1CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

EditorialWe can reach more readers with your help 1Announcements & newsComputing featured in this month’s CERN Courier 2Automatic Call Back service reaches the end of the line 2CERN needs your help to tackle spam onslaught 2Desktop support moves to IT/UDS 3Gridcafé expo wows the crowds at CERN open day 3Technical briefINDICO: top software for conference management 4Conference reportHEPiX members share their knowledgeof HENP platforms 6Information cornerQuestions and answers from the Helpdesk 7Recent changes to IT services 7Recent acquisitions at the IT bookshop 8Comedy corner: computer mock-up is urban legend 8Calendar 8

Editors Nicole Crémel and Hannelore Hämmerle, CERN IT Department,1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. E-mail: cnl.editor@cern.ch. Fax: +41 (22) 7677155.Web: cerncourier.com (link CNL).

Advisory board Wolfgang von Rüden (head of IT Department), François Grey (ITCommunication team leader), Christine Sutton (CERN Courier editor), Mick Draper(group leader, User and Document Services).

Produced for CERN by Institute of Physics PublishingDirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK. Tel: +44 (0)117 929 7481. E-mail: chris.thomas@iop.org. Fax: +44 (0)117 920 0733. Web: iop.org.

Published by CERN IT Department

©2005 CERN

The contents of this newsletterdo not necessarily represent theviews of CERN management.

Contents

CERN COMPUTERNEWSLETTER

Volume XL, issue 1 January–March 2005

Welcome to the third issue of the new-style CERN Computer

Newsletter (CNL). In last issue’s editorial we launched an informalsurvey of the readership. This resulted in disappointingly littlefeedback, and so we took the questions to the potential readers byapproaching people in CERN’s coffee areas (in Restaurant 1,Building 40) and Web bars. The results fall far short of anythingstatistically significant, but provide some useful hints of what wecan do better.

One common response from CERN staff and CERN users was“never heard of CNL”. After perusing an issue, these people oftenexpressed genuine interest in receiving an e-mail announcementwhen a new issue appears (you can do this at http://cern.ch/cnl).Few people had noticed the different points around the CERN sitewhere piles of CNL are now available (B31, B40, the ComputerCentre, the Users Office and Central Library). This suggests thatbetter visibility is needed for these pick-up copies.

Some of those interviewed used to receive CNL in their post-boxes, but since the inception of the new CNL, which is notdistributed by mail, they had lost track of the newsletter. Thiscertainly gives us some food for thought concerning our newdistribution strategy.

On a more positive note, and with more statistical significance,we have been keeping track of how many copies are picked upfrom the various sites, and for each of the first two issues thenumber topped 1000. This means in particular that it is not just thestaff of the IT Department (400 people) that is reading CNL – aconcern expressed by some!

The Institute of Physics, which now produces CNL, informs usthat the Web-based CNL was accessed by more than 2000 peoplein September, when the first issue was launched, and by morethan 900 in October and November. December only registeredabout 300 hits, but this may be because it was the holidayseason. The PDF of the first two issues was downloaded 168 and87 times respectively. For comparison, before the introduction ofthe new CNL, about 750 hard copies were distributed within CERNand 350 outside.

Given that CERN has a staff of about 2500, and CERN users areestimated at about 6500, there is clearly room for improvement.The pervasiveness of IT in people’s work means that a significantfraction of staff and users ought to be interested in at least someof the articles carried by CNL. We will keep you informed ofefforts to improve our outreach to the potential readership.

In the meantime, for those readers who know and appreciateCNL, the best thing you can do is to introduce colleagues to it –word of mouth is often the most powerful communication tool. And,as ever, we keenly solicit contributions to future issues, in the formof articles or suggestions for article topics.Nicole Crémel, IT/UDS, and Hannelore Hämmerle, IT/DI, CNL Editors

We can reachmore readerswith your help

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of AlbertEinstein’s annus miribalis, the events of the World Yearof Physics 2005 aim to raise public awareness of physicsand of the physical sciences in general. For moreinformation see www.wyp2005.org/overview.html.

Announcements & news

2 CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Computing News● European Grid community hailsprogress at meeting in The HagueA series of Grid meetings wereheld at the end of November.The second conference of theEnabling Grids for E-SciencEproject was the main event.

● ATHENA tests the digital logbookCombining digital technologywith the advantages oftraditional pen and paper.

● CERN honours INFN for GriddevelopmentRecognizing contributions indeveloping Grids and promotingGrid technology.

