C O M P U T I N G  N E W S
U n i v e r s i t y   o f   O r e g o n
SPRING 1999
Greg Shepherd, Computing Center Network Engineer, works on the Cisco 12008 Gigabit Switch Router
Email Information
Welcome to WebMail 3
Outlook Formatting Issues 15
POP versus IMAP 16
SMTP, Procmail Upgrade 22
Grant Opportunity 21
Internet2
Internet2 Update 4
Writing I2 Applications 5
Y2K
Server Operating Systems 2
Y2K Info on the Web 2
Windows 3.1 Issues 19
Statistics
Choosing Your Method 13
UO Stat Packages 14
Web Stat Resources 14
Features
Who?s Who 6
New Media Center Project 8
Required by Law 20
Other News
Call for Papers 3
Spring Workshops 10
New Services in CC 202 12
VMS Line Printer Maintenace
Dropped 15
Web Images Tip 21
Security Alert! 22
Docs Room News 22
  IN THIS ISSUE?
2 computing news   spring 1999
  COMPUTING NEWS VOL. 14 #3
Computing News is published
quarterly by the Academic User
Services staff of the Office of
University Computing, 1212
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
97403-1212.  You may reprint articles
from Computing News, provided you
credit the source.
Newsletter Editor:  Joyce Winslow
(jwins@oregon.uoregon.edu)
Telephone:  (541) 346-1724
Assistant Director, Academic User
Services: Joe St Sauver
(joe@oregon.uoregon.edu)
Web site:
http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews
Subscription requests:
jwins@oregon.uoregon.edu
Cover photo: Joel Jaeggli
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
COMPUTING CENTER
The 1999 list of New Year?s resolutions
for most departmental computer
support staff must surely include
checking for Year 2000 compliance of
the computing software and hardware
being used or purchased before the
year?s end. To assist in this task, here?s
some information on the Y2K com-
pliance of server operating systems.
Novell  Netware: Departments run-
ning Novell?s Netware need to be aware
that version 3.11 and version 4.10 are
not Y2K compliant. This means most
of the more than 60 Novell servers on
campus will require an upgrade by
year?s end.
Novell has blurred its upgrade path
considerably by adding versions 3.2 and
4.2 to its product line, along with the
latest addition of Netware 5.0.
While the 5.0 release is a very new and
different product for Novell, Version
3.2 is little more than Netware 3.12 with
the complete set of available patches
applied.  If you are running a Netware
3.12 server with patches, you will not
need to upgrade to version 3.2.
Similarly, the 4.2 release is little more
than version 4.11 with all available
patches applied.  Netware 4.11 servers
need only to be patched rather than
upgraded to 4.2.
Netware 5.0 is, of course, year 2000
compliant.  Departments may want to
consider 5.0 for some of its other
features, but as a Y2K fix alone it is the
most expensive Netware alternative,
both in terms of the operating system
cost and hardware requirements.
Network Services is currently testing
the functionality of Netware 5.0; the
results of these tests will be published
in a future issue of Computing News.
Tips for Checking Y2K Readiness of Server
Operating Systems
By Don Gathers
dgathers@network-services.uoregon.edu
Windows NT 4.0: Departments run-
ning or considering Microsoft?s
WindowsNT 4.0 server platform should
be aware that it can be made year 2000
compliant with the addition of Service
Pack 4 (SP4). This is contrary to
Microsoft?s earlier announcement that
Service Pack 3, along with the latest
hotfix patches, would be enough to
assure that your NT 4.0 server was
year 2000 compliant.
The good news here is that Service
packs are free and downloadable from
the Microsoft web site.  The bad news
is that Service Pack 4.0 has been known
to cause some erratic behavior that is
difficult to troubleshoot. Testing of SP4
on a non-production server is recom-
mended if at all possible.
Departments are encouraged to share
Y2K information on the Departmental
Computing mailing list. As depart-
ments begin to upgrade to Y2K com-
pliant  network operating systems, this
list should become a valuable forum for
sharing tips. To subscribe, send email to
mailserv@oregon.edu and type subscribe
deptcomp in the body of the message.
Most people probably don?t know if
their  hardware and software is ready
for the year 2000 (?Y2K?).  If you?re in
doubt, you can verify the status of
your equipment by checking the web.
Most computer hardware and software
manufacturers have Y2K-readiness
statements on their web sites.
Hardware. Apple reports that Mac-
intosh computers have been Y2K-
ready since 1984. As for PCs, most 486
and better machines should be okay,
but check with the vendor (or vendor?s
web site) to be sure.
Software. The Microsoft web site
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/
year2k/product/product.htm) lists
Microsoft products and their degree of
Y2K compliance.  Other software
manufacturers offer similar informa-
tion on their sites. But be forewarned
that Y2K readiness statements fre-
quently change!  Because testing is
ongoing, a product that?s reportedly
compliant today may be listed as not
being ?fully? compliant tomorrow.
UO Year 2000 Web Site. You?ll find a
list of the most common hardware and
software vendors on the UO Year 2000
Web site at http://y2k.uoregon.edu/
This site also contains other infor-
mation relevant to  the year 2000,
including issues affecting adminis-
trative and academic computing us-
ers. Check the site frequently, as new
information continues to be added
as it unfolds.
Ready for Y2K? Web Info Can Help
By Susan Hilton
hilton@oregon.uoregon.edu
3computing news   spring 1999
By Joe St Sauver
joe@oregon.uoregon.edu
How?d you like to access your mail
from almost any machine, anywhere,
with no special setup beyond a web
browser?
WebMail is one of several new elec-
tronic mail products that provides this
service, and it?s now being offered to
University of Oregon users who have
accounts on DARKWING and OREGON.
(Note: Until Computing Center staff
has more opportunity to evaluate the
network traffic load, WebMail will not
be available for GLADSTONE users.)
Although WebMail runs on a Windows
NT system, it allows pass-through web
access to IMAP mail servers on
virtually any other type of machine.
Because WebMail uses only HTML to
communicate with the browser, it
works with the widest  possible variety
of browsers (including the latest
versions of Internet Explorer and
Netscape) and is not susceptible to Java
bugs and incompatibilities.
Using WebMail
To begin using WebMail, open
your web browser and go to
http://webmail.uoregon.edu (regular
mode) or https://webmail.uoregon.edu
(secure mode).
Type in your username and password
and choose a server. You should then
see a screen displaying your Inbox.
VMS (OREGON) users may proceed at
this point, setting the ?Options? as
they please, but to avoid problems
with their host folders, UNIX
(DARKWING) users need to follow the
steps outlined below.
Special instructions for DARKWING
users. If you use DARKWING, the  first
time you run WebMail you must
choose Options and set the IMAP4
Folder Prefix to mail/ in order to see
your host folders properly. You may
want to fiddle with the other options
as well. Then log out, and log back in
again to activate the folder prefix.
Minor Caveats
Another minor annoyance for
DARKWING users is that on UNIX hosts,
Outbox is immediately created at first
log-in and is then recreated under
Welcome to WebMail
mail/ after you set the folder prefix,
resulting in two ?Outboxes? being
listed in the mailboxlist file. How-
ever, this glitch doesn?t prevent the
program from functioning properly,
and you can delete the first bogus
empty Outbox if it bothers you.
Questions?
For more information on using
WebMail, check out its online help
resource, or see
http://www-vms.uoregon.edu/www/
webmail.html
Watch system notices for additional
information that may become avail-
able on WebMail as time goes on.
We Need Your Feedback
We?re interested in hearing about
your WebMail experience, either
positive or negative. Direct your
questions, problems, and comments
to our consulting staff (346-1758,
consult@oregon.uoregon.edu).
WebMail?s Log-in Screen
n New product lets you
access your mail from
almost any web
browser
Call for Papers: International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Nears
Papers for the Thirteenth Interna-
tional Conference on Industrial and
Engineering Applications of Artifi-
cial Intelligence and Expert Systems
(IEA/AIE-2000) are currently being
solicited.
The deadline for submissions is No-
vember 17, 1999.
The conference, which is sponsored by
the International Society of Applied
Intelligence in cooperation with over a
half-dozen international organiza-
tions, will be held in New Orleans  on
June 19-22, 2000.
For more information regarding submis-
sions, see http://www.cacs.usl.edu/ or con-
tact Dr. Rasaiah Loganantharaj (email:
ieaaie2000@cacs.usl.edu)
4 computing news   spring 1999
Internet2 and Abilene, the high-speed
academic and research networks we
reported on in the Winter ?99 issue of
Computing News, have come a long
way since January.
Among other recent developments, the
number of institutions directly con-
nected to Internet2 has grown signifi-
cantly, network traffic?particularly
at the UO? is up dramatically, and
route views and traffic maps are pub-
lished on the web in several locations.
Directly Connected
Abilene Institutions
There are now about two dozen insti-
tutions connected to Abilene (either
connecting directly as an institution or
via a regional Gigapop), including the
University of Oregon.
