September 2014 - Physics-Departmental-Computing

Re: [Physics-Departmental-Computing] Office 365
by David Colling 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

On 04/09/14 18:05, Dave Clements wrote: > > On 4 Sep 2014, at 17:31, David Colling wrote: > >> Hi Dave, >> >> >> >>> 1. It is, frankly, a marketing move by Microsoft so that our students will end up paying their Office 365 subscriptions once they leave Imperial, on pain of having their cloud-stored files deleted if they don't keep up the payments. Our students should have this option if they want, but it should be through their own choice. We should not by default put them into bondage with Microsoft or any other company at square one. >> >> We are only offering them something for free that they would otherwise >> not have. > > We are also removing the support that they get from ICT that they would otherwise have had. I feel strongly that this is dodging our responsibility. > We are not removing any support from ICT other than gradually running fewer exchange servers. > A 1Tb drive costs about 80 quid at the moment. Given that these students are paying 9K a year I fail to see that it would be impossible to provide them with this service locally. You know that having a fully backed up system etc costs far more than the cost of the disks > > I have my own 3Tb (and expandable) cloud & email server at home. Are we really saying that ICT is so incapable of providing such services that we have to become dependent on MS? It is up to ICT to provide a service in a cost effective way. This is what they are doing. So is this the location of your sex tapes? Beware of hackers ;-) > >>> 3. As we have just seen with sex tapes on iCloud, off-site storage of data can get very difficult. If we are contracting out students' file storage to someone else then there are considerable hazards. >> >> I would strongly suggest that you do NOT put your sex tapes on the >> Office365 cloud. Incentives for hackers as they may be... >> > > a) Students will That is up to them. They can put them on dropbox or icloud just as easily. > > b) It's not just sex tapes you have to worry about. Lab reports, essays, assessed problem sheets... What if they start leaking? And that's before we get to the sensitive stuff that staff have to look after. > You can find these all over the internet anyway ... just try a github search for Imperial College Computational physics projects - not pleasant reading. >>> What is Office365 has a glitch just before a coursework deadline? MS won't care any more about this than any other customer, but our own support people would be able to deal with this as a matter of urgency. Since late reports now get zero marks there are some serious potential problems here. >>> >> >> In the email below it is suggested that students keep work to be handed >> in on their H: drive as they do now. If there is a significant glitch we >> would have to be reasonable as we are now if there is a problem. >> > > a) They won't > Then tough. > b) A report is a final product. Large data files will end up on the MS cloud that would once have been stored by us, and will be subject to the same problems. > Well, I suspect that any glitches will be short in comparison to the length of a project. Surprisingly perhaps it is not completely unheard of for ICT to have a glitch on their disk servers - even the geniuses who run the HEP computing have had the (very very) occasional glitch from time to time. > At the moment it might be in the EU but (a) what guarantee is there that it will stay there and (b) we might be a target but we're not as big or juicy a target as Microsoft. > I expect that this is part of the contract (it has been with all others of this nature that I have known but I don't know about this one). Adrian, any comment? We are less of a target than MS but they send a lot more on security than we do. >>> >>> 2. Some of us do not use operating systems on the list supported. Most postdocs in astro, for example, use linux machines which, it would appear, will not be supported. >>> >> >> I too use Linux. Having asked Adrian about this there appears to be a >> secure imap interface to the email (and I found the following article >> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/03/28/is-office-365-the-best-thing-thats-… >> ). As far as I can tell (from web searching and from what Adrian tells >> me) there is only access to the cloud storage through the browser - >> rather like sharepoint. > > Sharepoint is crap to the point of unusable from the machines I've worked on. Dropbox is a better option! > Another cloud based solution. It is just the interface that is different. >> >>> I would also like to ask a couple of other questions about this change: >>> >>> - how much of this is motivated by doing something 'good' for the students and how much is this a question of outsourcing support that College doesn't want to pay for? >>> >> >> I would imagine both. I know that ICT are very keen to provide the best >> environment for our students and are pretty pro-active. If this gives >> the students a better system than they have now and saves us money then >> what is not to like? >> > > I remain to be convinced that either will be the case in the long term. > One of the things that the students said that they really wanted was access to a facility like dropbox. I have been in meetings with ICT where this has been discussed and this is the solution that ICT came up with. >>> - what is DoC doing? As the local experts in these matters it seems to me that they often make better decisions than ICT >>> >> >> All DoC students will be moved across. I believe that there are only two >> "independent" mail servers in college. One in HEP and one in DoC and the >> one in DoC is being gradually faded away. >> > > That will be a sad day and will be a major backward step in flexibility. I still rue the day that astro lost its email server. > So why did you? >>> More generally, I am aware that the legal status of cloud computing is still rather uncertain. If, for example, a student loses their thesis project files because of a fault in the cloud who is to blame and who gets sued? Most cloud services are offered with few service level guarantees. Is this really what we want to offer our students? >>> >> >> I guess that college get sued as it would do now. However, I know that I >> was writing my thesis it was backed up nightly at CERN and at home so >> there were always 3 copies. I would still say that is wise behaviour. >> Perhpas Adrian can comment about the SLA. This is a commercial >> arrangement that we are entering into so there will be an SLA that is >> more comprehensive than those with individual users. > > I have asked a friend (and IC alumnus) who has written one of the few legal papers on cloud computing about this. My suspicion is that while there may be an SLA, when push comes to shove it may be as empty as the evaporated data, but I will get back to you on this. > This is outside my field of expertise. I still remember the pain of going through the lawyers letters concerning our use of Mathematica ... the pain... >>> And there is the usual warning about most such services - if you are not paying for the product then you *are* the product. As a matter of principle we should not be making our students the product in this or any other case. >>> >> >> I don't get this last part. We are paying for it. > > So we get to pay to sell our students into dependency? No wonder MS is keen. We pay for mathematica, matlab, MS office, visual studio, origin etc etc etc while they are here all of which they loose when they leave. How is this any different? > >> How does this work for Linux anyway? > > When MS releases its cloud code as open source then this comparison can be made. Until then it's not a valid. Linux is free and yet I don't feel that I am a product as I type this (may be I am just too close to see it). > > All in all this proposed change is effectively contracting out our duty of care for our students digital lives to an external corporation which has at best a chequered history. I do not think that is in their best interests no matter what short term financial or perceived 'experiential' benefits there might be for the College. > If you invite guests around for a dinner party it is your duty to provide them with a good meal, it is not your duty to cook. ICT have just bought in the caterers. QMUL (and I think UCL) have done similar things with their email. Best, david

