Software for Your Personal Computer

Several people have requested installation of certain kinds of software (Mathematica, printer drivers, web browsers, etc) on the computers in their offices, and I expect more such requests soon. Some of the available software is listed at the bottom of this message.

Some of it can be downloaded easily (and you can install it yourself if you know how, or I can help you if necessary). On the other hand, some programs cannot be downloaded easily, but I can bring a CD-ROM to your office. In some cases the CD-ROM is one that I have to borrow from ACIS or Microlab for a day, so I intend to go to several offices in one day with that CD-ROM.

Feel free to request such software -- either new to your computer, or updates of old software -- by the following procedure:

• I prefer to get your request as an email message. I've gotten passably good at organizing my email, but I tend to lose scraps of paper. I'm still using schectex@math.vanderbilt.edu.
• Please tell me your office number. If there is more than one computer in your office, please tell me which one you want the software on.
• Please remove any password protection, so that I can get onto your computer when you are not there. I don't know when I will be coming. Be forewarned that I may borrow a passkey, so that I can get into your office when you are not there. I'm sorry that I have to invade your privacy in this fashion.
• Be specific about your request: What kind of computer do you have, and what kind of software do you want. Also, do you have a CD-ROM drive? If you have enough technical expertise to deterine it, I would also like to know these four numbers:
  • what operating system you are running (including the version number),
  • how much RAM you have (typical answers are 16 or 32 or 64 megabytes)
  • how much space you have left on your hard disk (typical answers are anything from 100 megabytes to 8 gigabytes)
  • what is your CPU's speed (typical answers are anything from 70 megaherz to 500 megaherz)
  Keep in mind that in many cases, new software will not run properly on an old computer, because some of the four numbers indicated above are too low. It is my experience that new software will probably run on a computer that is less than 2 years old, and probably won't run on a computer that is more than 5 years old. Between those two ages, it's anyone's guess.
• Describe how urgent is your need -- i.e., in what way and to what extent is your research or teaching being inconvenienced by your lack of the specified software. I will try to comply with all requests -- don't feel shy about mentioning a mere inconvenience -- but there will be many requests, so I will try to deal with the more urgent ones first. I will also be assisting faculty more quickly than graduate students; perhaps Nikolay Silkin will have some time to assist graduate students.
• Please feel free to ask questions or make comments or suggestions about any of this.

Here are some programs that I can install, or may soon be capable of installing, and that I expect several people to want:

• MATHEMATICA. We have a site license that permits us to install this on your office computer, if you are using Mathematica in a course that you are teaching. It doesn't apply to home computers or to research purposes. Available for Windows, Mac, and several flavors of Unix, including Linux (PC). ... The registration for this program has to be renewed on your computer every year, or every 11 months, or something like that. Scheduled installations only, because I have to borrow the CD-ROM.
• MAPLE. Apparently no restrictions, as long as you're in our department. We have Windows, Macintosh, and Unix versions.
• Mathworks software. Matlab, Simulink, and several toolboxes (Optimization, Signal Processing, Image Processing).
• X-WINDOWS. Available for Windows. Sorry, I believe this is not available for Macintosh. Scheduled installations are preferred, because this is most easily installed from a borrowed CD-ROM.
• Netscape or Microsoft browser; antivirus software; Simeon; Eudora. These are not difficult to download and install, but I suppose I can do it for you if you're not sure how to do it. Eudora requests will have to wait a few more weeks, because I haven't learned that program yet.
• TeX and other software for Windows. See separate page for huge collection of software. I haven't tracked down comparable software for Macintosh yet; I'd be delighted if someone who knows Macintoshes can help out there.
• Networked printer drivers (so that you can send documents directly from your personal computer to a departmental printer with just one or two easy clicks). I would like to postpone these for a few weeks, for a couple of reasons: (i) I haven't learned how to do it yet. More importantly, (ii) I expect that our printer configuration will be changing substantially in the near future. We expect to be getting 3 new printers, and perhaps also losing one of the printers that we presently have. At any rate, here is a temporary work-around that I have found to be manageable and not too terribly inconvenient: You can ftp any file from your computer to your Atlas account, as explained in
  http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/ourequip/basics/fileman.html#Netscape

  For some filetypes, such as txt, dvi, ps, you can then use the Atlas "lpr" command.