Besides the UO, other institutions
connected to Abilene at this time
include California-Berkeley, California-
Davis, California-San Francisco,
California-Santa Cruz, Kansas, Kansas
State, Michigan, Michigan State,
Nebraska, NASA Ames Research,
NOAA, North Dakota State, Ohio
State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State,
Oregon State, Purdue, South Dakota
School of Mines and Technology,
Stanford, Texas A&M, USGS EROS
Data Center, and Washington.
Abilene Peering
Networks and Routes
Abilene now also has direct or indirect
peering up with the vBNS, ESNet, ATT
Government Markets (aka NREN/
DREN) and Canarie. For a complete
list of network prefixes accessible via
Oregon?s Abilene connection, see
 http://www.ogig.net/routes.html
Route Views at the UO?s Advanced
Network Technology Center, a service
for network engineers, also now in-
cludes high performance route infor-
mation at http://www.antc.uoregon.edu/
route-views/
Finally, the vBNS (Federal Very High
Speed Backbone Network Service) has
published a snapshot of the routes it is
seeing at http://www.vbns.net/route/
Internet2 Update
By Joe St Sauver
joe@oregon.uoregon.edu
Spring, we will shift additional web
cache traffic over to that link.
Abilene Multicast Support
Abilene has begun deployment of IOS
12.0(3.3)S.0228 (Cisco?s multicast-ca-
pable version of IOS for GSR?s) on
Abilene?s Cisco core routers, software
whose multicast support was imple-
mented by Dave Meyer of the UO
Advanced Network Technology Cen-
ter/IETF Multicast Directorate. As
deployment continues, Abilene cus-
tomers will begin to be able to source
and  receive high bitrate multicast au-
dio and video streams not otherwise
supportable by commodity MBONE
connections.
NLANR/Internet2 Joint
Techs Workshop
NLANR and Internet2 held a joint tech-
nical workshop at Las Cruces, New
Mexico, March 7th-10th. You may re-
view workshop presentations at
http://www.ncne.nlanr.net/news/work-
shop/990307/agenda03_99.html
New York State Schools
Coming Online Soon
A number of institutions in New York
State should shortly be connecting to
Internet2 via Gemini 2000, Applied
Theory/IXC Communication?s high
performance network. Connection of
those schools is currently pending
completion of NSF review and certifi-
cation of Gemini 2000 as a high perfor-
mance R&E network (`a la the vBNS
and Abilene). For more information.
see http://www.ixc-comm.net/
Israeli High-Performance
Network Coming Online
In the Middle East, the Israeli Internet2
high performance network will shortly
be connecting to both Europe and to
the StarTap in Chicago. For more in-
formation, see
http://www.machba.ac.il/stindex.html
A quick overview of
recent developments in
high-speed academic
networking
n
Abilene Traffic
You can see current traffic on Oregon?s
Sacramento Abilene links at
http://goop.uoregon.edu/mrtg/ogig/
198.32.163.9.html
While it has only been up a few weeks,
the University of Oregon connection
is already generating more Internet2
traffic than most other I2 sites (contrast
our Abilene traffic with the vBNS traf-
fic reports available at
http://www.vbns.net/nettraf/default.htm)
To see traffic between nodes on the
Abilene backbone (remember, we con-
nect via Sacramento), you may want to
take a look at http://hydra.uits.iu.edu/
~abilene/traffic/abilene.html
NLANR National Web
Cache Hierarchy
The UO?s web cache server,
proxy.uoregon.edu, has begun send-
ing selected traffic to the National Web
Cache Hierarchy at NLANR in San
Diego via Internet2. As Internet2 rout-
ing to San Diego improves later this
Cables enter the UO switchroom
5computing news   spring 1999
Writing Applications for Internet2?
As we talk with users about writing
applications for Internet2, it?s clear that
it may be helpful to explicitly think
about the minimum set of require-
ments any prospective I2 application
author needs to keep in mind.
1. One end of the application needs to
be homed at the UO. It may sound
self-evident, and we may very well be
stating the obvious, but one end of the
application needs to be at the UO. Put
another way, the system on one end or
the other of the network connection
needs to be here at the UO, in 128.223.*.*
address space.
If you work with a community network
partner (such as one of our Eugene/
Springfield K12 Lane Education Net-
work community networking partners)
this may be an issue for you, since in
those cases being ?closely affiliated?
with the UO isn?t ?close enough? when
it comes to I2?you need to actually be
connected from the UO?s network.
2. The other end of the application
needs to be at an site with live high
performance connectivity. Another
seeming self-evident requirement
which we nonetheless must mention:
the other end of the application must
be at a site that has high performance
connectivity with I2/Abilene (i.e., sites
connected via Abilene itself, the vBNS,
Canarie, ESNet, NREN, DREN, etc.).
Why is this an issue? Well, you may
run into sites that are I2 members but
are still working on getting physical
high performance network connectiv-
ity deployed; obviously they won?t
work, at least not yet. You will also run
into other sites on foreign high-perfor-
mance networks, but they may not yet
peer with I2/Abilene. Again, those sites
won?t work, at least not yet.
The relevant set of institutions which
you can work with today are those
listed at http://www.ogig.net/routes.html
(note that this is a small set of institu-
tions relative to the size of the Internet
as a whole).
It can be frustrating to have data from
a telescope in Hawaii, for example,
that you?d like to retrieve via Internet2,
only to find that the Hawaiian instru-
ment doesn?t have I2 connectivity?
but please remember that I2 is evolv-
ing and developing, and institutional
eligibility for connection to I2  or other
high performance networks isn?t some-
thing we control.
3. Your application should (ideally)
have characteristics which take advan-
tage of Internet2?s special capabilities.
An application engineered for I2 should
(ideally) have characteristics which take
advantage of that network?s special ca-
pabilities, i.e., your application should
require high bandwidth, low latency,
low jitter, or be otherwise particularly
well suited to I2?s big pipes. Put another
way, a good I2 application is usually an
application that doesn?t work well over
the commodity/commercial Internet.
4. Your application needs to be able
to differentiate between high perfor-
mance Internet connections and com-
modity Internet connections. Implic-
itly or explicitly, you and your appli-
cation need to be able to differentiate
between high performance network-
connected partners and commodity
Internet network-connected partners.
Consider, for example, a web server
that can deliver high bit rate video on
demand. Our I2/Abilene connection
is designed for, and has capacity avail-
able to service, those high bit rate
streams. But what if a person comes in
via a commodity Internet connection
and requests those high bit rate
streams? Our commodity network ca-
pacity can?t satisfy that demand, nor
will a user trying to view that video at
the other end of a commodity Internet
connection get the high bit rate multi-
media experience you probably want
them to have.
Thus, your application needs to be
aware of where its peers are coming
from, either because it explicitly se-
lects the remote peers it works with
itself (e.g., a web crawling spider that
crawls only I2 attached web sites), or
because it controls which sites can ac-
cess it via a semiautomatic mechanism
(such as a generated .htaccess file
which ?knows? what network prefixes
are via I2), or via a manual mechanism
(such as a person-to-person agreement
to exchange data, reached by you with
a remote collaborator at an I2 site).
5. Applications should be ongoing
(or time critical). Applications par-
ticularly well suited to high perfor-
mance networking connections should
be ongoing (rather than being one-
time events), or they should be time
critical (i.e., you need access to the data
ASAP). Put another way, if you have a
one-time, non-time critical need to
move data between two sites, it?s hard
to beat the throughput and cost effi-
ciency of a box full of DLT tapes sent
overnight via Federal Express. On the
other hand, if you?re moving data ev-
ery day, or the data needs to be avail-
able virtually immediately, then think
?let?s try delivering this data via I2.?
6. Applications can?t be for commer-
cial purposes, nor can they involve
classified data. The UO Acceptable
Use Policy prohibits commercial use
of university resources, so the fact that
your application will be running to or
from the UO means that commercial
projects are unacceptable. Similarly, I2
isn?t certified for use for classified re-
search purposes, so don?t plan to use it
to move classified data, even though I2
has routes to places well known for
doing classified research (such as
Lawrence Livermore Lab,  Los Alamos,
Sandia, Kirtland Air Force Base, etc.).
7. What Sorts of Applications Will Work
Well via I2? Here are some examples:
- ?pull? network applications where you
can narrowly focus the networks from
which information is being retrieved
 - ?push? network applications where you
can narrowly focus the networks to which
information is being sent
- prearranged server-talking-to-server ap-
plications such as NNTP (USENET News),
or World Wide Web cache hierarchies
- applications using multicast, once
multicast support comes up on I2 (and it
should be up by the time you read this)
- applications used by a relatively small
number of technically competent trusted
users working with large datasets
- applications which open many parallel
network streams to diverse locations
- applications where there is a large discrep-
ancy between bandwidth available via com-
modity network connectivity and band-
width available via high performance net-
works (e.g., overseas sites in many regions,
provided that the overseas site has access to
high-performance network connectivity)
6 computing news   spring 1999
Who?s Who at the
Mary Bradley
Micro Lab Coordinator
Computing Facilities
Mary Bradley?s career in the Computing Center began
way back in the good old days of punched cards.