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Re: [Physics-Departmental-Computing] Office 365
by David Colling 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Hi Dave, > 1. It is, frankly, a marketing move by Microsoft so that our students will end up paying their Office 365 subscriptions once they leave Imperial, on pain of having their cloud-stored files deleted if they don't keep up the payments. Our students should have this option if they want, but it should be through their own choice. We should not by default put them into bondage with Microsoft or any other company at square one. We are only offering them something for free that they would otherwise not have. If they get used to it then they will have to pay once they leave (or move to some other provider where they will also have to pay) but I do not see this a reason not to give them access while they are here. We could never (well not for a great number of years) offer them 50GB of in box and 1TB of personal backed up space. So just because the poor little might have to pay for what we give them once they leave is not a reason not to give it to them while they are here. The same is true of things like journal access and many other things. > > 2. What is to become of imperial.ac.uk? I just noticed a graduate of CalTech, from more than 30 years ago, still using a caltechalumni email address. This is great advertising for CalTech. We already lose our relationship with students when they leave. If we're to lose them to gmail at square one then the College's noticeability is going to much reduced. > I think that this is a very valid point generally and is may be something we should take up with Mike Russell and the college alumni people. I know that places like LBS give thei alumni an email for life as well as other privileges such as being able to book rooms at a discount. Things like this would greatly help our connections to our alumni. > 3. As we have just seen with sex tapes on iCloud, off-site storage of data can get very difficult. If we are contracting out students' file storage to someone else then there are considerable hazards. I would strongly suggest that you do NOT put your sex tapes on the Office365 cloud. Incentives for hackers as they may be... >What is Office365 has a glitch just before a coursework deadline? MS won't care any more about this than any other customer, but our own support people would be able to deal with this as a matter of urgency. Since late reports now get zero marks there are some serious potential problems here. > In the email below it is suggested that students keep work to be handed in on their H: drive as they do now. If there is a significant glitch we would have to be reasonable as we are now if there is a problem. > From the point of view of staff: > > 1. We have to keep personal data and emails from our students, sometimes of a very sensitive nature. If this is on College servers we know where it is and we know that we are not breaching EU data laws. As David indicates, there are already issues with court orders in Ireland, but things could get worse very quickly. For example, Imperial is not a major target for hackers seeking personal data. Microsoft is. I believe that our data is likely to be in the EU (Dublin or Amsterdam according to Adrian). So the same law applies. Imperial is a target for hackers, and I am sure that Microsoft put, pro rata, as much into security as Imperial does. They have a significant reputation issue. > > 2. Some of us do not use operating systems on the list supported. Most postdocs in astro, for example, use linux machines which, it would appear, will not be supported. > I too use Linux. Having asked Adrian about this there appears to be a secure imap interface to the email (and I found the following article http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/03/28/is-office-365-the-best-thing-thats-… ). As far as I can tell (from web searching and from what Adrian tells me) there is only access to the cloud storage through the browser - rather like sharepoint. > I would also like to ask a couple of other questions about this change: > > - how much of this is motivated by doing something 'good' for the students and how much is this a question of outsourcing support that College doesn't want to pay for? > I would imagine both. I know that ICT are very keen to provide the best environment for our students and are pretty pro-active. If this gives the students a better system than they have now and saves us money then what is not to like? I say this as somebody who still runs his own web and email servers (and as of a few days ago a minecraft server so that my son's friends can all play together on it from their different homes). > - what is DoC doing? As the local experts in these matters it seems to me that they often make better decisions than ICT > All DoC students will be moved across. I believe that there are only two "independent" mail servers in college. One in HEP and one in DoC and the one in DoC is being gradually faded away. > More generally, I am aware that the legal status of cloud computing is still rather uncertain. If, for example, a student loses their thesis project files because of a fault in the cloud who is to blame and who gets sued? Most cloud services are offered with few service level guarantees. Is this really what we want to offer our students? > I guess that college get sued as it would do now. However, I know that I was writing my thesis it was backed up nightly at CERN and at home so there were always 3 copies. I would still say that is wise behaviour. Perhpas Adrian can comment about the SLA. This is a commercial arrangement that we are entering into so there will be an SLA that is more comprehensive than those with individual users. > And there is the usual warning about most such services - if you are not paying for the product then you *are* the product. As a matter of principle we should not be making our students the product in this or any other case. > I don't get this last part. We are paying for it. How does this work for Linux anyway? Best, david