● ARDA celebrates prototypesuccessMilestone reached with end-to-end prototypes for LHC tests.

● Speed records tumble asnetworks get fasterHigh-energy physics team winsSupercomputing BandwidthChallenge.

● UNESCO asks cyber-volunteers toaid developing nationsProgramme launched to helpreduce the digital divide.

● German project set up to help scientific communicationeSciDoc will serve as a platform

to improve all aspects ofscientific collaboration.

Feature articlesComputing conference goes to theSwiss AlpsCHEP ’04 was a chance to reviewprogress in Grid technology,discuss experience gained fromexperiments and look to thefuture. By John Harvey.

The GATE opens in nuclearmedicineThe Geant4 package for MonteCarlo simulations has foundapplication in nuclear medicine,with the GATE toolkit. ChristianMorel explains.

Calendar of Events

New IT products

The articles listed below havebeen published in the January/February 2005 issue of CERN

Courier. Full-text articles canalso be found on the CERN

Courier website at www.cerncourier.com, together withthe rest of the issue’s contents.

Computing featured in thismonth’s CERN Courier

Automatic Call Back service reaches the end of the lineThe Automatic Call Back (ACB)service closed finally on10 December 2004. Thisfollowed an announcement inthe CERN Bulletin issue18/2004 (April 2004), and adiscussion at the DesktopForum on 28 October.

If the ACB number is dialled

now over plain telephone orISDN, the call will remainunanswered. Therefore, peoplestill using ACB are encouragedto switch as soon as possible toan Internet service provider(ISP), which will provide anequivalent or better service.

Suggestions on how to make

alternative arrangements areavailable on the Remote Accesswebsite: www.cern.ch/ras, andin the article “Accessing NICEfrom outside CERN”, whichappeared in the September–October 2004 issue of CNL,available at: www.cerncourier.com/articles/cnl/1/9/9/1.

CERN needs yourhelp to tacklespam onslaught

The problem of spam mailcontinues to increase inseverity. About 90% of e-mailsnow received by CERN Mailservers are unsolicited, andspammers are doing their bestto bypass anti-spam filters.

In these conditions, feedbackfrom users is priceless. Itenables the CERN Mail Serviceto improve the fight againstspam and to reduce the amountof unwanted mail that isreceived. Outlook users shouldnote the following anti-spambuttons: “Check spamclassification of an e-mail”,“Update personal whitelist” and“Report spam”.

The “Report spam” button isparticularly important because itremoves a selected unwantedmessage from your Inbox andsends a copy to the CERN MailService. These reports are usedto build new filters in almostreal time, so that a new spammight be blocked in less than 15 minutes.

Every Outlook user istherefore encouraged to get ridof spam messages by using the“Report spam” button, and notby just deleting them.

Non-Outlook users are invitedto report spam by forwardingunsolicited messages to:abuse@cern.ch.

See also the article “CERN hassome new recipes for fightinggrowing volume of spam” in theSeptember–October 2004 CNL,available at www.cerncourier.com/articles/cnl/1/9/11/1.

Thank you for your co-operation.CERN Mail Service

“Reportspam”button inOutlook.

3CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Announcements & news

The new Desktop Supportcontract has got off to a goodstart, thanks to internal IT co-operation and a considerableeffort on behalf of Serco, whichhas held the contract since1 July 2004.

The centralization of servicesand the passage of the majorityof problems through theHelpdesk meant that contractmanagement would be easierand more rational through theUDS (User Services andDocumentation) Group, whichalready looked after Helpdeskand user relations matters. Wethank both Alan Silverman andMatthias Schroeder for theirprevious work on the desktopcontract, and we are sure theywill continue to follow closely

the progress of the work.Our first priority is continuity

and user satisfaction. We havealready highlighted three areaswhere we feel improvements canbe made. First, the DesktopSupport meeting for managersheld on Tuesdays has beenmodified to reflect the newarrangement, and some pointshave been changed. What isimportant is that all managerscan provide input even in theirabsence. We are establishing aprocedure whereby managerscan send Remedy ticket numbersor comments on case handling inadvance. We can then reviewthese comments and modifyprocedures if necessary.

Second, a drawback with theprevious contract was a lack of

training for procedures that arespecific to CERN. Although newstaff may have been wellqualified in areas of PC support,they knew little or nothing aboutthe CERN installations andenvironment. We have nowrequested IT Group leaders toprovide weekly training onspecific topics so that levels ofknowledge are increased inscope and depth.