After attending Northwest Christian College, she began
working in the Computing Center as a job expediter in
production control, setting up computer jobs and check-
ing output.
Today Mary manages the Klamath, Millrace, and EMU
computer labs and is working with the Grayson Hall
Design Development committee on a new lab that will
open next year. She manages the labs? software budgets,
schedules instructional labs, and keeps the computers up-
to-date.
Outside of work Mary leads the busy life of a single mom.
She has two children, Alex, 14, and Shauna, 13, and spends
most of her after-work time on homework patrol. She?s
also an active member of a fitness center.
By Vickie Nelson
vmn@oregon.uoregon.edu
Our spring issue introduces you to some veteran
Computing Center staff members, as well as one who is
relatively new.
Mary Bradley, Bob Jones, and Mohammed Maleki have
each  been part of the Computing Center for close to a
decade, while James Joule celebrated his first anniversary
as a staff member last January.
Although she was born in Eastern Oregon and has lived in
various Northwest locales, the beach is Mary?s favorite
place. She recently vacationed in Hawaii, where despite
rain, she managed to find some sun every day, and enjoyed
swimming, snorkeling, and walking on the beach.
Bob Jones
Senior Systems Manager
Computing Facilities
Meet Our Staff
     Clockwise from top left: Teri, Bob, Dylan and Denali Jones
Bob Jones grew up in Audubon, Pennsylvania, in the
suburbs of Philadelphia. He went to college at the Univer-
sity of Delaware, where he majored in Computer Science
and Statistics and met his wife, Teri.
After graduating, Bob worked for Sperry Univac (now
known as Unisys) and then for Cray Research at the San
Diego Supercomputer Center on the UCSD campus.
Visits to the Northwest had impressed Bob and Teri.
Looking for a place to settle down, they  began subscrib-
ing to the Sunday Register Guard for the classified ads.
One thing led to another, and  in 1988 Bob joined the
Computing Center staff.  As senior systems manager, Bob
is responsible for UNIX and VMS system administration
and security.
Bob and Teri have two boys, Dylan, 15, and Denali, 12. At
home Bob lives a low-tech life (the family does have a
computer, but it?s basically for the boys? homework). The
couple  enjoy gardening, hiking, backpacking, skiing, and
sports ranging from basketball to Frisbee. They?re plan-
ning a backpacking trip to Southern Utah in April.
n
7computing news   spring 1999
James Joule
Systems Analyst
Auxiliary Services
Although James Joule was born in Texas, he thinks of
Westminster, Colorado, as home. Thanks to boyhood
summers spent visiting relatives near Seaside, he?s
also quite at home in Oregon.
After earning his undergraduate degree in Computer
Science from Colorado State at Fort Collins,  James
worked as an information systems manager for
Applied Computer Technology, where he met his
fianc?e, Jennifer.
In January 1998, James arrived at the Computing
Center?s Auxiliary Services. During the past year he
has assisted Kit Larsen with programming projects
for the Human Resource Information System (HRIS)
as the UO moved from an outdated payroll system to
the new BANNER-based system.
James enjoys campus life, especially taking graduate
level computer science classes (he?s also  interested in
the new software engineering curriculum) and play-
ing basketball in the gym.
Outside pursuits such as hiking and camping are
favorite recreations, as is playing with his chocolate
lab, Lucy.  James and Jennifer also bowl on EWEB?s
team.
James? plans for this summer include a 4th of July
wedding in Colorado.
Computing Center
Mohammad Maleki
Network Engineer
Network Services
When Mohammad was a young high school graduate in
Tehran, a family friend  in Corvallis encouraged him to
come to OSU. Once there, Mohammad studied English as
a second  language, then went on to study math at the UO
and electrical engineering at Cal Poly, where he met his
wife, Nahla Bassil.
Back at OSU in 1989 for graduate work in electrical engi-
neering, Mohammad worked as a student assistant in
networking at OSU?s computing center.
Mohammad began working at the UO as a network engi-
neer in Network Services in 1992. His broad assignment is
to keep the UO network up and running, and he?s respon-
sible for the upkeep of switches, hubs, terminal servers,
hdsl, rdsl modems, and fiber optics circuits. He also trouble-
shoots and installs wireless networks.
Mohammad swims whenever he can and enjoys playing
with his five-year-old son Basseem (whose name means
?Smiley? in Arabic)  and his three-year old daughter
Monya (whose name means ?Best Wishes?).
After an absence of over 20 years, Mohammad is planning
a trip to the Middle East this year. He?ll visit family in Iran
and Lebanon, where he will meet  college-age nieces and
nephews for the first time.
8 computing news   spring 1999
In the three short years of its existence,
the University of Oregon?s New Me-
dia Center (NMC) has already gar-
nered numerous awards for its cre-
ativity and innovation. Dedicated to
breaking new ground in multimedia
applications, the NMC regularly at-
tracts faculty and others from both
public institutions and private indus-
try who are interested in developing
multimedia courseware or research
tools.
UO?s New Media Center Adds New
By Joyce Winslow
jwins@oregon.uoregon.edu IDRS is definitely breaking newground, and it has already attracted
the attention of the National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration  (NASA).
The initial leg of the study, funded by
a modest grant from the National Sci-
ence Foundation, is a demonstration
project studying the decision-making
processes of airplane pilots during a
simulated flight from Eugene to Se-
attle under changing weather condi-
tions. With NASA?s funding, the study
will expand to include simulations of
other types of real-life situations in which
pilots must make decisions. NASA is
particularly interested in the data?s pos-
sible application in improving flight
Recording pilot decisions during simu-
lated flight seemed an ideal departure
from traditional methods of studying
the decision-making process. For de-
cades, psychologists and other cogni-
tive scientists have conducted deci-
sion-making studies in  laboratories
using college student volunteers.
However, researchers have come to
realize that people in the real world
frequently do not make decisions the
way their subjects did in the labora-
tory. Such questions as ?How do
people solve problems?? and ?How
do we encourage good decision-mak-
ing and discourage bad?? remained
largely unanswered because studies
safety and minimizing pilot error, and
plans to use the information to develop
new training methods for pilots.
The idea behind IDRS  began with Dr.
Mauro?s quest for a better system for
for studying real-life decision making.
Choosing flight scenarios was a natural
for Mauro, who holds a commercial
pilot?s certificate and is conducting other
aviation safety research with NASA and
the University Consortium for Atmo-
spheric Research (UCAR).
relying upon college student volun-
teers working on artificial problems
did not reflect how decisions are made
in important real-world situations.
So Mauro and the NMC?s technical
and graphic design staff set to work
designing a whole new environment
?one that functionally simulated,
as realistically as possible, the
environments both on the ground
and in the air in which pilots make
decisions.
   Takeoff: In this scenario, the pilot takes off on a runway at the Eugene airport
?If we?re not breaking
ground on every new
project, we?re doing
something wrong.?
Most recently, the NMC attracted UO
psychology department head Dr.
Robert Mauro, who hoped to design
an interactive decision-making test for
pilots that simulated real-life flight
situations. Mauro first approached the
NMC in August 1998 and asked the
staff if they could devise a system that
would work on the Internet, using any
browser. Could such an interactive test
guarantee the confidentiality of the
subjects? responses? Could it measure
the time it took each subject to make a
decision? Could it record the multiple
stages of decision making? The answer
to all these questions was yes, and the
Internet-based Decision Research
System (IDRS) was born.
The technical challenges of Mauro?s
project appealed to NMC staff mem-
bers, who are fond of stressing the
?New? in ?New Media.? In the words
of technology manager Harold Hersey,
?If we?re not breaking ground on ev-
ery new project, we?re doing some-
thing wrong.?
Harold Hersey
NMC Technology Manager
9computing news   spring 1999
Dimension to Aviation Safety Research
The technical staff (comprising tech-
nology manager Harold Hersey, one
full-time and one part-time pro-
grammer, and two student pro-
grammers) was charged with ironing
out problems arising from using the
World Wide Web as the testing
medium. Because pilots would be
taking the test using their own desktop
computer setups, NMC programmers
had to design with a variety of possible
computer platforms and browsers in
mind. They also had the task of writing
a program that could measure, and
store online, data on what decisions
the subjects made and what informa-
tion they examined, in what order,
and for how long.
?The biggest
motivation for an
expert to participate in
research is to better the
profession.?
Dr. Robert Mauro
UO Dept. of Psychology Head and
IDRS Project Director
The New Media Center is located in the
UO?s Riverfront Research Park. Under
the leadership of Mike Holcomb, NMC
director and associate professor of fine
and applied arts, the Center has won
Chronicle of Higher Education
awards for two of its multimedia
courseware projects.  The NMC?s award-
winning portfolio is online at http://
nmc.uoregon.edu/portfolio/
   Cockpit Decision #2:  One hour into the flight, in the air north of Portland
fects (such as engine hum) and time
lapse indicators (such as moving and
changing clouds) were also added.