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FW: Office 365
by Mannall, Adrian B 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Dear All, The following email has been sent to those on the e-learning email distribution list, so my apologies if you are seeing this for a second time. I wanted to make sure that you were all aware of the release of Office 365 and the various elements that we hope will improve the Student Experience by giving our students greater access to free resources and in time better infrastructure (larger mailboxes, large amounts of cloud storage, etc). Should anyone have any questions about this or require more information then please don't hesitate to contact me directly. All the Faculty Support engineers have been provided with test accounts so that they can familiarise themselves with this in advance of the start of session and be in a position to assist students should there be any queries. Kind regards, Adrian Adrian Mannall Faculty IT Manager, Microsoft Licensing Specialist and HP Hardware Specialist Faculty of Natural Sciences ICT, Imperial College London South Kensington Campus 323, Sir Ernst Chain Building - Wolfson Laboratories, Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ Direct Dial Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 1441 College Ext'n: 41441 Mobile: +44 (0)7834 083134 Mobile Ext'n: 57974 Email: a.mannall(a)imperial.ac.uk<mailto:a.mannall@imperial.ac.uk> Web : http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ [cid:image002.png@01CFC83F.C899A100] [NCC_ACCREDITATION_LOGO] From: Voce, Julie K Sent: 04 September 2014 12:37 To: e-Learning Cc: IT Services, Faculty Support Managers; Gates, Laura P Subject: Office 365 [cid:image001.jpg@01CFB7CF.E1FD7070] Dear All, As you may be aware ICT has been working over the summer to implement Office 365 for students here at Imperial. Office 365 comprises infrastructure (email and unified communications servers and storage) and free software for students and represents an opportunity for College to add value to the student experience. Software With immediate effect all enrolled students (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) have access to free copies of Office software for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Windows phone and Android phone clients. An Android tablet client is expected before the end of the year. This software is free for the whole period that the student remains enrolled at Imperial College. The software can be installed on up to 5 PC or Apple devices plus in addition on up to 5 mobile devices (iPad, phone, etc). The webpage with installation guidance can be found, here - http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/ict/services/softwarehardware/freesoftware and is linked via the Software Shop and student pages. Email and Lync Upon enrolment (from 8 September 2014), new undergraduate students joining College, will have their email hosted by Microsoft, giving a much larger mailbox quota than College could ever attempt to provide (up to 50GB). Email is accessible through web browsers in a similar manner to current College hosted mailboxes or through mail clients such as Outlook or iOS/Android mail clients using Exchange ActiveSync technology. Existing undergraduate students will have their mailboxes migrated into Office 365 during the first few weeks of term and they will be individually emailed with details of when the migration will take place and what changes they will need to make in the set-up of any mail clients that they have. Planning is underway for the migration postgraduate and staff accounts, expected to commence during 2015. Further updates will follow. In addition to email, College is now providing 'unified communications' using Lync. This means that students will have the ability to communicate via instant messenger, web conferencing and chat directly with their peers and academic colleagues. Storage Office 365 for students also includes cloud hosted storage up to 1TB in capacity. This is accessible from anywhere that students can use a web browser. This is in addition to the H: drive which College hosts and will continue to provision for use in clusters. Use of College e-learning systems Office 365 should not impact on student use of College e-learning systems; however students using College PCs to upload files to Blackboard or Turnitin from their Office 365 storage space will need to download the files from Office 365 to their H: drive before upload. It is therefore recommended that students continue to use the H: drive for storing College work to avoid this additional step when it comes to assignment submission. Questions Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your local Faculty Support Manager or team for further details. If students have problems accessing email or installing software then they should contact the ICT Service Desk<https://imperial.service-now.com/ict/faq.do?sysparm_document_key=kb_knowled…>