Third, the topic of transporthas not yet been completelysolved, especially for brokenmachines. We will be studyingthis closely in the comingmonths and taking thenecessary steps to ensure thatmachines are collected anddelivered promptly, so thatusers experiencing hardware

problems do not have their workinterrupted for too long.

Since the start of this year theAIS helpdesk has also beenmanned by Serco staff. Followinga short training period, the newsupport area is being closelymonitored and will be integratedcompletely into the generalHelpdesk configuration in thecoming months.

Please remember that if youhave problems with Remedytickets passing through theHelpdesk, you may at any timecontact the IT manager on duty(mod@cern.ch) or send an e-mail to user.relations@cern.chwith any comments you have onthe desktop service.Mick Draper and Roger Woolnough,IT/UDS

CERN’s open day, on 16 October2004, was a huge success, with32 000 people visiting thevarious CERN sites. CERN’s ITDepartment contributed two ofthe 50 visits that the publiccould choose from: a tour ofCERN’s Computer Centre, andthe GridCafé, the latter being acombination of exhibition, Webbar and Café Scientifique held inRestaurant 2.

The tour of the ComputerCentre was extremely popular,and despite careful preparationto ensure a throughput of 30people every 10 minutes – themaximum compatible withsecurity rules – many peoplehad to be redirected to othersites. Having the GridCafé justacross the road proved to be agood consolation.

About 1000 people visited theComputer Centre, and a clearconclusion from the experienceis that this tour should become astandard part of CERN’s VisitsService in future. With the arrivalof more and more impressivehardware for the LHC ComputingGrid, the centre will become oneof the most awe-inspiring placeson the CERN site, especially oncethe LHC experiments are closedto the public.

The GridCafé included ninestands, manned primarily byenthusiastic IT staff. The stands

covered CERN’s main Gridprojects – LCG, EGEE and CERNopenlab – as well as examplesof Grid technology and Grid forsociety. In these categories, theMonaLisa monitoring system,which provides a rotatable 3Dimage of the high-speedcommunication links around theglobe, was a big hit.

Another success was a publicGrid demo by UNOSAT, the UN

Satellite Image provider basedat CERN, which illustrated howGrid technology could speed theprovision of vital satelliteimages to natural disaster andpost-conflict zones.

An “edutainment” Grid gamecalled Amalthea provedparticularly popular with theyounger generation and is nowavailable on sourceforge. Withthe support of HP, a digital pen

guestbook was available forpeople to write theiranniversary wishes to CERN –and immediately post these onthe Web. LHC@home, thescreensaver that simulatesparticle trajectories in the LHCfor the AB Department, wasalso on show.

All these applications, and aset of Flash animations toexplain various aspects of theGrid, are available on the GridCafé website, www.gridcafe.org.

DSR, the company runningCERN’s Restaurant 2, deservesspecial thanks for their effortsduring the open day. Specialitems on the menu, from cybersandwiches and peta pizzas tothe mega and giga menus, wereappreciated by many. Demandfar exceeded supply, however,and by the early afternoon therestaurant resembled more thescene of a rock concert, withdishes and cups strewn all overthe floor.

For 2005, the plan is toinvestigate whether apermanent GridCafé expo forvisitors can be integrated nearthe entrance of the ComputerCentre, and to encourage andhelp others to run similarGridCafé events at conferencesand in suitable venues.Rosy Mondardini, HanneloreHämmerle and François Grey, IT/DI

Desktop Support moves to IT/UDS

GridCafé expo wows the crowds at CERN open day

A Grid game called Amalthea proved a hit with the younger generation.

4 CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Technical brief

Within the framework of the EUIntegrated Digital Conferencing(InDiCo) project, the CERNDocument Server (CDS) teamhas developed a new Webapplication for organizingconferences. Following thetradition of CDS Agenda, thetool allows users to scheduleconferences, from single talks tocomplex meetings with sessionsand contributions. The softwareincludes an advanced userdelegation mechanism, andallows paper reviewing,archiving of conferenceinformation, electronicproceedings, and much more.

At the end of 2003, theProgramme and Local OrganizingCommittees of the Computing inHigh Energy and Nuclear Physicsconference 2004 (CHEP ’04)decided to use InDiCo as thecomputing support for theevent. In this article we willexplain some details of theInDiCo software, how it wasconceived, and how it has beenvalidated throughout theorganization of CHEP ’04.