As we go to press, the project has
just completed its first phase of test-
ing and is entering the second. Dur-
ing  phase one, experts in both avia-
tion and decision-making reviewed
the project and submitted their com-
ments, which were then used as a
basis for adjusting and refining the
test scenarios.
In phase two,  a group of flight tech-
nology students will be recruited to
go through the scenarios while  ?think-
ing aloud.? The students? comments
are recorded, and they are interviewed
individually after their ?test flight? to
determine whether the scenarios dis-
torted their decision-making pro-
cesses in any way.
The third phase of the project is slated
to begin this summer, when, if all goes
as planned, the test will be launched
on the web. Mauro plans to advertise
the project on bulletin boards and avia-
tion organization web pages. He  hopes
Meanwhile, the graphic design staff?
design manager Scott Mongrain and
four graphic design students?began
the painstaking work of constructing
a virtual world. Working from photo-
graphs of the Eugene airport, detailed
flight maps, and actual cockpit
instrument panels, the staff labored to
create realistic flight scenarios using
animation and vector graphics. Vector
graphics were favored because, apart
from their smaller file sizes and quicker
loading time, they also have the
advantage of allowing users to ?zoom
in? for an enlarged view of graphic
detail without distorting it, a feature
that?s particularly useful for viewing
the maps that are an important part of
these aviation scenarios.
In an effort to make the ?test flight?
as experiential as possible, audio ef-
the flight scenarios will be interesting
enough for the pilots who see it on the
web to participate without further in-
centives, taking the view that ?the big-
gest motivation for an expert to partici-
pate in research is to better the
profession.?
While the efforts of Mauro and the
NMC  hold great promise for the fu-
ture of aviation safety, their work also
stands to benefit other areas of research.
Interactive online testing has potential
uses in a variety of other disciplines,
including education, linguistics, and
marketing. The sky, one might say, is
the limit.
10 computing news   spring 1999
Workshop Day/Date Time Location Presenter
This schedule is subject to change.See http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/ for course outlines/materials and the most current information.
Computer Software Applications
Endnote/Procite: What Are These, and Why Should I Use Them?
Wed Apr 28 3:30 - 4:50pm RSR Brownmiller, Lenn
Thurs Apr 29 3:30 - 4:50pm RSR Brownmiller, Lenn
Introduction to PowerPoint (http://micro.uoregon.edu/workshops/powpt.htm)
Fri May 21 10 - 11:50am ITC Heerema
Using the Internet
1: Introduction to the World Wide Web Tue Apr 13 11am - 12:20pm EC Esau
2: Beyond Just Surfing -  4  Prerequisites Thu Apr 8 1 - 2:20pm EC Ward
Mon Apr 19 10 - 11:20am EC Jenkins
Fri May 14 11am - 12:20pm EC Darling
3: Power Web Searching -  4  Prerequisites Mon Apr 26 10 - 11:20am EC Paynter
Electronic Communication
Managing a Majordomo List (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~llynch/majordomo)
Tue Apr 27 3 - 3:50pm EC Lynch
Using MHonArc to Create a Web Archive for a Majordomo List    (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~consult/deptcomp/)
Tue May 11 3 - 3:50pm EC Lynch
SPRING WORKSHOPS
* WORKSHOP LOCATION CODES *
EC: Electronic Classroom  (Windows) 144 Knight Library
ITC:  Macintosh Classroom 267B Knight Library
RSR:  Reed Seminar Room (Windows) 235 Knight Library
8 Requires an active account on DARKWING or GLADSTONE
What is The IT Curriculum? ?IT? stands for Information Technology, and the Library and Computing Center are
committed to making sure you have opportunities to build your technology skills. Want to learn how to publish a web
page? How about find what you need on the ?net? Or just how to use that darned computer? We provide a full range of
computer and Internet training, from novice to advanced skill levels.
These workshops are free and open to currently enrolled students, as well as staff and faculty. No advance registration
is necessary; just show up a few minutes before the scheduled start. All seating is available on a first-come, first-served
basis. We do ask, however, that you meet the workshop prerequisites as stated in the description; otherwise, you may
be asked to relinquish your place. If fewer than five people are present ten minutes after the scheduled start, the workshop
may be canceled or rescheduled at the discretion of the instructor.
This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request to the Office of Library Instruction, 346-1817.
Requests for accommodations related to disability should be made to Jon Cawthorne (346-1897) at least one week in
advance of the workshop.
For more information, contact the Office of Library Instruction, 346-1817 (email: cbell@darkwing.uoregon.edu).
11computing news   spring 1999
SPRING WORKSHOPS
Electronic Research Resources
Net a Job: Use the Web  (Call the Career Center at 346-3235 to register for this workshop)  4  Prerequisites
Wed Apr 28 noon - 1:20pm EC Songer
Thu May 27 3:30 - 4:50pm EC Songer
PsycINFO Mon Apr 12 7 - 7:50pm EC Benedicto
Tue May 11 7 - 7:50pm EC Benedicto
Thu May 27 7 - 7:50pm EC Benedicto
Statistics on the Web Fri Apr 2 2 - 3:20pm EC Stave
Tue May 4 1:30 - 2:50pm EC Stave
Publishing on the Web
Introduction to Web Publishing (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/govdocs/webpub/)  - 4  Prerequisites 8
Tue Apr 27 10 -11:50am ITC Bell
Mon May 10 1 - 2:50pm EC Frantz, Sotak
Fri May 28 10 - 11:50am EC Cawthorne, TD Smith
Intermediate Workshops in Web Publishing
1: More HTML (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/morehtml/)
Tue Apr 13 1 - 2:50pm RSR Johnson
2: Images on Web Pages (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/images/)
Tue Apr 20 1 - 2:50pm RSR Holman
3: Imagemaps, Access Counters & Animated GIFs (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/maps/)
Tue Apr 27 1 - 2:50pm RSR Holman
4: Designing for the Web (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~cbell/design/)
Tue May 4 1 - 2:50pm RSR Bell
5: HTML Tools and Tricks (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/debugging/)
Tue May 11 1 - 2:50pm RSR Johnson
6: Organizing Your Web Site (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/govdocs/webpub/orgindex.html)
Tue May 18 1 - 2:50pm RSR TD Smith
Miscellaneous Workshops in Web Publishing
Cascading Style Sheets (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/css/)
Wed May 5 2 - 3:20pm RSR Johnson
Forms & CGI Scripts (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/forms/) 4  Prerequisites
Wed May 19 2 - 3:20pm RSR Johnson
JavaScript (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/inter-pub/js/) 4  Prerequisites
Wed May 26 2 - 3:20pm RSR Johnson
Workshop Day/Date Time Location Presenter
Workshops Available on Video
Looking for an alternative to the workshop format? The Computing Center Documents Room and Media Services in
Knight Library have a growing collection of videos on using computers and computer software. You can use your
UO picture ID to check out these videos, or schedule a viewing room in Media Services. For a list of available titles
and descriptions, visit http://micro.uoregon.edu/workshops/    Call 346-4406 or 346-3091 for more information.
* WORKSHOP LOCATION CODES *
EC: Electronic Classroom  (Windows) 144 Knight Library
ITC:  Macintosh Classroom 267B Knight Library
RSR:  Reed Seminar Room (Windows) 235 Knight Library
8 Requires an active account on DARKWING or GLADSTONE
computing news   spring 1999
346-4403
jeffh@oregon.uoregon.edu
robj@oregon.uoregon.edu
see us for
computer repairs
upgrades
custom systems
This spring, the Computing Center?s Microcom-
puter Services group has added several new free
services for students, faculty and staff.
In addition to answering technical questions
about microcomputer issues, the group now
offers flatbed color scanning, CD ?burning,?
and digital video acquisition from its office in
Room 202. There are three sit-down stations to
accommodate each of these new services.
Digital Video. The digital video acquisition sta-
tion can copy video and audio from VCR tape,
camcorder, DV camcorder (IEEE 1394), S-Video,
RCA,  and most commonly supported formats.
The machine is equipped with a real-time MPEG1
encoder, which compresses the data to a trans-
portable size.  Once the data is acquired, you can
copy it to a computer across the network or write
it to CD, Jazz, or Zip.  The data can also be
converted to Quicktime, AVI or other popular
formats.
CD Burning. CD burning allows you to write
your data to a blank CD-R disc that will ulti-
mately be readable by most CD-ROM drives.
The typical cost of a blank CD is about two
dollars; it can store 650Mb of data.
Note that copyright restrictions must be
observed.
Help Desk Moved to Room 202. To accommo-
date existing and new services, we?ve combined
our help desk and Microcomputer Services staff.
