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Announcements

The new Penn Video Network

The Academic Video Network and the ResNet Video Network have been upgraded, expanded, and combined into a single network called Penn Video Network. The new network features a better, more reliable signal and allows for two way-data transmission. Penn currently has 39 buildings on the Penn Video Network, which reaches 300 locations in 32 non- residential buildings and serves 3,500 students in 7 of 16 residential buildings.

The current channel line-up includes more than 35 satellite channels, such as CNN, CNN Headline News, C-Span, C-Span2, CNBC, The Learning Channel, The Discovery Channel, Court-TV, Black Entertainment Television, SCOLA, Mind Extension U, Univision, Telemundo, The International Channel Network, Bravo, VISN, French TV, The Weather Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, Arts & Entertainment, The Family Channel, Lifetime, American Movie Classics, Comedy Central, The Sci-Fi Channel, The Cartoon Network, USA, E!, MTV, VH-1, TBS, TNT, Nickelodeon, and Home Shopping.

In addition to the satellite channels, there are 13 off-air channels: KYW-3 (NBC), WPVI (ABC), WCAU (CBS), WTFX (FOX), WHYY (PBS), WPHL, WOR, NJN (PBS), WYBE, WLVT (PBS), WGTW, WGBS, and WTGI.

Local Penn channels feature campus news, sports, discussion, and local Emmy-award winning productions on student-run UTV-13, as well as a full- service information resource on the University's Video Bulletin Board.

Changes to Penn CWIS services

In case you haven't noticed, you can now access all Penn's campus-wide information services (e.g. Gopher, PennInfo, and World-Wide Web) from a single source - the Penn Web. Data Communications and Computing Services has also created a new service that lets you telnet to Penn's Web and use a terminal-based Web client called Lynx (see cover story) to browse for information. To use the service, telnet to www.upenn.edu and log in as "pennweb".

There has also been a change to Penn's Gopher telnet service. After you telnet to gopher.upenn.edu, you must log in as "gopher" if you want to go directly to the central Penn Gopher.

Update: School of Social Work

When Penn Printout published "Computing help on campus" last month, the School of Social Work (SSW) had no structured computing support services. Since then, SSW has purchased an IBM RS/6000 UNIX workstation (caster.ssw.upenn.edu) for faculty research and faculty/staff access to e-mail and NetNews services. Students are eligible to receive e-mail accounts on dolphin.upenn.edu.

The School has also upgraded its computer lab. The lab now has about 14 IBM compatible (486) and 2 Mac Plus microcomputers. For computing support, send e-mail to Mat Philip, mphilip@ssw.upenn.edu.

Hardware maintenance vendors

The Purchasing Department and the task forces for microcomputer and UNIX maintenance recommend the following companies for computer maintenance services for fiscal 1994 and 1995.

For microcomputer maintenance:

Computer Fixer        Janice Cuthbert  215/629-5700
INTEC                 Mike Miller      800/225-1187
                                       609/427-0900
System &              Gregory Fecca    215/878-3778
Service Pros

For UNIX maintenance:

Workstation            Recommended vendor 
DEC                    DEC, SUN
SUN                    SUN, DEC
SGI                    SGI, DEC
IBM                    DEC, SUN
HP                     DEC, HP
NEXT                   DEC

UNIX maintenance vendor contacts:

DEC                 James Ingraham   609/273-2067
Hewlett Packard     Leslie O'Brien   215/666-9000
Silicon Graphics    Jerry Allen      215/638-3707
SUN/Bell Atlantic   Atul Wadhwa      609/231-5731
                    Steve Waldman    609/235-7619

Acrobat Reader 2.0

Acrobat Reader 2.0 software for Macintosh and Windows will soon be available on campus. Reader software displays and prints documents in Acrobat's PDF format, with their original fonts and graphics intact. Reader 2.0, in addition to offering new features, has been redesigned to fit on a single disk. Version 1.0 of Acrobat Reader has been available free of charge to the Penn community since September.

To try out Acrobat

• The Reader and Mosaic network navigation software have been installed in many campus computer labs to facilitate distribution of a fully formatted, electronic version of Penn Printout. You can view Penn Printout in PDF format on www.upenn.edu (URL: http://www.upenn.edu/pennprintout).

• If you have an Ethernet connection in your office or ResNet dorm room, or dial in to PennNet using SLIP software, you can install Acrobat Reader and Mosaic on your own computer and view or print Penn Printout as above. Without Ethernet or SLIP capability, you can't access PDF files on the network.

• You can use Acrobat Exchange software to create your own PDF files from within applications such as WordPerfect or PageMaker. Version 2.0 can be ordered at a discount from the Computer Connection (contact Chris Bradie, 898-1791 or bradie@a1.benhur).

To obtain Acrobat Reader

• The Computing Resource Center distributes disk copies for Mac and Windows, together with documentation and instructions for configuring Mosaic. A Penn ID is required.

• Macintosh Reader 1.0 is available via campus-wide AppleShare (Ethernet required).

• Windows Reader 1.0 is bundled with Mosaic software on ftp.upenn.edu (Ethernet or SLIP, and Network ID, required).

For distribution details, see "Acrobat Reader available" on PennInfo (keyword "acrobat").