A European projectSome software already exists tohelp manage a conference onthe Internet, and many eventorganizers are developing theirown temporary set of pages andscripts. A thorough study ofthese solutions was carried outbefore we became convinced ofthe need for a new solution tocover the following issues:● managing all parts of theorganization of an event, fromits announcement to archiving;● supporting simple meetings aswell as many-weeks workshops;● offering facilities to recordand keep multimedia material(video);● organizing, classifying andretrieving multiple conferences,re-using past events;● ensuring all of the conferencedescription and attachedmaterial can be transferred toelectronic archives designed forlong-term preservation.

InDiCo was thereforemandated and financed by theEuropean Commission toprovide a scalable solution tothe new challenges posed bythe management of electronicdocuments at the beginning ofthe 21st century: the electronicpreservation and the handlingof multimedia content for theever-increasing number ofscientific conferences.

Some features of InDiCoThe main features of the systemare described below. Thesefeatures were tested, refinedand validated during the processof organizing CHEP ’04, and arenow used by many otherconference organizers.

Reusability

The designers and developers ofInDiCo have built the requestedoptions in a generic way, toguarantee the usefulness ofthese tools for all futureconferences using the system.The software itself, delivered asOpen Source, has already beeninstalled in institutes other thanCERN, like the TechnicalKnowledge Center of Denmark(DTV) or the Ecole d’Ingenieurde Fribourg (EIF) in Switzerlandand by a private company(FontisMedia) that supportsconferences where needs forsimilar features are emerging.

Display multiple views

Different views can be proposedfor each event stored in thesystem. This is particularlyuseful when different groups ofusers share the same InDiCoserver and want to display theirown meetings in different ways.For the administrator, adding anew view is as simple as writingan XSL style sheet.

Show overview and calendar

A single installation of thesoftware can host severalmeetings. The meetings can beclassified in a tree of categories.The information can be found by

navigating the categories orthrough time-driven displays. Acalendar display shows the listof meetings taking place overone or several months indifferent categories. An overviewdisplay shows the list ofmeetings taking place on aprecise day, week or monthunder one specific category. Thisis particularly useful to avoidschedule conflicts whendeciding dates of meetings.

Call for material

The conference organizers canset up a “Call for abstract”,which allows authors to directlysubmit abstracts in InDiCo. Oncean abstract has been approvedthe author can upload materialfiles (for example, paper andslides), which are then attachedto the talk.

Manage timetable

InDiCo delivers a completetimetable management module.Various tools help theorganizers to set up a fullydetailed conference programme.

Create personal accounts

Personal accounts are createdusing a simple log-in mechanism(which can be based on a localauthentication solution). Eachuser can then be presented withcustomized interfaces, thusfacilitating interaction with thesystem. The personal accountsare also used to grant each useraccess or modification rights,and some specific roles (such asspeaker, session convener orconference organizer).

Protect and delegate access

rights

InDiCo provides an easy way ofprotecting each item in aconference (ranging from theconference as a whole to a singlefile). This fine-grained protectionmechanism can be password,user or domain-based.

Select contributions

A full reviewing process has

been integrated in InDiCo. Thepowerful user-delegationmechanism enables conferencemanagers to nominatereviewers for each track in theconference. Submitted abstractscan then be commented on,judged and proposed foracceptance/rejection or for achange of track. Acceptedabstracts are then transformedinto actual contributions andthey can be inserted in thetimetable of the conference.

Produce printable outputs

PDFs can be created at differentstages of the conferenceorganization (such as a list ofsubmitted abstracts, a list ofspeakers, a final book ofcontributions, and dailyschedules). XML is anotheravailable export format thatallows easier inter-softwareexchanges. An export in iCalformat provides the users with aconvenient way of automaticallyfeeding their own personalscheduler tool.

Declare content as open archive

InDiCo is compliant with thestandard OAI–PMH (OpenArchives Initiative – Protocol forMetadata Harvesting) protocol.It provides a native OAI gatewayfor exporting conference data.Conference managers are free tochoose whether to expose theirconference data or not. OAIservice providers, like digitallibraries, can then harvest theInDiCo server and retrieve theexposed conference data.

Software technologyInDiCo’s development has beenfully based on the object-oriented (OO) paradigm, usingtechnologies related to thisfield. The final product thereforebenefits from all the advantagesof the OO approach. Besides, wehave set up and followed a light-weighted software developmentprocess based on RUP (RationalUnified Process), which enablessoftware to be developed and

INDICO: top software forconference management

5CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Technical brief

released with good qualitycontrol. Standards have beenused as much as possible in allparts of the development cycle.