The unified help desk is now upstairs in the
Microcomputer Services office (Room 202).  The
office is open Monday through Friday from 9am
to 5pm. Microcomputer consultants can be
reached by calling 346-4412 or sending email to
microhelp@oregon.uoregon.edu
Microcomputer
Services Adds ?CD
Burning,? Digital
Video?and More
12
By Dan Albrich
dalbrich@oregon.uoregon.edu
13computing news   spring 1999
Does the Shoe Fit? Know What Statistical
Analysis Method Works Best for Your Data
By Robin High
robinh@darkwing.uoregon.edu
experimental units have some inher-
ent or planned matching feature, so
that the mean of the paired differ-
ences between the two columns is of
interest. In the first situation, the data
are assumed independent of each
other. In the second, there is an im-
plied correlation, either positive or
negative, that must be considered. The
use of the words ?means? and ?differ-
ences? in these two situations give a
very different interpretation of the
problem.
?Normal? theoretical models. A more
complex example involves data analy-
sis that is perceived in terms of a ?nor-
mal? or ?bell-shaped? theoretical
model, such as those used with the
analysis of variance or linear regres-
sion. These methods are usually
among the first procedures taught and
in many respects are the most easily
understood. If necessary, data may be
transformed to make this ?normal?
theory model fit.
In many situations these normal theory
models are good approximations;
however, statistical computing has
reached the level where models based
on other distributions can be applied
to the data. Discrete data can and should
be treated differently from continuous data.
For example, if the data are counts,
Logistic or Poisson regression may be
much more appropriate than ANOVA
or linear regression.
Choose Appropriate
Models
To summarize, it?s essential for you to
understand which statistical analysis
is most appropriate for your data. Al-
ways consider statistical models that
will work well with your data, rather
than forcing your data into some spe-
cific model.
The development of high-speed
personal computers and user-friendly
statistics software capable of
performing many sophisticated
procedures has increased the
likelihood of choosing the wrong
technique for the job. At the very least,
the bewildering increase in the
numbers and types of available
statistical procedures has made it  easy
to overlook, or be unaware of, other
methods that might be more
appropriate to your needs.
Statistics can easily be applied
incorrectly and even abused with any
set of data. It?s advisable to always
think carefully about how a collection
of numbers can and should be used.
Before you even begin collecting data,
ask yourself some key questions:
? Does the data collection process
provide a random sample represen-
tative of the population of interest?
? Do the data address your research
questions?
? Do the data come from a designed
experiment or from an observational
study?
? Power of a test: is the sample size
large enough to find a meaningful
difference between groups?
? Are the data cross-sectional or
longitudinal?
? To what type of data does each
item correspond (nominal, ordinal,
interval, or ratio?)
? Are the data objectively measured
with a physical instrument (e.g.,
heights, weights, lengths, etc.) or do
they come from a more subjective
measuring device, such as Likert
scales used in surveys or consumer
ratings?
? Do the data have discrete levels
(e.g., gender: male/female) or are
they collected on a relatively con-
tinuous measurement scale?
The answers to these questions are
critical, because they define what sta-
tistical techniques are most appropri-
ate for your data and research ques-
tions.
Common Pitfalls
Chi-square test. For example, the com-
monly used chi-square test is most
appropriate for nominal data (discrete
data which have levels in no inherent
order).  If discrete data have an order
(i.e., ordinal levels) or if the data are
measured on a more ?continuous?
scale (interval or ratio), some other
technique will probably produce a
much more powerful and appropri-
ate test.
T-tests. A simple example of choos-
ing a less than optimal data analysis
procedure occurs with a comparison
of the two-sample t-test versus the
paired t-test. Both tests require the
presence of two ?columns? of inter-
val/ratio data.
The two-sample t-test assumes two
independent groups of experimental
units, with not necessarily equal
sample sizes, where the difference be-
tween the two column means is of
interest. With the paired t-test, the
n Always consider
statistical models that
will work well with
your data, rather than
forcing your data into
some specific model
14 computing news   spring 1999
While many people use statistical pro-
grams on their personal computers,
they might also want to be reminded
that UO computing systems have very
sophisticated and powerful statistics
software packages that are available
free to all faculty, staff, and students.
OREGON Software. Statistics pack-
ages on OREGON include SAS, SPSS,
SCA,  SHAZAM, LINDO, LIMDEP, and
PRELIS/LISREL.  Programs can be sub-
mitted in batch mode by writing the
code with a text editor such as pico.
For example, to run a SAS program,
enter the program commands into a
file called myfile.sas and type
$ sas myfile
The  .sas  extension is not necessary
when submitting the command. You
will always be given a file called
myfile.log where you can check the
execution for completeness, and if it
produced output, you?ll find it in a file
called  myfile.lis.  SAS and SPSS can
also be run in a more interactive mode
through an X-Windows interface.
DARKWING Software. DARKWING
statistics packages include sas, bmdp,
Splus,  eqs, and rats. (Note that
DARKWING is case-sensitive,  so the pro-
gram names must be entered exactly
as shown.)  To run a program, first
edit it with a text editor and then
submit the command:
% sas myfile
A file called myfile.log will also be
produced on DARKWING, and output will
By Robin High
robinh@darkwing.uoregon.edu
appear as myfile.lst. Each of these pro-
grams has its own command structure.
ALPHA Software. ALPHA, another
UNIX-based system,  should be used
for computationally intensive pro-
grams written in sas, spss, and Splus.
As DARKWING and ALPHA are both UNIX
systems, their commands are
interchangeable. All your DARKWING
files are accessible on ALPHA:  just log
on to ALPHA with your DARKWING userid
and password.
To run an spss program on ALPHA, enter
% spss -m myfile.sps > myfile.lis
Further Advantages of
Running UO Software
Running statistical programs in batch
mode requires you to write a set of
computer codes in a syntax file to per-
form the desired tasks.  One feature of
some of the latest versions of personal
computer programs is a ?point and
click? style of moving from one win-
dow or task to the next. While this
method has its advantages, far too of-
ten people work their way into oblivion,
not keeping a record of what they did.
Don?t Overlook Advantages of UO
Statistics Packages
Powerful statistics
software packages are
available free to all
faculty, staff, and
students
n A step-by-step record allows you to
grasp the complete picture of what
was done and places you in a better
position to repeat the process in fu-
ture, if necessary.
Assuming you can type and are able to
use a text editor, one of the real strengths
of writing code in sas, spss, Splus, and
other statistical programs is that these
programs document the entire proce-
dure.  All the steps you take, from
initial input to  final data analysis, are
clearly written into the program. This
is known as the ?syntax? method.
Note on PC Versions
Although both the ?point and click?
and ?syntax? methods are available
with PC versions of the major statisti-
cal programs (e.g., SPSS 8.0 for Win-
dows), documentation of the process
is often not written into a syntax file.
This makes it  easy to lose track of the
sequence of steps or options selected.
It also takes more time to repeat the
analysis later or transfer your data to
another user without confusion.  The
syntax method is also highly efficient
if you have a lot of repetitive tasks or
many variables to process.
Statistical resources abound on the
web. Whether you want to learn more
about statistical theory and applica-
tions, are looking for product infor-
mation, or want to test demonstra-
tion software, you?ll find a variety of
web sites serving your needs:
1. Online statistics texts and courses:
http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/
pa765/texts.htm
While it?s not designed to replace
coursework or consulting help, this
Check Web Stat Resources
By Robin High
robinh@darkwing.uoregon.edu
site offers definitions, explanations and
interactive demos to help you under-
stand the broad range of statistical
tests and what types of analyses would
work with your data.
2. Product information (including spe-
cial features, recent upgrades, new ver-
sions, product descriptions, and more):
SAS:   http://www.sas.com
SPSS:  http://www.spss.com  (includes a free
demo of  SamplePower for Windows 95/NT)
Splus: http://www.mathsoft.com
3. Other useful information and links to
pertinent  SAS,  SPSS,  Splus and statis-
tics sites: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/
~robinh/statistics.html
15computing news   spring 1999
Microsoft makes its Outlook email client
available to users of both Microsoft
Office and Microsoft Internet Explorer
4.x. While the email client included
with Outlook has some very nice
features, it also includes one that may
cause problems when sending email to
non-Outlook users.
By default, Outlook formats your email
text with Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML), the same language that?s used
to format web pages. While many email
clients can read HTML-formatted
messages, there are some notable
exceptions.
For example, if you send email to  any-
one using Pine, your message will ap-
pear as an attachment and will be dif-
ficult to read. Even if your Pine readers
save your message to a file and try to
open it, they?ll still have difficulty read-
ing it. This is a significant drawback
because Pine users are numerous?
they comprise a significant percent-
age of the thousands of people who
read their email on DARKWING,
GLADSTONE, or OREGON daily.
At this time, Outlook comes in two
common versions, Outlook Express and
Outlook 98. Below are some simple
instructions for turning off Outlook?s
HTML formatting under Windows 95/
98, and resetting it so that your email
is sent as plain text?which is what
almost every email client expects.
