 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 2003	Maple has been upgraded to version 9.
Jun 2003	The 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 `[email protected]`. It may be worthwhile keeping version 5.1 in place as well, as it is reported to have "better anti aliasing and smoothing".
May 2003	On Linux, Magma has been upgraded to version 2.10.
Apr 2003	On Linux, MATLAB has been upgraded to version 6.5, and a 2-user Image Processing Toolbox licence is now available.
Feb 2003	For 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 2002	The Linux Fortran compiler on Debian machines has been upgraded to version 7.0.064.
Sep 2002	Andrew Mathas has written an easy-to-use tool for writing web pages in the new format, essentially just by cutting and pasting.
Aug 2002	A 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 2002	Maple has been upgraded to version 8.
May 2002	For 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 2002	Mike 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 2002	For 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 2002	MATLAB 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 2002	A 5-user Maple licence is now available.

Nov 2001	Donald Cartwright has released the solutions and winner list for the SUMS 2001 Problem Competition.
Oct 2001	Additional funding for postgraduate students.
	Administrative web documents have been moved from the old Novell server `white` to the new admin Linux server `bianco`.
Aug 2001	Geometric Aspects of Representation Theory: 21-26 July 2002 conference page by Joost van Hamel.
Jul 2001	Updated Postgraduate Handbook from Neville Weber.
Jun 2001	S-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 2001	Updated hints on VM mail for XEmacs users, including printable reference card.
Apr 2001	Margin 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 2001	Algebraic 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 2001	List of work-related sites under the Internet traffic limits scheme.
	Mike Wilson has upgraded `nedit` to version 5.1.1.
Jan 2001	Mike Wilson has upgraded python to version 2.0.
	For XEmacs users, VM Mail has been upgraded to version 6.90.

Dec 2000	Mike 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 2000	The 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 2000	Netscape 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 2000	New keyboard-oriented `cleanup` command allows rapid deletion of unwanted files and gzipping of large old ones, as a complement to `xcleanup`.
Jun 2000	The MATLAB licences have been reorganized into a research licence and a Classroom licence, with the latter including the Financial Mathematics Toolbox.
May 2000	Paul Szabo has provided a list of PostScript, PCL and PJL references for people interested in printing technicalities.
Apr 2000	The 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 2000	Paul Szabo has upgraded latex2html to version 99.2beta6.
	Mike Wilson has upgraded ghostscript to version 6.0.
Feb 2000	The 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 1999	The 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 1999	XEmacs version 21.1.7 is now the default.
Oct 1999	Applied Mathematics Seminar page from Charlie Macaskill.
Aug 1999	Paul 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 1999	Internet 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 1999	Version 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 1999	Paul Szabo has upgraded the PostScript viewer `gv` to version 3.5.8.
Mar 1999	Paul 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 1999	Mike 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 1999	Mike Wilson has upgraded MATLAB to version 5.2 (on `rome`) and ghostscript to version 5.50.

Dec 1998	The 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 1998	Paul 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 1998	An experimental on-line discussion capability has been added to scnews.
Sep 1998	The 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 1998	The 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 1998	You 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 1998	There 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 1998	Information 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 1998	Mike 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 1998	Don Taylor has added a memo variant to his `smslett` document class for letters in LaTeX using School letterhead.
Feb 1998	MathSciNet, 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 1998	LaTeX 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 1997	`rome` is now running the Apache HTTP Server instead of the obsolete NCSA one.
Nov 1997	New SUTMEG pages by Sandra Britton and Jesse Sweeney.
Oct 1997	Your 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 1997	Complete 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 1997	Courses 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 1997	The 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 1997	Senior Courses in Pure Mathematics (PM3 handbook, from Jenny Henderson and Nigel O'Brian)
Feb 1997	You 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.