SIEminar: "Seguridad Criptográfica", by
Pino Caballero Gil, Dean of the Mathematics Faculty, ULL.
If you haven't noticed, the Internet is here to stay, together with its
problems, one of which is security and privacy. In a networked world where
by default communication is done unencrypted, most of what you do in a
computer can easily be spied by others. Criptography offers a way to regain
control of your privacy, by securing files, e-mails, websites, access to
Computing Grids, etc. In order to remain secure, it is important to
understand some of the ideas behind the cryptographic tools, which is what
this SIEminar offers you (more information can be found at the
SIE
webpage).
Starlink reloaded
Although the Starlink Project was terminated in June 2005 (see
http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/Project/review2004.html),
Starlink is actually more alive than ever, thanks to the people in the Joint
Astronomy Center. They have recently produced a new release, namecoded Keoe,
with many changes and improvements over the previous version, as described
in the
Keoe
Release Notes. Keoe is now the default starlink version in the IAC
(including observatories and CCA). We have also installed a standalone
version, v 2.3, of
TOPCAT,
the "Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables".
STSDAS/TABLES, PyRAF and other software updates
We have just updated STSDAS and TABLES to v3.6. You may get error messages
on parameters not found or similar if you execute an STSDAS or TABLES task
whose parameter file has been modified. Unlearning the task usually solves
the problem. For further info read the
STSDAS
v3.6 release notes and the
TABLES
3.6 release notes. En passant, we updated
gemini
to v1.9.1 and
rvsao
to v2.5.0 too. Stsci_python has been updated to v2.4, and
PyRAF
to v1.3. Several other software packages have also been updated, as detailed
in the
SIE News
and Activities page.
Course on Advanced Programming Techniques and Parallel
Computing (with Fortran 90)
The SIE is organizing an in-depth practical course on advanced programming
techniques and parallel computing for this year. The goal of the course is
to learn about some advanced programming techniques (such as recursivity,
pointers, etc.), parallel computing in Beowulf-type clusters and some useful
programming tools (code profilers, serial and parallel debuggers), all in
Fortran 90. At this time we are still deciding on dates, timetable,
location, etc., which will depend on how many people are interested. If you
would, in principle, be interested in following this course, please leave a
message in the
SIE
Forum.
"Particular" mailing list and SIE Forum
We would like to draw your attention to our SIE Forum, which we believe can
be an excellent alternative to the"particular" mailing list.
What are the advantages of the Forum over the mailing list?
- You do not have to be subscribed to read the posts (though you need to
subscribe if you wish to reply).
- You can read new posts whenever you like, instead of being continuosly
bothered by incoming emails (however, you can ask the forum to send an email
every time a new post is made, if you really want so).
- All contributions to a given topic are kept in a organized and readable
thread, instead of being split in many separate emails.
- Our email server does not get overloaded with messages that have
no relation with our work, specially important if such messages
contain heavy attachments.
- Your email account remains cleaner and leaner, thus less chances to
override your quota.
So, we suggest that you send an email only for "particular" matters that
require immediate attention, and use the forum for everything else.