Outlook Express
1.  Start the program.
2. Go to the Tools menu.
3. Click on the Send tab.
4. In the ?Mail sending format? box,
check the ?Plain Text? radio button
instead of the HTML button. (The
default settings under the ?Set-
tings...? button are fine.)
5. Click on ?OK? or ?Apply? and you
should be able to send email without
having it formatted as HTML.
By Hervey Allen
Microcomputer Support
Specialist, Computing Center
hervey@oregon.uoregon.edu
Outlook Email Users - Watch Out for HTML
Formatting Glitch!
Outlook 98
1.blank  Start the program.
2.blank  Go to the Tools menu and choose
?Options...?
3.blank  Click on the  tab.
4.  There is a pull-down menu labeled
?Send in this message format.? Set this
to ?Plain Text.?
5.blank  The additional buttons labeled ?Set-
tings...? and ?International Options...?
should be fine as they are.
6.blank Now click ?OK? or ?Apply? and you
should be able to send email without
having it formatted as HTML.
Formatting Messages Individually:
While it?s possible to turn off HTML
formatting on a per-message basis by
choosing the Plain Text option in the
Format menu whenever you start a
message, we generally recommend
that you send all email as plain text
unless you?re sure the person receiv-
ing your message can read any for-
matting you may wish to include.
The Computing Center re-
cently removed both the line
printers on the VMScluster
from service contract, opting
No More Maintenance for
VMScluster Line Printers
to perform repairs on a per-call ba-
sis instead.
As a result, turnaround on repairs
may be slower (DEC/Compaq gives
higher priority to devices that are
on contract). In the event of a seri-
ous breakdown, it is also likely that
the line printers will not be replaced.
We encourage everyone  to move
their printing jobs to their own
local printers or to the Comput-
ing Center?s Xerox N24 laser print-
ers if need be.
The name of the queue for the
Xerox lasers is sys$docuprint
By Rick Millhollin
rickm@oregon.uoregon.edu
16 computing news   spring 1999
By Spencer Smith
spencera@oregon.uoregon.edu
Trying to Decide Which
Here?s a crash course
in email
fundament-
als to help
you make
a choice
There are many email programs on the
market today; some are even available
free from the Internet. This article is to
help you decide which email program
would be best for you, depending on
the way you access your email.
If you?re satisfied with your current
email program, congratulations! You
should stick with it. Changing email
programs can cause delays, problems,
and even result in the loss of your
email entirely.
But if you?ve been having problems
doing what you want to do with your
email and you?re ready for a complete
change, then please consider the infor-
mation presented here.  (Changing back
and forth between multiple email pro-
grams will almost certainly cause you to
lose email, so consider carefully.)
Pine and Eudora
The email programs used most widely
on campus are Pine and Eudora.
Pine is widely used because of its low
overhead; it runs in a text-based envi-
ronment (without buttons, menus, or
other graphical enhancements) on vir-
tually any computer, and it operates
the same way from wherever you run
it. Just about any computer that can
use a modem or connect to the UO
network can use Pine.
Eudora is widely used because it is free,
has been available (and free) for a long
time, and brings a graphical, point-and-
click ease of use to email. Eudora also
uses the Post Office Protocol (POP)
method for handling email, which  has
long been the standard method for email
programs to access email.
POP and IMAP Protocols
While POP has historically been the
standard, in the last few years a grow-
ing number of email programs have
been written using the Internet Mes-
sage Access Protocol (IMAP). Mulberry,
Eudora  Pro, and Outlook Express are
examples of email programs that use
IMAP. There are differences in the way
the two protocols work that will affect
the way  you read and use your email.
The main difference between POP and
IMAP is where they keep their mail
files. POP brings the mail onto the
local machine (the machine you?re us-
ing to read your email), and manipu-
lates that email locally. IMAP keeps all
the email on the server (e.g., DARKWING,
GLADSTONE,  OREGON) and manipulates
the email files there.
POP Pros and Cons
Convenience.  POP makes one con-
nection to the email server and does all
its transferring and negotiation at one
time. It can easily filter and redistrib-
ute your email, since it has to read it all
coming in anyway. And since it makes
a local copy, you can save all your mail
onto floppies or other storage directly.
Backups. On the down side, keeping
all your email on your local machine
can cause problems. Most POP email
programs are already set up to delete
your email off the server once the trans-
fer is completed. That means that your
local machine is the only place that
your email exists. Unless you back up
your email every day, you could lose
all  your email  if something happens
to your local machine.
Security. Anyone unscrupulous
enough to want to read your email
could do so from your local copy, as
security of desktop computers is not
as bulletproof (generally) as that of the
central computers.
Mobility. Mobility suffers somewhat
with POP. If you?re using your POP
email program, and your email pro-
gram is set to delete email after it?s
been downloaded, then the computer
you use to read your email is the only
place that email exists. People who
travel, or who use several computers
to read their email, may have prob-
lems with this aspect of POP.
Disk Quotas. Here on campus, our
mail machines have a quota, an upper
limit on the amount of disk space that?s
available to the user. If the POP email
program is set to delete all messages
from the machine after it reads them,
then there is no quota problem. But if
the client is set to leave the messages
on the email server, email continues to
pile up without your knowledge. When
you read your email on your local
computer and delete it, you may as-
sume it?s gone altogether, but actually
it?s still there on the server, taking up
space.
After a POP email program deletes a
message, it deletes only the local copy.
This invisible buildup of mail has stung
many people who use POP email
programs.
IMAP Pros and Cons
Backups. IMAP-based email programs
keep everything on the email server.
Since our central computers are backed
up on a regular basis, a recent backup
of your email is always available.
Convenience. Deletions take place on
the machine, and are reflected in your
email listing, so you always know ex-
actly what email exists at any given
time and can easily remove unwanted
messages. Multiple mailboxes can be
created to sort and categorize your
mail. And since everything takes place
on the email server, you can access
your email the same way from mul-
tiple locations.
There are, however, some disadvan-
tages to IMAP. Because the IMAP email
program needs to maintain a connec-
tion to the email server, and messages
never get downloaded to the local com-
puter, there is no ?off-line? mode.
This could cause problems for people
who want to do their reading and com-
position while they are disconnected
from the network?on a laptop com-
17computing news   spring 1999
Email Program to Use?
puter on a plane, for example. Since
email remains on the email server, if
you are used to a POP email program
taking your messages off the email
server, the buildup of email on the
server may take you by surprise.
Good News for Travelers
If you travel a lot and want to be able to
access your email anywhere, anytime,
browser-based email programs like
WebMail offer an attractive alternative
to POP- or IMAP-based programs. One
such program, WebMail, is now up and
running at the UO (see Welcome to
WebMail on page 3 of this issue).
WebMail  handles the display, compo-
sition, and sorting of your email
through any browser, anywhere on
the Internet. This is a cool feature but
be warned! If you are using Eudora or
any other POP email program now,
and you use WebMail to peek at your
mail and try it out, all of your messages
will be marked unread! So if you have
been using Eudora for a long time, delet-
ing messages and believing them gone,
using WebMail will make Eudora down-
load all your email again the next time
you read your email.
If you use an IMAP email program like
Mulberry, or if you use Pine, you can
evaluate  WebMail without these
problems.
Why Switch Programs?
If you?re currently satisfied with your
email program, then there is no press-
ing need to switch. On the other hand,
if you?re dissatisfied, here are a few
pointers to think about:
? If you always read your email
from one place,  Eudora is a good
choice as your POP email program.
? If you want to get your email from
several places (home, school, and while
travelling), an IMAP email program
lik Outlook Express might be a good
choice. Or, you might want to try a
browser-based program like WebMail.
?blank If all you want is a quick peek at your
mail from wherever you are, with no
frills, then Pine may be right for you.
Web Resources
For a discussion on the relative merits
of various IMAP email programs, see
http://www.unc.edu/dande/eval/
current.html
For a general discussion of a variety of
email programs, see
http://www.ccs.yorku.ca/Compnews/
archive/Fall98/mailcompare.htm
To set Microsoft?s Outlook Express to use IMAP rather than POP,
follow these steps:
- Open Outlook Express.
- Select  ?Accounts?? from the ?Tools? menu.
- Select the ?Mail? tab in the dialog box that appears.
- In the ?Mail? dialog box, click the ?Add? button and select
?Mail.?
- A new dialog box will appear with a space for your name
(e.g., ?Bob Bogus?). Enter it and click ?Next.?
- In this dialog, enter your email account (e.g.,
bbogus@oregon.uoregon.edu) and click ?Next.?
- The third dialog asks for your host information. For the IMAP
host, enter whatever is after the @ sign in your email address. In
our example, Bob Bogus would enter oregon.uoregon.edu  En-
ter the same information for the SMTP host as for the IMAP
host (they?re the same for major email machines).
- In the fourth dialog, you need to enter the part of your email
address after the @ sign. In our example, Bob would enter bbogus.
