CAEN

CAEN would like to give the Engineering community an update on several significant CAEN computer lab changes and improvements taking place for the start of the Fall 2008 academic term.

WINDOWS VISTA COMING THIS FALL

CAEN is planning a full deployment of the Windows Vista (32-bit) operating system in its labs for the Fall 2008 semester. There will be some differences between Windows Vista and Windows XP, especially in Window Vista's new look and feel. Students new to Windows Vista may need to take some extra time to acquaint themselves with the new user interface of Windows Vista. There will be locations in the various CAEN and Duderstadt Center computing labs to see and tryout the current CAEN Windows Vista operating system after the current semester ends.

CHANGES TO NAS FOLDER REDIRECTION

Lab users may notice some differences in how certain files are redirected to their NAS space in Windows Vista compared to the Windows XP environment (available via Virtual Sites):

• In Windows XP, only the Desktop & My Documents folders are able to be redirected to an individual's NAS space. These are stored in a folder at \\storage\home\windat.
• Windows Vista allows us to redirect many more folders: Videos, Pictures, Music, Saved Games, Links, Favorites, Documents, Desktop, AppData, Start Menu, Contacts, & Searches. These will be stored in a folder at \\storage\home\windat.V2. A new redirection folder (windat.V2) was created because the default names for folders is different between XP and Vista. For example, My Documents is now just called Documents. For backwards compatibility, there are shortcuts on the Vista desktop pointing to the XP \\storage\home\windat folders: Old My Documents & Old Desktop

The Downloads folder will not redirected to the NAS. If you wish to keep a downloaded file, you must move it from the Downloads folder to your NAS space (i.e. the N:\ drive) or a redirected folder.

WINDOWS ROAMING PROFILES

To allow CAEN lab users to have their environmental settings travel with them from lab to lab, Roaming Profiles will be enabled.

When you log into a CAEN Vista computer for the first time, a profile is created; and when you log out, the profile is copied to the your NAS space and stored in \\storage\home\profiles\labyear (year represents the calendar year that the current CAEN software environment was created). Each time you log into a CAEN PC, this folder is copied locally and applied to your account. Similar to the redirected folders described above, changes made to the profile will become available on any CAEN Vista computer.

REMOTELY CONNECTING TO LINUX

The CAEN VNC client is now available for both Windows and Mac computers. With the CAEN VNC client you can connect remotely to CAEN Linux computers from your home Windows or Mac computer. The client gives a full windowing experience much like that you would expect from actually sitting in front of a CAEN Linux lab computer. Once login is complete, users are able to run a large number of Linux applications including GNU compilers (gcc, g++, gfortran), valgrind, OpenOffice, Matlab, Maple, LaTeX, and ECAD tools (Cadence, Mentor, Synopsys). Currently the VNC client does not support applications that require OpenGL, including Unigraphics, Tecplot and Hypermesh. More information on the CAEN VNC client and how to download it are available at:

• http://www.engin.umich.edu/caen/connect/vnc.html

PRINTING IN CAEN LABS

CAEN provides black & white printing services in its computer labs, located in College of Engineering (CoE) buildings, at no direct charge to CoE students. Color printing services are now also available in select labs. All CAEN labs have been updated with newer, faster Xerox printers. These printers also offer both copy and scan-to-email capabilities.

Printing is a valuable resource for the course work and research of CoE students. CAEN strives to provide students with the best computing services at U-M. More information on printing in CAEN labs can be found on the following page:

• http://www.engin.umich.edu/caen/printing/

LAB INFORMATION DISPLAYS

More lab information displays were installed last month outside the CSE 1620 and GG Brown 2505 (Dow Connector) CAEN computer labs. These displays show how many computers are available in all the labs as well as the local lab's reservation information. We hope you find these useful now or in the future when you walk into a lab which is full or reserved. Our plan is to keep installing these so all CAEN computer labs have them available.

PHONES IN COMPUTING LABS

The Engineering Undergraduate Student Advisory Board recently made a request to have phones installed in all the CAEN computer labs for the purpose of reporting printer and other problems. We will be honoring this request, and the phones should be installed and operational by the start of the Fall 2008 term.

LAB CLOSINGS

CAEN will be closing two computing labs and consolidating these computers to a single, larger location. GG Brown 2271 will close at the start of the Spring 2008 academic term, and Autolab G019 will (tentatively) close at the end of the Fall 2008 academic term. We plan on opening the new lab after the close of Autolab G019. We are finalizing details on the location of this new lab, and you will see an update when that information is available.