debathena-login to allow logins
with Athena username/password, all the way up to
debathena-workstation which fully integrates your
computer with the Athena environment and updates automatically.
It's also possible to just take small pieces, like with
debathena-printing-config or
debathena-alpine-config.
There's also a LiveCD available, if you want to try it out — if you like it, the CD also works as an installer. Visit debathena.mit.edu to get started!
The license agreement that MIT has with MathWorks requires that your computer be connected to the Internet whenever you are using Matlab, so that your copy remains in contact with the MIT license server. If you lose your connection, you have about 15 minutes to reconnect before Matlab terminates. Because there is a limited number of licenses for all of MIT, it is courteous to quit Matlab when you are not using it.
If you are connecting from off-campus (not including FSILGs), you'll need to use MIT's Virtual Private Network (VPN) service for Matlab to work; see below.
If you are running Debathena (or possibly other versions of Linux), you can also
run Matlab out of the matlab locker (see below).
You only need the VPN if you are connecting from off-campus; dorm and FSILG residents are already on MITnet. The MIT VPN Client is available for Linux, Macintosh, and Windows. You can download the VPN software from http://ist.mit.edu/services/network/remoteaccess. Be sure to read the "Known Issues" page for your platform.
/afs/sipb.mit.edu/contrib/sipb, and allow you to
quickly run programs without needing to know exactly where they are
located.
Now that Debathena allows you to apt-get install software
in clusters, there is less need for lockers. However, some programs,
such as Mathematica and Matlab,
which would be difficult to obtain or expensive
to have on one's personal computer, are made available in locker
form, so that they are available to the MIT community.
/mit/lockername — Debathena will automatically
attach the locker at that path as needed.
If you will be using a lot of software from a particular locker,
it is also possible to use the add
command. This will attach the locker and make it available through
/mit/lockername, and add the locker to your path. For
example, to run the whichlocker program in the
outland locker, type:
athena% add outland
athena% whichlocker whichlocker
Locker software on Athena is maintained by many different people.
Don't run this unless you know the maintainer can be trusted.
"whichlocker" is in "outland" for linux and sun4
.environment file in your
home directory to add lockers automatically when you log in. For example:
add sipb outland consult
There's a nice student-written "Course Catalogue Picker" web app, which leverages Web 2.0 to keep track of your weekly schedule, units, and so forth. It boasts several features that the official course catalog doesn't. Check it out at http://picker.mit.edu/.
Another useful website is
course.mit.edu, which redirects you
to the current home page of a course. You can access it with the URL
http://course.mit.edu/[course number], e.g.,
http://course.mit.edu/6.01.
If it doesn't have the current home page saved, it attempts to search for it
and gives you the option to save the correct choice. It's good for visiting
many classes' home pages when deciding what to take, as well as for
remembering your classes' URLs during term.
Quickprint (mentioned in a previous column), the course picker, and course.mit.edu are all hosted by another SIPB project, scripts.mit.edu. This popular service provides reliable hosting for CGI scripts in a number of languages (PHP, Python, Ruby, etc.); a sister project provides MySQL databases. Both individual users and group lockers can sign up for this service. Scripts also allows you to host a website at somename.mit.edu. Visit http://scripts.mit.edu/ for instructions on how to get started.
athena% add scripts
athena% scripts-start