Computing Services Team Activity for the Period 6/01 to 9/01 - MEC - 9/13/01

HET

Spiesman and Odoms completed the software for the low level functions of
the moving baffle control system, and tested it with Wesley et al. on site
with the PFIP on the ground.  All of the limit switches, plus the kidney
bean switch, work.  The home switch needs to be relocated slightly to clear
up the remaining initialization problem.  Trajectories work when the PFIP
is level, and when tipped to 35 degrees.  The HET TCS software was modified
and tested to send trajectories to the baffle as well as the tracker, and
to abort baffle movement when a tracker trajectory is aborted.  An initial
GUI was successfully tested at the mountain, and a prototype IRAF command
was written to take calibration flats using the baffle.  This higher level
code needs more development and debug when the PFIP is reinstalled on the
telescope.  Odoms and Cornell continued development on the HET autoguider,
adding new guiding algorithms, more marker options, especially for HRS,
improving stripchart plots, fixing various registration bugs, especially in
zoomed modes, adding file save status to the main display, and adding the
ability to save and restore the location and state of all windows started
by the program.  A long-standing problem was identified where the pull down
menus in the guider software become insensitive if "Num Lock" or "Caps
Lock" are selected.  Cornell analyzed data obtained by the mountain staff
on the LRS versus guider drift problem, and identified several issues in
the software.  More study is required to really pin this down, though.
Odoms continued development on the CCD Version 2 ICE software and
microcode, primarily support for high-speed and multi-amplifier modes for
SF2.  Cornell updated the Sun application software at HET on
mcs:/opt/local.  Odoms made several improvements to the LRS and HRS control
systems, working with Hill and MacQueen respectively.  Cornell set up a
system to mirror HET calibration files to Penn State, and added a new
backup tape drive to rhea.

Mt. Locke Operations

Odoms and Cornell began work in the background on the new ATOG control
system.  Spiesman and Cornell provided a copy of the 107-inch TCS software
to Octavi Fors at the University of Barcelona in Spain, for possible use on
a 50cm f/1 Baker-Nunn camera there for robotic CCD work.  Cornell added
more memory to miranda, and updated its security patches.  We continue to
wait for the installation of the new T1 line, but we seem to be getting
close.  Cornell cleaned out a hacker incident on charon, probably left over
from the larger problem we had last spring.  Cornell spent a lot of time
getting a old version of linux to run on Nather's new PC for the his
82-inch PFC project.  The old version of linux was needed because the
drivers provided by the vendor for their CCD camera will not run on
anything recent.

Austin Operations

Two new staff members joined the group during the period.  Robin Anderson
came to us from the Department, and will be handling course-related web
material.  Chris Wilkinson comes to us from Michigan State, and will
initially handle Windows issues.  Schaefer upgraded the remainder of the
Redhat 5.2 machines that we support to our standard diskless Redhat 6.2
setup.  Anderson created new course web sites for Bash, Wheeler,
Dinerstein, and AST103L.  She also posted syllabi for fall courses, and
researched copyright issues for web sites.  Schaefer and Cornell made
various improvements to the undergraduate majors lab, including new
furniture, more network connections, new white boards, more PCs, and new
mathematica software for Winget's new Computational Astrophysics course.
Anderson began training on the University's solution to software for course
management, called "Blackboard".  With funding from the department, Cornell
added new equipment to the public workstations, including 4 new 36GB disks,
a high capacity 4mm drive, and a high capacity 8mm drive for backups.
Schaefer, Vargas, and Cornell surplused a metric ton of old computer stuff
out of 15.320, to create office space for new staff. Various old computers,
including panda and panzer, were also decommissioned.  Schaefer and Cornell
installed new PCs for the 6 incoming grad students, and recycled 3 old ones
to new users.  Schaefer moved computer equipment for 15 people in 13 office
moves.  Schaefer and Wilkinson handled several virus incidents, as well as
numerous service calls to Dell.  Vargas continued to make improvements to
the Observatory and Department web pages, including an update of the HET
observer information pages, new home pages for Bash, David Evans, Neal
Evans, Harvey, Jaffe, and Lacy.  Vargas worked with Anderson to transfer
responsibility for course related material.  Vargas installed 3 new Macs
during the period, made major operating system upgrades on 3 computers,
security improvements on 2 computers, virus updates on 4 Macs, software
upgrades on 3 machines, hardware installations on 6 machines, and recycled
3 old Macs to new users.  Collins purchased a couple of Sun workstations, 4
tape drives, several monitors, 14 PCs, 3 Macs, 6 disks, 5 laptops, a FAX
machine, a printer, 5 cameras, a scanner, some furniture, plus lots of
memory, computer cards, cables, software, and supplies, and coordinated
numerous repairs during the period.