Policies for the Undergraduate Physics Computing Facility

February 18, 1994


The Undergraduate Physics Computing Facility, currently 
consisting of 12 Apple Macintosh workstations and 2 laser printers, 
is currently located in Room 1094, Smith Laboratory.  The 
Department of Physics attempts to run its computers in a flexible 
manner, with few policies to interfere with their convenient use.  
Some policies are necessary, however, to assure equitable access for 
users and for all legitimate types of work, and to control the costs of 
disk space, memory, and printing.  These Policies, governing only 
the Undergraduate Physics Computing Facility, have been 
established by the Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Studies, who may 
be requested to revise them or to make exceptions to them.  The 
current policies, which apply to all users, are:

Accounts:
Regular accounts are available to current undergraduate Physics 
majors and pre-majors, and select faculty and staff involved in the 
Physics undergraduate mission, via an application form.  Special 
class accounts may also be established for specific undergraduate 
Physics courses which have incorporated the use of computers into 
their curriculum.  Membership in these class accounts will be 
contingent on current enrollment in that particular class.  The 
computing facility may be used for any purpose consistent with the 
Entitlements document published by the Computer Committee and 
the policy statements set forth by the computing staff.  Class-
specific accounts may only be used for working on materials related 
to that particular class.

An account may be removed for repeated violations of 
this and/or other Department computing policies.


Availability:
The Undergraduate Physics Computing Facility, currently located in 
Room 1094, Smith Laboratory, is generally available only during 
normal University working hours.  An exception to this is during 
regularly-scheduled class meeting times, when a particular class is 
meeting in the computing facility.  Every effort will be made to 
provide advance notice of such times.  On-screen notification, as 
well as posted signs in Room 1094 will serve to inform users of 
scheduled classes that will occupy the laboratory during normal 
working hours.  The computing equipment will be available to users 
unless an equipment failure, software failure, or environmental 
failure prevents normal operation.  The computer staff will restore 
normal operation as promptly as possible after such a failure.  Less 
urgent maintenance normally will be postponed to the end of the 
working day.  Scheduled shutdowns usually will occur outside 
normal working hours; a minimum of 24-hours notice will be given 
for scheduled shutdowns, the notification being in the same manner 
as described above.

File Storage, Disk Space & Backups:
Due to the extremely limited space available on the Undergraduate 
Physics Computing server, users are strongly encouraged to 
maintain their own files on floppy disks.  Some extremely limited 
space (approximately 1 MB per user) will be made available to each 
user on the file server, but due to the volume of use, such space will 
be at a premium.  The serverUs file storage may be also be used as a 
temporary storage place for users who do not have a floppy disk 
available; users must first save temporarily to the server and then 
copy those files to floppy disk at a later time.  The current Macintosh 
computers can accommodate 800 KB ("DS/DD"-double 
sided/density) and 1.44 MB ("DS/HD"-double sided/high density) 
Macintosh-formatted 3.5-inch floppy disks.  Any user who exceeds 
the limit and abuses the disk quotas will first be warned by 
electronic mail.  If disk space is not freed up in a timely fashion, the 
computing staff will take the necessary action to free up disk space.  
Normally, public and private files that are saved on the server will 
be backed up weekly, and the tapes retained for one month.  A set of 
backup tapes for the disks is saved quarterly, to allow recovery of 
old files.  Files will be restored from backup tapes on request.

Copyrighted Software & Software Use:
University policies require that students and employees not make or 
use illegal copies of copyrighted software.  This includes using 
Department facilities to produce such copies, even if the copies 
themselves are not used on Department machines.  Users are to use 
only the software made available to them on the computers in the 
facility.  If a user requires a program that is not currently available, 
she/he should consult with the computer staff to see if a legal copy 
can be made available.  The computer staff will assist users in 
obtaining legal copies, in exploiting site licenses, and in assembling 
groups to make bulk purchases.  Programs other than those licensed 
for use on the Undergraduate Physics Computers are not permitted.  
No computer games of any kind are to be used.  Users may not 
attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software 
contained on Department computers.

CPU Usage:
The computers in the Undergraduate Physics Computing Facility are 
to be used for Physics-oriented work only.  Utilizing the Facility for 
private endeavors is prohibited.  Questions concerning appropriate 
use should be addressed to the computing staff or to the Vice-Chair 
for Undergraduate Studies.  Also, no single user may use more than 
one computer at a time.