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Re: [Physics-Departmental-Computing] Office 365
by Mannall, Adrian B 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Henry, This is not a silent announcement - my understanding is that ICTAP was informed of the fact that ICT were investigating Office 365. ICT has also communicated with Heads of Departments about moving students to Office 365 and that we are also going to then consider what we do for PGs and staff. There are a number of concerns around moving email to a cloud based provider and one of the key things that we have put in place is the use of the JANET amendments to the standard Office 365 contract - this ensures data integrity and hosting location commitments. There are a number of other relatively minor but none the less important amendments that these JANET changes also include. All data stored on the servers remains the property of the individual or institution concerned and there is no presumption by Microsoft of ownership. Interestingly, Microsoft are contesting a court order in the US about revealing email data currently held in the Dublin data centre and have appealed the current ruling. This is of interest to a huge number of people who are either already using or who are considering using Microsoft's cloud services. Support for the service is provided by ICT and ICT will act as the intermediary between an individual and the service provider should that be necessary - the users will not be expected to deal with Microsoft directly. Regards Adrian -----Original Message----- From: Rzepa, Henry S Sent: 04 September 2014 14:42 To: Mannall, Adrian B Cc: Rzepa, Henry S; physics-departmental-computing; Craster, Richard V; Haigh, Joanna D; Hankin, Chris; Hoskins, Brian J; Makuch, Zen A; Rose, Steven J; Selkirk, Murray E; Welton, Tom; Adams, Niall M; Colling, David J; Conway, John; Dunbar, James L; Head, Martin K; Islam, Suhail A; Moore, Dan R; Robb, Mike A; Rzepa, Henry S; Sarsfield, Moira E; Albrecht, Tim; Cohen, Lesley; Curry, Stephen; Duncombe, Bridgette J; Forsyth, Robert J; Gibbons, John; Gounaris, Kleoniki; Mestel, Jonathan; Physics Director of Undergraduate Studies; Tennant, Mike; Tristem, Michael; a.wastnidge; Anderson, Diana R; Boyce, Eileen S; Evans, Pat M; Fitzgerald, Anthony J; Gayer, Gosia; Jones, Linda D; Jones, Richard L; Lyle, Karen R; Mulholland, Ciara; Nurboja, Sandrine A C; Mussard, Mike J; Parkins, Kat; Khanna, Taru Subject: Re: Office 365 I notice the phrase "Planning is underway for the migration postgraduate and staff accounts, expected to commence during 2015. Further updates will follow" This is what in the trade is called a "silent announcement". I presume no-one has any choice in whether their email will be hosted by Microsoft or not? There have been numerous concerns about "off shore" hosting, and I would be grateful if the document circulated to both students AND staff spell out the differences that might accrue from a move from "on short hosting" at Imperial College to an "off shore" hosting by Microsoft. My other concern is "support". With an additional third party involved (Microsoft), will there be any changes to the support provided? For example, would there be ANY circumstance where a user might be advised to "contact the Microsoft help desk" for an issue that is regarded as "not ICT's"? Microsoft also infamously "lost" email for about 150,000 users a few years back. Were that to happen again, how would support be provided? Finally, I would appreciate some mention in the document to be sent out (to students in the first instance) that ABSOLUTELY no "metadata" regarding individual identity will EVER be sent or possessed by Microsoft (which is what I understand the case to be). It should not be implicit in the document, but should be spelt out in absolutely water-tight terms. Thanks! On 4 Sep 2014, at 12:57, Mannall, Adrian B <a.mannall(a)imperial.ac.uk> wrote: > Planning is underway for the migration postgraduate and staff accounts, expected to commence during 2015. Further updates will follow.

