Computer Help
Computer Help This is a guide to the computer facilities, services and software available at the Math department of the University of Wisconsin. Most of the facilities are for department's the faculty, graduate students and staff. Those who do not have Math department accounts may use the two kiosk PCs located at the north B1 entrance (facing Ingraham hall) or the PCs located in the Kleene Math Library on the B2 level of Van Vleck hall.
Accounts and Policies
Account Set Up
Every person in the math department should be provided the opportunity to set up an account. That account is used for ...
- computer login for math department computers
- the ability to print to department printers
- file storage on the department file server
- access to math department servers for math software
- the ability to login to various department web pages
This is different from your WiscMail account, which is used for
- payroll
- access to L@UW, Moodle
- access to UW system level IT resources such as google apps and UWNet wireless
- your UW wiscmail account
- login to various UW protected webpages hosted throughout the university
- WiscVPN
To set up your IMAP email client
go to [1]
If you have problems with this, please let us know: staff@math.wisc.edu
Dealing With Spam
The University runs Office 365, which has some spam controls built in.
There's two parts to the UW's spam control.
Questions regarding these two methods should be directed to the DoIT Help Desk. (264-HELP, 4357)
Vacation Mail
[4]Head over to the UW KB.
Forwarding your e-mail
Leaving the Department
If you leave the Math Department, we will occasionally remove old accounts. In some cases, we can leave an account in place for
- ) users that are continuing to collaborate with faculty or staff for research
- ) users that wish to continue to receive mail under their math account for a time.
While we can't guarantee infinite continuation of your email account because that is controlled by DoIT, we do have some methods at our command to make this more streamlined and less prone to being deactivated.
Generally, we remove accounts in October and March. IN most cases, you'll be told in an email that we intend on doing this.
If you feel you fall under either of the two case scenarios listed above, please email nagreen@math.wisc.edu.
E-mail Web Forms
You can create a web page on your web site to allow visitors to send you e-mail messages. With an e-mail form, you can allow users to register for conferences, send feedback, or answer an on-line poll. With additional tools supplied by the Math Department, you can import these messages into a spreadsheet or database.
Facilities
The facilities and equipment described below are for use by UW Math department faculty and graduate students on the UW Madison Campus and, preferably, in Van Vleck hall.
- Mobile Computers and Projectors
Instructors may borrow laptop computers and projectors for demonstrations in any Van Vleck classroom. This equipment is kept in the Math Library on the B2 classroom level. You may check them out for up to 4 hours using your UW ID card. The math library also has an assortment of VGA video cables which can be used to connect a PC, Macintosh computer or iPad to a projector. One of the projectors has built in speakers and a DVD player. It also has two microphones which can be connected to it. WARNING: the laptops available for check out are somewhat old and have only basic software (MS Office, TeX) on them. It is far better to use your own computer with the Department's projectors.
- Ceiling Mounted Projectors
Classrooms B102, B107, B231 and B223, B239 and the 901 seminar room each have a ceiling mounted projector. These projectors provide better displays than the mobile units. They can be used with a laptop computer. If you want to reserve one of these rooms, contact Sharon Paulson at paulson@math.wisc.edu. Keep in mind, though, that they're heavily booked and usually only available at the beginning or end of the day. The Math Department's computer staff maintain the projectors in 901 and B107. All the others are maintained by the UW Physical Plant. Please contact Derek Dombrowski about them. You will need an access code to use them and a key if you want to use the document camera or microphone with them. Here is Derek's contact information:
Derek Dombrowski
373A BASCOM HALL
ddombrowski@fpm.wisc.edu
(608) 265-9697
(608) 516-5993
- Computer Classroom
B107 is an instructional computer lab featuring 21 speedy Windows PCs --each PC has network access and Maple, Matlab, and MSOffice programs-- a ceiling-mounted projector connected to the instructor's computer, and an HP B&W Laserjet printer with duplexer. To reserve this room, please contact Sharon Paulson at paulson@math.wisc.edu.
You can check out the key for the room from the Math Library.
- Digital Camcorder
There is a Canon Vixia HG20 Cam Corder in the Math Library which Math faculty and Graduate students can check out to film Math Events such as conferences, PhD defenses, etc. Use your faculty/staff ID card to check it out.
