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Wisdom about MIT

On github.com, you can view the table of contents (outline) of this file by clicking the menu icon (three lines or dots) in the top corner. It's next to the pencil "edit" icon and below the word "History".

MIT-specific

MIT medical service personal physicians: http://web.mit.edu/medical/service/persphys.htm

MIT medical prescription refills: https://pol.mit.edu/MITWeb/IDXPOL/PSLoginMIT.asp (used to be https://pol.mit.edu/)

To have a copy job (e.g., course notes) performed by Copy Tech, send it to ctc-sendfiles@mit.edu Info required:

  Date required:
  Course:
  Description:
  Deliver to name:
  Deliver to room:
  Deliver to phone:
  Copies:
  1/2 sided:
  3 hole punch?:
  stapled?:
  Comments:
  Account number:

Use account number 1468100 for course-related copying. Also see http://web.mit.edu/ctc/www/. Human contacts in Electronic Media Service: Don Choate (8-7794) or Scott Perrigo (2-3575)

sciowl@mit.edu: ask questions of a science reference librarian Include this block in the email:

Client:         
Phone:          
Dept.:          
MIT Status:     
MIT Address:    
Email:

WEBSIS is the student (and advisor) information system run by the registrar. http://websis.mit.edu

To avoid paying sales tax on items purchased for MIT, show the ST-2 and ST-5 forms (online at http://controllers.mit.edu/site/tax/forms). You do not need to fill anything out. MIT sales tax exemption number: E 042-103-594

The MIT Registrar's picture class list (photo sheets of registered students in a subject, from ID photographs) is available from http://student.mit.edu.

For hotels that are nearby MIT, see http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mernst/contact-csail.html

MIT electronic classrooms: http://web.mit.edu/acs/eclassrooms.html

Committee on Discipline FAQ for faculty: http://web.mit.edu/discipline/academic.html#faq Checking for prior record: http://web.mit.edu/discipline/contact.html

Grant proposals may require a conflict-of-interest form for MIT Office of Sponsored Programs: https://coeus.mit.edu/coeus/loginCOI.do

Since Optional Practical Training for international students on student visa became difficult to obtain, requiring, for example, four months of advance notice, the department has created a new subject number, 6.920, that can be used for curricular practical training. It is limited to one P/D/F unit and requires an MIT advisor and department approval before the work is begun. Students may wait to register for the subject in the term following the work experience; in the Fall, for example, after a summer job.

If you are locked out of your office after regular work hours, on holidays or weekends, please call Campus Police. They have a master key, called an "H" key, that will open your office door. It usually takes about 1/2 hour or so for them to arrive. Their number is 253-1212.

To have an abandoned bike removed from a bike rack at MIT, call 3-9755. MIT Police won't do anything unless they are obstructing a firelane, railing, etc.

The MIT Libraries' Firefox plug-in, LibX, permits you to get MIT-licensed scholarly material (journals, conferences, papers) without using Vera. http://libraries.mit.edu/libx

UROP Homepage for Faculty: https://sisapp.mit.edu/uropweb/facultyHome.mit UROP Homepage for Students: https://sisapp.mit.edu/uropweb/home.mit

Athena-specific

To find out whether a particular software program is available/installed on Athena, use http://web.mit.edu/acs/www/whereruns.html It may not list every single program but it provides a good sense of the lockers that are available.

On athena, map uid to username with

  hesinfo UIDNUMBER uid

where UIDNUMBER is the uid. This returns a line in /etc/passwd format.

On athena, ~/OldFiles is a copy of the directory's contents a day ago. (I guess it's the same as ~/.snapshot on CSAIL.) Remove it with

        fs rmm OldFiles

and put it back again at any time using the command

        fs mkm OldFiles user.username.backup

Files deleted with the 'delete' command can be recovered via 'undelete'; type 'man undelete' for details.

