Table of contents


Usage Policy

Revision 1.10

Department Resources

All computer science students have access to Unix (Linux and Macintosh) Workstations. Unless you have explicit permission, you may only use one of the public machines.

Graduate students may also have access to other machines, depending on their needs and advisor.

There may, at times, be more people who want to use machines in the Vertica Lounge (Volen 104) or conference room (Volen 118) than there are available machines. Therefore, there is a hierarchy of which tasks take precedence over others. Classwork, research, and related activities have the highest priority.

All public workstations can be reached via ssh.

Games

Games should never be played on the workstations between 9 A.M. and 9 P.M. After hours, if the lab isn’t full, and you want to play a game, it’s OK to do so. Be aware, however, the multiplayer games can take up a significant portion of the network bandwidth. When choosing a machine to play on, look at the loads on the various machines and chose the machine with the lowest load. As another bandwidth concern, never run the game on one machine and have it display on another.

If more than two-thirds of the iMacs in room 104 are in use, anyone playing a game on a workstation should stop, so that if someone comes in to do work they can do so.

There may be periods of time (such as exams and at the end of the semester) when graphical games may be totally prohibited because the systems will be needed for people to do course related work.

Disk Usage

Undergraduates have a 30 megabyte disk quota. There is no problem using significantly more space for a day or so if you are using your account as a “staging area” for a large file transfer. Obviously you may not use the COSI systems to pirate software or for other illegal purposes. Having pirated software or music on your account is grounds for account revocation and legal action, where appropriate.

Graduate students are not on a specific quota, but are asked to keep their disk usage reasonable.

You can check your disk usage with the command sequence:

cd ; du -sk

The number this returns should be under 30,000 for undergrads. Any user who is over quota is subject to having his or her files deleted to bring the disk usage down. Files deleted because a user was over quota will not be restored. Any user who is habitually over quota is subject to having his or her account terminated.

Note: Please do not reply on the quota command to check your disk usage, as it may return inaccurate or unreliable results on some CS systems. Instead, please use the du method described above.

Passwords

Your account is a privilege given to you so that you may learn about the Linux operating system and do your Computer Science homework. Under no circumstance should you ever give out your password or allow anyone else to use your account.

If you think someone has your password, change it immediately. When choosing a password, do not use any part of your name, either forward or backwards. Also, don’t just use a normal word with a number or special symbol tacked on the end. The characters @ and # should generally not be used in a password because they can be misinterpreted by the login procedure.

You can change your password by logging into one of the public shell servers and typing the command passwd. The password will be changed within 2 hours.

If someone other than you is found using your account, the account will be turned off until you speak with the System Administrator in person. If this happens more than once, the account will not be turned back on. There will be no exceptions to this policy. If you need this account to do your homework, protect it accordingly.

Common Courtesy

Be courteous to your fellow users. Keep your voice down while you are in the Vertica Lounge. Do not leave trash lying around in the Vertica Lounge. Do not do anything that would be disruptive to other people trying to work. In addition, if you see someone who needs a workstation and you are doing something low priority (like playing a game), don’t wait for them to ask you to move. Log out and get up by yourself.

We now allow food in the lounge. Please be sure to keep your space clean.

If you are going to walk away from a department desktop, be sure to use a screensaver that requires a password. Note, however, that you should never leave a computer locked for more than 30 minutes. If you are going to be gone longer than that, log out instead of using a locked screensaver. You may be logged out automatically if you are idle for more than 30 minutes. Never ever leave the machine unless you are logged out or have your session locked. Never ever leave 104 unless you are logged out or have your session locked. You should also activate your screensaver or lock your screen if you will be away from a remote login on a personal laptop or department desktop for more than a few moments, as this is a security risk.

If you have a question about whether what you want to do is permissible, please ask a guru before trying it.

Printing

Each user will be limited to 250 pages of laser output per semester. We will be keeping track of the amount of pages printed by each user to this printer. In addition, we ask that you be courteous and not print all 100 pages in one day. This inconveniences everyone else using the printer, since, despite its super-hightechiness, the printer will still periodically run out of paper and will not get refilled until the next business day. So don’t be a paper-hog.

System Administration

The Systems Administrator is Christopher Allison If you have a problem or need assistance, you should try a guru before you see Mr. Allison.

The gurus are students who are employed by the department to help administer the systems and answer user questions. The guru office is in Volen 125a and may be reached by email at guru@cs.brandeis.edu or by phone at 781-736-2740. Generally, there is a guru on duty from about 10 A.M. – 4 P.M. on weekdays.

There is a list of frequently asked questions at cs.brandeis.edu/~guru/faq, which all users should read.

If the system administrator is not around, a guru is fully authorized to act in his place if a problem or question arises.

One final word on the gurus. The gurus are students and frequently have work they need to do, do NOT, under any circumstances short of system failure, call them at home.

Miscellaneous

If you need to run long, processor intensive applications on the department machines, do not run more than four on one machine at the same time. If you anticipate needing to run long programs more than once or twice a semester, please talk to a System Administrator in advance. We have special machines for such projects, and are happy to support academic research. (It’s why we’re here!)

New Programs. We’re generally willing to install non-beta versions of new programs if they are needed. Just contact us with the information, and we’ll try to get it running if there is a demand for it.

Backups. Snapshots of the files in your home directory are generated on a regular basis and are backed up to another location on campus (for more information on this, see the FAQ page. However, don’t come to rely on them. Be careful of what you delete because backups are guaranteed to fail when you need them most.

Spam. Spam and chain letters are prohibited. They are generally considered to be rude, and are definitely a waste of resources. Please do not propagate them.

File Permissions. Be aware that the default permissions for newly created unix files and directories are 644 and 755, respectively. This means that anyone on the system can read files that you create unless you take steps to protect them, such as creating private subdirectories for your work and using chmod to change the file permissions. See this page on the FAQ for more information on how to permission your files.

System Cracking. Anyone caught trying to crack any system, ours or elsewhere, from one of the Department’s machines will have action taken against them, including closing the account, and possible referral to University or legal authorities. Especially after 09/11/2001, the FBI takes a dim view of such activity.

Illegal File Sharing. Anyone caught offering or having software for distribution where it is illegal to do so will have their account revoked and possible referral to University or legal authorities. This includes, but is not limited to, illegal distribution or allowing downloads of MP3’s, private software, copyrighted material, and personal homeworks. Copyrighted material may be deleted at the whim of the System Administrator.

Laptops. There are a number of open ethernet ports in the Vertica Lounge (Volen 104) and the conference room (Volen 118). You are welcome to plug your laptop into them, but please note that ports which have not been used in a while may be disconnected deactivated. If you would like to connect via ethernet and cannot find an active port please email guru. Please do not unplug workstations. Anyone caught unplugging workstations to plug in a laptop will lose access to the lounge and conference room pending a hearing by the J-board.

Violations of these policies may result in referral to the Office of Campus Life under section 1 of “Rights and Responsibilities”.

This policy is subject to change at any time. All changes will be posted to guru’s website.