The School of Mathematics' computer system is primarily a Unix teaching system for the staff and students of the School of Mathematics. It is run "by students for students".
Access to the system is provided to first year undergraduates in the following groups:
The access will usually continue for the duration of their stay in Trinity.
Members of the Faculty of Science will usually be provided with access on their request. Access will be provided to other members of the college if a good case is presented. Requests from mathematics staff members for access for visiting students, staff, etc. are usually granted.
Services useful to mathematicians and scientists and to those learning and teaching mathematics and science. Currently this includes access to programming languages (eg. C, Java), the Internet (eg. e-mail, Usenet and the web), mathematical software (eg. TeX, Mathematica). As the requirements of mathematicians and scientists change the services may change too.
The computer system and those using it are naturally subject to the laws of the land. While using the network you may be subject to foreign and international law. Also the Code of Conduct for computer and network use within Trinity applies to the use of our computer system. Following these guidelines is a requirement for those who want to use the system.
We would like to emphasise the following points.
The Mathematics' computer system is a resource shared between many users with few restrictions placed on its use. As a result its smooth operation requires good manners and responsible use by those who have access to it.
For instance: playing games while there is a queue for terminals is not polite, running 20 copies of a program at the same time is not responsible.
You are responsible for the use of your account. If something illegal, immoral or fattening is done with your account then you will be accountable! For this reason it is important that you choose a good password and keep it to yourself.
The usual list of illegal things are: copyright violation, ``hacking'', fraud, harassment, libel and distribution of offensive material. This, naturally, is the tip of the iceberg.
Those of us who run the system do our best to preserve your account from damage, destruction and undesired access. We do lots of backups and take the security of the system quite seriously.
However, we cannot guarantee that said damage, destruction or unauthorised access will not take place. You should keep your own copies of very important information and not keep secret data on the system.
The system administrators aim to respect your privacy. However, a situation may arise where a systems administrator may have to examine your account without your permission. (eg. You have just received 100,000 pieces of mail which have filled up a disk or if your account had been broken into). While we don't like to do this, we may have to. You have been warned!
You have a right to feel comfortable using the system. If anyone is making your use of the system uncomfortable, please let someone know so it can be dealt with. The system administrators or a member of staff should be able to help.
In the unlikely event of people having problems with these rules people may be warned and/or lose their rights to use the system on a temporary or permanent basis. If you are unsure if something is kosher or not, or have a suggestion about how the system could be improved then just let us know.
$Date: 2003/06/17 18:51:48 $