On athena, to check whether a directory was ever used:

    athena% vos e course.6.170.se84
    course.6.170.se84                 537323985 RW          2 K  On-line
     ERIS.MIT.EDU /vicepb
     RWrite  537323985 ROnly          0 Backup  537323987
     MaxQuota      20000 K
     Creation    Mon Sep 25 18:57:57 2000
     Last Update Mon Sep 25 19:02:33 2000

Athena mailing lists: http://web.mit.edu/moira or run "listmaint" on Athena. Also: expn shows the "live" status of the list at the mailhubs blanche shows database contents, which will eventually propagate to mailhubs Updates to moira lists make it to the mail servers about every three hours. To find out the time of the last update:

  add consult
  lastupd

To run SAS on Athena, do

  add sas
  sas

For SAS user messages, see /mit/sas/Athena/messages/ (Further SAS tips in ~/wisdom/programs

Ask a question of an Athena consultant: olc-unix@mit.edu

Athena door lock combination: on Athena, run: tellme combo

If your Athena dotfiles (.bashrc, .cshrc, .environment) become corrupted, you can try 'quarantining' your personalized dotfiles (move them aside) and then copying over the dotfiles found in /usr/prototype_usr/ .

To create a Wiki on Athena:

  add scripts
  scripts-start

Select 'mediawiki', tell it what URL you want the wiki at, and you're done. ( http://scripts.mit.edu/start/ for more details ) (As of 2008-03-31, I can't figure out how to set the "database host" field, though this had worked for me earlier.)

CSAIL-specific

You can send email to any floor in the Stata Center using the unmoderated HQ mailing lists, e.g., g7@csail.mit.edu.

FedEx dropoff box in the Stata Center: in the Dreyfoos tower, on the B-Level, to the left of the elevator.

Various Windows software (including Microsoft and MSDN) is available to the CSAIL community: see http://tig.csail.mit.edu/software/index.html

To create/edit a CSAIL mailing list, follow the directions at http://lists.csail.mit.edu/ Common things to change after creation:

  • General options:
    • Public name (case changes only)
    • Terse phrase identifying the list
    • Introductory description
  • Passwords:
    • administrator password
  • Privacy options
    • Subscription rules
      • advertise this list
      • require approval
    • Sender filters
      • action to take for postings from non-members

To delete/remove a mailing list (this script also removes the INQUIR entry):

  /afs/csail/group/tig/bin/rmlist <listname>

Cron jobs: Ask TIG for an individual crontab account. The files will be in /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/tig/keytabs/$USER/$USER.keytab, readable and deletable by $USER. These should be stored in a secure (local) file system on the machine where your cron jobs will run, and should be readable only by $USER. I'm assuming it's stored in /etc in the example below. The name of the principal is $USER/cron@CSAIL.MIT.EDU, which in AFS is called $USER.cron. Your cron job needs to call a script of the following form:

  #!/usr/bin/pagsh
  # Note, using `pagsh' above is important; do not change.
  {
    KRB5CCNAME=/tmp/krb5cc_cron_${USER}
    export KRB5CCNAME
    kinit -k -t /etc/${USER}.keytab ${USER}/cron@CSAIL.MIT.EDU
    aklog
    kdestroy
  }
  # Now running under the UNIX user ${USER} but AFS user ${USER}.cron
  # rest of your cron job here

One way to do this is just to make the crontab command be of the form

  AFS=/afs/csail.mit.edu/u/m/mernst/bin/share/afs-cron-wrapper
  $AFS COMMAND

CSAIL acroread is /afs/csail/i386_linux24/local/bin/acroread

To run INQUIR on a CSAIL machine:

  whois -h inquir.csail.mit.edu mernst

CSAIL email: IMAP (incoming) mail server: imap.csail.mit.edu SMTP (outgoing) mail server: outgoing.csail.mit.edu You must also configure your mail client to at least one of SSL/TLS encryption or CRAM-MD5 (or DIGEST-MD5) to protect your password from traversing the network unsafely. You may also access your account via the webmail interface.

CSAIL certificates available at: https://ca.csail.mit.edu/cgi-bin/query?algo=rsa&type=client&cn=Michael+Ernst&format=browser or https://ca.csail.mit.edu/cgi-bin/query?algo=rsa;type=client;email=mernst%40CSAIL%2eMIT%2eEDU;format=browser (At one point, it was bad to regenerate, as that action revoked my old ones. That is not the case any more.)

MIT CSAIL AFS web logs: http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/WebServerStatistics For <www.pag.csail.mit.edu>: http://www.pag.csail.mit.edu/internal/cgi-bin/log-tail.cgi The web logs for people live in /var/log/apache2/ on people.csail.mit.edu. You can just log in to the machine to tail the logs if you need, or you can adjust your script to look there.

Apache config file for the pag virtual host: /afs/csail.mit.edu/proj/www/www.pag.csail.mit.edu/httpd.conf (By default, Apache configuration files are in /etc/httpd/conf/.) "AllowOverride" and similar options should be set, per-directory. [I'm not sure how I get this configuration file to be re-read.]