One of the requirements ofInDiCo was that it should bereleased under an open-sourcecompatible licence, and,therefore, most of the productsand standards chosen todevelop it have been selectedaccording to this requirement.Today InDiCo is released underGPL (GNU General PublicLicence) and it has beeninstalled and testedsuccessfully on differentplatforms (Linux and Windows).

Software architecture overview

InDiCo uses a classical multi-layered architecture wheredependencies go only in onedirection, allowing logicalseparation of components andreusability of “lower” layers. ● The interfaces layer hosts thedifferent interfaces the systemsupports; the layeredarchitecture enables the systemto be extended easily, by addingnew interfaces if needed. ● The business layer containsmachinery that is directlyrelated to the problem domain.● The system layer provides anabstraction for object persistenceand multimedia repository.

The result is an architecturethat can be extended withoutaffecting other parts of the

system, and any layer couldeventually be redesigned orreplaced with very little impacton the others.

Python-powered

Python was selected as theInDiCo development platformbecause it has unique features,such as its high-level, dynamicdata typing and a reducedlearning curve that fit well intothe project requirements anddevelopment process.

The core system runs inPython using few third-partymodules (other than aspects thestandard library could not copewith) and following an OOapproach. One peculiarity of thissystem is that the persistencemachinery is true OO, as it relieson ZODB (Zope ObjectDatabase). This database is fullydeveloped in Python too, so thatit provides at the same time aunique integration with theprogramming language andcomplete compliance with theOO paradigm. It has enabled usto reduce the development timeand adapt to the constantchanges to the requirements ina smooth way.

Web-based part of InDiCo

The main problem we facedwhen building the Web-basedpart of InDiCo was the lack of astandard application server fordeveloping Python-based Web

applications. Therefore, weevaluated different possibilitiesand decided to deploy InDiCoover a combination of ApacheHTTP server (see http://httpd.apache.org) and Mod Python(see http://modpython.org),which allows high performanceand multiplatform support.

However, the architecture isdesigned in such a way that thesystem could be deployed in anyother application server withlittle effort. The Web interfacehas been developed followinglatest HTML standards, avoidingdynamic technologies to keepthe maximum compatibility withall browsers.

To generate reports andprintable lists, InDiCo usesReportLab (see http://reportlab.org). This is deployed as aPython package and itgenerates PDF documentssimply and efficiently.

ConclusionWith more than 100conferences, workshops andseminars organized each monthin HEP and HEP-related areas,centralizing the electronicmanagement of conferences is

an obvious direction to follow.This will guarantee the quality ofe-conferences, the long-termavailability of their content, easyretrieval of information, andconsiderable financial savingsrelated to computing.

The use of InDiCo for CHEP ’04 was the first step inthis direction, and we thank theProgramme Committee forselecting it and contributing toits user-friendliness.

In 2005 the InDiCo platformwill replace the CDS AgendaSystem, which at the momentkeeps track of about 65 000talks. At the same time, InDiCowill provide to large conferenceorganizers a solid backgroundfor running future conferences.

Further information● The InDiCo website is at:http://indico.cern.ch.● The website for the InDiCoproject at CERN is at:http://cern.ch/indico.

This article is more or less areproduction of a paperpublished in the CHEP ’04proceedings. The paper isavailable from the InDiCowebsite or directly at:http://indico.cern.ch/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=282&sessionId=24&confId=0.The InDiCo team: indico-project@cern.ch

Example of simple meeting display (left) together with an example of the management interface for a simple meeting.

The EU’s Integrated Digital

Conferencing (InDiCo) project.

6 CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Conference report

HEPiX is a global organization ofservice managers and supportstaff that provides computingfacilities for the high-energy andnuclear physics (HENP)community. All operatingsystems used by HENP arecovered, including Unix, Linuxand Windows. HEPiX holdsregular meetings that allowparticipants to present recentwork and future plans, and toshare experiences.

The latest HEPiX meeting washeld at Brookhaven NationalLaboratory (BNL) on 18–22October 2004. The meeting waswell organized by Tom Throweand, apart from a small glitchwith a beamer on Day 4, ransmoothly with lots of time fordiscussion, good wireless accessand a nicely structured agenda.It was attended by some 70people from HENP sites acrossthe US and Europe.

