Bash Aliases
In bash, aliases cannot contain parameters. You have to create a function instead.
12/30/2005
10/25/2005
Dell Contracts Unisys
If you take a look at your Dell warranty status for a given system on the Premier Support pages you may see a provider column with the three letter code UNY. I assumed that was an indicator for the Dell telephone support people that we have a warranty repair site on-campus. Its actually an indicator that Unisys is contracted to do their repair work. If you have someone from Dell come out, its actually an employee of Unisys that does the repair.
9/22/2005
Mathematica Licensing
To license your copy of Mathematica purchased from Software Sales you first need to install the software. The software will generate a key which you can take to Wolfram’s website. Entering it in to the site will automatically send an email to Software Sales with the corresponding access key. When prompted you can then provide that access key to the program.
8/23/2005
Installing Splus 7 via License Key
As of version 7, Splus now requires an individual license key generated based on the hardware address of the machine. Software Sales distributes instructions on how to obtain the hostid of the machine, which is really just the hardware address with all separating characters removed between octets. Just for reference though, I’ve posted the instructions I’ve received below.
8/2/2005
Obtaining the Hostid for an SPlus Install
The newest version of SPlus (7.0) requires that you provide a hostid for every licensed workstation. Insightful distributes a tool in order to obtain the hostid but they fail to mention that the hostid is simply the hardware address of the machine’s primary network card. Providing a 12 character address should be enough to obtain your hostid, no special tools necessary.
5/4/2005
New Restrictions on Dell Purchases?
Dell redesigned their page. Before you log in for the first time you get this message.
The only response I can fathom at the moment: Ummm, what?
Princeton University has established standards for computers purchased and used for university business. The Desktop Systems Council (DeSC) recommends specific computer configurations for use in departments.
Selection of these configurations include the following considerations:
# Network compatibility
# Standard hardware components
# Software applications
# On-site service
# Extended warranty
# “Premier� internal and external technical support
The purchase of non-standard computers is not recommended. A decision to purchase a computer that is not within the established standards should be made ONLY after acknowledging that the computer:
# Will not be eligible for on-site service, but must be returned to an off-site facility for any repair
# Will not include standard hardware components, which may cause compatibility problems with other hardware and with software that is used on campus
# Will not be eligible for DeSC or for DeSC services such as automatic software updates or use of key-served software
# Will not be eligible for sales tax reimbursement
Click here to access the Princeton University Premier Page. For Buyer or Management access please use your Dell Premier login at Premier.Dell.com.
4/15/2005
Central Support for Unix/Linux
“Linux is emerging as a widely-used version of Unix. At this time there are over 600 Linux systems registered at Princeton, and the number is growing rapidly. One of the advantages of Linux is that it makes it possible to take advantage of the economies of Intel-based computing and a full-featured operating system with a complete set of high quality software tools available gratis. We recommend that consideration be given to expanding the university DeSC program to include the Linux operating system as an option. This would benefit the university in several ways.”
Read on for the mirrored copy of the Sub-committee on Research Computing’s proposal from 1999 (original copy stored here).