Resources
Posting News
Some of the local CS newsgroups are:
- cs.opportunities
- Scholarships, work/study programs, things of interest to persons pursuing a CSc degree not normally listed under cs.jobs.
- cs.announce
- Our departmental general newsgroup for official announcements only (moderated)
- cs.open
- UNIX user information, tips, requests for information, and non-official announcements
- cs.jobs
- Jobs being offered to CSc students
- cs.ugrad
- Undergraduate program discussion
- uofa.misc
- University of Arizona
- az.general
- General discussion of things of interest to the State of Arizona
The newsgroup cs.announce should only be used for official department-related announcements (e.g. colloquia, computing interruptions, system enhancements). This news group will be moderated to limit accidental inappropriate postings.
The newsgroups cs.jobs and cs.opportunities are moderated groups which contain information about employment and other opportunities that might be of interest to members of the department: positions for current faculty, new faculty, internships, fellowships, post-docs, openings for new graduates (at the graduate or undergraduate level), as well as part-time positions of any sort.
For unofficial or non-department related items, the newsgroup cs.open should be used. As the name suggests, it's open for any sort of announcement. cs.open can also be used for discussion of topics of interest. Some examples of articles falling into this category are recreational activities, social gatherings, local events, and offers of items for sale.
There are numerous other CS newsgroups, each with a specific audience and
purpose. Note that the preferred way to widely disseminate information to
members of the department is through newsgroups and not through mass
emailing. General department mail aliases should never be used for mass
E-mailings without permission of the Lab.
Reading News
The Computer Science Department NNTP server is news.cs.arizona.edu.
News can be read from anywhere. If off the campus network, you will have to authenticate yourself to the server (using your CS login name, and whatever your password is on lectura) and your news client has to support SSL.
There are any number of mail reading programs that can also read newsgroups, e.g., Thunderbird, Outlook, Pine.
The simplest way to access a CS newsgroup:
1. Get your CS account if you don't have one yet (i.e., run the apply program).
2. Log onto lectura.cs.arizona.edu (from an ssh shell).
3. Use command, pine, to get into the mail server.
4. Select 'FOLDER LIST', then 'News on news.CS.Arizona.EDU...'.
5. Use command 'A' to add a newsgroup, type in the name of the group you wanted (e.g., cs.course445, ...), then enter it.
6. If you want to send an email to a newsgroup, use command 'C' to compose it and send.
7. Note the 'Unexclude' command (press the '&' key for that), which shows you old messages. Some users become confused when they try to go back to read old messages and those messages seem to have disappeared.
Thunderbird is similar to the Netscape mail reader client. In Thunderbird you add a user Account. Thunderbird asks whether this new account is to be an e-mail account or a newsgroup account. Click newsgroup. Click the Next button. A new window appears. Fill in your identity information. In the next window, fill in your server information (news.cs.arizona.edu). In the next window, fill in your account name, e.g., CS_News.
If you are connecting from outside the department, in Thunderbird, under View Settings for this Account / Server Settings, check the box for 'Use Secure Connection (SSL)'. Note the port number will change to 563. Check the box for 'Always request authentication when connecting to this server.' Click OK to save your settings.
When done, your newsgroup account will appear under the account name you provided, i.e., CS_News. You may right-click on this name (Windows users) to subscribe to newsgroups or change parameters. If connecting from outside the department, you should be prompted for your CS username and password. Common parameters that need fiddling involve authentication and SSL connections. If you run into problems, send e-mail to lab*.
Last updated Friday, 05-Sep-2008 08:14:09 MST, by Phil Kaslo
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