ISG News has posted a new item, 'New cloud storage service'
In the wake of Prism and Tempora I guess this comes exactly at the right time:
In collaboration with our colleagues at Informatikdienste we are proud to open
the beta test to a new ETH-wide cloud storage service: polybox.
If you've ever used dropbox et al., you've probably come to appreciate the
convenience of seamlessly sharing data from one computer or even mobile device
to another via a cloud storage service. Effortless though this might be, you
always have to keep in mind that your data will live ''somewhere out there'' in
the cloud, and as we've learned the hard way in the last few weeks, the audience
looking at your data is often larger than we think.
With polybox, this is fundamentally different: your data never leaves ETH's
servers unless you carry it away yourself. In contrast to basically all other
cloud storage services out there, polybox is therefore suited for storing data
you don't want everybody and their cousin to read.
The service is now open to beta testers and provides 5 GB of cloud storage to
every ETH student and employee. You can access your data via web frontend or
install the handy sync clients that come with it. Please note that the
documentation still lists some open issues (last two links in German) in the
beta version, so please be prepared to provide feedback if you encounter any
errors.
Please also note that polybox uses your n.ethz account and not your physics
account and hence has no relation to your data at D-PHYS.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/06/28/new-cloud-storage-service/
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posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'HIT Building: Electric Power Interruption on
Monday, 15th of July'
Due to a test relating the electric power supply of the HIT building there will
be a planed interruption from 6:30am to 9:30am on Monday the 15th of July.
Please note that the whole HIT building will be without electric power during
this time (The server room HIT D 13 is excluded from this interruption).
Shutdown your computer and switch off (use main switch if available or unplug)
your electrical devices in advance to avoid local data loss and help prevent
start-up peaks when electric power is switched back on.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/06/24/hit-building-electric-power-interr…
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posted.
Best regards,
Thomas Berchtold
thomber(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'Hostname change for D-PHYS print server'
Historically the D-PHYS print server has been accessible under the host name
printer.ethz.ch. As it turns out, this name violates ID's DNS rules and they
have requested we change it. We therefore have modified all references pointing
to printer.ethz.ch to now address printer.phys.ethz.ch. We have incorporated
some technical solutions that redirect many connections automatically, and also
our managed workstations have been migrated, but there might be individual
configurations that need manual intervention. So if printing stops working after
Wednesday evening, you might have to change the print server address -- see our
printing documentation.
If you are used to typing just printer instead of the now longer full host name,
you may want to change to domain search list on your computer, too. For details
about how to do this, see our documentation in the wiki for Windows and for
Linux.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/05/28/hostname-change-for-d-phys-print-s…
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posted.
Best regards,
Axel Beckert
beckert(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'Short Mail, License and Condor Server Downtime
on Thursday Evening'
We will perform a maintenance reboot of several infrastructure servers on
Thursday, 16th of May 2013, starting around 5pm. This will cause a downtime of
all e-mail related services (receiving + sending mail, accessing webmail and
non-cached mails) as well as the license server for IDL, the control server for
Condor grid computing, and most hosted virtual machines.
We expect the downtimes to be short and sequential.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/05/15/short-mail-license-and-condor-serv…
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posted.
Best regards,
Axel Beckert
beckert(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'ISG Field Trip'
On Monday, March 25, ISG will be on an all-day field trip to CERN. No mails,
tickets or phone calls will be answered on that day. We'll catch up with your
requests on Tuesday.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/03/19/isg-field-trip/
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'Network Outage of Ubuntu Workstations'
Last night the regular daily software update on the managed Ubuntu workstations
removed the network-manager package. This left most of the workstations
unusable. We are working to restore the network connectivity.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/03/08/network-outage-of-ubuntu-workstati…
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posted.
Best regards,
Elmar Heeb
heeb(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'Notes on warranty (Garantie vs.
Gewährleistung)'
This post might help to clarify some questions related to the warranty
conditions of new hardware. It is the result of internal inquiries we performed
in reply to customer requests. Skip if you're not interested.
Switzerland, like other European countries, knows two forms of liability a
vendor has to/can offer to clients of its hardware products: Gewährleistung and
Garantie.
