scadblog

This past Wednesday we held yet another SCAD Security Committee Meeting or SCAD-DCS-SECOM. The guest speaker was Bob Stango from PC Systems to talk about security issues on DeSC. But as soon as we were going around the room introducing ourselves and our departments I knew the meeting was in trouble. As if to confirm my fears the only participatory event set for the agenda, namely the election of new leadership to the committee, was put on hold for some undisclosed reason. That was a real downer, and one that I hope does not effect attendance or enthusiasm into the future.

On the plus side, Bob Stango was very knowledgeable resource in terms of DeSC and tried to extend that knowledge to the challenges facing SCAD in deploying security patches and updates to DeSC and non-DeSC alike. Chris Mackie really went to lengths to tease out a SCAD-DCS position on the matter and I commend him for it. His notes are archived as part of the SECOM listserv and I believe on Blackboard if anyone ever goes to that site. While he recorded where all of our views intersect, I learned all about how deficient my attention to Windows machine security has been, and how pressing the need is to address that situation.
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These instructions assume the desired result is to run Matlab in Apple’s X11 environment. They also assume the installation will be performed on an environment of Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar and that no current install of XDarwin exists. Outside of these parameters it is uncertain whether or not these directions will work. Proceed at your own risk and feel free to report back on your experiences.
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I will not be caught without my Windows 2000 boot floppies again. Behold!

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So I’m late for a meeting this morning and on cue the world starts falling apart. I finally free myself up right on time but not before checking email one last time from one of the administrative staff’s DeSC machines. These are machines I set up myself not long ago, my only recent opportunity to get acquainted with the latest DeSC image. All seemed as I had left it a few months back with one exception, an application in the system tray: a utility to remotely control the desktop.
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From time to time I get emboldened students marching into my office demanding installs for this or that software on their personal machines. Oh how I wish I could wag my finger at them as I go into detail on the limitations of site licenses and how the terms crush their hopes for a decked-out computer workstation. Unfortunately I’m not always up on my licensing terms and so I send them on their way awaiting an answer. Matlab is one of the programs I often get asked about, so I might as well record a little of that fact-checking I’ve done so I don’t have to do it all over again in a few month’s time.
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I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Running the ‘netscape.exe’ command with the -mail option from the DOS command line on a Windows 2000 DeSC machine launches Eudora. A quick search of the registry for Netscape and Eudora entries turns up nothing. A reinstall of Netscape 4.79 does nothing to wipe this setting out. Meanwhile the user keeps bugging me about wanting to use Outlook. Its a conspiracy for sure.
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According to Charlayne Beavers of OIT Support Services in charge of the Faculty Computer Program, the computers received through the FCP have no binding agreement in terms of software. That said, faculty can install whatever they like on it as long as they observe the rules of DeSC versus non-DeSC should they chose to remain in or leave the DeSC program.