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Departmental computing meeting?
by David Colling 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Hi All, As the start of term is about a month a way I was wondering abouyt the date of the next departmental computing meeting. As we plan to have (roughly) one per term I think that we should either have one before the start of term or half way through term as the beginning of the new year is always busy and Christmas is full of parties - although I suppose that we could have a meeting accompanied by mulled wine and mince pies. My default would be to organise one before the start of term just to have it done, but I know that September has a lot of conferences and that people without school age children often use it as holiday as it is so much cheaper than August. So let me know your preferences (however weak or strong) and I will schedule appropriately. Best, david

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FW: 5 Reasons to Attend MATLAB EXPO 2014
by Mannall, Adrian B 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

For info – please use / pass on as necessary. Regards Adrian From: MathWorks [mailto:mathworks@go.mathworks.com] Subject: 5 Reasons to Attend MATLAB EXPO 2014 To view this email as a web page, click here<http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/es?s=646005169&e=22566&elq=aaded91d320b49f19e…>. [MathWorks Conference]<http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/er?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&s=646005169&lid=…> Join engineers, scientists, and academics at MATLAB EXPO 2014, the largest MATLAB event in Europe. Date: Tuesday, 7 October 2014 Location: Silverstone, Northamptonshire Register<http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/er?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&s=646005169&lid=…> 5 reasons why you should attend MATLAB EXPO 2014: 1. Develop your MATLAB skills: Explore MATLAB for signal processing, data analytics, collaboration facilitation, and app development. 2. Learn new techniques with Simulink: Run code on hardware, verify and validate your models, and speed up your simulations in Simulink. 3. See real user stories: Hear from Jaguar Land Rover, Tesco, University of Oxford, and others about how they apply MATLAB and Simulink to their development processes. 4. Customise your conference: Choose sessions from four conference tracks, including two application tracks, introductory sessions designed to get you started with the tools, and master classes to provide a deeper understanding of certain core application areas. 5. Explore new features: Learn from MathWorks experts about new features and functionality in MATLAB and Simulink. Participation is free but registration is required. Find out more about MATLAB EXPO 2014 and register today<http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/er?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&s=646005169&lid=…>. [MathWorks]<http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/er?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&s=646005169&lid=…> © 2014 The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB and Simulink are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. See a list of additional trademarks<http://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements/trademarks.htm…>. Other product or brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. You are subscribed as p.belli(a)imperial.ac.uk<mailto:p.belli@imperial.ac.uk> Manage<https://go2.mathworks.com/preference-center?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&elq=a…> your email preferences or unsubscribe from our commercial email promotions. View our privacy policy<http://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements?s_v1=1939&elq_…>. The MathWorks, Ltd.<http://www.mathworks.com/?s_v1=1939&elq_cid=3848387&elq=aaded91d320b49f19e1…> Matrix House, Cambridge Business Park, Cambridge CB4 0HH +44 (0) 1223 226700. Registration Number 3444214 Headquarters: The MathWorks, Inc 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA 01760-2098, USA | 001 508-647-7000 [http://app.go.mathworks.com/e/FooterImages/FooterImage1?elq=aaded91d320b49f…]

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Fwd: Mathematica 10.0.1 will be released soon
by David Colling 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

FYI ... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Mathematica 10.0.1 will be released soon Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2014 13:54:18 -0500 (CDT) From: Katherine Bautista <site-program(a)wolfram.com> To: d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk RE: Site License: L4775-6946, L4775-6952 Mathematica 10.0.1 is scheduled to release next week, and your site will be one of the first to get this update. Mathematica 10.0.1 delivers a number of feature and performance improvements to enhance your user experience, including new image processing effects and color support, new Interpreter types, new operators and compositions of operators enabled for associations, new optimizations and types for geographic computation, added machine learning support for neural networks, easier mail sending, and an RLink compatibility update for R 3.1. Users who may have encountered problems in Mathematica 10.0.0 working with select functionality for semantic import, weather data, optimization, associations, numerical solvers, and symbolic integration or measure computation over regions should find that these issues have also been resolved in Mathematica 10.0.1. Additional information about this update will be made available next week at: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/quick-revision-history.html Here are a few important things you will want to know about this release: ================ INSTALLERS ================ You will be notified when the new Mathematica and MathLM 10.0.1 installers are available for download from the Wolfram User Portal. Both executable and disk image files will be available and can be used for both new installations and updates. If you host the installers on your own server or distribute media, please replace them with these latest files. ================ MEDIA ================ We will begin shipping media in 3-4 weeks. Media will not be shipped automatically, and is available by request only. To request a media kit, please reply to this message, or contact your Wolfram representative or local sales partner. ============================= ACTIVATION KEY REQUEST FORM ============================= Activation key request form URLs have not changed. If you distribute activation keys through this form, you will not need to update your web pages or documentation. ================ EXISTING USERS ================ Updating from Mathematica or MathLM 10.0.0 to 10.0.1 will not require a new activation key. Users will only be prompted to enter a new key if installing Mathematica or MathLM for the first time, or upgrading from a version that predates Version 10. Because this update contains important fixes, anyone who has already been assigned an activation key for Mathematica or MathLM 10.0.0 will automatically be provided with access to the installers for Version 10.0.1 through the Wolfram User Portal, regardless if their key is flagged in the Portal as "Auto Upgrade = Yes" or "Auto Upgrade = No". These users will be notified shortly after their site license has been updated. ======================== STAFF HOME USE LICENSES ======================== Staff who have received a Mathematica home-use license will be contacted by email with instructions on how to get the update. Any staff who have not yet obtained a home-use license for their personally owned computer can request one through this form: http://www.wolfram.com/siteinfo/homeuse ================ Please contact me with any questions. Best regards, Kathy Bautista The Mathematica License Program Team site-program(a)wolfram.com

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