Meeting highlightsThe following are some of thehighlights of this meeting. Thelist is not exhaustive and is in nospecific order.● The adoption of ScientificLinux (SL or SLC3) is increasingrapidly; it was mentioned in thesite reports of NERSC, BNL,TRIUMF, NIKHEF, CCIN2P3, INFN(at least some sites), DESY, LALand RAL. Although DESY isrolling out the latest SuSEversion of Linux, it is activelypreparing to move to SL, basedon Redhat Linux. Evaluationshave shown the firstincompatibilities between thetwo distributions but DESY doesnot expect major problems. Insummary, the HENP world isgoing to SL. It is being taken uprapidly everywhere, which is amajor success for FNAL (andHEPiX).● It is encouraging that moreand more software packages arebeing shared and reused bysome labs, especially in Europe.For example, Quattor from EDG/CERN for node management, anddCache from DESY.

● The introduction or building-up of support of MacOS is stillpretty slow except in somelaboratories, for example inSLAC for a particular batch farmand in JLab for desktop use.● The HEPiX organizers noticedthat as usual there were very fewtalks about Windows, and mostof those were from CERN. Thiscan probably be explained by thefact that CERN is one of the fewlabs to build other services onWindows, such as groupware,Web services and mail lists.However, it was felt that at leastthe most important sites (CERN,FNAL and SLAC) had a moralobligation to support HEPiX andtell users what they wereworking on, because other labsoften look to them for guidance.● Mainly owing to cost reasons,NERSC is migrating from LSF toSUN Grid Engine, starting withnewly installed nodes.● More and more OpenAFS sitesare moving to Kerberos 5.● A number of interestingperformance tests werereported, as usual. Among them,tests at DESY to compareOpteron with Xeon seemed toindicate that (a) Opteron almostalways came out on top, (b) theyare binary compatible so itmatters little if they are mixed ina cluster, and (c) it is worthadapting application code for64-bit operation because thereis as much as a 25%performance boost.

● At SLAC, BaBar has decided toadopt xrootd format rather thanObjectivity and will graduallyrun down the latter.

HENP architecturesThe HEPiX meeting itself tookplace on the first three days,and on the following two days aworkshop was held on the topicLarge Systems SIG/Platforms forPhysics. The aim of thisworkshop was to present talksabout different architecturesthat are used in HENP today.After an informal, interactivediscussion, the followingconsensus views on Platformsfor Physics emerged:● At present, AMD’s Opteronsystems outperform Intel’sprice-comparable Xeon systems.The percentage depends on theapplication but can be as muchas 30%.● Since they appear to be binarycompatible, it is not a significantrisk to buy whichever system isahead at the time of purchase.● Adding price/performance tothe comparison appears to makelittle difference.● More and more purchases willbe of 64-bit capable systems,and running applications in 64-bit mode can increaseperformance by 25%. However,physics groups are likely to needsome persuasion (or anincentive) to switch, and somepeople complained that theyrequire a 64-bit CERNLIB.

● The Tier 0 sites should lead byoffering such 64-bit platforms.● Only a few sites representedare seriously consideringItanium. SLAC has a requestfrom its astrophysicists, andseveral LCG sites notrepresented are seriouslyconsidering Itanium.● There is some pressure forMacOS support but mostly fordesktop use, the majorexception being from theastrophysicists at SLAC.● It is unlikely that MacOS willovertake or replace PCs in ourenvironment in the foreseeablefuture, although it may becomethe preferred second platformfor physicists.

Grid discussionA series of talks was also heldabout Grid operations. The talks,which were organized and led byIan Bird (CERN), discussedoperational issues that werediscovered in the recent datachallenges in both LCG andGrid3. The aim was to use theHEPiX meeting to get input fromsites that might not berepresented at the Gridoperations workshop to be helda month later at CERN.

We should also report that the International High EnergyPhysics Computing CoordinationCommittee (IHEPCCC) askedHEPiX if it could provide technicalinput and feedback on specificissues. After an open discussionby the delegates present and adiscussion among the HEPiXBoard, a positive reply wasdrafted and is now in circulation.In passing, HEPiX is encouragingIHEPCCC, especially certain sitesand regions represented inIHEPCCC, to send morerepresentatives to HEPiX events.

For more details on the HEPiXmeeting, and a summary of allthe talks and site reports, pleasesee www.rhic.bnl.gov/hepix/agenda.shtml, where most of theslides as well as videos of thetalks are available.Alan Silverman, IT/DI

HEPiX members share theirknowledge of HENP platforms

HEPiX participants attend a talk at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

7CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Information corner

Edited by Nicole CrémelThe User Assistance Team inIT/UDS maintains a database forQuestions and Answers thathave been dealt with by theComputing Helpdesk. Thisprovides many tips on dailycomputing issues. You cansearch the database athttp://cern.ch/qa.