You may also enter the email password for this account, but that
can cause some security problems. If you leave the password field
blank, Outlook Express will ask you for this information the first
time you try to send or receive mail.
- In the fifth dialog,  enter a name to be displayed in your account
list in Outlook Express. This name won?t have any effect on the way
your mail is handled. ?Oregon Mail,? ?U of O Mail,? ?Campus
Mail? are good choices.
Setting Outlook Express to use IMAP
- In the sixth dialog, you?re asked to set up your connection. If
you?re on campus, choose the ?Using my local area network?
option. If you?re dialing in from home, the ?Make Connection
Manually? choice is best. The other choice, having Outlook Express
dial your modem, has caused some people problems.
- In the seventh dialog, click the Finish button.
- Click OK at the ?Mail? dialog (back where we started), and you?ll
be taken back to Outlook Express to begin getting your email. In the
left-hand navigation bar, double-click the new folder (named
whatever friendly name you chose), enter your email password if
prompted for it, and begin reading your email!
18 computing news   spring 1999
19computing news   spring 1999
While the thought of upgrading your
Windows 3.1 operating system may
seem daunting, now may be the best
time to take the plunge. If you?re still
running  Windows 3.1 on your
computer, Microcomputer Services
staff strongly recommends upgrading
to a newer operating system (e.g.,
Windows 98, Macintosh OS, Windows
NT, etc.) to avoid future problems.
We?re making this recommendation
now to ensure that campus depart-
ments have sufficient time to plan
ahead for next year?s budget, which
will be in place July 1, 1999. We also
suggest that any such upgrade be
scheduled for quiet periods of the year,
such as summer term or spring break.
What?s Involved?
Before making a change, you?ll prob-
ably want to consult your local com-
puter support person, if you have one,
to formulate an overall plan for your
work group.
As you may already suspect, a system
upgrade is not a trivial operation.
You?ll most likely need to purchase a
new computer and some new soft-
ware, transfer your data, and prepare
yourself for some initial training or
learning to become comfortable with
your new system.
There are other factors to consider as
well.  You may have a personal attach-
ment to using a program that has
served you well and may not look
forward to learning a new one.  And
then there are the costs: the real cost of
purchasing new equipment to run the
newer system, and the intangible costs
of time and possible frustration.
Despite these obstacles,  we think there
are many good reasons to upgrade
now. Some of these are cited below:
? Windows 3.1 is a discontinued
product, and has been for almost
four years.
?blank The last version of Microsoft Office
available for Windows 3.1 (Office 4.2)
is no longer compatible with Office
versions for the Mac and PC.
? There are basically no new applica-
tions for Windows 3.1 and none will
be available in the future.
? Many older 486 and 386 class
computers won?t work correctly on
January 1, 2000. This means that
Windows won?t work correctly, either.
? Windows 3.1 offers very little to no
support for modern hardware (e.g.,
printers, scanners, large hard drives,
USB devices, etc.)
?blank Windows 3.1 has no built-in sup-
port for PCMCIA cards for portable
computers. This makes using newer
PCMCIA cards very difficult.
?blank Windows 3.1 has no built-in
support for networking, which
makes networking a Windows 3.1
machine much more difficult.
? Windows 3.1 is not supported by
BANNER and can?t run the new
BANNER GUI system
? 486 and 386 machines have almost
no market value, so they are
generally not worth upgrading
? Future versions of the Duckware
CD-ROM may not contain any
Windows 3.1 software.
? While Windows 3.1 will run on
newer hardware, it can?t take
advantage of it. For instance, no single
Windows 3.1 application can use more
than a theoretical maximum of 16MB
of RAM. This makes manipulating
large files very difficult.
?blank There are very few new support
staff personnel with Windows 3.1
knowledge or training, and there
will be no new training of any
Computing Center support staff in
Windows 3.1.
?blank Many Windows 3.1 machines have
hard drives that are five years old or
older. These hard drives had a life
expectancy of no more than five
years. It?s critical that you have
backups of your data!
By Hervey Allen
hervey@oregon.uoregon.edu
Windows 3.1 and Y2K
If you?re interested in learning more
about Windows 3.1 and year 2000 (Y2K)
issues, see the Microsoft?s Year 2000
web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/
year2k/product/product.htm
Test your hardware. You may want to
download a small DOS utility that will
test the hardware on your machine for
Y2K compliance. This utility is
available at
http://www.nstl.com/html/
ymark2000_instructions.html
Y2K at the UO. For an overview of
Year 2000 issues and to see what the
UO has done about  Y2K compliance,
go to http://y2k.uoregon.edu/
Time to Upgrade that Windows 3.1 Machine
n Upgrading now can
help you avoid future
problems
Last February, the Computing
Center added two new Windows
NT servers, DEWEY and HUEY,
which should enhance BANNER
system performance and reliability.
All BANNER GUI users were re-
quired to update their systems to
use one of the new servers by April
1, 1999, when the old BANNER 3
server was disconnected.
Throughout the month of March,
users were reminded of the sys-
tem update each time they logged
in on BANNER.
If you still have questions
regarding the upgrade, please
contact your department?s support
person or Microcomputer Services
at 346-4412.
BANNER 3
Users Migrate
to ?DEWEY?
and ?HUEY?
By Susan Hilton
hilton@oregon.uoregon.edu
20 computing news   spring 1999
Required by Law?
By Matthew Latterell
Assistant Dean,
Educational and
Information Technology
UO School of Law
Winter is always the time I start
thinking about my garden. What
should I plant this year, what work
needs to be done to the soil before I
plant, and how soon can I actually
get something in the ground?
Winter at the School of Law is also
the time to think about what laptop
computer configuration we are go-
ing to recommend for next year?s
entering class. Going hand in hand
with this is how we can get better
tools to our faculty and staff?com-
puters that are at least as good as
those used by our students. We are
contemplating every possibility:
buying or leasing, laptops or desk-
tops, new machines or upgrades,
Macintosh or Windows.
The possibilities listed above, we
have come to realize, are mostly a
matter of personal preference and
financial resources. The real choices
we must make are less about the
hardware and more about the soft-
ware, less about the individual ma-
chine and more about the entire net-
work infrastructure, less about how
a person uses his or her own com-
puter and more about how our data
is accessed, shared, and distributed.
The other day a faculty member
wanted to share a file with his stu-
dents. But some of his students were
using Microsoft Word and some
were using Corel WordPerfect. Some
were using the Windows version of
WordPerfect and some were using
the Macintosh version. Some of the
Macintosh students use Claris
Emailer for their email?others use
Eudora. Because of application com-
patibility problems and file attach-
ment issues, less than one-quarter
of his students were able to use the
file he sent. Students attempting to
share common documents have
similar experiences.
The problems are not caused by the
operating system or platform, but
by the applications. Word and
WordPerfect are strangers to each
other on the Macintosh. WordPerfect
routinely alters formatting between
its Macintosh and Windows versions.
Claris Emailer sends attachments us-
ing compression and encoding not
easily understood by most email
packages on either platform.
The applications we recommend to
students affect the applications that
must be available to faculty and
staff. These recommendations in
turn affect the quality of machine?
new or upgraded?that must be on
that staff or faculty member?s desk.
Another decision that must be faced
is the role the floppy drive will play
(or should play) in our computing
environment. Part of this is driven
by the fact that the new Macintosh
desktop systems?both iMacs and
the ?blue? G3s?are floppy-free.
The lack of floppy drives on these
machines is a challenge to conven-
tional computing. It presupposes
that the computer is in some way
attached to a network. And at the
?sharing the lessons
learned from the UO
School of Law computer
requirement and the use
of technology in
enhancing an academic
curriculum
n
new Law building, with over 1000
network ports for just over 600 indi-
viduals, this will be very much true.
The need for a floppy drive is in-
versely proportional to the strength
and accessibility of the network. Be-
ing able to plug a floppy-free laptop
or desktop into a network is one
thing; sharing data across that net-
work is another. File servers go
down, disrupting access to shared
and personal files and, for many
Windows users, access to printing.
Dial-up access to network-based data
is slow at best. Downloading a large
email attachment over a standard
56k modem can be done, but even
more could be done with that time
using a document saved to a floppy
or some other removable media.
Computers with or without floppies
require transparent network access.
This understanding affects every-
thing from the networking hardware
in our laptops and desktops to the
server hardware and software we
choose and the underlying network
infrastructure in the Law building
itself.
Coming up with answers about soft-
ware applications, floppy drives and
network access when contemplating
our computer recommendations and
purchases for the Law School is very
much like figuring out what the soil
behind my house needs before I can
plant the garden: if we don?t see to
the fundamentals, we won?t get the
results we desire. The computers that
students, faculty and staff use must
be appropriate for their needs. Even
more importantly, the computing en-
vironment must be up to the task of
making these computers as easy to
use and as functional as possible so
that the real task at hand?the study
of law?can proceed.