Network Usage:
Users should be considerate of others in their use of public 
networks, which are shared by all our computer systems.  Bulk file 
activities (such as backups across the network, or FTPs [file 
transfers] from busy sites) should be restricted to off-peak hours.  
Network-based games are prohibited.  Other network-intensive 
activities should be avoided, especially during business hours, and 
should never be allowed to interfere with network service to others.  
Users must conform to and are bound by the published policies of 
all networks which they use or send information over (BITNET, 
CICnet, NSFnet, OARnet, SONNET).

Printer Usage:
Users should not monopolize the public printers.  Jobs that print for 
more than 5 minutes should be printed at off-peak times, or broken 
up into smaller pieces to allow others to print.  Print jobs that hold 
up the printers for a long time are subject to being killed to allow 
other usersU jobs to print.  Printers should not be used for private 
printing, or as a substitute for photocopying documents.  Printing of 
non-Physics-oriented work is also prohibited.  Consistent over-use 
of the printers and the wasting of valuable resources will be 
monitored and the computing staff will take the necessary steps to 
curtail such use.

Passwords & Security:
The Macintosh security software will insist on "good" passwords, 
and require users to change them (at least) three times a year and 
upon first login.  Passwords should be between 6 and 8 characters 
in length, use mixed case letters and digits and are case-sensitive.  
They may also use most other (printable) keyboard characters.  The 
computer staff suggest users use mixed case words (capitalize a 
character or two at random, not just the first letter), misspell a word, 
put a digit or one of the punctuation characters  (!$%^&*+=_|/?) in 
the middle, or put short words together.  Your password should not 
be:  your username; any form of your proper name (first, last, 
initials, etc.), names of family members or pets; variations of 
birthdates, social security numbers, or license plate numbers; any 
non-mixed-case proper name or word which may be found in a 
dictionary (NOTE: foreign words are just as bad--a hacker may 
well not be a native-speaker of English).  Users should never write 
down their password, nor should they share their password with 
other people.  Users must not allow others to use their account; 
users will be held responsible for all work done from their account.  
No one, including the computer staff, should ever ask you for your 
password; please report any such request to the computer staff 
immediately.  Any user suspecting that an account has been 
compromised should immediately change the account password and 
notify the computer staff as soon as possible.  Users who forget 
their passwords should contact the computer staff to have their 
account reset (a new, temporary password will be assigned, which 
will be required to be changed at the next login).

Users should take care when using the computers in the Facility not 
to leave a computer unattended for long periods of time while still 
logged in.  Users who must leave the machine for long periods of 
time should log off (after saving their work) by choosing Quit from 
the File menu, or by typing Command-Q (the apple/cloverleaf key 
plus "Q") when at the At Ease screen.  Users then may then choose 
Shut Down from either the Special menu or by clicking on the Shut 
Down button at the login screen to turn the computer off.  If another 
person is waiting to use the computer, the last step may be ignored, 
leaving the computer on and at the login screen for the next user.  
Users who leave the computer unattended for longer than 20 
minutes will be automatically logged off.  Users should not attempt 
to defeat the security features on the computers and must comply 
with all necessary security measures.  Users should not attempt to 
reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, destroy, circumvent or 
disable the security software contained on the Department 
computers.

Privacy & Ownership:
Users are expected to respect the privacy of other users and behave 
in an ethical manner.  Users must respect the privacy and rules 
governing the use of any information accessible through the 
computer system or network, even when that information is not 
securely protected.  University rules and public laws require that 
students and employees not invade the privacy of other users and 
systems, and that they not damage equipment, software, and files 
belonging to this facility and its users, or other such facilities and 
their users.  Legitimate use of a computer or computer network does 
not extend to whatever we are capable of doing with it.  Although 
some rules are built into the computer's operating & security 
systems, these restrictions do not limit completely what we can do 
and see.  Users are responsible for their actions whether or not the 
rules are built into the system, and whether or not they can 
circumvent those rules.  The University  considers attempts to view 
or alter computer files without permission of the file owner to be 
academic misconduct.

Questions & Comments:
Questions or comments concerning these policies should be directed 
to the Undergraduate Physics Computing Staff or to the Vice-Chair 
for Undergraduate Studies.  The computer staff may be found in 
Room 1011A, Smith Laboratory, reached by telephone at (614) 
292-8598, or by sending electronic mail to smulliga@mps.ohio-
state.edu.  The Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Studies may be found 
in Room 1024, Smith Laboratory, reached by telephone at (614) 
292-8523, or by sending electronic mail to mills@mps.ohio-
state.edu.  The computer staff will act to enforce these policies, to 
protect our systems from damage, and to prevent their use to 
damage other systems.  Violators may be subject to penalties under 
regulations of the University and under laws of the State of Ohio or 
the United States of America.

Version 1.0/Rev. February 18, 1994/SEM