Below is one example of aQuestion and Answer (Q&A) thatis frequently asked at theHelpdesk (http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3463).

Pine: From address seen by themail recipient is wrong (PEMinstead of GEM).

QuestionWhen I send a mail with Pine the recipient gets a mail: “From: Albert Einstein<einstein@mail.cern.ch>”instead of: “From: AlbertEinstein <Albert.Einstein@cern.ch>” (i.e. using the PEMaddress “account-name@mail.cern.ch” instead of “Firstname.Lastname@cern.ch”).

What has changed, and howcan I modify this?

AnswerThis is a known problem sincethe migration to mmm.cern.chas a mail gateway.

The default CERN configurationfor Pine is to send mails with aFROM message header being“account-name@mail.cern.ch”(your PEM address). In the past(Unix mail servers), when thesemails were directed tosmtp.cern.ch as the SMTPgateway, the FROM header wasautomatically rewrittenaccording to the CERN usertables to: “Firstname.

Lastname@cern.ch” (the GEMaddress). Today, when using thenew Exchange servicemmm.cern.ch as a gateway, it isnot done any more.

The mail team at CERN isworking on the problem, whichcan be troublesome for yourrecipients or with someprograms, for example whendoing mail filtering or sorting.

A workaround is to “force”Pine to send messages with thecorrect GEM address in theFROM header. To do so, go to“Setup” (type “S”) in the Pinemain menu, go to “Configure”(type “C”), then scroll down tothe field “Customized-hdrs”.Type “A” (“Add value”) to editthe field, then enter: “From:<Albert.Einstein@cern.ch>” (i.e. your GEM address of theform: “<Firstname.Lastname@cern.ch>”). Remember that thesyntax is strict; do not forget the

colon “:” just after “From”! Type“Enter” to validate, then “Exit”(type “E”), “Yes” (type “Y”).

Please noteAfter this change it is possiblethat the message index for thefolder “Sent-mail” shows the“From:” address (i.e. alwaysyour address) instead of the“To:” address. To correct this:● add your PEM in the list ofaddresses defined in “alt-addresses”. Most probably the“alt-addresses” line (in the file“.pinerc”) is empty, and youhave to set it to:“alt-addresses=Albert.Einstein@cern.ch”;● or you can go to “Setup” (type“S”) in the Pine main menu, goto “Configure” (type “C”), thenscroll down to the field “alt-addresses”. Type “A” (“Addvalue”) to edit the field, thenenter: “Albert.Einstein@

cern.ch” (i.e. your GEM addressof the form “<Firstname.Lastname@cern.ch>”). Type“Enter” to validate, then “Exit”(type “E”), “Yes” (type “Y”).● Outlook XP is mapping by itselfthe PEM address to the GEMaddress. Hence mails viewedfrom Outlook XP appearcorrectly even if the wrongaddress is shown with Pine orany other IMAP client.

Related links: ● My mails sent through Pinehave an incorrect FROM address(http://mmmservices.web.cern.ch/mmmservices/Help/?kbid=121030).● CERN MMM Pine information(Configuration…) (http://mmmservices.web.cern.ch/mmmservices/Help/?fdid=16).● Pine FAQs (http://www.washington.edu/pine/faq/index.html).

Questions and answers from the Helpdesk

Other general-interest Q&As and their corresponding websites

Windows (NICE – Office) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3662 Direct connection via Remote Desktop from PC to PC● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3699 Excel: calculate – don’t calculate ● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3700 Disable CapsLock key on Windows● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3701 Transmit the CTRL-ALT-DEL function from one PC to another● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3168 Outgoing VPNs from CERN to remote sitesUNIX (AFS–Lxplus/Lxbatch) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3717 Linux SLC3 FAQs● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3715 AFS scratch space quota● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3710 SLC3: Star Office (soffice) replaced with OpenOffice.org (ooffice)● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3695 ssh connection from Lxplus to private Linux PC refusedMail (Outlook–Pine–mail services) related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3720 Remove large attachment in Outlook● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3718 Outlook: Add-in Symantec Antivirus could not be installed/loaded● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3709 Pine configuration for Linux SLC3● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3734 Mozilla and mailbox problem – imap server cannot be foundWeb-related● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3539 FTP access to CERN website● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3671 Favorites lost in Internet Explorer● http://consult.cern.ch/qa/3733 Opening the e-payslip or pdf files in a Web browser

Changes to services in the ITdepartment are published on theService Status Board (SSB) athttp://cern.ch/it-servicestatus.The most recent changes andtheir dates of posting are shownon the right. The SSB alsoincludes service incidents,scheduled interventions, powercuts and the current status ofmost services.