Printing
Math Dept Printers
| Location | PrinterName | Printer Type |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd hall | 3 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 4th hall | 4 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 5th hall | 5 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 6th hall | 6 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 7th hall | 7 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 8th hall | 8 | Ricoh MPC 4501 |
| 101B VV | a | HPLJ 4300 |
| B127 VV | b | HPLJ 600 |
During the summer of 2011, the department placed new Ricoh MPC 4501 printer/copier/scanners on floors 3-8. We will also switched from LPRNG to CUPS (the Common Unix Printing System) on our unix print servers. What this means in practical terms is that users should become familiar with the System V lp commands. Previously, we used the Berkeley lpr command and some of these commands will still work.
Here are the page charges for printing and copying:
Printing: 250 free B&W pages per month, 4 cents per B&W page beyond the free allowance
color pages will cost 20 cents per page with no free allowance.
Copying: 200 free B&W pages per month, 4 cents per B&W page beyond the free allowance and 20 cents per color page with no free allowance.
Scanning: There is no charge for scanning a document and e-mailing it to yourself. However,
users should not scan copyrighted material.
Supplies
If the printers run out of paper, please get more paper from the Copy Center on the second floor and place it in the printers. If you are unsure how to do this, ask the computer staff for assistance. For assistance with other problems (no toner, paper jams, etc. ) see Hieu Nguyen in 215 (for issues with the Ricoh copiers) and Sharon Paulson in 220 (for help with the printers in B127 and 101b).
See the cups guide for more detailed information on printing with cups. Click on the links below to learn how to use each function with the Ricoh copiers.
Ricoh Copier FAQ
Only people with computer accounts in the UW Math Department will be allowed to use the Van Vleck Ricoh copiers. If you have a math account, you will receive a code to use for copying. These codes will be mailed out once a year in September after old accounts are deleted and new ones added. NOTE: if you forget your copier code, login to one of the math department linux PCs and type whatsmypin.
1. You copier code is only required for copying. Although the default display shows the copier login, you do not have to login in order to print or scan. Just push the buttons at the left to select the scanner or printer function.
2. Your code can be used on any of the copiers on floors 3-8. Do not use the copiers on the second floor. They are reserved for the administrative staff.
3. After you have finished copying, do not touch the display. Your login will time out after 60 seconds.
4. Everyone with a math dept account is allowed 250 free copies and 250 free printed pages per month (on the union of all the copiers on floors 3-8). At the end of the month, these are zeroed out. You can not carry over unused pages to the next month. Printing and Copying charges are described at the URL above. Note that you will be charged for each side of a duplex printed page. You may also be charged more for larger pages.
5. How to create a multi-page PDF document: Most people will want to create a multipage PDF scan of their document (instead of the default which is a single page TIFF document). To do this press the SCANNER button to the left of the display. Select SEND FILE TYPE/NAME in the left hand column of the display, then select MULTI-PAGE -> PDF
Ricoh Printing FAQ
- Using the Ricoh with Linux (command line printing)
- Using a Ricoh Printer on a Macintosh
- Using a Ricoh Printer on a PC
- Troubleshooting
Ricoh Scanner FAQ
Remote Access
https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Accessing_your_Math_department_network_space
TeX/LaTeX
TeX and LaTeX are supported on the Math Department computers. To learn more about Typesetting with LaTeX we recommend the following site. Mediawiki has some support for LaTeX as the following example shows:
[math]\displaystyle{ \int_{[0, 1]^n} \left| \sum_{k = 1}^n \mathrm{e}^{2 \pi \mathrm{i} \, x_k} \right|^s \mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{x} }[/math]
Unix
Manipulating PDF files
The pdftk toolkit provides several useful tools for manipulating PDF files without using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Here are some examples:
1. This command will split off the first 15 pages of the file NSFProposal.pdf and save it to 'front.pdf'. Substituting 'cat 16-end' for 'cat 1-15' will save the second half of the file.
pdftk NSFProposal.pdf cat 1-15 output front.pdf
2. This command will merge two (or more) pdf files:
pdftk 1.pdf 2.pdf 3.pdf cat output 123.pdf
You can find more examples at pdftk-examples
Troubleshooting
Answers to some common computer problems
1. If you forgot the code you need to use the copiers, login to one of the department's linux PCs, open a terminal window and type 'whatsmypin'.
2. 'Macintosh users'. Sometimes the internet connection on a Mac will freeze. If this happens, click on the following"
System Preferences -> Network -> DCHP -> Advanced -> renew DHCP lease