ITSC Digest

Issue 42 Nov 6, 2003. Question & Answer: No More Spam to My Mailbox Please On-line Booking System of Sports Facilities CPU Upgrade Service for Department Users by In-house Maintenance Service IT Training Programmes for University Staff Members Decommission of BMDP 1990 on Logic on November 24 Question & Answer: No More Spam to My Mailbox Please Question: I'm tired of cleaning spam in my mailbox every day. Would ITSC please stop others from sending spam to me, please? Answer: We do not like spam either. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely block spam because spammers can collect your e-mail addresses through the online forms you have filled in, the articles you have posted on newsgroups, the webpages you have visited and etc. However, our recently launched "Spam Filtering Service (SFS)" may be able to reduce the number of spam messages entering your mailboxes. SFS provides you with three options ('reject', 'label' and 'folder') to filter spam identified by SpamCop. SpamCop is an agent providing a global spam reporting service recognized by many universities, corporations and Internet Service Providers. LABEL Under the "LABEL" option, the words "X-RBL-Warning" will be added to all the e-mail headers of the identified spam. Pros: You will not lose any e-mail which may be mistakenly classified as spam. Cons: Spam will still go to your "INBOX" folder if you have not set up any rules in your e-mail program to handle them. REJECT Under the "REJECT" option, all identified spam will be automatically rejected, and a rejected message will be returned to the sender. Pros: It saves your time in handling spam and saves the storage space of your mailbox because the identified spam will not enter your mailbox. Cons: You may lose some important e-mail if the server of the sender's e-mail address has been blacklisted and classified as spam. FOLDER Under the "FOLDER" option, you simply need to create a folder called "SPAM" in your e-mail program (like the webmail system). All the identified spam will then be automatically transferred to this folder. Pros: All identified spam will not enter your "INBOX" folder where it interferes with important mail. You can always refer to the "SPAM" folder to see the spam that has been filtered. You will not lose any e-mail. Cons: The "SPAM" folder will occupy your e-mail storage space if you forget to delete the e-mail residing there. Please refer to http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/network/app/email/spam.htmlfor the details of the Spam Filtering Service. Top On-line Booking System of Sports Facilities Apart from the central sports facilities, you can now also reserve college facilities (including squash and tennis courts) through the On-line Booking System at https://www.peu.cuhk.edu.hk/peu/! This enhancement was made through the joint effort of the Physical Education Unit and the Information and Technology Services Centre. After entering your Campus-wide E-mail System (CWEM) account for authentication, you can check your current booking status and book any facilities online for any timeslots on the same day before 5pm and for any timeslots in the coming week. For the use details, you can also refer to the online documentation available in this system. Top CPU Upgrade Service for Department Users by In-house Maintenance Service The ITSC has recently completed a study on the compatibility and performance of CPU upgrade kits for two of the most widely used PC systems purchased between 1998 and 2000, viz. Dell Optiplex GX1 (with Pentium II 400MHz CPU) and GX110 (with Pentium III 600MHz CPU). Testing results show that a correct set up could bring about a significant improvement in both integer and floating-point arithmetic computation, and a moderate improvement in hard disk performance. However, you need to take into consideration your present configuration before deciding whether to upgrade your computer. While an upgraded processor might double your CPU speed, an antiquated hard disk or video card residing in your PC could limit the overall performance boost to as little as 25 percent. In some situations, a new PC might be the best deal of all. Practically, if your PC is already equipped with 128MB or more memory and a hard disk of reasonable size, say 12GB, applying a CPU upgrade kit of less than $1,000 could bring about a 50% overall performance improvement, effectively extending the PC's usable life. Performing a CPU upgrade might be your best strategy to keep up with your computing needs within a limited budget. The In-house Maintenance Service (IMS) of ITSC has identified some CPU upgrade kits that are stable and reliable, and is offering an upgrade consultation and installation service, including parts and labour, to all departments. The price of these kits, such as a Celeron 1.4GHz processor and a Slot T or Socket 370 adaptor, starts from $900 inclusive of installation charge. For more information, please contact Raymond Ho (2609 8859) or Sam Cheung (2609 8858). Top IT Training Programmes for University Staff Members In November and December, we will continue offering courses about the use of MS Office, web-authoring tools and web-based teaching tools to University staff members. These include Changjei Input Method Adobe Acrobat 6.0 (Introduction and Advanced) Office Skill Essentials - Access (XP), Excel (XP), PowerPoint (XP) and Word (XP) Office Skill Expert -Excel (XP), Chinese Word (XP) and Word (XP) Web page Authoring Techniques using HTML Web Authoring using Dreamweaver MX Learn WebCT CE 3.8 Online (Elementary and Advanced) Building Your WebCT course: A Great Start Visit http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/training for the details. If you fail to register for any courses due to time conflicts or full reservations, please fill in our online Feedback Form so that we can know more about your needs. Top Decommission of BMDP 1990 on Logic on November 24 In view of very low usage, the ITSC has planned to decommission BMDP 1990 on Logic on November 24 (Monday). We recommend other statistical packages available on Logic or ITSC PC LAN instead. Please refer to these resources: Applications available on Logic: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/compenv/logic/hwsw.html Applications available on ITSC PC LAN: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/itsc/compenv/userarea/software.html For any concerns about this decommission, please contact ITSC Electronic HelpDesk at https://helpdesk.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/group/app-help. Top

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