Issue 3, February 23 1999.
Does Your Web Page Comply with the Privacy Laws on Collecting Personal Data
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCO) has informed us that the web pages on www.cuhk.edu.hk that collect personal data online fail to follow local regulations that require users to be notified of the purpose of collecting the information. Web site administrators and heads of the corresponding units and departments on www.cuhk.edu.hk have been informed of this breach.
We urge website administrators to make action plans to comply with the Ordinance before being "named" by the PCO.
Please check http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/digest/pdo.html for more information.
Teaching Enhancement with Learning Technology
To further promote the effective use of information technology to enhance teaching and learning, ITSC has established a web site on "Learning Technology" which describes available services and resources for faculties, staff and students, including:
- resources and support to facilitate online teaching and learning;
- new means in delivery of instruction;
- training for teaching staff to acquire new technologies and skills for teaching;
- consultation and support for using information technology in instructional design, development of teaching materials and media production etc.
If you want to know more about this field or try the services being provided, you are welcome to pay a visit to the Learning Technology Laboratory. Refer to http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/learning for details.
University Administrative Units Email System Migration
The email system for University administrative units has been migrated from MS Mail to MS Exchange.
Although MS Mail had served the University administrative units, especially related to Internet, users are expecting and demanding even more reliable, flexible and secure messaging solutions. ITSC evaluated several new messaging solutions last year and finally selected MS Exchange as the upgrade to replace the MS Mail system in the University.
We are also now migrating the MS Mail to MS Exchange for several departments / units in the John Fulton Centre and units in the University Administration Building.
Read http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/digest/exchange.html to find out more about the new features supported by MS Exchange.
Department Server Remote Backup Service
ITSC has recently established a weekly self-running backup facility to perform an automatic remote backup through the campus network for servers in University departments. While the daily backup performed by the department provides the first level of data protection, departments who make use of this new facility can enjoy a second level of data protection by saving a data image at a remote location, i.e. ITSC.
The new service will be on trial for six months. In case of a server crash, we will assist the department to recover the data from our backup media.
More details can be found at
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/digest/backup.html .
Review of the Dial-up Access Quota System
ITSC issued a consultation paper last December and proposed several changes to the Dial-up Access Quota System. Most of them were implemented on Feb 8 1999.
We are now considering other options for implementation in May 1999. The proposed changes are:
- increase the number of quota-controlled lines
- redistribute the number of quota-controlled and quota-uncontrolled
lines
- decrease the maximum connection time of quota-uncontrolled lines to
one hour
- adjust the weekly default quota units of ALL student hostel residents
to be half of the units allocated to the general users
This proposal can be read at ITSC Dialup Homepage and obtainable at the User Area starting from March 1st . We welcome your comments on these changes. Please send your comments by April 15th 1999 through one of the modes below,
Don't forget the deadline for comments is April 15th!
Facilities Upgrade in User Area
If you print colour reports in the User Area, you should find the print quality has been greatly improved. In addition, the processing speed of computers in the User Area is much faster than last semester.
We replaced all the low-end PCs with Pentium II 350MHz PCs and replaced the colour ink-jet printers with colour laser printers in late January. The new models are:
- PC : Dell GX1 PC with 350 MHz Pentium II CPU, 64 MB RAM, 32X CD-ROM, 3.5" floppy disk drive, 4.3 GB hard disk and 15" monitor
- Printer : Lexmark Optra SC 1275 - true 600 x 600 dpi for crisp black and vibrant colors, and at 12-page-per-minute printing speed
Nineteen new PCs are now in Room 103 of Wong Foo Yuan Building and 18 PCs in Room 127-133 of Pi Chiu Building. Two colour laser printers, providing colour printing on A4-size plain paper and transparencies, are in Room 127-133 of Pi Chiu Building.
Check http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/compenv/pclan for details.