7 January 2005 AFS authentication servers to be migrated to Kerberos 517 December 2004 Shadow Copy Client deployment16 December Lxplus and Lxbatch News9 December Lxplus DNS alias switched to Lxslc39 December ACB closure on 10 December2 December Symantec AntiVirus 9.0 deployment 2 December UDP Ports 1026 to 1030 blocked in Firewall29 November WACDR service discontinued and replaced by GridFTP25 November AFS authentication servers to be migrated to Kerberos 524 November Web Security Scan Update19 November Removal of Roaming profile2 November Closure of FTP Access to CERN Web Servers1 November Scientific Linux CERN 3 (SLC3) – default supported CERN Linux version

Recent changesto IT services

8 CERN Computer Newsletter • Januar y–March 2005

Information corner

The shop is situated in Building513 R-047. CERN users can buybooks and CDs there at discountprices. The service is open onweekdays from 8.30 a.m. to12.30 p.m. and it can also becontacted by e-mail (Bookshop@cern.ch) or phone (74050).

Books are purchased fromsome 15 publishing houses, andthe bookshop’s catalogue offersdocumentation aimed at thecomputing utilities that are

available at CERN. The servicewelcomes suggestions from theuser community for acquisitions.

The most recent acquisitionsin the physics field are:● Learning about Physics by JackSteinberger● Enrico Fermi: His Work andLegacy● Understanding the Universefrom Quarks to the Cosmos● Particle Physics (soft cover)

In the computing field:

● Object Oriented Analysis andDesign by John Deacon● Patterns for ParallelProgramming● The MATHEMATICA Guidebookfor Programming by Trott● A second edition of Unix Shellsby Example.

The complete list is integratedinto the CERN library system. Itis compiled regularly and ismade available on the CERNnetwork at http://cdsweb/tools/itbook.py.

A big thank you to all who

came to the first CERN book fairin October. We see that thereare areas where we can improvethe service, and apologize tothose who had to wait for booksto be ordered – we hadn’texpected such a large demandfor this service.

In the future we will workwith the central library toensure that we can orderpopular physics books atbookshop rates.Roger Woolnough and Jutta Megies,IT/UDS

Recent acquisitions at IT bookshop

CalendarFebruary7–11 GlobusWORLD 2005Boston, MA, US, www.globusworld.org

9–11 First EGEE EU ReviewMeetingCERN (IT Auditorium),Switzerland, http://agenda.cern.ch/fullAgenda.php?ida=a043803

14–16 European Grid Conference Amsterdam, The Netherlands,http://genias.biz/egc2005

21–25 Tridentcom 2005 –First International Conference onTestbeds and ResearchInfrastructures for theDevelopment of Networks andCommunitiesTrento, Italy, www.tridentcom.org

March14–17 GGF13Seoul, South Korea, www.gridforum.org

April2–8 High Performance ComputingSymposium (HPC 2005)San Diego, CA, US, www.caip.rutgers.edu/hpc2005

7–9 HealthGRID 2005Oxford, UK, http://oxford2005.healthgrid.org

18–22 Third EGEE conferenceAthens, Greece, http://eu-egee.org

May9–12 Cluster Computing and Grid2005 Cardiff, UK, www.cs.cf.ac.uk/ccgrid2005

The deadline for submissionsto the next issue of CNL is18 February

E-mail your contributions tocnl.editor@cern.chIf you would like to be informed by e-mail when a newissue of CNL is available, subscribe to the mailing listcern-cnl-info. You can do this from the CERN CNLwebsite at http://cern.ch/cnl

Comedy corner: computer mock-up is urban legendSince October 2004, an e-mailhas been doing the roundspurporting to show a 1954vision of what a home computerin 2004 might look like,according to the RANDCorporation. “With teletypeinterface and the Fortranlanguage, the computer will beeasy to use” states the caption.In fact the picture is a hoax,based on a doctored image ofthe control room of a nuclearsubmarine. As urbanlegends.about.com points out, 50 yearsago no-one would have thoughtthat we would ever need acomputer in the home, let alonepictured what it would be like.