Gewährleistung is mandated by law and covers basic liability if a piece of
hardware fails. In Switzerland, Gewährleistung was just extended from 12 to 24
months on Jan 1st, 2013. This means that for the first two years, any defect
whose cause was already present at the time of purchase has to be covered by the
vendor. As you can probably guess, the part in italic can be the crucial one.
Garantie is a voluntary service offered by most, but not all vendors. Its
conditions can be pretty freely chosen by the vendor, unlike Gewährleistung
where the terms are given by law. Garantie can cover a wider range of defects
and it can also be a service you have to pay for.
Now how does this matter to you? Let's take a current real life example: you'd
like to buy a new Apple MacBook Pro 13". Right now, you have a number of
interesting options:
Neptun: CHF 1305.-, 2 years of Gewährleistung (by law), 3 years of Apple
Garantie (price of Apple Care included)
Dataquest: CHF 1240.-, 2 years of Gewährleistung (by law), 2 years of
Dataquest Garantie. Additionally, you can pay CHF 99.- for a third year of
Dataquest Garantie.
Apple EDU Store: CHF 1268.-, 2 years of Gewährleistung (by law), 1 year of
Apple Garantie. Additionally, you can pay CHF 210.- for another 2 years of Apple
Garantie. IDES offers the same to ETH employees for CHF 195.-
It's hard to tell if the conditions of the additional Garantie are really more
accommodating than those of the mandatory Gewährleistung. Wear parts like the
battery for example are typically covered by neither. Harddisks on the other
hand (most common failing part in a laptop) should be covered by both. In the
end the best option will also depend on your usage pattern and the expected life
time of your device. Regardless of the type of warranty you have, you should
always report any problem you'd like to get fixed as soon as possible.
Sources:
Apple warranty conditions
Computer World article
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/02/19/notes-on-warranty-garantie-vs-gewa…
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'ISG Helpdesk Service Interruption - Reprise'
Apparently this time they mean it:
On Thursday, February 14, ETH facility services will conduct extensive power
network tests in the HPT building, where ISG (and hence the helpdesk) is
located. Power will be gone for ~ 2 hours starting around 13:30. During this
time we will not be able to answer the helpdesk phone or work on your tickets.
We'll post an update when power is back.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/02/12/isg-helpdesk-service-interruption-…
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'The End of TWIG Webmail'
For the last 4.5 years, our customers could choose from two webmail solutions:
Roundcube and TWIG. With the introduction of Roundcube we announced the eventual
removal of the old TWIG service which hasn't been updated in years and poses a
serious risk in terms of security and spam distribution. Now the time has come
to finally turn it off. All remaining TWIG users: please switch to Roundcube,
TWIG will be disabled tomorrow, February 5, 2013.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/02/05/the-end-of-twig-webmail/
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch
ISG News has posted a new item, 'Filemaker Upgrade 11 -> 12 (Server and
Clients)'
Usually Filemaker upgrades are pretty seamless as newer clients can deal with
older server versions. This time however the Filemaker company decided to
implement major changes into their FM12 upgrade that require a new database
format. This means that FM12 server can't talk to FM11 clients and vice versa.
Hence we have to upgrade both server and client in one go.
This migration will take place on
Monday, February 11, starting at 17:00.
This upgrade will affect you if you either:
a) use remote databases from fm.phys.ethz.ch,
b) use one of our managed workstations on which the client will be upgraded, or
c) both.
Actually, case c) will be the easiest as after the migration things should just
work again on FM12. In case of a) you'll have to make sure that you upgrade your
local FM11 client before you can continue using our remote databases (see this
howto). For b): if you're on a managed workstation, you'll find the new FM12
client on Tuesday morning. If you're working with local databases (not from
fm.phys.ethz.ch), you'll have to upgrade those databases to the FM12 format.
FM12 will do this for you automatically when you open FM11 databases for the
first time.
The server migration itself will probably take one hour during which time the
remote databases on fm.phys.ethz.ch will NOT be available. The clients will be
installed during the night Monday -> Tuesday. If you need access on your managed
workstation on Monday evening after ~18:00, please let us know so that we can
upgrade the client on your machine earlier.
You may view the latest post at
https://nic.phys.ethz.ch/news/2013/02/04/filemaker-upgrade-11-12-server-and…
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Christian Herzog
daduke(a)phys.ethz.ch