21computing news   spring 1999
UO faculty and staff are eligible to apply
for two awards offered by the Northwest
Academic Computing Consortium
(NWACC), a consortium of over 40
academic institutions from six states.
This year?s two-grant program, in
accordance with NWACC?s primary
goal, is aimed at stimulating
innovative uses of new information
tools in education and research. A
total of $150,000 is available for
awards in two categories: Faculty
Incentive Awards for Web Use and
Collaborative Program Development.
Faculty Incentive Awards. This pro-
gram provides small grants directly
to faculty members to promote inno-
vative ways of using the World Wide
Web for instruction. Up to sixteen
$3000 grants are available for faculty
summer stipends, and up to five
$10,000 grants will be distributed for
larger projects requiring student as-
sistance, travel, etc. Applicants may
submit proposals for either the $3000
or the $10,000 award, but not both.
Collaborative Program Development.
This program supports collaboration
between NWACC institutions for us-
ing technology resources. It funds travel
and other activities, such as workshops,
related to formulating joint proposals
and significant interinstitutional part-
nerships.  Grants range from $2000 to
$10,000 dollars. Preference will be given
to proposals that provide maximum le-
verage through institutional, founda-
tion, and other funding matches.
If you have any questions regarding
either of these grant programs, you
may contact Joanne Hugi, Chair of
the Grants Committee, at (541) 346-
1702, or hugi@oregon.uoregon.edu
More information on NWACC pro-
grams, including grant application
forms and guidelines, is available at
http://www.nwacc.org/
UO Faculty,
Staff Eligible
for NWACC
Grants
Many web designers are used to
relying primarily on gif-format
images, when often jpg-format
images are actually preferable.
For example, jpgs tend to be smaller
than comparable gifs for continuous-
tone photographic images, and they
also render color more faithfully.
If you have thousands of existing
images in gif format, the thought of
converting them all to a different
format might be a little daunting.
Fortunately, however, you don?t
need to convert them one at a time.
Instead, you can use this simple
script on DARKWINGto convert them
en masse:
#!/bin/csh -x
foreach f ( *.gif )
set base = `basename $f .gif`
giftopnm $f | cjpeg -quality 50 > $base.jpg
end
(Note that the backticks on line three
are just that: backtick marks, not
apostrophes.)
The script assumes that your gifs have
the suffix .gif and reside in your cur-
rent directory. It also shows a typical
JPEG quality factor of 50; higher or
lower values may be appropriate if
you want better image quality or bet-
ter image compression.
For seat-of-the-pants calibration, a
sample image I converted had the
Save Space and Speed
Up Your Web Pages by
Converting Gifs to Jpgs
By Joe St Sauver
joe@oregon.uoregon.edu
following quality versus size
relationship:
Original gif: 220520 bytes
Quality Size
jpg @ quality 90 149242 bytes
jpg @ quality 80 97294 bytes
jpg @ quality 70 71116 bytes
jpg @ quality 60 56573 bytes
jpg @ quality 50 48203 bytes
A Few Caveats
Before you use this script, here are
a few more things to keep in mind:
? The resulting jpgs are left in the
same directory.
? You?ll need to adjust any web
pages referring to the old gif
images so that they point to the
new jpg images instead.
?blank Be sure to check the protections
on the new jpg files to ensure that
they?re properly accessible.
? This conversion is intended for use
with generic gifs that need to be
converted into generic jpgs; if you?re
using gifs which exploit extensions,
this script probably won?t work for
you.
See man giftopnm and man cjpeg
for more information on those two
commands.
If you run into problems or have
questions, feel free to send mail to
joe@oregon.uoregon.edu
n Use a simple script to convert your
image files in one fell swoop
22 computing news   spring 1999
The Computing Center Documents
Room is starting to build a small
collection of trainingblank CD-ROMS to
complement its popular collection of
training videos.
The firstblank instructional CD titles cover
Office 97, Windows 98, Excel 97, and
Wordblank 97
series of CDs on Linux topics, including
- Linux Red Hat 5.2 (Apollo)
- Linux Rough Cuts for M68K Processor
- Linux Rough Cuts for MIPS Processor
- Linux Rough Cuts for PowerPC
- Linux Rough Cuts for Ultrrasparc
The CD-ROMs may be checked out for
one week. blank blank
Recent book acquisitions include sev-
eral  Windows 98 offerings, ranging
from theblank Microsoft Windows 98 Resource
Kit to Windows 98 for Dummies. So
Documents Room Acquires
More CD-ROMs, Books
whateverblank your level of expertise with
Windows 98, you should be able to
findblank something to meet your needs.
Other popular new titles include
- Red Hat Linux Secrets, 2nd edition
- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese
Information Processing
- Java Servlet Programming
- The Little iMac Book
- The Non-Designer?s Scan and Print Book
- Photoshop Artistry
- Perl Cookbook
Books may be checked out for a two-
week period.
The Documents Room is located on
the second floor of the Computing
Center in Room 205. Hours are 9:30am
to 5:00pm Monday through Friday
during the academic term.
For more information, call 346-4406 or
see
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~docsrm
By Vickie Nelson
vmn@oregon.uoregon.edu
Security Alert! OSU Computing
System Compromised
System administrators at Oregon State
University have informed us that one
of their main systems was compro-
mised several weeks ago (estimated at
Feb. 28, 1999).  If you never log in on
Oregon State University computers,
you can safely disregard the rest of this
article.  If, however, you have logged in on
any OSU systems within the past month,
please read on.
OSU administrators are still investi-
gating the incident. They are aware
that the intruder had installed, among
other things, a program which re-
corded network traffic, including
usernames and passwords, for some
systems at OSU.  This means that if you
logged into any OSU systems within the
past month or so, usernames and pass-
words for any account to which you estab-
lished a session (telnet, ftp, Eudora,
rlogin, ...)  may have been captured by the
intruder.  Any such account is now vul-
nerable to attack by that intruder.
We have received information on a
very limited number of accounts that
are known to be vulnerable, and we
are contacting the owners of those ac-
counts directly.  If you do not hear
from us, but you have logged into any
OSU systems within the past month,
you should still consider yourself vul-
nerable and you should change your
OSU account password(s) promptly.
Users who have not logged into an OSU
system since Feb. 27 are probably safe.
For information on changing pass-
words on OSU accounts, see http://
consulting.orst.edu/helpdocs/
academic_mainframe or http://
osu.orst.edu/dept/consulting/helpdocs/
dialing_in/Annex_Password.html ... or
contact the OSU consultants
(consulting@ucs.orst.edu, 541-737-3474).
On March 23 the Computing Center
upgraded sendmail and procmail, two
mail system components on DARKWING
and  GLADSTONE. The upgrade is ex-
pected to improve mail system per-
formance and spam-filtering mea-
sures. Aside from that, you shouldn?t
notice any dramatic differences be-
cause procmail and sendmail are the
?plumbing? of the mail system that
delivers messages to your mailbox,
and you usually don?t interact with
either of them directly.
If you have questions about the up-
grade, contact a consultant   (346-
1758; consult@darkwing.uoregon.edu,
consult@gladstone.uoregon.edu).
Mail Upgrade
Improves Spam
Filtering
For information on changing pass-
words on UO accounts, see http://
cc.uoregon.edu/docs/passwd_policy.html
?or contact a UO consultant
at  consult@oregon.uoregon.edu,
consult@darking.uoregon.edu,
consult@gladstone.uoregon.edu ? or
call 346-1758.
23computing news   spring 1999
COMPUTING NEWS
UO COMPUTING CENTER
1212 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
EUGENE, OR 97403-1212
Computing Center Web Site
http://cc.uoregon.edu
Microcomputer Services
 (Room 202)
? Windows and Macintosh
software and hardware
? Internet connections, file transfers
? public domain software, virus
protection
? help with damaged disks, files
346-4412
microhelp@oregon.uoregon.edu
http://micro.uoregon.edu
Large systems consulting
(Rooms 233-239 )
? VMS, UNIX (GLADSTONE,
DARKWING, OREGON)
? statistics packages
? email
346-1758
consult@darkwing.uoregon.edu
consult@gladstone.uoregon.edu
consult@oregon.uoregon.edu
Help Desk (Room 202)
? microcomputer technical support
? computing accounts, passwords
? scanning, CD-burning, digital video
Documents Room Library
(Room 205)
346-4406
http://cc.uoregon.edu/~docsrm
Electronics Shop
For computer hardware repair, installation,
and upgrade services, call 346-4403.
Network Services
Designs, installs, maintains, and
troubleshoots networks and network
software for a wide variety of platforms.
346-4395
nethelp@oregon.uoregon.edu
http://ns.uoregon.edu
Modem Numbers
Dial-in modem numbers for UOnet, the
campus network:
? V.90/x2 346-6520
? Kflex/V.90 346-3565
? V.34+ (33.6 Kbps) 346-5975
Computing Center Hours
Sunday 9 am - 8:30 pm
Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 8:30 pm
Saturday 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
COMPUTING CENTER GUIDE
?
N