Error logs for apache webserver are available on the servers. Servers are named people.csail.mit.edu, groups.csail.mit.edu, etc. The error logs are at /var/log/apache2/error.log

The TIG webservers for csail are people.csail.mit.edu, group.csail.mit.edu

Creating a new CSAIL account (including guest accounts): https://inquir.csail.mit.edu/cgi-bin/welcome.cgi

To change CSAIL shell: https://inquir.csail.mit.edu/cgi-bin/chsh.cgi

To close (resolve) a TIG/OPS ticket, click on "reply" in the display and then set the status when sending the reply. But TIG prefers to close them itself, so it's better to just send them a message asking that it be closed.

Creating a MySQL database at CSAIL: Must ask a sysadmin to do so. They need a database name, user name, and initial password (send encrypted or via phone). All new databases are created on the dedicated database server, mysql.csail.mit.edu.

Access any O'Reilly book online. Go to libraries.mit.edu and search for the book you want. From the correct record, choosoe 'Online Ed. URL' or go directly to http://library.mit.edu:80/F/SEVDTEY3AA8RXCLBJAPG35KDC2I4X1RPIQNXQSHVXV1KGNSLAE-06114?func=service&doc_library=MIT01&doc_number=001351184&line_number=0002&service_type=MEDIA

The Stata stairwell alarm sounds "bong bong bong stairwell 0 floor", indicating where the alarm was triggered. Stairwells 1 and 2 are in the Dreyfoos tower; 3 and 4 are in the Gates tower. For example, if someone pushes the big red button near HQ, you will hear "bong bong bong, 3 0 4" throughout all the stairwells in the building. To turn the alarm off, go to the appropriate alarm at stairwell, floor and press the little black rocker switch that is hidden in a recession below the big red button.

Creating a CSAIL TR (technical report): http://publications.csail.mit.edu/

A web proxy for accessing MIT resources from home: see the FAQ at the bottom of http://nms.lcs.mit.edu/ron/ronweb/mit.html . (TIG's web proxy is only available from CSAIL.)

At CSAIL, to enable or edit public or private svn https web (WebDAV) access to a repository, goto the page: https://svn.csail.mit.edu:1443/admin/admin.cgi Instructions from TIG are available at: http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/UsingSubversionAtCSAIL Make sure that each directory gives the user svn rlidwka access. Don't forget to:

  • create the htpasswd file (I don't know how to set up an ACL file): htpasswd -c /afs/csail/group/pag/projects/annotations-htpasswd _username_
  • set permissions for the repository directory: find . -type d -exec fs sa {} svn rlidwk \;
  • set permissions for the htpasswd file: fs sa _dir-with-htpasswd_ svn rl

CSAIL printing

CSAIL printer and copier locations: http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/ListOfPublicPrinters A web interface to all printers: http://cups.csail.mit.edu:631/printers Large format (large scale) 42"x60" plotters are conspirator and eetimes (or others whose model is DesignJet): http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/PrintingToConspirator

Printer options for CSAIL cups printers: To staple (two at the top) and not print header pages:

  lpoptions -p xerox5/psets -o StapleLocation=DualLandscape -o job-sheets=none
  lpr -P xerox5/psets myfile

For portrait mode stapling::

  lpr -o StapleLocation=SinglePortrait myfile

To print single-sided:

  lpr -o sides=one-sided myfile

For a list of all options:

  lpoptions -p xerox7 -l

CSAIL xerox7 (7th-floor copier/scanner) can output to files in AFS, via the "Network Scanning" icon. The file shows up about 5 minutes later in /afs/csail.mit.edu/service/scan-to-file/${USER}/

When a CSAIL printer runs out of ink/toner or paper, send mail to ops@csail.mit.edu to have it replaced.

Alternate way to print to MIT CSAIL printers from Windows: Start > Run > \teem.lcs.mit.edu\windows\printer-drivers\

CSAIL video conference room (32-262): IP 128.30.30.43 http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/OOPS/VideoConference

EECS-specific

Info about undergraduate theses (including prizes): http://www.eecs.mit.edu/ug/thesis-guide.html#anchor13

Marilyn Pierce (andrea@eecs.mit.edu) can send email to all EECS grad students (such as advertising a TA position), via grad-students@altoids.mit.edu .

PAG-specific

Boston-specific

Boston-area housing/renting/rental apartments/condos: