News - Apr 2005

Apr 29 2005 - Notice the orange RSS button on the ACCC home page?

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for distributing Web content such as this ACCC news item. You can use RSS to display recent headlines and news messages from a number of locations together at the location of your choice.

For example, after you subscribe to one or more "RSS feeds" you can:

• Read headlines and news messages in a stand-alone RSS reader.
• Read news items using a Web-based news aggregator.
• Display headlines in your own Web blog for others to see.
• Read headlines and messages via the bookmarks feature of the Firefox Web browser. (Safari in the new Mac OS 10.4 also has a built-in RSS aggregator.)

How do I read messages in an RSS reader or news aggregator?

If you are using Firefox:

1. Click on the orange square in the bottom right corner of the Firefox window.
2. Click on Subscribe to ACCC NEWS RSS
3. The Add Bookmark dialog box will open, with the name of the bookmark already filled in as ACCC Homepage.
4. Select Bookmarks Toolbar Folder for Create In: and the link to the ACCC news items will be on toolbar below the main menu, where the Google search box is.

After that, just click on ACCC Homepage in your Firefox bookmarks and the headlines of the most recent ACCC news items, including this one, at least for a while, will be listed. And you can click on a headline to go straight to the news item.

If you are using another RSS reader or news aggregator:

Copy the location indicated by the RSS button on the ACCC Homepage. Please check the instructions for your individual program/service.

How do I display messages in my Web blog?

First, make sure your blog supports the display of syndicated RSS content. If so, add this URL http://www.accc.uic.edu/home/news.rss into the appropriate area of your blog provider. Please check the help pages for your service, as this location varies by provider.

Some URLs with more info:

http://asprss.com/FAQ.asp
http://www.newarchitectmag.com/archives/2000/02/eisenzopf/
http://www.webreference.com/perl/tutorial/8/index.html
http://bmw.ws.utk.edu/xml/rss/examples/
http://feedonfeeds.com/
http://www.feedforall.com/rss-glossary.htm

Apr 29 2005 -

We moved SquirrelMail, Version 1.4.4, into production on April 26, 2005. We are no longer using the temporary SquirrelMail server.

The important differences are in the deleted mail behaviour.

• In the temporary server, the default deleted mail behavior was that deleted mail was immediately deleted.
  
  
• In the production server, we have turned a "trash folder" on by default; it is called deleted. You can undelete deleted email messages from your deleted folder, but only during the Webmail session that you deleted them in.
  
  
• In the production server, we have also set Webmail up to delete all the messages in the deleted folder automatically when you log out from Webmail.
  
  
• Squirrel Webmail allows you to select whatever folder you want for your trash folder if you change it in Options -> Folder Preferences -- So a warning. Don't set your trash folder to be any email folder that you want to keep email in. Like your sent-mail folder, for example.
  
  
• See Deleting and Undeleting Messages.

Problems with timing out.

• We hope that we have solved the timing out problems in the production server. We don't think you will time out.
  
  
• So it's up to you now to log off -- click the Sign Out link -- when you leave. You don't want someone else reading your email or sending email messages in your name if you leave your Webmail account logged on on a public personal computer.

Apr 28 2005 - Tigger will be down tonight (early Friday morning) from 12:00 Midnight to 2:00 AM to apply patches relating to Wednesday's system crash.

Apr 08 2005 - RHN.CC.UIC.EDU -- our RedHat Linux Update server has been rebuilt.

Update service is now available again, but you will need to get a new certificate from the server. Please download http://rhn.cc.uic.edu/pub/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT and place it in /usr/share/rhn/ to allow updates to work.

New installations of RHEL will not be able to complete, as the configuration script has not been modified for the changes in the new server. I'll get to that on Monday.

Apr 07 2005 - The RHN Proxy server suffered a hardware failure this morning and is currently unavailable. Service will be restored tomorrow.

Apr 05 2005 - Webmail was malfunctioning from 2am until 8:30 am this morning. We traced the problem and are taking measures to prevent a recurrence.

Apr 05 2005 - The tigger system will be down tonight from 10:00 PM until 12:00 Midnight to apply new patches received from IBM for the filesystem problems we have been experiencing.

Apr 04 2005 -

New Folder in YOUR HomeSpace!!

We have created a folder called "Word Backup" in everyone's H:\ drive. It is now the default location for Microsoft Word to save AutoRecover files. So from now on when you have an accidental reboot or when you are logged out of the machine without saving your work, you can log into any lab computer and try to retrieve your file. After logging in, just open up the Home icon on your desktop, and open up the folder called "Word Backup". The direct path is H:\Word Backup. The current automatic save interval is every 5 minutes.

If you accidentally delete the folder at some point, Word will not be able to automatically save autorecovery files there for you. But, all you have to do is recreate that folder. Ask a consultant for help if you need to do this (Open up Home icon on desktop, right click, New, Folder: Name it "Word Backup" without the quotes).

Do not depend on this!!! Be sure to manually save your files to your homespace (H:), or to a floppy or CD as often as possible!

If you're really behind the times, you're asking yourself "What's a HomeSpace?" Hopefully you have already been introduced, as we have even put a new icon on your desktop to try to get everyone more familiar with it. If not, read on to find out about a great way to save and view files from ANY of our ACCC Lab machines.

Every user is given a limited network storage drive that shows up as H: in My Computer. It is easily accessible via a House icon on your desktop known as "HomeSpace -- Save Your files here!". Whatever ACCC lab machine you log into, these files are always accessible to you. The reason for this is because it is a network drive that gets mapped only when you log into one of our lab computers. So if you save a file in the SEL labs, and then go to the Library to log into the lab machine there, you will see your file there in the H: drive.

Apr 01 2005 -

SquirrelMail Wins with 64% of the Vote!

We had nearly 6000 votes recorded -- 3827 for SquirrelMail and 2129 for Horde/IMP. Thank you all for voting and for sending us your opinions.

Now we need to convert Squirrel to a production basis. One aspect of the election was that both webmails got a much heavier workout than ever before, and we are now aware of a few rough edges that should be fixed. So we'll leave the demo version of SquirrelMail up for now (and take down the Horde/IMP link soon) until we are fully ready.

The Squirrel Webmail login page: http://www.accc.uic.edu/software/webmail/webmailfaq.html